Splitting aMid the Night

Arise.

Eternity.

Not quite there, I am afraid. Yet, anyway. You shall be. For now, get up and do your work.

What use is duty without ground?

Midnight climbed out of bed. Somehow, she even managed to escape it onto the cold dust of her carpet floor. She struggled onto her hooves and caught herself in the mirror.

Sweet baby princess.

Arguing on two of those points.

You are sweet too.

There are many things you should see in this picture alone. That you do not is a waste.

Exactly. I should invest in a magical non-hair-mess-up-ing pillow like everyone else seems to have. It seems I am just not the type for hairclips... which makes me regret the fifty I possess.

Clips aside. I suppose it is yet for the better your magic is restrained. You could not handle what I have seen. Do not forget how you appear at work.

Midnight dropped the illusion spell within her mane. She had independently decided she looked better in natural blue, regardless of what she needed to do to continue working at the hospital. Perhaps, with the right brushing, she could give it a little bit of shape. Something outside spooked a few birds to fly past her window, or perhaps they did it through pure malice.

How are there even birds here, now?

They are icebirds.

I think they are kingfishers.

Yes, if you want to call them that. You will want to bind together that mane of yours, as hospital standard demands.

Pft, as if my two feet ever hurt anyone.

Which they did. Or rather they will, if you keep on your path. Timelines can be unsteady. Grab a rubber band already.

Midnight fixated her mane and confirmed with another glance at the mirror that she was perfect beyond alteration. Thus she thought up a spell to bring her one floor down into the kitchen. She was alone there.

I seem to have outrun Dad this time.

Is it not curious how selectively you take other matter with you during teleportation?

Woo, celebration! Victory hot cocoa!

That was an attempt to stimulate your higher brain functions because I depend on those. Clearly it failed. Your father is one room over.

Though the world was no different than any time before, the window clamed Midnight's attention. Something swirled around the spires of Canterlot – snow, perhaps, never reaching the ground. Hardly any clouds accompanied it. The sight off the mountain was clear, while the sun still drew long shadows both in the castle and down in the flats.

That is quite an interesting, though solved matter, by the way. As the caster of such a spell prepares for teleportation, she creates a quantum tunnel momentarily linking herself and what space she wants to occupy. As such, a teleportation spell is for the most part actually a very potent destruction spell, eradicating what matter there is in the target space to prevent an overlap, just before the tunnel collapses into one form. Shaping everything into what needs to be teleported is then just an exercise in willpower, and magical energy depending on the size.

That is what your world believes, then.

What would that mean?

There are places that have outlawed magic of your kind. They see it as threat, an infinite source of pain and death.

They may be right. Good luck pushing such a law at the heart and source of the unicorn population.

They say the castles bore the unicorns. What of the others, then? Where did pegasi originate?

From what I am told, they just appeared throughout the region. They would then cluster in floating or grounded cities to roost.

They did, hm? Your shift is starting. Down it and show some o' your fancy magic.

"Anything new?" asked Midnight as she changed into her work clothes. Even though she was not technically employed, the staff room was always quite empty whenever her shift started. They had allowed her to work alone ages ago. They seemed to have great trust in her abilities. Perhaps that was right.

"Not much changed since your last visit." Spring Heart pointed at the schedule board that was one of the room's only features, besides the coffee machine to refuel medics at work. "Nothing that demands your attention. We dismissed the old Leeroy. Otherwise, no changes."

"Very well. I will do the round then. You keep on what you are currently doing. Warming the sofa, apparently." Midnight went into the corridor to choose her first victim of the day. Without any better criteria, the first door on the left did the job.

Why is everything so white?

So you can see the blood on the walls better and call an exorcist.

That is certainly convenient.

Midnight pushed into the room. The sun came to greet her on the other end, broken into bars by the partially lowered drapes. Beds stood pushed up against either side wall, although only the right one was occupied. The patient history came to her before she reached the bed. She would only need to monitor vital signs and give a bit of medication. That, and change a few bandages. She bent into the closet in the wall. "Oh, where can it be found."

"There she is," said a filly's voice, though Midnight knew it was lying about its age.

"She is indeed," replied a colt's voice of the same tone, lying just the same.

Midnight found what she sought and emerged to take her first actual look around the room. She found the blonde twins on the other side of the bed. "Ren and Lin. What are you two doing here?"

"It is our mother you are treating." The colt pointed to the mare in the bed, where Midnight's magic was already working. She was very bright, to the point where she almost vanished in the sheets just like her children, with only her brown mane to stand out. Her chest was covered in bandages and she was pale even given her white coat. She had to have lost a lot of blood, most of it accidental. She was conscious and in good spirit, but looked glad not to be part of the conversation.

I should read the patient history. Mhm, she came down with a near fatal case of getting squashed. A common thing since pegasi flying everywhere and dropping things were made legal.

Back seven hundred years before you were born?

"Neat coincidence." She turned to the mare. "I will need to take your pulse. Same thing as always." With her consent, Midnight went back to the twins. "We should meet outside of class more, now that school is off."

They are irrelevant. What you are to do does not include them.

They are too cute to ignore.

Creepy is what they are. How are they so small despite being your age? How are they so identical? I swear one of them committed a murder and used the other one's alibi.

You are lucky enough that public decency prevents me from snuggling them.

"We did." Ren, the colt, took his sister into a light hug from the side. She did not resist it, at least.

Melt.

I refuse to believe someone who turns you into such a drooling hugger is not using a curse of some sorts.

"We were there yesterday." Lin completed the hug without taking her blue eyes off of Midnight. "We also met here a few times."

"You do a great impression of bedside dolls. Alright, your mother is fine. I have a job to do elsewhere." Midnight threw the used bandages into the trash and made her exit. Some remote amount of courtesy told her she should do it by hoof rather than spell.

You know, after doing this job for like a year, I am starting to see Spring Heart's point.

The other nurse? She is not much more experienced than you. She chose her own dead end.