Splitting aMid the Night

Where do you hide from the demon which is yourself?

Midnight waited for the light to stop blinding her, but had to accept the white as reality when it refused to wear off.

Ugh, dammit, I'm still in the Animus?

Safety. Your death did more than you could imagine. Your spirit was unfettered, and you can thank me for pulling you back over the brink. The problem is that now you're synchronised with reality, so a few ponies that don't belong here made it into your mind as well. So what you do is you take unfinished lives and crack them open. Then you live what is theirs until your relative has nothing left to show you. That is full synchronisation, and once it is done, your mind will know who is and isn't supposed to be in charge. The only problem is that you're connected to all planes of existence and, since you've embraced your gifts, just about everypony is your close relative.

Great, isn't it. Though, if we'll overcharge the fluxus and sync one world to another that way, there might be some reduction possible.

Uniting that which is one. Well thought. You still have an empire to live, though. How about that one? A filly with a predicament, from a world where you embraced who you are. She cannot take in what the light shows, though after what you taught her world, she has learned to see that which the light hides. Perhaps she'll teach you something about true sight, be it from your ancestry or future.

I'll have to, won't I.

Always with the bright attitude, aren't you. Introducing somepony who would be something around your very distant niece, Light of Dawn. Behave herself, will you?

"What do you think? Mind to have a look at it, Light?" A male voice, younger than a stallion's, older than a colt's, sounded to her right. As it finished, the sound of paper being pushed across a smooth surface moved towards her.

At first, Midnight was confused as to who was talking to her. However, as the memories of another pony flooded her mind, that question was answered to satisfaction and replaced with another. As she tried to inspect her surroundings, she came to the realisation that there were none in sight. "Sounds like a bit of paper. Oh, for the Aurora princess' sake, we've been friends for years now. Newsflash, buddy, I'm blind!" Her new body spoke without her influence; It felt like hearing a stranger from across the room.

Almost forgot to tell you. In this world, you were born a bit earlier and embraced your heritage. They came to know you as the princess of dawn, or the Aurora princess. Whatever level of hubris suits you better. They knew you once, anyhow. Apparently, taking a schizophrenic filly, killing her mother, and then giving her the power of a realm does not necessarily end well. You may have chosen ascendancy before due time and there may still be a smudge on Canterlot Castle from that day. Tragic. On the bright side, this world had already learned enough from you. Make sure to take notes so you will remember it in your world!

"Yeah, sorry. Guess I can read it out to you." Her senses adjusted, at least those which she still had did. She still could not pierce the darkness before her, but neither did she need to. She could sense the pegasus beside her, his scent of fire and rain as well as the impact he made on the waves beyond. "A-hem." She twitched from the unexpected sound. She had almost forgotten their conversation during the pause. "Roses are red, violets are b–"

"Okay, seriously now?" A foreign body spoke, but the words were Midnight's own. "How about this: Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, dammit, not blue!" She leaned backwards for effect. Only when she felt the sense of weight leave her did she realise that she'd misjudged the distance she could go. Before she could fall however, a wing on her back caught her. Her new body had to be lighter – or younger – than she'd expected. "Thanks. I've had insight into the way fillies think once or twice. Why would you even want to write poetry to the fillyfriend you already have?"

There was the rustling of feathers, together with a note of wind caressing her face. His wings had just done one or two flaps. "Figured she'd like it since she's a poet herself. Besides, one sort of text is like another to a decent writer, isn't it?"

"There's still the question of whether you are that, dear IV." The crinkling of paper, followed by a distant impact, told her he'd just balled up his draft and tossed it into the bin. She was certain it was for the better. "With your logic though, I might just want to start making out with Passion Fire myself, since one pony is as another, right?" Even though it'd break synchronisation with her other life, Midnight couldn't suppress a light chuckle at her words.

"Maybe you'll first want to bring back somepony yourself before you start talking that."

"As soon as somepony catches my eye. Oh, are my puns not clever." She rose and turned to where she remembered the door to be. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go hurl myself off the roof now. I'm kidding, but shouldn't Passion be somewhere around you?"

Hey, I like her. Does she exist in my Equestria?

Not as you see her here. Hurr hurr, see. Excuse me, I'll go destroy myself now.

For a second or two, static noise filled Midnight's mind. When it wore off, she could just catch him saying, "She should be in her room, doing girl stuff. Go to her, I won't stop you. I know how much you like her."

She set a hoof on his shoulder, which she even hit on her third attempt. "It's not that I'd be playing favorites with you or anything. More like that she knows I'm sensitive towards magic and actually can use it to help me." She stepped back and opened the door. "Nothing against you, but the amount of energy you can focus is pretty limited as a birdie, isn't it?"

When she was already halfway out, a voice was thrown after her, "You know that pegasi don't like being called that, right?"

A filly's laugh accompanied her as she walked down the hallway, stopping every now and again to count the doors beside her. At the fourth, she turned and pushed it open. She knew it was the right one, judging by the disturbances in the Magic Flow the unicorn inside made as well as the embrace she received moments after stepping inside. "Hey there, kid. Got tired of him?" She recognised her best friend's voice.

"Thinking about you." Midnight felt Passion's energy signature shift. Somehow, it seemed to become redder, however that was possible with something that was only a notion in the first place. "And writing bad poetry. Novellists, you know them. Always expecting that things have reason and logic. He's trying, I guess. At least he doesn't call me a kid."

"He's pretty nice if you know him closely." A chair appeared in her world, lit with energy as bright as she imagined the sun, allowing her to sit down on it on the first attempt. "Besides, as long as I get to hoofguide you through the world, you're my little filly, even if there are only three months between us."

"Yeah, I'm sure he is. Just not my type, like everypony else. Maybe that's why we're friends, so that I won't steal him from you." She stared at Passion Fire, finding herself only a few feet off when her horn flared up to animate the quill. As it scratched across the paper, images raced into her mind. She saw Passion's long, fiery mane, her sleek horn bringing forth energy of the same majestic golden colour that covered the rest of her body. It wasn't her imagination, a picture built on descriptions of her, she knew the image, she'd seen it.

Wait, I remember this... those are my memories. What is playing here?

Destiny lies dreaming, not dead. One pony loses her mother, the other her eyesight. One arises to the highest, the other raises the highest in others' hearts. In the end, what separates them? Are they not the same coin from another perspective? As you chose to follow another destiny, so did she take one which isn't hers in your world - one that is yours. That will have been enough. If you want more information, you have to learn to ask the right questions. Program terminated.

White overtook her, blurred out every sound, every sight, and every sense of self, then every memory that she'd ever been anything but nothing. Midnight fell. As the endless void consumed every bit of her body, she became herself.

When Midnight awoke, the light above her took her sight. She had long since learnt to see without conventional methods, of course. If nothing else, her adventure as Light of Dawn had taught her the importance of her skills. She knew herself to be alone in her room, with adjacent chambers holding smaller motes of energy to represent the ponies within them. The magical sun floated just above the horizon, coating the world as it was in its dim light. Fragments of power still lingered in the room next to hers, that which had been Ruby's, lofted by a surreal updraft. There was hardly any sight into the distance as she imagined there to be, but she could sense many small signatures off towards Ponyville, some stronger, some weaker.

Just as Midnight decided to go back to sleep, an essence entered the island that she projected around the clinic. A few seconds later, that pony reached her door, forcing Midnight to meet her in the illusion of reality. Fluttershy looked awful; Long shadows beneath her eyes betrayed her missing the last night's sleep, as did her ruffled mane and feathers. "Hi, they told me you woke up, thought I'd come check up on you."

"This is your fault, you know." With the power left within her, Midnight managed to raise an accusing hoof at Fluttershy as she took a seat without being invited. "Your fault for taking my mother. For stealing from me the life I could have had. For making me into the psychic wreck I am today, susceptible to the slightest pushover, a worse monster than you without even realising it. You know everything about me, don't you. I never asked, do you regret what you did? For what evil you have become, if not for me?" Fluttershy's head twitched as if for a gesture, but Midnight couldn't make it which way it meant to go. "Don't want to hear it. I don't even have the strength for that right now." Midnight laid back, at least as far as the constraints allowed. "So, here you are. Is it as a delayed apology for ponicide? A mission to spy on me?" Fluttershy tried to hide any reactions, but she shrank a fair deal in her seat during the act. "Or is it plain compassion? They do call you literally the kindest pony in Equestria, after all."

"Uh... I brought you some flowers, if you like them." She dug into her bag, re-emerging with a bundle of buttercups between her teeth. Using her free hooves and wings, she also pulled out a small vase and, with some effort that Midnight wanted to leave to her, managed to set the flowers into it and onto her stand.

"Seriously now? I've been in med school longer than you've been in the air, remember? I know that those are poisonous, missy." An invisible breeze of energy brought forth by Midnight swirled up the flowers, leaving them in a neat spiral. "Then again, only savages eat flowers, and so do you know that. Maybe they are sort of pretty."

"So you're basically proposing to me with that compliment?" Fluttershy looked up at her with a genuine smile, a gesture she found herself forced to replicate. "I knew I'd get through to you."

"Miss Fluttershy, are you trying to get my beloved for yourself?"