Splitting aMid the Night

Arise, sleeping princess.

Why should I. I suppose solace awaits outside, yet I am trapped here, within the atrocity that is my own mind. Why can't they just let me die. Can they not see the monster I am? Are they willing to hold on to me despite the greater good? Is it logic which drives them, or is it love? The love that denies me the only end I deserve, the only logical outcome?

Do you believe death is the end, Midnight?

If it isn't, there hasn't been anypony to tell us. For all intents and purposes, it is the end, taking us somewhere we can do no harm to this world any more. Then again...

She strode around the darkness, tiny platforms assembling under her hooves as she approached the edge. There were no features in the mist, nothing to be made out, nothing that she wouldn't want to hide from herself.

With what I've seen in the past weeks alone, how can I claim to know what or who is real any more? I should have died during that storm. Hell, I probably did, but not even death could stop something like me. Without reality, what does something as insignificant as death matter? The Midnight I once was, before you happened, seemed to have the answer. As for this Midnight, she doesn't have a clue.

Thank you.

Midnight awoke, lying in a bed that was not hers, pressing up against a pony she knew she didn't deserve. One quick spell took her out into the crisp air, onto the flower-filled balcony. She took and held a deep breath, then readied another spell that brought her down to the ground. Simply standing still took effort out of her, but she was nevertheless quick to be on her hooves and leaving the library behind.

So. Running away, that's your plan? She was right after all. You're spending your whole life avoiding hard decisions and not standing up to the consequences of those you do make.

I tried to stand to my judgement. They wouldn't let me. Besides, I'm on shift again and would like to walk through reality once in a while.

Shift starts in two hours. Fitting, then, that you're going in the wrong direction altogether. Unfortunately, this world does not bend to your will. I wonder whom you shall meet on your journey today. Perhaps an unexpected ally, another thought enemy, or two spirits of a life past. A life unlived? One that was taken by one you are not? Wobbly stuff. Like you will be if you don't look ahead and run into them.

Midnight raised her eyes up from her hooves. In front of her, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were sitting at a restaurant's outer table. Upon noticing her, Vinyl offered her the coin she'd been flipping in her magic and asked, "Heads?"

"Or tails?" added Octavia, holding her head in boredom.

"Seriously now?" Midnight took the coin into her own magic. It was, by all traits, an ordinary bit. "This is how you welcome me after no contact for, what, a week, and my near death? A coinflip?"

"Heads?" said Vinyl, ignoring Midnight's laments and wearing her usual grin.

"Or tails?" Octavia lifted her head to face Midnight.

Heads won, wins, and will win.

"Hmm... tails." She flung the coin onto the table; It landed heads up.

"Told you." Vinyl magicked another line into a tally drawn into the ground beneath them. It showed a surprising lack of lines on one side.

"Mmh. So it is weighted. Interesting." When the waiter arrived with two dishes of salad, Octavia laid a small pile of coins onto her tray, amongst them the one Midnight had just tossed. "If only gold standard was still in effect. Do you suppose we've tortured her enough?"

"I never find that as satisfying as I'd imagined." Vinyl levitated a single leaf up to her face, apparently finding it good to consume. "Ah well, chin up, there's always next time."

"Twelve hours ago, I was half-dead lying in the hospital with three broken legs." Midnight stepped in closer and set a hoof onto the table. Faint lines could still be seen representing the scars that had healed only so long ago. "Where were you? Why did you leave me alone when everypony else did?"

"We were already there." Octavia also began her meal with an almost infuriating lack of care for who was around her. "Only to find you already departed. Why did you leave us?"

So far, you've used exactly zero teleportation spells mid-conversation. I'm disappointed.

Why should I, when they're still my friends even when they think they're funny?

So you still think them to be your friends? After they abandoned you when they were needed most? When they ignored you as you called out for help? When they watched your struggle and only smiled it off while planning their next coffee meeting?

That's a difference in mentality. You wouldn't understand it. You never lived it. Hell, why am I even talking to myself right now?

"I don't assume you mean to explain to us what you did, do you?"

"Snap reaction. I wasn't thinking... that wasn't me." Midnight tried with all her force to keep herself steady, but she couldn't shake the feeling that her horn had just emitted a few sparks. "I have it under control."

Octavia caught her hoof before she could pull it back. "She did weep for you, you know. You mustn't make yourself any illusions."

"Yeah, I... thanks."

So you fled.

I didn't flee, the conversation ended and I went on my merry way.

Into the other dimension.

It's convenient. Besides, what different would a spell have done? The notes are the same, the instrument is not. Does one need both?

A brief look to the horizon, would you be so kind?

Midnight paused and gazed to the right. Past the shades of buildings that melted away by her will, the Shadow Star floated, though now shadowed by a ring of clouds that spanned across the horizon. Every other moment, a stick of lightning flashed up in between them, bringing light to an otherwise dark sky. However, there was never the crackling of thunder to accompany the lightning. It almost served to build an illusion of true Equestrian weather, despite the stars still piling on above.

It is your presence. The Flow attunes, bringing glory ever so closer. Soon, it shall be one with your world, as it has been with so many others. Is it not wonderful?

Doesn't look all that glorious. Even if, I have everything I need here, why should I ask for any more?

One princess of the beyond falls and guides another into glory. It has been and will be. The cycle continues. For now, try not to miss your exit.

The clinic stood before her, so everknown yet so different in reality's light. Only its back walls had truly taken form; The front was as fleeting as fantasy and half as substantial. She followed the path around the building, past notions of ponies that struggled to sustain themselves within the Magic Flow. In the garden behind the clinic, a single lotus flower was blooming with black-golden glory. Motes of energy dove down from the nothingness, swirling around the plant before departing again. Without noticing at first, she faded back into Equestria.

A few months ago, I was just a curios ghost floating through the void. How did I get to this point. Why do I even still have to work. I was dead mere hours ago, I should have stayed it. One would think I'd be excused to take some holidays after that.

Did you forget your position here? In there, now, and I'll allow you an illusion of free will.

Yes, Missy.

So be it.