“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Sunset said as she closed their tent flaps for the night. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe we can figure out how to control your magic somehow.”
Twilight sighed as she climbed into bed. “I don’t want to control it. I just want it to stop.” Spike nudged her hand, his eyes burning with concern for his owner. The corners of her mouth lifted as she scratched under his chin before going behind the ears. “I wish things could be simple, just once.”
Sunset smiled gently and crossed over. “Well,” she said, giving Twilight a light punch on the arm. “At least you’ve got us. No matter what happens, your friends will always be with you, Twilight.”
A smile spread across Twilight’s face. “That’s one thing I never regretted. I used to have no friends at all, besides Spike. Now I gained six.” Her eyes brightened as she gave Spike a few more firm scratches, much to his delight. “Hopefully tomorrow will be...less eventful. A whole day just spending time with my friends is just the thing I need.”
“Me too,” Sunset agreed as she slipped into bed.
“And chasing Squirrels,” Spike added as he made his way to his basket. “That's what I need."
The girls shared a brief look before chuckling. Sunset glanced at the lantern next to her and gave Twilight an eager grin. Twilight gave her a flat look as she took off her glasses. “No, I’m not turning the lights off with my powers.”
Sunset pouted and sighed. “Fiiiine…” she reached over and turned off the lantern, and the tent was bathed with darkness. “Goodnight, Twilight.”
“Goodnight, Sunset. Goodnight, Spike.”
“Night…”
Sunset rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. She listened to the chirping of crickets outside the tent and the distant flow of the lake. Her hands relaxed, and her head shifted to the side of her pillow. Sunset exhaled quietly as she began to drift off.
“Sunny…”
Sunset’s heart skipped a beat. No…
“Sunnyyyyy….”
No, no no, please no….
“Come on, Sunny. It’s rude to ignore a friend!”
Sunset turned over on her side, her eyes remaining shut. “You’re no friend of mine,” she murmured.
The voice laughed. “Well, that’s not very polite. Don't tell me. It's your time of the month?"
Sunset growled and grabbed the pillow beneath her head. “The fact that you share a body with my friend is the only reason I put up with you!” She threw the pillow at Midnight Sparkle before she moved swiftly to the side without so much as a blink.
Midnight’s feet kicked in mid air as she cackled and clutched her stomach. “Oh, I just love it when I screw with your sleep!”
Sunset groaned loudly as her head fell back on the bed and covered her face with her hands. “Ugh, if only I could get my hands on that Principal Cinch. She started this whole mess.”
Midnight straightened up and rubbed her hands together as her bright eyes wandered the tent. “So! Where are the rest of your friends?” she asked cheerfully, her sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight.
Sunset sat straight up and glared at Midnight, thrusting a warning finger in the demon’s direction. “Don’t you dare go near them! They have nothing to do with this, leave them out of it!”
Midnight tilted her head. “Oh...but Sunny...they have everything to do with it!” She flapped her wings, rising higher into the air. “It was their magic combined that brought me to life. Twilight helped too, of course. But you and your friends are practically my Mothers!” Midnight grinned maniacally. “Why leave them out of this special family reunion? Let’s see if Fluttershy’s awake!”
“No!” Sunset whisper-shouted as Midnight flew out of the tent. She glanced back at Spike, who was still snoring in his sleep. With a groan, Sunset ran out after Midnight, wincing as the grass prickled underneath her bare feet. “Come back here!” Sunset growled. Picking up speed, Sunset made a flying leap and grabbed Midnight by the ankles, bringing her down into a tackle.
Midnight yelled out as her body slammed against the ground. “Scream softer!” Sunset hissed as she climbed on top of Midnight’s back. The two of them struggled under the moon’s pale light. “People are sleeping! Be considerate for once in your life!”
“I’d be careful if I were you,” Midnight warned as Sunset pinned one of her wings with her knee. “By hurting me, you’d be hurting Twilight too. I’m a part of her, remember?”
“She could never be you,” Sunset glowered. Midnight reached back, and her hand pushed at Sunset’s face, muffling her voice. “Shush butter dan dat! Mmmmph!”
“What the heck!?”
Both Sunset and Midnight turned their heads to see Rainbow Dash gaping at them a few feet away.
“Crap,” Sunset sighed. Midnight Sparkle took advantage and kicked Sunset, sending her back and knocking the wind out of her.
“Dashie!” Midnight grinned, floating toward her with her arms outstretched. Rainbow Dash could only stare with an open mouth as Midnight neared closer.
“I was kind of hoping for Fluttershy, but you’ll do just nicely.”
“What is that supposed to mean!?” Rainbow exclaimed in horror as she backed away.
“Run, Rainbow Daaash,” Sunset whispered as she dragged herself across the ground while clutching her stomach.
Rainbow looked in between Sunset and Midnight and scowled. “Back off my friend!” With a silent yell, she charged at Midnight, but the demon only chuckled. As Rainbow Dash neared, Midnight brought her leg up and kneed Dash in the stomach. “Ooof!”
Sunset grunted in pain and scrambled to her feet. “Come here, you little--”
As Rainbow Dash stumbled backward, Midnight jumped on Rainbow’s head and took off into the sky. “Come on, girls! The fun’s this way!” With a cackle, she flew through the camp before disappearing behind some tents.
Rainbow rubbed the top of her head and stared after Midnight. “What was that!?”
Sunset stumbled past her. “No time to explain,” she panted. “Quick, she’s headed toward the Emerald Tent!” Rainbow Dash stood in shock before sprinting after her.
“And one other thing,” Sunset said, glancing over her shoulder. “Try not to hurt her too much. She still has Twilight’s body.”
Rainbow’s eyes almost bulged out of her head. “That’s Twilight!?”
Two shrill screams pierced the air.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed, and she quickly picked up speed with Rainbow at her heels. The two of them burst into the Emerald tent with their fists raised. Midnight was laughing hysterically as her hands ruffled Rarity’s long purple locks, reducing it into shaggy mess. Rarity shrieked and squealed as her hair curlers fell out of her hair and onto the bed around her. Her hands batted uselessly at Midnight's body.
“Stop that right now, young lady!” Sunset demanded.
Midnight looked up and blinked. She shrugged. “Fine….I’ll stop. I’ll just give her wet willies instead!”
Rarity screamed bloody murder as Midnight licked one of her fingers. Suddenly, something bonked her on the head. Midnight turned around and got bonked again. Pinkie stood behind her with her broom raised. “Bad Sparkle!” She gave Midnight another whack and wagged her finger. “Bad girl!”
Midnight promptly snatched the broom from Pinkie’s hands and snapped it in half with her teeth. Pinkie looked sad. “That was camp property…”
Midnight smiled sweetly as she grabbed Pinkie’s hands and stretched them outward. “Aww, look at you,” Midnight cooed, looking Pinkie over. “Looks like someone developed~!”
Pinkie’s eyes widened in horror. “Growing up in more ways than one, eh, Pinks?”
Pinkie’s jaw dropped and she quickly yanked out of Midnight’s grasp. “SUNSEEEEEEET!” she cried, running over with her arms crossed over her chest. She darted behind Sunset and pointed at Midnight, her face beet red. “She’s making fun of me!”
Sunset glared up at Midnight and clenched her fists. “Stop, Midnight! Bring Twilight back. NOW.”
Midnight placed her hands on her hips. “Or what?”
The girls paused. “Or...or you're grounded for a week!” Pinkie said from behind Sunset.
“A spanking is what she needs,” Rainbow said, punching her fist against her open palm.
“Now Dash,” Sunset said. “By spanking Midnight, we’d also be spanking Twilight, which would be weird.”
Rainbow’s face scrunched up. “Oh. Right.”
Rarity ran over to their side, desperately trying to smooth her hair down. “How long have you known about this?”
Sunset bit her lip and rubbed her arm guiltily. “Since the first night of camp. I had to whack her with a frying pan on the first night. Somehow, at this time of night, Twilight turns into….that. I thought I could figure it out by myself before anyone else found out.” Her mouth curved downward in annoyance. “Now I know who’s been prank calling me at night since the Friendship Games.”
Midnight tittered and swooped down towards them. The girls immediately ducked and covered their heads out of instinct.
“Let’s see who else I can have fun with!” Midnight called back tauntingly as she flew out of the tent.
Sunset bounced up and cracked her knuckles. “Looks like someone’s asking for a time out.”
“Really?” Rainbow sighed as the rest of the girls rose to their feet. “Seriously, just yell ‘Get her’.”
“Oh--but not too loudly,” Rarity said. “People are still sleeping after all.”
With nods of agreement, the girls ran after Midnight, yelling as quietly as they could. Rainbow Dash leapt up to catch her, but Midnight only flew higher, barely missing Rainbow’s grasp. Rainbow cried out as she fell through the air and slammed into Pinkie Pie.
“Oof!”
“Ow!”
Midnight laughed and flew toward Fluttershy and Vinyl’s tent, rubbing her hands together. She touched the flap of the tent and grinned. “I can’t wait to see the look on that little wimp’s face when--”
Suddenly, the tent flaps jerked apart, revealing two steel turquoise eyes. Midnight blinked and backed away as Fluttershy advanced on her. She glanced over at Sunset and Rarity helping their fallen friends and brushed a lock of pink hair from her eyes. “Now just what do you think you’re doing?”
Midnight glanced around. “Uh…”
“Don’t you know that it’s almost three in the morning? Don’t you know that these students are trying to sleep?” She crossed her arms and frowned. “You put them through an awful lot last month. Do you know how scared they were when you almost ripped our dimension apart? Some kids could have fallen and hurt themselves! Did you ever think of that?”
“Well...no…”
“And look...look at how you hurt my friends. I wish I could say that I’m disappointed, but...I honestly can’t think very highly of you at this point. I don’t have a reason.”
Midnight hovered lower to the ground. “I…”
“But,” Fluttershy said, smiling a little. “If you stop hurting my friends, maybe we can come to some sort of solution.”
Fluttershy outstretched her hand and smiled warmly. “Why don’t you just settle down, and--Eeep!”
The girls gasped as Midnight gave Fluttershy a rough shove. Sunset darted forward and managed to catch Fluttershy by the arms before she hit her head on the ground.
“You were supposed to scream and run away in terror,” Midnight sighed, crossing her arms. She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t expecting to get nagged.” She kicked at the ground. “That was a bust.”
Fluttershy panted in Sunset’s arms. “What an ungrateful girl you are,” she frowned. The rest of the girls gathered around them as she stood upright.
Midnight scoffed. “You really are a pathetic lot.” She rose higher into the air. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m a Demon! Do you think that I’d care about any of you? About Twilight? I’ve done things she’d never have the guts to do. The Friendship Games was what Twilight wanted. All she needed was a little push. We were doing so well...until you all intervened.”
She flew down behind Sunset and gave her a noogie. “AAAHHHHH!” Sunset yelled.
“But I say....let bygones be bygones. Since it’s obvious that your ‘efforts’ didn’t do a thing.”
The girls glared at her, but stayed silent. Midnight smirked. “And you know what? I think I like it out here. Since Twilight’s magic has become stronger, I get more free range. Maybe I can even get this to be permanent after the sun goes up!”
Rainbow yelled and attempted to tackle her, but ended up tackling Sunset instead. “I suppose I’d have to find a way to get rid of all of you,” Midnight murmured as she hovered above them, tapping her chin in deep thought.
“But we’re your Mothers!” Pinkie cried. “We gave you life!”
“And I appreciate that. But now, I need to make my own decisions.” Her hands started to glow an eerie color. “And I’ve decided…”
“...What’re y’all doin’?”
As soon as Midnight looked away, all five girls tackled Midnight. “YAAAAH!”
“Grab her!”
“Pin her down!”
Midnight struggled fitfully under their weight. “Stop! Get off of me, Moms!”
Rarity slapped her. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady!”
“Sunset why didn’t you tell anyone about this!?” Rainbow grunted as they struggled with Midnight. “We could have helped! Twilight could have helped too!”
“Twilight is as traumatized as it is!” Sunset argued. “You don’t know how jumpy and distant she’s been! How do you think she’d take it if she knew this was happening every night? It would make her even worse!”
“She’s strong,” Fluttershy heaved, sweat beads gathering at her forehead.
Applejack wandered up to them, rubbing her eyes. “Don’t y’all know what time it is? It’s too early to be rough housing like this!”
“Applejack, help us!” Pinkie strained. “The she demon took over Twilight!”
Now Applejack was alert. “Demon? Well, why didn’t you say so?” She turned on her heel and ran back to her tent. “I’ll be right back!”
“Oh, the hick,” Midnight growled. “I always forget about her…” This time, Pinkie slapped her.
“Ow! What? I didn’t even do anything!”
“For the last time, Midnight,” Sunset said, pressing hard on her shoulders. “Give us back Twilight!”
Midnight’s head leaned back as she cackled. “I think it’s hilarious,” she grinned. “How you all think you’re such heroes. Without magic, you’re nothing!”
Applejack jogged over with a small spray bottle in hand. “I got it!”
“What’s that?” Rainbow Dash questioned as the blonde leaned over them.
Applejack readied the spray. “Holy Water. Hold her down!”
Midnight screamed and thrashed around. “You're all worthless! Without magic to help you, you’re all just a bunch of miserable teenage girls!”
“You have no authority here,” Applejack murmured, taking aim. “Take Midnight Sparkle out of my friend’s body in the name of the Holy Spirit!”
With that, Applejack sprayed furiously.
“You never loved meeeeee!” Midnight wailed as the water drenched her. Almost immediately, Midnight’s body began to glow. The girls released her and scrambled back as Midnight disappeared in a blinding bright light. Everyone shielded their eyes and braced themselves as the ground trembled beneath them.
After a few moments, the tremors stopped.
After a moment of hesitation, the girls uncovered their eyes and looked at the ground in front of them. Twilight Sparkle lay on her side, snoring softly. Her hair was loose and tumbled over her shoulders and back, but she appeared unharmed. Sunset crawled to her side and looked her over. With a sigh, she looked back at her friends. “She’s okay.”
Collective sighs of relief and exhaustion filled the air.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Rarity said, bewildered.
“For now,” Applejack said, twirling the bottle in her hand. She looked at the others with a smile. “Shoulda came to me first.”
Groans and yawns filled the camp. Outlines of students stumbled out of their tents.
“What’s going on?”
“What time is it?”
“I swear I should have stayed home.”
“Don’t worry, everybody!” Rainbow Dash called. “Twilight was just sleep-walking! Go back to bed!”
The students grumbled in annoyance and slowly began to disperse. Sunset sighed and sat back on her heels. ”What do we do now?” Fluttershy said as soon as they were alone.
“Is she really gone forever?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking down at Twilight.
Sunset pressed her knuckles against her lips. “I honestly don’t know.”
Rarity cradled Twilight’s head in her lap. “What are we going to tell Twilight? She deserves to know…” She stroked her hair, fishing the root twigs out. “But at the same time…”
A long silence stretched between them.
“Let’s just sleep on it,” Sunset finally said. “We’ll figure something out tomorrow. Twilight should be safe during the daytime.” With solemn nods, the girls helped ease Twilight up into a standing position. Sunset and Applejack wrapped her arms around their shoulders and helped her back to the Sapphire tent.
“Well…” Pinkie said. “Now we know who TP'd Principal Celestia’s house.”
“And who egged Vice Principal Luna’s car,” Rainbow added. She shuddered slightly and rubbed the back of her neck. “She wasn’t too happy about that.”
Twilight’s eyebrows knitted together in earnest. “Don’t frost the pie,” she murmured in her sleep.
“I really do hope she’s gone for good,” Sunset said softly. “I’d really hate to kick Twilight out of our tent."
The girls helped Sunset tuck Twilight back into bed before they went back to their tents. “We’ll fix this, Sunset,” Fluttershy assured her before leaving.
Sunset stretched her arms and sighed. “I hope so,” she said quietly. She looked over at Spike, who was still sound asleep. “If only our night was as good as yours,” she said. With a yawn, Sunset crawled back into bed. Their magic did seem stronger here, Sunset realized. Maybe this place held the key to their solution.
Hopefully.
Sunset pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes.
“Morning Sunset!” Twilight chirped.
Sunset opened her eyes and Twilight grinned down at her while Spike leaned over and licked her face. “Boy, I slept great last night. I’m feeling better about today, don’t you?”
Sunset smiled weakly. “Yeah...me too.”
She rolled over onto her face.
Author's Note
I have no excuses.
Rainy days equals this.
I don't even know.
Happy Halloween, and have a great day and a great life. 
