Tales of Twilight and Midnight

Another day of school at Canterlot High had concluded and all the students were let out for the weekend. Some were thankful for the conclusion of the school week while others looked forward to the next one. However, there was one girl who seemed to exhibit both opinions.

“Ah,” sighed Twilight with blissful excitement, “I can’t wait to see what we’re gonna learn on Monday.”

She then heard a voice inside her head that she quickly identified as that of Midnight Sparkle, her new magical alter-ego. “Speak for yourself, Egghead,” she said in exhaustion. “I thought that bore-fest would never end.”

Twilight was insulted as Midnight's words. “How can you say that?” she asked indignantly. “Knowledge is one of the cornerstones of our society and everyone should be eager to learn more about whatever they can.”

“Yeah well I’m eager to know when this is all gonna be over and we can finally do what we want,” said Midnight with a hint of desperation.

“Well we’ve got two days over the weekend,” informed Twilight, “but summer break won’t be here for almost another month.”

“Are you serious?” asked Midnight in shock and despair. “Might as well be an eternity.”

“Look,” said Twilight, “you can either wallow about it like a baby or you can do something about this whole thing.”

“Oh yeah?” said Midnight inquisitively and with a mischievous smirk. “How about we burn the school down and make summer get here sooner?”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” yelled Twilight in anger. She immediately regretted her outburst and looked to see a few bystanders giving her weird looks. After a minute, they went back to their business while Twilight continued home. “Even if we did do that,” she scolded in a softer tone, “We’d not only get arrested, but they’d also make sure that we still got in our academics. So it would be a wasted effort.”

“Well from what I saw online,” said Midnight, “Prison ain’t that much different from school. You're locked in a huge building where you can’t do much except for what you're told. Honestly, the only difference I can see is that in school, you get to go home each night and you get breaks away from it.”

“Wait,” said Twilight, “you’ve been on the internet?”

“Duh,” said Midnight feeling somewhat insulted. “I gotta get through nighttime somehow considering you’re out like a light and I don’t sleep.”

“What kind of things do you look up,” asked Twilight with concern.

“Eh, typical shit,” recounted Midnight. “Mostly episodes of old tv shows and people reacting to dumb crap.”

“Oh,” said Twilight somewhat relieved. Though she was still somewhat concerned. “Then where did you hear that school was akin to prison?”

“I saw a video that talked about how cartoons have changed over the years,” said Midnight. “It talked briefly about this one show called ‘Recess’ and how it was apparently a parody of prison shows. So I looked it up and saw a few episodes and I can definitely see where that point comes from.”

“I fail to believe any form of media could accurately and believably portray school as any sort of prison-like environment!” Twilight said indignantly.

“You'd be surprised little miss goody two-shoes,” said Midnight. “Tell you what: when we get home, we’ll watch a couple episodes and you can see for yourself whether I’m right or wrong.”

“Fine,” said Twilight. “But only after I complete my homework and my other responsibilities.”

With the arrangement set, Twilight made it home and soon finished her homework and chores in record time. Upon finishing her dinner, she went to her computer and searched the series Midnight had mentioned. As she queued up the first episode, she remained confident that a simple children’s program could in no feasible way present school as a prison-like environment.

Monday saw the start of a new week for the students of Canterlot high with some looking forward to what the new week would bring and others dreading having to endure another five days indoors. As they all walked into the building, a certain six of them gathered by the statue at the entrance and waited for their friend.

“Has anyone heard from Twilight at all over the weekend?” asked Sunset. She wanted to meet with Twilight to discuss their final science project, but never got a response.

“I went to deliver a load of cider to her house,” recounted Applejack. “When I asked about her, her parents just said it was best to not bother her.”

“They said the same thing to me when I dropped off Owlowiscious,” said Fluttershy. “I hope she’s okay.”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” said Rainbow Dash nonchalantly. “She probably got hung up on some egghead stuff like a brain teaser or something.”

“I don’t know,” said Pinkie Pie. “I tried to speak to her yesterday evening, but when I went up to her room there was a sign on the door that said ‘DO NOT DISTURB! PROCESS TIME NEEDED.’”

“Oh my,” exclaimed Rarity worriedly. “I do hope that she’s alright.”

They then saw their friend walking up the pathway and ran to her in relief. However, it was short-lived as they saw the completely disheveled state their friend was in. Her hair was frayed, there were bags under her eyes, she seemed incredibly sweat-stained. It looked like she made no effort to take care of herself at all over the weekend.

“Good heavens, Twilight!” shouted Rarity in a panic. “You look simply awful! We must get you freshened up immediately!” She then carried her disheveled friend into the bathroom with the other girls following close behind.

They soon reached the facility where Rarity proceeded to sit Twilight down on a folding chair she had brought and search her bag for an alternate outfit that Twilight could wear. “What the hell happened to you?” asked Rainbow. “You look like you haven’t slept all weekend.”

“That’s because I haven’t, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight in pure monotone. The others were shocked to hear such a development as Twilight explained. “I watched this old show called Recess. Midnight told me that it presented school in a way that made it seem like some sort of prison.” She then began to tear up as Rarity brought her a new outfit. “I didn’t want to believe her, but she encouraged me to watch the show and, and…” She broke down after that, laying her head on the sink atop her arms. “It’s true! It’s all true!” she bawled. “School is nothing more than a prison sentence that we are all forced to endure until we submit to the one true rule of society!”

The others were shocked at what Twilight said, even Rainbow Dash. “Look, I’m not a big fan of school,” she tried to sympathize, “but even I can see that there’s some fun stuff. You get to meet and hang up with other people, join fun activities, hell even some of the stuff we learn is pretty fun with the right mindset.”

The others were impressed at Dash’s attempt, but it seemed to do nothing as Twilight continued to cry. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Sunset placed her hand on Twilight’s arm to look into her mind. Upon doing so, she saw the apparition of Midnight Sparkle floating before her.

“Good luck trying to get her out of this,” she told Sunset. “Even when I try to come out and get her into the shower, she somehow wills herself back in and returns to her research. It’s like trying to yank her from an electromagnet or something.”

“Well to be fair,” said Sunset matter-of-factly, “if you hadn’t told Twilight about this show in the first place, then we wouldn’t even be in this mess.”

“All I wanted was for her to see my point,” Midnight defended. “I never thought she’d go into hyperfocus mode or shut down the way she did!”

“Well we’ve gotta find some way to bring her back,” said Sunset, determined to find an answer to this problem. After a moment of thought, Midnight spoke up. She whispered into Sunset’s ear and she widened her eyes in disbelief. “You sure that’s gonna work?”

“Oh yeah,” reassured Midnight. “Once she gets wind of something like that, then we’re all good to go.”

Though skeptical, Sunset agreed to the plan and Midnight pushed her back into the real world to put it into motion. After reorienting herself, Sunset relayed Midnight’s plan and the others were in as well, though some were equally dubious of the plan’s success. They managed to get Twilight through her classes and met up again at lunch.

At that point, Rainbow pulled out her phone and said, “Hey, check it out. Apparently, there have been a few leaks about the new Daring Do book.” Twilight stirred, but didn’t seem to react that harshly. “It looks like Daring Do is gonna team up with Dr. Caballeron for this one,” Rainbow continued. She managed to get a shiver out of Twilight, but it was only for a minute. “Oh wow,” said Rainbow in fake shock, “it even looks like they’ve leaked the ending of the book.” Twilight groaned a bit, but Rainbow knew it was gonna take one final push. With a deep breath, she looked at her phone again and gasped before saying. “Oh my god! It looks like that by the end of the book, Daring Do and Caballeron are partners along with Ahuizotl!”

At that statement, Twilight screamed and scolded Rainbow for spoiling one of her favorite book series. However, her rage died down once she saw that everyone at the table was smiling at her. “Wait,” she said in confusion, “what’s going on?” Her friends then told her about how she all but shut down on them all morning. Twilight then remembered what had happened and apologized to everyone for causing them so much trouble.

Before the rest of the girls could speak, Twilight’s eyes suddenly changed as Midnight Sparkle came forward. “Trust me,” she said, “if anyone should apologize, it should be me. I’m the one who told you about that show, Twilight. I should have been clear on the fact that it didn’t mean anything because it was simply fiction.”

“True,” said Twilight once she came back to the surface. “But I should have realized that from the start given how some of the characters looked and acted.”

The other smiled and laughed as they were happy to have Twilight back with them again as they all soon joined in on the discussion, putting forward their own thoughts and ideas about the show and how it portrayed real-world events.