The party sat at the table, everyone had their plates, but only 1 mare presented was focused on eating. Twilight was eyeing Night. Night was trying to dodge as much of that without moving. Starlight glanced between the two, trying to figure out what was their problem, slowly eating her own meal.

"What's the matter, Night? Are pancakes not to your licking?" asked Twilight, just trying to keep up friendly atmosphere.

This question made mean Twilight darken. What did she mean by that? Perhaps it's some sort of manipulation. A trick. Maybe she wants me to answer. Or maybe she wants me to think. I risk falling onto the trap, regardless of what I say, unless... "Can you find where wind starts?" said Dark Night, completely ignoring what Twilight said.

"I mean, yes? Wait, no. It depends on what you define as start. Now, if we-" started Twilight.

Dark Night didn't even bother to listen as the purple mare deepened into physics and linguistics. She ate one pancake and that was enough to realize she made a grave mistake by not saying "yes" on the first question.

Pinkie finished her meal and was already looking what else on this table she can eat. Dark Night silently passed her the plate. Twilight was too distracted with herself to notice anything less than the sun falling down. Starlight just continued watching the whole situation unfold, silently and slowly eating.

Dark Night exchanged contact with the light purple mare, instantly looking away. The moment she was thinking of just using an excuse to leave this gathering, Twilight finished her speech with "Therefore, with multiple variables meeting the equation's requirements, it's reasonable to assume such an occurance is possible, at least under certain circumstances"

"Yeah, you made it sound easy," said Dark Night in a sarcastic manner. The sad expression on Twilights face as she realized nobody cared in the slightest brought some enjoyment to Darks mind.

"And now we throw a party for Darky!" said Pinkie and another party cannon blast exploded out of nowhere, filling the room with confetti.

"Holy fucking tartarus," said Night, already holding her hoof near hear heart. "You will never do it again, or I'll fucking tear your legs off," she said, raising above the table with a face depicting raw hatred. Starlight gulped at that sight. Twilight didn't show fear, although had quite a bit. It was probably enough to intimidate Chrysalis, but Pinkie just started laughing.

Night's horn lit up, and Twilight decided to stop problems before they occur. "Girls, let's not fight," she said, now looking at Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, I know you like fun, but some ponies need time to get used to your jokes." Twilight turned her head to her clone.

"Will you finish or can I have it?" Pinkie said, interrupting Twilight.

"Yes, Pinkie-and Night, threatening your friends like that is not a good thing."

Dark Night contemplated replying "That animal is not my friend", but decided it's not worth it and stayed silent. Her face, however, projected her thoughts general idea.

Starlight decided it's about time to say something. "Night, you know, laughter is one of the elements of harmony. Maybe you should try to make a joke to better understand Pinkie."

Twilight backed her on that idea with a nod and Pinkie was already staring at Dark Night with eyes of expectation.

Raging like this was a mistake. They wanted to provoke me and I fell right into it. But turning around and apologizing now would be suspicious. Her mind cooled a bit to think more rationally, but the aftertaste of the event was still there. They want to hear a joke? They'll get it.

"What did two halves of a stallion say to a mare?"

Pinkie jumped in excitement. "Oh, I didn't hear this one! What?"

Dark Night grinned. "Nothing. Stallions who got ripped in two don't talk"

Pinkie pie burst into laughter before Night even finished the joke. Twilight and Starlight just felt awkward

"Tough crowd," said Dark Night, making Pinkie laugh even harder.

"Uhm. Good..." Starlight was trying to come up with a word. To say it was a good joke would be plainly wrong. To say it was a good try was rather bad-mannered. "Good that you made up with Pinkie. I'm sure you'll become great friends." That was a good save. Coming up with a sentence about friendship instead of answering the question at hoof is something she figured out from talking to Celestia, with only difference of it not being abstract. The sun mare loves to say meaningless phrases that everyone thinks to be godly knowledge.

More awkward staring followed.

"I'll go get the dishes to Spike," said Starlight lifting the empty dishes with her magic and walking away.

"I'll plan a party for Night! We'll invite all your friends! And all Twilights friends! And all my friends!" Said Pinkie.

"Please no," said Night, knowing too well from the memories she was born with that if Pinkie invites all her friends, they'd have to build a second Ponyville to fit them all in. When she turned to see Pinkies reaction, the latter already wasn't there. How in the fuck does she do that?

"Ahem ahem." Twilight brought attention to herself. "Now that we've finished eating, perhaps it's time for your first friendship lesson," she said, already in anticipation.

Night knew this was a bad idea. The more she spends time with Twilight, the more she will inevitably tell her. For all she knew, Twilight believed she regretted everything. Twilight thought her to be a shitty version of Starlight. And that's what Night intended to make her believe for a while. ~~"Don't you have a book dedicated to it, oh wait we're jumping a season, let's not break the canon, shall we? -Discord"~~ "Ugh, I still feel a bit off from yesterday. Can we settle on later?"

Twilight sighed. It was a reasonable request, but later would come later, because tomorrow was a monday and who knows if she won't be handling another international incident halfway into the week. "I see. Perhaps you need a room then? I assume with the way you were created, you don't have anything?" Twilight phrased her words carefully. She didn't want to hurt this mare. This was no Starlight Glimmer. Not at all. Starlight was an open book. While undeniably stronger magically, she was understandable mentally. Twilight could only guess what's hiding behind the dark neutral face. And with the outlash on Pinkie, it made her believe that it wasn't good.

"Yes, thank you," said Night.

As the two mares were walking down the hallway, Dark was thinking about the situation. Is staying in this room a good idea? On the one hoof, it is undeniably risky. This place could have a thousand recording spells, and two of the strongest mares in Equestria. On the other hoof, living with the princess probably has its bonuses. Free food means I don't need to work. And a library I can access at all times. And that's without mentioning the purple alicorn which will probably help me in case I need it.

Twilight opened the door, showing the room. Nothing too much. Bed, wardrobe, mirror, other necessities. "Do you like it? Maybe you want something else? I'm sure I can get you most things."

Dark Night went inside, inspecting everything. After a moment, she activated her horn, which made Twilight get a little nervous. After a few moments of magical detection spell used, Dark Night stopped channeling magic, her face taking an unsatisfied look.

"Is anything wrong?" Asked Twilight.

"No, nothing. I was just checking out something," said Night. She either didn't put magical observer spells, or she knows how to hide them from the basic magical detection. I can't confront her with this question. Not now. Not that I even need to. "I'll do a few things and then go read something"

"I'll leave you to it then," said Twilight, closing the door behind her.

Mean Twilight decided to check the mirror. It was quite a popular place to sneak in spells. What she saw, however, surprised her more.

"I'm different." The mirror didn't show a mare that looked like somebody mixed in a little bit of pink in grey. She was purple. She still looked like Twilight, but at this point, she had no doubts fooling ponies with such a disguise would prove far harder. Anyone who knows Twilight personally will probably notice this. "Interesting," she said, looking at herself from various angles. This is an unexpected change. But I do look good. Perhaps it's only befitting for someone who will rule the world.

"Enough of this, sexiest mare in the world. We still have things to do." She smiled, giggling to the mirror. It's no wonder they say speaking to smart ponies feels good. Just one sentence to myself and I already feel better. She used magical detection on the mirror, only to find nothing. Expectable. Time to go. With those thought, Dark Night turned off the light and headed out to the library. She remembered where it was from the last time.

Night entered the room. "Alright, what do I need at first?" She started thinking. Dark magic is naturally far greater than anything else in there. But starting with it isn't smart in many ways. Better start with something light, but useful. That mirror gives me an idea. Dark Night looked around for some moments, and then carefully lifted a small book with an eye symbol as cover from one of the shelves, flipping it to the contents page and starting to read it. "Useless, useless, useless, use-mm, X-ray. Later. Useless, useless, oh here it is, night vision." She flipped to page 43, reading the spell and it's properties. "Sounds simple enough," she said, turning off the light and saying the spell.

The result wasn't bad. The result just wasn't. The room was still dark and Night flipped back the light switch. This may take a while. She put the book onto a chair and started looking for more. After a few hours, she picked out the books. Various books on different elemental spells, a few books on convenient spells, proper usage of magical energy in combat and light manipulation on top of it all. As she gathered all of them, she simply copied everything with magic. That was a spell she remembered Twilight doing all the time, so she also had no troubles using it.

Afterwards, she lifted the original books with magic and purposefully shoved them back into bookshelves in the wrong order. I almost pity Spike, who'll have to rearrange it all with the crazy bookworm. Almost, she thought, leaving the library with an evil smile and a stack of copied books flying right to her.

Author's Note

This was hard to write, not gonna lie. 2k words feel like nothing when you read them, but coming up with 2k words that make sense and aren't just a spam of useless adjectives and descriptions? That's a lot.