Midnight didn't feel much like herself.
As her name might suggest, she wasn't a morning pony, especially not when her mother wasn't around to drag her out of bed. Instead, she'd gone off on yet another monster-hunting mission and left Midnight behind. Usually she was back before morning, but this time Midnight had been woken up by one of the maids and left to her own devices.
Consequently, she'd totally forgotten to bring the spellbook she'd wanted to study during the free period at the end of the day. Of course, that was a distant worry, hours away. Instead, she was now lamenting that she'd only had oatmeal for breakfast - the maids weren't quite up to the task of getting bacon in the morning that wasn't made of smoked hay.
"...and that's why Clover the Clever was considered one of the greatest sorcerers of the age, despite her lack of formal training and only knowing a dozen spells." Ms. Wormwood smiled. "It goes to show you that even if you don't have a lot of power, knowing how to use it can take you far."
Midnight rolled her eyes. She had a feeling that this lecture was being directed at her. There had been another incident yesterday. She wasn't sure what the big deal was - sure, she hadn't gotten the spell exactly right, but it wasn't every day that you saw a rainbow that started at purple and went to octarine and hyperviolet!
The screaming had definitely been an overreaction. Nopony had been (permanently) blinded.
"Now, I'm sure that all of you are looking forward to your weekend," Ms. Wormwood said. "But learning never ends. I'm assigning each of you a research project due in one week."
Midnight groaned and put her head down on her desk.
"You're going to work in pairs and research a famous spellcaster of your choice, then present a report on their life and a demonstration of one of their spells for the class."
Ms. Wormwood paused and looked significantly at Midnight and Twilight.
"You may not choose anything involving dark magic, chaos magic, necromancy, double chaos magic, apocalypse magic, or anything that has the potential to open a gate to Tartarus."
"Yes, Ma'am," Midnight sighed. She started thinking about who she could use as a partner. She didn't know any of the fillies or colts very well, but they didn't know her, either.
"In the interest of fairness, I made a list of assigned partners. First, Lucky Swirl and Firecracker Burst..."
Midnight looked around the room as ponies were paired off with each other. She just had to hope she wasn't put with somepony useless or disaster prone like Lemon Hearts. She still wasn't sure how Lemon Hearts had gotten her head stuck in her lunchbox on the second day of class.
"...Twilight Sparkle and Midnight Twinkle..."
Midnight blinked. No. That couldn't possibly be right. She raised her hoof, at the same moment Twilight came to an almost identical conclusion and raised her own.
"Ma'am, we can't possibly-" Twilight started, at the same time as Midnight.
"-work together." Midnight finished. She turned to glare at Twilight. Was she copying her on purpose?
"Your groups can't be changed," Ms. Wormwood said. "This isn't just a lesson on famous unicorns, it's a lesson on how to work together. I expect all of you to make an honest effort on this."
"Okay, look," Twilight said, looking cautiously at her duplicate. They had a sheet of paper between them with a list of ideas that the teacher had given the glass. "Star Swirl is probably the most famous spellcaster of all time. We should choose him. There are lots of books about his life."
"That's exactly why we shouldn't choose him," Midnight argued. She tapped the list with her hoof. "He's right at the top of the list. Half the class is probably going to do Star Swirl or Clover the Clever. We should pick somepony more exciting."
"Star Swirl is exciting!"
"It's not gonna be exciting if ten other fillies are doing reports on him too. It's just gonna be the same report over and over again."
"Well, we could pick somepony further down the list. There's Silver Tongue, or Crystal Wishes, or-"
"Let's do a report on Grogar!" Midnight said, grinning. "He was an evil necromancer that enslaved ponies with these magical bells and-"
"No necromancy," Ms. Wormwood said, as she walked past them.
"Ugh," Midnight groaned. "Stupid rules."
"Well... there are still a lot of ponies that aren't on this list," Twilight said. "We could do a report on my mom."
"If we did a report on my mom it would be better," Midnight countered.
"But my mom has books about her life," Twilight retorted. "So we can use them for reference."
"And we could just ask my mom about her super exciting life! She hunts monsters! I bet she designed tons of awesome spells we could learn!"
"My mom told me about Sunset Shimmer," Twilight frowned. "If we tried casting any of her spells we'd probably blow up the school and get in a lot of trouble."
"Yeah, well..." Midnight didn't have an argument against that one. "But my mom could beat up your mom!"
"No fighting," Ms. Wormwood said, as she circled back around the two fillies. It was almost like she was staying near them to head off disaster before it could start. But instead of almost being like that, it was exactly what she was doing.
"Okay, look, let's compromise," Twilight sighed. "If we pick somepony on the list, it should definitely be fine, right?"
"That's fair, okay," Midnight nodded. "But how do we choose?"
"I read in a book on game theory that the most fair way to choose in a situation like this is drafting. Each of us will take turns eliminating names from the list until only one remains. You don't want to do Star Swirl, so we'll cross that off first." Twilight struck through the name with her quill. "And I don't want to do a report on Farrier Blitz. It would be too hard to demonstrate his theories on the magical properties of earth pony hooves."
The two went down the list, taking names off one at a time, Twilight growing more and more annoyed with Midnight with every question about the famous historical figures.
"How could you not have ever heard of Nazca Line?" Twilight huffed. "She was a famous diviner! She practically invented the field of remote viewing!"
"That sounds boring," Midnight said, rolling her eyes. "Cross her off the list."
"That only leaves Princess Platinum," Twilight said.
"Then we'll do a report on her," Midnight shrugged. "I guess it's not the worst choice. She's in the Hearth's Warming play, right?"
"Yeah," Twilight nodded. "But that's not entirely historically accurate."
"It shouldn't be hard to find something," Midnight shrugged, waving a hoof dismissively. "If she's on the list then there'll be enough to go on."
"We'll need to go to the library," Twilight said. "Ms. Wormwood will let us go during the free period after snacktime."
"Is that where you always go?" Midnight asked.
"Of course," Twilight said, rolling her eyes. "What else am I going to do, sit here on my flank and play with blocks? Books are way better as entertainment and building material."
Twilight ran her hoof down the page of the book she was reading as she went over the contents, her lips moving silently as she read to herself. In the corner of her eye, she saw Midnight open a book from the pile she'd carefully selected, flip through a few pages quickly, then discard it as useless.
Twilight's ear twitched as Midnight did it again. And again.
"Stop that!" Twilight hissed. "You're not even reading them!"
"I'm skimming them," Midnight shrugged. "These are dumb books." She pushed the glasses up further on her muzzle. Seeing them made Twilight's ear twitch again. They were her mother's glasses, and she'd just given them to the- the impostor.
"They're not dumb books," Twilight said, struggling to remain calm. "These books are listed in the index as the sources that the book on the history of Hearth's Warming used."
Midnight held up one of the books. "This is a book of foal's stories, Twilight. We can't use this."
"My mom always says that a story like that has a kernel of truth," Twilight said. "And... they don't really have a lot of more advanced books here."
Midnight picked up one of the other books she'd put aside. "And this one is a picture book about an evil caribou trying to steal the Hearth's Warming Flame."
"S-so maybe they're not all entirely historically accurate," Twilight admitted, blushing. "But even if it's almost entirely fiction, we can still mention it."
"Do we have any books here that aren't from the fiction section?" Midnight asked.
"It's from almost two thousand years ago," Twilight sighed. "All the records are from oral histories, passed down from generation to generation."
"Maybe we should have done the report on Mazda whatever instead."
"Nazca Line, and it's too late for that now, we've got all this research to do."
"But we need to cast a spell, too, not just retell the story of Hearth's Warming," Midnight pointed out. "And no offense, but Rudolph the Red-Winged Griffon isn't exactly a spellbook."
"Well, I did find some spell diagrams in this book-" Twilight held it up, and it was immediately yanked away from her.
"That's more like it," Midnight said. "Is there anything cool?"
"Be careful!" Twilight snapped. The librarian looked up and shushed her. Twilight's ears flattened back and she continued in a harsh whisper. "You can't be rough with books! They're fragile!"
"It's just a book," Midnight said, quickly flipping through the pages. "These spells are all kind of boring."
"But they're also safe," Twilight said. "Remember what Ms. Wormwood said? No necromancy, dark magic, chaos magic-"
"I remember," Midnight said. "It's just kind of weird. This is a spell for animating a small doll."
"My mom used to cast that on our Hearth's Warming dolls," Twilight said. "And Shining Armor used it on his action figures."
"Action figures?"
"They're like dolls, but for colts," Twilight said. "Shining Armor was very clear that I should always use the correct terminology."
"Well, I guess we can try that," Midnight sighed. "It looks simple. I just need a doll to test it on..." She started looking around. "I bet it'd work on a table."
"No, it's for dolls," Twilight said, firmly.
"The library table has four legs, like a doll, and it's made of wood. It's basically the same." Midnight squinted as she looked at the diagram. "If we ride a table into the classroom we'll definitely get the top score!"
"No!" Twilight protested, trying to grab the book. Midnight almost lost her grip on it, and it hung in the air between them, being pulled first one way then the other. "We have to do the research first! You can't just cast spells without knowing exactly how they work!"
"You cast them to find out how they work!" Midnight said. "The best way to learn is by doing!"
"You'll get us in trouble!" Twilight yelled.
The librarian shushed them again. Fillies and colts who had largely been ignoring them started moving away, trying to get out of what they could instinctively tell was about to stop being an argument and start being a blast radius.
"Just read the picture books since you want to do research so badly, and I'll do this!" Midnight grunted, trying to get the book away from Twilight. There was a tearing, ripping sound, and the tome cleanly tore in half, the binding proving far weaker than that magic of either filly.
"No!" Twilight screamed, horrified. She knew that she was looking at the end of her life. This was the kind of thing that they put ponies in jail for. Even the worst criminals in history wouldn't have torn a book in half - especially not a library book.
"What is going on here?" The librarian demanded, trotting over angrily. Twilight heard her gasp, and closed her eyes. What would her parents say, when they found out her daughter had been sent to Tartarus? They'd be upset at first, but after they found out about her crime, even they would have to agree that it was the only appropriate punishment.
"She did it!" Midnight immediately said. Twilight's eyes snapped open.
"What?!" Twilight demanded.
"Is that true?" The librarian asked, holding up both parts of the ruined book.
"It's-" Twilight looked down. She couldn't bring herself to lie. "It's my fault. I should have let go when I felt her pulling."
Midnight looked relieved for a moment until the librarian turned to her.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"N-no ma'am," Midnight said.
"Then both of you are banned from the library for a week," the librarian said. "And I'll be sending letters home to your parents, which you will return, signed, before you're allowed back in."
"A week?!" Twilight gasped. That was basically forever. "But- but the assignment is due before then!"
"You should have thought about that before roughhousing in the library," the librarian said. "Or at least you should have thought about something. Go back to your classroom. You can stay there until the school day ends."
"But-" Twilight said, standing up in alarm. Tears welled in her eyes.
"That isn't a suggestion," the librarian warned.
Twilight sniffled and walked out, head low. This was the worst day of her life.
“It was awful, Shiny!” Twilight wailed. “The sound when it died, the binding just failing and being torn apart as if it was nothing! I never thought I’d see death at such a young age.”
“It was just a book, Twily,” Shining Armor said, while he scowled at the stove. He was sure it was turned on, but the pot of water he’d set out wasn’t boiling. What was he doing wrong? Watching a pot didn’t actually keep it from boiling. That was a myth. Probably.
“You don’t understand!” Twilight said, pacing around the kitchen. “It was a library book! Now I’m a book-destroying criminal and everypony in the world is going to know! And you have the pot on the wrong burner.”
Shining Armor moved the pot to the other side of the stove, and steam started rising out of it almost immediately. “Thanks, Twily.”
“You know ponies in the Royal Guard, right? C-can you make sure that I get a nice prison cell when they come to arrest me?”
“Twilight, they’re not going to arrest you.” Shining Armor dropped pasta into the pot, along with spices, vegetable bouillon cubes, most of an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and two tomatoes he’d diced. “You’ll just have to go apologize later.”
“I’d arrest somepony who destroyed a book,” Twilight muttered.
“I know you would,” Shining Armor snorted. “That’s why we leave those decisions to the professionals. Besides, you just made a mistake. It wasn’t like you meant to destroy it, right?”
“No,” Twilight admitted, kicking at the floor.
“And a pony shouldn’t be blamed too much when there’s an accident,” Shining Armor smiled. “You just have to make things right. An apology and replacing the book are a good start for that.”
“Don’t forget to stir,” Twilight said. Shining Armor blushed and turned, quickly stirring the pot before anything could stick to the bottom and burn. “I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to work with… with that copy!” She huffed.
“If she’s really a copy of you, shouldn’t that make it easier?” Shining Armor asked, looking down at the filly. “I mean, she’d be almost as smart as you, right?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight shrugged. “She doesn’t know anything about history, or famous ponies, or anything like that.”
“And you don’t know anything about…” Shining Armor paused, trying to think of something. “Calculus?”
“That’s not fair! I just haven’t had a chance to learn it yet!” Twilight puffed out her cheeks. “I bet I could learn it if I wanted.”
“So give Midnight a chance to learn about history. That’s half the point of a research project, right? To learn new things.”
“I guess,” Twilight admitted.
Shining Armor stared at the stove. He could swear he was forgetting something.
“Put the spinach in,” Twilight said, cutting into his thoughts.
“Oh, right,” Shining Armor shook his head, grabbing the fresh spinach and tossing it into the almost-cooked pasta so it would have time to soften without turning to mush. “Why is it that I’m cooking instead of you?”
“Mom says I’m too young to cook on my own. Especially after I tried to use spells to make baking go faster.”
“Oh right,” Shining Armor said. “The oven had to be replaced.”
“It should have worked,” Twilight said. “I’ll get it right next time.”
“Well, until then, how about we have dinner? I think this is ready.” Shining Armor took the pot off the stove.
“Remember to add cheese on top!” Twilight said, hopping in place.
“I will, I will,” Shining Armor laughed. “Come on, and I’ll help you come up with a list of books after we eat. I bet your copy isn’t as good at checklists as you are.”
Midnight felt awful. She'd never really gotten in trouble before, at least not like this. It was one thing when her mother caught her sneaking cookies out of the kitchen (and to be fair, that had mostly been the baker's fault for letting her get away with it). That had been immediate and instant punishment, being put in time out while Sunset ate the cookies she'd liberated.
This was a sense of crawling dread, the knowledge that she was going to be punished draining the joy from everything. It might not be immediate, it might not even be today, but it was coming, lurking in the shadows to ambush her.
Midnight groaned and pushed open the door to the suite she shared with her mother. Normally, the apartment was perfectly quiet and still. Or filled with the low hum of restrained magical power, but only when Sunset was home and studying.
It was never, ever, a place where Midnight walked in to the sound of quiet whispers and giggling, and the rush of two ponies quickly increasing the distance between themselves as the door opened.
"Hey squirt," Sunset said, her cheeks pink. "I wasn't expecting you to be home so early at..." She glanced at the sundial hanging on the wall, which would have been a silly place for a sundial if it wasn't enchanted to show the correct time even at night. "The same time you always get out of school."
"Mom!" Midnight smiled and ran over to the couch where she was sitting, hopping up to hug her. The couch shifted under her hooves and she looked back.
Midnight blinked and looked at the pony sitting on the other end of the couch Sunset was occupying. Princess Cadance waved to her, though if she was blushing it was well hidden under her already-pink coat.
"Cadance got me home safely," Sunset said. "I had a little bit of trouble last night." She lifted her leg, showing Midnight the bandages wrapped around her body.
"A-are you okay?" Midnight asked, quietly.
"It was-" Sunset stopped and smiled. "I'm fine. No big deal. They just wanted to keep me overnight. Cadance kept me company."
"Oh," Midnight said. "But I thought you didn't like her."
"Well..." Sunset started, looking at Cadance.
"Sometimes, it takes effort to become friends with somepony," Cadance said. "But it can be worth it."
"Cadance is going to help me improve my image," Sunset said. Midnight tilted her head, confused.
"But you make really good illusion spells already."
"I mean... she's going to help me be a better pony? Make more friends? Something like that." Sunset shrugged.
"Also preening," Cadance put in.
"She is not teaching me preening," Sunset said, flatly, glaring over Midnight at the princess. "But she's going to teach me how to deal with politics and I'm going to teach her how to use her horn."
"I don't get it," Midnight said, frowning. "If you didn't like her before, why do you like her now? You can't just decide to be friends with somepony like Twi- like Cadance if they're mean to you."
"Is this about me and your mother, or about you and Twilight Sparkle?" Cadance asked.
"Both," Midnight muttered.
Cadance shimmied closer on the couch and put a hoof on Midnight's shoulder. "Do you want to know a secret?"
Midnight nodded.
"Most ponies are good, interesting people once you get to know them. The hard part is getting them to open up." Cadance smiled. "Twilight Sparkle, for example, is one of the hardest-working little fillies I ever met. When I used to foalsit for her, the difficult part was getting her to have some fun."
"All she ever does is yell at me," Midnight said. "She thinks she's so much better than me!"
"She's probably just scared," Cadance said. "Do you know why Twilight works so hard?"
Midnight thought for a moment. "Because she wants to be the best."
"That's not quite it." Cadance shifted, settling next to Midnight so the filly was sandwiched between her and Sunset. "Twilight has anxiety issues. She works hard because she doesn't handle things well if she doesn't feel prepared."
"But you can't have an answer for everything," Midnight said. "What if the teacher asks a question that isn't even in the book?"
"She's a very smart filly. Just like you." Cadance smiled. "So she can usually figure it out, if she doesn't overthink the problem. But there's one thing she hasn't had to deal with."
"What?" Midnight asked.
"She has never had to deal with a pony as smart as she is. She could get a perfect score with only a fraction of the effort she puts in, and that's the problem."
"How is that a problem?"
"Because test scores stop at a hundred," Sunset said. "I think I get what Cadance is saying. It's not like she can get a test score of a thousand percent, so if somepony else gets a perfect score, but they didn't study..."
"Then she thinks she needs to keep studying as hard as she does just to keep up?" Midnight asked.
"Exactly," Cadance agreed.
"I used to be the same way," Sunset admitted. "And I had the pressure of being the Princess's personal student. If I wasn't always proving I was the best, then I felt like I was failing her."
"But you are the best!" Midnight blurted out.
"That's what I thought, until I met Cadance," Sunset said. "There she was, with everything I ever wanted, and no magical talent to speak of. It made me angry enough that I started doing stupid things to try and get ahead. None of it ever worked. That's why we aren't or... weren't friends."
"But what am I supposed to do to get Twilight to not hate me? She's a big jerk! Because of her, I got in trouble at school and I still have to do an assignment with her even after she ripped a book in half because she didn't want me to have it!" Midnight huffed, pouting.
"You ripped a book in half?" Sunset asked.
"...And I might have been banned from the library for a week," Midnight muttered, putting her head down on the couch.
"She really does take after you," Cadance said, between giggles. "Celestia told me about how much property damage you used to cause."
"Laugh it up," Sunset growled. "Your first magic lesson is going to be shield spells while I take out some frustration on you."
"Scary," Cadance whispered, winking at Midnight.
"Am I grounded?" Midnight asked, quietly.
"Nah, I've got a worse punishment for you," Sunset grinned. "Since you're banned from the library, you and Twilight Sparkle are going to have to spend time with each other and work on your presentation. And you're going to be polite."
"Can't I just be grounded instead?"
"No. If I have to get along with Princess Heartbutt, you can deal with a classmate." Sunset snorted. "I mean you two should have a lot in common."
"Fine. But I'm only doing it because you're making me." Midnight rolled over to her side, flopping against Sunset.
"You'll thank me later- oh Stars I'm turning into Celestia." Sunset groaned. "Cadance! This is your fault!"
"Should I get you cake, your highness?” Cadance asked, before a pillow hit her in the face.
“Let them eat fluff,” Sunset said, raising her nose imperiously.