Midnight’s face burned as she raced through the halls of Canterlot High. It burned like it was the surface of the sun…

No, she corrected herself even in such a state, Lightning’s hotter, at about 50,000 degrees.

She silently thanked Science for granting her the ability to quantify her mortification at having been caught by Rainbow Dash, Trixie, and Fluttershy kissing Aria Blaze in front of the band room.

Midnight’s face burned as hot as a lightning bolt as she ran through the halls. Pure, unadulterated shame and embarrassment roiled within her. Despite the heat of her burning cheeks, she held her hands to her face in a vain attempt to hide it from anyone who might see her like this.

Like, for instance, Rainbow Dash. Sadly, there was no outracing someone who could break the sound barrier just to get lunch before the bell had finished ringing. The cyan and rainbow blur at Midnight’s side was running backward, and comfortably so. Rainbow didn’t look like she’d even tapped into a fraction of her speed. If she put her hands casually into her pockets, she couldn’t look more at-ease about it.

“I bet it was prickly. Or, it tasted like tartar sauce,” Rainbow Dash hummed to herself, one eye glancing over her shoulder for a slight course-correction, “Unless she was wearing, like, cherry chap-stick…”

“Ah, come on!” a Cheshire grin drifted in the blurred streak that was Rainbow Danger Awesome Professionalism Dash, “You kissed a girl… and you liked it! Don’t tell me you didn’t!”

Midnight, blind to… basically everything at the moment, except for the chance to escape complete and utter humiliation, made a hard, right turn. Dash, thankfully, kept on her current trajectory, with no chance of stopping, it seemed.

I just need a second! Midnight’s screaming brain managed to articulate through the confusion and terror gripping her just then.

Unfortunately, it was at that exact moment that a certain blue magician girl kicked open the door to the school’s poolroom.

Trixie glared… helplessly as Midnight went sliding past her through a puddle of water. Trixie had only just hopped out of the pool, after all. Her anger evaporated as she watched her very best friend hurtle down the hallway, one foot squealing as it dragged across the ground, the other high up in the air amidst her flailing arms.

I’m about to die, Midnight thought, in a calm, analytical voice. I’m about to die, and in the most embarrassing way imaginable.

This, she decided, was not ideal. Unfortunately, what she wanted, at that moment, was no longer a factor.

As her other foot left the earth, and she began her final, terminal spin, all Midnight could think was, Dash will probably write, “Died after making out with a fish” on my tombstone. That jerk.

When Midnight opened her eyes, she was looking up at a certain rainbow-haired girl, who had caught her out of midair.

“So,” Rainbow smirked, and cocked her hips in a snarky pose, complete with a damsel in her arms, “Gonna give your heroic savior a kiss?”

“Thank you for saving my life,” Midnight growled, “Now put me down before I make you regret it!”

Rainbow snorted and snickered under Midnight’s half-hearted assault until the sports star set her down. Fluttershy and Trixie raced up to the pair, one panting after giving chase, the other squelching noticeably.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy sighed like a mother watching her child playing in mud, “I didn’t think to bring a towel this time…”

“Trixie was displeased the first time you did that,” she glared angrily at Midnight, “But it made for a good show. This time…!”

Midnight’s eyes glimmered with a touch of her aqua-hued magic, and she lifted up a finger to point at Trixie’s sodden, soaked form.

Trixie frowned, her sullen look speaking volumes of her opinion on being dropped into a pool twice in the same afternoon. As blue flames whipped up and around her, she pinched her face, and seemed to clench her whole body against the magical assault.

Dash whistled at the result. Steam rose in light wisps off of Trixie’s clothes, but it didn’t seem to discomfort her in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“Ooooooh,” Trixie wrapped her arms around herself, and began the strangest cuddle-session any of the other teens had ever seen, “That’s so nice…”

“Don’t bother Trixie,” said Trixie, hugging herself, “This feels like I swam in hot marshmallows…”

Rainbow’s eyes sparkled, slightly, as she took in the intense happiness on Trixie’s face. Midnight could tell just from her face, that if Rainbow hadn’t been such a tough-girl, she’d probably ask for the steam spell too.

Midnight’s eyes, however, were drawn by a sudden movement in the next instant. She locked her eyes on Trixie’s hair, and silently prayed that she was just suffering some sort of adrenaline-backlash, a trick of the light…

Trixie’s hair, formerly as silky smooth as her nicest performing cape, twitched. And then, without warning, it poofed. One moment, it lay flat atop Trixie’s head. And in the next, a mountain of silver frizz stuck out in every direction.

The change did not go unnoticed. Fluttershy eeped, and ducked behind her long hair. Rainbow Dash, remembering something from a movie, tried to remain perfectly still, as though Trixie’s sight were based on movement.

Midnight grinned. She had no idea why she was grinning, but she suspected it was an innate response to fear.

Trixie continued to smile. She opened her eyes slowly, almost listlessly. She looked to Midnight, and locked gazes with her.

“Trixie will get you for this,” she said, almost whispering, the beatific smile coolly masking the madness beneath. “You won’t know when it’s coming, but I’ll get you.”

“That’s… fair,” Midnight conceded, manic grin still etched onto her face. Then, with a clap of her hands, she cheered, “Gee! What a great lesson in Friendship! Who’s up for ice cream!?”

A blue hand fell on her shoulder, and Midnight couldn’t help but look back to a smirking Rainbow Dash.

“Come on!” she said in a long, drawn-out way, “Ya gotta tell us about that kiss!”

Fluttershy protested, quietly, “Um, she really doesn’t have to. Not if she doesn’t want to. If that’s what she wants.”

“Trixie has been dunked in a pool over this,” the blue magician huffed, her relaxation under the steam spell giving way to her previous, righteous, anger. “She demands some sort of explanation!”

The hallway rang, suddenly, with a hard slap. Trixie and Fluttershy flinched at the sound, while Rainbow drew back her smarting hand from Midnight’s shoulder.

“I don’t gotta do anything!” Midnight fumed, a hard glare focused on Rainbow Dash, her own hand raised up between the two, “I don’t owe any of you an explanation! Whatever is going on with me and Aria, or whoever else, is my business!”

Perhaps it was hearing her own voice echoing around her in the halls that did it, or perhaps the roaring flame of anger in her chest had burned through its fuel too fast, but Midnight suddenly seemed to realize what she had said, and instantly began to shrink back in on herself.

Embarrassment, rage, and now a healthy dose of panic and shame. Midnight’s heart was hammering from that potent little cocktail of emotional whiplash. It was rhythmically pounding in her ears, and her breath came out quick and ragged.

“I-I’m sorry!” she started speaking, louder, and quicker, than she meant to, “I didn’t mean that! I still want to be friends! I was just panicking, please don’t stop being my friends over this…!”

“Woah! Woah!” Dash laid both hands on Midnight’s shoulders, her own eyes widening at the purple nerd-girl’s freak-out, “Chill! Girl, chill!”

Another hand, this one small and yellow, settled onto the middle of Midnight’s back.

“Midnight?” Fluttershy’s quiet, caring voice felt like a little blanket wrapping its way around Midnight’s heart, slowing down her pounding panic beat-by-beat, “You’re hyperventilating! You’re going to pass out if you don’t calm down. Please, take a deep, deep breath.”

Finding little room for herself, Trixie seemed to opt to merely stand at the ready, a worried look dominating the magician’s features beneath her silver ‘fro.

There they stood, in unnerving silence, as seconds, and then minutes, ticked by. Slowly, breath by breath, Midnight began to slow down. Her ears stopped ringing, and the world around her lost some of that edged crispness.

These… she thought to herself as her breathing came back under control, are my friends. They understand, don’t they?

Finally, with the lightest puff of breath, Midnight glanced around to the three other girls, smiling weakly, but apologetically.

“Not sort of,” Dash frowned, “You went from normal to Twilight in ten seconds, flat!”

“And I’m sorry about that,” she said, folding her hands in front of her, “But, when I snapped at you, I thought…”

“You thought we wouldn’t be friends anymore?” Fluttershy leaned in, her eyebrows knitting into the most adorable frown Midnight had ever seen. For a moment, she worried she might have an overdose of cute and keel over.

“Basically,” she said, chagrined. Perhaps, as Twilight, she would have had the emotional restraint to not flip out the second her friends tried to tease her. But, things being as they were…

“Well that’s stupid!” Dash snarled, taking the others aback, “How could you think so little of us!?”

“I know,” Midnight said, sadly, looking away from the angry teen, “I just… I’m scared, alright?”

Trixie nodded, knowingly, “Well, that makes sense. Anyone’d be terrified of Aria Blaze.”

When Midnight said nothing to that, Dash and Fluttershy exchanged a quick glance. Dash placed one arm over Midnight’s shoulder, while Shy took Trixie and tried to bring both in close, just in case a good, old-fashioned hug would be necessary.

“Hey?” Rainbow tapped her forehead to Midnight’s own with surprising gentleness, “You can tell us anything, right? We might make fun, but I’d never leave you hanging if it was something serious.”

Midnight met her eyes. Pink and Aqua, open and guarded, watched each other for a long, quiet moment. Midnight glanced away, and noted the same, open smiles on Fluttershy and Trixie’s faces.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, and shook her head, “I was just… freaking out a little, is all. I didn’t expect that at all, not even talking about… about…”

Rainbow couldn’t help herself, letting a little kitty-cat smile settle on her lips.

Midnight sighed, finally releasing a bit more of her tension. “Yeah. It definitely didn’t fit any of my models or projections.”

“Would it really surprise you,” said Midnight, a bit of red flushing her cheeks, “that I… that we did research on this sort of thing?”

Midnight said, quietly, “Attraction. Specifically… to what we were interested in.”

“Of course…” Trixie sighed, “Of course Twilight would need a chart.”

“Graphs, but that’s beside the point,” Midnight allowed herself a little chuckle. “The point is, back in middle school, we cracked the code.”

Rainbow frowned, “Wait, so you’re telling me… that you researched your orientation?”

Midnight gave her friend a look like she’d eaten glue. Then, as though what she’d done was simply obvious, she said, “It’s simplified things in the long term. Why spend adolescence panicking over something like that when you can just crunch the numbers, run a few simulations, and figure it all out?”

“So,” Rainbow said, a mischievous smile growing, “you’re saying that in order to find out what you liked… you exp—”

The school athlete vanished in a puff of blue flame and light. It had been almost silent, a far cry from the following sounds of splashing and sputtering which echoed through the halls from the nearby pool door. Midnight’s face betrayed nothing, while Fluttershy began to frown deeply.

“This is getting gratuitous,” she muttered, and then turned her ire back to Midnight, “That wasn’t very nice of you.”

Midnight merely returned an indignant look, “I won’t have the good name of Experimentation ruined with one of Dash’s awful jokes.”

The three didn’t have to wait on their friend long, as Dash exited the nearby pool room soon enough. She was laughing as she re-entered the hall, practically doubling over with mirth. Between her loud guffawing, and her squishing-squelching shoes, the rainbow-haired girl could have drowned out a marching band.

“You’re too easy!” Rainbow laughed. Then she swept a hand out in front to indicate her whole body. “Now, chop chop with the steam spell. I’m ready.”

Midnight, despite her dramatic sigh and eye roll, obliged. Blue fire raced up Dash’s form, removing the cold and the wet, while leaving behind a thoroughly impressed, and even more thoroughly delighted, Rainbow Dash, who beamed even brighter than Trixie as she metaphorically melted into her warmed clothes.

She didn’t even seem to mind her hair sticking straight up and crackling with static.

Midnight was about to say something, when the sound of coughing caused her to turn back towards Fluttershy.

“What?” Midnight raised an eyebrow at the girl who held her hand up politely in front of her face, “You want in on this too?”

It took a few moments, but then she did manage to ask, through a slight blush, “So… what did your findings tell you?”

Midnight shrugged, “Twilight’s dating some guy named Timber Spruce, so what does that tell you?”

“Oh?” Fluttershy cocked her head to one side, “But, if that’s what you liked back then, then why… oh!” Her cheeks flushed red, and her pupils shrank noticeably.

“But,” Trixie tapped her chin in thought, “You totally hit on Flash Sentry this morning.”

Midnight cringed. Not at the memory, but at the sound of Rainbow Dash’s jaw hitting the floor. She was almost afraid to look over and see…

That smile. That smile of Dash’s where her teeth gleamed and her eyes sparkled. It was a smile that spoke of whoopie cushions and rubber puke snuck into sandwiches. It was the smile of someone who once pranked the whole school with locker-rigged airhorns. It was the smile of a maniac, a veritable troll of the highest… or perhaps, lowest, denominator.

I’m going to hear this punchline for the rest of my life, Midnight realized.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy shrank even further into her hair as she considered what Trixie had said, “But I thought Flash and Sunset…”

Midnight’s voice cracked, slightly, as the frustration returned. She braced her shoulders, and snarled, “I didn’t remember, okay!? Is it really my fault if I don’t remember a few friends? Or events? Or… if I don’t know who I am…?”

And as quickly as she’d started shouting, Midnight… slowed. Her voice lost its thunder precipitously, all life and energy draining away as though she were a leaky sieve. Her shoulders slouched, and she tried… valiantly, to keep her face tense and her eyes smoldering.

Dash’s smile fell away as well, and she began scratching the back of her neck. She tapped one foot rhythmically, just to have something fill the silence.

“I just wish these things would stop happening,” Midnight sighed. She slouched against a nearby locker, and pressed her head against the cool metal. “It hasn’t even been three days, and I feel like I’m a completely different person from how I was a week ago.”

“Maybe,” she said, glancing away, “It’s complicated. I was Twilight Sparkle up until the Friendship Games. And then, I was Midnight. First at the Crystal Empire…”

“… then, after I came back, at Everfree,” Midnight continued uninterrupted, “And the whole… Disqord thing.”

She looked back to her friends, her aqua eyes meeting pink, blue, and purple. Those eyes stared back at her, not with the contempt or fear she’d once desired… but love. Platonic, to be sure, but love nonetheless.

“After the split,” she continued, with a touch of strength returning to her, “We didn’t realize how much things would change. There’s… well, we’re both the Twilight you knew before… and also not.

“I just wish it was easier to figure out what we are, rather than whatever we used to be.”

There was another moment of silence. No one quite knew what to say to that. What could be said?

“It’s just like with Sunset,” she whispered, her eyes widening with comprehension.

“What did you say?” Midnight frowned, yet it was less confusion, and more hope that flittered across her thoughts like a dancing candle flame.

Realizing she’d said something, Fluttershy went to shrink again… but stopped. Midnight could see something tracking in the usually withdrawn girl’s eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure what she saw, not exactly, but from the way Fluttershy’s jaw set, and her posture straightened… it must have been important.

“At lunch,” Fluttershy said, her voice steady, “Sunset told all of us how she felt about you maybe turning her into an Alicorn, like Princess Twilight.”

Midnight was sure Fluttershy saw her wince, but if she did, she didn’t show it.

The butter-yellow girl kept on speaking beneath the stares of a silent-yet-in-awe Rainbow and Trixie.

Dash shrugged, “She seemed kinda mad… but Shy’s right. Sunset’s mostly just scared.”

Fluttershy nodded, and said, “She doesn’t know if she’s the same per… oh, pony anymore. She even said she wasn’t sure if she was the same Sunset… or if…”

Here, her shyness crept back in. Whatever she was about to say had shocked her back into her old, timid voice.

“She said she thinks the Sunset we knew died,” Rainbow Dash shook her head, “And like, she’s some sort of clone now.”

Midnight’s face froze. Her whole body, in fact, locked up like an arctic freeze had settled in. But, much like a frozen ocean, tides and current raged beneath. Midnight’s mind raced in a way it hadn’t had to in… ever.

“Face it,” Twilight sat up suddenly, her voice quickening, “We… we’re just ghosts. Twilight Sparkle… the real Twilight Sparkle is d-d…”

“But… we talked…” Midnight’s mouth had started functioning again. “We talked about it. She… she never said…”

Midnight slammed her head into the nearest locker door. It didn’t dent. All that happened was that her head hurt more than it already had been.

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash said slowly, “I… guess all three of you are going through some crud, huh?”

“An identity crisis? Yeah,” Midnight sighed, but didn’t lift her head up, “That’s kind of cruddy…”

Her eyes snapped open. She lifted herself up and away from where she’d laid her head… and Midnight Sparkle turned a withering look on Dash.

“Three of us? You knew I was dealing with this? And you kept goading me anyway!?”

For what it was worth, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy glanced away as fast as they could.

“We, ah… might’ve gotten carried away having fun today,” Dash said, lamely.

Fluttershy’s voice came out at a pitch Midnight thought dogs would hear, “I… got distracted by, um, the Skullcrusher thing…”

Midnight held all three girls in her glaring gaze. Trixie noted, with a growing dread, that Midnight’s eyes had begun to turn blue and purple again, though she hid it well under her usual stage presence and composure.

But, the crackle of magical backlash never came. Midnight’s eyes hummed with energy… yet only for a moment.

With a full, heaving sigh, Midnight fell back into the locker door, and chuckled.

“Yeah… but we’re your jerks!” she said, a little laughter returning to the cyan athlete. The halls began to ring with the soft, easing laughter as all four girls joined in on an absurd moment of levity.

Allowing herself to let it all go, Midnight sighed contentedly, and tried to flatten her hair down again.

“Guess I need to talk with Sunset about this again. I’m getting tired of this conversation…”

Dash’s eyes, momentarily closed as she and the others had laughed it out, suddenly snapped open. Her pupils dilated until they were specks within milky whiteness, and her jaw slowly unhinged.

Trixie looked to Rainbow, and frowned, “Oh, now what? Can we please go five minutes without an emotional whiplash?”

Fluttershy caught her friend’s eye, and her own face scrunched up as she realized…

“Waiting for…” Midnight paled, and her hand rammed down into her pockets, quickly snapping up her phone and bringing it up to check the time.

“Oh,” she noted how, contrary to what she’d been hoping for, the little digital clock was showing a time that was almost a half hour past when she’d planned on meeting up with her sister.

And on, and on the argument in front of Canterlot High School went. It was quite loud, and had a bit of an audience at the moment, but seemed mostly contained to those who’d participated in a somewhat impromptu ‘wrastlin’ match over by the track field.

Applejack appeared totally unharmed in any way that mattered. Even dust didn’t seem to cling to her, despite being the winner of the aforementioned tussle. Though, that might have something to do with Rarity hovering around her at all times, or hanging off her, as an observer might think.

Sunset and Twilight sat beneath the statue-less Wondercolt plinth, alongside Pinkie Pie and Sonata Dusk, who merrily munched on mouthfuls of taco meat. Sunset was still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened, and Twilight wasn’t faring much better.

But no one faired quite the same as poor Oakley Apple, who now favored his right arm, which was sticking out of a sling at a less-than-amusing angle.

“Fer land sakes, Oakley,” Applejack growled, “I ain’t gonna have ye shot!”

Oakley, one eye swollen shut, and a tooth chipped after his… encounter with his cousin, pointed an accusatory finger. “I saw how Granny looked at me when I sprang my fetlock last autumn!”

“She’s the one that pampered you the most afterward, you idiot,” Cinnamon Apple, the second of the once-horses that’d joined the Apple clan, sighed exasperatedly.

“I don’t think watching nature shows is good for you,” Cookie Apple poked and prodded in the general vicinity of Oakley’s busted limb, “They’re give you some funny… are they eating tacos?”

And with that, the last of the new Apples took off at a gallop for the statue. Which left Oakley to mope in front of his other two relations, and the beautiful girl he’d lost to one of them.

“Look, Oakley,” Applejack pushed up the brim of her hat, “I didn’t mean ta use magic in the fight. I plum-forgot I even had the pendant on…”

“Nah, it’s fine, AJ,” the palomino boy sighed. He threw on a folksy grin, and shot a meaningful look to the fashionista by his cousin’s side, “I fig’red I’d already lost the match in the most important way.”

“Oh?” Rarity seemed to finally notice the stare she was getting. “How do you mean?”

“Miss Rarity, I s’pected you liked Applejack quite a bit more’n me by the way that ya’ll checked on her wellbeing, d’spite me bein’ the one in the crater…”

Rarity blushed a deep crimson, but did not look away. Instead, a sort of soft sadness overcame her, giving her eyes that little sparkle two Apples had just fought over.

“I am most terribly sorry, Oakley,” she said, quietly, “I suppose I let my imagination get the better of me today. It is, after all, the dream of every Lady to have two gallant suitors fighting over her…”

“Uh, Oakley? Do you need help?” Twilight asked, her eyes locked onto the broken arm.

“That’s mighty kind of you, Miss Sparkle,” he nodded back in return, “But wit’out those ID papers, I don’t know what hospital’d take me in this condition.”

Sunset smiled, though chagrined, “Sorry… Like I said, it’ll be a couple more days…”

“Well,” Twilight grinned, “Then lucky for you, I happen to know a little bit of first aid magic!”

She struck a rather dramatic pose as she said this, complete with a quick adjustment to her glasses to make her look as in-control as she felt right at that second.

“Since…” Twilight’s eyes reopened… and began glancing about, as though looking for something.

“I… I guess since the Split. Midnight and I did copy, rather than partition, most of our Critical Knowledge banks.”

When that got little more than a blank stare from the two former horses and the two current humans, Twilight realized she needed to use her, not to be offensive, Rainbow Dash terminology.

“Stuff like knowing how to talk, how to count, how to walk, etcetera,” she quickly rattled on, a knowing smirk working its way onto her face, “Anyway! I maybe… sort of… definitely got some of the magic stuff in the exchange.”

“Does Midnight know, darling?” Rarity whispered, leaning forward just a skosh. “I don’t mean to impugn – of course not! – but we all know how… sensitive Midnight is to feeling left out of something. And magic being ever so important to her…”

Twilight shook her head, “We didn’t make a secret out of it. I just… don’t flaunt our magic like she does.”

Applejack nodded, “Well, that’s a relief. I know some people think if’n ye got it, ya gotta flaunt it too. Je’s happy ta know yer not a flaunter, Twi.”

She completely missed the irked glance Rarity shot her girlfriend just then, but it was gone in a moment, replaced by another question.

“So, you can help poor Oakley? I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt on my account…”

“Miss Rarity, I elected ta do that darn foolish thing,” Oakley protested, his own Stetson following the angle of his frown, “An’ ye just hafta accept I dug my own grave.”

Without a word, and no warning whatsoever, Twilight’s pendant flashed with light. An equally purple aura instantly surrounded Oakley’s broken arm, who only balked a smidgen at the sight. Cinnamon herself stared with an almost hungry expression, fascination clearly outweighing any fear or horror the sight might otherwise have commanded.

Light wove over Oakley’s limb like shimmering water, slowly, and painlessly, pushing and molding the skin and muscle. Even where the arm bone seemed to stick out at an awkward angle started to shift and pinch as the spell went on. Rarity and Applejack stared, utterly gobsmacked at seeing real magic, doing something so… astounding!

Normally, something would have exploded by now. Yet, Twilight’s calm expression led the others watching to feel at ease about the process. Sunset watched the proceedings with nothing short of an experienced calculating eye. It had been a while, but she hadn’t forgotten how to tutor others in magic.

What was little Cadance up to right now? she wondered. Besides running an empire…

In moments, the show was over. Oakley slowly withdrew his arm from the sling, and gave it a little, experimental flex.

“Still hurts,” he said, simply, but only as though he were commentating on a casual observation.

“Well, it’s set,” Twilight sighed, a bead of sweat dripping down her face as she took in her handiwork, “Give it a day, and you should be fully healed.”

Oakley gave her a much brighter smile at that, and even tipped his hat to the little mage that’d helped him out.

Cinnamon sighed, but also joined in the round of chuckles her idiot brother just caused. She turned back towards Twilight, and allowed herself a rare, genuine smile.

“Don’t mention it,” she replied, basking in the sight of a job well-done. She sighed, contentedly, and began planning the research journal she would prepare with Midnight on the spell’s performance. Needed to collect more data points…

“That was pretty impressive, Twilight,” Sunset rested a hand on her shoulder, and gave Twilight a comforting squeeze, “I’d definitely give you an ‘A’ on that use of Barber’s Fifth Ligament Array.”

“Tertius Barber,” Sunset recalled, the dusty old history textbook still clearly sitting in her memories, “One of the four Barber Brothers, and one of the most important Surgeon-Sorcerers in the history of Medicinal Magic. He’s retired now, but…”

Pinkie’s laughter, from at the base of the Wondercolt statue-less plinth, barked out over anything Sunset might have said.

“Yeah, so he miiiiight have also been part of the original band who started that particular genre in Equestria…”

Anything else Sunset was about to say was so much static, doomed to be dropped for far more interesting conversations – at least, for everyone who wasn’t Twilight – that were about to be needed.

For, it was at that exact moment that the statue plinth chose to shimmer, ever so slightly. To most, it could be written off as a very well-polished bit of stone catching the midafternoon sun’s rays.

“Finally!” Pinkie Pie fist-pumped, “I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this part!”

“Part of what?” Sonata said, just before her mouth fully enveloped a whole taco in a single bite.

“Ooh!” Cookie Apple, Applejack in all but color and personality, swallowed her food and excitedly bounced next to Pinkie from the opposite side from Sonata, “What part are you talking about? Are you talking about the part where we all finally get to find out whether or not Sunset’s become an Alicorn? Or, ooh! Or, are we finally going to find out why Midnight and Twilight share dreams but can’t control them even while lucid dreaming? Or, or or or is this the part where Spike realizes dogs don’t live too long and he gets magic’d into being a human too? Or! OR! Or is this the part where I start talking really, really, really, reallyreally fast and sound just like you?”

“Do…?” Pinkie turned back to the Dazzling, the only other person there who seemed like they’d heard the bizarre exchange, “Do I really sound like that?”

Sonata blinked. Then, she nodded, slowly. Finally, she finished swallowing her taco, and asked, “Cookie? How much sugar have you had today?”

Staring directly into Sonata’s rapidly shrinking pupils, Cookie said, without an ounce of emotion or inflection, “I have done nothin’ but eat sugar for three whole days.”

There was a beat of total silence. Then, a long, pink, noodle-arm wrapped its way around the former horse’s shoulders, and pulled her in for a cheek-to-cheek hug with the resident pink party planner herself.

“You’re gonna go far, kid,” Pinkie beamed, her toothy grin nearly taking up her entire face, “I always knew you were Best Horse!”

Sonata just shrugged, and went for another Taco del Queso Grande, the one with green and red sauce.

No one else had noticed that conversation. No one had spoken at all. Sunset, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity, plus Oakley and Cinnamon, were focused entirely on the light shimmer dancing across the plinth’s base.

“Portal’s open,” Twilight said, “Guess the Princess meant it when she said five o’clock…”

Sunset hummed something to herself, and then said out loud, “Yeah… but so far, no Midnight.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, darling,” Rarity said while leaning into Applejack’s side, “She wasn’t too terribly late for her fitting yesterday. She just seems to be… distracted by her newest friend.”

“Maybe,” she said, slowly, “But she’s with Rainbow Dash. You’d think they might get here on time with her, at the very least.”

“Aw, they’re not late!” Pinkie called out, taking a moment to pour whipped cream onto a chicken taco, “I bet they’ll pop in aaaaaaaaany second now!”

“Ya’ll sure about that?” Oakley perked his eyebrows up. “Ya think they’ll jes’… appear outta thin air…?”

And, just like magic, it would seem Oakley’s words proved to be prophetic. There was the briefest sound, like two static-laden fabrics ripping apart from one another, if Rarity didn’t miss her guess. Then, everyone’s ears popped as a rush of wind shifted the air pressure about, and a flash of blue light briefly illuminated the school grounds.

Four teenagers stood a few feet away from the others, in a previously unoccupied space. Midnight, true to form, was really the only one ‘standing’, Fluttershy and Trixie both shaking in their knees and holding onto the purple sorceress for dear life.

“Uhhhh,” she groaned from down below, “Why was I the only one teleported upside down!?”

She had little else to add, except for a few ugly sounds that drove her to slink away before she made a mess of anything besides the grass. Cookie and Pinkie seemed ready-enough to help poor Rainbow Dash out, first with some hands under her arms for walking-stumbling support, and then hands to pull back her rainbow-colored hair.

Meanwhile, Trixie and Fluttershy shifted their hands from Midnight’s arms to each other’s. Mutual support in place, they slid down to the grass gently, where their own stomachs could take a moment to relax and enjoy the early evening air.

“Trixie still isn’t used to that… particular form of disappearing-reappearing.”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Fluttershy lay down on her back and took a few deep breaths, “Disqord is always so gentle when he takes me places. This is just… unpleasant.”

“Well ex-cuse me!” Midnight huffed, half-serious, “I thought we were in a hurry. I would have taken more time if I thought we had some!”

Twilight drew back, lips pursed. “I know that. I was trying to say hello…”

“Oh… um… sorry about that. Kind of a rough day, you know?” she flashed her sister the best apologetic smile she still had in her for today. It wasn’t even half bad.

“First!” Midnight immediately jumped to running roughshod over her sister’s words, though from Twilight’s smirk, she didn’t seem to mind.

“First,” Midnight repeated, smiling herself, “I had my schedule switched, for all the reasons we talked about earlier, so you weren’t there to help me explain anything to Miss Harshwhinny or Mr. Cranky.”

“Apparently, she was busy chatting up the Lord of Chaos,” Midnight shrugged, “But, I got through it. Harshwhinny caught on quick enough, but Cranky ended up calling the office over…”

Another flash of aquamarine light had a somewhat crude, magical facsimile of Cranky floating in the air between the sisters.

It was a terrible impression, but since the original Twilight had also been terrible with voices, neither sister cared.

Midnight continued, dropping the spell. “Took him half the period to finally catch on, even with Luna screaming at him over the line.”

“Screamin’?” Applejack folded her arms. Or, tried. A certain fashionista was in the way, taking up a coveted place under her champion’s arm.

“Can you blame her?” Midnight chuckled. “Then, all that mess with Disqord happened. And afterwards, I had to take that silly aptitude test Celestia and Luna whipped up.”

“Oooh!” Twilight leaned in, academic excitement flashing in her eyes, “How’d you do!?”

“Done in record time,” Midnight smiled, though her eye twitched a bit, “And then… I took a nap instead of turning it in.”

Twilight’s eyes… even Midnight was a little worried when she noted her sister’s expression. It couldn’t be good for your eyes to bulge that far out of your skull.

Midnight coughed, and kept on, while worried eyes kept watch over the slowly… melting Twilight Sparkle.

“So… anyway, while I was sleeping, Princess Luna projected herself into my dreams, and said she’d help us with our little sleep problem. Funny enough, but she didn’t turn human this go around…” she blinked a few times, just to make sure she was seeing Twilight clearly. Her sister looked to be slowly, with the speed of continental drift, slackening her jaw and widening her eyes.

“Remember? We dreamed in human, last time? I… we had a talk about some of her issues with me. She said we’d talk more later, so that’s… that’s good. Oh,” she paused, as if she’d only just remembered something, “And I think I might be bisexual…”

”WHAT!?!?!”

Twilight, it seemed, had finally found her voice. And once the shockwave had passed, incidentally throwing aside some of the local cloud cover and a lot of the local dust deposits, Midnight began speaking very, very quickly.

“Well, I didn’t think about it, really,” Midnight licked her lips, “I mean, Flash was cute and all, so I assumed we were still that way, but then Aria Blaze kissed me, and I agreed to a date, and, and…”

Midnight Sparkle began to take little steps backward, in time with Twilight’s own slow, horror-movie-monster-slow, steps forward.

“If…” she squeaked, “If it helps, I’m sure Timber Spruce still isn’t my type…”

“Wha…?” Midnight’s eye-twitch returned. “THAT was your takeaway!?”

“Who cares who you’re into!?” Twilight shook with visible rage, “I mean, okay, I can’t believe you couldn’t do better than a Dazzling, but…”

“Hey!” Sonata started to stand up, only to have a pink hand drag her back down.

Pinkie held her down, and whispered, “Don’t meddle in the affairs of wizards! She’s gone cray-cray!”

“Whatever! We can do more research later… maybe. But apparently you need a nap during Academia! Like some sort of… of… Bohemian!!!”

“Don’t you put that evil on me, Sparkle!” Midnight snapped back, “I’m not some filthy Liberal Arts major you can push around!”

“I bet you want to go home and write all this out in a poem. Or free verse! You… you… Artist!”

Midnight didn’t get to finish that obscenity, as Twilight’s arms wrapped tight around her shoulders. After a brief, terrifying moment, Midnight realized her sister wasn’t trying to clumsily strangle her to death. In fact, it almost seemed like…

Wet, watery eyes met her own. Twilight’s sob hit Midnight harder than a knife.

“What are we becoming?” the bespectacled sister sniffled, “What did I do to you…? I’m so sorry, Midnight… you’re not Liberal Arts…”

The assembled friends watched with some bemusement as Twilight broke down, sobbing, into her sister’s arms. And, though the other girl didn’t melt down in precisely the same way, Midnight met the embrace with one of her own. It was soft, and gentle, and it didn’t involve her crying as well, so she was fine with the display.

Which was punctuated, nicely, by Rainbow Dash, who still lay on the grass nearby.

It took a few minutes for Twilight and Midnight to regain some semblance of composure, and a few more before Twilight could listen to Midnight recount her dream-escapade without interrupting to, yet again, call her sister out on sleeping in the Principal’s office. But, following a heartfelt apology on all sides, plus a musical number provided by Pinkie Pie, the air was finally cleared.

That just left the huge, sucking chest wound that was Midnight and Sunset Shimmer’s friendship to patch up. Midnight, catching her red-and-gold-haired friend’s eye, immediately pushed past her sister, and strode confidently forward.

Striding was the only sort of confidence she had, as it so happened. Midnight could feel a slowly growing pit in her stomach as she considered how to approach this.

She’s dealing with the same stuff you are, she coached herself. She’s scared, and unsure if she’s still the same person she was before. Twilight’s probably already told her as much… but since you’re the idiot who saved the world by casting a spell to force her to Ascend, it’s your responsibility to make this work!

Pep talk over and done; Midnight opened her mouth to begin her groveling apology for assuming earlier that Sunset’s distress was based off feeling such an honor wasn’t earned…

Sunset blinked. She half-turned around, saw the portal was indeed still open, and grimaced.

“Why?” Midnight asked, and then gasped as it struck her, “Wait… you’re going through?”

Sunset nodded, solemnly, “Can’t keep running away forever, right? Like we talked about, I should… get it over with.”

Midnight had nothing to say about that. Her mouth moved for a moment, but the words failed to materialize. She continued to stammer, as Sunset, and everyone else, looked on.

The country twang seemed to finally snap her out of it. Midnight locked eyes with Sunset, and said, “I’m sorry.”

“I do!” Midnight insisted, and took a step forward. “I… I didn’t realize you were dealing with… w-with the same thing as Twilight and me.”

“You don’t feel any different,” she went on, “from how you were before, but things don’t… add up the same. You keep double-checking your face in the mirror, in case something changed. You think about every thought in your head twice, just in case it isn’t one the real Sunset would have thought.

“You start wondering if your memories are ones you experienced,” Midnight glanced towards her other friends, briefly catching Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Dash, and even Twilight’s, eyes, “or just the last trace of a ghost.”

Twilight’s hand fell on her sister’s shoulder. She reached up and grabbed it with her own, and a shadow of a smile fell over her features. “And… despite knowing in your heart that they still love you… you sometimes doubt if anyone actually knows you, anymore.”

“I’m sorry for putting you through that,” Midnight’s shoulders squared as she spoke, “I’m sorry I took away that choice from you, and I’m sorry for not realizing you had those thoughts and feelings this morning. But I am not sorry for saving your life, and I never will be.”

Sunset’s lips pressed tight into a thin line as she listened, and her eyes never wavered.

Nervous eyes twitched back and forth from many heads, heads which stood atop nervous girls’ bodies. Everyone held their breath, except for Sonata and Pinkie, who merely continued to eat through the awkward silence.

“You know what’s up,” Sunset shrugged, “You and Twilight. You’re probably the only ones here who… who get it, you know? What’s happened. An… maybe I just want another person or two who knows… to know, you know?”

“Might have been,” the teen snorted, “But it’s the truth. I… I need you girls with me. I don’t know…”

For a moment, just a sliver of a second of eternity, Midnight couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Sunset, for the briefest moment, almost seemed… vulnerable. There was a sudden fragility to her eyes, and a way she pulled her shoulders in, and slouched just a little bit.

The sun had set over Ponyville, bathing the little town in midnight hues, while delighting all who remained out with a sky of blazing orange, royal purple, and even the sight of a silvery star or two. The moon, rising up from the horizon, only complimented the lighting this lovely night.

Within the Castle of Friendship, on the edge of Ponyville itself, two mares watched the shifting sky through a high window in the grand library.

“I still think this is excessive,” Princess Twilight Sparkle noted with a faint hint of irritation buried beneath years of foal-like wonder and admiration, “There hasn’t been an Unscheduled Early Night since Luna came back… and not for a century before that!”

Celestia, Princess of the Sun, and soon-to-be-retired Diarch, merely took in the early stages of her sister’s beautiful night with a gentle smile. She turned away from her former student, and current successor, and began trotting towards the Mirror Room.

“I feel strongly otherwise, Twilight,” Celestia said genteelly enough, but with a slight edge that the purple Princess couldn’t help but notice, “I would prefer there to be no distractions while we tend to Sunset’s case. My Sister is attending to the nation now. This is a… family matter.”

Twilight didn’t wince at that remark… at least, not noticeably. She’d long ago accepted that Celestia saw all her students like family. But she did, occasionally, have to remind herself that her dearest teacher’s relationship with Sunset Shimmer was… different. Deeper than others, one might say.

“So…” she grinned wryly as they came before the Mirror, “What did you have to give up? I can’t imagine Luna disrupting her sleep schedule wasn’t a pricey thing indeed.”

“Take up, in this case,” Celestia sighed. Her smile briefly faltered. “I have to cover a Royal visit to some… museum,” she spat, “in Transylmaneia to make up for the schedule shift. A boring… old… regular museum. Nothing exploding, or interacting with visitors using magic or anything… just… statues and paintings.”

“That’s one of the batpony colonies,” Twilight absentmindedly spouted off a nugget of trivia, before frowning deeply and adding, “Don’t they hate you?”

“It’s gotten better, let’s say. They’ve stopped openly calling me Moonslayer to my face these days.”

“Well, thanks for coming anyway,” Twilight said, lighting up her horn and activating the Mirror’s mechanical apparatus, “I’m sure whatever happens, Sunset will be glad you were here for her. Alicorn, or not!”

Celestia shook her head slowly, “I’m only too happy to be here for Sunset, but I’m afraid there will be no new Alicorns today. Not unless Luna’s been very clever in hiding something from me,” she added with a chuckle.

When Twilight merely frowned at the remark, Celestia sighed, and added, “As in, she would be hiding a foal, Twilight.”

“Oh, got it… wait, you still don’t think it worked?” Twilight gaped, the Mirror flashing to life as its mechanical bits and bobs finished revving to life, “I told you, I took some discreet measurements with a Thaumometric Spell during our last visit, right after the… incident. Elevated mana-dispersal, plus a noticeable drop in the Oppenstable Layer points directly to an Ascension Event…!”

“Oh, I’m sure something occurred due to this… Midnight Sparkle’s spell,” Celestia growled, an echo of her anger at Sunset’s tormenter flaring briefly, “But I have it on the highest authority that Sunset, as much as I may wish it were otherwise, will remain a unicorn.”

“Highest authority?” Twilight quirked her head to the side, “Who could possibly be a high authority on something like this?”

Celestia smiled, mischievously, the little twinkle in her eye letting Twilight know she would not be getting a straight answer out of her mentor toda… tonight.

And then, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria’s Acting Monarch, Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship, Honorary recipient of the Equestrian Librarian’s Award eight years running, and the only attendee of CSGU to be forced to graduate… began to whine like a foal being forced to wait another day to open their Hearth’s Warming gifts.

“Oh, come on!” she cried, her eyes becoming dark, glimmering pools of puppy-dog sadness, “Can’t you give me a clear answer? Just once?”

“Yes, Tia!” a voice shouted from the corner of the room with the force of a thundercrack, “Why don’t you tell us all about your… High Authority?”

Twilight gave a yelp at the sudden sound coming from behind her, and leapt several feet into the air. Celestia merely rolled her eyes at the dramatic entrance she’d seen her beloved sister practice at least a dozen times before every Nightmare Night. The shadows of the room, which hung from the corners and the book cases strewn throughout the castle, drooped from their perches like falling cobwebs. The unnerving sight of so much immaterial material floating and dancing in the still air had Twilight’s hackles up.

Within moments, however, the darkness had taken the form of a mare. Her coat was the darkest of blues, and her mane, carved out of star-stuff, drifted in an unfelt, ethereal wind. As the Alicorn’s black pendant, crown, and silver shoes materialized last, she opened her brilliant blue eyes, full of a humor that her otherwise stoic face did not show.

“Oh, Princess Luna…” Twilight breathed, her heartrate slowly dropping back to normal, “Just you. Got me there for a moment!”

The Princess of Night smirked, “I am good for more than a few scares on Nightmare Night, you know.”

Twilight’s face lit up with good humor… and then seemed to blaze even brighter. It actually looked somewhat disconcerting for Luna, to actually see a fire of curiosity come to life in the young Alicorn’s eyes. She approached Luna quickly, forcing the older Princess to take a step back.

Twilight narrowed her eyes, and brought her face to within inches of Luna’s coat. She hummed, as though she could see something beyond the midnight-hued coat.

“This is a nice bit of Astral Projection,” Twilight mused, like a scientist looking at something routine in a microscope, “Though, I suspect you don’t get a lot of practice with it, do you?”

“Ah, good,” Celestia nodded with satisfaction, “I’d hoped you were actually watching over Equestria tonight, instead of coming down here for this.”

“I can do both!” Luna snorted, indignantly, “And for your information, Twilight, I invented Astral Projection! So, before you criticize my form…”

The lunar diarch suddenly snapped her head to the side. Her eye twitched, and she began to snarl.

“I told you last time, Blueblood,” Luna shouted into a bookcase, “if you brought before me yet another law proposal that would use legal chicanery to put more bits in your pocket, at the expense of Equestria as a whole, my wrath would be so complete… so Biblical in proportion that your ruined corpse would be hurled back through time, unto the very Foundations of the Nation, AND EXPLODE IN ONE OF PUDDINGHEAD’S BREAKFAST MUFFINS!!!

“Now…” the dark Alicorn took a calming breath, and returned to a placid tone better associated with an economic lecture, “What was it you wished to speak with me about?”

Luna proceeded to stand there, in absolute silence, for what felt like minutes. Twilight gave Celestia a worried look, but her former mentor merely gestured back to Luna with a flick of her eyebrows.

Luna nodded, slowly, the angle of her gaze watching… something… fade away into the distance.

She gave a hearty chuckle a few moments later, before seemingly returning to the here and now. Laughing softly to herself, and nervously joined by an eye-twitching Twilight, Luna glanced briefly over to the Mirror, and then up to her sister. Then, with an almost predatory glint in her eye, she said, “You hold onto your secrets almost as tightly as your cakes, Sister. Why not… let us have a taste of this one?”

Celestia sniffed, less regally than she probably wanted to seem, and tilted her face away from the other mares. “Not that what you’re saying has any basis in fact, Sister… but I suppose I’ve been known to hoard secrets like old Scorch himself.”

Celestia smiled, ruefully, and glanced over to the portal to Sunset’s new home. When nothing immediately launched itself through the gateway between realms, she pursed her lips in thought.

That is, until Luna caught the look in her sister’s eye, and decided to spoil her fun.

“If you don’t tell her,” Luna feigned boredom with a light yawn, “I shall be forced to reveal the secret anyway.”

“I never told you about this one, Lulu,” Celestia smiled, but there was a curious look of apprehension in the one eye she cast her sister’s way.

“Oh, not that seeee-cret,” the darker Alicorn sang, a wicked grin beginning to stretch across her muzzle.

Celestia’s eyes widened, even as her pupils shrank. Eerily enough, as her calm faltered, the ancient Alicorn’s flowing, pastel mane seemed to… pause. Just for a moment, its ethereal wave jittered.

Luna leaned down next to Twilight, and said, very quietly, “Princess Twilight? Would you like to hear about Master Clip-Clop?”

While Twilight turned around, and perked up an ear in anticipation, Celestia just snorted with laughter.

“Clip-Clop?” she chuckled, “That’s your leverage on me? My old dolly? You’ll need a lot more than that little gem if you…”

“Say, Twilight?” Luna stepped back, knowing that the purple Alicorn’s eyes were locked on her just then. Her grin never changed as she made sure her sister was looking at her too.

“So!” Celestia clapped her hooves together so hard that Twilight almost wondered if she would develop tinnitus, and laughed manically, “Sunset time-traveled!”

Luna’s triumphant grin at seeing her ploy work… vanished. In its place, as silence filled Twilight’s palace, only a cold dread filled Luna’s heart.

“That pony should know better…” the purple Alicorn fumed. Luna knew, more from hearing about it after the fact, that time magic tended to have a peculiar effect on her young successor.

The solar diarch cleared her throat, and tried to not stare at her eerily calm former student.

“Ahem, well… years ago, Sunset Shimmer was my student, as you both well-know. But, when her arrogance and greed became all-consuming, she fled into the Mirror to achieve what she wanted most.”

Celestia slowly turned her attention back to the Mirror itself, still glowing gently with silvery light.

“But, only three days after she left,” her jaw set, and her eyes hardened, “Sunset returned.”

Twilight’s ears twitched as she heard this, and her internal fury faltered as curiosity overtook her. “But… the Mirror would have been closed after three days…?”

Celestia nodded. “I didn’t think of that at first. The guards apprehended Sunset, and dragged her to my private office. But, when I found her, intending to vent my anger at her betrayal… and, perhaps, beg her forgiveness for throwing her out…”

Her eyes snapped over to Luna, who was listening with rapt attention, “Yes, Luna… even I sometimes learn a lesson about treating family better.

“But,” Celestia sighed, “When I saw her again, she was… ancient. Seventy, eighty years old!”

Luna, meanwhile, pointed a hoof and barked, “Ha! I knew it! You never had so many visions before I came back! You received spillers!”

“Spoilers,” Celestia corrected, then smiled apologetically at Twilight, “Ah, but yes. Somehow, Sunset had been sent back in time… and I might have coaxed a few explanations out of her.”

Twilight’s eyes twitched. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she warily asked, “Explanations?”

“Y-yes,” Celestia reached up to scratch at the tip of her muzzle, “Just… you know? We talked about tea, additions to the gardens, you, grandfoals…”

“She told you about me!?” a wall of purple flew into Celestia’s vision as Twilight dragged the ancient sovereign’s head down to meet her, “How!? How could she be so reckless!?”

Celestia frowned, “It all worked out, didn’t it? And you thought my acting was bad…”

“You are a bad actor,” Luna noted with a grin, “But an amazing bull—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” said Celestia, rearing back from Twilight’s manic grip, “But, yes… Sunset warned me about you, Ponyville, Nightmare Moon’s return, and a few other threats you would come up against. I wish she’d warned me about Tirek, and all that came after that, but by then I was able to let you handle things… so it all worked out!”

Twilight sat back down onto the floor, her mind clearly going into a sort of calculation fugue state. Both sisters watched her, with mild concern, for what felt like a miniature eternity, each hoping their chosen successor wouldn’t slip back into her old, obsessive habits.

“Well… guess it can’t be helped. We still need to be here, for her,” she looked back to the Mirror, “I’m… not sure which outcome would have been worse for Sunset, to be honest.”

Almost as if on cue, the Mirror’s placid surface began to churn. Light and vibrations emanated out from its surface, and the mechanical apparatus rattled with magical power flowing through it.

Luna, however, quirked her head, and asked, “Twilight? Does not this Mirror tend to shoot its travelers out rather violently?”

“DISCORD! PINKIE PIE!!!” she shouted with all the might of the Royal Canterlot Voice. It rang through the crystal walls and floor, shaking the crystal windows and the crystal staircases, and rattled its way down to the castle’s crystal roots, and up into its crystal rafters. And all along the way, the sound of Twilight’s voice vibrating through the crystal produced an almost haunting note, high above all the rattling and shaking and quaking of the castle.

Seemingly instantly, with a pop, the Lord of Chaos appeared drifting through the air above the Alicorns’ heads. He lazed back in a reclined position, wearing a bright, plaid hat, which had two chocolate milkshakes attached at the sides, straws snaking around his ears and horns to reach the Draconequus’ mouth.

Luna gasped, and stepped back in a panic as Pinkie Pie strode calmly out of the dark Alicorn’s astral projection, a determined look in the party planner’s eye, and a rubber-chicken tied around her neck… for some reason.

“Operation Soft Landing is a go!” Pinkie whooped, and pulled a giant-trampoline out of her mane with a flourish, setting it down on the crystal floor beneath where their otherworldly visitors would soon appear.

Discord chuckled, took a sip of his milkshakes, and snapped his talons. A hefty, Princess-sized mattress appeared up against the bookcase directly facing the Mirror, backed up by what appeared to be a mountain of packaging peanuts, and some sort of soft goat-cheese still in-wrapper.

“All-set, Twiggy Wiggly!” Discord laughed and gave a friendly wave, “One soft-landing, as promised!”

“Thank you, Discord, Pinkie,” Twilight nodded to each in turn, and then cast a fiery gaze back to the swirling portal, “Now, brace yourselves!”

With that, as though it had been given permission, the Mirror disgorged a blur of shapes and colors, allowing a rocket of gold, red, and purple to sail through the air at an unbelievable speed.

A rocket that soared straight over the trampoline, past the mattress and the cheese, and slammed so hard into the bookcase beside it, that the whole wall of books and wood casing came crashing down in an avalanche, completely submerging the ponies who’d just arrived.

All five of the room’s occupants stared, eyes wide open and mouths agape, at the carnage. Twilight blinked a few times in rapid succession before she slowly managed to turn her head back around to the Draconequus hovering behind her.

“Hey,” he shrugged, and went to examine his nails, “You get what you pay for.”

“And that’s what you get!” he smirked. And, with a snap of his fingers, Discord left this story forever.

When the Princess turned her perturbed gaze over to Pinkie, the pink mare could only shrug and say, “Well, you asked me to help with this, so it’s more or less your own fault.”

Twilight sighed, irritably. “Yes… I should have known better. Thanks anyway, Pinkie.”

“No probleomie macaroni!” the party planner pony gave a hasty salute, and began to bounce her way out of the room, to wherever she needed to go next.

Which so happened to be a secret party she needed to get ready, since the guest of honor had just arrived…

Midnight groaned beneath a mountain of books. Getting launched through an interdimensional vortex hadn’t been the worst experience of her life. It was a lot like throwing oneself down a long, thin, rainbow-themed waterslide. Mildly exhilarating, but not too terrible.

Slamming into a bookshelf wasn’t fun. And neither was having what felt like an entire library drop on top of her moments later.

Castle of Friendship, she pulled her thoughts together in the dark, Two out of five stars. Would not recommend.

“Are you guys okay?” she could hear a voice calling out. It was so familiar, so… Twilight.

“Gimme a second,” Midnight growled. She took a few moments to review where her center of magic was coming from, and swiftly tapped into the mana-lines running through her body. While an equine body was quite drastically different in many ways from a human one, Midnight was glad to see the channels magic made use of were almost identical. It would be no effort at all to adjust.

Within seconds, the books covering her lit up within her aqua aura, and it took a mere thought to have them settled beside her on the cold floor. In alphabetical order, no less.

She took another moment to stand, at first trying to reach her two feet before realizing why that wouldn’t work. After a frightening, flailing moment, Midnight came back down onto her forehooves. Then, she raised one up, to get a good look at.

It looked like her usual, darker coloration had made it through the portal. She and Twilight, either of them, would be easy to differentiate. That was good.

“I would think you’d be used to this by now,” Twilight’s voice rang true in Midnight’s ears, causing her to twitch them reflexively as the sound reached her.

She hummed, “You’d think so, Twily, but losing fingers whenever you hopped over here before made my… skin… crawl.”

Midnight’s eyes slowly widened. There was something off about Twilight’s tone. It was close to normal… but not, at the same time. Like, her voice had been partially dubbed over, or had a reverberation added to it.

Princess Twilight chuckled, and pressed a comforting lavender hoof into Midnight’s own mulberry shoulder.

“You don’t have to apologize, Midnight,” her eyes sparkled with renewed interest, “I sometimes miss having fingers, too!”

She continued to laugh, lightly. Midnight couldn’t help but join in with her, the sudden tightness in her chest at possibly insulting royalty melting away.

“But, seriously,” Twilight said as her eyes began to take in every detail about her visitor, every difference between them, “I wasn’t expecting you to come through the portal. What’s going on?”

“I am surprised as well. When I said we would speak tonight on you and your sister’s plight, I did not mean to meet you here tonight.”

“You talked to Midnight?” Twilight’s eyebrows arched considerably, “When?”

Midnight hung her head down, and tried to avoid eye contact, “I, uh… fell asleep after a test.”

“Huh,” Princess Twilight tilted her head to the side, “That’s… well, I would be too jittery after a test to sleep, but it does sort of sound appealing.”

“Yeah, really!” the Princess tittered, “Who would be such a tool to freak out over a nap?”

Another mound of books sloughed themselves off in a mini-avalanche, revealing a purple unicorn slowly rising from her own crash.

“Ugh,” Twilight sighed, and tried to adjust her glasses with her hooves, “It’s the thin-end of the wedge. If one Twilight starts acting strange, what does that mean for the rest of us?”

“A strange-acting Twilight?” a musical voice giggled above Twilight and Midnight’s heads, “Oh, my! How ever will Equestria survive!?”

Midnight glanced upward, and found at the top of the tallest set of legs there could ever be, the smiling face of Princess Celestia looked down upon them all with a wide, and gleaming smile.

“Har har!” Princess Twilight rolled her eyes in jest, “I’m a lot better than I used to be…”

Celestia laughed, “Oh, don’t be that way! I’m just a little excited to see the old unicorn look again.”

Her eyes narrowed, somewhat, and Midnight could feel the temperature rise just a hair all around her.

“Though,” the Sun Princess hummed, “I have had some… bad experiences with evil-versions of my friends and family…”

“Evil-looking…?” Midnight quirked her head in puzzlement, “What… wait… unicorn!?”

She spun her head around like it was on a swivel. Midnight gaped at her side, where she had been expecting a brace of black, hawkish wings.

Twilight trotted up to her sister, and pressed their sides together as she came in for a quick, loving nuzzle. It actually felt… nice, to Midnight, who returned the affection.

“Guess you’ll have to either steal everyone else’s magic again,” Twilight chuckled, “Or earn them the right way this time around.”

Midnight looked back once more; sadness evident in her eyes. “I… guess. But they were mine, you know? I never knew life without them.”

“Well…” Princess Twilight tapped her own chin lightly, “I did offer to teach you two some magic. I suppose that would be your first step…”

The Princess nearly choked as the air seemed to displace before her, and a dark purple unicorn nearly popped up in her face, noses mere inches apart. Twilight backed up half-a-step, and reared back reflexively.

“Really!?” Midnight squealed, her pupils turning into saucers, and her hooves dancing lightly on the floor, “You mean that!?”

Pink telekinesis wrapped around Midnight’s barrel, and began dragging her back towards her sister, horn alight and sweat beginning to pool across her forehead.

“You almost jumped down the Princess’s throat!” Twilight shot back, before giving her royal self an apologetic look, “I’m so, soooo sorry!”

“I-it’s okay,” the Alicorn slowly returned to a steady calm, and brushed down some of her bristling feathers, “I… I know how excitable a Sparkle can get.”

“Sunset’s coming around,” Celestia sighed, “So, everypony? Let’s be supportive. Even if Sunset has moved past them, I can’t imagine not getting her wings will go over well.”

“I’ll explain in a moment,” the Princess directed the Sparkle sisters to face their friend, “But, for right now…”

Sunset Shimmer groaned. The books atop of her began to shake, and the whole pile slowly slipped off to her sides. Then, the larger portion of those books lit themselves up in a bright, golden aura.

Midnight, as well as her sister and the purple Princess, glanced over their shoulders to Celestia.

Celestia’s horn had not been ignited. Her large, purple eyes had narrowed to dots, however, and they drew everypony else’s attention back down to where Sunset lay.

The gold-coated pony stood, her horn blazing with a golden light. The books in her aura drifted through the air, and settled into their place upon the nearby shelves. As they floated, other books, left forlorn with Twilight and Midnight’s own piles, began to alight, and drift along after their brethren.

Their attention was rooted, completely, to Sunset Shimmer, whose Alicorn wings were now extended at her sides, lit by an almost burning golden aura. The light shining off of her felt warm, as though the very sun were suddenly rising before them.

Celestia’s mouth fell open, and a thousand fumbling thoughts began to war for their chance to be voice first.

Sunset’s eyes opened, and immediately swept down to her sides. Shock, awe… and a wave of panic spread across her features as she took in the new addition to her biology, the profanity of it all.

The thing you wanted most, Midnight could see the thoughts forming in Sunset’s eyes, alongside the tears of shame, the thing you hate most about yourself… oh, Sunset…

“I… I…” Sunset reached out one hoof, gingerly, as if afraid to touch her wings, afraid that they were real, and not a figment of the demon she once was...

But, as Sunset’s hoof neared her hated desire, the silence of the library was broken by a thunderclap, and the sound of squealing horns blaring high in the halls. Streamers and strings and confetti blew out over the whole room. Party horns sounded throughout the castle, and balloons fell like snowfall from the ceiling.

A gold and red banner fell from up above, to the infinite horror of the pony it was meaning to celebrate.

‘Congratulations Sunset Shimmer!

New Alicorn Princess.’

Slowly, every eye in the room, with the sole exception of Princess Celestia’s, slid away from the golden Alicorn in the library, and came to rest on the pink party planner pony, who sat atop a smoking party cannon, and who was even now spinning noise rattles in her two forehooves, while blowing on a colorful party horn.

All These Midnight Days

by Ninjadeadbeard

6 - The Color of Wednesday and Other Madness Part 3: Wings