//------------------------------// // It Takes Two // Story: The Me in the Mirror, the Me in Dreams // by Mockingbirb //------------------------------// Midnight Sparkle, history's most terrifying monster, looked into her bathroom mirror. She seemed to see a nerdy, spectacled girl with a hair-bun, who returned Midnight's gaze fearlessly. "You are not me!" Midnight said. "You could never be me! You could never accomplish what I have accomplished!" Midnight's eyes and spectral forehead horn glowed crimson with her anger. The nerdy girl snorted. "You ARE me. All that you are, all of your power, is built of me." "I am better than you! I am so much more powerful than you!" "You gave up everything you most wanted, Midnight." "I have everything I wanted! Everything WE wanted! And soon I will have EVEN MORE!" "When was the last time you read a book just for fun? When was the last time you learned something just because you wanted to? When was the last time you were nice to someone?" "I have built a mighty empire! I have taken so much magic into myself! And I will get even more!" "Yeah," the nerd said. "That's what I thought. You think you have everything. But you've LOST everything." The demonically glowing creature staring into the mirror howled in rage. She shot a powerful beam of swirling darkness at her reflection. The mirror exploded, hurling splinters of glass in every direction with terrible force. Midnight was mostly unscathed, having reflexively raised a diamond-hard magical defense shield just in time. The rest of the bathroom, though, was in bad shape. Sharp edges and points of glass protruded from the walls and ceiling. That wouldn't be too bad, so long as no one came in who had a normal human vulnerability to cuts and stab wounds. The floor's jagged cracks and ominous creaking might bode a structural collapse, though. Suddenly one of the walls started spurting a jet of hot water. "Darn me," Midnight said, waving her hand as the door opened and a cellphone levitated into the room. "Hello? Physical Services? Is Fortress-House Number Fifteen ready? I'll need some movers, stat. And have a repair crew come out to Thirteen in the morning." Midnight walked out of her bathroom, through a hall, and onto a balcony. She spread her half-ethereal wings, leaped onto the balcony's railing, and stepped out onto thin air. With a sound somewhat like rustling newspaper, or perhaps the roaring and crackling of burning books, her wings flapped as she rose into the darkness. On the moon far above, anyone not too afraid to look out into the night could see the outline of a winged unicorn-girl monster, and the words "DO NOT TEST ME." *** As the monstrous creature flew through the night, she thought about her achievements and her hopes. She had searched much of the earth, finding different relics and remnants of misplaced Equestrian magic, from which she had sucked out the power in order to augment her own. For most humans, Midnight's abilities were literally beyond imagining. Midnight intentionally did not display the greater portion of her powers openly. She didn't want any future adversaries to understand what they were up against. But even while keeping most of her powers hidden in reserve, Midnight had brought most of the earth under her heel. Practically every government ackowledged her as its overlord, permitting her a veto on its actions. Any world leader she chose to telephone would accept her call, probably with a lot of nervousness. The one realm in which Midnight had so far failed was the conquest of the extradimensional world of Equestria. Much to her disappointment, the rifts connecting her own world to Equestria had somehow closed. Midnight suspected her own other-world counterpart, the notorious Equestrian Princess Sparkle, had been involved. Soon after the healing of the rifts, Midnight's plans to invade Equestria had suffered another setback. Terrorists had destroyed the Canterlot High statue plinth, which had been rumored to contain a seasonally active portal to Equestria. Midnight had been so angry! But the terrorists had never been found. Even so, Midnight had expressed her displeasure by rounding up everyone in that part of Canterlot, so she could destroy their school and surrounding homes. Crystal Prep's rival was no more. Not that Midnight cared about that other than to laugh. The games she now played were not for school trophies, but for entire worlds. Midnight looked up at the sky, admiring her redecoration of the moon. For a moment, with the wind blowing in Midnight's eyes, her self-portrait seemed to blur. Did it resemble that repressed nerd she used to be? "Did you say conquering Equestria was the one realm where you've so far failed?" the girl seemed to say. "I think there are two realms where you've failed to achieve your goals. How much new science have you done lately?" Midnight shook her fist at the moon. "I have to finish securing my empire first! When I have a fully compliant and obedient world in which to work, I will achieve discoveries of which no man has ever yet dreamed! Someday!" A voice seemed to echo in the night. "Someday...someday..." "But not now," Midnight said sadly to herself. "Not for now." Midnight descended to a lower altitude, as she approached another of her fortified homes. Midnight had designed their automated security systems herself. The intelligent computers and sensors recognized her distinctive appearance and magically enhanced metabolism. They refused to shoot her out of the air with cruise missiles, singe her with laser beams, or perforate her wings and torso with boring old rapid-fire bullets. Instead, the integrated systems flashed their signal beacon lights in code to welcome her. Tiny, computer-controlled helicopter drones and fixed-wing aircraft flew up to meet her, and circled her in ever-changing flight patterns, providing a protective perimeter. Midnight smiled. Everything was working as designed. She spread her wings wide and almost motionless, to drift slowly downward like a dandelion seed through the calm air. On nights like this, she told herself, it was surely worth it. Wouldn't she do it all again? She told herself she would. Gently as that dandelion seed, the world's most terrifying monster landed on her balcony.