"So...Midnight. Heard any good jokes lately?" Pinkie asked.
"...No," Midnight replied, rather bluntly.
"Have you...told any good jokes lately?"
"...No."
"Have you...had anything even remotely resembling a joke come into your life at any point in the last few days?"
"Well...all of this certainly seems to qualify."
Midnight's irritation was evident for all to see, and Pinkie was by no means the only person struggling with her right now. In the main chamber of the Friendship Palace, sitting around the Cutie Map, all of Twilight's friends had gathered today, and all of them looked to their absent colleague's clone with some measure of unease. Midnight herself sat in Twilight's throne, though the Princess herself was nowhere to be seen right now. The dark alicorn, after staring at each of the other five mares here, finally sighed, turning to Fluttershy.
"Did Twilight say when she was going to get back from Canterlot?"
Fluttershy shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but no. You know how Princess meetings can go."
Rainbow soon chuckled.
"Hey, look on the bright side. At least you've still got us here to keep you company!"
Midnight grimaced.
"Yeah, that's what bothers me."
Applejack frowned right back to her.
"Now hold up, missy! Ah know we ain't exactly the best o' friends, but ah think if ya gave us a chance, we'd be pretty good fer each other!"
Midnight took on a somewhat amused look after having heard that.
"I made it clear to the Princess some time ago that I had no interest in spending time with others while I was here. I know she thinks that I'll 'make friends' if she asked you all to spend time with me, but let's be honest here...nobody here really believes this is going to work."
The looks on all their faces made it pretty obvious that she wasn't wrong in having said that, leading to more than a little smugness on her part. Shortly afterwards though, Rainbow glowered at her.
"Hey! Twilight was good enough to let you stay in her home, remember? The least you could do in return is try and get along with us!"
Midnight, turning to look the cyan mare in the eye, raised an eyebrow.
"I wasn't aware that you felt that debt was a good foundation for a relationship."
Rainbow opened her mouth to counter, only to be struck with a sudden onset of hesitancy.
"Well...um...I don't but..."
She leaned over to Rarity, bringing her voice down to a whisper.
"Help me out here!"
Clearing her throat, Rarity put on a smile for Midnight's benefit, speaking as calmly and openly as she could.
"Midnight, darling, surely you cannot wish to spend all of your time alone here? Why, it must get so dreadfully boring with nobody to speak to, yes?"
The doppelganger paused, considering that.
"I find I enjoy the silence. It gives me...time to think."
Fluttershy looked to her with curiosity.
"Oh? What do you think about?"
Midnight didn't know if she was actually interested in hearing her answer or whether she was simply trying to be polite, but even so, she answered all the same.
"I like to make plans for myself, in case anything goes wrong."
Applejack looked to her with worry.
"Ya mean...Chrysalis?"
Midnight frowned.
"So...Twilight told you?"
Slight guilt crossed the faces of the other mares, with the exception of Pinkie, who merely smiled and giggled as she always did.
"She did! And shame on you for using dark and creepy magic, Midnight! You know that's not the way!"
Midnight narrowed her eyes.
"Pinkie, I swear, if you say I need to just use friendship to..."
"We can use friendship to save the day!" Pinkie interrupted.
"...Uuuuuuuuuuuugh...sure, why not?" Midnight groaned.
Rainbow again looked to the dark copy of her friend and smirked.
"Hey, don't knock it till you've tired it, Midnight! It's worked out pretty well for all of us so far!"
In spite of her clear irritation, Midnight actually managed to look somewhat amused at that statement.
"You ponies...you all act like friendship is just the cure-all for all the world's ills."
Chuckling, Applejack adjusted her hat a little bit, leaning back into her own throne before addressing Midnight.
"Heck, girl! How could it not? Honesty, generosity, loyalty...those things always make the world better!"
Midnight turned to her, and at first, she said nothing. She simply studied Applejack carefully, much to the latter's discomfort. Though the mares had not really spent that much time around her, they could all tell that she was coming up with something in her head, some sort of way of thinking that, they predicted, would not put them at ease in the slightest. After a time, this prediction came true.
"Tell me, Applejack...you believe in the power and value of honesty, yes?"
Even though she knew Midnight was up to something, Applejack still smiled.
"Ah do!"
Midnight's expression was hard to read as she kept speaking.
"You hold it as a way to behave in all circumstances?"
Again, Applejack nodded.
"Eyup!"
Midnight paused, then glanced downwards, to the Cutie Map that divided them all.
"...Has Twilight ever told you about my memories? Or rather, her memories?"
Rarity was the one to answer her.
"I believe she did. Something about you remembering everything she remembers?"
Midnight looked up to the white unicorn, nodding in confirmation.
"Yes. Everything that happened to Twilight prior to my creation, I remember. At least, in small bursts and flashes."
Slowly, she looked back to Applejack.
"And one thing I remember is the day when you and your friends first encountered her not-yet apprentice, Starlight Glimmer."
Hearing that, Applejack frowned slightly.
"Yeah...what about that day?"
Midnight did not seem to be satisfied in this conversation, yet continued with it all the same.
"How did you first discover about her secret? The deception that she was keeping from all the other villagers?"
The other mares weren't sure of where she was going with this, but, as expected, it was Fluttershy who answered.
"Well...um...I pretended to agree with Starlight so she'd let me out of the cell she'd put us in."
Rainbow chortled.
"Yeah! Then Flutters was able to find out Starlight was lying to them all, so we exposed her and saved the day!"
But, contrary to how Rainbow and the others might have expected, Midnight did not seem impressed by that story. In fact, all she did was turn to look at Applejack, speaking in that cold and professional way of hers.
"So what you're telling me...is that in order to help all those ponies...you had to lie?"
Applejack, having heard that, was naturally taken aback.
"Um...pardon?"
Midnight shrugged.
"Well? Didn't you? You had Fluttershy lie about her intentions to be let out. If you hadn't done that, Starlight may well have won."
Applejack seemed outright offended by that, yet when she tried to counter, the proper words just wouldn't come to her.
"Now wait just a....ya see...yer forgettin' when...ah jus'..."
Midnight sighed, then looked over to Rarity.
"Very well then, let's look at a more recent example instead. Your student, Sandbar, lying to Chancellor Neighsay to be freed from the same captivity he'd placed the other students in. The same circumstances, the same technique, the same outcome. A deception helped lead to a greater good."
Here, Applejack finally spoke.
"Ya can't jus' go an' say stuff like that, Midnight!"
Looking back to her, Midnight frowned.
"Why? Am I wrong?"
As before, Applejack was halted. She wanted very much to try and say something that would convince Midnight not to think this way, as indeed did all the others, but when no answer came, Midnight took a deep breath. She never once seemed angry or irritated with all of this. In fact, she just looked outright tired at the whole situation.
"You ponies, Twilight included, all think the best of the world. That good things like honesty and generosity and kindness are all you need to improve the world and the people in it. But the world is complicated, and always has been. Sooner or later, you'll have to face some problem that won't go away because you acted the 'right' way."
She stayed quiet for a time, looking up to each of them.
"I don't hope that bad things happen to you, even though you may feel that I do...but what I see before me are mares who have let their ideals and their belief in friendship blind them to very real and very ugly truths."
Then, before anyone could say anything, they watched as Midnight hopped off Twilight's throne, letting out a very deep sigh.
"This was a mistake. I shouldn't have come down here today."
Then, as she started to walk off, Rainbow, incensed by everything that had been said, leapt out of her own throne and pointed her hoof straight at Midnight.
"Hey! What's your problem?!"
Midnight stopped, looking over her shoulder and glaring angrily at the enraged pegasus.
"My problem...is all of you."
They were stunned, but still allowed her to explain.
"I look at you, and all I can think of are the others of my kind. The five who no longer are. The only beings like me I ever knew...and ever would know. I look at you...and I will never forget what happened to them."
She grimaced, trying to hold back whatever look of discomfort she was experiencing.
"I didn't like them. We weren't friends. But they were like me. And now they're gone."
Afterwards, she finally looked away.
"So please, do forgive me for not wanting to be reminded of them."
She said nothing else, merely walking away while she left five utterly bewildered mares behind her. They watched in complete silence, until Midnight was finally out of the room. Using her magic, the clone closed the great doors of the chamber behind her, its echo resonating throughout. Silence fell, as did great discomfort for the other ponies, and when it was finally done, Rarity was the one to speak.
"Well...I've certainly known friendlier get-togethers."
They all nodded, and Rainbow, of course, was still upset.
"How are we gonna explain this to Twilight? She wanted us all to be friends, and then that happened!"
Fluttershy nervously looked to Applejack.
"What...what do we do now?"
Thinking on that, the farmer sighed.
"We could...try again? Tomorrow maybe?"
"...No."
All eyes turned, and to their surprise, it had been Pinkie who had spoken. For a while, she was quiet, which was already out-of-the-ordinary for her, but then, she looked up to them, giving a smile that was much smaller than usual.
"Do you girls remember when I first met Cranky?"
They nodded in unison, and so she carried on.
"Well...if there's one thing I learned from that...it's that I shouldn't try to make myself into someone's friend if they're fine with me not being their friend."
She looked up to the door Midnight had walked through.
"If she's decided she doesn't want to be our friend...I think it'd be good if we respect that."
Fluttershy looked to her party-adoring friend with sadness.
"But...that's so lonely. Being all by herself?"
Rarity reached over, patting Fluttershy on the shoulder.
"Pinkie's right, Fluttershy. Maybe Midnight will be ready to be our friend one day...but it will be her choice, not ours."
Rainbow grunted.
"Ugh! This sucks! All the people we've made friends with, and it's a clone of one of us that stumps us?!"
Applejack chortled.
"Well...give it time. She might change her tune eventually."
Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"Yeah...I wouldn't hold my breath, AJ."
Yeah... I don't really blame Midnight here.
Sees new chapter.
camo.derpicdn.net/60900f3f12ba56a1e661c5d0d4a08dbe5c35311d?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.tenor.com%2Fimages%2F4c2600add44e632fdce275d1e7f9e1d8%2Ftenor.gif%3Fitemid%3D5280417
Reads new chapter.
I liked it.
forcing friendship never works, what midnight needs to do is make her own friends, and for that she has to meet new ponies
Yeah, this was the wrong approach to get Midnight to make new friends.
Twilight should have assigned the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help her with that.
(Feel free to use that chapter idea)
I am honestly with Midnight about everything she said. I have always felt the girls way of handling things have been way to simple and they way they view things as far to simple as well. They have shown themselves countless of times going against their very elements but they believe they are the fix it all to everything. I think MIdnight finding her OWN friends and making her own connections would be the best thing for her. Not to mention it would give us a chance to see more of some ponies or other creatures *cough* dragon *cough* in the picture as they become close to her.
You know, Midnight’s not wrong. Smiles and rainbows don’t fix everything. No matter how badly I wish they could.
Midnight understands how the world really is.
That is surprisingly mature of you. Good on you.
Midnight has a sad existence maybe a kitten will help maybe a puppy
Despite Midnights blunt additued she brings up some very important point. Despite what the Main Six have been through they still try to remain oblivious to the real world by hiding behind their ideas. Trying to preserve whatever innocents they have and ignoring the world outside of their own and forcing others to do the same. To which this time it doesn't work with someone who had already lost their innocence.
The critical difference lies in the distinction between genuine Honesty and Integrity (which are moral goods) and saying the technically correct thing all the time (the morality of which is determined by the context). If a Gestapo officer showed up at the house of a civilian who was hiding Jews and asked if there were any Jews and the civilian said 'no,' that's a lie in the technical sense, but it's not a violation of integrity. After all, that civilian gave his word (explicitly stated or not) to protect the Jews. Its a matter of Integrity to protect them. Lying to the Gestapo officer actually honors that deeper Honesty, that deeper Integrity. Honesty and Integrity are ultimately responsible to the high concept of Justice. Thus, somewhat ironically, deceptions may ethically be used in the service of a higher Honesty without violating its principles in cases where the technically correct answer would achieve an Evil purpose. This is because Honesty and Integrity are centrally about Truth and Justice rather than about merely stating the truth - its the difference between the purpose of the action and the action itself.
To put it more simply, Applejack is not wrong in insisting that Honesty as a virtue is always a moral good. Her mistake lies in supposing that Honesty always takes the form of telling the literal truth in every circumstance.
Love when logic kicks idealism in the teeth. I will now retreat to my dry dark little corner and revel in my cynicism.
9323017
Oh my God, YES! That sounds like a great way to have character development! Yes!
9323102
Not sure how well that applies since the reason behind the examples Midnight gave was basically “the bad guy has us trapped and we need a way to escape”.
9323155
I'm glad you agree
Ah the eternal struggle between naivety disguised as optimism and cynicism disguised as realism.
Midnight's logic is sound, but it seems like a poor way to live, always expecting the worst, then again she seems to have a bit of PTSD from the tree.
Also very happy to see 'mature' Pinke Pie so many writers just turn her into a clown and never let her be the wise one in a situation.
9323161
If I'm understanding your reply correctly (and I've not slept well, so bear with me if I'm not), my exact example doesn't apply, no. But I'd say the general principle does. The Main 6 have an obligation to oppose tyranny and, frankly, they have a right to protect their own lives. If we go back to Augustine ("An unjust law is no law at all"), then Glimmer, as a wielder of unjust law, has no moral or legal claim to their forthrightness. As they are unbound my any such obligation, their responsibility to their own lives and the the lives of others becomes the sole consideration.
Yeah, c’mon guys, sure friendship is magic, but acting like recruiters for a cult probably isn’t the best way to go about this.
She doesn’t need to be friends with Twilight’s friends. I’m sure she can find someone in town to connect with. Just like how Starlight made friends with Trixie and Maud.
9323256
Here's the question though. Does anypony want to without stringss attached, or only to climb the social ladder?
Trixie only did it with Starlight to get back at Twilight remember. Yes she came to her senses at the end, but still.
I know Twilight wants to. I think.
The Mane 6 are the ones who cause her issues, because of her deceased 'siblings', so they cannot be her friends (at least not for a long time). Which leads to the obvious answer - she ends up making friends with people Twilight either doesn't know, or just vaguely knows tangentially.
I have to say Midnight is not wrong. Look at Tirek for example. they had to actually FIGHT him, yet the Mane 6 are saying you should never fight. kinda a double standard no? Now I aint saying a peaceful solution shouldnt be tried. I am just saying Midnight's right sometimes that peaceful option CAN fail and having no backup plans can be VERY bad
9323256
Agreed
9323192
And the situation with Sandbar? You really only addressed the Mane 6 there.
9323464
Again, similar concept. The Chancellor is not acting as a legitimate authority here. The school is not under his jurisdiction and, even if it was, I imagine he has no right to imprison foreign students without due process as the head of a board of education. An unjust law is no law at all, and an illegitimate authority has no claim to obedience from law-abiding citizens.
Incidentally, I am not advocating wild disobedience to every authority that people don't like. Sometimes lawfully given directives may be things which we disagree with and our opposition to them shouldn't take the form of breaking laws because greater harm would be done than is warranted (akin to Just War Theory). But that would get into a whole lengthy discussion of where the line is drawn and I don't think the comments section is the place for that. My point was more that there are circumstances wherein Honesty and Integrity may still be appeased even when deception is used, not to do a case-by-case analysis. I intended to establish proof of concept; nothing more.
9323175
That would seem to be the point of this story, and of FiM in general. Too bad the latter's so far up its own ass these days that it provides every reason in the world to ignore it.
9323175
That would seem to be the point of this story, and of FiM in general. Too bad the latter's so far up its own ass these days that it provides every reason in the world to ignore it.
The cynic just ends up being right, full stop.
9322967
You are Midnight are harder on the Mane 6 then I would be. The girls never struck me as thinking their elements were everything (except maybe AJ in the later seasons).
But that doesn't make this a bad chapter. You can disagree with Midnight's opinion, and it's still her opinion. Fictional characters don't have to agree with you for a story to be good; I think that's something people often forget.
9323584
I don’t even know how you came to that conclusion about the show.
Love this entire conversation between the slightly pessemistic realist Midnight and the idealistic Mane 6 (minus Twilight)
9323194
Thé problem is that (in-canon) it has always worked for them before
9323583
Well... it is a setting and set of stories aimed at small children. Of course goodness and niceness and friendship and simple, easily-taught approaches in line with American social ideals (and idealized ones at that, rather than real ones) are going to be the order of the day, and will always win out in canon. Anything which highlights a potential problem with or unwanted side-effect of these actions and mindsets is going to either be swept under the carpet, ignored for eternity, or solved via deus ex machina either onscreen or off.
It's actually one of the reasons I like reading FiM fanfic which works through the implications when there's some event, character, or situation which, for one reason or another, wouldn't be able to be smoothly resolved using the tools common to canon episodes. It's even more interesting when it's a character who isn't capital-E evil and isn't likely to be reformed by an Orbital Friendship Cannon blast or thirty-second friendship speech, yet at the same time can't be easily shipped off to some offscreen location.
9323584
Well of course the show is going to be a bit heavy handed with the 'power of friendship themes', it is after all a show aimed at a younger audience. That's where Fimfics like this come in. They can add a dose of reality to the sugar-bowl world of Equestria to make us think a bit more about such matters.
In my opinion, the most talented writers and impressive stories on this site are the ones who manage to balance the optimism of the show with the realism such a dose of reality adds, without falling into either naivety or cynicism. Or maybe I just enjoy optimistic realism.
Midnight is so incredibly in the right most of the time that watching the others flounder and fail to make a counter-argument is hilarious.
9323102
I must admit that's one of the most complicated ways of saying "sometimes it's ok to lie" without actually saying so I ever seen
9323289
Agree with you on Tirek and also remember that Friendship is the reason that his only brother betrayed him. Should Midnight point out that friendship causes betrayal and isn’t betryal unforgiveable? Thorax is an example since he’s a coward who flee his hive.
I suppose in this case Midnight needs to make friends with those outside of the Mane Six. Who is the question.
It's hard to place exactly what Midnight was supposed to be as the Anti-Twilight.
The rest of them were easy to copy down as they were just their discorded inversions, but Discorded Twilight was never really a thing, so what IS Anti-Twilight?
As far as direct episode canon goes, it looks like they went with taking Twilight's altruistic and selfless self, and swapped it into typical miserly selfishness that you get with a villain. Which makes Nega-twi a rather standard backstabbing villain schemer.
Springboarding off that into this fic, where Midnight is a person breaking from her personality template, there's a very obvious existential crisis going on with her that would seriously have me putting her on suicide watch regardless of her expressed desire to survive. The problem she's encountering is an interesting cross of cynicism mixed with the ability to draw solid logical conclusions. She knows she's nega-twi, but also knows that the world doesn't really WANT a Nega-Twi, and the powers that be will do everything possible to destroy her if she acts on her template. Her desire to survive thus overrides her natural behavior, toning her down to simply being a cynical version of twilight, but philosophically robs her of her purpose in life. She was born to be anti-twi, but that road is a dead end. And she knows she can't really be the REAL Twi... So she floats in this limbo without purpose, just surviving because that is her core goal.
But then what?
Midnight doesn't need FRIENDS right now. Midnight needs PURPOSE.
PURPOSE, and someone who could engage her on an intellectual level without necessarily challenging her on a philosophical level.
Given her abrasive and cynical nature at the moment, that might be hard to fill with the typical MLP cast members. The Six are sunshine and rainbows about friendship to the point it hurts. The CMC's intellectual capacity can be best summed up as 'tree sap is how our day ends'. Most background ponies suffer from scatter-brain.
Maybe Midnight needs to be engaged by Starswirl and Co. The 'Pillars' had personalities that didn't instantly rot your teeth, and she would definitely have someone of stronger intellectual capability to speak with.
9324131
What can I say? You caught me in a philosophical mood. And I study war and genocide professionally, so such complex morality as found in war, espionage, and insurgency/counter-insurgency is a daily consideration for me. I no longer have an 'off' switch.
9324634
You're historian? Cool!
9324609
Damn. That's all just... Damn. I may need to recruit you if you're willing to help me analyze characters as I make them. That was just... Double damn, that was incredible. And... Kinda sad, too. You're right, she needs a purpose, one that allows her to live in harmony–something where being cynical and such wouldn't put her at odds with the Tree or the world. If she and her fellows had done that to begin with, they'd have probably been spared from the start.
This was so real. Midnight is Reality while the Mane 6 is Imagination. She knows how this world really works plus giving the 5 mares the rundown of Reality.
9323289
I feel like Tirek is a bad example for that. Twilight couldn't overcome Tirek by sheer force. In the end she actually gave up her magic to free her friends instead of continuing the fight. And while there is no such thing as Rainbow Powers in real life, the morale of this episode is still a good one. Even at your weakest you and your friends can still accomplish great things.
Wow, that was, an amazingly mature moment from all parties. Midnight, while blunt, is definitely correct, but The Mane 5 deciding to leave her be was quite mature of them, Pinkie especially.
I actually hope Midnight will come around and talk to the Mane Six more, because I feel that Midnight can play a crucial part in developing their characters.
The key lesson needed here is that While you should always try to find the most peaceful and virtuous solution, sometimes, that isn't going to happen.
Really excited to see where this story goes.
9325761
What I meant with the Tirek example and friendship not solving the problem (with the big bad) was. Tirek didn't want to talk, he didn't want friends. he wanted power and all the magic in the world. And no amount of talking would change his mind. And in the end Twilight and friends had to legitimately FIGHT back.
Missing single quote.
Nice chapter, good work.
Yay for continuity!!
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