Divine

by lingonberries

First published

Midnight Shine is an average filly; only one in her class with a blank flank. The only thing she's good at is watching a YouTuber named PewDiePie. What will happen when Pewds suddenly stops making videos, and how will Midnight's talent be discovered?

Midnight Shine is your average, run - of - the - mill unicorn filly, sporting a love for video games and a blank flank. She is the last one in her class not to have figured out her special talent yet, and the only thing she seems to be good at is watching a fellow unicorn named PewDiePie on YouTube. What will happen when Pewds suddenly stops making videos? Is he in trouble? How will this young filly earn her cutie mark, and what risks will she have to take to do it?

* Let's pretend that there's YouTube and electronics in Equestria. :yay:
** This takes place before Twilight Sparkle becomes an alicorn. :twilightsmile:

-- If you do not like Pewds, then you will most likely not enjoy this story. So stay back, barrels! :trixieshiftright:

[ Edited by the wonderful Jacob Bading! ]

Haphazard Inquiries

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I trotted down the dark street in silence, staring at the ground. It was very quiet; the only sounds were the moving of my yellow hooves against the dirt and the occasional crow cawing. Everypony was in their houses, probably sleeping right now. The light breeze blew my wavy lime green mane back slightly. I sighed, and a frown tugged at my features. What am I doing?

I had no idea why I was going to Twilight Sparkle's library at the dead of night. It was almost like my small hooves had a mind of their own; I had simply gotten up and left the small cottage where I lived.

I yawned and picked up my pace; hopefully Twilight wouldn't mind that much. She did say that I was welcome to come over anytime, being one of her favorite fillies.

Not long after, I saw the shadow of the huge library carved into the oak tree. I strode up to the doorway, took a deep breath, and knocked softly. I wondered if I was just stupid as I heard hoofsteps from inside. The door creaked open to reveal a small purple dragon.

"Hello?" He asked. "Oh, uh, hi, Midnight." He mumbled awkwardly. "What are you doing up at this hour?"

I gave him an embarrassed look. "I was hoping that I could talk to Twilight for a bit..."

"Oh! Uh, sure, I guess; I'll have to wake her up." He said. "Come inside and make yourself at home."

I stepped inside gratefully, shutting the door with a little click. I heard voices upstairs, and not long after, Twilight Sparkle staggered down the stairs. When she saw me, she quickly righted herself.

"Hey, Midnight." She said through a yawn.

"Hi," I mumbled.

"What's up?" She questioned. "Spike said you wanted to talk to me."

I nodded. "Yes, if that's alright. Sorry for interrupting your sleep."

"Nah, you're fine," Twilight said. "Follow me."

She led me to the cramped living room; a tiny navy couch dominating most of the space. She plopped down on it, and I mimicked her. She then turned to me, waiting for me to speak.

I cleared my throat and gave an awkward grin. "So, uh, I wanted to talk to you about... My cutie mark."

Twilight nodded, and her red glasses floated over from nowhere, courtesy of her horn.

"As you might've heard, I'm the last filly in my class not to earn it yet. I've tried everything, but I always fail. All I seem to actually be good at is watching YouTube, and everypony says that's a useless waste of time. I just don't know what to do..." I announced, looking at her hopefully. "Any suggestions?"

Twilight pondered her responses. "It seems to me like your special talent has something to do with YouTube..."

"But everypony says -"

"It doesn't matter what your peers say, it's only what you think that counts. It is your cutie mark, anyways," Twilight declared, her huge purple eyes boring into mine. "Trust me."

I nodded and gave her a tight embrace. When we broke apart, I asked, "So do you know anything I could do to help ensure my earning of my cutie mark?"

"Just keep doing what you're doing. If your cutie mark does have something to do with YouTube, then you're on the road to success."

"Okay!" I squeaked as I portrayed a toothy grin. "Thanks for letting me come over!"

"Anytime," Twilight beamed.

We got up and she led me to the door. She opened it and took one look outside before coming to a conclusion of "You're staying here tonight." We both smiled, and she led me upstairs to her bedroom.

"Yay! Slumber party at 3 am with one of my favorite little fillies!" She said enthusiastically before we both broke down in a fit of giggles.

Three hours later, I was woken up by the sound of songbirds chirping outside. We had fallen asleep during The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, one of Twilight Sparkle's favorite movies. (Don't ask why!) The intro was still playing, over and over and over again, the signature tune playing in the background. We were surrounded by empty hay bags and melted oat lattes from our party last night. Spike was draped over a stack of books near us, having also fallen asleep during the movie. I yawned loudly, making my horn spark a bit. This woke Twilight up, and she immediately noticed the Twilight intro playing infinetly on the TV.

"We fell asleep during Eclipse?!" She shrieked, bursting my eardrums and waking up Spike at the same time.

Poor Spike groaned from the tower of books. "Wha?"

Twilight screamed dramatically, which caused the stack of books Spike was on start to teeter.

"Oh Celestia-" Spike choked as the pile began to topple.

I leaped out of the bed and dizzily tried to run over to the imploding pile. But, I tripped on none other than a book and fell face first into the wood. I looked up to see Spike covered in books. He huffed and sat up, a small scratch adorning his cheek. I felt my muzzle; I had bumped it pretty badly.

"Ugh," Spike groaned. "Wow, Twi... An avalanche?" He asked in a scratchy morning voice.

"Well, we did sleep through my favorite movie..." She smiled. "Now, I guess we have to rewatch it!"

Spike made a noise that sounded precariously like a swear.

"Yeah, whatever," he said. "I'll go get breakfast started."

I fell back into the bed and yawned, getting ready for the next marathon.

Not far into the movie, Spike called to us from below. "Breakfast's ready!"

"Okay!" Twi yelled as she paused the movie. "Luckily, that was at a nonimportant part." Twilight muttered half to herself.

We trotted downstairs to be greeted with a huge array of pancakes, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and fried potatoes. Spike stood to the side proudly, wearing a fake mustache.

"Look good?" He asked, trying and failing to do an Italian accent. He twirled his mustache and grinned.

We rolled our eyes. "Spike," Twilight said playfully.

"What?" He said innocently in his normal voice. "You can eat, if you want. I've already eaten my share."

"Okay," we said in unison. Then, we dug in.

After at least 7 more hours of watching the Twilight movies, I headed home, promising to come back and visit again soon. As soon as I arrived home, I was ambushed by my parents.

"Midnight!" My mom shrieked. "Did you have fun?"

I nodded.

"Good. As long as you had fun, that's all that matters!" She said happily.

Then, I felt a flutter of wings on my shoulder. I knew it was Isak, my pet bat. He had green translucent wings and brown fur, with the cutest little beady eyes. He squeaked and glided to my bare flank, pointing at it and shrugging.

"No, not yet..." I told him. "But she thinks that my cutie mark may have something to do with YouTube!"

He chirped, and his eyes went wide.

"I know, right?" I laughed, stroking the soft fur on the top of his head. "Hey, wanna watch Pewds and see if we can't get more of a head start on this cutie mark?"

He squeaked and nudged me. I took this as a yes, and he followed me to my room, where I grabbed my laptop and threw myself onto the bed. He nestled himself in my hair as I pulled up YouTube.

"So... Which one do you want to watch?" I asked. He immediately pointed at the first one: Human Simulator 2015: HANDS?!

"Oh, human sim... I love those ones." I said partially to myself. "This was uploaded yesterday though... How did we miss it?"

"How's it goin' colts, my name is Peeeeewdiepie!" He started with a silly grin. "Today we're gonna play Human Simulator 2015. It's brand new, so don't expect me to be any good at it..."

After watching the full 18 minutes and 43 seconds of laughs, guffaws, and rage, I was breathless. I keeled over face first onto the bed and grabbed the covers, pulling them over my head. Slowly, my face went back to its normal pastel yellow, and I could breathe again.

I then realized that we had skipped lunch, and it was almost dinner time. I stood up and slowly picked Isak out of my hair, laying him on the pillow. Then I galloped to the kitchen, almost tripping down the stairs. I yanked a bag of barley from the cupboard and made a peanut butter and barley sandwich. Then, I made the same for my parents, who were both sitting in the living room; I could hear snoring from my father.

I was about to balance all three plates on my head until I got an idea. I hadn't tried it in a while, because I always failed. But maybe...

I stepped back from the counter and put on a poker face, crouching into a deep karate - like stance. I conjured up the faint green glow in my horn and took a deep breath. I then willed my magic to spread over to the plates and... Levitate them. Surprisingly, the magic aura obeyed. I had never gotten this far, so I was nervous as I jerked the plates up into the air. I thought I was sweating because of the effort, but then I realized that it was just nerves. This wasn't hard; it was just levitating plates. Calm down...

I slowly stepped out of the kitchen, still magicking the plates. I tiphoofed to the living room, hearing my father's snoring.

"Look Ma, no hands!" I said from directly behind her, making her jump and turn to see me levitating the plates.

"M-midnight..." She said, placing a hoof over her mouth.

"Blaze! Wake up!" She said, shaking my father awake.

"Hmm?" He mumbled as he lazily opened his eyes.

"Look at her!" My mother exclaimed, pointing a hoof at me. "Come over here, Midnight!"

I proudly walked in front of them, plates floating by my head.

My father's eyes went wide. "Good job!"

"Thanks! A-are you hungry?" I stuttered, caught up in the moment.

"Totally!" He exclaimed. I carefully levitated him a sandwich, doing the same for my mother as well. I finally settled on the floor next to them, still levitating my sandwich.

"Now I'm going to try to eat this without my hooves!"

I brought the meal to my mouth and took a bite, successfully smudging peanut butter on my muzzle. I kept doing this until it was gone, my hooves behind my back.

"Ta da!" I squeaked as I cleaned up everyone's plates.

My mother chuckled. "Wow, it took me a long time to be able to do that; much longer than you. You're a natural!"

"I guess so." I said, levitating the dirty plates into the sink without moving so much as an inch. "Now, for levitating myself!

"Oh no, not yet, you silly filly!" My father said, patting my head.

"Oh, alright..." I grumbled playfully. "I'll be sleeping if you need me."

I trudged upstairs and nestled under the covers, too lazy to brush my teeth. I turned over and saw my laptop, still open on YouTube. The video was frozen at the end, where he gives the brohoof. Maybe just one more video...
I grabbed it and saw that he didn't have a new video up yet. That was odd; normally he had at least two videos a day...

I shrugged it off as a busy day for him and settled with watching Surgeon Simulator again. It didn't cease to make me laugh when Pewds screamed about Bob dying. I closed it up and slid it back into its charger on the desk, laying down and letting Luna claim me for the night.

Suspiciously Concerned

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Waking up is hard.

Especially when you know you have to go to school.

I huffed as I slammed my hoof on the alarm clock, silencing it. I rolled over and pushed myself onto the floor, yawning. I ran a comb through my hair with my newfound magic, and clopped downstairs.

"Mornin', Shine," my father said as he took a sip of coffee. "Mom's still sleeping."

"Good morning." I replied simply as I mauled a nearby muffin.

My dad watched in slight horror. "Uh... Are you okay?"

My tail flicked slightly. "I just feel like something's not right."

And it was true. I just felt like something was wrong and I couldn't put my hoof on it. I shrugged and waved a quick goodbye to my dad as I grabbed my saddlebag. He waved back as I trotted out the door. I dashed to the tiny schoolhouse at the top of the hill, exhaling heavily when I arrived. Cheerilee was back, and she gave me a tired but sincere smile.

"Good morning, Midnight!" Her voice chimed; we were the only two in the room.

"Good morning, Cheerilee!" I replied as I unloaded my saddlebag.

"Guess what?" I squealed as I ran up to her. "I learned how to levitate things!"

To demonstrate, I levitated a piece of chalk and wrote Hi! on the board. Then, I yanked an apple from the apple tree outside and brought it to Cheerilee.

"See? Isn't this cool?"

Her jaw was wide open. "And you're saying you just learned? Wow! This is amazing!"

I turned light pink. "Thanks..."

All of a sudden, a young unicorn named Minuette approached us.

"Hey there, Cheerilee!" She squeaked, her blue mane covering her eyes.

"Oh, hi, Minuette," Cheerilee said.

"Colgate is fine." She smiled.

"Oh! Right, sorry. I keep forgetting!"

"So, um, I was wondering... What kind of toothbrush do you use?" Colgate asked.

I rolled my eyes and slunk away to the corner of the room, where I opened YouTube. Still no new videos...

This was making me just a tad nervous. He hadn't had any videos in the past two days; Normally he had around two videos per day!
I sighed and watched him play Happy Wheels again, which was still really funny.

By the time it was over, everyone had arrived. I slunk over to my desk as Cheerilee began the lesson on pony cultures. I put my head in my hooves and tried to think. But, it was impossible. The whole class was chattering on and on about how they would like to visit another part of Equestria. I groaned and sat up; trying to pay attention to Cheerilee.

"Alright everypony, you must do a project now. We need to divide into two groups. Raise your hoof if you were not born in Ponyville.

I raised my hoof up high; I could see that Colgate and three other fillies had raised hooves as well.

"That's all?" Cheerilee asked, confusement smattering her face. "Hmm. Well, tell us where you are from."

"I'm from Appleloosa!" Shrieked a tiny gray earthpony which I had never seen before.

"I'm from Cloudsdale," said a buff pegasus, wings extending.

"Well, technically, that's still Ponyville, Cloud Snorter."

The whole class snickered at his name as he turned red. "Um, just Cloud is fine..."

Colgate burst in. "I'm from Manehattan!"

Another small Pegasus I knew as Lightning Velocity spoke up. "I'm from Canterlot."

I then realized that it was my turn. "I'm from Steeden."

The whole class turned to look at me. "Huh?"

Cheerilee got everyone's attention again. "It's a cold place up north, and it's not very widely known."

Everyone shrugged as there was an awkward silence.

Then, Lightning Velocity spoke up. "How cold is it?"

I grimaced, slightly embarrassed from all of the attention. "The temperatures can easily drop below -20° Fahrenheit, and the summers are only about 65° F."

Everypony gaped at me, and it was silent again.

Cheerilee coughed. "Well, back to the lesson. Ponyville - borns, go on that side. Everypony else, over here. Ponyville - borns, your task is to create a fairly detailed map of Ponyville and Cloudsdale. Non Ponyville - borns, you each shall create a separate map of the place where you were born, then combine it all into a nice collage. Everypony understand? Get started!"

I levitated a piece of poster paper and markers over for everyone in my group, and we got started. I used my new magic to create a perfect outline of Steeden from memory. I then labelled all of the cities, and put a special mark by the city I was born in: Saddleholm. Once I had finished outlining and coloring it, it was time to go home. I packed everything back into my saddlebag and decided to try some more magic: Teleportation. I shut my eyes and concentrated on going home; flying through space and time. I was beginning to feel something -

I opened one eye to see the schoolyard in front of me. It hadn't worked. I sighed; maybe I was just too inexperienced for such complicated magic. I trotted home to be greeted by - Twilight Sparkle?

"Midnight, I'm afraid I have some bad news." She whispered, staring at the ground.

"Pewdiepie is... missing."