My Head Hurts...
“My head hurts…”
That was the first thing that crossed Minuette’s mind when she finally regained consciousness. Her head was throbbing something fierce, her mouth and throat felt dry and sore, and she could just faintly make out the steady beeping of a heart monitor somewhere in her surroundings. Confused, she opened her eyes to get a look around.
She was in a hospital room, that much was obvious, even though the lights were out. She looked around, trying to make out details. She was able to spot a window set high into the wall to her right, through which she could just make out the pale glow of the moon shining down on Canterlot.
“What happened?” she groaned in a dry rasp, one hoof reaching up to rub at her face. She thought back, trying to remember what could have possibly led her here.
“Okay, okay, let’s see… We were trying to decipher the enchantment on Fangs’ mirror when we hit some kind of ward or something,” she thought, recalling the frustration Twilight had put on display. “Twilight thought we could power through it, and we tried. But the mirror was tough, and Moondancer and I stopped. But Twilight didn’t. She kept going and… and… oh, no…”
Minuette’s eyes snapped wide open as she remembered the pulse of dark energy that had erupted out of the mirror. She recalled how it had been enough to throw them all back, and then how the bookcase had fallen over on her. And then she was waking up here.
“I must have been hurt…” She whispered to herself, her hoof slumping back to her side. She stared blankly up at the ceiling. Were Twilight and Moondancer okay, she wondered? She herself had been alright, albeit a little dazed after the pulse had hit her. It had been the bookcase slamming into her that had taken her out. So, logically, her friends must have been okay, right? Right?
It was the most logical outcome, but the emotional, illogical little gremlin part of Minuette’s brain didn’t see things that way, and she began to nervously fret and worry over not just them, but her mother and father. Had the pulse passed through the walls, she wondered? Had it hit anyone else? Had it damaged anything? More importantly, what about Fangs? He had been alright before she blacked out. He had warned her about the falling bookcase. He was okay, for sure, she told herself. The mirror was indestructible, so was he.
Or so she hoped.
Alas, there was nothing she could do. There were a few pieces of technology hooked up to her, and she did not have the self-confident stupidity required to think she could safely unhook herself from any of it. All she could do was lay there, get some rest, and try to relax.
But that was easier said than done. Her concerns over her friends haunted her thoughts, and the frightened look in Fangs’ eyes stared back at her every time she closed her eyes. And so she elected to just let her eyes wander until they caught something of interest.
A small end table was set up next to her bed, and resting on top of it was a collection of cards and a glass vase with fresh flowers in it. Minuette’s stomach growled at the sight of the flowers, and she had to resist the urge to bring them over and scarf them down right now. As bewildering as it was to her, flowers given like this were a gift to be appreciated and not a snack.
“Even though they’re perfectly edible and they taste good,” she mentally complained, outwardly huffing. “It’s dumb.”
After a moment, she lit her horn and pulled over the closest card. It was plain, showing a beautiful sunrise over an ocean view, with the words ‘get well soon’ written in dark orange text within the sun itself. Minuette smiled at it as her yellow magic made the sun on the card even brighter. Without a thought, she flipped it open to read the message inside.
You’re going to be fine, Minnie. The Little Beast is a lot harder to put down than that! There will be plenty of cake and cookies waiting for you when they let you out. Our treat!
-Mom and Dad.
“Aww,” Minuette cood, holding the card up against her chest. Well, it was good to know that at least something positive would come out of this. Cake and cookies, always a good thing. Unless you were diabetic, but Minuette wasn’t, so it wasn’t really an issue for her just now.
Either way, the written comfort of her mother and father was enough to soothe her mind, and before long, Minuette was drifting off into a light, restless sleep.
When Minuette came back to the waking world, it was to the sound of muffled voices speaking in her hospital room. A few seconds passed before she cracked open an eye. She winced and hissed in pain as the near-blinding light of the ceiling light pierced her retinas like a particularly enthusiastic knight rushing into battle with his spear. She felt pins and needles dancing around in her head.
“Gah, why do I do things?” she thought in irritation. She took a moment to let the pain subside before opening her eyes again, slowly this time. She blinked a few times to force the room to come into focus before taking in the scene in front of her.
It was surprisingly crowded in that little hospital room. There was a doctor there, a pegasus mare with a pale brown coat and a darker brown mane tied into a ponytail, and round glasses perched on her muzzle. Pearly and Sunspot were sitting off to the right, holding onto each other’s hooves. To Minuette’s surprise, there were also three foals in the room sitting in a little triangle on the floor by her parents. Twilight, Moondancer, and-
“First Aid!” Minuette squealed at the sight of her friend, trying to sit bolt upright in her seat.
A decision she immediately came to regret as the wide assortment of medical stuff plugged into her body went taught from the motion. Burning pain lanced outward from several points on her body where she was hooked up, and she let out a squeak of pain before thumping back onto the bed.
“Well, she’s awake,” the doctor noted dryly with a roll of her eyes.
“Minuette!” Pearly and Sunspot shouted in unison, both of them rising from their hooves and galloping over to crowd around her. They were joined shortly by the foals, with First Aid, in particular, hopping up onto the bed and sliding to a stop right in front of her.
“Minnie!” She said, falling to her haunches. “Oh my goodness, you’re okay…”
Minuette put on a grin. “Heh. Yeah, I am. It’s a lot harder than that to keep this little beastie down!”
“Well, this little beastie is going to stay down until the doctor lets her up,” Pearly ordered in a stern voice, her eyes narrowing. “Mommy’s orders.”
“And daddy’s,” Sunspot added.
Minuette looked back and forth between her parents for a second, pouting at them. They were probably right, though, honestly. So she simply smiled and nodded. “Okay,” she said before turning her attention back to First Aid. “But how long was I out? You were still supposed to be out of town, weren’t you?”
First Aid shuffled anxiously in place and sat down on her haunches. “I, uh… I was. You’ve been out for a few days…” she said quietly, reaching one hoof up to rub at her shoulder. “I heard about what happened my first day back. I dropped everything and came to see your mom and dad, and they let me come visit you yesterday. You wouldn’t wake up, and your head was all wrapped up in blankets… And… I w-was…”
Minuette’s eyes widened in shock as fresh tears began to build up in First’s. She blinked several times, not sure what to say as First Aid looked down and began to quietly sob. Had it really been that bad? She lifted a hoof, reaching out to her friend. “First…?”
“I was so worried about you!” First Aid exclaimed, meeting Minuette’s gaze again. “I never saw you looking like that before…”
Minuette swallowed heavily. “Was… was it really that bad?” she asked in a quiet, timid whisper, all of her usual gusto fading away at the sight of her crying friend.
The doctor chose this moment to interject, stepping into view at the foot of the bed. She adjusted her glasses with a kindly smile. “It looked worse than it was. You’re a lucky kid. You had a huge bruise, a fairly minor abrasion, and we suspect a minor concussion. The bandages were mostly there to hold the medical salve we applied to promote the healing process in place. We took them off yesterday evening. You’ve still got a nasty bruise, and it’s gonna take a while for that fur to regrow, but beyond that, you’re pretty much right as rain.”
Minuette gave a sigh of relief. She turned to First Aid and put on a reassuring smile. “See? Flying colors.”
That actually managed to draw some amused chuckles from the assorted ponies in the room. Except for the doctor, who just quirked a curious eyebrow. First Aid giggled quietly and wiped away her tears. “Yeah. Flying colors…”
A few seconds passed before another filly jumped up onto the bed. Minuette turned to see Twilight there, an unreadable look on her face. Minuette blinked, suddenly feeling a surge of conflicting emotions. On the one hoof, she was glad to see that Twilight was okay and hadn’t been injured during the incident. On the other hoof, she kinda wanted to go on a long and angry tirade against Twilight for being a big dumb stupid head that got her hurt.
Instead, however, Minuette just settled for a simple, quiet “Hi.”
Twilight flinched as if she had been struck. She looked down at the bed, her ears drooping. “Uh… hi, Minuette,” she said in the quietest, most unsure voice Minuette had ever heard from her. “I… I’m sorry.”
Minuette’s eyes widened. “You are?”
Twilight sighed heavily, her posture sagging. “I got you hurt, Minuette. I was stupid and tried to push things way farther than I should have. I just thought… I thought I was better. I thought I was more powerful… But I was wrong. Do you think you could forgive me?”
Minuette stared at Twilight in total shock. She had never before heard such an earnest apology from the overconfident little mage. She had always been so sure of herself, so quick to find her footing and push forward even when things got tricky. Her apologies in the past had always been almost dismissive or one-note. This was the first time she seemed to truly regret what had happened.
That was reason enough.
Minuette smiled and nodded. “I think I could… If you pay for the donuts next time!”
What? She wasn’t going to give it to Twilight for free. That would just be too easy!
Nonetheless, Twilight didn’t seem at all upset. She smiled warmly. “Heh. Deal. I’ll even buy double the donuts. My treat.”
“Ooooh, I like the sound of that,” Minuette chirped, wriggling in place on the bed.
Pearly and Sunspot had remained quiet for the moment, giving their child time to catch up with her friends. But with that exchange, Pearly turned back to the doctor hopefully. “So, is she good to come home?” she asked quietly.
The doctor adjusted her glasses, looking over a clipboard. “Hmmm. Well, I don’t see why not. I’ll go get the discharge papers and instructions printed up in a bit. Let’s get you unplugged first.”
The next few minutes passed by in an uneventful blur. The doctor got Minuette unhooked from all of the medical machinery, asked her a few questions about how she was feeling and what she remembered, and then stepped out, leaving the filly alone with her friends and family.
Once the doctor was out, Minuette turned to First Aid again. “So? How was your field trip?” she asked eagerly, bouncing in place on the bed. “Was it fun?!”
Moondancer had hopped up to join them now, and she looked to First Aid with interest as well. “Yeah, I’d like to know, too. It sounded fascinating when you were talking about it before you left.”
First Aid smiled and nodded. “It was fun, yeah. Especially getting to explore Manehattan itself. When we weren’t at the hospital doing our research we got to look around. The buildings are so tall! Like, really tall! I felt dizzy just from looking up, they were so big!”
“And the medical tech?” Moondancer asked, pushing her glasses up with a big, dorky smile. “How was all of that?”
Minuette listened with rapt attention as First Aid indulged in Moondancer’s rampant curiosity. She didn’t really get most of it just then, all a bit too technical for her. But nonetheless, she was able to lose herself and her worries in the shining eyes and glowing smile of her oldest friend. The warm smiles of her parents in the back, occasionally chipping in with their own little questions or comments, was a welcome bonus.
After a minute, though, a concern made itself known to Minuette. She frowned, her brow furrowing. She turned back to her mother and father, her ears lowering slightly. Pearly turned back to her with a curious look. “Minnie? What is it?”
“Um… how’s the mirror?” Minuette asked anxiously, fidgeting with her hooves over her chest. “It wasn’t damaged or anything, was it?”
The silence from her parents that followed that question gave Minuette an uneasy feeling. Sunspot and Pearly exchanged a meaningful glance.
It was Pearly who spoke. “The mirror is fine, honey, but… I’m not so sure if...”
“Pearly,” Sunspot suddenly cut her off, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Maybe we should wait until we’re back home to talk about this?”
Pearly turned back to him, her eyes hardening, and her lips drawing into a thin line. “Sunspot, you know it’s just going to get harder if we wait on this.”
“Right, but do we have to do it in front of her friends?” he countered, nodding over at her. “It’s not really their business…”
Minuette looked back and forth between her parents as they quietly debated… whatever it was they were debating. Whatever it was, it must have been important, and that uneasy feeling grew even worse. After a moment, she tilted her head, her eyes pleading. “What are you two talking about?” she asked quietly.
Pearly and Sunspot both focused back on Minuette, the former as if only now remembering she was even there. A second passed before Pearly sighed and shook her head. “We can talk about it later. When we’re home.”
Minuette frowned up at her. “Is something wrong?”
Pearly did not answer her.
Before Minuette could press the issue, the sound of the door opening and the doctor clearing her throat drew their attention. All eyes turned to look. Minuette frowned, confused by the gobsmacked look on the Doctor’s face. It was as if she had seen a ghost or something and was struggling to find the right way to proceed. “Er… Well, you’re all clear to go, but, uh… There’s somepony here who wants to speak with you, first, Minuette.”
Minuette tilted her head curiously. “Who?” she asked. There were only so many ponies it could be, she reasoned. Maybe it was Twinkle Shine and Lemon Hearts? They had been kinda removed from recent events, maybe they were worried about her? But then again, why would they only now be showing up? And why would they be making the doctor look like that?
“It’s alright, ma’am. I can take things from here,” a familiar, serene voice came from just out of Minuette’s field of view. Then, without any ceremony, Princess Celestia herself stepped through the door, her head held high and decorated with that same, motherly smile she always wore.
“Princess!” Twilight squeaked, immediately dropping into a low bow. Minuette and the rest of the room were quick to follow suit.
“Be at ease, my little ponies,” Celestia said in a soft, reassuring way that immediately eased the tensions in the room. “Rise and speak freely. I am here as a teacher concerned for one of her students today, not a princess.”
Even with that assurance, it took a few seconds for the ponies in the room to rise. Minuette was the first up, and she looked up into Celestia’s eyes with wide-eyed fascination. She had spoken with Celestia before, of course, but she had never once imagined that the princess would come to see her in the hospital of all places.
Celestia just smiled at her before nodding to the doctor. “Leave us, please.”
The doctor nodded before turning and making her way out of the room. Then Celestia turned to Minuette again. “Minuette. How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts,” Minuette replied with a chirpy grin.
Celestia’s smile grew wider and more amused. “So I can imagine,” She said. She then turned her gaze to Twilight, who flinched away guiltily. Celestia’s smile faded, and she focused back on Minuette again. “Would you mind telling me what exactly happened?”
Pearly’s eyes widened. “You came all the way here to ask us that?” she asked, seemingly in disbelief.
Celestia nodded. “Of course. When it came to my attention that one of the students at my school had been hospitalized during a research project my personal student was involved in, I couldn’t just sit idly by and do nothing,” she said, strolling confidently to stand at the foot of the bed. She lowered herself to her haunches. “As my student, Twilight is my responsibility. She was quite enthusiastic about this project, and I enabled her to pursue it. Hence, it is my duty to put right what has gone wrong. And so, here I am.”
There was a brief moment of silence as everypony in the room processed this information. Minuette took a second to get her thoughts in order. “So… you want me to tell you what happened?” she asked tentatively.
“Please,” came the simple response.
Well, this was an unexpected turn of events. Minuette took a deep breath, martialling her thoughts. She looked over to Twilight and Moondancer, and though Twilight still looked ashamed of herself, both nodded, affirming their support in this. And so, with nothing else for it, Minuette began to recount everything that had happened from their first day of studying the mirror’s enchantment to the day it finally punched back in response to Twilight’s attempts at brute-forcing it into submission.
All the while, Princess Celestia listened quietly and attentively. It wasn’t a long story, but she nonetheless interrupted once or twice to seek clarification, which was usually provided by Moondancer. Twilight was remarkably quiet the entire time.
Finally, Minuette had finished recounting the story. Celestia hummed quietly, pursing her lips in thought. She then turned to look at Twilight with a quirked brow. “I see. Twilight? What do you have to say about all of this?” she asked, her voice stern and expectant.
Twilight flinched as if she had been struck. “I… I already apologized to her. I made a really big mistake. I thought I was better and I was wrong. I’m sorry…”
Celestia eyed her for a moment longer. “All the same, I must insist you return my copy of Amulets and Artifacts.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “What? B-but, Princess-”
Celestia cut her off sharply. “Twilight Sparkle, though I do not doubt you have learned your lesson, you have nonetheless proven that you are not ready to use its contents safely and responsibly. Your recklessness left one of your friends, a student in my school, hospitalized. That is unacceptable. Did you even stop to think if the mirror had defenses when you found that ward?”
With every word, Twilight shrank into herself more and more, the shame on her face growing exponentially. She didn’t say anything, though. Instead, she merely lit her horn, and a pair of saddlebags in the corner that Minuette hadn’t noticed before flipped open. The book in question came drifting out, and the aura enveloping it changed from Twilight’s purple to Celestia’s radiant gold.
Celestia nodded in satisfaction. “We will discuss this more in private, Twilight. But for now…” she then turned back to Minuette. It was jarring how quickly her expression went from stern and scolding to kind and caring, and it gave Minuette whiplash.
“Minuette with you and your parents' permission, I would like to personally examine this mirror of yours.”
Minuette’s eyes flew wide open, and she knew her parents were doing the same. She rose to her full height, a flood of questions flooding her mind. What if Celestia deemed it dangerous and took it away? What if she didn’t like what she found and destroyed it? But even amid those grim possibilities, one question, in particular, rang loud and clear in her mind.
“What if she can set Fangs free?”
There was no greater mage in Equestria than Princess Celestia. Whether in terms of power, knowledge, or simple intuition, the ruler of Equestria had no living equal. The only ponies or creatures that may have once been a match for her had long since passed from this world and numbered in the single digits. Starswirl the Bearded and that stupid chaos noodle, Discord, were the only ones that came to mind.
If anyone could set Fangs free, it was Celestia.
“Of course!” Minuette practically cheered, jumping in place excitedly. “Do you wanna come do it now? I am all for doing it now!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at her, no doubt noticing the excitement of her answer. Instead of doing the right thing and saying yes then and there, though, Celestia shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t come right away. I still have to discuss these recent events with Twilight, I need to speak with her parents about all of this, and I have a few matters in the castle that I have to complete before I can commit to any potentially lengthy investigations. I will be there in the morning, however.”
Celestia then turned her eyes to Pearly and Sunspot, who had been staring at her agape for several seconds. “Assuming, of course, your parents are willing to have me?”
Sunspot spluttered incoherently for a moment before bowing his head. “Oh, uh, it would be our honor, your majesty!” he said, tripping over his own words.
Celestia nodded. “I am glad to hear it. Be well, all of you. Twilight,” she turned back to the shriveled filly, her eyes burning with disapproval. “Come with me.”
Twilight gave off a quiet whimper but did not protest. She dutifully hopped down from the bed and followed Celestia as she stepped out of the room.
Celestia paused in the doorway, giving Minuette one more smile. “Rest well, my little pony. I will see you tomorrow.”
And with that, she was gone. A heavy silence hung in the room for several seconds. Then Moondancer adjusted her glasses. “You think Twilight’s gonna be okay?” she asked quietly.
“She’ll be fine,” Minuette answered without missing a beat. “She’s just gonna get a good old-fashioned solar scolding. Probably be grounded for a few weeks.”
Sunspot’s lips twitched slightly in dismay. “I wouldn’t mind longer than a few weeks…”
“Be nice,” Pearly chastised him with a little shove. She then looked back down to Minuette. “Well, I think that’s enough excitement for one day. Are you ready to go home?”
Minuette nodded. “Uh-huh!”
“I’ll take her friends home,” Sunspot said, nodding to Moondancer and First Aid. “Come along, kids.”
“Okay, uh. Gimme a second,” First Aid said with a quiet nod. She rose to her hooves and walked over to Minuette.
Minuette looked up at her. “Hm? Something up?”
First Aid didn’t answer with words. Instead, she reached out and pulled Minuette into a tight, tight hug. Minuette yelped in alarm, having not expected the sudden intimate contact. She didn’t take long to return the hug, though, burying her face into First Aid’s shoulder and savoring the contact with her friend. It had been too long since.
Then First Aid whispered into her ear. “You think Celestia can free Fangs, don’t you?”
Minuette went stiff. She leaned back to look into First Aid’s eyes. There was a storm of emotion raging in those gentle sapphire orbs, but Minuette couldn’t identify them just then. But, after a moment, she set her jaw and nodded. “Mhmm.”
First Aid was quiet for several seconds. Then she released Minuette and backed off. “I hope you’re right,” was all she said before she turned and jumped down from the bed. Moondancer stared after her, confused, and adjusted her glasses.
“What was that about?”
Minuette didn’t answer.
A second later, Moondancer shrugged and jumped down to follow First and Sunspot out the door, leaving Minuette alone in the room with her mother. She looked up to Pearly and smiled.
“So… home?”
Pearly nodded. “Yes. Home.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
688 users online
1,218,619 hits today, 2,707,512 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It’s like 9 pm and I’m tired but—
O GOSH WHATS GOING TO HAPOEN I HAVE A AWFUL FEELING ABOUT THIS 😥😥
Yep, makes sense for Celestia to get involved in the mirror at last. Wonder if Minuette will tell her about Fangs or not...
CLIFH
CLIFFA
*****N
******G
*******E
********R
I was actually worried that somehow Celestia would avoid knowing about the mirror. Hard for many stories to have meaningful actions/progress when there's a big ol' goddess just lying around, doing paperwork. So most stories have the all-knowing all-powerful alicorns just conveniently out of the way. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. If Celestia can actually free fangs, if there's something that prohibits her from interacting with the mirror, if she reveals anything about changelings, and so on.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Something tells me we're gonna need it
Well, this promises to be interesting. Why do I feel like Celestia's examination of the mirror will not help much with freeing Fangs?
We're okay!
Great, and now ol' Sunbutt is getting involved in this little project. We're gonna get some answers now, or quite possibly just more questions. I'm just relived nobody else got stuck in that mirror.
I bet Minnie's parents were going to tell her that they were going to take the mirror away. But then Celestia showed up and basically did that job for them.
10892498
Who's saying they didn't already?
One, I'm glad Minnie's okay. Well, for a certain value of okay.
Two, (singsong) Twilight's gonna get it.
Three, I bet Celestia taking an interest in the mirror is going to derail Pearly and Sunspot's plans to get rid of the mirror.
Eeeeee! I need to know more!
Also, poor Twilight
for some reason i have a feeling Celestia is going to know the magic of the mirror.
Now even Celestia will be getting involved? This should be interesting.
10892675 Celestia stalks towards the mirror, "Well well well... so this is where the SADISTIC CHERNGLERNG TRAP I CREATED ENDED UP!! MUWAH HA HA HA!! ENJOYING YOUR STAY, PATHETIC BUG HORSE???"
Because Cruelestia is now a thing! That I created! ... Copyright Alondro, President of Evil, Inc.
ROUND TWO
CELESTIA VS MIRROR
FIGHT!
oooooooooo it's happening!
well this is an interesting development. Can't wait to see Celestia examine that mirror.
Oh, they were totally going to get rid of the mirror. Any parent would after discovering an apparently dangerous artifact they gave their child.
Either that or.... Is Fangs finally visible to the world? 😇
Apparently violence is sometimes the answer. Need more help with your issue? Make something explode so the local godess comes to investigate!
Celestia vs Discordian Artifact
This ought to be good.