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// 60 - Just a Minuette 
// Story: Perchance to Dream 
// by David Silver 
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"True!" came the cheerful tone of my former client. Minuette vanished into the building she had spotted me from through a window and came rushing out onto the street with scarcely a delay. "There you are. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find you?" She stuck out her tongue, still smiling despite her frustration. 

I hadn't been lost, from my viewpoint. "Nice to see you, Minuette. Did you have another love question?"

"Oh, there you go, assuming." She tapped me on the nose. Even as I recoiled, she darted in and planted a smooch on the end of my snout. "Always thinking about love. You should watch out for that."

Was I? Well, in a manner, I was. "I was just checking if you were hoping for professional assistance."

"I know that, I'm just teasing you." She looked me over quickly. "You're so focused on everyone else's love, you'll never find a special somepony for yourself."

I opened my mouth to argue, but the truth of it settled on me. The original True had succumbed to exactly that. He busily flitted from one pair to the next, helping them out, and never finding himself a pairing. Except... my life had become... full. As much as I wanted to let go and just be a pony for a while, I couldn't ignore my human side.

Minuette's eyes never left me. "Did I strike a nerve? You seem to be really lost in it."

"Hm?" I came back to the present. "Sorry about that. So why were you looking for me?"

"Why shouldn't a mare look for her new friend?" She rolled her eyes. "Hanging out with friends is one of my favorite things to do, but every time I asked at the castle, they said you weren't available. How are you 'unavailable' so often? Helping that many ponies?

Would that it were true. "It's... complicated."

"Try me." She bounced in place. "I'm no simple-pony, it can't be that complicated."

"If you insist." I shook my head. "How deep do you want to go?"

"That question could be taken a lot of ways," sing-songed Minuette. "Are you secretly a time-traveling alien?"

I blinked softly. "Sort of?"

"That was a joke." She nudged me with the end of a hoof. "Right! Right? ... You are a time traveling alien." She started bouncing all the more. "What kinda alien are you?! Are you from the forgotten past or some unknown future? This is amazing! I never met an alien before. I mean, time-traveler, sure, but alien, that's new!"

Wait... "You've met time-travelers before?" I was gaping at Minuette. "How did that happen?"

Minuette snorted and waved it off emphatically. "Hello, you're speaking to a unicorn who's specialty is time. How could I not run into a few time-travelers? Don't ask me about them specifically though. Most of them don't want to be talked about." She leaned forward. "I'd rather hear about you. What kinda alien are you?"

I settled to my haunches and glanced around a moment. "I don't quite feel right talking about this in the middle of the street. Do you have a better place to chat?"

"My place," she sang and began trotting home. "Are you going to make me swear to secrecy? You time-travelers drive me crazy! You have such amazing stories and you won't let me tell all my other friends about it."

I scrambled back to my hooves and trailed after Minuette. "Does this happen a lot?"

"Not a lot a lot, but enough to see a pattern." She rolled her eyes as she went. "Look, it's cool. If you don't want me to tell anyone, I won't. I'll be annoyed, but I won't tell anypony, promise."

Minuette was a pony that could be given clearance, for pony things. I chuckled softly at the thought even as it raised the more evident question. Was my situation a top secret? Should I be hiding what I am? Ponies seemed accepting people. Maybe I should come out, lay the cards on the table. "Would you believe that I spend most of my waking hours as a human being?"

"Human--What?!" She spun around to face me. "The big biped things? Naked except for a mane, no tail? That sound right?"

That was not the most flattering description I had every heard. "Mostly right. You've heard of them then?"

Minuette willed her door open and stepped inside. "You kidding? Twilight told me all about them, said she was one for a while. I didn't quite get it, but they sounded interesting. Wait!" She spun again. "Did you come through a mirror like she did?"

I walked past her to not be standing in the street. "I've heard of those, but no."

"If not mirrors, how?" She closed the door and trotted past me in turn. "I'll grab some tea and cookies, you keep telling your story. I wanna hear every word!"

I watched her wander off towards the kitchen and decided to settle on a cushion she had laying around. "I got mixed up with a long dead pony by means of a statue constructed of him. His spirit came into my body, and my spirit slipped into his statue. He moved me around while I animated his statue."

"Statue!?" She came back with a kettle and two cups and set them down, starting to pour out tea with her magic. "You do look kinda... statuey, no, statue-like?"

"Statuesque?"

"That's the word!" She thrust a hoof up with joy, then gestured after a cup as it floated over to me. "Drink up. You're not really a statue, right?"

I shook my head at that as I took hold of the cup with my own magic and took a sip. It was delicious. Did ponies know how to make things that weren't tasty? "Thank you, and I don't think so? Not while I'm awake at least. If I fall asleep, I will turn back into a statue. Just bring me to the castle if that happens, alright?"

"Roger wilco." She looked off long enough to grab a package of cookies that rapidly flew over to join us. "So now you're a pony and a human?"

"That's a fair assessment." I accepted a cookie and dipped it in the tea before chomping it. Mmm. "It gets worse."

"Worse?" She leaned in eagerly, eyes shining. "Tell me."

"I'm a, uh, mare. When I'm a human that is."

Minuette gave a sudden loud giggling. "Oh wow! That explains so much! You kept giving off these little hints. I thought you were, you know, just a girly stallion."

I felt insulted, even if I couldn't put a finger on why precisely. "I'm not girly." Not while I was True Shot, eligible bachelor!

She shrank back a little. "Oh there I go, letting my mouth run faster than my brain. I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it."

"No, no, it's alright."

She wasn't listening. "You're a stallion's stallion! I mean--"

"It's alright, Minuette." I reached and placed a hoof on either of her shoulders. "Thank you."

Her worried expression brightened into a bright white smile. "Quite welcome. So, uh, enjoying being a pony?"

"When I think about it, I'm reminded how many things are... not where they should be. How many sensations I feel I shouldn't, and others I should, but don't." I sat up tall. "I'm an alien, but to answer your question, I think I do like it. Not enough to trade away my human life, but I enjoy the visits."

Minuette's voice suddenly became robotic. "Greetings alien life form." She burst into giggles. "So what's your human name?"

"Linda. Linda Frohein."

"Huh, that does sound like a mare's name, but you can't tell from a name alone. What does it mean?"

Amusingly, I had checked that once before. "Soft, tender, beautiful."

Minuette tilted her head. "You are soft and tender I think, but you're more handsome than the other thing. Guess I'd have to see you as a human to get the other part. Was that the whole name?"

"The last one's just a family name. It doesn't mean anything that I could find anyway."

"I'm sure it did at some point." Minuette tilted her head. "Maybe it got changed over time?"

I hadn't thought of that. "You may have a point there."

"Enough names though. You're True Shot right now, right?"

"Right." I smiled at her. Minuette's smiles were infectious. "Well, there you go, my deep dark secret."

"Well, now I feel like I should trade secrets." She tapped at her chin even as she chewed at a cookie held in her magic. "But I don't have a lot of secrets that are actually mine to give away."

"It's alright," I gently insisted. "You're being a fine host and a friend."

She smiled so wide a little squeak came from her stretched flesh. "I'm glad to hear you say that. I was afraid you'd just see me as a client and not as a friend. You know, some ponies really get hung up on that, but I don't see it that way. Just because somepony pays me for something doesn't suddenly make them not a friend."

Was Minuette really that eager to make friends? "Not meaning any offense here, but we don't really know each other. Why are you so eager to be friends?"

"I need a reason?" She arched a brow at me. "Besides, how can I get to know you if I don't try? Now I know you're an alien, and that's pretty cool! I'm a unicorn, but you already knew that. I guess you're a unicorn too? Sometimes?" She reached for my horn. "Can you use it?"

"I've only learned a single spell," I confessed.

"But you learned a spell!" gushed Minuette. "That's further than many, believe me."

"What about you?" I pointed at her. "Do you know a lot of magic?"

"Well..." She rubbed behind her head, looking awkward all of a sudden. "I don't want to brag..."

"Go ahead. You know more than me, and that's alright. I just barely started being a pony."

"My specialty is time." She pointed at her rump where the hourglass rested. "Magic that's related to it comes naturally. I soak it up like a dry sponge, nom nom nom!" She made exaggerated chomping motions. "I've learned other spells too, mind you, but it's not as easy as time spells."