The Bug in The Mirror

by Skijarama


Wait, am I Crazy?

Something wasn’t quite right today.

Minuette glanced around at the other students in the hall as she worked her way for her usual lunch spot. Some of them were looking back at her with scrunched up muzzles or, even worse, knowing smirks. A small few had been doing this earlier when she first got to school, but it seemed even worse now. It seemed that no matter what direction she looked in, somepony was giving her a look.

Normally, she might have enjoyed the attention. Celestia knew that the little filly definitely enjoyed it when the spotlight was on her. But this was different. The way they were looking at her sent a tiny tingle of discomfort working its way slowly but surely down her spine. She shuddered uncomfortably, trying not to think about it, but they just kept staring.

“Okay, need something to distract me,” she thought, racking her brain for something she could use to distance her mind from the looks she was getting. “Oh, I know! Tiger teeth! Little baby tigers and their gummy little mouths!”

She now imagined what it would be like for a toothless baby tiger to try and bite her throat with its slimy little gums. A small smirk spread on her face as she imagined how ticklish it might be, and how much she’d probably be giggling at the wasted effort.

Then mama tiger showed up, and everything stopped being funny and ticklish very quickly. Minuette’s smile faltered, and she decided that imagining tigers biting her was probably not the smartest thing to go to for a self-distracting train of thought. It was distracting, sure, but it went to dark places.

But now she was thinking about teeth that scared her, and no set of chompers spooked her more than those of geese. “Why do they have teeth on the sides of their tongue?!” she thought with a disgusted shudder. “And why do they hate everypony on a personal level?! It’s mean!”

Well, at least wondering why Geese were such rude jerks was more pleasant than thinking about a tiger nomming on her jugular. Still not exactly ideal, though. Those suckers were creepy!

It was then that her mind wandered away from the feathered devils to something a bit more recent. She faltered mid-step as her thoughts shifted back to her personal training session in her room the previous day, and how she had seen something moving around in her mirror. Not to mention the voice that had told her to be careful.

She frowned, her muzzle scrunching up in thought. Had she just imagined it? At the time, that was what she had told herself, so she could focus on her spell and her dad’s instructions. But once she had gone to bed and really thought about it, she had started doubting that assessment. Something about it just being her imagination just didn’t sound right…

“Maybe because I’ve seen something move in it once before?” she wondered, thinking back to when she had first gotten it. She knew she had seen something moving in the reflection at least two times now.

“...Wait, am I crazy?” she finally thought, a crooked smirk spreading across her face. “Ha! I am totally going crazy. Maybe.”

She’d figure it out later. At least now she wasn’t thinking about all of the odd looks everypony kept giving her today.

Mission accomplished!

Minuette soon stepped out of the doors, and into a wide-open courtyard of sorts, surrounded on all sites by other sections of Celestia’s School. A steady stream of ponies ranging from little foals to mid-teenagers traveled this way and that in vaguely orderly flows, following paved stone paths that wound through the courtyard in an expansive circle. A large statue of Celestia herself was erected in the center of the courtyard, her wings fanning out wide as if to grant shelter to all who passed beneath.

Off to one side, a grassy patch beside the path, Minuette saw her friends sitting around, nibbling on their pre-packed lunches with smiles. Perking up, she cantered over, already reaching into her saddlebags to withdraw her own lunch.

“Hey, guys!” she called as she approached.

First Aid looked up, smiling widely and giving a friendly wave. “Minuette! Hey! You’re a little late,” she called.

Minuette set her saddlebags down before plonking onto her haunches. She gave First a bewildered look. “I am?” she asked, pulling a sandwich from her saddlebags.

“About five minutes late,” Split pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “Looked like you were walking slower than usual when you came out.”

“You also had this real thoughtful look on your face,” Bristle added, taking a bite from a boxed salad. “Like you were trying to solve that, uh… that number thing that goes on forever. What was that called again? Pi?”

“Princess Celestia has been working on that equation for the last seven hundred years,” First Aid noted with a slow nod. “Last I checked, she told the class that she was at, like, four billion decimals? I think?”

“That is a big number, and I have no idea what it means,” Minuette dismissed with a roll of her eyes. She took a big, healthy chomp from her sandwich. She glanced over at Bristle and spoke up once she had swallowed. “But yeah, I was thinking, actually.”

“What about?” he asked, shifting slightly on his haunches.

Minuette glanced back at the building she had emerged from, her ears lowering just slightly. “Um… well, I noticed a lot of ponies giving me odd looks as I was coming out here,” she said slowly, the tingle of discomfort returning. “Like, did I do something funny? Am I popular all of a sudden? And why don’t I like it?”

An awkward silence hung in the air. Bristle, Split, and First all looked among themselves for a few moments before Split cleared his throat and spoke up. “Er, well… apparently, word started going around about your little ‘incident’ during that test,” he recounted slowly. “And, uh… well, it looks like you might have a reputation as a ‘spark plug’ now.”

Minuette deflated, her ears resting flat against her head. “...Oh,” she mumbled, a combined feeling of dejection and embarrassment filling her system. Of course, word about that had gotten around. How had she managed to trick herself into thinking it wouldn’t?

First Aid touched a hoof to Minuette’s shoulder, offering her a kind, sympathetic smile. “Hey, it’s okay. All you gotta do is pass the next test, and everypony will forget it soon enough!” she encouraged with a perky nod.

Minuette managed to give her friend a tiny smile at that, but her mood did not lift as much as the other foal had probably been hoping. She looked down at her sandwich, her appetite now well and truly squashed. Great. She was the class clown now, wasn’t she? She certainly felt like it…

“Hey, First’s right,” Bristle pointed out a moment later. “Might take a bit, but all of this will go away eventually.”

“And if anypony really gets on your case about it,” Split added, a small edge of sinister amusement creeping into his tone. “Just report them to Celestia. She’s pretty good about dealing with bullies.”

“Princess Celestia,” First corrected automatically.

Split shrugged. “Eh.”

Minuette hummed quietly before looking between her assembled friends. A tiny, weakened smile spread on her lips. They were probably right, she figured. It might take a bit, but things would turn out okay. All she had to do was pass that next test and make sure any bullies got their just deserts.

“Heh… thanks, guys,” she eventually muttered before returning to her sandwich.

A few moments passed in an awkward silence before her friends began to talk amongst themselves again. Minuette didn’t pay them much attention, though. She was trying to distract herself internally from the unfortunate situation she had found herself in. Whether or not the odd looks and mockery would go away with time didn’t matter right now, because right now, she did have that poor reputation, and she was going to have to put up with who knew what kinds of garbage until she moved past it?

She didn’t want to think about that, though. She forced herself not to think about it. She looked around the courtyard for something, anything she could use to distance herself from those worrying, anxiety-inducing thoughts. But sadly, there wasn’t much to go on. Just ponies going about their day, the statue in the center, the various luxurious buildings that made up the campus, and her reflection looking back at her from a nearby window with the curtains drawn.

“Hold on a tic.”

“Do you guys ever see stuff moving in mirrors?”

The conversation the others had been going into died the moment Minuette blurted the question. She turned to look at them to see an assortment of bewildered faces staring back at her, none of them quite comprehending.

“Er, what?” First asked in abject confusion.

Minuette gestured vaguely. “Ya know. Stuff in mirrors moving around that aren’t moving in the real world. A shadow in the corner or something,” she explained, her vague gestures becoming downright absurd. “And maybe they talk at you sometimes, telling you to ‘be careful’ when practicing your magic.”

There were many seconds of silence after that where First, Bristle, and Split all stared at her like she had just grown two new heads that belched toasters. They looked between each other for a few seconds before First Aid tilted her head. “Um… no? That’s not supposed to happen.”

“Huh. Weird,” Minuette replied, leaning back and taking another, larger chomp from her sandwich. “Cause that’s been going on with mine. Maybe I’m just crazy or something.”

Bristle and Split shared a look before breaking out into amused grins. In was the latter who spoke. “Heh. Yeah, I agree. You have gone completely bonkers.”

“Split!” First Aid lightly chastised him, frowning. “That’s not nice!”

“Hey, she said it, not me! I’m just agreeing with her!”

“It’s still not nice!”

Split End threw his hooves up into the air with a loud, exasperated groan. “Ugh! There is just no winning with you, is there?!”

“Not really, no,” Bristle remarked with a chuckle. “My dad says you should never annoy the nurse, after all.”

Split grimaced. “Huh? What’s that gotta do with this? First Aid isn’t a nurse!”

“Look at her name,” Bristle shot back. “First Aid. As in First Aid kit. Filly’s gonna be a doctor or a nurse or something.”

First Aid puffed up her cheeks as she seemingly fell into the background of the discussion. “Excuse me?! Are you two ignoring me?!” she demanded indignantly.

“No, we’re talking about you,” Bristle replied casually. “Bit different.”

“Oh, you two are the worst!”

“And Minuette’s crazy.”

Minuette rolled her eyes and laughed at that. Using her magic, she hefted her sandwich up into the air and gave it a few fancy twirls, being careful not to send any of it flying. That would suck. “Heh. Yeah, I am. So crazy, that I’m gonna pass the next test with flying colors!” she decided then and there, thumping a hoof against her chest.

Bristle glanced at her from the side. “Er, that’s not quite how that-”

“Flying colors, Bristle,” Minuette shot him down before taking a very big, exaggerated chomp from her sandwich. When next she spoke, it was with her mouth full muffling her words. “Phwying. Cowurs.”

First Aid looked back and forth between the two before sighing and slapping a hoof to her forehead. “Ugh. You guys…” she groaned quietly, earning more amused chortled from her company. After a moment, she lifted her eyes to Minuette and lightly punched her shoulder. “Well, I’m holding you to that, Minuette! Flying colors!”

Minuette swallowed and made a cross over her chest. “Flying colors! Absolutely!”

Split smiled at them for a moment before tilting his head to one side. “Wait a second… do colors actually fly?”

“Rainbows are a thing,” Bristle noted. “So I think so?”

“But they touch the ground at both ends,” Split sent back. “So, does that really count?”

“Maybe? I dunno, man.”

Minuette and First Aid shared a glance as Split and Bristle kept on bickering about whether or not colors could fly or not. They then smiled and broke down into giggles, taking much joy in the dumb antics of their two friends.

That little moment did wonders to ease Minuette’s newfound worries. As simple and seemingly pointless as it all was, it stuck with her for the rest of the day, and she found it rather difficult to get the small smile off her face until well after the final bell had sent them all home.