The Bug in The Mirror

by Skijarama


My World Is a Reflection

Minuette lay on her bed, her eyes glued onto her mirror and its lone occupant. It was dark out by now, the sun having set a short while ago. Dinner had been early, and for the sake of getting to school on time and well-rested, she was to go to bed soon. Luckily for her, she still had a little bit of time to kill. Right now, she was choosing to pass it by simply watching Fangs and seeing what he was doing.

The bug was idly wandering around on his side of the mirror, examining things up close for a time, sometimes muttering quietly to himself, and then moving on to some other mundane object. He sometimes traced his hoof along them, a distant look in his eyes, before shaking his head and carrying on.

Minuette hummed quietly to herself as she watched, trying to figure out just what Fangs was up to. He had been like this when she came back up from dinner and had only spared her a brief greeting. Whatever he was doing, it clearly had him very deep in thought.

Eventually, Fangs came to a stop in the corner of his version of the room, right by a ball that Minuette would sometimes throw against the wall to pass the time. He stared at it intently, his glowing blue eyes drinking up every single detail. Minuette frowned, a small bead of concern lighting up in her chest. She glanced over at the ball in her room, then back to Fangs, watching what happened.

Eventually, Fangs leaned down and gently prodded the ball with his muzzle, not unlike how a parent might to gently wake their slumbering foal. However, to Minuette’s surprise, the ball did not budge an inch in his world, nor did it move in hers. It remained completely static and still.

A moment later, Fangs pulled back, his ears drooping. “...Of course not,” he grumbled, lightly kicking the ball to identical results.

Minuette blinked. “Huh?”

Fangs jumped, surprised by her voice. He turned to face her, blinking several times. “Oh. Minuette. You’re… still awake,” he observed distractedly, setting off red flags in Minuette’s mind.

Worried, she hopped down from her bed and wandered up to the mirror. Fangs met her there, settling down on his haunches as she approached. She squinted up at him. “...Well, yeah, of course, I am. I don’t gotta be in bed for another few minutes, and you’re acting funny. And not the good kinda funny, either.”

Fangs hummed, his lips pursing into a thin line. A few seconds later, Minuette nodded past him toward the ball on his side. “What happened with the ball? Can you move it?”

Fangs glanced back at it, then shook his head. “Alas, no… As I’ve told you before, my world consists only of what is reflected in the surface of the mirror,” he said solemnly, his ears drooping. “That which lies behind it is, to me, little more than an empty void. Darkness that stretches on forever, while that which lies before it is static. I can put every ounce of strength in my body into it, yet I would be unable to even move a tiny pebble, or disturb a single grain of sand at a beach…”

Minuette’s eyes widened. She got up on her hind legs to prop her hooves onto the surface of the mirror. “Oh my gosh! So, like, you can’t play with the ball if you get bored?!”

Fangs shook his head. “Not as you do, no. If I were so inclined, I could make a game out of trying to move it, I suppose, but that would not be all that entertaining, I would wager,” he said. He turned back to Minuette, his expression downcast.

Minuette’s heart tugged against her chest with pity. Her face contorted with sympathy as she thought of how boring — now, how maddening — that must be. She couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like… “So… what if something moves in the real world?”

Fangs nodded to the ball. “See for yourself.”

Minuette blinked, then nodded. She turned and scampered over to the ball, swiftly picking it up in her hooves and bringing it back over to the mirror. To her surprise, when her reflection faded away, the ball continued to move all on its own, flying through the air to match where she held it in the real world. Fangs stepped aside as it passed, his eyes locked onto it.

Minuette stopped in front of the mirror and fell to her haunches, her eyes wide. “Woah… so… if somepony moves something over here, it just moves over there?”

“Correct,” Fangs replied, placing his hooves on the ball's underside as if to hold it. “Now… drop it.”

Minuette blinked. “Huh? But…”

“Just do it,” Fangs insisted gently, meeting her gaze. She stared into those orbs for several seconds before nodding and dropping the ball. Her eyes followed it in the mirror as, to her growing shock, it phased right through Fangs’ hooves as if they weren’t even there. It bounced against the carpeted floor once, rolling off to one side an inch or two before coming to a stop and falling still.

Fangs lifted his hooves and stared at them, a disappointed huff escaping him. “...When the reflections change, my hooves find no purchase. It is as if I have become a ghost… A blessing in some ways, for I do not have to worry about objects slamming into me at high speeds… But it is infinitely more a curse, for no matter how I try, I can do nothing to the world around me… and I can feel none of it.”

Minuette blinked at him, her jaw falling open. “You can’t feel… what do you mean you can’t feel it?” she asked in complete bafflement.

Fangs sighed, shaking his head. “My world is a reflection, Minuette, nothing more,” he said. His eyes wandered to her hooves, still pressed against the glass. With a sigh, he pressed one of his own up to hers, as if to touch her. “...Do you feel that? The glass? The surface through which you see me?”

Minuette nodded, swallowing heavily. She ran her hooves over the ancient, smooth surface, taking note of how it felt. It was smooth, devoid of imperfections, and with no discernible texture. It just… was. Only now that she was really thinking about it did Minuette realize how wrong it felt against her skin. She shuddered, wanting to pull away, but unable to. She was transfixed by Fangs and what he was telling her, and some small part of her wanted to truly understand his plight.

A moment later, Fangs pulled his hoof away and tapped it against the floor. “That is what my world is, Minuette. A reflection… and so all within it feels the same way. It’s just glass… I could not for the life of me tell you what the carpet you stand on feels like, for I have not felt such a thing in all my years in this accursed mirror.”

Minuette backed away a few paces, finally pulling her hooves away from the mirror. She stared at Fangs for several moments, working her jaw as she tried to find words. It was to no avail, unfortunately. What could she say in a situation like this? What could she say or do that could possibly make her unexpected imaginary friend feel better?

Suddenly, Fangs’ eyes widened, and he looked away. “Oh… Forgive me, Minuette. I am sorry, I did not mean to become so melancholy with you. It’s just… I have not had a chance to properly ruminate on these things in a long, long time, and your room has given me much to investigate and explore. I just… I got lost in my head, I suppose.”

“N-no. No, it’s okay,” Minuette shook her head, forcing herself to smile. “I… I kinda want to know everything, anyway. I mean, I wanna make you feel better...” she shifted a little closer and smiled up at him. “And how am I supposed to make you feel better if I dunno what’s bothering you?”

Fangs blinked. A smile crept onto his face. “Heh… you truly are a sweet little thing, aren’t you, little one?” he asked in a soft voice, lowering himself down onto his belly.

Minuette nodded. “Mhmm! Being mean’s not okay. It’s… well, mean! I’d much rather be nice and sweet.”

“A good mentality to have,” Fangs assured her, pressing his forehead against the glass. “Truly, I am lucky that your parents are the ones to purchase the mirror. Thank you, Minuette.”

“No problem!” Minuette chirped, lightly knocking on the side of the mirror.

Fangs chuckled at that. The two fell silent after that, allowing the cool colors of the night to soothe and relax them. Minuette looked down at the ball and began to idly roll it around on the ground with her hooves. Her thoughts wandered with the gentle, repetitive motions. Question after question ran through her mind about the rules that governed the mirror and Fangs’ place in it.

She did not have answers for any of them, though, but one in particular stuck out in her head. She thought back on a cool trick First Aid had shown her back when they went to the daycare together, where two mirrors held up to each other would make an endlessly repeating image.

She blinked and looked up to Fangs. “So… what would happen if I put another mirror in front of this one?” she asked bluntly.

Fangs’ eyes flew wide. He looked down at Minuette with an uncomfortably intense look. “Do not do that,” he said quickly, almost frantically. “For the love of, er, what was her name? Celestia?”

“Er… yeah?”

“Okay. For the love of Celestia, do not put another mirror in front of this one!” he commanded.

Minuette tilted her head in confusion. “Huh? Why? Does it do something bad?”

Fangs shuddered, turning away with an uncomfortable grimace. “Trust me, little one, when I say that there are some things better left unsaid… and unseen…” he shivered uncontrollably and wrapped his forelegs around himself.

Minuette stared at him for a few seconds. She had a feeling there was a very interesting story behind that reaction, but for the time being, she figured it would probably be for the best if she simply didn’t pry. So, with a shrug, she moved on to another question. “Okay. So, you said your world is basically just whatever’s reflected in the mirror, right?”

A few seconds passed before Fangs pulled himself together. He took a deep breath and turned back to Minuette, clearly eager to distract himself from whatever horrid memories she accidentally poked with a stick. “Er, y-yes, that’s correct, little one. My world is a recreation solely of what can be seen in the surface of the mirror. Why?”

Minuette stared at him for a few moments, her muzzle scrunching up as her brain went to work. “Well… I was just thinking that you must be bored in there. I mean, you’re stuck in my room, like all the time, and you can’t even play with any of my toys! And when I’m off at school, you don’t have anypony else to talk to.”

“That is nothing new for me, Minuette,” Fangs reminded her. “It is not much of an issue.”

“That’s dumb!” Minuette protested. Fangs recoiled, blinking at her in surprise. Undeterred, she went on. “You shouldn’t be forced to be bored all the time! And you shouldn’t be stuck in my room, either! I mean, it’s not exactly huge, is it?”

Fangs looked around, a whimsical look on his face. “To be fair, little one, a small room is a thousand times more tolerable than being pressed against the mirror’s surface by an immovable tarp.”

“Not the point!” Minuette protested, stomping her hoof against the floor. “I wanna make sure you can have some fun and stuff when I’m off doing stuff at school! And you have those wings, too, but I’ve never seen you use em, and I think that sucks! You got em, you should be able to use em!”

Fangs sighed and turned back to face Minuette. “Well, true as that may be, I am not entirely sure what you intend to do about it. My world is static, little one. I cannot change it no matter what I do, and there are only so many rooms in your house. Besides, I doubt your parents will approve of you moving it around for the sake of your ‘imaginary friend,’ now will they?”

“Not around the house,” Minuette shook her head before lighting up her horn with magic. Fangs’ eyes widened as she enveloped the mirror in her grasp, lifting it a few inches off the ground. She grunted and groaned with effort, her horn aching from the exertion of lifting something so big and heavy compared to her. 

“Minuette? What are you doing?” Fangs asked in alarm.

Minuette grunted, her teeth grinding together. She slowly turned the mirror around as she floated it over a few feet to the right. She could see Fangs’ moving to try and keep her in his sights as the mirror turned, and the world within it changed to match. Eventually, it was facing the other way. With one last groan of strain, Minuette set the mirror down, propping it against her bedside table facing it toward her window.

The moment she set it down, she staggered off to one side, her head pounding from the effort. She soon slumped against the wall, panting heavily. She placed a hoof against her temple to try and quell a newfound headache, to limited results.

“Minuette?!” Fangs’ voice called from the mirror, increasingly alarmed. “Are you alright?! What did you do?!”

Minuette took a few deep breaths before calling over to him. “I’m okay!” She called, staggering forward until she was in front of the mirror again. Fangs visibly relaxed on seeing her, his wings drooping at his sides.

“Goodness, filly, you scared me! What were you thinking?!”

Minuette flinched from the tone in his voice, reminded of scoldings she had received from her parents in the past when she had been bad. She discarded that feeling a moment later, a grin adorning her muzzle. Then, with one last flicker of her magic, she grabbed onto her window and threw it open, allowing a current of mountain air chilled by the night to drift in. She met Fangs’ gaze, her grin widening. “...Changing the world?”

Fangs stared at her for several seconds, a bewildered frown on his face. “...I hope you realize how cheesy that sounded.”

“Don’t care. Ten.”

“And that is a valid point,” Fangs conceded before turning around to stare at the window. His posture slowly changed as it dawned on him just what Minuette had done. He looked back and forth between her and the world she had just opened up to him. “Little one… I…”

“Your world is based on what’s in the mirror, right?” Minuette reminded him, nodding toward the window. “Well, what if the world was in the mirror?”

She glanced back to the window on her side, taking note of what could be seen. It was mostly the rooftops of other buildings on her street, though the open sky rested beyond, speckled with the million flickering lanterns that were the stars. She grasped the mirror in her hooves and gently pulled it closer to the window, moving slower this time, until at last, she was holding it up right to the window, allowing Fangs to look out at a very large chunk of Canterlot from a relatively good vantage point. Even the slopes of the mountain the city rested on could be seen, rising high up into the night sky and capped with snow.

“And what if, when I’m not around, like when I’m at school or with friends and stuff, I put you here so you can explore the world out there?” Minuette finally asked, looking into the mirror at Fangs.

He stared out at Canterlot, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open. In particular, his gaze was locked onto the surface of the moon. He stared at it for a long while, working his jaw. “Is that… the moon?” he asked in barely even a whisper.

“Uh-huh.”

“...What happened to it?”

Minuette frowned, looking at it herself. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary… it looked the same as it ever did, the Mare in the Moon and all. “What do you mean?” she asked quietly.

Fangs stared at it for a few moments longer before shaking his head. “N-never mind, little one. I just… it has been a very long time since I have seen the night sky… I… I had forgotten…” his words trailed off, his eyes wandering the heavens as if in a daze.

Minuette smiled softly at him. “...You wanna explore a little?”

Fangs was quiet for a short time before looking back at her, then to his wings. He gave them a few short buzzes, allowing Minuette to hear them in motion for the first time. “...I… I don’t… I…” he struggled to find his words. At last, he focused on Minuette, and his eyes lit up. “I would love to, Minuette!”

Minuette smiled and nodded. “Okay, go on then! Just make sure you’re back before I turn the mirror around! I don’t wanna do that only to find out you're gone!”

Fangs shook his head. “That won’t be a problem, little one. My whole world is what’s reflected in the mirror. If you turn it around to face your room’s interior again, all else will dissolve for me, and I will return to you as if I had never left.”

“Oh, okay!” Minuette chirped before taking a step back and gently resting the mirror against the window. “Is that good? Do you need me to adjust it at all?”

“No, no, this is perfect,” Fangs answered, though Minuette could no longer see him, as the mirror was pressed more or less flat against the wall and window. “Thank you, Minuette… truly… words cannot express how much this means to me…”

Minuette tilted her head. “...Okay? Uh, well… You’re very welcome, Fangs! Have fun!”

“I will,” Fangs answered. Minuette’s ears then caught the sound of his wings buzzing in the air. The sound slowly faded into silence, and for a moment, Minuette sat there, left all on her own in her room for the first time since she got the mirror. She was about to go and hop into bed when, to her surprise, she heard the distant echoing of Fangs’ voice, laughing loudly and ecstatically to the heavens, before that, too, faded into nothingness.

Minuette smiled, turning to head for bed. “Good night, Fangs,” she whispered.