“Hello… Little one,” Fangs greeted, his lips curling up in a pitiful attempt at a smile.
Minuette sighed in relief, a hoof flying up to cover her heart. “Oh, thank Celestia. You’re okay!” she breathed. She allowed herself to fall forward, pressing her forehead up against the cool, unchanging glass. “I was so worried when he pulled you over… I thought… I thought…”
A quiet hum came from the other side of the mirror, drawing Minuette’s attention. Fangs was smiling for real, now, and he shook his head. “No, little one. I have existed this way for a very long time, and I have traded hooves many times. Many of those hooves belonged to foals. If this mirror could break, it would have done so by now. Whatever curse binds me here renders the glass indestructible.”
Minuette nodded at that and leaned away. Fangs was okay. The mirror was okay - and apparently couldn’t become not okay, either, so that was a plus - and First was going to talk to Bristle just as soon as she got a chance. “See”? She thought, starting to relax. “Everything is going to be fine… totally and completely fine, and… and…”
“I’m sorry.”
Minuette’s slowly deteriorating thoughts did not get a chance to go to the dark place they were eyeing. All of her attention was pulled directly to Fangs when he uttered that most unexpected sentence. She looked at him again to find his head lowered and his eyes closed. He looked… almost ashamed of himself.
She blinked. “...Huh? What are you sorry for?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Perhaps not,” Fangs acknowledged quietly before lifting his eyes. “But just because I did nothing wrong, does not mean I said nothing wrong.”
Minuette didn’t like the sound of that. She licked her lips and leaned forward slightly. “What do you mean?”
Fangs hesitated for a moment, suddenly looking as if he weren’t so sure of what he had to say anymore. He opened his mouth several times, but each time, all that came out was a quiet sigh. Finally, he managed to find his words and his voice. “...Minuette. Before your friends arrived, I told you, with confidence, that everything would be fine. I assured you that nothing would go wrong and that this plan of yours would go off without a hitch. I assumed that your friends would appreciate all of the effort you went to in order to bring them together and spend time with them… and I was wrong.”
Minuette’s eyes widened. “Wha… but… Fangs, that’s not your fault,” she protested, utterly baffled. “You didn’t know they were going to react that way!”
Fangs sighed, turning away to avoid making eye contact. “I didn’t know, but I should have considered it a possibility. Those were the children of nobles, Minuette, and I should have known - I should have known that it wouldn’t have been so simple.”
Minuette shook her head. “Hey, come on. That’s not-”
“The point is, Minuette, I set you up for a fun time, and what did you get?” Fangs interrupted her, his wings twitching in agitation on his back. He faced her again, his glowing blue orbs boring into hers with an intensity that gave her pause. “A bully. You were shouted at, insulted, mocked, and picked on by somepony you thought was your friend… And while Bristle’s behavior is not my responsibility, the fact that I said nothing to prepare you for such an outcome… that is my fault.”
A heavy silence fell over the two. Minuette stared, wide-eyed, and unblinking at Fangs for almost a solid minute. Had he truly meant all of that? She hadn’t known Fangs long enough to tell when he was lying, so he could have been exaggerating, or he could have been wholly honest about how he felt about this. But if he believed something so broken and so wrong, then…
Minuette’s ears drooped. “Fangs… how can you even say something like that?” she asked quietly, placing her hoof up against the glass. “None of this was you. You shouldn’t beat yourself up like this.”
Fangs was quiet for a short while, unable to meet Minuette’s gaze. He sighed and sat down on his haunches, shaking his head. “...Forgive me, little one. It is just… it can be very easy for me to blame myself when things go wrong.”
“Why?”
Fangs lowered himself onto his belly. “All I have are my words, little one,” he said slowly and quietly, his tone somber. “Those are all I can use to interact with the world beyond this accursed barrier. And those ponies I can call my friends have been few in number and far apart over the years. I cherish them with all my heart, for when they are gone, I am left behind. I must make my time with them count. So I watch, I listen, I learn, and when asked, I speak. And when something goes wrong… It is easy to tell myself that I should have spoken, said something to prevent it. To look back and, in perfect hindsight, see all the things I could have said to avoid whatever happened. It is so easy to fall into pits of self-deprecation because to me, all of these moments I am to spend with you are beyond precious. And…”
He lifted his eyes to Minuette, and to her shock, they were starting to shimmer with what could only be tears. “And I don’t want them to be squandered. I wish to make the most of every moment I have…”
Minuette’s heart twisted in her chest, and she could feel her own eyes watering up again. What Fangs was saying was hard for her to wrap her head around, but she got the idea. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for him. It had never even crossed her mind that whenever things went wrong in the real world, he could only watch.
“I… I’m so sorry,” she whispered, moving forward and wrapping her forelegs around the mirror, trying in vain desperation to give Fangs a hug. “I had no idea…”
“It’s fine, little one… I know it’s wrong of me,” Fangs said softly.
Minuette sniffled, then leaned back. Fangs had placed a hoof against the glass and was giving her a gentle smile. She tried to smile back but just couldn’t find it in herself to do so. She looked down, her ears resting flat against her head. “I really wanna hug you…”
Fangs nodded. “And I you… But for now, it is more than enough to simply be here,” he said in a low whisper. “But enough about me. It wasn’t my friend who turned his back on me… how are you holding up?”
Minuette cringed, her heart skipping a beat. She shuddered at the memory of Bristle shouting at her, of the infuriated look in his eyes, and of how First had been on the verge of tears when she stood up to him. She sniffled, folding in on herself, her hooves curling protectively over her chest. “I… I’ll be okay,” she mumbled, sniffling. “But… I d-don’t understand. Why couldn’t they see you?”
Fangs frowned, his gaze wandering. “Hmm… I wonder…”
He stood and began to pace slowly in pace before the mirror. Minuette watched him, now wondering what he was thinking. She sniffled, swallowed, and inched a little closer to the mirror. “Fangs?”
“In all the years I have been trapped here, I never once took the time to try and narrow down when exactly a foal could no longer see me,” he said slowly, his brow furrowed. “I had never wanted to run the risk of them missing me. And it had never struck me as important…”
He turned on Minuette, his expression hardening. “You had turned ten years old when your parents delivered the mirror to you, right?”
Minuette nodded. “Uh-huh, and I saw you, just for a second, that night. I thought the light was playing tricks on my eyes,” she said before frowning.
Fangs nodded, a look of dawning comprehension coming over his face. “I see… so the cut-off point is ten years old. You must have spotted my shadow within hours - perhaps even mere minutes of losing the ability to do so. If you had waited even a little longer to make use of the mirror...”
Minuette’s eyes widened at the implication. Her hooves drifted up to cover her mouth. “You mean… I might not have been able to ever meet you?” she asked in dread, realizing that if Fangs was right, they had really dodged a bullet on this one.
Fangs nodded. “That is the only explanation I can think of. You are perhaps older than any other foal was when I met them, and your friends aren’t terribly much older than you are. We got lucky, you and I…”
Minuette stared at Fangs for a few seconds. Then, with a tiny smile replacing her shocked frown, she spoke. “Well… I’m happy I met you, Fangs,” she said.
Fangs’ smile returned, and he nodded again. “As am I, little one. As am I.”
The remainder of the day passed by in a quiet blur. Minuette spent most of her time in her room, talking with Fangs whenever she could. But more often than not, the discussions would peter out into awkward silence, affording her mind the chance to meander back to the memories of Bristle’s outburst.
The hours seemed to drag, and when it was finally time for dinner, it felt as if an entire ice age had come and gone. The food warmed her belly, and the gentle reassurances from her mother and father did wonders to ease Minuette’s turbulent thoughts and still quivering heart. She spent some time with them after that, hoping to get every ounce of parental affection she could get out of them before she had to go to bed.
But, soon enough, the sun made its inevitable descent, and the night swallowed Equestria. And with that, it was time for her to head to bed. She tried her best to stall, but her parents were insistent that she get her sleep - especially after everything that had happened today. She needed her rest, they told her, and she didn’t doubt them. She felt like she could sleep for an eon.
The problem was that she had school tomorrow… and school meant being in the same room as Split and Bristle again. As she lay there in bed, her eyes staring up at the ceiling, her mind kept wandering over to that inevitable reunion. She felt her heart fluttering with fear in her chest at the prospect. Every time, she imagined the other colt openly picking on her in class or in the halls, mocking her ‘imaginary friend’ or something. She wasn’t a noble, she was a commoner filly. She’d be easy prey, and almost nopony else would lift a hoof to defend her, she figured.
And all because she had done better than him on one freaking test. All of this because she had pulled her weight, done her homework, practices, and gave it her all. She had made him look bad, and if what she had heard was true, it had not been pleasant on him. She hadn’t meant for it to turn out like this! She hadn’t been trying to get others to pick on and bully him. She just didn’t want that kind of attention on her. She just wanted to do well in school and make her family proud.
So why did doing that have to make one of her best friends hate her?
Maybe she would apologize to him… maybe she’d throw the next test for his sake. Maybe… maybe…
“Little one?”
Minuette jumped slightly when Fangs suddenly spoke up, in spite of how low his voice was. She looked over to see his glowing eyes staring back at her through the darkness. She frowned. “Fangs… oh, did I forget to move the mirror so you could go outside?” she asked, mentally kicking herself in the flank.
Fangs shook his head. “No, no, that’s fine. I’d rather be here tonight… judging by the colors I am seeing here, it looks like you need me.”
Minuette sighed, remembering how he could literally see every emotion she had as colorful mist. She flopped back down onto her bed, groaning in a mixture of frustration and dread. “I don’t wanna go back to school… I wanna stay here…”
Fangs nodded. “I do not blame you for that, but it’s out of our hooves… You really should try and get some sleep, though.”
Minuette rolled onto her side to glare at fangs, giving him an indignant pout. “Oh, yeah, like it’s that easy,” she snarked sarcastically.
Fangs was not fazed by her sharp tone. Instead, he simply smiled. “Well… what helps you sleep at night?” he asked.
Minuette paused, thinking back. “Well… for a long time, mom or dad would read me stories to help me sleep. But they stopped doing that a couple of years ago. They said I was getting too old for it.”
“Did it work?”
“Uh-huh.”
Fangs’ face lit up with a small smile. “Well, then… what if I told you a story?”
That got Minuette’s full attention. She sat bolt upright, staring at Fangs with wide eyes and a gaping jaw. “You’d do that?!” she asked in disbelief, already feeling herself get excited. “You know a good one?”
Fangs chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Well, I think it’s good. I’ll be telling it from memory, though, seeing as I don’t have it down in writing anywhere.”
Minuette was unable to restrain a squeal of delight. She clapped her hooves a few times, then quickly lay back down, tucking herself in with her magic. “Okay, Fangs! Ready! Tell me a story!” she all but commanded to the bug in her mirror.
Fangs laughed at that. He cleared his throat a moment later and began to speak.
“Once upon a time, there was a kingdom in a faraway land, ruled by a mighty and powerful queen. Her subjects knew no fear from their enemies, for there were none who could oppose her. She protected her people, and she kept them safe, happy, and away from the dangers of the world. For a thousand long years, this queen ruled, and all was well in the land.
“But then, one day, the queen learned of a disaster in a faraway land, one that not even she could stop.”
Minuette gasped, immediately slipping back into her role as the excitable listener. “Oh no! What was it?!”
“I’m getting to that, be patient,” Fangs said to her, stifling a chuckle. “The queen’s subjects were fearful. They had no idea what was happening. Their crops were beginning to die, and the land would no longer obey them. Without their food, they would starve. Without the land, their homes would crumble. The queen knew something had to be done, and so she sent seven of her bravest warriors out to find the source of this spreading darkness and see it unmade, while she remained behind to defend their home and her subjects...”
Minuette listened with wrapt attention as Fangs told her more and more of his story. She gripped her sheets tightly when she heard of how, on the way to the scene of the disaster, they were attacked by an erratically acting dragon. She giggled when she heard about how they found a field of blue flowers that made them turn into funny things. She gasped in horror when one of the warriors got separated from the others in a rockslide.
But soon, her eyes began to drift closed. Fangs’ two-toned voice was soothing, almost melodious as he weaved his tale. Soon, his words began to blend together, and Minuette’s world faded into darkness.
“But no matter what hardships had befallen him,” Fangs was saying as she drifted off to slumber. “The warrior knew he would save his people.”