Minuette awoke to the first rays of morning sunlight assaulting her closed eyelids. She gave off an annoyed groan of dismay, scrunching up her face and screwing her eyelids as tightly shut as she could in a futile attempt to drown out the light so that she could get some more sleep. She had been in the middle of a particularly good dream involving ice cream, Fangs, and a yeti. She didn’t really remember the specifics, but she wanted to go back! It was fun!
Alas, another element of the day would conspire against her. Not long after the light roused her, a gentle knock from her door rendered any remaining efforts to return to sleep utterly pointless. The door creaked open a moment later, and Pearly poked her head in. “Minnie? You awake, sweetie?”
Minuette grumbled something incoherent and most likely inappropriate before rolling over and burying her face into her pillow. She could just make out Pearly giggling at her. Her mother’s hooves found her shoulders a second later and gently lifted her up. “Okay, enough of the drama. Come on, you need to get ready for school.”
“School sucks,” Minuette complained, weakly trying to pry herself out of Pearly’s grasp, to no avail. “I don’t wanna go.”
“And I don’t want to stare at how much tartar some ponies let build up in their mouths, much less break it all up and clean what’s underneath, but it’s what I gotta do,” Pearly shot back without missing a beat.
“But that’s different,” Minuette whined as she finally gave up her attempts at resistance. “You get paid to go to work. I don’t get paid to go to school.”
Pearly giggled at Minuette’s continued defiance. She made a show of rolling her eyes and backing off in defeat. “Oh, very well, if you insist. And to think, I went through all the effort of making cinnamon rolls for you, too…”
Minuette’s ears perked up. Oh, now that was just completely unfair! She slowly turned and gave Pearly the most indignant pout she could manage. “...That’s just mean.”
Pearly giggled merrily as she began to head for the door. “They’ll be ready in a few more minutes. If you aren’t down by then I’ll come get you, okay?” she said with a cheerful nod. She paused in the door before glancing back at Minuette, a more serious look on her face. “And, Minnie?”
Minuette tilted her head at her. Something about her tone wasn’t quite right. Did she sound… worried? What could she have to be worried about? Now growing anxious, Minuette swallowed heavily and spoke. “Yeah, mom?”
Pearly hesitated for a few moments. She worked her jaw up and down as if fishing for the right words. Eventually, she put on a reassuring smile. “Just… if you need to talk about what happened yesterday, you know you can always come to your dad or I, right?”
Oh. That.
Minuette’s ears drooped flat against her head while her mood plummeted. So that was it. And now that her mother mentioned it, the memory of the incident with Bristle became mercilessly clear. She had enjoyed a few fleeting minutes of blissful ignorance, but now she remembered why she was so anxious about going back to school.
She swallowed heavily and gave Pearly one more smile. “I know, mom. Thanks.”
Pearly began to back out of the room, holding Minuette’s eyes the whole while. “Of course. We love you, Minnie,” she said before vanishing from view entirely, though she left the door open just a crack behind her.
Minuette stared after her for a few moments. Her heart was beginning to feel cold with dread and anxiety. Her hooves clutched tightly to her blankets, and she raised them up to hover over her chest. She took in a deep shuddering breath. Scenario after grim scenario began to race through her head. After how things went yesterday, worse than she ever could have imagined, the idea of something going right when she saw Bristle again seemed foreign.
Before she could let her thoughts go too far out of control, though, she was suddenly jarred from her depressing reverie by the sound of Fangs clearing his throat. Minuette gave off a quiet squeak of alarm, then turned to face the bug in her mirror. He nodded once she saw him with a worried frown. “Little one. You are letting your fear run away with you, again,” he said matter of factly.
Minuette opened her mouth to belt out a denial of some kind, but nothing came. And then she remembered that even if she had tried to deny it, he would probably be able to tell she was lying. She remembered how he could see her emotions in the air like wisps of color. She frowned at him for a few seconds before letting off a long, heavy sigh. “Yeah… I guess I am…”
Fangs nodded quietly. “I cannot say I blame you. It was quite an ordeal you went through yesterday… and I apologize again for setting you up for a success that was bound to never happen.”
Minuette shook her head before hopping down. She walked over at a slow pace, giving Fangs a small, reassuring smile. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” she said, echoing her thoughts from the previous night.
Fangs nodded. “I know. I know that,” he acknowledged. The two fell into a long, heavy silence after that, neither saying a word for several minutes. Minuette’s smile began to fade, and her mind began to wander once again. She bit her lip as the dread and anxiety swelled up inside her all over again. Her hooves began to push uneasily into the carpet, fidgeting in place.
Suddenly, Fangs met her gaze and put on a small smile. “Tell me. Did you enjoy my story, little one?” he asked.
Minuette blanked. Story? She had to think for a moment before it came back to her, the story of the brave warriors sent by their queen to find and end some sort of threat to the world. At once, she latched onto that, far preferring the enigmatic cliffhanger she had been left on to her morbid concerns about the day that lay ahead of her. She put on a large smile and nodded her head eagerly. “Oh, yes! It was really, really good! And those voiced you did, too! It was so cool!”
Fangs chuckled at the rapid return of her enthusiasm. He leaned back slightly and tilted his head at her. “I am glad. You fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the tale, and it left me kind of worried that I was boring you.”
Minuette shook her head. “Boring me?! Fangs, that was one of the coolest stories I've ever heard! And you told it all to me without even needing a book!” she exclaimed, throwing her hooves up into the air for emphasis. “Where did you learn it?”
Fangs stared at her for several seconds, the smile on his face being replaced with a blank, distant look. Immediately, Minuette’s grin faded, and her excitement was replaced with concern. Had she said something wrong? She lowered her hooves and inched closer to the mirror. “Fangs?”
Hearing his name again snapped the bug out of his trance. He jumped in place and shook his head. “O-oh! Forgive me, Minuette. I was just… trying to remember,” he said, idly reaching one hoof up to rub at his shoulder. “But… I can’t recall where I heard it. Wherever I first learned this legend, it must have been quite a long time ago.”
Minuette relaxed slightly. Well, at least she hadn’t upset Fangs somehow. All the same, she couldn’t help but slump in place a little at her friend’s own diminished mood. “Oh… that’s a shame,” she mumbled, her ears drooping.
Fangs perked up a moment later, shaking his head in dismissal. “Perhaps it is, but it’s not relevant. What matters is that I recall the tale with enough clarity to tell it to you - and some few others besides, should you have need of them.”
Minuette’s smile slowly began to return. More stories told by Fangs? That sounded like a fun time. Some small part of her couldn’t help but wonder if he would have done well as a storyteller or writer or something. To her young mind, he definitely and unquestionably had a strong knack for it.
After a moment, she brushed back some of her mane, realizing now how unkempt and messy it was from a night of tossing and turning. “Well… thank you, Fangs. It really helped me last night.”
Fangs’ wings buzzed briefly on his back. “Think nothing of it, Minuette. After all you have done for me in the short time I have known you, it was the very least I could do,” he said with warmth and appreciation. “You’ve been a great friend to me, and you even had the clarity and creativity to grant me the skies, however fragmented and spotty they may be. I can safely say that none that I remember knowing have had the clarity for such a thing. You are my only solace and company… and words cannot express what that means to me.”
Minuette blinked, taken aback. There was weight to his words that she wasn’t sure she truly understood. The look in his eyes, the intensity of his words, the strength of his tone… he meant every word of what he just said, and given what she knew of him, it was hard for Minuette to truly wrap her head around how much her presence here probably meant to him.
But at the same time, could he really grasp how much he meant to her, especially now after Bristle’s outburst? She had gone from having four friends to two, seeing as her father had asked Split to stay away for now. It was just First Aid and Fangs…
“You’re welcome, Fangs,” she eventually said, beaming up at him. “You mean a lot to me, too, and I’m…” the memory of Bristle tugging the mirror down flashed through her mind, causing Minuette to cringe. She winced but continued a second later, resting one hoof against the glass. “I’m just glad you're okay. When he pulled you down, I thought… I was afraid I had lost you.”
Fangs blinked at her, then shook his head. “Luckily, the mirror is indestructible.”
Minuette nodded. That was a good thing, yes. But… her eyes snapped wide open as she considered her own words. “But… I can still lose you,” she muttered, her hoof retreating from the glass.
Fangs lifted an eyebrow. “Little one?”
Minuette sprang to her hooves, trotting in place with anxious energy. “What if somepony comes and steals the mirror from the window when I’m gone?!” she asked, her eyes darting to her window and the view of Canterlot outside. “What if it falls and somepony throws it in the trash?! What if-”
“Minuette, hey, stop,” Fangs cut her off, putting a hoof against the glass. “You are panicking over what are, frankly, absurd hypotheticals. I am not going anywhere, I promise.”
Minuette took a moment to think that over, and then eventually gave off a sigh. Fangs had a point. What were the odds of that, anyway? As long as she was careful, the odds of him ever actually vanishing from her room were slim to none, especially when she was around to keep tabs on things.
But still… there was always the chance.
Thinking fast, Minuette turned and ran over to her chest of drawers, her horn sparking to life. She quickly tore open the bottom drawer, finding inside a wealth of drawing supplies. Well, a wealth to her ten-year-old mind. Crayons, colored pencils, a rubber ducky that she was supposed to return to the bathroom last month. She quickly plucked one of the reddest, brightest crayons she could find and ran back to the mirror and a very confused looking Fangs.
“Uh, little one, what are you- GYAH!”
Fangs let off an indignant squeal as Minuette grabbed the mirror in her magic and pulled it away from the wall, far enough that she could get at the backside. It leaned forward slightly, more than she had been hoping, causing Fangs to stumble a bit as his world shifted. Minuette winced guiltily, and so set to work, quickly applying the crayon to the back of the mirror.
“What are you doing?!” Fangs demanded, his words partially muffled. “I can only see carpet! Little one!”
“One sec!” Minuette told him, writing out the last few letters. Then, with a small flourish, she applied a triple underline to the words before drawing back to admire her work. Three lines of text, all in big, bold, vibrant red letters.
‘PROPERTY OF MINUETTE
IF LOST
RETURN TO HER IN CANTERLOT’
“There! Now, if I ever lose you, somepony else will come along and bring you back!” She declared cheerfully before putting the mirror back where it belonged. Fangs flopped back onto his haunches as his reality stabilized itself. He shook his head a few times, and Minuette could just imagine a few birds flying in circles around it.
After a moment, he gave her a modestly annoyed look. “And what, pray tell, were you doing back there?” he asked. “And why did you not warn me? We went over this after you first did the thing with the window, did we not?”
Minuette paused, a blush slowly coming to her cheeks. “Oh yeah, I kinda promised I’d tell him next time, didn’t I?” she realized. She was quick to cough into her hoof and give him an apologetic grin. “Sorry, Fangs. I guess I was just excited.”
Fangs snorted, his wings buzzing on his back. He didn’t stay mad at her for long, though, and simply smiled. “Ugh… I suppose I should not be surprised. But my first question still remains unanswered. What did you do?”
Minuette grinned and slapped the frame of the mirror a few times like a used chariot salesmare trying to get some business. “Oh, not much. I just wrote a little message on the back of the mirror telling anypony who finds it to bring it back to me! That way, even if I lose you, it won’t be forever!”
Fangs glanced at the frame with a frown. “...Huh. I had not considered that,” he admitted. He then gave a weak chuckle and shook his head in bemusement. “You truly are something else, aren’t you?”
“Dad calls me the little beast!”
“So I have heard, and so I have learned.”
Before the duo could talk any further, there was a knock on the door. Minuette turned to see Pearly poking her head in with a welcoming smile. “Minnie. Food’s ready,” she said. “Time to come down.”
And just like that, Minuette’s good mood fell apart. Her ears drooped, and she turned back to Fangs in the hope that she could find some excuse to hang around. But going by the despondent look he wore, that was not going to be happening. No more delays, then, it seemed.
She gave a quiet huff before standing. “Okay, mom. I’m coming,” she said quietly. She placed her hoof against the glass and gave Fangs a small smile. “Later, Fangs. Wish me luck?”
Fangs nodded. “Good luck, little one. I am confident that you will be fine,” he said to her in reassurance. “And stick with First Aid. She is a good filly and a better friend to you. She’ll watch your back.”
Minuette’s smile became a little more genuine. Just a little. Fangs wasn't wrong, she did still have First Aid at that school… but she was all she had.
As she pulled her hoof away from the mirror and turned to follow her mother out of the room, she shook herself and set her jaw. “Welp,” she thought as the door closed behind her. “Nothing else for it… I guess I just gotta make some more friends.”