“Minnie!”
Minuette jumped in her skin at the sudden call of her name. She quickly turned her head to see First Aid rising from her desk and running over to greet her. She had just arrived in class for first period, and most everypony was already here. Minuette put on a small smile at the sight of her friend, though she was not able to keep her eyes from briefly darting past her to look at where Bristle and Split usually sat.
To her combined surprise, disappointment, and relief, both were absent. As First Aid finished closing the gap, Minuette cast her gaze about the room for any sign of the duo. Her heart skipped a beat with anxiety when she caught sight of Split on the other side of class. He gave her a small, apologetic smile and wave before looking down at his desk.
“You doing okay?” First Aid asked in a lowered voice once she was close enough, bringing Minuette back to the present.
She gave a slow nod, her eyes shifting this way and that. Where was Bristle? He had to be around here somewhere, didn’t he? “Er, yeah, I’m doing okay. A little tired, but okay,” was her half-attentive answer. She missed the worried frown First was giving her until she spoke up again. “Where’s Bristle?”
First Aid’s frown deepened. She heaved a quiet, saddened sigh, then shook her head. “I dunno. I looked for him when I got to school earlier, but he wasn’t anywhere around. Not even Split knows where he is… I guess he decided to skip class today.”
Minuette looked away, her ears drooping. “Or maybe he got grounded?” she ventured timidly. “His parents sound like they’re mean and dumb.”
“That’s not nice, Minnie,” First Aid gently chastised her, though she didn’t have it in her to vocalize anything else on that subject. Minuette shrugged noncommittally before striding past First Aid and sliding into her desk.
Several minutes passed where neither filly said anything. Minuette was hunched over her desk, fidgeting anxiously and passing her gaze around. Her eyes kept landing on Split, but he seemed to be doing his best not to make eye contact. He really was taking her father’s request to heart and choosing to keep his distance for now.
“It’s not fair on him,” she thought, her ears drooping. She gave off a quiet sigh, then glanced back over at First. “Hey, uh… what about Split? How is he doing?” she asked in a whisper.
First nodded toward him. “He’s doing okay. A little bummed out, but I think he’ll be fine.”
Well, that was of some relief. Minuette managed a small smile as she looked back to Split. This time, he was looking back and managed to return the smile. Before either could act on the moment of contact, though, the door in the back of the class opened, and all of the ambient chatter fell silent as Princess Celestia entered the room, regal and radiant as ever.
“Good morning, class,” she greeted in her usual motherly tone.
“Good morning, Princess!” everyone replied in unison, though Minuette really only mumbled it.
Celestia nodded in satisfaction as her eyes roved over the class. A small frown decorated her muzzle as she quickly took attendance, no doubt noticing the distinct lack of Bristle, who had otherwise had perfect attendance up to this point. Once she was done, she set the clipboard aside and nodded to her students. “Before we get to today’s lesson, I want to take a moment to remind everypony that your group project is due in just under three weeks. If you haven’t found your groups, you may want to get on that.”
Minuette’s ears went flat against her head, and a very inappropriate word danced across her thoughts. The group project! She had completely forgotten about it in all of the drama surrounding Bristle! A small pearl of panic began to creep up in her heart as the princess began to outline what was going to happen in class today.
“What am I going to do?!” Minuette thought, her eyes turning down to stare at her desk. “We had our group, but it’s basically been torn apart! I don’t think First and I can do this all on our own! Oh no, we’re gonna fail, and then everypony’s gonna start picking on me, and her too! Oh no, oh no! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?!”
Judging by the uneasy look on First Aid’s face, she had a similar, if less intense, train of thought going. Minuette turned to her and whispered quietly. “First, what are we gonna do?! We don’t have a team anymore!”
First bit her lip, her eyes shifting nervously. “Uuum… We could see if there’s anypony else in this class without a group yet?” she ventured, though she didn’t sound so sure of that plan.
“I think everypony’s already taken, though,” Minuette pointed out, her mind scrambling.
“What choice do we have, though?” First countered.
Minuette opened her mouth to offer some form of rebuke, but nothing came. First Aid was right. It wasn’t like this was a school-wide project, like for a science fair or something. This was a project for this specific class. They couldn’t go and draw someone from their own projects to help them with this when they wouldn’t get anything out of it. That would be selfish, mean, and quite a little dumb.
First Aid put on a reassuring smile and lightly tapped Minuette on the shoulder. “Let’s ask around when the bell rings, okay? And when we’re going through our classes, if we share any of them with ponies here, we can check with them, too.”
Well, it was a plan, at least. Minuette nodded. “Right! W-we’ll find someone, I know we will!” she declared, doing her best to put her usual cheeriness into her voice. First Aid grinned back at her in response before leaning back to focus on the princess.
As Minuette allowed herself to get absorbed in Celestia’s lecture, she allowed her mind to wander to who she would ask to join their group first. “We got this!” she told herself in her mind, trying to psyche herself up. “Just like last time! We’ll pass with flying colors, I know we will! Just gotta find someone!”
“I didn’t find anyone,” Minuette complained in frustration a couple of hours later. She had taken every single opportunity she could find to ask ponies she passed if they’d be willing to team up with her and First, only for all of the ones she approached to tell her they were already in a group and had already made some progress. Either that or they just didn’t want to join Minuette’s group for one reason or another.
“Aren’t you the one who popped?”
“Yeah, so?”
“...I’m good.”
That one had stung a little bit. But if nothing else, the search across halls and classes had been a fantastic distraction. In fact, the longer it went on, even with all of her failures, Minuette’s mood was steadily beginning to improve. She still felt lingering bits of dread and anxiety in her chest every so often, but she was mostly able to ignore it and focus on class and poking her classmates.
It was the lunch break now, and as had been the plan, Minuette made her way straight to the entrance to the cafeteria to meet up with First. She had been waiting for only a couple of minutes when the other filly arrived. Judging by the disappointed yet seemingly acceptant look on her face, First Aid had much the same luck as Minuette did.
“Me neither,” First Aid confirmed with a defeated sigh, pushing open the cafeteria doors with her magic. “This sucks.”
The two briefly stopped on catching sight of the sheer number of ponies crammed into the large interior space. Although, judging by the weather outside, it should have come as no surprise. The pegasi weather teams had brought in a not-insignificant amount of rainclouds over the course of the morning, and they had started unloading their contents shortly before lunch began, dousing Canterlot and the surrounding mountainside with a torrential downpour.
Most ponies would understandably want to avoid the bad weather, leading to the cafeteria being overwhelmed by a veritable swarm of hungry fillies and colts, the vast majority of whom had taken seats around the numerous tables that filled the space. The volume of their chatter was high, causing Minuette’s ears to briefly snap back in response.
First Aid glanced back at Minuette and shugged. “Eh. Well, we can worry about it later. Let’s get some lunch.”
Minuette followed after her, trying to be the usual, cheerful voice of optimism she tended to be. “Well… maybe we just missed somepony?” she guessed hopefully. “I mean, not everypony from first period is scattered across all our other classes, right? So we just gotta find one of the ones we missed, corner them, and make them join our group!”
First Aid paused, giving Minuette a bemused frown. “...Make them?”
Minuette grinned. “Uh-huh!”
“...How?”
“By asking reeeeaaally nicely,” Minuette replied without missing a beat. It made perfect sense in her head. Ask them nicely, they say yes. If they say no, ask nicer and louder. Rinse and repeat until they finally say yes.
First Aid managed to find it in her to giggle at that, elbowing Minuette in the side. “You’re so silly sometimes, you know that?” she asked as she made her way for the counter.
Minuette went after her with a bounce. “I know!”
The two didn’t say a word to each other as they acquired their lunch from the tired, deadpan-wearing mare at the counter. Once they had their food, they waded into the ocean of faces to look for a place to sit down and hash out Minuette’s idea a little more. It wasn’t like they were on the cusp of their deadline, after all, so they had the time to work it out.
“You seeing anywhere to sit?” First Aid asked a few minutes later, squinting through the crowd. “Cause, uh… I’m not.”
Minuette looked around, frowning. And there was the downside of having so many ponies eating in the cafeteria. It looked like basically every chair in the room was taken up, leaving many ponies to go and eat while sitting against the walls. Not a common sight in this school, by any means.
Before she could voice her belief that they were out of luck, however, a new voice, on the quieter side, spoke up behind them, barely audible over the din of the crowd. “Oh, uh, my table’s open.”
Minuette turned around to the sight of a filly with a bright yellow coat and a curly blue mane and tail. On her flank was a cutie mark of three hearts, one green, and two blue, circling each other. Her bright, gentle eyes were a lovely shade of raspberry, and she was giving Minuette a warm, reserved smile. Her table just had enough space for two more, with the other seats taken up by a lavender filly with her nose in a book, and an off-white filly with a pink, bouncy mane.
Minuette sighed in relief. “Oh, thanks! What’re your names?” she asked as she quickly slid into an open chair, followed shortly by First.
The filly shrank back a bit from the energy in Minuette’s voice. “Oh, uh, my name’s Lemon Hearts,” she said, gesturing to herself. She then turned and pointed to the one with the pink mane. “That’s Twinkle Shine.”
Twinkle Shine waved in greeting. “What’s up?”
Lemon Hearts lowered her hoof and nodded at Minuette. “I’m pretty sure we share first period with you two, don’t we?”
Minuette blinked, thinking back. A few seconds passed before she realized that she had in fact seen these two in her first-period class from time to time. She had never bothered to introduce herself, though. She’d usually been too busy shooting the breeze with First, Bristle, and Split, or focusing on whatever divine fried gold Celestia was saying.
“Oh yeah! You!” First Aid exclaimed with a bright smile. “I remember you! It’s nice to meet you!”
Minuette nodded in agreement. “Yeah! Nice to meet ya! Thanks for letting us sit at your table!” she said before her eyes fell on the last unicorn. She frowned and nodded at her curiously. “What about her?”
Without lowering her book, the unicorn waved her hoof dismissively in the air. “Twilight Sparkle. Charmed,” she said bluntly. “And technically, this is my table. I was here first. I’m happy to let you all sit here, just try and keep it down, okay? I’m trying to study.”
Minuette’s jaw dropped as her brain stalled. Twilight Sparkle?! Celestia’s student?! How had she not realized it sooner? It must have been the book. It was large compared to them, and so it covered most of the filly’s body.
“Woah woah, wait,” First Aid piped up, seemingly just as floored by the revelation as Minuette was. “Twilight Sparkle?! You’re Princess Celestia’s student, aren’t you?!”
Twilight nodded without lowering her book, turning the page with a quick flick of magic. “Uh-huh,” she replied as if it were nothing more than an afterthought.
“Wow…” Minuette whispered, leaning back slightly. “Aren’t you, like, the best mage in class?”
“No,” Twilight shot down. “That would be the Princess. I’m second best.”
“Oh, right,” Minuette replied. Well, if nothing else, Twilight wasn’t technically wrong. Minuette got the impression she misunderstood the angle her question had been coming from, though. “I mean, of course Celestia’s the best mage in class. She’s just the best mage. Period.”
“Well, if you don’t mind me saying it, you aren’t half bad yourself, Minuette,” Lemon Hearts suddenly spoke up.
“Huh?” Minuette blinked, turning back to the others with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean? We just met. How could you know that?”
Twinkle Shine rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. Remember that cool bug-pony-thing you showed off as your illusion a ways back? That was some shindig, let me tell ya. Kinda wish I had that kinda imagination,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Would make this next project a lot easier, that’s for sure.”
“Tell me about it,” Lemon Hearts mumbled, looking down at the table with a sour frown. “I have ideas, but I just don’t think I’m good enough to pull it off… And everypony else is basically in their groups already…”
First Aid tilted her head. “Huh? You mean you're not in a group, yet?” she asked.
Lemon shook her head. “Nope. I’ve tried to join one or two, but they were full already, and I kind of wound up backing off after a little bit… I didn’t know anypony in any of them, so I really didn’t feel like I’d fit in.”
Twinkle Shine sighed despondently, leaning back. “Yeah, kind of a similar boat with me. Most of the groups I asked were full already or just said ‘no’ for some reason. Probably ‘cause I’m not a noble or whatever.”
There was a beat of silence. Minuette and First Aid glanced at each other, ecstatic grins splitting both of their muzzles. “This. Is. PERFECT!” she decided within the privacy of her thoughts. If lady luck were a real pony out there somewhere, then she must have really liked her and First Aid today!
Either that or she just felt sorry for them, but eh. Details.
“Ya know,” Minuette said, leaning forward slightly with her grin growing. “First Aid and I don’t have a group yet, either…”
Twinkle’s eyes flew wide at that, and she got a look on her face not unlike the one First and Minnie just shared. “Really?!” she asked, planting her hooves on the table and all but standing bolt upright. “Well hot dang, talk about a stroke of luck! Wanna team up?!”
“Jackpot!” Minuette held out her hoof to shake. “One hundred percent!”
First Aid was quick to layer her hoof on top of Minuette’s, nodding emphatically before turning her eyes to Lemon. “And you, Lemon Hearts? Wanna join up?”
Lemon Hearts looked between the three fillies, shrinking back shyly into her seat a little bit. “Oh, uh… I mean… if you’re sure you want me,” she eventually said, meekly tapping her hooves together.
Minuette rolled her eyes, grabbed Lemon’s hoof with her magic, and dragged it over to thunk down onto the trio of hooves. When Lemon stared at her in surprise, Minuette just winked. “Didn’t I just say it? One hundred percent!”
“Yeah, don’t sell yourself short,” Twinkle added, lightly smacking Lemon on the back with her free hoof and putting on an encouraging smile. “You’re quiet as an earthworm, but your magic is on point.”
Lemon’s eyes widened. “Huh? But-”
“Can confirm,” First Aid added with a sage nod. “Those heart illusions you made for the test were very pretty to look at, and I’ve seen you practicing your telekinesis in the corner when Celestia’s lecturing. You’re pretty precise.”
Lemon blinked at them a few times before a gentle smile graced her face, and she leaned more into the collection of hooves, adding pressure of her own will instead of under Minuette’s magic. “Thank you… Really. Then yes, I’d love to join your group!”
“Awesome!” Minuette chirped. Awesome, they had a team of four, now. In theory, they could absolutely make do with just this. But there was still one pony left at this table who had been quiet for the most part. She looked to Twilight, a hopeful spark in her eyes. “What about you, Twilight? Are you in any groups, yet?”
Twilight turned her page. “Nope.”
“Well, this one has an open slot if you want to hop in!” First Aid said with a nod.
Twilight huffed. “I think I’m good.”
A wave of disappointment washed over the table. Well, that was unsatisfying in the extreme. Minuette frowned. It was a shame, too. Though she had ample confidence that they could make do with just the four the group now had, having Twilight freaking Sparkle as part of their team would make them all but unstoppable.
“You sure?” Twinkle Shine asked with an oddly ominous tone of voice as if she knew something nopony else at the table knew. That caught Twilight’s attention if the twitch of her ears was any indication.
She finally lowered the book and gave Twinkle a pointed stare. “I’m sure. I study better on my own. Other ponies are just… distracting.”
Twinkle took this as her cue to continue, a mischievous glint in her eye. “Aaw, that’s too bad…” she said in a mock whine, leaning back dramatically in her seat. “Such a shame, too… It’s probably going to be a big challenge. Princess Celestia said she wanted everypony to group up for this project, after all. Most ponies would probably fail all on their own. But if you’re sure you can handle it…”
All eyes fell on Twinkle as she finished speaking, and Minuette’s eyes widened. Okay, if that wasn’t some very thinly veiled attempts at clever manipulation, then she didn’t know what was. She also wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it.
Twilight’s eye twitched a few times before, finally, she sighed and closed her book. “Ugh, fair point. Celestia did tell us to group up, so I guess I have to,” she relented in defeat. Minuette’s frown deepened. Well, she sure didn’t seem happy about this. Before she could voice her concerns, though, Twilight sat more upright and perked up a little. “I’ll join your group… if you also let Moondancer join us.”
“Moondancer?” Lemon asked with a tilt of her head. “Isn’t she the really, really quiet pony who sits next to you?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered with a simple nod of her head. “She’s quiet and shy, but she’s one of the smartest ponies I know. She doesn’t have a group yet either, near as I can tell, so If I’m teaming up with you, then so is she. Deal?”
“Sure, that sounds fine by me!” Twinkle said with a shrug before propping her chin up on a hoof with a big grin. “The more the merrier.”
“Good. I assume there’s a place where we can all go to study and put our picture together?” Twilight asked bluntly.
Minuette opened her mouth to suggest her house right out the gate, but the words got caught in her throat. Her mind wandered back to the incident with Bristle, and a knot of anxiety formed in her chest. She swallowed heavily and shrank back into her seat. She didn’t want a repeat of that performance. She just met these ponies, and while none of them were giving her bad vibes right now, neither had Bristle.
If it turned out these ponies weren’t as good as their first impressions were leading her to believe, she’d rather not find out in her own home. She’d already tainted the sanctuary of her own bedroom enough by making that mistake once before. She wouldn’t do it again. Not if she could help it.
Luckily, Lemon Hearts came to the rescue. “Well, we could go to my friend Lyra’s house. It’s usually pretty quiet when she’s practicing to play the lyre, and she has plenty of room.”
“If that’s okay with her,” First Aid said with a nod.
“It should be. She likes meeting new ponies and her parents are really sweet,” Lemon confirmed.
Well, there was that problem solved. Minuette nodded and looked around the group she and First had miraculously managed to throw together. There would be six of them, seven if you counted Lyra - though that didn’t seem likely, since as near as she could tell, Lyra wasn’t in that class. Nevertheless, it was an impressive assortment, and she knew now that they would pass this test with flying colors.
There was only one thing left to do. Minuette got a playful smirk on her face and slapped her hooves down on the table to assert her dominance. “So! What’re we gonna call ourselves?!” she asked of the table like a military general asking for suggestions on how to storm the bad guy’s castle.
She was met with a series of stupefied stares.
“...huh?” Twilight asked, confused.
Minuette rolled her eyes and began to eagerly trot around the table, now thrumming with excited energy. “Well, think about it! We’re gonna be a big team, and we all gotta play our part! A big team needs a good name, don’t ya think? Something to really make us stand out!”
“I think we stand out plenty already,” Lemon Hearts said, glancing at Twilight. “I mean, we have Celestia’s student…”
“That’s nice, but ‘the team with Celestia’s student’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?”
Twilight frowned. “Does it need to?” she asked incredulously. “And does it even need a name?”
Minuette stopped next to Twilight and hopped in place. “Yes! Absolutely!”
First Aid chuckled, leaning forward and giving Twilight a knowing look. “Don’t bother fighting it. When Minuette gets in the zone, you can’t stop her. Just roll with it.”
Twilight sighed heavily, her eyes turning longingly to her book as if she were now regretting her recent life choices. A second later, she looked back to Minuette. “I dunno. What do you think we should call ourselves?”
Minuette paused, giving the matter some thought. That was the million bit question, wasn’t it? Well, okay, it absolutely wasn’t, but she still wanted to think of a cool name, dangit! She lifted a hoof to rub at her chin, considering the variables at play.
“Twilight Sparkle, Twinkle Shine, Lemon Hearts, Moondancer, Minuette, and First Aid…”
And then, in a flash of inspiration, it came to her, and she quickly turned back to the others. “The Flying Colors!” she suggested, thrusting her hoof into the air.
Another series of bewildered looks stared back at her. Twinkle Shine broke the group’s silence by mirroring Twilight’s earlier ‘huh?’
Twilight pinched the bridge of her snout with a hoof before speaking. “Minuette… there are a lot of problems with that,” she said.
“Huh? Why?” Minuette asked. “I think it works. I mean, with this roster? How can we not pass with flying colors?!”
“The issue, Minuette, is that we are all unicorns. We don’t fly,” Twilight rebuked without missing a beat. “If this were Cloudsdale, that name would make sense. But as it is, we’re not pegasi, so flying is out. Although, I will afford you the fact that we do have a pretty wide spread of colors between us.”
There were several moments of silence. Minuette pouted at Twilight indignantly before managing to morph her expression into a warm smile. “You, miss Twilight Sparkle,” she said, lifting a hoof and patting the other filly on the head. “Are a killjoy. You should lighten up a little!”
Twilight frowned. “No, I don’t.”
“Oho, yeah you do,” Twinkle Shine said, leaning forward with a playful grin.
Twilight turned to her, growing flustered. “N-no, I don’t! I’m perfectly fine and light as I am!”
“I think I gotta agree with Minuette on this one,” First Aid said, snickering into her hoof. “You need to relax, Twi. That was an impressive amount of joy you just killed.”
Twilight turned back to the table at large as the general utterances of agreement filtered in. Her cheeks began to turn red with indignation, and the way they were puffing up only added to it. “The name just makes no sense…”
“So?” Minuette asked cheerily. “Who cares?”
“I do!”
“Welp,” Minuette said, making a show of rolling up her non-existent sleeves. “Guess we gotta fix that.”
Twilight blinked. “What are you- YIPE!”
With no other warning, Minuette pounced like the little feral beast she may or may not have truly been. The jury was out on that one. Her hooves quickly found purchase against Twilight’s ribs and began to wiggle.
Twilight’s eyes bulged as the first laughs flew from her now gaping mouth. She squirmed pathetically, trying to get away from Minuette, but the blue filly had mastered the art of tickling long ago. The battle was already won, the rest was really just a playful and funny formality.
“S-s-stop! Hahaha! s-ha-stop, please!” Twilight pleaded, falling out of her chair in her feeble attempts to squirm away.
“Not until you lighten up!” Minuette jeered, only intensifying her assault. Finally, Twilight managed to find just enough mental fortitude to light her horn and lift Minuette off of her. Minuette grunted and groaned as she was hefted a few feet into the air, her hooves just out of reach of the now frantically panting Twilight. The purple filly stared up at her as if she were some kind of rabid animal.
“Are you crazy?!” Twilight demanded between her heaving gasps.
Minuette threw her legs out wide for emphasis. “Filly, I might be!”
A second passed, and Minuette realized that the entire cafeteria had gone silent. She looked up and around to realize that all eyes were on her. Nopony moved, waiting with bated breath for the sudden and impromptu spectacle to resume. Somepony somewhere questioningly began to mutter the word ‘fight?’ before getting lightly kicked by somepony beside him.
And then, a giggle broke through the tension from the table. Minuette turned her head to look to see First Aid trying and failing to stifle her laughs. And then, finally, she gave up, and let it all come out. The sound was contagious, and soon enough, the rest of the table broke down into hysterical fits of boisterous laughter. The rest of the cafeteria followed soon after, filling the space with their amusement.
Grinning ear to ear, Minuette turned back to Twilight, who just looked baffled more than anything else. Minuette wiggled her hooves at her in a mock display of trying to tickle her again while making a ghostly ‘ooooohhhhh’ sound.
Twilight blinked at her. Her face began to twitch and tremble as if she were holding something back. Whatever efforts she made were short-lived, however, for soon, her face split into a broken grin, and she, too, joined in the laughter, albeit far more reserved than everypony else’s.
“Meh, close enough,” Minuette said with a shrug. At around this time, Twilight finally dropped her, sending her falling back to the floor and landing next to Twilight in a heap. She quickly rose back to her hooves and held out a hoof for Twilight. “Ha! So! Team Flying Colors?”
Twilight, once her giggles died down, rolled her eyes, and took the hoof. “Heh, fine, I guess I’m outvoted anyways,” she relented as she got back to her hooves.
Grinning widely, Minuette turned back to the table. “We’re the Flying Colors, guys!” she declared, thrusting her hoof into the air victoriously. “Whoo!”
Everypony else at the table mirrored her posture from their seats, adding their own exclamations of excitement and jubilation to the mix. And seeing the eager looks in their eyes, the smiles on their faces, and feeling the warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest, Minuette knew. “Huh. I did it. I found myself some new friends! That was fast!”
And with that thought, the warm feeling began to spread out. Minuette’s eyes widened. There was magic surging inside her, but not through or from her horn. The eyes of her new friends all flew wide open before narrowing against some kind of bright light. A series of sharp gasps filled the air, giving Minuette pause.
“What’s going on?!” she asked, looking down at herself. Her entire body was glowing, growing brighter and brighter with every passing second. It was almost blinding when, at last, there was a flash and a pop, and all the light coalesced to somewhere just behind her. Minuette’s eyes widened as the warmth gathered in her hips and waist, before fading away, leaving her flanks feeling surprisingly tingly.
“What in the world just happened to me?” she asked in shock, looking around in confusion. Did someone cast a spell on her?! Was she about to transform into some kind of big, spooky monster?! Should she tell ponies to run away now?! What if she couldn’t change back?! What would Fangs think?! Her parents!? Where would she-
“Minnie! Look!” First Aid suddenly blurted out, though there was no fear in her voice. Just ecstatic wonderment as she pointed at her friend’s flank.
Minuette paused, then turned to look down at her flank. Her eyes widened. “Oh. Yeah, that actually makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking of…”
There, freshly placed on her flank and with the last wisps of magical light fading away, was an image of a simple hourglass with golden frames and white sand flowing through.
“Guys… Guys!” She all but shrieked as the realization clicked into place. She turned back to the table and began to jump frantically in place. “My cutie mark! I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!”
With that whooping declaration, as was usually the custom when such an event unfolded in public, a wave of thunderous applause and congratulatory cheers burst out from the ponies around her. Minuette’s ears rang from the volume, but to be fair, they were already ringing from the sheer excitement she was feeling! Every foal dreamed of the day they got their mark, and she was no different.
Although looking at it, some small part of her wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. A sentiment shared by Twinkle Shine, who trotted over to get a better look. “So… what’s it mean?” she asked bluntly.
Minuette idly moved one of her hind legs around as if it might give them some clue. “Uh… I dunno?” she said with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t think I did anything out of the ordinary. I just made friends with all of you and tickled Twilight, and…”
Another realization clicked into place. Minuette blinked a few times before her smile returned, somewhat softer this time. She turned back to the fillies in front of her and nodded. “I think I get it.”
“Oh? What does it mean, then?” Twilight asked curiously, staring on with actual interest and excitement. “I haven’t seen a mark like that before.”
Minuette looked back at her mark and gave her hips a little wiggle for emphasis. “Well, I got it when I made friends with you guys… and I just met you,” she said before smiling back at her. “So I think it means that I just make friends really fast.”
“That’s… an… odd talent,” Twilight noted with a quirked brow.
Twinkle did not share the studious unicorn’s reservations though and clapped Minuette on the back. “Well, I like it! Congratulations, Minnie! Can I call you Minnie?” she asked after a second.
Minuette grinned and lifted a hoof, which Twinkle quickly bumped her own against. Minuette’s grin grew. “One hundred percent!”
With the cheers of the cafeteria crowd ringing in her ears, and her new friends gathered around to congratulate her on finally finding her mark, the last of Minuette’s unease finally dissipated. There would still be some rough times ahead with Bristle, she figured, but right now, she just could not be bothered enough to care.
“Everything’s gonna be just fine,” she thought, closing her eyes and tilting her head back as if to soak in the ambiance like a shower stream. “I just know it…”
Her smile grew as her mind wandered back to her home, and how her parents would no doubt get her a big cake to celebrate. She thought of her room, and of the magic mirror leaned up against her wall, where Fangs was currently waiting for her.
As the world faded away for her, she couldn’t help but wonder what he would think.