The cafeteria was as noisy as ever. Minuette’s tired eyes glazed over the mass of ponies as they cheerfully gobbled down their lunches. She watched as Twinkle Shine went running away from another table giggling like the little sadist she was, with a colt chasing after her, blushing furiously and shouting something that was probably very inappropriate. She had to fight back the urge to yawn, her eyes lowering to look down at the table she was seated at.
“I’m pooped.”
The last few days had been more draining than she had been expecting. Almost every day after school, Moondancer and Twilight would head home with her for at least a few hours, and they would spend the bulk of that time studying up on enchantments, the theory behind them, the mechanics of basic enchantment magic, and everything even tangentially related.
Somehow that wound up involving snails. Minuette didn’t know how, and she was not keen on finding out.
“At least Twilight is thorough…”
In spite of all of their work on getting her up to speed on the principles of enchantment magic, though, there had been almost no progress made on actually deciphering what was going on with Fangs’ mirror. Twilight insisted that they know all they could before they set about touching it.
She had good reasons for it. Trying to tamper with enchantments without knowing the core foundations of the field was like trying to operate one of those fancy new industrial construction cranes without taking the necessary training course first. You were probably not going to do anything. And if you did, it would break something, and none of them were keen on breaking the mirror.
Understandable, but no less frustrating. And that frustration had led to a few sleepless nights...
“Minnie? You okay?”
Minuette looked up with a groggy ‘huh’ at Moondancer sitting across from her. The other filly adjusted her glasses with a worried frown.
“You’re looking really out of it today. You okay?”
Minuette idly waved her hoof in dismissal. “Meh. My brain’s just playing catch up. Give it a minute.”
“I’ve given it ten.”
“Shaddap.”
Moondancer quirked a brow, looking mildly offended by that remark, but did not choose to pursue it. Instead, she turned and looked anxiously off into the crowd, an impatient look in her eyes. “Where is she…?”
Minuette let her face flump down onto the table. “Who?” she asked, her voice muffled by the cold, flat surface.
Moondancer sighed heavily and turned back to her. “Twilight, of course. She was supposed to be here a while ago.”
Minuette’s ears perked up. She sat up and shook her head, forcing the grogginess to leave her alone for a minute. “Huh? She was?”
“Mhmm,” Moondancer confirmed, looking the other way. “She said she felt we were almost ready to start actually studying the mirror itself, and that we’d talk about it during lunch.”
That got Minuette’s attention. She leaned forward, her drowsiness at least partially forgotten. “Wait, really?!” she asked, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. Finally, a chance to actually make some progress!
Something hard and rigid lightly thumped into the back of Minuette’s head, earning a wince from her. She turned around with an irritated glare to see Twilight standing there with a smug smirk.
“Yes, really.”
“Heeey, why’d you hit me?!” Minuette complained, throwing her forelegs into the air.
Bonk.
Minuette’s eyes spun lazily in her head at another application of book to forehead. Twilight rolled her eyes and slinked past her to settle down in one of the empty seats. “Because you were being loud.”
“Was… not…” Minuette moaned as the last of her daze began to fade away.
Moondancer couldn’t help but snicker at the display before putting on her serious face and focusing on Twilight. “You’re late.”
“No, I’m not,” Twilight replied with a snort. “I came here exactly as soon as Princess Celestia dismissed me - and it's still lunchtime!"
Moondancer’s brow raised in surprise. “The princess?”
Twilight grinned eagerly before holding up the book she had used to abuse Minuette’s noggin again. ‘Amulets and Artifacts: A Comprehensive Guide on Advanced Enchantment Analysis’ was printed across the front cover in bold silver letters.
Moondancer’s eyes flew wide open, and she rose from her seat with a gasp of shock. “Amulets and Artifacts?! The one written by Sage Fourleaf?!”
Twilight held her head high with a satisfied smirk. “A first edition copy, no less. It’s even signed by Fourleaf himself.”
Moondancer looked about ready to explode with excitement as she darted from her seat to obsessively ogle the newly presented tome. “Sweet Celestia, where in Equestria did you GET this?!” she demanded.
Minuette watched as Twilight lifted the book up and away from Moondancer, as if she were playing with a cat or teasing a dog with treats. She tilted her head in confusion. “Uh… what’s the big deal?” she asked.
Both Twilight and Moondancer looked at her as if she had just committed a war crime.
Minuette shrank back from them. “Uh…”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “What’s the big deal?” she asked, her voice a low, scraping growl of scholarly nerd rage. She leaped up onto the table and shoved her nose right in Moondancer’s face, their eyes less than an inch from each other. “THE BIG DEAL?! Minuette, you uneducated little-! This is the best book on enchantment magic ever written! It was penned by the grandson of Clover the Clever, Sage Fourleaf, the foremost authority on enchantments of the post-classical era! This is an original copy! The hooves of one of the greatest enchanters of all time once held this very tome!”
Moondancer leaned into view from somewhere behind Twilight, lifting a hoof. “That last part isn’t quite as important!”
“YES IT IS!” Twilight shrieked like a banshee.
Minuette looked up at Twilight for a few seconds, her brain trying, and failing, to play catch-up. She then put on a weak smile, leaned back, and poked Twilight on the tip of the nose.
“You’re being loud.”
Twilight glared down at Minuette for a few more seconds before heaving a deep sigh and jumping down from the table. “Okay, fine, touché. I get excited, okay? Give me a break.”
“We noticed,” Moondancer deadpanned before perking up. “But anyway, Minnie’s heresy aside-”
“Hey!” Minuette whined.
“-Where did you get that?! It’s not exactly a common book anymore.”
Twilight sat back down and gently set the book down on the table. “I went to Princess Celestia earlier and asked her if she would be willing to let me borrow it for this extra credit project. She was pretty interested when I mentioned the mirror and lent me this after grilling me on all the principles of enchantments. I have it until the history project is due, so we have some time to consult it and figure out exactly what we’re doing!”
Now Minuette was interested. She sat up and leaned forward slightly. “Really?! Awesome! What do we need to do?!”
Twilight opened the book, her eyes scanning the table of contents. “There are a lot of ways to study enchantments and try and figure them out. It’s all about identifying all of the components that make them up and going from there.”
“Right, because all spells are made of moving parts, right?” Minuette asked.
“Exactly,” Moondancer replied. “Intent, energy, conditions, all moving in consort like a big, well-oiled machine.”
“Precisely,” Twilight said, tapping the book with a hoof. “So the goal will be to figure out the specific functions of every piece and how they connect to the others.”
Moondancer hummed, rubbing a hoof against her chin. “We’ll probably want to take it slow and go one component at a time. We’re also gonna need a lot of paper to take notes and make diagrams, or we’re gonna get lost really quickly,” Moondancer pointed out. “We aren’t experts, after all.”
“Don’t worry, I’m way ahead of you on that,” Twilight replied without missing a beat, her magic flipping open her saddlebags and pulling out four separate notebooks. She passed one to Minuette, who took it with a giddy little squeal.
“Eeee! Finally! PROGRESS!”
“This isn’t going to be a fast process,” Moondancer cautioned with a frown. “Enchantments are really complicated, don’t forget.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and tapped the book with a cocky smirk. “Relax, Moondancer. With this book and our magic put together, I doubt that mirror is gonna give us any trouble.”
Moondancer gave Twilight a sidelong glance. “You’re confident.”
“Celestia trusted me with this book. I have justification to be confident.”
Minuette tilted her head. “Is… is that how that works?” she asked, confused. It felt like there was a pretty big hole in Twilight’s logic there, but Minuette was too tired right now to parse it.
Nonetheless, Twilight gave a curt nod of her head. “One hundred percent. We’re gonna decipher this enchantment and nail this little project with - what was it you said?” she turned to Minuette with a nostalgic look. “Flying colors?”
Minuette instantly perked up at the reminder, thrusting her hoof into the air. “Ooh! Ooh! That’s right! We’re the Flying Colors, that’s our group title!”
Moondancer and Twilight both giggled at the display of enthusiasm. Before any further discussion could be had, though, the piercing sound of the bell echoed throughout the hall, marking the end of the lunch period.
Minuette let her hoof drop and groaned. “Aw, poo. Class.”
Twilight slipped her book back into her saddlebags with a snicker. “I’ll try and get in some reading in Fourleaf’s book before school is out. We good to meet up at your place later?”
Minuette nodded, hopping down from the chair and slipping her own saddlebags on. “Uh-huh! Anything I should do to get-” a loud and ugly yawn interrupted her. “Agh- to get ready?”
“Maybe have a coffee?” Moondancer asked teasingly as the trio began to make its way out of the cafeteria.
“No, it tasted like gunk,” Minuette shot back, sticking out her tongue in revulsion.
“That’s two counts of heresy…”
Minuette let out a loud whine, swatting ineffectually at Moondancer’s shoulder. “Stooop iiit!”
The rest of the school day passed by in something of a blur for Minuette. She was equal parts tired and overwhelmed with giddy excitement. Finally, her patience was going to start paying off! They had a good book on the subject, Twilight was a magical powerhouse and walking encyclopedia, and Moondancer was basically a less cocky Twilight with glasses.
When the day finally ended and she was allowed to head home, she did so skipping and humming a jaunty little tune to herself. A tune which persisted as she pushed open the door and slid into the entrance hall.
“Hey mom, hey dad! I’m home!” she called out loud, kicking the door shut behind them.
Pearly poked her head out from the entrance to the living room with a large smile on her face. “Aah, there you are! How was school?”
“I was tired!” Minuette cheered energetically, already heading for the door. “Moonie and Twily are gonna be coming over here in a little bit so we can keep working on the mirror. That okay?” she asked.
Pearly chuckled at the contradiction between Minuette’s initial statement and her behavior but did not call her out on it. She then nodded. “It should be, though your dad is in your room right now.”
Minuette paused at the top of the stairs and looked back down. “Huh? Why?”
Pearly glanced up the stairs toward the closed door. “I think he said he was looking for something…”
Minuette blinked a few times before the realization set in, and the color drained from her face. “Gah! Shoot! I forgot to give back his hammer!” she exclaimed, turning and bolting for her bedroom door.
“Wait, you took his hammer?!” Pearly shouted, though Minuette ignored her.
“I am in so much trouble!” she thought, her tired mind wondering just what her dad was going to think of having his tool snatched without permission.
She was about to reach her door when it suddenly clicked and swung open and Sunspot stepped out. Minuette dug her hooves into the floor in a desperate bid to stop herself, but she was just a touch too slow.
“GYAH!”
Her entire field of view was consumed by her father’s chest fur, and she smacked into him face-first at mach-minnie. She fell back onto her rump with a dazed groan, her eyes once again rolling around in her head.
“They gotta stop doing that,” she thought after a moment. “I’m no eye expert or anything, but this doesn’t seem healthy.”
“Woah, there. You okay?” Sunspot asked with an amused chuckle, drawing Minuette’s eyes back up to him. He didn’t look angry about the hammer, which Minuette spotted in the air just over his shoulder.
She nodded sheepishly, idly scuffing the floor with her hoof. “Uh… uhum. I’m okay.”
He nodded, then showed her the hammer. “Did you steal my hammer?”
“...Borrowed it. I was gonna give it back!”
Sunspot shook his head with an exasperated sigh before kneeling down in front of her. “Ya know, if you needed my hammer for something, you should have just asked,” he scolded her lightly.
Minuette looked away, her ears drooping. “Sorry.”
Sunspot let out a small hum before ruffling her mane. The gesture of affection immediately lifted Minuette’s spirits, and she couldn’t help but giggle at the larger hoof on her head. Sunspot pulled back a moment later. “I take it your friends are coming over?”
Minuette nodded. “Uh-huh! We’re gonna be figuring out how the enchantment on my mirror works! Twilight got a fancy old book or something, too!” she declared, thrusting her hoof into the air.
Sunspot smiled down at her, but he didn’t say anything right away. In fact, there was something about his smile that gave her pause. She slowly lowered her hoof as her excitement was replaced with a small pearl of concerned confusion.
“Dad?”
He simply smiled, patted her on the head, and then walked past her. “Well, have fun with your friends. Shout if you need anything, yeah?” he called over his shoulder as he disappeared down the stairs.
Minuette stared after him for a minute before slipping back into her room and closing the door behind her. She stood there in silence for a moment before a familiar voice spoke from behind her.
“Is something wrong, Little One?” Fangs asked curiously.
“Nope,” Minuette replied, shaking her head. She spun back to face the bug in the mirror with a large grin. “Everything’s great! Because today, we’re finally gonna start figuring out how to let you out of there!”
Fangs smiled at her, his wings wavering on his back. “I am looking forward to it.”