“Okay, next node. Large sphere, five functions. Looks like an illusion matrix, maybe. There are three connections, one up, two going left and forward. Minuette?”
“Yup yup.”
“Alright. Moondancer? You ready?”
“If you are.”
“Always.”
The trio of fillies lapsed into an unsteady silence broken only by the sound of Moondancer and Twilight’s quills scratching feverishly against the paper of their notebooks. Minuette took the chance to open her eyes and take a look at what she had written down so far.
The first fifteen pages of her notebook had all been ripped out and spread across the floor, forming one enormous sheet for her to work on. At this point, over half of the sheets had been filled in with an increasingly convoluted series of circles, abbreviated labels, and lines connecting them.
To make it all quite simple, Minuette was confused and becoming more so all the time. She wasn’t even participating in the back and forth between her friends as they discussed the finer intricacies of the enchantment and how it all worked, but she was still absolutely dumbfounded. This enchantment made no darn sense!
They had been working on this sucker after school each day for the last two days, now, and they were still trying to just map the whole thing out. Even with several optimizations to their workflow, as proposed by Twilight, it still felt like they were beating their head against a brick wall.
Shaking her head, she turned her attention away from the complicated map to focus on Fangs. His headaches had flared every time the fillies had set to work, but thankfully it seemed to have worn off for the time being. The bug had been quiet for the last few hours as the fillies worked and often made himself scarce so as to not distract Minuette. More often than not he wasn’t even in view when she looked his way.
This time, though, he was there, looking back at her with an unreadable expression on his face. Minuette glanced back over at Twilight and Moondancer. Twilight’s eyes were closed while she explained the form and function of the ‘node’ they had landed on, while Moondancer was taking notes.
Satisfied that the bookworms were occupied, Minuette slid her way over to Fangs, stretching her legs out in the process. They had only briefly stopped for lunch earlier, leaving her legs stiff and sore. She put on a smile as she drew closer to him. “Hey. How you holding up in there?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
Fangs smiled down at her. “I’m doing fine, little one.”
Minuette smiled, visibly relaxing. “Okay, good. Just worried. You keep getting those dumb headaches and everything.”
Fangs nodded, his expression becoming more serious. He looked up at the frame of the mirror and narrowed his eyes skeptically. “Yes, it is rather odd...”
Minuette tilted her head. “Odd?”
Fangs nodded. “Every time you and your friends start working on the mirror, my headaches return. Every single time. Trust me, I have been keeping track.”
Minuette’s ears drooped. That didn’t sound good. She looked down, her lips drawing into a thin line. “Do you… do you think that they keep happening because of what we’re doing?”
“I wish I could say no, but again, given their timing and frequency…” Fangs sighed and shook his head. “There is no way it’s a coincidence. Perhaps it is a defense mechanism built into the enchantment to discourage outside tampering.”
Minuette winced, a guilty lump forming in her throat. She wanted to help Fangs get out of there, yet, but if even just learning how the mirror worked was going to cause him pain, then was it really worth it? He was her friend, after all. Her best friend.
But before she could give voice to her concerns, she heard the muted thump of a hoof touching the other side of the glass and looked up. Fangs had pressed his hoof to the mirror and was offering her a wide, reassuring smile. “Come now, Minuette. Don’t go doubting yourself now.”
Minuette pouted at him. It was always so unfair how he could read her emotions like that.
His warm smile briefly turned playful, but he was quick to press on. “The fact of the matter is, you have made it farther than anypony before you has. You are making an active effort to release me. None before you did much more than idly fantasize about the idea. None had the resources you do to see it through. Much less the raw stubbornness to try.”
Minuette’s smile returned, her heart growing warm at the encouragement. She lifted her hoof and pressed it up against the glass, wishing she could take a hold of his. A few seconds passed before she heaved a quiet sigh and looked back at the assortment of sheets she had laid out on the floor. “I just wish it wasn’t so complicated.”
“Indeed. You’ve spent days working on this, and near as I can tell, you are still just trying to map it out, are you not?”
Minuette nodded, her cheeks puffing up in irritation. “Yeah. By the time we’ve wrapped it up, First Aid will be back from her field trip, and the history project will be due! Ugh!”
“Hey, Minuette?” Twilight suddenly piped up in a disapproving tone. “I’m frustrated, too, but can you wait until we’re gone to rant and rave at inanimate objects? It’s distracting.”
Minuette blinked, her cheeks tinting a lovely shade of pink. She hadn’t even realized she had been raising her voice. She swallowed heavily, chuckled sheepishly, and looked up at Fangs to see him repressing a series of amused snickers.
“Got a little carried away, little one?”
“If you tease me about this, I will face you towards the floor,” Minuette hissed, narrowing her eyes.
“Ah, but you won’t,” Fangs said with a victorious smirk. “At least not for more than a few seconds. You are far too kind to commit to something like that.”
“But you- I- UGH!” Minuette thrust her hooves in the air and stalked back to her cobbled together map like an angry cat.
Moondancer giggled at the display, while Twilight just rolled her eyes impatiently.
Minuette didn’t pay her much mind until she was seated. She lifted her quill in her magic and focused on her friends. “Okay, so, we ready to move on?”
“If you are,” Twilight replied, narrowing her eyes. “No more distractions, though, okay? We’re on a schedule. I need to check in with Princess Celestia first thing tomorrow, so I’d like to be home at a reasonable hour so I can go to bed early.”
“Alright, so we won’t be working on this for much longer tonight?” Minuette ventured, giving her quill a preparatory spin.
“Nope, so let’s make it count,” Twilight replied before closing her eyes. Moondancer followed, and then Minuette. In her mind’s eye, she was once more greeted by the colossal formation of the enchantment.
She opened her mouth to ask which connection they were going to map out next, but a quiet exclamation from Moondancer interrupted her.
“Huh? That’s weird…” Moondancer said, sounding confused.
“What is?” Twilight asked impatiently.
“The enchantment. I dunno, but… the layout. Something about it looks different.”
Minuette would have blinked in surprise were her eyes not already closed. So drew her view of the enchantment back to get a wider view. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but Moondancer was right. The enchantment just felt off all of a sudden. It was like somepony had wandered into her room when she wasn’t there, rearranged her books and nudged all of the furniture just a little out of light. Including the window.
Judging by Twilight’s confused hum, she noticed it too. “That’s strange. Enchantments are supposed to be static. They can’t change on their own without completely breaking down the function of the magic.”
“Can the parts have moved around, though?” Moondancer asked with a frown. “You know, to throw off anypony trying to break the enchantment?”
“Not really,” Twilight replied. Minuette heard her rifling through her book on the subject and opened her eyes to see the other mare flipping through the pages with narrow eyes. “The configuration of all of the enchantments parts can’t change or the spell breaks, as I said. At most, our perception of the matrix could be altered, I suppose, but the connections would all be the same.”
Minuette tilted her head. “Er… can you explain that another way? My brain’s kinda going looloo here.”
Twilight sighed in exasperation, setting the book down. “Okay, think of it like this. You have a bunch of colored tennis balls on a table, and they’re all connected to each other by a bunch of strings, right? The balls can't leave the table, and there isn’t any string left to tie up the balls. If you remove any of the strings, the whole thing falls apart. But you can move the balls around on the table. The connections and materials are all still the same, and it’s still connected the same, but how you interact with it just got changed a little bit. Make sense?”
Minuette nodded in uncertainty. “I… think so?”
Twilight nodded, satisfied, then closed her eyes again, her face screwing up in confusion. “But even still, it doesn’t make sense for an enchantment like this. There isn’t really any point in a perception shuffler. If somepony is smart enough and good enough with magic to get to a point where that would serve any purpose, they’re already good enough to work around it.”
“It could just be there to confuse us,” Moondancer pointed out with a shrug. “You know, just some subtle discouragement.”
Twilight snorted. “Well, I’m not discouraged. There’s extra credit riding on the line, and I did not borrow one of Princess Celestia’s books just to give up because of some magic parlor tricks!”
Minuette rolled her eyes. “Heh. Never get between Twilight and a good GPA, I guess,” she muttered before closing her eyes again. She quickly zoomed back in on where they were before, eager to get back to work. She’d leave the complicated details to the nerds.
Except there was a problem. She couldn’t find where they had left off. The changes to the enchantment’s layout had thrown her off something fierce, and now that it was unfamiliar to her again, she had no clue where to go. She put on a small, anxious grin, her ears twitching. “Uh, girls? Where are we?” she asked.
“Oh, uh, one sec,” Twilight said before going quiet. A second later, there was a flash of lavender on one of the nodes, and Minuette pulled herself over to it.
“Alright, we good?” Twilight asked after a moment. Once she had confirmation, she cleared her throat. “Ahem. Okay, I have time for one more node, so let’s make it a good one. Looks like the biggest one goes directly up from where we were. Let’s have a look.”
Minuette nodded, focusing her view of the enchantment to follow the little spark of lavender that Twilight used to make sure they were all looking at the same thing. They followed the long, looping tendril up and up, and Minuette caught sight of the next node. It was the largest they had seen so far, and it almost looked like it was solid.
An apt description, considering what happened when Minuette tried to get a good look at it. It was the oddest sensation she had ever felt. Mere moments before she would have reached it, she felt a bump in her head, as if somepony had gently poked at the inside of her skull with a stick, and then a strange floating sensation as her perception drifted away from the node.
It wasn’t painful, but it did make her feel momentarily motion-sick. She frowned. “Uh… girls?”
“What the hay was that?” Moondancer asked in confusion.
Minuette watched as Twilight’s ‘spark’ tried to enter the node again, and was once again repelled before it even reached the outer wall. A moment passed, and then Twilight groaned in frustration. “Ugh! I should have known!”
Minuette opened her eyes again. “What? What is it?” she asked, leaning forward in concern.
Twilight had lifted the book up to her face and was fiercely scanning the contents of the page she was on. Her eyes swiped back and forth for several seconds before she sighed and put the book down. “Of course the mirror has a freaking probe ward on it!”
Moondancer’s ears drooped. “Aw, crud.”
Minuette got the feeling that the two of them knew what that meant, but she was utterly in the dark. She decided she should fix that, and cleared her throat, drawing their attention. “Uh, what’s a probe ward?” she asked.
Twilight groaned, turning the book over to Minuette, revealing an illustration of a spherical barrier made up of interlocking pentagons deflecting a swirling dart of magical energy. “A probe ward, Minuette, is essentially an arcane identifier’s worst nightmare. Whoever created this enchantment put a barrier that prevents anyone from peering too closely at the more important parts of the spell. Key nodes, primary functions, that sort of thing.”
“But… why would the mirror need something like that for a durability enchantment?” Moondancer questioned, her muzzle scrunching up. “It doesn’t make any sense…”
Twilight scoffed, bringing the book back over to her before Minuette even had a chance to actually read the print. She skimmed it again with an irritated frown. “Dunno if you noticed, Moondancer, but nothing about this enchantment makes sense for a simple durability charm. It’s too big for that.”
Moondancer was quiet for a second. She pushed up her glasses, her frown deepening. “Yeah, I did notice that. And a lot of the nodes we’ve looked at don’t make any sense either. It’s assembled like a labyrinth… Something else is going on here.”
“Either that, or whoever invented this stupid thing has a fantastic grasp of magic, and a terrible understanding of engineering and systems. Personally, given how many dead-ends we’ve bumped into, I’m gonna bet on the latter.”
Minuette swallowed heavily and looked over at Fangs. His brow had quirked in thought, his eyes shifting with consideration. She briefly considered reminding her friends about Fangs, but she was quick to dismiss the notion. If they started believing her about it, it would be better if they realized it on their own. If she tried to force it, she’d just lose their help, and she’d be back at square one.
“Either way,” Twilight suddenly spoke up, drawing Minuette’s attention with her cocky tone of voice. Twilight set the book down and put on a big, confident grin. “We’re in luck. Because as it just so happens, there is a way to get around wards like this!”
Moondancer nodded, smiling. “A few, actually.”
Minuette sighed in relief. “Oh, good, we aren’t gonna be roadblocked!” she thought before leaning forward with a cheerful grin. “Well? What do we do, Twilight? What’s the plan?”
Twilight made a ‘follow me’ gesture before closing her eyes. Minuette did the same and was once again looking at the larger node. Twilight spoke a second later. “The main trick that the book talks about for amateurs is to essentially create a small hole in the side of the ward - sort of. That’s really oversimplifying it, but it gets the idea across. So if we can create that small hole, we can slip in and be on our way.”
“There are other ways, too,” Moondancer added. “But they’re probably a little above our skill level.”
“For now, yes,” Twilight agreed. “But we won’t need those more advanced methods anyway. We got this. You two ready?”
Minuette nodded, eager to make some more progress before the day was done. “Mhmm! Just tell me what I gotta do!”
“Just follow my lead.”
Minuette listened intently as Twilight began to walk her and Moondancer through the process. There were a lot of metaphors and analogies thrown around to help her grasp the fundamentals of what exactly they were doing, but she was quick to catch on either way. Before long, the trio of fillies began to poke and prod at the ward, slowly but surely.
Minutes passed, and it soon became clear that the ward was surprisingly durable. Minuette winced, sweat starting to build up on her brow from the effort of trying to break through the intangible barrier. She could hear quiet grunts and groans from her friends.
“Gah. It’s not budging,” Moondancer pointed out through clenched teeth. “Whoever enchanted this mirror really didn’t want anypony figuring it out!”
“Gee, I wonder why,” Minuette muttered under her breath.
“Doesn’t matter,” Twilight strained out, the hum of her magic in the air growing noticeably louder, and her spark in the mental landscape growing brighter. “More power. We can get through if we keep at it long enough.”
Minuette didn’t want to say it, but she was already getting close to her limit in terms of power output. She had never been anywhere near as powerful as these two, and it was starting to show. But nevertheless, she tried. She had no choice. If she wanted to figure out how to get Fangs out of there, she’d have to break through this ward anyway.
“Minuette,” Fangs said quietly, his voice laced with growing concern. “Be careful. Don’t overdo it.”
“More power!” Twilight commanded. “We’re making progress!”
Minuette groaned, her head starting to hurt. “Twilight, I can’t give any more than this! I’m tapped! Ow…”
“I’m almost at my limit, too,” Moondancer agreed, her breaths growing heavy with excretion.”Maybe we should call it off?”
“I’m not going to lose to an invisible wall, Moondancer!” Twilight snapped back. “Princess Celestia entrusted me with her book, I’m not about to turn back now! More power!”
“Twilight…!” Minuette groaned, her skull starting to pound from the strain. The hum of their magic had become almost a howl now, like a winter storm of arcane energy. She could feel her mane lifting slightly from the stray energy flowing around the room, sending it drifting and making her skin tingle.
“Little one, stop,” Fangs said in a firm, almost fearful voice. “Something is happening. Stop!”
Minuette snapped open her eyes, pulling her attention away from the spell to look at the mirror. Her eyes widened. Dark purple energies were building up around the frame once again, crackling ominously. Her heart all but stopped in her chest at the sight.
“What the…?”
The mirror pulsed, the strange magic around it flaring aggressively, coinciding with a grunt of effort from Twilight. “Almost there…!” she groaned through grit teeth.
Minuette’s heart raced. She looked back to Twilight. Even Moondancer had pulled out of the spell, gasping for breath, but Twilight was still going, her face one of strained defiance and stubborn refusal to give up.
“Twilight, stop,” Moondancer said, reaching out to Twilight. “We aren’t getting through that. You need to-”
“NO!” Twilight spat. “I can do this! Just… one… more…”
“Twilight, the mirror’s reacting! You have to stop!” Moondancer barked with far more force.
Too late.
A sound like shattering glass filled the room. Minuette’s eyes snapped over to the mirror as an unnatural chill filled the room. She could see Fangs on the other side, his eyes locked onto hers.
“Fangs?”
There was a flash of light. A pulse of flickering orange and purple magic erupted out from the surface of the mirror in a rapidly expanding sphere. Minuette only had time to squint against the light before it reached her.
It was chaos. Complete and total sensory overflow. Her entire body began to tingle with pins and needles, her nostrils were flooded with an incoherent mess of smells, her ears rang with an endless cacophony of discordant tunes and melodies overlapped with seemingly random sounds. She could taste cotton candy and pickles and cloth and countless things she didn’t have time to identify.
And just as quickly as it began, the sensations ended. The foals were thrown off of their hooves by the shockwave with heart-stopping force. A trio of screams filled the room alongside a static boom that reverberated in their ears. Minuette barely had time to even process that she was in motion.
And then she slammed into her bookcase.
The wind was driven from Minuette’s lungs by the force of the impact. Her vision swam and blurred, and her body screamed at her in pain. She fell forward, slumping to the ground in a loose heap.
“MINUETTE!” Fangs screamed from the mirror, the sound of his hooves beating against the glass barely audible over the ringing in her ears. “Minuette, are you alright?!”
Minuette groaned. Her entire body felt stiff, now, and it was hard to think through the heavy haze that had settled over her mind. She lifted her head, her hearing starting to grow dull and muffled. “Wha… what…?” she asked in a pained whimper.
A few final crackles of strange magic danced around the mirror’s fame for a moment before it finally fell still. Even with her now blurry vision she could just make out Moondancer and Twilight’s prone forms scattered around the room.
She then looked to Fangs. His eyes were wide, frantic, and confused, shimmering with fear. His hooves were pressed up against the glass, and she could see his chest heaving with short, panicked breaths.
She managed to smile at him. “I’m okay,” she called out in a weak slur, lifting up a hoof. “Just… oooowwww…”
Fangs seemed to relax at that, his posture slacking. He watched her for a second, taking comfort in her words. Then his eyes lifted to look at something behind her, and his relief turned to fear once more. He focused back on her, pressing tighter against the glass. “Look out!”
Minuette blinked. “Huh?”
A shadow was passing over her. Confused, she rolled slightly and looked up. Her eyes widened, and her vision went sharp when she realized that her bookcase was now toppling over. Right on top of her.
She didn’t even have time to squeak before the bookcase and all of its contents fell on top of her with a deafening crash. There was a flare of pain, the world went dark.
And she knew no more.