//------------------------------// // Minuette's Resolve // Story: The Bug in The Mirror // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Minuette wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that, but it must have been a while. She eventually heard the telltale sound of the front door opening and closing, followed by the muffled clatter of wheels through the window as Celestia’s carriage was taken away. After that, it was a long silence, occasionally disturbed by the almost inaudible talking of her mother and father downstairs. Minuette took a deep breath. She was still far from being in a good mood, and there were still dried tear-marks on her cheeks. With a shaky sniffle, she wiped her hooves over her face and stared into the mirror, meeting Fangs’ gaze. “Well… what do we do now?” she asked in a soft whisper. Fangs shrugged. “I… do not know how to answer that. I suppose, for the time being, all we can do is follow Celestia’s orders, and go back to living our lives.” Minuette looked down, shaking her head. “I guess…” she mumbled. In truth, she wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. After everything that had happened as of late, going back to the regular routine was the last thing on her mind. Maybe it was just her lingering bad mood from the revelation that Fangs would never be freed, but it just felt wrong somehow. “Hey, come now,” Fangs whispered, drawing her attention back to him. He offered her a comforting smile. “Dry your tears. The Minuette I know and care for wouldn’t let something like this keep her spirits down for long.” Minuette managed to put on a small, weak smile. “Heh… Right. Sorry. I’ll cheer up soon, promise,” she said, wiping her hoof over her face again. She took a series of deep breaths to compose herself and her thoughts in order. After a few more minutes, a gentle knocking came to the door. Minuette turned back to look and watched as both Sunspot and Pearly stepped into the room, her mother in the lead. “Hey, Minuette,” Pearly said softly. She blinked on seeing the clearly distraught look in her daughter’s eyes and stepped forward. “Are you okay?” Minuette put on a small smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m alright,” she said, rising back to her hooves. She faced her approaching parents fully and did her best to smile at them and assuage their concerns. “Just a little disappointed, that’s all…” There was a brief pause, and Minuette had to resist the urge to look back toward Fangs. Sunspot and Pearly exchanged a glance. Sunspot stepped forward, tilting his head curiously to one side. “Disappointed? About what?” he asked curiously, sitting down beside his daughter and placing a hoof on her back. Minuette glanced up at him, frowning in confusion. “Um… you know. About Fangs. How she can’t let him out.” Sunspot and Pearly exchanged wary glances, and an uneasy feeling began to settle into place in Minuette’s gut. A moment passed before Pearly stepped closer, her brow furrowed. “Right… sweetie… about that…” she said slowly and carefully as if choosing her words with extreme caution. Minuette frowned, tilting her head to one side. “Mom?” Pearly sat down in front of Minuette. It was at about this time that Minuette realized that her father’s hoof was curling around her back as if to hold her in place. She glanced up at him to see him shooting Pearly a hard, meaningful glance. Pearly was quiet for several seconds, fishing for words. She took a long deep breath, glanced skeptically at the mirror behind Minuette, and began to speak. “Princess Celestia told us what you two talked about… About why you started studying the mirror, and why you got your friends involved.” Minuette’s eyes lit up, and for a brief moment, a spark of joy came into life in her heart. “Does this mean they finally believe me?!” she thought, about ready to jump and squeal with excitement. It was her mother’s low tone and anxious demeanor that kept her rooted on the spot, listening with held breath and rapidly mounting dread. Pearly looked at Sunspot again before continuing. “I’ve been really worried about you for a long time now… You’ve been obsessed with that mirror almost ever since we got it for you. And then your imaginary friend, this ‘Fangs’ shows up, and you get even more attached to it. With how obsessed you are with him I’d almost swear he was actually real.” “He is real,” Minuette stated, her nostrils flaring. Pearly held up a hoof to quiet Minuette down. “I… I wish I could believe that, dear. I really do.” Minuette felt a tingle of anger on the back of her skull. She barely fought down a snarl and brushed Sunspot’s hoof away before rising to her hooves. “Why don’t you?! Princess Celestia herself told you he’s real, didn’t she?!” “She said she believed you,” Sunspot said a second later, his brow furrowed in sympathy. “But I just can’t,” Pearly went on, shaking her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. And even if he is real, that’s even worse!” “What?!” Minuette snapped, the fur on the back of her neck standing on end. “How is that worse, mom?! He’s been nothing but a great friend to me ever since I met him!” “Because if he is real, then a magical creature is living in my little girl’s room all the time, and saying and doing things I can’t see! He could be watching you while you sleep, and who knows what he could be saying to you!?” Minuette felt her anger begin to boil at these outrageous, scandalous claims. If anything, Fangs watched over her, at the very worst! She opened her mouth to give a biting retort, but a sharp clearing of Fangs’ throat caught her attention. She glanced back at him to see his expression hardened in warning. “Calm, Minuette,” he told her in a soothing town. “Take a breath. Relax. They will not listen to you if you come at this from a position of anger.” Minuette let his words echo in her ears for a moment, then nodded. She took a deep breath and turned back to Pearly, setting her jaw. “Mom, please. He’s my friend,” she tried in a more diplomatic tone. “He’s been almost like a big brother to me. Or maybe a quirky grandpa, he’s old enough for it. He’s been there for me for a long time when I needed someone to talk to or help me through something when you guys weren’t there. He’s a good guy… And he was alone for a long time before I ever met him. I want to be his friend and keep him company. It’s all I can do for him.” Pearly looked down slightly as Minuette finished speaking. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, clearly following Minuette’s example and trying to calm down. Sunspot took this chance to cut in, slipping around to be in Minuette’s line of sight. “We’re just worried about you,” he said gently, lifting Minuette’s chin so they were eye to eye. “You have to understand how this all looks to your mother and I. We’ve never been able to see Fangs, or hear him, or anything. All we have to go off of are your stories about him, and how obsessed you are with the mirror.” Minuette sighed, brushing his hoof aside. “I… I know. I know you’re worried… I overheard you two talking last night.” A heavy silence fell over the trio as Minuette revealed her prior eavesdropping. Pearly lifted her head, meeting her daughter’s gaze directly. “Then you know what I want to do…?” Minuette quickly took a step back, making sure to keep herself between her mother and the mirror. “I know, and I won’t let you take him!” she stated emphatically. Her heart was starting to beat faster in her chest at the prospect of having this argument now, especially after going so long thinking it wouldn’t even be an issue. But nevertheless, she held her ground. Pearly stood up, her brow furrowing. “Minuette, please. This obsession isn’t healthy!” “Princess Celestia herself told you it’s safe!” Minuette shot back, spreading her stance. “She told you about Fangs! Why can’t you just believe her if it’s so hard to believe your own daughter?! She’s the Princess for pony’s sake!” That gave Pearly pause. She took a step back, and she was suddenly not quite able to meet Minuette’s eyes. “I just… I…” Sunspot stepped in between the two, meeting Minuette’s gaze directly. “We just need some proof, Minuette,” he told her firmly. “Princess Celestia said she believed you, but she couldn’t see Fangs, either. I want to believe you, but I just can’t. Not yet. But if Fangs is real, then surely there’s something you can say, some story you can tell us, that’ll prove it? You’ve known him long enough.” Minuette blinked, her mind stalling for a moment. It sounded almost like her father was trying to nudge her into saying something specific, but whatever it was he was fishing for, it escaped her…  Until his words from the previous night rang in her ears like the morning bell.  “But ya know… I’ve always been the one telling you stories… Maybe you can think of one to tell me someday.” And just like that, it clicked. Minuette looked up at her father with wide eyes, realizing now that her father was a much more clever stallion than she had ever given him credit for. “Lakesong…” she breathed. Pearly blinked, lifting her head. “What?” Minuette practically began to bounce in place. “Lakesong! The story about Lakesong!” she repeated, lifting up onto her hind legs and planting her hooves firmly against her father’s chest. “You came in here one day when I was away at school! You said you were looking for that hammer I stole from you, but you were actually telling Fangs the story about Lakesong and Misty! He told it to me to help me sleep last night!” Pearly frowned, looking over at Sunspot. “What? What is she talking about?!” Sunspot just smiled. He reached down to gently nudge Minuette off of him before sitting back on his haunches. “Why don’t you recount this story for me? Just so I can be sure,” he said softly. Minuette nodded, glancing back at Fangs with a wide, ecstatic grin. He smiled back at her and gave a little nod of his own. Then, with a deep breath, Minuette sat down in front of Sunspot and launched into the story. “Mmkay, so, once upon a time there was this cute little filly called Lakesong, and she lived with her mom and dad by the edge of this big, spooky forest! She played with her friends all day, but she was always warned to never go into the forest, cause uh, it’ll gobble her up or something!” “The monsters in the forest were what would gobble her up,” Fangs noted under his breath. “But close enough.” “But Lakesong and her friends were just foals!” Minuette went on, ignoring Fangs’ remark. “And you know us! Always getting into trouble!” “Well, that much is true at least,” Pearly muttered. “Hush, dear,” Sunspot shushed her. Minuette pressed on. “So Lakesong and her friends decided to go into the forest! And they got lost and scared and wandered all over the place in the dark. Then they found this pond thing, and there was a ghost there named Misty! And Misty was really nice, she protected the foals for the night while they slept, and then she took them home when the sun came up! But she didn’t leave the forest, ‘cause the forest was her home! And nopony believed Lakesong and her friends about Misty, cause ghosts aren’t real, apparently, but Lakesong never stopped believing in her and went to see her whenever she could! And they all lived happily ever after, except Misty, ‘cause she was dead already!” There was a momentary pause as her retelling of the story sunk in. Pearly just stared at her, utterly baffled, then turned to Sunspot. “...Honey? What in the world is going on?” she asked after a moment. “What does any of that mean?” Sunspot turned back to Pearly with a wide grin of his own. “It means, Pearly, that Minuette was telling the truth. Fangs is real.” “What?! How?!” Sunspot turned back to Minuette, meeting her wide, overjoyed eyes with a soft smile. “I’ve kinda had this feeling he was real for a long time, now. I remembered how the kid who had this before Minuette kept saying there was a monster in the mirror, and then when Minuette got it, she got this ‘imaginary friend.’ I thought it was a coincidence at first, but the longer it’s gone on, and the more adamant she’s become, the more I started to think it was more than that.” Minuette felt her heart twisting slightly. “You did?” she asked. “Then… why didn’t you say anything?” “I didn’t say anything because… well…” he shrugged. “What if I was wrong? What if you were just making it up? I didn’t want to enable you if you were just having some really weird puberty phase or something.” Minuette’s cheeks tinted just a little red at that. “That’s… daaaad!” she half-laughed, half groaned, slapping a hoof to his face. “That’s so dumb!” Sunspot chuckled. “Heh, maybe,” he confessed before sobering up. “Anyway, once you started trying to figure out how this thing worked, I decided it was about time I found out for sure. But I can’t see Fangs, or hear him, or anything like that, so I needed to come up with some way to let you prove it to me. And that’s when I remembered how much you liked listening to stories when you were really little…” “And so you came in here and told the story! Fangs would hear it, he’d tell it to me, and then I could tell it to you!” Sunspot nodded. “Yup. I made the story up myself, too, just to be sure.” Minuette stared up at her father for a second longer. The upsurge of joy and elation in her heart at finally, finally proving that Fangs was real was too much for her to contain. She threw herself against Sunspot, wrapping her forelegs around his neck in a tight hug, and practically squealed with delight. She felt him return the gesture, laughing in amusement. From behind her and through her father’s laughter, Minuette heard Fangs giving off an appreciative hum. “I am impressed. That is a remarkably elegant solution. I’m honestly surprised nopony else has thought of it until now.” It was at this point that Pearly chose to rejoin the discussion. She stepped forward, taking up a position next to Sunspot, and eyed the mirror cautiously. “So… Fangs is real?” she echoed, still not quite sounding like she could believe it. “He’s listening to us? Right now?” Minuette glanced back over her shoulder at Fangs before dropping down from her father’s embrace. “Mhmm. He’s been there all day.” Pearly fidgeted anxiously in place, looking this way and that. “Then… w-what happens now?” she asked. There was a brief pause. Fangs took a deep breath and met Minuette’s gaze. “I believe it is long past due that I had a chance to speak with your family, Little One. Will you be my voice again?” Minuette grinned. “Sure!” she said to him before looking back to her family. “Would you like to talk to him?” “How would we do that?” Pearly asked, quirking a brow. Minuette flopped down onto her haunches next to the mirror and smacked her hoof against the frame like a used cart salesmare. “Just talk to him. When he says something, I’ll say what he says.” “To the word? No embellishing?” Sunspot asked with a hint of playful skepticism. “Not here, nope!” Minuette shook her head. “One hundred percent serious!” “Heh. I’ll take your word for it,” Sunspot said with a small smirk. He then focused his eyes on the mirror and stepped forward. Pearly remained at his side, still looking a little unsure. When Sunspot sat down on his haunches in front of the mirror, he gently guided Pearly down with him so they were side by side. A heavy silence hung in the air. Minuette looked back and forth between Fangs and her family; her heart beating just a little faster in anticipation. This one moment was something she had been looking forward to for so long, now, and at last, it was here. “What are you?” Sunspot finally asked, briefly glancing at Minuette. Fangs hesitated for a moment, but when he spoke, his voice was clear, direct, and devoid of hesitation. “I am nothing more or less than your daughter’s friend if you will permit me to remain as such. There is no other answer to that question that, as of now, would be of any consequence to you.” Sunspot listened intently as Minuette recounted Fang’s words, his brow furrowing in thought. “...He has a fancy way of speaking, doesn’t he?” “Like I said,” Minuette pointed out with a smile. “Quirky Grandpa.” “Hmph,” Sunspot snorted in amusement before returning his eyes to the mirror. “...You understand that Pearly and I have more than a few questions for you. About the mirror, about you… and about your relationship with our daughter.” Fangs nodded. “I would expect nothing else. Ask away. I have nothing to hide.” And ask away the parents did. The family must have sat there for hours, the parents at long last getting to speak with Fangs. All the while, even as her cheeks began to hurt, Minuette was unable to keep herself from smiling ear to ear. It had taken a long, long time, but finally, finally, her parents believed her. They asked him so many questions, many of which Minuette wouldn’t have known how to answer. But Fangs never once hesitated. It was so strange, seeing him acting in such a down-to-business fashion, speaking honestly, directly, and respectfully. He was clear and honest about what he knew and wasn’t shy about admitting when he didn’t know or remember something. But at all turns, he made sure to emphasize and reiterate his gratitude and care for Minuette, reaffirming his status as her friend. And maybe now, Minuette thought, he could have a few more.