See? Flying Colors!
Minuette’s eyes slowly peeled open as the first rays of the morning sun streamed into her room. A long, drowsy, and frankly unattractive yawn worked its way out of her before she pushed herself up to her haunches. She took a moment to collect her thoughts and wake up a little, allowing her eyes to aimlessly wander over her room.
Eventually, her gaze settled on her mirror, and her train of thought ground to a sudden halt. Immediately, she remembered the bug she had seen in it the previous night. Or… had it been a dream? She frowned in thought. The memory of the interaction was hazy at best, and all she recalled with any degree of clarity were his distorted assurances that she would ace this upcoming test.
With a quiet hum, she hopped down from her bed and walked up to her mirror. Her tired reflection stared back at her, eyes drooping with bags under them, her mane tousled and wild from a night of tossing and turning. But even as she squinted and peered past her own visage for any sign of the exoskeletal interloper, she saw no sign of him.
“...Um… hello?” she called softly, wondering if he might wander into view again like he did last time. To her disappointment, however, no such thing happened. It was just her own image staring back at her.
“Hm… musta been a dream, then,” she mumbled before turning and dragging herself out of her room.
The home was largely quiet as she picked her way through it, although she knew her parents were up. The smell of breakfast being cooked drifted up the stairs and up her nostrils, making her stomach growl and her mouth water. Minuette gave out a pleased and eager hum, ready to dig into whatever her parents had seen fit to make this time.
She could hear them talking as she sleepily came down. Curiosity got the better of her. She perked up her ears once she reached the bottom and listened in. The chatter was mostly routine. Her parents were simply discussing with one another their plans for the day, much of which went right over the filly’s head. Nothing stood out to Minuette for a while, and she was about to step out into the kitchen to ask when breakfast would be ready until a question from her father made her think better of it.
“A cupcake with breakfast?” Sunspot’s voice asked, clearly skeptical. “Pearl, honey, you know I love you, but are you sure we should be giving sugar like that to the beast first thing in the morning?”
Minuette stifled a giggle. “Hah! Beast.”
“She didn’t get to bed until late last night. I found her talking to her mirror before I came to bed as if it could talk back.”
Minuette froze, the giggles dying in her throat. “Wait… mom saw that? Then, that means it really happened!”
And if it really happened, then the bug in her mirror was not, in fact, a dream. He was real — or at the very least, he was a figment of her waking imagination. But that didn’t make any sense! How was there a talking bug pony thing in her mirror? How had he gotten there? And if he was really there, why hadn’t he answered her when she called out to him earlier? She felt the urge to go running up and call out for him again just to see, but that idea quickly fell off the tracks when a thought occurred to her.
“...Maybe he was just sleeping,” she eventually mumbled to herself. It was the only explanation that made sense, and if it was true, she didn’t want to be mean by waking him up. She remembered how cranky her dad could get if he got woken up too early, and she didn’t wanna do that for the bug… Whoever the bug was.
Unfortunately, that left her in a tricky spot. There was little she could do about the bug right now, with school looming just ahead, and her mother had seemingly not been able to see the bug. All she could do for now was keep going about her day.
“I’ll try to talk to him again when I get home,” she decided with a nod to herself. “Then he’ll have gotten all the sleep he needs, and I’ll have passed my test!”
With that resolution burning in her mind, she drowsily dragged herself into the kitchen, giving off a mumbled greeting to her parents as she went. Thankfully, they did not seem to catch onto the fact that she had just been eavesdropping on them, and soon enough, she was consuming a breakfast of cereal and a single blueberry cupcake with sprinkles.
As she ate, her mind wandered back to the bug, and his words from beyond the wall of glass rang in her ears once again.
“...You really have nothing to fear, little one. I have seen you practicing relentlessly. You are more than ready for this ‘test,’ I know it… You don’t have to be scared. I hope you sleep well, kid. And when you wake up, I know you’ll do just fine.”
Minuette smiled to herself. “Yeah, I will do just fine. I’ll pass this with flying colors, just like I said I would!”
When Minuette marched into the classroom later that morning, it was with her head held high and a confident look on her face. In her head, she was marching heroically face-first into the storm of discord and adversity that would surely mold her into some great hero. She could totally imagine a cape billowing epically behind her in an unfelt breeze, a light shining down from her above.
Yes, she was the big good, and the various chairs and the whiteboard was the army she was to single-handedly strike down! All she had to do was wait for the word from above and-
“Hey, Minnie!” First Aid called out from the right, instantly shattering Minuette’s self-empowering fantasy.
The blue unicorn did not miss a beat, though. Her face lit up with a large grin, and she scampered over to her seat, finding that her three friends were already gathered and waiting for her. Split lifted a hoof in greeting. “Hey, Minuette. Studied this time, I hope?” he greeted as she plopped down in her seat.
Minuette grinned back at him and gave a sharp nod. “Uh-huh! I got this!”
Bristle let out a low whistle, leaning back in his seat with an amused smirk. “Ooh, confident today.”
“Yeah! I got this!” Minuette repeated, lighting up the very tip of her horn to give off a few small pulses of light, while her face remained split into a big, energetic grin. “I got some real good advice from someone at home, I studied real hard, I did my practice, I ate a cupcake for breakfast! WOO! I am READY for this!”
First Aid giggled before reaching out to nudge Minuette’s shoulder. “You ate a cupcake for breakfast?”
“Uh-huh! Mom made me! Said I slept like crud, and the sugar from the cupcake would help! Now I’m really awake and ready to do this!”
Split End raised an eyebrow. “Uh… I’m not sure that’s how that works,” he mused skeptically.
His words were lost on Minuette, though, who was currently mid-sugar rush. Her eyes were wide and rapidly scanning the room, and she noticed she was getting a few odd stares from her classmates. Some of them had anticipatory smirks as if expecting her to fail as spectacularly as she did last time.
“I ain’t failing!” she decided with finality, thumping her hooves together over her chest as if for emphasis. Although, in truth, it was just because she was basically vibrating, and some of that energy needed to go somewhere.
Shortly after, the bell rang, and once more, Princess Celestia stepped into the room, her gentle eyes passing over the students with a motherly smile to match. “Good morning, class!” she greeted, earning a unanimous greeting from her students in response. Her eyes briefly lingered on Minuette, and an amused glimmer entered the alicorn’s eyes before she continued. “As I said yesterday, we have another magic test today. This test, as your homework will have made clear, is to create a basic, rudimentary illusion. I assume you have all done your research and gotten plenty of practice?”
“Totes!” Minuette barked, jumping slightly in her seat and drawing some chuckles from the rest of the room.
Celestia giggled at the response. “Hahaha. I’m glad to see such enthusiasm from you this morning, Minuette. Even by your standards, you seem rather cheerful,” she noted with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, she ate a cupcake, apparently,” Split pointed out with a hoof pointed at the vibrating filly.
“We’re all gonna die!” another foal playfully squealed from somewhere else in the room, drawing another round of laughs.
Minuette’s cheeks puffed up in annoyance, and a few agitated, wordless sounds escaped her before she sat back in her seat with puffed up cheeks and an annoyed growl.
Celestia allowed the children to have their laughs for a moment before softly clearing her throat. The moment she did, the room fell silent, as all of the foals paid dutiful attention to their princess and magic teacher. Once she was sure she had their full attention, she continued. “As before, there will be a written portion to this test, and then the practical demonstration of the spell. Are there any last-minute questions or concerns?”
When nopony answered, Celestia nodded her head. “Very well. Then we may begin,” she declared. As before, she lifted a stack of parchment in her magic, delivering each sheet to her students individually. Minuette accepted hers enthusiastically and delved right in, her pen primed and ready to go.
The room fell into utter silence. Minuette’s gaze traced over the test in front of her, her brow furrowing with concentration. A small bead of anxiety began to well up inside of her, reminding her of the possibility, however remote, that she might fail this time, too. She’d be a laughing stock if that happened.
And- no. No, she had prepared for the test this time. She had practiced the spell until her horn was sore, she had read the material at least five times to ensure she had it all memorized. She took in a long, deep breath and set about writing down her first answer. “I got this,” she reaffirmed.
She allowed her thoughts to drift into silence after that, focusing entirely on the paper before her. The sound of pens scratching against parchment and the gentle shimmering of magic were the only sounds to be heard. Every so often, Minuette snuck a glance at her friends to see how they were doing. Of the three of them, First Aid seemed to be having the most trouble, her muzzle scrunching up with thought and concentration. Split and Bristle were doing somewhat better, but there was definitely a bit of strain in there.
At one point, Minuette caught First’s eye and gave her a short nod and encouraging smile. First Aid blinked in surprise before reciprocating the gesture and returning to her work.
Soon enough, the papers began to get turned in. Much like last time, the written portion of the test was short and fairly simple — nothing more or less than a means to ensure that the students clearly remembered the premise of the magic they were working with. As the last sheets were deposited on Celestia’s desk, the alicorn smiled and rose to her hooves.
“I believe it is time, then,” she said to the class, her wings adjusting on her sides. “Just like last time, my little ponies. Clear the middle of the room!”
It was just like before. A flurry of movement, the legs of the desks scraping across the hard floor, ponies chattering amongst themselves to hype each other up or speculate on what was to come next. Minuette found her place by First Aid and waited for her turn as Celestia called the other students forward one at a time to perform the spell.
“Lemon Hearts, why don’t we begin with you?”
A bright yellow filly with a curly blue mane and tail with a trio of colorful hearts on her flanks stepped forward, her deep pink eyes shimmering with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation. Celestia gave the foal an encouraging smile before stepping back. “The spell, as you know, is a minor illusion. I would like for you to manifest a small object of your choice in the air. You may be as elaborate or as basic as you wish with the visuals, so long as you can project the image in your mind so the rest of us can see. Begin whenever you are ready.”
The room watched with bated breath as Lemon Hearts nodded her head and closed her eyes. Her horn lit up with a magenta aura to match her eyes. Her muzzle scrunched up, and her brow furrowed with concentration. A few awed murmurs passed through the crowd as, slowly but surely, the air before the foal began to shimmer and ripple with light. A shape began to emerge, starting as a mere distortion, like heatwaves from an open fire, but filling in as if by multi-colored smoke. A lone butterfly appeared in the heart of the room, its wings beating slowly but surely in a steady, if rigid, beat.
Minuette blinked a few times, taken aback somewhat. She had not yet given any thought to what she was going to have her illusion be. She scrunched up her muzzle in thought before leaning to the side to whisper to First Aid. “So… what are you gonna make?”
“I dunno. Something,” First Aid replied in an equally hushed voice. “Maybe a monkey.”
“Why a monkey?”
“I dunno. Monkeys are funny?”
Minuette shrugged her shoulders. She couldn’t exactly argue with that sentiment. She returned to standing straight and watched as Celestia called on the next student. One at a time, they came forward, each one conjuring a different illusion. One of them made a tea set, while another made his favorite toy. One of them created a rudimentary depiction of his dog (which earned a few adoring coos from the class), while another made a big box of doughnuts.
And then, the moment came. Celestia’s smile fell on Minuette. “Minuette, you’re next.”
Minuette’s heart skipped a beat. She had been so focused on the other foals that she had almost forgotten that her turn was coming up. She swallowed heavily and turned to her friends. First Aid smiled back at her, while Split and Bristle gave her nods of encouragement. She hesitated for a moment. It was strange. Something about the looks on the colts’ faces didn’t seem quite right to her. It was as if they weren’t really confident in her success like First Aid was…
After a moment, though, Minuette turned and stepped into the center of the room. A collection of snickers went through the crowd, and she knew, she just knew they were laughing at her, no doubt remembering her little ‘explosion’ from last time. She shuddered under their jeering stares, her ears folding back with indignation. Not even fifteen minutes ago, they had been laughing because she was being deliberately funny, but now they were laughing in anticipation of another cosmic failure.
She shook her head to dispel her doubts. She lifted her head and set her jaw, coming to a stop in the core of the room to face the princess. Celestia gave her a small, encouraging nod. “Go on, Minuette. Show us what you can do.”
Minuette took a deep breath and nodded. “R-right. Okay,” she said before closing her eyes and lighting up her horn. Several seconds passed as she racked her brain for an appropriate image to manifest, but to her growing dismay, she was drawing blanks. Maybe it was being put on the spot like this or having all of those eyes staring judgmentally at her from the edges of the room. Whatever it was, it was driving all of the creativity from her thoughts—a bead of sweat formed on her brow, an anxious whimper threatening to slip past her lips.
“You really have nothing to fear, little one…”
Minuette’s eyes snapped open as she gave an audible gasp, the image of the bug flashing in her mind. She latched onto it with everything she had and focused on her spell, pouring as much power as she dared into making the image come to life. Bit by bit, the air before her began to shimmer and ripple. Then, with a small pulse of light, the image became clear.
It was crude at best, and not quite accurate to the real deal, Minuette realized, but standing before her in the middle of the room, clear for all to see as a symbol of her success, was a vague recreation of the bug she had seen in her mirror. A silence fell over the room for several seconds.
“I… I did it,” she whispered to herself, her eyes glued onto the illusion. A few moments passed as the realization set in, and her gaping mouth formed into a wide, ecstatic grin. “I did it! I did it, I did it, I DID IT!” she squealed, hopping in place a few times. She came to a stop when a sharp throb of pain tore through her horn, causing the image to flicker.
With a grunt, Minuette decided that, for the moment, enough was enough. She lifted the image into the air over their heads and dispelled it in a shower of sparks. A few shocked gasps tore through the crowd, and some of the foals even gave off mystified calls to see it again.
Several long seconds passed. Nopony said a word. Minuette looked around at the other foals, seeing wide eyes and hanging jaws staring back at her. Her smile began to fade, and some irrational part of her brain began to wonder if she had done something wrong. She turned back to Celestia for answers and found the alicorn smiling down at her.
“Well… that was certainly the most unique thing I have seen during one of these tests in a long time, Minuette,” she said quietly. “You have quite the imagination, don’t you?”
Minuette gave a loud sigh of relief before grinning widely up at the princess. “Uh-huh!”
Celestia’s smile grew wider. “Well, you did a wonderful job. Return to your classmates now. There are still more students to get through.”
Minuette gave a chirpy nod before turning and scampering back to her friends, a visible skip in her step. First Aid greeted her with a hug the moment she rejoined them, squealing with delight. “That was amazing, Minuette! Better than anypony else here, I think!”
Minuette returned the hug, bouncing in place with a wordless squeal. She then looked past her red-maned friend to grin at the colts behind her. They were looking back at her with similarly wide-eyed looks of shock and alarm at what they had just seen her do.
“See? What’d I tell ya?” she asked cockily. She waggled her eyebrows at them and gestured back at the center of the room. “Flying colors!”
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Now Minuette owes the bug a great deal of thanks, because he gave her the confidence boost she needed to make it through that exam.
Adorable Overload... RebootingKailaniTides_1005.exe . . . Unsuccessful... Damage To Cuteness Receptors Is Permanent... Shutting Down...
Adorable is all I can say
So three possibilities. Celestia has never encountered Changelings before in this verse. Minuette's illusion was too abstract for her to recognize it. Or Celestia did recognize it but has an epic poker face.
10311614
Ding.
Either Celestia has a fantastic poker face, or she truly knows nothing about changelings.
10311625
The latter.
Now that's adorable, hopefully this might eventually lead into the bug being pulled out of the mirror. Whatever crime he may have done in the past to be put in there, if any at all, he's served likely dozens of times over.
MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
just started reading and I love it!
Yay
10311626
You say that, but as you are the author you can't be trusted. You could be lying to give us a false sense of security before BAM! big twist where she knew what it was.
10312056
You know what? That is a very fair and valid point.
10312074
I don’t believe you.
See what I did there?
There will definitely be repercussions for that illusion, later.
Good job Minnie! Knew you could do it.
10312331
agreed
Well, we know Celestia is an awful teacher and worse guardian, so she's going to ignore the nightmare creature one of her students showed off instead of looking into what could cause that.
She's an even worse strategist and tactician, so even if she recognizes changelings she'll do nothing about it.
Well, we all know what illusion Minuette will make.
I just wonder what it'll lead to...
Yay! Good for Minuette! I bet the bug is gonna freak out when he hears she made an illusion of him.
woot woot grate job Minuette..
a awesome chapter.
10311517
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
10311622
You know, if I were you I wouldn't've confirmed any theories but let them speculate for now.
10313761
Eh. If something is particularly off-base I'll usually point out that it's wrong. I won't tell people if they are right, only ever if they are very wrong. Keeps confusion to a minimum.
Eh. An interesting imagination is an excellent excuse. Roll with it Minuette!
YESSSS!!!!
New Chapter and starting with Julio Regalado, 2020 isn't that bad.
Victory screech
10312393
Celestia's mind, "Oh crap. She knows what changelings are... keep smiling, pretend nothing is wrong... send in Sweetie Drops to beat the truth out of her later."
Perfect song for this;
I doubt you failed to recognize it.
10526004
Oh yeah, Celestia knows
Everybody gangsta 'till funny monkey
How morbid of the girl D:
(It's also a German word for 'Died'
i rest my case
... Celestia isn't questioning it...?
Huh. okay
About midway through the chapter, saw that the test was illusions- ‘She’s gonna make a changeling, isnt she?’
11002672
hmmm i mean... i wouldn't put it past this version of celestia to conceal her genuine reaction
10312056
how did you do this
Well, considering tht changelings can fly AND change their color, yeah, she did pass with flying colors.