A Process of Elimination

Moon Dancer wanted to pick my brain.

This filly, who had watched me spontaneously raise a dragon to adulthood and nearly destroyed an entire school with my magic surge, wanted to know what made me tick. The idea was so laughable that I actually did chuckle a bit at her words, though it was more an uncomfortable, disbelieving chuckle than anything else. Looking back, I'm sure she wasn't trying to sound like some obsessed stalker, but at the time that's just about all I could think when I heard that.

"I-I'm sorry, but I... I really need to go," I replied, anxiety making my voice several octaves higher than normal. I wracked my brain for some kind of excuse to leave and thankfully it didn't take me long to find one, "I... I got separated from my chaperone! She's probably really worried, so I should—"

I began edging around the other filly in an attempt to escape and even managed to make it most of the way before Moon Dancer followed after me.

"I can help you look," she offered almost immediately, "two heads are better than one, right?"

"W-Well, I mean that's..."

I felt like the saying didn't exactly apply here the way she probably meant it to, but she didn't seem to care either way. The bespectacled filly seemed to lack any kind of self-awareness, brushing off my admittedly subtle attempts to remove myself from her presence. Given my self-conscious and diffident nature, I couldn't simply tell her to just get lost and be done with it.

In the end, I just let her follow me around as I tried to find my way out of what I now knew was the administration and finance wing of the library. I didn't want to think of her as a nuisance, but at that moment, that's exactly what she was. Unfortunately, trying to suppress my irritation only made it manifest in other ways. As we made our way back to the main area, Moon Dancer—too busy trying to get my attention—hadn't been paying any heed to where she was going and bumped into one of the taller, wider, heavier bookshelves.

In reality, nothing happened and the bookshelf didn't even budge an inch, but in my head, I didn't quite see it that way. What I saw was that same bookshelf toppling over like a massive domino on top of the inattentive filly. What I heard was a startled cry and a sickening crunch followed by a long and gratifying silence. It was only one instance and the image was nowhere near as vivid as what happened with Crimson Storm, but it did wonders to ease both my anxiety and aggravation.

My imagination hadn't taken over like that in a while, but then again, I hadn't let my guard down like that in a while either. I wanted to be worried, but I couldn't bring myself to stop the satisfied sigh that escaped my lips. I couldn't even bring myself to complain all that much because the thought of Moon Dancer's life being snuffed out made her presence much more bearable.

It was funny how that worked.

Funny... and more than a little concerning.

In any case, I was in a slightly better mood and found myself more willing to talk, though what about was still cause for some worry. Surprisingly, one of the first questions out of Moon Dancer's mouth wasn't about my mental state like I'd feared, but a question I hadn't even given any thought to.

"That mana... where did all of it come from?" she asked, adjusting her glasses and eyeing me with something like awe, "I was certain you were going to fail that exam, but when the sonic rainboom happened and your magic just—"

"Wait, sonic rainboom?" I interrupted with a confused frown, "what's a sonic rainboom? You mean that giant explosion everypony was talking about?"

It had been some time since the incident, but I'd never really tried to delve into why it happened or what triggered my magic surge in the first place. Back then, I simply wanted to distance myself from the events of the exam and gave no thought to any of the circumstances surrounding it. By the time the experts and the media had pinpointed the exact cause of my surge, I'd already shut it all out, and Celestia never bothered to tell me.

Of course, that was likely her way of trying to help me put the traumatic event behind me.

"You don't know?" Moon Dancer replied, her expression matching my own, "how do you not know? You were the one most affected by that destructive phenomenon—well, you and that pegasus filly."

"Pegasus... filly?" I hadn't thought it possible for my expression to grow even more confused than it already was, and yet, "what are you talking about? What pegasus filly? What does she have to do with what happened back then?"

I hadn't wanted to talk about the exam, that's the other reason why I wanted to get away from Moon Dancer. But now my curiosity was taking over and I couldn't help but ask. Thinking back, there were quite a lot of details I'd purposefully overlooked about that incident—far more than I expected given what Moon Dancer had to say. The other filly stopped and looked at me, searching my face.

"You really don't know, do you?"

"No, I don't," I frowned, "I... I wasn't really in a good place after all of that happened. I hardly even remember any of it, and to be honest, I didn't really want to."

It wasn't a complete lie, but...

"Oh... I see," sudden clarity seemed to come to Moon Dancer then. She cleared her throat before looking away awkwardly, "right, I uh... I suppose you wouldn't, would you?"

Her weirdly professional aloofness vanished and in its place was embarrassment and what I thought might've even been a bit of guilt. Apparently, she finally realized how overly forward she'd been in her approach and was regretting it—and from the look on her face, she was regretting it deeply. The sudden change in her demeanor had been so drastic that I was completely caught off guard and had no idea what to say.

For a long, uncomfortable moment we each just stood there outside the administration and finance wing, neither of us knowing how to proceed. Wanting to break the awkward silence, I started to open my mouth to say something. I wasn't sure where the conversation would go,but Moon Dancer saved me the trouble when she sighed and turned to face me.

"I'm... sorry," she said, her face the very picture of apologetic, "I get carried away when it comes to... erm... these kinds of things," she cleared her throat again and regained some of her cool attitude, "I didn't think about how painful something like that must've been for you and for that, I apologize... but I won't apologize for being curious."

I just looked at her.

In all honesty, I completely understood her reasoning because I was the same way when it came to my own interests. Not only that, but I could tell her apology was genuine, if a bit curt. I had no problem forgiving her for her lack of self-awareness, but it was her last statement that threw me off and left me without a proper response. She sounded so defensive—as though she was trying to wear her curiosity like a badge of pride... and with her next words, I realized that's exactly what she was doing.

"After all," she continued, adjusting her glasses and puffing out her tiny chest, "I'm a scholar, and scholars should never apologize for being curious. If we're not willing to ask, then how are we supposed to learn, right?"

"I, uh... I guess that's true," I replied slowly. I paused, then chuckled in spite of myself a moment later, "but you know, there's also a lot to be learned by just listening."

"Also true," Moon Dancer gave a sage nod as if she'd known that all along, "but it's not like you were offering up anything on your own, so I'm sorry but that rebuttal doesn't hold water where you're concerned."

I couldn't help it, I laugh aloud at that.

"A-And what are you laughing about?" she asked, looking affronted.

Her expression just made me laugh all the harder. It got to a point where I was starting to draw attention to myself, and I quickly got it under control. I shook my head and motioned for the two of us to continue walking.

"I'm sorry," I replied, still chuckling a little, "I don't really know what came over me, but I know what you mean. I can get carried away too sometimes so I can't really blame you—not completely anyway."

I was too young to understand why Moon Dancer's words and attitude made me laugh then. I realize now that it was because she was just like me in a lot of ways, just a little more impatient to be who she thought she was meant to be. As a filly, it was something I only understood at a subconscious level, but that was enough. Even if I couldn't pin down the exact reason, it was enough for me to make a connection to who I thought would be the first real friend I'd ever had beyond my brother.

Talking to Moon Dancer became a lot easier at any rate.

"Oh... well, I'm glad to hear it," Moon Dancer replied, and her next words and expression became uncertain, "so, ah... you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but..."

"My magic during the exam?" I guessed, "I can't really tell you where it all came from, but the Princess says a magic surge like that, while rare, isn't as uncommon as you'd think among unicorn foals."

"Really?" Moon Dancer asked, intrigued, "and wait... you said the Princess? When did you hear that from the Princess? I don't remember her saying anything like that at the exam."

"Oh, well I... uh..." I hesitated, then smiled awkwardly, "she... came to visit me after I woke up in the hospital. She wanted to let me know everything was okay and we started talking and... yeah."

Again, it wasn't a complete lie—Celestia had been to visit me in the hospital, but that conversation hadn't happened until much later when I'd already become her protege. I hadn't initially meant to lie, but something at that moment told me not to tell her the whole truth. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it felt like it would've been a bad idea so I said nothing about my teacher-student relationship with Princess Celestia.

"Huh," Moon Dancer replied after a thoughtful pause, "well if anypony would know, it only makes sense it would the Princess. She's lived for ages at this point and I guess statistically there would've had to have been similar cases at some point in the past," she shook her head and smiled a slightly envious smile, "still, you're pretty lucky, what with the Princess coming to see you personally and all."

"Yeah," I said before changing the subject, "b-but anyway, you still haven't told me about that pegasus and the... what did you call it? A sonic rainboom?"

"Right, the sonic rainboom," Moon Dancer nodded, "I don't know all the details, but apparently there was this race happening in Cloudsdale..."

She then proceeded to tell all about how this pegasus filly flew so fast she caused a sonic boom. Evidently, she'd managed to tap into the mana in her veins to build up extra speed, and when she broke the sound barrier, all that mana got released in one huge burst, thus the sonic rainboom. There was more to it, but that was essentially the basic outline of the working theory crafted by thaumatological experts.

Supposedly, it was a phenomenon that had only happened maybe two other times in history—a feat so rare that it had slipped into legend. For some reason, there were some that even called it 'the miracle that begets miracles', a phrase that only made me frown as I remembered the 'miracle' it bestowed upon me. Thankfully, having realized that she'd been too forward in asking about me, Moon Dancer was all too happy to veer off into other topics.

We talked for a little while longer about other things, like our academic pursuits and our current studies and the like. All the while I did everything I could to skirt around the fact that the Princess was my personal teacher, mentioning only that I had a private tutor. I was beginning to feel bad about the half-truths and lies of omission, but at the same time, I wasn't ready to trust the other filly just yet.

I was growing to like Moon Dancer the more we talked, but I hadn't forgotten Blueblood or even Crimson Storm. Yes, I was trying to put all of that behind me, but the wounds and conflicting emotions were still there beneath the surface. Still, we'd reached some common ground in our desire to learn so I pushed my concerns down and just let myself enjoy the conversation for a time.

Eventually, we found our way back to the main area where I spotted my mousy caretaker having a silent panic attack over by the front desk. An uncomfortable-looking pony behind the desk—the earth pony stallion I'd shown my library card to—was trying to calm the frantically whispering mare with little success. I winced at the sight and backed away a step before turning to Moon Dancer.

"Hey, so..." I nodded toward the off-duty maid, "that mare over there? She's the one I came here with, and it kind of looks like I should be getting back."

"Huh?" Moon Dancer followed my gaze and grimaced at the distraught mare, "oh... yes, you should probably do that before she embarrasses herself anymore."

"Yeah," I chuckled as I began trotting toward the desk, " well, it was nice meeting you, Moon Dancer—"

"Wait," she held up a hoof, "you said you were studying for a mid-term entrance exam, right?"

"Yeah... that's right," I replied slowly, "if I pass, I'll be accepted into CSGU as a sort of temp student for the next three months."

"Right, well..." she hesitated a moment, but collected herself quickly, "my mom works here as an admin service manager so I can pretty much come here anytime I want. If you need any help with your studies, I usually come here every weekend around this time so..."

She trailed off expectantly and I was left to mull over her offer. I only had about two weeks to study before I took the actual exam and I expected to have my ID for the Royal Archives in hoof well before then. Once I had that, I wouldn't need to come back here, but ultimately I decided it wouldn't be an issue to have her help me over the weekend. Besides, I didn't know exactly when I'd get my ID back so until then the library was still my best option.

"That sounds great," I finally replied, choosing to ignore Moon Dancer's not-so-subtle sigh of relief, "I'll probably be coming back here for the next few days to study and check out a few more things for reference."

"Alright then," she gave one last adjustment of her thickly rimmed glasses and slipped back into her aloof persona, "I'm pretty busy myself, but I'll see if I can take some time to find you then."

"Sounds good."

My last reply was somewhat distracted as the stallion had apparently spotted me from afar. He pointed me out to my panicking caretaker and I took that as my cue to leave. I waved one last goodbye to Moon Dancer and made the rest of the way over to the maid, looked like she was doing everything she could not to just hug me like I was her lost daughter returning back home.

After a surprisingly stern talking-to from the maid about my disappearance, I checked out my study materials and we began heading out the double doors and back out to the city. The drizzle from earlier had turned into a full-blown downpour, but the umbrellas we'd brought were enough to keep most of the rain at bay. My chaperone may have been miserable in the pouring rain, but I couldn't be happier with how my visit had ended, even if it hadn't started out all that well.

While I might've had something to look forward to for my next trip to the library, I couldn't really say the same about my return to the castle, unfortunately. My troubles were only just beginning where the castle was concerned.