The Stereotypical Drafts

by JinxTJL


4/4/22 - Chapter 44 - Meaningless Circuity

He licked his lips, just to feel the cold air as he swept his eyes blankly across the room, before he turned again to stare at Nightmare Moon's tightly closed face. "So... sabotage, huh?" His mouth felt a little clammy as he spoke, and smacking his lips wasn't doing as much as he'd expected. "Is that... I guess- apropos? I mean, is... whatever you're talking about really so... deliberate?"

He really didn't want to believe it, and he was going to hold tight to that ship until it was kissing a bank.

////////// Bridge //////////

"I..." Her jaw seemed to become that much tighter as Her words failed, before She swallowed, and cleared Her throat. "I would not say in such deliberate methods as you seem to be thinking of; but by the standards of specificity: it was a brutal throttling of your potential."

She nodded to Herself, seemingly confident in Her words once again. Great. He was glad they had persevered through yet another dropped ball; now they could move onto the topic of lunacy!

His fell to a tilt as he allotted more thinking power to the riddle, but things still didn't quite add up. If he was understanding what Nightmare Moon was saying- and he was pretty sure he didn't- then... then the books were accidental sabotage?

What did that mean? Okay, no: he had a fair understanding of what that meant; but what did it mean for him?

"You're saying that... I don't even know what you're saying..." His thoughtful diction quickly bled into a mutter as he immediately lost track of the sentence he'd put together; and he let his legs fall out from under him as he put a hoof to his head, and grimaced.

"You're saying that-" He let the hoof on his head loll off to a lazy, underhoofed point at what he assumed was the waiting expression of Nightmare Moon. "-these books were... misinformation? They... what, they don't pertain?"

He heard the intake of breath as Nightmare Moon's mouth began to open, began to explain: but he waved his hoof in the air in a vague gesture of silence. He got it. He let it hang for a moment before bringing his hoof up to rest on the side of his head, to return the comforting feeling of warmth on his frog.

The idea beginning to form in his head was... a little odd, maybe a little presumptuous,

His eyes swept up, off their heated battle with the floor: to Nightmare Moon. Her eyebrow quirked. "You... You used some pretty specific wording, back there," he intoned, as he tapped his head thoughtfully, and returned his stare to the floor.

'You.' 'Any one horn.' 'Your potential.'

She was pointedly singling him out in direct relation to the relative helpfulness of the books. Why would that be?

The books do not pertain to him; but they might to others?

"Whether it was intentional or not- and with you I know it was- I think you've been putting a very fine point on me. You were demeaning the books like they were some kind of filthy corner store magazines, but at the same time: you were elevating me more than I think I've ever heard from you."

His short tirade was cut off almost mid-word, and he was left with his jaw hanging open for a moment as a sharp bark of a laugh rang out. He shut his mouth quietly as he raised his eyes back to Nightmare Moon, to see an indulgent smile on Her tilted face. "Do not be so quick to assume me your biggest fan, child."

Her lips parted, to show a flash of Her sharply shining teeth. "I simply do not believe in giving credit where none is due." Her smile quirked down, and for a moment: some kind of anger flashed in Her eyes, almost too quick to catch. "Especially in the case of your 'mystery benefactor.'"

Lot to unpack there, fitting a whole bunch of puzzle pieces together: leave it for later.

He nodded, just to move them along. "We'll come back to that: what's important is that you know something about me that I don't."

Nightmare Moon's falling face may have spoken of what She thought of his hurrying

What was different about him?

Well, there was really only one answer he could think of.

He tapped his head once, before bringing it down to point languidly at Nightmare Moon, who leaned in with raised brows. "The pony who wrote these books..." He furrowed his own brow as he sucked on his teeth for a moment; hoping behind his veneer that he was right. "...they didn't have a Necromancy cutie mark, did they?"

That was the only thing it could be. His special talent was, coincidentally, the only really special thing about him.

It was a moment of quiet, of him sweating with with his hoof and the air and Nightmare Moon leaning, and staring with hooded eyes. Eventually, She silently began to slowly lean backwards to a gradual return to Her normal posture, where She continued to just stare.

But then, She smiled; and laughed.

He blew a long, relieved breath, and let his hoof fall to his side as Nightmare Moon rolled Her head around Her quiet chuckle. Her eyes, now filled with glimmering mirth: dropped to him, and Her smile grew wider. "Would you like to know something interesting?"

That caught him a bit off guard, and it showed in the way he stammered nonsense for a single moment: before his body nodded and his mouth eventually caught up. "Uh.. well... um.. Sure?"

Nightmare Moon chuckled again, and nodded along with his still-nodding head. "It's a rather amusing little tidbit; one that I only realized as I spent more time with my hooves on them."