From this proposition it will follow, when arithmetic addition has been defined, that 1+1=2
Sooooo… Okay. Yes. Uhm….
You were telling the part about Prism and the awkward situation.
Okay, thanks. Okay, so, after that, it just continued on how it was. I read books for a while, you know, like I said, just about random fun mathy stuff. I could give you the general idea of what a specific field was about, but I didn’t know any of the axioms or methods or anything like that. I really wanted ponies to like me as much as they did Prism, but I found that having less than interesting conversation topics didn’t get me many friends. Well, that’s not true. I mean, math is interesting, but that doesn’t mean that other ponies thought it was interesting. It took me a while to realize that ponies didn’t just like Prism because she was good at school.
I don’t know. I guess what it really comes down to is that I just wanted to show ponies that I was different and that I could be smart too. Oh jeez, I don’t want to remember that.
So you’re saying that you weren’t actually interested in it?
No, I was. But not necessarily because I really enjoyed it. I grew to love math, but at first it definitely was just to look smart. Which didn’t actually work as well as I wanted it to. But my “forced interest” eventually turned into real awe. The more I learned, the easier it was to learn other stuff.
Aaaand so that’s how it was for a while. But then something changed. And this is where I’d really rather not remember this stuff. But because you asked so nicely, I tell you anyway.
It was the eighth grade, and I was just minding my own business. Well, not really. So I was in the schools library at lunch one day, just looking around at choices and such. It was pretty quiet. There were a few other ponies just doing whatever, probably studying. I was just kinda looking around the room when someone caught my eye. The book they were reading was big and red. It was Starlight Shine. He was reading a really weird book.
What was weird about it? You just said it was red.
Well, at the time I thought it was weird. There were a bunch of equations and diagrams, but I remember thinking that it looked way more advanced than anything I had read before that.
So it was a math book? Why did that surprise you?
I guess… I guess I just didn’t expect anyone to be reading one for “fun.” It wasn’t the book that had been given to anyone in my class, or his class, because even though we were in the same grade he took a more advanced magic and math class than me. I knew what the book he used looked like and I was confused. So after staring from a distance, being the stalker that I am, I walked up to him and asked: “What’s that?”
He got all anxious and looked around the room. I think he was trying to figure out who I was talking to. I pointed at the book and he said something like “Ohh… sorry… it’s book about math.”
I said, “What kind of math? Like what subject?”
“Oh, it’s about set theory.”
“...Oh… it looks so plain.”
And then he said, “Well, I don’t know how that would be, this isn’t geometry after all!” Heheheh. Just kidding.
Ughhhhhhh….
Well….
That was terrible.
Well….
As in… it wasn’t so much so unfunny that it became funny, it was just unfunny.
Come on, Twilight, why are you so up in arms today?
Maybe because you’re dawdling on stuff that you don’t need to be.
This is important for the cohesiveness of the plot!
Okay, fine, continue on.
So, okay, yeah, then Starlight said all with his cute stutter: “W-well, it’s, uhm, like a textbook….”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.”
“So….:
Okay, Cadance, it’s just getting weird. Saying single lines like that—
Okay! Jeez. Anyway, he explained it to me some more, and, well, I was surprised. I asked him why he was reading and he simply said, “Because... I-I like it.”
I don’t really know, or maybe I do, I don’t know, but that concept seemed so foreign to me. I said something like “But you’re not getting anything out of it? You can’t skip any more classes.”
“Well, yeah, I know… but I can still get college credit.”
“But what’s the point? I mean, you’re already so far ahead…”
“I-I don’t know… I just enjoy it….”
Like I said, I didn’t really get it at first. I didn’t really know what to do and so I just decided to ask what the book was. He told me it was called Principia Mathematica.
What?! He was reading that? To study set theory?
Yeah.....
That’s pretty… hard core. Kind of sexy too….
What?
Nothing.
Anyway, I thought a lot about what he was doing. I took me a while to realize that ponies would just actually, really learn things without an incentive. Saying it now sounds really silly, but, you know….
I remember laying in bed one night, kinda just thinking about the whole thing. I didn’t know what to do or what to make of it, so I just decided to check the book out for myself. Yeah, laugh all you want, but… well….
I’m not laughing.
Okay, jeez. So anyway, I fell asleep that night and I woke up the next day—
Riveting.
Just let me tell the story! Anyway! I went to the Royal Archives the next day, and I looked around for the book. But it wasn’t in the section I thought it would be in. I ended up having to ask the mare at the front desk, I remember she had a really condescending expression. “Are you sure that’s the right book?” she said.
I was… irrationally embarrassed and so I explained that it was for a school project and that someone in my group wanted the book.
I took the book back to my room and I just sat on my bed, staring at it. I felt a little afraid of it—it was like, I don’t know, I felt like if I opened it I would change everything.
But eventually I did open it. I read the preface, and I was sooo confused. I just flat out did not understand what was going on. I stared at the the symbols and the proofs, just taking in the picture that all of it made. I flipped through the book, fully realizing that I just did not get it.
So I laid back on my bed, feeling gloomy. I wanted to understand it, but I just didn’t. I understood, I guess, the general idea, but it didn’t form a cohesive idea and I would get lost.
I fell asleep that night with a frown.
But I wanted to learn, and I knew one pony who could help me. It was Starlight Shine, incase you didn’t get that.
I was nervous about asking him for a few days. I just didn’t know how to go about it, you know. Asking something like that seemed a little awkward. Eventually, though, I got over it.
It was another day at lunch time, and I was in the library again. Starlight Shine was also there, still reading his book. I watched from him from another table.. I was, I don’t know, I was still thinking about how I would approach him.
After a while I decided to shed my pride and just do it. I wasn’t about to let my dreams be dreams. The day before, I remember, I had just told myself to do it tomorrow.
So, all rattled up as I was, I walked up to him. I remember it seemed like several minutes of just standing behind him before I said anything.
“Uhm, Starlight Shine,” I said formally.
He jumped a little and turned around really fast. “Y-yes, Princess?”
I probably bit my lip and scratched my leg before I said anything, and I said something like “So I was reading that book—I mean, not that one, but my own copy, and well….”
“O-oh, yeah, it’s pretty cool, right?”
“Yeah, but… I didn’t really get a lot of it, and I was wondering if you—I mean if you would help me get it.”
You make it sound like you were coming on to him.
No. Anyway, he just looked at me for a second before tilting his head and asking, “Why?”
“Because I… I want to get it. I want to learn more about math.” I don’t know if he could tell if I was blushing or not. But I was, like, really hard.
He just at me again. I was getting really nervous because I really couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Uhm…. I’m not sure….” I remember him saying. He just turned around and looked at his book. I asked him what he meant. “I-I mean, well, I don’t know if you are….”
Hold on, okay, what? If it was so embarrassing to go and ask, why didn’t you just try harder? Why didn’t you just try reading more books and such? You had plenty of resources.
I guess I was never much, well I’m still not really—I mean, I guess I’m not really much for solitary sort of learning. My reading comprehension wasn’t always that high, you know. And I didn’t know where to start, for another thing. I didn’t really have a basis of “this is what you need to know to learn x,” you know?
That’s fair, I guess. I’ve always been one to learn better, I think, through books than instruction so I guess I don’t really know how it feels.
Well, anyway, yes. Okay, so Starlight kind of froze before he finished what he was going to say. “You don’t know if I’m what?” I asked.
“I don’t know if… if you would l-like this stuff that much….”
“I do! I like math…. I want to learn, so can you help me?”
He told me that he “didn’t know” again. He just looked at his book again. I could tell he was really nervous, being near me.
It felt so awful to be subtly rejected like that. So instead of giving up, I persisted. I wasn’t really thinking about what it would mean. “Please… just… if I have any questions, can I ask you?”
“I… I guess so… but don’t tell a-anyone, please….”
“Okay, my lips are sealed. But as long as you don’t tell anyone either.”
That encounter still makes me cringe a little. I was so worried that he would shut me out.
Why did he not want you telling anyone?
I’ll get to that, don’t worry.
Why didn’t you want him telling anyone?
Well, I already kinda explained that. I was embarrassed. I mean, I shouldn’t have been embarrassed, but I guess because my personality didn’t match up with my interests, it just felt wrong. It’s like if you secretly children’s books. There’s nothing wrong with it—well, I mean it’s a little weird, I guess—
I don’t, by the way, I just wanted to make that clear.
...Okay…. Well, I mean, it would be weird, but since you don’t—
I don’t.
...Yeah. Right. But, since you’re a studious type, it would conflict with your image, you know? It sounds silly, but I didn’t want ponies to think I was a nerd, I guess. And I especially didn’t want anymore ponies talking to me like a foal when I talked about math.
But you said that you were trying to impress Prism.
Yeah, but that was just between us two. Anyway, I need to get some water. My throat's dry from talking so much. Or, actually, do you have milk? That sounds really good right now.
Yeah. It should be in the kitchen.
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I'm so lost. I can't understand anything beyond basic algebra.
7304014 I praise you for your honesty.
Maybe there's an open position as Princess of Grumpiness somewhere.
God that gave me flashbacks.
7325860 Sweet nothings.
That line from the Principia is every bit as immortal as Charles Babbage's legendary burn in response to a stupid question.