Scootaloo didn't feel especially rested when she dragged herself out of bed that morning, but she had somehow managed to get enough sleep that she felt she'd be able to make it through school. She took a shower, brushed her teeth and ate her breakfast, going through the routine on automation while waiting for her mind to fully wake up.
It wasn't until she took her scooter outside and set off for school that she managed to shake off the last of her drowsiness. Moving her body always helped clear her mind. It was a perfect day, with blue skies and gentle winds, warm for the season. Ponyville looked just the same as on any other day, and Scootaloo wondered if anypony had noticed the intrusion of the gaunthound the day before.
Even though she wasn't in any particular hurry, she reached the schoolhouse well in time. She had expected to meet up with her friends along the way, but this time they seemed to have missed each other. Scootaloo parked her scooter in her usual spot and pulled her helmet off her head. Other foals were already starting to trickle in, many of them chatting among themselves.
"Scootaloo!"
Scootaloo turned her head and saw Sweetie Belle trot over to her with a bright smile on her face, accompanied by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Scootaloo wasn't very surprised – out of the three Crusaders, Sweetie seemed to be the one getting along best with their former nemeses.
"Hey, you guys," Scootaloo greeted.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Diamond Tiara sighed. "Scootaloo, could you do something about Sweetie? She's been all jittery ever since we ran into her this morning."
"That's because I have an awesome story to tell you girls!" Sweetie Belle hopped slightly on the spot in excitement. "Scootaloo, you won't believe what happened to me last night!"
"Huh.” Scootaloo blinked. "Funny, I was just about to say the exact same thing."
Diamond raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you too? What exactly happened last night?"
"It's kind of a long story," Scootaloo sighed. "Anyway, we should probably wait for Apple... Bloom..." She fell silent and stared. Noticing, the others turned to look as well, seeing Apple Bloom approach on dragging hooves with her head hanging low.
The earth pony filly had seen better days. Her mane and tail were a mess and she had several scratches and scrapes all over her body. Her eyes were tired with large bags as if she hadn't slept much that night, and even the bow on her head was torn and tattered.
"Hi, y'all," she mumbled.
"Hey, Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle said, giving her friend a concerned look. "Um, wow, what happened? You look awful. No offense."
Apple Bloom shrugged. "Had a rough night."
"I'll say," Scootaloo chuckled. "You look like you had a worse night than me, and my night sucked."
"Ah don't wanna talk 'bout it right now," Apple Bloom said. She noticed the other two and suddenly shot Silver an angry glare. "Silver Spoon," she growled.
"Apple Bloom," Silver replied in a cold tone, her eyes narrowing.
Diamond Tiara looked at Silver Spoon, then at Apple Bloom. She frowned. "Oookaaay. What was that?"
"Why don't ya ask her?" Apple Bloom said, still glaring.
"Hmpf!" Silver Spoon huffed, turning with her muzzle raised and marching into the schoolhouse.
"Silver!" Diamond called after her, then turned to Sweetie and Scootaloo. The two just shrugged as if to say: Don't look at us, we have no idea what this is about.
"Whatever," Apple Bloom muttered, trudging past them. "Let's just get inside, class is 'bout to start."
"...and then Starlight was all like: 'If we don't close that book, Ponyville is dooooomed!'"
Once recess came around the five fillies finally got a chance to talk and catch up on the events of the previous day. Scootaloo listened as Sweetie Belle regaled them with the epic tale of her first magic lesson. It was a bit hard to follow as Sweetie kept getting carried away, talking very fast and omitting what was probably important context, but it was clear that the lesson had not gone quite according to plan.
"So we combined our magic and managed to force the book shut! The Dark Librarian was like: 'Curses! You've won today, ponies, but I will be baaack!' Then the book burst into flames! It was so cool! Of course, a bunch of the other books also caught fire, but we managed to put them out before the library burned down." Sweetie Belle giggled. "You should have seen Twilight's face!"
"You're kidding, right?" Diamond said, staring at Sweetie in open disbelief. "There's no way that actually happened."
"It so totally happened!" Sweetie crossed her hooves, looking slightly offended. "If it weren't for me and Miss Starlight, this whole town would have been overrun by unspeakable evil!"
"An unspeakable evil you released in the first place," Silver Spoon pointed out.
Sweetie's expression turned a bit sheepish. "...I didn't know it was a bad magic book. But it all worked out in the end."
"An' they still wanna keep teachin' you?" Apple Bloom asked. "After all that?"
"Yep!" Sweetie went back to grinning proudly. "Starlight even said I have an ominous talent for dark magic, and Twilight said it was imperative I learn how to control it."
"What inna hay does that even mean?"
"It means I'm awesome at magic stuff, duh!"
Diamond frowned. "I still don't buy it."
"You guys believe me, right?" Sweetie Belle asked, turning to her fellow Crusaders.
Apple Bloom shrugged. "Sure, Ah guess."
"I believe you, Sweetie," Scootaloo said. "It's not much weirder than what happened to me."
"What did happen to you last night?" Sweetie asked. "Didn't you just head back home after the meeting?"
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "but once I made it into Ponyville, it suddenly got super cold and then this huge monster dog showed up out of nowhere. I mean, it wasn't really a dog, I guess. It just sorta looked like one. Anyway, it chased me all the way to the Everfree Forest and almost killed me, but then this magic tower appeared right in front of me. I sorta passed out, and when I woke up I was in a bed inside the tower. Turns out this sorceress pony chased the monster away and saved me. Only, she's not really a pony. Actually, I still have no idea what she really is. She was pretty cool, though. She said she's been traveling the world and apparently she's friends with the princesses. She gave me food and took me to her mad scientist lab to make sure the monster didn't eat my magic or something. Then she brought me home and..." Scootaloo hesitated for a moment. "...well, that's pretty much the whole story."
The other four ponies stared at her.
"Wow," Sweetie said. "I mean, are you okay, Scootaloo? You didn't get hurt?"
"Well, I did, but I'm fine now," Scootaloo replied. "Mostly because of Fang. Um, that's her name. The sorceress, I mean. I'm pretty sure I would've ended up in the hospital if she hadn't healed me."
"Is this like a thing for you guys?" Diamond asked. "Do you always end up in these crazy adventures all the time?"
"Last night was extra crazy," Scootaloo said. "But yeah, I guess?"
Diamond just shook her head and turned to Apple Bloom. "Okay, so what about you? Why do you look like you tried to wrestle an angry badger? And why are you and Silver Spoon acting like you hate each other all over again?"
Apple Bloom sighed. "Ya know how there was a full moon out last night?"
"Yeah?"
"Well... apparently Ah'm some kinda werewolf now."
There was a brief silence.
"...So, that's a bad thing?" Scootaloo asked.
"Ah'm still tryin' to figure that out."
Diamond just shook her head. "You know what, I'm not even going to question that. But what does that have to do with you and Silver Spoon?"
Apple Bloom shot Silver Spoon an angry glance. "Turns out, somepony happens to be descended from this here ancient line of werewolf hunters."
Diamond turned her head, staring at her friend. "What?"
"I told you, Apple Bloom, it was a misunderstanding!" Silver exclaimed. "I sensed something really dangerous and when we ran into each other I didn't recognize you!"
"Y'all tried to stab me with a spoon!"
Diamond slumped over and put her head into her hooves. "So that's it, huh? I'm the only normal pony here."
Scootaloo gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “I guess you're just lucky that way.”
The hours at school passed without much incident. Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon did try to elaborate on their "misunderstanding", but their stories quickly devolved into incoherent bickering again and when the five friends left the school after the final class, Scootaloo still wasn't entirely sure what had happened between them. Diamond was clearly frustrated with the whole thing, and Sweetie seemed worried about the rising tension within the group.
"So," she said, in what was clearly meant to be a casual tone, "wanna head over to Sugarcube Corner? I think we all need to relax a bit."
Apple Bloom sighed. "Sorry, gals, but Ah just wanna head home an' sleep for a while. Got farm work to do later, an' Ah just don't think Ah'm gonna last in this condition."
"Actually, I wanted to talk to Twilight about some stuff," Scootaloo said. "It's kinda urgent, so I should probably head over there right away. Sorry, Sweetie Belle."
Sweetie shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I understand." She turned to the other two. "You guys coming?"
"Sure, I have nothing better to do," Silver Spoon shrugged.
"Okay," Diamond said, giving Silver a hard look. "But we are going to talk about this whole 'werewolf slayer' thing."
Parting with her friends, Scootaloo set course for the huge crystal tree towering at the far end of town. She hoped Twilight wasn't too busy with princess stuff to see her without an appointment, but she figured the matter was serious enough to warrant it. Navigating her scooter along the Ponyville streets, Scootaloo tried to think of the best way to ask Twilight about Fang. After all, she didn't want it to seem like she was snooping. Twilight absolutely needed to know about the gaunthound, at any rate. Scootaloo swerved, narrowly avoiding a collision with Big Macintosh and his apple cart, and forced herself to focus more on what she was doing. She realized that she had unconsciously been speeding up and took it down a notch.
Before long she had reached the castle and slowed her scooter down to stop by the large front doors. For a moment she stood there debating whether to knock or simply step inside. She did know Twilight pretty well from back when she was just the local unicorn librarian, after all.
"Oh, Scootaloo?" said a voice behind her. "My, we do keep running into each other, don't we?"
Scootaloo turned around to find Fang walking towards her, looking slightly amused. She still appeared to be a unicorn – Scootaloo noted she had remembered the horn this time – and wore no attire save for a pair of plain saddlebags. Though her unusual beauty did turn a few heads among the townsfolk, nothing about her betrayed the illusion that she was anything but a normal pony.
"Fang?" Scootaloo frowned slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"I told you yesterday, didn't I?" Fang replied. "I came to visit my old friend Twilight Sparkle. If anything I'm surprised to see you here."
"Well, yeah, I wanted to talk to Twilight," Scootaloo said. "You know, about what happened yesterday. Seemed like something she should know about."
Fang nodded. "Just as well, that will save us some time."
Scootaloo frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
"We'll get to that soon enough," Fang said. "Aren't you going to knock? Nevermind, I'll do it." Having reached the door, she raised her hoof and gave it a few solid knocks.
For a moment they just stood there, waiting in silence. Scootaloo started to feel awkward.
"...Um, so, did you fix my scooter?" she finally asked.
"Hm?" Fang turned her head, looking surprised at the question. "Yes, a simple repair spell, nothing too difficult. I nearly forgot about it, though."
"Thank you," Scootaloo mumbled. "It kinda means a lot to me. And... sorry about last night."
"No, that's quite alright," Fang said. "I'm the one who should apologize. I didn't mean to offend you, but I realize I overstepped my bounds." She sighed. "I'm... not used to being around others, especially not children, and etiquette has never been my strong suit."
"Yeah, I guess we've got that in common," Scootaloo said. "The etiquette thing, I mean."
She glanced at Fang. Fang glanced back. All of a sudden, they both started chuckling.
The doors suddenly opened, revealing Princess Twilight Sparkle with a somewhat unkempt mane and an apologetic smile. "Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to make you wait, we've had a bit of a rough night. Oh! Hello, Scootaloo! And..." She looked at Fang, cocking her head. "...Um, have we met?"
"Twilight!" Fang smiled brightly. "It's me! We met back in magic school, remember?"
Twilight kept looking at her for a moment, then something clicked in her head and her eyes widened in recognition. "Madam Fang? Oh my gosh! Is that really you?"
"Madam?" Scootaloo was about to ask about that, but had to take a step back when Twilight reached out and gave Fang a sudden hug.
"Told you I knew her," Fang laughed.
Letting go of Fang, Twilight beamed a happy smile. "I can't believe it! It must have been, what, ten years?"
"Give or take, yes," Fang nodded. She gestured at Scootaloo. "Last time I saw you, you weren't much older than this kid here. And now look at you, an alicorn princess! Celestia sure knows how to pick them."
"Please, come inside!" Twilight said, waving them in with one of her wings. "We have so much to talk about."
Fang wasted no time stepping inside, followed by Scootaloo who felt a bit forgotten in all the excitement. As Twilight led them through the throne room, Fang looked around with great interest.
"Quite the place you have here," she said, casually letting the tip of her tail sweep across the dormant Friendship Map. "It seems very new, but it's full of primal magic. I've never seen anything like it."
"It's sort of a long story," Twilight said. "I wish I could show you my library, but we had a bit of an incursion yesterday and I don't think it's safe just yet."
Fang arched an eyebrow. "Incursion?"
"Accident," Twilight said. "I meant to say accident."
"I would have gone for 'cataclysm'," Spike said, having just entered from one of the side doors. "But I guess accident works too. Hey Scootaloo! Ma'am."
"Why hello, Spike!" Fang greeted. "I see you're growing up into a strapping young dragon."
"Ah, thanks?" Spike seemed unsure if he should recognize the stranger and cast a nervous look towards Twilight for help.
Twilight giggled. "It's okay, Spike. This is Fang, she's a friend of Celestia. You were too young at the time to remember her, but we met back when I was still in magic school. Best substitute teacher ever!"
"Oh." Spike turned to Fang. "Well, nice to meet you, Fang. Uh, again? Sorry I don't remember you, but any friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine."
"Likewise, Spike," Fang said, smiling.
Scootaloo gave Fang a puzzled look. "So, when you said you two met in school, you meant you were teaching her? How old are you, anyway?"
Fang grinned. "Don't be rude, young lady."
"We have so much to talk about," Twilight said. "Spike, make us some tea. The good stuff."
Spike made a quick salute. "Can do!"
The cushioned stool was quite comfortable, Scootaloo not so much. She rested her hooves against the table, silently wondering if there was even any point to her being there. She had followed Twilight and Fang into another crystal room serving as a lounge, idly listening to the two of them chatting. So far she hadn't had a chance to say anything to Twilight, and was starting to suspect the princess had simply forgotten she was there.
Twilight did most of the chatting, bordering on ranting, apparently trying to cover the events of several years of her life in as few minutes as possible.
"...Did I mention I have an apprentice now? Well, technically I'm not teaching her anymore, so she's more of a colleague slash housemate these days. Her name is Starlight Glimmer and she's one of the most talented spellcasters I've ever known! I'd love for her to meet you but I gave her the time off for some R&R at the spa, since yesterday was a bit rough on her. Well, it was actually pretty rough on all of us, but..."
Fang, meanwhile, seemed to avoid talking about herself, skillfully dodging questions regarding her affairs and whereabouts over the past decade. Scootaloo wondered how much Twilight really knew about her old friend.
Before long Spike appeared carrying a tea set. It looked almost comically oversized in his small claws, but he carried it steadily and without effort, placing it on the table in front of them.
"Thank you, Spike," Twilight said, levitating the kettle to pour them all some tea.
"Don't mention it," Spike chuckled. "Number one assistant, remember? Speaking of which, anything else you need me to do?"
Twilight shook her head. “No, I don't think so. You already finished your chores for today, right? I think you can take some time off now."
"Are you sure?" Spike prodded. "I could go tidy up the library a bit. I'll be careful."
"I'd rather you don't," Twilight said. "It's nice of you to offer, but I haven't finished making sure it's safe to enter. I'll let you know when I do, so for now you can just relax."
"Oh, okay." Spike didn't look entirely satisfied with the answer. "And you're sure there's nothing else for me to do?"
Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes slightly. "Yes, Spike, I'm sure."
Spike shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll go see if Rarity needs any help around the boutique. You guys enjoy the tea."
As he left the room, Fang followed him with her eyes, looking thoughtful. Once he closed the door behind him, she raised her cup to her lips and took a sip. "Hm. I have to say, Twilight, this is rather nice stuff."
"Coming from you, that's high praise," Twilight said. "I seem to recall you even taught Princess Celestia a thing or two about tea."
Scootaloo took her own cup and tasted the warm beverage, but found she had no particular opinion on the flavor. Tea was not really her thing.
Fang took another sip, then lowered her cup. "So, have you told Spike yet? That he's your familiar?"
Twilight's eyes widened slightly at the question. She swallowed a mouthful of tea and her ears drooped. "Um... No. No, I haven't."
Fang frowned. "Twilight, he needs to know."
"I know," Twilight sighed. "I know I've been putting it off for too long. I-I'm just not ready yet."
"Hold on," Scootaloo finally spoke up. “What's a familiar?”
"A familiar is a magically bound servant," Fang explained. "Normally, a magician will form a mutually beneficial pact with a magical creature of some sort. The creature acts as an aide, performing tasks on behalf of the magician. An assistant, if you will." Hearing that, Twilight cringed a bit. Fang carried on: "In return the magician shares magical influence, knowledge and guidance. These days it's rare to see that sort of arrangement in Equestria, but it's quite common elsewhere."
Twilight hung her head, staring into her tea. "Scootaloo, you remember the story of how I got my cutie mark, right? I hatched Spike's egg while my magic was going out of control, so I don't really know how it happened, but somehow he became bound to me as my familiar. I always felt I had a special connection to him, but I didn't know how true that was until Fang told me."
"Huh. That... actually explains a lot," Scootaloo said. “But it's some sort of spell, right? Can it be broken?"
"Probably," Twilight said. "But he's been my familiar his entire life. By now it's part of his personality and I don't really know what calling it off would do to him. It's not a decision I can make on my own, but I just... I just don't know how to break it to him."
"Twilight," Fang gave the young alicorn a stern look, "he just asked you three times if you had any chores for him to do. That's not normal behavior for an adolescent dragon. You have to tell him, and soon."
"I know." Twilight nodded slowly, her expression a mess of worry and apprehension. "A-And I will! I promise. It's just... he's family, you know? I don't want him to think he was just some magically conditioned servant all this time. He's like a little brother to me, and maybe I take him for granted sometimes, but he's always been there when I needed him. I guess it just scares me, not knowing how much of that is really him and how much is just the pact." She fell silent and downed a large gulp of tea, as if to calm herself.
Scootaloo felt uncomfortable again. She hadn't expected the mood to turn so heavy. "Um, I know what it's like, having stuff you don't want to talk about," she said, scratching her mane. "But I think Spike will understand. I can tell he cares about you a lot, Twilight, and I don't think it's just that familiar thing. I'm sure you'll get through this together. Like, that's what families do, right?"
"Thanks, Scootaloo," Twilight whispered, and managed to smile a little. "Ah, I hope you can keep this a secret for now. It's kind of a sensitive issue and I want Spike to find out from me first."
"Don't worry," Scootaloo said. "I won't tell anypony, promise."
"Thank you." Twilight looked up and suddenly seemed to really notice the pegasus. "...Oh! Scootaloo, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to ask why you came to see me today!"
"Yeah, about that..." Scootaloo wasn't even sure where to begin. "Something kinda happened to me yesterday."
Twilight nodded, pouring herself another cup of tea. "Go on."
"Well..."
"She was attacked by a gaunthound," Fang said.
Twilight froze, the cup halfway to her mouth. She set it down and stared at them. "A gaunthound? Here, in Ponyville? Why didn't you say so right away?"
Fang shrugged. "You seemed so excited to see me, I didn't want to spoil the moment."
"But..." Twilight kept staring in disbelief. "Gaunthounds are real? I thought they were mythological."
"Oh, they're real," Fang said. "You don't need to worry, though. I chased it off myself, and there's been no sign of it since then."
"Nevermind that," Twilight turned to Scootaloo with a concerned frown. "Are you okay? Did it hurt you?"
"Um, I'm fine now," Scootaloo replied. "Fang saved me."
"It nearly killed her, as a matter of fact," Fang said. "But I was able to fix her up, good as new. Nothing to worry about, really. But then she said something that bothered me a bit."
Scootaloo looked confused. "I did?"
"You told me you can't fly because you were born with a magical deficiency," Fang said. "Rince Wind Syndrome, I believe it was called?"
"Oh dear." Twilight raised a hoof to her mouth. "Scootaloo, is that true?"
Scootaloo didn't answer, but gave a small nod.
"I did suspect it might've been something like that, but I didn't know..." Twilight sighed. "Scootaloo, I'm so sorry to hear that."
Scootaloo shrugged. She'd never liked being pitied.
"Right, but that didn't seem to add up to me," Fang said. "So I decided to run some tests on her internal magic flow." She lit her horn and pulled a familiar brass cylinder out of her saddlebags, levitating it over to Twilight. "I think you need to see this."
Twilight looked at the device as her magenta glow replaced Fang's golden one. "A thaumascope? Isn't that a bit old-fashioned?"
"Yes, well, my thaumatic spectrometer blew up on me." Fang shrugged. "Not important. Scootaloo, would you stand over there and let Twilight have a look at you with the scope?"
Scootaloo hesitated for a moment, then hopped off her stool and stood on the spot Fang had been pointing at, at the side of the table in front of Twilight. She didn't like this at all: It was clear now that Fang had indeed kept something important from her, and she felt like she should probably say something about that. "What's going on? You said there wasn't anything wrong with my magic."
"No, I said it hadn't been damaged by the gaunthound," Fang corrected. "Twilight?"
Twilight Sparkle looked just as puzzled as Scootaloo felt, but folded the scope out and pointed it as Scootaloo, repeating the same procedure as Fang had the night before. Once the scope did it's whirring thing, Twilight's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "Wait, what? This is... Fang, is this what I think it is?"
"What?" Scootaloo asked. "Is what what you think it is?"
"Here, it'll be easier if I show you." Fang took the thaumascope from Twilight. Still pointing it at Scootaloo, she pushed a button, making it emit a shutter sound like from a camera. "Twilight, if you don't mind?"
Twilight looked distraught but nodded when Fang turned the scope towards her. Another push of the button resulted in the same sound. Fang levitated the scope to Scootaloo, presenting the monitor. "This is a picture of Twilight's magical aura, or at least as close as we can get to actually seeing it."
Scootaloo looked at the picture. It definitely depicted Twilight, except the alicorn in the picture was entirely lit up in a bright magenta glow that seemed to shine from within her body, radiating into a large wispy corona around her. The glow was especially bright around her horn, wings, flank and chest. Looking closer, Scootaloo could see swirling patterns of light running through Twilight's body like rivers.
"Wow," she said quietly. "That's... really pretty."
"It's a bit brighter than normal since she's an alicorn, but you get the idea." Fang turned a dial on the scope. "This is your aura."
The image changed. Scootaloo looked at herself, but this image was completely different from the previous one. The corona around her was much smaller and fainter; a deep, stygian purple that turned darker, ever darker towards the core of her body. At the center of her chest was a spot of blackest black, surrounded by a cage of orbiting rings made up of strange glowing runes and geometrical lines. Dark jagged tendrils spread from that inky blackness throughout her torso and limbs, making it look like her whole body was cracked, revealing nothing but darkness beneath her skin. The faint swirls of her magic flow seemed twisted around those cracks into an unnatural-looking spiral with the black spot at the center. Scootaloo had no idea what she was looking at, but the sight disturbed her on a fundamental level, as if she could tell by instinct that it was very, very wrong.
"What..." she croaked, the words getting caught in her throat. "What is that?"
"It's not Rince Wind Syndrome," Fang said. "I'll tell you that for nothing."
"It's not natural at all," Twilight said. She took the scope back, much to Scootaloo's relief, and studied the picture with a furled brow. "This is advanced magic. I've never seen anything like it before." Her eyes narrowed. "Wait, these symbols here, they almost look like Weathersky's seal of polarity reversal, but not quite."
"Arcane convergence," Fang mused. "Same underlying principle, but devised by a different magician."
"Wait a minute, I don't understand!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Are you saying somepony put a spell on me?"
Twilight and Fang fell silent and exchanged an apprehensive look.
"Scootaloo, it's more than that," Twilight said. "Practicing this kind of magic is illegal in Equestria. It's interfering directly with your magical pathways, turning them the wrong way. A spell like this..."
"It's what we call a curse," Fang said.
"A... A curse?" Scootaloo stammered. "I'm cursed?"
"Fang, this is serious!" Twilight said, holding the scope up for them both to see. "Cursing an innocent filly to this degree is... It's not just criminal, it's completely deranged! I mean, look at this! I don't even understand what most of these spell components are supposed to do!"
"Well, it's definitely what's keeping her from flying," Fang said, stroking her chin. "See, it's been woven around her heart, where her cardinal channels converge."
Scootaloo suddenly felt dizzy and weak, her legs quivering and threatening to give in under her weight. Her breath quickened yet she felt like she was choking. Her thoughts raced, repeating those words over and over: It was a curse. A literal curse was keeping her from flying. She felt nauseous and her chest hurt.
Twilight and Fang didn't seem to notice her, too busy studying the picture.
"It looks like her cardinal magic flow is being turned back into her core," Twilight's eyes narrowed. "The curse is using her own magic to power itself?"
Fang nodded. "It's completely self-sustaining. She has enough peripheral magic in her system to function normally; moving around, staying healthy, even developing a cutie mark. But the cardinal magic she would use to fly has been completely sealed. If you didn't look close enough, she would appear to suffer from a natural magic deficiency."
"Hey..."
"But a curse this complex just to keep her from using her cardinals? There has to be more to it than that. Look at this part. Is that... something to do with gravity?"
"Maybe, it's hard to make out. We need a larger..."
"HEY!" Scootaloo yelled, snapping the other two out of their discussion. "Who cares about any of that? You've got to get it out of me, right now! Twilight, you can fix this, right?"
"I..." Twilight's shook her head slowly, her ears drooping again. "I'm sorry, Scootaloo. I don't know how."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Scootaloo asked. "You're Princess Twilight Sparkle! Nopony knows more about magic than you!"
"I wish that was true," Twilight sighed. "But I'm still just a pony. In all my years of studying magic, I've never come across anything remotely like this spell. I can't even attempt to break it until I understand what it is, or I'll be putting you at risk. Scootaloo, I promise I'll try, but right now I don't even know where to start."
Scootaloo didn't believe what she was hearing. Wasn't Twilight Sparkle supposed to be a genius and a hero? Wasn't she supposed to know what to do, not just stand there looking helpless and sad? Hopelessness washed over Scootaloo like a crushing wave. She realized she was crying.
Twilight opened her mouth to say something more, but Scootaloo had already turned on her hooves, running for the door.
"Scootaloo, wait!" Twilight cried, but it was too late – Scootaloo had already slammed the door behind her. Twilight moved to follow, but Fang put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Let her go for now," the sorceress said. "Don't worry, she just needs time to accept it."
"I messed up," Twilight mumbled. "Fang, I totally messed up just now. I should have comforted her. I should have told her she'll be okay. I'm supposed to be the Princess of Friendship, but I couldn't even... Oh, Fang, what do I do?"
"Stay calm, for starters." Fang levitated a cup of tea and offered it to Twilight. The princess drew a deep breath and downed the whole cup. Fang cocked her head. "That girl, did you know she's an orphan?"
"What?" Twilight blinked. "I mean, yes, I've been told she lost her parents when she was really young. I've never talked to her about it, though. I didn't think it was my place to ask."
"She told me she's still living alone in her parents house," Fang said. "Is that common practice around here?"
Twilight frowned. "No, that can't be right. She should be living with relatives or at least a foster family. Are you sure she wasn't just exaggerating?"
"Hm, maybe." Fang didn't look entirely convinced, but shook her head. "Well, that's not important right now. What do you plan to do about the curse?"
Twilight thought about it for a moment. "I need to write to Princess Celestia, maybe she will know something. And I'll have to check around to see if there are any books on exotic curses I haven't read. Moondancer or Sunburst might be able to help..." She groaned and hung her head. "But what about Scootaloo? We can't just leave her to deal with something like this on her own."
"I'll talk to her," Fang offered.
Twilight looked up. "Are you sure?"
Fang nodded. "I had planned to spend my time in Equestria just relaxing for a while, but now I'm simply too curious about this affair to leave it alone. Plus, I want to take a shot at figuring that curse out myself. No offense, but I'm a bit more experienced than you."
Twilight managed a wry smile. "You know, I never did figure out what you really are."
Fang grinned back at her. "Maybe some day I'll tell you."
Twilight did her best to quell her curiosity, knowing it would be pointless to press that particular matter. "Well, if you think you'll be able to help, you are welcome to try," she said, returning the cup to the table. "I know Celestia trusts you and that's good enough for me. But I do hope you'll be careful."
Fang chuckled. "There's no need to worry, Twilight. I'm more than qualified to deal with curses."
"That's not what I meant. Scootaloo isn't some odd magical anomaly for us to study. She's a girl."
Fang looked mildly puzzled. "Yes?"
"A girl," Twilight repeated. "With feelings."
"Yeah, I know." Fang turned to leave. "It was nice seeing you again, Twilight Sparkle. When you write to Celestia, do let her know I'll be dropping by."
"I hope I'll get to see more of you around here," Twilight said.
Fang turned her head and smiled. "Oh, don't you worry. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in Ponyville from now on."