"Very well, then." said Dweomer. She was a tall, thin gray unicorn with thick spectacles and a permanent scowl. "You may have one more attempt, Ms. Flurry." She magically took the 20-pound weight off the desk and replaced it with a 10-pound one. "Begin."
Flurry Heart concentrated. Having been admitted to this famous school at a famously young age, she had a reputation to uphold. But as much as she strained, she could at most lift a corner of the weight. Her aura was the dimmest she'd ever seen it.
Finally, huffing and puffing, she said "I'm sorry, Professor. I just don't feel good. Everything feels so much harder than it was a moon ago. Can I please try again tomorrow?"
"You know the rules, Ms. Flurry." said Dweomer, scowling harder. "And they shan't be bent for anypony—not even Princess Twilight's niece."
Fortunately for Flurry Heart's feelings, she didn't understand the accusation of nepotism. She already felt awful enough. She'd now have to repeat the second year of magic training once more, for her third attempt in total, if she was even allowed to stay in the school. Turning away quickly so Dweomer couldn't see her tears, she flew from the exam room without another word.
Her one comfort was that her parents were visiting this very afternoon. It was a long trip from the Crystal Empire to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns—which Twilight had decided not to rename, in honor of her old teacher—but Cadance and Shining Armor came as often as they could. Flurry Heart haltingly recounted the exam to them in the dormitory, trying not to cry again and not entirely succeeding, as Cadance embraced her and Shining Armor listened with concern.
Shining Armor sighed deeply. "This is just the thing I wanted to avoid by sending her to the local school." he said to Cadance. "Look how much pressure they're putting on her. Look how much trouble she's having with things that she could do before she even said her first word."
"She's a natural-born alicorn, Shiny," said Cadance, "the only one in Equestria, and she needs individual attention from the greatest magical experts in Equestria. They work here." She hugged Flurry tightly. "We just need to talk to them. They need to understand that Flurry's development isn't going to be the same as the other fillies'."
"Well, it's not normal." said Shining Armor, trying to control his temper. "It can't be normal. Even for a natural-born alicorn. She's sick, probably from the ridiculous expectations they have for a seven-year-old. She doesn't even have her cutie mark yet. If you're sure she has to stay here, she needs medical attention, and we need to keep looking till we find a doctor who can help her." He didn't mention his suspicion that the most helpful thing a doctor could do would be to convince his wife that their daughter shouldn't be in a school for gifted fillies.
"How has your studying been, sweetie?" Cadance said softly to Flurry Heart. "Have you been doing all your practices?"
"I've been practicing as hard I can, Mom." said Flurry, sniffling. "And I always go to bed early, like you said, so I get a lot of sleep. But I'm just so bad at magic."
"You're not bad at magic, sweetie." said Cadance, stroking Flurry's mane. "You're going to turn out just fine."
A nurse whispered something to the receptionist who had been reading a book with Flurry Heart, and the receptionist said "Okay, little buddy, let's go talk to Mom and Dad and the doctor now." Flurry was brought into the examination room, and the receptionist hurried out. Flurry was frightened to see her parents' own faces—Cadance's, red with tears that had obviously only just been wiped away, and Shining Armor's, downcast in a kind of utter humiliation that Flurry had never known an adult could feel, let alone her own father. And then there was Doctor Helix, a short and chubby earth pony who seemed like she ought to be jolly much of the time, but her expression was grave.
Doctor Helix bent down to talk to Flurry Heart. "So, I understand your problem now." she said slowly. "I'm going to explain it, and you can ask me whatever questions you like, okay? We're going to help you."
"Mom, Dad, what's wrong?" said Flurry Heart.
"The doctor will explain." Cadance mumbled.
"Listen, Your High—eh, Flurry Heart." said Helix. "You've always known you're a very special pony, yes? You're the only one of a few ponies with both wings and a horn, like your mom, and Princess Twilight."
"Yeah." said Flurry Heart. "I'm an alicorn."
"Well, that's caused by something called 'genes'. Genes are like… little books, in your body, that tell your body how to grow up, all the way from a tiny cell in Mom's tummy. And your mom has special genes, which she passed onto you, and your mom has very famous, royal ancestors, who have very special and rare genes, which they kept all to themselves. They shouldn't have done that, we know now, but those were different times. But those special genes are why she gets sick sometimes. And you have them too."
"But… Mom didn't have a horn when she was a filly. She told me. She got the horn later. Just like Aunt Twilight and Celestia and Luna. Are there any others like me? Alicorns when they were babies?"
"Well, no."
"Not even Grandma's parents?"
"No. You're the first. That's still true."
"So then why me? If it's in my genies, why didn't somepony else in my family have it?"
"Well, you're very special. You have even more of the special genes."
"But why?" said Flurry Heart. "Why me?"
Helix looked nervous, and Shining Armor spoke up "I'll say it, Doc. She should hear it from me, anyway." He licked his lips. "Flurry Heart, remember Chrysalis, and what she did to me and Mom?"
"Yeah… but she's still turned into rock, right?"
"Yes, of course, baby. She won't hurt us again. But she already hurt us a long time ago, in a way we didn't know. You know that Chrysalis pretended to be Mom, and took her shape, and she did it so well that it took a long time for anypony to notice. And in the meantime, she was casting all kinds of dark spells on me. And what Doctor Helix found is that all that dark Cadance-imitating magic rubbed off on me, and… I'm still me, but I carry Mom's genes. And so when we had you, we thought we were combining our genes, mine and Mom's, but really we were just putting two copies of Mom's genes together. I'm still your dad; I'll always be your dad; but genetically, your father and your mother are just one person, and all the bad recessive alleles—I mean, the bad genes, they got all piled up, same way they got all piled up in her from her family, but more so. So you have all these rare genes, which made you an alicorn, but they also gave you a disease that's taking away your magic." Shining Armor couldn't make eye contact with Flurry Heart. "I'm so sorry."
"My magic is being taken away?" said Flurry Heart. She looked helplessly at Cadance, who shuddered and said nothing.
"Yes." said Helix. "It's an incredibly rare disease, but I found two other case reports, and the development is the same. Your magic is getting weaker, and by next year, you won't have any left."
"So… so what's the cure?" said Flurry Heart.
"There isn't one." said Helix. "I mean, of course we'll keep working on treatments—with your permission, and your parents'. But you need to understand, realistically, we probably can't do it. Your disease is just too rare. The value of research will be that we'll be able to help other ponies in the future."
"But… but how am I gonna do my magic lessons in school? And I wanted to be a great wizard, like Aunt Twilight. How can I do that with no magic?"
The adults glanced at each other uncomfortably. "We're going to take you to another school, sweetie." said Cadance. "One in the Crystal Empire."
"But… but all my friends…" Flurry Heart sucked air in through her teeth. "This…" Suddenly, she turned around and fled from the room.
Doctor Helix started for the door, but Shining Armor stopped her. "She needs some time alone." he said. "She'll know where to find us."
For lack of any better ideas, Flurry Heart took to the sky. High above the earth, she flew as fast as she could, till her mane had come totally undone and flapped behind her while the cold wind smarted her cheeks. Why'd Mom have to give me her stupid bad genies, anyway? she thought. Why'd they even have me? Mom and Dad can do magic. All my friends at school can do magic. It's not fair! I should be able to do magic as well as anypony! Gritting her teeth, she went into a dive, punching through one cloud after another as the wind whistled past her. Past the last cloud, she saw a big tree. She wrapped around the tree in a tight corkscrew and landed on the bottom branch, panting.
"Pretty smooth flying, kid!"
Flurry flapped down to the ground. There was a pony she vaguely recognized, a brown-furred pegasus with a wavy purple mane. The pony wore a blue helmet and stood by a scooter. Her wings were tiny and out of proportion with the rest of her body.
"Your Highness!" said Scootaloo. "I didn't recognize you." She bowed quickly.
"You can call me Flurry Heart." said the little alicorn, trying to discourage the use of the title, in imitation of her parents. "Who're you?"
"I'm Scootaloo. Me and my friends took lessons from Princess Twilight when we were fillies."
"Oh, yeah." said Flurry Heart, starting to remember. "Hey—what do you mean, 'were fillies'? You're just a big kid."
"Not anymore." said Scootaloo, smiling. "I'm nineteen."
"Well, you look like a kid."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Scootaloo looked around. They were in the meadow of a large state park outside Canterlot. The two of them were quite alone. "Hey, where are your parents? Do they know where you are?"
"You are a grown-up." said Flurry Heart, scowling. "You're gonna tell on me, aren't you?"
"No, no, not at all." said Scootaloo hurriedly. "I was just asking. Are you okay?"
"No." said Flurry.
"What's wrong?" said Scootaloo.
"I don't wanna talk about it." said Flurry, staring at the ground.
Scootaloo was quiet, hoping Flurry Heart might go on, but she didn't. Scootaloo peered at the towers of Canterlot in the distance. "Hey, I'm going to a Wonderbolts show in a few minutes." she said finally. "Do you wanna come? I bet that'll cheer you up."
"But… aren't the Wonderbolts in spring training now?" said Flurry Heart.
"Actually, yeah." said Scootaloo, smiling to see that Flurry Heart followed them well enough to know. "It's not a full show. But Rainbow Dash is working on a big new act and she's doing a one-mare demo for a few diehard fans."
"How… how'd you get tickets for that?" said Flurry Heart.
"They aren't even selling tickets!" said Scootaloo. "I just happen to be a close personal friend of Rainbow Dash."
"Wow." Flurry Heart mumbled.
"C'mon, it's gonna start soon." said Scootaloo. She mounted her scooter and her wings began to buzz like a hummingbird's. "Race you there!"
Flurry Heart won the race hoofily, and waited outside the little outdoor stadium until a quite out-of-breath Scootaloo arrived. Scootaloo just nodded at the royal guard standing at the entrance and they went in. It wasn't a fancy place; it was chiefly intended for local buckball games. Just a few other ponies, mostly Canterlot locals, were in the stands. Everypony got front-row seats. A suited-up and begoggled Rainbow Dash was on the field making some final inspections of the obstacles with two technicians. Scootaloo waved at her, Rainbow waved back, and Scootaloo collapsed on the bleachers.
"This is an exclusive show today, all right." said Scootaloo once she'd caught her breath, looking around. "Not even Rainbow's parents made it today."
"Well, I'm glad my parents aren't here." said Flurry.
"Oh?" said Scootaloo carefully. "Why's that?"
"I just talked to a doctor with Mom and Dad and I'm gonna lose all my magic because of all these bad genies. I can only do a little magic now, and next year I won't be able to do any."
Scootaloo thought about that. After a while, she said "Bad genies, huh? Y'know, me and my friends met a bad genie not too long ago, but we kicked its tail."
"Really?" said Flurry Heart, staring in wonder. "How?"