Whilst Scootaloo and Star Shine were busy with their bare bones lesson Rainbow Dash was busy flying to the Golden Oaks library, the home of Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was the smartest Unicorn in all of Equestria who knew everything about everything. At least everything about everything that was in a book she had read, and she had read a lot of books in her time. Rainbow Dash’s mind was moving as quickly as her body was and she wasn’t really paying any attention to her surroundings. She was thinking about what Star Shine might think was wrong with Scootaloo when she heard a massive crash and felt a sudden burst of pain as she impacted with the door of the library, flew through it, and collided with a bookshelf before being pelted with a whole shelf full of fallen books. She crawled her way out of the wreckage to find a pair of stern purple eyes staring at her. The eyes belong to an equally purple, and equally stern, Unicorn.
“Rainbow Dash, how nice of you to...drop in.” Twilight Sparkle said sardonically as she looked at the mess that Rainbow had created. Rainbow Dash looked at the mess before looking up at Twilight sheepishly.
“Yeah...sorry about that. I was distracted.” Rainbow Dash said, climbing to her hooves and dusting herself off.
“It would take something pretty distracting to cause this mess. What’s on your mind?” Twilight replied. Spike, her Draconian number one assistant, burst into the room from the basement before Rainbow had a chance to respond.
“Hey Twi, I heard a crash. Is everything...” he began before being silenced by the state of the room he had just walked into. “Oh...kay...I’m going to have to clean this aren’t I?” he asked to Twilight, a pleading look in his eyes that said ‘please don’t make me’.
“I’m afraid so Spike. I think me and Rainbow have a lot to talk about. I’ll help when we’re done though.” Twilight said. She picked up a few books with her magic and put them back where they belonged to show she meant well, but ultimately left Spike to deal with the problem on his own. Twilight lead Rainbow Dash out of the main room into a side room for privacy. As they left they could hear Spike grumbling to himself about something or other.
“I hope he’s going to be okay...” Rainbow Dash said when they were alone.
“Oh don’t worry about him. He’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you. What were you about to say before Spike came in?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, right. Do you have something that measure magic power? Like that thing that measured wingpower?” Rainbow asked, remembering the small device Twilight had that measured the wingpower of a Pegasus.
“I do, but what would you want one for?” Twilight replied as she walked to the other end of the room.
“I’ve got a friend who needs one. It’s to help Scootaloo. Where are you going?” Rainbow Dash asked, moving after Twilight to keep up with her.
“I’m going to get what you wanted. Who’s your friend and what’s this about Scootaloo?” Twilight asked, opening the door and stepping into a supply cupboard. It was too small for Rainbow to follow her through so she stood at the door and waited. Rainbow facehoofed as she realised none of her friends had any idea of what had happened between herself and Scootaloo.
“My friend’s Star Shine, a colt I met at Flight Camp. He’s giving Scootaloo flight lessons and he wanted something to measure magic for some reason. He said something about Vacuus Medeis. You have any idea what that means?” Rainbow Dash asked. If anypony knew anything about it then it would be Twilight.
“Scootaloo is finally going to get flying lessons? That’s great news but why aren’t you teaching her? I’ll look up Vacuus Medeis for you, it sounds a little familiar.” Twilight replied, coming back out of the cupboard with a small device in her magical grip. It looked like the thing she used to measure wingpower, a small device with a fan attached, except instead of having a fan this device had small diodes on it. Twilight dropped the device onto a table and pulled down a book from a shelf. The label on it read “Twilight Sparkle’s Big Book Of Everything”.
“I’m too busy with...work. Say, what’s that?” Rainbow asked, pointing a hoof at the book. She would have told Twilight more about the situation but she felt it wasn’t her tale to tell. It would be a betrayal of Scootaloo’s trust in her to go around talking about her problems. She had only told Cheerilee because it was vital the teacher knew. She felt bad enough about that, and was in no hurry to tell anypony else.
“It’s uhh...it’s my personal reference book.” Twilight explained, looking sheepish. “I have so many books, with so many things in them, I started making my own reference book to keep track of it all.”
“Oh...so how do I work this?” Rainbow asked, picking up the device on the table and looking it over. “By the way do you still have that little thing you used to measure wingpower? He said he wanted one of those too.” Rainbow Dash asked. The similarities between the devices had reminded her, her mind being so occupied by the need for answers,
Twilight Sparkle’s horn lit up and something else was pulled out of the supply closet. It was the device Twilight had used to measure wingpower. Twilight set it down on the table where the magic measurer had been before going back to her book.“It’s simple enough.” Twilight said in response to Rainbow’s first question, the second having been answered by her getting the device out. “You just put the little diodes on a horn and it measures a unicorn’s magic power. It can also be used to measure the amount of magic in something that’s been enchanted.”
“Scootaloo doesn’t have a horn. I wonder what he wants it for.” Rainbow Dash mused. She had been confused enough when Star Shine asked her for something that measures magic.
“Maybe he has something that’s enchanted, and wants to know how much power it has left?” Twilight suggested. Rainbow shrugged, put the device back down, and walked over to Twilight.
“So you found anything yet?” Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight closed her Big Book Of Everything and put it back on the shelf.
“I found something yeah, but it doesn’t make much sense.” Twilight replied. She did look quite confused to Rainbow Dash.
“So, what is it?” Rainbow asked. She was beginning to fear the worst. If something didn’t make sense to Twilight Sparkle then it was probably something very bad.
“Well it means ‘without magic’ and it’s a name given to a very rare genetic disorder.” Twilight began to explain.
“A genetic disorder? You mean there’s something wrong with Scootaloo?” Rainbow Dash asked. Her heart was pounding and there was sorrow and fear in her eyes.
“That’s what doesn’t make sense. It’s a problem that only affects Unicorns. It’s when a Unicorn is born unable to do magic. That’s what ‘without magic’ means. It means when there is no magic in a Unicorn horn.” Twilight explained.
“What are you saying Twi? That Scootaloo has some kind of Unicorn disease?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“That’s why it doesn’t make sense. It’s supposed to only affect Unicorns.” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash hovered slightly in the air, picked up the magic measuring device and the wingpower measurer in her forelegs, and made for the window.
“I don’t care what Star Shine says, I’m getting answers. I need to know what’s going on here.” Rainbow Dash said before turning around and bucking the window open. Twilight would have chastised her for doing that but Rainbow was determined and Twilight knew when she got like this, nothing would stop her.
“Good luck Rainbow. If you find anything out, or if I can help, then let me know.” Twilight said to her. Twilight’s horn lit up for a few seconds, as did the objects in Rainbow’s hooves.. “I put the Cloud Walking spell on your things, so you can put them down on clouds.” Twilight explained in response to Rainbow’s puzzled expression. Rainbow Dash nodded in reply and flew out the window, heading back towards the cloud manor.
“I suppose I’d better go help Spike clean up those books now.” Twilight said with a sigh as she closed the window. She walked back into the main room and began helping Spike clean up, her mind racing and trying to connect dots that weren’t there.