In which we try to use the library...

"Now, I don't think this place is locked..."

The door flung open. "Aha!" Intel cried, triumphant, "I knew it!"

"Hey, Twilight! I need to borrow some books, and possibly introduce you to my work partner! Twilight? Spike? Uh..."

Intel looked around. "Huh. They're not here. Well, that's a shame. We better go..."

He turned around to see the rain pouring heavily outside.

"...maybe not."

Icarus shivered, Dripping wet. "I-I need a w-weather s-schedule..." He mumbled, shivering from the late fall rain.

"Oh, you can't rely on schedules," Intel muttered, "The pegasi send out a newsletter, but it's always delays this, cancellations that..."

He looked around at the books. "Where to start..."

Icarus nods, looking around the library. "... N-Not a c-clue." He admitted. "U-Usually, s-some 'Physics on f-flying' Books w-would have a c-chapter o-or two t-talking a-about a-atmospheric m-magic..."

Intel stared at the shelves. "Honestly, does this mare have any sense of organisation? No wonder she needs Spike to..."

It was then that he came face to face with an owl. It hooted in his face, then flew over to a shelf.

"Ooookay, then. Moving on..."

Good Celestia, Sparkle, do you really need books on all this stuff? Half of this is just a rehash of other texts. You've got three copies of the same text here! Grumble...

Icarus busied himself by trying to dry off without getting anything wet, a hard feat. "Y-You know t-the pony w-who runs t-the Library?" He asked, glancing around for a towel of some kind.

"Hmm? Yes, yes, I do know her. Not that well, though," Intel replied still looking at the shelves. He was wet as well, but such things were trivial in the pursuit of science. "Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia's most faithful student. Probably the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, barring the goddesses. Embodiment of the element of magic itself. Severely modest despite all this."

Intel laughed. "I actually owe a lot to her. My cutie mark, for one. And then the rest kinda followed on from there."

Thunk. A book, labeled A guide to atmospheric magic for the ignorant unicorn fell in front of him. Intel frowned at the cover. "Who-?"

Whoo~

"Oh. That's handy," Intel commented dryly, staring at the owl. He turned to the introduction...

The true ambient nature of clouds is mainly a mystery, even today, but there are two leading theories, the 'pure magic' theory and the "magic particle" theory. The pure magic theory states that a cloud acts like a dense form of magic, separate from unicorn or ambient magic, 'atmospheric magic', and this kind of magic makes up air itself. The 'magic particle' theory states a cloud is made up of tiny, gemlike things that are so small and light, they don't fall to the ground. There have been a number of experiments and observations that support both theories...

"Ooh, boy, this looks like it could get really complex, really quickly," Intel commented.

Suddenly,the door bolted open again,and a shivering and wet Soaring Splash dashed in."Its really bucketing out there!" She exclaimed,looking for a towel to dry herself.

"Hey! Wait for me!" He shouted."I don't wanna get drenched either".

Icarus nodded, smiling weakly. "W-When it r-rains..."

He then turned to Intel. "Y-You h-have n-no Idea... S-Spent a m-month trying t-to learn it..."

"Oooh! The Library!" She said,trotting towards the 'Sea Creatures' section.While she was here,she might aswell pick up a few books.

"Hey! There could be some graphic novells here." He said happily.

Intel jumped at the sudden two arrivals. A unicorn, who went off to look for graphic novels... And an alicorn. Huh. Those were exceedingly rare, but they said it could happen. Wasn't there a noble family that tried to selectively marry just to have alicorn offspring? Oh, well.

"You can ask that owl if you want to find a book," Intel said, motioning in a random direction. Intel frowned at the book he was reading, now really feeling like an ignorant unicorn. Did pegasi not experiment or something? Though it said it was written for the ignorant unicorn, it became apparent that it was written by an ignorant unicorn trying to piece together some 'cloudy' theories.

"Arrgh!" Intel growled, "I can't learn like this. I need to experiment with clouds in order to understand them!"

Reel walked up to the owl. Ok lets see if my foriegn language minor was a good idea. He thought. He then spoke with a lot of hoos and hoots. The owl flew off and got the book he was looking for called "Maus". It was one of his favorites. "Well it looks like I learned something in college". He said to himself.

Soaring Splash found a book called "The Equestrian Sea".She placed it in her saddle bag,and continued to browse the collection of books.

Intel looked over the text again. The same name kept popping up over, and over, with the same reference. He turned to Icarus.

"Have you ever heard of The observations between magicks by Hurdlus?" He turned the book towards the inventor and started pointing at various sections in the text. "Cause it keeps coming up. 'As shown by The obsevations, according to Hurdlus' annotations, discussed by Hurdlus in..' You get the point."

Intel was more concerned that he had never heard of the text, even in all of his studies regarding the relationship between ambience and unicorn magic, and the text seemed pretty vital to the topic. "It seems pretty important to the topic."

Icarus gave a nod, smiling. "I-It's a r-rare b-book, n-nowadays... M-My Old m-mentor had a c-copy t-that he g-got from a f-friend, I c-can write t-to see if h-he can l-lend it t-to us..." He replied, finally getting dried up in the nearby bathroom.

Intel looked at the owl, which shook its head. "That's a very clever bird. I can see why Sparkle kept you. Maybe I should-" Intel shook his head. "Nah. Definitely not."

"Looks like we'll have to rely on your mentor, Icarus. Oh, but before I forget," Intel turned to the owl, "Do you have anything on Hurdlus at all?"

Who~?

Intel resist the temptation to answer to that. After ruffling its feathers as if disappointed, it flew over, and pecked at a very large book titled Ponies of Magic: A comprehensive account. Intel levitated it to him and plonked it down for reading. "Hurdlus, Hurdlus...here. Hm. Not a lot on him. Wrote Observations, yes we know that. Student of Starswirl the Bearded? Okay..."

Intel read the last line silently, then closed the book. "Not much, I'm afraid. Apparently that text was all he ever 'wrote'. Even that was finshed after he...died."

Reel finished his book. It always cheered him up to read it. He asked the owl to put it back. The owl took the book. Reel then proceeded to see what other books there were. As he was walking, he heard the pony with the glasses say something about a book called "The observations between magicks by Hurdlus". He eventually saw a history book that interested him. When he pulled the book out, he saw something behind it. He then proseaded to try and get it out. When he tried, the bookcase moved to reveal a secret passageway. "Hey guys, check this out!" He said.

Icarus nodded, sighing. "I-It's s-sad, That H-He never g-got to e-expand f-farther on his w-work..." He said, smiling softly.