Still stood up slowly and silently, the only noise coming when her hooves touched the wood and she began to walk towards the door. "I must practice these."
"Thank you." Silver nodded towards her, but his eyes were on his hovering book, adding yet more magic letters to what he was working on. "It's good to have you."
She faintly smiled, then was gone, off to work on the spells he had granted to her.
"Does he?" asked the old voice from beyond the door.
"None of those things, I feel certain." Sheba barely concealed the growl in her throat. "Will you come and speak with him?"
"He has an energy that is too vivacious for an old dog," demurred the voice, the door unmoving. "And yet beyond his years. I can't say I like it. I will keep the ship flying straight, for that is my task and what I am paid to do. Is that not enough?"
"Enough." Sheba vanished, leaving the witch to whatever she had been doing beforehand.
"Here." Still set the collection of parchment down beside Silver, marks that were not his own dotting the paper. He didn't notice at first, just making a soft confirmation noise as he scribbled at his new work. The marks eventually caught his attention and he blinked.
"What did you do?" he asked with naked astonishment, setting his spellbook aside as he reached for the revised scrolls, his magic plucking them up long before his hooves got to them. "Why did you edit them?" He wasn't angry, more confused, baffled that anyone would casually change his spells.
Still inclined her head faintly. "Your spells are functional but extremely inefficient. I kept the meaning but used more precise routes."
Silver sat up, a smile spreading on his face. "You optimized my code!?" he blurted, the smile deepening. "Fantastic! That's been my weakness for so long." His eyes danced left and right, reading rapidly. "Oh, oh, yes, oh, I see... then you... that makes sense..." He was working through the arcane logic of the revised spells. "Same end result, less primitives, yes... What is this?" He pointed a hoof as his magic highlighted a small portion of the spell.
Still circled to see what he was indicating. "It allows the storage and retrieval of information in an indexed fashion," she explained. "That is a storage step."
"Magic has arrays?! Why didn't anyone tell me that!?" He threw a hoof wide, starting to laugh as he flipped to the next page in the batch. "Oh God yes, this is... fantastic." He sat up, tail swishing behind him like an excited puppy. "But these are new letters. I thought I had all the letters."
Still looked between the paper and her perked employer. "They may be kirin letters? I admit to not keeping track of the difference. The two long ago became one in large part."
Silver pointed at that new bit, then another and a third after that. "I don't recognize these at all. Please tell me what they mean, logically, and show me what it is, played through a horn."
"Logically?" She inclined a brow softly. "You are a strange unicorn, who thinks of spells logically." She was quiet a moment. "I like it. I am used to 'it works because it says it works'."
"That's a terrible way to do magic." Silver wrinkled his nose before looking to Still, a hopeful smile on his face. "Can you teach me these new letters and meanings?" He grabbed for his book with his magic, flipping to his reference section that unfolded out into a great cheat sheet of unicorn letters. "Add it here."
She regarded the reference page silently, eyes wandering over it and saying nothing for a long time. "Curious."
"Is it bad?" he asked a little defensively. "I forget the letters sometimes. The logic is more important than brute force remembering every prim."
"What is a 'prim'?" She inclined her horn forward, lines glowing along it as new writing began to appear on the parchment, new data being added to the sheet as if being burned into place. "You have a strange way of approaching magic, triple so for a unicorn. I like it."
"Oh, uh, coding term. Prim, primitive, noun, a command word, usually the smallest and most basic inherent to a programming language." He pointed at the letters, expanded. "Like these. These are magic prims. When you assemble prims into the proper order, you are creating a logical chain that results in something desirable happening. AKA, you make a spell."
She nodded softly. "That is the basic nature of magic beyond the crudest invocations of flame and ice for kirin and force for unicorns." She pointed at his horn. "You are lucky at times. To grasp and pull, I must use 'prims', as you call them. You can simply do it. On the other hoof." She switched which hoof she had extended. "I can make heat and coldness with but a thought, and you would need 'prims' to do the same."
"Wait." His eyes swept over the page. There it was. "That one." He leaned in closer, reading the symbol for force, raw force. Unicorn magic approached force differently. As she had said, it was just an assumed part of their ability, worked into how their horns functioned. Unicorns were force wizards. And there was the primitive for force, ignored by pony scholars. Oh the things he could do with that... His cutie mark itched with new spell ideas and he danced in place. "Ugh, why do we have to be attacked by Cthulhu! I want to make some magic!"
"Then we must defeat Cthulhu promptly, so that you may return to your magic encoding." She stepped up onto her pillow and sat down calmly. "I have memorized the optimized versions of your spells and am ready to use them."
"Have I mentioned you may be my favorite?" Silver gave a sincere smile towards her. "When this is done, we have so much magic to make, if you're up for it."
"I would be a poor servant were I not."
He held up a hoof. "Wrong answer. I want peers, not docile servants. In this field especially, I will make mistakes, and people who feel they are under me may not call me out on them. Still, that's your name right?" He paused long enough for her to nod. "Still," he repeated, looking relieved that he remembered it. "I want a research partner, not a servant. Consider it, and if you want that, great. If not, your choice, no hard feelings."
"I will--"
Sheba appeared without warning. "Much of your new collection has no combat ability or desire. There is a witch aboard the ship, but she refuses to come see you."
Silver's ears lifted at that. "A witch? That's a name often saved for people we don't like."
Sheba shrugged. "What the crew call her, and she works for them."
"I... see." He glanced towards Still. "I'll be back."
Still inclined her head but said nothing. Sheba had words to spare. "Where are you going?"
"To see this witch." He set his book in his saddlebag, closing it carefully. "If she won't come to me, I should go to her. It's impolite to assume she has to." He trotted from the room without further delay.
Sheba looked to Still, regarding her quietly a moment. "I'm watching you."
"You are not subtle in that," noted Still, sounding calm as she usually did. "Are you watching for something in particular?"
A low growl was the only reply.
Silver was soon on the deck, approaching the first sailor he saw. "Excuse me. May I speak with the witch?"
"Good day, Sir." He tipped his hat politely. "I told your guard before."
Silver inclined his head. "I should have asked her. I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?"
"You're a lot less... pushy than she was." He shrugged softly and gestured downwards. "Bottom floor, aft side. Knock three times, answer correctly."
Silver inclined his head at that. "What is the correct answer?"
"The truth," he replied with a smirk, moving off to resume his work.
"Hm..." He wandered back to the stairs and descended into the belly of the ship, only to get a new burden along the way. He felt her small presence on his back as he walked down the stairs. "Whiskers?"
"That's me," agreed the small female. "Where are you going? You seemed affixed to your books before."
He turned an ear back at the mouse lady. "I want to talk to the weather wizard that works for the ship. It's not likely to be very interesting, but you're welcome along if you're polite."
"I always try to be polite, Sir, though I hope you're not annoyed at my sudden appearance." She squeezed his back with her legs. "You don't seem like the sort to mind being a mount."
"For friends, I suppose that's true." She was so light comparatively, it was no real trouble to hold her as he walked along. Equine frames were well-suited for the task. It was little wonder humans had thought to use them for that purpose.
There was the door. He approached it with a soft humm before raising a silver fist and knocking with magic knuckles three times. Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Whiskers shrugged from atop him, waiting with less patience than he was showing. "Maybe you should knock again?"
"Three times," he repeated. "Let's not be rude."
The door opened, as if someone had turned the handle and let it fall a precious inch without drawing it all the way. "Come in, Too-kind Prince. What an interesting title you bear, but it has not yet been disproven."
Silver did not advance. "I have a friend with me. Is it alright if she comes too?"
"Hello," called Whiskers. "Nice to meet you."
"Come in, come. The door is letting in a draft," complained the old female voice.
Silver strode through the door, willing it shut behind himself as he turned, though he had no need to do so, since his magic could do that without him moving an arm physically to brush the door shut. "Thank you for seeing me. I'm Silver Watch, Prince Silver Watch."
"That name does not ring," noted an elderly pug of a dog woman as she peered at him through her wrinkled brows, her chin resting on her hands in a relaxed position. "It does not resonate with the words you speak."
Silver took an unsure step forward. "I'm not sure what you mean by that, but let me apologize from the outright that I'm horrible with names and will forget yours. Just remind me and it'll sink in eventually. No offense intended."
"I haven't given it to be forgotten," she noted, eyes moving to Whiskers. "And that is one of your servants. She does not have the energy of a properly disciplined member of that caste from the nation we left. Is she from Equestria?"
Whisker's round ears raised, furry tail lashing behind her. "I'm from there, but I'm going to Equestria." She pointed down at Silver. "And he's my ride there, literally right now."
Silver smirked softly at that. "I can't argue that fact. We are approaching trouble. Are you aware?"
"How can I not be?" She lifted her shoulders. "I will ensure the boat makes it."
Silver did not expect that answer. "I'm worrying for nothing then? That's a rel--"
"--I did not say that. I will ensure the boat makes it. Those on board may suffer terribly."
That was less encouraging. "Have you any spare attention to help the people on the boat? I am organizing a defense and--"
"--How do you even know? Too-kind Prince, you are a mystery I don't have time to pry into. I am doing what I am paid to do, and what these old bones will allow me. You strike me as having a plan, so do it, and know the ship will make it to Equestria, with or without a few of its passengers."