A Caucasian skinned 16 year old boy with rusty crimson hair was sitting at park bench with an annoyed look on his face. He was dressed in brown cargo shorts with a black t-shirt emblazoned with a while unicorn that had forest green hooves and an Apple amber horn with leaf green eyes. His annoyed look dissipated when he saw an 8 year girl with a similar complexion to his and scarlet colored hair covered her head. Both smiled at each other with their Apple green eyes meeting. The girl was in hiking shorts and a white shirt with black otter that had river blue eyes on it. Both were wearing dusk brown hiking boots.
"Ya find them squirt?" Said the teen teasingly with voice that was friendly yet told you he was one possessing a high intelligence.
"No," said the girl with voice that had the same hallmarks as the boy, but more sullen before switching over to a more chipper voice, "you sure they'll be here?"
"Better be," said the boy, "they're a half hour late! How about some practice in the secluded area while we wait, if they don't show up in forty I buy you lunch, if you beat me then you choose where."
The girl smiled before saying, "you're the best big brother ever!"
"Well I wouldn't go that far," said the boy, "but I'm definitely in the top twenty." With that the two headed into a part the park that looked like it was never visited.
The area the were in now was a small clearing with trees from all over the park perfectly hiding everything within. The 2 smiled at each other and walked over opposite sides of the clearing and pulled out waist pouches that quickly snapped on. In course of doing so a steel-blue smooth amulet modeled after a medieval knight's helmet with a pinkish-gray gem that gave the appearance of a watchful eye slipped from under his shirt to hang freely at his upper chest. The same happened for the girl only her amulet was a light gray roughing wolf's with 2 crossing pale silver flowing stream symbols and an oval shaped light green gem between them.
"Okay this time powers and unarmed skills only," said the boy, "no Titans allowed."
"Oh, but I wanted to get more practice in with the ones you gave me," pouted the girl.
"Sorry, Orchid," said the boy, "but you need get used to operating without your Titans, sometimes you might find yourself in a position that makes them a nonviable option. Besides, it's only for ten minutes and after that you'll be free to use them."
Orchid smiled and said, "thanks Rec, you really are an awesome brother. Dad and our siblings..."
"Are too busy most the time," Rec finished, "and mom's understanding of such things is a little...off, not mention she gave us names that are practically guaranteed give us grief our entire lives."
"Don't be like that," said Orchid, "we both love our names, always have."
"True," said Rec, "but I still worry about people picking on my little sister, I heard about how almost called up a Titan on those kids picking on you."
Orchid flinched before saying, "mom knows?"
"She's the one that told me," said Rec, "that's why we are practicing without Titans." said Rec. "You ready?" Orchid nodded, "Alight then, RayPulse," a yellow line energy shot from his hand when he flung his right hand towards Orchid.
Orchid reflexively said, "BlastEater," causing a yellow fanged mouth on a tether to her right hand to materialize, it gobbled up the oncoming attack.
It was while silently congratulating herself that Orchid heard Rec's voice shouting the phrases, "NimbleFire, ShadowSpeed, DragonFist."
"Oh, fudge nuggets," said Orchid before she heard the sound of something moving at high speed and felt herself get thrown into a tree, “FeatherDrop," said Orchid before jumping out of the tree and lightly landing on the ground.
"Not bad sis," said Rec, "you lasted a little under twenty seconds against me, still nine minutes before we jump to Titan dueling," Orchid groaned, "I'll teach you a new Power to try, what ya say?"
"It better be cooler than that ChillSkin you taught me," retorted Orchid, "it barely cuts the blows I take."
"Yeah well," said Rec, "ArmorBrand only nullifies one shot at you and it's done. No, today you learn StoneGlove," his right hand suddenly became encased in stone and he made a fist before her, "now focus, like with the AugerFrost and DragonFist, you can only have it affect one hand."
"The only way to make affect on both is with the DoubleSpell," said Orchid with glee, what kind of Power is it?"
"Defensive," said Rec, "but due how it works it can be applied offensively, Claudia does it that way a lot." After nodding vigorously Orchid followed through on her instructions and a little over five minutes later, with some tips from Rec, she had it.
After a light celebration Orchid went to the opposite side of the clearing and pulled a light blue and gray amulet in the shape of a narrowing rounded rectangular shield with a light gray gem in the center and yelled out, "fight with me, Freelancer," suddenly a humanoid figure with what looks like a rounded helmet obscuring the face with glowing blue horizontal ovals for eyes, a long lance in the right hand (which had a big tan colored glove), and shield in a left hand.
"Starting it off with warrior class Titan gave after you found your first 'wild Titan' I see, said Rec as he reached into his side pouch and pulled out what looked like a pewter six toothed cog with a bronze gem in the middle with no axle hole and shouted, "meet the trials, Gearhaert," suddenly what looked like a brass human sized and shaped robot with a head that looked like a stock (and unadorned) Athenian soldier's helmet and body that looked like it was torn from the journals of Leonardo da Vinci appeared before him.
"That one looks new," commented Orchid, "when ya get him?"
"Last month when they sent us to Italy," said Rec, "found him and another Titan stashed in a secret vault created Leonardo himself, in a place no one would ever think to associate with him. The Mythichive spent a full half hour registering his data."
"He wasn't in the Titan database for the Association?"
His Titan type was never the database before him, he's what is called a Mecha-Titan. We got sent to Greece after I found him and I got another new one, that was a towering mass, so you won't get a chance to see him anytime soon."
"Darn, now I want see him!"
"You want see the Titan that spawned the myths of 'giant metal soldiers'?"
"Or not, those stories are terrifying!"
"This from the girl who thinks the Titan responsible for the tale of the Lampton Worm is cute," said Rec in a teasing voice, "start whenever you're ready."
“Freelancer, attack,” shouted Orchid.
In a calm relaxed manner Rec said, “Gearhaert, counter.”
The being known as Freelancer moved forward with surprising swiftness and charged with its lance straight at Gearhaert. The robot like entity known as Gearhaert just held up its left and the forearm unfolded into a reflective shield the right rand folded back and wrapped around the right forearm before a metal looking crossbow bolt made itself appear. Freelancer struck the shield and Gearhaert shot Freelancer causing it to turn into a wisp of wave like light that shot back into the amulet in Orchid's hand. Orchid gave a little flinch like she had just been hit.
“Nice try sis,” said Rec, “but Gearhaert is a bit stronger than a Freelancer, in fact a lot of Titans are. When calling on him you should try an indirect approach, not the 'charge in head first' approach that you just used a moment ago. Good job Gearhaert, I believe we helped teach... no, I am not capable of that... logical deductions are effective, but sometimes the information used in them can be flawed. Return,” Gearheart turned into a similar wisp of light to Freelancer and shot into his own amulet.
“Um,” said Orchid, “did you just argue with your Titan?”
“Not that far yet sis, we're still on the debate portion of the relationship. Put Freelancer away and choose a different Titan, you should always have backups ready just in case you run into a problem the Titan isn't suited for your Titan gets sent back to their amulet.”
“Oh right, um, who should I call up next,” Orchid put the Freelancer amulet away, while Rec put the Gearhaert one away. Reaching into her pouch she pulled out what looked like a light gray bear amulet with blue oval shaped gem in it just above the bear's eyes and yelled out crush the opposition, Breaker,” a bear with an extra set of forelegs, spikes coming out of the back near the shoulders that curved up and towards the direction the bear faced, what appeared to be aboriginal American marking on its 'arms' and what looked like a wooden chest piece hung over its torso. It let out a loud roar.
Reaching into his side pouch Rec produced a dull green amulet shaped like a mask that covers the upper section of the face with blue at the upper tips a light green oval shaped gem with a pair of light blue horns on either side of it curving out to the sides and called out, “crush the opposition, Hitogori,” with that a hulking mass of humanoid muscle holding a kenobo club with face that looked like an oni mask that had horns like those on the amulet appeared.
“Breaker give him the squeeze,” cried out Orchid.
“Hitogori,” said Rec, “show them what punishment looks like.”
With that both of the Titans charged forward. Breaker brought its lower 'arms' out to squeeze his opponent, Hitogori blocked with its club and met the other set of arms with a swing kick upward (using its club as the pivot) with more agility than one would expect from an eight foot mountain of muscle. The two Titans appeared to be evenly matched, but after a few minutes Hitogori won the match with a set of heavy blows to Breaker's midsection.
After putting Breaker's amulet away and getting ready to retrieve another, Rec recalled his titan and returned its amulet to his waist pouch, Orchid stopped in the middle of retrieval and said, “I hear someone approaching.”
Both the sibling got ready before a tall tan teenage girl with black hair done in a semblance of a military cut and a jade green amulet with the appearance of a bar shuriken with a light green gem in the middle stepped into the clearing wearing a bright blue shirt with a griffon with its wings unfurled a pair of black jeans that were slightly torn and said, “sorry we're late, our moms wanted to have a conversation with us that ran a bit longer than anticipated.”
“Your mom wanted you to talk while doing some combat practice,” said a Caucasian teenage girl with mid length brown hair, hazel colored eyes wearing an amulet that looked like a stone open face helmet with a purple gem where the face would be along with a t-shirt that showed a shield with a pegasus on it and white sweatpants, “mine had us in line for hours to get ice cream for my conversation.”
“Claudia,” said Rec as he turned to the tall tan girl, his eyes meeting her navy blue ones, “I told you that if your mom wanted you to do something then you should have started your day earlier,” then turning to the other girl he said, “Mandi, I'm not mad at you, your mom keeps trying to spend time with you no matter what. Although, she doesn't usually make you run this late.”
“I know,” said Mandi, “mom was really insistent our little talk even last longer today.”
“Now that you mention it,” said Claudia, “mom was insistent on things going longer today as well.”
“We were up at four,” said Orchid, “mom was already up and gave us a lecture on magic that lasted two and a half hours, it was quite enjoyable.”
“Agreed,” said Rec.
“You two are the only ones I know who actually enjoy that sort of thing,” said Claudia, “I suppose that's what you get when your family has as a long a tradition in the craft as yours does.”
“Lay off them Claudia,” said Mandi, “I think it's sweet they can relate to their mom so well, and their dad as well.”
“Dad not so much,” said Orchid and Rec in unison.
“Sure,” continued Rec, “dad and our older siblings are all Seekers and work for the Association as well, but truth be told we've always felt a stronger connection to mom. I mean come on...”
“You're the only Seeker we're aware of that plays the combination game with powers,” said Mandi, “and your sister seems to have a quite a bit of talent when it comes to picking up new tricks.”
A phone rang the tune of Tiptoe by Imagine Dragons, everyone looked over at Claudia, she sighed pulled out her phone answered it with a, “If this isn't important you better hope I don't hunt you down,” after a few seconds she said, “its our free week, you just can't throw us into the field without... no need to get snippy,” pulling her hand over the speaker of the phone and said, “Rec, what ya do with your phone?”
“Left it charging at home,” said Rec as he retrieved his backpack from near where the waist pouches were and put it on.
“Same here,” said Mandi.
“I won't get one until my next birthday,” said Orchid with a smile.
Claudia sighed and said, “did you at least bring your Mythichive?”
“Never leave the house without it,” said Rec with a nod before patting his dark blue backpack which happened to bear the insignia of a rearing unicorn, “the Association wants us to run a mission I take it.”
Claudia nodded and went back to talking on he phone, “Alright, this one mission, but after that you folks leave us alone for the rest of the week. Where we going?”
After finishing she turned her phone off and shoved it in her pocket.
“So,” said Mandi, “where they sending us?”
“Ireland,” said Claudia, “they found something of interest, but all the veteran teams keep getting sent back to their starting point, they got better results with some of the younger vet Seekers, but...”
“The youngest among them was just shy of twenty years,” finished Rec, “and they want to see if a teen group will have better luck.”
“Yup,” said Claudia, “they sent all the pertinent information to your Mythichive.”
“Everyone grab your passports,” said Rec, “we're going to be flying into Dublin and make our way to the point indicated.”
“Bummer it's not Kyoto,” said Mandi, “I really liked our last visit to Japan.”
“The one where we ended up finding a Titan with a trickster archetype personality that kept you walking in circles for a half hour,” said Claudia with amusement.
“You're one to talk,” retorted Mandi, “miss, 'I think I'm a Japanese princess for seventeen hours', really, how did that happen again?”
“We agreed to never speak of that again.”
“No,” said Rec, “you said you wanted us to never speak of it again and walked off.”
“Sorry I missed that,” said Orchid.
With that all said the four made their way to pack for their trip.
***************************************
Almost nine hours later they were touching down in Dublin, “three hour delay,” said Claudia with frustration, “why couldn't we use an Association charter jet again?”
“Because they're all being serviced,” said Rec with a matter-of-fact voice, “good news some of the ones in Ireland might be ready to go by the time we're done here. The Association said they want us to spend one or two days on this, and according to the service reports I read on my Mythichive on the way here.”
The three teens were were wearing jackets that had the image of whirlwind with shields from various world cultures surrounding it. Orchid was wearing a forest green jacket with a white rabbit and black cat staring each other down with the words, “Luck is All About How You See It” in big sky blue letters beneath them.
They were met by a dark skinned woman with her hair in a bun and a what looked like a red satin dress that bore golden spiders on it at a pair of stylish business shoes who smiled and waved at them.
“Yikes,” said Claudia, “if Mira is here then it must be serious.”
“Glad you could make it,” said Mira in a sophisticated sounding.
“You never meet people,” said Mandi, “you usually have one of your associates or team do that.”
“True,” said Mira, “but they're all busy brainstorming how to gain access to the cavern if this hunch doesn't pan out.”
“Ah, the trials of having great minds,” said Rec with amusement, “I take it we will be riding in one of your arranged transports.”
“Yes,” said Mira, “everybody saw our convoy, so we're playing the wealthy investor and collouges card, which means you all need to put on something a little more... refined and will be riding in a limo with me.”
“You know how I feel about fancy outfits,” said Mandi, “they just don't feel right.”
“And you call me a brute,” said Claudia, “I don't mind them really.”
“That's because your mom raised you on them,” retorted Mandi, “I usually where that fancy stuff two or three times a year, you,” she gestured to Claudia, “have to attend at least three events that require such dress every month.”
“Ladies can we not talk fashion in the airport,” said Rec, “I have my carry-on, Mira, is someone getting our bags?”
“Yes, Marcus,” said Mira.
“That brute,” said Mandi with surprise, “he's worse than Talon here,” she once again gestured to Claudia.
“Say what you will about him,” said Mira, “but he does a decent job regardless,” said Mira, “Now come on, we have site to visit.”
************************
Five minutes later Mira, Rec, Orchid, Mandi, Claudia, and a man looking like he was of Northern Italian descent were stepping into a white limo. The man was none other than Marcus, in addition to his skin coloration and bald head he was in a blue pinstripe suit with a pair of fancy black shoes and looked like he was built with a lightly bulging upper body. Not one individual said anything the entire trip, which took about an hour and a half by car.
When they arrived the kids practically jolted from the car after making sure they had their waist bags and backpacks (with everything inside said bags) and made a beeline for the cavern entrance. Nothing stopped them, but Rec did have the foresight to snatch a couple of walkie talkies on the way down. They stopped at the cavern chamber and were floored by what they saw.
The cavern was a giant blue and green geode with a small assortment of Titan amulets scattered all about its floor.
Rec picked up an amulet that looked like a simple yellow and orange bird with six wings and an aqua colored gem where the middle of the bird's back would be, he then pulled out his Mythichive and flipped it open and hung the amulet over the center of the lower section of the briefcase/laptop computer like device, “Mythichive, scan amulet.”
An aqua green light played over the amulet before a gentle sounding female voice said, “Solwing, Attack 1, Defense 1, Size small, Special abilities: Fight, type: Krono-Titan Scout,” along with the explanation what looked like a small six winged hawk with a Roman or Greek styled helmet flying about played in an aqua green holographic display.”
“Interesting,” said Rec, “it almost feels like this Titan is already bonded... no it couldn't be, those are only a debate, but based on the evidence around us.”
“What is it?” asked Orchid with great curiosity.
“We're at a Fall Point,” said Rec, everyone gave him a confused look, “a point that's a serious weak point between our world and the one the Titans hail from, they've been nothing but a debate up 'til now. This is a location that Titans will arrive in our world before making themselves go to places unknown, it short its a spawn point for 'wild Titans'.”
“Seriously?” said Mandi, “this would make any Seeker's career, and we're the first to be in one.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Rec, who then put the Solwing amulet over the Mythichive again, “Mythichive, can you identify a bond with this Titan?”
The light played out over the amulet again and the Mythichive said, “affirmative, this Titan has a bond.”
“Identify bond,” said Rec.
The light played out over the amulet a third time before the the Mythichive said, “Seeker bond identified, Dante Vale of the Huntik Foundation.”
“Seriously?” came Claudia's voice, “one of the greatest Seekers in the world! That Titan is his? What's it doing at a 'Fall Point'?”
“Something must of happened to the original amulet,” said Rec, “it looks like this Titan had a bond so strong it did everything it could to return, but it only made it this far.”
“That's still pretty impressive,” said Orchid, “we should ship it, and the other amulets we find back to their Seekers. I'm sure they'd be ecstatic.”
“Assuming they believe the note we send along for the ride,” said Mandi, “it's a common belief among Seekers that once a Titan's amulet is destroyed there is no way the Titan can return to the Seeker.”
“Oh, then we'd have to meet them all in person and explain about the Fall Point,” said Orchid, “and that might not be a good idea with some.”
“That's right,” said Rec, “it's been a few months since the Red Star incidents, and a lot of Seekers are really wary. Thankfully we never had to deal with that band of fanatics calling themselves the Bloodspirals, I'm sure the Foundation and Casterwills would like to work on studying something like this in collaborative capacity.”
“But the fact of the matter is,” said Claudia, “the Association is going to be alone in this for a while. I just hope the Collective don't find us out here.”
“You know those fanatics probably became aware of it the moment you got your call right?” said Rec, “we found just last month they were in charge of the cell tower management for most of North America, I wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to rig the towers so they could tap in on any calls after getting and alert for key words or names embedded into the system.”
“Oh right, didn't the Association give us all new phones with a program uploaded into them to make it really hard to do that.”
“But not impossible,” said Mandi, “they probably found out one of their work arounds our security worked, the only secure network they can't break into the Mythichive and not everyone in the Association has access to those.”
______________________________________________________
Equestria's world of Equus
At the same time in Ponyville Pinkie Pie hopping up and down with Twilight Sparkle ignoring her, that is until the pink mare shouted out, “New friends are coming to Ponyville, and the best part they are from way, way, way far away.”
Giving an exaggerated sigh Twilight said, “Pinkie nopony is coming for a visit, I would have been notified if they were from another nation or some sort of important dignitary.” The lavender alicorn returned to the item she had been studying at the central table of her new castle, “Rarity said she just found this out in the street, she didn't interact with it and fortunately I was passing by at the time,” she gestured to an amulet colored stone gray with what looked like a set of icy blue wings, between the wings was an oval shaped purple gem with a yellow highlight surrounding it, “this is like nothing anypony to my knowledge has seen. It has some really strong magic in it, but I can't determine what kind, every time I try to identify the magic in this thing I get the impression its supposed to call something, but I just don't know what. Hopefully somepony will know, I sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking if she could have somepony look into it.”
“Ooh, called in an expert pony on such things,” Pinkie with big grin bringing her blue eyes really close to the amulet without touching it.
“Well yes,” said Twilight, “all the experts on such things are instructors at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but the thing is,” Twilight gave a sigh of defeat, “they're all out of the country assisting with identifying enchanted items and their properties in other countries and the earliest we can expect for somepony that might know more about this piece of enchanted jewelry is a month and a half, and by that time the pony that probably lost this will come asking for it back. I mean enchanted items just don't fall from the sky or shoot out from nowhere.” Bringing her violet eyes back to the item in question she said, “I've already scoured my entire library for anything resembling it and found nothing, I know because I triple checked. After asking for some books on the subject from Canterlot I told Spike he could have the rest of today and all of tomorrow off.”
“That was nice of ya Twi,” said Pinkie in her usual chipper voice.
“Remind me what you are doing here again,” said Twilight.
“Oh just filling a requirement for the author,” said Pinkie, “at least that's what Discord told me we would be doing. He also said he's making some other arrangements, I don't know anything beyond that.”
**************************
Back in the World of Seekers (which is very much like our own)
After gathering some of the amulets, a dull silver near ring with what looked like three small plates and green circular gem above the plates proving to be similar to the Solwing amulet (in addition amulets like it bonded with Rec and Orchid) the four made their way out of the cavern almost a full hour later.
When they returned the camp it looked like a wreck with four teens that looked like they were of Italian descent, all in Roman inspired outfits with Egyptian inspired footwear and head wear, with piercing blue eyes and well groomed black hair. The tallest, a boy that looked about Rec's age, said in a refined sounding voice that was very condescending, “well, if it isn't the most annoying Seekers I've ever met, hand over everything you recovered down there and promise to forget this ever happened and we won't ruin anybody's pretty complexions.”
“Hello Damion,” said Rec with a cheery voice that had a snarky undertone, “I see you're still acting like heaven's gift to the world. Last I checked at every one of our encounters you went running with your tail between your legs. Last time I beat you with a Titan you claimed had no combative application.”
“That little broken clock, you called a Titan caught me by surprise,” said Damion with a simmering tone, “how it managed to best my warrior class titans is beyond me. Not that it matters,” he reached into his pocket and belt pouch and pulled out an orange and yellow amulet shaped like a narrow slitted Greek helmet with a light green gem just above the eye area and yelled out, “bring submission, Myrmidon,” a large armored looking man like thing that had a head that looked like the amulet with a vertical decorative red brush at the top appeared. The arms had no armor save for the bracers and arm band on the right arm it sported and the torso armor was what looked like a think layer of red leather.
“Show them pain, Thornment,” cried a girl in his group, holding up an amulet colored be yellow with blue and green highlights and a pale silver gem in the center shaped like some kind of Egyptian headdress. A humanoid form that looked like a mummy covered in dark indigo thorned vines appeared.
“Feed, Ammit Heart Eater,” called the two other boys in the group at the same time, holding up a set of amulets that yellow with blue and green highlights and a pale silver gem in the center shaped like some kind of old Egyptian helmet with no face guard. Immediately a pair of creatures that looked like armored Nile crocodiles appeared.
“Let's do this,” said Claudia doing a flourishing toss of her amulet before holding it out to reveal a steel-blue glove shaped pendant with a grayish-pink gem in the center (almost looking like being grasped) before saying, “bring honor to your lady, Invisible Knight,” with that what looked like a walking (and partially floating) suit of iron or steel English armor wielding a European straight edge sword and battle worn circular shield appeared.
Holding up a jade green pendant shaped amulet with black lines on its sides, dark orange flames as a backdrop and a pale green gem Mandi shouted out, “burn the unworthy, Volcana,” with that a humanoid being that looked like a woman made burning rocks wearing a light jade colored kimono with violet highlights and a white sarashi at its chest area appeared next her.
“Meet the trials, Gearhaert,” cried out Rec while holding out said Titan's amulet, once again Gearhaert was next him.
Holding out Breaker's amulet Orchid once again called on the Titan who appeared once more before she said, “Breaker, take out Ammit Heart Eater.”
“Volcana,” said Mandi, “take out Thornment.”
“Invisible Knight,” said Claudia, “take on Ammit Heart Eater.”
“Gearhaert,” said Rec, “let's give Myrmidon a lesson in what it means to be prepared for a fight.” With that all the Titans charged each other.
“HyperStride,” called out Damion causing blue flames to manifest around his legs before she jumped up a good twenty feet.
Rec closed his eyes like he was concentrating before saying, “NimbleFire,” before charging forward and while at a run he said , “HyperStride, DragonFist, Double Spell Stone Glove,” his legs manifested blue flames, his hands glowed with orange circles around them and seemed become covered with stone (with the glowing orbs still around his hands) before he jumped and slammed Damion with the combination of built momentum from his run and increased physical power the two spells over his hands afforded him. Damion fell back to earth, hard. Before the well dressed teen could utter anything he had a stone covered hand applying just enough pressure to his throat to keep him from uttering anything. His Titan didn't fare much better, Gearhaert had converted one of his hands into a short sword and jabbed the brawling Titan at gaps in its armor causing a forced return. His teammates were also as soundly defeated. Volcana had caused Thornment to burn, Breaker had squeezed one of the Ammits into defeat, and Invisible Knight had slashed the other Ammit into defeat.
While Damion and his team did have more Titans the fact that there were for active Titans and four Seekers with little to no exhaustion standing there was cause the for them make a sound a retreat, with Damion making a threat to best Rec when they should next meet.
“Well that was a thing,” said Mandi as they all recalled their Titans.
“Always expect cockroaches wherever you go,” said Claudia with a smirk.
“Now Claudia don't say that,” said Rec, “we don't want to insult any insects.”
Orchid giggled and the other two girls laughed out loud.
“Speaking of things that spring up,” said Mandi looking around, “what happened to the research team?”
“Or their vehicles?” said Orchid, “I don't even see what should be considered scrap metal from those, although the equipment seems fine.”
“That is weird,” said Rec, “everyone get out some scouts to search the place.” with that he reached into his pouch and pulled out two amulets, one looked like a pewter four toothed cog with a bronze gem in the center and the other looked like a dark gray stone mouse head with light stone horns and purple gem in the center with a yellow ring highlight around it. Holding both up he said, “work the mechanism, Tinkertock; scurry about, Gremlow.” what looked like someone had taken an old fashioned mechanical alarm clock and decided to turn into some kind of steampunk robot appeared next to a rat with a pair of horns that swept back over its head covered in stone armor, “Tinkertock, try and find any electronic devices and copy any information pertaining to the last five hours,” the little robot made a series metallic clinks before giving a mechanical salute and scurried off (making more clinking sounds as it ran about), “Gremlow, I need you to use your swarm ability and search all over the place for any sign of Titans or Seekers and report back,” the rat nodded and dashed off (while doing do so it began to duplicate, and each copy went a different direction while replicating).
Holding up an amulet that looked like a stone bird with wings made from ice Mandi said, “search the skies, Midnight Rook,” what looked like a crow with stone torso armor and a stone helmet appeared before her, “Rook, take to the sky and see if you can spy where the team that's supposed to be here is,” the bird nodded and took flight.
Pulling out an amulet that looked like a foxy squirrel head colored dark gray with light yellow highlights and a blue gem positioned at a point between the 'eyes' Orchid said, “trick the trap, Springer,” what looked like a dark gray fox-like squirrel with three bushy tails (that had white horizontal lines in the middle of them) and blue eyes appeared, “see what you can find out about the missing team here, and bring back any items that could give us a clue.” The Springer nodded and scurried off.
Claudia held up a jade colored amulet shaped like some kind of leathery wings with a dark blue highlight ring around the light green circular gem and from the lower section (starting at the base of the gem) was a light gray pointed tail, “look about, Red Searcher,” she called out causing dark red bat winged eye with tentacles hanging from its lower section to appear, “Searcher try and spot what happened here, and bring back anything that might lead us to the cause.” The bat winged eye flew off at a hovering altitude, “now comes the part I hate, waiting.”
********************************
Three hours later the four were no closer to finding out what happened. Their Titans, all of them, had reported to entire place being made so clean it was like a set piece, this caused all four to become concerned. After their Titans had reported in they were recalled to their amulets.
“Everything started feeling weird the moment we entered the Fall Point,” said Rec, we need an expert on this sort of thing.”
“Yeah,” said Mandi, “but the closest we have to that is your Janusea the Gatekeeper.”
“Worth a shot,” said Rec reaching into his side pouch and pulling out oval shaped light gray amulet with red red highlights near the bottom region, a set of yellow flame-like crown designs all pointing up just above and elliptical blue gem that also had a yellow highlight that encircled it and connected with the yellow flame crown design, “open the door between dimensions, Janusea the Gatekeeper.” A humanoid female figure with a mask similar to the amulet with three light blue orbs orbiting it appeared. “Janusea, we need to find out what has happened here, can you help us?” The female Titan looked at him quizzically before he said, “she can sense the essence of the team that was here, but something is blocking her ability to track any them. She also says... you really want me say that,” he pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, “she also says that's yet to be part of our story, she'll point us towards a gateway to where she says we need to go. Before you say anything I'm just as confused as you all are, Janusea and VitaGuard are my two oldest friends, and if she says something like this I'm not going to question it.”
Janusea floated over to what looked like an ordinary red gray face and her spheres formed a triangle in front of the rock face before spinning wildly and colliding, this caused Janusea to unsummon herself and leave a swirling vortex of orange, pink, white, lavender, yellow, and cyan with flashing sparks of white and black.
“So, who wants to...” before Claudia finished her sentence Rec an Orchid stepped through, “great,” she said as Mandi followed, “what have I got to lose?” with that she stepped through the vortex.
***************************
What felt like hours later, but could have only been a few minutes, the four woke up clutching their heads.
“Ow,” said Claudia, “that could have gone better,” she then noticed something her hands were a bit off. Opening her eyes she noticed she had a beak and her hands had become a set of yellow colored talons that looked very familiar. Looking over she saw a dark pink pegasus with a mane and tail that reminded her of Mandi and pair of unicorns. One of the unicorns was colored dark indigo while the other was colored a dark violet, both had manes and tails that reminded her of Rec and Orchid. She then noticed the flanks of the older looking unicorn (the dark violet one) had what looked like the amulets of VitagGuard, Janusea and Nordrake encased in the glow of a HypersStride combined with the glow of a NimbleFire. And the pegasus had what looked like a shield bearing the icon of an Undergolem and Midnight Rook.
“Oh, what happened?” came Mandi's voice from the pegasus.
“We crossed a dimensional divide,” said the dark violet unicorn in Rec's voice, “some... errors were bound to be happen.”
“Yeah,” said Claudia with chuckle and smirk, “like the egghead and his sister turning into unicorns and little miss guardian turning into a winged equine.”
“I'm a pterippus?” said Mandi with surprise, “like Pegasus, oh this is going to be weird!”
“And Talon appears to be black feathered griffon,” said Rec with a voice that sounded like he was taking everything in stride a bit to well. Orchid, the indigo colored filly, just bounced around babbling about how this was the best day ever. Surprisingly she seemed to have already adapted to being a quadruped, in fact she felt like she was a natural quadruped herself.
“So, what now?” said Mandi.
“Good question,” said Rec as he surveyed the environment, he spotted what looked like a massive crystal tree in the distance to their right, “that tree doesn't look natural, it might mean there's a town near by,” the amulet around his neck swung about as he turned to go.
“Wait up,” said Orchid, her own neck bound amulet bouncing as she moved.
“Coming,” inquired Mandi as she trotted after the siblings with her own neck bound amulet swaying.
“In a moment,” said Claudia as she gently stroked her own neck bound amulet. It was this moment she noticed Rec's backpack had become a set of saddlebags and all their waist pouches had become flank pouches. She quickly ran after the trio that was slowly getting further from her. She and Mandi were both of the mindset to not try flying just yet.
*****************************
After their brisk twenty minute walk they came up on the Crystal structure and were immediately assaulted by a pink blur, Claudia was the first one down followed by Mandi, Rec and Orchid quietly said, “NimbleFire,” and moved out of the way the pink blur with the bright orange aura encasing them.
“Hi,” said a bright pink pony with dark pink mane and tail and pair bright blue eyes, “who are all of you? See Twilight, my Pinkie senses were right.”
“Um,” said Rec, “my name is Recorded Formula, please no jokes I've heard them all already, and this is my sister,” he gestured to the unicorn filly next him, “Orchid Spell, the black griffon that's grumbling about sneak attacks is Claudia and the winged equine is...”
“Mandi,” said Mandi, “Rec, if you say my full name in front of this... equine there will not be enough healing magic in the world to keep you from a life in a hospital bed.”
“Oh, but...” said Orchid.
“Sorry, squirt,” said Mandi, “they are not getting my full name.”
“But bro just told her our first names,” said Orchid with confusion, “why don't you want them to know your first name is Mandolin?”
“Because, my mother named me after a musical instrument that isn't really played any more, and now the ridicule begins.”
“They're perfectly acceptable names in Equestria,” said a an intelligent female voice walking up out of the crystal tree. “I'm not really sure about griffon naming conventions all that much, but I'm sure 'Clawdia' is a perfectly acceptable name for a griffon.”
All four just stared for a moment before Claudia said, “Two questions,” holding up two talons as if she were using her ordinary hand. “Question one, why am I seeing a winged unicorn? Second question, did we get dumped into the Titan world and changed to suit the area.”
“The Titan world is called Huntik,” said Rec, “it's where the Foundation got the idea for their name. We just got told the realm we're in is Equestria.”
“Dude,” came a brash female voice, “the guy has a total egghead name,” this was followed by the voice laughing, “and he has a total eggheaded cutie mark too.”
This caused Rec to look at his flank and shrug, Claudia noticed hers had no adornments (to her great pleasure), Mandi noticed the mark on her flank and freaked out, “oh my freaking god, I have a tattoo on my ass, that is not cool. Dad is going to kill me when he hears about this, mom might laugh it off and that's it...”
“Mandi,” yelled Rec, she continued her freak out, he yelled louder to the same result, he pulled an amulet that looked identical to the one Twilight had been studying from his flank pouch and yelled out, “take the shot, Nordrake,” suddenly a an ice blue 16 foot dragon with a yellow smooth collar with fluffy red outer collar and a blue gem on the yellow portion at the base of the neck with foreclaws that looked like they were made from stone was standing next to him with large webbed wings and he said, “Nordrake, Mandi's having a panic attack, could you please help her chill down.”
The dragon nodded and spit a small cold blast that caused Mandi to stop in her tracks and start shivering instead, “thanks Rec, I needed that,” she said with chattering teeth.
“Any time,” said Rec recalling the dragon to its amulet and returning the amulet to his flank pouch.
Twilight just stared at the four, who had acted like the whole summoning a dragon from nowhere and making it disappear was perfectly normal. After a moment the brash voice called out, “and egghead just turned awesome, how he do that? Sometimes unicorns get all the best tricks.”
The four newcomers watched in awestruck by the fact they were seeing a cyan colored pegasus.
“It's a blue pterippus,” uttered Mandi, “how the the hell is that possible. With unicorns I figured its magic so the candy coat and mane thing is a given, and the pink one I figured was just painted that way as a practical joke.”
“Then how do you explain us all being able to speak in a common language with no issues?”
“Dude, your all equines it is a given you would be able to understand each other,” said Claudia.
“But you're a gryphon,” pointed out Orchid, “and you can understand us all.”
“Not all the time,” said Claudia, “just usually.”
“And I'm a pegasus pony, thank you very much,” said the cyan winged equine, which they all noticed had a rainbow mane and tail.
“I think, several explanations are in order,” said Rec, “call up whatever council is needed for this kind of matter, notify all high ranking members of whatever group or political spheres you think are necessary and we'll explain as best we can.”
“Good,” said the purple winged unicorn, “my name is Twilight Sparkle, and the one you met first was Pinkie Pie, the pegasus is Rainbow Dash.”
“That is not the proper name for the... pony breed,” said Mandi, “Pegasus was the name of last of the flying stallions according the myths where we come from.”
“Seriously?” said Rainbow Dash, “my tribe of pony has the same name of some Stallion from your old stories, I don't know how to feel about that.”
“Yeah, well,” said Mandi, “according to the stories he was also a jerk that had a serious ego, only gods and heroes could claim him as a... companion in their duties or in their quests.”
“Sounds like somepony might be his distant descendant,” said Twilight with a smirk at Rainbow Dash, “now let's get inside, I'll call the others and send some letters to the Princesses.”