Rec, Twilight, Claudia, Mandi and Pinkie found themselves having stay the night in Canterlot, by the time Pinkie had finished explaining everything in her distinctive manner it had gotten to be evening. The five found themselves having to spend the night in Canterlot, Twilight didn't mind because she could go catch up with her parents, of before everyone split up Rec reminded them to remain discreet on matters that could pertain to Seekers.
That had been three hours ago. Rec was pacing around the room he had been provided, for some reason he and his sister had always felt more alive at night. Rec decided to do the one thing that helped relax him best, go to the nearest kitchen and cook something. When he opened his door he noticed a pair of bat winged ponies on each end of the hall and a pair patrolling the hall itself. He waved down the patrolling guards and asked if one of them could escort him to the nearest kitchen.
“Why would you wish that? If you are hungry you could just ask one of us to take an order,” said a the guard closest to him, whom realized was a mare and hadn't noticed initially because of enchantments within the armor.
“I don't desire a midnight snack,” said Rec, “I'm just having trouble sleeping, cooking up something in the kitchen usually helps with getting me calm enough to sleep.”
“Ah, I see,” said the mare, “anything else you care to share?”
“When I'm not expected to be up with the sun I'm usually active at night,” said Rec, “now my personal habits aside, will one of you good ponies provide me an escort? Or call someone else for the task?”
“Follow me,” said the mare and motioned for her partner to motion for another assistant while she was attending to Rec. After trotting the halls for at least five minutes the mare said, “most of the unicorns I've dealt with are very full of themselves, granted most of the unicorns I deal with are resident of Canterlot's elite.”
“Make you ant to tear your hair out, I know the feeling,” said Rec, “in fact there's someone from a rival faction that has a serious narcissism problem.”
“Thinks he's Celestia's gift to mares?”
“More like Heaven's gift to the world.”
“So in other words his ego is above the average for Canterlot's nobility, sounds like a standup stallion.”
“I've beaten him every time we've encountered each other.”
“How many times has that been?”
“Fifty-three, as of just before the incident that brought my friends and I here.”
“Yeesh, you'd think he'd pick up on a hint!”
“He'd get a new Titan or learn a new spell and think it made him invincible, I always outdid him and his team.”
“I was told those creatures you can summon on a whim.”
“Titans reside in amulets, you have to be in contact with them to invoke the titan within.”
Silence followed and after a few more minutes they were at kitchen that looked like it wasn't used all that often, the kitchen fire was just above glowing embers, but that was more like preparation for use than actually being in use. “It's an overflow kitchen, for when the castle hosts events and needs to have a few extra chefs on hoof to help out.”
“Thank you for guiding me here, you may return to your post.”
“I must ensure you are safe.”
“I am more than capable of handling myself, and I have more than enough means of returning to my room without trouble.”
“Very well, I will be just down the hall if I am needed,” she trotted away.
After she was considerable ways down Rec said, “BoltFlare,” the light glowing orange sphere floated next him and he brought it to the kitchen flame to bring it up to a more reasonable level before more wood in the compartment from it's storage area and stoking it before closing the under flame door. He then pulled out the amulets of Springer, Gareon, Gremlow and Tinkertock and invoked them. After that he checked the kitchen supplies and got to work making an apple and huckleberry pie.
Rec had just finished putting the pie in the oven and closing its door, a process that for him actually to about five minutes do to his typical kitchen times and concerns about managing the quality of his work, when he turned around to see Pinkie uncomfortably close to his face, “Hi,” said Pinkie in her chipper voice, “whatcha put in the oven?”
“A pie,” said Rec calmly and as he sidestepped the pink mare and moved to the prep counter for his next project.
“You're very guarded about your emotions! Why?”
Rec took a deep sigh, looks like Pinkie's perceptiveness would get him one way or another, before saying, “I used to be a lot like you when I was little, from the time I was six the time I was nine my elder half-siblings would ignore every attempt I made to make our time together fun,” he took another deep breath, “so, if they didn't want take part in all the fun I tried to have with them I decided to guard my emotions in front of everyone, including myself. It's more of a habit now than anything else, one that's very hard to break out of these days. I want to be able to cut loose and be happy party animal, kind of like you, but I just can't anymore,” he shook his head, “at the very least you deserve to know that much, you read my earliest journal entry for what I wanted for my birthday, but all other birthday plans I made after that were boring and uninteresting, none of my elder siblings even bothered to pay attention to my birthday plans for them or me.”
“They're family,” said Pinkie with a hurt voice, “why didn't they like you.”
“Because my only full sibling is Orchid, all my other siblings had a different mom than the two of us. They saw us as invaders to their father's life, they didn't like mom, and it extended to us. We get along a bit better now, but I can tell that they're just trying to make up for everything they put me through, they don't want to make the same mistakes with Orchid as they did with me.”
“But all that came to late,” said Pinkie with a sullen voice, “it takes a lot more to reconnect than that just be a family.”
“Yes, and you must follow the same rule as me when in the kitchen.”
“What's that?”
“No sadness in the kitchen, it ruins the food.”
Pinkie perked up and said, “okie, dokie, Loki. I came here to tell you something important, I tried waking everypony up to warn them, but they were to sound asleep.”
“Tell me what?” The magical lights in castle went dark.
“That,” said Pinkie, “something just cut off the magic for the castle,” her eyes went large with surprise, “and disabled our magic.”
“BoltFlare,” the light flickered into existence, everything was bathed the light orange glow of the sphere, “looks like it doesn't affect seeker powers.”
“Oh thank goodness, thou art alright,” came Princess Luna's voice as she trotted into the kitchen, “something is disabling our magic, in a few hours when it comes time for our sister to raise the sun it may not come to pass. How is thou can use a light spell.
“I see,” said Rec, “you were the bat winged mare I flagged down, clever, that's the only way you could be here that fast. As miss Pie and I have just discovered this magical disruption doesn't affect the ability to use seeker magic,” Luna nodded with a smile, “CypherCall,” his mythichive appeared next him on the counter.
“What exactly are thou doing?” Inquired Luna, “we wanted to learn more about thee.”
“Thanks for the interest,” said Rec, “if the whatever is affecting everything doesn't work on seeker powers then the mythichive can find it, it can scan for magical frequencies.”
“Please state password,” said the Mythichive.
“Silver cupcakes aren't as fun as they sound,” said Rec.
“Access granted,” said the mythichive.
“Okay good,” said Rec, “Gremlow go and wake everyone, including Princess Celestia, we need all eyes and ears for this,” the rat-like titan nodded with a squeak and was gone, “a simple light spell won't work for any ponies, but you are fortunate we have a journeyman seeker, two adept seekers and one in training on the premises. I already taught Twilight the BoltFlare spell, so she should be able to provide the light she and others might need.”
“Except she will figure out something is jamming her ability to use magic when she tries to light up the room,” said Luna.
“That is until she notices Gremlow,” said Pinkie, “she'll figure out her conventional spells don't work, but her new seeker spells will be usable.”
“Hopefully yes,” said Rec, “but we all know Twilight can be a little slow on the uptake from time to time.”
“She will, I know it,” said Pinkie, “but now I'm cut off from my Pinkie senses, I won't know when or where something possibly dangerous could happen.”
“So now what? We need a place with a bit more space,” said Luna.
Rec swung open the oven door and said “DoubleSpell, BubbleLift,” a light blue bubble appeared around the mythichive and another one floated out of the oven with his pie, “we move to the dining hall, it has more than enough room and I really don't want to put my baking to waste.”
They all made there way to the dining hall shortly after, Rec's titans in tow.
*************************
Twenty minutes had passed before Twilight, Claudia, Mandi and Princess Celestia were in the dining hall, Pinkie and Luna were in the midst of downing a collective third of the pie, with their fifth piece each.
“Ah man,” said Claudia, “they're eating Rec's apple-huckleberry pie, those things are gooooooooooooood.”
“Rec's practically a master chef,” said Mandi, “of course it's really good.”
“It's sooooooooooooooooo totally is true,” said Pinkie, “now that everypony is here I think it's time Reckie here explained everything.”
“Okay, three things,” said Rec, “one, never call me that ever again; two I'm pretty sure the mythichive can identify and locate the cause of this magical dead zone we're under; three, I'm going to need the most current map of the city for an overlay, I want to be very thorough with this.”
“You got it,” said Pinkie as she pulled a map of the city from her mane.
Twilight just shook her head and commented on how random Pinkie is.
Rec unrolled the map and laid the mythtichive flat in the open position before placed the map on it and said, “Mythichichive, scan map,” the light of the mytichive moved up and down on the map much like a scanner or copy machine. A moment later an aqua green holographic image of the city was being displayed.
“Impressive,” said Celestia, “a device like this could advance Equestria's understand of technologies and magic for generations to come.”
“They can also be used for telecomumication,” said Mandi with a smirk, “in other words you could have conversation with someone over a great distance in what amounts to real time, as opposed to sending letters back and forth.”
The three alicorns looked at Rec and his friends with surprise, Pinkie was marking off on a checklist that looked more like a bunch of macaroni art with boxes next each of the macaroni images.
“That kind of communication isn't anything new in our world,” said Claudia, “everyone we know has a personal communication device that is multi-functional that fit in their pocket. We also have also have devices for seeing and hearing things over great distances, really it's nothing new to us.”
“But it is to us,” said Twilight, “these devices could revolutionize every aspect of life in Equestria, once we figure out how to produce them en mass everypony could have one in their homes, every aspect of life and business could be made better.”
“And if some delusional nut cases get a device like this in their possession,” said Claudia, “did you ever think of that? There is a reason why devices like the mythichive have limits on who can have one, Rec has one because his family meets all the criteria for having personal units, all of his elder siblings have one and Orchid will get one eventually, because it's more of a tradition at this point.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, “I was so focused on how something like this could make things better...”
“That you didn't think of how something like this could misused,” said Mandi, “to be honest a lot of historical figures were the same the way in the world we lived in.”
“Some were seekers,” said Rec, “they saw the best in the peoples of the world, and some saw the worst in them as well. Remember this, above all else, hardships are the start of a true crucible, and when you come out from it you will be all the stronger.”
“It takes time, and a little experience to recognize a crucible,” said Claudia, “some are short, and others go a length you couldn't fully understand. Some come from their crucible broken, others can't find a way to leave, but those that brave and keep to their faith that it has to end will break free and show just wait true strength is.”
“You've all faced one,” said Luna, “one that's changed you.”
“You've endured one too, Princess Luna,” said Rec, “and I believe you've come out the stronger for it, some may believe you are still within it.”
“Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight, “hers was Nightmare Moon, Celestia probably faced a few over her thousand year reign, but I have yet to face one.”
“But you already did,” said Mandi, “every great challenge is a crucible, you've faced down monsters that few could full comprehend and won. Our crucibles were far more inviting by comparison.”
“Explain,” said Princess Celestia.
“We had to prove we were worthy to carry certain titans,” said Rec, “Mandi had to face the challenges of Olympus in order to carry Pegasus, Claudia had to brave the trials of the cliffs to claim Grypharian as a friend...”
“Rec had to prove his purity to earn the right to Unia's friendship. He also had to brave Summer and Winter to claim guardianship of Crom Cruach.”
“All of which are not with me at the moment,” said Rec, “I left them at home.”
“Sounds like a story,” said Luna.
“A series of them really,” said Rec, “but we'll save story time for after the crisis, Mythichive locate the source of the magical disturbance, mark our current location in green and the source of the disturbance in orange.
A green dot appeared on the castle icon and an orange one appeared a good distance below and to the left of the dot, “total distance between us and the marked point,” said Luna, the words two point six miles were displayed in blue between the dots.
“According to this the source is in the caverns within the mountain Canterlot sits atop,” said Celestia, “that looks about as far as any pony has ever dared go within the caverns.”
“Mythichive,” said Rec, “can the source of the disturbance be identified?”
“Magical signiture of the disturbance is similar to records of the titan known as Archwarder,” said the Mythichive.
“Mythichive, Archwarder,” said Rec.
The mythichive then displayed what looked like a rotating three legged walking plant with a bud for a head and a pair of root like arms that ended with four digits on each hand and the mythichive said, “Archwarder, Attack: 3, Defense: 3, Size: Average, Special Abilities: Makes high power titans difficult to control, Type: Meso-Titan Guardian.”
“I'm guessing because of the immense magic flowing in this world that ability extends to ponies as well,” said Mandi.
“But all the ponies lost their magic,” said Celestia, “not just the most powerful ones here.”
“The energy is similar to Archwarder, not identical,” said Rec.
“In what we have on file that usually means one of two things,” said Mandi, “either someone is using and artifact that posses similar properties to a titan, or they are using an artifact that holds a titan and they are just able to access a limited version of the power through some kind of ritual or chant.”
“Explain,” said Twilight, “we need to know as much as possible.”
“Sometimes titans are kept in places you wouldn't expect,” said Rec, “much like the instructions for some of the spells used by seekers. A seeker known as Saint George of the Dragon kept a titan in his sword, the instructions I found for the SunLock spell were woven into a tapestry and well hidden within the weave. When it comes to seekers you have to redefine your thinking.”
“If it was well hidden within the tapestry, how did you find it?” Inquired Celestia.
“My mythichive,” said Rec, “I initially scanned the tapestry so could try recreating it for a personal project, that's when I was informed that there was a set of instructions hidden in the tapestry.”
“So many uses,” said Twilight with excitement.
Ignoring Twilight's comment Rec said, “I'll map the caverns as we go, the mythichive can do that. Twilight, please remember while the magical disruption is in place only seeker powers work. Claudia, Mandi, since they can't utilize their magic, nor can their guards, I suggest you play guard for the princesses while Twilight, Pinkie and I investigate this.”
“But Pinkie's abilities are cut off from her,” said Twilight with confusion.
“Her ability to sense things may be turned off for the time being,” said Rec, “but her perceptive skills and seemingly supernatural luck you described are still very much unaffected. Twilight, where are your titans?”
“I put them in my saddlebags, which are in my room right now,” said Twilight.
“Remember to use BoltFlare and go get them, also try and keep your titans close all times in the future. If my calculations are correct sunrise is in four hours, that's how long we have to find the source of this disturbance and terminate it.”
“Five actually,” said Celestia, “but your estimate was good enough, it might take some time for the effects to dissipate.”
Rec nodded and headed from the room. A few minutes later Rec was in his room at the castle and throwing on his vest and checking his flank pouch, both were good to go. He slid on his saddlebags, how his backpack had turned into a pair of saddlebags he didn't quite get. When he and Twilight were back at the impromptu meeting place. He noticed the lavender mare was looking like she really wanted to share something.
Celestia gave chuckle and motioned for the purple alicorn to share what she looked she needed to. Twilight took the cue and said, “this light spell they have as a beginner's spell is amazing, it illuminates more than any other light spell I've seen thus far and takes next to no energy to conjure up.”
“It can also be used to light candles, camp fires and fire places,” responded Claudia with a chuckle.
“Not to mention an impromptu warmer for your food, drink or clothes,” said Mandi with a smirk.
All three alicorns looked at the three seekers like they had just said something that changed the foundations of magic as they knew it, Rec chuckled a bit before he said, “Twilight, remember when I said most seeker spells are utilitarian in nature?”
“Um, yes,” said Twilight as she shook herself out of surprise, “I just didn't expect a spell to be so multi-functional like that!”
“Yes, well, that's how things are with seekers,” said Rec, “our spells are usually intended to be multipurpose. A SimpleMind spell has numerous applications, and is quite effective in its job.”
“What does the spell do?” Inquired Twilight, “I really want to learn that SunLock spell of yours.”
“Small steps,” said Rec, “SimpleMind is a spell that scrambles the target's short term memory and makes them open to any suggestions for a few seconds, in short you can have someone else do something you want them to for short period of time. Although it has its limits, just like any other spell.”
“What kind of Limits? A spell like what you described could be potentially dangerous in the wrong hooves,” said Celestia with equal parts displeasure and interest.
“The spell won't work on those who have strong wills,” said Mandi, “which means it will never work on a seeker, considering our ability to use magic and invoke titans is linked to our will power.”
“Ooh,” said Pinkie, “if I could use that spell I would make sure nopony ruined my surprises.”
“Good to know the spell can double as a safety measure,” said Luna with a smirk.
“Let's put a pin in all this for another time,” said Rec, “we have the issue of dealing with the magic canceling energy artifact in caverns beneath the city. Just remember you two are going to be playing royal guard while Twilight, Pinkie and I are making our way through the caverns beneath the city.”
“I don't mind,” said Mandi, “so, who will I be guarding until this whole issue is resolved?”
“You will be watching after me,” said Princess Celestia, “I have a few things to converse with you about.”
“Looks like I'm going to be looking over you, Princess Luna,” said Claudia, “Rec, make it all quick.”
“Agreed,” said Rec, “we don't know what this group that claims it wants to bring down the alicorns is really after.”
“You have your doubts that what we were told is their objective,” said Celestia.
“I believe it might be an objective, but not the main objective, they probably told that to those that joined them some kind of story about how the world would be better without the current rulers. Come on, let's get going.”
“Good luck,” said Claudia as Twilight, Pinkie and Rec made their way from the room.
********************************
“Are you sure there's an entrance to the caverns here?” Inquired Rec.
“Yes,” said Twilight, this is the room where Cadance and I came out from the old caverns when we rushed to stop Chrysalis from marrying my brother under the guise of Cadance. I just can't remember where the door back down is.”
“Found it,” giggled Pinkie as she kicked open a wall that revealed itself to be secret door.”
Rec pulled out his mythichive from his bag and said, “BubbleLift,” causing the mythichive to float in a bright blue bubble, “Mythichive, begin mapping protocols.” The mythichive started scanning the room, “Let's get going,” with that he stepped into the passage with his mythivhive scanning the the chambers as they progressed, Twilight and Pinkie following behind.
Twilight lead them through all the passages she could recall.
After around twenty minutes Twilight stopped and told them that was all she could lead them through. Pinkie bounced off and came hopping back with a silver amulet shaped like a faerie hat that had it's center holding a green triangle shaped gem. “Look what I found,” said Pinkie.
“Mythicive, identify titan,” said Rec.
The light of the mytichive played over Pinkie and the amulet, causing the pink mare to to giggle like she was being tickled. The mythichive then said, “Gnome Trickester Puck, Special Abilities: Illusions.”
“You found a good one here, that's interesting,” said Rec, “I wonder why... I smell huckleberries and yogurt,” Rec followed his nose, the mythicive still mapping the caverns. He stopped in front of a giant bowl huckleberries in plain yogurt with a rather large spoon in the whole thing, “I see Inari had some fun with Discord.”
“This is so random,” said Twilight, Pinkie just went over to the giant bowl and started shaping the yogurt and huckleberries into something akin to snow ponies.
Rec noticed a green aura flash around Pinkie, he leaned over to Twilight and said, “Puck just woke up her seeker potential, be prepared to see a mass of illusions.” Almost as if on cue six Pinkies were seen doing six different things.
“I would be worried about this,” said Twilight in a calm manner, “if Pinkie hadn't already duplicated herself with a magic lake.”
“Not even going to go there or think about it,” said Rec.
“That's usually our response when it comes to Pinkie,” said Twilight.
Turning attention else where Rec closed his eyes and said, “PowerScan,” snapping his eyes open he pointed to the right of Twilight and said, “the source of the disturbance is in that direction.”
“How do you know that? We don't don't even know where to start looking,” said Twilight.
“The PowerScan power allows the caster to detect magical energy, it also allows us to determine its relative position to us and get a rough gauge of the extent of the level of power something has. If I had used it while you or the other princesses could still use your base kind of magic I would have probably given myself a a headache since I'm not quite used to your natural power levels, but seeker-wise your power isn't all that high.”
“What about Pinkie? You said she just awoke as a seeker,” said Twilight.
“You just confirmed Pinkie has her own separate rules than everyone else, she has so much will power that I could feel it the moment she awoke as a seeker and began putting blocks in place to limit my exposure to her power levels.”
“Why are we still standing here?”
“You I have no idea, for me huckleberries are my favorite food and I'm trying to determine what a plan of action for what comes ahead so that I'm not thinking about the mass of my favorite food before me.”
“Ooh,” said Pinkie, once more seeming to pop up out of nowhere, “we should get this mission over with and return to the princesses, with the that mass of yummy yogurt.”
*************************
Almost a half hour later the three were stopped at tunnel intersection, “so,” said Twilight, “which way now?”
Rec pointed to the floor, “see that mark,” the other two looked over to see what looked like some kind of sigil and nodded, Rec threw a small pebble onto it and nothing happened, “they probably set that trap up before activating the artifact suppressing pony magic, which means instead of dropping a small hill's worth of stones on us it won't do anything. They definitely don't want to be disturbed. Alright, I have a plan.”
“Good,” Twilight, “what is it?”
“Twilight and I will run distraction while Pinkie secure the artifact.”
“Um, why Pinkie,” inquired Twilight, “she's much better suited to being distraction, no offense Pinkie.”
“It's okay, Twilight,” said Pinkie, “I know what you were getting at, so why is it me to get the artifact?”
“Because Twilight and I are the only ones with capacity for spells right now, and you, Pinkie, will be able to move about less noticed.”
“Um, not be parade rainer, but she kind of sticks out in this kind of environment.”
“I'll hit her with an invisibility spell, she just has to remember to not interecept attacks or make any for it maintain itself. For future reference the spell considers hugs of every kind a form of attack, same with throwing things.”
“Got it,” said Pinkie.
“We're going to have to report everypony we can remember down here to the guard,” said Twilight.
“And hope that they are reported to someone not allied with them,” said Rec, “they couldn't have been operating as long as they have with such little detection without having well placed members in strategic locations within certain groups, the guard included.”
“Sounds like the princesses will have to do some serious house cleaning,” said Twilight, “but getting them to be truthful may prove difficult.”
“I read about a seeker power called OathMaker, it's a spell that forces the target to confess what they believe is the truth. However, I don't know it, and neither of my friends do either, all the spells my sister knows she learned from my friends and I, so she wouldn't know it either. It's a spell known originally by the Casterwill clan, but if you look in the right places you might be able to uncover the knowledge of how to perform it. Time to get to work!”
“How is Pinkie going to get to where she needs to without being seen?”
Rec pointed a hoof at the pink mare and said, “HideSight,” causing Pinkie to become invisible, “there's your answer, let's start running that interference. Simple spells like BoltFlare and RopeTrick should be all we really need to get their attention anyway.”
____________________________________________
At around this same time Princess Celestia and Mandi were settling down in the throne room, “So,” said the Princess of the sun, “how long have you been capable of what you are now?”
“Going on six years,” said Mandi with a reminesent smile, “on the very day I met Claudia and Rec actually. We met and found our first amulets that day, Claudia and I had no idea that the new jewelry we had both bought was something that would change the course of our lives,” she gave curt nod and another smile before continuing, “It was Rec who noticed what we had and helped to acclimate. Claudia kept burning everything she touched for a full ten minutes, it was not fun thing to watch. As for me, I had half a building collapse on me and came out without so much as scratch, although I did need to buy some new clothes, my parents weren't happy about that one.”
“How did you survive a mass of building materials falling on you? For that matter, how did you get out from under all of it?”
“My first Titan, Undergolem, I got his limited invincibility, and immense strength,” Mandi stroked the amulet around her neck.
“Care to explain that one in a bit more detail?”
“Undergolem is naturally extremely strong, it comes from his being made of stone and being very large, he also has special ability that allows him to become something that looks like an ordinary stone statue, while in his less than showy form he's completely indestructible, the trade off is he is completely unable to move while in his alternate form. He awakened my seeker potential, and for almost a half hour loaned me his abilities.”
“Seems his loans were well timed,” said Celestia with a vested interest, “I take it your mark is his amulet for reason.”
“Undergolem is a protector, and I am a guardian,” said Mandi with pride, “I'll keep all I see as important safe with everything at my disposal, most my titans are a reflection of this, but Undergolem was my first, the first powers I ever got down were EverFight and StoneGlove, they're effective spells. EverFight is healing spell that can only target the caster, and StoneGlove forms a glove of stone over one fore-appendage of your choosing. They're both excellent spells, I didn't learn BoltFlare until later,” she pointed to the floating orange sphere illuminating the entire room.
“The principles of your magic are different that those taught to unicorns here, the fact that pegasi and griffins can learn it is remarkable.”
“All that is really required to be a Seeker is a strong will, that's where our power to use spells and invoke titans comes from.”
“So I heard, but there must be more to it than that.”
“It has been theorized Seeker potential is passed on through the bloodlines, and that seekers are actually descendants of long forgotten royal lines, honestly I'm hopeless at seeker lore, if you want that you need to talk to Rec, his family kind of specializes in that sort of thing.”
“I figured there were specilists among this demographic you call 'Seekers',” said Celestia, “care to elaborate a bit?”
“I suppose so,” said Mandi as she shook her head to keep awake, “Rec's what you would call a 'Knoweldge Seeker', in other words he's a seeker that searches for answers, his particular specialty is spell combinations, most seekers to don't think to use the majority of spells he does in concert; Claudia's what you'd call a 'Challenge Seeker', she likes to seek out ways to challenge herself, her specialty in the field is combat; and guess you could call me a 'Guardian Seeker', I'm a kind of seeker that focuses on protecting or safeguarding something, as it stands now that's usually my friends.”
“You don't seem to operate like any spell casters I've seen so far, and considering how long I've been around that is saying something.”
“Seekers seem to defy the logic of most kinds of spell casters, we are as adept in armed and unarmed combat as we are at magical combat. The total list of spells we have at our disposal is small when compared to the sheer volume of spells other kinds of spell casters have at their disposal, the trade off is Seeker spells are typically utilitarian in nature and more often than not will serve more than one function. The BoltFlare spell for example is light spell, but can also be used as an attack spell or used to warm drink or ignite a fire. AugerFrost is an attack spell that can also be used for focused cooling of a target. There are a few others, but those two are the best examples I could pull off the top of my head at the moment.”
“You said this BoltFlare spell is a basic spell for seekers, which means it is learned very early in ones training.”
“Yes, it's usually the first spell a seeker learns, my friends and I are little weird since BoltFlare was closer to the third or fourth spell we each learned.”
“I see, you have set of spells that are quite useful. When you've solved this mystery what will you do next?”
“Hopefully find a way back home, but with the way things are going we might encounter a few surprises.”
“And I hope they are all quite good,” came Discord's voice before he seemingly materialized next the two, “you know, maybe it would be better for Celestia if you called up one of your friends so she could see it for herself.”
“I suppose,” said Mandi as she reached for her flank pouch, “now who should I bring out?” She mused as she dug into her pouch, “Ah, yes, I know,” she said as she pulled a Solwing amulet from the pouch, “take flight, Solwing,” the hawk-like titan appeared with its helmet and chest collar adornments in all their glory, the bronze colored accessories on the bird-like titan gleamed gently in the light of the BoltFlare.”
“Well, that's a cute name,” said Discord, “this bird doesn't look like anything too special.”
“If you must know, Sol is the name we gave our sun, so in a way his name means 'Sun Wing'. Solwing, Keep Princess Celestia company, I can tell you like her,” the bird glared her from its perch on the princess's head, “don't give me that... I'm well aware of... no I am not going to... you want what? I don't think that... you can be so infuriating sometimes.”
“What seems to be the problem? I hope it's nothing serious,” said Celestia.
“Depends on your definition of serious,” said Mandi, “I've been bonded with this Solwing for the past year or so, but it seems he likes you so much he wants me to turn over his amulet to you. I don't don't have a problem with it, it's just I've never heard of a bond being exchanged while a titan is active and we don't really know what could happen. Rec's your best bet for lessons in what it means to be a seeker, besides when I bonded with this Solwing we agreed that I would only be keeping his amulet until a more suitable individual was found and deemed worthy by him.”
“So he wants to bond with me, I'm flattered. What does this bond entail?”
“It's a sort of mystical, I guess you could call it magic, connection that seekers have with their titans. It links our minds in a way that makes it so that no matter what the only one that can hear what the titan 'says' is the one bonded to it. When you're bonded with a titan you have to decide what kind of relationship you have with them. In the case of Rec it's treating them as friends, for Claudia it's more akin to treating them like trusted allies, and for me it's somewhere between the two. Some seekers see their titans as nothing more than tools, and will treat them as such, we don't like those kinds very much.”
“You can hear what he has to say in your head, but you still have relay everything verbally, it seems a rather ineffective system,” said Celestia.
Mandi chuckled before saying, “when you first bond with a titan that usually means the bond is incomplete, but once you 'powerbond' with a titan you can communicate entirely by thought. A powerbonded titan has more abilities than the standard version of the titan, and in most cases it's appearance will change as well.”
“What is this 'powerbond'? I would like to know more.”
“My knowledge of such things is kind of rudimentary, but...”
“You save it for later,” said Discord, “much later, I have some things I need to discuss with Celly her. And since her magic is currently not a viable option I know that any bouts of aggression towards me will be limited.”
“You forget,” said Mandi, “I'm currently her guard, and the titan perched on her really likes her, if you do anything to anger him then you might get a surprise of your own,” she placed the Solwing amulet on Celestia's neck, “it looks better on you anyway,” she winked and began trotting backwards.
The gem on the amulet flashed before Solwing fluttered to the ground in front of the dais and started to glow, when the glow settled what looked like a six winged eagle with bronze armor on its talons, a bronze Roman style helmet with silver flourishes creating outlines of the sun in the Athenian art style, and what looked like a winged sun insignia blazoned on its chest in design similar to Celestia's own mark; the bird-like titan was now had wings that were each the size of the ivory coated alicorn, and his body looked like it was built for flying with an entire elephant.
“He's powerbonded, that means he's beyond anything before,” said Mandi
“Well this is a nice surprise, and will make that private chat I wanted with you all the more awkward, Celly,” said Discord.
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Meanwhile with Claudia and Princess Luna things were going in completely different direction. The two were positioned in the great hall, where the Gala was usually held. Claudia was pacing in circles around the nocturnal alicorn, clearly annoyed or worried.
“Why does thou find being my guard until the matter is resolved so disconcerting? It is not an important duty you need to perform? You have yet to explain why thou art so agitated,” said Princess Luna.
“You really want to know?” Fumed Claudia, “I should be down their with Mandi and Rec, I'm warrior not a babysitter. No offense your ladyship, but I'm not very comfortable when I don't have a clear idea of what it is I'm supposed to be fighting.”
“Thou hast a most unusual choice of companions then, yon friend with our sister seems content in her current duty and thine other friend seems quite capable of adapting to new situations.”
“I suppose that's true enough,” said Claudia, “I'm a warrior, I feel most useful when I have something to hit,” she took deep sigh before saying, “IronHand,” her right talon looked like it was encased in a thick, flexible piece of iron that perfectly conformed to her appendage, “it's defensive power, but I use it offensively, it makes my hits harder. I should be with Rec, he needs a warrior by his side to watch his back. The three of us form a sort of triad of power. I guess Rec would be the power of the mind, Mandi would be defense and I would be physical power. We work well together, Rec's been there for us since we found out what we're a capable of, but it turns out there's a bit more to it.”
“What exactly would that be? We hope it something that is not problematic,” said Luna.
Claudia sighed before saying, “it turns out our moms all know each other, the three of them are actually old friends and spend at least one day a week catching up with each other at a diner in the town we live in.”
“Anything in particular about the three of them?”
“Other than they're all strong willed and in the know about how things really are in our world not much comes to mind.
________________________________________________
“Are you sure the spell you have in mind will hide Pinkie? I know our options are limited, but I'd feel better if it were somepony else staying hidden,” said Twilgiht.
“She'll be fine,” said Rec before extending his hoof to the bouncing pink mare with a silver amulet around her neck and saying, “HideSight,” causing the pink pony to completely disappeared, “now, Pinkie if you perform any actions that could be considered an attack, and yes hugs count as attacks, or intercept an attack the spell will automatically cancel itself. They'll probably be guarding the artifact, so once it's been secured this plan is over. Your new plan is improvise and keep the artifact out of enemy control.”
“That is terrible plan,” stated Twilgiht as they trotted down the hall, “we should be making plans for ever eventuality.”
“Which considering my penchant for be thorough at times could mean us holed up somewhere for the next couple of days drawing battle plans at the fastest rate we can manage. Twilight, no plan survives its first contact with the real world, you have to learn to think on the fly devise counteractions in split second. You usually deal with long winding problems or problems with simple solutions that become obvious if you just bother to take a few steps back. Seekers usually deal with problems that require a quick wit and looking at problems from a different angle. In short you need to learn how to properly think on your hooves, usually while tackling one or more other problems aside from the one that is right in front of you.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, “how many problems do you see you have to deal with?”
“Yeah, how many? Tell us,” cried the disembodied voice of Pinkie, which sent a shiver down the spine of the lavender alicorn.
“If it's any consolation I am not going to be teaching her the one for turning herself invisible,” said Rec who then lightly coughed and said, “anyway, I currently see six problems before me, half of which involve the mares I'm currently working with, two involving the task at hoof, and one immediate concern involving how to properly set up a seeker organization in Equestria. We can't just treat any of them similar to the way we would in my world.”
“So, after all this you'll be giving Pinkie magic lessons,” Twilight blinked a few times before saying, “that sounded really weird, unicorns are supposed to be the only ponies that can use spells!”
“Like I said,” said Rec, “with seekers you need to refine your thinking, that usually means you need to redefine what is possible. Now let's hammer out the first details of this plan.”
“It would be easier if Pinkie were actually visible for this part.”
“She needs to get used to the nuances of being invisible before she plays her part, and I'm not entirely sure if whatever she touches after she's been made invisible will automatically turn invisible as well. Also I'll probably just do the intro class for all your friends just to be on the safe side, you never know what's happening when you're out.”
“Fair points,” said Pinkie and Twilight in unison.
“So let's hammer out the plans for this party,” giggled Pinkie.
“Right,” said Rec, “Well, first we'll...”