“So, let me get this straight,” said Daring, “you've got these hydras at your beck and call, but aren't really hydras.” They were about half through the swamp, everyone was back in the positions they were prior with Daring riding one of Mucalin's heads.
“Well to be fair Mucalin isn't a hydra, she's actually a Yamata no Orchi. That is, if you want to get technical about monster terms.”
“That's an interesting sounding name for a creature,” said Fluttershy.
“Translated from language of the culture it's from the name means 'snake demon',” said Rec.
“And now it sounds more awesome,” said Rainbow, “although this on pouch my flank feels weird.”
“You get used it,” said Mandi, “I wasn't one for accessories when it all happened to me, took me months get used the idea of wearing the pouch. For some reason your first always seems to not evoke the feeling of it being weird when you wear it.”
“Come again,” said Daring, “this happened dramatically to you as well?”
“Yeah,” said Mandi, “just be thankful a grand piano from several stories up didn't try to crush you, if it hadn't been for this guy,” she held up the Undergolem amulet around her neck, “my best case scenario would have been a coma in the nearest hospital at the time. Claudia got hers at around the same time as me, she spent about a half hour making everything that wasn't her outfit or amulet look like it was spontaneously combusting.”
Daring gave a little laugh into her hoof, “That must have been a sight!”
“It was, thankfully Rec got us before any major incidents happened and did some quick clean up before calling someone better suited for the job. We've been friends ever since.”
“You've got the look of somepony that spends plenty of time exercising, care to explain how you keep so fit.”
“Seekers are usually highly active, your lifestyle probably won't change all that much.”
It at this point Rainbow decided to join the conversation with, “Just make you more awesome!”
Mandi rolled her eyes before saying, “We talked about this, Rainbow, your levels of awesomeness and coolness aren't always proportional to being a seeker.”
“How? I don't see why that can't be the case,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Some of the seekers I know are still monumental scardy cats, while they do indeed have stronger wills than most they still let their insecurities define how they interact with others and deal with situations. If I miss my guess, you would probably say those sorts are most definitely not cool or awesome.”
“Okay, yeah, you have a point there,” said Rainbow.
“The best way I can explain it is, being a seeker acts as an amplifier for who you are, it usually doesn't define you, it just helps to magnify certain aspects of the individual. There are cases where someone goes from being ordinary and next to pathetic to being a seeker and almost the total opposite of that. Sometimes you just need the right push to go where you need to. Before I became a seeker I was someone more interested in just being safe and was more dedicated to getting decent grades in school, then I found my first Titan and exposed to this whole new world that lay beneath what I thought was the real world and somehow that made me go from being a safety conscious bookworm to the defense minded gal that some would call awesome now. Mom was a little surprised when I came home with a seemingly different personality that day, we still go through our usual routine, but she was a little shocked to see my confidence overflowing that day. She said that for a moment I reminded her of her sister. I've never really met my mom's side of the family, every time I try to talk with her about it she redirects the conversation to somewhere else, she does it with everyone.”
“Well have things we don't like discussing,” said Daring, “I don't like discussing my family either, there some things there that I don't think I'm ready to have enter any conversations.”
“Ah, come on there have be some great stories about how cool you were as a filly,” said Rainbow.
“Every adventurer gets their start in some way, Rainbow,” said Mandi, “some are pretty awesome sounding, while most are fairly mundane. Chances are an adventurer started their career because it was a family tradition, a parent or grand parent was an active or formerly active adventurer, or just to look for someone they felt a certain level of kinship with or for. Daring doesn't have to tell us what started her career as an adventurer, but I'm just saying that it probably isn't as interesting as your imagination is making it out to be.”
“She's right,” said Daring, “I don't have to tell you how all this started, but I will tell you it was one of the more mundane beginnings.”
“As the old saying goes,” said Mandi, “often times the greatest stories have the most unassuming beginnings.”
Rainbow folded her forelegs together and grumbled something about ruining her vision of the origin of Daring's adventuring lifestyle.
“How long have you been doing this sort of thing anyway?” Daring asked Mandi.
“I've been a seeker for the past six years now,” said Mandi, “but you might get a bit of a shock when you take the introductory course, Rec isn't going to be happy, he just finished the one he gave Rainbow and her friends.”
“Really? That's interesting,” said Daring, looking over at Rainbow she actually noticed the new accessory around the cyan mare's neck, “I take that's her new special friend then.”
“Yep,” Rainbow, “his name is Shinobi, I'm told he's awesome. I don't see it.”
“She's still at odds with him,” said Mandi, “the 'family' that her titan belongs to is known for being highly intelligent and fiercely independent.”
“The guy's a jerk,” said Rainbow, “he keeps talking about efficiency and effectiveness, but he keeps ignoring the important stuff like how other ponies might feel about it or what it could mean when it's over. He just doesn't care about how anything, he's heartless.”
“Actually he's callous,” said Mandi, “it means he lacks sympathy. He's all thought and action with no emotional context to help prioritize, a good counterbalance for you since you tend to mostly be the opposite. You're not an idiot, he probably wouldn't have bonded with you if you were lacking the mental capacity to best apply his capabilities, but to him you probably seem like some meat headed sports enthusiast.”
“That's not very nice,” said Rainbow.
“In our world we managed break intelligence down into subgroups,” said Mandi, “the group of intelligence you would fall under is Bodily Kinesthetic, that means you learn best through actions and have a grasp how to optimize your body's capabilities while being able to better asses physical limitations of yourself and others. Fluttershy has what is called a high Emotional Intelligence, she's better and empathizing with others and reading the emotional state of her environment. There are a few others, those are just two examples.”
“Hah, Twi is going to nuts when learns about all that,” said Rainbow, “she's going to probably try to find out where you leaned that.”
“School, it's pretty basic info for students at a certain level of education where I'm from, although most of us tend to forget about it a few years later because of the mindset of 'how is this possibly going to help me in the future?' Trust me, a lot of folks have been falling into that pitfall.”
“You just used used a pitfall as an analogy,” said Daring, “I've never heard anypony do that before.”
“Common vernacular where I come from,” said Mandi, “the terms 'dragon to slay' and 'demon to face' are also common turns of phrase to refer to challenges that can at often times be very personal.”
“Let's hold off on using that first one around Spike,” said Rainbow.
_______________________________________________________
While Rainbow, Daring and Mandi were having their discussion Twilight, Rarity and Rec were having one of their own. “So, that thing we picked up is a Cypherdex,” said Twilight, “fascinating, I suppose we could turn it in to the princesses so that they can get to work figuring out how to recreate it.”
“After we manage to get all the information off the unit,” said Rec, “or did your desire to gather information from one method blind you to obtaining information through another method?”
“That's Twilight for you, darling,” said Rarity, “her excitement about learning something new overrides almost everything, although this is the first time I can think of where a desire for knowledge from one source overrode knowledge from a different source,” Twilight gave a sheepish smile.
“Yes, well regardless,” said Rec, “you're still going to need crystals to actually have the units function.”
“I can help, darling,” said Rarity, “my special talent is being able to detect gems and crystals.”
“They're going to need to conform to certain parameters,” said Rec, “I'll try a test of how well you can narrow down your detection ability with a Cypherdex crystal, the crystal can hold several libraries worth of information,” Twilight gave a delighted gasp, and Rec was sure she was having some sort nerdgasm, and decided ignore the the sounds of the elated alicorn and continued, “but from what I've learned about the units they tend to have crystals that are dedicated to a specific function or subject.”
“Like one crystal runs the analysis and scanning spells and another holds the personal titan database,” said Twilight as she managed to snap herself out of it.
“Yes,” said Rec, there is also small collection of 'blank' crystals that can be used to take on the function of another one of the crystals if they become compromised in some way. I'll be using one of those from my personal unit since I've taken the time to memorize where which crystal are in the unit. If this plan works out we'll probably gather enough of the crystals to make a few units.”
“But you need to see what's stored on the Cypherdex before any of that,” said Rarity.
“If it's in a language I'm familiar with I can give Twilight and any of you other girls lessons on the language so that you all can assist in the research while I find myself indisposed for other reasons,” said Rec.
“How many languages do you know?” Inquired Twilight.
“Just three,” said Rec, “what we call English and Japanese are both languages I know, they also happen to be active and vibrant languages that are still experiencing their natural change cycles, like all 'living languages'; the third language I know is a 'dead language' called Gaelic. It's called a dead language because there is no longer an active culture using it on regular basis, that means it experiences almost no changes. It's also what's called a 'root language', that means there is at least one existing language that derived from it. A culture that is no longer around in my world that spoke that language naturally was known as the Celts, some people in my world mistakenly refer to the Gaelic language as the Celtic language. Although the education system in the country live in is a bit lacking, and tends to be underfunded in all the places that matter.”
“Um, why?” Inquired Twilight.
“A number of reasons, but one of the main reasons is an unrestrained national military budget, they actually cut funding to areas of the government that politicians keep agreeing are important to feed the beast that is our military, and to make matters worse they seem to be actively wasting money on pointless endeavors. But that's all I'm going to share, we're not here for me to complain about national policies back home.”
“Right,” said Twilight, “I already knew most of the stuff regarding dead languages anyway, but I wasn't aware of anything regarding root languages.”
“Also, not what you want to really talk about,” said Rec.
“So, these crystals have special magic properties,” said Rarity, “I'm looking forward to our time together, I might even get you to do something for me.”
“I'm not interested in you like that,” said Rec, “so please don't word it some way that could mislead.”
“Well, there goes some of the fun I was planning on,” said Rarity, “I suppose that...oh, I'm sure that would never work,” the ivory unicorn chuckled to herself.
“Why do I feel like something weird is going to happen,” said Twilight to herself.
_____________________________________________________________
While that was going on Claudia, Fluttershy and Applejack were having their own discussion on Omnihydra. “Yer friends say yer really good in a scrap,” said Applejack.
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy, “you have scary special talent.”
Claudia chuckled a bit before saying, “Fighting isn't my special talent, in fact I have no natural ability when it comes to fighting,” the two mare looked at her with surprise, “it's all the product of hard work, I put the effort into refining my combat skills. In our world there's saying among martial artists, 'hard work and effort will always win out over natural talent', do you know why they say that?”
“No,” said Fluttershy, “pony society is basically built around finding our special talent, the ability that we can naturally do better than anypony we know.”
“See, that's a problem,” said Claudia, “you let your natural talent define the terms of what you can do, those with no talent that put all the work and effort into something they don't have a talent for will continue to practice those skills and ability longer and harder than anyone else, they spend time refining their skills well beyond the point others would. Rec has a talent for combing things, we all know this, but his natural ability to grow plants is utter garbage. Right now he has a vibrant garden and small grove of very healthy trees at home. That wasn't always the case, when Mandi and I met him he had been trying at both for a little over three years to grow everything, those plants just kept dying before they could reach maturity. He didn't give up on them, and two years after we met him he finally had little grove growing. Turns out he was overcaring for all the plants, he just needed to step back a bit and not be such a mother hen about it all. It took him five years to realize it, he can be pretty stubborn sometimes.”
“Why did he go through all the trouble in the first place if he didn't have a talent for it?” Inquired Fluttershy.
“Because cooking is one of his favorite pastimes,” said Claudia, “the fresher the ingredients the better the food is how that belief goes, he figured if he had place for the bulk of his ingredients to grow then he could have them at their freshest. A little crazy, I know, but that's why he put so much effort int the plants, he did it with the belief the outcome would be worth more than everything he put in. That little grove of his doesn't really need him mothering it anymore, he just checks on the trees once or twice month and gives them some help it looks like that he needs to.”
“Ah think Pinkie might have said somethin' similar regarding ingredients,” said Applejack, “but fer yer friend to go so far when et was clear 'e didn't 'ave uh talent fer et is uh little crazy if ya ask me. But Ah can admire 'is tenacity and commitment to what 'e was doin', so Ah guess et's alright.”
“Something your family is known for, I take it,” said Claudia.
“Eeyup,” Applejack, “tenacity, stubborness and strong wills, mah family has reputation fer em. An' jus' tol' me 'e has stubborn streak, an' we all know ya need a strong will ta be whut ya an' yer friends are.”
“Rec and Mandi both told us about how you learned to fight from your mom, we don't have a whole lot of fighting like what they talked about here.”
“Yes mom taught me a family style, I still use it, but I've moved beyond the the tenants of it. She said the style of combat used by her family is for proving superiority and showing what you're capable of. I dedicated myself to learning about martial arts, there are even a few resources that I have in my personal collection that help me when times feel rough. Where we come from martial arts isn't . something intended to assault, it's intended protect when you get down to its purest essence. In martial arts there is the expression 'the greatest battle is the one not fought', it means we learn how to fight so that avoid fighting entirely. If you can recognize a conflict before it happens and resolve the issue ind peaceful manner then you've achieved victory before the fight has even started to begin. That is a philosophy I follow, I practice and refine my fighting skills to keep healthy, but I also use the words of wisdom from the great masters of the past as a guide of just what I have to do.”
“That sounds complicated when you say it that way.”
“The best way to win is to fight without fighting,” said Claudia.
“Tha' makes no sense,” said Applejack, “how can ya fight widout fighting?”
“Think about it, I mean really devote some time to figuring it out, then come back to me when you think you've got it figured out. I solved that riddle after four years of contemplation, you might get it in less.”
“Ah don't get et,” said Applejack.
“I'll give you a clue,” said Claudia, “most think there's only two options, resist or surrender. When you resist you put you're all into a fight you are sure you might lose, but don't want give up on. When you surrender it's effectively saying that you've grown to wary to put up the fight. However there is option that most don't consider as even a chance of a possibility.”
“And what would that be? I hope it isn't something too dangerous,” said Fluttershy.
Claudia shook her head and said, “The third option is acceptance. When you truly accept something you embrace and tell it you aren't afraid of it in the slightest, when you accept something for what it honestly and truly is it like saying you have come to an understanding with,” she shook her head again, “I'm still resisting the idea that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can influence the passing of the day and night, I can't see how I can accept it, but I know blindly surrendering to that belief about them influencing heavenly bodies goes against what I believe in.”
“Why are you so resistant to it.”
“Because of how I learned the universe I'm from works, Rec and Mandi are more willing accept how things are in Equestria. I suppose it has something do with how they were raised. Rec grew up with all the seeker stuff, he knew about many of the mystical elements of our world for most of his life. Mandi grew up with stories about great champions and amazing beings in a world that was overflowing with magic, so much so that some of the characters could influence natural forces well beyond the scope of what many of the other characters of the story thought as possible. Me, I grew up learning combat at tactics, they grew up with things that most in my world think of as fantasy while I grew up only truly learning about the physical world. I may be the best fighter on my team, but I'm the worst when it comes magic.”
*******************************************
They had returned from the bog a little over a few hours now, Twilight offered to put Daring up for the time being. Rec had started her introductory course before turning it over to Mandi, mostly on account that he had Twilight had retreated to the study to work carefully with the Cypherdex. Before heading to work on the artifact he decided to what he said he'd try with Rarity.
They were in the back room of Carousel Boutique, thankfully Orchid and Crusaders were out doing other things. “Alright,” said Rec as he set his Mythichive on the table, Twilight had tagged along since she was curious as how Rec would do what he had proposed, using his unicorn magic he lifted the lower panel of the opened unit to reveal a lattice of several glittering crystals that were somewhere between Rainbow's coat and ice blue in color, some of the crystals even had veins of aqua green them while others were fully aqua green. He carefully pulled one of the crystals out and gently set it on the table in front of Rarity, “I would like you to pick up this crystal,” he gestured to the crystal he had just set down, “with your magic, remember to to be gentle with it.”
Rarity nodded before gently picking up the crystal in her light blue magic, the color difference was so close that it almost looked as if no magi had picked up the crystal at all. Rarity was so surprised she almost lost her hold on the crystal, “It really is lovely,” said Rarity, “and you use them to power the device and store information, I don't think anypony ever thought of using magic to store information within a crystal,” she brought the crystal closer to her eyes for a better inspection.
“I've actually done research on alternate knowledge transference and storage,” said Twilight, “that's how I found the memory spell I used on everypony when they weren't themselves. Although I did read that Starswirl had theorized that a spell on certain items might allow them to act as an additional storage medium, when I dug further it didn't find how he came to that theory.”
“Okay,” said Rec, deciding to ignore Twilight's inclusion for the time being, “now that you have general idea of its superficial appearance it's time to move on to rest, you might want to put it somewhere secure just in case one of these practices results in you dropping the crystal.”
“I wise move, darling,” said Rarity, “it would be a complete crime against aesthetics to break a crystal as beautiful as this,” she set the crystal back on the table.
“Alright,” said Rec, “do remember how it 'felt' in your magic,” Rarity nodded, “good, but I'm guessing it was just a general feel.”
“Um, yes,” said Rarity, “how come you said it that way?”
“Because,” said Rec, “we need you to memorize as much about the crystal as you can so that can focus your gem detection spell towards a certain family of jewels, like the Cypherdex crystal.”
“Ah, I see,” said Rarity, “let us continue then.”
“We need you to memorize the composition, the texture and the magical presence of the crystal, the first two are very physical and you can probably pick up on them with a little focus on how you hold the crystal in your magic,” Rarity nodded and picked up the crystal again before closing her eyes and letting the sensations of the crystal's 'touch' come back to her.
“I think I got those details down now,” said Rarity, “this could help me in determining the quality of the gems I manage to collect.” She set the crystal back on the table.
“Now I would like for you to try focusing on how the innate magic of the crystal 'feels', if you need some help I know spell for detecting magical presences in a local area.”
“I don't think it will come to that just yet,” said Rarity before lightly touching her horn to the crystal and closing her eyes, after a few minutes they snapped open and she said, “oh my, that is an interesting sensation,” said Rarity, “I think I've got it all committed to memory now.”
“Good,” said Rec as he returned the crystal from where got it and placed the lid back on the unit, “Twilight and I will be working with the Cypherdex for an indeterminate amount of time, I suggest you get some of your friends and go seek out the crystals, just apply what you learned about the crystal to your detection spell and I'm confident you'll at least be able to narrow down where a few with similar properties can be found. And if the load is too heavy you can always ask your titans to help.”
“I'll do my best to help you,” Rarity, “I've really applied my special talent this way before, but I'm willing to give it a try.”
********************************************
“When Rec and Twilight returned they heard Daring saying, “... I can't do spells, that's a unicorn thing.”
“You're saying that no matter what kind of magic you're dealing with only those born with a natural capability for spellcraft will be the only ones to be capable of it,” came Mandi's voice with a hint of annoyance, Rec and Twilight figured the two pegasi had been having the argument for a while.
“Yes,” came Daring's voice rather loudly, “I've told you that over a dozen times already.”
“Is that so,” said Mandi, “and the demonstrations of powers I gave you to try were refused on the what grounds again?”
“That an alicorn and unicorn are in the building and making appear as such.”
“Actually Twilight and I have been out on the other side of town for the past half hour or so,” said Rec as he popped his head into the room that being used as a classroom, “and even if we weren't Twilight and I both will be working on a piece of magical technology from a bygone to the point we will be completely unaware of what is happening outside our designated study room, all the spells Mandi showed you she really did learn, you need to redefine your thinking. Mandi, we're headed to try and access the Cypherdex. Try and make sure nothing gets too damaged, Twilight's very protective of the library here.”
“Sure thing,” said Mandi, “Daring, you need to at least put forth the effort of trying before deciding it can't be done, I don't think you'd have made it very far in your adventures if you had the sort of attitude you're showing me now.”
Daring huffed as Rec and Twilight headed to the room they had set up. Once they were inside Twilight closed the door and Rec flipped open the Cypherdex, immediately a riddle popped up in a set of glowing yellow characters Twilight was unfamiliar with, this prompted her to say, “What language is that?”
“Gaelic,” said Rec as he skimmed the riddle, “I'm not so good at saying speaking it, but I am proficient in reading it. And this riddle, a pretty unusual one at that.”
“What does it say?”
“Name the sword of the prince that was hidden and made him king.”
“I don't get it,” said Twilight, “it's asking for the name of sword.”
“A sword that made its way into legend and lore,” said Rec, “there's only sword that matches the description given, a blade known as 'the sword of selection', but it seems to easy, there must be more riddles after this one. Whoever it was that had this Cypherdex wanted to make sure the next seeker to find it was worthy of what lies inside.”
“What was the name?”
“Calaburn,” said Rec with a knowledgeable tone, “some scholars believe it to have been the sword known as Excalibur, however in many accounts an entity known as the Lady of Lake gave it to him. But this asking in Gaelic, and Excalibur's name in Gaelic is Calicbolg.”
“Yes, the sword Calicbolg,” said a refined female voice.
Twilight turned her attention to device with more interest as the next set of character formed a new riddle. Rec read off what it said, “An enraged dragon is bearing down on the village that you are standing in and none of the inhabitants are willing to flee, what is the proper course of action?”
“Can it understand the language we're using?”
“I think so, since it responding a vernacular language we're using.”
“Right,” said Twilight with a nod, “stand our ground and do our best to calm the dragon.”
The characters changed to a new riddle, “I guess that means we solved that one,” said Rec, “let's see,” taking a look at the characters he said, “ah, it says, this is jumbled mess, I think it wants us to reassemble this into the next question. Like this one here,” said Rec touching one of the symbols, “it's more like it has been turned upside down,” carefully with his hoof he rotated the character until it was in what he believed to be the proper orientation, “this might take some time.”
*****************************************************
Almost two hour later Twilight said, “I can't believe there were extra characters thrown in to mislead.”
“I would have still been trying properly place them all if you hadn't suggested spreading out one of the sentences to possibly move entire words to different points,” said Rec before turning back to the characters, “It's asking for the 'four great virtues of the Casterwills'.”
“This might be bit hard, especially since we don't know what those are.”
“But the clues to the identity are probably in the riddles,” said Rec, “what did the first riddle talk about.”
“A prince becoming king,” said Twilight, “what are rulers known for?”
“Nobility,” said Rec, both saw the word appear in Gaelic on the holographic monitor.
“Oh, I get it,” said Twilight, “that question about a dragon was to test our understanding of courage and the puzzle that lead to this was test of our skill in finding a hidden message,” they saw 'courage' and 'skill' appear on the monitor.
“And this last one?”
“Our problem solving abilities.”
“What's a single word for the ability to solve problems?” Said Rec.
“Intelligence,” said Twilight with a sense of accomplishment as the last word appeared and the whole screen flickered to what appeared to be a journal entry.
“What do we have hear, 'Cngratulations to you have passed the test of worthiness for the knowledge that lies in here, I am Merlin, counsel and mentor to Arthur Pendragon. It has been a few months since I ended up in this strange land that has me walking about as if I were unicorn, an act I have been finding quite enjoyable as of late. I have been working with a unicorn who goes by the name of Starswirl on a way to return home, his mind works wonderfully on magical application and theory. I like to think the two of us have become good friends, he looking after a pair of young fillies with tremendous, and is acting as their mentor as I was once for Arthur.' Do you realize what this means?”
“The greatest master of magic from your world actually met the greatest magical mind from mine,” said Twilight.
“More than that,” said Rec, “the two of them bounced highly advanced magical theories off each other, it's possible that well over half the spells both of them devised were direct result of their interactions with each other. Merlin also made a passing mention that Starswirl was the mentor to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. He came here when they were younger my sister, do you realize what this means?”
“Some of the spells in the Starswirl wing might have been influenced by Merlin, this is huge. We need to copy all of the data from this and get it to the princesses, then turn this marvelous device over to the team selected to examine and eventually replicate it.”
The sound of the door to their room getting blasted in broke them out of their musings and Twilight quickly caught the flying door with her magic before looking over at a very sheepish Daring Do. “Sorry,” said Daring, “when she explained what it did I wanted to give it a try.”
“What powers has she gotten a handle on?” said Rec with his attention on a very annoyed Mandi.
“BoltFlare, and now TouchRam,” said Mandi with irritation on the name of the last one spell, “I also told her to not try a stunt like that in a friendly environment.”
“Sorry,” said Daring, I just figured it would come in really useful next time I have to face Ahuizotl.”
Rec just shook his head as he pulled his Mythichive close to the Cypherdex and said “Cypherdex, load a copy of all files to the Mythichive. Mythichive prepare a file folder for all files being transferred from the Cypherdex.”
“Of course,” said the Cypherdex, “establishing connection.”
At the same time the Mythichive said, “Undertood,” and displayed folder image that had the the words 'Cypherdex data' before saying, “connection request detected, allowing.”
Twenty minutes later both units simultaneously said, “request completed.”
“We'll bring this all to the princesses tomorrow, then they can begin the hard part. And by that I mean getting ponies that can keep a secret and establishing a branch of the government meant for dealing with all the seeker stuff. However we still haven't found any clues to what we were asked.”
“Regardless,” said Twilight, “we've made great strides in uncovering some secrets I don't think even they were aware of.”