Lore and Lessons
Rec, Claudia, Mandi, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were all in a rather extravagant train car heading for Ponyville, Celestia seemed to get some mild enjoyment out of surprising her guards with the impromptu visit to the town, fortunately she had prior obligations that day or the following day. They still had a half hour until they arrived at the Ponyville station, Inari had since decided to retire to her ring some time earlier. An almost eerie silence had fallen over the car with the fox-like titan's leaving.
A silence that was finally broken by Twilight saying, “So, could you explain why we're taking the amulets we've collected from all over Canterlot back to my palace?”
“As Rec said before, it's a security thing,” said Mandi, “while placing the amulets in the Canterlot royal vault is logical it also means every two bit thief and wannabe master burglar will take their placing in the vault as a challenge, and we reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaly don't want potentially dangerous artifacts ending up in the possession of possible nut jobs.”
“Makes sense,” said Twilight, “but why my palace, why not ship them up to the Crystal Empire with a note for Cadance and Shining Armor.”
“Okay, two things,” said Claudia holding up two talons, “one, we didn't know there was a Crystal Empire until the twelfth minute of the trip, thanks for dropping that bombshell on us by the way. And two,” she brought her talons down, “we really don't want to have some nutcase play Jesse James and rob the train.”
“What an odd name,” said Celestia, “I suppose it's a name that follows the distinctive convention of your world?”
“Yes and no,” said Rec, “traditional naming conventions are dictated by the cultures that employ them. Religious names are always popular no matter the era, that is to say names that are a reference to the religion the parents practice. In our world you have a given name, also referred to as a first name, and a family name, which is usually referred to as a last name.”
“And usually a middle name,” said Mandi, “but not always, they have middle names, but I don't.”
“Won't stop our moms from playing the full name ultimatum when we get back home,” muttered Claudia, “and trust me when I say that it is not fun hearing your full name from your mother when she is mad.”
Twilight, Pinkie, Rec and Mandi all nodded in agreement. Celestia and Luna just giggled before making a comment about how things like that seem silly once you reach a certain age.
“So, what do we have now? I'm rather curious,” said Twilight.
Rec gave her an amused smirk and said, “All will be revealed during the course.”
Twilight gave an excited squee, the prospect of redoing the introductory course and experiencing an extended course was making her excited. Pinkie just giggled. Celestia and Luna just smiled gently.
Rec turned his attention to the midnight blue alicorn, “You do realize what you did was reckless, foolhardy and poorly planned, right?”
Luna nodded and said, “I just thought we needed a contingency, just in case.”
“That's not what I meant,” said Rec, “you called titans to this world without a physical focus, it's a miracle they fell to this world as it is. All they had to work off of was a trail formed from your magic. It's said the Lord Casterwill used the artifact we call 'the Ancient Amulet of Will' as a physical focus for the titans.”
“Oh, well, I did use a physical focus,” said Luna with a smile, “an old amulet of mine that my sister gave me when we were fillies.”
This caused everyone in car to stare at her.
“Do you have it with you?” Inquired Rec.
Luna nodded and revealed a circular medallion like amulet that had the impression of the sun and moon with a midnight blue crescent shaped gem in the moon, green circular gem in the sun, a pink gem in the space between at the top, and purple gem in the same position at the bottom of the amulet. Rec and the others stared.
After staring at it a few times Claudia nudged Rec and said, “Pst, hey dummy, scan the freaking thing already.”
Rec pulled out his Mythichive and opened it, Luna held the accessory over and and the light danced over the amulet.”
After a few seconds the Mythichive said, “Titan found. Attention, Titan Cannot be identified.”
“What the...” said Mandi.
Celestia cut off the rest asking, “How is that possible?”
“Powerful spells can interfere with a device like the Mythichive and make it next to impossible to do things like identify a titan in an amulet, but only with the aid of powerful spells or curses,” said Rec.
“There are only a few rumored cases that we can think of,” said Mandi, “and they're all unconfirmed. Did that amulet have any enchantments on it before all this?”
“Just an anti-breaking spell,” said Celestia, “I wanted to make sure Luna's gift wouldn't be destroyed easily. I was never the artistic one, not like her anyway, so I commissioned somepony to make it. Luna knew,” she smiled at her sister, “but since it had been crafted specifically with her in mind as a one of a kind piece she didn't seem to mind.”
Luna giggled before saying, “I wore it to one of my first formal dances, the nobility were so enamored by it in those days that mock ups flooded Canterlot for a decade.” Both mares laughed at the memory of what had followed.
“Even if it is a powerful version of a single spell it shouldn't be interfering with the Mythichive,” said Rec, “which means that the titan inside can influence things like magical scans before being invoked. Some legendary titans have a special condition required, like a ritual, to invoke, maybe whatever is in there is the same way. However without knowing the titan within we can't know the proper ritual. As it stands this amulet is now an equivalent to the Ancient Amulet of Will, which means that it needs to be kept safe.”
“Why?” Inquired Celestia, “what makes this amulet so important?”
“Legendary titans,” said Claudia, “the three most well known were said to have powerful curse on them that only could be broken by the Amulet of Will.”
“And those would be?” Inquired Twilight with a vested interest.
Rec flipped his Mythichive all the way open and said, “The Legendary Titans of Mind, Body, and Spirit. Mythichive, Lord Casterwill's Legendary Titans.”
“One moment,” said the Mythichive, a bipedal hippopotamus with a horn on its head, a massive sphere on its back, with elongated cloth-like bracers and leg guards with a shirt that only covered the upper region of the upper torso appeared in the display, “Behemoth, Size: Colossal, Special Abilities: Earthshaker, Type: Legendary Warrior,” it flickered to show a massive bipedal spider-like creature, “Araknos, Size: Large, Special Abilities: Mastermind, Mindhold, Type: Legendary Sorcerer,” the image flickered to that of a humanoid figure with the lower portion of a robe being held by some kind of belt, no sort of shirt, what looked like smoke beneath the robe, what looked like swirling water-like energy in the form of something akin to a cape or cloak, face save for featureless eyes, and hair held at the base with a band in a sort of growing grass formation, “Tao, Size: Large, Special Abilities: Flight, Radiating Aura, High Power Area Attack, Type: Legendary Quester.”
All the ponies just stared as the image flickered out and Rec closed the device. Twilight slowly came out of her numbed phase first, “Those were all held by the same pony? From the sound of it anyone of them could prove a threat to any nation.”
“Why isn't yours as dangerous?” Inquired Pinkie, everyone was surprised by her sudden question.
“Well, the truth is,” said Rec, “she is, her abilities just aren't as flashy, and she's not quite as powerful as most of the other Legendaries, but she can still could be considered a threat if she felt like it. Fortunately for everyone she isn't, she's more interested messing with folks. Of course according the culture that talks about her she's seen as a harvest deity and ruler of a group mystical foxes called kitsune.”
“How she got a more serious personality in the telling of her lore I'll never know,” said Claudia, “that fox is crazy, erratic and likes throwing a wrench in the works if it'll make her amused.”
Luna shook her head before saying, “Sounds a bit like Discord, Celestia told me some of the stories that were generated about Nightmare Moon after my banishment a thousand years go, some of which were just plain ridiculous, so I can understand the stories told about these creatures if they have been around in your world as you have claimed.”
“Can they truly have been around before the dawn recorded history?” Inquired Twilight.
“Let's save the rest of the Q an' A for Seeker basic 101,” said Rec, “I suppose your friends will want to learn about all this too, also there's always the chance at least one of them could have also found a titan, just look at Pinkie.”
Twilight turned her attention to the pink mare, who just so happened to be playing with her amulet by juggling it between her mane and tail with said body parts. “Yeah, but that's Pinkie,” said Twilight, “she's got a bit of a different way of doing things, it's no real surprise she'd end up like this.”
“Even so, this is a new kind of magic, Twilight,” said Celestia, “while your talent for magic gives you an advantage in learning it you have to remember that unicorns and alicorns aren't the only ones with spells now.”
“True,” said Mandi, “although it might take some time to learn spells in the seeker lists regardless. HonorGuard was the first power I ever learned, Claudia's was AugerFrost.”
“Followed by RayPulse,” said Claudia, “After that was StoneGlove and IronHand.”
“They're here favorites,” said Rec.
“Um, what do all of those do?” Said Twilight.
“Once again, saving it for the class,” said Mandi, “Seekers aren't as reliant on their spellcraft as unicorns.”
“That has more do with the lack of populace magic practice in our world,” said Rec, “like we've said before, we try to limit our spell and titan use.”
“And yet you invoked your Nordrake to chill your friend's panic attack,” responded Twilight.
“That had more to do with thinking that we were in some sort of shared delusion,” said Mandi, “you already know about how pegasi and unicorns are viewed, in addition equines don't really come in the color pallets we've been seeing around. It's white, black brown, red, gray, and yellow when comes to fur and hair color for the most part, sometimes you get lucky and find yourself an orange one. At least in my experience.”
“Actually orange is a common equine color in our world,” said Rec, “that said, violet, indigo, cyan, magenta, green, blue, pink, turquoise, silver, bronze, gold, and several other colors I've noticed are not something any equine has shown signs of having in all the history we have on them. Also, they're nowhere near as intelligent as any of you.”
“Oh, but you have ponies in your world?” Said Luna.
“Yes and we also have horses, H-O-R-S-E, they're noticeably larger than ponies.”
“Why did you just spell it out for them, literally?” Said Claudia.
“Because he wasn't sure just going by the sound of the word it would be an insult or not,” said Mandi, “it's always best to be polite.”
“Um, thank you,” said Twilight, “the sound without the spelling does sound slightly offensive for some reason.”
“Better you not know why dear,” said Celestia then turning to Rec and his friends, “I have no doubt you will find your way home, and when you do I will be sending Twilight to take notes on that world.”
“Considering the last two excursions to other world that would probably be wise, although I don't think my friends will like being left out on this one.” She then turned her attention to Rec and his friends, “Seen anypony that resembles us?”
“Nope,” said Claudia, “and trust me I've been dragged to a lot of social events across the globe by my family, I didn't meet anybody who had similar appearance or mannerisms to your friends, and if seventy-five high class parties and fifty-seven open space charity events have shown me anything it's lots of people.”
“We trust her on this one,” said Mandi, “she has the most experience with new folks.” Rec just nodded.
“Oh, and we will give you fair warning before crossing the trans-reality divide,” said Rec, “there are some things that you'll need to be warned about.”
“Like that horse comment?” Inquired Twilight.
“Yep,” said Rec.
The rest of the ride was a sort of uneasy quiet.
*********************************
The train was finally coming to a stop, Twilight assured everyone that she just needed a few minutes to set up the materials for the course before anyone had even gotten up. They trotted towards the doors of the car, well Pinkie bounced, when they came out of the car all of Twilight's friends, the CMC and Orchid were all at the platform waiting for them. Rec could tell immediately that all of Twilight's friends had amulets.
“Twilight,” said Rec, “I think you're going to need to find a larger space for the course.”
“Oh, Why is that?” Said the lavender mare.
“Take a look at their necks,” Claudia deadpanned.
Twilight noticed and only could say, “Oh, I'll go and start getting everything prepared.”
“What are you rushing off for, darling?” Said Rarity.
“They have a lesson plan for helping acclimate you to the whole 'seeker thing',” yelled Twilight as she rushed off.
“I'll go help her,” said Rec before galloping after Twilight.
It was at this point that the the four ponies noticed the CMC bowing and realized that Celestia and Luna had also stepped off the train. They quickly went through the same motion, Pinkie just giggled. “Rise, my little ponies,” said Celestia, “there is no need for such things, it also looks like we will be joining you in the lessons you will be experiencing.”
The mares and fillies stared at the two alicorns. Then Orchid noticed their amulets, “Solwing and Archwarder, those two very good titans. How did you get them?”
“Your brother's friend held Solwing,” said Celestia, “she said something about him liking me, got into a bit of a debate with him then hoofed me his amulet. As for my sister, she found her new companion in a statue. You'll probably hear about what happened last night in a few hours, one way or another.”
“What about you, little ones,” said Luna, “did you learn anything.”
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo, “Orchid's more awesome than we thought, and has this ridiculous weakness for cupcakes.”
Orchid rolled her eyes, “I told a dozen times already, triple chocolate strawberry swirl is my favorite kind of cupcake. We just just happened to find one in the Everfree Forest, and one at the edge of Ponyville.”
“And by tha pond,” said Apple Bloom, “and tha orchard, mah family wasn't happy when they heard uh about tha' one.”
“Yeah,” Sweetie said with a giggle, “well at least you let them know how that giant sweet got there, also alleviated their worries when you said you also really liked apple products, telling them that earned us some pie slices.”
“Only because I somehow managed to keep you three from doing anything crazy, like I've heard you are prone to doing.”
The CMC gave a sheepish grin, and Luna giggled at the interactions of the four.
“Come on,” said Rainbow, “let's head to to Twi's castle and ready for the boring stuff.” the other four mares shot the prismatic maned mare a look before everyone headed for the castle.
On the way Scootaloo said, “I'm surprised Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon haven't shown up to cause us any trouble.”
“Mah family does plenty o' business wid her family,” said Apple Bloom, “Ah think Applejack can explain that one, Ah wish Ah could tell ya girls, but Ah didn' overhear anythang this time.”
“Good ta hear mah precautions fer keepin' ya fillies out uh our manes durin' business is payin' off,” said Applejack, “ta answer yer question, Filthy Rich an' 'is daughter 're visitin' an ole business associate uh 'is. Fair warnin' fillies, accordin' ta tha schedule 'e tol' us they'll be back tomrrow afternoon.”
Sweetie, Scoots and Bloom groaned in unison, Orchid just raised and eyebrow and asked if she should be worried.
“Ya know those mean girls you were talkin' about earlier?” Said Scootaloo.
Orchid nodded. “Well,” said Sweetie, “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are our versions of them.”
Orchid did a facehoof before for saying, “It's like some kind of universal constant, jerks with an inflated sense of entitlement. There are times I find myself wishing I could knock those kind down a peg, but the fact is that isn't going to happen over night. You need to learn to be practical, and give a stealth insult.”
“What's a stealth a insult?” Inquired Rarity, who had been paying much closer attention than the others during the trot to Twilight's.
“A stealth insult is an insult that comes off as sounding like an unrelated comment, or in some cases even masquerades as a compliment.”
“Really,” said Rarity, “could you give an example.”
“Someone you think of as being quite unintelligent saying they'll teach someone else all they know, usually with some form of improper grammar, earning the response from you along the lines 'it shouldn't take too long' is a bit of a classic,” said Orchid, “of course my personal favorite is someone saying that you're trying too make them look like a fool or idiot with you just stating you aren't needed for that, it's made even funnier when they say that you're right and move on.”
Sweetie burst out laughing, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom just shook their heads at their friends apparent outburst.
“I really don't see how that's funny,” said Rainbow, “I can see how it can lead to funny moments though,” she said with a grin.
With a giggle of her own Rarity said, “Of course you wouldn't get the apparent humor of more refined comedy,” turning to Sweetie, “I see we're going to have to work on how to make your showing approval of something comedic more elegant.”
“Et's actually a small miracle that these three 'aven't tried anythang too dangerous in past few days,” said Applejack, “Prolly 'as somethin' ta do with Orchid.”
“Thanks,” said Orchid, “I learned to be more practical, and reserved. These three,” she gestured to the Crusaders, “seem to lack restraint, that said, maybe some of my restraint could rub off on them.”
“Yes, well, let's hope that not too much of their recklessness rubs off on you,” said Rarity.
The Crusaders gave Orchid a sheepish grin.
“Is it really that bad?” Inquired Orchid.
“Well there was that time they tried for base jumping cutie marks,” said Rainbow, “as awesome as that would be even I knew how dangerous that was for them and stopped them before it could end with somepony in the hospital.”
“A prudent course of action,” said Orchid, she then shot the crusaders a look before saying, “before you ask, no I am not going to call up Breaker so you can get 'Bear Wrestling' cutie marks, I am also advising miss Fluttershy to not entertain that thought. If you want to wrestle, that's fine, I'll even help set up a practice ring, if not then that's it.”
“That sounds awesome,” said Scootaloo with a flutter of her wings, “we never even considered that, and your just making it so we can't try it.”
“Same goes for crocodile and alligator wrestling,” said Orchid, “they're far too dangerous, at best you come out with a few scrapes, bruises and possibly scars. At worst, you end up with a few missing limbs in the hospital with potentially fatal wounds, or maybe even iced.”
“What's ice got ta do with fighin' a really big reptile? Which I'm not gonna let mah sister or 'er friends try,” this caused to Crusaders to moan in unison.
Orchid gestured to the mares to bring their ears to her muzzle, which caused the group to stop a few seconds as she explained the euphemism to them. When she was done Fluttershy said, “Oh my, I'm definitely going to tell all my animal friends to not allow them to do that now.”
“Good,” said Orchid as they resumed the trot to the castle, “I know some of my titans might look like they could be good ways to help these three,” she gestured to the Crusaders again, “but I'm not going to entertain any of the ideas I foresee as potentially dangerous. I might bring out Searcher and Spinger for some investigation or detective stuff, maybe even film centered stuff, but there is no way in the cosmos I am going to help them do something with potentially fatal consequences.”
“What's fatal mean?” said Scootaloo, the Crusaders hung back for a few seconds while Sweetie Belle whispered the meaning into the ears of her two friends, which caused them to given an 'oh' of realization.
“Tha' would be pretty bad,” said Apple Bloom as the three caught up.
“You three have a risk might mean a simple reward mindset,” said Orchid, “while I won't chastise you about it, I've done some pretty stupid stuff too, I will try and keep you three from doing anything that I see could possibly result in broken or missing limbs.”
“I like that policy,” said Sweetie Belle, “it means I can be just as pretty as my sister when I'm older.”
“There's and old cliché where I'm from about beauty being skin deep,” said Orchid, “basically the expression is way of saying just because someone is pretty on the outside you'll find they aren't always so when you take a closer look, and I don't mean physically. Of course there's also saying about true beauty flowing from the soul and another one about it shining from the heart. Do you know what those basically mean?”
“Just because somepony doesn't look or sound beautiful when you encounter them sometimes when you get to know them they're one of the most stunning ponies you could ever hope to have met,” said Rarity with a smile, “I'm just fortunate I'm also fabulous on the outside as I am on the inside.”
“Hubris, thy name is Rarity,” muttered Orchid, who was once again next to the Crusaders during their trot.
This caused Sweetie to giggle, “I beg your pardon,” said Rarity, “but I'm not prideful or arrogant, unlike those so-called Canterlot Nobles.”
“She's still sore about what Prince Blueblood did her at the Gala last year,” said Sweetie.
“Uh huh,” said Orchid, “I wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing, I've never really attended those kinds of parties,” she gave a smirk, “but Claudia has, and I said that because from the way she said it Rarity might be a bit over confident in her abilities.”
“Well, I am an aspiring fashion designer,” said Rarity, “indulging a little over confidence is...” her eyes went wide before turning to Claudia, “you've been to high society parties?”
“Much to my displeasure,” snarked Claudia, “you may not like to hear it, but I prefer stuff a bit more down to earth than those lofty high society parties. I keep telling dad that, but no he keeps going on about how 'the house of Hawkson' has a noble duty to keep up its role as 'an example of the pinnacle of society', honestly I just want to gag every time he goes on one of those tirades,” she made air quotes with her talons in a mock stereotypical upper class twit male's voice, this caused both the princesses to giggle, “I mean seriously, who cares if the family can trace its lineage back two hundred generations to dozens of influential noble lords and ladies, the family history doesn't have any baring on who I am in the present. While it does dictate some of the social graces expected of me along with the social responsibilities that should be demanded of me I have yet to see ANY of my dad's side of the family actually follow through on their societal obligations beyond fancy parties and buying exceedingly expensive items. At least with my job in the Association I can actually get some sense of following through on my true societal responsibilities, and if I end up blowing a lot of cash in process I can make my family think I'm living up to their convoluted expectations.”
“Thou treat us as if we were equals, not thine superiors,” said Luna, “we are most curious why.”
“Short answer,” said Claudia, “you have yet to earn my trust beyond that point, since you are reasonable authority figures I figured the least I could do is show you the respect I believed you deserved.”
“It isn't often we encounter one who is so brazen with their behavior,” said Celestia, “I would like to say that you are a welcome breath of fresh air to societal interactions that are usually performed in our presence. Care to explain why?”
“It has more to due with cultural ignorance than anything else,” said Mandi, “that and Claudia is always looking for an excuse to get away with something her family wouldn't like, she's a bit like her mom in that regard.”
“How would you know that, darling?” Inquired Rarity.
“Easy,” said Claudia, “I've made sure she was invited to a few of the events my dad's family held, admittedly they were events that were intended to be 'more open to the public',” she finished with another set of air quotes.
“What's with those motions she did,” inquired Rainbow Dash.
“They're called air quotes,” said Mandi, “they're a way of mocking someone's words, you could probably do it with hooves.”
____________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile Rec and Twilight were coming into the castle and Twilight hollered, “Spike, we need you to get some lecture materials.”
“Coming Twilight,” said Spike, “just finishing up some cleaning.”
“I hope you steered clear of the guest rooms that are technically in use,” said Rec, “there are some materials in there that my friends and I would prefer no one touch.”
“Um, yeah, sure,” came Spike's nervous voice.
“He probably entered the rooms we're using,” Rec deadpanned to Twilight, “I know that sort of tone inflection anywhere, I hear it a lot at family reunions.”
“I didn't expect you back at the so soo... *achoo*,” his sneeze let loose a small stream of light blue that froze the stairs in front of him and caused him to slide down said stairs.
“BoltFlare,” said Rec sending the sphere to melt the ice, “called it, I took the Nordrake amulet you were studying and stuffed under my mattress,” said Rec, “frankly I'm surprised you didn't mention it disappearing from your study area, Spike head back up and put the amulet you touched on before returning to help us.”
“But I put it right back where I found it,” said Spike barely cutting off another sneeze.
“Yes and you apparently bonded with the titan in that amulet, I find it somewhat amusing that a dragon bonded with a dragon titan, hopefully Spike hasn't touched any other potentially life changing items in my room. Spike, try not to touch anything else in my room without permission.”
Spike gave a sheepish grin before heading back up to do what Rec asked of him.
Rec shook his head as Twilight said, “There's another new student for you, I didn't expect that. It's almost like something Discord would do.”
“Surprises are part of being a Seeker,” said Rec, “we often find we will have a need to be flexible, informed, and adaptive. As the old saying goes, 'no plan survives contact with the real world', you need to learn to adjust your approach at a moment's notice.”
“I like making plans, preparing for things is one of my strengths.”
“Twilight, I have to ask you a very serious question.”
“Okay, go for it.”
“Do your plans take into account they could potentially fail?"
Twilight gave him a nervous look before saying, “No, I don't ever consider it, my plans have an amazing success rate.”
“Every plan should take into account its own failure and the possibility that a new one will be needed. That's where my friends excel, it's why we're considered one of the best young seeker teams in the Association, we can think on the fly and develop plans while on the move with little need to stop and analyze because we're usually doing the analysis on the move. You said you've faced a number of monumental threats that weren't really a thing until last year. The fact of the matter is that you and your friends are used to a calm and serene setting, my friends and I practically grew up in a setting that was a little more erratic. Then there's... you know what, I'll address the rest during class.
*******************************************
It was a few minutes later when Twilight's friends, the crusaders and Orchid arrived at the palace. Applejack turned to the fillies and said, “Since Orchid pretty much already knows the basics that we're gonna get told, and ya three 'aven't really shown signs uh bein' one uh these seeker types yet Ah think et's best ya just 'ead off an' play fer a bit, we don't know 'ow long this intra is gonna last.”
“Well,” said Orchid, “Rec likes to be quick and efficient most of the time, so at most it should run about an hour. Come on girls, I know the whole amulet finder thing didn't pan out, but we can try for treasure hunting, the only question is what kind of treasure do you want to hunt first.”
“Ooh, I know,” squeaked Sweetie Belle as the four trotted off.
“I feel like we should be worried,” said Rarity, “but hopefully she'll be able to reign in some the less desirable actions a bit.”
Soon as they all trotted in Spike was there and just said, “Out back,” with a gesture that indicated the yard before he headed into the kitchen to start making refreshments. They all trotted out the backyard to see a collection of desks with six chalkboards before them. Rainbow let out a groan, mostly from remembering her failed lessons on the Wonderbolts with Twilight.
“Fear not,” came Rec's voice, “I've been informed about your learning styles and we put together lesson plan that takes as many into account as we could. Mandi, Claudia, you will be acting as teaching assistants.”
“I'm cool with that,” said Mandi as she trotted over to the chalkboards.
Claudia gave an exasperated groan before saying in a snarky tone, “It's my tenth birthday all over again, only with more people in the know and less fire.”
Rainbow quirked her eyebrow and gave a statement about that sounding like an awesome birthday.
“That's when she and I became Seekers,” said Mandi with an uneasy grin, “admittedly the lack of grand pianos above me is a relief, I have no intentions of reliving that moment.”
“Yes, well at least a few minutes of invincibility is preferable to a few minutes of a literal burning touch,” said Claudia, “that said I wouldn't change which of us got which as a first for all the world.”
Twilight's friends just watched the exchange for a bit with varying levels of interest that ranged from mildly amused to out right horrified, the mild interest was Applejack while the outright horrified was Rarity.
“I'd like to hear about that for my research,” said Twilight as she trotted into view with a mass of notebooks, quills, ink pots, pens, pencils, and pencil sharpeners before seating herself in one of the front desks.
“Going a little overboard there aren't you, darling?” Said Rarity, “I mean you already got the first part of this introductory course transcribed.”
“Yes, well,” said Twilight as the rest of her friends chose seats and placed themselves in them, “you know me, it's always a good idea to have a backup of the notes, besides this time it's more along the lines of a proper course,” she gave out a little squee, “this isn't just a new field of magic, it's a whole new magical philosophy and practice, the number of ways this could revolutionize our understanding of magic is almost incalculable, and all the new spells we'll be learning. Think about it, Rarity, spells that are little effort to maintain that have multiple applications.”
Celestia gave a little chuckle before saying, “Twilight, as much as I find your enthusiasm endearing, we should probably wait for a break in the program before you let your enthusiasm gallop around with little restraint. Although I am curious as to learn how this type of magic makes it possible for pegasi and earth ponies to cast spells as if they were unicorns. In truth I find it amusing that we are once again students, it has been many a year since such things were a concern for us.”
“Forsooth, sister,” said Luna, “this new kind of magic may even lead to a better understanding of magic across all the races of our world, not just possible insights into alicorn magic.” This unfortunately caused Twilight to giggle excitedly.
“Alright class,” came Rec's voice as he trotted out in front of the assembled mares, just as Spike came out with refreshments and set them on the prepared table before rushing over to an empty desk as close to Rarity as he could find. “I suppose it would be best to explain how seeker magic is different from other kinds of magic you are probably familiar with.”
Claudia took a piece of chalk and drew the images of a unicorn, pegasus and earth pony, which were all quite well detailed. She cleared her throat a bit before saying, “As you know unicorn magic is the most evident with their ability to focus magic through their horn, a unicorn can perform a variety of tasks of varying difficulty to them, the more difficult the task the more focus and energy they find they need to exert.”
Mandi gestured with her wing to the pegasus diagram and said, “the innate within pegasi allows them the ability to fly and have a greater degree of control over their speed and weather phenomena than the other tribes, we realize this is pretty basic and well known info to you, but to us this is still pretty new.”
“Indeed,” said Rec, “but we also felt it necessary to point out the different kinds of known magic to help illustrate how seeker magic works. As you probably know the magic of earth ponies makes them naturally stronger, tougher and also provides a higher regeneration level when it comes to damage when compared to the other tribes. This is actually a good starting platform for us, earth pony magic tends to be the most practical while unicorn magic is more versatile, and pegasus magic seems to most quickly accessed. Seeker magic has all of these properties, however instead of being tied to a readily innate magic that courses through the bodies and seems to pool at certain points based on tribe seeker magic is connected to a pool that is deeper within the body. If you could imagine for a moment,” Claudia drew a diagram of a generic pony with a large circle much closer to the center of the body, “a pool deep within all your bodies waiting to be unleashed, that is the magical energy seekers call upon. We can tap into the pool with our will power, however in order to focus the energy into spells we need to literally call out the name of the spell, to our knowledge this is the only way to cast spells and invoke titans since we have yet to hear of any cases of a seeker performing either act without saying a single word. We will be taking a few questions at this point before moving on to the next section.”
Twilight raised her hoof, Rec gestured to the lavender alicorn, “You said you use your will to tap the magic, but need to vocalize a spell's name to focus it. Why is it your magic is structured that way? For unicorns all we have to do is have the spell knowledge and will our energies to perform the spell.”
“An excellent comparison and question,” said Rec, “short answer is, we don't know. The longer answer is that we don't have much experience with the magic of any of the races or tribes here. As a result we really can't explain why these differences exist, there are a number of theories as to why seeker magic works the way it does, but the fact of the matter is that no matter what the theory is physically saying the name of the spell is needed for casting. The spells can be said in the quietest of whispers or loudest of yells or screams.”
“Any more questions?”
Celestia raised her ivory hoof, Rec gestured to the white mare, “Your friends have said that you like to combine spells regularly, and with some measure of ease. Is it a common practice for seekers to do so?”
“No,” said Rec flatly, “most seekers don't think of combining spells and focus on one spell at a time, each spell used expends the will of the user, as does each titan invoked. We'll get more into both at later portions of the seminar.”
“Moving on,” said Mandi, Claudia cleared the boards, “we'll now be discussing spells proper, also referred to as powers,” Claudia prepared for more diagrams, “as Twilight has undoubtedly been told,” everyone gave quick glance at said mare, “seeker spells are utilitarian in nature, that is to say they are usually intended to serve more than one function.”
“One of the most basic, and often first learned spells,” said Claudia as she drew out a set of diagrams that had a clearly glowing sphere that floated about with a number of uses being shown in several diagrams as she spoke, “is called BoltFlare. At first glance it might look like simple light spell with enough power to illuminate a large room while having a glow soft enough to not hurt anyone's eyes, but it's more than that. The spell can be used to light fires, warm drinks and light your way, many ancient seekers actually built safe houses that made it so that only light cast by this spell would allow entry while light that is not inherently of seeker origin would trigger a potentially deadly trap.”
“Seekers like their secrets, whether guarding them or uncovering them,” said Mandi, “they would often shield rooms or chambers with spells that protected them from being accessed through magical means, many of those ancient warding spells have been lost to the ages, but we do know is that the key to dropping those shields lies in a puzzle or riddle nearby, by proving the solution you could undo the shield.” All three alicorns present started thinking about this, especially Twilight, they were all snapped out as Mandi continued, “the more powerful or newer the spell to the caster the more will they tend to expend.”
Claudia nodded and moved on to another board and drew out a different set of diagrams; one looked like vines wrapping around a generic character, one looked a beam being blasted from a forehoof, one looked like some kind of translucent shield, one looked like a griffin's talons had morphed and one looked like an earth pony was knocking something back from a distance.
“Some of the more advanced spells we are aware of are BristleVine,” Claudia gestured to the mass of vines, “StoneGlove,” Claudia gestured to morphed griffon talons, and AugerFrost,” Claudia gestured to the beam, “each falls into a different category of spell, some categories are not being shown for safety reasons. StoneGlove is a defensive spell, but can be applied for offensive purposes. BristleVine is general spell that is also referred to as an offensive spell, the spell has numerous nonlethal applications. And AugerFrost is an offensive spell, but is also a basic cold spell and can be used for rapidly cooling a target, due to its status as an offensive spell it was not considered a good idea when a little freak out occurred shortly after our initial arrival.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” said Mandi as she rubbed the back of her head with a forehoof.
Celestia and Luna giggled a little, especially knowing how together the team had appeared when they were in Canterlot. Luna raised a hoof, Rec nodded to the dark blue alicorn, “What dost the diagram of a shield represent?”
“A spell called HonorGuard,” said Mandi, “you generate a magical shield facing a set direction that you can control the size of, it only covers a singular direction and only offers limited damage reduction versus magical attacks.”
The mares all nodded with understanding before Twilight raised a hoof, Rec gestured to the mulberry mare, “You said it's a basic defensive spell, are there any spells that offer better protection?”
“There's the OverShield spell, that drops the damage all attacks from above to zero, and ArmorBrand drops the damage of one attack from any direction to zero. While unicorn spells can probably be made to last longer seeker spells are a bit more energy efficient in that they take little to no focus to maintain once they've been cast.”
Pinkie raised a hoof, Rec gestured to the overly pink mare, “What was that spell you used when you first got here?”
“A basic speed spell called NimbleFire,” said Rec, “it slightly raises the caster's base speed in addition to upping their stamina. With it you can actually run on water if you maintain your motion, we know because we've done it a few times before.”
“Awesome,” said Rainbow Dash, this caused the three seekers to shoot her a withering look.
“I'm sorry that all we can really do is give you a run through on the basics, but none of us are master seekers just yet.”
“We still have a few years before that happens,” said Mandi, “Rec's as close as you're gonna get for for the time being, but even so at best he could be considered at the early intermediate level of his training. Even so, we're a team and go on missions. Claudia, could you go and collect the amulets that Rec managed retrieve,” Claudia nodded and headed into the castle.
Celestia raised a hoof, Rec gave her the go ahead, “If none of you are at the master level of your training, why is it you are unsupervised?”
“We give regular reports to our master seeker,” said Rec, “despite my not having completed my training as of yet I am trusted with the training of my friends and sister, my teacher tells me its a better method for my lessons this way.”
“That and your dad is a bit too busy to bother with training you, or anyone else,” said Mandi.
Rec gave a polite cough before saying, “Yes, well, different teachers have different methods. In three or four more years I calculate I should be a master seeker with you and Claudia having another year or so following before you also reach that level, of course something go always accel...” the sound of someone consuming a loud and crunchy food caused him to turn his attention to see Discord opening chestnuts, which were ironically being held in a cardboard chest, and tossing the seeds aside before flash roasting the shells to be exceedingly crunchy and biting down on them in a way that was designed to be very aggravating, “if you wanted to listen in on the lesson you should have just joined the rest of the class on the same floor.”
“Or at least bothered with pants if you decided at some point to go out in public,” said Mandi.
“I didn't decide on anything,” said Discord with a smirk, “although this show is bit boring if you ask me,” Mandi quickly moved to sit next Pinkie, everyone that was not Pinkie, Discord, or Rec gave her a confused look.
With closed eyes Rec said, “Some spells might sound, look, and quite possibly even feel like something that encroaches on one the pony tribes, keep in mind these spells were initially created in a a world none of what you take as natural was how it was where we're from.” He raised a hoof and pointed it at Rainbow Dash and said, “WindRush,” Rainbow was hit by a blast of wind that sent her flying back a few feet, “that was all me, no other ponies, pegasi or otherwise, helped with that. Did you enjoy the the demonstration, Rainbow Dash?”
It was at this point everypony looked back to Rec, who just gave a, 'What?' sort of look. Celestia cleared her throat and said, “Yes, it does seem that some spells might give the appearance of infringing on the domains of various tribes, if that example is anything to go on, please continue.”
Rec nodded then said, “being a seeker doesn't mean having amulets and titans is a must, nor does it mean accumulating a number of spells and memorizing them is required. Some seekers are known to go their entire careers without a single titan or spell, it can be one or the other, but as general rule it's a varying mix of both. Some of the spells I know aren't known to other seekers within my faction, and the inverse holds true as well.” They all spotted Twilight writing it all down.
“Now that we've gotten powers out of the way,” said Mandi, “we'll move on to amulets and titans.”
Rec started clearing the board with his magic, since he was still getting use to that aspect of himself the erasers did slip noticeably a few times, almost hitting the ground before he caught them at least once.
Once the boards were cleared, and Claudia returned with the boxes of amulets to set out in front of the class Rec said, “You will probably notice by looking at the amulets of everyone here that each has a distinct set of aesthetics, the coloration of the amulets and the gems set into them will usually denote the kind of titan you have. While titans will vary in size, temperament, personality and appearance each grouping has properties that are carried throughout. Yama-Titans such as Claudia's Fireblade and Rainbow Dash's Shinobi are typically characterized with being cunning and having a strong sense of independence.”
“Yeah, we butted heads early on in our relationship,” said Claudia with a smirk, “we got better over time.” Rainbow gave the griffin a smirk of her own.
Draco-Titans such as my Vitaguard are commonly characterized with a strong sense of loyalty and strong nobility to them. Gaia-Titans like Fluttershy's Wildwood Druid and Applejack's, I'm sorry I didn't catch what your titan is called, are denoted as possessing a need to be protective and helpful while also having some kind of tie to nature, usually plant life or wood.”
“Mah new friend here is a bit off there pardner,” said Applejack with a chuckle.
“Twilight's Akem-Meo is a bit of a case an exception defining the rule,” said Rec as he continued, “as a general rule Hecto-Titans like Akem-Meo are the type to take a sense of enjoyment from causing fear and destruction, in short they typically tend to be the kind that like to cause chaos.”
This caused Discord to take a very interested look at the lavender mare. “What? Really? But she's so friendly, and organized,” said Twilight.
“As I said, Akem-Meo is an exception that defines the rule. Due to their distinctive natures Hecto-Titans actually have bonding rules, that is say they're only willing to bond with seekers that they like for one reason or another, usually that means the seekers they are bonded with take some measure of delight in destruction and chaos. Akem-Meo is the inverse, in a sense. She's a titan that takes enjoyment in preservation and discovery of new information.”
“Oh, I've never heard that term before,” said Twilight.
“It's not really used all that often,” said Claudia, “moving on.” She pulled up one of the shield like amulets that Rec, Twilight and Pinkie had commandeered.
“This is an example of Krono-Titan,” said Rec, “they typically are known for having a sort of warrior personality.” Claudia returned the amulet to it's container.
Fluttershy raised a hoof, Rec gestured to her, “They don't sound very kind. Why are they like that?”
“No one really knows,” said Mandi, “the culture that they seem to be most closely tied to was very violent itself.”
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy
“Next are Litho-titans,” said Rec, “like Mandi's Undergolem, they are typically known for having bodies that are stronger and tougher than other titans, in short they're very durable. They also tend to have bodies that seem to be composed of rock or ice.”
Applejack raised hoof, Rec gestured to her, “So thay're a bunch uh literal tough folk,” she said, “whut's thair temperment like?”
“Hard to say,” said Mandi, “some are very calm and serene while other are rather vicious and aggressive.”
“Next are Meso-Titans,” said Rec pulling out his Springer Amulet, “they are known to have powerful abilities and are also known for being rather hard to control.
Luna raised a hoof, Rec gestured to the midnight blue alicorn, she said, “Just what makes this type of titan special?”
“We don't really know,” responded Rec, “what I'm telling you about each of the titan types is some overly simplified explanations that addresses things that were noticed to apply to most titans of these classifications.”
Luna gestured for him to continue. Rec returned his Springer to his pouch.
“Next are the Swara-Titans,” said Rec as Claudia lifted one of the brown amulets with a red gem up.”
“Oh my, such horrendous aesthetic,” said Rarity.
Claudia rolled her eyes and said, “Swara-Titans are known for having some rather aggressive personalities, they're also known for being a bit less than noble in their approaches.”
“True,” said Rec, “any questions?”
Fluttershy raised her hoof again, Rec gestured to the yellow pegasus, she said, “They don't sound nice. What do they look like?”
“Most have an insectoid appearance,” said Mandi, “in fact the titan in the amulet being used as an example is called Strix, it looks like a large cross between a wasp and mosquito.”
Fluttershy gave an 'eep' sound as if something had startled her.
“Pfft. This is ridiculous,” said Rainbow, hearing about all these is nice and all, but when to do we get to the cool stuff, like casting spells?”
"Once we get through this last part,” said Rec, “You've seen the spells, and the creatures, now we will move on to tools,” he floated out his mythichive, “each team has a device like this, we call ours the Mythichive, I honestly don't know the name for the similar tools in most of the other factions so don't ask. It's a sort of duplicate of the Casterwill tool called the Cypherdex, I've never seen one personally, but I think it would be easy to identify once it was spotted. This tool can be used for number of different tasks,” he flipped it all the way back, “from storing notes,” a picture of a file folder flashed in the holographic display, to mapping,” a map of a cavern flashed in the display, “to identifying titans.”
The strix amulet was held up to it, an image of what looked like a cross between a wasp and mosquito fluttered in the display and the device said in its feminine voice, “Strix, Attack: 2, Defense: 1, Size: Small, Special Abilities: Sting, Type: Swara-Tian Scout.”
“And even communication,” said Rec, “but this one is currently cut off from our network, so I can't really demonstrate that one.” he closed the device, “And that's all the basics, and quite frankly all I'm really qualified for, aside from teaching a few spells and moves.”
“Teaching moves, not so much right now,” said Claudia, “the style he's been trained in didn't take ponies potentially using it into account, same goes for the rest of us.”
“Well you can still teach us some some basic spells and see how we do,” said Celestia.
“An excellent suggestion, and for diversity we'll each be instructing in how to execute different powers,” said Rec, “alright, you two, what basic power will you be instructing in. I will be teaching BoltFlare.”
“Pfft,” said Claudia, “I'll be showing you how to do AugerFrost.”
“I'll instruct you in how to do HonorGuard,” said Mandi.
Everypony set up in the open space and chose where they would be starting. Since Twilight had already learned BoltFlare she was trying decide which of other two she would learn first. Rainbow went strait for learning AugerFrost, Fluttershy decided to learn HonorGuard first, everypony was making their decisions as best they could. Twilight decided as the questions she had regarding the Legendary Titans during her spell lessons, she figured it would be quicker that way, and she had actually had her questions slip her mind in the excitement of learning the basics of new magic.
Once everyone was in place, Twilight had decided on HonorGuard, the three impromptu instructors said, “Alright to begin this spell you need to...”
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