Seekers in Equestria

by dracone

The Magic School

“So what are defining characteristics of Seeker magic again?” Said Twilight Sparkle with a notepad and pencil floating next to her, “I want to make sure I get it all right, I mean when you used your spells your horn didn't glow at all.”

“Seeker powers are drawn from the seeker's will,” said Rec calmly with a light smile, “we have to utter the name of a spell to cast it or name of a titan to invoke them,” he pointed to the two amulets that now hung from Twilight's neck, “I've heard with enough practice you don't even need to call the names to invoke some powers, but those have been nothing more than rumors as far as I can tell. Each titan has a distinct ability that can prove useful in certain situations. Akmen-Meo has an ability called Loremaster, and you know what that means right?”

“She can translate any language and read through any written work like a carving on a wall or a text of some kind,” said Twilight.

Claudia groaned, they'd only been on the train a half hour and she was already very bored. Mandi was doing her best to lessen the boredom of Claudia, with varying results. Pinkie Pie was just giggling in the her seat, she seemed to get amusement out of just about anything. Claudia reached into Rec's bag and pulled out the Mythichive before trying to bring up the map of the school. The Mythichive said, “please state password.”

Claudia gave another groan before saying, “The unicorn of the meadows watches the sea of fire upon the rock of ages.”

“I am sorry, that is no longer a valid code,” said the Mythichive in its even voice.

“Rec, what's the new password for the Mythichive? I'm bored,” said Claudia.

“You're a seeker, solve the puzzle,” said Rec before turning his attention back to Twilight, “now Ironsquire has an ability called Defender, can you guess what that means.”

“he's really good at defending others and things?,” said Twilight.

“That's part of it,” said Rec, “his combat prowess actually increases when he's fighting multiple opponents. Under normal circumstances he'd have a basic human design to go with his large shield, he doesn't carry any weapons. He's well armored, but that's about the as far is it goes. Since he's known for his physical prowess, and from what you've told me about the different pony subgroups, I would guess he'd take on an appearance similar to an earth pony if he was invoked in this world.”

“A fair assessment,” said Twilight.

“The nerds are talking magic,” said Mandi teasingly.

Pinkie took the Mythichive from Claudia and said, “Cupcakes riding a rainbow is such a pretty sight, but not as pretty as my last coat dying party...”

“Oh come, that makes very little sense,” said Claudia, “even Rec wouldn't...”

“Password accepted, welcome to the systems,” said the Mythichive, “what function would you like to take advantage of.”

“I wanna look at Rec's super awesome diary,” said Pinkie with a smile.

Rec's blissful face disappeared before he said, “Please don't, my journal is private for a reason. It has all my notes on my personal projects and...”

“Secondary password required,” said the Mythichive.

“Butterscotch Taffy sliding down a chocolate waterfall is so fun to watch,” said Pinkie with a smile.

“Password accepted,” said the Mythichive.

“Seriously,” said Claudia, “how did she get it on the first try?”

“I've learned when it comes to Pinkie you just don't think about it,” said Twilight, “less chance of a mental breakdown.”

“Let's see what his oldest entry is,” said Pinkie with a smile, “ooh I didn't even think of that as a party favor, that's so superfic and fun sounding. A chocolate jacuzzi with floating graham crackers and marshmallows.”

“I was eight,” said Rec with hint of annoyance in his voice, “and it sounded like a good idea at the time, dad didn't appreciate it and had me spend the day be for my birthday with a psychiatrist. Not a fun thing when you're that age.”

“You've had that thing since you were eight?” said Twilight with surprise.

“Got it as a gift for my eighth birthday,” said Rec, “didn't start keeping a personal log 'til a little before my ninth birthday. Mom just giggled when she found out what I wanted to do for my birthday, honestly it was going to just be for one day.”

“I wonder if the spa will let us do that,” said Pinkie with a smile. Let's see what he wrote for yesterday and last night,” she jumped forward in the journal,” Claudia and Mandi groaned, Twilight stared on with interest and Rec started feeling uneasy.

“Let's see, aha her it is,” said Pinkie with a giggle, “ it says, 'turned into a unicorn, don't know why or how. Also I apparently took to this new body a little too quick, same with Orchid and my friends, probably has something to do with magical properties we possess or the nature of our bonds with certain titans. Met a Pink blur that calls herself Pinkie Pie, wish the rest of my family had a tenth the energy she displays when we do our regular family gatherings, Also apparently since we were surrounded by mythological equines I decided to use Nordrake to calm down Mandi, I really didn't have any other choice since my more subtle ice based titans are back home in my room and if I used any of my cold spells on her with all the extra magic flowing in this place I might have hit her with a bit to much power. No surprise that the natives were surprised that I summoned a dragon, but it wasn't for the usual reasons. I've decided to share what I know with them for now in hopes of them helping get us home.' this is off to a good start.”

“Thanks for the trust in us,” said Twilight.

Pinkie kept going, “ Let's see what else, 'taught one of the natives a bit about Seeker magic, Twilight seems to have tremendous Seeker potential, or it's just her talent for magic, could be an amalgam of both. Gave her my only Ironsquire, figured he would be a good fit for her. She got a hold of an Akmen-Meo titan, those things are really hard to find these days. Egyptian scribes used have them all over the place, but now you're lucky to find one anywhere. She was studying a Nordrake amulet, stashed it under my mattress before turning in for the night. Speaking of nights, Inari just had to make an entrance, and to make it worse some being called Discord showed up. Those two are both major tricksters, still need to run a scan on Discord to see if he has similar properties to a titan. It's times like this I wish I was more like Merlin, he was a truly great master of magics,' that's a cool name.”

“So he's a great spell caster, like Starswirl the Bearded,” said Twilight, “Pinkie I think that's enough embarrassing...”

“He thinks I'm cute,” cried Pinkie, Rec started blushing so hard his cheeks went almost black, “that's so nice of him, usually my energy has a tendency to scare colts off.”

Rec gave a light cough before saying, “Yes, well I'm not going to pursue that at any point in the near future, I'm not jumping onto that ship just yet.”

“He's really good at keeping his emotions mostly in check,” said Claudia with a smirk, “too bad we know he likes someone now, I am going to tease him about this so much.”

“You are most definitely not,” said Mandi, “we have work to do, keep your mind on that.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” said Claudia, “so, Twilight, you used to used to go to this school. Before we begin our investigation maybe you could tell us a bit about the school itself.”

“Sure,” said Twilight beaming with pride, “Princess Celestia founded the school exactly nine-hundred years ago as of the the third Thursday of next month, the school was established to cultivate the magical talents of the most gifted unicorns of each generation.”

“I take it they have a standard lesson structure,” said Rec.

“Um, yes,” said Twilight, “I don't think anypony's ever heard of somepony blending spells together, so I'm sure the school never anticipated something like that.”

“Seekers aren't what you'd call conventional spell slingers,” said Rec, “please continue with what you know about the school.”

“Okay,” said Twilight, “the school has five floors above ground and six floors below ground. Some of the lower levels actually extend into the tunnels beneath Canterlot. Canterlot itself is built into the mountainside, so it's really a stunning view. I grew up in Canterlot, but you want to know more about the school. The school has a staff of well educated unicorns to teach new students, several of which are prior graduates of the school. Everything from the basics to advanced magical theory and practice are lessons at the school. There are also more generic classes like Geology, Genetics, all manner of mathematics, Chemistry, Alchemy, Astrology and Astronomy. All the sciences are at the school. Also the school has five story dormitories for colts and fillies individually.”

“Astrology has been dropped to being a pseudoscience where we're from,” said Rec, “and alchemy is treated as the precursor to chemistry. Also Seekers have found other ways to integrate magic into technologies beyond devices like the Mythichive,” he shut the Mythichive, which was in Pinkie's hooves, and floated it back into his saddlebag. “Personal journals and diaries are meant to be private,” he said shooting Pinkie an annoyed look, “if I want to share my secrets with someone I will, but until my trust in them reaches that point I suggest they respect my privacy. Why did you have to go reading my private records?”

“Because it would be fun,” said Pinkie, “and the passwords were just fun to say.”

Rec gave sigh before saying, “thankful my passwords are moderated by a randomizer algorithm, the moment they're used a new one for that set takes its place.”

“You have sweets based passwords?” Said Claudia with confusion.

“A few, also some passwords centered other aspects of my diet.”

“Just like a seeker to devise puzzles that require a little unusual thinking,” said Claudia with a smirk, “so the real reason you insisted on Pinkie coming along is because you just wanted to spend more time with the hyperactive pink cannonball?”

“All the reasons I gave were legitimate ones, and maybe my infatuation with the energetic pink mare played a bit into it.”

“Aw, he's so sweet,” said Pinkie with a giggle.

Giving light cough Rec said, “Yes, well, we'll be relying on your skills miss Pie, maybe if you're lucky you'll find a titan to bond with like Twilight.”

“You gave her a second one,” said Pinkie, “how come?”

“It's a sort of tradition,” said Twilight, “when a Seeker that's on good terms with another seeker sees they've been able to acquire a titan they give them another one that they think will be a good assistant or compliment the seeker.”

“Yes, well I'm no Master Seeker, but I'm doing my best to help Twilight understand the world of Seekers,” said Rec.

“But your both unicorns, magic comes easy to you,” said Pinkie.

“And two other seekers on this train are a pegasus and a griffin,” said Rec, “Seeker magic cares not of your tribe, all that matters is your will power. And you miss Pie have will to spare, I can see it, you're practically radiating your potential power, I suggest you reign it in a bit.”

“Pinkie has trouble reigning things in,” said Twilight, “she's a bit to much expressive at times.”

The rest of the train ride was in silence.

***************************

After the train came to a stop they all stepped out, the first things out of Claudia's mouth were, “transportation sure is slow in this world, if we had our vehicles we would have been here in a fraction of the time, heck I think I could have flown here in half the time the train took.”

Mandi shot the griffin a look and said, “you're being abrasive again, try reigning in that sort of talk, besides I liked the ride.”

“Where to next?” Said Rec, looking around. The station had a nineteenth century vibe too it, almost like like stepping back in time for the three young seekers. In addition a cursory look at the city itself evoked lessons on medieval architecture and communities for Rec. The whole city was coated in lovely whitewash, and almost all the roofs had a yellow painting or tint to them at first glance. The three seekers looked around in awe at, “We're headed there,” said Twilight pointing to what looked like a white keep with a ring of six ivory towers encircling it.

Claudia just snickered before saying, “that complex has the subtlety of a flying golem, I'm sure a number of rich brats have attended the school.”

“Well, I suppose a large portion of noble foals have attended the school,” said Twilight, “but before anypony can be accepted there's an entrance exam, and those are randomized to ensure nopony can say that they knew what the test was going to be. I didn't even know about the entrance exam when my parents brought me to the school after showing me I had earned a scholarship to the school. The instructor are all top notch, in fact I think Rec would do well as a member of their staff.”

“If we are stuck here longer than a few months and Princess Celestia asks it of me I won't have problem with it,” said Rec as they made their way to the complex.

“He's practical like that,” said Mandi.

Silently the rest of the way they made way for the school.

*************************************************

After what Claudia described as the longest seventeen minutes of her life they were coming up on the entryway of the school. Up close the building was pristine white with bright yellow paint, a pair of gold colored unicorn statues flanked the door. One was holding an open book in its hoof while the other was rearing majestically. On closer inspection the rearing unicorn appeared to be a stallion and the reading unicorn appeared to be a mare.

“This place is really flashy on the outside,” retorted Cluadia.

“We have nobles visiting for various reasons,” said Twilight, “some that are from outside Equestria, this is Equestria's premier school of magic.”

With that they all made their way in and were greeted with the sight of Princess Celestia standing next to a male griffin who had a scar along his beak and over an eye that looked as if it had gone blind some time ago. “So,” said the griffin in a thick, imposing, rumbling masculine voice, “these are the new investigators into disappearances the school has had,” he gave a sly grin, “and one of them is a griffin, that brings a bit of ease to my mind, at least they will know just how much is at stake. His lordship was more than glad to hear that you are giving the investigation another go, while he doesn't think you will find much he would like to have some sense of closure regarding the disappearance of his daughter.”

“Which is why I asked for a liaison from the Griffin embassy be here to meet the team,” Celestia said.

“Very good,” said the griffin, “I believe introductions are in order, I am known as Iron Talon.”

“I am Recorded Formula,” said Rec, “but friends and good associates call me Rec.”

“I'm Mandi,” said Mandi, “a pleasure to meet you mister Talon.”

“Name's Claudia,” said Claudia, “I'm usually the muscle when some heavy lifting needs to be done. I'm also no to shabby in scuffle.”

“Excellent,” said Iron Talon, “who are the other two?”

“My former protege and her friend,” Celestia, “Twilight used to study at the school so she seemed a logical choice to aid with the investigation.”

“I'm Pinkie Pie,” said Pinkie in a serious voice, clearly knowing this was not time for her usual antics, “Rec insisted I join in the investigation because of my ability to spot little details more effectively than most.”

“Very good,” said Iron Talon, “glad to see mares aren't some kind of intentional distraction for the stallion.”

“One that is very rude to insinuate,” said Rec, “two I grew up with Claudia and Mandi, they're more like sisters than anything else, and three I'm always focused when on the job. I find insulting when someone implies otherwise before the mission officially begins.”

“It's a mission for you to learn what happened to the disappeared,” said Iron Talon with surprise before smiling, “good, since you don't see it as just another job you might find what the other investigators couldn't.”

“Thank you mister Talon,” said Rec, “now if you will excuse us, we need to be briefed as to the full extent of all the incidents and situations by the Princess before we begin the official investigation.”

“Very good,” said Iron Talon heading out, stopping at the door he said, “when can we expect to see any results?”

“Since the investigation has yet to officially start it is hard to say,” said Rec, “it could be anywhere from a couple of hours to a few months, if you wish to receive updates on the investigation I recommend you ask for the Princess to relay any copies of the investigation that may prove of importance to you and those you represent.”

“Very good,” said Iron Talon, “I applaud your professionalism, Princess several of the griffin lords would like to be kept in the loop on this investigation. If you could send any copies of the investigation's progress to the embassy so we can send copies to the appropriate houses.”

“Of course, sir knight,” said Princess Celestia, “it is all in the the interest of keeping good relations with our nations.”

With that the griffin departed. “Well, that was a thing,” said Claudia.

“If you would follow me to the room I have prepared for the briefing,” said Princess Celestia as she made her way out of the entry hall. The five followed the ivory alicorn. They entered into what looked like a staff meeting room and the princess carefully shut the door once the last guest was inside. “This is more of problem than Twilight probably realizes, I've got the best spell and magic theorists on staff looking into possible reasons for all this, they don't have anything they think could be conclusive or of use to an investigation.”

“The other investigators probably took their word for it because they're the experts on the subject,” said Mandi.

“That's a rookie mistake,” said Claudia, “I thought the investors before us were supposed to be experts.”

“Yes, well I told them to respect the wishes of the staff,” said Celestia, “this is a school after all, and there are a number of students that take lessons here almost year round.”

“I'm sure they didn't want to invite disfavor from Princess Celestia either,” said Rec, “so how long have the disappearances be going on? When was the most recent event?”

“The disappearances have been happening for the past four hundred years,” said Celestia, this caused Twilight's jaw to drop in surprise.

“It gets any lower and it might crash through the floor joked Claudia.

“Yes, Twilight, please remove your jaw from the floor,” said Celestia, Twilight pulled her jaw back up and kept her surprised look focused on the princess, “the most recent event was thirty years ago, it involved one of the school's more promising students and her friends, the details should all be in the student files on the fourth floor.”

“I knew a few student's disappeared all of sudden in the past few decades,” said Twilight, “but I assumed they all had something to do with some kind of magic experiments they had been running in secret.”

“Rule one of study,” said Rec, “never assume anything without sufficient enough evidence. While assumptions lead to errors, informed assumptions can help find the pieces of the puzzle we might miss on a blind guess. Twilight, you have a lot to learn about the kind of research we do.”

“The clues to the truth are always hidden in the guise of speculation, rumor, lore and myth,” said Claudia, “all you have to do is look at things from different angles.”

“Sometimes you need to look at it all from multiple angles at the same time,” said Mandi, “the kaleidoscope effect is confusing, but sometimes it can be a good friend.”

“What is that even supposed to mean?” inquired Twilight.

“It means pieces of the picture are spread out and you have to find a way spin them so they form the missing images,” said Pinkie with a giggle, “you've never played with one before?”

“I thought about it, but never really followed through,” said Twilight.

“We'll have to change that,” said Pinkie, reaching into her mane.

“Another time Pinkie,” said Rec, “we have some records to look through first. Princess Celestia, is there anything else you would like us to know before we begin the mission?”

“Only that if your investigation bears more fruit than any of the investigations before then it will greatly improve our relations with the Gryphons' nation,” said Celestia, “I wish the best of luck.”

**************************************

On the fourth floor in the school's student archives a full forty minutes later, “Agh, a half hour of looking through these student reports and nothing conclusive,” said Twilight, “the reports of student disappearances are varied and the ones that seem to have some kind of connection also seem to have counterpoints. Pinkie usually find the exact piece of literature we're looking for in a matter of minutes, but even she's been having trouble.”

“You're still thinking your old way,” said Rec as he looked through a series of files with interest his Gareon and Gremlow bringing him new files to look over, “you have a Titan that can help, call on her and ask for her aid.”

“How do I do that,” said Twilight, “I know you probably told me and I probably wrote it down, but I'm so frustrated I can't recall what you said regarding titans.”

“Akmen-Meo has an ability that can help you, just make sure you're touching her amulet and say her name to invoke her, most seekers make a declaration when invoking a titan.”

“Like when you summoned Gremlow you said 'Scurry about' or when you summoned Springer you said 'Trick the Trap', I get it,” said Twilight, “why do you do that?”

“It's an old seeker tradition,” said Rec, “Orchid's still trying to find the right declaration for some of her titans.”

“Okay,” said Twilight taking a deep breath before declaring, “Read the Script, Akmen-Meo,” suddenly the cat like titan with the appearance of a hindquarters that was decayed down to the bone appeared, “I need you to look through all the documents here to help figure out what the Princess asked of us,” said Twilight without thinking her command through, “you'll be allowed to do as you please after you've relayed what you've found to me,” the titan gave curt nod before rushing up to an open file cabinet and flashing its eyes in the same purple as Twilight's aura when she lifted things with her levitation magic. Three minutes later Twilight was surprised to learn that the titan had literally read through all the documents and relayed information to her, “Whoa,” said Twilight with surprise, “she found something, a third of the students had plans for visiting Froggy Bottom Bog, no real confirmations as to whether they followed through on the plans. The most recent disappearance was at one of the rooms at the entrance hall of the school. Akmen-Meo is incredible, and she doesn't want to be parted from me”

“Some titans are like that,” said Rec, “it's possible that because she's your first titan and because of your immense magical capabilities that in addition to acquiring some of your eccentricities she also developed a strong attachment to you.”

“She says your theory is acceptable, and reasonable,” said Twilight.

“My Red Searcher says he found something,” said Claudia, “this way,” she motioned for them to follow and lead them over to a painting of three unicorns bowing to Celestia. She pulled the painting down, then pulled a panel that looked like it was solid part of bright yellow wall out to reveal a safe with a combination lock.

“I know what's coming next,” said Mandi, as she said it Claudia had her talons positioned to feel the effects of the tumblers of the safe being screaming frustration after turning the dial a few inches to the left and right.

“What seems to be the problem?” said Mandi with concern.

“I can't feel the damned tumblers,” said Claudia, “I'm usually a good safe cracker, but that god damned block of metal is being difficult.”

“Let me give it a try,” said Rec as he put his ear to the safe and began turning it to the left a few inches, “well that's a problem,” he said before pulling away from the safe, “didn't hear the tumblers.”

“Wait, you are actually versed in how to break into somepony's safe?” Said Twilight with surprise.

“I've known since I nine,” said Rec.

“I was ten when I fully learned the art of safe cracking,” said Claudia.

“I've known how to break into safes since I was eleven,” said Mandi in a monotone voice.

“So, um, what could this mean? In regards to the safe, that is,” said Twilight.

“Three things come to mind,” said Rec.

“What are those?” said Twilight

“The safe has been enchanted to have no sound so it makes it impossible for a thief to figure out the combination, the safe is a dummy and can't even be opened in the first place or the safe is genuine and just has some kind of charm that doesn't let anyone who doesn't meet the requirements to access it.”

“Don't you have a spell that can just take care of that?” said Twilight.

“The FarSlip power isn't a good idea here, even I know that much,” said Claudia, “we're in an elite school of magic and trying to break into a safe in a room that staff usually have access to, chances are the safe is warded against magic that could accelerate the opening of the safe door.”

“Power? I thought you were coming about a spell,” said Twilight.

“Seekers usually refer to their spells as powers,” said Mandi, “you have to remember Seekers developed a series of expressions and code words so they could talk about things out the open without spilling anything to the populace.”

“Oh,” said Twilight, “that's right you don't use magic openly in your world.”

“Sure we do,” said Rec, “just not in ways that could grab someone's attention. It might be hard for you to imagine, but the only places magic truly used in the open is in stories. We do have stage performers that claim to use magic, but it's all a set of carefully crafted optical illusions. You don't need magic to cast an illusion, in fact some of the best illusions are devoid of magic,” he stood there thinking for few seconds before saying, “could it really be that simple?” He reached into his bag and pulled out a set of lock picks.

“What are those? They look so unusual,” said Twilight.

“Lock picks,” said Mandi, “we don't just know how to crack safes, we also know a variety of non magical means for unlocking doors. What's with the picks Rec?”

“I had a thought,” said Rec as he moved his hoof over the safe door before giving a slight grin, “what if the combination dial was a decoy, and the safe really just required key that you fit into a cleverly hidden hole,” he slid a pair of the picks into what looked like a solid piece of the door and about twenty seconds later the click of a lock opening was heard by everyone's ears. Opening the safe door fully Rec pulled out what looked like a tome and set of files.

“What are all those?” said Twilight as she floated the tome over to herself, she took a quick skim through the book before saying, “this is an account of the first four decades of the school! Why would anypony lock something like this in a hidden safe?”

“Probably the same reason a unicorn that has a hairstyle and color similar to my mother has had her dossier in the safe,” said Rec, “it says here she was one of the school's most promising students, easily the top five from what I'm reading here. They were also considering giving her a teaching position here when she graduated, says here she disappeared with a pegasus mare and female griffin thirty years ago.”

“Does it say there names?” inquired Claudia.

“Their names and identifying marks have been censored,” said Rec, “the old fashion way with ink, not a spell.”

“Something's rotten in the state of Maine,” said Claudia, “something tells me that safe was placed in such a way Princesses Celestia wouldn't be able to spot it.”

“Does it at least give some useful information? We need some kind of lead,” said Mandi, “seeing as the other student profiles just said the students left with friends for mandatory break from school.”

“The file says the three were going to explore Froggy Bottom Bog,” said Rec, “there's even a copy of the formal request form.”

“One of the staff or the Princess had to have signed that,” said Twilight, “so who signed it.”

“A one professor Shadow Charm,” said Rec, “also a one professor Dark Seal, but something's off about that. Twilight, Claudia, think you can find files for any faculty or students with those names.”

“Sure thing,” said Claudia, “Searcher, let's look for files with those names.”

“Akmen-Meo says she's already on the search,” said Twilight, “she found them, Akmen-Meo please bring me the files.”

The cat-like titan began jumping from high up in the file cabinets with the to profiles in her mouth, she dropped them at Twilight's hooves once she was in front of the lavender mare. Twilight floated them both up her face and flipped them open and skimmed both files before saying, “I guess it's good you were a little suspicious, according to these files both were students at this school that were suspended multiple times for endangering other ponies with their magic experiments, apparently it got so bad that Princess Celestia banned them from the school for half a year and that was the last anypony claims to have seen them. It also says that the Princess barred anypony matching their names or descriptions from obtaining any jobs that had any relation to magic without her personally checking into the backgrounds of the ponies in question. So now the questions we need to ask are, how did they supposedly get jobs at this school? How was the Princess not notified of this?”

“I think I know who put the safe here,” said Rec, “Twilight, we're going to need you to put a covert tracking spell on all the safe's contents, after we've gotten copies of its contents,” he floated the profiles to his open Mythichive and started scanning everything from the safe into into it. Once that was done Twilight cast tracking spell that she was sure was undetectable to anyone that didn't have access to alicorn magic.

“I just cast a tracking spell I created a few weeks ago, don't know if it's any good seeing as I didn't finish the gauntlet of tests new spells should go through before they are tried out, but I'm sure without alicorn magic the spell won't be detectable.”

“Sometimes a raw field test is the best thing for a new spell,” said Rec as he put everything back in the safe exactly as he found it when the safe was opened.”

“You know that you didn't have to spend thirty seconds on making sure everything was the way be fore we went through it all,” said Twilight as Rec shut the safe and used his picks to return the safe to being locked, not as easy as it sounds when you're using lock picks.

“Are you kidding,” said Rec, “as the saying goes 'the devil is in the details', if I hadn't done that and they returned for their stuff and noticed something wasn't as they left it they might decide to destroy all the evidence and skip town.”

“Ooh, he's right,” chimed Pinkie, “ever since the cake fiasco on the train ended I've been reading a lot of mystery novels. All the really good ones have the detective and his adversary noticing little details that everpony else overlooked because they were seemingly minor details.”

“Pinkie,” said Claudia as she rolled her eyes, “this isn't a mystery story!”

“Yes,” said Rec, “but we should be treating it like one, our current... ponies of interest are former students here that got blacklisted, or individuals claiming to be them on paper, I think it best if we treat everyone involved in this case as characters in mystery story that is in the works. As of now, on this mission, we are the main cast of the story and just found some compelling evidence. With that in mind, what is our next step?”

“Ooh, ooh, I know,” said Pinkie hopping up and down.

“Tell us, Pinkie,” said Rec.

“We go to the pony who hired us for the case in first place to see if they can give us any leads,” she gave a big grin.

“In other words,” Twilight said, as Claudia and Mandi rolled their eyes, “go see Princess Celestia, which she asked us to do by the way.”

“Even so,” said Mandi, “we don't have a whole lot to work with, remind anyone of anything?”

“Which time,” said Claudia rhetorically, “the time in Italy where Rec somehow manged to discover a previously unknown titan type, the Yukon when when all we had to on most of the way was rumors of werewolves haunting the forest, the time you 'fell up' to Olympus, the time I fell into a supposed griffin's nest, the time Rec found the hidden glen of the unicorn in Ireland, we've been through a lot of adventurers like this, you're going to have to be more specific.”

Twilight looked at the three with confusion and Pinkie just giggled as they made their way out of the complex after putting the hidden panel back up and placing the painting over it. On the way out Twilight said, “I remembered what you said about thinking a little differently, so I also put the tracking spell on the safe itself.”

“Nice to hear,” said Rec, as they descended the stairs they saw Iron Talon at the door.

“Leaving so soon,” he said with a cold voice, “I hope it is too...”

“BreakSpell,” said Rec as they continued toward the door, revealing a black unicorn with coal green mane and tail with a florescent green magic circle that formed a trigram in the center as his cutie mark. “Hello, Dark Seal,” he said with a hollow greeting, “come to gloat covertly? Or did you want to make a social call to one of the party?”

“How did you...”

“Know,” said Claudia finishing the unicorn's sentence, “when we met with Princess Celestia a number of physical markers for the griffin you tried to impersonate were different than you were projecting, if you think we'd tell you how you futzed it up your going to be waiting until the final judgment of the world, we're not that stupid.”

“I didn't even notice,” said Twilight with surprise.

“Well," said Rec, "I also have this nifty little natural effect on my eyes that can see where a spell's focus is and what it's being cast on. SunLock,” he stretched out his right foreleg and released what looked like a living form of Celestia's cutie mark bound all four of the unicorn's legs together.”

“Ya hogtied the nut, nice,” said Claudia, “where you learn that one?”

“Found its instructions in what looked like an abandoned Casterwill compound, took almost an hour to learn the sucker.”

Twilight's eyes went wide before she said, “What's it do?”

“Physically binds the target for a few hours and prevents them from being able to use magic,” said Rec with a smirk, “he won't be able to cast any spells for a while, we should personally take him to see Princess Celestia.”

“Why not just turn him over to guards?” said Twilight.

“And either risk his partner, who is probably masquerading as a guard by the way, braking him free,” said Rec, “no way, besides with the enchantments on all the guard armors my little extra trick won't be very effective in determining which of the guards is actually his accomplice.

“He has a point,” said Pinkie, “if you were writing a mystery novel with all the pieces we have, what you have the antagonists do, Twilight?”

“Probably exactly what he's expecting with the little reveal our associate pulled,” said Twilight as she picked the now bound unicorn with her magic.”

“You're all going to be sorry,” screamed Dark Seal, “my friends will make you all suffer!”

“Which alicorns are they prepared to deal with?” said Mandi with a smirk.

“Princesses Celestia and Mi Amore Cadenza of course,” said Dark Seal not hiding his confidence, no matter what they do they won't be able to touch my friends, even if they did manage to get me to divulge everything I know about everything.”

“So they still don't have contingency for when a very angry Princess Luna hunts them down,” said Rec shaking his head, “and in case you forgot there currently is a grape colored alicorn taking you in her magic to see Princess Celestia.”

Dark Seal's face fell, he started sputtering, “How were we supposed to know Nightmare Moon would actually return, we're still working on how to counter her, and who prepares for when a unicorn ascends to the ranks of the alicorns? We're devising a means of countering her magic.”

Mandi shook her head this time as she said, “You're all a bunch of shortsighted idiots, in a couple of years you'll be nothing more than a cliff-note in the list of disgruntled citizens that decided that revolution was the best option for the nation. Your country is more prosperous than most, and Celestia has been on the throne for over a thousand years, that means your little coup club has has probably had a large number of predecessors that have probably tried everything your group is trying. You probably didn't find any mention of them because those records only could be found in a document archive that is only accessible to the rulers of Equestria, in part because the only ones who know the location of the entrance to the archive are in all likelihood just Celestia and Luna.”

“But there are a few records of ponies trying to overthrow Celestia's rule,” said Twilight.

“Did any of your resources say how they tried to bring this?” said Claudia with a smirk.

“Three said political pressuring, I'm sure that won't work now; four cases of forced abjection, those only lasted a few weeks before Celestia resumed he mantle as ruler of Equestria and the rest is unwritten,” said Twilight.

“That's what we were getting at,” said Rec, “all the alicorns are so respected by the majority of the populace that if anyone publicly removed them from power they'd effectively make the populace despise them instead of make claims of adoration in their name. What we have here is a zealot that is so hopped up on someone elses propaganda he might as well be an automaton.”

“Why you,” said Dark Seal, “I'm my own pony, nothing will change that.”

“Really,” said Rec as Twilight lifted their apprehended perpetrator with her magic and they began the walk to the castle, “you look like a weak willed individual to me. You're planning on overthrowing the leaders of the nation, which to my knowledge have yet to earn the time for planning a revolution against; dropped out of an elite magic school for doing unsanctioned magic experiments, at the behest of other students that you have yet to name; and came to gloat in a disguise, that is so shoddy that anyone with a mind for real magic or eye for detail would have spotted as being fake inside a minute. I've got you figured out, mister. You have a natural aptitude for magic, but not the enough will to execute it effectively. I'm the reverse, I have will to spare and hardly any real aptitude for magic, especially when you compare me to the rest of my family. It took me four days to learn that SunLock spell, my dad and older siblings could have done it inside an hour; my older siblings are all much more skilled in combat, so I started plying my magic in ways most others don't consider; I had to consult about three dozen texts on magical theory while developing a new spell, which is still incomplete by the way. You are someone with the aptitude for promise, and you waste it all on getting caught up in the claims and proclamations of others.”

Turns out Rec's entire speech was just long enough to go from the school stairway where they encountered the unicorn to Celestia's throne, Twilight just smiled at her former mentor who in her infinite wisdom had canceled court early that day, before saying, “How much of that speech did you hear?”

“Truth be told,” said Celestia, “not much, but Luna was there for the entire thing, disguised as one of my guards.”

A flash of midnight blue revealed the dark blue alicorn in her complete regalia standing behind them all just before said alicorn said, “You always ruin my best fun, sister. By the way his speech was wonderful, I will have a full transcript of it for you t read later.”

“Somehow I am not surprised this is a test of some sort,” said Rec.

“I'll admit,” said Celestia, “it is a bit like a test, but only to see what it is you managed to uncover, aside from one of the former students of my school anyway. How ever did you manage that?”

“He came to gloat,” said Twilight with a chuckle, “as the griffin liaison that you met us with, Rec used a spell for canceling out other spells the moment he was in range, which he definitely has to teach me.”

“How did he know?” inquired Celestia.

“His eyes,” giggled Pinkie, “he can see magic wrapped around stuff and can even spot the magical lines that lead the source of the spells.”

“I've never heard of such an ability,” said Celestia with interest.

“To be fair, could someone please move the prisoner to a cell before we continue,” said Claudia a pair of royal guards nodded and walked off with Dark Seal, once all those ponies were out of ear shot, “as I was saying, to be fair, Rec's only had the ability about two years, and we still don't know where it came from. I would say it has something to do with him having a Legendary Titan, but he's only had Inari's ring about seven months now, he adapted to her... eccentricities after about a month and a half.”

“And even then the ability was flickering in and out,” said Mandi, “it's not until about two weeks ago that it stabilized. If it had something to do a titan bond it wouldn't have been as erratic at first or at the very least be constantly stable.”

“Yes, well,” said Inari seeming to materialize, “it's his unique properties that made me decide to bond with him in the first place, his sister and him have unique a magical field that I've only seen in two others.”

“And whom would those be?” Inquired Luna.

“Uh, uh, uh,” said Inari with a smirk, “that would cross into spoiler territory, and we can't have that now can we?”

“Of course not,” said Pinkie, “those ruin the story sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much,” pulls out a script that looks like it was done in early grade school pictures before looking at and saying, “and those are some doozies of spoilers,” shows it to everypony.

“What does a crudely drawn house, a really badly drawn sun and chicken with a head that is modeled after a pony have to do with anything?” Said Claudia with confusion.

“I think that's a chicken coop,” said Mandi.

“All I got out of it was Fluttershy and an amulet,” said Luna, “I'm usually good at translating art, but honestly the rest was something about Pinkie and Rec working together in the kitchen to make everpony lunch with some kind of desert Pinkie is currently unfamiliar with.”

“Oh, good she just gave minor spoilers,” said Pinkie, “and how she worded them makes them more teasers for the coming chapters,” she put the script back in her mane.

“Back to the matter at hoof,” said Celestia with confusion evident on her face as she was trying to return the train of thought from its unscheduled stop by a seemingly random tree.

“Oh, yes,” said Rec taking out his Mythichive, “this is all the data we have on the case so far,” a holographic set of documents appeared before everyone in the room with all the little tidbits of information they had managed to uncover, “we'll take a look a the bog in a few days, but for now you should probably have someone transcribe some copies of files on the case that are here, I'll open all the files to you, it should take a few hours for your court clerk to copy everything down, that is if my calculations are correct.”

“This is such a marvelous device,” said Celestia, “it has so many unique properties and functions, would you mind letting us attempt to replicate it.”

“Yes,” said Rec flatly, “duplicating my personal unit could create a number of problems, however your creating a device that is similar would not be opposed. I actually have a copy of the notes the Association used for making the Mythichive, I'll open those files up to you as well. You can send the copy of those notes to whomever you think is best suited to the task, I'll even load all the information on this unit to a spare Cypherdex crystal when I get home and bring it to you so you can have a starting point for your system datum and network. They are rather difficult to produce in our world, so not very many seekers actually have one.”

“What's a Cypherdex?” Inquired Celetia and Luna in unison.

“The original,” said Rec, “the Casterwill clan has a device just like the Mythichive called the Cypherdex, the Cypherdex is actually the original and the Mythichive is merely the Association's best attempt to replicate the Cypherdex and its abilities.”

“So in a sense you're giving us plans to make a copy of a copy,” said Twilight, “the further a copy gets from the original the more that's lost. At some point we're going to have to take a look at a Cypherdex and make notes on it to produce our own device of similar capabilities, but at least what you're giving us will be a good start.”

“That's just it,” said Claudia, “the Association hasn't really been in contact with the Casterwills since before its foundations were laid out, you're going to have to track down a Casterwill, or an associate of a Caterwill, in order to ask them for the rights to study their Cypherdex unobtrusively.”

“Why do I feel it won't be that easy?” said Twilight with a note of disappointment.

“Probably because the Casterwills are very secretive and don't like sharing their information with anyone,” said Mandi, “what little we do know about them is that they are on good terms with the Huntik Foundation, but the thing is...”

“The Association hasn't tried for friendly outreach with the Foundation as of yet,” Celestia said with a finishing thought.”

“Exactly,” said Rec, “and if seekers do start to become more abundant in this world you will need to devise a name for the faction that manages them. While seekers are usually responsible for founding their own specially designed little clubs, we've become far to noticed by the rulers of the nation for that to remain a possibility, so instead you are going to have to form the group as sort of faction under the purview of Equestria's crown. The group will need a name, something that says that says something about what you plan for it to do for the world as a whole. In our world there are the Huntik Foundation, The Organization, the Base Collective, the Blood Spiral Brotherhood and the Tempest Association. Each has different edicts, and it's own distinct icon to subtly let other seekers know who's territory is where.”

“Tell us about them,” said Celestia, “starting with your group, the Tempest Association.”

“Very well, keep in mind most of what I provide is limited and might not be entirely accurate.”

“That is fine,” said Celestia.

“The Tempest Association is a a group that's been hiding itself for centuries. The association's guiding philosophy is there are coming storms to the world and it is the duty of those that know about them to prepare for the storms that are to come, I'll admit we kind of dropped the ball with the Red Comet incident.”

“Red Comet?” said Luna

“Sometimes it's referred to as the Red Star,” said Mandi, “it's when the Spirals started making themselves known to the other Seeker factions. The event set a lot into motion, titans started acting strange and in some cases sleeping titans started to awaken with a vengeance.”

“Some titans are still awakening,” said Rec, “but as for the titans acting strange, well there were a few incidents at well known tourist sights around the world that involved bonded titans that just acted like they were wild and destructive. We had an incident at Nijō Castle a few months back and the cleanup was a nightmare for the Association. Nijō Castle is a major landmark for the city of Kyoto, which is also the city that houses the Association's world headquarters.

“The city has a pretty name,” said Twilight, “is it in your home nation.”

“No,” said Claudia, “we live in a country called the United States, Kyoto is in a country called Japan.”

“Japan is an archipelago nation,” said Rec, “and for those you who didn't study up on the word that means the nation is a cluster of of islands in close proximity to one another.”

“Different factions have different locations which are recognized as their territory,” said Claudia, “like Kyoto in Japan is recognized as the Association's, New York city in the USA is recognized as Huntik territory, and Prague in the Czech Republic is recognized as Organization territory. Other factions usually don't invade facilities or storm grounds that are recognized as belonging to other factions.”

“The primary edict of the Association is to do all we can to lessen the damage to the coming storms,” said Rec, “and if necessary act as a break wall to the storm when it comes crashing towards those that were unaware of it.”

“A good policy,” said Luna, “my sister and I will discuss what it is we want this group to represent and do.”

“Remember,” said Rec, “seekers traditionally keep themselves hidden from other groups,magic is highly populace in this world, but the world we live magic is not very common. We don't use magic openly regularly or in an open forum, not like unicorns and the alicorns do. We don't advertise our schools for learning magic, in fact we don't have any official magic schools. Seeker powers work on the premise of calling on our internal magics and channeling it perform certain actions, just looking at my friends you can see the power of the magic we wield is not limited in the way magic is between the tribes of ponies and even the non-pony demographics.”

“But you are just wearing jewelry,” said Celestia with confusion.

Luna gave a knowing smirk as Rec stroked the amulet on his neck and pulled an amulet from his flank pouch with his magic and placed on his outstretched hoof. The amulet he pulled out was a round pendant shaped piece that was jade green with a light green gem in the center, a pair of light gray spikes in a vertical line above it and the bottom are looked like a jaw with four upward facing teeth, “Appear, Gareon,” suddenly what looked like a large iguana with a large head dark green head fin, three large back fins, four long light gray claws and a mouth full of sharp teeth appeared on his shoulder, “he may look menacing, but,” the the titan made a gentle gurgling growl sound before literally disappearing before reappearing in Luna's mane giving the dark coated alicorn an affectionate nuzzle, “he's actually really friendly, really that's who you decided to go with?... Yes... no... not the time for that kind of... you do realize how this looks?”

“It looks as if he was having an argument and conversation himself,” said Celestia with concern.

“It's called the bond,” said Twilight, “a seeker can hear what their titan says within the realm of their mind and nopony else can hear them.”

“Yes, but the bond is not at its greatest level,” said Rec, “that's why I need to give my titans verbal suggestions and commands, Gareon is what is known as a Yama-Titan, they are known for being very intelligent and with a strong sense of independence. Gareaon was one of the first titans I found after I officially became a seeker. The first titan I ever found and bonded with was Vitaguard, his amulet is around my neck at all times, he's my best friend and I see all my titans as good friends. Gareon likes my approach, his last seeker did nothing but command him and demand things of him.”

“Last seeker?” said Luna with interest.

“Most titans we find had a seeker prior to us,” said Mandi, “those seekers have usually long past to the realm of the final sleep. When you find a titan that had a prior seeker you need to have similar personality traits to the seeker that once had the titan, if you find a titan that had no seeker you don't usually need to worry about fancy rules.”

“Usually?” said Celestia with piqued interest.

“Some titans like Rec's Vitaguard and our Cavalier titans have special rules for who can bond with them. The same is true with Pegasus, Grypharian, and Unia; all three of them required we have some kind of personality property.”

“Pegasus? That is the name of one of your titans? Fascinating,” said Celestia.

“According to the lore surrounding him he was the last of the flying stallions and a really full of himself,” said Mandi, “I bonded with him about a year ago.”

“I bonded with Grypharian around the same time,” said Claudia, “And a few months before us Rec bonded with Unia. They are quite impressive at times.”

“But the others had impressive sounding abilities,” said Twilight, “when you filled us in on them on the train ride over your device said that Grypharian had the ability to fly and strike while flying, and Unia could create a barrier that purifies. By comparison it said that Pegasus only had the ability to fly.”

“His flying may not be as quick as your friends', Twilight” said Mandi, “but he's a nimble flier and is capable of pulling off complicated aerial maneuvers while carrying sizable loads of weight, before you say anything I asked him if he wanted test his limits and we went from there.”

“Well,” said Celestia, “maybe this briefing should start with what you learned on the train ride over.”

“Please keep my personal info that you broke into as vague as possible if you would, please,” said Rec.

Taking a deep breath Pinkie said, “well it all started with...”

Author's Note:

Next we see Pinkie I intend to give her a titan, PM me your suggestions, if it's not a titan found on the official wiki send me the information you have for the titan. A quick note, Titans are ranked in their attack and defense values on a 1 to 10 scale (and the only titan with 10 in both is Overlos, who by the way only showed up in the season 1 finale which was titled "The Mission")