In the Footsteps of a Giant

Twilight groaned, her body ached in places she didn't know could feel. Even her mane hurt, and that wasn't even scientifically possible! The so called 'training' that Diamond Eyes had put her through was more like some kind of demented torture. A special kind of torment designed specifically to make Twilight's heart burst. Oh sure, Diamond called it 'cardio', but she knew better. At least the pounding in her head was intermittent... wait, pounding? Ah, the door... it would seem the dog was ready to train for another day. What time was it? No doubt some ungodly hour only farmers and fishermen woke up at.

"Coming, coming!" The purple mare called as she groggily got up.

"Geeze, pony, took you long enough."

"Well excuse me, I was asleep. What time is it, anyway?"

"It's almost noon, I figured you needed the extra sleep."

"No wo- what? You let me sleep in?"

"Well, yeah, I need you sharp for this next part."

"Ugh, I can't wait."

"Huh... I figured you'd be excited, it's right up your alley."

"What is it?"

"It involves classwork and reading."

Twilight brightened considerably at the revelation. "Oh, really?!"

Diamond deadpanned. "Wow, girl, you got way too excited about that."

"Well it beats running from you all day."

"Whatever. Follow me."

Twilight followed the golden dog to the study on the second floor of her suite. The room was well organized, but dusty. It was clear it hadn't seen much use, at least not recently. Diamond pulled an equally dusty book from one of the shelves and set it on the desk. She motioned for the purple pony to sit and stepped to one side. As Twilight sat at the desk, she noticed the design on the cover of the book was familiar somehow. It was a field of stars set in a spiral pattern, a symbol she could swear she had seen before. If she had been aware of such things, she would have pegged it as a spiral galaxy.

"This is a book on basic combat magic." The dog took on an instructional tone. "I know you're magically powerful, since you can teleport so easily, but I don't know what kind of defensive and offensive spells you're familiar with. We'll start with the basics and work our way up so I can gauge what kind of training you need."

"Combat magic? I don't know anything about that... at least I think I don't... Oh! I have a question!"

Diamond sighed as she rubbed her temple. This was going to be one of those days. "Yes?"

"The design on the cover looks really familiar. Do you know what it's from?"

"Well it should be familiar to you. After all, a pony wrote it."

Twilight balked, this was not an answer she expected. "A... whu... huh?"

"Surely you've heard of Starswirl the Bearded?"

"Him? Well... yeah! But how did you know about him?"

"Every schoolpuppy is taught about him. He's one of, if not the, most powerful mage to ever fight in the Arena."

"Starswirl the bearded fought in the Arena?!?"

"That's what I just said, yes."

"But- but Equestrian history books never mentioned that. That's kind of a big detail to miss!"

"You've never heard of the exploits of Starswirl? Whoa, I thought ponies would worship the dude."

"W-we do, well not worship... but definitely honor. He's one of the most famous mages in Equestria. He invented more spells than anypony in history. He's even the father of the angiomorphic spell."

Diamond froze, her bright blue eyes suddenly wide. "Whoa... wait... you know the angiomorphic spell? That's hardcore."

"Well... yes. Though I don't really see what's 'hardcore' about it. Want to see?"

"NO! Uh... no that's okay. Tell you what, why don't we go over some of the more... basic spells."

Twilight was curious why Diamond was afraid of a spell that temporarily turned a pony into a goat, but shrugged it off. "A chance to read an instructional spellbook written by Starswirl the Bearded himself? One previously unknown to pony historians? Sister, you just got yourself one very eager student!"

"Heh... great... Hey, I'm curious, even though ponies never knew about his time in the Arena, he was still famous?"

"Oh, sure! Among all the most powerful mages in Equestrian history, he was a giant!"

Rainbow Dash stood at attention, her stance narrow and her wings displayed. She stared resolutely ahead as Captain Spitfire paced before them. 'Them' being Rainbow and the other recruits for the Equestrian Air Force. The moment she got off the train, some 'roided up white pegasus had shouted at her until she placed her hooves on some painted horseshoes on the ground. Once she was in place, he moved on to the next victim. The group of them had been standing there at attention for at least an hour when Spitfire had finally shown up.

"What do you think, Master Sergeant Barbell? Do we have the next group of Wonderbolts here?" Some of the recruits foolishly perked up at the perceived compliment. Not Rainbow, she knew what was coming.

"HELL NO! This pathetic group of maggots ain't worthy of taking an arrow for a Wonderbolt. I wouldn't trust this group of fuck-ups with latrine duty, Sir!"

"Hmmm... I don't know, some of them might have potential."

"I admire your optimism, sir!"

"Go ahead and start them on PT. We'll see who's left in the morning."

"Sir, yes sir! You heard the Captain you bunch of half-wit insects! Get your lazy worthless flanks in gear. What's wrong? I SAID START RUNNING *NOW***!!!!"

The recruits were jolted into action by the drill sergeant somehow becoming louder. They started running in the direction indicated, and soon found themselves on a path that seemed to have no end. As the hours ticked by, recruits started to drop off, some gave up, others passed out. Looking back, Rainbow noticed uniformed pegasai flying down to assist the dropouts. As the sun began to set, the blue pegasus looked forward to a night of rest. Wherever they were going, they would have to get there soon, right?

Meadows, hills and rivers passed by as the group ran through the night. The sergeant moved constantly from the front to the rear, encouraging stragglers, or anypony really, to quit. Finally he reached Rainbow Dash.

"You already know you're not good enough. Why drag it out? Give up now and you'll get a nice comfy bed and a cool glass of water. Sounds pretty good, huh?"

"I'm not quitting, chief."

"That's 'Master Sergeant, Sir!' to you recruit! If the next words out of your mouth aren't 'Sir, yes sir' I'll kick you out of this program so fast you'll learn a whole new meaning to the word 'velocity'!"

Dash's eyes widened. He couldn't do that. Could he? The Wonderbolts wanted the best, and she was positive she was the best pony of the group. Still, better not to risk it. Against every fiber of her body, she fought her temper. "Sir, yes sir."

"I can't hear you, you worthless pile! I smell bullshit and it's coming from your direction!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Oh, good, I'm glad you agree! Now one more time, and I want to hear a soldier, not some wimpy ass wannabe who's going to drop out on me in the next ten minutes!"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

Several hours later, as the sun began to rise, the much smaller group of recruits arrived back at the parade grounds. They automatically moved to the painted horseshoes and took their positions, this time much more sloppily. Only Rainbow Dash had the wherewithal to present her wings as she stood at attention. Barbell noticed her enthusiasm for sticking out and started to circle her.

"Oh my sweet Celestia above, what do we have here? Looks like one of you worthless slimes at least knows how to pretend to be a soldier."

Dash tried not to smile, in her twelve hours of knowing him, it was the closest thing to a compliment he had given.

"Every one of you screw-ups start doing push ups! Recruit Dash here will continue to display the proper at rest position so you can all learn from your mistake!"

Rainbow's mental smile faded. Ah crap, now everypony was going to hate her!

Her self pity was quickly interrupted when Captain Spitfire landed at the front of the group. Whew, saved by the Wonderbolt! Master Sergeant Barbell snapped a smart salute as he yelled.

"Fall in maggots! Captain on deck!"

"Thank you, Barbell, at ease." Spitfire began to pace in front of the recruits, sizing them up. "Huh, only thirty percent retention, not bad Master Sergeant."

"I'll do better next time, sir!"

"Better?"

"I'll weed them down to twenty percent!"

"Your goal is to get as many to quit as you can?"

"The best never quit, sir."

"True enough... And it looks like none of you quit. Congratulations, you are now all officially enrolled in Wonderbolt boot camp. Training starts at oh-nine hundred."

"You heard the Captain! Get your crap stowed in your bunks and grab some grub, you've got two hours to roll call!"

Rainbow Dash stared in disbelief at the departing Spitfire. Wait, that couldn't be right... did she just say training starts in two hours? What was that run they just did, a stroll in the park? Just then Barbell began berating the recruits once more.

"What's the matter maggots? Don't tell me you're already worn out from our little stroll in the park!"

Lyra trotted down the streets of Baltimare quickly. Rather than wander around the city aimlessly, she now had a place to be on her day off. She had barely made it back home in time from her first 'session' with the librarian, Mr. Decimal. Bon-Bon hadn't been suspicious or anything, Lyra had even managed to get the things she had asked for. The minty unicorn felt guilty about deceiving her friend, but as long as she didn't let the 'Human mystery' control her life, she felt like she wouldn't be letting her down.

To think that Humans were really Titans all this time! Putting the information she and Mr. Decimal had together had opened up whole new lines of questioning. Mr. Decimal hadn't known about the Humans still existing in another world, or at least their artifacts. How had they gotten there? Could they use magic on this new world? Were they still around? Other, more disturbing questions also arose. The librarian had explained how all the books with information on Titans and/or Humans had been rounded up and hidden away by royal decree. Why would Celestia and Luna want to hide the existence of Titans? What was their part in the disappearance? Why did other cultures seem to remember, and even celebrate the Titans?

That had been another surprise to Lyra, the wealth of knowledge from other cultures. The unicorn had always been lead to believe ponies were at the forefront of cultural and historical knowledge. She had never bothered to look into books from the Camel kingdom or the Zebra tribes. Yet these books contained accounts and histories that she had never seen before. The biggest shock was a detailed medical book from a faraway Diamond Dog civilization. Apparently they had used the Titans for bloodsport.

As Lyra made her way us the marble steps to the library, Mr. Decimal came rushing out. "Lyra! Lyra! I've made a breakthrough!"

"Whoa Dewey, that's great! But be careful or your hip might make one too!"

"Oh, Ha-Ha. I'm not that old, child."

"Here, some sweet candy for a sourpuss." Lyra gave a paper bag she had been carrying to the librarian.

"Thanks. Now enough sass, let me show you what I found."

Their research sessions had taken on an entirely new scope, so they had moved their operation to a back room. In the privacy of the room, they could leave out materials and books without bothering the other patrons. Dewey lead Lyra to a scroll on a cluttered desk. Strange hieroglyphs were scrawled across what appeared to be well preserved animal hide.

"Ewww."

"Don't be squeamish, this was the best way to preserve information back in the day."

"You would know."

"I would know, I'm a bit of a historian. This is an ancient Zebra scroll from over ten thousand years ago."

"What's on it?"

"Lots of dust."

"..."

"Also, if I'm reading it correctly, it makes mention of a portal."

"What kind of portal? To where?"

"A magical one. And I have no idea. It seems to say something that doesn't make sense, I was hoping you could take a look at it and come up with something different."

"My ancient Zebra isn't exactly up to par... but I'll give it a shot." Lyra carefully looked over the hieroglyphs, trying to decipher a meaning. "Huh, that's strange. They seem to say it's a portal to 'no magic'. Any idea what that means?"

"I have a theory, but it's a bit of a doozy."

"Well? Let's hear it anyway."

"I believe this scroll is talking about a portal to a world without magic."

"Why in Equestria would anypony want to go to a world without magic?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm almost positive this has something to do with the Titans, though."

"Maybe it's the world where the Humans live, or used to live, anyway."

"That's a possibility, a non-magical world would be very attractive to them."

"I don't see why."

"It's simple. While Titans themselves are immune to magic, their creations are not. A magical creature could come through and destroy their crops and buildings, and there would be nothing the Titans could do."

"Except kill the magical creature."

"Yes, there was quite a bit of that going on, according to the Camels."

"So wouldn't magical creatures just avoid Titan settlements, if they knew the Titans would hunt them down?"

"Rational creatures would. The problem was dragons."

"Dragons?"

"A dragon's greed can overwhelm it. Most major civilizations have magic that can keep dragons at bay until the urge has passed, but Titans..."

"Titans have no magic. The dragon would swoop in, mindlessly causing destruction..."

"Exactly, and the Titans would retaliate, killing the dragon and often losing a few of their own."

"Ouch, kind of a no win situation."

"Precisely. So of course the promise of a magic free world would be very appealing to them."

"So who opened the portal for them. Zebras?"

"I'm not sure, there's no mention in the scroll of the portal being a Zebra creation. I'm more interested in why somepony would create such a portal."

"Well, to get rid of the Titans, right? Maybe the dragons opened it for them?"

"Dragons have powerful magic, but not on the level needed for a portal such as this. Something this difficult to create would require the power of a god."

Lyra tapped her hoof on her chin. "Which god would want the Titans gone?"

Dewey raised an eyebrow. "Who said it was just one?"