Divine Indifference

by Orthoros

First published 18th of May, 2017

After the Crystal Kingdom was transformed into a desolate wasteland, Atlas and his friends safely arrived in Equestria. They'll have to make a new home for themselves, while Atlas tries to master the magic passed down to him by the gods.

Atlas, Discord and Starswirl have safely arrived in the newly founded Equestria. The ponies that came before them already built up quite a few flourishing cities, setting aside their differences and living together in harmony.

Close to one such newly founded town, Atlas built what he personally insists on calling a "secret lab" where he conducts research and experiments to gain a better understanding of runic magic. Assisted by his adopted son Discord and his scholarly friend Starswirl, they'll have to recreate this lost art if Atlas wants to be prepared for the foretold showdown between the greek gods. All while keeping an eye out for the events that are supposed to bring the true Equestria into existence.

This sequel story will focus mostly on Atlas' research into runes and the timeline that is known to him. Therefore I've decided to replace the adventure tag from the last story with slice of life, although there might still be some adventure-y chapters.

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Cover Art by Navanastra, go check out his awesome stories!

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Research! Arc:
Chapter 1 - 4
9’208 Words

Travels! Arc:
Chapter 5 - 7
12'858 Words

Research 2, Research Harder! Arc:
Chapter 8 - 11
7'920 Words

The Two Sisters Arc:
Chapter 12 - 23
38'885 Words

Equestria Arc:
Chapter 24 - xxx

Prologue

Atlas stepped out of the cave that now housed his own personal secret lab. The entrance was just high enough so that he could see over the treetops of the forest below, only a small hidden path leading up to it. The sun was currently on its final leg to the west, as night eagerly awaited its turn.

He sat down at the edge of the little ledge that protruded from the cave outwards, leaning on the wooden railing he had installed for safety reasons, looking out towards the little village that was visible in the distance. If he squinted his eyes he could barely see some moving specks of color, indicating that a bunch of pegasi were still up and about, maybe even working on clearing the weather.

Atlas and his friends had been surprised at how fast the ponies managed to build up the villages they came through on their search for a fitting settlement for themselves. All three tribes were living together in those makeshift villages and towns and at least seemed to get along. There was still an undercurrent of hostility if one paid close attention, but the Windigoes had scared the ponies enough to not repeat the same mistakes. Despite all of this, there were still some places that followed a purist ideology, the cloud city floating along in the distance was a testament to that.

Atlas had traveled Equestria for about four months before finding the cave he sat now in front of. Sadly they weren’t able to find any of their friends amidst the masses of ponies still settling down, so the whereabouts of Crimson and his family, as well as Amber, were still an unknown.

The caves location was ideal, somewhat out of the way while still being close to civilization, as well as a body of water and plenty of fruit bearing trees. The fact that the earth ponies were growing food for everypony now, also meant that they could just go into town and buy whatever provisions they needed. For just that reason, Starswirl had decided to live there instead of joining Atlas and Discord in their little house-cave. Of course he still visited as often as he could, as he heavily participated in the experiments that Atlas conducted and even had his own little research corner set up inside.

It took them almost a year to set everything up, as they decided to smooth out the walls and even excavate a few extra rooms. And since they, or more specifically, Atlas wanted this place to be a secret, they had to do so without being noticed by anybody. Starswirl’s vast knowledge of Illusions helped out immensely in this endeavour. By now, permanent wards were set up that made the entrance of the cave look just like a regular mountainside. Atop of those, layers upon layers of security spells and runic circles worked together to make the place as secure as possible.

Atlas floated the carrot he had taken out with him for a snack in front of his mouth and started nibbling on it while he watched the sun sink over the horizon, content with just taking in the view for a while.

Life had taken a turn to a more relaxed state. No longer did he have to work for somepony, spending his days researching or spending time with Discord and Starswirl. He quite enjoyed his current lifestyle and would be happy if no cataclysmic event demanded his attention in the near future.

“Dad?” Discord called from within the cave. “Dinner’s ready!”

“Coming!” Atlas called back, biting off the last piece of his carrot before getting up and walking back inside.

Immediately inside was a large cavern, close to a small house in size. After making the walls as smooth as they could, they started lining the walls with workbenches, bookshelves and similar tools that were needed for their craft; all of them self-made. The center space was left largely empty to provide space for various experiments, such as experimental runic circles or some of the bigger machinations thought up by Starswirl. Two holes in the wall lead towards a simple bedroom and a living room with a small kitchen respectively, Atlas walking through the latter.

Discord was floating above a pot, wearing a little apron and stirring the vegetable stew he had prepared by himself. Atlas looked proudly at his son, who had grown noticeably bigger over the last year, or rather, longer. He apparently experienced some sort of growth spurt, as they could now see almost eye to eye.

Atlas took it as a blessing, that Discord apparently decided to skip the edgy teenager phase, always being well behaved.

Whenever Atlas wasn’t researching runes or learning spells that interested him, he helped Discord achieve mastery over his own magic. The Chaos Magic, as it was dubbed by Atlas, seemed to be activated by a weird amalgamation of the different mana types, the exact combination of which they hadn’t been able to figure out.

In an interesting turn of events, Discord took to theater plays, proving to be quite an actor. Setting up stage plays all by himself allowed him to use and flex his powers to the fullest, and he could create quite the show. It didn’t matter to Discord that he only had an audience of one most of the time, as long as he could make his father smile.

Discord snapped his talons and the pot of stew was teleported to the middle of their makeshift table, the apron simultaneously disappearing into the nether.

“Thank you for cooking,” Atlas said, pouring a good portion in Discord’s bowl by use of a ladle before taking some for himself as well.

“It’s no problem,” Discord said with an already full mouth. “I like to help. And besides, this way you can focus more on your research.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Atlas said before taking a bite. “Hey, that’s pretty good!” he exclaimed happily, digging in without restraint, much to the joy of Discord.

They ate their food while telling each other of the various achievements or breakthroughs they had reached today; the conversation lasting them well through their meal. Not wanting to burden his son too much, Atlas offered to do the dishes while Discord got himself ready for bed.

After extinguishing all the magic lights in their home, both of them settled into their respective beds, turning in after an eventful day full of research and some quality family time together. Tomorrow they’d do it all over again, and Atlas wouldn’t exchange it for the world.

Celestia looked at the ponies gathered in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. While Atlas had technically only asked for Princess Twilight to be present in his letter, she thought it prudent to extend the invitation to the rest of the Elements of Harmony as well. As such, aside from the usual guards, six mares sat at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the throne, excitedly chatting amongst themselves. Spike had decided to stay behind to mind the newly formed castle, trying to familiarize himself with its layout.

On the outside, Celestia appeared to be as calm as she always was, but on the inside, she was quite anxious. While Atlas may not have looked the part last time she’d seen him, he was technically her senior by a good amount of years. Celestia had done quite a few things he had specifically told her not to do, which would no doubt make him mad at her once he found out.

And Atlas always found out when Celestia did something she wasn’t supposed to do.

The giant set of red and gold doors to the throne room opened, silencing every conversation currently held, with the six mares expectantly looking towards them to see who was entering. Celestia knew it couldn’t be Atlas, since he had a tendency to show off a bit; his entrance would be a lot more interesting. Princess Luna stepped through the doors, closing them behind her with her magic before approaching the group.

“Thank god, I’m not late…” Luna said, much to the confusion of everypony present, sans Celestia.

“Thank god…” Twilight mouthed the words she just heard, never having heard the expression before.

“Your questions will have to wait, Twilight,” Celestia said, knowing full well that if she allowed Twilight to start asking questions there would be no end to it.

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said politely, indicating a slight bow with her head.

“You are a Princess as well, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna reminded her as she passed the group of friends, ascending the stairs towards her throne. “You should join us at your rightful place.”

“Thank you, but I’d rather stay down here with my friends,” Twilight replied with a smile, receiving approvals from the mares gathered around her.

“As you wish,” Luna responded before turning towards Celestia. “Any news yet?”

“Not yet, although I imagine the time draws near,” Celestia said, looking out one of the huge windows. “It should only be a matter of minutes now.”

Just as she finished her sentence, a familiar white flame erupted in mid-air before her, blinding everypony present and leaving behind a pure white scroll in it’s wake. Celestia smiled at the coincidence, while the girls at the bottom once again went silent in expectation. Celestia and Luna shared a knowing look before Celestia touched the small runic circle that held the scroll together with her hoof causing it to unfurl.

Instead of the expected words, a drawing of a single, rather complex looking runic array greeted her. She was fairly certain that Atlas wanted her to draw the circle somewhere, but she didn’t really feel up to the task. It was entirely possible that this was a test and she didn’t want to disappoint.

“Luna? Would you like to do the honors?” Celestia asked, showing her sister the letter. “You were always more talented in the runic arts.”

“With pleasure,” Luna exclaimed happily.

She took the scroll from Celestia’s magical grip and scanned the array drawn on it. Excitement started to spread inside her as she saw quite a few runes she’d never seen before, meaning Atlas had made quite a bit of progress in the field.

Not wasting any time, Luna simply pushed away the heavy red carpet leading to the throne, freeing up some space in the center of the room and jostling the six mares seated on it in the process. Disregarding their protests, she started magically carving the runes directly into the floor, much to her sister’s chagrin. While Celestia didn’t approve of her methods, she wouldn’t reprimand her now. Everypony present watched curiously as Luna worked on the array, first and foremost Twilight. Who was currently straining her neck trying to get a better look, seemingly forgetting that she could fly.

Luna completed her task in short order, before starting to pump magic into it as soon as she was sure everything was where it should be. The array started to glow a soft blue before pulsing once, signaling that it was ready. Twilight was just about to ask a question about it when she was once again cut off, this time by a quiet popping noise and the sudden appearance of Atlas.

Celestia smiled when she saw that Atlas hadn’t changed at all from when she last saw him, while Luna almost couldn’t contain herself in her seat from the excitement. He still sported that same old gray coat, his mane was messy and unkempt, as always, and his flank was decorated by a weird creature that was apparently called a “Titan”.

Atlas took in the room he found himself in, doing a full three-sixty and decidedly ignoring all the stares he was receiving. After he was satisfied with the evaluation of his surroundings he approached the thrones and the mares in front of it. He sat down at a respectable distance and for the first time since appearing, acknowledged the presence of other ponies.

“Your ceiling is way too high,” Atlas announced. “So much wasted space.”

Twilight and her friends, as well as every guard within earshot couldn’t believe what they just heard. They knew that Atlas was important in some way or another, but to address the Princesses so rudely without even providing the basic courtesy of saying hello dumbfounded them all.

“Well, it is supposed to uphold appearances, rather than being functional,” Celestia replied, gesturing towards the entirety of the needlessly large room.

Atlas looked towards Luna and saw how on the edge of her seat she was, breathing a deep sigh. “I know you want to do it, so why don’t we just get it out of the way?”

With his words he spread his forelegs wide, as if anticipating to catch something. Before anypony could question his behaviour he was barrelled over by a blue blur. Luna had jumped into the hug a little too enthusiastically, sending Atlas and herself sprawling across the floor.

“I missed you so much, daddy!” Luna exclaimed happily, snuggling up to the gray unicorn who wasn’t phased in the slightest.

“Yes, yes. I missed you too, Luna,” Atlas replied patting Lunas back. “A thousand years is a long time to be gone after all.”

By now, Luna’s words had registered with everypony, causing them to adopt a shocked and confused look.

“You as well, Celestia,” Atlas said from his prone position. “It’s nice to see you’ve managed without me.”

By now, nopony knew what was going on, looking towards their princess for confirmation. Princess Celestia had always been their steadfast rock to hold onto when they didn’t know what to do, and now, once again, they relied on her to explain the current situation.

“It’s nice to see you too,” Celestia said adopting a smile after taking in the rooms general expression. “Father.”

Author's Notes:

Here we go again! Welcome to the second part of Divine Entertainment, enjoy and feel free to grab a drink from our imagined mini-bar.

Once again, thanks to my editor Azriel and my proofreader Kilobytes for a job well done! Further thanks to Soren Mercer for helping out as well.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this playlist.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

1. New Runes

Starswirl leisurely walked up the path leading towards Atlas’ secret lab. He hadn’t visited in a few days as he’d taken up living in the nearby village and had to uphold appearances there. Ponies had already begun asking him where he was disappearing to for days at a time, and he didn’t want the villagers to start gossiping. For now, he was just telling them he liked to escape from his research by camping and exploring the great outdoors, which was apparently a good enough excuse in the meantime.

As he rounded the last bend in the path, the cave’s entrance came into view briefly before an explosion rang out, accompanied by a small tremor that sent a huge billow of black smoke billowing out of the small opening. Unfazed, Starswirl shook his head in disappointment before he continued on his way. Explosions were a regular occurrence when experimenting with new spells. Even small mistakes could make an otherwise mundane spell go haywire, especially when experimenting with runic magic; just one misplaced placed rune could have devastating results.

Starswirl thanked the wards they’d set up for doing their job, or otherwise their little secret would have likely been discovered on day one. It didn’t take long before a gust of strong wind fanned out the remaining smoke from the cave’s interior, indicating that Atlas or Discord were already busy cleaning up. By the time Starswirl entered the cave proper the smoke had dissipated, Atlas stood above a charred runic array in the center of the room. Judging by Atlas’ expression, he was already busy trying to figure out what went wrong by staring at the array as hard as he could.

“You should be glad the wards keep the townsfolk away, and the cave in one piece,” Starswirl said mockingly, “otherwise you’d be homeless several times over, seeing as everything you do tends to violently explode.”

“I thank them every night before going to sleep, praying for them not to fail me the next,” Atlas said without looking up before furrowing his brows. “You could make a religion out of that…” he muttered.

“A what now?” Starswirl asked as he reached the array on the ground.

“Nevermind,” Atlas said with a dismissive wave of a hoof. “Good to see you again; villagers give you any trouble?”

“Nothing but the usual questions,” Starswirl replied. “They’re happy as long as I provide my services while I’m there.”

“True enough,” Atlas said. “Any news?”

Atlas asked Starswirl more or less the same question every time he arrived. Since Discord and him spent most of their time as cave-dwellers, they were more or less cut off from the rest of the world. Equestria was at a delicate stage in its development right now, and keeping track of everything going on was close to impossible. Cities were rapidly expanding and tensions were still high even though the three tribes were trying to live together in harmony.

Apart from regular news, Atlas had Starswirl promise to keep an ear open for anything relating to any of their friends, as well as anything relating to a weird new race of ponies appearing. He didn’t tell Starswirl why he wanted information on it, and simply asked him to trust him on this one. It had kind of blown Starswirl’s mind when he finally got his questions relating to Atlas’ immortality answered, and Atlas didn’t want to agitate him further.

Atlas’ slip of the tongue back in the Crystal Kingdom had spawned questions Atlas didn’t really want to answer, but Starswirl had been insistent until Atlas broke drown and told him. Starswirl only got the abridged version, but he was aware that Atlas could not be permanently killed and possessed all six affinities now. Of course it was somewhat hard for Starswirl to believe that immortality was an actual thing, but a short demonstration changed his opinion on the matter.

“Nothing too interesting,” Starswirl replied off-hoof while looking at the runic array. “Just the occasional fights, you know, the usual. Although, there are some rumors circulating about some unicorns to the north trying to make a new Crystal Kingdom. It’s probably another tribalist fantasy if you ask me, I mean, why would anypony go back to the cold if they just escaped it?”

“Interesting…” Atlas said, as the rumor rekindled a few old memories. “I wouldn’t dismiss it just yet, there might be something to it.”

“If you say so.” Starswirl said, having grown used to Atlas’ uncanny foresight into what rumors held merit. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing at a rune he was unfamiliar with in the array.

“I’m trying to create a new rune…” Atlas sighed. “But it’s proving to be close to impossible.”

“A new rune?” Starswirl asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Well, do you remember how I said I lost most of the books containing knowledge about runes?” Starswirl nodded. “I’m sure there were a lot more runes than the ones we currently know about. So for now it’s just a matter of trial and error in finding them and figuring out what they do and where they fit in…”

“It sounds so simple when you say it like that,” Starswirl said. “I’d imagine it’s everything but…”

“And you’d be completely right,” Atlas said, motioning for Starswirl to follow him towards a nearby work station that was littered with books and documents. “I’ve been trying to find some sort of basic formula on which runes are built, a common recipe so to speak, from there I could build new ones from it. But... the process is slower than old people fucking, and the few tests I’ve run have ended up much the same way as this one did.” Atlas waved in the general direction of the failed array behind him. “The worst part about all this is that I might have found a working rune along the way, but because I used it the wrong way I wouldn’t even know it...”

“That sounds like you’re stuck with just making consecutive shots in the dark…” Starswirl said, wincing at the prospect.

“Pretty much,” Atlas said, letting his gaze wander over the copious amounts of notes with thinly veiled disdain.

Hades told him that it was imperative for him to learn all he could about runes, no matter how long it took. Part of Atlas wanted to spite him and just not do it, but Hades had helped him before and therefore deserved more than just a token effort from him. Even though he’d resolved himself to complete the task, no matter how long it took, after barely a month of trying to figure out how to make more runes he was already tempted to give up. Whenever he’d get too frustrated, he’d learn other spells from the books they took with them from the kingdom. It might not have been runes, but learning new spells from the various schools and the unique ways that only he could combine them was a welcome distraction.

“Do you mind if I helped you out with that?” Starswirl asked intrigued. “I do like a challenge every now and then.”

Atlas briefly considered it. While Starswirl wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable about runes as Atlas, he was more or less the only other pony that could help him since Discord wasn’t too interested in them.

“Sure, if you can put your own experiments on hold for a while,” Atlas replied.

“Eh, they can wait, I’m not exactly on the verge of anything ground breaking right now,” Starswirl said. “But before we start… where’s Discord?” he added while looking around for the elusive Draconequus. By now he’d usually have come to greet Starswirl.

“He should be somewhere in the forest outside,” Atlas replied. “I think he’s secretly practicing for his next play. Why?”

“I just wanted to ask him a few questions,” Starswirl replied.

“Still looking into what makes him tick?” Atlas asked, the subject matter interesting him as well.

“Well, yeah,” Starswirl said. “According to what we know, he shouldn’t even be able to exist and I’m just as curious to find some answers as you are. Figuring out how he works could benefit our understanding of magic tremendously.”

“Agreed,” Atlas said thoughtfully. “But no anal probes or anything without his explicit consent.”

Starswirl shot Atlas a confused and slightly disturbed look. “I… I don’t think that will be necessary…”

“Good,” Atlas replied simply, not taking his eyes off the scroll he was currently re-reading for the tenth time since he wrote it.

“Yeah…” Starswirl said slowly. “So how can I help?”

“Alright, we’ll now start the test of the new rune, hereby dubbed ‘Lynx,’” Atlas said formally.

After a few days of studying and heated academic discussions with Starswirl, they’d come up with a new potentially viable rune. And the only thing left was to see if their work would pay off, so Atlas, Starswirl, and Discord had gathered around the main room of the cave.

While Atlas and Starswirl stood in the center, where they usually engraved arrays in the floor, Discord hung off to the side of the room close to the kitchen’s entrance, expecting the experiment to fail like so many others Atlas had attempted.

Atlas and Starswirl nodded to each other that they were ready, and Atlas started the process of creating the array. It was a relatively short one, intended to just test the new rune. If everything went well, the new rune was supposed to provide a shortcut for them, allowing for certain arrays to be shortened considerably.

Since Atlas was somewhat of an expert at this point, etching the runes took him close to no time at all, even though he took longer than usual, so he could add a bit of extra care with etching the new rune. When it was complete, he scanned it a few times for any mistakes before looking to Starswirl for confirmation who nodded his approval.

Reassured, Atlas slowly started funneling magic into the array, this time using his new magic affinity. He’d found out that the purple mana actually seemed to work the best when runes were involved, so he powered most of his arrays with it these days. As usual, the array flashed once to signify that it was completely charged. A good sign, since most of his previous experiments had failed at this critical stage.

Atlas and Starswirl exchanged a grin. At least the array seemed stable enough to not instantly explode once it had enough energy, both of them began to buzz with the excitement that the experiment wouldn't end in an explosion and singed fur.

“I will now activate the array, which, if successful, should continue to power itself by absorbing ambient mana to maintain the ward.” Atlas stated while Discord diligently wrote down what was said.

Everybody knew it wasn’t science unless you wrote it down somewhere.

With a short burst of magic, Atlas gave the array the command to activate. He let himself briefly smile when it activated without issue, as it began to radiate a purple aura around the runes. They observed it for a few minutes, watching out for any inconsistencies or problems, but the circle just happily continued to do its job.

“I hereby declare this experiment a success!” Atlas said with a full blown smile. “We’ve just created a new, working rune!”

Starswirl and Discord joined in the merry mood, both whooping in celebration… when the array flickered once. The action wasn’t missed by anybody present causing their smiles to falter.

“Ah, shit,” Atlas said, knowing exactly what would come next.

One violent explosion later, Atlas found himself clearing the cave of smoke and the smell of burnt hair, as his mane had once again been slightly singed. Discord and Starswirl didn’t fare any better, albeit Discord took their fail with a lot more humor than the other two.

“Back to the drawing board it is,” Atlas sighed. “But it was a good attempt…”

Author's Notes:

A relatively short one to start us off, we'll have to pick up more words as we go along. Everybody nice and settled? Yes? Good. Let us officially begin this next chapter in Atlas' life. I wonder what strange things will happen to him this time?

On a side-note, Alcatraz has joined the editing team as of this chapter. Be sure to check out his stuff!

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

2. What Is A Discord?

“Now, hold still, please,” Starswirl said while giving Discord his best attempt at a bedside manner.

Discord did as he was told and tried to not move a muscle. He was seated on top of a low table in the middle of their secret lab’s main cavern. Starswirl powered up his spell; a brief moment passed before Discord felt a tingling sensation wash over him, an involuntary shiver running down his spine, causing him to shoot a nervous glance over to a distracted Starswirl who was busy furrowing his brow. Yet, Discord wasn’t called out for moving as Starswirl continued channeling the spell.

Boredom had already started to settle in after a few moments of sitting stone still, and Discord's eyes and mind had started to wander. They fell on Atlas who was hastily comparing notes on the other side of the cave. Five scrolls were floating in front of him while his eyes darted to and fro in an attempt to glean some new information by rereading what he’d jotted down upon the assorted parchment. His workspace was awash by an obscene amount of loose papers, with the most important notes magically stuck to the walls in front of him.

The experiment to create new runes, or re-discover old runes was still underway. Lynx, while their most promising rune yet, was still not perfect. It was able to properly function for about half an hour before failing. In a bout to find a solution to the flaw, Atlas and Starswirl set out to find yet another new rune to stabilize the first one.

In an attempt to take his mind off the perplexing problem, Starswirl decided to do something else for a while, and that something else happened to be experimenting on Discord.

The reason for the draconequus’ existence was still a mystery, and the answer was currently limited to, “there was an accident with runes.” Of course, tests had been performed on Discord before by other unicorns, but their findings had been deemed top secret and were not even disclosed to Discord’s surrogate father, which meant they’d just have to run their own tests if they wanted to know more.

“Alright, you can move for the next one, but at least try to stay on the table this time please…” Starswirl said as he jotted down some notes on his clipboard.

Discord hadn’t even noticed that the previous spell had finished when Starswirl cast the next. Contrary to before, the current spell couldn’t be felt by Discord at all. So he was at least grateful for one less annoyance.

A completely new species created by runic magic, Discord was an oddity among ponies; the townsfolk were always clamouring to ask him questions; where he came from, what kind of magic he had, and a lot of the ponies were thoroughly surprised when the little draconequus said that a unicorn pony was his father. Yet, despite all the attention, being the only one of his kind made Discord feel like he didn’t belong, like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ironically, it was probably Discord who was the most interested in what the test results might say. He was a completely unique being in the world, technically a new species really. Ponies were around him all the time, so he got used to them pretty quickly; one of them was his father after all. Yet, he could never really shake that feeling of being an outsider, someone who doesn’t belong.

When Discord demonstrated his magic to any intrigued ponies, they became hesitant around him. Nopony knew what he was ultimately capable of, or what could happen if his powers should go awry. It didn’t help that he looked, for the lack of a better word, like an abomination. During his time in the Crystal Kingdom, he’d been called all sorts of names, mostly by older ponies, but Atlas taught him to ignore them. According to his father, they were little more than fools stuck in the old ways of judging others by their appearances.

Atlas’ words of wisdom were proven true when the Windigoes started to feed off the prejudices of the three tribes.

Discord would never admit it, but he sometimes had nightmares about the months they’d spent in the kingdom after the Windigoes arrived. He’d tried to put up a strong front to keep Atlas calm, since it had been Discord's idea in the first place to stay behind instead of evacuating with Crimson and his family.

Discord’s faith in his father was remarkably unshakeable; he trusted Atlas’ word on things he normally would question from anypony else.

After all that Atlas had done for him, despite not even being his real father, how could he not? Atlas had raised him, fed him, protected him, and even helped him get his magic under control.

Of course, there had been the time where Discord found his father's journal.

A simple book, looking just like all the others, yet holding much more importance. He was halfway through reading when Atlas came home and stopped him. There was so much knowledge in that little book. Knowledge that shouldn’t exist.

Discord could still remember the face Atlas had made when he found him reading his journal. Anger, confusion, worry… fear. A mix of different emotions flashed across Atlas’ face, and it was only a matter of time before he caved and told Discord everything.

It was a lot to take in, but from that moment on, Discord felt a stronger bond with his father. They were different, yet, the same in a lot of ways. Unorthodox beings stranded in a sea of common strangers. But still, Discord was pretty sure Atlas hadn’t told him everything. Because in that little blue book Discord read something that gnawed on his curiosity to this day.

His own name.

The book had mysteriously vanished after that, so he couldn’t read anymore about himself. The only thing he knew, was that Atlas knew what the future held in store for them. At least to some degree.

After realizing that he’d been staring at the floor for quite some time now, Discord redirected his gaze upwards towards Atlas. Or at least he attempted to anyways. Atlas wasn’t at his desk anymore, and a quick scan of the cave revealed to Discord a severe lack of gray unicorns. He listened for any sounds that would give Atlas’ location away, and soon enough heard his voice from outside the cave.

He was talking to someone, or something rather, judging by the sound of his voice. If somepony else heard him they’d probably assume he was talking to a puppy or a foal, but Discord knew better.

There had to be a snake sunbathing outside the cave.

For some reason, Discord’s surrogate father absolutely loved the slithery reptiles to bits. Whenever one appeared anywhere around their cave; he dropped everything he was currently doing and went out to play with them. Albeit the ward that informed him of their sneaky visitors was a bit much in Discord’s opinion.

“Alright, that was the last one!” Starswirl exclaimed happily, ripping Discord from his ruminations.

“Finally!” Discord said overdramatically, stretching his limbs to impossible lengths with a satisfied groan. “Can I go now?”

“Hahaha, no,” Starswirl said shooting him down. “Those were only the magical tests, next up are the standard physical tests, like eyesight and blood pressure… You do have blood inside you, right?”

“Ummm…” Discord racked his brain, but as far as he could remember he’d never been injured. Even the researchers back in the Crystal Kingdom never took blood from him. Not for a lack of trying though, no, Discord just simply refused to let them take any. “I… I don’t know?”

What otherwise seemed to be a simple question threw Discord's mind into a panic. Was there blood inside him? What if there wasn’t? The implications spawned thousands of questions inside Discord’s head, and now, more than ever, he craved answers. Answers about himself that he absolutely needed to know.

“That’s quite alright, we’re about to find out.” Starswirl said, slightly taken aback. “Just follow me over here please.”

Starswirl lead Discord towards another table with all kinds of random knick-knacks and items on it, and Discord followed close behind eager to find out more about himself.

Discord sat on a tree stump in the forest a fair distance away from the cave he called home. The small clearing he was at served as a practicing stage, far away from the world’s prying eyes. Here, he perfected various theatrical plays he put on for his father, and sometimes Starswirl.

Out here, he could really focus on what he wanted to do and play around with his magic in order to find the perfect spells to support his acting. As a single pony acting troupe, he had to play all the roles himself after all. It wasn’t too much of an issue though, since Discord could simply create duplicates of himself. His magic was oddly suited for the stage in that regard, as Atlas had repeatedly stated.

Being able to conjure things out of thin air with the snap of a talon, like props, other actors and even background music allowed Discord to really bring his performances to life.

At first, Discord only used simple props while performing short plays. But now he had moved on to plays that Atlas said were almost indistinguishable from “movies,” whatever that meant. The important part was that Atlas enjoyed them a great deal. Atlas’ reactions were what kept Discord interested in them in the first place. They confirmed that he was doing everything right, or sometimes, showed him his shortcomings.

According to Starswirl, it would be a few days at least until the test-results were complete. So, to take his mind off the somewhat disturbing thoughts swirling around in his head, Discord had come out here to practice.

With his eyes closed, Discord sat cross legged on his favorite stump, focusing on what he had currently established for his play. Letting his thoughts play out like images before his closed eyes as he did a mental practice run.

The play he was currently preparing for was originally his favorite bedtime story. Atlas had told a lot of different stories, each fantastical and unique in their own right. But, the one that captured Discord’s heart the most, was a story about finding one's place in a world that shunned all things different. He could relate to the main character, that’s why he loved the ending so much, where finally, everything turned out alright.

Discords eyes snapped open once his mental run-through was finished. The play was far from perfect, but he wanted to do a practice run while actually playing it out. Stepping into the center of the clearing like an actor taking the main stage, he took a deep breath before snapping his fingers once, and a small cart housing that looked like a puppet theater popped up. The soft ringing of bells could be heard in the distance as Discord used his magic to conjure up a jester's outfit.

“Listen! They’re beautiful, no?” he asked his invisible audience while cupping his lion paw to his ear. “So many choirs of sound, so many changing moods, because you know… they do not ring all by themselves!”

“They don’t?!?” A mini Discord appeared and asked the question in an annoyingly high pitched voice.

“No, you silly boy!” Discord answered the question with a shake of his head. “Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell-ringer.” He gestured towards an invisible building off in the distance, while the soft chiming of the bells changed their tune time and time again.

“Who is this creature?” Discord asked.

“Who?” echoed the smaller Discord mockingly.

“What is he?”

“What?”

“How did he come to be there?”

“How?”

“Hush!” Discord reprimanded his smaller self, smacking him over the head with a wooden stick.

“Discord will tell you…” he continued in a mysterious voice. “It is a tale… a tale of a man… and a monster!”

Putting emphasis on the last word, Discord fully immersed himself in his made up world. Temporarily forgetting all about his worries, and instead, thinking of the songs that should be in this play according to Atlas. And how neither of them could sing, at all.

Author's Notes:

This one wasn't supposed to be from Discords perspective all the way... it just kind of happened ^^

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

3. Going Into Town

Starswirl awoke to the sounds of birds chirping outside his open window. A ray of sunlight streamed through the gap between his curtain, and cast itself upon his face, promising a much less pleasant wake-up call. Mixed in with the birdsong were the voices of his neighbors, who were already up and about greeting the day with a happy smile on their faces. Usually, Starswirl would sleep well into the afternoon, since his study and research sessions tended to make him forget that sleep was an actual thing.

Seeing the ray of light creep closer towards his eyes, Starswirl resolved himself to actually get up with a groan. His blanket gradually flew off him by way of a simple spell and made itself as soon as Starswirl stood on his own four hooves. With bleary eyes he navigated his way through the small cottage he called home and through the door into the living room which doubled as a kitchen.

Still half asleep, he floated over some stale bread from yesterday and started munching on it. Not the heartiest of breakfasts, but it would have to suffice. Cooking was never his strong suit, so the decision to leave the accursed trade to other ponies came easy. With the smallest flicker of his magic; every curtain and blind around the cottage flew open at once. The windows he opened shortly after to let in some fresh air. Sunlight flooded into the room, causing Starswirl to flinch slightly and close his eyes in pain.

Not a lot of things decorated his little cottage, and some would even call the interior design spartan. The bare necessities like a table, a few chairs, and a couch were all present. But aside from that, the only thing of interest were the rows upon rows of books neatly arranged on bookshelves that covered every inch of his home.

Finishing his dry breakfast, Starswirl decided he might as well show his face around town for a bit. He’d only returned last night, after being absent for almost an entire week. A week he’d, of course, spent at Atlas’ secret cave on the side of a nearby mountain.

Checking for anything out of the ordinary inside of his humble abode one last time, Starswirl made his way over to the door before opening it and stepping outside. The sun glared directly into his eyes, which made him believe it had some sort of ardent vendetta against him. He lifted a hoof in an attempt to shield his eyes from the orb of death in the sky, which only resulted in what he would consider moderate success.

“Good morning, Starswirl,” came a voice from his right.

“Good morning to you too, Flowing River,” Starswirl responded.

Standing in front of her own cottage while watering her flowers, was Flowing River, Starswirl's neighbor. The earth pony mare had a turquoise coat with a blonde mane that reminded Starswirl of hay. On her flank were a trio of flowers: red, blue, and yellow, that represented her talent as a florist. It definitely showed, as almost every inch of her property was covered in flowers. All of which, were meticulously arranged to form patterns that were aesthetically pleasing.

“Finally got tired of the great outdoors, did you?” Flowing River asked. “Some of our neighbors have started betting on how long you’ll be gone.”

“I’ll never grow tired of what nature has to offer,” Starswirl replied with a chuckle. “Especially in a new land. Where so much land has yet to be explored. That aside, I hope my return has netted you some profit.”

“Oh no, I don’t bet,” Flowing River said. “But, Fertile Soil will be overjoyed once he learns of your return,” she added with a wink.

“Got some exciting stories to share of your travels?”

“Oh, nothing special. Just the usual: lots of trees, mountains, lakes, and the occasional animal crossing my way.” Starswirl said, moving a little closer to Flowing River and taking a whiff of the pleasant smell the flowers exuded. “I did meet one especially colorful snake, though.”

Flowing River shuddered slightly at the mention of a snake. “Ugh… snakes. Never liked the critters,” she said with a cringe. “They’re just so… slithery.”

“That they are, my dear,” Starswirl said with a smile, as he thought about how Atlas would react if he had heard her. “Yet, they’re still beautiful and gentle creatures. Well, unless you step on one, of course…”

A fact Atlas was very fond of pointing out for some reason. It seemed that at every practical chance he got, Atlas would remind Starswirl to “No step on snek!” The phrase was always accompanied by a goofy smile. Albeit, Starswirl never really got the joke.

“Well, I’m off to do my rounds, see you later,” Starswirl said with a slight nod towards River.

“Have a good day,” Flowing River responded; waving at him with her watering can as she flashed him a smile.

“You too.”

Starswirl was off to survey what had changed in the small town during his absence. While the town had started off relatively small. There was still a heavy influx of new ponies arriving constantly. As a result, new homes were built, and construction sounds were ever present throughout the day. By now, the town had grown to a decent size and now housed at least a few thousand ponies of all races. There were even a few cloud houses that could be spotted floating over the city, that provided living space to a few of the better off pegasi.

Altogether, the collection of houses made up the town of Vanhoover. Once again, a fact that seemed to amuse Atlas for some reason.

Letting his eyes wander, he took in the now familiar styles of the homes that were built towards the center of town. The only thing that seemed to change near this part of town were the decorations in front of the lawns, or occasionally, even the ponies who lived inside them. The dirt road Starswirl was traveling on lead him straight towards the town's marketplace, which was built along the side of the river that snaked its way in between some houses. Said river found its end not too far from the town. Where it joined the sea.

Due to their proximity to the large body of water, trade had begun to thrive, since merchants had begun to frequent the newly minted harbor town. Ships of all shapes and sizes could be found downstream- resting at the docks. The docks and the marketplace were always alive with a flurry of activity. Merchants and their employees were unloading their wares or lifting heavy crates onto their ships, as well as moving goods to and from the marketplace. These circumstances made the market the best place to hear about news and rumors from all over Equestria. It was also a great place to meet other new citizens, since everypony would eventually find themselves one way or another in the marketplace.

Whenever Starswirl came here he couldn’t help but smile at the picture. Ponies of all races living together in harmony, and co-operating to create a better world for each other. Well, mostly. Racism still reared its ugly head from time to time, it especially was a problem from the older ponies.

There were also villages and towns all over Equestria where purity within a tribe was still valued above all else, but Vanhoover was thankfully spared from that old mindset.

Approaching one of the stands that was selling locally grown vegetables, Starswirl caught the attention of the earth pony manning the stall. An absolute beast of a stallion loomed comically behind a sunroof that hid his face behind the fabric. His coat was a dirty brown, and his mane a hearty chestnut color.

“Starswirl!” the stallion exclaimed in a deep baritone voice. “You just made me a richer stallion!”

“I already heard from Flowing River. You’re placing bets on me now?” Starswirl replied with a chuckle.

“Of course, anything that will stave off the boredom at the tavern!” The stallion gave a hearty laugh.

The giant stallion’s name was Fertile Soil, and he just so happened to be Flowing Rivers husband. Since they were neighbors they’d gotten to know each other over time, and had grown to be friends shortly after that. Fertile Soil worked the fields together with most of the other earth ponies, and occasionally he sold produce at the market. While they didn’t spend a lot of time talking during the day. Their nights at the local tavern were the stuff of legends. The stallion could drink every local in town under the table while barely breaking a sweat.

And even then, the only reason he sweated was because River chewed him out for spending their bits on booze.

As it was, Fertile Soil’s demeanor and social position made him somewhat of a news hub for everything going on in Equestria. He frequently talked to the sailors, as well as the locals, so if there was anything worth knowing; Fertile Soil was the stallion that knew it.

“So how much did you bet?” Starswirl asked with a raised brow.

“Let that be none of your concern. Just know that tonight drinks will be on me!” Fertile Soil replied happily.

“Just beware, they might accuse us of cheating, since we’re friends and all…” Starswirl pointed out.

“Don’t worry, ponies far and wide know about our local wizard’s peculiar whims,” Fertile Soil said waving him off. “Once you’re off on one of your little adventures; everypony knows you don’t come back until you’re done... doing whatever it is you do. We’re just waiting for the day where you just don’t come back at all.”

“Oh, I’ll be sure to tell you if I ever leave for good. For now, there’s more than enough reason for me to stay in the area,” Starswirl said cryptically.

“Sure, sure. Don’t meddle in the affairs of wizards, got it,” Fertile Soil said. “Anyway, you looking for the usual?”

“Give me all the juicy stories you got!” Starswirl said walking around the stand, as he plopped his ass down next to his friend.

“Hmm… where to start…” Fertile Soil tapped his chin with his hoof. “Ah, yes. Apparently, they’re trying to establish some semblance of proper leadership over the country in Manehatten. They say Gold Bar stepped down from his position to make way for Platinum. Same for Hurricane, but if the rumors are to believed; he didn’t leave as willingly,” Fertile Soil grimaced a bit at the information. “Seems like he is still against the tribes working together, and just up and disappeared one day. Some gal named Gentle Feather was elected to represent the pegasi. As for us earth ponies… well, Puddinghead might be weird, but she’s doing her job. Eventide’s line dying out was the best thing that’s happened to us in a long time... if you ask me.”

This time it was Starswirl to grimace. If Atlas had heard what Fertile Soil had just said he’d definitely go on a tirade. Of course, nopony knew that Belle was technically the rightful heir, and fewer ponies had known that she’d even existed. Still, Atlas knew, and he’d be furious if anypony sullied her name. Intentionally or not.

“That sounds like a step in the right direction,” Starswirl commented. “Equestria has been without proper guidance for far too long. Having some ponies actually calling the shots will surely benefit everypony in the long run.”

“Sure will,” Fertile Soil replied. “Was fun while it lasted though, no real regulations about what you can and can’t do. But, if the three tribes truly want to come together; we’ll need a government and strong leadership to serve as an example. Otherwise, the nay sayers will never shut up.”

“Agreed, what else is new?”

“Hmmm… Rumor has it that there has been contact with a new species to the west,” Fertile Soil said piquing Starswirl’s interest. “Call themselves ‘Griffins’, and they look like the result of a one night stand between an eagle and a lion. Not much is known about them yet, but apparently, they like to fight and the glint of gold above all else. They drive a hard bargain, which has caused the merchants to mostly avoid them, lest they be robbed of their last bit.”

“That’s interesting. And... somewhat unexpected…” Starswirl said with a raised eyebrow.

Of course, the planet the ponies lived on was big and they hadn’t exactly pushed to explore the mountains or the sea of their old lands. Finding new intelligent species shouldn’t be a surprise. Especially if the creation myth was to be believed, but this newest development made Starswirl wonder what else might be in store for the future of Equestria.

“Just watch! Next time it’ll be earth ponies with stripes!” Fertile Soil broke out in laughter at the ridiculous notion, as Starswirl joined in somewhat reluctantly.

“Speaking of ridiculous things,” Starswirl segwayed into the next topic. “Has there been any news on that unicorn settlement to the North? The one you told me about a few weeks back.”

“The unicorn settlement?” Fertile Soil had to think hard to remember. “Not that I know of... It still comes up here and there- but nothing concrete. Might actually be a thing, or otherwise, they’d have stopped talking about it by now. Why?”

“It’s just that a friend of mine has shown some interest in it,” Starswirl explained half-heartedly. “Although, I believe he’s more interested in the books they might have over anything else,” he added with a chuckle.

“Another bookworm! Not sure if Vanhoover can take two of you Starswirl!” Fertile Soil exclaimed loudly, as he slapped Starswirl's back in mirth. “Or... is that friend of yours some squirrel you like to talk to on your travels?” Fertile said mockingly.

“I assure you he is most definitely a unicorn,” Starswirl said with mock indignation.

“But, I believe that’s all of it. Nothing new of interest aside from that,” Fertile Soil concluded.

“I’m gonna assume you haven’t seen any of the ponies I described to you?”

“Can’t say I have. Didn’t hear their names get mentioned either,” Fertile Soil replied.

Aside from being Starswirl's source of information, Fertile Soil had also agreed to keep an eye and an ear open for any of Starswirl's old friends. And should he see or hear about a pony that fit the description, he’d promised to relay that information to Starswirl as well.

“Well, nothing we can do about that now, can we,” Starswirl said with a sigh, as he looked out into the masses of ponies walking by, as if expecting Crimson or Amber to just casually walk by.

“Don’t let your head hang down, remember, free drinks tonight,” Fertile Soil said in an attempt to steer clear of the topic. “The tavern at sundown. Be there or be square.”

“Oh trust me, I will...be there… Not a square of course,” Starswirl replied.

*Ahem*

The appearance of a customer clued Starswirl in to the fact that their little chat was over; so he got up and made his way into the throng of ponies again, “see you tonight!” he called over his shoulder.

Having concluded his business early, Starswirl set out to find ponies in need of his magical expertise in exchange for some bits. Since he was regularly gone for days at a time; it meant that he couldn’t take up a regular job. Instead, he just walked around offering his services to anyone that would have them. Be it construction, selling wares, moving cargo, or even just mowing somepony’s lawn. Starswirl didn’t shy away from any job, which had earned him a good reputation in the town. At this point, ponies came to him if they saw him walking by, to offer him work.

It was a somewhat reliable source of income, which allowed him to comfortably feed himself. Recently it had even become steady enough for him to even bring extra bits to Atlas and Discord when he went to visit. So, with the promise of free drinks still lingering in his head- Starswirl went to work.

Author's Notes:

Originally I planned to have all three of them go into town, but since the last chapter turned out to be from Discords POV, I thought, “Hey, why not make this one about Starswirl?”. This was probably the last time where I switch perspective, but I believe it really fit at this point.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

4. Results

“Everybody comfortable? Yes? Good,” Starswirl said, looking at his audience of two, as if they were his students as he entered full on teacher mode.

Over the past few days, Starswirl had evaluated all the data he’d gotten from examining Discord, and had made them presentable in the only way teachers knew how to. He made a boring presentation, complete with a flip chart and drawings.

“Why do I feel like you’re about to do a Power-Point presentation?” Atlas asked, squirming uncomfortably on the couch in their living cave.

“What’s a Power-Point?” Discord asked, sprawled out on his back next to Atlas.

“Umm… let’s just say they’re usually boring and look like an amateur made them…” Atlas explained, dodging the question.

“I’m pretty sure Starswirl is an expert at this stuff though…” Discord rebuked.

“It’s not about… uh, you know what? Nevermind,” Atlas said. “You may begin,” he gestured with his hoof as if allowing Starswirl to enter an invisible stage, much to the eager scholar’s chagrin.

“You done bickering between yourselves?” Starswirl asked slightly miffed. “Well, then let me start. As both of you know, I’ve run every imaginable test in my repertoire, and then some, on dear Discord over there. There have been some very insightful discoveries as a result, and I’m finally ready to share them with you.”

“Isn’t this exciting?” Atlas asked Discord. “Finally, we’ll have some answers.”

“Yeah…” Discord said, decidedly less excited than his parent.

While Discord definitely wanted to know more about himself, he was also scared of what he might learn. What if something was wrong with him? What if Atlas and Starswirl would abandon him for it? Not letting his insecurities show, Discord played it cool.

“Well, first things first,” Starswirl said, flipping the first paper, which was empty, to reveal a detailed drawing of Discord's body, every part labeled. “What is Discord.” the paper’s title read.

“As I’m sure both of you know, Discord came into existence when the late Brown Diamond’s experiment with live animals went awry.” Starswirl stated. “Whatever went wrong, fused all the animals within range, as well as Brown Diamond into a single- functioning being. I’m sure this is a conclusion you’ve come to by yourselves, but now, we have proof.

“All the different body parts that make up Discord, once belonged to a multitude of animals that were present that night, and in some way, they still do,” Starswirl pointed towards the various body parts on his drawing, labeled after which animal it came from. “While you are a single organism, one of my scans revealed many different patterns of various animals, instead of one unique signature; as is usual with these type of spells. That means, everything that got combined into you, is technically still alive- technically. Although, they’re not aware anymore, you should be able to access some of their muscle memory, which probably accounts for why you took to walking and magic so readily. In the case of Brown Diamond, even some of his actual memories and knowledge should be accessible to you, explaining your intelligence at early age.

“In fact, the part inside you that came from the Doc, is actually the brain, or rather, the mind,” Starswirl revealed. “I know the mind is a somewhat abstract concept, but since nothing else came back with the signature of a pony, the only conclusion is that you owe your sapience to the late Doctor Brown. If he wasn’t absorbed as well, you’d probably be some mindless animal that didn’t even know how to move, without ripping yourself apart.”

Discord shivered at this particular piece of information. It felt weird that another being was literally in his head, it caused him to question how much of himself was actually Brown Diamond, and what was, well him. Atlas glanced over at Discord in sympathy. While not in the same situation, the Atlas soul fragment inside himself was at least comparable, especially since the Titan seemed to communicate with him at times. Who knows, maybe it was actually the same, and the mind was just another way of describing a soul.

“Umm… let me get us something to drink,” Atlas said before getting up and walking over to the kitchen.

Starswirl shot him a slightly annoyed look, since he was disturbing the lecture so shortly after it began. Atlas didn’t mind, though, and leisurely brewed up some tea for the three of them, made from herbs found around the mountain. It was obvious to him that this new knowledge was a lot to swallow for Discord, and this was his way of giving the Draconequus just enough of a distraction to help him digest it. Once his task was completed, he levitated three steaming cups over towards the coffee table that separated the couch’s occupants from Starswirl and set them down. Gesturing with his hoof for Starswirl to continue, Atlas took a sip of his tea.

“Anyway,” Starswirl continued. “While these things might be weird in theory, they work surprisingly well in the end, and I guess that’s all that matters. More interesting is the fact that apparently all of the mana absorbers for each entity within you still work. They absorb all kinds of mana and mix it up in your mana pool, creating some sort of mana cocktail that I’ve never seen before…”

“Wait, you can mix the different types of mana?” Atlas asked befuddled. “Could… could I do that too?”

“I’m actually not sure,“ Starswirl replied. “As I’ve said, I’ve never encountered this, since every unicorn just keeps the different mana types separated by instinct. I don’t think anyponys ever actually tried to mix them. That weird mana cocktail might be what’s allowing Discord to do the things he does…”

“That would certainly be… interesting…” Atlas said, the idea of mixing different mana types intriguing him. “We’ll have to look into that later…”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to do these experiments on your own,” Starswirl said with a sad smile. “After all, the only mana I can absorb is blue. I wouldn’t be able to mix mana even if I wanted to. You on the other hoof… you have every type of mana available to you.”

“Ah, you’re right,” Atlas confirmed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“While certainly interesting, it’s a matter for another day,” Starswirl said, putting a stop to a potentially endless discussion before it started. “Let’s continue.

“As you can see, I’ve written down two more things that make up Discord on the side here, not associated with any of his body parts. Similar to the mind, they can’t accurately be placed, as they are of an intangible nature as well.” Starswirl pointed out the two small paragraphs written next to the drawing. They were too small to read from where the two sat, so Atlas and Discord had to patiently wait until Starswirl told them.

“Those two things are actually taken from myself and Atlas respectively,” Starswirl said with absolute certainty.

“Hold on a second!” Atlas exclaimed in surprise while Discord's eyes went wide with surprise. “Taken from us? But we were out of range of the circle, right? How would anything be taken from us?”

“While it is indeed correct that we were outside the array on that day, it seems that we were close enough for something to be taken away,” Starswirl said with a sigh. “I’d say we were fortunate that we weren’t absorbed entirely.”

“That’s… unsettling,” Atlas said. “On the chance that I’ll regret asking… what was taken?”

“For now, I can’t say for sure what it was that was taken from you, Atlas,” Starswirl admitted. “It’s all rather opaque, I’d have to run tests on you to see if you’re missing anything a regular pony should have, but considering who you are, I’m sure the results would be all kinds of messed up. We might never find out.”

A drop of sweat ran down the side of Atlas’ face. He didn’t feel any different, nor did he notice anything weird going on with him since the accident. Whatever was taken from him to make Discord must have been not too important. Atlas just hoped whatever was missing, didn’t come to bite him in the ass when he needed it and didn’t have it.

“As for me… I’m pretty sure what was taken from me,” Starswirl said with yet another deep sigh. “It was my ‘time’.”

Discord silently mouthed the word ‘time’ with a puzzled look on his face, not understanding what was going on anymore.

“What do you mean, your time?” Atlas asked, equally confused.

“I’ve run several tests to confirm this, but… I haven’t seemed to age a single day since the accident that created Discord,” Starswirl revealed. “I believe the array has absorbed my natural harmony with time, or, in other words, my ability to age.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Atlas asked, his question answered by a simple nod. “What the fuck…?” Atlas muttered to himself. “So... does that mean you can’t die?”

Atlas still considered immortality a curse, and wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. But, somewhere deep within the recesses of his mind, a silent part of him wished for Starswirl to be cursed as well. If he was, Starswirl would be a friend he could carry through the ages. One less friend he’d have to let go in the long run.

“At the very least not of old age, I believe,” Starswirl replied, shuffling awkwardly. “And, I’m not insane enough to test any other venues of death.”

“Wow…” Atlas said, adopting a blank look.

“Did... did I do something bad?” Discord asked, unsure of how he was supposed to react to this revelation. “Did I actually take something really important from you?” Discord was on the verge of starting to hyperventilate. Did he rob one of his only friends in the world of his future?

“Stop it right there, Discord,” Atlas reprimanded him sternly, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to meet his piercing gaze. “Whatever went into your creation, whatever was taken from us, I want you to realize that none of this is your fault! Don’t go taking the blame for things you had no control over!”

“He’s right, Discord,” Starswirl jumped in. “Thinking like that only leads towards a dark path you do not want to travel. We do not blame you for what happened on that night, and you should know that we are quite happy to have you with us. If anything, you having those parts within you almost makes us into a makeshift family, even if we aren’t connected by blood.”

“No homo, though.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

Discord and Starswirl shot confused looks towards Atlas, the conversation completely de-railed by Atlas’ off-hoof statement.

“What? Starswirl made it sound like we’re like, a married couple!” Atlas defended himself. “I don’t swing that way.”

“Your pettiness over things like this, amazes me time and time again…” Starswirl commented dryly after a short pause.

“You’ll always be my only dad!” Discord exclaimed, surprising Atlas with a tight hug.

The gloomy atmosphere successfully dispelled, Atlas grinned to himself. Laughter is and always has been the best medicine after all, and if acting silly was the price to pay to see a smile on his son's face, Atlas would gladly pay it.

“And you’ll always be my son,” Atlas said. “No promises on the only part,” Atlas added with a chuckle, even when a twinge of pain shot through him. The memory of a missed opportunity at a different life flashing before his mind's eye for a moment.

“So what else did you find out?” Atlas asked, Discord now sitting in his lap.

“You know what?” Starswirl said with finality. “The other stuff is just boring and dry technical stuff, you can take a look at it later by yourselves. The important bits were already covered.” The flipchart magically floated into a nearby corner. “I’d say a night of fun and games is in order after these heavy discussions.”

Starswirl's suggestion was met with eager smiles, especially on Discord’s part. There were still many things that were unknown about Discord, but they had time to figure out what made him so special one by one. With a new goal in mind, the flip-chart that contained potentially interesting information was left to collect dust, and be forgotten.

At least for now.

Author's Notes:

Believe it or not, but this is already the end of the opening arc ^^ Those of you who’ve read my blog-post probably already know, but to start this story off there’s going to be several mini-arcs before going into the main event arc. Maybe you’ve already seen it in the description, but this arc was called Research!, the next one’s going to be called Travels!. Make of that what you want :D See you next chapter!

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

5. Everfree and Canterhorn

Atlas walked through the woods at a leisurely pace, enjoying the scenery without feeling the need to rush. Discord zipped to and fro, examining everything he deemed interesting. The forest they found themselves in was peaceful since the ponies eager to build new towns hadn’t wandered this far into nature yet. All kinds of birds and critters zipped to and fro, scurrying about the forest floor beneath the canopy as they chirped their merry songs. Copious amounts of moss covered the tree trunks and spilled onto the ground, complementing the wild untamed aura of the place.

“Don’t wander too far off!” Atlas called after Discord, a loud shout of “OK, dad!” came from somewhere behind the trees.

After spending a long time in their cave, Atlas and Discord decided it was high time that they went out to take a look at Equestria and how it was developing. It was sort of a vacation for the both of them, especially Atlas, since he had done almost nothing else but research for the past few years. The destination that interested Atlas the most was, of course, the mountain where he figured Canterlot would be built.

Using an advanced form of the mapping array, Atlas was able to accurately map almost half of Equestria; the map created from that now guided them on their travels. Adjusting their course a little, Atlas had them go through an enormous forest, which he currently suspected was the Everfree in the past. Just as he always thought, the fabled Everfree hadn’t always been the hellhole it was in the show. In fact, currently, the forest couldn’t be more peaceful and idyllic if it tried to.

With his head in the clouds, Atlas followed the direction his nose pointed, paying just enough attention to keep meandering in the right direction. From time to time, Discord would float by to reassure Atlas that he was still close. They spent most of the morning walking like that, only stopping to scrutinize something that looked interesting. A tree that grew into a peculiar shape; a giant boulder that had no business being in the middle of a huge forest, or the nests of exotic birds they happened across.

After resting for a light lunch in the middle of a flower-filled clearing, the duo happened to come to the first obstacle in their journey.

“Whoa…” Discord exclaimed astounded. “I can’t even see the bottom…”

A giant chasm in the earth stalled their idle march. The ravine looked as if it had formed naturally, most likely from an earthquake that occurred eons ago. True to Discord’s words, a thick, inky abyss swallowed all light from above.

“I wonder if there’s anything down there…” Atlas said in awe. “You brave enough to float down there?”

“Down there?!” Discord asked incredulously, his eyes bugging out of his head. “No way! I wouldn’t be able to see and it looks like it’ll swallow me whole if I go down!”

“You’re over-exaggerating,” Atlas said, waving him off. “It’s just a hole; there’s most likely nothing down there. You’re also basically a reality bender, so a little light spell should be no problem at all. Heck, I think you’d probably be able to just throw your eyes down there to check it out, you’ve done stuff like that before!”

Discord peered over the edge tentatively, an uneasy feeling of being watched haunting him. He briefly considered what Atlas just told him, and while he trusted his father to not make a bad call on things like this, it still scared him. Vertigo set in as he looked down, causing him to recoil away from the abyss.

“No way!” Discord said, shaking his head.

“Ah well, if you won’t do it, I’ll just have to go down myself,” Atlas laughed before simply jumping off the ledge and disappearing from view.

“Dad!” Discord called out, panicked.

He scrambled towards the ledge, once again looking down, just in time to see Atlas being swallowed up by the darkness.

“Wheeeeeeeeeee!!” Atlas hollered in childlike excitement, confusing Discord even further. What confused Discord was that Atlas couldn’t fly, so why would he jump into a bottomless pit? Thinking about it rationally, Discord figured he probably knew a way to slow his descent, or surely he wouldn’t have jumped. The rational thought calmed Discord down somewhat, which caused him to breath a sigh of relief. Still, he waited with bated breath for Atlas to give him a sign that he was okay, but as the time passed worry started to set in again.

Suddenly, a flash of light accompanied by a subtle popping noise appeared next to Discord, revealing a perfectly healthy Atlas. “Yup, just boring ground and jagged rocks down there.”

Discord was stunned for a moment, relief washing over him like a wave of cool water on a hot summer day. After recovering from the shock, Discord punched Atlas in the leg closest to him before pulling him into a hug.

“Don’t scare me like that…” Discord said with a sniffle.

“Awww… I’m sorry Discord,” Atlas replied honestly. “It just seemed like a fun little prank at the time. Also, base jumping somewhere is a rush, so I couldn’t help myself… Sorry.”

“Just promise me to never do something like this again!” Discord pleaded.

“Alright, I’ll give you a warning next time,” Atlas promised. “But, I may dive down another hole somewhere again,” he added with a mischievous smile.

Discord looked up at Atlas with a playful glare, not letting go of his leg. Having calmed down considerably, another issue came to Discord's mind.

“Wait, how are we going to continue from here on?” Discord asked. The ravine was almost fifty feet wide and seemed to stretch almost forever to both sides of them. “How are we going to cross?”

“Are you kidding me?” Atlas asked with a snort before teleporting away, causing Discord to fall over due to a lack of support. “I can teleport and you can float!”

Discord looked to the other side of the ravine, where he heard the call come from, to find Atlas standing there and waving back at him.

“Oh yeah,” Discord muttered, baffled by his own lack of judgement. The incident must have rattled him more than he thought. “Teleport… there was that…”

Shortly after muttering those words, Discord disappeared in a flash of white light and reappeared next to Atlas.

“Took you long enough,” Atlas commented with a dry chuckle.

“Hey, you promised me! No disappearing without a warning,” Discord reprimanded his father.

“Oh right,” Atlas said with a perplexed face. “Well, here’s a warning for you. I’m going to run away as fast as I can, catch me if you can!” That was the only warning Atlas gave before booping Discord on his snout and running off into the trees, laughing like a wild maniac.

Discord stared after him, unable to process what just happened. Discord always knew that his father was a bit of a child disguised as an adult, but it had really started to show ever since they left the secret lab. Discord didn’t mind, though, he actually liked this new more carefree side. The receding sound of Atlas’ laughing reminded him that he was supposed to give chase instead of stand around. A smile appearing on his face as he took off after Atlas, opting to not just teleport, since it could be considered cheating.

Atlas and Discord emerged from the treeline of the forest, granting them their first real look at the mountain stretching towards the heavens before them. They’d been able to sneak some glances at the impressive spire from in between the trees before, but now they had a clear view. It was strangely thin for a mountain, a stark contrast towards the usual mountains that dotted the horizons of Equestria, which were wide at the base with jutting peaks. The mountain in front of them reminded Atlas of a speartip that someone left stuck in the ground.

The rest of the journey towards the mountain was mostly flat plains, from the where they were in the treeline they could practically see everything around it. Oddly enough, no towns or even small villages could be seen. It was possible that nopony had ventured this far yet, and it would still take some time for the current settlements to grow out before they pushed settlements this far inland. Atlas assumed that at least the unicorns would have been all over it, since, just like the lonely mountain that rose and sheltered the Crystal Kingdom, this mountain stood in solace as well.

“It’s quite impressive, isn’t it?” Atlas asked Discord.

“Meh, I’ve seen bigger…” Discord replied in a somewhat bored tone.

“Come on now, of course we’ve seen some interesting mountains on our travels, but nonetheless, this one has it’s own charm,” Atlas tried to explain. “Just look at how uniquely shaped it is. For all I know, it should be impossible for a single mountain to reach that size, and yet, here it stands!”

“I’ll admit that it’s an unusual sight, but still, what’s so special about it that you even wanted to come here in the first place?” Discord questioned.

“Oh, it’s just because… It’ll become really important in the future and I just wanted to see it once before then,” Atlas tried to explain without spoiling too much.

“Will you ever let me finish reading that book of yours?” Discord asked with annoyance, given the fact that Atlas had yet to give up guarding the book.

“...No,” Atlas said after a short pause.

The last thing Atlas wanted was for Discord to read his notes and see what fate had in store for him. If it could be helped, Atlas wanted to prevent Discord from ever going crazy and taking over all of Equestria. Not just for the ponies sake, but also for Discord’s. Surely, Equestria would be even better off if it didn’t suffer another cataclysmic event right after settling down in a new country they believed safe.

“Have it your way then,” Discord sighed, silently resolving himself to getting his paws and claws on the book no matter what it took.

It contained information about Discord’s own future, and therefore he felt like he had a right to know about it if he wished so; no matter what it was.

“You’ll see how everything turns out eventually, you just have to be patient…” Atlas pleaded with Discord, hoping for him to see reason. “For now, how do you feel about climbing on top of that suspiciously thin mountain over there and seeing if somepony already claimed it? We might get to name it if nopony did.”

Some excitement snuck into Atlas’ voice, the prospect of naming a mountain seemed like a very enticing concept to him. He looked over at Discord, barely able to contain his eagerness while waiting for an answer.

“Sure,” Discord replied, much to Atlas’ satisfaction. “Just don’t name it something stupid or I’m going to overrule your decision and name it myself.”

“I’m disappointed in how little trust you have in my judgement,” Atlas said with a chuckle.

“Well, you raised me, so I know best about just how weird your ideas can be,” Discord pointed out.

“Like you’re one to talk,” Atlas smiled. “Come on, let’s go. I’d like to arrive at the mountain's base before sundown.”

It was just a little past noon and the mountain in the distance looked close enough to reach with the summit with amount of daylight that was still left, especially since there were no obstacles of note in their way. With a new goal in mind they took up their journey once again.

Pulling himself up another ledge, Atlas could finally see the end of his climb. The peak of the mountain was so close he could almost touch it.

After resting for the night, Atlas and Discord had set out to conquer the mountain. Although there were no set paths and the terrain was treacherously steep, there were no real problems with their ascent. Although there had been some perilous situations, both of them had been completely impervious to them, since they had a bag of tricks in the form of magic. As if to prove this point, Discord floated past Atlas, lazily swimming up the side of the mountain in a backstroke.

“I don’t get why you don’t just teleport from ledge to ledge,” Discord pointed out for what must have been the tenth time. “We’d have been up and down this rock in about ten minutes.”

“I already told you, there’s no meaning in conquering the mountain if you cheat like that,” Atlas explained, just like the nine times before.

“But you still used magic to keep yourself from falling numerous times, so how’s this any different?”

“Safety nets are allowed and encouraged when climbing a mountain. No matter what form they take.” Atlas explained. “Magic is like a better version of hooks and rope.”

“Why go through all the trouble, though?” Discord asked, flying a small loop next to the still climbing Atlas.

“For the sense of having achieved something I guess…” Atlas replied. “I’d be way more proud of myself if I did the hard part instead of taking the easy way out like some sort of tourist.”

“I might understand why you feel that way, but using magic is just so much more comfortable,” Discord countered.

Glancing over at Discord, who seemed to be just as relaxed as he always was, Atlas felt a twinge of jealousy. He had spent hours climbing up the mountain and was now tired and sweaty all over. Having Discord be so casual next to him made him regret the decision to climb up with his own power, if only slightly. Now that he was so close to the goal there was no point in changing tactics, or all his hard work would have been for nothing.

“True, true, but you should really try doing something the hard way for once instead of always relying on your magic,” Atlas said as he finally arrived at the top, panting heavily from exertion. “It’s really rewarding.”

A feeling of happiness and accomplishment spread throughout Atlas as he stepped on the surprisingly flat peak of the mountain. It was no wider than ten feet in radius and still slanted upwards. An amazing view greeted him as he carefully approached the very top, he felt like he was flying because everywhere he looked, solid ground was absent. He could see an incredible amount of Equestria, the lush green fields and copious forest canopies stretched in every direction until they met up with either a mountain range or the sea.

If he squinted his eyes, he could actually spot Vanhoover in the direction they came from, now but a small speck on the horizon. Letting his eyes wander, he could see other cities they had yet to visit and some other interesting landmarks including an expanding ocean. In the Everfree, he could see the ravine that seemed to split the forest in half and off in the distance he could see what might eventually be Ghastly Gorge.

In short, the view was amazing. Atlas stood there in stunned silence, just taking everything in.

“Totally worth it…” Atlas muttered as he looked over the rim of the world.

“My experience isn’t diminished by taking the easy method by the way,” Discord said smugly while turning in circles in an attempt to look at everything.

“Yeah, but mine’s enhanced,” Atlas countered.

Letting his body rest, Atlas sat down, content to watch the various scenery before him. He lost all concept of time while staring at the beauty sprawled out towards the horizon, so when he finally was satisfied, the sun had already travelled halfway across the sky.

“It doesn’t look like anypony’s been here before,” Discord pointed out. “Does that mean we get to name it?”

Atlas took a look around and indeed didn’t spot any markings a fellow climber might have left behind. There was still a chance that some random pegasi might have alighted on the peak, but that didn’t count.

“I do believe so,” Atlas said.

Purple mana gathered around his horn as he fired up a spell he could perform in his sleep by now. Using the spell he usually used to etch runes, he punched a message into the slanted ground, marking the mountain as conquered.

Satisfied with the message and the name he’d chosen, Atlas smiled at Discord. He’d never know, but Canterhorn was actually a horse-pun derived from a somewhat famous mountain in Atlas’ country of origin. They even made chocolates about it and sold them to gullible tourists.

“Let’s get back down, I bet it gets really cold up here at night,” Atlas said, Discord agreeing eagerly. “I’ll take the fast route too, this time,” he added with a wink and popped out of existence.

Happy that he wouldn’t have to float alongside Atlas for hours as he descended at an agonizingly slow pace, Discord followed Atlas’ example and teleported away as well; but not before leaving a message of his own, of course.

Author's Notes:

Welcome to the next arc, which is hereby dubbed: Travels! I'll have them visit a few places and experience a few things while meeting a few ponies. Enjoy!

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by CAN YOU BELIEVE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 2 WAS FINALLY ANNOUNCED???

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

6. Manehatten

Atlas and Discord looked on with amazement at what they saw in the distance. They had been traveling all over Equestria, visiting various villages and cities of all shapes and sizes, but the city before them really was on a whole other level.

It seemed like Manehatten truly had become the capital of Equestria, trumping every other city with it’s sheer size. The city was located right next to the sea, and its harbor was its crown jewel. The fact that all three pony races were living together really showed, as there was close to no unity between building styles, houses of all shapes and styles stood in contrast to each other. What really caught the eye of anybody seeing it though, was the giant building close to the harbour. It seemed to be at least five stories tall and took up the space of ten regular buildings.

If Atlas had to wager a guess, he’d label it as the the seat of the new government.

“We’re going to have to visit that place,” Atlas said while pointing at the building so Discord knew what he was talking about. “Princess Platinum is sure to be there, and where she is, Clover shouldn’t be too far away. Maybe she can help us find some of our old friends… Amber might be there too.”

“I’m honestly more interested in that place over there, to be completely honest…” Discord said while pointing at something.

Atlas followed the direction his eagle claw was pointing and spotted a building that was painted completely pink. It’s shape seemed outlandish as well, but it was hard to tell from this distance what it actually was supposed to be.

“That’s certainly… unusual,” Atlas commented. “We can take our time in exploring, since we really don’t need to go anywhere. I’m now kind of curious as well, so let’s make sure to visit that place.”

Discord nodded enthusiastically, his curiosity clearly palpable. Smirking at Discords behaviour Atlas began to walk once more. They were still quite a ways out of the city, and Atlas would prefer to get there before sundown, which was approaching fast, judging by the orbs position in the sky.

“Come on, I can’t wait to eat something properly prepared again,” Atlas said, getting sick of their on the road rations.

“Not my fault you didn’t buy enough cookable stuff in the last village,” Discord muttered under his breath, but followed Atlas nonetheless.

Atlas walked through the streets of Manehatten, he marveled at the various unique buildings as he weaved between the ponies milling about. Discord was currently perched on his back, even if he was steadily growing too big to do so, whenever he felt insecure about something he’d perch atop him. The ponies they passed shot them pointed looks, mostly directed at Discord. Apparently, since ponies didn’t know what strange species may inhabit Equestria or it’s surrounding countries, the stigma against Discord wasn’t that bad.

Yet, he was still a strange sight to see, so Discord earned himself quite a few stares and the occasional hoof pointed at him. Atlas got a few looks pointed his way as well, albeit for entirely different reasons. Back in the Crystal Kingdom, he’d been somewhat famous after all, and if the hushed conversations he overheard were to be trusted, he was being recognized by quite a few unicorns.

The duo mostly didn’t mind and continued their exploration undisturbed. It was only after the sun completely went down and cast the world into darkness, that they remembered that they should be searching for a place to sleep. The streets were illuminated by lanterns that lined every street, an odd mixture of magical ones mixed in with oil based ones.

Under the dim light, they searched around for a place to stay, and soon enough, found a quaint little inn that looked promising. A big sign hung over the entrance of the three story building that identified it as the, “Overlook Hotel”. They entered into a rustic looking ground floor, which housed a small restaurant, complete with a bar at the back wall. Quite a few ponies sat on the tables provided and were indulging in food, drink and conversation; none of them even sparing a glance towards the newcomers.

Atlas walked towards the bartender, which he assumed would also rent out the rooms, or at least could point him in the right direction. A sky blue pegasus stood behind the counter, currently in the progress of mixing a drink for a customer while demonstrating surprisingly good wing dexterity. He was using his two wings like two extra arms, tossing and whirling his shaker around in an impressive display while switching between his hooves and wings seamlessly.

When he was done serving his current customer, his eyes fell upon the patiently waiting Atlas, with Discord still on his back. Apart from a raised eyebrow, no surprise could be seen on his face as he approached the two.

“Hello and welcome to the Overlook Hotel, how may I help you?” the bartender asked.

“Yes, I was wondering if you might have any rooms left?” Atlas answered swiftly. “We’re looking for a place to stay tonight, and depending, maybe even for a few days.”

“Not a lot of rooms free anymore, but we do have some,” the bartender replied. “Are you looking for two rooms or will you share?”

“A shared one please,” Atlas replied.

“Sure, our double rooms cost twenty bits a night, breakfast included,” the bartender explained. His wing reached under the counter and produced a key with a little number tag on it. “I’m gonna need the payment up front, and if you do decide to stay longer, please inform us before noon of that day. Your room is on the second floor, you’ll find it has the same number on the door as the key, two-hundred and four.”

Atlas produced enough bits from his saddlebags for two nights, since they were probably going to stay for a few days at least and he wanted to sleep in past noon tomorrow, if at all possible. After counting them, the bartender nodded approvingly and slid the key over the bar towards Atlas, who picked it up in his magic.

“Breakfast starts an hour after sunrise, lasts until we see fit to stop,” the bartender said. “Please enjoy your stay.”

“Thank you,” Atlas replied and turned towards the stairs, eager to sleep on a comfortable bed again.

Everything else could wait until tomorrow.

Atlas nudged the still sleeping Discord with a hoof. He had been awake for some time now but opted to let Discord sleep in a little. After the long days of travel all across Equestria, he had earned himself a little leeway. However, noon was creeping closer as the sun outside indicated and Atlas didn’t want to waste their included breakfast.

“Huh… Wha…?” Discord mumbled, his eyes blinking owlishly at the world.

“Come on, time to get up,” Atlas said. “Or do you want to miss the first real breakfast in two weeks? Because if you sleep any longer, you will.”

Atlas watched with barely hidden mirth as Discord was jolted awake by the promise of breakfast, or rather, the thought of missing it. Since they mostly ate whatever they could find on the road or the occasional bought produce, food had been a rather boring affair. Since Atlas was a cook back in his old world, it always sent a pang of guilt through his mind whenever he had to serve anything without much taste, even though he was completely fine if it was for himself. He wanted to make sure his son would at least get proper food while they were staying here, so missing breakfast was a no-go.

“I’m ready, let’s go!” Discord almost shouted after snapping his talon once, his bed hair and fur suddenly neatly combed. “Come on dad!”

The roles suddenly reversed, Atlas was now the one being waited on by a eager looking Discord floating by the door.

“Sure, see you downstairs,” Atlas replied before simply teleporting out of their room and down the hallway, reappearing before the stairs. Two could play at this game and Atlas wouldn’t lose to Discord.

Atlas lazily started descending the stairs, his nose already picking up on the smell lingering in the air. Although the familiar smell of meat was glaringly absent, he was reminded of walking past a bakery. The smell of freshly baked bread entered his nose, mixed in with other familiar smells that made his mouth water.

He took a deep breath and savoured the smell just as Discord popped into existence at the bottom of the stairs, a mischievous smile spread on his face.

“Last one downstairs is a wet noodle!” He shouted, before taking off at top speed, intent on racing his father to the restaurant.

Atlas simply shook his head with a smile before teleporting straight down, immediately winning. He’d have to teach Discord to set clear rules when he wanted to play games with anypony. As it was now, he was just too gullible. For now, he’d enjoy his easy win as well as the bread he smelled earlier while waiting to see his sons surprised face when he realized what just happened.

They had spent a great deal of the day simply wandering around the city aimlessly. Just like sight-seeing tourists they’d tried to visit every place that looked even remotely interesting. Along the way they had met a great many ponies, amongst them some rather unique characters. On one street corner in particular, a disheveled looking pony was trying to convince passersby of the theory that unicorn magic caused cancer.

Even a few griffons could be seen wandering around, almost looking a little lost in the sea of ponies surrounding them. Atlas would’ve loved to talk to one of them at some point, but the opportunity had yet to present itself.

With an eventful day at their backs, they finally arrived at their main destination, the building that housed the newly formed government. The stream of ponies was even denser here than anywhere else in town, barring maybe the harbor. Seeing this caused Atlas’ optimism to fade away slightly. Clover would undoubtedly be very busy and might not even be able to see them. In that case they’d probably just have to make an appointment like everypony else.

“Stay close to me while we’re in there, alright?” Atlas murmured to Discord.

“Got it,” Discord replied, eying the throng of ponies rushing in and out of the building.

Atlas wasn’t worried about losing Discord in the crowd, but he was definitely worried about Discord starting some kind of trouble just by being present; just in case, he decided to keep close tabs on the draconequus.

They joined the throng of ponies and entered the building proper. An atrium of respectable size greeted them, the other ponies filing into various hallways or going upstairs that lead deeper into the building. Almost everything seemed to be built out of wood, which gave the interior a very rustic look which was appreciated by Atlas. Discord had settled on Atlas’ back by now, both of them letting their eyes wander over the impressive interior design while being careful to not stand in anyponies way.

Atlas approached what looked like some sort of reception area, where multiple ponies sat behind a counter, all of them energetically talking to visitors which had small lines of further waiting ponies. Atlas joined one of them at random, hoping to get the one that would be resolved the fastest. He actually expected his line would take the longest, since he always managed to pick terribly for some reason. Maybe it was because he wasn’t british.

It didn’t take too long for Atlas to get his turn, thankfully, and he stepped up to the counter coming face to face with a green unicorn mare. He picked a line with a unicorn doing the service on purpose, since she might just recognize him. After all, Atlas was pretty much famous to some degree.

“Hi, I was looking to visit Clover, might she be available?” Atlas asked the mare.

“Welcome, did you have an appointment?” The mare asked in return, starting to flip through a thick book in front of her.

“No, I don’t,” Atlas replied truthfully. “We’re just some old friends that happened to be in the neighbourhood, thought we’d come over to catch up.”

“What was your name again?” The mare asked, now apparently somewhat suspicious of Atlas.

“It’s Atlas.”

The mare’s eyes seemed to light up with recognition for a moment. “Oh, the Atlas? With the triple affinity?”

“That’s me alright,” Atlas replied with a raised eyebrow. Apparently his plan had worked out after all.

“Well, Miss Clover is currently pretty busy so meeting her without an appointment might be difficult,” the mare explained. “I’ll send somepony over to ask her if she has a minute or two to spare for you. Why don’t you take a seat over there? I’ll get back to you once word reaches me, alright?”

“Sounds good, thanks,” Atlas replied with a nod before trotting off towards one of the nearby benches, sitting down next to an incredibly bored-looking stallion.

It would appear that government buildings were working just as slow in this world as they did back on Earth.

It didn’t even take fifteen minutes of boredom and trying to keep an energetic draconequus in check when Atlas heard a familiar voice call out to him.

“Hey Atlas, over here!” Atlas zeroed in on the direction the call came from with his ears and spotted Clover just casually coming down the stairs, an excited smile on her face.

“Clover!” Atlas called back, rising from the bench, Discord in tow. “Long time no see, how have you been doing?”

“I could ask you the same!” Clover said, meeting Atlas and Discord at the halfway point between them, shaking both of their primary appendages enthusiastically. “You guys told me that you’d be staying back in the kingdom for some research and then you drop off the face of Equus for years, and now you just show up here out of the blue? We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“I guess we do…” Atlas said, a sheepish look on his face. “Truth is, it’s kind of hard to actually locate any of our old friends here in Equestria. We just recently learned you were here through some travelling merchants.”

“Oh, is my father here as well?” Clover asked, peering over Atlas shoulder, trying to spot the elderly stallion.

“I’m afraid not,” Atlas replied. “We set up base close to Vanhoofer, Starswirl actually owns a small house there as well, you should drop by sometime.”

“So it’s just you and Discord then?” Clover asked, sounding slightly disappointed.

“Just us, yes,” Atlas confirmed. “We’ve been travelling all over Equestria in an attempt to see as much of it as we could, maybe even find where our old friends settled down. So far we haven’t had much luck though.”

“Oh yeah, I can imagine it could be hard finding anypony specific with the way things are right now, Ponies are moving to and from cities as they please, trying to keep track of anything is a nightmare.”

“I can believe that, you wouldn’t happen to know if there’s a guard stationed around here that’s called Amber, would you?” Atlas inquired. “Unicorn mare, orange coat, blonde mane, three question marks for a cutie mark?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell, but I can have it looked in to,” Clover said after a few moments of deliberation. “But what do you say to moving this little talk to somewhere more out of the way, and more importantly, somewhere more comfortable as well.”

“I’d love to,” Atlas replied.

“Ok then, follow me,” Clover said, turning around towards the stairs she came from earlier.

“You coming Discord?” Atlas asked over his shoulder, only to find a noticeable lack of son material in his vicinity. Instead, there was a slip of paper resting on Atlas’ back, a short note scribbled on it.

Gone ‘sploring

“Where’d he go?” Clover asked confused, surprised and slightly panicked at Discord’s disappearance.

“Wherever he is, it’s too late now,” Atlas sighed. “He’ll return eventually, I just hope he doesn’t do anything too crazy…”

Discord was technically a teenager now and could look out for himself. He also knew where the hotel was where they were staying, he’ll be back when he was hungry at the latest. Atlas trusted that he wouldn’t get into too much trouble, he did his best to raise a somewhat responsible being. With a look of resignation Atlas turned back towards Clover, following her lead through the maze that was somewhat typical of government buildings.

Up stairs and through hallways they went, until Atlas had no actual idea where they currently were. The interior design changed somewhat from the entrance area and looked much less official. If he’d have to guess, Atlas would say this was a private wing of the building, where officials lived.

All along the way Clover was telling him facts about the building, frequently stopping to explain some painting or sculpture or vase along the way, which Atlas mostly tuned out. It was like he was taken through a free tour he didn’t sign up for.

“And here we are at my study,” Clover said, stopping in front of a door bearing her cutie mark. “It’s also sort of my workplace and my bedroom at the same time.”

“Sounds like an effective use of the available space,” Atlas replied with an approving nod.

“It’s also a very cramped use of the available space,” Clover snarked, opening the door with her magic. “Please, after you.”

“Thank you,” Atlas nodded politely, taking her up on the offer.

He entered the room, letting his eyes wander. The first thing that grabbed his attention were the bookshelves. Similar to how his secret lab was furnished, bookshelves or workstations of various types lined the walls. There was a door leading out of the room to his right, otherwise every free space seemed to be dedicated to work. Two large, wooden desks occupied the center of the room, official looking papers littered all over them.

“This is where I do most of my work,” Clover said from behind Atlas as she closed the door. “I’m afraid it’s rather boring, so why don’t we move to the other room?”

“Sure,” Atlas said, trotting towards the open door he spotted before.

The next room looked a lot more lived in. The sun was shining through the windows on his left, illuminating everything nicely. A bed stood on the opposite wall, the sheets neatly made. Aside from that two couches and a coffee table took up most of the remaining space. A white ear and a tuft of pink hair poked over the back of the closer couch, apparently they were not alone.

“Clover? Is that you?” The pony asked without looking. “Who is this mysterious pony that has you bolting out of the room in the middle of our conversation at the mere mention of his name? Your coltfriend maybe?”

Atlas raised an amused eyebrow at Clover, which looked away sheepishly with a blush.

“You know I don’t have time for a coltfriend, Plat,” Clover said with an awkward chuckle. “And his name is Atlas, a friend of my father. Actually, I’m pretty sure you’ve met him before.”

“Oh?” Atlas could see the ponies ear perk up at the news, apparently finally curious enough to check out the newcomer. The head that appeared above the couch definitely identified the mystery pony as Princess Platinum, if Clover calling her “Plat” earlier wasn’t enough of a hint. “Aren’t you the one with the triple affinity?” She asked after looking Atlas up and down. “I do believe I’ve heard the name before.”

“That would be me,” Atlas said, taking a small bow to show his respect for royalty.

“No need to bow to me anymore,” Princess Platinum waved him off. “Lately I’m only a princess in name. Since we’ve built a working council, our earlier titles don’t mean much anymore.”

“So what are you guys then?” Atlas asked the mares, glad to be able to drop the act. Dealing with royalty never was high up on his list of enjoyable things to do.

“Just councilors, I guess,” Clover answered, making her way over to the couch and making herself comfortable next to Platinum. “Why don’t you take a seat as well?”

Atlas took her up on the offer and made his way to the still empty couch directly across from them. From the corner of his vision he could see Platinum’s eyes following him curiously.

“That’s a very weird, yet interesting cutie mark you’ve got there,” Platinum said once Atlas got comfortable. “What is it?”

“It’s a titan, a creature from mythology,” Atlas explained cryptically. “Let’s leave it at that.”

Platinum hummed curiously. “So does your special talent have something to do with mythology? Seeing as you’re the first and only pony with a triple affinity I’d have guessed your talent would be related to magic…”

“It actually is,” Atlas confirmed. “I got it when I developed a very accurate mapping spell that peruses runes, my area of expertise.”

“Fascinating…” Platinum said.

“Yes, yes, very fascinating,” Clover interjected before Platinum could continue her line of questioning. “More importantly, I haven’t seen you or my father in years! You have to tell me what you’ve been up to and what new discoveries you’ve made in your magical studies.”

“Ah, of course,” Atlas chuckled. “That.”

“Don’t just shrug it off like that!” Clover pouted. “I was really worried! For all I knew you all could have ended up as frozen statues back in the kingdom!”

Atlas smile dropped, replaced by a sad frown. “I’m afraid there’s more truth behind that sentence than I’d like to admit…”

Clovers eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with a hoof, while Platinum simply adopted a sympathetic look on her face.

“When… when we made our last push to leave the kingdom, we were trapped by the windigoes and… Amethyst Blade sacrificed himself so that we could escape.” Atlas said, looking at the ground. “His body must still be there, buried under mountains of snow… If nothing else I’d like to go and recover it once I’m strong enough. To give him the proper respect he deserves…”

“Oh Atlas, I’m so, so sorry…” Clover said.

“It’s ok,” Atlas replied. “He died a hero, just like he always wanted to.” He shot the two mares a confident smile. “It’s just that sometimes I blame myself for what happened, even though I know there was nothing else we could have done at the time.”

“Well, if there’s anything we can do to help once you decide to recover his body, let us know,” Platinum said. “I’m sure we could expend some resources for such a noble cause.”

“Thank you, I appreciate the offer,” Atlas replied. “But I feel like this is something I’ll have to do on my own.”

“I can respect that,” Platinum relented. “Just know that you have our support should you change your mind at some point.”

“So, could you… maybe still tell us what you guys have been up to?” Clover asked daintily. “I’d really like to hear about it.”

“Of course,” Atlas smiled. “It is quite the story after all…”

So Atlas told the two mares what Starswirl, Discord and himself had done over the last few years. He told them about their time in the Crystal Kingdom and how they collected a veritable library of books. About how they travelled Equestria in search for their old friends and a suitable place to settle down. The arduous process of building the secret lab and what kind of magic they’d researched ever since then. Of course he left out some more sensible things, like the fact that Starswirl was now technically ageless or that Atlas now possessed an affinity for every type of mana.

The story took a long time to tell and the two mares were listening attentively and asking questions when they wanted to know more about something. They had to stop several times to get refills for the tea Clover had brought in at some point and the sun was slowly starting to set outside, the light in the room getting dimmer and dimmer until they had to light a few mana lights that were installed on the walls.

“And as you already know, Discord and I have been travelling all over Equestria once again, in an attempt to find our old friends and just generally surveying the progress Equestria is making as a whole.” Atlas finished his story, his throat feeling parched, even though he drank a lot during it’s retelling. “We’re not yet sure what our next destination is, but we’ve heard rumors about a unicorn purist town far up in the north. Maybe we’ll go and check if there’s anything to them.”

“Oh I can assure you that those rumors are true,” Platinum said, after having mostly remained silent during the story, content with letting Atlas and Clover do all of the talking. “I don’t know any specifics, but a few of their messengers tried to win me over for their cause several times.”

Atlas perked up at the new information. He’d mostly mentioned them as a light joke, never expecting to actually learn that the rumors were all true.

“Of course I shot them down right quick, their ideology is the complete opposite of the harmony we are trying to achieve within Equestria, after all,” Platinum elaborated. “While I don’t know of their exact location, they’re definitely holed up somewhere up north, just as you’ve heard. But really, I must ask, what would you want with ponies like them? You seem like a decent pony yourself, so what is it that draws you to them.”

“Curiosity mostly,” Atlas answered truthfully. “Since we are mostly busy building up a new home here, magic research has been stagnating somewhat. If there’s truly a whole city filled with unicorns, I do believe they’d have made some significant advances by now. I hope to learn at least something new by paying them a visit.”

“The mind of a true scholar I see…” Platinum replied with a smile. “Then I wish you the best of luck in finding them.”

“If you do learn something important there, would you mind sharing the knowledge after you come back?” Clover asked, a small glint in her eyes proving how she had earned her nom de guerre.

“We probably won’t come back here for quite some time, but I can arrange a letter to be sent your way, if I do find something of import,” Atlas replied.

“That would be wonderful,” Clover said happily, barely suppressing a childish giggle. “I’ll also try to visit my father in Vanhoofer as soon as I can, now that I actually know where he is. Maybe we’ll meet again when I do.”

“Perhaps,” Atlas nodded. “But for now, I believe it is time I returned to the hotel.” The sun had already set and the moon had taken it’s place, illuminating the roofs outside in a soft light. “I must also find Discord, I do hope he didn’t get into any trouble…”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s just fine,” Clover said confidently.

“It’s not really him I’m worried about…” Atlas deadpanned.

“Oh…”

“Well, if you’d excuse me now, it was a pleasure catching up with you,” Atlas said, getting up from the couch and stretching his numb legs.

“I’ll show you the way out,” Clover volunteered. “This place can be like a maze if you don’t know your way around.”

“Then I’ll retreat to my own chambers,” Platinum announced. “It was a pleasure meeting you again, Atlas, until another time.”

They left Clovers rooms, splitting up with Platinum soon after, since her quarters were down a different path. Meanwhile, Atlas was already making a mental list of things to pack for when they ventured north. It was going to be cold and he didn’t want to be caught unprepared.

Author's Notes:

Oh hi, it's me again. As you might have noticed this chapter took some time to come around. You might be wondering why, and it's quite simple: I didn't do jack diddly shit for an entire month. (At least shit that concerned the story.) I felt like after more than a year of constantly releasing weekly chapters(sometimes more) I needed a small break. So I did just that. Break's over now though and more chapters are on their way!

Also, let's play "Spot the reference!" I've hidden two movie references in this one ^^

Once again, thanks to my editor Azriel, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

7. Hidden City

Atlas and Discord lazily strolled through the open tundra while a blizzard angrily raged all around them. Compared to what they’d experienced back in the Crystal Kingdom, this storm was child’s play in comparison. With a watered down formation of what they’d used back then, they might as well have been walking through a grassy plain in the middle of spring. Atlas cleared the snow in their path while Discord made sure to block the wind and heating up their immediate vicinity.

Their usual tricks did nothing to help visibility, though. With the snowstorm raging around them they were stumbling around blindly in the frozen north. They had no idea where exactly the rumored city of unicorns was located, so they had no choice other than to pick a direction at random and hope to just stumble over it at some point.

It was their third day since entering the snowstorm, and the weather had made no signs of letting up anytime soon. There were rumors that the blizzard had started a few months ago and had been raging ever since, with no apparent cause. It might have been that some Windigoes came all the way here, but they most likely would have tried to extend their territory, unless Equestria was just too full of harmony currently for them to advance any further.

Since there was literally nothing else to do, Atlas and Discord had to stave off boredom with conversation as their only means to break up the monotony. They’d burned through most of their material over the first two days, including, but not limited to: Discord shenanigans when he was alone in Manehatten, Atlas’ life before becoming a pony, and the feasibility of a nation run by cutlery. Right now, Discord was polishing his acting a bit more, by telling Atlas stories in the most dramatic way he could.

A deep sigh from Atlas interrupted Discords performance.

“What’s wrong?” Discord asked with an impossibly high raised eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Atlas said. “I’m just getting worried a bit…”

“About what?”

“Whether or not we can actually find this mysterious town in the storm… We’ve been at it for three days now, and all we’ve seen is snow in every direction.” Atlas explained, his head held low.

“I’m sure we’ll find it eventually,” Discord said confidently. “The frozen north might be big, but it’s not infinite. If we keep walking I’m sure we’ll stumble over it or something eventually!”

“But, what if they placed wards against intruders?” Atlas asked dejected. “They might have set it up that everypony that doesn’t know the correct spell is guided away from them.”

“Is that even possible?” Discord asked skeptically. “I don’t think anything like that is at our cave, right? If we could’ve done that, wouldn’t you have placed such a convenient spell?”

“As far as we know there’s no such ward… but they might have made one by now…” Atlas said, his hopes taking a heavy hit, the more he thought about it.

After a few seconds of silence, a chuckle could be heard from Discord. Atlas was curious why he’d be laughing now, but couldn’t find the motivation in him to actually look up from the ground as he tirelessly walked straight forward.

“I’m sure we’ll find it soon now,” Discord said, barely containing his laughter. “It might happen at any moment.”

“Alright, what’s your deal? What’s so funny?” Atlas asked, spinning around to face Discord.

Aside from the huge grin Discord sported, Atlas was greeted by the sight of what appeared to be a magical shield holding back the raging snow outside of it. Now that he was somewhat aware of his surroundings, Atlas also noticed that the grass beneath his hooves wasn’t frozen anymore. Slowly, he turned around to face the direction he was heading in earlier, only to be stopped in awe.

They had entered what appeared to be a huge dome. The magical shield had a diameter of roughly six miles, shielding a city that was completely made out of some sort of crystal. What really caught his eye, though, was the giant tower in the center of it all, seemingly the source of the shield. Suddenly everything clicked in Atlas’ head, and he realized that the mysterious unicorn city he’d been hunting after had actually been the Crystal Empire.

Well, it might not have been an empire just yet, but it was impressive nonetheless.

“You could have told me less cryptically, you know?” Atlas said with a baffled expression.

“Yeah, but that wouldn't have been as funny,” Discord rebutted.

They could see ponies milling about the city in the distance, and if the rumors were to be believed, all of them were unicorns. Flashes of magic could be seen from time to time, illuminating the crystal buildings and creating a beautiful light show. Atlas was too preoccupied with taking the sights of the city that lay before him, that he didn’t notice the two armored unicorns approaching the two of them.

“Who goes there?” A gruff voice called out to them. “Identify yourselves!”

Atlas was snapped out of his stupor as he faced the two guards who came to a stop a respectable distance away from them. Discord took to the ground and seemed to try and hide behind Atlas, not really succeeding since he was quite a bit taller with his long body. The guards were wearing simple red robes instead of armor, if Atlas had to guess they were most likely enchanted.

“My name is Atlas and I’ve come here seeking knowledge,” Atlas introduced himself. “And this is Discord, my son.”

The guards stoic expressions faltered at Atlas words, staring incredulously at him.

“There’s no way you’ve fathered this… thing…” One of the guards waved at Discord, who only cringed slightly at being called a thing. “Who sent you?”

“Well, he’s my adopted son, of course,” Atlas replied with annoyance. “And nobody sent me, I just followed some rumors after the former Princess Platinum actually confirmed your existance for me.”

“Princess Platinum?” The two guards eyed them warily. “That might give you the right to enter the city, we will have to take you to our commander, he’ll decide on what to do with you.”

Atlas nodded with approval and made to approach the guards.

“The thing stays outside, this is a city for unicorns, and unicorns only,” One of the guards said, obviously displeased with Discord’s presence.

“If this is about you guys thinking that we unicorns are superior because we can cast magic, I can assure you, Discord is leagues above you guys in that area,” Atlas nodded towards Discord with a grin, who gave a mock salute back before snapping his talons.

A flash of light revealed Discord, now holding two unicorn horns, one in each hand. Atlas looked back towards the two guards, now decidedly hornless. He still held a grudge against racist ideologies since his experience in High Rock, so messing with these two was amusing to him. Apparently they hadn’t caught onto their luck yet, and just stared skeptically at Discord.

“You, what did you just do? Where did you get those horns from?” The guards switched to what seemed to be a combat stance before furrowing their brows. Both of them looked upwards to find their horns missing, which sent them into a panic.

“My horn’s gone!” A panicked shout escaped the two guards almost simultaneously. “What did you do?”

“Well, since you two can’t perform any magic, doesn’t that make you something else than unicorns?” Atlas said with an evil grin. “Care to leave?” He dramatically waved his hoof towards the blizzard raging outside, mere feet away from them.

The guards visibly paled before they frowned at the barrier separating them from certain doom. They did their best impression of a fish, as they alternated between looking at Atlas, Discord and the barrier respectively. Atlas let this go on for a while, watching them try to comprehend the situation they’d just found themselves in, until he deemed the prank had gone far enough.

“Alright that might have been a little mean, why don’t you give them back their horns now, Discord?” Atlas asked, and Discord complied with a smug grin.

The relief on the two guards faces was enormous, one of them even going as far as collapsing. Atlas knew that they would be shaken by the loss of their horn, but he considered it all a bit melodramatic. Apparently being a unicorn was a much bigger deal here than Atlas first believed.

“So, now that this little magic demonstration is over, you think Discord can stay?” Atlas asked off-handedly.

“Su… Sure…” The guard that was still standing responded shakily. “But the final verdict will still lie with the commander.”

“That’s just fine with me,” Atlas replied. “Care to show us the way?”

“Yeah, follow us and don’t stray…” He helped up his guard friend, who was still walking on unsteady legs and they started leading Atlas and Discord towards the city proper.

The way they took appeared to be the most direct way to their destination, since the guards didn’t allow them to stray, or sightsee at all. It quickly became apparent that they were headed towards the giant tower in the center, which looked just as Atlas remembered it from the show, but it seemed a lot larger and magnificent in person.

On their way, the unicorns they crossed paths with barely acknowledged the small entourages existence. A few seemed to recognize Atlas or even Discord and greeted them on their way past, which seemed to somewhat calm down their guides.

Before long they arrived at the base of the tower, and Atlas came face to face with the slowly spinning crystal heart. Just like in the show, it was held suspended between two crystal spikes, magical energies keeping it afloat as if the spikes were magnets.

Atlas stopped to wonder at the magical marvel, which didn’t please the guards and he was ushered along before he could take a proper look at it. They entered through a door into one of the four supporting structures of the tower, and after ascending a few flights of stairs and navigating the sparsely decorated halls of the crystal palace they arrived in front of a door that had three stars engraved on it.

One of the guards knocked before opening the door as they were given permission to enter. One by one the ponies and the draconequus entered into the office of the Commander. The inside could have almost been described as cozy, were it not for the fact that most of the interior was made from cold, hard, crystal.

Behind a desk sat a elderly looking, brown unicorn. His mane was dark brown and neatly cut short, a scar decorating his face just above his right eye. Two quills were filling out forms to either side of him, and even then, he managed to focus his attention on the newcomers in the room without stopping his work.

“Report,” The Commander said before Atlas caught a glimpse of a nameplate that let him know the pony before him was called Terra Form.

“Sir,” The two guards saluted. “We found these two on patrol inside the shield near the southern border. They’ve identified themselves as Atlas and Discord and claim to have connections to Princess Platinum. The one calling himself Discord seems to be the unicorn’s adopted son, his ability to cast magic has been… verified. Since this is a rather unique case we thought it prudent to elevate the decision on whether or not they may stay here to you, sir.”

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” Terra said. “You may leave us.”

“Sir!” The two guards saluted and left the room in short order.

“So you are the infamous Atlas,” Terra said once they’d left. “Your name was widely known back in the Kingdom. What brings the like of one such as you, all the way to our doorstep? Do you wish to join our cause? Or are you merely here, seeking knowledge?”

“Well, I really don’t know anything about your cause, except that all of the unicorns here are purists,” Atlas said calmly, not faltering under the steely gaze he received. “I was merely curious. A city full of unicorns, dedicated to the research of the magical arts. You’ve been here for quite some time, so I’d wager a guess that you’ve invented some nifty things by now. Seeing that you’ve built a city entirely made out of crystal, this huge palace, and whatever powers your shield, I’d say I’m spot on.”

“And you believe we’d just give up all that knowledge to you on a silver platter?”

“Oh, heavens no,” Atlas waved him off. “I’d of course greatly appreciate it if you did, but let’s be honest here, you won’t. Thing is, I’ve been doing quite a lot of research of my own and I’m one of only two ponies alive that knows how to properly create runes.” he let the information sink in for a bit. “So what do you say? You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Sounds like a good deal, no?”

Atlas adopted a confident smile, but on the inside he was actually quite nervous. He felt like he was doing a sales pitch to a bunch of corporate assholes. He’d thought a lot about how he should approach this situation, especially since he didn’t want to join their community permanently. He decided that a confident appearance and the offer of exchanging knowledge would probably be his best shot. Over the years he’d been here, Atlas had gained quite a bit of confidence in himself, but he never really got rid of his stagefright, and even if he only had an audience of two, the tension was almost too much as he waited for the verdict.

“So you really do not want to join us permanently?” Terra inquired. “You’d be a real boon to our community. Yours is a well known name around here, I’m sure you’d fit right in.”

“I’m afraid no,” Atlas replied. “I’ve got my own base of operations, and I’m doing some research which I can’t let anypony else see.”

“We’d be able to provide you with all the facilities you’d ever want here,” Terra pushed further.

“Thanks a lot for the offer, but I’ll just stick to my own lab, it’s already perfectly set-up for what I need,” Atlas defended, hoping to shut the discussion down.

Terra looked unhappy about the direction the conversation was going. It seemed like he wanted to convince Atlas to stay at all costs.

“How about this then, I’ll have someone show you around the place, show you what we can offer you and then you’ll make your decision.” The smile Terra showed was almost creepy as he waited for Atlas reply.

“That would be agreeable,” Atlas relented.

He wouldn’t stay no matter what, but acting like he was on-board seemed like the right move. Terra looked just about ready to try and force Atlas to stay, and Atlas didn’t want to escalate the situation needlessly. Terra’s horn flashed for a second, causing Atlas to flinch, but no attack ever came.

“Wonderful,” Terra explained, this time with a genuine smile. “I’ve just called for one of our best mages to show you around. He’ll be able to explain everything you’d like to know. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions, and I’m sure you’ll find our facilities to your liking.”

Terra got up from his chair behind the desk and walked around it. Atlas got up as well and he was guided to the door by the commander, who acted all buddy-buddy with him now. Discord was largely ignored for some reason yet he followed close behind, not wanting to stray too far from Atlas. On the other side of the door a unicorn was already waiting for them.

His coat was orange and his mane white and unkempt. He was wearing a blue robe which concealed his cutie mark, a stylish pair of glasses resting on his muzzle. He blew away some hair that fell in front of his face and seemed to tickle his nose.

“Hello! I’m Chop Stick, head of research of our manipulation department, I hear you’re interested in a tour?” The unicorn introduced itself with a happy-go-lucky attitude.

“Uhh… yeah,” Atlas responded awkwardly.

“Stick, just a second if you’d please,” Terra took Chop Stick a few steps away to discuss something.

Atlas thought he’d heard the words “make sure” and “at all costs” in the hushed conversation they were having, which didn’t please him at all. Using the momentary distraction Atlas used the time to set his own plans into motion.

“Discord,” Atlas got Discords attention who was still standing just behind him.

“What is it?” Discord asked curiously.

“These guys are bad news, but I want to know what they’ve got,” Atlas explained in a hushed tone. “We might have to run for it, they don’t seem like they’ll just let me leave like that.”

“We won’t have to fight, will we?” Discord said nervously, while checking if anybody was listening to them.

“I sure hope not…” Atlas whispered. “Listen, they all seem intent to mostly ignore you, judging by how Terra and that Stick guy have been acting… I’ll have him show me around and I want you to steal as much of their research as you can. Do you think you can teleport scrolls all the way back to our lab and leave behind some dummies?”

“Easily,” Discord grinned. “I don’t know how many I can send over this large of a distance, though…”

“However many you manage to send will be enough,” Atlas assured him. “Just make sure you don’t get caught.”

“I’m sure I can manage,” Discord replied confidently. “What if they do though?”

“Then we’ll have to fight,” Atlas said grimly. “Probably. If it ends up that way, we’ll just teleport to the edge of the shield and book it with what we have, if we’re lucky, they won’t pursue us.”

“Got it,” Discord said, and slunk back behind Atlas, as Terra and Stick were returning from their own secret chat, both smiling widely.

By now, there was no doubt in Atlas’ mind that this was a proverbial dead end. He’d just have to collect as much data as possible before skedaddling out of the Empire. If at all possible he wanted to avoid open conflict, as he did not enjoy hurting ponies.

Technically, everypony in this city was an idiotic racist anyway, so he wouldn’t hold back should it come to a fight.

“Well then, are you ready for the best tour ever?” Chop Stick asked with impossibly high spirits.

“Sure,” Atlas replied, sporting the fake smile he used back on earth when talking to a customer.

“I’m sure you are! How about we head straight to one of our research facilities? I heard you’d taken manipulation as your major back in the kingdom, how about we go to that department first?” Chop Stick engaged Atlas in a conversation as he lead him down the halls of the palace, decidedly ignoring Discords existence.

“Transformation, more specifically,” Atlas supplied the information. “I feel like I’ve already mastered that to some degree, I’d actually like to visit a department that I don’t have as much experience with, if you don’t mind. How about… the department researching the School of Energy?”

“Most certainly! An excellent choice!” Chop Stick replied excitedly, beginning to grate on Atlas’s nerves. “We’ve made some great strides in that area, you’re about to see some amazing strides in spellcraft, friend!”

Atlas cringed when he was called “friend” by this guy he just met. The commander’s game-plan couldn’t be more obvious by now; next time, Atlas would recommend a more subtle tour guide.

“I… can’t wait,” Atlas said with a strained smile.

They exited the palace halls out of the same door they came in earlier, and Atlas spotted the one thing he was probably the most curious about in this entire city, the Crystal Heart.

“Hey, what’s that thing anyway? Looks important,” Atlas said nonchalantly while pointing at the floating crystal.

Chop Stick seemed to flinch slightly when Atlas asked, but caught himself pretty quickly. For a second he really looked like he didn’t want to tell Atlas, but remembered that he needed Atlas to stay “,at all cost.”

“Ah, I see you are a stallion of taste as well,” Chop Stick said. “This, is the Crystal Heart, our cities magnum opus, I dare say.”

“Oh, really?” Atlas asked, slightly amused. “What’s it do?”

“Well, it powers the shield that keeps out the frigid weather and a lot more facilities inside of the palace,” Chop Stick said proudly. “Basically, it’s a storage gem for mana, like you’ve probably seen before, but this one's special. We figured out how to create a much more powerful version of the regular ones, you see? It’s at least one-thousand times as effective as a large storage gem, and the best part? It recharges itself!”

“A thousand times more effective?” Atlas reeled back. “That’s insane! How did this not blow up in your faces instantly?”

A large storage gem could usually hold enough mana to cast one high tier spell, or power a magic light for about three months. The larger the gem and the amount stored inside, the more difficult the process. Large gems were already pretty difficult to make, so the crystal hearts mere existence should be impossible. Suddenly, Atlas was really glad that he came here.

“Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy and it comes with a lot of prerequisites.” Chop Sticks explained. “So far, we’ve only managed to make one… that was stable, anyways. As coincidence would have it, we’re headed to the very department that created it. I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you all about it, since I’ll have to admit that my knowledge is severely lacking in the area.”

“Oh, I’d love to learn all about it!” Atlas said excitedly.

Chop Stick seemed to be pleased by Atlas’ reaction, since it was a good sign for him. He waved Atlas along and lead him into a seemingly random street, intent to get to the Department of Energy as fast as possible. Meanwhile, Atlas gave Discord a meaningful look behind Sticks back, which Discord answered with a sly smile and a thumbs up.

Atlas needed this technology, and he was prepared to fight for it, if he had to.

“And here we have unicorns working on creating a spell that heightens a ponies physical abilities,” Lightning Rod explained.

Lightning Rod was the head of research for the energy department. Her mane was a deep silver and her coat an electrifying yellow, a mana vortex served as her cutie mark. After Chop Stick explained the situation to her, she was more than happy to show Atlas around the premises and explain their research to him in as much detail as possible.

Just as planned Discord was almost invisible to these ponies, so the little rascal had no problems abducting a few scrolls here and there, his movement almost snake like on occasion.

The tour had now been going on for close to three hours and Atlas had already learned a ton. All of his knowledge from the School of Energy came from books and what little Starswirl knew about it, so seeing all these physical presentations was like a chest full of treasure to him.

“The spell is far from perfected yet, but we’ve had some mixed successes,” Lightning explained further. “The flow of mana has to be very precise and seems to differ for each unicorn, so for now, they’re looking for a discernable pattern. The effects let you hit harder, run faster, jump higher; if it’s got to do with physical strength, it gets enhanced.”

“That sounds very useful,” Atlas said, watching as a unicorn jumped so high that he hit his head on the ceiling. “Yet also, slightly dangerous.”

“Oh, as a fellow researcher I’m sure you can agree that all experimental spells are dangerous to some degree.” Lightning jested.

“Tell me about it,” Atlas giggled. “I can’t remember the amount of times I’ve burnt whole patches of fur off experimenting with new spells.”

“Likewise,” Lightning nodded sagely. “Why don’t we move on?”

“Lead the way,” Atlas gestured for her to take the lead, while watching Discord from the corner of his eyes. He had just emptied one of the bookshelves in the room without anypony noticing, replacing the material with dummies.

“So,” Lightning Rod said, stopping in front of a door that had her name engraved on it. “I’ve been told you’ve taken particular interest in the Crystal Heart and how it functions?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Atlas replied giddily. Finally, they were getting to the good part.

“You must know that this knowledge isn’t really public domain, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t allow anypony to see what I’m about to show you,” Lightning said with a serious face. “But I’ve been told that permission has been given for you to review anything you like.”

“I greatly appreciate it,” Atlas replied, trying to hide his excitement.

“I do implore you to decide to stay here with us,” Lightning said. “The Crystal Heart is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’d decide to stay… there would be a lot more that we could show you.”

“If that’s what it takes to take a look at these research papers, I’m all yours,” Atlas said, grinning widely.

Atlas could hear Chop Stick squeal somewhere behind him, no doubt happy about Atlas’ “decision”. The stallion was more or less just following them like a zombie ever since they’d started the tour, nodding along happily, and now it was finally paying off. Promotion: Inbound.

“Well, let me be the first to welcome you then,” Lightning said with a relieved smile. “Let’s go in and take a look.”

Her horn started to glow, and a series of clicks could be heard from behind the door, following a complicated rhythm. After a final “clunk” the door swung inwards revealing a office space that was positively overrun with scrolls and books.

“Sorry for the mess,” Lightning chuckled. “You know how it is…”

Atlas and Chop Stick both nodded knowingly as they entered, careful not to step on anything. Discord slinking in behind them just before the door closed again, he dove under a pile of loose paper, just to make sure his presence was as low as it could be.

Lightning Rod walked behind her desk and opened the bottom drawer, again, a series of clicks could be heard. This research must be really valuable to them, if security for it was this tight. This might be the only chance Atlas would get to look at these designs.

A stack of papers of varying sizes floated out of the drawer, and after she cleared some space on her desk, were set down for Atlas to look at. Greedily, his eyes scanned the papers, going so far as picking them up in his levitation to take a closer look. Lightning didn’t seem happy about this, but held her tongue.

The methods used for creating the Crystal Heart were truly revolutionary, yet Atlas could clearly see why it was dangerous. If a power source of that size became unstable, you could most likely level a city with it. While the other two unicorns were distracted by the floating research papers, Atlas signed for Discord to come closer.

“This is truly amazing! A work of Art! Perfection!” Atlas praised the research. “This could change the whole of Equestria, nay, Equus!”

“Oh shucks,” Lightning Rod said, clearly proud of her work. “It would be really nice if it did.”

“Yes, the possibilities are truly endless!” Chop Stick interjected.

Both of them had a dreamy look in their eyes, clearly imagining all the things they could do if they could make more of these gems.

“Is there a reason for it to be shaped like a heart, though?” Atlas asked off-handedly.

“Oh no, that’s just a personal preference,” Lightning Rod replied. “I just thought it’d look better that way.”

“Thank you, that’s all I needed to know,” Atlas said with a smirk.

“What?”

“Huh?”

A momentary flash of confusion crossed the two unicorns faces, just before they were sent crashing into the opposite wall by a powerful shockwave spell originating from Atlas. The moment their bodies hit the wall, they were frozen stuck to it, their horns completely encased in ice, rendering them pretty much useless, unless they could channel fire magic.

“Huh? Ow… What's going on?” Chop Stick said drowsily, apparently he had hit his head.

“What do you think you’re doing?” A more conscious Lightning Rod asked infuriated. “Release us right this instant!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Atlas said, stacking the research into a neat pile. “You see, I need this research, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I want a bunch of racist bigots to have it either.”

Atlas handed the papers to the freshly emerged Discord, who snapped his talons once, causing the research to disappear with a flash.

“No! My research!” Lightning Rod cried out. “How could you?”

“Just grab as much as you can, Discord, I’ll teleport us both out, so use up your mana if you have to,” Atlas said.

“Roger that,” Discord saluted and started spiriting away anything that looked even remotely interesting.

“No! No! Stop!” Lightning Rod was struggling against the ice that bound her and was starting to tear up. “I beg of you, don’t do this!”

“I’m sorry, I truly am,” Atlas said with an apologetic look on his face. “I’m sure you’ve put your heart and soul into this work, and it pains me to just take it by force like this.

“Yet, here’s a word of advice: Your purist outlook on life will get you nowhere in the end. Learn to live with the other races, let some actual love into your heart instead of just carving it into a gem in a hollow attempt to compensate.”

“All done!” Discord said beside him, once more saluting.

A quick scan by Atlas showed that the room was now almost deprived of anything consisting of paper, much to his glee. He almost couldn’t wait to go over all of it once they were home.

“And one more thing,” Atlas said to the crying Lightning Rod. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s racists. Hope you made a backup.”

A flash of light later, Atlas and Discord had disappeared from the room. Chop Stick was still confused, not quite able to get a clear thought in while Lightning Rod was now openly sobbing. Her life's work had just been mercilessly stolen from under her nose. She’d never forget the words left with her from the one who did it.

Author's Notes:

So yeah, Atlas doesn't like racists, big news. This concludes the traveling arc, and we'll move on to another research arc with the next chapter, see you there!

Once again, thanks to my editor Azriel, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

8. Experiment One

Atlas let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. The research paper he had been studying drifted towards the table, as Atlas let go of the levitation spell holding it up.

Discord and Atlas had returned from their trip throughout Equestria about a week ago, and had enjoyed having a permanent roof over their heads again. The secret lab was just as they’d left it, albeit perhaps a bit dustier. According to Starswirl, he’d only been over a few times, to check if everything was alright and otherwise spent his time in Vanhoover.

As soon as they returned, Atlas pretty much dove into his studies. The material Discord had teleported from the Crystal Empire had awaited them, lying in the center of the main cavern. At first he was pretty enthusiastic about all the high quality research he’d get to see, but was soon presented with a pretty big problem.

Guilt.

Every time he tried to actually study one of the research papers, Atlas was reminded of how they’d gotten them. His mind would go back to the day it happened, but mostly to what he did to Lightning Rod. Her crying played at the forefront of his mind, making him feel even worse.

Atlas had committed a grave crime and he knew it. What Atlas stole wasn’t just some research paper, it was someponies crown achievement in life. The other things they’d snagged were most likely easily replaceable, since they were just simple spells. The papers describing the creation of the Crystal Heart, though, were as a beautiful and as thought provoking to him as a symphony might be to a composer.

Just the pages that contained the process of creating a giant mana storage like that, could be the basis to write an entire book. And since they were top secret, what Atlas now possessed was most likely the only copy in existence.

He had no doubt that Lightning Rod would be able to recreate the research, given enough time, but it would be a huge setback for her.

On the other hand, Atlas felt like he did the right thing, even considering what an asshole move it was in the end. A lot of the spells he had seen on their tour could easily be used in a combat situation, and they’d even be pretty effective; which made the existence of the Crystal Heart even worse. While they might be using it as an energy storage device to protect and power their city, used differently it was still little more than a magical nuke.

And leaving ponies alone with a nuke, that went so far as to seclude themselves in the frozen north because they couldn’t adapt to the new status quo was just a disaster waiting to happen.

The internal debate about the situation had continued every day since their escape from the Empire and only got worse once they made it safely back home. Atlas was, of course, prepared to make some enemies when he stole the research, but he felt like he let his own feelings escalate the situation far beyond what it needed to. Just yesterday, a new thought had entered the fray; what if his actions on that day had further reaching effects than he anticipated at first?

The implications were not nice to think about, yet, his imagination loved to play out every single worst case scenario he could think of.

Realizing that he was starting to go into a downward spiral yet again, Atlas used his telekinesis to shove every stolen research paper within sight into random drawers and storage spaces. Where they went didn’t matter, as long as they were out of sight for now. It irked him to no end that he had all this juicy research at the tip of his hooves, yet he couldn’t get himself to properly study it.

In an attempt to get his mind off of his crimes, Atlas dug out his notes on an experiment he actually prepared before they went on their trip. The topic of runes still had a vast amount of untapped potential, and this experiment might bring him closer to mastering them.

This particular experiment would determine whether or not it mattered on what material the runes were carved. So far, almost all of Atlas’ runic arrays had been carved into some kind of stone. More often than not, the floor of whatever room had unoccupied space.

He had prepared various materials on which he would carve the same array and then observe what would happen once they activated. If they’d even activate, if the potency would change or even the effect on the array.

Atlas crossed the cave over to where he had stored the materials before leaving, a wooden chest squeezed between a workbench and a crucible. He opened it with his magic and started pulling out the materials while simultaneously checking them off his list.

Wood, a slab of granite, a sapphire, a random stone, paper, leather, a tomato, fabric, and, last but not least, bones.

He’d have to get creative to put the runes on some of these materials, especially the tomato, but there was no point to the experiment if he didn’t at least try. Once he got to the bones, he’d have to put various amounts of safety measures in place, considering what could happen; the books specifically said to not put runes on anything living, but bones were technically not alive, or at least that was the theory, for now. Still, he wasn’t about to take any chances.

Eager to see some results, Atlas got to work. First, he inscribed each of the materials with the same array. Since he couldn’t just carve into them like he usually did with the floor, he had to use various methods of actually writing the runes. He burned them on the paper and actually cut them out of the leather. The tomato took him by far the longest, since he actually sliced off the skin from it. It took him almost an hour and a lot of tomatoes, but eventually, he got it right.

In the second step, Atlas powered each of the arrays and observed each one for five minutes, noting down it’s behaviour before powering up the next one. All in all, there wasn’t a lot of difference in the arrays effectiveness. Though there were differences, they were so miniscule that they could be ignored. The most interesting thing he discovered was that the array he cut out of the leather didn’t work. He summarized that, since he was essentially trying to enchant empty space, it was a logical conclusion.

To his astonishment the tomato actually worked as material.

Having gone through almost all his material, he finally got to the bones; the material he was the most interested in. For the safety of his home, he decided to conduct this particular experiment outside and quite a bit away from the cave. After about ten minutes of walking, Atlas arrived at a clearing in the woods and proceeded to place the bone in it’s center before backing away to the treeline.

He immediately began casting every single spell he knew for protection, until so many wards and shields surrounded the bone that the air hummed with the magic charging the air; Atlas noted on the side how much his mana reserves had actually grown over the past years. When he started out back in school, he’d have had trouble casting more than three of these spells, but now, more than twenty were active before him and he still had plenty of mana to spare.

Pulling his mind off unnecessary thoughts, he concentrated on the single bone lying in the clearing. Slowly, he began charging the array, carefully watching out for any sign of something going wrong. Contrary to his expectations, the array actually charged without any problems at all. He activated it, and just like all the others before, the array worked perfectly.

Just to make sure, he continued watching the bone for half an hour without incident. Assured that it was safe, Atlas dispelled all of his protection spells before approaching the bone and poking it a few times, even going so far as to pick it up with his levitation.

A smile spread across his face, as the experiment was a complete success. He packed up the things he brought with him and returned to the lab with a skip in his step. There was a need to write down his findings and expand on them, further experiments to run, and maybe, even return to that blasted stolen research after a few successes.

Author's Notes:

Very short one! Next one might be about the same length.

Once again, thanks to my editor Azriel, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

9. Experiment Two

Atlas paused and looked at what he had created over the past month. With the help of Discord and Starswirl, a new cave partition had been created, this one bigger than even the main cave. It’s purpose was to provide enough secure space for large scale experiments as well as the more explosive kind.

The first experiment had been completely set up, and Atlas was currently in the process of running through the final checks together with Starswirl, who inspected the runes inscribed at the opposite side of the cave. The cave was perfectly cylindrical and had a diameter of thirty feet, with every possible free space on the floor currently covered in runes.

The rune array that decorated the floor was by far the most complex Atlas had ever designed. While he had only dabbled in computer programming back on Earth, writing a rune array conveyed almost the same feeling. Instead of making one huge array, he had created several smaller arrays that connected and reacted with each other to produce the desired results. Together with Starswirl, he had come up with a new type of array that synced with the bigger ones, allowing them to work with each other.

Once again, Atlas focused his mind onto the task at hoof. Various papers were floating around him, detailing exact rune placements. He had really tried to memorize the whole thing, but it ultimately proved to be impossible. It was their third and final check, and Atlas was beginning to tire out from the tedious and mentally taxing activity.

One of the great unknowns of this experiment was what would happen if even one rune was placed incorrectly. They had no idea if the whole thing would blow, or if the ridiculous amount of runes could actually make up for one or two mistakes. Not wanting to take any chances, they decided to triple check the whole thing after placing it.

The first two run throughs had returned no mistakes, and the third one looked to be flawless as well. Yet, Atlas didn’t want to grow complacent so he put just as much effort into his work as with the first check. It wouldn’t be long now before they could finally move on to powering up the array, provided no mistakes popped up.

As such, Atlas slogged on with his task, carefully checking each and every rune for its correct placement. At some point he passed by Starswirl, but they barely acknowledged each other's presence as they were too absorbed in their work.

Finally, after over an hour of quality controlling the array, both Atlas and Starswirl came to the conclusion that it was as flawless as they could possibly expect to get it. If anything would go wrong now, they knew that it was the blueprints that were wrong instead of the craftsmanship.

“Everything looks right to me, just like the last two pass-throughs,” Atlas said as they gathered at the chamber door leading out of their experiments section of the cavern.

“Same for me,” Starswirl replied contently. “I’m just glad this part is finally over! But, at least we’ll finally get to the most interesting part after all this work we’ve put into it.”

“Seeing if actually works, yes,” Atlas replied. “At this point I’m pretty confident that we’ll succeed, and I’m still giddy to see it in action.”

“If the array fails now, something fundamental would have to be wrong, and I’m not looking forward to taking a fine tooth comb over everything. Again,” Starswirl added with a slight frown.

A full month of almost non-stop work was about to come to a head in just a few minutes. Any scientist who was worth his salt would be devastated if all the effort was for naught. It was with cautious anticipation that Atlas and Starswirl moved into a little side passage that led them into an observation room.

Only a small slit was carved into the wall so they could see into the experiment cave while the wall shielded them, just in case. Of course, plenty of wards had been installed to prevent any damage from reaching them, but one could never be too cautious.

Atlas made brief eye contact with Starswirl, who nodded before starting the experiment. Atlas began to funnel his magic through the crack and into the array. While it would’ve been faster for them both to charge the array, they decided that only one of them should supply the mana to minimize variables.

Therefore, Atlas was faced with the task of providing enough mana to power the biggest rune array created to date. It took him almost twenty minutes of carefully loading all the separate arrays, as well as the in-between runes, but eventually a bright purple flash announced the completion of the spell.

All that was left was to activate the spell and hope for the best. Two sets of eyes transfixed themselves unto the small pedestal that stood in the exact center of the room, or rather the paper resting on top of it. Atlas took in one last deep breath to calm himself, before activating the array by spell prompt and with just a flick of magic.

Almost immediately, another purple flash blinded them before a magical shock wave slammed through all their wards, and ultimately into Atlas and Starswirl, bowling them into the back wall of the observation room. Aside from the pain of the impact, both of their bodies tingled with magical energy that manifested itself as small purple arcs of lightning jumping over their fur.

Groans escaped from both their lips as they slowly pulled themselves up from the ground, standing on wobbly hooves.

“Did… Did it fail?” Starswirl asked groggily, trying to focus his vision to see into the experiment room.

“I don’t think so…” Atlas replied in a haze. “That was probably the mapping shockwave I’ve told you about. Something similar happened when I used this spell the first time, albeit much less powerful…”

“I hope it was only this intense because we are right next to the point of origin…” Starswirl said.

“A purple shockwave travelling all over Equestria could already be considered as some sort of attack by some ponies… If it actually knocked over everything in it’s path and shocked ponies…” Atlas let the rest of the statement unspoken.

They might have to do some damage control after this by contacting Clover and Platinum.

“What the hell was that?” Discord shouted from the main cave. “Did you start the experiment without me?”

Atlas and Starswirl's eyes met and they both smiled sheepishly at each other. They were supposed to get Discord before they started, but they forgot because of how tired and anxious they were.

“Uhh… Yeah… Sorry about that!” Atlas called back as they moved towards the experiment cavern, meeting Discord half way. “It’s not finished yet, though, the interesting part is yet to come.”

“I swear, you guys always forget about me when you do stuff like this,” Discord said while pouting. “You know I like to see things explode.”

“Well, if you actually helped out every once in awhile, we wouldn’t even have to get you,” Atlas quipped at Discord, who scowled in return. “How much of the shockwave did you feel by the way?”

“Not much,” Discord answered while scratching his chin. “There was just this rapidly expanding purple ring in the sky and it tingled slightly when it passed over me…. Aside from that, nothing.”

Both Atlas and Starswirl let out a relieved sigh. They could’ve been in deep shit if they knocked down every single thing in Equestria. Still, they should probably write Clover to explain everything anyways. If the country leadership got the wrong idea about this, worst-case, a war could break out.

“Well, I guess we just wait now,” Atlas said as he reached the border of the experiment cave. He didn’t dare step into the actual array yet, in fear of messing something up with his mere presence in the circle.

“Waiting is boring,” Discord said, but sat down next to Atlas without further complaint.

“Should’ve taken longer to come here then,” Starswirl said from the side.

Discord huffed indignantly while Atlas just chuckled at his expense. Right now, a magical shockwave was travelling all over Equestria with one singular purpose. In an attempt to take his talent to a whole new level, with the help of Starswirl, he had designed a vastly superior mapping spell.

While the first array had barely enough range to crudely map a few square miles at a time, this one was like that array on steroids. If everything worked out as it should, they would soon be in the possession of the first complete map of Equestria, down to a level of detail that rivaled even the maps back on Earth. They even managed to make it so the towns, cities and villages would be labeled.

While the shockwave was expanding at a relatively fast pace, Equestria was still pretty big, so they had to wait yet another ten minutes before the paper on the pedestal suddenly started glowing brightly. Every pair of eyes was transfixed on the spectacle, waiting giddily for the spell to finish. And suddenly, just as if someone had pulled a plug, all of the runes and the paper stopped glowing.

The three spectators took this as their cue to take a running start into a mad dash towards the map waiting for them in the center of the room. What awaited them, was perfection.

Every hill, river, settlement, mountain, chasm and forest was neatly cartographed and labeled on the map. While Atlas was willing to just believe what the spell returned, he drew from his memories of travelling all over Equestria to compare what he knew. After finding everything he could remember just where it should be, a giant smile spread across his face.

“I declare this experiment… a full-blown success!”

Author's Notes:

Well, this took longer than expected, especially since it's this short ^^ I blame my superpower of being easily distracted by games and anime. Wait, did I say superpower? I meant super-disability of course. Picked up that sweet Sacred 2 up again tho, 's a good game.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

10. Experiment Three

Testing on live animals, entry #1

According to the books, of all the things that bugged me about runes, the fact that you weren’t supposed to inscribe on living beings was always curious to me. Of course, Brown Diamond’s experiment failed spectacularly and served as an excellent example as to exactly why that rule was established. Yet, we lost almost a whole bookshelf of tomes detailing the art of runes. The chances of there being an entire book or two dedicated to putting runes on living beings being destroyed was pretty high in my opinion.

Now that we have the new cave addition for large scale experiments, I feel like it is finally time to tackle this particular subject once again, in a controlled and secure environment, of course.

Starting today, I will dedicate all my time towards the research of this topic, and keep writing down my findings in this journal. Maybe there are some hints hidden within that research I stole from the Crystal Empire? After all, a lot of their spells involved enhancing a ponies abilities…

Testing on live animals entry #2

I have finally managed to actually read the stolen research without feeling… too guilty. The unicorns of the Empire have created some amazing spells and I’ve hungrily absorbed their teachings once I got past the first hurdle of actually starting. I do believe that some of their basic principles could be incorporated into the practice of applying runes to living tissue. Of course, this will require extensive research, as well as maybe the creation of two or three more runes.

I will ask Starswirl for help on the matter as always.

Testing on live animals, entry #3

Starswirl was not happy with my proposition. He chewed me out for almost half of the day after I told him of my plans. Discord, of course, caught wind of it because of Starswirl’s shouting. Considering Discord’s origins, he wasn’t too sure of my idea, though, he said he trusts me to not repeat the incident. It took some convincing, but I got Starswirl on board as well.

For now, we decided to study up on anything regarding the mana pathways and mana manipulation within the body before trying to apply it to the study of runes. Apparently, Starswirl was already doing that for a personal project of his, which he refused to tell me about until he was absolutely sure of his theory.

Testing on live animals, entry #14

We finally managed to perfect our first mana manipulation rune. By applying everything we learned over the past few months and learning from our countless failures, it is finally complete. I decided to call it Mahnwa. By adding additional, pre-existing runes, the flow of nearby mana can be programmed to flow in certain directions, or even in simple patterns.

To make actual tests on anything living thing feasible, we estimate that we need at least two more runes to support the Mahnwa rune. In order to not… overload the organism, the mana will have to be manipulated with extreme precision, and currently that’s just not possible.

Recently, Discord has been trying to help out as well. He still doesn’t really care about runes in general, considering the nature of his magic, yet I think he understands the scope of what we’re attempting here. It’s also possible that he just wants to make sure we don’t recreate a certain accident by keeping an eye on us. It’s actually kind of cute and heartwarming.

Testing on live animals, entry #22

Not really related, but Starswirl managed to royally fuck up one of the experimental arrays. Today I learned: Ponies without fur look hilarious.

Testing on live animals, entry #42

We’ve just completed the fourth rune, Flaguz. This presents us with yet another milestone towards achieving our goal. After the success in manipulating the flow of mana with pinpoint accuracy after creating the third new rune, Kurwah, excessive testing revealed the need for a fourth rune that acted as a stabiliser.

Flaguz has been thoroughly tested and proves to be stable, interacting with the runic arrays without issue. Now that we finally have the necessary framework figured out, we can finally move on to the REALLY interesting part.

Actually creating an array that will be applicable to a living, breathing being. Of course we’ll have to thoroughly test anything we create, even before attempting to actually perform a live test. Wouldn’t want to kill a poor chicken or something similar just because we didn’t make sure what we created would work one-hundred percent.

Oddly enough, the way we program the runes to manipulate the flow of mana reminds me of that card game I made back at the academy. I might have to make a new and improved deck in my freetime soon. I’m sure Starswirl and Discord would love to play every now and then.

It took us almost two years to get to this point, let’s just hope it wasn’t all for nothing…

Testing on live animals, entry #56

The chicken… it just… imploded…

Back to the drawing board…

Testing on live animals, entry #65

We figured out what we did wrong the first time, and it only took another five months and yet another new rune to fix it. We were so concerned with creating a stable flow of mana that we completely forgot that all that extra mana would need an outlet. The new rune, Drayn, was created to do just that. When added to the rune, it functions as a sort of “reload” mechanic by cycling the mana that is used for the array. By constantly expelling and drawing in new mana, an overload should be circumvented.

The otherwise occurring mess as well, of course.

Testing on live animals, entry #68

THE ARRAY WORKED!

For the first time ever, a runic array was successfully applied to a living being! There is still one last kink that surfaced upon our success, though. As it is currently, there is no way to actually turn off the array, since it’s constantly resupplying itself with new mana. This problem should be easily circumvented by writing some more, already existing runes into the array, thus eliminating the need to create yet another new rune.

Thank god.

While we are getting the hang of creating new runes to fulfill specific purposes, they still take us months and a lot of singed fur to make.

Testing on live animals, entry #74

It is finally time to test the theory on an actual pony. After three years of hard work, we are finally entering the final stages of this project.

Seeing as I was the one who proposed this research, I obviously volunteered myself as the guinea pig. I have confidence that we’ll get it to work, but seeing as we were confident with our first chicken experiment as well… You get the point. Even if something should go wrong, I’ve got a pretty good insurance, which neither Starswirl or Discord have, so I technically never really had a choice either way…

Testing on live animals, entry #75

Explosive disarticulation hurts.

Testing on live animals, entry #80

After the horrifying experience last month, we’ve slowly approached an array that worked for ponies, or, at the very least, myself. I can also very much confirm that losing a limb hurts a lot more than exploding… twice. At least not completely combusting was a sign of progress. (I never thought I’d ever say that.)

By now, we’ve agreed that we’ll probably never apply an actual array on anyone else than myself, since the risk is just too great. Oh well, I might get to make some cool permanent enhancements to myself in the future, so, worth it? I guess?

Anyways, we’re just about to start our, hopefully, final test.

Testing on live animals, entry #81

Great news everypony! The array worked perfectly, and I can now jump ten feet into the air effortlessly. More than three years of research and pain, finally bore fruit. The actual enhancement might seem insignificant, but for us, the success of the project is the greatest reward we could get.

This is just one more step towards mastering the runes left behind for me by Hades(who I didn’t even get to meet after the failures). I’m sure Brown Diamond would’ve loved to see us succeed. Well, in a way, he did, I guess.

As such: I declare this experiment a full-blown success!

Author's Notes:

Changing up the usual chapter format for this one a little. Journal entries seemed like the most fitting way to tell the story of this little experiment, especially since it technically took them three years to perfect it kinda make it work.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this Believe it or not, but this song dominated the charts in switzerland for a long time. have you guys ever heard it?

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

11. Experiment Four

Atlas was tinkering with a little metal plate at one of his work benches in the main cave. After having spent more than three years to complete and perfect his mapping array, he had been working on little knick-knacks to wind down a bit. With no rhyme or reason, whatever popped into his head was made with varying success. Right now, he was working on something that could possibly revolutionize Equestria forever: The Lightswitch.

If ponies didn’t have to walk around the house putting out every single lamp, be they powered by fire or mana, they could save an incredible amount of time. Also, Atlas was just getting tired of having to do just that every night.

This particular little device didn’t even make any use of runes. Atlas decided that he had seen enough runes over the last experiment to last him the next few years, so he concentrated his efforts into studying spells of different schools once again. In a way, this was a relaxing activity for him, since everything he was learning could just be researched from books and was proven to not explode in his face, unlike experimental runes had the tendency to do.

“Good morning, Atlas,” Starswirl said, entering the cave from the outside.

“Morning...” Atlas replied absentmindedly, still trying to figure out how he was supposed to make this work without using wires.

Starswirl had taken to commuting between Vanhoover and the lab for the past few weeks. Apparently he had to keep up appearances with his friends. They were of course understanding of Starswirl's absence, since he had done it pretty much for as long as they knew him, but every once in awhile they started asking questions. Acting like he was just out in the city somewhere doing his usual odd-jobs and returning in the evening painted an image of a hardworking Starswirl, while he was able to freely visit Atlas and Discord in their secret lab.

As per usual, Starswirl plopped down at his own workbench opposite from Atlas’, and began pulling out scrolls and books from the various storage containers close to him. He was meticulously arranging them so that he could easily overlook everything when Discord emerged from the bedroom door.

“G’morning…” he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to banish the last vestiges of sleep.

The two working stallions answered absentmindedly, something Discord had grown used to by now. Since he wasn’t exactly helping out with their research, Discord was free to do as he pleased for the most part. Not wanting to just bum around all day, he had taken it upon himself to help the hard working stallions wherever he could whenever he wasn’t doing something by himself, like preparing for his next theatrical performance.

“Did you guys have any breakfast yet?” Discord asked, getting a duo of half-committed grunts in reply, which he interpreted as ‘no’. “I’ll whip us something up, then.”

This suited him just fine, since he was hungry as well. Discord strolled into the kitchen area at a lazy pace, well aware that he didn’t need to rush anything. He got to work on making some sandwiches for the lot of them, since they were easy to eat while being focused on something entirely else. Whenever Atlas and Starswirl got their heads into something, it was almost impossible to drag them away for a prolonged amount of time, even if this just meant ten minutes of proper breakfast.

He distributed them onto three plates and went back into the main cavern, setting one place down on a free spot on Starswirl's desk before making his way over to his father.

“So what are you making this time?” Discord asked while setting down Atlas’ plate, which he gratefully accepted. “Looks… simple.”

“It’s going to be a lightswitch,” Atlas said while munching on the first of his sandwiches. “If I can get it to work, that is.”

“What’s a lightswitch?” Discord asked.

“It’s a small switch that you can flick to turn on or off any lights that are connected to it,” Atlas explained. “Just a little something-something to improve quality of life, nothing too special.”

Discord leaned over Atlas’ head to take a better look at the small device that was floating in Atlas’ magic. Aside from the simplicity of the device, Discord was once again reminded of just how much he had grown over the past few years. Atlas had called it a growth spurt, and according to him, Discord was still supposed to get bigger. The thought was kind of strange to him, since he was already quite a bit taller than Atlas was by now.

Just a few years ago, Discord was able to ride on Atlas’ back. It had become somewhat of a safe spot for Discord, but now he was simply too big to even attempt such a thing.

Well, it was just a part of growing up, as Atlas had told him time and time again.

“Well, you know I can just turn all of them off with a snap of my talon right?” Discord said, finally. “And you can do it too with a pretty simple spell, you know?”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Atlas retorted. “But this isn’t supposed to be for me or you. Earth Ponies and Pegasi don’t exactly have the convenient cheats we have, so I’m thinking this could be really practical for them.”

“I suppose you're right,” Discord said. “Well, good luck with that, I’m heading out into the forest for a bit.”

“Alright, have fun out there,” Atlas said. “And make sure nobody follows you.”

“I’m pretty sure after years of living here I should know that by now,” Discord said, accentuating his statement with a roll of his eyes.

“Sorry, I just like saying it,” Atlas replied with a chuckle. “Makes it sound like we’re some sort of secret organisation.”

“Well, with how much this cave is guarded, I guess we are sort of,” Discord remarked before snapping his talon, making the empty plates disappear. “Well, see you later.”

Atlas simply waved his hoof without turning around, starting to fiddle with his lightswitch again, pausing only to take notes every now and then. Discord shot one last look over to Starswirl who had somehow fit even more notes onto his workspace, the sight had almost something comical about it. With a chuckle, Discord headed outside, intent on finding something to entertain him, or make his own entertainment, depending on which happened first.

It was late at night when Atlas magically glued his now working lightswitch between the doorways to the bedroom and the kitchen. Satisfied with it’s positioning, he gave it a flick with his hoof and with some satisfaction watched as every single mana-lamp inside the cave was turned off.

“Hey!” Starswirl called out. “A little warning next time? I can’t see!”

“Oh, sorry,” Atlas said and hastily turned the lights back on again.

“It’s okay,” Starswirl replied with a sigh. “I was just a little surprised.”

“Well, at least it works as intended,” Atlas said, pointing towards the little switch behind him.

“Congratulations,” Starswirl said, eying the switch. “That didn’t take you long at all to make, when did you start on this? Today?”

“It was easier than thought,” Atlas waved him off. “How about you? You’ve been working on that thing of yours forever now, and you still haven’t even told me what you’re actually researching.”

“I just felt like this was something I had to do myself…” Starswirl explained.

“I know, I’ve heard you say this at least a hundred times now,” Atlas rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t make me less curious, though,” Atlas paused and furrowed his brows. “Wait, ‘was’? As in, you’re finally done?”

“Exactly!” Starswirl exclaimed with a big smile on his face. “I actually finished up yesterday, I’ve just been going over it all one last time today.”

“So you’re finally going to do the big reveal? Or will we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what the great and mysterious Starswirl has cooked up over the last three years?” Atlas asked with some amused sarcasm.

“Oh no, I’ll show you today, I can’t wait to actually try this out!” Starswirl said, the excitement slowly creeping into his voice.

“Alright, cool,” Atlas said, sporting a smile of his own at seeing his friend so excited. “But let me get Discord first, you know how much he likes watching when we finally get to the practical tests. That, and we maybe, kinda, sorta have a bet going on what you’ve been making…” Atlas muttered the last part under his breath, so that Starswirl didn’t hear him and went into the kitchen area, where Discord was currently doing the dishes from their dinner.

“Hey Discord?” Atlas called out once he entered the kitchen?

“Yeah?” Discord replied, not looking up from the dishes he was manually washing.

“Starswirl is finally ready for his big reveal, come out and he’ll show us.”

Discord immediately disappeared from his position, the dishes doing themselves now, and reappeared right next to Atlas, visibly excited.

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” Discord asked. “This has been bugging me for years!”

“I’m pretty sure you could’ve just snuck in a peek whenever you wanted,” Atlas said with a raised eyebrow.

“Sure, but where’s the fun in that?” Discord replied. “There’s also the problem that I most likely wouldn’t understand half of what he’s written down, and couldn’t read the other because his writing’s so bad.”

Atlas laughed at the remark and simply let himself be dragged along, back outside and towards Starswirl who was organizing and filing away most of his notes while waiting for them.

“Alright Starswirl, we’re both here,” Discord said. “I’m ready to start yesterday.”

“How fitting,” Starswirl said. “Because what I’ve been researching actually has a lot to do with time.”

“It does?” Discord asked with a confused tilt of his head.

Atlas simply raised an eyebrow and decided to await further explanation. After a second, a thought struck him and a small blue book appeared out of nowhere, heeding his summoning. He received a couple of questioning stares as he magically flipped through the pages before arriving at the part he wanted to read, before nodding, dismissing the book and smiling at Starswirl.

“Go on,” Atlas said, supporting his statement with a hoof-gesture.

“What was that all about?” Starswirl asked.

“Oh I just had to look something up real quick, don’t mind me,” Atlas said dismissively.

Starswirl didn’t know about Atlas’ book, where he noted down everything he knew about the timeline, as well as the show in general. Discord did, though, and knew how it looked. He’d even read some of it’s contents when he was but a little child and therefore regarded Atlas suspiciously. Discord was smart enough to connect the dots and was now sure that something important was about to happen, and it had something to do with Starswirl's new spell.

“Alright then…” Starswirl said, still confused, but willing to ignore Atlas’ antics. “Well, why don’t we just get to it then? Let’s move into the experiment partition of the cave.”

“Why? Is there a risk of something blowing up?” Atlas asked as they started walking towards the bigger cave in the back.

“Oh no, nothing of the sort,” Starswirl reassured Atlas. “There might be a small shockwave, though, and I wouldn’t want it to knock everything over.”

“Understandable, I’d much prefer my things un-knocked over as well,” Atlas smirked.

“That’s not a word and you know it,” Discord replied.

“Like you’re one to talk,” Atlas retorted. “I hear at least two made up words out of your mouth every single day.”

“Yeah but mine sound less like a lame dad joke,” Discord replied.

“I have every right to make as many lame dad jokes as I want, I am one after all,” Atlas smiled.

“Doesn’t mean we have to think of them as good,” Starswirl interjected. “Now stop bickering and listen up, we’re here.”

Atlas and Discord immediately shut up and focused their attention on Starswirl. He was standing in the middle of the big cave, the floor of which was currently free of any runes.

“Alright then, my new spell that I’ve been researching over the last three years has one singular purpose,” Starswirl began to explain. “Do you both still remember how I said that in order to create Discord, my ability to age was taken away?”

Atlas and Discord both nodded. Discord showed a pang of guilt on his face while Atlas was already piecing together what the spell was supposed to do.

“Well, if everything works out correctly, this spell should get my ‘time’ up and running again,” Starswirl said proudly.

“Wait, you’re going to just manipulate time?” Discord asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Good question!” Starswirl said, channeling his inner teacher. “But yes, it is. The very fact that my time was stopped in the first place should be evidence enough of the principle. In fact, I’ve used it as the basis for my theory.”

“That would be pretty amazing,” Discord said. “Revolutionary, even.”

“Thank you, but I don’t think that this should become public knowledge,” Starswirl said. “Since the actual spell allows somepony to actually travel through a certain amount of time, forwards as well as backwards, it could be very easily abused.”

“So you want to travel through time, and by doing so, you hope that you can somehow kick-start your own time again?” Atlas asked to confirm his theory.

“I don’t know what kick-starting something means, but it sounds appropriate, yes,” Starswirl replied. “After copious scans of myself, I’ve found that my ‘time’ wasn’t completely taken away, and by applying enough stimuli, I should be able to replenish and… kick-start it back up again.”

“I guess the fact that you’re telling us now means that you’ve already tested your spell and it works?” Atlas asked.

“It does!” Starswirl said excitedly. “ I’ve sent multiple apples five minutes into the future, and every time I did, they disappeared from my desk, then reappeared by themselves five minutes later at the exact same spot.”

“Will five minutes be enough?” Discord asked curiously. “Or will you have to travel further?”

“That’s what we’re about to find out,” Starswirl smiled. “By my calculations there should be about a fifty-fifty percent chance of it being enough. I’d rather not get too fancy and risk the spell failing by increasing the amount of time just yet, so today I’d like to try out five minutes first, and then run a few tests on myself to see if it worked.”

“Alright, sounds like you’ve done your research. If you’re that confident, I’ll trust and support you,” Atlas said. “You did make sure that this was a safe thing to do for ponies, right?”

“Well, it should be…” Starswirl said. “There’s no real way of knowing except for trying it out.”

“Shouldn’t we test it out on me first, then?” Atlas asked skeptically. “You know? Because of the whole ‘not killable’ thing?”

“I’m fairly certain that won’t happen,” Starswirl said. “The worst that could happen would be that the users ‘time’ gets skewed, but since mine already is, I think I’m more suited for the initial test.”

Atlas eyed Starswirl for a while, thinking the proposition over before letting out a big sigh. “Well, if you say so.”

“Thank you,” Starswirl nodded his head. “There’s just one more thing I’d need your help with, actually…”

“Gladly, I just said earlier that I’d help out in any way I can, so just tell me what to do and I’ll do it,” Atlas confirmed.

“Well, the spell actually takes a lot of mana to cast, even just sending an apple five minutes into the future drained almost half of my reserves every time I did it,” Starswirl explained. “Sending a full grown pony… By my calculations would take a lot more than that, so I was hoping you could share some of yours with me…”

“My mana reserves have gotten pretty big over the years, but will it be enough?” Atlas asked dubiously. “If something as small as an apple takes half of your mana, I’d imagine a pony would take at the very least ten times that, and I’m not sure that even I could provide this much mana…”

“By my calculations, the most mana is consumed for creating the actual rip in time, so mana expenses rise with the relative size of the hole,” Starswirl explained. “Doing that for a pony of my size would take approximately five times more mana than doing it for an apple.”

Atlas did the math in his head before nodding. “Alright, that sounds doable, but even then, we’ll be cutting it close.”

“Umm… Couldn't I maybe chip in a bit as well?” Discord asked from the sidelines. Whenever Atlas and Starswirl started discussing the more intricate details of a spell, they tended to go into their own little world and forget about their surroundings, so he offered his help in an attempt to remind them of his presence.

“While I really appreciate the sentiment, I’m afraid the chaotic nature of your mana isn’t suited for this kind of mana sharing…” Starswirl said with an apologetic look. “But I’m grateful that you even offered your help, thanks.”

“Alright then…” Discord said, slinking back slightly.

Discord still felt somewhat guilty about having taken away things from both Atlas and Starswirl in order to be created. He knew it wasn’t his fault and the other two reassured him time and time again that he had nothing to apologize for, but he still felt like he wanted to help, especially at an opportunity like this. Once more, it seemed like he was just doomed to watch from the sidelines and cheer for Starswirl.

“Let’s just get to it then, instead of just talking about it,” Starswirl said, slowly breathing out to calm down his nerves.

“Alright, I’ll just supply my mana, it’s up to you to tell me when to stop, alright?” Atlas asked, getting into position a few feet away from Starswirl.

“That’ll be perfect, thanks,” Starswirl nodded. “I’ll begin casting the spell.

True to his word, Starswirl's horn began to glow his usual blue and he closed his eyes to concentrate on this complicated spell. Almost immediately, Atlas opened a channel between them and started supplying purple mana towards the spell, as this type of mana was especially suited to sharing between unicorns. They kept up this procedure for almost ten minutes, causing Atlas to already feel his mana pool slowly emptying. Apparently it took slightly more mana than Starswirl had calculated.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Starswirl said between gritted teeth, trying to not disrupt his spellwork.

Atlas cut off his mana supply, his breath slightly laboured after having lost so much of his reserves. He let out a deep breath and simply sat down where he stood, content to watch from now on and was soon joined by Discord on his right side. The rest was now up to Starswirl.

“See you in five minutes,” Starswirl said, before a bright flash of light, similar to a teleportation spell occurred and he disappeared.

As predicted, a shock wave washed over them, but it was barely enough to rustle their hair a little bit, like a light breeze.

“So now what?” Discord asked, staring at the spot Starswirl had just disappeared from.

“Now? We play the waiting game,” Atlas said. “If everything went without a problem, he should re-appear right over there in five minutes.”

So they patiently waited, not talking much, until five minutes had passed. They waited for five more minutes, but still, Starswirl didn’t reappear. Helpless to do anything, all they could do was speculate and wait for their friend to come back to them, wherever he had ended up.

But Starswirl didn’t reappear that night, nor the day after, nor the week after that. The experimental cave remained empty. The only thing left behind by Starswirl were his notes, and the empty feeling in Atlas and Discords hearts. There was no way of knowing what went wrong, but Atlas clung on to his last hope, telling him that he didn’t lose yet another good friend.

A little blue book, that told of the great achievements Starswirl the Bearded would accomplish in the future.

Author's Notes:

Well, This took a while, didn't it? Reson being a combination of me being lazy, as always, Destiny 2 coming out, and Azriel being busy with school stuff. This isn't fully edited, but I thought I'd post it now anyway. Also, this is the last chapter of the second research arc, next time, we'll start off this storys main arc, the one a lot of you have been waiting for:

The Two Sisters.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by This thing.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

12. The "Mad" King

Ten long years had passed and there was still no sign of Starswirl. Whatever happened to him was still open to speculation. Atlas had spent quite a lot of time studying the research papers Starswirl had left behind, frantically looking for the mistake. But, try as he might, he couldn’t find any. As far as Atlas was concerned, everything should have worked perfectly. The only irregularity in the calculations would have been Starswirl himself. Maybe, just maybe, since Starswirl’s time was technically absent, the spell had gone haywire.

What that truly meant, no one could know. Hopefully he was just simply sent too far into the future, or maybe even the past and had no way to return. The more bleak option would be that Starswirl was now trapped inside an endless limbo of time, forever doomed to wait until someone rescued him.

While this had been at the forefront of Atlas and Discord's mind for quite some time, they had learned to live with it. After having tried pretty much everything they could, all they were left with was to simply wait for some sort of sign from Starswirl. Until then, they decided they would live their life normally.

Well, as normal as their strange little family could, at least.

Atlas sat on a chair on a balcony of outcropping rock outside their secret cave, which had received quite a few additions and upgrades. Aside from more room for experiments, a second floor had been added which served as the new living space. Due to the fact that this balcony was located above the treetops, it allowed for quite the view.

He was sipping on some freshly brewed tea as he watched some birds playing with each other among the trees with the city of Vanhoover’s skyline was visible in the distance.

It really spoke to the efficiency of ponies, that in little more than a decade the town had exploded in size. Whether that was due to the fact it had a naturally deep sea port or that it was one of the merchants main trade routes, there was a great influx of ponies that had settled there. Of course that meant that more and more ponies were pushing to settle the forest.

It wasn’t unusual to see some daring explorers walk past the cave now. Usually these explorers were kids, or even young ponies in love, looking for a retreat. Every now and then, Atlas had noticed unicorns acting suspiciously around the area where his wards were placed. It might have been that they just noticed that there were active spells placed around the area, and for some that might have been the actual reason, but there were some who seemed really interested in the area of the mountain where Atlas’ cave was located.

He could have sworn that one purple unicorn stared directly into his eyes at one point before leaving.

Well, since Starswirl was gone, Atlas had to be the one that went into town to get supplies most of the time, sometimes even accompanied by Discord. As word would most likely travel fast when a weird being such as a draconequus was seen in a city, he had no doubt that somepony with connections that was looking for them would hear about it.

As such, Atlas believed those unicorns to be spies from the Crystal Kingdom, sent to look for him. They no doubt still held a grudge against him after what he’d done all those years ago, and they seemed to be getting a little too close for comfort. Still, Atlas trusted in the spells he had placed together with Starswirl and didn’t pay them too much mind. Just to make sure, he had upgraded each and every single ward around his base, and even added a few new ones.

“I cut us some apples,” Discord said, his serpentine body slithering out of the opening in the mountain.

“Thanks,” Atlas chuckled and levitated a piece off the plate Discord had brought with him while he sat down on his own special chair.

Discord had reached his full size by this point, practically towering over Atlas if he stood up straight. It was a weird thing, seeing the draconequus that he’d raised from a baby becoming an adult. By now, he looked completely like the Discord that Atlas had seen in the show, minus the crazy mindset. It wasn’t just his body had changed in recent years, their relationship had also changed significantly.

Discord was an adult now, so Atlas pretty much gave him the freedom to do whatever he wished, even move out, if that was what he wanted. To his great relief, Discord had decided to stay with Atlas, and while they still had a father-son relationship, they practically lived like roommates.

“I’ve been thinking…” Discord started, staring at the tea in his claw. “You’ve been sitting out here a lot recently.”

“I do quite enjoy this addition to the cave, yes,” Atlas said, unsure of where Discord was going with this.

“I can tell, you know?” Discord continued. “I’ve been with you for all of my life, and it’s glaringly obvious that something's bothering you.”

“Oh?” Atlas hummed curiously.

“You sit out here for hours sometimes, just staring out into the distance, you're letting your research lag behind,” Discord said. “That’s just not like you.”

“Well, maybe I just thought I needed a little break,” Atlas defended himself. “I did pretty much continue to work for years.”

“Which would be understandable,” Discord nodded, still not looking at Atlas. “But, I know that’s not it… I can feel it.”

“So let’s just assume something was bothering me, what would you have me do?” Atlas ventured.

“Couldn’t we… just, like… talk about it?” Discord asked, finally looking up from his beverage, meeting Atlas’ eyes for the first time since coming outside.

Atlas stared up into the eyes of his son, and what he saw was genuine concern, and just a hint of sadness. It would appear that his behaviour had made his son worry, and Atlas felt a twang of guilt at having troubled his own son to this extent. He could feel his own indecision pulling him in different directions, but what actually troubled Atlas was something he couldn’t really openly discuss with anybody.

Especially Discord.

“While I would really like to… I… I just can’t,” Atlas said, tearing his eyes away from Discord’s, looking back over at the city in the distance.

He just couldn’t bear looking him into the eyes while denying him the emotional security that would come with just letting him know. Discord nodded sadly and looked back down at his cup, slowly letting it rotate in the air, contemplating his next words carefully.

“Does it have to do with the future?” Discord blurted out. “Is it because of something that’s going to happen to me?”

Atlas felt his stomach drop, feeling like the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He slowly turned his head to look back at Discord, who was still fixated on his cup.

“What,” Atlas cleared his throat. “What gave you that idea?” Atlas asked nervously.

“I’m a curious individual…” Discord chuckled. “When someone’s trying to hide something from me, you know that I’ll try everything to sneak a peek at it, right?”

“Yes?” Atlas said, dreading what would come next.

“It took me forever, but… I managed to snag your blue book from where you squirreled it away,” Discord said apologetically, making Atlas feel like his heart was about to stop beating. “I’ve read it,” Discord chuckled. “The whole thing, from beginning to end.”

“Oh…” Atlas said, feeling for once like he was at a loss for words.

While Atlas trusted Discord with his life, the blue book that contained everything Atlas knew about this world and it’s future was the one thing he never wanted Discord to really know about.

“So… you’ve probably read all about yourself, then?” Atlas asked tentatively.

“Yes.”

Atlas shoulders sagged in defeat and he let out a huge sigh. “I never wanted you to know about this, and I’m sure now you know why.”

“It’s not one of my proudest moments,” Discord replied. “But, my curiosity got the better of me, ever since I read the first few pages as a kid, I wondered what else might be in there.”

“I don’t want what’s written in that book to come true, you know? I would never wish a fate like that upon my own son,” Atlas said, trying to explain himself, if just a little bit.

“Neither do I. A thousand years trapped in stone, feared and hated by everypony doesn’t sound like my idea of fun…” Discord chuckled. “But it seems pretty obvious that the alicorns Celestia and Luna are necessary for a truly united and harmonious Equestria.”

“I believe they are, yes,” Atlas said. “That’s why I’ve been waiting, watching, and listening for any sign of the two. I don’t know how much time is supposed to pass before they appear, but as far as I know, they should have already popped up by now. I know that they knew Starswirl, so they should have to exist around this time, but his disappearance has complicated everything. I can’t help but wonder if the future isn’t as set in stone as I thought it would be.”

Discord smiled, happy that his father was finally opening up a bit about what bothered him all this time. But he knew that wasn’t the whole extent of the issue.

“I remember a lot of things that you’ve told me about your old world, father,” Discord started. “But one thing that alway stuck with me is the concept of Yin and Yang.”

“Light within darkness and darkness within light, both in perfect balance forever, neither can exist without the other and both can be found within its counterpart,” Atlas nodded. “What about it?”

“Light can’t exist without darkness…” Discord said tentatively. “Harmony can’t exist… without Discord.”

Atlas wanted to say something, anything to deviate Discord from this idea, but the words stuck in his throat, not wanting to come out. The truth was, that Atlas thought the same.

“What if these two alicorn sisters never appear if I’m not there for them to defeat?” Discord said, gripping his cup tightly, almost threatening to break it. “What if Equestria never gets truly unified, because I’m just a normal being, spending his days happily inside a cave with his father?”

“ I’m sure it’d work out in the end,” Atlas said worriedly. “Equestria is on the right track, you can easily see how far they’ve already come.” Atlas pointed his hooves towards Vanhoover in the distance, the perfect example of the prospering country.

“Sure, everything looks good on the surface, but what about the Crystal Kingdom?” Discord rebutted a bit more forceful than he wanted. “You know full well that they’ve been spying around here recently. That can only mean that they are about to make their move, either on us, or Equestria as a whole!”

“So what? If they come for us we’ll just defend ourselves, we can take them,” Atlas waved them off, getting slightly heated himself.

“Are you sure about that?” Discord replied challengingly. “I know you are very capable, and I can also wreak quite a bit of havoc, but they’ve had ten years and quite a bit more heads to put together to come up with new and improved spells. And what about the rest of Equestria, don’t you care about them?”

“They… they’ll just have to fend for themselves,” Atlas said, cold sweat running down his back. “We just need to worry about ourselves…”

“I know that’s not how you truly feel,” Discord interrupted, shaking his head. “You always want what’s best for everypony.”

“That might be true, but that doesn’t mean you just have to go off on a rampage!” Atlas said, almost shouting now, afraid. “You can just stay with me, and we’ll be happy together!”

“There’s another proverb you told me when I was small…” Discord chuckled once more, finally meeting Atlas infuriated eyes again. “The needs of the many outweighs the need of the few.”

Atlas wanted to rebuke, wanted to tell Discord off, but having his own lessons thrown back at him left him stunned. He was doing his best oppression of a fish, giving Discord enough time to wind up for the final blow.

“All true heroes are defined by the sacrifices they make,” Discord said. “And I think this sacrifice is ours to make, even if nopony will ever know what we did for them.”

“There’s still a chance that they’ll just show up some day, without us having to do anything…” Atlas tried weakly. “Can’t we just wait a little longer?”

“You said it yourself before… They should most likely already be here,” Discord said. “Besides,” he sighed. “I’ve already made my decision anyway.”

Silence fell over the two as Atlas fell back into his chair, defeated and feeling weak. All this time he had worked to try and prevent Discord from experiencing the hell that fate had in store for him, and now, everything was crumbling and falling down around him. He didn’t want to let Discord go through with it, it was the last thing he’d wish for him. But deep down, inside, he knew that Discord was right.

After all, this dilemma was what had been bothering Atlas for years now. There was no way to know if Celestia and Luna would just appear on their own, but there was also the underlying fear of Discord turning rogue by himself due to some unforeseen circumstances. He knew, that the two sisters were necessary for a truly united and peaceful Equestria, but didn’t want to admit, that Discord was as well.

“Everypony will hate you, you know?” Atlas said weakly. “They’ll fear you, even after you’ve spent a thousand years trapped inside a stone prison, they will remember.”

“I know,” Discord said.

“You’ll be alone, with no one to turn to.”

“As long as I know at least you know the truth, I’ll be okay.”

“A thousand years is a long time, you know.”

“I know you’ll be waiting for me at the end.”

Atlas could feel himself tearing up, and he knew without even looking over, that Discord was as well. They watched as the horizon slowly turned orange, as the sun was going down, announcing that the day was about to end.

“The villain,” Atlas said. “It will be the hardest role you’ve ever played.”

Discord chuckled through his tears. “I plan to play the role spectacularly.”

“And I know you will,” Atlas said, a small smile appearing on his face. “You always do.”

Discord stood up from his chair, prompting Atlas to do the same. They shared a look of deep understanding with each other, before Discord kneeled down to give Atlas a hug, which was gladly returned. They stayed like this for a little while, cherishing each other's presence and giving each other some amount of comfort before separating.

“You know you don’t have to start today right?” Atlas said hopefully. “We could still spend a bit more time together.”

Discord shook his head. “I don’t know if I could bring myself to do it if I didn’t go right now.”

Atlas nodded sadly, not surprised at the answer. “Well… break a leg.”

“Take care of yourself,” Discord said, stepping towards the edge of the balcony and looking back one more time. “And don’t forget to eat regularly.”

Atlas nodded, showing Discord one more smile before he jumped off the balcony, flying towards Vanhoover just like a chinese dragon would. Atlas watched him disappear into the distance, suddenly feeling empty inside.

It wasn’t long before the first strange changes were made to the buildings of Vanhoover. Chaos erupted in the city and Atlas could just barely hear the faint screams of panicked ponies in the distance.

Atlas had just unleashed a great “evil” upon Equestria, dooming them to who knows how many years of suffering under a crazy tyrant’s rule. He just hoped, that in the end everything worked out and what he just allowed to happen wasn’t for nothing.

For a long time Atlas stood there on the balcony, watching and listening to the madness that had become Vanhoover. Discord was pulling out all the tricks in the book apparently, doing a mighty fine job of playing the villain. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the chaos unfolding in front of him, watching closely, even through the tears that continued to fall from him.

Discord had accepted his role as the villain, and as his father, Atlas could do little more than wholly support his son in his decision. There was no doubt in Atlas’ mind that the road going forward would be rocky and painful for both of them.

And for the first time since being thrown into this world, Alex felt truly alone.

Author's Notes:

Everybody been speculating how Discord gun turn mad, guess what? You were wrong! Kicking off the Two Sisters arc! The ever present time skips will be present throughout this as well, we got years to cover and only so much time, bear with me here please :P

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

13. A Chaotic Encounter

Atlas slowly approached the next village on his journey. Similar to when he and Discord went around Equestria before, he’d taken to wandering through the country. Before, their objective was to explore and get the feel for the land, but this time Atlas was travelling in order to find something, or rather, someone. But, his motivation for coming through this village wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

Just as the rest of Equestria this particular village had changed as well. Most ponies would say it had changed for the worse, but Atlas couldn’t help but look at the chaos around him with a certain mirth. Discord didn’t exactly make the ponies suffer, but his particular brand of chaos could make life… difficult to say the least.

At the very least ponies didn’t have to worry much about food what with the cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk amongst other strange things that provided them with a plethora of sweets. Cavities were most likely the biggest danger to their health, but they didn’t really care about that.

As far as ponies were concerned the status quo had changed which was comparable to some sort of hell. Atlas could certainly see how the recently turned peace-loving ponies could see the chaos around them as some sort of a hellish landscape, but aside from the weird day-night cycles. Atlas was having the time of his life. Food was readily available funny things could be seen everywhere, and it never really got boring.

The downtrodden looks of the ponies inside the village certainly threatened to be a bummer, but Atlas tried not to let them get to him. He did actually feel bad for them and wanted this apparent torture for them to stop as soon as possible. That’s why he set out from his cave after some time of waiting, and actively started searching for the two beings that were supposed to put a stop to this.

Atlas had patiently waited for five months in his cave. Five months, five months that he’d spent in complete isolation questioning himself and the decision he’d made together with his son. The possibility that they’d started way too early was very real. Which would mean that Discord’s chaotic “rampage” would march on until the pony saviours finally appeared, whenever that might be.

Atlas made his way around the village streets where the ponies at least tried to live their lives like they did before. A sad sort of complacency had set in some time after the “cataclysmic” events and ponies had started to adapt, or at the very least tried to. They probably didn’t know it yet, but since deep down they were beings of harmony the chaos around them disturbed them on a fundamental level.

Maybe that was the reason that Atlas wasn’t as affected by the chaos, because he wasn’t really a pony.

The conversations he overheard all carried the same undertone of barely restrained fear and impatience, and occasionally the speakers were interrupted by something strange flying past them. A pack of toasters flew past Atlas overhead and alighted on the dirt that was attached to an upside down floating house. Glancing to his right he could see a pair of cows sitting high up on an apple tree chatting happily with each other and picking strawberries.

Atlas smiled and shook his head at the silliness all around him. He continued through the village, all the while keeping a lookout for any signs of the two sisters. To be frank, he didn’t really have any idea what he was even looking for, but wandering aimlessly certainly beat sitting around a lonely cave. It had been weeks since he’d set out and he was still just as clueless.

He stopped to watch a parade consisting entirely out of cutlery to march by, and he waited patiently for the procession to end as he found himself unironically trying to figure out the cause of the parade. They seemed to celebrate something a spork amongst them had done, though. He contemplated talking to the villagers a few times before he reminded himself why he never did.

He was sure that if he asked for two powerful beings, sporting wings and unicorn horns that were supposed to save them, all he’d get in return would be tired shakes of their heads. They’d probably just think it a cruel joke by him and Atlas didn’t really want to make them suffer even more.

His progress was halted yet again, this time by a procession of paintings crossing his path, all of them sporting wings. Having nowhere to be in a hurry, Atlas stopped and appreciated the art flying past him, until he spotted something familiar on one of them and his eyes went wide.

“Paintings! Stop!” Atlas called out suddenly, and much to the surprise of everypony around him, they actually stopped marching forward.

Atlas had realized quite a while back that he held some limited authority over the more sentient objects that were created by Discord, and didn’t hesitate to use that to his advantage. The ponies around him seemed stunned, as their own pleas for any of the chaotic objects to stop were most likely met with deaf ears. Atlas didn’t pay them much attention however, as his attention was fully on the painting that just flew past him.

“You there, come over here,” Atlas said and the painting complied coming to a stop in front of him.

Atlas let his eyes wander over the strokes of paint that formed a landscape depicting Equestria from atop of a mountain. A sight very similar to what Atlas once had seen when he came here. But, what actually caught his attention earlier was located in the bottom right of the painting. A single, green imprint of a hoof which served as a sort of signature by the one who created it. He had seen this particular one quite a few times and was reasonably sure of who painted this, a smile spreading on his face.

“Lead me to where you came from,” Atlas said giddily to the painting in front of him.

The painting saluted with one of its wings almost falling out of the air in the act, but eventually it floated off into a seemingly random direction. Atlas followed behind it at a sedate pace, as the rest of the paintings behind him continued on their merry ways.

“How did you do that?” a stunned pony asked as Atlas passed him. “These things never listen to us…”

“Have you ever tried asking nicely?” Atlas said and shot the stallion a smile which just seemed to confuse him even more.

Leaving the stallion behind Atlas continued following the painting which lead him through the streets of the moderately sized village. It didn’t take long for the duo to leave the village proper, and Atlas began to worry that he might have to chase the painting half-way across Equestria before they arrived wherever it originated. His worries were stilled the moment the painting seemed to head into the direction of a house in the middle of a field, though.

The painting flew towards the front door of the one-story building and hung itself upside down next to it. Atlas took a proper look at the house which seemed like it was largely spared by the chaos around it. While he was pretty sure the walls weren’t meant to be pink, it looked just like an ordinary Equestrian home.

Satisfied with his inspection from the outside. Atlas knocked on the door only to be surprised when it slowly swung open when his hoof made contact for the first time. Shrugging his shoulders he opened the door the rest of the way and peered inside.

“Hello? Anybody home?”

His gaze wandered around the cozily furnished interior. He was currently looking at a spacious living room containing a dining table, a tea table with two couches on either side, as well as a fireplace and various storage units. What really caught his eyes, though, were the various paintings hung on the walls. Each and every one of them bore Vibrant Color’s signature letting Atlas believe he had hit the jackpot.

A large grin spread on his face as he stepped inside.

“Hello?” he called out once again. “I’m coming in! Vibrant? Are you here?”

Once properly inside he could see that a door to his left lead to a kitchen area, and towards his right was a hallway that seemed to have three rooms attached to it, even though all three doors were closed.

“Hello?”

Not hearing a response, Atlas surmised that whoever lived here was probably not home. He approached one of the paintings in front of him and marveled at the craft. Vibrant was very talented, and it seemed like she only got better in the time Atlas hadn’t seen her. He moved along the wall, looking carefully at each of the paintings, until he came to the fireplace. Various smaller paintings were situated on the top more resembling pictures.

The first one showed Vibrant herself happily smiling with what Atlas assumed was her husband, a navy blue unicorn. If he had doubted that fact before that this was Vibrant’s home, he was now absolutely sure of it. There was no way she’d sell pictures like that to anypony.

The next picture was of a quaint little house in the middle of nowhere. If memory served correctly, it was her old home where Atlas briefly stayed when he first was brought into this world. He snorted when he saw the next picture, which seemed to be a slightly off painting of himself. She must’ve painted this sometime after they parted, maybe to just not forget how he looked. The lack of an actual model distorted some of his features, though, he was reasonably sure it was meant to be himself.

At the next picture, his smile grew even wider. Once again, Vibrant could be seen with her husband, together with--

The sound of something falling over to his right made him snap his head around. Maybe someone was home after all?

“Hello?” he called out once again. “Is anypony home? It’s me, Atlas!”

He waited for some time, but no reaction came. There was a very real possibility of something having simply fallen over in one of the rooms. Or as crazy as it sounded something having gained sentience that didn’t have any business having one. Nowadays that wasn’t unheard of, but still, Atlas decided to investigate. If somebody was hiding from him he could just explain to them who he was, and they could wait for Vibrant to confirm his story.

He approached the hallway and eyed the three doors before him, one on his left, and two to his right. Shrugging once again he approached the left door and carefully opened it.

“Hello?” He called out once again, as he peered inside.

The room was quite big and accommodated a large bed confirming his suspicion about it being the master bedroom. Nopony was in there though, so he closed the door again and turned around to face the door behind him. He was just about to open it when he heard the sound from before once again from the door to his left, followed by somepony making hushing noises.

Atlas lifted one eyebrow in amusement and approached the door.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m coming in!” he called out, before very carefully opening the door.

The room behind the door was obviously a room for young foals. What gave it away instantly were the toys scattered around, as well as the crib sitting next to a kid-sized bed. The crib was occupied, although it’s occupant was covered by the sheets. A small filly, apparently a few years older than the one lying in the crib stood next to it, eyeing Atlas suspiciously. The small unicorn had pristine white fur and a pink mane.

Atlas wasn’t in the least bit surprised, as he had seen the filly in the picture earlier, and he adopted a disarming smile. He didn’t want to make a bad first impression with Vibrant’s daughter.

Although that might already be out of the question since he technically just waltzed into their home without permission.

What surprised him, though, was that there was only one filly in the picture he saw earlier, and yet, there were clearly two of them occupying the room.

“Hello, my name’s Atlas, an old friend of your mother’s,” Atlas tried explaining. “Maybe she has told you about me? No? Well, that’s okay, do you know when your parents will come… home…” Atlas trailed off when he spotted that the little filly sported a cutie mark unlike in the picture above the fireplace.

A cutie-mark he had seen a lot of times. In fact, it was drawn in great detail in a little blue book he owned.

A cutie mark depicting the sun.

“Umm…” Atlas said awkwardly, as his train of thought somewhat derailed.

“You knew our mama?” The filly asked, the suspicion in her eyes lessening a bit.

“Umm, yeah, I do…or did.” Atlas stammered. “From a long time ago, there’s a painting of me above the fireplace…” He said absent-mindedly and curiously eyeing the crib.

“You don’t look like the pony in the picture,” the filly retorted. “Mommy's drawings are perfect, so you can’t be that pony.”

“I believe she painted that after we… parted ways,” Atlas responded. “Um, do you… would you mind if I took a look in that crib?”

“Why?” The filly was immediately on guard again.

“I’d just like to confirm something,” Atlas said reassuringly. “Just a quick peek is all I need. I promise.”

Atlas did the motions for a Pinkie Promise which he realized held no weight in this era, although he wouldn’t be surprised if the pink menace herself popped up if he broke it. The filly seemed to hold promises in high regard, as she seemed to allow it. Carefully, Atlas approached the crib, magically lifting away the sheets to reveal an awake and happy midnight-blue unicorn filly with a light blue mane.

Atlas blinked a few times looking into the curious blue eyes looking back at him, before putting the sheets back to their original position and sitting down on his haunches.

“Little filly,” Atlas said with a bit of trepidation and contained excitement. “May I ask for your name?”

“Sure, my name is Celestia,” the filly said happily. “My mommy gave it to me, and I think it’s a beautiful name. Oh, and this is Luna.” Celestia said while pointing at the crib.

“It sure is, Celestia,” Atlas chuckled dryly. “It sure is.”

Of all the places he could have stumbled upon the sisters, it would happen to be in the home of his first friend in Equestria. And they were her daughters, no less. Destiny if it wasn’t a cosmic joke was a funny thing. She’d never believe him if he told her what these two would achieve some day. Atlas felt a twang of guilt, when he realized, that if he and Discord would have waited a few more years everything would have worked out, but he couldn’t let this weigh him down right now.

“Do you know when your parents will return home?” Atlas asked nicely making sure to not drop his smile.

Celestia started squirming around and fixated her eyes on the floor. “I.. I don’t think they will…”

“What do you mean by that?” Atlas furrowed his eyebrows.

“I think they both are… Umm.. what was the word again?” Celestia seemed to think for a moment. “I think they are both dead, Mr. Atlas.”

Author's Notes:

Twists and turns in my masterplan...

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

14. Surge

“I think they both are… Umm.. what was the word again?” Celestia seemed to think for a moment. “I think they are both dead, Mr. Atlas.”

A cold shiver ran down Atlas’ back as he stared blankly at the little filly in front of him.

“Come again?” He asked, not wanting to believe the incredibly despondent and seemingly unaffected filly before him.

“I think they’re dead,” Celestia repeated herself. “But, it’s okay. I can see them everyday.”

Atlas’ thoughts came to a grinding halt as he processed Celestia’s sentence. Whatever she meant by that, Atlas couldn’t picture anything outside of the grotesquely morbid or downright heart wrenching; maybe even both. Pictures of rainbows and cupcakes flashed through his mind, but he immediately banished those absurd thoughts. He sure hoped he wasn’t about to find two bodies somewhere, possibly in the room he hadn’t checked yet.

“What do you mean by, ‘you can see them everyday?” Atlas asked cautiously.

“Oh, I can show you,” Celestia said with a jarringly naive smile on her face.

This whole situation was taking an unlikely turn, and Atlas forgot to pull the brakes beforehand, so now it was hurtling down a cliff towards certain doom. But he was in for it now, and he couldn’t just leave these two poor fillies like this.

“Alright, sure,” Atlas submitted to his fate. “Why not?”

“They’re in the garden! Follow me!” Celestia said excitedly while rushing out of the room.

“Hold on a second!” Atlas called after her causing her to stop and turn around. “What about your sister? Are we just gonna leave her here?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Celestia said. “She’s actually really quiet most of the time, so leaving her alone for a little bit isn’t a big deal.”

“Alright, if you say so…” Atlas said, starting to follow Celestia while shooting one last look at the dark blue filly in the crib.

Celestia lead him back through the hallway and through the living room to the kitchen. He hadn’t been in here yet, but aside from quite a few more astonishing paintings, it looked just like someone would expect a more old timey kitchen to look like. Another door seemed to lead out to the back of the house, where the aforementioned garden was most likely located. As expected, Celestia opened the door by jumping up at the handle, which was incredibly cute, and dashed outside.

Atlas followed close behind, a bit of trepidation growing with every step he took. Any second now he’d see something he really rather not.

“There they are,” Celestia said, pointing ahead towards a patch of flowers that were constantly changing colors. “They look so peaceful.”

Atlas’ eyes followed the direction of Celestia’s hoof until they came to rest on what he assumed was his oldest friend in this world, Vibrant Colors. He stared at her unmoving form for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Hey Celestia?” Atlas asked, his happiness somewhat creeping into his voice.

“Yes?”

“Define for me, the word: death, if you would, please.”

“Daddy told me that when something stops moving completely it means that it’s dead,” Celestia said and beamed at Atlas, since she was sure that she’d gotten the answer right.

Apparently Celestia’s father had wanted to dodge the topic and gave Celestia a few half-assed answers.

“Well, your father is not wrong,” Atlas chuckled. “But in this particular case, the word you’re looking for, is: ‘petrified’.”

“Petrified?” Celestia repeated the word cutely. “What does that mean?”

“It means that something has frozen in place, commonly associated with being turned into stone,” Atlas explained patiently.

And indeed, amidst the patch of flowers were two ponies that had ceased all movement. Thankfully, not to the fact that they were dead, but simply having been turned to stone. Which meant this situation might actually be salvageable. If this was caused by Discord's magic running wild, reversing it would be a simple matter, if not, he’d first have to find the cause and work from there.

“What does ‘associated’ mean?” Celestia asked with a tilted head.

“It means that something is connected to something else,” Atlas explained. “Alright, my turn. Can you tell me when this happened?”

Atlas waved towards the two stone-cold ponies in front of them, one seemingly afraid while the other was glaring at something in the distance.

“I think… two days ago?” Celestia said, her child mind hard at work trying to discern how much time had passed. “Yeah, that seems right. It’s hard to tell, since the sun and the moon are being funny.”

“Yes, they definitely are,” Atlas chuckled, and just as if to prove a point it suddenly shifted to night-time. “Can you tell me any more?”

“Well, we were all outside eating,” Celestia started to recount from memory. “Mommy wanted to try and capture the changing colors of the flowers, since she thought they were beautiful and daddy was playing with me while watching over Luna.”

Looking at the somewhat chaotic flowers, Atlas had to agree that they indeed make for quite the aesthetic addition to the otherwise quaint garden. True to the little fillys story, a toppled canvas was close to the statue of Vibrant.

“All of a sudden daddy got really nervous and told me to take Luna inside,” Celestia continued. “There was some weird chicken running around in the bushes over there,” Celestia pointed towards a couple of bushes in the distance. Close to what seemed to be a small forest. “I only caught a glimpse of it, but it seemed more like a lizard than a chicken. It seemed interesting, but daddy told me to go inside immediately, so I did. I heard him cast some spells behind me, but I just took Luna inside as fast as I could. When I closed the door and looked back outside through the window, they were like this.”

Celestia ended her story by once again pointing towards her motionless parents. The nonchalant way in which she did so clued Atlas off to the fact that she most likely had no idea what was actually happening.

“It’s been kind of boring with them like this,” Celestia said. “I hope they start moving again soon.”

That statement was the final nail in the coffin. Celestia had no clue what being petrified nor being dead meant, which was why she wasn’t sad. In her mind, her parents were probably just playing some sort of game or pulling a prank on her.

“Well, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to make them move again fairly soon,” Atlas stated confidently. “Your parents were attacked by a cockatrice, and the way to turn them back to normal is rather simple, but might take some time.”

“Really?” Celestia asked. “You can turn them back to normal?”

“Sure can,” Atlas replied happily.

“Oh thank you Mr. Atlas!”

Celestia zoomed over to Atlas’ leg and started hugging it something fierce, melting his heart. True to his word turning back somepony petrified by a cockatrice was rather simple. The only problem was that the actual cockatrice who did the petrifying needed to be present. Hopefully the forest where it came from was its territory and it hadn’t left, or otherwise it could be somewhat problematic or even impossible to track down.

Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard from inside the house, causing the two of them to wheel around and stare into the direction it came from.

“Luna!” Celestia instantly shouted and bolted for the kitchen door.

Atlas wasn’t too far behind and almost barreled over the table in the living room. Celestia had said that it wouldn’t be an issue to leave Luna alone for a little bit, but apparently that didn’t hold true. If something had happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for being so careless.

Well, he could probably just heal any injuries she inflicted upon herself, but that wasn’t the point.

A strange glow seemed to emanate from the children's room and Luna could be heard crying loudly, already breaking Atlas’ heart just from hearing the pained squeals. Celestia turned the corner into the room first, followed a split second later by Atlas.

“Luna! Luna! What’s wrong?” Celestia shouted in a panic at seeing her sister.

Atlas took in what was happening as fast as he could, the brightly glowing and floating Luna tipping him off to what was happening.

“Aww, heck,” Atlas said, reacting to minimize the damage Luna’s magical surge would have.

He immediately yanked Celestia away from Luna, maybe a bit more harshly than he would have liked, but time was of the essence now. Once the dazed and confused Celestia was next to him, he threw up a shield before casting several spells that were meant to keep the wild mana in the area under control. Much to his misfortune, his efforts were too little too late, as he noticed the mana reaching a boiling point.

In a last ditch effort, he shot a spell directly at Luna that would protect her from the brunt of what was about to happen.

“Close your eyes Celestia! It’s about to get really bright!” Atlas shouted while pressing his eyes shut.

The command came at the right time, and he really hoped that Celestia had followed it, since in the next second a huge mana explosion lit up the whole room. Due to his shield, they weren’t hurt at all, but he still worried for Luna, who could be heard sniffling once the noise settled down somewhat.

Atlas opened his eyes and immediately zeroed in on the little blue foal, now lying on the ground in front of them. He let out a sigh of relief and dropped his shield once he saw that Luna seemed to be fine aside from needing a warm hug. What worried him slightly more was the fact that now half of the house was apparently completely missing.

Celestia rushed over to her sister, fussing over her and checking for any obvious injuries while Atlas turned around to take in the damage.

Most of the house was actually completely missing, a testament to the power of the mana explosion that just took place. He knew that Celestia and Luna were supposed to be powerful, but this was just ridiculous. The amount of mana needed to pull something like this off was abnormally high for what a foal was supposed to have.

Some pieces of the house were still raining down in the near vicinity and Atlas absentmindedly summoned a blanket shield above them to protect them from accidental injuries. While surveying the surroundings, he caught a glimpse of the color-changing flowers in the garden, making him come to a standstill.

“Oh no…”

He slowly started trotting towards the garden, now unobstructed by any pony-made structures.

“Please, not like this…”

A few seconds later he stood next to the two petrified ponies, or at least, what was left. The yet unnamed father was mostly intact, albeit his head was missing and apparently nowhere closeby. In turn, Vibrant Colors’ statue was neatly broken apart into different pieces. The legs were scattered amongst the flowers, while the tail and the upper body were thrown closer towards the bushes. The head was resting happily on the half finished painting on the ground, making for quite a morbid sight as Atlas remembered what he had read in a book about cockatrices.

There are three ways of un-petrifying a pony that was attacked by a cockatrice. The first, and easiest, is to simply kill the cockatrice responsible for the deed. The second one, which is a bit harder, would be to somehow convince the cockatrice to turn the ponies back by itself. The third, which is not recommended, is to break the statue that was created in the petrification process.

This usually results in heavy injury, or in some cases, death. A pony can remain in a petrified state for about six days without facing any repercussions, so options one or two are heavily recommended, unless impossible.

Atlas looked on in morbid curiosity, as Vibrant’s head was slowly regaining some of it’s color, just as every other part that was strewn about.

“Ahh, fuck...”

Author's Notes:

I'm a lazy fuck and nothing you can say will change that, that's why this chapter took so long to get written :D Also the fact that I did a chapter for another story in between updates for this. Also, oh crap, that just happened!

Next chapter when?

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song, that contains possible MLP Movie spoilers, so don't click if you havent seen it. If you're okay with hearing a song before you've seen the movie, then please, don't hold back. I picked this one because it's prolly my favourite song from the movie. Aside from Open up your eyes, but they're, like, completely different so there's not much point in comparing them.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

15. Going "Home"

It was a mess.

A complete and utter mess that had unfolded before Atlas that day. Looking back on it, he felt like maybe the gods had tuned in just to fuck with him one last time or something, because that whole sequence of events was just plain dumb.

Truly, he felt like the Greek God M. Night Shamalamadingdong was currently directing his life.

He’d finally found the two sisters, only to discover they were the daughters of his long lost friend, along with the whiplash of finding out she was dead, but not really. And just as he thought he could fix everything, a random magical surge from Luna destroyed the statues of her parents.

The resulting reversion into a flesh and bone pony, was unhealthy, to say the least. Which is to say… it was a mess. In quite the literal way, actually.

He just stood there dumbfounded at the sight of his old friend making a mess of her beautiful garden. Celestia meanwhile had finished calming down Luna, and after realizing that half of her house was missing, moved towards Atlas having assumed at this point that he could be trusted.

From there, the problems just kept piling up. Ranging from having to explain to Celestia the true meaning of death, to breaking his promise to save her parents all the way to trying to calm down a hysterical filly while doing his hardest to not lose it himself. What Celestia needed then, was some sort of stability, a calm adult to cry on.

It didn’t help that she more or less hated him for going back on his promise.

Eventually he managed to move Celestia and Luna into what remained of their kitchen and away from the dismembered bodies, which he didn’t have the time yet to do anything about. Celestia cried a lot that day and continued directing childish insults at Atlas. They were relatively tame but it still stung. All the while, Luna was oblivious to what was going on, happily trying to play with her sister and Atlas, but eventually fatigue caught up with them and they all fell asleep on the uncomfortable chairs.

The next morning, Atlas made to complete the task that had fallen into his lap. Even before Celestia and Luna had woken up he carefully searched and gathered all of the strewn about body parts, all the while the morbidity of the task weighed him down as he went about his solemn duty. It took him longer than he imagined it would to find the head of the yet unnamed father of Celestia and Luna, but eventually he had gathered everything.

While he felt like puking, his demeanor also had a certain kind of numbness to it, as if his spirit had detached from his body to allow him to work without breaking down. Like a mindless robot, he dug out two graves with his magic and deposited the corpses in them gingerly before tucking them in with a blanket of soil.

Atlas went into the forest and returned with the biggest rock he could find, which was almost twice his size and put it down above the graves. Using the spell he’d usually used for carving his arrays, he inscribed the rock with Vibrant Colors name. He’d have to ask Celestia what her father’s name was once she woke up.

While waiting for this to occur, Atlas made sure that the grave would remain undisturbed by carving various arrays into the improvised gravestone. Since he still had time to spare, he re-arranged the flowers of Vibrant’s garden around the graves and cleaned up as much as he could afterwards.

After he had done everything he needed to and ran out of work, Atlas sat down a respectable distance away from the newly created graves and solemnly looked upon them.

While Luna was a bit too young to appreciate the gravity of their situation, Celestia had a pretty good grasp on it. Saying she was unhappy about it would be a gross understatement, and Atlas did his best to deal with the upset filly.

It took a lot of talking and convincing, but eventually Celestia came around and agreed to let Atlas take care of herself and Luna. He’d have probably just taken them under his wing anyway, but everything would be a lot easier if he could coax the filly into willfully accepting his care.

With Vibrant’s home essentially in ruins, Atlas invited Celestia to come live with him at his “secret cave”, which she reluctantly agreed to. Incidentally, they weren’t even that far from Vanhoover, at most it would take them a week to go there, if they traveled at a sedate pace.

And thanks to Atlas knowing some basic healing magic, he wouldn’t even have to worry about somepony dying of dysentery.

“Are we there yet?” Celestia asked in a slightly miffed tone.

“Not yet, we should arrive sometime tomorrow I’d wager,” Atlas replied, walking next to her.

They had been walking for five days now, and had made pretty good time at that. Considering that he was traveling with curious children, he was expecting to get side-tracked a lot. As it turned out, Celestia seemed to have unending stamina similar to a happy dog, so walking a great distance didn’t seem to be a problem. She hadn’t really talked a lot during the whole journey, aside from asking a few things here and there, predominantly whether or not they had arrived yet. Atlas assumed that this was due to the fact that she had just recently lost both of her parents, and he didn’t blame her.

Wounds like that took a long time to heal. It was actually pretty impressive that she was even willing to accompany him so soon after the fact, without much complaint.

Luna, on the other hand, was quite the happy-go-lucky little foal. Oblivious to the hardships of life, she spent the journey either travelling in Atlas’ backpack and sticking her head out like a dog out of a car-window, or climbing around on Atlas himself.

While Atlas had never been overly fond of babies in the past, he didn’t mind Luna at all. In fact, he thought she was downright adorable. The one thing that worried him, though, was the fact that Celestia seemed slightly jealous of her little sister. She was suffering while the actual culprit, however accidental, was happily enjoying life.

He could see the conflict in Celestia’s eyes whenever she looked Luna’s way, between wanting to blame her for her parents death, and not being able to blame the sole remaining member of her family.

“Is… is your home… nice?” Celestia asked suddenly.

Celestia hadn’t really spoken much up to this point, to the point where she hadn’t even asked where they were going or where Atlas lived. So having her suddenly express interest in something took Atlas by surprise. Not in a bad way of course, since it might hint at her starting to recover from the shock.

“It’s a bit out of the way, but I’d say so, yeah,” Atlas replied while smiling. “I made it myself, with the help of a few… friends.”

“Will they be living with us?” Celestia asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.

“Sadly, they won’t,” Atlas said. “They’ve… moved on, I guess. I… I’m sure I’ll see them again in the future, but who knows when that’ll be.”

“Oh,” Celestia said, averting her eyes.

Atlas winced mentally at seeing this, realising that he might just have reminded her that she’d never see her parents again, while simultaneously rubbing in her face that he’d be able to see his lost friends again.

“It’s actually like a cave, since we just dug into the site of a mountain,” Atlas tried to bring the conversation back again. “The view from the second floor is pretty amazing.”

Celestia nodded in acknowledgement but otherwise remained silent, causing Atlas to sigh mentally. Well, even if he smothered the attempt at conversation as soon as it appeared, it was a start. Given some more time, Celestia would surely come to accept and overcome the loss of her parents. Atlas just had to make sure that he’d be there for her and Luna.

The latter had taken to standing on Atlas’ shoulder using his head as some sort of vantage point to curiously watch the world slowly passing by. He made sure to stabilize her with magic so she wouldn’t fall off.

And like that, they continued towards a new home for the two fillies that would one day change the world.

“Well, this is it,” Atlas announced. “We’re here.”

With one eyebrow raised, Celestia looked at Atlas skeptically. Just to make sure, she once again, looked all around them, but still came up empty.

“What do you mean? There’s nothing here!” Celestia exclaimed. “Just rocks and trees.”

“I see you’ve noticed,” Atlas smirked. “But, actually it’s a well crafted spell to make you think that there’s nothing here. A powerful illusion, if I’m to be exact. Follow me, the path to the entrance is over here.”

Atlas lead Celestia over to the small path leading upwards, Luna sleepily checking what was going on from the comfort of Atlas’ saddlebags. Slowly they ascended, Atlas being the first to pass over the illusions threshold, a smile appearing on his face when he heard the small gasp behind him shortly after.

“Welcome, to your new home,” Atlas said grandly, gesturing to what little of the secret lab that could actually be seen from the side. Namely, the balcony on the first floor and the safety railing.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could do something like that with magic!” Celestia said excitedly.

Apparently, she had still been sceptical even after Atlas had told her, but seeing it with her own eyes finally convinced her. Coincidentally, while she was still in a gloomy mood, seeing something like this seemed to distract her childish mind from her sadness for a bit.

“My good friend Starswirl helped me set this up, he was truly a master in his field,” Atlas said. “But come, let me show you what’s inside.”

Celestia followed Atlas into the main research cave that made up the entrance and her mouth opened up wide at seeing all the materials, research scrolls and doo-dads strewn about. It was actually pretty messy, but that’s just how researchers rolled, and apparently it looked like a wonderland of interesting things for a young filly.

“This here is what we call the main cavern, it’s where I do most of my experiments,” Atlas explained.

“Experiments? Are you an inventor?” Celestia asked excitedly.

“Something like that, I guess,” Atlas said.

“Cool,” Celestia responded, making Atlas feel like he just gained a few brownie points with her.

“Well, the cave is split up into two floors, but this one might not be that interesting to you two,” Atlas explained. “Pretty much everything on the ground floor is dedicated space for research, after all. So let’s just go upstairs, where the living arrangements are.”

“I’d still like to see everything down here eventually,” Celestia said meekly. “Would that be okay?”

“Of course!” Atlas beamed. “I’ll gladly show you around. But after such a long journey, we should really get some rest, in a proper bed.”

Celestia’s face lit up when she heard that she’d get to sleep in a bed again. After having spent the last week sleeping outside on mostly uncomfortable makeshift bedding, she was really looking forward to it, and eagerly followed Atlas upstairs.

They entered into the living room, a spacious cave that was sparsely decorated. Most of the furnishing, like the table and cupboards were bought from Vanhoover and brought over. Only a few things were made out of wood, while almost all of the remaining furniture and necessities were conveniently carved out of the stone that made up the walls.

Several doorways led out of the living room and Atlas made to show Celestia where each of them led.

“In here is the kitchen,” Atlas explained. “Since I’ve been absent for quite some time, there’s not much food around, so we’ll have to go look for some tomorrow.”

Next up he showed her where his bedroom was located, a rather small cave, which only housed a bed. The walls had been carved into the shape of bookshelves, which were filled to the brim with tomes that he had nicked from the Crystal Kingdom.

“This room once belonged to my son, I guess you’ll be living in here from now on,” Atlas explained as he showed her Discord’s room. “I’ll have to put another bed in here for Luna.”

“You have a son, Mr. Atlas?” Celestia asked tentatively.

“Still do, and drop the mister,” Atlas said with a chuckle.

“Where is he now?”

“He… went on a journey to see more of the world,” Atlas said. “I don’t know where he is right now, but I’m sure he’s doing good somewhere… Moving on!”

Atlas lead Celestia towards the last important thing that he wanted to show her, the balcony. They stepped outside into the cool afternoon air. It was actually in the middle of the night, technically, but things like time held little meaning since Discord had set out on his, “journey”.

“This is my favorite place: the balcony!” Atlas announced grandly while Celestia was blown away by the view before her.

Before the world went to shit, the view was quite beautiful. You could see Vanhoover clearly from here, as well as the sea. Of course, the absolute chaos that was Vanhoover was quite a sight to see, what with all it’s floating buildings, rioting furniture and the occasional color change of the sky.

“It’s beautiful…” Celestia said in awe, trying to take in everything spreading out before her.

Atlas could understand her fascination quite well, since he couldn’t get enough of this view. He stopped watching the excited little filly and turned his eyes towards Vanhoover, thinking about what was to come in the future. They had finally arrived at Atlas’ old and the sisters new home; from here on out, he’d have to give it his best shot at raising the future rulers of Equestria.

Starting tomorrow, this lifeless cave would finally be back to it’s former glory.

Author's Notes:

not much to say about this, so I won't /shrug

Aight everybody, joke's over, pack up.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

16. New Place

Celestia barely had any personal effects that she was able to bring, so she got settled in pretty quickly. Her room was pretty much blown to bits, and most of her and Luna’s belongings had been lost. As such, what she took with her largely belonged to her parents, most prominently was every painting of Vibrant Colors she’d been able to get her hooves on. Atlas, of course, had no issue hanging those up on every available wall space, and they made the cave a little less drab, it helped that they looked beautiful and were made by his late friend.

Luna on the other hand, didn’t really care much at all. Everything was new and exciting to her, and she could be found exploring the cave system at her own leisure. Of course Atlas or Celestia were always keeping an eye on her, but as it turned out, the mischievous foal was actually quite the escape artist.

Atlas did his best to clean the place up from all the dust that’d accumulated during his absence. To his relief, most of his creations were still in working order, even though they hadn’t received any maintenance while he was away.

As for organizing food, Atlas didn’t really feel like going to Vanhoover for it. There wasn’t a real need for it anyway, since due to the chaos raging about, most food items seemed to have gained a mind of their own. As such, he could just go out into the forest and “hunt” for his food. Also, while he wasn’t completely sure of it, there seemed to be an abundance of food items near the cave, which might have been Discord trying to help him out at least a little.

“Dinner’s ready!” Atlas called out, having just finished cooking.

“Coming!” Celestia called back.

Since Celestia didn’t know too much about cooking, the task fell on Atlas. In the past, Discord conveniently took over that task, but now that Atlas actually had to cook, he’d come to find out that his skills had gotten rusty over time. Even though he was a chef back on Earth, ever since coming to Equus he’d barely ever even touched proper cooking utensils. It might be a good idea to sharpen the dulled skill, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to properly teach Celestia and Luna.

Celestia came out of her room with Luna on her back, sitting down in the chair that had unofficially been assigned to her. Atlas levitated Luna over to a specially crafted high-seat he had made for her, the blue unicorn giggling happily while floating through the air. Apparently, Luna already didn’t need to consume her mother's milk anymore, so anything mushy was pretty much fair game. As for milk, there was really no problem acquiring any, since the chocolaty goodness literally rained from the skies outside.

“Have you settled in nicely?” Atlas asked, attempting to strike up a conversation with Celestia while feeding Luna.

“I suppose,” Celestia answered uncommitted, spearing the potatoes on her plate with a fork held in her hoof.

Celestia couldn’t really cast any spells yet, since her father had mostly neglected her training, saying that there would still be enough time later on. Atlas couldn’t really agree on her father's opinion and planned to rectify this issue as soon as possible. Magic was an integral part of the life of a unicorn, after all.

“That’s good to hear,” Atlas commented. “If you need anything, just ask and I’ll see what I can do. I want you two to be as comfortable as possible.”

Celestia simply continued eating her food, her eyes trained on her plate as if the answer to everything was written on it. Atlas observed her while feeling somewhat helpless. He really wanted to help and comfort her, but he also didn’t want to be overbearing either. After all, they’d barely known each other for more than a few days now, so there was no way she actually trusted him yet.

Once more, Atlas came to the painful realization that he really couldn’t do much at this point. He’d just have to wait for Celestia to find her own way out of her slump while he supported her from the shadows.

At least Luna was happy. The little foal was munching happily on the mashed potatoes Atlas had made for her, her eyes full of life and curiosity. As he continued feeding her, the realization that he was in this for the long haul was starting to sink in.

Celestia and Luna were supposed to one day defeat Discord, but there was no way that mere children could take on such a mighty foe. That meant that Atlas would look after them until they reached an appropriate age, which might take up to twenty years. There was also the issue of them not being Alicorns right now, so he’d need to figure out how to make them ascend, something that had never happened before in this world.

Atlas gulped at the implications of the situation. He’d have to raise two fillies, while trying to figure out a way for them to ascend, which seemed almost impossible. And, more importantly, Discord would have to continue his reign of terror for a lot longer than they’d originally thought.

Atlas hoped from the bottom of his heart that this experience wouldn’t change him too much.

“Alright, come on, you can do it!” Atlas encouraged Luna, who was currently trying to walk all on her own.

Luna took a few clumsy steps trying to get to Atlas who was patiently waiting for her. He had noticed that she recently stopped crawling more and more, so he decided he might as well try and teach her how to properly walk on her small hooves. Celestia was sitting some distance away, silently watching as Luna slowly made her way over to Atlas.

The little blue foal almost tripped on her way, but was steadily gaining ground while apparently having the time of her life. Eventually she made it all the way to where Atlas was waiting with open arms and he immediately picked her up, giving her a big old hug.

“Great job, Luna!” Atlas happily exclaimed to the giggling foal. “I knew you could do it!”

While Atlas was busy showering the successful foal with praises, Celestia smiled for the first time in quite a while. She was proud of her sister growing up healthily, even if their parents were gone. And while she couldn’t quite forget about the reason they were gone, she at least felt some gratitude towards Atlas.

If he hadn’t been there, who knows where they would have ended up?

Atlas showed Celestia around his workshop with Luna riding on his back. The blue filly could walk on her own by now, even if a bit unsteady, yet she vastly preferred riding on Atlas’ back. A few months had passed since the two sisters had moved in with him and he felt like it was finally time to pick up his work again.

“Well, as you might have noticed there are quite a few workstations set up here,” Atlas explained as they walked into the main cave. “Keep in mind that this place was used by two ponies at one point, each of us used around four stations for various research projects.”

“Couldn’t you just have used one each?” Celestia asked in a confused voice.

“Honestly? I guess,” Atlas admitted. “But this way you could just separate the research projects without having to clean and set up your materials every time you want to do something different. You can save a lot of setup time this way.”

“Doesn’t that just mean you’re lazy?” Celestia retorted.

“That’s what it boils down to, yes,” Atlas chuckled.

“So what have you made here?” Celestia asked, curiously looking around at all the complex looking research papers.

“Well, mostly spells, or runes, more specifically,” Atlas said. “But, I also made that nifty lightswitch you like so much.”

“You made that?” Celestia asked in disbelief.

“Hey, I might be goofing off quite a bit when I’m with you guys, but I’m actually quite smart, you know?” Atlas defended himself with some mock attitude.

“Huh,” Celestia chirped. “Then what are these runes you mentioned?”

“Did I never show you any runes?”

“I don’t think so?” Celestia replied, unsure of herself.

“Well, we got a lot of catching up to do, because these babies, can do a lot.” Atlas replied happily.

“What are babies?” Celestia cocked her head.

“Ummm… another word for foals?”

“Why would you call whatever these runes are foals?” Celestia looked at Atlas like he had lost his goddamn marbles.

“Just… just forget about it…” Atlas replied, pinching his brow.

He had gotten so used to his peers either knowing what he was talking about, or ignoring his weird references when they came up, and he forgot that Celestia wouldn’t have that knowledge.

“Alright… Runes…” Atlas mumbled turning around and looking for a workspace that had some rune related stuff on it. “Over there!”

He led Celestia over to one of stations, setting Luna down on it with his magic. She curiously looked at the complete mess on the table, but otherwise was content just pawing at one of the many scrolls lying around.

“Alright, these are what runes look like,” Atlas said, levitating a paper with tons of runes scribbled on it up to her face.

“They look all weird and squiggly,” Celestia said. “And these things are supposed to be amazing?” She asked skeptically.

“More than you know,” Atlas confirmed with a smile. “They might look a little strange scribbled on there, but if arranged correctly, they can do pretty much everything a normal spell can, and more.”

“So why not use a normal spell instead?” Celestia asked, eyebrow cocked to the max.

“As I said, theoretically they can do much more precise things than a regular spell, if applied correctly,” Atlas said, slipping into teacher mode. “But what is more interesting concerning practical application, it can recreate a stable mana flow to reliably reproduce the effect of a spell every time it’s activated. Allowing unicorns of different affinities to cast spells that they normally couldn't, or power everyday applications for a prolonged time while replenishing themselves with the needed mana.”

Atlas finished off his mini-lecture, shooting Celestia a smile, which was still looking at the many runes in front of her.

“What?” Celestia made a face like she just had to sit through a history lesson that lasted four hours. “I didn’t understand more than half of that…”

Atlas’ smile dropped as he was reminded that Celestia was still a young filly. Of course she wouldn’t understand anything as complicated as proper rune applications. It would seem that Discord being somewhat of a genius had tilted his perceptions of children a bit.

“Don’t you have anything that… like… looks beautiful?” Celestia asked.

Atlas sighed inwardly. He’d expect a foal of her age to like explosions or something like that, but apparently being Vibrant’s child through and through, she seemed to appreciate the arts quite a bit more than what Atlas would consider cool.

“I have a spell that can make a colorful lightshow…” Atlas stated hopefully.

“That sounds interesting,” Celestia said, sounding quite a bit more enthusiastic.

“Alright, come with me, I’ll show you,” Atlas said, levitating Luna onto his back once more.

He led Celestia towards the cave that was used for large scale experiments, sitting down smack dab in the middle. Luna had crawled up on his head at this point, so there was no need to remove her. Celestia sat down in front of him, looking expectantly. Atlas nodded towards her, flipping the lightswitch that was near the entrance, casting them in complete darkness, causing Luna to giggle.

“You ready?” Atlas asked.

“Yes.”

“Alright then, here we go…”

Atlas had to take a moment and remember. The spell he was about to perform was little more than an elementary level illusion spell, but he hadn’t cast it in a long time and didn’t want to mess up. After a while his horn started to glow, and colorful lights started emanating from it, spreading out in all directions. Visually it was similar to a laser show back on earth, but with broader lasers and a lot calmer. He tried to visualise different scenarios with his spell, like a lake surrounded by a forest, a mountain range at sundown or a sunny day on a flowery field.

Celestia seemed gobsmacked, her mouth hanging open as she took in everything that was going on around her. Luna was still giggling, while investigating the origin of the funny colors spreading out around her, softly tapping Atlas’ horn a few times.

“This… is amazing,” Celestia said after a while of staring at the ever changing colors.

“Would you like to learn it?” Atlas asked cautiously.

“Would you really teach me?” Celestia asked, as if she was unsure of herself.

“If it’s within my power, I’ll teach you everything you want,” Atlas said with a smile on his face. “Of course, that includes this spell as well.”

“Then.. please…” Celestia said slowly. “Please teach me…”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to.”

Celestia looked into Atlas’ eyes for a while, before taking one last look around her, a smile slowly appearing on her face. At that moment Atlas renewed the promise he made to himself in his head. Whatever the cost, he’d protect that smile, and raise these two fillies to achieve great things one day.

Author's Notes:

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

17. Luna

“You’re doing well, hold the spell just a little longer,” Atlas said to Celestia.

Celestia was currently being taught magic by Atlas. Since they had just started out, the only spell she knew was levitation. The spell was usually the first one that was taught to young unicorns, due to its simplicity and low mana requirement. Celestia on her part had taken to the spell rather fast and was now trying to keep a 10-pound weight at a level height for five minutes.

Her face reflected how focused she was on the task, her tongue screwed out of the side of her mouth slightly in concentration. She was most likely reaching the limits of her current mana pool and starting to feel the strain.

“Alright, that’s five minutes, you can let go now,” Atlas said with a smile.

Celestia instantly canceled her spell and let out the breath she had been holding, her breath ragged. Atlas caught the weight before it could fall to the ground and put it back on a nearby workstation.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been running really, really far,” Celestia answered between gasps of breath. “Also, empty… it kinda feels weird.”

“Ah, that’s probably because you’ve spent almost all of your mana,” Atlas explained. “I’m guessing this is the first time you’ve experienced this, remember the feeling well. If you’re ever in a situation where you have to cast a lot of spells and you start feeling like this, it means that it’s time to stop.”

“What happens if I don’t?” Celestia asks with a tired face.

“If you’re lucky, you’ll just pass out, if not, there might be some lasting damage to your mana pathways.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind…”

Atlas nodded, satisfied with Celestia’s answer. “Alright, I think now would be a good time to stop and make something to eat. What do you think?”

“I’m starving,” Celestia replied sluggishly while getting to her hooves.

While Celestia made her way upstairs, Atlas looked around in order to locate Luna. Somewhere along the line he had lost eye contact to her, since she wandered all over the place now. Right now she could be hiding anywhere in the mess that was the main cave.

“Luna?” Atlas called out, searching for a tuft of blue fur. “Where are you?”

He was greeted with silence, the blue filly could have left the room for all he knew, but this time he was pretty sure she was just playing an impromptu game of hide and seek with him. Calmly, he started inspecting each of the workstations, methodically routing out any possible hiding spaces.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” Atlas said while moving some boxes away from the wall. “You can run, but you can’t hide…” he added with a playful voice.

Just as he was about to check under the third workstation, a tiny sneeze could be heard from behind him. Immediately he spun around facing the direction the sound had come from. Right now, he was thankful for his big pony ears, since they made pinpointing sounds a lot easier than human ears. They made it easy enough to locate Luna's hiding spot amongst the mess that was workstation #6. An incredibly suspicious pile of boxes, just big enough to hide a small filly from sight was stacked right next to it. And, sure enough, some of Luna's blue fluffy tail was peeking out from behind it.

“Oh, I wonder where you could be…” Atlas feigned while he carefully approached the hiding spot. “There you are!”

Atlas levitated away the stack of boxes to reveal a shocked filly looking straight at him. The shock quickly gave way to mirth and Luna started giggling happily as Atlas picked her up in his magical field and pulled her close to him.

“Papa!” She called out while she was coming closer, stretching her little hooves out for a hug.

Contrary to her expectations, Luna abruptly stopped halfway to her goal. Atlas had scrunched up his muzzle, now it was his turn to be shocked.

Luna had been babbling mostly nonsense until now, even with the occasional odd word. Maybe this was just a coincidence, two sounds strung together by accident. He was probably overthinking this.

“Papa?” Luna asked with a confused look, tilting her head slightly.

Definitely not a coincidence.

Atlas head was spinning, as he didn’t really know how he was supposed to process this information. Luna seemed to think that Atlas was her father for some reason. Sure she had been here now for some time, but it wasn’t too long since she had last seen her actual father.

Was the memory capacity of a foal really that bad? Where had she even learned that word from? Maybe Celestia?

Well, for now, there wasn’t really anything he could do to clear up this misconception. He’d just have to make sure she knew the truth when she was capable of understanding.

Until then, maybe playing along wouldn't be so bad.

Atlas put on the finishing touches on the lavish breakfast he was preparing. For this special occasion he prepared a full spread for brunch, after all, it was Luna's fifth birthday.

The two sisters had now been with Atlas for almost four years and had settled in just fine. Celestia had calmed down quite a bit and seemed to have mostly moved on from the loss of her parents, even though she still seemed to be affected by it sometimes. Luna, on the other hand, was as happy-go-lucky as could be. She still called Atlas “father”, even though he had already tried to clear up that misunderstanding many times now. Either she just didn’t understand, or opted to just not care.

Most likely she didn’t have a single coherent memory of her real parents remaining, and for all intents and purposes, Atlas was the real deal. Celestia wasn’t too happy about it and usually didn’t look too happy every time Luna called Atlas “father” or “dad”. She didn’t stop or correct Luna though, so she seemed tolerant of the situation.

He could hear a small set of hooves approaching from behind him as he reminisced about the past few years and turned around.

“Daddy, what are you doing?” Luna asked while she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with her fetlock.

“Making a special breakfast for a special filly,” Atlas answered back, picking her up with his magic and setting her down on his back. She still loved getting a ride on Atlas’ back, which reminded him of how Discord used to be back in the day. “After all, it’s your birthday today!”

“It is?” Luna asked, her eyes growing wide, suddenly wide awake.

“Don’t tell me you forgot your own birthday?” Atlas asked with a chuckle, setting her down in her usual chair at the table.

Their dinner table was already filled with all the goodies one might need for a successful brunch, such as pancakes, maple syrup, a variety of breads and things to put on them, cereal, scrambled eggs and a vegetable stew. On second thought, Atlas had to declare this brunch a complete failure and an utter disgrace to brunches everywhere, since there was no bacon present.

He wouldn’t tell that to Luna, though.

“I don’t know when it is, so how could I remember?” Luna asked with a squeaky and slightly offended voice.

“Well, I do, and it’s today,” Atlas replied, turning around to put the finishing touches on the eggplant piccata he was making.

“Does that mean I’ll get presents?” Luna asked excitedly through a mouth full of pancake.

“Yes, yes it does,” Atlas smiled. “Also, try to swallow before you talk.”

Atlas brought over the platter of eggplant and set in on a free spot on the table before sitting down as well, starting to load a little bit of everything on his plate.

“What’s going on?” A sleepy voice could be heard from behind.

“It’s Luna's birthday, so we’re having brunch!” Atlas said while turning around to face Celestia, who had a glorious case of bed hair. “Come join us.”

Celestia sniffed the air a few times, the smell of food apparently helping to speed up the process, before making her way over to the table and plopping herself down in her usual spot.

“Happy Birthday, Luna!” Celestia said with a happy smile on her face.

“Fhanks,” Luna replied around a mouthful, her muzzle caked with food crumbs.

Celestia shook her head at her sister's terrible table manners and started loading up her plate as well. Her magic training had been proceeding smoothly, and levitation was like second nature to her now. Her affinity for orange mana, the school of energy, allowed her to become proficient at spells relating to recognizing, categorizing and manipulating the mana around her. Although Atlas noticed that the color of her magical signature was slowly changing color, from the usual orange to something more akin to yellow, or maybe gold.

This change was highly unusual, as well as the first time Atlas heard of this happening, so he was unsure what that meant, but since it was more in line from what he knew about future Celestia, he didn’t pay it much mind.

Luna had also begun her training in the magic arts, displaying an uncanny talent for Illusion spells, concurrent to her affinity to blue mana. Atlas kind of wished that Starswirl was still here, since he’d be a way better teacher for this than Atlas was. Alas, Luna had to make do with Atlas’ limited knowledge, although she didn’t seem to mind at all.

“I’ve got a little present for you as well,” Celestia said in between two bites of hay fries. “I’ll give it to you after we’re done eating.”

“Guess I’ll give her my present then as well,” Atlas added.

“Cool! I can’t wait!”

As if to prove her words, Luna began to eat even faster, which Atlas previously thought impossible. Bits and pieces of food started flying everywhere as the various foodstuff fell prey to the blue glutton. Where all the food went to, Atlas had no clue, but he felt like it was dangerous to even think about it.

“Now, slow down a little,” Atlas reprimanded her. “It’ll still be your birthday even if you take your time eating. It’s also unhealthy to not properly chew your food, you know the thing I tell you every day.”

“Yu fshure bo!” Luna replied, mouth still full, still shoveling in even more.

Atlas sighed and accepted that he probably never would get through to her on this topic. To be honest, if food wasn’t literally walking in through the front door on a daily basis, he was sure that Luna would have eaten him into bankruptcy by now. He would have to thank Discord whenever he got the chance.

Thankfully, the sisters believed his lie that he simply set up some complex counterspell that held the chaos at bay and didn’t ask more questions relating to its complete absence in the cave.

Luna pretty much emptied the table herself, which again, baffled Atlas, and started impatiently waiting for Celestia and Atlas to finish. In a rare moment of adult responsibility, Atlas took his sweet time finishing, finding amusement in Luna's pseudo suffering. Celestia either didn’t care or simply tried to imitate Atlas in an attempt to appear like a responsible big sister. Matter of fact, she was very responsible for her age, but still barely ten years old.

Eventually, they both finished eating, which made Luna really excited. Atlas took this as the perfect opportunity to clean up. Luna had made a right mess of the table, and the dishes needed to be washed anyway, wouldn’t want the dirt to dry out, making everything harder to clean. Since Luna's birthday was today, she didn’t have to help, and Celestia and Atlas went about their cleaning tasks at a sedate pace.

By the time the eating area and the kitchen was perfectly clean, Luna was close to exploding from excitement and impatience. While she reminded Atlas of some sort of hyper-energetic dog on speed, he hoped she wouldn’t literally explode.

By all rights, after inserting so much food into her small body, physically she should be dead thrice over by now.

“Alright, are you ready for your presents?” Atlas asked, smiling as he definitely knew the answer.

“YES!” Luna exploded into action, running up and down the living room a few times before bodily throwing herself on the couch, where she looked at the two of them expectantly, barely able to hold still.

Definitely a dog.

Atlas and Celestia shared a look with each other before the both of them went to retrieve their respective presents. Atlas came back out of his room, next to him levitating a neatly wrapped present, which was bigger than himself, and seemed to be some sort of connected tubes of varying sizes.

Celestia was already back and sitting next to Luna on the couch, the blue filly hungrily eying a small wrapped box on the coffee table before her. Atlas set down his present next to the table and joined the sisters on the couch.

“Why don’t you open up your sister's present first?” Atlas asked, enjoying the familial scene unfolding before him. He truly felt like the two were like his real daughters by now, belonging to Atlas’ weird jumbled family.

Contrary to her obviously excited emotional state, Luna carefully picked up the small box off the table and looked towards Celestia. “Can I?”

“Go ahead,” Celestia gestured with her hooves.

Celestia seemed somewhat excited as well, probably wondering how well received her present would be. Atlas had no idea what Celestia got for Luna, since she insisted on doing something for her sister by herself, so he was looking forward to seeing what she came up with.

Showing off her fine control of her levitation spell, Luna unwrapped the present midair, a plain brown box appearing from under the wrapper. She pulled open the lid and pulled out what was resting within.

A dark blue gem of sorts seemed to emerge from within. It was perfectly spherical and reflected the light passing through it in an odd way, making it seem like a pulsating glow resided deep within its depths. While Luna made an amazed face as she inspected the small stone, Atlas furrowed his brows in interest. At first glance, he had no idea what it was.

“It’s beautiful,” Luna gasped, barely able to tear away her eyes from it to look at her sister. “What is it?” She asked curiously.

“It’s a stone of concentrated mana,” Celestia said smugly. “I made it myself, especially for you!”

“Wow…” Luna said slowly, returning to being mesmerized by the pulsating stone in front of her.

Atlas, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. ‘Concentrated mana?’ he mouthed under his breath. The very idea seemed absurd, and as far as he could remember, he had never read or heard anything about something like this before. His immediate first thought was that this should be incredibly dangerous, since he knew that out of control mana tended to react rather violently. But this little stone seemed to be perfectly stable.

“Celestia?” Atlas asked with a concerned voice. “Where did you learn how to do this?”

“I came up with it myself!” Celestia stated proudly, obviously happy about her success.

“Came up with it herself,” Atlas muttered in disbelief. “And nothing dangerous happened?”

“No?” Celestia hesitantly asked, now confused as to why she didn’t earn immediate praise.

“Look, I know I’ve told you this before, but creating new and unknown magic can be incredibly dangerous, you could’ve killed yourself by accident!” Atlas reprimanded her. “I insist that you tell me the next time you do something like that, I’ll be able to help you out.”

“I… I just wanted to make something by myself for Luna…” Celestia said, her eyes starting to water when she thought about the implications. “I’m sorry!”

“As long as you understand,” Atlas said with a sigh. “That being said, I’m incredibly proud of you!” Atlas changed his tune. “This is a completely new form of magic, you’ll have to teach it to me as soon as you can.” Atlas finished with a wink towards Celestia.

Celestia simply energetically nodded her head, wiping away the tears that already started to form from her eyes. “Thank you!”

The smile Celestia displayed made him genuinely happy, and he nodded with satisfaction. Celestia only seemed responsible on the surface, while actually being incredibly impulsive on the inside. The only thing Atlas could do was to properly tutor her and hope for the best, but he was positive that she would eventually grow up to be a responsible mare.

Luna didn’t seem to register the small argument that just took place over her back, since she was still mesmerized by the gift she had received. Celestia smiled and fired up her horn, shooting a constant beam of magic into the gem before Atlas had a chance to stop her or ask what she was doing. Even when he just told her to think a bit more before she acted, she went ahead and did so anyway.

As a result, the room was suddenly illuminated by flowing blue colors, ethereally floating through the room like waves. While they were busy ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ahh-ing’ at the scene unfolding before them, Atlas reached over Lunas back and lightly smacked Celestia over the head, who shot him an apologetic smile.

“Incredible,” Atlas said. “Truly incredible.”

“Thank you sis!” Luna suddenly shouted and hugged Celestia. “I love it!”

“You’re welcome,” Celestia said, hugging her sister back. “I love you.” She added with a whisper into Luna's ear.

They watched the blue wisps for a while longer before Celestia stopped her casting, subsequently stopping the impromptu show. Luna shot her a thankful smile and carefully put the stone back into its box and setting it on the table. She looked at it appreciatively for a few more moments, before slowly turning her head towards the comparatively huge present still waiting for her.

“Go ahead,” Atlas simply said, prompting Luna to get up from the couch and stand next to the present.

While it was almost intimidatingly tall compared to her, it was very skinny, and unwrapping it carefully looked like it would take quite some time, causing Luna to make a slightly dissatisfied face. Thankfully, Atlas had prepared for this, knowing about Luna's usual impatient nature.

If Celestia was a bit of an impulsive filly, Luna was like a hyperactive idiot that just carelessly charged ahead regardless of consequences. Sometimes he was expecting her to break through the wall separating their bedrooms while shouting: “I’m the juggernaut, bitch!” or “Ohh Yeah!”

“There's a small bow on the tube right in front of you,” Atlas explained. “If you pull on it, the whole wrap will undo itself.”

Luna looked towards Atlas a mile wide grin spreading across her face, followed immediately by an energetic tug on the aforementioned bow. Just as promised, the wrap started falling away piece by piece, slowly revealing what was concealed below. Luna seemed to get more giddy with every piece slowly fluttering to the floor.

Even if Atlas knew she was impatient, he intentionally made it that the wrap would peel away at an agonizingly slow pace, to increase the tension before the big reveal.

It took a while, with Atlas mentally laughing all the way through, until the last big piece of wrapping paper undid itself, revealing Luna's present. Before her stood a state of the art telescope.

“Cool!” Luna shouted, jumping up and down excitedly, turning around to face Atlas. “What is it?”

Atlas almost bursted out laughing right there, but barely managed to restrict himself to an amused snort. “It’s a telescope Luna, it helps you to see things that are very, very far away.”

“That sounds incredible!” Luna exclaimed, starting to circle the contraption before her. “But what am I going to use it for?” She added with a slight bit of confusion.

“Well, I made this myself,” Atlas started to explain. “I personally enchanted it, and even put some runes on it, so, you know, you can see things that are really far away. Like, oh I don’t know… The stars in the night sky you love so much?”

Luna's head snapped into Atlas’ direction so fast that he was worried she’d break something, her eyes growing wide.

“I… I can see the moon up close?” Luna asked with bated breath.

“Yes Luna, you’ll be able to see as much of it as you want,” Atlas said with a grin.

Luna looked towards the balcony, finding it to be still light outside, a look of disappointment spreading across her face. She obviously wanted to try out her telescope as fast as possible, but there was no point staring at the sun with it, since she’d only turn herself blind.

Ever since she’d moved in here, Atlas would always notice her admiring the night sky, whenever it was available, even before she could speak. He had spent many a night outside on the balcony with her, just watching, appreciating the stars high, high up above. Using a few books from his sizable library he had taken to teaching her some astronomy, which she ate up like it was a brunch on her birthday.

He considered his telescope to be the ultimate present for Luna and was sure she’d make ample use of it, but after seeing the amazing present Celestia had brought out, he wasn’t so sure of himself anymore.

“Don’t worry Luna, you’ll be able to test it out soon enough,” Atlas said. “Considering that the day/night cycle has been uncharacteristically consistent over the past few days, it should turn dark right about… now.”

Just as Atlas finished his sentence, the sun outside careened towards the horizon, disappearing as if she owned the moon some money, as the white ball replaced it in the sky. Luna gasped and excitedly trotted in place for a few moments

“Come on, I’ll set it up for you,” Atlas said as he got up from the couch, picking up the telescope in his magic.

He walked out onto the balcony, Celestia and Luna following close behind him, one of them decidedly more excited than the other. Atlas set the telescope down at the edge of the balcony and aimed it roughly in the direction of the moon. He pulled one of the nearby chairs towards it, placing it so that Luna had easy access to the eye-piece. She immediately hopped on and was just about ready to smash her eyeball into the lens, when Atlas stopped her. Luna shot him an offended look as if he had just denied her water after walking through a desert.

“Now, before you rush in, I’ll have to explain to you how it works,” Atlas reprimanded.

“Alright, I’m listening,” the embodiment of impatience answered.

“Okay, since we’re looking at something so far away, even small adjustments you make yourself will probably throw you off from what you’re trying to look at,” Atlas explained. “That’s what these knobs are for.”

Atlas pointed out a series of knobs that were attached to the telescope. “If you turn them you can make minuscule adjustments to the telescope, allowing you to slowly shift where you’re looking at without ending up halfway across the galaxy.”

“Ohhh, I get it!” Luna said, surprised that she hadn’t thought of that herself. “Can I look through it now?”

Atlas chuckled and did a quick run through which knobs turned the telescope which way, and let her have at it after. Luna immediately glued her eye to the eyepiece, first making rough adjustments until she had zeroed in on the moon and then started to use her magic to turn the knobs. Her mouth was agape during the whole process and Atlas started to worry that she might forget to breathe, so he made sure to remind her.

“Careful, if you forget to breathe, this might be the last time you can look at the moon,” Atlas chuckled.

Immediately Luna took a deep breath, seemingly remembering that breathing was in fact, somewhat important, but refused to look away from what she was seeing through the telescope. They spent a while in silence, while Luna simply enjoyed looking at every nook and cranny of the moon that she could, until a small sniffle could be heard from her direction.

Atlas looked in her direction with slight concern, fearing something was wrong.

“Everything okay, Luna?” He asked tentatively.

Luna slowly pulled her head away from the eyepiece, a magnificent circular imprint left behind around her eye socket, a stray tear already trickling down her cheek as she turned to look at Atlas. Celestia had a worried look on her face as well, concerned for her sister.

“I... “ A hiccup interrupted Luna's answer. “I love it so much… thank you, daddy!”

Luna started straight up bawling at this point, leaping from the chair to hug Atlas, attaching to his neck in midair. Atlas could see Celestia wincing slightly at Luna's choice of words but otherwise she was smiling, simply happy that her sister was too.
“It’s nothing,” Atlas said. “You’re very much welcome.”

As Atlas lovingly returned the heartfelt hug, a bright light started emanating all around them. Celestia seemed somewhat confused, while a shit-eating grin made its way on Atlas face. Aside from simply wanting to make Luna happy, he had a somewhat ulterior motive with his gift, and it would seem like he was right on the money this time.

Luna didn’t even take notice of the anomaly as she was too busy hugging and crying to care. When the glow subsided, Celestia’s eyes were glued to her sisters flank, as a brand new cutie mark was left behind in the lights wake.

“Well, would you look at that,” Atlas said. “Looks like there is one more birthday present for you.”

Luna's right ear twitched a few times as Atlas set her down on the floor, her crying being replaced by a look of confusion as she looked around for what Atlas meant. “Wha-?”

“Looks like you got your cutie mark, congratulations Luna!” Atlas exclaimed happily, pointing out her flank to her.

Luna slowly turned her head around to take a look, and sure enough, there it was. A black blot had appeared on her flanks, a white crescent moon visible over it. It was obviously a representation of the moon in the night sky, and Luna took a while to appreciate what it looked like.

Slowly her mind seemed to catch up to what had just happened and a smile started growing on her face. Together with her bloodshot eyes and tear-stained fur beneath them, it made for quite an interesting combination.

She immediately latched onto Atlas again, this time laughing happily, her giggles filling the otherwise quiet night. Atlas enthusiastically returned the hug once again, waving Celestia over to join them in their moment of happiness, which she gladly accepted, joining in on the group hug.

They remained like that for quite some time, happily chatting amongst themselves until the sun came up again and even later as it was replaced by the moon.

While Atlas wasn’t sure how or why it happened, but, the cave behind them, truly felt like home once more. A home he could share with his new family.

Author's Notes:

For some reason I had some issues writing the first part of this chapter. I'm already hardcore deviating from the originally planned chapters, adding a ton of shit, so I'm kind of ad-libbing even more than usual. Yet I feel this is necessary for the story to flow better, make the skips more bearable while still focusing on the important parts.

Pretty sure that if I went the original path, you'd have come for my head by now :P

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

18. Mana Batteries

Atlas took a step back to take a look at his latest creation. While impressed with himself, he felt like this whole experiment of his might have gotten slightly out of hoof. Currently, the central chamber of his lab was littered with research papers. They overlapped each other so perfectly that a bystander might think it was a stylized wallpaper, as the earthy gray walls of the cave were so thoroughly hidden.

On the other hand, if Starswirl returned right now, he’d probably have an aneurysm from excitement over Atlas’ work

What made the clutter more tolerable was that most of the papers were devoted to a single research project. It all started about five years ago, on Luna's fifth birthday, when Celestia gifted her sister with a gem that was made of pure concentrated mana.

Of course, Atlas took an immediate interest in what Celestia created and had her teach the process to him. While the thought process behind it needed an adult to jump through some hoops to understand, for children it must have seemed logical.

Or maybe just to Celestia, because Luna didn’t get it at all.

Atlas wasted no time looking into how the technique could be applied to variations of his past research and experiments. That’s how he stumbled upon an amazing revelation. Buried deep within a pile of research papers, Atlas found the schematics for the Crystal Heart that he had stolen.

The big flaw in its design was the need for a very specific and almost impossible to find crystal, that once found then needed to be carved meticulously and treated precisely on the first attempt. The odds and resources required for its success had made it laughably unviable. At least for Atlas, although it did make him wonder how much of a drain on resources the Crystal Heart had been, and just how many iterations the Kingdom must have gone through for a successful attempt. It certainly made him question their sanity, if not their results. But, what if you just made the crystal from scratch?

Using synthetic crystal made from pure concentrated mana would boost its efficiency by an order of magnitudes, since nothing was able to store and conduct mana more efficiently than actual concentrated mana. The ideas just came flowing to him afterwards, like an avalanche of genius in his head, and the project got increasingly complex until he arrived at what he was looking at right now.

Considering that the Crystal Heart could be used to generate energy equivalent to an atom bomb explosion, if this project succeeded, Atlas was pretty sure he could blow up the whole planet with just one battery. A battery a lot smaller than the original Crystal Heart.

Of course, he realized just how incredibly dangerous and stupid it was to even think of creating something like this, but he felt the intense need to see if it was possible. He never would blow up the planet! All he had to do was to keep it secret and protect his project after finishing it.

It was just that simple!

It had taken him this long to come up with a complete theory which he considered to be working, if he tried to do it right now, but he had learned from past mistakes. Projects like this had to be combed over with the finest comb you could find, time and time again, until you were completely sure that it would work. Especially if one wrong step could blow up an entire mountain, since Atlas was pretty sure the wards around here wouldn’t hold during an accident.

He turned a full three-hundred and sixty degrees, taking in all of his creation, taking a moment to relish in the feeling of having completed something that took a very long time to do. Soon enough he let out a sigh, the next seemingly insurmountable task already looming before him, mocking him even.

He took one last look towards where page one of his research was hung and decided that he didn’t want to deal with it anymore today. With a satisfied smile on his face, he turned to head upstairs.

A little time with his cute adoptive daughters would certainly be more enjoyable than brooding over scientific notes.

Atlas let his face slam into his desk. A task that was a lot harder if your face was long instead of flat. It took him another two years, but his gargantuan task was finally completed. He went over his complete research for a total of five times, making corrections and changes along the way that made him fear for the continued existence of ponykind if left untouched, until his fifth comb-over seemed to require no further changes to be made.

During times like this, Atlas really missed Starswirl, since he’d have probably been able to cut the time needed in half, at the very least. Of course, having Celestia or Luna help would have been amazing too, but the thematic was way to advanced and complex for them to even start to comprehend what was going on. Being the sweethearts that they were, they helped out in the moral department, making sure that he’d never lose his spirit or just outright give up.

Celestia had taken over his cooking duties, which gave him a lot of extra time. Her being around the age where kids usually went into a somewhat rebellious phase, Atlas was actually pleasantly surprised at her behavior. Even though she was living more or less cooped up in the cave system, she had become a friendly and gentle mare. While she was free to come and go as she pleased, as long as she returned, she chose to spend her time helping out with household tasks, and had apparently made it her personal goal to read every single book in Atlas’ vast library of stolen books.

While he couldn’t be too sure, Atlas suspected her to be a bit afraid of going outside. There could be an underlying trauma that made her afraid of the chaos outside while relishing in the stability that the cave system provided.

Luna, on the other hand, displayed an incredible talent for arranging runes, despite her tender age of twelve. Aside from watching and cataloging the many stars, the study of runes seemed to be her favorite pastime. Atlas took immense joy in her interest in the art and made sure to teach her everything he knew about them. He had high hopes for her, hoping that she’d one day be able to help him out in his task against the gods, since runes were apparently the key in some way or another.

Incidentally, Luna was at a nearby workstation, poring over her newest teaching materials. Hearing the sound Atlas’ head created when making contact with wood, she shot him a quizzical look, but otherwise left him be. This behavior wasn’t all too unusual and she didn’t want to break his concentration, so she simply returned to her studies.

A slow grin started to spread on Atlas’ face, looking forward to finally be able to get to the practical part of his research, which was admittedly a thousand times more interesting than the theoretical part.

Atlas had his eyes closed while continuously casting his spell. The low hum of active magic had a calming effect on him as he slowly completed his work. Since he had trained this particular spell to death over the past few years he was practically able to do it in his sleep. Making a mana gem was incredibly simple once you got the hang of it after all.

He was currently producing one of these, but contrary to the countless others he had made up to this point, this one would be used as a part for his new project.

Atlas opened his eyes again as he completed the last part of his gem, starting to inspect it by spinning it in mid-air, scrutinizing every part of it for imperfections. This particular gem was incredibly thin, to the point where resembled a sheet of paper. It’s actual width was exactly two millimeters while being shaped like a rupee from Zelda.

Due to its purity, it was completely see through. There was a slight pink tinge to it, though, since it was made by crystallizing pink mana.

There were several reasons for this decision, chiefly among them that mana from the school of energy would most likely be best suited for it’s intended purpose of storing mana. Aside from that, the color reminded him of Belle, his late wife, which he dedicated this project to. It seemed like this could easily become his magnum opus, so dedicating it to his true love was only reasonable.

During the theoretical part of his research he had done quite a bit of testing on these mana crystals as well, such as testing their durability, which was incredibly high. Just to be sure, he chucked this completed product at the nearest wall with all of his magical power. It bounced off the wall and came to a clattering rest on the floor a few feet away, not a single nick or scratch present from the violent treatment it received.

Atlas nodded, satisfied with his first sheet of mana crystal and picked it up off the floor with his magic, setting it down on a nearby table. Shortly after, a note with the number “one” drawn on it joined the crystal. Since he was working on a very precise plan here, it was important that he didn’t mix up the positions of any crystals he would make from now on, so it was important to label everything. Glancing over at a pile of similar notes, Atlas sighed.

One down, thirty-nine more to go.

Atlas set down another Mana Crystal, labeling it with the number forty. He let out a breath of relief at having reached another milestone in his research. Raw material: acquired! From here on out, his work would become a lot more complicated and detailed.

But just as any other good researcher, Atlas cherished a good challenge and was actually looking forward to it. Every step along the way would bring him closer to completion, so there was no point in doing anything else but take one at a time. Spread out on a table before him, were forty sheets of light pink manastone, the sizes of which varied slightly.

While easy, creating crystallized mana actually took quite some time, so he was limited to making just two sheets per day. Considering he had taken quite a few days off and spent some time teaching Celestia and Luna, making these forty crystals took him roughly two months.

Truth be told, Atlas wasn’t really looking forward to what he’d have to do next, since it would require incredible accuracy over a long period of time. Next, he’d have to inscribe every sheet of crystal with runes that he painstakingly drew out beforehand. To make matters more complicated, he tried to fit as many runes on there as possible, which meant each rune was rather small. Even worse, since the crystal sheets were only two millimeters thick, he would only be able to inscribe the runes to a depth of one millimeter.

The only saving grace was that he only needed to inscribe thirty-eight out of the forty he had made, since the two end pieces were meant to “close off” the battery, so to speak.

Silently, Atlas cursed his past-self for even coming up with this idea, but begrudgingly picked up the crystal with the label number two and brought it over to a workstation he had prepared specifically for this purpose. On it was currently little more than a fixture to keep the crystal in place, something to drink and the schematics for the rune array that was supposed to be inscribed on this crystal.

He unceremoniously plopped the crystal into the fixture and tightened it into place. If Atlas made even a tiny mistake here, he’d have to remake the whole crystal, and that was something he really didn’t want to think about.

As carefully as he could, he activated the spell he usually used for creating his arrays and started slowly scratching away at the surface. He had made sure that both Celestia and Luna knew that they weren’t supposed to disturb him during this time, no matter what, which at least allowed him some peace of mind while doing this.

It took him three days to complete the first sheet.

Feeling mentally exhausted, Atlas all but collapsed on his desk. The progress on the rune inscriptions was agonizingly slow. At first, everything seemed to go well, but as time went on he had to remake some of the crystals, since he messed up at some point.

He currently felt as if he could just sleep through all of next week, but all the same, a smile spread on his face. From starting the creation of the first mana crystal for the battery, it took him almost an entire year, but finally, just now, he had inscribed the very last rune.

The whole process was mind-numbingly boring and required a high amount of concentration and Atlas was pretty sure it showed on his face and body. The work started to take it’s toll on him around the half-year mark, much to the concern of the sisters. Together they made sure to support him as much as they could, which Atlas was infinitely thankful for.

Since there were a lot more setbacks than he’d have liked during this production cycle, he wasn’t sure if he could have completed it if it wasn’t for their constant support. The only thing left now was to meld the sheets together, to form a single working mechanism and the project would finally go into its last phase: testing!

Whether or not this would work was what would decide over Atlas course going forward in the future. It incorporated basically everything Atlas knew about magic, even contained some of the mechanics from the card game he invented back in his academy days. If the project failed, he might just kill himself.

Atlas chuckled at the thought.

Feeling tired, he got up from his workstation and headed back upstairs. Whatever would happen next, it could happen next month for all he cared. It was time for a long break from his work.

Atlas descended ever deeper into darkness, the only guiding light he had coming from his horn. In a satchel that attached to a string around his neck, rested the finished mana battery in all its glory. From the outside it looked just like a regular pink gem, not even hinting at its true purpose. Just as planned the final shape closely resembled a rupee from the Zelda video game series. There was no real reason to go for that shape, aside from Atlas finding it aesthetically pleasing.

It was finally time to test out the culmination of all his hard work up to this point. Every single piece of knowledge and skill he possessed was in this battery and being this close to testing it was making Atlas quite nervous.

Knowing about its potential destructive power, he had prepared a special bomb-shelter kind of cave deep, deep underground. It was outfitted with the most powerful protective spells he knew of, and just to be sure, he had told Celestia and Luna to evacuate to Vanhoofer until he came to get them. Much to their confusion, he told them to wait, even if they saw the whole mountain explode.

He didn’t plan to charge it with world ending amounts of mana, even if it worked perfectly, but with stuff like this, you could never be careful enough.

It took him almost ten minutes of navigating a dark and narrow hallway, but eventually, he stepped out into a sizable cave. In it’s center, he had set up a contraption similar to what was holding up the Crystal Heart back in the kingdom. While there was no essential need for this addition, it would allow him to better observe the battery if it floated in mid-air.

Not wasting any time, he levitated the battery out of the satchel and held it between the two prong-like protrusions coming out of the ground and the ceiling, where it started floating while slowly rotating along its own axis. There were no more uncertainties at this point, no more theoretical tests to run. This was it.

Either it worked or it didn’t.

Mentally preparing himself, Atlas took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. With a flick of his magic, he activated the dormant rune array resting within the battery. Hoping it wouldn’t instantly blow up on him, Atlas stood his ground and observed. It was a slow process, but slowly but surely, the gem started to glow a steady pink as the runes within lighted up one after another.

The whole cave slowly started to be filled with a pink light emanating from the gem, a steady hum accompanying it, growing slightly louder with each passing second. The start-up process took almost five minutes, which Atlas had intentionally designed this way, so that he could intervene in the case of something going wrong. Much to his relief, everything went off without a hitch. And, soon enough, the mana battery was in full working order.

Some of the runes inside would now begin absorbing residual mana at a slow rate to fill up its storage capacity. Hidden deep within the thousands of runes was something that resembled an on-off switch, which would allow Atlas to freely activate and deactivate this passive mana gathering, which was crucial if he wanted to control the amount of mana that was being stored.

Wouldn’t want to accidentally blow up the world, after all.

To speed up this process, Atlas started manually feeding the battery with mana. There was a certain threshold he meant to pass in order to complete this test. If he managed to pass over this threshold, he would be sure that there was absolutely no mistake in his calculations and his craftsmanship, and everything was working as intended.

It took another fifteen minutes of continuous feeding, but eventually, he came close to the threshold. Biting his lower lip, he took the plunge and went over it, bracing himself for impact. A few moment of nothing happening later, a strange feeling started to spread all around his stomach as he felt an emotion bubbling to the surface.

Feeling intense relief, he fell back on his haunches and started laughing. The weight lifted from his shoulders was immense and a few happy tears started flowing down his cheeks as he beheld his creation.

The battery, still spinning slowly was bathing Atlas in a world of pink as he simply sat there with a blank mind, happily smiling the time away as he watched. Now, more than ever, he was thinking about Belle.

The battery floating before him almost seemed to radiate happiness and made him feel closer to Belle than he had ever since she passed away. It almost felt like she was right there with him, standing behind him and watching over his achievement.

Atlas chuckled as he remembered all the good times he’d had spent with his friends, their faces flashing before his inner eye one by one, before finally his thoughts came to a rest when thinking of Vibrant Colors.

Just like Belle, Vibrant was taken from this life much too soon, and would never return. Looking at the crystal in front of him made him feel a deep connection to his departed friend and wife which he couldn’t quite explain, but still felt there all the same. It would be great if he had something like that for all of his friends, as they would eventually pass away, leaving Atlas behind.

Making even one of these batteries was a painful process, but looking at the results, he felt like he could make just a few more if it meant he would always have his friends close, no matter what. He decided then and there, that he’d create five more batteries, matching his friends' coat colors.

So that he may never forget.

Author's Notes:

Alrighty, new chapter. Insert cryptic comment about the things that happened in this chapter, that, while not explicitly stated, I'm sure most of you are able to work out ^^ Also, I'm somewhat proud of the fact that there isn't a single dialogue line in this!

Shoutout to Nobody Special, for backing me on patreon!

Also: I have a Patreon now!

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon, because I now apparently have one too, like everybody else !

19. KYS

“Alright, you’re definitely sure what to do?” Atlas nervously asked.

“Yes, dad, we’ve gone over this like a million times…” Luna responded with a playful roll of her eyes.

“Ok, cool… Just making sure…” Atlas replied defensively.

It took Atlas another four years to complete the rest of his mana batteries, and all six of them were currently hanging on a wall behind him. Like a rainbow, they were affixed to the wall via pure gold like bezels in a ring. Completely unnecessary, but it made them look incredibly good nonetheless. As to not let them go to waste, he was actively using them to power any wards in and around the cave system, which allowed him to put down more defensive wards than ever before and keep them charged with an absurd amount of magic.

During that time, he had made sure to teach Luna and Celestia as much as they wanted, in whatever subject they wanted. And while Luna apparently had her mind set to the art of runes, Celestia was becoming some sort of knowledge Overlord, similar to Atlas, if not more. By now he was pretty sure that Celestia simply refused to go outside unless absolutely necessary. Her trauma really didn’t show itself in any other way aside from her aversion to being outside, so Atlas hadn’t really taken any steps in correcting her behaviour, but he’d have to do something about it eventually. He couldn’t have her be a shut-in all her life.

“Where did you put the schematics for the rune-array?” Luna asked while sifting through a sizable stack of papers.

“They’re on the workbench over there,” Atlas said, pointing towards their location. “Grab them and follow me.”

“Can’t we just do it right here?” Luna asked, picking up the papers in her magic. “We’ve been practicing up here, so why use a different place for the real thing.”

“I might not have told you everything about this project that there is to know,” Atlas said cryptically, “but I’ll tell you the details once we arrive at the proper room.”

Luna rolled her eyes once more while shaking her head, giving up on pressing the matter. Whenever he got like this he wouldn’t budge, so she’d just have to go along. She followed close behind Atlas, who lead her towards one of the paths leading deeper underground. Usually, Luna wasn’t allowed on the deeper levels as, according to Atlas, there were things down there that could be dangerous if not handled correctly. So, seeing as they were going down, her interest in whatever they were about to do was renewed.

“Alright.” Atlas suddenly stopped in the middle of a hallway and turned around, facing Luna. “I need you to promise me, that whatever you’re about to see never reaches the ears of your sister. I shouldn’t even show you this, but you’re currently the only one with enough knowledge about runes that can help me, and what I’m about to do is a two pony job. You understand?”

Luna was a bit thrown off with how serious Atlas suddenly became, like if he was about to let her in on some great secret, which caused her to pause momentarily. “I promise,” she eventually said, slightly intimidated by the look Atlas gave her.

After a few moments, Atlas gave a satisfied nod and turned towards the wall on his right. His horn began to glow a deep purple before the seemingly solid wall began to shake and rumble before sliding to the side, revealing another passage. Atlas walked straight into it as mana lamps turned on to illuminate the interior. Luna reluctantly following behind, and she suddenly felt like she was actually about to see something she shouldn’t.

The wall closed back up behind her, further adding to the feeling of having stepped into something she wasn’t supposed to, yet she still followed behind Atlas, as she trusted her father to not put her into too much danger. They followed the path for quite some time, passing by doors that she never got to see what they led too, until they finally stopped at a seemingly random one.

“Alright, here we are,” Atlas announced. “Come on in.”

They filed through the door and into a simple room with just a table, two chairs and a bed in it. Upon closer inspection, Luna also saw a pile of medical supplies on a little table next to the bed, but otherwise, the room was empty. Atlas went over to the table and sat down, motioning for Luna to sit down in the other chair.

“This is your last chance to back out of this,” Atlas said with a serious voice. “It's either now or never.”

Luna fidgeted a bit in her seat, actually quite nervous now. Just a few minutes ago she thought they were just going to do a regular experiment with a new rune array, but everything that just happened told her this would be anything but regular. Yet still, she completely trusted her father, and if she could be of help, she’d do it. No matter what.

“I’ll do it,” Luna said with conviction.

“Thank you,” Atlas said, letting out a sigh of relief for some reason. “Then, I need you to promise me, that everything you see, hear and do in this room, stays in this room. None of this can leave this room, unless I give you the express permission to tell someone. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Luna furrowed her brows. “I promise.”

“Okay, good… Good…” Atlas took a few seconds to collect himself.

He was actually somewhat afraid of Luna flat-out refusing him, in which case he’d have to deal with a problem, since this was a two-pony job. Truth be told, he really didn’t want to involve Luna in this job, since it would be quite gruesome, and she was still technically a child. If only Starswirl was still here. He’d most likely tell Atlas that he was insane, but would still help him out of curiosity.

“I know, we’ve gone over the arrays that we’ll be using today until you can probably carve them in your sleep, but I’ve never actually told you what they do and where we’ll put them, right?” Luna nodded. “Truth is, they’re supposed to go on my bones.”

Like ripping off a band-aid, Atlas decided to just come out with the truth. Luna blinked a few times, apparently processing this new information, before a shocked expression crossed her face.

“WHAT?” Luna shouted and jumped backwards off her chair. “Your bones? That’s insane!”

“Now calm down, I know this sounds a little out there, but trust me…”

“Calm down?” Luna interrupted Atlas. “You want me to calm down after telling me this? I can’t believe you! The very first thing you told me about runes is to never put them on anything that’s alive! And now you want me to actually put them on you?”

“I can understand that this is very confusing to you, but this is different.”

“How can it be any different?” Luna asked with an incredulous face. “You told me that last time somepony tried, a great calamity befell them. I would never do something that hurts you dad, what if this actually… kills you?”

Luna had retreated into one of the corners of the room, near the door and was looking at Atlas with a somewhat fearful look in her eyes. This wasn’t what she was expecting at all when she just promised to help, not at all. As far as she was concerned this was supposed to be a run of the mill rune experiment, and all of a sudden Atlas wanted her to violate the single most important rule of runic magic.

For all she knew, carving runes on anyponys bones would just blow them up upon activation.

“It might,” Atlas said calmly, looking towards Luna with apologetic eyes. “But that doesn’t matter right now, why don’t you come back here, take a seat, and I’ll explain everything to you?”

“Wha...?” Lunas mind came to a screeching halt upon Atlas’ admittance that there was a possibility of him dying and then immediately dismissing it as unimportant. “How… How could you say it doesn’t matter?! I love you!” Luna began shouting again. “Celestia loves you as well! How could you just shrug off the possibility of you dying? How could you do this to Celestia?” Tears were now freely falling from her face. “I… I know that you are not my real father… I know that… But I never even got to meet our real parents, so you’re like the real thing to me. But, Celestia… She had to lose her parents once before! If you were to disappear now as well… It would break her…”

Luna fell to her haunches as she started to cry in earnest, letting all of her emotions out into the open. The sight of his daughter crying like that stung Atlas’ heart, making him realize that he should’ve maybe approached this subject a little differently from how he just did. He slowly got up and walked over to Luna, sitting down next to her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

Luna recoiled slightly at Atlas’ touch, but eventually let herself fall into it. She cried against Atlas’ shoulder while he whispered comforting words into her ear. They remained like this for a while until Luna eventually calmed down a bit.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Atlas said carefully. “I shouldn’t have said it like that. I know I mean a lot to you two, and you two mean a lot to me. But… there are certain things you two don’t know about me. Nobody really knows, actually, since I keep it a closely guarded secret. And believe me, if there was any other way, I wouldn’t even tell you.

Luna lifted her head and to shoot Atlas a questioning, tear-filled look, confusion apparent on her face.

“I know that I told you that carving runes onto living things is extremely dangerous, and rightly so, but you have to understand that I’m a somewhat special case,” Atlas explained further. “I’m willing to tell you, if you’re willing to listen.”

Atlas looked into Lunas eyes, waiting for her to make a decision, hoping that she would at least hear him out after the stunt he just pulled. He knew he’d fucked up and Luna must be confused and scared right now, helping with the decision to scrap the band-aid approach and instead explain everything calmly to her.

Well, maybe not everything, but most of it…

“Alright,” Luna said, sniffling. “I’ll listen.”

“That’s my daughter!” Atlas exclaimed, giving Luna a final squeeze before letting her go.

He returned to his seat, patiently waiting for Luna to collect herself and, once more, join him at the table.

“Now, what I’m about to tell you might sound like I’m trying to make a fool out of you, but trust me, every single word will be true,” Atlas put a disclaimer before his story. “It will sound fantastical and at times, impossible, but it will still be the truth.”

Luna simply nodded, apparently accepting Atlas’ opening statement.

“Alright, here goes then…”

Just like that, Atlas began to tell Luna all the things about his life that she had never heard before. She knew all the stories of his exploits within Equestria, and now it was time for her to learn of the secrets Atlas carried. He left out the parts about him being a human, and generally fit his story to the lore that was generally accepted within this world, but at its core, the truth was still there. He really didn’t want to lie to Luna, especially after he just told her that he’d tell the truth, but on the off-chance that there was a god listening in, he’d have to bend the truth a little bit.

Over the span of half an hour, Luna learned about Atlas being akin to a demi-god, his strengthened abilities, and most importantly, his immortality and how it worked. All the while, Luna remained silent, listening to Atlas explanation without interrupting once. Aside from occasionally clearing away the remnants of tears on her face, she didn’t even move that much.

“And that’s just about everything,” Atlas finished up his tale, looking towards Luna for any kind of reaction.

“Even if all of that is true…” Luna said after a while. “I don’t get why you’d need runes all over your bones.”

“So you believe me?” Altas asked hopefully.

“For now,” Luna answered carefully. “It is a lot to swallow, but even then, you promised you wouldn’t lie to me, and I’m willing to at least believe in that.”

“Thank you,” Atlas said, letting out a sigh of relief.

“All of that still doesn’t explain why you’d need something as dangerous as runes all over your skeleton,” Luna said, determined to get an answer to this question.

“Well, as I’ve said before, I’ve been told that a great evil will someday come to destroy everything, and that runic magic is the key to defeat it,” Atlas explained. “We’ve lost almost all knowledge on runes, and this is just one more effort to be as prepared as possible, once the calamity hits. I don’t know what shape or form this evil will take, or how much it will take to defeat it, so there is nothing left to do but simply… give it my all.”

“Alright…” Luna let out a deep breath. “Let’s just assume we go through with this… what would these runes actually do to you?”

“Oh, all kinds of things,” Atlas smiled, happy that Luna finally seemed on board again. “Passive shield spells, physical enhancements, better mana conductivity, and even automatically activated regeneration spells, just in case I get hit badly. As you now know, I can resurrect, but depending on how grave the injury is, I can be down for the count for quite some time. Ideally, it’d be best to prevent any injuries or even death before they happened.”

“So… these things would be to protect yourself?”

“That’s pretty much what this all boils down to, yeah.”

Luna looked down at the table, her muzzle scrunched up in thought. She was obviously conflicted about wanting to help her father, protecting him, and the fact that he could possibly die by doing it, even if he was supposedly immortal. She had a lot of information to process so Atlas let her have all the time she needed to come to an answer.

“I’ll do it,” Luna suddenly said. “I’ll help out, what do you need me to do?”

Atlas could see and hear the conviction behind Lunas words and immediately felt proud for how mature his little Luna turned out to be. A big smile appeared on his face, happy to have a daughter that would go this far for him.

“Thank you very much,” Atlas said, dipping his head in an appreciating bow before explaining the actual process they would have to go through for this. “First, we’ll have to remove all of my skin and flesh currently attached to my bones, with the exception of my head.”

“WHAT?”

Atlas awoke, feeling like he had been thrown into a meat grinder over and over again for the past week, which was more or less what happened, really. The carving of runes on bones was a relatively simple process, made infinitely harder when the owner of said bones was still alive and kicking.

Though, by using a plethora of healing and anesthetic spells, it was made possible. While there were various pain dampening spells in effect, Atlas still had his flesh removed down to the bones, where Luna then literally carved runes into them. There wasn’t really a pain dampening spell that could negate something of this magnitude, so Atlas was still in a substantial amount of pain, making it hard for him to focus.

It was made abundantly clear that doing something like this was straight-up impossible with just one pony, thus proving the need for Luna.s presence during the whole process.

Luna did her best to not let the copious amounts of blood and gore affect her, but was fighting a losing battle most of the time. It was hard on both of them, but still, they persisted, and once they actually finished, they felt closer to each other than ever before. Since they returned back upstairs every night, Celestia didn’t ask too many questions, even if she obviously caught on to something going on behind her back.

Yet, they were finally done with their gruesome task. While not visible, runes now covered all of Atlas bones, aside from the head, with the one exception being his horn. Tiny runes were carved along the twisting bone extending from just over the spot between his eyes. Compared to everything else, carving runes into his horn had actually been easy and almost painless, since a unicorn’s horn was very sturdy and durable.

Now, as long as Atlas didn’t lose a limb or get crushed to dust, again, these modifications would be permanent. It was entirely possible that after a certain time had passed, his body would assume the runes to be a natural part of him and even regenerate them should the need arise, but it was best to assume he’d lose them.

All that was left was to activate them.

“Luna?” Atlas croaked. “Are you there?”

“I’m here!” Luna said, startled, her head shooting up from the blood-splattered bedsheet where she had rested her head to sleep next to Atlas. “I’m awake!”

“Good morning,” Atlas stammered, looking down at his left hind leg, which they had just “operated” on. It was still firmly attached, and the healing spells, combined with his healing factor had restored it to its former, furry glory. “I’m afraid I kind of passed out near the end there… Did everything go as planned?”

“Yes, I finished all of it, exactly like the schematics said,” Luna answered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Her fur was caked with blood in some places, but she mostly ignored that fact.

“Then I guess we’re finally done,” Atlas declared, a tired sigh escaping his lips.

“Oh thank god,” Luna said, letting her head fall back on the bed. “Promise me to never ask something like that of me again?”

“I promise,” Atlas said with as much of a serious voice as he could muster. “Promise to never let me do something like that again?”

“Absolutely,” Luna declared.

The two of them remained like that for a while, each letting the fact sink in that they finally were past this ordeal, until Atlas slowly started to laugh. Luna looked at him like if he had lost his mind, but soon enough joined in on the mirth as well. They were just happy to be done, each of them having different reasons to be.

“Come on, we should get cleaned up,” Atlas said, weakly rising from his prone position. “And then we’ll have to activate these runes, see if they’re actually working…”

Luna nodded, realizing that the experiment wasn’t technically finished just yet. Together, they moved to one of the adjacent rooms that had a shower and a bath installed, where they cleaned themselves up almost methodically, getting rid of the blood and grime on their furs. Finally, feeling much cleaner, they moved deeper into the cave system until they arrived at Atlas’ most secure testing chamber.

The chamber consisted of a single, dome-shaped room that could be completely closed off. The amount of powerful protective wards inside was borderline ridiculous, and the fact that they were supplied with magic from his mana batteries made them even stronger.

“Alright, this is it then…” Atlas said standing before the door leading into the chamber.

“Good luck,” was all that Luna said, feeling quite nervous.

They shared one last look before Atlas entered, completely sealing the room off after him. He had done a ton of experiments in the past and if he hadn’t made any foolish mistakes, the way the runes were arranged on his body would make them stable. If not… he just hoped that the spells around him were enough. At the very least there shouldn’t be a repeat of the Discord incident, since he was the only living being in close proximity.

With some trepidation, Atlas stepped into the middle of the chamber and sat down, preparing himself to activate the runes inside of him. After he had taken some time to collect himself, he took the plunge and started manipulating the mana inside his body to flow into the runes activating them in a very specific order. The sensation felt weird, almost alien to him, as the runes slowly accumulated the mana they needed to operate, almost as if he now possessed a second set of bones overlapping with his normal ones.

Atlas could feel the slight hum of active magic emanating from within himself, as his bones were in a constant state of vibrating in the tiniest of movements. If he had to describe it, it was like when a limb fell asleep, but instead of the whole limb, it was only the bone. The entire thing made him suddenly aware of where every single bone was within his body, and the sensation sent shivers down his spine.

While the feeling was strange and more than mildly uncomfortable, he’d just have to get used to it from now on. On the plus side of things, Atlas hadn’t redecorated the walls with his entire being, even after the last rune had been activated within his body. He waited a few minutes, slowly getting accustomed to the alien feeling within himself, before deeming himself safe.

The runes on his horn remained inactive, as they simply would activate themselves whenever he’d cast a spell, due to the magic running through them. These runes already saw quite a bit of testing during the past week and were deemed safe and fully functional.

With a relieved smile, Atlas got up from his seated position and started walking towards the exit, only to immediately lose his balance and faceplant after his first step. Grumbling a few choice expletives, he got himself back into a sitting position. Apparently, he’d have to re-train his walking skills, now that his entire body felt weird. It took a few more tries, that would have been embarrassing if anybody saw them, but eventually, he managed something akin to a regular walk.

Monty Python would be proud of him, since it looked quite… silly.

Atlas unsealed the chamber and stepped outside, only to immediately be tackled to the ground again by a blue bullet.

“Dad! You’re okay!” Luna shouted happily as she hugged Atlas as hard as she could. “I was so worried when you didn’t come out for so long!”

“Now now, you know that I would have been okay either way,” Atlas reminded Luna, which earned him a smack over the head. “But I’m glad, too,” he added, returning the hug.

“It looks like everything is working just fine, Luna, you did a great job and I couldn’t be more proud of you!” Atlas told his daughter, who was enjoying the embrace. “You did well, enduring for so long.”

Akin to a wall being torn down, Luna finally let out the pent-up emotion she had saved up over the last week, making her a laughing and crying mess at the same time.

“I’m so sorry! It must have hurt so much!” Luna cried out. “I never want to do this again!”

“Shh, it’s okay…” Atlas cooed. “I should’ve never asked this of you, but I’m very grateful that you helped me anyway. I’m sorry to have put you through this… I’m sorry.”

Atlas and Luna spent quite a bit of time on the floor, one of them letting their emotions run wild while the other whispered calming words of encouragement. None of them really knew how much time had passed, but eventually Luna calmed down. They remained in their prone position for a while longer, Atlas just stroking Lunas mane in a calming manner until Luna broke the body contact by herself.

They got up from the floor quite awkwardly, each having their own reason for doing so. Luna tried to clean off the damp fur on her cheeks while Atlas tried to regain his balance.

“I don’t know about you, but I could go for something to eat right now,” Atlas said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Yeah… Yeah, that sounds good,” Luna said, showing Atlas a smile that tugged at his heartstrings and they started to make their way back into the living compartment of the cave system.

Celestia was lounging on the couch, book in magic, as always. “Oh, welcome back you two,” she said, shooting them a smile. “Done for today?”

“Done forever, I’d like to say,” Atlas replied, tiredly sitting down next to her. “The experiment was a success.”

“Congratulations,” Celestia said, actually putting the book away. “Does that mean you’ll finally tell me what this was all about?” she added with a hopeful voice.

“Uhmm…” Atlas and Luna shared a knowing look. “I don’t think just yet,” Atlas said. “It’s quite complicated, but I’ll tell you eventually… when you’re ready to know.”

“Aww, there you go being cryptic again,” Celestia said, disappointed. “When will I be ready?”

“Do you hear that?” Luna suddenly interjected, her ears swiveling around.

Atlas furrowed his brows and tried to listen as well. At first he thought it was just the hum of his modified bones, but there was indeed a whistle-like sound that could be heard, constantly growing louder.

“What’s that whistling?” Celestia asked with confusion.

The sound intensified more and more, until it was apparent that it was coming from outside. All of them turned their heads to look outside, just in time to see a bright flash zoom past their balcony. Before anybody could even question what just happened, a loud crash could be heard from downstairs, along with a small quake rocking the entirety of the cave system.

Luna and Celestia shared a confused look, while Atlas was already up and bolting downstairs, albeit with some difficulty. The main cave was a mess, with papers floating around everywhere, but at first glance nothing seemed broken, which caused Atlas to sigh in relief. Celestia and Luna came following shortly after, when Atlas noticed a small crater in the floor, and approached it, the sisters close behind.

At the center of the crater, rested, of all things, a smoking baseball. Atlas blinked a few times, staring at the offending white ball, trying to come up with an explanation.

“Huh,” Celestia said beside him. “I guess the wards couldn’t keep all of the chaos outside.”

Atlas was inclined to agree, but knew that the reason for the chaos not touching this place wasn’t due to his wards, it was simply Discord leaving them be. As such there had to be a reason for this. True to his suspicion, he could see a small piece of paper that was stapled to the ball. Carefully, Atlas used his magic to remove it and floated it up to his eyes.

A few letters were hastily scribbled on the note with green ink. Green ink that Atlas had only seen once before in this world. He read the note a few times, just to make sure that he didn’t misunderstand it. Letting the note fall to the ground, he turned around to Luna with a serious look.

“I’ve just been contacted by my benefactor,” Atlas said. “I’ll have to meet with him as soon as possible.”

“What? Where?” Luna asked, not quite catching up to the situation. “I don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry, I can meet him right here, I won’t leave,” Atlas reassured Luna. “I’ll be able to meet him in… the dream realm.”

“There’s a dream realm?” Luna asked with furrowed brows.

“Uhh, yeah,” Atlas answered. “I’m sure you’ll someday be able to visit as well, but right now, I really need to go to bed. Don’t try to wake me up, since my spirit will be disconnected from my body.”

Atlas started walking back upstairs and towards his bedroom, while Luna watched him leave with a suspicious look on her face.

“Uhhh… What just happened?” Celestia asked, not having any context at all. “Why did he suddenly get so serious after looking at this blank piece of paper?”

Luna looked to the ground as well, where the small note had landed, seeing that it was indeed completely empty. Shaking her head, Luna started to go back upstairs as well.

“Even I am not sure of what just transpired,” Luna said. “All we can do is trust his words, I guess.”

Meanwhile, Atlas was settling down in his bed, getting as comfortable as possible. Apparently, he’d get to try out his new enhancements a lot earlier than he expected to, especially one rune that rested close to his neck. The array it belonged to would activate as soon as a certain code word was spoken, along with being supplied with more mana than necessary.

Atlas closed his eyes, preparing himself for what was to come. There was no doubt in his mind what the cryptic message meant he just received, or who it was from. And for him to be contacted in this way meant nothing less than it was urgent. Taking one last, deep breath, he steeled his mind.

“Nyx,” Atlas whispered, and one moment later, he was dead.

Author's Notes:

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song. Before anybody assumes anything, I just wanna say that I'm okay, aside from this song being so fucking catchy...

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon!, because I now apparently have one too, like everybody else !

20. Ultimatum

Atlas awoke slowly, to the sound of a nearby river. His mind was in a fuzz, so he had trouble remembering where he was, or why he was there. Carefully, he opened his eyes, stretching his various body parts in an attempt to banish the sleep from his body.

In very short order, Atlas noticed several things that were horribly wrong. First off, he was not a pony. Second, he appeared to be in a dank, dark cave. And finally, some bearded weirdo was looking right back at him with a stressed face.

“Atlas! So glad you could make it so fast!” Hades said, trying to shake Atlas awake. “Come on, get up, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Seeing Hades caused Atlas to remember everything. He just killed himself in order to meet up with Hades, and he was back in his human form because it was only his soul that was present. Still somewhat groggy, Atlas took the hand Hades offered and got up on his feet.

“Alright, I’m awake, I’m here,” Atlas said, trying to balance on two legs. “What’s with the rush?”

“I’ll explain on the way, but we gotta move, now,” Hades replied while dragging Atlas off towards a nearby tunnel.

Atlas recognized the place he was at, from the very first time he’d met Hades, which meant he was at the river Styx. Apparently Hades was responsible for making sure Atlas’ soul returned to his body after death, but instead, he was just fishing the soul out of the river when it passed by.

They started walking down the rather narrow tunnel that was lined with dark stone and the occasional mineral. Through holes in the wall or splitting paths Atlas sometimes saw the river Styx again, causing him to believe they were walking upstream instead of going downstream, like last time he was here.

“We’ve run into a little bit of a problem and things are pretty hectic right now,” Hades started explaining.

“It doesn’t sound so little if you’re willing to contact me in such a spectacular fashion,” Atlas replied casually from behind. “What if the wrong god had seen you do it?”

“I’ve made sure my man on the inside was careful about that, but Zeus and his posse have really lost interest in you, to be honest. The sphere that harbors your pocket dimension is sitting around in Zeus’ trophy room, collecting dust,” Hades said, nervously glancing down a side passage as they passed. “Not that it would matter either way.”

“Speaking of my prison… I thought you said you couldn’t pull me out of there anymore and would just visit instead,” Atlas suddenly asked. “Did this change somehow?”

Atlas could see Hades cringing a bit from behind as soon as he heard the question.

“I might have bent the truth a little there,” Hades said. “Pulling away your soul from your prison has always been connected with substantial risks, and the completion of your prison only made it harder to the point where it was easier to just visit. Just know that the situation calls for you to actually be here instead of me being over there, and that the risk was calculated.”

“O...kay?” Atlas said as they suddenly moved out into an open field with the sun shining over a clear blue sky. “What is this place?”

“Ah yeah, welcome to my realm, I guess,” Hades said, kind of gesturing to the general vicinity of everything.

“Huh, I always assumed it would be more… dark and dank,” Atlas said with a raised eyebrow while he took it all in.

“It is for the most part, but I’d actually like some peace and comfort where I’m actually living at, you know?” Hades said, greeting a trio of what Atlas assumed to be other gods that passed their path. “Hanging out in caves for a prolonged amount of time can do things to your brain,” Hades added, shooting back a pointed look at Atlas.

Atlas missed it, since he was busy looking after the three gods they had just passed, but definitely picked up on the jab from how Hades said it.

“I have a nice balcony,” Atlas deadpanned.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Hades said while shrugging. “That’s the job of the guys we just passed.”

They were coming up on a group of about twelve decently sized houses arranged in two lines of six, with what appeared to be a large community space in the center. What confused Atlas about all of this was the giant palace made out of black stone that could be seen in the distance.

“What’s up with the eyesore back there,” Atlas asked, gesturing towards the palace.

“My old crib,” Hades answered offhandedly. “Too big and empty for just a few gods to live in, also way too much work to upkeep, so we abandoned it.

“More importantly, we have arrived!” Hades said, stopping in front of the biggest house of the bunch.

None of the houses had any fences around them, or any kind of visible border between each other. They all seemed to be designed in a very modern and aesthetic mindset, impressing Atlas. The house they stopped at was a three-story building that was painted white and had a flat roof. Atlas couldn’t see up there, but he’d bet his unicorn horn that there was some sort of outdoor-lounge hidden from his view. The windows were big and evenly spaced along the walls, which allowed Atlas a sneak peek of what the interior looked like.

“Nice,” Atlas said after taking it all in.

“Thanks, but let’s hurry on, as I’ve mentioned before, time isn’t our friend right now…” Hades reminded and gently pushed Atlas towards the front door.

They stepped inside, and immediately Atlas was led through a hallway toward another door, which was half open. A conversation involving several people was on-going inside, even if Atlas couldn’t make out what was being said. Hades pushed open the door all the way and entered, Atlas close behind.

Hades was busy greeting and addressing the whole room while Atlas looked around. They seemed to have entered some sort of intelligence headquarter, since pretty much every available space was filled with maps, documents and actual desks with computers. Most prominently was the map that dominated the far wall. Contrary to his expectations, it didn’t show the earth, and instead seemed to be a detailed map of the two realms of heaven and the underworld.

In the center was a large, round table that was similarly littered with documents, and gathered around it were four gods, three male, one female, not counting Hades.

“Everyone, this is Atlas,” Hades gestured towards Atlas. “I doubt many of you have seen him in his human form. Thankfully, he was able to come here almost immediately.”

“Uhh… hi…” Atlas said under the scrutinizing gaze of literal gods.

“Atlas, this is my wife, Persephone.” Hades pointed to the lone female, which gave a small unenthusiastic wave to Atlas. “Apollo,” The man that waved back mostly stood out because he didn’t have a beard, like everyone else. “Ares,” the muscular man nodded at Atlas upon hearing his name. “And Hyas… Who, I guess is your son, in a very convoluted way.”

“It honors me, to meet the bearer of my father's soul,” Hyas said, indicating a small bow towards Atlas. “The merge seems to be going favorably. At least the runes on your forehead would suggest so. While still rough at the edges, they’re expertly crafted.”

“Runes on my forehead?” Atlas asked confused, touching the offending area with his right hand.

Persephone helpfully held out a hand mirror towards Atlas, who gratefully took it to take a look at himself. Sure enough, all over his forehead were runes, almost looking like healed over scars.

“Oh they’re supposed to be on my horn,” Atlas said, recognizing them immediately. “I didn’t think they’d translate over to my soul like this…”

“Runes hold a great deal of power and importance to every living soul,” Hyas replied. “Most like, more than you could ever imagine…”

“Cryptic, just like everybody else,” Atlas replied. “Am I gonna get some actual answers soon?”

“Yes, you are about to,” Hades intervened. “Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get this meeting started proper.

“First off, you need to be brought up to speed,” Hades said, moving closer to the table and motioning for Atlas to do the same. “Bad news first, Zeus is on to us.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Atlas said. “If I remember right you wanted to… ‘wait for the right moment’, was it?”

“Quite,” Hades said. “Sadly, Zeus has discovered our movements in the shadows and is preparing to crush this revolution before it can begin.”

“That sounds even worse,” Atlas gulped.

“While this is most unlucky, our preparations are further along than he thinks, and he hasn’t found all of our undercover agents… yet.” Hades continued. “He took away our initiative, but we still have a decent chance of winning, even if it will more than likely be a lot more bloody than it was supposed to.

“There’s just one problem with all of this, and this is where you come in Atlas,” Hades said.

“Me? How could I possibly be a problem in this situation?” Atlas asked, feeling the eyes of everybody in the room resting on him. “Isn’t my prison just some random ball in Zeus’ collection?”

“I wish it were that simple,” Hades sighed. “News is that Zeus has gone forward with an emergency plan of his own. One that heavily involves you.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but in what way?”

“He has changed the original plan of killing off the Atlas fragment residing within you… and instead is preparing to absorb it and claim it for his own, giving him an immense power-up in the process.” Hades revealed. “There’s someone making the necessary changes to your prison as we speak, and once it’s complete… Our chance at victory will become zero.”

“Does… Would this really give him that much of a power-up?” Atlas asked.

“We aren’t sure,” Hades said with an annoyed face. “There is no precedent to a god bearing two souls, but if it works out, Zeus could potentially become invincible and all-powerful. Especially since we’re talking about the soul of none other than Atlas himself, who was incredibly powerful as well…”

“I’m guessing you want me to do something about this?” Atlas asked, hoping that there was still a way to rectify the situation.

“Exactly, while we always assumed you’d have a role to play in our revolution, it seems like you’ve become the pivotal piece,” Hades said. “We have to prevent Zeus from absorbing your soul, whatever it takes.”

“You’re… you’re not just going to break my prison aren’t you?” Atlas asked worriedly. “What would even happen to me and everypony else still inside, if you did that?”

“While that is an alluring option, it will most likely hurt us more than it would Zeus,” Ares interjected with a baritone voice. “Right now, Zeus is betting everything on the fact that he’ll attain your soul. If we outright destroy the prison, he’ll change his plans, costing us our advantage. If we leave everything intact, though, we’ll be able to pull the rug out from under him and take him by surprise.”

“Which brings us to what we need you to do,” Hades took over. “We need you to completely sever the connection of your pocket universe to this realm.”

Atlas shot Hades an incredulous look and attempted to start a sentence several times, until he finally managed to gather his thoughts.

“How even?” Atlas said baffled. “That sounds more than impossible.”

“Actually,” Hyas held a finger into the air. “It is possible.”

“Enlighten me,” Atlas replied dubiously.

“The universe that was created to act as your prison is not infinite,” Hyas explained. “It might look like it from the inside, but at the end of the day, everything fits inside the sphere that contains it. And from reliable sources, we can confidently say that the walls are located quite close to the planet you reside on in your equine form.”

“They are?” Atlas asked with furred eyebrows. “That would certainly explain the need to raise the sun and moon…” he added with a murmur.

“Indeed they are,” Hyas said. “Which creates an opportunity for you. As you might know, a large part of your prison was made using runes. And, like any other solid surface, runes can be inscribed on it, even from the inside.”

“So you want me to carve a rune array on the inside and sever the connection to over here?” Atlas said, taking a shot in the dark.

“Precisely,” Hyas answered.

“Impossible,” Atlas immediately retorted. “There’s no way I could carve runes on something so far away from where I am. And that’s ignoring the fact that I wouldn’t even know where to start on an array like that.”

“And that’s why Hyas is here,” Hades said. “Amongst all the gods, he is one of the most knowledgeable ones, considering he learned under the original Atlas. He’ll teach you as much as he can with the little time we have left.”

“Alright,” Atlas grumbled. “Let’s assume he can actually teach me what I need to know to pull this stunt off… How much time do I actually have to do it?”

“Let’s see…” Hades tapped his chin a few times. “The modifications to your prison will be complete in sixteen days…”

“WHAT?” Atlas shouted, taking a step away from the table. “There’s no way! Literally no WAY I can do this in time, no matter how great of a teacher Hyas is!”

“Now, calm down…”

“Calm down?” Atlas interjected immediately. “I am as fucking calm as I’ll ever be, but you guys seem to be off the hook. You’re asking for the impossible here! Oh my God, I’m going to die in sixteen days… and Equestria will be wiped out with me... “

Atlas was looking down at his feet when he was suddenly slapped pretty hard from his left side. After reeling for a bit, he started rubbing his cheek with a hand while Hades was comically shaking his hand, as if he actually had hurt himself giving the slap.

“You would be well advised to let your elders finish before getting into paranoia induced panic attacks, dear Atlas,” Hades said. “Anyway, as I’ve said… The modifications will be complete in about sixteen days, BUT, luckily we have someone that’s still undercover that can get you… a little more time, so to speak.”

“Okay,” Atlas said, still rubbing his cheek. “How much time are we talking, because sixteen days isn’t even close to enough…”

“Well, the one modifying your prison is Hephaestus, which has a rather... strained relation to our dear friend Hestia, both of which are about equally skilled in the art of runes,” Hades explained. “We’ll have Hestia sneak in tonight, while Hephaestus rests, and… add a little bit of flair to the modifications.”

“Okay, cool,” Atlas said impatiently. “But how much time?”

“I’m getting to it, jeez,” Hades said with a roll of his eyes. “She’ll modify the runes that govern over the time that passes within your dimension. Currently, time is just about the same as on this side, meaning our days are both twenty-four hours long. After the modification, one day on our side should be around one-hundred years on yours.”

“That… is a lot of time, actually,” Atlas said dumbfounded.

“And hopefully, enough,” Hades said, with a slight sarcastic overtone. “Since things have changed so drastically, you’ve become a pivotal piece in our plans, which means we’ll support you as much as we can. You have fourteen hours left to learn as much as you can from Hyas, before we’ll have to send you back.

“Once you’re back, that’s it. You’ll be completely cut off for a good one-thousand and five hundred years.” Hades said. “You’ll be on your own.”

Atlas eyes were unfocused, flicking to and fro while he was already running a few calculations in his head. He was brought out of his thoughts when a palm came to rest on his shoulder.

“I know I said you’ll have ‘about’ fifteen-hundred years, but this number is pretty exact, to be honest,” Hades said with a concerned look. “For our plan to succeed you’ll have to pull it off as close to the fifteen-hundredth anniversary of your return as possible.”

“I… I understand,” Atlas said slowly. “But what happens if… no, when I succeed?”

“We’re not completely sure,” Hyas answered. “The framework that keeps your dimension working is all inside the sphere, so you should be completely fine once you sever the connection. What we can say for sure though, is that we’ll never be able to contact each other again, since your pocket dimension will essentially become autonomous…”

“Huh…” Atlas said.

“I do understand that this is a lot to take in,” Hades said, pulling Atlas out of his stupor. “But while you’ll have plenty of time once you’re back, your time over here is awfully limited. So Hyas, take our dear friend and drill some runes into his brain, if you would.”

“But of course,” Hyas replied, moving towards the door. “Follow me, Atlas.”

Atlas, for his part, was still mentally processing everything he just heard. On a basic level, he understood perfectly what Hades wanted from him, but the scope and reality of the whole thing were still sinking in. Shooting one last look at the remaining four gods, who were already discussing the next thing on their agenda, Atlas followed Hyas back out into the hallway.

Author's Notes:

And there we go, Atlas has visited Hades for the last time and is now fully aware of what he needs to do in order to survive/save the world. Do excuse me if it was a tad bit exposition-y, it's just how these chapters tend to be. I did try to make it as bearable as possible, though.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

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21. Making Alicorns Is Easy!

Atlas languidly stretched himself out, slowly preparing himself to get out of bed. It had been a good month since his return to the magical land of ponies and he’d been working hard to lay the foundations of his new goal. Hyas had proven to be an excellent teacher, but the sheer amount of new knowledge that was pounded into Atlas was a wee bit too much for him.

In order to not forget anything, the first thing Atlas did once he came back was jump out of bed and furiously write everything down, much to the confusion of the two sisters. They tried to ask what had happened, but didn’t receive a straight answer as Atlas was too focused on preserving his new knowledge.

As a side effect from his lessons, Atlas had to learn that the runes he had created from scratch, while working as intended, were over complicated and unnecessary, because there were other runes who could achieve the same result with less effort. It was too late for the runes he had inscribed on his own bones, but for future endeavours, this information would prove to be invaluable.

All of this took him around two days, but immediately after, Atlas decided it was high time to go ahead and jump start a certain chain of events. In order to disconnect his prison, he’d need a lot of time, as well as peace and quiet. And as much as it hurt him to even think of this, he wouldn’t be able to do so while Discord was still around.

Without telling the sisters of his plans just yet, Atlas started concocting a plan, which almost crashed right from the get go. According to his known timeline, Celestia and Luna were both alicorns when they confronted Discord. Not only were the sisters just regular unicorns, the Elements of Harmony were a complete no-show. He hadn’t even heard a rumor about magical artifacts that could tap into and spread Harmony.

Deciding that he’d need to tackle these problems one at a time, Atlas started working on the problem that he could rectify. While purely theoretical, Atlas had an idea about how Alicorns were made.

Thanks to the show actually showing Twilight becoming an Alicorn, Atlas was able to form a theory back on Earth. Whether or not he was right remained to be seen, but for now, this was the only course of action that was available to him.

“So, Celestia, Luna,” Atlas nodded towards the two respectively. “We have something we need to talk about.”

“What is it?” Celestia asked quizzically, tilting her head slightly.

“Yes, this formal setting is quite unlike you,” Luna added.

Atlas had gathered his extended family in their living room, with the sisters sitting on their couch while Atlas took a seat on a chair across from them. All three of them usually went about their own little hobbies and projects in the afternoon, but this time Atlas stopped them for an impromptu family meeting.

“Contrary to my usual ramblings, this time I’d like to discuss something rather serious,” Atlas said. “You’re both grown mares now, I believe it is high time we talked about it.”

Celestia and Luna shot each other a confused look, especially since Luna was technically more a teenager than an adult, but they still gave their full attention to Atlas.

“I’m sure the two of you don’t like Discord, right?” Atlas tentatively asked.

Celestia's mood immediately soured, a frown appearing on her face, while Luna just shrugged. It would appear that Celestia, in her inability to lay all the blame on her sister, decided to blame Discord for her misfortune at some point. As such, whenever he was brought up in any way she’d react poorly and attempt to change the subject.

“That would be putting it lightly,” Celestia grumbled.

“I suppose this isn’t how things are supposed to be,” Luna said while looking outside. “Not like I’ve ever known anything else.”

“Well, I, for one, think that Discord's reign of chaos has gone on for long enough and it is high time somepony did something about it,” Atlas explained. “Ponies are creatures of Harmony and living in such a chaotic environment will hurt them over time. More than just the instant effects anypony can observe, I mean.”

“Alright,” Luna said. “But what does that have to do with us?”

“As far as we know, Discord is something akin to a living god,” Celestia said. “How would anypony even go about defeating something like that?”

“I have a few ideas,” Atlas said. “But I’d say by now it’s obvious that nopony is even trying, and until we find a surefire way of defeating him, we’ll just have to try a few things here and there, experimenting, so to speak.”

Atlas didn’t like talking this way about his own son, but he had been preparing for this moment. Even if it pained him inside, this was what they had discussed all these years ago. Discord trusted Atlas to call the curtains on his act at some point, sooner rather than later, Atlas imagined.

“Somepony will have to step up to the task eventually, and if nopony else will, I can’t just sit idly by and do nothing,” Atlas said. “Ponykind is but a shadow of their former self, living their lives in misery from day to day. It’s all made worse by the fact that the tribes finally united and were on a good path towards a bright future, which has been taken away from them. I think they deserve a second chance at it, but as long as Discord is around it won’t be possible.”

“And I’m inclined to agree,” Celestia said. “But again, how do you expect us to do anything against an all-powerful being?”

“There is no such thing as an all-powerful being, Celestia,” Atlas corrected. “Everything has a weakness, no exceptions. Discord for example is a being of pure chaos, so what do you think his weakness should be?”

“Harmony…” Luna muttered.

“Exactly!” Atlas said, pointing at her. “Harmony is his weakness.”

Luna shot Atlas a smile, while Celestia adopted a thoughtful expression.

“But even if we know that, how is this knowledge supposed to help us?” Celestia asked. “Last I checked you couldn’t beat someone over the head with a Harmony stick.”

“Good question,” Atlas answered. “But I’m afraid you’re thinking a bit too literally about this. While it may be true that you can’t physically take a piece of harmony and use it as a weapon, it will still be able to help us. Seeing as Discord is making everything as chaotic as possible, it is most likely safe to assume that he gets stronger the more chaos there is in the world. So by forcefully restoring Harmony, we more than likely could weaken him enough to defeat him.”

“I see…” Celestia said, thinking about the proposed plan.

“That… makes a surprising amount of sense…” Luna said.

“You act like most of what I say is nonsense,” Atlas replied with mock-hurt in his voice.

“You do sometimes start babbling about some weird things, father,” Luna quipped back. “Even so, how could we possibly restore Harmony? Wouldn’t somepony already have done something if it was that easy?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it easy,” Atlas said. “But it’s definitely possible. Just take a look around,” he added, prompting the sisters to take in their surroundings.

It took a moment, but two pairs of eyes grew wide with realization. Since it was the norm for them, it would seem like they didn’t pay too much attention to the fact that their home was ninety-nine percent chaos free. Of course this was all thanks to Discord being nice and leaving the cave alone, but he needed a proof of concept to get the sisters on board.

“I believe now would be a good time to explain with a bit more detail why there is no chaos in our home,” Celestia said. “More than just: ‘It’s because of the wards I set up’, if you would,” She added with a pointed look.

“Well, it’s quite simple, actually. It’s all thanks to the wards I’ve set up,” Atlas said with a smile, much to Celestia's chagrin. “You see, nopony knows this cave is here, because the wards hide it so well. Not even Discord can see through them, apparently, which just further proves that he isn’t as all-powerful as he seems.”

“So there’s no chaos here because the wards are powerful enough to make Discord think this is just a regular mountain?” Luna asked. “But how does that help in overpowering him?”

“Technically, it doesn't,” Atlas replied. “It just proves that it’s possible. Now, there is one, or rather, two things that are very tangible and under Discord’s control that we could take away from him, restoring Harmony and giving ponies all across the nation hope in the process.”

“Which are?” Luna seemed intrigued now.

“The sun and the moon!” Atlas revealed with a smile.

“The sun and the moon?” Celestia deadpanned.

“The sun and the moon,” Atlas confirmed.

“Pardon me if I’m a bit sceptical here, but that seems a tad bit impossible…” Celestia rebuked. “I thought you said it took a group of expert level unicorns to just move one of the celestial bodies, how do you expect to pull this off with just three ponies? Two of which have no experience with these spells whatsoever.”

“The reason the spell takes a group of unicorns is because it is very mana expensive. Technically, if you had a skilled unicorn with a positively huge mana pool, it could be cast by a single pony,” Atlas said. “Luckily for us, we have access to an insane amount of mana right here at home,” he added with a smile.

“The mana batteries!” Luna exclaimed euphorically. “They should be able to supply more than enough mana!”

“Exactly!” Atlas said, pointing a hoof at his favourite daughter. “If we split the task between us three we should definitely be able to wrestle control of the stars from Discord. The effects of our little rebellion would be seen all over Equestria and fill the ponies everywhere with hope!”

Atlas had said his piece and was now waiting for the reactions of the sisters. At this point he was fairly confident that they would be on board, but you could never know. Judging by the bright smile on her face, Luna was most definitely ready to pull this off.

“I’m in!” Luna exclaimed almost immediately. “Also, I call dibs on the moon!”

“I would have thought as much,” Atlas chuckled, redirecting his eyes towards Celestia. “What about you? Are you in?”

“I suppose this would be a good thing,” Celestia said slowly. “We can’t just hide away in these caves forever.”

“Alright!” Atlas did a fistpump. “Then I’ll have you two study the spell for raising and lowering the sun and moon. Since Luna already called dibs on the moon, you’ll have to make do with the sun, Celestia.”

Celestia did a double-take at Atlas statement. “The sun? But I thought you’d take over the duty for it?”

“Silly Celestia,” Atlas waved her question away. “I’ll be responsible for the proper flow of mana from the batteries for you two, as well as being the catalyst needed for the spell. Besides, you got a sun on your butt, there’s no one better to do it.”

“I… but…” Celestia craned her neck to look at her cutie mark, contemplating it for a few seconds. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

“Awesome! Here, I already prepared some neat little papers for you to read and study, if you have any questions, come ask,” Atlas levitated a small stack of papers to each of the sisters. “Showtime is in two weeks, make it count!”

Atlas stood on the balcony, looking at Vanhoover in the distance. The moon had been hanging high up in the sky for the past fifteen minutes, illuminating the chaotic city below. A small smile spread on his face before he turned around and continued with the last few checks on the rig the mana batteries were currently hooked up to. Using some of the metal he had left over from previous experiments he’d fashioned a crude setup that connected all six batteries with each other.

Celestia and Luna had earnestly done their part during the past two weeks until Atlas had deemed them up to the task. They were both currently doing some last minute preparations, going through the motions of the spell before the real deal.

“I’m ready, father,” Luna said as she slowly stepped out onto the balcony. “Celestia will be here soon as well.”

“Very good,” Atlas said, giving his rigging a last pat of approval. “Are you excited?”

“Very,” Luna replied, gazing up at the moon hanging in the sky.

“As you should be, we’re about to write history,” Atlas said merrily. “If it helps, I’m actually a bit nervous as well…”

“You? Nervous?” The calm voice of Celestia wafted out of the living room. “Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday.”

“Well, excuuuse me, princess,” Atlas said sarcastically. “But even I am capable of rudimentary emotions.”

“Of course,” Celestia winked at Atlas as she took her place to his left. “I’d doubt we’d be here today if you couldn’t.”

Atlas rolled his eyes as he looked to his right, finding Luna already in place as well, nodding at him to signal that she was ready. Of course Atlas hadn’t lied, there was no doubt of his nervousness, albeit for a different reason than it was for the sisters. After all, this would be the first strike against the great calamity that befell their world.

The first strike that would ultimately lead to the downfall of his son.

“Are you both ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!”

“Yes!”

“Then, let us begin,” Atlas said with a fake smile.

Just as they had discussed over and over again, Atlas was the first to start casting. One after the other he established a connection with each mana battery behind him, a steady hum slowly grew louder behind him as each battery activated. Similar sounds from both of his sides told him that Celestia and Luna had started to weave their spells as well in preparation for what was to come.

Celestia and Luna would have to do the heavy lifting while Atlas made sure they had the mana to do it. As if to challenge them, the sun slowly rose and joined the moon in the sky while they prepared. The two celestial bodies seemed to dance with each other circling each other and creating quite the bizarre display.

As soon as Atlas had established a stable connection with the batteries, he started funneling the stored mana within towards Celestia and Luna respectively, who both accepted the extra power graciously. With this, Atlas’ part was done, and all he had left to do was to ensure that the stream maintained a steady supply of mana to the sisters.

Through the connection he could feel the two sisters continuing to weave their spells and he kept a close eye on the process, just so he could intervene in case one of them made a mistake. Luna was done first, closely followed by Celestia.

“Be prepared, don’t get overwhelmed,” Atlas reminded the sisters. “It’s quite an experience.”

None of the sisters answered since they were concentrating on their spells, yet he could feel their affirmation through the connection they shared. “Alright, let’s go then!”

As soon as he gave the command, the sisters simultaneously released their spell. Just like the first time Atlas was present during this spell, the connection to the astral body almost overwhelmed him. What made it even worse, since he was connected to both Celestia and Luna, he could feel the presence of both the sun and the moon at once. The world around the three ponies seemed to wash away as each of them was submerged in a world of pure mana, the celestial bodies imposingly looming over them.

Atlas tried communicating that they were to reset the world to an early morning, sending the moon over the far horizon and letting the sun rise on the opposite side, but he couldn’t find his voice. Yet, the sisters could perfectly feel his intent and complied shortly after. He could feel the emotions they were feeling as if they were his own, feeling more connected to them than they ever were before.

Celestia was almost buckling under the sensations that pelted her mind but soldiered on through it, while Luna more or less turned herself off and was flying on autopilot, lest the pressure become too much. Atlas helped them out as much as he could, but contrary to his first experience the sun and moon didn’t want to budge from their spot in the sky. He increased the mana output and joined into the effort with a support spell until, finally, they started to slowly move to their will.

It took a great amount of effort, but eventually the moon disappeared over the horizon and the sun locked into place on the opposite side. With one final push on Celestia's part, the sun began its ascent on a regular morning. Mentally sighing with relief, Atlas gave the command to release the spells, yet he knew, this was only supposed to be the beginning.

Almost immediately after his mental command, he could feel the spells on either side of him come to a screeching halt, the pressure of the two celestial bodies disappearing from their minds. Slowly, Atlas opened his eyes, to find himself standing in a vast and empty space.

A smile spread on his face as he looked around the seemingly turquoise colored space that was filled with dancing motes of different colored mana, reminding him of fireflies.

“Where are we?” A gasp could be heard from Atlas left.

“It’s… beautiful…” Luna said on his right.

“Did we succeed?” Celestia asked, looking around in confusion.

“I do believe we did,” Atlas replied. “In more ways than one,” he added with a smirk, slowly trotting a few steps ahead on a seemingly invisible floor before turning around to face the sisters.

“Did.. you get bigger?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow, causing Atlas to look down at himself.

“Looks like it,” Atlas simply shrugged. It wouldn’t surprise him at all if this realm had a similar effect on him like Hades’ underworld had, just, instead of making him human, it just made him bigger to better reflect his true being.

“What is this place?” Luna asked in wonderment. “What happened?”

“I’m not one-hundred percent sure either,” Atlas said. “But I’d wager we could call this the realm of magic or some other sappy crap.”

“Realm of magic?” Celestia asked puzzled. “What are we doing here, how did we get here?”

“Well, dear Celestia, if my theory is correct, and at this point I’m pretty sure it is, it’s actually just you two that are supposed to be here and I’m just along for the ride,” Atlas explained. “Most likely since I was connected to you in a rather intimate way.”

“You thought this would happen?” Luna asked, trying to catch a mote of mana as it passed her by.

“I hoped it would,” Atlas corrected. “Because if it hadn’t I would have had to go through a whole lot of trouble to make it happen in another way.”

“Can we, just for once, get a less cryptic answer?” Celestia asked slightly miffed. “This place is kinda freaking me out.”

“Alright, alright,” Atlas relented. “Let’s see, how am I supposed to do this… hmm…” He turned around, looking for anything that was even more out of the ordinary than it already was. Just then, he remembered what he had written in his notes about the show. “Well, just follow me for a start, I guess.”

Atlas started walking in a seemingly random direction, causing the sisters to share a sceptical look with each other before they started trotting a few paces behind their father. The latter seemed to enjoy the scenery, content with looking around, even though everywhere looked pretty much the same, confusing the sisters even more.

“You see, there is something called an alicorn, which is supposed to exist on this planet,” Atlas started to explain while walking. “Ponies bearing the gifts of all three races. Meaning they have a unicorn horn, pegasus wings and earth pony sturdiness, as well as their connection to life. They’re blessed with powerful bodies and very long lifespans.”

“That sounds a bit far out there,” Celestia said. “None of your books even mentioned such a thing, and you have a lot of books.”

“Well, let’s just say I know a lot more things than any old book can tell you,” Atlas turned his head towards Luna to shoot a wink in her direction, which caused her to smile widely. “Trust me, they’re an actual thing.”

“Alright, assuming I believe you, what does that have to do with our current situation?” Celestia poked for answers.

“Why, you two are about to turn into these alicorns,” Atlas said merrily. “Congratulations by the way.”

“We’re what?” Celestia asked shocked.

“Really? That’s so cool!” Luna squeed.

“I’m sorry about not telling this to sooner, but yes, you two will most likely transform into alicorns when we’re through with whatever we’re supposed to do in here,” Atlas said. “It’ll ultimately prove to be the catalyst that’ll help us defeat Discord.”

“You mean you planned for this?” Celestia said meekly.

“I guess you could say that, yes,” Atlas admitted. “I’m sorry for not telling you, really, I hope you can forgive me for this.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Luna said from his right. “Somepony will have to defeat Discord anyway, and this way, you won’t have to be so alone in the future.”

Celestia shot Luna a confused look as she was trying to process what was happening, unable to understand why Luna was able to stay so calm.

“You’re just okay with this?” Celestia asked her sister. “No qualms with these events whatsoever?”

“Pretty much,” Luna shrugged. “It would have been nice to be able to mentally prepare myself for this, but eh… whatever.”

Celestia shook her head in the face of her sisters uncaring nature. Atlas just told them that they were about to transform into some powerful being that was never seen before on this earth, would it hurt her to be a little shocked about this? She was muttering to herself, trying to make a bit more sense of what was happening when Atlas interrupted her thoughts.

“Ah, now this looks promising,” Atlas exclaimed. “I do believe we have arrived.”

Celestia raised her head, trying to see what Atlas meant. A few meters in front of them were Celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks, gently floating over what appeared to be a rainbow collection of mana-motes. Atlas plopped down where he stood, allowing the sisters to catch up to him, both of which curiously eyed their respective cutie marks.

“Why are our cutie marks floating over there,” Celestia asked, suddenly intrigued.

“A good question, dear sister.”

“It does fit rather well with my theory,” Atlas replied. “You see, I do believe cutie marks have a bit more meaning to them than just representing a ponies special talent. I’d wager it represents the destiny of a pony, as well as the ultimate challenge to defeat.”

“What?” Celestia deadpanned.

“Look, the way I see it, every single pony that lives has the potential to become an alicorn, and the requirement for unlocking this power is hidden away in their cutie mark,” Atlas explained. “The cutie mark represents a destiny, the ultimate manifestation of the talent, and should a pony actually reach the goal at the end of the journey imposed on them, they’re judged worthy by whatever judges are judging this. In the case of you two, your destiny is the sun and the moon respectively.

“By becoming an alicorn, you become the very avatar of what you represent, gaining control over it to a certain extent, as well as a special connection. This means you two are about to become the alicorn of the sun, and the alicorn of the moon, completely ripping Discords control over the two away from him.”

“That’s… that’s a lot to take in at once,” Celestia said, sitting down next to Atlas.

“Just roll with it,” Luna said from Atlas other side. “I’m sure it’ll be awesome!”

Saying that, Luna trotted up to her cutie mark, eying it from up close. “Hmmm… boop!” Luna touched the floating moon with her hoof after some contemplation. Immediately the motes of mana started to stir, rising up from below and swirling around Luna until she was completely obscured behind a rainbow wall.

“See you on the other side!” Luna called before a bright flash let her vanish completely from view, leaving nothing behind.

“She always has been the more adventurous of you two,” Atlas remarked with a placid smile on his face.

“Yes, yes she has,” Celestia answered.

Silence spread over the two as they each immersed themselves within their own thoughts. Atlas was more than willing to give Celestia all the time she needed, after all he had just sprung a life changing decision on her. He knew how it felt to have something like this shoved into your face from first-hand experience, so he could understand if she’d come to dislike him for it.

“Are you afraid?” Atlas eventually asked carefully.

“It’s just… so sudden…” Celestia slowly replied. “Things are about to change, aren't they?”

“There will definitely be some big changes in the near future,” Atlas said. “This is just the beginning.”

“I kind of hoped we could stay a happy, normal family for a while longer… you know?”

“Oh Celestia, we’ll never stop being a family, no matter what happens. Once Discord has been defeated, everything will return to the way it should be and we’ll finally be able to live out of hiding,” Atlas scooted a little closer to Celestia. “You’ve already been cooped up in my cave for far too long, not even going outside with me and Luna. I know you’re probably afraid of what is out there, even if you’d never admit it, but it’s time to step outside and start living your life.”

“I don’t know if I can do it…”

“Ponies are weak, Celestia,” Atlas sighed. “Sure there are some very capable and strong individuals out there, but once they’re faced with seemingly insurmountable odds they revert to their nature of being prey. They need ponies like you and Luna, like me, who live outside of the norm. They need someone to guide them, especially after this whole business has concluded.”

“And you truly believe we are fit for this role?” Celestia looked into Atlas eyes, uncertainty reflected on her face.

“I believe there’s nopony better,” Atlas chuckled. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. It’s time to step out of your shell, go outside and finally start living the life that you deserve.”

Celestia turned to look at the cutie mark floating in front of them, a look of conflict on her face.

“I’ll be with you all the way,” Atlas said. “You won’t have to do this alone. Your sister and me will support you through the whole thing, you know?”

“Didn’t you say that alicorns have a very long lifespan?” Celestia asked. “How could you possibly be there for everything?”

“That won’t be much of a problem, I’m pretty long-lived myself after all,” Atlas chuckled. “I do believe that after we’ve returned you deserve some answers, Luna as well,” he added after seeing the unbelieving face of his daughter. “Just trust me.”

Atlas showed Celestia a warm smile. He fully intended to hold up his part of the promise, accompanying the two sisters through the good and the bad, for however long he had to. Immortals needed some sort of anchor, a companion that was there with them for the long ride and if they could all be there for each other there shouldn’t be a problem they couldn’t solve.

Maybe at some point, they could even welcome Discord into the fold, in the far future.

“Alright…” Celestia said while standing up. “I trust you.”

Celestia took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before slowly approaching the floating sun in front of her. She looked back one final time, seeing Atlas patiently smiling at her from behind, reassuring her. After one final deep breath, she reached out with her right hoof and touched her cutie mark.

Just like with Luna, the mana-motes around her started to go crazy, enveloping her in a wall of pure mana. Within seconds she was obscured from Atlas sight before yet another flash of light made her disappear.

Atlas sighed, taking another look around the strange realm he had found himself in. The emptiness seemed to stretch on forever on all sides, causing him to question just what this place was. He was just contemplating on how he’d be able to return, without having to turn into an alicorn as well, when a giant shadow fell over him from behind.

Confused, Atlas spun around to take a look behind him, ready to smack whatever was there, should it be hostile. It didn’t take long before his stance relaxed and the smile returned to his face. He had to crane his neck to look the giant being looming behind him into the face, but he didn’t feel intimidated at all.

“So you’re here too, huh?” Atlas chuckled. “Could have guessed as much… You wouldn’t happen to know a way for me to get out of here… right?”

Author's Notes:

Whoops, a tad late on this one. Still, it's technically within the week it was supposed to come out ^^ Aside from that, things are moving forward a lot, and we finally get some PHENOMENAL POWERS up in this bitch, completely without itty bitty living space... depending on what you want to call the cave ^^

I hope I did this justice.

Also, yes, that is my actual headcanon on how alicorns are made. Once you defeat the ultimate challenge of your "talent" you get to be a pseudo god. For Celestia and Luna it was controlling the sun and the moon, for Cadence some love related BS and for Twilight it was... friendship. Somehow I don't buy into her cutie mark representing magic, and instead her talent is friendship. Otherwise, everyone who made a new spell with a magic cutie mark would be an alicorn and that's just stupid... but hey, that's just like... my opinion ^^

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by deh way.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon!!

22. Training Montage

“Ooof!” Atlas groaned, falling flat on his back from the balcony. “A little bit less high up would have been nice, but thank you anyway…” he muttered as he gingerly got back up. “Next time I’ll just do it myself…”

“Father, there you are!” Luna exclaimed. “You took so long to get back, I was beginning to worry.”

“Fret not, dear Luna, for I hath returned safely,” Atlas said while bowing in the direction the voice had come from. “You two look beautiful by the way.”

“I know right? This is amazing!” Luna said, fanning her newly acquired wings. “And now I’m bigger than you.”

Luna and Celestia had indeed undergone the transformation into Alicorns. Aside from the obvious boost in magic power and the wings, they had also grown quite a bit. Celestia seemed to finally be the size she was in the show, towering over Atlas by a good amount. Luna was a head shorter than her sister, yet still bigger than Atlas. Their manes and tails hadn’t changed into their ethereal state yet, but Atlas had no idea how that’d work either way, so he didn’t pay it too much mind.

Luna seemed totally stoked about her new form, continuously inspecting herself and trying to move her new wings around. Celestia on the other hand was a tad more on the edge about this whole thing. In contrast to Luna's very vocal joy, she was quietly analyzing her new body with a neutral expression.

“Guess I’ll have to look up from now on when I’m talking to you two,” Atlas chuckled. “You both look amazing by the way.”

“Thanks…” Celestia muttered while still examining her wings.

“So now that we’re super cool alicorns, what’s next?” Luna asked, expectantly looking at Atlas.

“Now…” Atlas shot a contemplative look towards Celestia. “I think it’s time for some long overdue answers…”

Celestia slowly looked up and towards Atlas, her curiosity piqued. Atlas shooed them into their living room and had them sit down on the couch, himself taking up the space across from them, just like they did on their last family meeting.

“Alright, so…” Atlas began, watching his daughters still fidgeting with their wings. “Luna, you haven’t been around for that last part, but I promised Celestia some answers once we were back. You already know a lot of what I’m about to tell you, but there should be some new things as well.

“Which brings me to my first point, yes, Luna already knows quite a bit more than you do, Celesta,” Atlas interjected as Celestia opened her mouth. “She helped me out with a project that sort of required her to know some things. First and foremost, I am immortal.”

“You’re immortal?” Celestia asked, astonished. “Like we are now?”

“I can confirm, I saw,” Luna commented, shuddering slightly.

“Not in the same way you two are, but yes, I am an immortal as well,” Atlas answered. “If the prospect of immortality frightens you, I am sorry, I know how that feels. But at the same time, I’m happy, because my eternity just got a little less lonely.”

“Oh…” Celestia said, thinking about the implications.

“Since we’re on the topic of truth, there are two more that are like us, but to be honest I have no clue where either of them are currently. I’ll be sure to properly introduce them should we ever meet them in an appropriate setting,” Atlas continued on.

“I’d love to meet them someday,” Luna said, stretching her left wing and tickling Celestia with it.

“Second, and this should be news to you too, Luna, I know things about the future of Equestria,” Atlas admitted. “There’s a bright future in store for this country, and I’ve been working to make that future happen, even if it meant that I had to sacrifice a few things.”

“You know the future?” Celestia asked with a cocked eyebrow. “That sounds a bit hard to believe.”

“I know this might sound a bit far fetched, but my knowledge has so far proven to be spot on,” Atlas rebutted. “If you need proof, just look at yourself,” he added with a smirk.

“Myself?” Celestia asked, looking down at her newly acquired body. “What do you mean?”

“You two becoming Alicorns is quite an important step for the future of Equestria, even if it doesn’t seem like it right now,” Atlas replied. “After all, you are supposed to be the ones that defeat Discord and lead Equestria into an age of peace and prosperity.”

“We’re supposed to lead?” Luna asked confused. “But they don’t even know who we are…”

“My knowledge of the future is rather vague regarding a lot of things, but my best guess is that after Discord is defeated, the ponies will look towards you as their saviours and practically demand you to lead them.”

“If… if you knew about us being so important to the future…” Celestia started, a tinge of fear sneaking into her eyes. “Did you only take us with you… because of that?”

Atlas smile vanished immediately upon hearing the question. “No. Definitely not,” Atlas said. “While I will not deny that I was searching all over Equestria for the two of you after Discord’s rise to power, I didn’t just take you in because of what I know. When I finally found you, I was extremely surprised to find out that my first and oldest friend in this world was actually your mother. I believed I could maybe take on the role of an uncle or something, and help to guide you towards your destiny from the sidelines, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

“I couldn’t just leave you after that, so I decided to take you with me,” Atlas continued. “I love both of you from the bottom of my heart, and as far as I’m concerned, you two are my daughters.”

“And you’ll always be my father!” Luna exclaimed, jumping over the small table separating them and hugging Atlas.

“Gahh, stop!” Atlas laughed. “Your feathers are tickling my nose!”

Celestia looked at the two rolling around on the ground with somewhat jealous eyes. All this time she’d been shutting herself away in her own little world, never really moving on. She refused to see Atlas as anything else other than her benefactor while Luna effortlessly forgot about their real parents and didn’t even seem to care at all, accepting Atlas as family. Her wings slowly stretched out, the feeling weirdly alien to her, even if the limbs belonged to her. She took a good long look at herself, bigger and stronger than she was before.

Maybe, just maybe, it was time to change. It was time to take a step forward, away from the past that shackled her.

“So then, if we’re supposed to be the ones that defeat Discord,” Celestia said, bringing Atlas and Luna's antics to a stop. “What are we supposed to do next?” she asked with determination.

Atlas playfully shoved Luna off himself and slowly got back up into a proper seating position while clearing his throat. “I’d say our first order of business should be to get you two accustomed to your new bodies.”

“That seems like a necessary step, yes,” Celestia said calmly while Luna returned to her seat next to her.

“So,” Atlas said with a smile. “Who wants to figure out how these beautiful wings of yours work?”

“That’s it! Keep going!” Atlas said, looking up from the open book before him. “Keep your wingbeats steady!”

Luna was hovering a few feet above the ground, her face contorted from concentration and effort while Celestia sat next to Atlas watching attentively. They had procured a few old books on the magical theory behind pegasi flight which they used in an attempt to figure out how it actually worked. Having a real pegasus teach them would obviously have been the best course of action, but the existence of alicorns was supposed to be a secret. So for now they just had to make do with what they had.

“Now, if you want to go higher, you’ll have to either channel more mana through your wings or just put some more effort into these flaps,” Atlas repeated what they already studied. “Or a combination of both.”

Luna tried to to as she was told, but the attempt at changing her output caused her wings to de-sync from each other. As a result Luna experienced some slight turbulence which snowballed until she eventually crashed down to the ground with a yelp.

“Are you okay?” Atlas asked, offering his hoof to her.

“Yes, just a bit sore,” Luna replied, gladly accepting Atlas’ offering and pulling herself upright. “This is a lot harder than it sounded in theory,” she added with a frown.

“Well, don’t tell me you expected to completely master flying on your first try?” Atlas asked with a chuckle. “Especially considering that you’re working with a set of completely new limbs.”

“No, of course not,” Luna replied. “I just thought it wouldn’t be as hard.”

“I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it eventually,” Celestia said from the sidelines, preparing herself for her first try as well. “I, for one, am actually looking forward to being able to soar through the sky…”

“And you should be,” Atlas nodded. “I’m sure flying is an amazing experience.”

“Celestia should be big enough to give you a ride, you know?”

Celestia had just lifted off the ground when Luna let the comment slip, causing her to blush furiously and faceplant immediately. “Luna!” Celestia called from the ground, much to Luna’s enjoyment.

Atlas simply shook his head with a smile. “We’ve got a long way to go…”

“Let’s get down to business,” Atlas singsonged, “to shoot down, these plums.”

The three ponies were currently outside, which was a rarity for Celestia. She seemed to be nervous, judging by her constant fidgeting and glancing around, but she didn’t complain even once. In order to gauge their new magical abilities, Atlas proposed a simple target practice outside using low-level offensive spells.

Luckily for them, a flock of plums had made their nests in the trees close to their caves, which provided them with perfect moving targets. As a side effect, every score provided them with some tasty fruit as a reward.

“Alright, whoever shoots down the most in five minutes gets to avoid cleaning duty for a whole week,” Atlas said, fully intent on participating as well. “Ready, set, GO!”

On his command, Celestia and Luna started shooting their spells towards the roosting plums, who started taking of on multi-colored bat wings as soon as the first few fell. Both Luna and Celestia seemed to have trouble adjusting to their new found powers and missed more often than not. Atlas smirked, since everything was going according to keikaku*.

True to his expectations, Atlas won easily by a huge margin. After the five minutes were over, he had shot down more than the sisters combined and then some.

“Well, looks like I won’t have to do any cleaning,” Atlas said, happily biting into a plum after he had plucked its wings. “See you back at the cave.”

“Hey, wait a moment…” Celestia said suddenly realizing what just happened. “That’s so unfair!” She called after Atlas.

Alas, she was already too late, since Atlas was making a mad dash for the cave, cackling like a madman all the way.

“Alright, now plant the seeds and bury them completely,” Atlas explained, reading from a book on agriculture.

One of their main caves had been transformed into a green house, which was currently filled with pots of varying shapes and sizes, which in return were filled with regular earth. They had to experiment with the powers they should have received from their earth pony magic, and there was no better way than to do what earth ponies did best: gardening.

Of course Atlas already told them about their healing powers, but since this was a lot more difficult to master, they decided to start small. Right now, none of the pots had any plants growing out of them, but hopefully that would soon change.

In an attempt to make an effective comparison, Atlas participated as well. The cave had been split into three equal parts, and all of them were currently planting an equal amount of seeds into their respective pots. If everything went to plan, they should see some first results in a few day, which were more than likely going to show faster on Celestia and Luna's test groups.

After Atlas was done he was content on simply watching the sisters going about their task. Luna seemed to be pretty gung-ho about the whole thing, almost carelessly planting herb seeds. She fluttered from pot to pot in an attempt to get some flying practice in on the side, flitting all over the place. Celestia on the other hand was acting with alost surgical precision. Every seed was carefully planted in the exact center of its pot, or sometimes in neat rows of equal numbers.

They were taking their whole training serious, which warmed Atlas heart to the core. They were working hard just to help him out with his selfish requests. And although progress was slow, they were growing more proficient in using their new gift with every passing day.

Atlas descended the stairs from the living room to the main cave. The sisters had just gone to bed after an activity-filled day that left them exhausted. He hadn’t had to do any cleaning over the last few months, since he always won in their competitions. The two were getting dangerously close to beating him every now and again, though, signalling that they were getting closer to the end of their training.

Both of them were quite proficient with all of their newfound powers. By now they were able to fly effortlessly through the sky, with Luna even daring to pull off her first tricks. The plants they had been growing were without exception at least twice as big as the one Atlas had planted. And they had both regained full control over their magical facilities, making them a force to be reckoned with in their respective fields.

Their progress made Atlas happy, but at the same time, with every new hurdle they passed, Atlas started to feel more afraid.

He had been trying to ignore the implications, but now that the training was close to finishing he had to face the facts. The day of the fight was drawing closer, and when it finally came, he would have no other choice than to watch as the promise he made so long ago would finally be fulfilled.

To make matters worse, he wasn’t entirely sure how they were supposed to actually defeat Discord, since even after researching an insane amount, he still had no clue about where the Elements of Harmony were hidden away. He slowly approached the center of the main cave before plopping down facing the walls away from the entrance, looking at the multicolored mana-batteries affixed to the them.

“Won’t you show me the way?” Atlas asked the empty rooms, hoping against hope that his friends would somehow be able to give him a hint.

The similarities his mana-batteries had to the elements wasn’t lost on him, since both of them were incredibly powerful, colored artifacts. Yet, last time he checked, his batteries didn’t have any kind of chaos purging-harmony restoring properties. They were just simple mana storages after all.

Even though that was the case, it was looking more and more like he needed to shoehorn together some kind of plan utilizing them instead of the Elements. If all else failed, they could just use a superpowered petrification spell. Whether or not this would hold for the required one-thousand years was uncertain, but the amount of mana they could pump into a spell with the support of all six batteries would be ridiculous.

Atlas was just about to return back upstairs and go to sleep as well, when he noticed the purple battery being a bit slanted. Intent on fixing it he walked up to it to inspect what the problem was. The problem was easy enough to identify, since the golden decorations holding it to the wall seemed to be slightly bent, and even broken in some parts.

With a sigh Atlas looked at how crooked the whole thing had become, before remembering that he had specifically enchanted the gold to be a lot sturdier than usual. Squinting, he climbed upon the table in front of it to get a closer look. Something was not quite right here and he was going to get to the bottom of this. He ran a magical scan on it, which returned nothing out of the ordinary. Next, he poked it a few times with his hoof, seeing if any change would reveal itself, only to be disappointed again.

Without taking his eyes of the battery, he disconnected the nearby red battery from its hold and floated it over, levitating it next to the purple one.

“Is it…” Atlas eyes went wide. “Is it getting bigger?”

It was barely noticeable, but the purple battery was indeed slightly bigger than the red one, which didn’t make any sense at all. The precision with which all of the batteries were made was insane, so there shouldn’t be any discrepancies with their size. Atlas knew there couldn’t be, since he checked this quite a few times, both during making them and after having finished the whole set.

The irregular growth had destroyed the golden cage holding it, of that he was now certain. He’d have to run a few experiments to find out what was happening, lest he risked any of them de-stabilizing before he could do anything about it.

That would be a disaster in more ways than one.

Author's Notes:

*Keikaku means plan.

I've also noticed that there was some confusion about just who Atlas met in the last chapter, and you are all wrong. It was ugandan knuckles.

drawn by: PonKing, that magnificent bastard!

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon!!

23. See You, Space Cowboy

Atlas leisurely strolled through the forest spanning between his cave and Vanhoofer. The area wasn’t as chaotic as it used to be just a few months ago, as only the occasional odd animal or wrongly colored tree disturbed nature's natural beauty now.

After having eaten a hearty lunch with his two daughters, Atlas had excused himself to go for a walk in the woods. The two of them were probably preparing themselves for their big day tomorrow; reviewing spells, practicing their flying skills, and whatever else that could give them an edge for the coming battle.

After a long time of training, preparing, and scheming, it was finally time for the final showdown with Discord.

They believed that Discord’s power had been waning ever since they wrestled the sun and moon from his control. Thanks to the harmony and hope spreading around the country weakening him in the process. Atlas, of course, knew the real reason for the ‘weakening’ amount of Chaos all around them, since all of this was according to a plan that was by now almost twenty years old.

Discord must have realized that the sun and moon suddenly not being under his control must have been Atlas’ doing, and thankfully left the two heavenly bodies well alone after the fact; even if he could have easily regained control. Ever since then, Discord had started to create less and less chaos. At first, it was barely noticeable, but as time passed, more and more things returned to their natural state; up to the point where ponies could almost live normally now.

Just as Celestia and Luna knew the final battle was just around the corner, there was no doubt in Atlas’ mind that Discord knew as well. Being the good showman that he was, Discord had plotted out a natural order of things that would make his defeat look more realistic, and must be preparing himself for the inevitable event in his own way.

Atlas kicked a small pebble lying in his way while wearing a frown. It always had bugged him to just send his own son towards a thousand years of imprisonment, but now that the fateful day was just around the corner, these feelings were renewed and magnified.

He’d love to just go with some sort of back-up plan, but for some reason Discord seemed hell-bent on actually going through with this according to Atlas’ knowledge. Of course this would lead to Equestria being unified and lead into an age of prosperity, but it just seemed unfair.

As he was pondering the situation, his ears picked up the sound of merry ponies in the distance, which caused him to furrow his brows. He was in the middle of a large forest so it didn’t really make any sense for a large group of ponies to be anywhere close to him. Intrigued, Atlas made his way over to where the sounds seemed to be coming from. It didn’t take him long at all, as he was suddenly faced with a two story building in the middle of a clearing.

The signs outside identified it as some sort of pub, and the sounds of merriment inside mixed with the happy shouts of drunk patrons. It didn’t make any sense at all. The location was much too far removed from any civilisation to be sensible and as far as Atlas knew this part of the woods had always been remarkably pub-less in the past.

His curiosity getting the better of him, Atlas entered the building into a large room. Just like the pubs in Vanhoofer many wooden tables were hosting even more colorful equines, all of them drinking and celebrating over something. They barely paid him any mind as Atlas approached the bar on the far end of the room. One of the many stools at the bar was still empty, so he took a seat, before taking in the impressive collection of alcoholic beverages on display on the back wall.

“What can I get for you stranger?” a familiar voice asked from behind the counter.

“A flagon of mead would be nice,” Atlas smiled recognizing the speaker. “Are infinite refills included?”

Atlas turned his head to his right where the bartender was cleaning a purple glass with a dirty rag, as he came face to face with Discord. He had grown even larger than the last time Atlas had seen him and was wearing a stylish two-piece suit.

“But of course,” Discord replied, slamming a empty glass down in front of Atlas, which changed into a flagon of mead on its way down.

The ponies around them didn’t pay any mind; which caused Atlas to believe they were just constructs summoned forth by Discord’s magic just like the rest of the building. Smiling, Atlas lifted the mug in front of him and downed a few gulps of the sweet liquid. True to his word the mug immediately refilled itself as soon as it was set back down.

“So,” Atlas begun, “to what do I owe the pleasure of this get together?”

“You know just as well that this is probably our last chance to talk for a while,” Discord said, picking up another glass to clean, “a thousand years give or take if you want to get technical about it.”

Immediately every other patron in the room disappeared, much like the smiles on Atlas’ and Discord’s face. Atlas fumbled around with his mug for a bit, while Discord continued to clean his glass, both of them looking for the right words.

“How’d you know?” Atlas asked after a while of not taking his eyes off his mug.

“You probably didn’t realise,” Discord answered, “but I’ve been watching you.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Atlas chuckled. “You should have come to say hello every once in a while.”

“I couldn’t…” Discord sighed. “Celestia and Luna would have noticed…”

“I had plenty of alone time in parts of the cave they had no access to,” Atlas replied slightly miffed. “You could have dropped by anytime.”

“Well… yeah... “ Discord rubbed the back of his head. “But I just felt like… like I couldn’t keep up the act if I did…breaking character and all that.”

“Oh…” Atlas said stunned. “Then why show up now?”

“As I’ve said before… This will most likely be the last chance we get to properly talk,” Discord said with another sigh. “I know the final showdown will be tomorrow so I couldn’t just sit idly by without at least coming to talk one last time.”

“That’s awfully nice of you,” Atlas smiled. “Because I really wanted to see you as well, but didn’t know how to contact you, or if you’d even come.”

“If you had called for me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist,” Discord said, slithering over the bar and onto the stool next to Atlas, a colorful drink with a little umbrella appearing in his hands.

“So… tomorrow…” Atlas stammered.

“Yeah, I think I’ll conveniently show up in Vanhoofer for a surprise visit,” Discord said, stirring his drink. “I’ll deliver a cinematic fight to those two, that, I can promise you will be my best performance yet. I’ve had a lot of time to practice, after all.”

“That would really save us the hassle of looking for you,” Atlas chuckled. “Try not to get hurt.”

“Oh, I won’t,” Discord said, waving away Atlas worries with his free talon. “If I don’t want to, there’ll be no way a spell could hit me. My powers are quite… extensive, as I’ve come to realise in these past years.”

“That’s good to know,” Atlas blinked. “Then please don’t hurt Celestia and Luna too much. It’s okay if you rough them up a little, just not too much, okay?”

“I would never,” Discord said, taking a sip of his drink. “After all they’re my cute little sisters, aren’t they?”

“They sure are,” Atlas said. “I’d just wish we wouldn’t have to do this, so you could support each other properly, as siblings. But... I fear we’re both too deep in this now,” Atlas admitted, more to himself than to Discord.

“I guess,” Discord replied. “But at least we’ll be able to go back to normal after my prison sentence is over. And in the long run… a thousand years doesn’t sound like much at all, does it?”

“I suppose it doesn’t,” Atlas said. “It’s still a long time though.”

“I’ll get over it,” Discord said. “So, now that we got the sappy stuff out of the way… want to make an awesome plan for tomorrow?”

Atlas emptied his mug in one go, slamming it down on the counter, causing it to instantly refill itself. He took one long look at Discord, who was flashing him a smile.

“Fuck yeah!” Atlas called. “Let’s celebrate tonight, and make tomorrow a day that Equestria will never forget!”

“Now that’s more like it,” Discord laughed. He clapped his hands twice, causing all the other patrons to reappear. “You up for some party-games?”

“You bet I am!”

Atlas lazily sat in a camping chair courtesy of Discord himself. He was currently located on a hill outside of Vanhoofer, just high enough to overlook the whole city. Just as promised yesterday he had found the place stocked with everything anypony could wish for to enjoy a good show. Binoculars, popcorn, comfortable seating, shade from the sun and relaxing music were available in abundance.

The two of them had partied the night away and let out all their pent up emotions, yet still, as he was now sitting there for the end to come, Atlas couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret and sadness. He had sent Celestia and Luna off to fight their own brother, even if they didn’t know it yet, and it pained him to do this to his children.

On the other hand, this was all for the greater good. Atlas was manipulating everything from the shadows to send Equestria down a path to prosperity and unification, and sacrificing everything he had to in the process. At the very least this was the last stage he’d have to actually do anything, and from tomorrow on he could focus solely on the task presented to him by Hades. Once Equestria was in capable hooves he wouldn’t be needed anymore.

Both sides of the upcoming fight knew exactly what they had to do, and now it was only a matter of time before the final showdown began. There was nothing left for Atlas to do except to sit back and watch, so that’s exactly what he did.

He was throwing popcorn in his mouth via levitation and sipping on some ice cold tea from time to time, watching the sun rise in the distance. If he squinted his eyes, he could barely spot the forms of Celestia and Luna in the distance. The white and blue blobs slowly cantering towards the center of Vanhoofer, all six mana batteries in tow.

In the end, Atlas never found even a speck of the Elements of Harmony, yet the uncanny resemblance of his batteries, combined with the apparent change all of them were undergoing led him to just say, “fuck it.” It would appear that he had created the complete equivalent of the Elements by accident and decided to just roll with it.

They didn’t have any super harmony powers like they had in the show, but they might gain them at some point in the future. Apparently, the vast amount of mana stored inside them brought forth some magical voodoo changes within them, which he just would have to closely monitor in the future. Who knows, maybe they’d combine into a super cool robot at some point.

The story he had concocted with Discord yesterday told a fib of how the supposed re-harmonisation of the country had weakened him. Celestia and Luna were to battle him until he was at his weakest, and then cast a super powered petrification spell with the aid of the “Elements of Harmony”.

Of course, the sisters had protested when Atlas told them that they’d have to fight without him, pointing out just how much stronger he was in terms of battle power compared to them. And while it pained him to do so, he explained to them that after the fight, the two of them were to become a symbol of peace and harmony. As alicorns, they’d have both the looks and the power to prove their worth to the citizens, so Atlas would only be in the way.

It took some convincing, but eventually he convinced them to go through with his plan. They still had some doubts that they’d be able to lead a whole nation, but Atlas assured them that they were more than capable, and after promising to help them from the shadows, all doubts had been washed away.

Atlas checked the sun’s position once more, and just in time, a huge poof of confetti announced the chaos god’s arrival in the center of town, almost in front of Celestia and Luna's noses. The citizens of the harbor town had been most likely ogling the two strangers, but now that Discord himself showed up, they began running for their lives, hiding in their houses.

“Ahhh! What is this?” Atlas mouthed the lines he knew Discord must be reciting right now. “What are you two? Can’t say I like the color scheme, so drab. Oh, and what’s this? Wings and a horn, was there a market sale for bad OC’s that I missed?” Atlas chuckled at the lines they came up with yesterday.

Celestia and Luna would no doubt rise to his jabs, especially Celestia, who had a personal grudge against the Draconequus. Provoking them was step one on the antagonising side, while Celestia and Luna were supposed to keep their cool. Even if Atlas told them to always stay calm in Discord’s presence, there was no doubt in his mind that it wasn’t long before-.

Just as he thought that, the first beam of light cut through the early morning air, colored in a bright yellow. It marked the beginning of the battle, and it was Celestia that was the first one to rise to Discord’s goading, just as planned. Atlas floated the binoculars over to get a better look following the battle with great interest.

Discord began fighting back by throwing stuffed animals at Celestia and chocolate pudding at Luna; most likely calling them party poopers in the process. From there, everything escalated quite quickly. Discord led the two on a merry chase all around town, making sure everypony got a glimpse of the two ponies that were fighting for them, occasionally making it look like he was hit by one of their spells.

Some collateral damage was unavoidable, but Discord did his best to covertly try and direct the flow of battle away from buildings. It was quite a show, making Atlas proud of all of his children. Celestia proved her casting abilities with extreme accuracy, setting up traps for Discord along the way, while Luna flew circles around the Draconequus, cutting off his escape routes as well as she could.

Discord gradually looked worse for wear the longer the battle dragged on, but Atlas knew that it was all an act. If anybody would have paid attention, they’d have most likely noticed that Discord was a tad too overdramatic.

On and on their battle went, until finally they arrived back at their starting point, the center plaza of Vanhoofer. Discord was out of breath, dirty, and seemed to be bleeding from several scrapes and bruises covering his body. Celestia engaged him into conversation, most likely asking for last words, or maybe offering him a chance at redemption, which Discord naturally scoffed at.

Luna took place next to her sister, and out of their saddlebags they levitated three elements each, making them float besides them. Discord was out of energy and practically crawling along the ground, trying to get away, but the sisters didn’t give him any time to. The elements began to glow with an ethereal energy, the sisters eyes suddenly a bright white. In the meantime Discord stood up on wobbly feet to face them, ready to take his final pose before the curtain fell.

Celestia and Luna discharged their spell, energy shooting out of all the elements, creating a rainbow of mana that shot straight at Discord. Just before he was hit, though, Discord slightly turned his head to the side, looking straight at Atlas. A smile was on his face and he gave a little wave, followed by a indicated bow with his head. Moments later he was trapped in a cascading rainbow all around him, that only left a intricate statue in his wake, depicting Discord in his final moments.

Atlas would have to make sure to cast every protective ward he knew on it, so that it would never, ever break. But for now, he would need a few moments to himself, as the tears flowed freely down his face. Trying his best to smile for his son, Atlas waved back.

“See you, Space Cowboy.”

Author's Notes:

And this marks the conclusion of the sisters arc. We got some alicorns up in this bitch, Discord is stoned and Atlas knows what he has to do. What's next you ask? A little arc simply called "Equestria", that's what's next.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon!!

24. The Right To Rule

Atlas sat in between two trees their shadow giving some respite from the hot summer day. A cool beverage was sitting on the ground next to him, at the moment his only companion during the small break he was taking. From his spot he could oversee the complete construction going on before him.

Just as Atlas had predicted, after Discord’s defeat, the ponies of Equestria had turned towards their two saviours. It was generally agreed upon that they should be leading the country, as symbols of peace and unity, in part due to their alicorn nature. What was left of the ponies who had formed the government before then were appointed as Celestia’s and Luna's advisors, helping while the sisters would get used to their new positions.

The former government had scattered years ago, due to the general citizens blaming them for not being to help them in their time of need. With Discord governing everything, even gravity, there was no need for them anymore. Thus, they had each gone their own way, with only a few remaining that were willing to pick up a new post in the newly formed diarchy.

It took them a good year to get everything in order, but after Atlas’ suggestion, the construction of a palace was finally started, smack dab in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Ponies of all races came together to build the thing, cooperating like never before and putting all of their skill into their work, to not only make the palace beautiful, but a symbol of their true unification.

Of course Atlas was helping as well, even if only two ponies knew about it. He was busy making himself a secret basement without anypony finding out. For some reason he had gotten so used to be in dank and dark caves that he just kind of… longed for it.

“There you are,” Celestia said, coming up from the side. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Just taking a little break,” Atlas said, patting the ground next to him. “Why don’t you join me?”

“I will, thank you,” Celestia replied, tiredly sitting down next to Atlas. “I was surprised when I didn’t find you working on your little project in the basement.”

“Well, even a reclusive stallion like me needs a bit of sunshine every now and again,” Atlas replied slightly sarcastically. “Gotta get that vitamin D.”

“There’s all kind of dirty jokes that could be made with that setup,” Celestia smirked.

“Well, you’re a princess now, and raunchy jokes don’t befit a mare of your stature,” Atlas quipped back. “After all, you have to be a good role model for your citizens.”

“And whose fault exactly is it that I’m now supposed to lead a country together with Luna?” Celestia said while helping herself to Atlas’ drink, trying, and failing, to look regal while doing so.

“I could say it’s because of me, but ultimately it was you who decided that you wanted to do this, so I’m inclined to say it’s your own fault.”

“True enough,” Celestia sighed. “While everything happened quite fast, it was my own decision to go through with this. I just wish you hadn’t been so cryptic about it.”

“Being cryptic is fun,” Atlas replied coolly. “You should try it sometime, the common folk love it.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call my would-be citizens ‘common folk…’” Celestia bit her lower lip. “I’d feel like I’d be looking down on them.”

“You should try “My Little Ponies™”, I’m sure it’ll suit you,” Atlas supplied. “Just know that it’s trademarked.”

“I did not know you could trademark phrases,” Celestia replied slightly confused. “But, that actually does sound rather nice…”

Celestia seemed to seriously think about the matter, causing Atlas to softly shake his head, wondering what he had just started. He was starting to feel like he was micromanaging the outcome of the future, starting to think that he should stop being too involved. After all, from this point on they’d probably do just fine without him, just like Celestia and Luna from the cartoon had without him.

“You know,” Celestia started up again. “I still think you should be the one leading the ponies of Equestria. You’d be a far better leader than Luna and I could ever be.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of your feelings on the matter,” Atlas replied, slightly miffed that she was bringing this particular topic up again. “You were very vocal about it after all. But, just as I told you every other time, I’m not supposed to lead. I have no right to.”

“I still don’t know why you hold on to that belief. You’ve been an outstanding member of society and you have achieved a great many things in your time so far, which leads me to believe that you’d advance Equestria into a new age like we’ve never seen before, given the chance,” Celestia pressed on.

“I never had the right to interact with this world on this large of a scale, yet I did,” Atlas said solemnly. “And in the process, I did some things that are unforgivable. So assuming I ever had the right, I’ve lost it a long time ago.”

“Even if you think that way, I still believe you’d do a good job; in the end, you want what’s best for Equestria, and apparently you wouldn’t stop at anything to make it happen, so why not?”

“Not stopping at anything is a one-way trip to a dictatorship, you know,” Atlas said. “Then, there’s the matter of me simply not wanting to,” he added with a shrug. “I’ll still help you out if you need me, but don’t you dare give me any kind of official post. I have very important research to conduct once I’m all set up. More important than you’ll ever know.”

“There you go being cryptic again,” Celestia whined. “Why do we always have to drag every piece of information out of you?”

“If everything goes according to plan, you’ll never have to know. You’ll sleep a lot better this way, trust me,” Atlas commented with a weak smile.

Celestia let out a deep sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to trust you on that. Just know that if you’ll ever need our help, you’ve got it. I hope when the time comes, you’ll trust us enough to confide in us.”

“I’d really rather not,” Atlas said, much to Celestia’s chagrin. “This is my own burden to carry, and if possible, I’d like to resolve it on my own. Alas, there’s a lot at stake, not just concerning me, but everypony. Just know that I’ll do everything to see my task through successfully, even if it means I’ll have to ask for help.”

“I suppose that’s all I could ask for,” Celestia said, watching over the ponies working on their new ‘home’. “I’m sure they would help you too, if they just knew.”

“Let’s hope it never comes to me needing the help of so many,” Atlas said wisely.

“Well, I’ll leave you to your break,” Celestia said while getting up. “I’m sure Luna is looking for me by now. There’s still a lot to do and approve.”

“I’m sure there is,” Atlas chuckled. “Managing a whole country should bring a lot of boring paperwork with it.”

“It might be boring, but someone has to do it,” Celestia replied. “Besides, we’ll have plenty of ponies to help us, so I’m sure we’ll do just fine.”

“Hey, better you than me, am I right?”

“Don’t act like your magical theories aren’t bland and boring most of the time as well,” Celestia got a last jab in while walking away, even going so far as to stick out her tongue.

“Princesses don’t stick out their tongues!” Atlas called after her, shaking his head in mirth.

He looked after her as she went back to the would-be castle, greeting ponies left and right. Everypony seemed incredibly happy when they saw her, looking up to her like she was some kind of messiah. And she probably was to them, even if she was a fake one, produced by Atlas.

They were obviously building more than just a palace here. They were building a foundation. The foundation of a great country, with Celestia and Luna at it’s very center. Atlas was acutely aware of the fact that he wasn’t essential going forward now, and he wanted the sisters to not be too dependant on him, so they may become reliable adults.

Combined with the knowledge of what he had to do, he vowed then and there, that when the time finally came, he’d leave. He’d stay and watch over them until his research was complete and then go to execute whatever was necessary to preserve this world.

Atlas emptied the last of his drink before getting up and walking back towards the construction site as well. He still had a lot to do, and he was intent on doing it alone.

After all, ponies tend to suffer when they get too involved with him.

Author's Notes:

A bit of a short one, this one is.

Once again, thanks to my editors Azriel and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Support me on Patreon!!

25. Charging Station

Atlas wandered through the corridors of his newly finished workspace. Deep underneath the Castle of the Two Sisters he had carefully crafted his new home over the past few months. While not as big or intricate as the cave systems which he had built over several years, all of the essential rooms were present. He’d received generous housing inside the castle, and because of that the need for general purpose rooms was eliminated and he was able to focus on study and proper labs.

A long hallway illuminated by mana lights on either side connected all of the different rooms, eight in total, each specifically crafted to serve a certain purpose. His current destination was the room at the very back, which he had designated as his personal study.

He entered through the stone door, which could be hermetically sealed with magic, and went over to his desk. Celestia gifted him with an absolutely ridiculously big desk that barely fit in the room. He had absolutely no idea how she managed to even bring it in here in one piece, which made him suspect that she finished building it here like she bought it at Ikea. At least he hoped she did, because if she brought random ponies into his new secret lab, he’d have to have a little talk with her.

Of course he was still grateful, as the desk was able to fulfill all of his day to day needs, with an amazing amount of; workspace, drawers, and even a few hidden compartments for the really important stuff. As such, as was becoming his tradition, every piece of available space was littered with; notes, documents, early stage experiments, and knick-knacks of all shapes and sizes.

While this was usually the case with all of the desks he’d ever had. This time around the papers occupying his desk were all about his current project. When he’d come to the realisation that his mana batteries were essentially the Elements of Harmony, he’d decided to treat them as such. Making them adhere to canon would be one of his last tasks he’d have to complete before leaving the castle.

While they were already plenty similar to the elements from the show, there were still some discrepancies and missing pieces. First off was their shape. He didn’t worry about this one too much, since they had already proven to slowly grow and change over time, most likely due to the vast amount of mana that was being stored in them. Apparently the mana of this world had a mind of its own, which only displayed itself when a ridiculous amount was gathered in one place.

Second, and most importantly, the Tree of Harmony was still missing. While Atlas barely knew anything about the tree’s true purpose or how it functioned in the show, he did have a few ideas of his own. He was planning to make the Tree of Harmony take on the role of a charging station for the Elements, supporting them in their task of taking in and storing mana. The tree would be designed in a way that would let it store excess mana from the batteries, while amplifying the gathering rate at the same time.

While making the Elements adhere to canon was one of his motives for creating the tree in this particular way, he had another ulterior motive. As he had learned from Hias, no matter how he approached the problem of disconnecting his pocket dimension from the gods realm, he’d need an astonishing amount of mana to do so. As such, having the tree collect mana over a thousand years would supply him with the necessary mana to pull off his feat of magic.

The only problem he had with the project was, as always, the “how”. Of course he had the option of making the tree in the same way as he did the elements, but considering how big the Tree of Harmony was supposed to be, this would at least take him a few years. While he definitely had the time to pull this off, he had no doubt that this incredibly mentally taxing and extremely boring task would drive him insane.

Thus, all of his current experiments were intended to help him find a better, faster way to create a tree of similar or greater effectiveness as the Elements.

Number one on his list of things was a way to mass produce the mana crystals. The obvious choice that presented itself, was to outsource the task. While this was a fairly simple solution to his problem, he was hesitant to release the method into the public. Mana Crystals were insanely convenient and had a ton of potential, but at the same time the amount of wrong one could do with them was just as vast. With the Crystal Kingdom still being an unknown, he just didn’t want to risk it.

Of course he could just have Celestia or Luna assemble a task-force sworn to secrecy, but even this method contained risks. Having this solution blocked to him, he’d just have to figure out something else. Initially he was testing methods to streamline the process, or maybe even automate it. Currently he was looking into a way to use his mana batteries as a sort of 3D Printer for mana crystals, by employing a seperate device that would extract stored mana from the battery and transform it into the desired product.

Since it wasn’t really a problem to fuse the crystals together, this would be an incredibly effective way of mass producing them.

The paper currently floating in front of him had the schematics of such a device already sketched on it, and making a prototype wouldn’t take long now. While he stole the idea from 3D-printers, his device wouldn’t be nearly as exact or versatile as the printers from back on Earth. At best it would just create blocks of crystal which he then could cut and fuse into the desired shape before inscribing them with the necessary rune arrays.

Once he’d have completed his plans for a prototype, he’d have to see if he could catch Luna away from her royal duties, so she could take a look at it. Aside from the fact that he didn’t trust regular researchers to proofread his plans, Luna was currently the only one with enough knowledge about runes to even understand what he was attempting.

Cross referencing his notes from last time, Atlas put a feather to a blank sheet of paper, and began drawing the actual schematics for building his own, magical 3D-printer.

Atlas was magically welding together the first finished parts of what would one day become the crystal tree of harmony. It did take him six iterations of prototypes and four months of hard work, but eventually he made himself a working machine. Sure, it was a crude thing, but it worked. Just as he had planned, the only thing he could create with it was medium sized blocks, which needed quite a bit of further work to get into the desired shape.

Still, in the end he would save himself a lot of time and sanity by doing it this way. All six of his batteries were currently hooked up to six separate printers and merrily producing light blue crystals.

In the time he had after successfully finishing his printers, Atlas didn’t waste any effort and immediately started plotting out the design and necessary arrays for the Tree of Harmony. Since he had a lot more space compared to a battery this time around, there was no need to create thousands of thin crystal slices, chock full of runes to get the desired effect. Instead, he could just take the separate blocks made by his printers and write on their surfaces.

While this may sound like there would be a lot less space for him to write on, it was actually the complete opposite. Since the tree would be quite big, he’d have almost twice the amount of runes compared to one battery.

His diligent work was disturbed by a rumbling sound, echoing off the smooth walls of his workroom. Blinking owlishly, Atlas stopped his work for a second while trying to locate the sound. Nobody knew about the location of his secret lab, much less how to get inside, except for Celestia and Luna, so he should be alone.

It didn’t take long for the sound to re-emerge once again, and this time Atlas was able to determine its source. It was himself, or, more specifically, his stomach.

“Silly me… Forgot to eat again…” Atlas commented with a chuckle.

Recently he’d gotten so immersed in his work that he’d routinely forget to eat. Of course he could survive like this indefinitely, since he was special, but he didn’t have any fond memories of actually starving for a prolonged amount of time, so he usually at least tried to eat once a day. Celestia and Luna would often complain to him every time they noticed him skipping meals, which was also a motivator for him.

The two sisters could get scary when they were worried about him.

When his stomach let out yet another loud grumble, Atlas got up from his chair, stretching out his stiff limbs. The batteries would work even without him in the room, so he had no qualms with taking a little break. Intent on eating his fill, Atlas made his way out of the room and started his, admittedly quite long journey towards the royal dining room.

One upside of living in the palace was that they had proper chefs working for them now. While Atlas was an average chef and Celestia had learned a lot of his craft, the chefs working in the palace kitchen were the cream of the crop, to which he couldn’t even compare. So it was with a skip in his step that he sauntered down his lonely hallway towards what seemed to be a solid wall at its end.

He cast the necessary spells which would unlock the door, which looked like just a regular piece of wall on the outside, and it started to slide open without making the faintest of grinding sounds. Passing through it, he entered what was officially regarded as his own room, located in the basement, much to the confusion of a lot of the staff.

Of course everybody knew of the relation he had to their newly crowned princesses, and as such he received almost the same treatment as the princesses themselves. Celestia even went so far as to dub him a lord against his will, which probably factored into his favourable treatment as well. Thus, the staff was even more confused to see him completely vanish for days at a time and then randomly popping back up again, with nopony knowing where he actually went.

Atlas went outside, ignoring the lavishly decorated room which he barely used and started walking the halls of the castle. On his way he greeted the occasional passing maid or guard, until he reached the stairs leading up to the ground floor. Once he passed the first window, he was able to determine that it was late evening, so he would probably be able to meet both Celestia and Luna in the dining room.

He made his way through the spacious hallways, with unnecessarily high ceilings and lined with various pieces of contemporary art as he made a beeline for the dining hall. Now that he had left his basement, aside from the staff, he would occasionally pass a noble or two. To them, Atlas was a mysterious stallion that nobody really knew anything about, except for that we was incredibly important, so they usually went so far as to bow to him in passing.

Something which annoyed Atlas to no end.

Finally, he made it to the royal dining room. The large door was currently flanked by two guards in full armor, indicating that at least one of the sisters was currently inside. They barely acknowledged Atlas with a curt nod, letting him go inside without issue.

Just as he suspected, Luna was sitting at the surprisingly small table inside, jovially eating a generous helping of some sort of pasta. In fact, the whole dining room stood in stark contrast to the rest of the castle, being designed rather small and cozy, as opposed to the large and lavish design that dominated everywhere else.

“Father!” Luna gasped between two gulps of food, slightly startled by his sudden appearance. “How nice of you to join us! We thought you’d never leave your secret hole in the wall.”

“You know I tend to forget trivial things such as eating on a regular basis,” Atlas said, taking a seat opposite of Luna. “And could you stop it with the Royal We? It’s kind of annoying.”

“Apologies,” Luna muttered. “It’s slowly becoming a habit I don’t really care for. I still have no idea why they want us to speak like that.”

Luna was wearing black regalia that was specially created for her by the royal blacksmiths, making her look exactly as she did in the show, minus the floaty hair. Celestia had of course gotten similar bling, in line with her canon looks.

“They’re probably just still going nuts over finally having actual princesses and being united in harmony,” Atlas said. “Wish fulfillment if you ask me. If it were me in your position I’d just tell them to fuck off and let me speak like a normal pony.”

“I could never do that, they were so happy when my sister and I adopted this way of speaking, and just denying them and seeing their disappointed faces would make me sad,” Luna said with a small frown.

“Yeah, and that’s why you two are pretty princesses now, and I’m not,” Atlas said with a roll of his eyes. “I’ll take whatever she’s having, but more,” he told a maid that came up to him to take his order.

“Where’s Celestia?”

“She should be wrapping up her day court by now,” Luna commented between wolfing down her food. “I’m sure she’ll join us momentarily.”

Atlas winced slightly at Luna’s comment. While he didn’t give any input towards how they should rule most of the time, he was quite unhappy with the fact that they had adopted a day and a night court as per their advisors suggestion. It was how the timeline was supposed to be, but by letting it be this way, Atlas had to wonder if the road to Luna’s banishment was drawing closer.

Yet, at this point he was so committed to making the original timeline happen that he stayed his hand. It would be unfair to Discord if he didn’t let this happen, or at least that was what he was telling himself to justify his actions, or lack thereof.

“So did anything interesting happen recently?” Atlas asked curiously.

“More than you’d imagine,” Luna sighed. “The fact that we’re basically building a country from the ground up generates mountains upon mountains of problems and paperwork and there’s no end in sight.”

“I’d much rather spend the whole day studying a boring book than doing paperwork, so I don’t envy you,” Atlas said, thanking the maid for bringing his food to the side. “Did you finally finish up the gardens?”

“Yes, they were finished just the other day, actually.”

“Did you do what I asked you to?”

“Yes, we did set up Discord’s statue in the gardens, just as you wished,” Luna replied. “I still don’t understand why you’re so insistent on this.”

“Just trust me on this, we want to treat him with the utmost care,” Atlas replied cryptically. “I’ll go check it out later.”

“I do trust you,” Luna sighed. “That doesn’t mean that I understand. I mean, Discord terrorised ponies for years, so why you think that he deserves such gentle treatment is something I just can’t get through my head…”

Atlas was just about to reply when the door opened once again shortly followed by Celestia strolling into the room. Her eyes lit up when she spotted Atlas sitting at the table and she hurried over to his side.

“Atlas, just the pony I was looking for!”

“Alright, what is it?” Atlas asked intrigued. “You don’t intend to bestow any more unnecessary titles on me, do you?”

“No, nothing of the sort,” Celestia ignored the quip. “I just met somepony who wanted to meet you in court, so I brought him over.”

“Somepony who wanted to meet me?” Atlas asked with confusion. “But, almost nopony even knows I exist, much less that I hang out around here, who could it be?”

“Well, he seemed rather insistent, apparently somepony told him he could find you here,” Celestia explained further. “I thought you could use somepony to socialise with.”

“Alright,” Atlas furrowed his brows. “So where is this mysterious pony that I should meet?”

“Oh, he’s waiting outside, I’ll go get him,” Celestia said. “You can come in now,” She called out so the pony outside could hear her.

The pony didn’t lose any time and entered immediately. “Really like the new place, a bit lavish for my tastes, but definitely a step up from a dank cave on the side of the mountain,” the blue stallion said, slowly moving over towards the table. “Oh, hi Atlas.”

Atlas mouth hung open and he slowly got up from his chair, his food ignored and forgotten at the sight of his old friend.

“Starswirl?”

Author's Notes:

This is the only thing in the Author's Note

26. New Magic

With eyes wide in disbelief, Atlas slowly crept toward his old friend, unsure of whether it was an imposter, or someone playing a cruel joke. “Starswirl?” Atlas asked tentatively. “Is… is that really you?”

He still looked exactly like he did at the time of the accident. Yet, it was a bit much of a surprise to just instantly accept the facts before him.

“Oh yes, definitely,” Starswirl replied. “Could you tell me how much time has passed? The note you left didn’t really specify, but judging by how much things have changed, I’d say quite a bit more than five minutes… right?”

“That would be the biggest underestimation I’ve ever heard,” Atlas said, finally warming up to the returned Starswirl. “Come here you old oaf, I’ve missed you!”

Atlas went over to Starswirl, embracing him in a totally bromantic way, much to the excitement to Celestia and Luna who were content with just watching up to this point.

“I would say the same, but really, it’s been about two days since I’ve last seen you. Sooo…” Starswirl said, letting Atlas indulge in his little moment. “So, why don’t you tell me why you’re now living in a castle and dining with the two gorgeously beautiful and newly appointed rulers of Equestria? Something going on here that I should know about?”

“Oh, you flatter us,” Celestia said, waving Starswirl off.

“Heavens no,” Atlas laughed out loud, letting go of Starswirl and turning to face the sisters. “Starswirl, this is Celestia and Luna, they’re my daughters.”

“Ohohoo, would you look at that!” Starswirl exclaimed loudly. “Barely gone two days and somepony lured you out of that cave and you knock them up! Don’t tell me it was someone I know? Who’s the lucky mare?”

“You wish, they’re adopted,” Atlas said. “They’re the daughters of an old friend of mine, who sadly isn’t with us anymore. I’ve been taking care of them as if they were my own.”

“Yes, Atlas has been a wonderful father to us,” Luna replied from the sidelines.

“I’m sure he was and will continue to be,” Starswirl nodded. “So what did Discord have to say to all of this? Where is the rascal anyway?”

Immediately, all of the color drained from Atlas face to the point where one could have said his fur got a little more white. Celestia and Luna furrowed their brows as soon as the question left Starswirl’s mouth, and they turned to Atlas for answers, whose brain was working in overtime.

“Well, where is…”

“AHAHAHA, Starswirl you old jokester, has traveling through time messed up your brain a bit?” Atlas interrupted Starswirl louder than he had to, much to everypony else's confusion. “Come, we should get that looked at! I actually have a nice lab in the basement, you’re going to love it!”

“Wait, what?” Starswirl asked as Atlas threw a leg over Starswirl's shoulder and started to lead him towards the exit. “What’s happening.”

“Just follow me!” Atlas said harshly under his breath. “Don’t mind the old codger, he’s a bit weird in the head sometimes!” he called back towards the confused sisters. “And please don’t disturb me for the next two or three days, we have a lot of catching up to do!”

Just like that, the two stallions left the room, one of them less willing than the other, leaving behind two incredibly confused alicorns.

“What just happened?” Celestia asked.

“I have absolutely no idea, dearest sister,” Luna deadpanned and resumed eating her dinner. “But I can’t say it’s the weirdest thing our father ever did, so whatever. We’ll find out if he wants us to.”

“And that’s pretty much everything that happened since your little experiment failed oh so spectacularly,” Atlas finished his recounting.

“Wow... over thirty years...” Starswirl replied, deep in thought. “Looks like I've missed a lot.”

After Atlas had lead Starswirl into his top-secret research facility, he had told him everything that Starswirl missed. Starswirl had just sat there and calmly listened to the whole story without commenting much along the way, just letting Atlas talk.

“So, Discord really is…” Atlas nodded to answer Starswirl's inquiring look. “That’s a shame. I’ll have to visit him in the gardens as often as I can, then.”

“So you’ll keep this a secret?” Atlas asked.

“It’s what he wanted,” Starswirl replied. “And coming clean would create a lot of problems neither of us could really afford I’d imagine. Will you ever tell the sisters that they actually have imprisoned their brother?”

“When the time is right, yes,” Atlas sighed. “But that’s over a thousand years off.”

“So you’re saying you’re confident that they’ll release him of their own accord in the future?” Atlas nodded. “Well, that’s good, at least. Maybe I’ll get to meet him again after all…”

“Does that mean…?”

“Yup, complete and utter failure,” Starswirl shook his head sadly. “My time is still stopped, it didn’t even budge…”

“Well fuck,” Atlas replied. “All that missed time, and nothing to show for it.”

“If nothing else, I’ve proven that time travel is possible,” Starswirl commented. “Even if it’s incredibly fickle. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to go forward from here, and eventually solve my little… problem.”

“Spoken like a true researcher,” Atlas smiled. “Feel free to use my facilities down here, I’m sure Celestia and Luna will give you a room if you ask for it.”

“That would be great, but it looks like we’re back to dank underground caves again, huh? Even if it’s underneath a palace, it’s not much of an upgrade…”

“The equipment I have is leaps and bounds better compared to the old lab,” Atlas remarked proudly. “Only the best of the best!”

“That remains to be seen,” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you show me around? I’d like to see what you’ve been working on.”

“Oh, I believe I’m about to blow your mind, dear friend,” Atlas laughed, getting up in order to start a tour for Starswirl. “And afterwards, I could use a little of your expertise, if you don’t mind. I’ve been working on something involving illusion spells on the side, but I’ve hit the proverbial wall recently, so you showing up couldn’t have been timed any better!”

“If it's about illusions, you’ve got the right pony,” Starswirl smiled confidently while following Atlas out the room. “But blow my mind, huh? What insane things has your brain thought up while I was gone? Should I be worried?”

“Maybe a little bit,” Atlas laughed. “Some of my new toys could blow up a sizable part of the country, if handled wrong.”

“Oh, I do love me some explosions…”

“Okay, so this will just be a proof of concept for now,” Atlas said, getting ready for an experiment he’d planned together with Starswirl over the last couple of days. “So we’re keeping the array simple.”

“Of course, what did you have in mind?” Starswirl asked from the opposite side of the table they were sitting at.

“Just a simple acceleration array,” Atlas replied. “I’ve drawn it on this paper here, so if you’d do the honors.”

Atlas slid over a piece of paper that contained the promised array. Being relative simple in purpose, the array merely contained seven runes. At this point, Atlas wouldn’t even have to think twice to make an array like this, so he’d just hastily scribbled it down. Starswirl studied the array for a moment before nodding.

“Looks easy enough,” Starswirl commented. “Remind me again why you can’t do this on your own?”

“My illusions lack detail at this point,” Atlas sighed. “Since runes need to be drawn rather exactly, I’d probably just cause an explosion if I tried, which would mess with the test result. I do look forward to illusion boot-camp if this works.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Starswirl shrugged. “Then, if you don’t mind, I shall begin.”

After receiving the go-ahead from Atlas, Starswirl’s horn started to glow. A mere few moments later, a perfect copy of Atlas’ drawing appeared between the two. The array was blue and slightly translucent, just like Starswirl's magic and floated between them, no bigger than either of their heads. A quick quality check from Atlas confirmed that the array was indeed, perfect.

“I shall move on to the second part, then,” Atlas nodded, his horn lighting up in a bright purple.

A wave of purple mana washed over Starswirl's illusion, the mana seemingly sticking to the illusion like an adhesive of some sort. Due to this, the illusion gained a purple outline, making the previously 2D illusion, 3D. Atlas then cast a spell he had learned a long time ago, from his friend Amethyst: Construct magic. His mana hardened in mid-air, now a solid construct and a technically perfect rune array.

“Alright, you can cancel your spell now,” Atlas said, prompting Star Swirls Illusion to disappear, leaving behind the construct array. “Try throwing something through the center.”

Starswirl grabbed an apple from their nearby lunch tray with his magic, and lightly chucked it through the array. It passed through without any issue whatsoever and landed on the table with a ‘thunk’.

“Looks like the array still needs to be powered up regularly,” Atlas clicked his tongue. “Would have been nice if it’d worked just like that, considering it’s drawn with pure mana.”

“Want me to do it?” Starswirl asked.

“Nah, in the end I’ll have to do everything on my own, so this will be a nice test.”

Slowly, Atlas started to pump more magic into his spell. He was taken aback by the amount of concentration and control he needed to do this simple task he’d done so often. After all, he almost had to think two things at once, keeping up the construct while simultaneously filling it with mana. Eventually, he managed to complete the charging process, which was signified by the familiar pulse of light from the array.

“Alright, try throwing the apple again…”

Once again, the apple was lifted up by Starswirl and thrown straight through the center of the floating array. This time, as soon as it touched the array, it was like a bullet from a gun and splattered against the wall.

The array dissolved in midair as Atlas completely lost concentration, his head snapping around to look at the stain on the wall. Starswirl was equally surprised by the strong reaction, staring as apple juice slowly dribbled down the stone.

“That… wasn’t supposed to be this strong,” Atlas cautiously said. “That was intended to just give it a little boost. Not… not this…” Atlas waved his hoof towards the wall, followed by stunned silence.

“So… I guess… concept proven?” Starswirl asked.

“I’d say that’s a wee bit more than just proven,” Atlas said slowly. “I think we might have stumbled upon something stupidly powerful…”

“After seeing those mana batteries of yours, I’m not even sure if this counts as powerful anymore.”

“Shush, let me have my moment.”

“No,” a sleazy grin spread across Starswirl's face. “You said something about a boot-camp earlier…”

“You…” Atlas slowly turned around with squinted eyes. “You’re not going to go totally overboard with this, right?”

Starswirl simply opted to say nothing and just continue to grin at Atlas, which was getting continuously more nervous.

“Right?”

Author's Notes:

So yeah, Atlas barely avoided disaster in this one. And he's finally developing the spell that spawned this whole story! Took him long enough, right?

Oh yeah, here's a small announcement: Sadly, Azriel has left my editing force, after sticking with me since chapter 1 of Divine Entertainment, I'm sad to see him go. If you'd like to show him some appreciation for what he did these past two years, be sure to send him a picture of your best one-fingered salute. (read: send him pictures of you flipping him off, trust me, he wants this.) Please donate your middle fingers here.

Once again, thanks to my editor Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

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27. Tree Of Harmony

“You know, I still haven’t forgiven you for giving me that stupid title,” Atlas said, annoyed at yet another noble that had stopped to bow as they passed.

They were strolling through the halls of the palace, making their way towards the kitchen for a late afternoon snack.

“It has been ten years,” Celestia rolled her eyes. “And yet you still bring it up every single time we see each other.”

“And I plan to continue doing it,” Atlas said proudly. “After all, it’s weird that ponies bow to me of all people. I mean, I don’t even do anything around here. I’m more akin to a ghost that lives here than an actual noble of high standing.”

“As I’ve told you every time before, you deserve the title and there’s nothing you can do to get it revoked,” Celestia commented. “It comes with a lot of benefits, does it not?”

“I’ll admit that it does, especially the land that comes with it,” Atlas nodded sagely. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

They passed a pair of guards that stood at attention as soon as they spotted them, which Atlas let slide by telling himself that they were doing it because he was with the princess. Over the past years the palace had never really stopped evolving. While the outer shell might have been completed, the interior was subject to a never ending change of art pieces, carpets, and just about every other possible decoration.

“I still don’t understand why you specifically wanted the mountain range to the east. As far as we know they harbor no precious minerals, nor are they suited for agriculture or development…” Celestia mumbled.

“I need it for… reasons,” Atlas said. “Which I’ve told you at least as many times as you told me that I can’t forfeit my title.”

“Well, I’m used to you being mysterious and all, but that seems even more nonsensical than whatever Starswirl and you usually think up in that cave of yours.”

“We work in mysterious ways,” Atlas chuckled. “Which reminds me, we’re just about ready to set up our newest invention. Have the caves beneath the castle been cleared out?”

“Just like you asked, yes,” Celestia sighed. “And everypony has been informed that they are supposed to stay away from there. Are you finally going to tell us just what it is you’re setting up down there?”

“I will once we’re done,” Atlas said. “Just know that it’s vital to the continued existence of this country of yours.”

“You know I trust you when you say things like this,” Celestia said. “But Luna and I really wished that you’d be more open about whatever you’re doing.”

“I’m not gonna betray you or anything,” Atlas assured her. “Don’t worry.”

“I’m more worried about one of your experiments blowing up the whole castle than you betraying us, to be honest.”

“That might happen.”

“WHAT?” Celestia squawked, grinding to a halt and fixating her best angry glare on Atlas. “I knew that you’re working on very volatile things, but you assured me that you take every possible security measure to ensure our safety!”

“Don’t yell at your father like that, young miss,” Atlas shook his head. “And we really do, but what we’re setting up tomorrow will be a bit… special. There’s really no telling what may happen.”

“You’re not my real father, as your princess I can yell all I want. I’m also putting a lot of trust in you here, you better make sure that everything goes well and the palace is in one piece after tomorrow.” Celestia said with some hidden anger in her voice.

“You wound me, Celestia,” Atlas said, masking his hurt feelings with a flippant display of mock hurt. “I’ll promise you right now that nothing will go wrong tomorrow and the palace will totally not blow up,” Atlas mentally crossed his fingers behind his back. “Even if it blows up, I doubt any of us will still be around to apologize…” Atlas mumbled after.

“Alright then,” Celestia gave in. “Just… Just make sure, alright?”

“Starswirl and I researched this thing for ten years now and went through at least a bazillion iterations before finalizing it,” Atlas huffed. “We’re sure it’ll work…. We think…”

“Well, you’re not inspiring a lot of confidence when you end your sentences like that,” Celestia said as she magicked open the door to their private dining room.

A maid already stood at the ready next to the table, politely bowing once they entered. They placed their orders with her and she disappeared through a side door that lead into the kitchen.

“I swear, it’s creepy how they always know what you want without even asking you. I mean, how did she know we were coming, we haven’t told anypony that we’re coming here, right?” Atlas said while sitting down. “You… You don’t think she just stands here all day, hoping that we’ll walk in, right?”

“Our servants have their eyes and ears anywhere, and information travels fast within the castle,” Celestia explained. “I’m sure someone overheard us and sent someone ahead to wait here.”

“This palace you talk of doesn’t sound like a safe place to keep important documents pertaining the future of Equestria,” Atlas said with a smirk.

“Our servants are most loyal and would never do something like that,” Celestia huffed.

“Yeah, I’ll be sure to have a giant ‘I told you so!’ sign at the ready for when some of them mysteriously disappear…”

“Oh, shush! You know that I keep the important stuff secured with some of the spells you taught me, so if anything happens to them I’ll just blame you,” Celestia retaliated.

Atlas smiled at the casual banter they shared. It really signified to him just how grown up she had become, as something like this would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Compared to Luna, Celestia had always been the more reserved one, but recently she had really grown into her role as a princess. While Luna had other problems to deal with, she was becoming a fine ruler as well.

It was becoming clear that they weren’t relying on him anymore and had become independent. Combined with the fact that he was about to complete his project with Starswirl, which was essentially the last piece to the puzzle called Equestria, it appeared that the time to leave had finally come for Atlas.

“I’ll let you know that my spells don’t fail,” Atlas said, just as the maid returned and set their orders out before them. “If someone manages to nab one of those documents, they were either a really advanced magician or you messed up the spell.”

“Well, let’s hope our potential infiltrators aren’t that talented,” Celestia said, her recently acquired poker face betraying her as she nervously looked around for a second.

“Whatever, just don’t come crying to me,” Atlas chuckled. “Anyway, I’ll probably come and get you two sometime tomorrow evening, be sure to keep a free spot in your schedule and tell Luna as well. What I have to show you is important.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Celestia sighed. “I know I can’t get any answers out of you, even if I tried, so what is one more day of waiting?”

“Good, now with the important stuff out of the way, let’s dig in!” Atlas concluded, just before ravenously digging into his cheese omelette.

“Alright, that’s the last piece… I think…” Atlas said, gently setting down a chunk of crystalized mana on the floor, next to a plethora of similar looking pieces.

They were in a cave beneath the castle of the two sisters. Although calling it a cave might have been a long shot, as it was just a small pocket in the side of a cliff wall. They’d built a staircase right into the side of said cliff that led all the way to the bottom, ending right at the entrance to the cave. It was exactly as Atlas remembered from the show. The ground was littered with the blue mana crystals of all shapes and sizes, the culmination of ten years of research.

“Don’t think,” Starswirl said ruffly, a clipboard hovering in front of him. “Know!”

“Well, your the one with the checklist, so you tell me,” Atlas snarked back.

“We’ve been spending the last ten years perfecting this insane project of yours and you mean to tell me that you don’t know this thing inside and out by now?” Starswirl asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Considering that we failed so many times now and that we’ve gone through at least sixty-nine different iterations with every single one of them consisting of a different amount of parts, yes, I might get a bit confused sometimes,” Atlas replied. “So, do we have everything or not, oh lord of the clipped board?”

“We do,” Starswirl said. “But that’s beside the point. You know just as well as I do that this can still go horribly wrong, so I need you here one-hundred percent.”

“That’s why we meticulously wrote everything down, isn’t it?” Atlas sighed. “Also, why are you acting like you’re in charge? This is my baby!”

“Because if you were to take helm here, you’d probably rush it and make a mistake somewhere.”

“While I can’t deny the possibility,” Atlas said while squinting at Starswirl. “You know that I am serious about this right? “

“I’d be worried if you weren’t,” Starswirl replied, checking the final thing on their checklist. “Just let me organize this. You focus on the assembly.”

“Okay,” Atlas relented. “Did you set up all the defensive wards?”

“Of course,” another check on the list.

“Made sure all of the needed blueprints and checklists are here?”

“Uh huh,” check.

“All the necessary tools are gathered?”

“Naturally,” check.

“Wrote your last will in case we fuck this up?”

“I’m not sure either of us will need one of those anytime soon, even if we make a mistake,” Starswirl deadpanned.

“Then I guess we’re all set up and ready to go,” Atlas said, mentally rolling up his non-existential sleeves- “You ready to assemble this IKEA-looking piece of shit?”

“I have no idea what an IKEA is,” Starswirl said, switching his checklist for another one. “But I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Let’s bust out the magical super glue, then,” Atlas chuckled. “There better not be any screws missing!”

“You okay there, Luna?” Atlas asked as he descended the stairs towards the cave together with Celestia and Luna, the latter looking like she could fall asleep at any given moment. “Wouldn’t want you to fall off.”

“It's just a tad early for me to be up,” Luna yawned in a very un-princess-like fashion. “This had better be good.”

“I still don’t understand why you have to hold court in the middle of the night,” Atlas commented. “Just seems kind of nonsensical to me.”

“I am the guardian of the night after all,” Luna said.

“Yeah, but don’t most ponies sleep during the night? I seriously doubt you’re seeing too much traffic during your hours,” Atlas said, bringing up his favorite topic when talking with Luna.

“I must admit that the turnover isn’t very big. But at least it gives me time to do other work,” Luna said, another yawn escaping her. “I can help my sister out as well by filling out paperwork.”

“Well, maybe you should take to actually guarding your ponies during the night,” Atlas suggested. “You could practice dreamwalking so you can shield the minds of your subjects from nightmares.”

“Is that even possible?” Celestia asked, having been quietly overhearing the twos interaction. “I thought that dreamwalking was extremely difficult and required vast amounts of mana?”

“It does,” Atlas confirmed. “But you forget that you guys are probably the most magical thing on this entire planet. If anyone can pull this off, it’s you two. Or well, maybe just Luna. The spell takes careful casting, unlike the brute force that you tend to use, Celestia.”

“Ha Ha,” Celestia deadpanned.

“Do not grieve sister,” Luna chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll find something you’re good at someday.”

“Anyway,” Atlas said, stopping their bickering before it even began. “We’re here.”

“What do you mean, we’re here?” Celestia asked, looking around. “There’s nothing here, just the cliff wall and a lot of dirt.”

“That’s because the cave is hidden by a ward,” Atlas said rolling his eyes. “One would think that after spending all of your youth in a cave protected by this very ward that you’d be able to recognize the tells when you see it, or at the very least feel the magic in the air.”

“Yes, sister,” Luna smirked, walking straight into the wall and disappearing into it. “You should study more.”

“I don’t like it when she acts like this…” Celestia said with squinted eyes, trying to perceive the barrier in front of her.

“You’ve got other things you’re good at Celestia,” Atlas reassured her. “Your magical knowledge is very impressive as well, it just so happens that this is the one thing Luna is leaps and bounds ahead of you. Just let her have this.”

Atlas walked into the cave as well, Celestia hot on his heels, almost bumping into Luna who was waiting just beyond the border.

“What… What is this?” Luna asked, fascination apparent in her voice.

“That, my dear sister,” Celestia added, staring straight ahead. “Is a very good question.”

“Well, putting it into extremely simple terms,” Starswirl said, coming out from behind the object of interest. “It’s a charging station. Good evening princesses,” he added, bowing his head low.”

Standing at the back of the cave was the finally completed charging station for the mana batteries, also known as the “Tree of Harmony”. It stood at a good sixteen feet tall and was entirely made out of blue mana crystal. A total of eleven jagged branches ran out of the center, making it almost look like a depiction of the sun. Five of the branches contained a socket for one of the mana batteries each, as well as one more where all the branches converged at the trunk. Each of the branches were hung with garlands, consisting of several smaller batteries tied to a string, made out of mana crystal as well.

“Are these our cutie marks?” Celestia asked, pointing out the shapes carved into the trunk towards the bottom.

“That, they are,” Atlas answered with a nod.

“Why?” Luna asked confused.

“Because you could call this tree a present to the both of you, if you will,” Atlas said with a smile. “Surprise!”

“Well, that would be the most impressive gift I’ve ever received,” Celestia said. “And probably ever will. But, pardon me asking, what is it?”

“Something I’m very curious about as well,” Luna added. “Is that whole tree made out of mana crystal?”

“Yes, it is,” Starswirl confirmed causing the sisters jaws to drop simultaneously. “And it’s covered in more runes than you could count.”

“Do we have to worry about this thing blowing up the entire planet?” Luna asked, knowing perfectly well just how powerful even one small mana battery could be.

“No,” Atlas replied. “Well, maybe a little bit,” he smiled sheepishly as both sister heads snapped towards him to stare him down. “I mean, the potential is there. But in order for that to happen you’d have to really want it to do that, and I doubt either of you would want that.”

“We don’t,” Celestia and Luna said at the same time.

“See? No problem to be found here,” Atlas said, nonchalantly carrying on.

“What if somepony else gets their hooves on this?” Celestia said worried. “Somepony evil?”

“Even if they did, which I seriously doubt, considering how protected this place is,” Atlas said. “To make this thing go unstable and volatile would require a vast amount of mana, control and the knowledge to deactivate just around six-hundred safety spells and fail-safes, as well as possessing the magical signature of one of the four of us present here.”

“That seems a bit excessive…” Luna said.

“Can you really go too far when you’re protecting something that could end the life of an entire planet?” Starswirl said, eyebrow cocked to the max.

“I guess not,” Celestia asked.

“There’s also nothing stupid like two meter wide exhaust ports or anything like that,” Atlas said. “We made sure of that.”

Celestia and Luna looked to Starswirl for an explanation, who just shrugged. Long used to their fathers odd references, they did the same, letting it slide without prying.

“Okay, now that we made sure that it’s safe, can we go back to the first question?” Luna asked. “Just what is it?”

“As Starswirl already summed up accurately, it’s a charging station for the mana batteries, which you should already be familiar with,” Atlas began to explain. “We’ve renamed them into the Elements of Harmony, by the way.”

“Elements of Harmony?” Celestia asked confused. “Why?”

“Two reasons mostly,” Starswirl jumped on the question. “The batteries are incredibly powerful artefacts, that are surprisingly easy to make if you know how. I think we all see how dangerous it would be to mass produce them, should somepony get wind of this. Thus we decided to spin a false tale around them making them seem ancient, mysterious, one of a kind, and, most importantly, impossible to recreate.”

“That is surprisingly logical,” Celestia commented. “What is the second reason?”

“Showboating,” Atlas deadpanned. “Everypony loves a good story, and having an all powerful weapon called the ‘Elements of Harmony’ protecting the country will solidify the idea of harmony across the country even more, since harmony is the most powerful magic of all and what-not.”

“So it’s like an elaborate ruse?”

“Pretty much.”

“This is surprisingly well thought out,” Celestia said.

“We worked on this for ten years, Celestia,” Atlas sighed. “It would be embarrassing if it wasn’t.”

“True enough,” Celestia admitted. “So, if this is such an all powerful device, why can’t I feel any magic radiating out from it?”

“We haven’t turned it on yet,” Atlas shrugged. “We thought it would be nice for you to be present for this last step.”

“Do you require any help?” Luna asked, obviously eager to know more about this wonder of magical engineering. “Because I’d be totally down to help you out right now.”

“The last thing left to do is put the batteries, or rather, the ‘Elements’ into their respective sockets,” Atlas explained. “You two can do the honors, if you’d like.”

Atlas levitated a plain wooden box over to the sisters, which had been sitting unnoticed to the side up until now. He opened it up, revealing the six elements sitting on a cushion in all their softly glowing glory.

“I’d love to!” Luna immediately replied, looking to her sister for her opinion.

“You just go ahead, I’m content with just watching,” Celestia answered with a smile, causing Luna to let out a happy squee.

“Alright, each of the elements has a very specific socket it needs to go into, or else the whole thing won’t work,” Atlas explained while approaching the tree together with Luna. “I’ll guide you through it.”

With Atlas’ help, Luna gingerly floated up the first element and inserted it into its socket. It almost looked as if the element was sucked into the socket by a strong magnet, producing a loud clang. The process was repeated for the other elements until only one was left, the element of magic.

“Now, carefully insert it into the socket in the trunk and the whole thing will come to life,” Atlas said, his excitement starting to show as well.

Starswirl was nervously watching the whole procedure, while Celestia couldn’t help but get infected by the atmosphere and become giddy as well. She was about to witness history being written, after all. Granted, it was secret history, but looking forward, probably one of the most important events in Equestria, if Atlas could be believed.

Luna respectfully lifted the purple element from the cushion, letting it gently float upwards until it aligned with the socket. She brought it closer ever so slowly, making sure to aim it exactly, leaving no room for error, until finally, the magical pull took hold and completed the process for her.

Immediately after the final element was inserted a bright flash occurred, causing everypony present to shield their eyes. Celestia let out a surprised yelp, even if she would never admit it after the fact. Just as fast as it came the bright light started to dim, leaving the ponies present to rapidly blink as their eyes struggled to adjust to such quick fluctuations.

Being able to see once again, four sets of eyes eagerly looked at the tree of harmony. The whole tree was alight, with a similar glow as the elements possessed, filling the cavern with a softly rolling blue light. The elements themselves were glowing brighter than ever, mixing in their colors and reflecting off the smaller batteries hanging off the branches to create a mythical light show.

“It’s… beautiful…“ Celestia said slowly.

“Yes…” Atlas replied, gaping at the display before him, almost moved to tears, having finally completed this project.

“I can feel the power flowing through me, even from this far away,” Starswirl remarked on the odd sensation they were all feeling. “It feels like I’m being massaged from the inside out, and my mana pool has been refilled in an instant.”

“Don’t make this weird, Starswirl,” Atlas said. “But I must admit that it kind of feels like that, yeah.”

“Won’t they be able to feel this in the castle?” Luna asked astounded.

“There are wards in place, preventing any mana from leaking out of the cave,” Starswirl replied. “Casted by yours truly, and now maintained by the tree itself, just as every other spell that has been woven to protect it.”

“You said earlier that this was a present to us,” Celestia remarked. “But just what are we supposed to do with this?”

“I do find myself wondering the same,” Luna asked. “This seems like a lot of power to just have sitting around in our backyard for no reason at all.”

“I guess it’s time for some answers,” Atlas sighed. “Come on, gather around. Starswirl, you might want to hear this too.”

“Oho, so you’re still keeping secrets that I don’t know of?” Starswirl chuckled, coming over to sit next to the sisters, which had already sat down in front of the three and Atlas.

“More than you can possibly imagine,” Atlas winced. “And more than I’d like to, honestly.”

“I’m sure you have your reasons,” Starswirl said. “So far it seems to have worked out well for all of us, so I say go ahead and continue.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Atlas smiled. “But let’s continue. What I’m about to tell you is incredibly important, so listen carefully, alright?”

Celestia and Luna's face went serious, they installed their royal poker face, as they always did when discussing important matters, while Starswirl just looked around in amusement.

“I have a lot of knowledge pertaining to Equestria's future, as you already know,” Atlas began explaining. “And I’ve been using that knowledge to steer everything towards that future at all costs. I’ve sacrificed a lot to get to this point,” he shot Starswirl a look, who returned a knowing nod, ”and I’ll sacrifice many more things before we arrive at this future.”

“Is there no other way?” Luna asked, hating to see her fathers pained face. “Is there nothing we can do?”

“There might be,” Atlas sighed. “But I’d rather take the path that I know will work one-hundred percent, instead of risking it all on a gamble, even if I have to sacrifice everything. There’s too much at stake, and I, or we, only get one shot at this.”

“Just what is it that is at stake?” Celestia asked, worried, yet still curious at the same time.

“I think you’re better off not knowing,” Atlas smiled apologetically. “It’ll let you sleep better at night.”

“Alright then,” Celestia sighed. “Although I’d really rather just know, instead of being left in the dark like this.”

“You could call this one giant, elaborate game of chess, and I’m but one of the pieces,” Atlas said cryptically. “And I’m playing my own game on the side, where you not knowing too much is one of my pieces. I might not be able to win if it is missing.”

“I shudder at the prospect of a game where somepony like you is a mere piece on the board,” Celestia commented. “Considering how much influence you’ve had up until now.”

“Know that I’m shuddering just as much when I think about it,” Atlas said. “There’s powers out there you wouldn’t be able to comprehend.”

Atlas made a dramatic pause to let the fact sink in, each of the present ponies reacting differently to the revelation. Starswirl seemed the most composed, oddly enough, considering Luna and Celestia were wearing stone masks right now, albeit with a few cracks already forming.

“Which brings me to the reason we made this thing,” Atlas gestured behind him, at the tree of harmony. “In the future, there will be those that will oppose Equestria as a country, or even you personally. Incredibly powerful beings will assault Equestria and everything it stands for, with only you two standing between them and their goals. You will need to train your combat abilities, for they will not allow you to talk your way out.

“You will need power to fight them with, which you already have with your alicorn magic and strength, as well as your connection to the sun and moon respectively. But there will be those that are even more powerful still. Just like…” Atlas paused for a moment. “Discord, for example. And that’s where the elements of harmony come in.

“You have already used them once, and you will have to use them again at some point. They will support you with the necessary power to vanquish those that would destroy Equestria, if given the chance, and they will at the same time become a beacon of hope for your citizens.

“Although I must ask you to only use them as a last resort. Only use them when everything else didn’t work and they are your only way out. There’s something I have to do, which will require a vast amount of magic, more than you could ever imagine, and this will be an invaluable source. Use it if you have to, but I’d be grateful for every ounce of mana that will be stored inside the tree, once I’ll have the need for it.”

“That… is a lot to take in…” Celestia said. “But if what you speak is true, then having the elements will be a incredibly useful boon to have…”

“That, it is,” Luna commented. “But tell me, father, why do you tell us all of this as if you aren’t a part of what is about to unfold?”

“Because I won’t be,” Atlas revealed. “Which brings me to my last announcement. In exactly one week's time I will leave Equestria.”

“WHAT?!” Three voices asked simultaneously, shock apparent on all of their faces.

“But why would you have to just up and leave like this?” Luna asked desperately. “Didn’t you promise to be with us forever and help us out in any way you could?”

“I did,” Atlas nodded. “And I will. Eternity is a long time, my dear daughter, it just so happens that I have a colossal task in front of me, which I’ll have to complete on my own. It’ll just be a tad more than a thousand years or so until we’ll be reunited, and if everything goes well, I won’t have to leave ever again.”

“A little more than a thousand years?” Celestia asked worriedly. “That’s not exactly a short amount of time. Just what is it you have to do, that would take this much time?”

“Yeah, what she said!” Luna called out. “A thousand years is a long time, even if you are immortal! Can’t you at the very least visit?”

“I’m afraid not, as my task will require my utmost devotion to ensure it succeeds,” Atlas replied with a sad smile.

“Could I accompany you in that case?” Starswirl asked. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I could iron out some of your quirks and help you out a great deal.”

“I fail to see how you’d be able to help him for a thousand years,” Celestia said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh right, I think I forgot to mention this,” Atlas chuckled. “But Starswirl is kind of immortal as well, although in a completely different kind of way than you two or myself.”

“Hi, I’m Starswirl and I have been robbed of my time, rendering me unable to age,” Starswirl waved at the sisters. “Pleased to meet you.”

“This is all getting a bit too much for me…” Celestia said, having trouble to keep up with all the crazy revelations that just happened. “I’ll just roll with it, I guess.”

“To answer your question, Starswirl, no. You can’t come with me,” Atlas answered.

“Any particular reason?”

“You’re kind of one of my pieces as well,” Atlas smiled sheepishly. “I need you to be around here, and if it isn’t too much to ask for, take care of Celestia and Luna for me while I’m gone.”

“Oho, that’s news to me,” Starswirl said. “You’re not about to tell me that my little ‘issue’ was part of your plan as well, are you?”

“You know just as much as I do that that was an accident,” Atlas said. “I might be manipulating things in my favor, but not even I can predict everything. It was just a happy little accident, I guess,” he added with a shrug.

“I’ll believe you, I guess,” Starswirl replied with a shrug in kind. “But yeah, if you need me here, then I’ll guess I’ll stay and help out.”

“Thanks Starswirl,” Atlas said relieved. “And now, with Starswirl agreeing to stay here and the tree of harmony finished, I’ve set all of my pieces unto the board.”

“Won’t you be unable to play your little game if you’re not around?” Luna pouted.

“Oh, I won’t be the one that’s playing this game,” Atlas said. “I just took care of the set-up.”

“Really now?” Luna asked. “Then who will be playing it then?”

“You two,” Atlas pointed at the two sisters. “You can consider yourself to be the king on my board. If you two are lost, we all lose. Just know that if one of you should go missing, that won’t count as a defeat, as long as you return in time for the finale.”

He shot a meaningful look towards the sisters, which looked at each other in confusion.

“I take it one of us will actually not be around for a while?” Celestia asked confused.

“Possibly,” Atlas answered cryptically. “I just want you to not give up hope, should this come to pass. Oh, and one more thing,” Atlas said suddenly. “You should consider giving your old foes a second chance at some point. Who knows, maybe they will see the light and actually help you.”

“You said you had already placed all of your pieces,” Celestia commented. “But why do I feel like this is some oddly specific advice we’re getting right now?”

“Who knows?” Atlas chuckled. “But hey, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m famished. We’ve been working on this tree here almost all day with nary a break. What would you say we continue this discussion over a nice, hot meal fresh out of the best kitchen in all of Equestria?”

“I could use a break to try and make sense of everything we’ve just learned,” Celestia replied, getting up from the ground.

“Just know that I’ll try and talk you out of leaving,” Luna said, giving Atlas the stink eye.

“Now that you mention it, I am pretty hungry,” Starswirl said, getting ready to leave the cave.

“Alright then, let’s go,” Atlas nodded. “Man, in times like these, I really miss pizza. I might have to try and teach the chefs how to make it before I leave…”

Atlas left through the illusionary wall, leaving behind three ponies that were considering their lives in general at this very moment. They stood there for a few moments, after Atlas went out of sight, taking some time to get back to a normal mindset.

“Anypony know what pizza is?”

“No.”

“Not even in the slightest.

Author's Notes:

He did the thing. Also, surprise big ass timeskip.

I already said it on my Alicorn of music story but I found a replacement for Azriel, so, thanks to my editor ScootalooFTW, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Epilogue

Atlas set down his recently filled-to-the-brim saddlebags on his bed. The time for him to leave had finally come and now all of his preparations were complete. Due to the fact that he hadn’t figured out how to store things in hammerspace, he had to do with only one saddlebag of equipment he could take with him, so he had carefully selected the tools he would most likely need. At least he was able to make them bigger on the inside, thanks to a spell he had learned from Doc Brown way back when, but the space was still extremely limited.

He opened the hidden door that lead into his secret lab with a sigh, intent on taking one last tour before he left. Although he had spent relatively little time in this place compared to the cave system close to Vanhoofer, it had still grown on him. He went through each room, remembering the various magical experiments that had taken place in them and the new spells that were created after many failures together with Starswirl.

Incidentally, Atlas’ room and lab would become the property of Starswirl, as to not leave the expensive equipment to collect dust. It would be a fitting workspace for the newly appointed court magician, a title the sisters had been persistently attempting to push onto Atlas since their crowning. Much to their dismay, however, this title actually required the consent of the appointed individual. So, while they could force as many titles of nobility onto him as they desired, they could never appoint him to the post without his agreement.

The last room on his little nostalgia trip was what he always considered his office. Aside from the giant hardwood desk which had been the centerpiece of the room ever since it was built, every single available space had been filled with drawers over the years. Despite the large amount of space these drawers took up, however, none of the space went to waste, the innumerable papers on magic theory filling each and every one to the brim. A good eighty percent of their contents was never made public as most of the spells were either too dangerous or simply too complicated to commercialize, essentially making them military secrets that were now in Celestia and Luna's possession with Starswirl as a proxy.

Using his magic, Atlas pulled open one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out a trio of sealed envelopes, each of them containing a letter. He took a quick glance at them and left one of them that was addressed to Starswirl on the desk, making sure it was clearly visible where its intended recipient would find it.

Nodding to himself Atlas turned around, taking the remaining letters with him with the intent to deliver them to their recipients personally. He returned to his room and strapped on his saddlebags, the letters floating along with him as he left. Stopping in the doorway, he looked back one last time before closing the door on another chapter of his life.

As he made his way through the basement of the castle he was greeted by the occasional guard or servant which he, for once, actually replied to without grumbling. Even the bowing was accepted by him, instead of making his distaste of it apparent.

He was making his way through the halls of the castle a lot slower than usual, taking some time to admire the art hung along the walls which was illuminated nicely by the late afternoon sun. His destination was the main gates, intent on just leaving without too much of a procession. However, even if he didn’t tell anypony when he’d leave exactly, he just knew that there was no way that he wouldn’t run into some concerned friends.

Turning the last corner he walked into a large reception hall with large open double doors at the end, his suspicion turning into truth as he spotted a trio of ponies standing in front of them.

“I thought you’d be waiting for me,” Atlas smirked as he trotted up to them.

“How could we not?” Celestia asked, a serene smile on her face.

“You didn’t make it easy to figure out the time you’d leave, but I managed to figure it out,” Starswirl said casually.

“I can’t believe that you’d just leave like that!” Luna said annoyed. “After all my pleas for you to stay, you’d even go so far as to just leave without saying goodbye?”

“I didn’t want to make a scene,” Atlas said. “I was also afraid that you’d try some unsavory things to keep me here…”

“I would do no such thing!” Luna sputtered. “I don’t want you to leave, but that would be going too far, don’t you think?”

“Seeing how you almost clung to me every free second you had this past week, I wouldn’t have put it beyond you,” Atlas retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I still don’t want you to leave… none of us do, actually,” Luna said, shrinking into herself.

“I would much prefer for you to stay here with us, yes,” Celestia said. “But I do understand that you have your reasons for doing this.”

“I don’t really care either way,” Starswirl chuckled. “I just wanna come with you, whatever it is you’re doing. I’m sure it’s some batshit crazy stuff, which means you’ll be having fun without me.”

“You’re the court magician now, you have to stay,” Atlas smiled. “But yes, what I’m gonna do will be like nothing else you’ve ever seen before…”

“So there really is nothing we can do to make you stay?” Luna asked.

“Unless you can magically solve the issue I’m trying to fix, then no,” Atlas said. “And I seriously doubt you’d be able to, even if you tried.”

“So then this is really it?” Luna said. “You’re just gonna leave like that?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Atlas shrugged. “I’m not much for big goodbyes and stuff. Besides, we’ll see each other again. I’ll just be gone for a bit…”

“I’d hardly call a thousand years ‘a bit’,” Celestia said.

“I’m sure you’ll manage without me from here on out,” Atlas said. “Actually, I’m kind of betting on it.”

“I’m sure we’ll all try our best, after all there’s a lot at stake,” Celestia replied. “At least that’s what you keep telling us, without telling us what that is, exactly. And no, ‘everything’ isn’t exactly a valid answer.”

“As I’ve said before,” Atlas looked at his friends in turn. “If all goes well, you’ll never have to find out.”

“Then make sure that we don’t,” Starswirl nodded. “Make sure to triple and quadruple check your formulas and theories, and only apply them when you’re definitely sure they work.”

“Yeah, I know,” Atlas rolled his eyes. “I’ll make sure. Promise.”

“I’ll also not be against receiving mysterious letters containing schematics for new spells, you know?” Starswirl said with a cheeky grin.

“I’ll see what I can do, but don’t expect anything. I was planning on not writing at all, to be honest,” Atlas replied. “Also, something has been bugging me.”

The sisters and Starswirl perked up at Atlas’ statement. “This is the main entrance to the palace, why is there nopony here?” he asked eventually. “There are usually ponies and guards everywhere.”

“We had it cleared out,” Celestia admitted. “We thought you’d come through here because it would be more difficult for us to stop you with so many ponies around.”

Atlas blinked a few times, realizing he had been outplayed. “Ha, would you look at that! I think that’s the first time you got one over me, Celestia.”

“I’ve learned from the best,” Celestia said, giving a small flourish.

“With that, I think I have all the proof that I need to know that you’ll be fine,” Atlas nodded. “But I really do think now is the time for me to go. I have to travel far and I plan to get somewhere before night falls completely.”

Atlas went in for a hug with his two adopted daughters, which they happily returned. Luna was reluctant to break off, but eventually she followed her sisters example and stepped away to make room for Atlas to pass. A hoof shake with Starswirl was next, the two sharing a look that said more than any speech ever could. With his business finished Atlas turned towards the wide open doors in front of him, looking towards a particular mountain range that could be seen in the distance.

“Oh, that’s right,” Atlas suddenly remembered something. “I still have to give you these!”

Atlas’ saddlebags magically opened and the two letters floated out from them. Each of the sisters received one, both taking them up in their magic and eyeing them curiously.

“You could consider these my farewell letters to you,” Atlas explained. “A last gift from me to you. They contain very specific very important information about a few… things. You have to understand that these are for your eyes only, so under no circumstances are you to share the contents with each other.”

“I… I promise,” Luna replied, looking at the letter with trepidation.

“So, is this the last move you’re going to play?” Celestia asked, curiously turning her letter around in her grip.

“Let’s just say I’m manipulating the board in my favor with those,” Atlas said cryptically. “You’ll understand once you’ve read them. And remember, no sharing,” he reminded them once more, shooting a pointed look at Starswirl who immediately seemed to get what Atlas meant.

“Alright then, I shall take my leave now,” Atlas said. “As I said before I’m not big on goodbyes, so I’ll just say: ‘See you later’.”

With those scarce words, Atlas turned around and started walking, leaving behind what he considered his family. They looked after his disappearing figure until he couldn’t be seen anymore, savoring the last few moments they’d have to see him before eventually returning to their duties.

Atlas, however, was already thinking about what he would have to do going forward. He had been planning his next steps carefully over the past decade, but he was still headed into the unknown. He had done what he could to ensure that everything in Equestria went as it should, so the only thing left to do was to liberate it from the iron grip Zeus had on it and give hs all to make sure it didn’t disappear. He’d have to succeed, no matter what the cost.

He would save Equestria, even if doing so required his own destruction.

Author's Notes:

And that's it. Divine Indifference comes to a close, and make way for its next installment: Divine Intervention! Just like last time we switched stories, the sequel is already up and running to make the transition as smooth as possible for everybody. I shall now go prepare for the inevitable explosion of my inbox. Hope to see you there, for the third and final story of the Divine Universe!

Once again, thanks to my editors ScootalooFTW[/urScootalooFTWl] and Alcatraz, as well as my proofreaders Kilobytes and Soren Mercer.

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song.

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Once more, for the people who may not read the AN, in big letters so they won't miss it:
Divine Intervention