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.

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