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Divine Intervention

by Orthoros

Chapter 2: 1. Reunion

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The jaws of all ponies in the room were currently resting comfortably on the floor, except for the ones belonging to the three responsible for the general shock. While Atlas was too busy being smothered by Luna, Celestia was enjoying every second of it. Her guards were usually akin to statues, so seeing them this flustered was a welcome change of pace. Of course, seeing her former student and her friends in a shell-shocked state was quite a sight as well.

“Excuse me, Princess,” Twilight seemed to be the first to recover, her thirst for knowledge driving her forward. “Did you two just call this stallion your father?” she asked incredulously.

“Indeed, Twilight,” Celestia replied in her usual calm demeanor. “The one currently being cuddled to death over there is our father, even if he did adopt us.”

“I didn’t know you were adopted,” Twilight said, a twinge of sadness in her voice. “I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about, young Twilight. Our biological parents were sadly taken from us at a young age, and we were kindly taken in by Atlas, who was an old friend of our mother,” Celestia explained, casually dropping the bomb of their origin, which ponies had been wondering about for centuries.

“But.. but that means…” Twilight stammered. “Just how old is he?” She asked, turning around to look at the mess that was Atlas and Luna.

“I can hear you, you know,” Atlas said from underneath Luna, actually using his magic to lift the blue alicorn away and to the side of him, where she instantly sidled up to him. “I’m also quite a bit older than these two, even if it’s just by about fifty or sixty years.”

“But you’re just a regular unicorn,” Twilight said flabbergasted. “How could you possibly live for so long?”

“You’ll find out that I’m anything but a regular unicorn,” Atlas cooly replied. “Also, isn’t it common courtesy to introduce yourself before bombarding an old stallion with questions?” He added on, casually ignoring the fact that he hadn’t introduced himself either.

“Oh, yes, so sorry about that,” Twilight instantly went into a small panic attack upon hearing Atlas’ words. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy,” she pointed towards her friends as she introduced them each of them giving a small wave once it was their turn, except Pinkie, who immediately zoomed up to an unfazed Atlas.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie,” she said, their snouts being mere inches from touching each other. “Pleased to meet you!”

Pinkie held out her hoof in greeting, which Atlas took, just before immediately regretting his decision, as his whole body was rocked about at the energetic pony’s hoofshake.

“Miss Pie, please give our father a bit of space, he just arrived after all,” Celestia requested kindly, not wanting Atlas to have an unpleasant meeting with the bearers.

“Can do!” Pinkie replied, before returning to her former spot, doing it so fast that it almost resembled teleportation.

Atlas blinked a few times, trying to reorient himself now that his whole world wasn’t shaking anymore. “While I am pleased to meet all of you,” Atlas said lamely, “Celestia, I believe I only asked for the purple alicorn to be present, namely, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well,” Celestia's poker face dropped slightly and a drop of sweat was running down her brow. “Twilight and her friends are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, after all, so I thought you’d might want to meet them as well.”

“So, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, was it,” Atlas said, looking towards Twilight and her friends. “Care to run that by me again, Celestia?”

“Why, yes,” everypony besides Luna was wondering why Celestia got so nervous all of a sudden. “Twilight and her friends overcame many obstacles together and ultimately proving themselves worthy bearers of the relics, and they have valiantly defended Equestria and its citizens multiple times since then. By utilizing the Elements powers, they’ve defeated our mightiest adversaries time and time again.”

Twilight looked proud at how high Princess Celestia was talking about them and stood a little taller, a similar effect being displayed by her friends, excluding Fluttershy.

“So, in summary, what you are trying to tell me,” Atlas began calmly. “Is that you’ve pretty much done everything I told you not to do?”

Eyebrows were furrowed all around, with every onlooker glancing between the stoic Atlas and the unusually nervous Celestia, which was by now sweating bullets. Celestia seemed to frantically think of a way to talk herself out of the situation she found herself in before eventually giving up and letting out a huge sigh.

“Yes, father…” Celestia admitted, her head hanging low in apology.

This time it was Atlas’ turn to let out a sigh. “Some princess you are, can’t even follow simple orders to protect your citizens without relying on outside forces too much…”

“But, father,” Celestia interjected. “Luna was gone for so long and she has always been more versed in combat than I was! With her gone I needed somepony else to help me in this regard… there was nothing else I could have done without letting Equestria fall!”

Twilight looked at her mentor as if she had grown a second head. She had seen her standing tall in the face of intimidating ambassadors and even mighty villains, yet before her father she seemed to crumble almost instantly and was reduced to little more than a scolded filly. Just who was this stallion?

“Ridiculous,” Atlas replied sharply. “You banish your own sister, which I don’t blame you for, to the moon for a thousand years. And in the whole millenium that followed you didn’t even think for once that you had all the time in the world to train yourself into a magnificent warrior? To me, you sound just like you were running away from your responsibilities, young filly. And now that you’ve been caught you try to shift the blame on somepony else? Just what has become of you, Celestia?”

Celestia opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out of it. She wanted to deny her father's words, but she knew he was right. After banishing Luna she had stagnated for almost a millenium, only remembering her father's words recently and starting to take action once again. Too late as it would appear. She had completely and utterly failed at the one task that her father had left behind for her.

“I have no excuse,” Celestia replied sadly, the tension leaving her body until she seemed to be slumping in her throne, feeling like she didn’t deserve to sit upon it at this moment.

Twilight and her friends watched the exchange happen with increasingly incredulous expressions. They were smart enough to know not to intervene or speak up in any way, lest they become a target of Atlas’ parental fury as well. That wasn’t even considering the fact that this was an unprecedented situation, where confusion was the only logical reaction to everypony present.

“What’s done is done,” Atlas sighed again. “We’ll just have to make do, just know that you’ve made my task infinitely harder with your foolishness.” Celestia seemed to shrink down in her throne, trying to make herself seem as little as possible. “Luna, please tell me that at least you did as I told you to?”

“Of course!” Luna exclaimed happily. “I’ve completed everything you wrote down in your letter just as you wanted it. It was pretty hard because the nightmare tried to resist my will, but I got it done!”

“At least one of you to can follow simple orders,” Atlas smiled. “Good job, Luna.”

Luna received a headpat, much to her enjoyment, causing her to really lean into it. Meanwhile, Twilight’s world seemed to be breaking apart. With one ruler reduced to a sad, scolded filly and the other acting like a lapcat in front of their father, everything she thought she knew about these two seemed to shatter and suddenly she saw them as regular ponies, instead of the all-powerful alicorn rulers they were.

“Which brings us to you, Twilight Sparkle,” Atlas suddenly called her out, causing Twilight to flinch back a bit. “Seeing as you are an alicorn, I assume you are the leader of this rag-tag bunch of friends?”

“Uh… I guess?” Twilight stammered out, slightly offended at how Atlas called them. “I am the bearer of the Element of Magic.”

“Good,” Atlas nodded. “You must know that the Elements are extremely vital for me to properly execute my task of protecting this whole world, I will have to inspect them as soon as possible to check their condition. I hope you brought them with you?”

“Uhhhh…” Now it was Twilights turn to start sweating bullets. “After we returned the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, a box was revealed before us with six key holes. We eventually managed to open the box, which caused us to absorb the Elements. The tree also changed location and has grown into what is currently my castle… So I’m afraid the Elements don’t exist anymore… at least not in the traditional sense.”

Atlas blinked owlishly at Twilight, trying to process what he was just told. He simply continued staring at her, causing Twilight to get even more nervous, but being comforted by her friends presence who seemed to move a bit closer to her, intent on backing her up.

“That’s… but… I mean…” Atlas stuttered for a bit. “That sounds stupid.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked, her mood switching from nervous to outraged. “How could you just call all the hardships my friends and I went through-”

“Hold it!” Atlas suddenly interrupted Twilight. “I think I just remembered something, give me a second.”

Twilights rant suddenly being so rudely interrupted caused her brain to grind to a halt once more, as seemed to become a habit at this point. Meanwhile Atlas horn flashed purple for a second and a small, worn, blue book appeared out of thin air, immediately being caught by Atlas’ levitation. He frantically flipped through the pages, apparently searching for something in particular before considerably slowing down and reading several pages of the book. Nopony really dared to disturb him through this weird display which rivaled even Twilight at her worst, but eventually the book slapped shut after a few minutes.

“Well, that certainly puts things into perspective,” Atlas said dumbfounded while the book disappeared once more. “I can’t believe I forgot all of this, I guess being focused on something else for more than a millenium takes a toll on some memories…”

“Is everything alright, dearest father?” Celestia asked, worried that even more scolding was just around the corner.

“No… I mean yes…” Atlas replied. “Actually, I’m not sure,” Celestia and Luna recoiled a bit, seeing their father insecure about something being an incredibly rare sight for them. “It would seem that I’ve forgotten some things that I’ve put into motion myself… like… a lot of things.”

“What do you mean, father?” Luna asked from his side.

“Well, as you know I’ve kind of been doing my own thing since the last time we saw each other,” Atlas explained. “I’ve pretty much been working almost non-stop for the past one-thousand-four-hundred years on a spell, so it would seem that I… forgot a few details.”

“One-thousand-four-hundred years on one spell?” Twilight mouthed, a glint of hunger appearing in her eyes while imagining the scale such a spell must have.

“Celestia!” Atlas suddenly called out.

“Yes?” Celestia replied, flinching back a bit.

“Seeing as how I’ve put some things into motion myself, for which I just scolded you, I see it prudent to apologize,” Atlas said with a little bow of his head. “I told you to not use the Elements unless you absolutely had to, and I’m still disappointed that you haven’t held up your training. But I’ll admit that the Elements being in the state they currently are in is also somewhat my fault.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Atlas, Sir,” Rarity suddenly spoke up. “You’ve been mentioning the Elements of Harmony a lot, as if you were intricately familiar with them. Would you happen to know things about them which we do not? They have been terribly vague in their use and how they displayed their powers, so knowing something more about their use would benefit us greatly, I believe.”

“Well, yeah,” Atlas chuckled. “I made them, after all.”

“YOU MADE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY?!?” Twilight immediately shouted out while every other jaw in the room dropped once more. “You have to tell me everything!”

Finally having reached the end of her her patience, Twilights curiosity exploded in full force, the alicorn instantly teleporting in front of Atlas with a mad look in her eyes and a few strands of hair popping out of place. Atlas simply rolled his eyes, forcefully levitating the agitated alicorn back to her place, effortlessly overpowering the alicorns attempts to free herself, much to her confusion.

For the first time since meeting Atlas, Twilight was able to feel just how much stronger the stallion before her was than her. All her life she had been heralded as a prodigy, a magic caster like no other with a vast array of mana and spells at her beck and call, going even so far as becoming the Element of Magic. Yet, the stallion before her dwarved her abilities so much that compared to him she wasn’t even an ant.

Twilight froze as soon as she realized that she wouldn’t be able to escape his grip no matter what, her curiosity being replaced with fear. There was no doubt in her mind that this stallion could take over Equestria in the blink of an eye without even breaking a sweat. She grew docile, vowing to do her best not to get on Atlas’ bad side, whatever it took.

“Are you alright, darling?” Rarity asked, noticing Twilights discomfort.

“Yes, just…” Twilight stammered. “Just don’t get on his bad side… no matter what…” she whispered to her friends.

Her statement was met with confusion by her friends, which looked at the completely non-threatening looking stallion sitting before them. To them he looked just like a regular scientist who didn’t care to much to take care of his mane and coat.

“Sure…” Rarity replied slowly. “If you say so…”

“I must say, the chaos being emitted from this room is simply delightful,” a mirthful voice suddenly said from everywhere at once, causing everypony to swivel their heads and trying to locate its source. “Wholly unprecedented! Delightfully unexpected! Just what is it you’re doing in here?”

Discord floated in on his back, coming through a wall to their left, seemingly building himself from the marble it was made of. All sets of eyes fixated on him, all of them bearing different feelings. Most of them annoyed, Luna’s and Celestia’s worried, and in Twilight’s case, almost panicking. If there was something that could blow up the literal bomb in front of her, it was Discord.

“So? What’s the occasion?” Discord turned around in mid-air, properly taking in the room for the first time with a shit-eating grin, which immediately dropped when he spotted Atlas sitting next to Luna.

Celestia was looking between the two, afraid a fight was just about to break out. The two of them were staring each other down, apparently surprised to see the other. She was thinking of ways to mediate things between them, when they seemed to take thing into their own hooves.

“Discord,” Atlas said tensely, his eyes narrowing just a tad.

“Atlas…” Discord replied slowly.

Author's Notes:

Atlas when he heard the Elements were gone:

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

Today's chapter was brought to you by this song. I'm pretty sure I posted this before on a chapter, but it came up in the Discord and it's just a great song that everybody should listen to. Also, you can't kill suction-cup man!

Come join us in the Discord channel! Lonk

Or the official Divine Entertainment group! Divine Universe

Next Chapter: 2. Curtains (April Fools ending) Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 14 Minutes
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