//------------------------------// // 28. Job Hunt - Atlas // Story: Divine Entertainment // by Orthoros //------------------------------// Atlas sighed as he watched his friends leave towards their own destinations. Just as they discussed, they’d split up almost as soon as they entered the city proper. While Atlas agreed that they all needed jobs to support each other, he still had his doubts about the way he’d get his magic education. Even though learning magic was a dream come true for him, joining the military wasn’t exactly the way he had seen himself going about it. For now, he tried convincing himself that however many years he’d have to serve would be nothing in the face of immortality. He sighed once again as he started looking for a guard. Trotting in a random direction, he looked back toward the big statue of a unicorn decorating the small park he was in. Apparently it was a statue of King Gold Bar, the park must have been dedicated in his honor. Incidentally it was the spot Atlas and his friends agreed to meet up again. As Atlas passed by unicorns of all colors, enjoying the bit of nature inside the big city, he scanned for the telltale purple armor of the guards. Some of the ponies he passed gave him disgusted looks, others just plainly ignored him. Silver Wood’s words seemed to hold true, and he was already being shunned for his lack of a cutie mark. Undeterred he continued on his way, already being used to the treatment after High Rock. When he reached the edge of the park, there was a duo of guards guarding the entrance. Relieved Atlas approached and got their attention by calling out to them. “Excuse me, someone told me that I’d be able to get a magic education if I enlist.” Atlas explained. “Could you tell me where I have to go for that?” “Any recruitment center will do.” One of the guards answered. “The closest one would be on the main road. Just follow this street here until you reach the main road, then turn right. Center has this big sign out front, can’t miss it.” “Thanks.” Atlas said while he turned around to do as he was instructed. “Glad to serve.” The guard said dutifully. Atlas lazily trotted down the street. It was shortly after noon, and he doubted signing up for the military would take more than an hour. As such he had time to spare before the agreed on meeting time, and decided to take a closer look at the city. The buildings he passed on his way were relatively simple. The architectural style kind of reminded him of Earth. Simple and effective. Every once in awhile there was a house that had added decorations, or stood out from the others in different kinds of ways. Either this was because the tenants wanted to add a bit of personality to their home, or maybe it was a representation of their status within society. It didn’t take Atlas long to reach the main road, where he was immediately assaulted by loud noises and a swarm of unicorns. Compared to the little side street he was on just now, the main road was almost filled to the brim with ponies going to and fro. It kind of reminded Atlas about certain conventions he used to attend every year. If the food in this world was way overpriced, the experience would be complete. He joined the throng of ponies keeping to the right as he let himself be swept along by the masses. The road was lined by shops and restaurants on both sides, with ponies occasionally breaking off to visit them. Atlas took a look into as many store windows as he could, and was surprised to see that there were almost no stores related to magic. One could assume that in a giant city chock full of unicorns, there would be magic shops galore; but the opposite seemed to be the case. Thinking about a reason why this could be, Atlas came to a theoretical conclusion. They simply didn’t have a need to. Overly complicated magic probably wasn’t even invented yet, and according to the backstory he received; every unicorn received a free magic education. As he was ruminating on magic, a rather large building came into view. Being four stories tall, it clearly stood out from the rest. A big shield was hung outside, displaying two crossed swords over a shield. Atlas assumed this was the recruitment center and steered towards it. What was it with ponies and putting visual signs in front of their buildings instead of labeling them with words? Atlas entered the building and was greeted yet again with bustling activity inside. Unicorns came and went from the various doors and staircases leading from the lobby to who knows where. Ponies were sitting on chairs, apparently waiting for one thing or another. He walked past them and went straight for the reception, approaching a blue unicorn mare that was busy sorting various documents with her magic. “Excuse me, I’m here to sign up for the military, and the free magic schooling that comes with it.” Atlas said, gaining the mare’s attention. The mare looked up from her work and inspected Atlas. “Did you just recently move to the Kingdom?” She asked in an uninterested tone of voice. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I just arrived today.” Atlas responded truthfully. “Alright, we’ll have to do a few tests and get some more info from you. Please wait over there, somepony will be with you shortly.” The mare instructed. “Thanks.” Atlas turned around and searched for an empty spot amongst the other waiting ponies. He spotted one not too far away, and sat down. -------------------------------------- Atlas was bored out of his mind, when finally someone came for him after two hours of waiting. “Are you the one who’s here to enlist?” A brown unicorn asked Atlas. The voice ripped Atlas from his boredom, and he cast his gaze upwards to meet the eyes of the speaker. “Yeah, that’s me.” Atlas said excited, glad to finally do something. “Follow me please.” The mystery unicorn said. Atlas got up and did as he was told. His guide led him up a staircase, past several doors and up to the third floor by ways of yet another staircase. They stopped at a door that was seemingly no different from all the others. “Please go inside here, there’s already someone waiting for you.” The unicorn gestured towards the door, before hurriedly leaving. Judging by how fast his guide left, Atlas assumed the military to be a rather busy bunch. Shaking his head slightly he turned the knob on the door and stepped inside. He was greeted by a green unicorn mare, sitting behind a desk. Her mane was almost white, with a slight tint of green still recognizable. “Oh hi, are you here to enlist?” She asked. “Uh, yes. My name is Atlas.” He looked around the small office. Apart from two drawers behind the desk, there was hardly anything in the room. To his right was a table, upon which various doodads and mcguffins were spread out, their purpose eluding Atlas. “Great, please have a seat.” The mare said, while gesturing towards the chair opposite of her. “My name’s Emerald Chaos and I’ll take your info today.” She explained further, patiently waiting for Atlas to sit down. Once Atlas was comfortably seated she began her spiel. “We’ll just have to gather some information from you, and run a few small tests if that’s okay.” Atlas nodded towards her. “I also heard you’re interested in receiving magical education. May I ask why that is?” “Oh, I actually can’t use any magic at all.” Atlas said truthfully. “I came to the Kingdom because I wanted to learn, and a member of the Teras military division told me that the easiest way would be to enlist.” Atlas could see the faintest hint of a frown once he mentioned not being able to cast anything. But just as fast as it came, it disappeared. “Well whoever told you was certainly right.” She confirmed. “Although I do have to ask about your circumstances, how is it that you don’t have any experience at all?” “Well, I was born in the territory of the earth ponies. My parents were both unicorns, but they died in an accident before I grew up, so they could never teach me.” Atlas presented her with a fabricated story he came up with. “They were also the only unicorns around, so finding another tutor wasn’t possible. Now that I’m an adult I decided to come here to learn.” “Ah I see, how unfortunate.” Emerald stated. “Were you ever able to access your magic? Or mayhaps you have any memories of a magical surge?” Atlas’s face turned into a grimace. “Sadly I was never able to figure out how to acces my magic.” He sighed. “Not for a lack of trying, mind you.” “Well, not to worry. You’re hardly the first adult who could never access.” Emerald reassured him. “Every few years somepony comes to us with circumstances similar to you. How about surges, does anything come to mind?” “Well there was that one thing on the way here.” Emerald motioned for Atlas to go on. “I joined a trade caravan, and we were attacked by bandits. I cast something to rescue one of my friends, though I have no idea how.” Atlas shrugged to emphasize his statement. “Well we can certainly work off that. Tell me all you remember about it.” “Well it’s all a bit of a blur.” Atlas said truthfully. “But what I remember is that I shot out this kinda green orb from my horn. It flew at the bandit with amazing speed and punched a hole right through him. I think it even felled a few trees on it’s way.” “Well that sounds like an impressive offensive spell.” Emerald said. “Although I would assume it was just raw magical energy that you shot out. Also you said it looked green?” “As far as I can remember, yes. Why? Is that important?” Atlas asked confused. “Certainly.” Emerald nodded. “Have you ever heard about magical affinity?” “Can’t say I have.” Atlas replied. “Well there are six kinds of magical affinity. The world around us is saturated with different kinds of magical energy, and all beings tend to be more receptive towards a specific one.” Emerald explained. “Legend says that the six energies are the leftover power of the heavenly beings that created this world, and dependent on their affinity, ponies tend to excel at certain schools of magic. Even though it’s not unusual to be proficient in a school outside your affinity.” “Okay, so what school would green be?” Atlas asked, genuinely curious now. “Green represents the school of life. The spell classes range from recovery to sensing other being’s presence. Basically everything that has to do with a living being.” Emerald explained happily, now in full-on teacher mode. “That’s… actually kinda cool.” Atlas said. “Then, what are the other five schools and what color do their affinities have?” “Well, there is the school of illusion represented by blue. Then there are the school’s of combat, energy and manipulation; represented by the colors red, orange and pink respectively. To top it all off, there’s the school of magic itself. Unicorns with that affinity are quite rare, and they mostly have a vast amount of magic at their command.” Atlas took in all of the information like a sponge, trying his best to commit it to memory. Now that he had heard about it, having a purple affinity would have been cool, but commanding the life forces sounded pretty rad as well. “There’s actually a way to ascertain which kind of affinity a pony has, which brings us to our first test.” Emerald said, pointing towards the doodad table behind Atlas. “Although most of the time it's pretty easy to tell, this is more of a formality to be honest. Protocol and all.” Emerald got up from her chair and walked towards the table, and Atlas joined her immediately, eager to confirm his affinity. Emerald pulled one of the contraptions to the edge of the table. “This little thing here was invented through the cooperation of the greatest minds of the life and energy schools. It is able to sense the affinity of any unicorn that puts this ring on it’s horn, and display it with this gem.” The device she presented to Atlas was pretty simple in design. A metal ring was connected via a cable to a stand, upon which rested a transparent gem. “Just put on the ring, and the gem will light up in the color of your affinity.” Instructed Emerald, a friendly smile adorning her muzzle. Atlas looked at the ring on the table and tried to figure out how he was supposed to slip it over his horn without falling over. He looked towards Emerald for help, who seemed to realize the pickle he was in, and helped him out by levitating the ring over his horn. At first nothing happened, but after a few seconds the gem started to glow a soft red. Atlas furrowed his brows, not having expected the gem to turn anything other than green. He looked towards Emerald for clarification The green mare seemed to be equally confused by the result, but caught herself soon after. “Are you sure the surge you had was green?” She asked Atlas. “Well, I was pumped full of adrenaline at the moment, so I might have remembered wrong.” Atlas said confused. He was quite certain the ball of magic was green. “Well, mistakes happen.” Emerald said nonchalantly. “Nothing to be worried about. Besides, that's part of the reasons why we do this test. So we can be absolutely certain.” “It would seem you have an affinity towards the school of combat then.” Emerald said, looking at Atlas, which in turn still stared at the gem. “Umm… Is it supposed to do that?” He asked while pointing at the gem on the table. Emerald turned around again to see what Atlas was talking about. The gem had just finished transitioning it’s color, now displaying a clear green. She looked at the gem for a moment, stunned by its behaviour. While they were both staring at the gem, it started to change back to red, and then green soon after. “Well…” Emerald began. “It would seem you are quite an anomaly Mr. Atlas. Apparently you have a twin affinity.” “So, is that good?” Atlas asked, still staring at the gem while it happily changed colors. “Oh yes, remarkable even.” Emerald said, reassuring Atlas. “Just extremely rare is all. Well I’ll put you down for a twin affinity to life and combat then.” While speaking her horn started to glow, and a feather on her desk dipped itself in a small vial of ink and scribbled something on a piece of paper. Atlas was feeling happy. Knowing how the greek gods liked to screw with him, he half expected his magic to suck major balls. As such, this was a pleasant turn of events. “Well then, moving on.” Emerald said while levitating the ring from Atlas’s horn. “Over here we have a device which measures how big the internal mana pool of a unicorn is. The size of a mana pool determines how many spells a unicorn can cast before having to recover.” She pulled a similar device to the front, but instead of one big gem, this one had five smaller gems in a row. “Mana pools are classified into five sizes, class one being the smallest and five the biggest.” Emerald continued to explain. “Different from magic affinity, the size of a mana pool can be changed by training, or continued use of magic over a long period of time.” She levitated the devices ring unto Atlas’s horn. Both looked at the gems, eager to see the results. Atlas could feel soft pulses originating from the ring on his horn, running their course through his entire body. The sensation felt weird, but not unpleasant. After a while the pulses stopped, and a single gem lit up. “Just as I expected.” Emerald nodded. “Due to you having never used your magic, your mana pool is rather small at the moment. Well, don’t let that discourage you. As I said before, you’ll be able to increase it’s size over time.” At first Atlas was disappointed at this newest development, but then he remembered that due to his immortality he would have plenty of time to spare, so increasing his mana pool to the maximum capacity shouldn’t be a problem. “Alright, that’s certainly useful to know.” Atlas said. “I was beginning to fear I might not have magic at all to be honest.” He sighed, genuinely relieved. “Oh don’t worry, there’s no such thing as a living creature that isn’t connected in some way to the magical energies around us. Thusly, every unicorn is able to use magic to some extent.” Emerald said. “Now, let’s return to our seats for now.” When they had both returned to their places at the desk Emerald wrote down a few lines on a piece of paper. “You're in luck.” She said while writing. “The new school year starts next month, so you’ll be able to join quite soon. Although I’d like to enroll you as soon as next week if that’s ok with you?” She asked, raising her gaze from the paper. “Sure, but why?” Atlas asked. “If you’d start the school year without even knowing how to access and properly guide your magic, you might fall behind. Or worse even risk injury.” Emerald Chaos explained. “That’s why I’d like you to go there a bit sooner, learning from a private tutor, before joining the regular class next month.” “That makes sense, I’ll gladly do so.” Atlas nodded. “Very well then.” Emerald scribbled down a few more things. “Then what’s left to discuss is housing and time of service needed to reimburse us.” “I’m all ears.” Atlas said. He hoped the time he’d have to serve wouldn’t be too long. “Well, as for housing you’ll be able to live in the school dorms, which is relatively uncomplicated. You’ll also receive a small stipend, to help you out financially.” Emerald said, while opening one of her drawers and pulling out a small file. “In here’s all that you'll need to know, like where the school is, and who you’ll have to talk to. I’ll add a note to it later, explaining your situation to them.” Atlas simply nodded, he’d have time to look at them in detail later. “Moving on to the time of service.” Emerald continued. “Usually it’s around twenty years. Depending on the case it can be longer or shorter. The time can be shortened if you achieve certain things, which are deemed worthy of a deduction. Although the same can be said for the opposite. Well, in the end it all depends on what you do with your time in the military.” Twenty years. Looking at it, it seemed extremely long. Atlas was now twenty-three years old, so twenty years of service intimidated him a bit. He still didn’t like the idea of working for the military, but he found himself explaining it away with his immortality more comfortably. He was getting used to the idea, and his way of thinking was slowly changing too. “Do you have any problems with the stated terms and conditions?” Emerald asked. ‘Haven’t read ‘em’ Atlas thought. “I have none.” He stated out loud. “Then I’ll just need your hoofprint on this document, as well as some others and it’ll be official.” She levitated a piece of paper as well as an inkpad over to him. Atlas didn’t hesitate and put his right forehoof on the pad before stamping it on the document. “Welcome to the military, Mr. Atlas.”