//------------------------------//
// 38. Back to School 
// Story: Divine Entertainment 
// by Orthoros 
//------------------------------//


Scholar Arc
Day 20



Atlas walked down one of the many halls of the magic academy. Three days had passed since Atlas's surge, and his schedule was finally returning to normal.

After getting quite literally pulled out of his bed by a guard, he had spent the last few days being poked, prodded, scanned, questioned, tested and probed. The news of his triple affinity had made rounds almost immediately and everypony was way too eager to examine him.

Since his sentence forbade him to resist or hinder their research in any way, he had to just take it and let them do their thing. It exhausted him both mentally and physically, the bags under his eyes a testament to the fact. 

Thankfully they finally had enough data and just needed to analyze it first before they could continue their tests, so they let him return to his usual lessons.

As he made his way through the now familiar halls, another side effect of his triple affinity reared its ugly head. While it wasn't exactly made public, the information reached the general student body fairly fast; as a result, ponies seemed to go out of their way to avoid him. Everywhere he went, muffled whispers would follow.

Truth be told, when Amethyst first told him that he had close to no friends because of his magic affinity, he couldn't fully believe him. Now that he was in a similar situation, he finally understood; apparently being "blessed" with some special talent made one unapproachable. For the life of him, Atlas couldn't figure out why; by right, considering how the unicorn society worked, shouldn't he be getting swarmed by ponies trying to get in his good graces?

However, this was not so, and he was faced with this completely different reaction. He wasn't sad about it, in fact, he pretty much preferred it like this, since he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. It was almost as if everypony expected him to explode at a moment's notice. At least this only seemed to apply to the general student body, as the teachers and researchers seemed to be positively delighted around him.

At least Amethyst had stayed a good friend through it all. While not as extreme, he was more or less in the same situation, so they could be there for each other. Although Amethyst's behavior towards Atlas had changed slightly as well, yet he was unable to put his finger on what had changed.

Missing extremities not affecting the outcome in any way.

With a sigh, he continued steadily onwards towards his private classroom, where Blazing Inferno was no doubt already waiting for him. Hoping that at least his teacher wouldn't change his behavior too much, he turned the final corner, the door to his classroom coming into view.

He approached the door, knocked, and immediately entered without waiting for an answer. The usual "classroom" greeted him when he closed the door behind him. 

Tables and chairs lined the walls, moved to the side to provide more space. A single desk with a chair sat in front of a blackboard on the far wall, as well as stacks of empty scrolls already waiting for him. 

Currently standing at the blackboard drawing some weird squiggly lines, was his teacher, Blazing Inferno. Upon hearing the door close he put the chalk, which was previously moving around in his telekinetic grip, back into its rightful resting spot.

His eyes widened when he saw who had entered, a smile adorning his face.

"Atlas, the stallion of the hour!" He exclaimed. "I've heard the news! Congratulations on being the first unicorn ever with a triple affinity!"

Atlas approached his teacher to shake hooves.

"Thanks, but I could definitely do without all the attention it's been getting me..." Atlas sighed. "I'm still sore in all kinds of weird places from all the experiments and tests I had to go through."

"Ah, yes, those researchers can be quite forceful sometimes," Inferno said while gesturing for Atlas to take a seat. "I have been reading their notes though, and their findings are truly fascinating, to say the least. I'll have to adjust your lesson plan to fit you better because of it."

"Well, sorry for giving you extra work," Atlas said with a weak smile.

"Don't be!" Inferno immediately said. "I for one, find it exciting to teach such a unique stallion as yourself. After all, there has never been somepony like you before!"

"I wouldn’t flatter me that much, I can't even seem to cast that cursed stamina boost correctly," Atlas said with a raised eyebrow.

Inferno sported a sheepish smile. "Every great mage has to start somewhere. I'm sure you'll have mastered it soon enough."

"I sure hope so, it would have come in handy a few days back..." Atlas trailed off towards the end, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh? How so?" Inferno asked curiously.

"Have they told you about the inhibitor rings?" 

"Yes, the news of them spread almost as fast as your triple affinity," Inferno confirmed.

"Well, while they seem to stop a unicorn from casting through their horn, control channeling seems to work just fine," Atlas explained.

"Ah, I see..." Inferno thought about the new piece of information. "I understand how it could have been useful, but I doubt heightened stamina would do you much good when you're bound somewhere, it would just let you struggle for longer."

"True, but still, better than nothing I guess.” Atlas said. "How about we leave this discussion and get to the learning? What are those lines you've drawn on the board?" 

"Hm?" Inferno was pulled from his thoughts at Atlas's question. "Oh yeah, those." He nodded once, levitating over his trusty pointing stick. 

"Those," he traced one of the longer lines, "are mana pathways."

Atlas looked at the lines more carefully and upon further analysis, he realized they were indeed vaguely pony shaped. In fact, there were two pony shapes, with slight differences.

"So what's the difference between them?" Atlas asked, his curiosity piqued.

"These," Inferno tapped the center of the left drawing, "are the pathways of a regular unicorn."

Atlas furrowed his brows at the mention of the word 'regular' but let Inferno continue.

"And the ones over here," Inferno tapped the right drawing, "are yours." 

Inferno used the stick to bop Atlas on the nose, a happy smile on his face.

"I have different mana pathways?" Atlas asked confused. "Is that somehow tied to my triple affinity?" 

"Truthfully, we haven't quite figured this one out yet," Inferno said with a thoughtful look. "But it's quite possible, after all, considering you're the first unicorn ever whose pathways deviate from the norm."

Atlas groaned and burrowed his face into his hooves. Just what he needed, one more reason to stand out.

"So what does this mean in relation to my casting?" Atlas pressed out from between his legs. "Does this change anything major for me?"

"Yes and no, actually."

Atlas glanced out from behind his hooves, curious at the vague answer.

"If it concerns normal spells you're no different from other ponies." Inferno began to explain. "Although, since your pathways are slightly longer and cover more space, the time it takes you to overexert them will be longer since the stress can be applied more evenly."

"Though, that's just a theory at this point." 

Inferno pointed towards the two front hooves of the drawing representing Atlas's mana pathways with his stick. 

"The most significant change seems to be at the base of your forehooves," Inferno said, as he traced five distinct lines that were missing on the other drawing. "Where normally the pathways stop about three-fourths down the leg, yours continue all the way down."

Atlas stared at the drawing. His right eye twitched as he realized just what those lines looked like. Fingers. He tuned out Inferno's further explanations as his eyes flitted around the drawing, searching for something to confirm his newly formed theory. 

After calling upon all his 'find the mistakes in the picture' skills, he was fairly certain to have found all the differences in the two drawings. His own pathways seemed to generally be squished together a bit tighter than a normal pony’s; whereas on a normal pony's body, the pathways were equally distributed, Atlas's own pathways seemed to be completely left out around the bottom part of the stomach. instead, they seemed to be more concentrated along the back. The pathways on his shoulders, heart and brain were slightly off and on his back hooves he spotted five smaller lines, similar to those on his fore-hooves.

"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me.” Atlas muttered as his eyes went wide in realization.

Although subtle, his mana pathways seemed to form the shape of a human, creating the image of a person shoved into a too small pony vessel. Apparently the Greek gods didn't even bother to truly transform him into a pony, they just did a half-assed job and basically shapeshifted him just enough so it would work out somehow.

"Excuse me?" Inferno said, his teachings interrupted.

Did that mean there was a way for Atlas to turn back? Would he even want to at this point? Although he only spent a relatively short time in his new body, he'd grown accustomed to it, old habits making him slip up less and less. Would he still be able to do magic if he turned back? The pathways seemed to be there, but was he willing to risk it? Magic was, after all, a dream come true for him.

Atlas furrowed his brows as a wayward thought struck him. Were those even his own pathways? Or did they belong to the Atlas fragment within him? 

Atlas recoiled as something tapped his nose gently, his eyes going cross-eyed to see what touched him even as he was almost falling off his chair from the sudden action. 

"Glad to see you're back with me, Mr. Atlas." Inferno chuckled. "Pray tell, what has you so deep in thought that you'd ignore my lesson?"

There was more amusement than hostility in the question asked, but Atlas could still hear the hidden disappointment in Inferno's voice. 

"I'm sorry," Atlas gathered himself again, sitting up straight. "I was just thinking about the implications of this new discovery."

"Well, if you'd been listening you wouldn't have to think about it," Inferno gave Atlas another light tap on the nose with his stick. "Don't make this harder than it is."

Atlas nodded, focusing his attention back onto Blazing Inferno and his drawings, fully intent on paying attention.

"As I was saying, while they look almost the same, after looking at the two maps, yours are riddled with small differences," Inferno stated. "Just look over here," he pointed at the pathways twisting and turning around Atlas's heart. "There are several parts in our bodies where our pathways meet called gateways. One, such as this, is the heart. But if you look at it carefully, your gateway doesn't align with your heart at all."

Inferno grinned at Atlas like a kid who had found a new toy. 

"This could change all sorts of things, or... nothing at all, really." Inferno chuckled happily. "We'll just have to wait and see. It really is interesting, though."

Atlas adopted a deadpan look as he had to think about all the tests he'd would most likely be put through because the Greek Pantheon consisted exclusively of lazy fucks. He was busy ruminating his bad luck, as another question popped into his head.

"Would..." Atlas furrowed his brows. "Would me having different pathways somehow interfere with my control channeling?" 

Blazing Inferno's face lit up at the question.

"Yes!" He said proudly. "It does! It's actually the whole reason I'm trying to tell you about this." 

Several pieces of chalk floated up to the chalkboard, drawing additional lines and circles over both of the drawings. Again, the one's on Atlas's side, slightly different. Atlas was already familiar with the meaning behind the new additions, as they were instructions on how to properly channel a unicorn's mana for controlled channeling.

"The reason you haven't made much progress with the stamina spell is because you were doing it wrong." Inferno seemed to realize something and scrunched up his face. "Not that this is your fault of course."

"Anyway!" Inferno continued. "With these slight adjustments, the feeling of 'pushing your mana through mud' as you've mentioned before should be gone since you're going to be channeling it properly. You should be able to master this spell in no time now since you already know the basics!"

Blazing Inferno finished his explanation by smiling widely at his student. Atlas took a few seconds to process the new information, his eyes switching between the now complete instructions on the blackboard. 

Slowly a smile spread across Atlas's face as well. At least something was going the right way after the hardships he had to endure the past few days. 

Maybe those tests weren't so bad after all.