Scholar Arc
Year 4, Month 11, Day 8
Atlas closed his eyes as he set down his quill. He'd finally completed his last assignment for the day and needed a moment to relax. Finals were closing in and his workload had increased exponentially. Aside from mountains of homework, he had jammed in some spell repetition into his daily routine as well.
Sighing he opened his eyes to the world again, letting them drift lazily across his room. Over the years he had acquired a great number of personal belongings for his abode. Compared to when he first arrived with a simple saddlebag and a little money, he almost felt rich now.
A state of normalcy had set in, which sometimes scared Atlas. At this point, he had spent almost five years in Equestria. Considering that he was now twenty-eight years old, five years felt like a sizable chunk of existence to spend in a completely different world.
He chalked up the fact that he didn't go insane by now to his friends. Starting with Vibrant Colors, there was always someone there for him, supporting him; if it weren't for them, things could have gone south right quick.
Well, they technically did at one point.
His eyes landed on the empty desk of his once-roommate and best friend Amethyst Blade, who had graduated last year. Atlas had known it was coming since he was a year ahead of him, but he was still saddened that the two were no longer roommates.
Apparently, the school board deemed Atlas important enough to grant him a single room since he never got a new roommate. At least that's what he liked to think, but to be honest, he suspected an entirely different reason.
Even though the prejudice against him had lessened by an incredible amount over the past few years, he could still feel that some ponies were afraid of him and what he could do.
Looking back to his desk, his eyes fell on a rectangular picture amongst the countless scrolls and notes. He fired up his horn and levitated it towards him. A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the pink mare that was depicted.
He had to laugh whenever he looked at it. Apparently, cameras hadn't been invented yet, so she had herself painted by an artist. Belle gave it to him as a birthday present, so that, even though they were apart during most of the week, he had something to remember her.
Or as she had put it, ‘so he wouldn't forget what she looked like.’
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.
"It's open," he called, setting the picture down again.
The door opened to reveal Amber standing in the frame, a curious look on her face. She scanned the room as she always did when coming in, as though she was afraid to find a monster hidden under the bed or in one of the chests, before adopting a happy smile.
"Hey," she greeted. "You done yet?"
"Yeah, just finished actually."
"Cool, wanna play some games then? If I have to do any more studying I'll die of boredom."
"Sure," Atlas chuckled. "I'm down for some relaxing. But just one game, I want to study some more later. What did you have in mind?"
Atlas rose from his chair and walked towards the door. Amber backed out, making space for Atlas to move through.
"Today's the day I'll finally beat you at Magic: the Channeling!" Amber declared proudly.
"Oho? You sure about that?" Atlas asked in an amused way. "If I remember correctly you're at a hundred and fifty-six losses and no wins. What makes you think today is gonna be different?"
Atlas locked the door with his key before levitating it into his mane, a rather handy storing space once you learned where to put stuff so it couldn't fall out. He followed Amber which had already happily skipped ahead towards the stairs leading down.
"I've actually studied for once!"
"You say that every time."
"I've also found a new combo!" Amber revealed. "It'll catch you off guard; I'm sure of it!"
"Well, now I'm actually expecting it," Atlas deadpanned. "Also, I guarantee you, if it's in the game, I know about it. I made it after all."
"You can't know every combination, I'm sure there are some you just never found!" Amber retorted, racing ahead down the stairs, taking multiple steps at a time.
Atlas shook his head in amusement and followed his orange friend into the recreational room downstairs. The newest addition to its inventory was a card game called: "Magic: The Channeling". It was a game Atlas created as one of his final projects, which found immediate popularity with students and teachers alike. Since it was fun while also allowing unicorns to practice their channeling, it was almost immediately adopted as a teaching tool as well as a fun pastime activity.
Amber was already sitting at an otherwise empty table, setting up the game. Two card stacks were formed on their respective side of the table, ready to be drawn from. Lines were etched into the rather big playing cards in seemingly random patterns, crossing over and under each other until they reached the edge of the card.
Atlas sat himself down opposite of her and started shuffling his deck, just to make sure there wasn't any funny business involved. Setting his stack face down on the table he shot a smirk towards Amber.
"Ready?"
"As I'll ever be!"
"Well then, Ready! Set! Go!"
Both of them immediately levitated the first card of their respective deck in front of them, studying them intricately. As soon as Atlas saw his first card he immediately started channeling his mana into it and guiding it through the desired path. Once he was satisfied he set it down on the table, levitating the next card.
The rules of the game were simple. Disturb the mana pathways on your opponent's side enough to break their set-up.
Every card had about three or four possible patterns to choose from and depending on which one had mana channeled through, complete pathways could be formed by setting the cards next to each other, which would, once complete, execute a simple spell. Depending on which cards you drew and how big the final patterns were, the spell power could vary greatly.
Atlas set down his second card, completing one of the smallest defense patterns in the game. If he didn't, Amber might very well finish him with a simple attack spell after a few seconds. Glancing over to Amber's side he saw that she was doing the same, albeit with a bigger defense pattern.
Picking up his next card he decided to create a medium sized amplifying pattern next and got to work as fast as he could. As there were no turns in this game, speed and adaptability were everything.
"Get ready to be amazed!" Amber pressed out under strain.
Atlas completed his pattern and looked over to see what she was up to. Momentarily ignoring his own set-up he scanned her patterns for anything out of the ordinary. A scowl appeared on his face once he realized what she was up to.
She had stacked some of her cards on top of each other to create mana paths that would otherwise not be possible. Definitely unexpected, but also not an unknown tactic to Atlas. Since he created the game himself he knew all of the moves one could make, this one included.
Stacking cards was an advanced tactic which he hadn't revealed on purpose. Ever since he started his studies, he felt that ponies in general lacked creativity. So he kept quiet about this feature to see how long it would take until someone discovered it. An experiment involving the whole school, so to speak.
While he wanted to compliment Amber on her cleverness, he also didn't want to lose, so he frantically started looking for a way to block her incoming attack. His set-up wasn't created with the intention to add a stacked combo to it, so he had to improvise.
Picking up his next card, he weighed his options. Stacked combos had an energy output much higher than the regular ones, so his only option was to counter with a stacked combo as well. Though, thanks to his recently completed amplification pattern he could keep it simple.
Glancing over, he realized his biggest advantage over Amber. He could set up exponentially faster than her if he wanted to. And right now, he had to if he wanted to win.
Frantically starting to channel he started setting down card after card, hoping to get done in time.
"Hah! Take that!" Amber shouted just as Atlas put down his last card.
A small, red wave started traveling over the table, signifying an attack.
"Guess I win once again," Atlas said nonchalantly, shooting a smirk towards Amber.
She furrowed her brows in confusion and looked towards the table again. Apparently, she was so focused on creating her own pattern that she didn't check what Atlas was doing. As such, once she saw his own stacked cards her eyes widened.
"What?" She called out in surprise. "What is this?"
"You'll see," Atlas smirked, watching as the red wave was almost upon his cards. Shortly before it could make contact, a blue line appeared, deflecting Ambers attack back towards her own cards.
Unable to do anything else, Amber watched as the wave washed over her cards, the pathways she so meticulously set up sputtered out pathetically.
"What was that?" Amber asked, stunned.
"An amplified reflector pattern," Atlas explained while getting more comfortable on his bench.
After meticulously studying Atlas's pattern Amber let out a deep sigh.
"And I thought I'd beat you for sure this time."
"Told you, if it's in the game, I know about it," Atlas responded.
"Yeah, but why did you never tell anypony about the possibility of stacking cards to create new patterns?" Amber asked incredulously.
"I just wanted to see how long it took until someone figured it out on their own," Atlas answered with an apologetic smile on his face.
Amber studied Atlas's face as if to see if he was serious.
"Show me."
"Show you what?"
"I want to learn these patterns right now!" Amber declared. "It's unfair if only you know about them, right? So show me."
"But I kinda wanted to study some more for the finals tonight... You know? The finals that are quite literally next week?" Atlas tried to worm his way out of what could possibly become a long night.
"Atlas, you're one of the smartest unicorns in the whole academy, one night of missed studies isn't going to make you fail your finals." Amber retorted.
"I guess you're right," Atlas sighed. "So what do you want to know?"
"Everything," Amber deadpanned.
"Of course you do."
Atlas resigned himself to his fate and started with the simplest stacking combo there was. Since stacking allowed for a great number of new combinations and even completely new spells, explaining everything to her would most likely take the whole night.
At least this way he wouldn't have to think about the upcoming finals. Even though he knew that he was probably fine, he was still a nervous wreck. After all, the results of these tests would quite literally decide his future.
Glad to have a distraction, Atlas fully immersed himself into his explanation.