Divine Entertainment

by Orthoros

59. Back To School

Atlas took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. He was currently standing in front of a door that lead into one of the academy's classrooms. And not just any classroom either, no this one was filled with students that looked forward to being taught by him. Atlas had never gotten over his stage fright, and the nervousness was starting to creep up on him again.

About a month ago Atlas was approached by the principal of the school, who offered him a teaching position. It took a lot of convincing from the principal, but in the end, Atlas decided to accept the new position. In an interesting turn of events, Doc Brown was happy about the new arrangement, apparently he had also been pestered by the principal about becoming a professor. Which would stop now that Atlas decided to take the position.

One of the main reasons that caused Atlas to cave was the fact that he pretty much learned everything he could from the rune books, and was now stuck with endless experiments to find new runes. Failures exploding in his face got tiresome after the first few hundred times, so teaching was a welcome respite.

With a last encouraging thought, Atlas pushed open the door with his magic, entering the classroom proper. Just like when he was in school all those years ago classes still consisted of about twenty students, all of which were already seated and immediately stopped their conversations once Atlas entered. Acutely aware of twenty pairs of eyes following him, Atlas made his way over to the teacher's desk and set down a small suitcase full of teaching supplies, which he had carried around in his magic up until now.

“Good morning everypony,” Atlas said, “and welcome to your transformation class. My name is Atlas, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the coming year.”

As he introduced himself, Atlas swept his gaze over the gathered unicorns before him. Having a room full of young ponies stare back at him, suddenly made him realize how old he already was. Well, old for a human at least. Each and everyone had a smile on their face and determination in their eyes, which was good since Atlas didn’t want any troublemakers in his class.

“Why don’t we start this whole thing off with introductions?” Atlas asked. He always hated it when he had to do stuff like this back when he was in school, so he reveled in the chance to have others do it. “I’m sure most of you know who I am, but just in case anypony doesn’t, let me begin. As I’ve already stated before, my name is Atlas. I graduated at the top of my graduation class thirteen years ago, and have been researching new ways to apply transformation magic in everyday life ever since. Some of you might have one of my inventions at home, like the refrigerator or the rune-based light. Together with my lab partner, I re-discovered the forgotten art of runes and have been researching them pretty much every day. I would like you to know that you will be my first class ever, so if I make any mistakes don’t hesitate to point them out to me.”

Atlas’ introduction was met with approving nods and a few hushed conversations in the back. He didn’t like to think about it, but Atlas was sort of a low-key celebrity now. He’d defeated a dragon and was the first unicorn ever to have a triple affinity. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t being researched by a plethora of lab coat wearing maniacs anymore, so keeping his newer affinities a secret wasn’t difficult.

After Belle passed away, the only one who knew the full truth about Atlas was Crimson.

“Alright, so why don’t we start over here then,” Atlas said as he pointed to the green stallion closest to the door.

“My name is Glinting Malachite and my special talent is enchanting,” he answered in a sort of bored voice.

Atlas looked at him curiously, expecting maybe one or two lines more from him, but it soon became apparent that this was all they were gonna get out of him for now and instead he motioned towards the next pony. As his students introduced themselves one by one, Atlas took notes on where they sat and how they looked. Since learning new names was the bane of his existence, having to learn several classes full of ponies’ names would be close to impossible without keeping track somehow.

The rest of Atlas’ day went by somewhat swimmingly. In the afternoon he had another batch of students, where he had to basically repeat everything he already did with the morning class. They took well to his first lesson putting his mind somewhat at ease, yet still, it had been surprisingly exhausting.

Tired, Atlas rested his head upon his desk in the teacher's lounge. It was strange having free access to this once sacred room, but he was glad that it was outfitted with various couches to relax on.

“Difficult first day?” A voice asked to his right as the chair belonging to his neighbor's desk was pulled back.

“Not exactly difficult, but challenging,” Atlas answered without looking up. “My research up until now was a lot more solitary than this.”

“Ah yes, I can see that as being a problem,” the stallion replied, “you’ll get used to it, though, don’t worry.”

“I hope so…”

“You’re Atlas, right? The new transformation teacher?” The stallion asked casually while arranging some documents on his desk. “My name’s Starswirl, and I teach advanced illusions. I look forward to working with you since our desks are next to each other and all that.”

Atlas perked up at hearing the stallion's name and lifted his head off his desk to take a look. Next to him sat a blue unicorn with a white mane, a look at his flank revealed a cutie mark consisting of a simple swirl decorated with a few turquoise stars. Under his chin, the hair grew a little longer, somewhat resembling a beard. While having a small beard going, especially on older unicorns, was nothing unusual, combined with the name ‘Starswirl’ Atlas had little doubt about who was currently sitting next to him.

“Yeah, I’m Atlas, pleased to meet you,” Altas responded while owlishly looking his new acquaintance up and down. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Only good things I hope,” Starswirl chuckled.

“Yes, of course,” Atlas reassured him.

Truthfully, he’d never heard of Starswirl before now, Atlas would even go so far as to say he momentarily forgot that he was supposed to exist. Everything he knew about Starswirl, he knew from the show, which wasn’t much to be honest. But the glaring detail Atlas remembered, even without looking at his book, was that Starswirl was without a doubt important and powerful. Like Trixie, but for real.

“Hey listen,” Atlas continued, “I have a few questions about illusions I’d like to have answered at some point, would you mind going for a drink sometime to discuss it for a bit?”

While illusion wasn’t exactly high on his priority list, it wouldn’t hurt committing a little time to it, since he had an affinity for it as well. Now that the thought entered his mind, he’d need to study all kinds of magical fields if he wanted to exploit the fact that he had affinities for literally everything. Might as well start now.

“Of course, I always love discussing magic with colleagues,” Starswirl answered with a happy look on his face. “I’m sure I have some free time next week, be sure to remind me about that. I actually wanted to ask a few things about runes as well, and who better to ask, right?”

“Exactly,” Atlas shared a laugh with Starswirl, “I look forward to it.”

Having discussed everything they needed to, both of them returned to their respective work. There were sizable piles of paper on each desk just waiting to be filled out or corrected. With a sigh, Atlas started to look over his notes of the day again, trying to memorize the names of his students.

The sun was well past the horizon and the moon and stars were out in force illuminating Atlas’ path. He had just finished his first day as a teacher and was on his way home. Or rather, on his way to pay a visit to Brown Diamond. There was no doubt in Atlas’ mind that the kooky old stallion was still busy in his lab, so he decided to make a little detour before heading back to his lonely abode.

Reaching the familiar building he pushed open the door without knocking and entered, closing the door behind him. The first thing he noticed was that the few tidy spots Atlas had created for himself were already overrun by a plethora of knick-knacks. It had barely been a day and the state of the lab had already reached equilibrium apparently.

“Yo Doc!” Atlas called out, “where are you?”

The lights were still on, so he was definitely still around. The lack of an answer either meant that Doc Brown was either absorbed in his work or that he had fallen asleep in some obscure place again. Fortunately, Atlas had gotten pretty good at finding the elusive unicorn during his years as a lab partner. He swept his eyes across the floor, looking for anything that would give the doctor's position away. It didn’t take long to spot the bushy tail sticking out from behind an impressively unstable pile of books.

Rolling his eyes, Atlas made his way over, finding him furiously scribbling runes onto a piece of paper. He was surrounded by similarly filled scrolls, indicating that he had been at it for quite a while, further proven by the fact that there were also a noticeable amount of crumpled up balls among them. At a glance, the arrays he was designing were used to fortify… something. Fortification enchantments were among the easier things to do with runes, Doc having this much trouble with that made little to no sense to Atlas, so he tapped Doc on his shoulder with furrowed brows.

“Hey Doc, what are you up to?” Atlas asked curiously.

“Ahhh!” Brown Diamond jumped at the unexpected contact and whirled around to face Atlas, combat spell at the ready, only to find Atlas’ deadpan stare facing him, complete with raised eyebrow. “Jeez, Atlas, a little warning next time?”

“I did call out when I entered,” Atlas replied. “Not my fault that you forget everything around you when you're absorbed in your work.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Doc Brown sighed. “So, what brings you here? Having fun as a teacher?”

“Just thought I’d come visit… It felt weird to work and not be here the whole day,” Atlas replied. “So, what’s all this about?” He motioned towards the runes.

“Oh! That!” Doc Brown answered startled. “It’s ummm… It’s a… surprise?”

Doc Brown was gathering up all his notes in his magic and generally looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It was obvious he didn’t want Atlas to find out what his newest experiment was about. This behavior was neither new or unusual, though, so Atlas decided to let it slide. The only thing he was kind of worried about was the fact that he wouldn’t be around to put out the resulting fire.

“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that…” Atlas said while rolling his eyes.

“I’ll be sure to come and tell you if it was a success,” Doc Brown said. “If I manage to pull this off we’ll be looking at the next stage of rune usage in our society!”

That got Atlas’ attention. “You sure you don’t need any help? I mean I’m pretty sure I could help if it’s that important…”

“Oh, don’t worry, you just focus on teaching the young ones what they need to know,” Doc Brown deflected. “I have things under control here.”

Brown Diamond seemed really nervous for some reason as if he really didn’t want Atlas to find out what he was doing. It was probably something dangerous, and since Atlas stopped him from doing stupid things before he didn’t want him to find out.

“Alright,” Atlas relented with a sigh, “just try to not blow this place up, I’m kind of attached to it.”

“No promises.”

“Sure.” Atlas shook his head, “well, I’ll be going home now, just wanted to check up on you. Good night.”

Atlas turned around and into the direction of the door, already mulling over what little he saw of Doc’s arrays to find out what he was trying to do.

“And seriously!” Atlas called back, “this place better be standing tomorrow!”