Scholar Arc
Year 18, Month 2, Day 12
“And that’s how we managed to escape the dragon and save at least a few of the books…” Atlas ended his explanation. “I’m also one-hundred percent certain that the dragon that attacked the academy was the same one we fought in that cave. It had a scar where we hit it.”
“Fascinating,” Starswirl responded while lazily stirring the fruit punch that rested before him on a table.
It took them some time, but they finally found a moment where they both had enough time to meet each other in a more casual setting. Of course, they’d talked to each other almost every day, but that was mostly work related. Now, they could simply relax at a nice cafe and ask those questions they wanted answers to. Atlas had already learned quite a bit about illusion magic since Starswirl was a master of the craft and could answer all of his questions. In turn, Starswirl had quite a few questions regarding runes, and Atlas did his best to explain the abstract concepts behind them. He’d just got done re-telling the adventure that lead to the discovery of the books while leaving out the parts that would give his secrets away.
“Runes seem like a difficult subject to wrap one's head around,” Starswirl said. “At least they seem a lot more finicky than anything I’ve come across so far.”
“There was a lot of trial and error involved that's for sure,” Atlas responded with a smile. “Putting out fires became a daily routine for a while.”
“Sounds pretty dangerous.”
“Well, yeah. But doesn’t most magical research come with that sort of risk? Also, the results more than proved to be worthwhile.”
“I’m not going to argue with that,” Starswirl said. “That refrigerator of yours is revolutionary. It might help out tremendously with the growing food shortages.” Starswirl looked out of the cozy cafe they were in, watching the snow gently drift past the window. “The winters have been getting longer and colder, so being able to store food more efficiently is invaluable at times like this.”
Atlas shifted his gaze to look outside as well. Winter getting colder had been gnawing at the back of his mind for a few years now. Maybe he was overthinking things, but knowing what he did, he suspected it to be the work of windigos. Apparently, it was even worse in the earth pony kingdom, which just re-affirmed his suspicions. The earth ponies were the most confrontational of the three tribes, so it made sense that the problem would start with them.
Of course, Atlas had tried to look up the Windigos in various libraries, but couldn’t find any mention of them anywhere. It was possible that this would be the first time they’d ever appeared in this world. Or maybe they were around before, but nobody noticed them up in the clouds. It was also entirely possible that the pegasi knew about them but didn’t share their knowledge with the other tribes.
Be that as it may, Atlas had found no information on how to battle them at all. From the show, he knew that the issue was the fact that the three tribes hated each other's guts and refused to cooperate. Changing three nations outlook on life seemed almost impossible to do for him alone and sometimes he wondered if he even should. After all, everything should turn out for the best, even if they had to abandon their current cities and face a lot of hardships re-building at another place.
Atlas turned his head back to Starswirl to find him shooting him an expectant look.
“I’m sorry. I’ve spaced out there for a bit, did you say something?”
“It’s alright,” Starswirl replied. “I asked if it’d be possible to take a look at one of the books you found. I’d love to see this strange language they are written in.”
“Sure,” Atlas replied after thinking about it for a second. He didn’t tell Starswirl about how he could read the books from the beginning, and instead told him they had spent a lot of time trying to translate them. “They are back at my old lab, if you want to we could go right now. Doc Brown is around pretty much all day anyway, working on something. He might not even notice us being there, he can get so absorbed in his work…”
“Oh? That would be absolutely amazing! I’m all for it, let’s go!”
Starswirl downed his drink and hopped off the chair he sat on, leaving a few bits on the table. He was obviously pretty excited, so Atlas chuckled and joined him, leaving payment for his own beverage as well.
Atlas always thought that Starswirl would be this wise and rational pony based on what he knew about him from the show. As it turned out, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, Starswirl was a young, happy-go-lucky stallion with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. It did make him more approachable though, and Atlas could see their friendship lasting for some time. Well, maybe the “wise” part would come into play a few decades from now.
For now, though, Atlas was happy to see the prestigious professor happily making his way back to the academy with an extra bounce in his step.
The snow crunched under their hooves as they made their way through the streets of the kingdom, the snow storm swallowing the usual sounds of the city and in turn creating a serene scene like out of a fairytale. Even though their fur protected them from most of the cold, ponies preferred to stay inside on days like these, leaving Atlas and Starswirl the solitary occupants of the streets.
Atlas looked towards the sky, the usually beautiful night was dominated by gray clouds which barely let any light from the moon pass through them. At this moment, Atlas considered himself lucky. Despite all the hardships he’d faced in this world, all the losses he had suffered due to being here, it was clear to him that he had also gained a lot. His current friends being only one of them.
With a smile, Atlas directed his gaze back towards the street in front of him, only for his vision to turn completely white. The force of something hitting him in the face threw him off balance before causing him to fall over into the snow, which stirred up a cloud of powdery fluff in the process.
Atlas raised his head from his spot on the ground, blinking owlishly while trying to find whatever just attacked him. It soon revealed itself as a smirking Starswirl, several more snowballs already floating behind him, bobbing slightly as if they were floating on water. As soon as Atlas spotted this, the first few rounds of frozen water were sent his way.
Atlas couldn’t help but smirk at Starswirl's foolishness. Water was his domain, snow being no exception to this. Atlas’ horn lit up and immediately the snow around him built a wall in front of him, effectively blocking all three projectiles coming for him.
“You can’t win this fight, Starswirl!” Atlas called out. “The snow is my friend!”
Waiting for a reply from the blue unicorn, Atlas opened up a small hole in his wall so he could look through. To his surprise Starswirl had vanished from where he was, leaving Atlas seemingly alone in the street. With furrowed eyebrows, Atlas dropped his defensive wall and started to look around for his adversary, turning to and fro.
“I’m pretty sure I have a fighting chance, though,” Starswirl suddenly said from behind him.
Atlas didn’t hear him coming at all but spun around to face him immediately. During his turn he magically picked up a mass of snow next to him and threw it in Starswirl's direction, planning to shower him and rob him of his visibility, if only for a moment. To his surprise, Starswirl didn’t even attempt to dodge and was seemingly unaffected by Atlas’ attack.
“After all, I’m not alone,” Starswirl said to his right. “Don’t forget that I can cast my own brand of magic as well.” He said from Atlas’ left.
Atlas found himself surrounded by three identical looking copies of his friend Starswirl, more appearing with every second that passed, until there was a sea of blue filling the street, with a single gray dot in the center.
“Illusions huh?” Atlas smiled. “Oh, it’s on!”
Atlas immediately created a wall that completely covered him, before pushing it outwards in a wave-like motion. Clone after clone vanished in its wake until Atlas was once again alone on the street. Another snowball hit Atlas in the back of his head and he spun around to find Starswirl standing on a nearby roof. He playfully stuck out his tongue and seemingly vanished shortly after, the snowballs Atlas had sent for him passing through thin air.
“Get back here!” Atlas shouted and began to pursue.
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Atlas took a shaky breath as he walked next to Starswirl towards Doc Brown's lab. The cold made his throat hurt with every breath he took, and he couldn’t wait to be back in a warm environment soon.
Their snowball fight had escalated into an all-out snowball war somewhere along the way and Atlas was pretty sure they had smashed a few windows in their carelessness. Luckily they weren’t caught, and although it wasn’t anything to be proud of at their age, they had fun and that was all that counted. It was also a very educational experience for Atlas to see so many Illusion spells in action.
“I can’t wait to get inside,” Starswirl panted. “Also, a warm shower would be nice right about now…”
Atlas found himself agreeing wholeheartedly, but didn’t have it in him to say anything back. His focus was on the door they were approaching. More specifically the door to Doc Brown's lab. He pushed it open with his magic and allowed Starswirl to go in first, following shortly after him and shutting the door to keep the cold at bay. Immediately the warmth of the room caused both of them to release a relaxed breath as they just relished in the fact that they were out of the cold for a moment.
That moment of relaxation was cut short, however, by a chicken running past them while clucking loudly. Both of them stared at the retreating chicken in confusion, as several more ran past them, seemingly running away from something.
“Is this normal?” Starswirl asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’d love to say that it isn’t, but at this point, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Atlas replied. “Brown Diamond can be a bit… eccentric. Who knows what twisted thing he’s researching this time.”
“I wonder what he needs all these animals for…” Starswirl said, focusing his attention on something to their right.
A few cages could be seen sticking over the chaos that littered the floor all around them, each of them containing a different animal. Now that it was mentioned, Atlas noticed the smell that always came with animals that were gathered in a closed space, as well as the various sounds they made.
“Well, considering he’s the only one that knows where the books currently are in this mess, I guess we’re about to find out,” Atlas said and started to walk towards the animal cages, where he suspected Doc Brown to be.
They rounded a pile of books and came face to face with even more animals in cages. The cages were formed up in a wide circle, which had a complicated looking runic circle drawn on its inside. Finally, at the center, was Doc Brown, currently busy with adding more runes to the array. While Atlas was quite proficient in all things runes, the array that Doc Brown was currently finishing was one he had never seen before, meaning that this must be a newly designed spell. The presence of animals in the room was concerning to Atlas.
“Hey Doc?” Atlas called out to him, not daring to step into the runic circle. “What are you up to? And what are all those animals for?”
Doc Brown visibly jumped at hearing Atlas’ voice, clearly too absorbed in his work to notice the two coming in. He frantically looked around until he spotted Atlas and Starswirl standing outside his circle, eyeing him curiously. Adopting a fake smile and looking uncomfortable with their presence he addressed them.
“Oh hey, Atlas… and Atlas’ friend” He nodded to each of them. “I didn’t expect you here today.” He added with a nervous chuckle. “What brings you by?”
“I wanted to show Starswirl the books on runes…” Atlas explained, now on high alert. Doc Brown was acting way to nervous, meaning he was up to something Atlas would usually stop him from doing. “What’s that array for, Doc?” He asked accusingly.
“What array?” Doc Brown asked obliviously. “Oh this one? Hadn’t even noticed it… weird…”
“Don’t play games with me Doc,” Atlas said calmly. “Just tell me what this circle is for, and why there are so many animals here.”
Atlas’ tone left no room for debate, and Doc Brown knew it, judging by his facial expression. Looking around, Atlas could see that Doc Brown had gathered animals of all shapes and sizes. Chickens, goats, lizards, deer, bats, it even looked like there was a bear tucked away somewhere in the back. He couldn’t see into some of the cages, but the more animals he saw, the more confused Atlas got.
“Well, what is it?” Atlas asked impatiently.
Doc Brown mumbled something incoherent while looking to the ground. He looked like a kid that was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, pawing at the ground with his hoof.
“Speak up!” Atlas demanded.
“I’m conducting an experiment on the effects of runes when applied to living beings!” Doc Brown blurted out.
Starswirl looked slightly disgusted at the statement, but was mostly confused, since he didn’t know much about the subject. Meanwhile, all the color was draining from Atlas’ face. He very clearly remembered the passage in one of the books that explicitly forbade applying runes to anything that lived. On one side it was just cruel, but even worse, it had mostly unpredictable outcomes.
“Doc,” Atlas said determinedly. “Step away from the array…”
“No!” Doc brown called back in a panic. “Can’t you see how valuable this research is? I’ve spent so long perfecting this array!”
By now, Starswirl had picked up on the fact that something was very wrong here. He moved into a stance that would allow him to either run or intervene at a moment's notice.
“What’s going on?” Starswirl whispered to Atlas.
“Whatever happens, we can’t let him complete that array,” Atlas whispered back. “Worst case scenario he blows up the whole academy…”
Starswirl was momentarily stunned, before his face turned serious and he fixated on Doc Brown, ready to act if things went south.
“You know what the books said about this Doc! You’re going to kill us all!” Atlas rebutted.
“No! No, no, no! You don’t understand!” Doc Brown pleaded. “We don’t have all the books, there is bound to be more on this in one of the books we lost! A safe way! I’m sure my array will work Atlas, I’ve been preparing for this moment for weeks now!”
“Doc, I need you to step outside the array,” Atlas said calmly, beckoning for him to come towards him. “If I have to, I’ll stop you from doing this by force. I’m sure neither of us wants that.”
Doc Brown’s face took on a look of betrayal, the nervous smile he had sported up until now vanished from his features. He took one step forward and Atlas let out a breath he had been holding.
“I’m sorry,” Doc Brown said, his horn lighting up.
A single rune was stamped into the floor, right where his recently moved hoof rested, completing one of the many circles. Immediately afterward, a dome-like shield formed around the whole area, encompassing the array, as well as all the animal cages. The spell that Starswirl flung at Doc Brown evaporated uselessly against the shield.
“No!” Atlas shouted. “You can’t do this Doc!”
Time was of the essence now, and Atlas was already flinging combat spells against the shield, which didn’t even flicker slightly under Atlas’ and Starswirls combined efforts. Meanwhile, Doc Brown had returned to his array, adding runes like there was no tomorrow. Which might actually turn out to be true, in this case.
“There’s still time to stop!” Atlas called out desperately. “You don’t have to do this!”
The shield was still being pelted by ice and energy attacks, the noise upsetting all of the animals inside.
“I have to!” Doc Brown shouted back. “Just imagine all the good a spell like this could do! It could save the whole kingdom from starvation, Atlas! Just imagine it… they’re going to write a book about me after this…” Doc Brown cackled after he said this, putting the last rune on the ground.
The whole array lit up in a vivid green for a moment, before dimming itself to a constant soft glow. Atlas could feel the energy in the air, apparently, there were Runes used in the circle that had been gathering mana for a while now.
“You’re insane!” Atlas realized. “You’ve finally gone off the deep end! Listen to me! They won’t write books about you for this! You’re going to kill us all!”
Unaffected by Atlas’ words, Doc Brown went to one of the cages that contained a mountain goat. He opened it up, leading the animal out with his magic and towards the center of the array.
“Do you know a powerful shield spell?” Atlas asked resigned.
“No, you?” Starswirl answered.
“Yeah, just support me…”
With a sad look, Atlas cast a shield spell he’d learned from Amethyst and Starswirl immediately channeled his mana into the spell to make it more stable.
Inside the dome, Doc Brown turned to face Atlas and looked him right in the eyes.
“For the good of our tribe…” Doc Brown said with a straight face, his horn lighting up to activate the array.
Atlas just looked at his long-time co-worker and friend, as the ground began to shake under them. Things were starting to fall over all over the laboratory as the rumbling intensified. Atlas watched as Doc Brown closed his eyes, sure that his spell would succeed, a calm smile appeared on his face again. Soon after, the goat started to shine in a bright light, bathing Atlas’ world in a sea of white, until everything turned black.
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Atlas groaned in pain as he woke up. His everything was hurting, and he was pretty sure that he was buried under… something. He opened his eyes to find himself encased in darkness. After taking a moment to try and re-orient himself he started to shimmy around in the tight space he’d found himself in and felt something shift on top of him. He powered up a levitation spell and tried to lift off whatever was on him, only to be assaulted by a blinding pain from his horn. It would seem that he hit it on something, so magic was out of the equation for now.
At least the short burst of levitation caused a chain reaction, and most of the rubble that covered him shifted to the side. The weight on him now was considerably lessened as Atlas hauled himself out of his momentary prison and took a look around.
The lab was in ruins.
Book pages were strewn all over the floor, along with various knick-knacks and pieces of the ceiling which had collapsed partially. Dust was whirling around while a few rays of moonlight managed to pierce the clouds above and illuminate the lab through the holes in the roof.
Apparently, Atlas was buried by bits and pieces of the roof, and judging by the white tail sticking out of the rubble where Atlas was just before, Starswirl suffered a similar fate. Atlas began clearing the debris with his hooves, his body protesting during the process. It didn’t take him long to uncover Starswirl who was still unconscious, but at least he was breathing.
Atlas lightly tapped his cheek with his hoof a few times in an attempt to wake him up. Starswirl didn’t react at all, but at least he was alive. Atlas cleared the rest of the rubble off him and put him into a more comfortable position.
Turning around, Atlas faced ground zero. The roof had collapsed over where Doc had been as well, burying everything under it. The animal cages were deformed and empty, whether they just escaped or simply vanished, Atlas couldn’t tell. No indication of what happened to Doc Brown was readily apparent, so with a sigh, Atlas walked over to the pile and started digging.
At least the whole academy wasn’t blown to kingdom come.
For a good ten minutes, Atlas kept digging around, finding neither hide nor hair of Brown Diamond, or the goat for that matter. At this point, he began to wonder where the guards were. They should have been here by now, collapsing roofs and earthquakes weren’t exactly hard to miss after all. Nonetheless, he kept at his task. It took another five minutes of solitary digging around until he finally found something.
After clearing an especially big rock, he came face to face with a horn. He recognized it, having seen it on the goat just before the… accident. Now his curiosity was piqued, did Doc Brown actually succeed in whatever he was trying to do?
Intrigued he started to unearth the goat at a faster pace, his face growing more and more concerned, the more he unearthed.
After he completely cleared all the rubble, he stared down incredulously. What was currently curled up on the floor before him, sleeping as if nothing was wrong with the world, was certainly no goat. The elongated body seemed to be stitched together from various animal parts. It had tiny wings on its back, the upper half of its body was covered in fur, the lower half in scales and at the tip of its tail was a tuft of white hair. The four limbs it sported were mismatched as well. A bear paw, a chicken leg as a hand, a lizard leg and some hoofed animals leg.
There was no mistaking it, the being that slept in front of Atlas was none other than Discord himself. Chaos made flesh. And to top it all off, he was barely the size of a baby.
Atlas’ eye twitched at the sight. Of all the things that could have come out of this experiment… this was wholly unexpected and Atlas had no idea what he was supposed to do now. As he was contemplating what to do, the small draconequus opened his eyes. Two yellow orbs with red irises settled on Atlas’ form, eying him curiously. Atlas stared back nervously since pretty much anything could happen in the presence of Discord, no matter how big he was.
“Ma-ma?” Discord said curiously with a childlike innocence.
Atlas reeled back at the single word that was spoken, his eyes widening in surprise.
“Ma-ma?” Discord asked again, his eyes fixated on Atlas, who slowly started to piece together what had happened.
“Ahh, shit.”