//------------------------------// // 1. New Runes // Story: Divine Indifference // by Orthoros //------------------------------// Starswirl leisurely walked up the path leading towards Atlas’ secret lab. He hadn’t visited in a few days as he’d taken up living in the nearby village and had to uphold appearances there. Ponies had already begun asking him where he was disappearing to for days at a time, and he didn’t want the villagers to start gossiping. For now, he was just telling them he liked to escape from his research by camping and exploring the great outdoors, which was apparently a good enough excuse in the meantime. As he rounded the last bend in the path, the cave’s entrance came into view briefly before an explosion rang out, accompanied by a small tremor that sent a huge billow of black smoke billowing out of the small opening. Unfazed, Starswirl shook his head in disappointment before he continued on his way. Explosions were a regular occurrence when experimenting with new spells. Even small mistakes could make an otherwise mundane spell go haywire, especially when experimenting with runic magic; just one misplaced placed rune could have devastating results. Starswirl thanked the wards they’d set up for doing their job, or otherwise their little secret would have likely been discovered on day one. It didn’t take long before a gust of strong wind fanned out the remaining smoke from the cave’s interior, indicating that Atlas or Discord were already busy cleaning up. By the time Starswirl entered the cave proper the smoke had dissipated, Atlas stood above a charred runic array in the center of the room. Judging by Atlas’ expression, he was already busy trying to figure out what went wrong by staring at the array as hard as he could. “You should be glad the wards keep the townsfolk away, and the cave in one piece,” Starswirl said mockingly, “otherwise you’d be homeless several times over, seeing as everything you do tends to violently explode.” “I thank them every night before going to sleep, praying for them not to fail me the next,” Atlas said without looking up before furrowing his brows. “You could make a religion out of that…” he muttered. “A what now?” Starswirl asked as he reached the array on the ground. “Nevermind,” Atlas said with a dismissive wave of a hoof. “Good to see you again; villagers give you any trouble?” “Nothing but the usual questions,” Starswirl replied. “They’re happy as long as I provide my services while I’m there.” “True enough,” Atlas said. “Any news?” Atlas asked Starswirl more or less the same question every time he arrived. Since Discord and him spent most of their time as cave-dwellers, they were more or less cut off from the rest of the world. Equestria was at a delicate stage in its development right now, and keeping track of everything going on was close to impossible. Cities were rapidly expanding and tensions were still high even though the three tribes were trying to live together in harmony. Apart from regular news, Atlas had Starswirl promise to keep an ear open for anything relating to any of their friends, as well as anything relating to a weird new race of ponies appearing. He didn’t tell Starswirl why he wanted information on it, and simply asked him to trust him on this one. It had kind of blown Starswirl’s mind when he finally got his questions relating to Atlas’ immortality answered, and Atlas didn’t want to agitate him further. Atlas’ slip of the tongue back in the Crystal Kingdom had spawned questions Atlas didn’t really want to answer, but Starswirl had been insistent until Atlas broke drown and told him. Starswirl only got the abridged version, but he was aware that Atlas could not be permanently killed and possessed all six affinities now. Of course it was somewhat hard for Starswirl to believe that immortality was an actual thing, but a short demonstration changed his opinion on the matter. “Nothing too interesting,” Starswirl replied off-hoof while looking at the runic array. “Just the occasional fights, you know, the usual. Although, there are some rumors circulating about some unicorns to the north trying to make a new Crystal Kingdom. It’s probably another tribalist fantasy if you ask me, I mean, why would anypony go back to the cold if they just escaped it?” “Interesting…” Atlas said, as the rumor rekindled a few old memories. “I wouldn’t dismiss it just yet, there might be something to it.” “If you say so.” Starswirl said, having grown used to Atlas’ uncanny foresight into what rumors held merit. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing at a rune he was unfamiliar with in the array. “I’m trying to create a new rune…” Atlas sighed. “But it’s proving to be close to impossible.” “A new rune?” Starswirl asked. “Is that even possible?” “Well, do you remember how I said I lost most of the books containing knowledge about runes?” Starswirl nodded. “I’m sure there were a lot more runes than the ones we currently know about. So for now it’s just a matter of trial and error in finding them and figuring out what they do and where they fit in…” “It sounds so simple when you say it like that,” Starswirl said. “I’d imagine it’s everything but…” “And you’d be completely right,” Atlas said, motioning for Starswirl to follow him towards a nearby work station that was littered with books and documents. “I’ve been trying to find some sort of basic formula on which runes are built, a common recipe so to speak, from there I could build new ones from it. But... the process is slower than old people fucking, and the few tests I’ve run have ended up much the same way as this one did.” Atlas waved in the general direction of the failed array behind him. “The worst part about all this is that I might have found a working rune along the way, but because I used it the wrong way I wouldn’t even know it...” “That sounds like you’re stuck with just making consecutive shots in the dark…” Starswirl said, wincing at the prospect. “Pretty much,” Atlas said, letting his gaze wander over the copious amounts of notes with thinly veiled disdain. Hades told him that it was imperative for him to learn all he could about runes, no matter how long it took. Part of Atlas wanted to spite him and just not do it, but Hades had helped him before and therefore deserved more than just a token effort from him. Even though he’d resolved himself to complete the task, no matter how long it took, after barely a month of trying to figure out how to make more runes he was already tempted to give up. Whenever he’d get too frustrated, he’d learn other spells from the books they took with them from the kingdom. It might not have been runes, but learning new spells from the various schools and the unique ways that only he could combine them was a welcome distraction. “Do you mind if I helped you out with that?” Starswirl asked intrigued. “I do like a challenge every now and then.” Atlas briefly considered it. While Starswirl wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable about runes as Atlas, he was more or less the only other pony that could help him since Discord wasn’t too interested in them. “Sure, if you can put your own experiments on hold for a while,” Atlas replied. “Eh, they can wait, I’m not exactly on the verge of anything ground breaking right now,” Starswirl said. “But before we start… where’s Discord?” he added while looking around for the elusive Draconequus. By now he’d usually have come to greet Starswirl. “He should be somewhere in the forest outside,” Atlas replied. “I think he’s secretly practicing for his next play. Why?” “I just wanted to ask him a few questions,” Starswirl replied. “Still looking into what makes him tick?” Atlas asked, the subject matter interesting him as well. “Well, yeah,” Starswirl said. “According to what we know, he shouldn’t even be able to exist and I’m just as curious to find some answers as you are. Figuring out how he works could benefit our understanding of magic tremendously.” “Agreed,” Atlas said thoughtfully. “But no anal probes or anything without his explicit consent.” Starswirl shot Atlas a confused and slightly disturbed look. “I… I don’t think that will be necessary…” “Good,” Atlas replied simply, not taking his eyes off the scroll he was currently re-reading for the tenth time since he wrote it. “Yeah…” Starswirl said slowly. “So how can I help?” -------------------------------------------------- “Alright, we’ll now start the test of the new rune, hereby dubbed ‘Lynx,’” Atlas said formally. After a few days of studying and heated academic discussions with Starswirl, they’d come up with a new potentially viable rune. And the only thing left was to see if their work would pay off, so Atlas, Starswirl, and Discord had gathered around the main room of the cave. While Atlas and Starswirl stood in the center, where they usually engraved arrays in the floor, Discord hung off to the side of the room close to the kitchen’s entrance, expecting the experiment to fail like so many others Atlas had attempted. Atlas and Starswirl nodded to each other that they were ready, and Atlas started the process of creating the array. It was a relatively short one, intended to just test the new rune. If everything went well, the new rune was supposed to provide a shortcut for them, allowing for certain arrays to be shortened considerably. Since Atlas was somewhat of an expert at this point, etching the runes took him close to no time at all, even though he took longer than usual, so he could add a bit of extra care with etching the new rune. When it was complete, he scanned it a few times for any mistakes before looking to Starswirl for confirmation who nodded his approval. Reassured, Atlas slowly started funneling magic into the array, this time using his new magic affinity. He’d found out that the purple mana actually seemed to work the best when runes were involved, so he powered most of his arrays with it these days. As usual, the array flashed once to signify that it was completely charged. A good sign, since most of his previous experiments had failed at this critical stage. Atlas and Starswirl exchanged a grin. At least the array seemed stable enough to not instantly explode once it had enough energy, both of them began to buzz with the excitement that the experiment wouldn't end in an explosion and singed fur. “I will now activate the array, which, if successful, should continue to power itself by absorbing ambient mana to maintain the ward.” Atlas stated while Discord diligently wrote down what was said. Everybody knew it wasn’t science unless you wrote it down somewhere. With a short burst of magic, Atlas gave the array the command to activate. He let himself briefly smile when it activated without issue, as it began to radiate a purple aura around the runes. They observed it for a few minutes, watching out for any inconsistencies or problems, but the circle just happily continued to do its job. “I hereby declare this experiment a success!” Atlas said with a full blown smile. “We’ve just created a new, working rune!” Starswirl and Discord joined in the merry mood, both whooping in celebration… when the array flickered once. The action wasn’t missed by anybody present causing their smiles to falter. “Ah, shit,” Atlas said, knowing exactly what would come next. One violent explosion later, Atlas found himself clearing the cave of smoke and the smell of burnt hair, as his mane had once again been slightly singed. Discord and Starswirl didn’t fare any better, albeit Discord took their fail with a lot more humor than the other two. “Back to the drawing board it is,” Atlas sighed. “But it was a good attempt…”