With eyes wide in disbelief, Atlas slowly crept toward his old friend, unsure of whether it was an imposter, or someone playing a cruel joke. “Starswirl?” Atlas asked tentatively. “Is… is that really you?”
He still looked exactly like he did at the time of the accident. Yet, it was a bit much of a surprise to just instantly accept the facts before him.
“Oh yes, definitely,” Starswirl replied. “Could you tell me how much time has passed? The note you left didn’t really specify, but judging by how much things have changed, I’d say quite a bit more than five minutes… right?”
“That would be the biggest underestimation I’ve ever heard,” Atlas said, finally warming up to the returned Starswirl. “Come here you old oaf, I’ve missed you!”
Atlas went over to Starswirl, embracing him in a totally bromantic way, much to the excitement to Celestia and Luna who were content with just watching up to this point.
“I would say the same, but really, it’s been about two days since I’ve last seen you. Sooo…” Starswirl said, letting Atlas indulge in his little moment. “So, why don’t you tell me why you’re now living in a castle and dining with the two gorgeously beautiful and newly appointed rulers of Equestria? Something going on here that I should know about?”
“Oh, you flatter us,” Celestia said, waving Starswirl off.
“Heavens no,” Atlas laughed out loud, letting go of Starswirl and turning to face the sisters. “Starswirl, this is Celestia and Luna, they’re my daughters.”
“Ohohoo, would you look at that!” Starswirl exclaimed loudly. “Barely gone two days and somepony lured you out of that cave and you knock them up! Don’t tell me it was someone I know? Who’s the lucky mare?”
“You wish, they’re adopted,” Atlas said. “They’re the daughters of an old friend of mine, who sadly isn’t with us anymore. I’ve been taking care of them as if they were my own.”
“Yes, Atlas has been a wonderful father to us,” Luna replied from the sidelines.
“I’m sure he was and will continue to be,” Starswirl nodded. “So what did Discord have to say to all of this? Where is the rascal anyway?”
Immediately, all of the color drained from Atlas face to the point where one could have said his fur got a little more white. Celestia and Luna furrowed their brows as soon as the question left Starswirl’s mouth, and they turned to Atlas for answers, whose brain was working in overtime.
“Well, where is…”
“AHAHAHA, Starswirl you old jokester, has traveling through time messed up your brain a bit?” Atlas interrupted Starswirl louder than he had to, much to everypony else's confusion. “Come, we should get that looked at! I actually have a nice lab in the basement, you’re going to love it!”
“Wait, what?” Starswirl asked as Atlas threw a leg over Starswirl's shoulder and started to lead him towards the exit. “What’s happening.”
“Just follow me!” Atlas said harshly under his breath. “Don’t mind the old codger, he’s a bit weird in the head sometimes!” he called back towards the confused sisters. “And please don’t disturb me for the next two or three days, we have a lot of catching up to do!”
Just like that, the two stallions left the room, one of them less willing than the other, leaving behind two incredibly confused alicorns.
“What just happened?” Celestia asked.
“I have absolutely no idea, dearest sister,” Luna deadpanned and resumed eating her dinner. “But I can’t say it’s the weirdest thing our father ever did, so whatever. We’ll find out if he wants us to.”
“And that’s pretty much everything that happened since your little experiment failed oh so spectacularly,” Atlas finished his recounting.
“Wow... over thirty years...” Starswirl replied, deep in thought. “Looks like I've missed a lot.”
After Atlas had lead Starswirl into his top-secret research facility, he had told him everything that Starswirl missed. Starswirl had just sat there and calmly listened to the whole story without commenting much along the way, just letting Atlas talk.
“So, Discord really is…” Atlas nodded to answer Starswirl's inquiring look. “That’s a shame. I’ll have to visit him in the gardens as often as I can, then.”
“So you’ll keep this a secret?” Atlas asked.
“It’s what he wanted,” Starswirl replied. “And coming clean would create a lot of problems neither of us could really afford I’d imagine. Will you ever tell the sisters that they actually have imprisoned their brother?”
“When the time is right, yes,” Atlas sighed. “But that’s over a thousand years off.”
“So you’re saying you’re confident that they’ll release him of their own accord in the future?” Atlas nodded. “Well, that’s good, at least. Maybe I’ll get to meet him again after all…”
“Does that mean…?”
“Yup, complete and utter failure,” Starswirl shook his head sadly. “My time is still stopped, it didn’t even budge…”
“Well fuck,” Atlas replied. “All that missed time, and nothing to show for it.”
“If nothing else, I’ve proven that time travel is possible,” Starswirl commented. “Even if it’s incredibly fickle. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to go forward from here, and eventually solve my little… problem.”
“Spoken like a true researcher,” Atlas smiled. “Feel free to use my facilities down here, I’m sure Celestia and Luna will give you a room if you ask for it.”
“That would be great, but it looks like we’re back to dank underground caves again, huh? Even if it’s underneath a palace, it’s not much of an upgrade…”
“The equipment I have is leaps and bounds better compared to the old lab,” Atlas remarked proudly. “Only the best of the best!”
“That remains to be seen,” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you show me around? I’d like to see what you’ve been working on.”
“Oh, I believe I’m about to blow your mind, dear friend,” Atlas laughed, getting up in order to start a tour for Starswirl. “And afterwards, I could use a little of your expertise, if you don’t mind. I’ve been working on something involving illusion spells on the side, but I’ve hit the proverbial wall recently, so you showing up couldn’t have been timed any better!”
“If it's about illusions, you’ve got the right pony,” Starswirl smiled confidently while following Atlas out the room. “But blow my mind, huh? What insane things has your brain thought up while I was gone? Should I be worried?”
“Maybe a little bit,” Atlas laughed. “Some of my new toys could blow up a sizable part of the country, if handled wrong.”
“Oh, I do love me some explosions…”
“Okay, so this will just be a proof of concept for now,” Atlas said, getting ready for an experiment he’d planned together with Starswirl over the last couple of days. “So we’re keeping the array simple.”
“Of course, what did you have in mind?” Starswirl asked from the opposite side of the table they were sitting at.
“Just a simple acceleration array,” Atlas replied. “I’ve drawn it on this paper here, so if you’d do the honors.”
Atlas slid over a piece of paper that contained the promised array. Being relative simple in purpose, the array merely contained seven runes. At this point, Atlas wouldn’t even have to think twice to make an array like this, so he’d just hastily scribbled it down. Starswirl studied the array for a moment before nodding.
“Looks easy enough,” Starswirl commented. “Remind me again why you can’t do this on your own?”
“My illusions lack detail at this point,” Atlas sighed. “Since runes need to be drawn rather exactly, I’d probably just cause an explosion if I tried, which would mess with the test result. I do look forward to illusion boot-camp if this works.”
“Alright, if you say so,” Starswirl shrugged. “Then, if you don’t mind, I shall begin.”
After receiving the go-ahead from Atlas, Starswirl’s horn started to glow. A mere few moments later, a perfect copy of Atlas’ drawing appeared between the two. The array was blue and slightly translucent, just like Starswirl's magic and floated between them, no bigger than either of their heads. A quick quality check from Atlas confirmed that the array was indeed, perfect.
“I shall move on to the second part, then,” Atlas nodded, his horn lighting up in a bright purple.
A wave of purple mana washed over Starswirl's illusion, the mana seemingly sticking to the illusion like an adhesive of some sort. Due to this, the illusion gained a purple outline, making the previously 2D illusion, 3D. Atlas then cast a spell he had learned a long time ago, from his friend Amethyst: Construct magic. His mana hardened in mid-air, now a solid construct and a technically perfect rune array.
“Alright, you can cancel your spell now,” Atlas said, prompting Star Swirls Illusion to disappear, leaving behind the construct array. “Try throwing something through the center.”
Starswirl grabbed an apple from their nearby lunch tray with his magic, and lightly chucked it through the array. It passed through without any issue whatsoever and landed on the table with a ‘thunk’.
“Looks like the array still needs to be powered up regularly,” Atlas clicked his tongue. “Would have been nice if it’d worked just like that, considering it’s drawn with pure mana.”
“Want me to do it?” Starswirl asked.
“Nah, in the end I’ll have to do everything on my own, so this will be a nice test.”
Slowly, Atlas started to pump more magic into his spell. He was taken aback by the amount of concentration and control he needed to do this simple task he’d done so often. After all, he almost had to think two things at once, keeping up the construct while simultaneously filling it with mana. Eventually, he managed to complete the charging process, which was signified by the familiar pulse of light from the array.
“Alright, try throwing the apple again…”
Once again, the apple was lifted up by Starswirl and thrown straight through the center of the floating array. This time, as soon as it touched the array, it was like a bullet from a gun and splattered against the wall.
The array dissolved in midair as Atlas completely lost concentration, his head snapping around to look at the stain on the wall. Starswirl was equally surprised by the strong reaction, staring as apple juice slowly dribbled down the stone.
“That… wasn’t supposed to be this strong,” Atlas cautiously said. “That was intended to just give it a little boost. Not… not this…” Atlas waved his hoof towards the wall, followed by stunned silence.
“So… I guess… concept proven?” Starswirl asked.
“I’d say that’s a wee bit more than just proven,” Atlas said slowly. “I think we might have stumbled upon something stupidly powerful…”
“After seeing those mana batteries of yours, I’m not even sure if this counts as powerful anymore.”
“Shush, let me have my moment.”
“No,” a sleazy grin spread across Starswirl's face. “You said something about a boot-camp earlier…”
“You…” Atlas slowly turned around with squinted eyes. “You’re not going to go totally overboard with this, right?”
Starswirl simply opted to say nothing and just continue to grin at Atlas, which was getting continuously more nervous.
“Right?”