Atlas’ group had finally arrived at Twilight's castle. It didn’t take too much time to get there from the Ponyville train station, but considering the long train-ride, it might as well have been forever in Atlas’ opinion.
All Atlas had written in his notes about Twilight's castle were the words: “Giant fuck-off crystal tree”, which left him slightly confused, but as soon as he got his first look at it, he immediately understood what his past self meant. The castle seemed to be made from a singular, gigantic gem, formed into the shape of a tree. Considering where the castle came from, it would probably be worth investigating whether or not it was made from pure mana crystal or not.
For now, Twilight led them past her “humble” abode. Just as she had said, there was a large seemingly unused field behind it, with nothing occupying it aside from the unnaturally green grass Equestria was known for. Atlas let his scrutinizing gaze wander over the open space, noting that it was quite uneven. In the distance to their left was what looked like Applejack’s apple orchard, the Everfree Forest looming just behind it, while to their right, Canterlot could be seen, resting comfortably on the side of it’s accompanying mountain.
The others patiently waited for Atlas to speak up as he was quite obviously judging the fields’ usefulness. He was currently running some mental calculations on whether or not his array would fit without disturbing too much of the local flora and fauna, but seeing as it was pretty much open space all the way to Canterlot, he had little doubt in his mind.
“Alright, this will do,” Atlas said while turning around to face the others. “It’s a bit uneven, but that’s nothing I can’t solve.”
“That’s good to hear,” Luna replied while Twilight seemed like a weight had fallen off her shoulders. “So how much space will you actually need?”
“As I’ve said before, this array will be big… and I mean really big,” Atlas said, turning towards the field while lighting his horn with a blue aura. “I’d say… about this big.”
Atlas horn suddenly started to glow a lot brighter. Twilight started to feel a bit uncomfortable since she could feel the ambient mana level jump to an unusually high level. Whatever Atlas was doing, it obviously required a lot of mana, and although she wasn’t completely sure, she felt like some of her mana pool was stolen to power the spell.
A small, blue circle appeared before Atlas, before being joined by five others that orbited the first one. An even larger circle was drawn around the whole formation, containing the first six. Shortly after the circles seemed to shoot up into the air and away from them, until they were so small they could barely see them. Twilight was about to ask what Atlas was doing, when the formation started to rapidly grow in size. A huge array of blue light was now floating above them, faintly illuminating everything with a blue hue.
Atlas slowly brought the circles down towards the ground, adjusting its position from time to time until they made contact with the ground, the closest part being just about six feet away from them. They could hear a faint sizzling sound, before smoke started to rise everywhere the magic touched, leaving behind blackened ground and burnt grass in its wake.
“Yeah, that looks about the right size…” Atlas said, critically eyeing his work.
“Could you do something like that?” Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight, leaning in closer so the other two wouldn’t hear.
“Maybe… but I’d be pretty winded after using a spell of this magnitude…” Twilight whispered back. “He looks like he barely used any of his mana.”
“Thank you for conveniently marking it like this,” Luna said with a slight frown on her face. “But could you maybe refrain from stealing our mana to power your spells next time?” she added grumpily, a small shiver running through her body. “It feels unpleasant to have it forcefully taken.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that,” Atlas replied, the two of them having confirmed Twilights suspicion. “I’m just so used to using the ambient mana from my array in the mountain that I probably did it unconsciously.”
“Well, it’s alright,” Luna waved him off. “Just take it into consideration, if somebody with a small mana pool was around, they might react adversely to having it emptied without so much as a notice.”
“Noted,” Atlas nodded. “Speaking of, are you two okay?”
“I’m fine, my mana pool is rather large and you didn’t take too much,” Twilight replied. “It did feel weird though. Kinda felt like what Tirek did to us, but less… aggressive, I guess.”
“I think I’m fine?” Rainbow said, inspecting her wings. “I honestly have no idea how large my mana pool is, but I guess if I’m not feeling weird. That’s good, right?”
“It is,” Twilight replied. “If you’re running low on mana you should start to feel a bit drowsy, like after a hard workout.”
“In that case, I’m good,” Rainbow smiled. “No harm done.”
“That’s good to hear,” Atlas said. “Now, I’ve marked the relative size of the array, but I can’t say this is final. I’ll have to make the final design tonight, or at the very least a first draft, and I should be able to tell you the exact size tomorrow. I’ll probably terraform this place tomorrow as well. Twilight, would you be able to set me up with scrolls and ink for tonight? I’m gonna need a lot.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Twilight confirmed. “We always keep our scrolls, inkwells, and quills well stocked, so feel free to take as much as you need.”
“Very good,” Atlas said with a smile. “Now, I believe you mentioned dinner earlier?”
Twilight checked the position of the sun in the sky to guesstimate the time. After confirming that it was well on it’s way towards the horizon, she spoke up. “I do believe Spike should have finished cooking by now. Why don’t we go back to the castle and discuss your further plans while eating?”
“That sounds great,” Atlas said. “I’m actually pretty hungry.”
“Alright then, Rainbow, are you coming too?” Twilight only asked Rainbow Dash, since it was already decided that Luna would stay at the castle as well.
“Sure thing,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “I’m not sure I could miss this dinner, even if I wanted,” she added with a shrug.
Having decided on what to do, they turned around and headed back to the castle. Since they weren’t that far away in the first place, it took them barely a minute to reach the front door, which was magically opened by Twilight. One by one they shuffled inside, Atlas admiring the formation of the crystal walls.
“You said this grew just like this?” Atlas asked Twilight. “With hallways, rooms, booksehelves and everything? You didn’t form it afterwards?”
“Yes, it grew just like this,” Twilight confirmed. “We added a few things like mana lamps, the kitchen and of course all the furniture, but otherwise we haven’t changed anything about it.”
“Interesting…” Atlas mumbled and went over to the closest wall to touch it. It was somewhat warm to the touch and as smooth as can be, the faint feeling of mana trapped within the walls, confirming his earlier suspicions about this being made from mana crystals. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said, causing is companions to stop and curiously look back at him.
Atlas lit up his horn, running a scanning spell on the crystal in front of him. The feedback he got felt extremely familiar. This was definitely the crystal tree that he and Starswirl had made together, although why it got so big and changed locations was a mystery to Atlas. Apparently gathering crazy amounts of mana in a small space caused more changes than just making it bigger, as was the case with the original elements, he’d definitely have to look into that a lot closer once he had the time to.
Atlas furrowed his brow as he felt something move past the part of the castle he was currently scanning. He redoubled his efforts, putting more and more mana into his spell, causing his horn to once again light up like a urban, white neighbourhood on christmas. Twilight and the others respectfully moved back a few steps, as they had no idea what he was doing exactly, but seeing as the whole castle was slowly starting to glow a little, two of them could make an educated guess while the third one looked confused.
Bit by bit, the whole castle was scanned by Atlas, and what he found would shock anypony! Although faint, he could feel runes moving about inside the walls. Runes he had carved himself over a thousand years ago.
It would seem like the castle was actually the original tree of harmony, although something caused it change rather drastically. It almost felt as if it had a will of its own, it felt… alive. What cemented this belief was that the castle was actually starting to react to Atlas’ spell, sending faint pulses of mana his way and redirecting his attention to a very specific part of the castle, namely the roots.
Once he focused his efforts towards what lurked below the ground, he felt the response of six, rather unique magical energies. A smile appeared on his face as he recognized the elements of harmony, safely tucked away in between the roots of the castle. It would appear Twilight had misunderstood a few things, and the elements were still here after all.
Just to make sure, Atlas scanned each of the elements in turn, curious to see in what ways they had changed. If the tree was anything to go by, it wouldn’t be strange to find them changed as well. Contrary to his theory, they seemed to be just about the same size as when he made them, although their form had changed slightly. If Twilights recollection was anything to go by, they changed form to resemble their wielders cutie marks.
Even though their physical change was negligible, what was inside them definitely wasn’t. Even more than the castle, the elements seemed almost alive. Every element seemed to recognize Atlas’ magical signature and they responded to his presence by sending magical pulses his way, the separate pulses having a vastly different feeling they wanted to convey.
It would seem that the elements hadn’t just matched their wielders cutie marks, apparently they also matched their personalities. One of the pulses seemed really happy and bubbly, while another was more refined and controlled, and the others similarly resembled the mane six’s personality.
As if to show off what they could do, the elements, once again, directed his attention elsewhere. A link went out from every element, connecting to various points within Ponyville, two of them standing very close to him. He followed the link towards what he assumed was Twilight and could briefly feel her emotions.
Wonder, astonishment, curiosity and respect all flowed back to Atlas through the link, before a slight shock went through the link. Apparently Twilight had felt the invasion of herself but didn’t know what exactly was happening, as confusion followed shortly after. Atlas chuckled and cut their connection.
The elements weren’t done yet though and Atlas could feel his attention being drawn towards the top of the castle. Now that he knew what to look for, he could feel the the whole castle was giving off a magical aura that was intermingling with the natural mana of Equestria. It mixed itself in and constantly sent pieces of itself all across Equestria, forming a connection with the whole country. When Atlas tapped into this connection, he took a step back with a short yelp, his closed eyes shooting open in surprise.
“Father?” Luna asked startled. “What happened?”
Atlas simply stood there, staring at the wall in front of him in amazement. It was only for a split-second, but he very clearly felt connected to every pony in Equestria, which assaulted his brain with sensory overload due to the many emotions flowing back into him. Atlas blinked a few times to re-adjust himself to not being a few million ponies at once, while the others were growing antsy and worry. Luna was just about to ask again when Atlas spoke up.
“This is fucking amazing!” Atlas almost-shouted. “This castle of yours is the most magically astounding thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life!”
“What?” Twilight asked with wide eyes.
“Have you not run any scans on it yet?” Atlas asked, semi-disappointed with the complete lack of excitement from his companions.
“I’m afraid I haven’t had the time yet,” Twilight responded matter-of-factly. “We departed for Canterlot the same day that the castle appeared here…”
“Oh…” Atlas said, his excitement sufficiently dampened. “Well, just know that this isn’t any old castle… I might even be able to use it for my array in some fashion… I would need to adjust a few things here and there and run some more scans…”
“Uhhh… Is he okay?” Rainbow asked. “He’s kinda starting to look like you when you had your smarty-pants incident,” she added towards Twilight, causing her to blush in embarrassment.
“I’m sure he’s just fine,” Luna said with a roll of her eyes. “He must have found out something rather amazing. He only gets like this when he has an epiphany of sorts. Father! Father!” Luna tried to get Atlas’ attention in vain, so she stepped up to him and lightly tapped his horn, causing him to flinch back.
“Hey! What gives?” Atlas asked undignified.
“I’m sure whatever you just found out is mind-bogglingly amazing, but why don’t tell us what you found over a nice meal? We were going to eat, do you remember?” Luna replied.
“Oh, yeah… that,” Atlas said sheepishly. “Sure, almost forgot about that.”
“Yes, you always did have a bad habit of skipping meals when you were neck deep in your research,” Luna said, turning around to once again head after Twilight towards the dining hall.
“He’s starting to feel more and more like a male you,” Rainbow jabbed at Twilight, whispering so Luna and Atlas couldn’t hear.
“Does not!” Twilight shot back with a hiss.
“Does too!” Rainbow Dash guffawed, taking to the air to avoid Twilight’s playful jab.
“Oh yeah, the elements are below the castle by the way,” Atlas casually said as they arrived at the door to the dining room.
“They’re what!?” Twilight squawked, spinning around to face him.
“Yeah, they’re just chilling down there,” Atlas said. “And they will remain there until I say otherwise. Don’t need you digging them up for no good reason,” he added, suddenly a lot more serious.
“I wouldn’t just go and dig them up like that!” Twilight replied back.
“Well, the last time I told somepony not to touch them unless completely necessary, they started fucking loaning them out like it was going out of style!” Atlas countered. “Can’t blame a man for making sure, can you?”
Twilight wanted to reply, but found here words failing her. After a few seconds of having an impromptu stare-off with Atlas she let out a huge sigh.
“I still wouldn’t have…” Twilight grumbled to herself while turning around again, opening the door with her magic and walking inside, closely followed by everypony else.
“Well, whether you would or wouldn’t have doesn’t really matter right now,” Atlas said with a confused face. “We’ve got lots to discuss and no time to lose. Also, why is it so god-damn dark in here? Could somebody turn on the lights?”
“SURPRISE!”
The lights turned on at his request, revealing a shit-ton of ponies present in the rather large dining hall they’d entered. Confetti was falling towards the ground, most likely having been fired from the blue cannon in the corner to his left. In the front of the mob, which almost certainly consisted of at least half of Ponyville, stood the pink menace herself, Pinkie Pie. Her hooves were thrown up into the air and a shit-eating grin was decorating her face, making it not hard to guess who was behind this “little” get-together.
“Ahhh, Fuck!” Atlas muttered to himself.