Divine Entertainment

by Orthoros


24. Encounters

“So what’s this thing called?” Belle asked.

“It’s called a snake.” Atlas explained to her.

A light brown snake with dark spots was currently curled around Atlas’s neck, enjoying a free ride. He had spotted it a few minutes ago sunbathing on a rock, and almost immediately went to play with it. Apparently he had a knack for handling snakes, as it latched onto him almost immediately.

“I’ve never actually seen one before.” Belle said amazed. “Can I touch it?”

“Probably.” Atlas responded, quite sure the snake was harmless.

Belle lifted a hoof towards the snake, which turned it’s head to look at her. After it stuck out it’s tongue, accompanied by a little hiss Belle retreated her hoof a bit. She steeled her resolve and petted Atlas’s brown companion on the head.

The snake seemed unperturbed by her action before it turned to face ahead.

“It feels so squishy, but hard at the same time!” Belle looked at Atlas like Christmas came early.

Atlas laughed at how easily Belle could be impressed.

“Must be because of the scales.” He told her.

Atlas explained to Belle how a snake's body worked and what different types there were, the latter soaking in every piece of information.

They walked along the mountain pass, as noon fast approached. To their right, the mountain stretched to the skies. To their left, a steep chasm awaited any uncareful ponies.

Crimson was currently scouting the nearby area for any signs of monsters. The fact that he could fly made it quite easy for him to check a wide area around them in a short time.

Atlas was just telling Belle how to differentiate venomous and non-venomous snakes, when Crimson landed next to him.

“Got a new friend?” Crimson asked almost immediately, eying the snake around Atlas’s neck.

“Yeah, he’s my new best friend.” Atlas replied, patting the snake's head. “Sorry Crimson.”

“You wound me, Atlas.” Crimson deadpanned. “Anyway, the coast is clear. Looks like we’ll pass through unnoticed.”

“Now that is some good news!” Atlas said jovially. “Right Belle?”

“Sure is!” She replied. Her statement was accompanied by a loud grumble from her stomach.

She flashed them a sheepish smile before they all agreed on an early lunch.

On their way through the forest they had stocked up on various fruits and other edible plants, so they could afford to splurge. As such, they indulged themselves on some juicy apples and the last of the stale bread from the High Rock.

“Does your little friend want something too?” Belle asked Atlas while looking at the snake perched on his head.

Atlas looked upwards, barely seeing the head of it poking over his mane. “Nah, snakes don’t really eat fruits, they eat smaller animals.” He explained to her. “I’m sure he can hunt his own food, besides, snakes eat maybe once every week or so.”

Crimson passed each of them an apple and some bread, which they gladly accepted.

“Fascinating.” Belle said with wide eyes.

“So how much longer do you reckon we will be on this pass?” Atlas asked between two bites of his apple.

“We should have crossed it by the time the sun starts to go down.” Crimson replied. “It’s a rather small range we’re on right now.”

“Uhhh!” Belle looked at him giddily. “Will we finally see the Crystal Kingdom once we’re on the other side?”

Crimson let out a small laugh. “Yes Belle, we should be able to see it briefly while descending. But It’s going to be really far away, so you won’t see a lot.”

“Still counts!” Belle said. She tossed the core of her apple in the air and caught it with her mouth on it’s descent. “I’m ready to go!”

Atlas and Crimson could see how excited she was, so they finished their meals quickly and got up. They all put their saddlebags back on, getting ready to continue their journey.

Right as Atlas made the first step towards their goal, the earth started to shake, throwing him off balance. Crimson reacted quickly and moved to his side, keeping him from falling over.

“WhaAat’s gOoing OoOn?” Belle asked, her voice comically wavering as the tremors got worse.

“Probably a rock slide!” Crimson shouted, hovering a few inches above ground. “Keep your eyes trained upwards, don’t get hit by any falling rocks!”

All of them looked up, training their eyes on the slanted side of the mountain. Even though they had an almost uninterrupted view to the top, no rocks could be seen falling towards them.

“It’s not a rockslide?” Crimson asked confused. “Then…” He let his eyes wander to the ground. “From below?”

The shaking arrived at it’s climax as the ground right in front of them burst open, pelting them with little stones.

“YeeeeHaaaaaw!” A voice could be heard through the noise.

The body of a huge snake-like being shot through the newly created hole in the ground. It’s head was pink, and the scales on its main body a matte purple. They watched for a full five seconds as the body shot out of the hole at a high speed, until the tail passed them plunging down the cliff besides them.

“What the fuck was that?” Atlas asked in the following silence.

“I think that was a tatzlwurm.” Crimson stated dumbfounded.

“More importantly,” Belle said, drawing the other two’s attention. “Was somepony riding that thing?”

Atlas and Crimson shot a worried look towards each other before approaching the cliffside, peering over it. About three hundred feet down, the Tatzlwurm could be seen thrashing about but there was no sign of any pony riding it.

“Quartz!” A voice called out next to the group, startling them. “Stop playing with that thing and finish it off!”

Standing at the rim of the hole was a gray unicorn mare. Her mane and tail were a deep blue and her cutie mark depicted a bow and arrow.

“But this is so much fun!” A voice could be heard from below them.

Atlas furrowed his brow an alternated between looking down and towards the new arrival.

“Uhh... Hi?” He grabbed the mare’s attention by calling out to her.

After she turned her head to look towards him, her eyes widened in surprise. She immediately looked back down again.

“Quartz! There are civilians up here! Finish it already!” She shouted angrily.

“Bummer!” The voice below called out after a few moments of silence.

The Tatzlwurm continued to thrash about, seemingly attacking things at random. Suddenly the rocks below it started to glow a soft purple, much to Atlas’s confusion. Seconds later a huge purple sword appeared out of nowhere, decapacitating the huge snake.

Atlas, Belle and Crimson could only stare in disbelief as the Tatzlwurm below them slowly stopped moving before it collapsed twitching. A soft thump next to them drew their attention, as a dark brown unicorn stallion landed next to them.

“Those guys are so much fun to ride on.” He said, tossing back his light brown mane.

The mare smacked him on the head in frustration.

“You need to take this more seriously! Because you were showing off like this, you put ponies in danger! These guys could have gotten hurt because of you!” She pointed at Atlas’s group.

“Heh. Sorry.” The stallion said, indicating a little bow with his head.

“It’s… It’s ok.” Atlas said after a brief silence. “Who are you guys?” He added.

“Oh sorry” The mare said. “My name is Silver Wood, and this idiot here,” she shot the stallion a glare. “Is Smoky Quartz. We’re from the Kingdom's military, Teras division.”

“Teras Division…” Crimson mumbled.

“You heard of em?” Atlas asked, turning to look at him.

“A part of the Kingdom's military force is tasked with getting rid of the monsters infesting the surrounding mountains.” Crimson explained. “They’re basically glorified monster hunters.” he added with a shrug.

Atlas hummed in understanding, focusing his view back unto the pair standing before them. Belle had moved extremely close to Smoky Quartz during their conversation, eyeing him up and down.

“Was that magic you just used?” She asked him in a creepy voice.

Quartz looked obviously uncomfortable with the mares close proximity and tried to avoid her gaze. “Yes.” He said reluctantly.

“That was amazing!” Belle shouted dangerously close to his ears.

Quartz flinched back from the verbal assault, looking towards his partner for help. Silver Wood rolled her eyes before activating her magic.

A blue glow surrounded Belle as she was slowly pushed back towards Atlas and Crimson. She seemed to enjoy every moment of it, going on about how cool magic was.

“You have a unicorn in your group.” Silver Wood mentioned while pointing at Atlas. “Aren’t you used to this kind of stuff?” She asked her.

“I can’t really cast any magic.” Atlas answered before Belle could say anything.

Both of the monster hunters looked surprised at that, staring at him in disbelief.

“For real?” Quartz asked him.

“Yep.” Atlas sighed. “Not a single spell. I’m travelling to the kingdom so I can get myself an education.”

“Wow, you must be from pretty far away if no one ever taught you magic.” Silver said.

Atlas laughed at her statement. “Probably even further away than you think.”

Silver and Quartz looked at each other for a moment, before nodding at each other.

“Well, seeing as we got you into this mess, the least we could do is guard you guys until you’ve crossed the pass.” Silver offered.

“That would be much appreciated” Crimson said. “Thanks.”

“Allright, Follow me if you’d please.” Silver said, starting to carefully walk around what was left of the road. “Quartz, you take the rear.”

“Yes, ma'am.” Quartz replied as he positioned himself at the back of the group.

After they had all successfully crossed, Atlas walked up to Silver, intent on asking her some questions about the kingdom.

“Wait!” A voice suddenly called out from the hole they had just shimmied around. “Wait for me you guys! Please!”

From the hole, a green stallion with light turquoise mane emerged. He seemed to almost drag his body along the ground, apparently completely out of breath. As soon as he spotted the group to his right, he looked at Silver with pleading eyes.

“Try to keep up newbie.” She told him. “Break’s over.”

Quartz had to hold back his laughter as the group started to move again, eliciting a long whine from the new arrival.

“Who’s that?” Atlas asked Silver Woods.

“That’s Citrine.” She told him. “The newest member of my squad.” She looked back at him with pity in her eyes. “No idea how he even made it past bootcamp. He’s useless.” Looking straight ahead she opted to ignore the out of breath stallion catching up to them.

“Ouch.” Atlas answered.

“What’s with the snake by the way?” Silver asked and pointed towards the passenger coiled around Atlas’s horn.

“Oh this guy?” Atlas looked up. “He’s just hitching a ride, seems to happen everytime I try to cross a mountain to be honest.”

“Huh, weird.” She looked at the snake, which wiggled it’s head at her. “But kinda cute.” She added.

“Yeah snakes are great.” Atlas said. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“I already told you that we’re going to the kingdom so I can get myself trained in magic.” Atlas explained. “Do you have any idea how I would go about doing that? Like, do I need to get a private tutor, or can I just join a school or something?”

Silver Wood seemed to think about her answer for a moment. “Well King Gold Bar is pretty adamant about magical education.” She said. “So a lot of the bits he collects as taxes go towards schools for foals, allowing every foal born in the kingdom free education.” The pass took a right turn. “Unicorns who aren’t in control of their magic can be dangerous of course, magical surges are nothing to laugh at.”

“So I can just go to a school for free?” Atlas asked, mindlessly trotting along the path.

“I’m afraid not.” Silver said in an apologetic tone. “Unicorns who come from outside our borders asking for guidance will have to pay for their own education. Everypony gets accepted, they just have to cough up the bits.”

“Sooo… Is it expensive?” Atlas asked, afraid of the answer.

“If you get a job it’s affordable.” Atlas relaxed at that. “Though there is still a way you can get it for “free”.” Silver lifted a hoof and made a motion which reminded Atlas of quotation marks.

“What’s the catch?”

“Well, you have to enlist into the military and offer your service until you’ve paid off your debt.” Silver smiled sheepishly at Atlas. “We’re always short of ponies, so they try to draw in more by offering education and a place to be. It’s not that bad of a deal to be honest.”

Atlas hummed in thought. “I’ll take it into consideration.”

Atlas didn’t really want to serve in a military, but on the flipside he’d get magic training for free. There was also the issue of Crimson and Belle, he couldn’t just leave them behind, after they followed him this far.

“Is there some sort of salary?” Atlas asked. “And days off?” He added.

“Yeah, as long as you’re not officially in the military and just going to school, you’ll receive a sort of stipend. You’ll also have the option of either staying in the dorms, or owning a place outside the school premises.”

“That actually sound like a pretty good deal.” Atlas thought out loud. “I’m gonna have to run that by my friends. Thanks for the info.”

“No problem.” Silver nodded at him, a gesture Atlas reciprocated before falling back toward Crimson and Belle.

He matched Crimsons pace, and look around for Belle.

“Anything new?” Crimson asked.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you soon, but I need Belle here for this too.” Atlas spotted her at the back of their group, chatting with Quartz, who looked extremely uncomfortable around the mare.

Atlas chuckled at the stallions expense, but decided to rescue him. “Hey Belle!” He called out to her. “Can you come over here for a second?”

Belle seemed surprised at the sudden callout, but trotted up to them anyway. But not before giving Quartz a creepy stare.

“Heya, what’s up?” She asked once she catched up to them.

“I asked Silver Wood about where I would be able to take lessons in magic.”

“So what are the options?” Crimson asked.

“As it stands, I can either pay a private tutor, which according to her should be possible with a job. Or I enlist with the military and get access to a school and dorms as well as a stipend, but I’ll have to serve until the debt is paid back.” Atlas listed his options to his friends.

“Well,” Crimson started. “taking into consideration that you can’t even cast the simplest of spells right now, I don’t think a job hunt would be too successful for you in a city full of unicorns.” He thought out loud. “I think I should be able to get a job as a weather pony or something, and Belle could probably land a job in a hospital.”

Belle nodded fervently at Crimson’s statement. “That would be amazing!”

Atlas reluctantly had to agree with Crimson.

“I’d say our best course of action once we get to the kingdom would be to split up.” Crimson suggested. “Belle and I would try to find a job, while you go and enlist. Once we have enough bits between all of us, we could rent a place together.” Crimson looked towards his friends, waiting for approvals or denials from them.

“Sounds good to me!” Belle instantly agreed.

“I didn’t really want to enlist, but you’re probably right.” Atlas said. “I wouldn’t want to be a burden and rely on you two for bits after all.” He let out a sigh. “I’ll be able to sleep in the school dorm, but what about you two? It’d be unfair if you had to sleep out on the streets.” Atlas added worriedly.

“Don’t worry about us.” Crimson reassured Atlas. “We still have a good amount of bits, so we’ll be able to hold out for a while. You just go and get you magic under control, it’s what we’re here for after all.

Atlas chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking it over. “Alright, let’s do it like that then.” He relented.

“Then it’s decided.” Crimson said with a nod.

“This is going to be amazing!” Belle added.