//------------------------------//
// 31. First Day 
// Story: Divine Entertainment 
// by Orthoros 
//------------------------------//


Scholar Arc
Day 1



Atlas sat at the breakfast table with bloodshot eyes. Ever since he arrived in the pony world he’d been able to sleep to his heart's content, or at least, get enough of it. He didn’t relish the idea of waking early again for the foreseeable future. Just as he expected, his pony body was unaccustomed to early starts, as his human body once was.

Next to him sat a completely awake Amethyst Blade, happily munching on his breakfast. Atlas hated happy people in the morning. Even more so if the pony in question literally threw him out of bed half an hour ago.

“Mmmm mmmm! These oats are delicious.” Amethyst said between bites.

Atlas leveled an irritated glare at him, his right eye twitching. Not only was the pony next to him happy, he also had the gall to call oats tasty. At this point, Atlas started to think Amethyst was insane and needed to be put down.

“You’d better start eating soon Atlas, or you’ll have to go without until lunch.” Amethyst said while shooting Atlas a worried look.

Atlas decided to ignore him. He almost never ate breakfast, and he didn’t see the point in starting now. 

A loud grumble derailed Atlas’s trail of thought. After he blinked slowly twice, he realized it was his stomach producing the ungodly sound. Suddenly Atlas felt glad that Amethyst had forced him to at least take an apple back to the table as he started nibbling on the red treat in front of him.

Atlas let his thoughts wander while he ate, thinking about what he’d get to learn today. Over time, the realization started to settle in that he’d actually get to learn magic today. This realization and the sugar from the apple helped to kickstart his hibernating brain into some semblance of activity, causing Atlas to come out of his vegetative morning state.

“Finally waking up I see.” Amethyst quipped from the side, noticing Atlas’s increased activity.

“Yeah.” Atlas answered lazily. “I just realized that in a few hours I might finally be able to cast some magic.” He pondered.

“Well magic has a lot to do with logic, so you’ll probably have an easier time than a foal would trying to learn.” Amethyst said. “Plus, ponies with twin affinities usually have at least some talent with magic. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.”

“Thanks.” He wasn’t fishing for a compliment, but it made him feel a bit more optimistic about today regardless.

Now that he was thinking about it he was getting nervous. Doubt swirled around in his head. If after all he’d gone through just to get here, it turned out that he’d never be able to cast anything, he might as well just kill himself. Not that it would help at this point anyway.

“Ok, you ready then?” Amethyst asked as he finished his breakfast. “It’s time.” 

Amethyst got up as he levitated his tray with magic, unknowingly taunting Atlas with his casual casting. Atlas only had an apple and ate the whole thing he didn’t have anything to carry. Not wanting to lose Amethyst he got up and followed him towards the exit, joining the throng of unicorns also heading towards their classes. 

At the exit Amethyst deposited his tray on a cart, like everypony else. Once they’d left the dinner hall, Amethyst pulled Atlas to the side.

“You have everything you need?” He asked worriedly. “Do you have your class schedule with you?”

“Yes, mom.” Quipped Atlas. 

Atlas didn’t really have any materials to carry around, so instead of taking his saddlebag with him, he just opted to stick the class schedule into his hair. He remembered seeing Pinkie do stuff like this in the show and decided to try it. Surprisingly pony manes were pretty good at holding things, although he doubted he’d be sticking any cannons up there anytime soon.

“Well then, good luck.” Amethyst said with a grin. “I need to get a few things from our room, so just go ahead without me, I trust you know the way.”

With these words of parting, Amethyst Blade left Atlas behind in the entrance hall of the dorms. Atlas watched Amethyst go up the stairs until he disappeared, before he turned around.

“Well, here goes nothing.” He said as he started heading towards his classroom.



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Atlas stood in front of the door with the number 2016 written on it. With the help of his trusty class schedule and the maps on every floor, he finally arrived at the classroom where he’d learn to unlock his magic. 

On his way over, he got considerably more nervous, and now that he stood literally inches away from his goal, his nerves were starting to get the best of him. Willing himself to man up he knocked on the door, since he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to enter without doing so first.

After a while the door opened, revealing a well aged stallion. His coat was a deep red, and his mane was orange and cut short. His green eyes were fixated on Atlas who nervously stood in front of him.

“Atlas I presume?” The stallion asked.

“Yes, sir.” Atlas replied and almost saluted due to the authority the older stallion seemed to emanate.

Now that he thought about it, was he actually supposed to salute? This was a military academy after all, and he didn’t exactly read the guide yesterday since he was just dicking around with Amethyst.

“Come in then.” The old stallion said.

After the stallion moved away from the door, Atlas entered into the rather small classroom. While he was checking out the interior, he could hear the door magically close behind him. Instead of a classic classroom, Atlas found himself in what he could only describe as a conference room. 

Four tables were set next to each other in a row, creating a large rectangle. Chairs were set around them, offering room for twelve ponies. To the front of the room a large blackboard hung on the wall, several things already written and drawn on it, including a rough sketch of a unicorn.

“Let me change this up a bit.” The old stallion said from behind him. 

Suddenly every piece of furniture in the room started to glow a soft red. The tables floated into the air and three of them moved to stack themselves in a corner. Most of the chairs did the same, floating to another corner where they were neatly set down. Meanwhile one table and one chair were set in front of the blackboard.

All of which happened over the span of three seconds. Once again Atlas was reminded how amazing and useful even a basic spell like levitation was. 

“Please take a seat.” The old stallion said, while he himself moved in front of the blackboard.

Atlas eagerly did as he was told. Now that he was actually here, his nervousness from before was completely blown away.

The red stallion cleared his throat before starting to talk.

“Good day to you Atlas. My name is Blazing Inferno.” The stallion introduced himself. “I am a class six battlemage. I served over thirty years in the army before becoming a teacher at this academy. I have redeemed myself in the academic fields of combat, life and energy and as such was deemed the right pony to guide you in your first steps as a magician.”

“My name is Atlas.” Atlas felt the need to introduce himself again after what he just heard. “I’m honored to have you teach me.”

Blazing Inferno nodded in acknowledgement. 

“Very well, before we start with your first lesson let me just go over a few things with you.” Inferno said while levitating a small folder towards him. “ It says here that you were born in earth pony territory, lost your parents early on, never had anyone teach you magic and finally came here when you reached adulthood. Is that correct?” 

Blazing Inferno looked up from his document after the last question, looking Atlas in the eye.

“Yes, sir.” Atlas responded without missing a beat.

Inferno seemed to search for any sign of deception on Atlas’s face. He tried not to worry about it too much and just waited for his teacher to continue.

“Do you have any inclination to one day return to your hometown and aid the earth ponies with the magic you learn here?” Blazing Inferno asked.

The air suddenly turned cold as Inferno’s eyes seemed to bore into Atlas’s skull. It seemed like Blazing Inferno wasn’t exactly on good terms with earth ponies.

Atlas gulped before answering. “No sir. There is nothing for me to return to, I’m planning to stay in the kingdom from now on.”

While not entirely true, Atlas’s statement was technically correct, so he didn’t worry about Blazing Inferno digging deeper. Inferno held the icy stare for a few seconds longer, before his features visibly relaxed.

The atmosphere in the room changed once again, when Blazing Inferno’s personality seemed to do a full one-eighty. A smile graced his face, the wrinkles around his eyes aiding in making him more approachable. Instead of a harsh army maniac, there was suddenly a nice elderly teacher in front of Atlas.

“That’s what I like to hear!” Inferno said joyfully. “I’m sorry for the harsh welcome, but I just had to make sure.”

He smiled at Atlas, which returned the smile unsure of what exactly was happening.

“Well, now that we have that out of the way, onto more pleasant subjects.” Inferno said. “To tell you a little more about myself, I’ve taught total beginners before so you’re in good hooves. In fact I’m sure by the end of today you’ll be able to cast levitation.” Inferno’s smile grew even bigger. “This, I promise.” 

Abandoning all doubt about his teacher, Atlas started to smile too. He could deal with a veteran who was a little bonkers. 

“Awesome!” Atlas exclaimed happily.

“Well, let’s not waste any time then, shall we?” Inferno said. “To begin, let’s talk about that surge you experienced on your way here. I have a rough report in here.” He tapped on his folder. “But I’d like to hear about it in as much detail as you can manage.”

“Sure.” Atlas said.

Atlas explained to Inferno everything he could remember about that fateful night. For the first time since it happened he really jogged his memory of the event, trying to milk as much information out of his brain as he could.

“Hmm, interesting.” Inferno said after Atlas finished his tale. “And you’re definitely sure that the ball of magic was green?”

“I’m certain, yes.” Atlas said. “Is that important in some way?” He asked as an afterthought.

“Not important.” Inferno answered. “But interesting.”

The expectant look Atlas shot him prompted him to elaborate.

“You see, a surge within a unicorn is usually caused by an overload of their magic.” Inferno explained. “Due to a stressful event, maybe an accident or something similar, the body subconsciously starts absorbing more magic from the surrounding area than it can handle. This is supposed to be a defense mechanism, and if used right can give a soldier a boost in magical strength in times of need.”

“However, mastering this technique is very hard and takes years of training. So when an inexperienced unicorn, be this foal or adult, has a surge, the magic usually overloads.” Inferno opted to sit on the floor at this point. “Since most unicorns can only absorb one kind of magic energy, the surge spell as we call it, takes the form of a spell in the corresponding magic school.”

“Do you understand so far?” Inferno asked Atlas.

“I think so, yes.” Atlas responded. “So when a unicorn with an Illusion affinity has a surge, the overflowing magic would take the form of an illusion spell.”

“Exactly.” Inferno nodded. “And that’s why your surge is interesting. Going by that logic, your surge was due to an overabundance of life magic. But your surge spell took the form of what we call a magic missile. A class two spell from the combat school. It is unusual, but this was probably caused by your twin affinity. Due to the lack of unicorns to study, we’re still not completely sure how a twin affinity affects the caster, so this is an interesting tidbit of information.”

“Oh, okay.” Atlas said. He honestly expected them to know more about the phenomenon, but of all the unicorns with a twin affinity, not a lot seemed to find their way into magical occupations, despite having a knack for it. “Well, in that case, I hope I’ll be able to provide new insights over my years here.”

“Much appreciated.” Inferno said, standing up again. ”Now, let us move on to the actual lesson.” 

Blazing Inferno moved to the front of the blackboard and positioned himself next to the sketch of a unicorn.

“So I take it any and all of your attempts at using magic have failed so far?” queried Inferno.

“Yes, not even the slightest bit of magic, no matter how hard I tried.” Atlas said. “And I tried a lot of things.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did.” chuckled Inferno. “So let me show you the way that will work.”

Inferno levitated a short stick over to himself, pointing it towards the sketch.

“I’m sure you know already, but our horn is the focus point of our magic.” Inferno said, moving the stick towards the horn. “And when you enlisted, you probably heard about the mana pool for the first time. The mana pool is just as the name suggests, the place where the absorbed magic gets stored inside the body.”

“Where do you think that pool is located?” Inferno asked.

Atlas took a moment to think about possible locations for a mana pool. Going by his vast knowledge of fantasy books, the most obvious answer should be somewhere in the stomach area; so he went with that.

“My guess would be somewhere around the stomach.” He said unsure. “Or maybe in the head?” He added as an afterthought.

“Both are not bad guesses, and you’re right in a way.” Inferno nodded. “But technically you’re also wrong. The thing is, when one thinks about a mana pool, one would obviously come to the conclusion that there is a literal storage somewhere within the body. Unfortunately whoever named it as such had a poor naming sense.”

“The ‘Mana Pool’ is actually less a pool, than it is a dam.” Inferno explained. “As such the mana isn’t actually located anywhere in the body, the mana pool is the body.”

Atlas adopted a confused look at that. While he had an inkling of what his teacher was playing at, he didn’t fully understand.

“Think of your body as a dam.” continued Inferno. “The magic gets absorbed into your body, like a river flowing into a lake. Your horn serves as the actual dam itself, allowing you to control how much ‘water’ is allowed to flow out. Obviously if you only absorb and never use your magic, your horn will not be able to hold back the ever growing mass inside you, causing it to flood, which brings us back to what a surge is.”

Atlas thought the analogy was quite fitting when he finally got it. 

“I understand.” Atlas said. “So a normal unicorn who uses a spell every now and then is in no danger of a surge, since there’s a steady outflow.” He concluded.

“Exactly!” Inferno exclaimed, happy that his student was picking up his teachings quickly.

“Casting a spell is always split into three basic parts, which every spell of every school goes through.” Inferno moved on towards a blank space on the blackboard and picked a piece of chalk up in his magic. “First, you need to channel the magic from within you, into your horn.” 

He wrote ‘channeling’ on the blackboard.

“Next, you need to give a purpose to the magic.” 

He wrote ‘forming’ under the first word.

“And finally, you need to release the spell.”

The word ‘casting’ was added.

“When these three conditions are met, a spell is executed. While channeling and casting are easy, giving a spell the actual form you want it to take is the difficult part.”

Atlas nodded, at this point he wished he’d been able to take notes, but for now he’d just have to remember everything.

“Typically, the forming of spells is the only thing being studied at this and every other academy. New ways of formation are researched, and existing ones are made more effective through the collective effort of all unicorn mages.” Inferno put down his chalk. “To receive the title of mage you need to have successfully completed a magical education.”

“So what kinds of formation are there?” Atlas asked.

“Oh, there are over twenty different ways of formation, but most of them are pretty obscure and are only needed for a few specific high level spells.” Inferno explained, sitting down once again. “Sometimes there are even unicorns who use completely different kinds of formation to everypony else. Nopony really knows why they’re able to cast, but it just works out for them. We call ponies like them ‘naturals’.”

“The most commonly used types of formation are visualization, calculation, and incantation. Visualization is most often used for lower tier spells, calculation for mid tier spells, and incantation for high tier spells.” Inferno explained, the chalk behind him writing the words down.

“Today you’ll be learning the most basic of spells, Levitation.” Inferno wrote it on the board and connected visualization with levitation. “Levitation is technically a spell from the school of manipulation, but since it has close to no mana usage and every unicorn is able to cast it almost equally regardless of affinity, it’s considered a neutral spell. Of course, someone from the school of manipulation will be able to use it more efficiently than everypony else, there have even been cases where levitation was considered a high tier spell, due to the extreme ability of the users.”

“Do you understand?” Inferno asked Atlas, making sure he wasn’t moving too fast.

“Perfectly, it is all quite logical when you think of it like that.” Atlas responded, eager to get to the practical part of the lesson.

“Alright, I’m sure you’re eager to try this all out yourself, and doing something is always more interesting than just talking about it.” Inferno had to grin when he saw the giant smile plastered on Atlas’s face.

“Then what do you think you’ll have to learn first?” Inferno asked patiently.

“Channeling!” Atlas responded immediately.

“Right you are, so let’s get to it then.” 

Inferno came over to the table and levitated a chair over for him to sit in, taking place in front of Atlas.

“Well then, close your eyes and concentrate.” Inferno instructed.

Atlas hesitated for a moment, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“Is something wrong young Atlas?” Inferno asked concerned.

“Well it’s just that I’ve tried the whole concentrating method before, in fact it’s the one I tried the most.” Atlas said hesitantly. “Needless to say it never worked.”

Inferno chuckled. “Well I’m sure this time will be different. This time you’re armed with knowledge, and I’ll guide you through it. Trust me, it’ll work.”

Atlas thought it over and decided to trust his teacher. He closed his eyes and started to focus, for now on nothing in particular. For a minute or two silence took over the room.

“I see you’ve calmed down.” Inferno said in a calm voice. “Let’s begin.”



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It was in the late afternoon, the sky already turning a shade of orange, indicating the sun's descent. 

In the time until lunch Inferno had Atlas train his channeling. It took some time, but after about an hour the first results finally showed. Once Atlas finally got a feel for the magic currents within himself, he spent the rest of the morning getting a better feel for it, until he eventually could do it without needing an extreme amount of focus.

Lunch came as a welcome respite for him, the exercises having strained his brain. 

In the afternoon, he actually started practicing levitation. As the name suggested visualization literally required him to imagine what he wanted his magic to do. Since levitating something was an easy concept, casting levitation wasn’t that hard. Although he ran into a new problem when the book he tried to levitate exploded on the ceiling of the room. 

Thus most of the afternoon was spent learning how to regulate his magic output while keeping the spell active. At the end he was able to levitate the book steadily, making it spin slowly or placing it where he wanted. 

It still took quite some effort and concentration on his part, but he was finally doing it. The one thing he dreamed about even before coming to this world, was finally within his grasp. 

When Blazing Inferno decided to call it a day, Atlas was kind of disappointed, but also relieved since he was tired from concentrating for so long. 

“I’ll clean up here, you go on and eat something. You’ll need it.” Inferno said. “Until tomorrow.”

Atlas moved for the door, and opened it with his hoof. “Thank you so much.” Atlas said. “I look forward to our next lesson tomorrow.” 

Atlas stepped through the door and made a show of closing it with his magic, eliciting a chuckle from Inferno.

“Be sure to rest up tonight, and don’t practice for too long or you’ll be exhausted tomorrow.” 

“Sir, yes sir!” Atlas playfully remarked, before closing the door completely.

After the door was closed, Atlas stood still for a few moments letting the day pass by again. A smile started to form on his face until he started giggling like a little schoolgirl. He trotted on the spot excitedly for a few seconds, until he shot off towards the dorms; eager to tell Amethyst all about his day.