11. Experiment Four
Atlas was tinkering with a little metal plate at one of his work benches in the main cave. After having spent more than three years to complete and perfect his mapping array, he had been working on little knick-knacks to wind down a bit. With no rhyme or reason, whatever popped into his head was made with varying success. Right now, he was working on something that could possibly revolutionize Equestria forever: The Lightswitch.
If ponies didn’t have to walk around the house putting out every single lamp, be they powered by fire or mana, they could save an incredible amount of time. Also, Atlas was just getting tired of having to do just that every night.
This particular little device didn’t even make any use of runes. Atlas decided that he had seen enough runes over the last experiment to last him the next few years, so he concentrated his efforts into studying spells of different schools once again. In a way, this was a relaxing activity for him, since everything he was learning could just be researched from books and was proven to not explode in his face, unlike experimental runes had the tendency to do.
“Good morning, Atlas,” Starswirl said, entering the cave from the outside.
“Morning...” Atlas replied absentmindedly, still trying to figure out how he was supposed to make this work without using wires.
Starswirl had taken to commuting between Vanhoover and the lab for the past few weeks. Apparently he had to keep up appearances with his friends. They were of course understanding of Starswirl's absence, since he had done it pretty much for as long as they knew him, but every once in awhile they started asking questions. Acting like he was just out in the city somewhere doing his usual odd-jobs and returning in the evening painted an image of a hardworking Starswirl, while he was able to freely visit Atlas and Discord in their secret lab.
As per usual, Starswirl plopped down at his own workbench opposite from Atlas’, and began pulling out scrolls and books from the various storage containers close to him. He was meticulously arranging them so that he could easily overlook everything when Discord emerged from the bedroom door.
“G’morning…” he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to banish the last vestiges of sleep.
The two working stallions answered absentmindedly, something Discord had grown used to by now. Since he wasn’t exactly helping out with their research, Discord was free to do as he pleased for the most part. Not wanting to just bum around all day, he had taken it upon himself to help the hard working stallions wherever he could whenever he wasn’t doing something by himself, like preparing for his next theatrical performance.
“Did you guys have any breakfast yet?” Discord asked, getting a duo of half-committed grunts in reply, which he interpreted as ‘no’. “I’ll whip us something up, then.”
This suited him just fine, since he was hungry as well. Discord strolled into the kitchen area at a lazy pace, well aware that he didn’t need to rush anything. He got to work on making some sandwiches for the lot of them, since they were easy to eat while being focused on something entirely else. Whenever Atlas and Starswirl got their heads into something, it was almost impossible to drag them away for a prolonged amount of time, even if this just meant ten minutes of proper breakfast.
He distributed them onto three plates and went back into the main cavern, setting one place down on a free spot on Starswirl's desk before making his way over to his father.
“So what are you making this time?” Discord asked while setting down Atlas’ plate, which he gratefully accepted. “Looks… simple.”
“It’s going to be a lightswitch,” Atlas said while munching on the first of his sandwiches. “If I can get it to work, that is.”
“What’s a lightswitch?” Discord asked.
“It’s a small switch that you can flick to turn on or off any lights that are connected to it,” Atlas explained. “Just a little something-something to improve quality of life, nothing too special.”
Discord leaned over Atlas’ head to take a better look at the small device that was floating in Atlas’ magic. Aside from the simplicity of the device, Discord was once again reminded of just how much he had grown over the past few years. Atlas had called it a growth spurt, and according to him, Discord was still supposed to get bigger. The thought was kind of strange to him, since he was already quite a bit taller than Atlas was by now.
Just a few years ago, Discord was able to ride on Atlas’ back. It had become somewhat of a safe spot for Discord, but now he was simply too big to even attempt such a thing.
Well, it was just a part of growing up, as Atlas had told him time and time again.
“Well, you know I can just turn all of them off with a snap of my talon right?” Discord said, finally. “And you can do it too with a pretty simple spell, you know?”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Atlas retorted. “But this isn’t supposed to be for me or you. Earth Ponies and Pegasi don’t exactly have the convenient cheats we have, so I’m thinking this could be really practical for them.”
“I suppose you're right,” Discord said. “Well, good luck with that, I’m heading out into the forest for a bit.”
“Alright, have fun out there,” Atlas said. “And make sure nobody follows you.”
“I’m pretty sure after years of living here I should know that by now,” Discord said, accentuating his statement with a roll of his eyes.
“Sorry, I just like saying it,” Atlas replied with a chuckle. “Makes it sound like we’re some sort of secret organisation.”
“Well, with how much this cave is guarded, I guess we are sort of,” Discord remarked before snapping his talon, making the empty plates disappear. “Well, see you later.”
Atlas simply waved his hoof without turning around, starting to fiddle with his lightswitch again, pausing only to take notes every now and then. Discord shot one last look over to Starswirl who had somehow fit even more notes onto his workspace, the sight had almost something comical about it. With a chuckle, Discord headed outside, intent on finding something to entertain him, or make his own entertainment, depending on which happened first.
-----------------------------------------------------------
It was late at night when Atlas magically glued his now working lightswitch between the doorways to the bedroom and the kitchen. Satisfied with it’s positioning, he gave it a flick with his hoof and with some satisfaction watched as every single mana-lamp inside the cave was turned off.
“Hey!” Starswirl called out. “A little warning next time? I can’t see!”
“Oh, sorry,” Atlas said and hastily turned the lights back on again.
“It’s okay,” Starswirl replied with a sigh. “I was just a little surprised.”
“Well, at least it works as intended,” Atlas said, pointing towards the little switch behind him.
“Congratulations,” Starswirl said, eying the switch. “That didn’t take you long at all to make, when did you start on this? Today?”
“It was easier than thought,” Atlas waved him off. “How about you? You’ve been working on that thing of yours forever now, and you still haven’t even told me what you’re actually researching.”
“I just felt like this was something I had to do myself…” Starswirl explained.
“I know, I’ve heard you say this at least a hundred times now,” Atlas rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t make me less curious, though,” Atlas paused and furrowed his brows. “Wait, ‘was’? As in, you’re finally done?”
“Exactly!” Starswirl exclaimed with a big smile on his face. “I actually finished up yesterday, I’ve just been going over it all one last time today.”
“So you’re finally going to do the big reveal? Or will we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what the great and mysterious Starswirl has cooked up over the last three years?” Atlas asked with some amused sarcasm.
“Oh no, I’ll show you today, I can’t wait to actually try this out!” Starswirl said, the excitement slowly creeping into his voice.
“Alright, cool,” Atlas said, sporting a smile of his own at seeing his friend so excited. “But let me get Discord first, you know how much he likes watching when we finally get to the practical tests. That, and we maybe, kinda, sorta have a bet going on what you’ve been making…” Atlas muttered the last part under his breath, so that Starswirl didn’t hear him and went into the kitchen area, where Discord was currently doing the dishes from their dinner.
“Hey Discord?” Atlas called out once he entered the kitchen?
“Yeah?” Discord replied, not looking up from the dishes he was manually washing.
“Starswirl is finally ready for his big reveal, come out and he’ll show us.”
Discord immediately disappeared from his position, the dishes doing themselves now, and reappeared right next to Atlas, visibly excited.
“Well, what are we waiting for then?” Discord asked. “This has been bugging me for years!”
“I’m pretty sure you could’ve just snuck in a peek whenever you wanted,” Atlas said with a raised eyebrow.
“Sure, but where’s the fun in that?” Discord replied. “There’s also the problem that I most likely wouldn’t understand half of what he’s written down, and couldn’t read the other because his writing’s so bad.”
Atlas laughed at the remark and simply let himself be dragged along, back outside and towards Starswirl who was organizing and filing away most of his notes while waiting for them.
“Alright Starswirl, we’re both here,” Discord said. “I’m ready to start yesterday.”
“How fitting,” Starswirl said. “Because what I’ve been researching actually has a lot to do with time.”
“It does?” Discord asked with a confused tilt of his head.
Atlas simply raised an eyebrow and decided to await further explanation. After a second, a thought struck him and a small blue book appeared out of nowhere, heeding his summoning. He received a couple of questioning stares as he magically flipped through the pages before arriving at the part he wanted to read, before nodding, dismissing the book and smiling at Starswirl.
“Go on,” Atlas said, supporting his statement with a hoof-gesture.
“What was that all about?” Starswirl asked.
“Oh I just had to look something up real quick, don’t mind me,” Atlas said dismissively.
Starswirl didn’t know about Atlas’ book, where he noted down everything he knew about the timeline, as well as the show in general. Discord did, though, and knew how it looked. He’d even read some of it’s contents when he was but a little child and therefore regarded Atlas suspiciously. Discord was smart enough to connect the dots and was now sure that something important was about to happen, and it had something to do with Starswirl's new spell.
“Alright then…” Starswirl said, still confused, but willing to ignore Atlas’ antics. “Well, why don’t we just get to it then? Let’s move into the experiment partition of the cave.”
“Why? Is there a risk of something blowing up?” Atlas asked as they started walking towards the bigger cave in the back.
“Oh no, nothing of the sort,” Starswirl reassured Atlas. “There might be a small shockwave, though, and I wouldn’t want it to knock everything over.”
“Understandable, I’d much prefer my things un-knocked over as well,” Atlas smirked.
“That’s not a word and you know it,” Discord replied.
“Like you’re one to talk,” Atlas retorted. “I hear at least two made up words out of your mouth every single day.”
“Yeah but mine sound less like a lame dad joke,” Discord replied.
“I have every right to make as many lame dad jokes as I want, I am one after all,” Atlas smiled.
“Doesn’t mean we have to think of them as good,” Starswirl interjected. “Now stop bickering and listen up, we’re here.”
Atlas and Discord immediately shut up and focused their attention on Starswirl. He was standing in the middle of the big cave, the floor of which was currently free of any runes.
“Alright then, my new spell that I’ve been researching over the last three years has one singular purpose,” Starswirl began to explain. “Do you both still remember how I said that in order to create Discord, my ability to age was taken away?”
Atlas and Discord both nodded. Discord showed a pang of guilt on his face while Atlas was already piecing together what the spell was supposed to do.
“Well, if everything works out correctly, this spell should get my ‘time’ up and running again,” Starswirl said proudly.
“Wait, you’re going to just manipulate time?” Discord asked. “Is that even possible?”
“Good question!” Starswirl said, channeling his inner teacher. “But yes, it is. The very fact that my time was stopped in the first place should be evidence enough of the principle. In fact, I’ve used it as the basis for my theory.”
“That would be pretty amazing,” Discord said. “Revolutionary, even.”
“Thank you, but I don’t think that this should become public knowledge,” Starswirl said. “Since the actual spell allows somepony to actually travel through a certain amount of time, forwards as well as backwards, it could be very easily abused.”
“So you want to travel through time, and by doing so, you hope that you can somehow kick-start your own time again?” Atlas asked to confirm his theory.
“I don’t know what kick-starting something means, but it sounds appropriate, yes,” Starswirl replied. “After copious scans of myself, I’ve found that my ‘time’ wasn’t completely taken away, and by applying enough stimuli, I should be able to replenish and… kick-start it back up again.”
“I guess the fact that you’re telling us now means that you’ve already tested your spell and it works?” Atlas asked.
“It does!” Starswirl said excitedly. “ I’ve sent multiple apples five minutes into the future, and every time I did, they disappeared from my desk, then reappeared by themselves five minutes later at the exact same spot.”
“Will five minutes be enough?” Discord asked curiously. “Or will you have to travel further?”
“That’s what we’re about to find out,” Starswirl smiled. “By my calculations there should be about a fifty-fifty percent chance of it being enough. I’d rather not get too fancy and risk the spell failing by increasing the amount of time just yet, so today I’d like to try out five minutes first, and then run a few tests on myself to see if it worked.”
“Alright, sounds like you’ve done your research. If you’re that confident, I’ll trust and support you,” Atlas said. “You did make sure that this was a safe thing to do for ponies, right?”
“Well, it should be…” Starswirl said. “There’s no real way of knowing except for trying it out.”
“Shouldn’t we test it out on me first, then?” Atlas asked skeptically. “You know? Because of the whole ‘not killable’ thing?”
“I’m fairly certain that won’t happen,” Starswirl said. “The worst that could happen would be that the users ‘time’ gets skewed, but since mine already is, I think I’m more suited for the initial test.”
Atlas eyed Starswirl for a while, thinking the proposition over before letting out a big sigh. “Well, if you say so.”
“Thank you,” Starswirl nodded his head. “There’s just one more thing I’d need your help with, actually…”
“Gladly, I just said earlier that I’d help out in any way I can, so just tell me what to do and I’ll do it,” Atlas confirmed.
“Well, the spell actually takes a lot of mana to cast, even just sending an apple five minutes into the future drained almost half of my reserves every time I did it,” Starswirl explained. “Sending a full grown pony… By my calculations would take a lot more than that, so I was hoping you could share some of yours with me…”
“My mana reserves have gotten pretty big over the years, but will it be enough?” Atlas asked dubiously. “If something as small as an apple takes half of your mana, I’d imagine a pony would take at the very least ten times that, and I’m not sure that even I could provide this much mana…”
“By my calculations, the most mana is consumed for creating the actual rip in time, so mana expenses rise with the relative size of the hole,” Starswirl explained. “Doing that for a pony of my size would take approximately five times more mana than doing it for an apple.”
Atlas did the math in his head before nodding. “Alright, that sounds doable, but even then, we’ll be cutting it close.”
“Umm… Couldn't I maybe chip in a bit as well?” Discord asked from the sidelines. Whenever Atlas and Starswirl started discussing the more intricate details of a spell, they tended to go into their own little world and forget about their surroundings, so he offered his help in an attempt to remind them of his presence.
“While I really appreciate the sentiment, I’m afraid the chaotic nature of your mana isn’t suited for this kind of mana sharing…” Starswirl said with an apologetic look. “But I’m grateful that you even offered your help, thanks.”
“Alright then…” Discord said, slinking back slightly.
Discord still felt somewhat guilty about having taken away things from both Atlas and Starswirl in order to be created. He knew it wasn’t his fault and the other two reassured him time and time again that he had nothing to apologize for, but he still felt like he wanted to help, especially at an opportunity like this. Once more, it seemed like he was just doomed to watch from the sidelines and cheer for Starswirl.
“Let’s just get to it then, instead of just talking about it,” Starswirl said, slowly breathing out to calm down his nerves.
“Alright, I’ll just supply my mana, it’s up to you to tell me when to stop, alright?” Atlas asked, getting into position a few feet away from Starswirl.
“That’ll be perfect, thanks,” Starswirl nodded. “I’ll begin casting the spell.
True to his word, Starswirl's horn began to glow his usual blue and he closed his eyes to concentrate on this complicated spell. Almost immediately, Atlas opened a channel between them and started supplying purple mana towards the spell, as this type of mana was especially suited to sharing between unicorns. They kept up this procedure for almost ten minutes, causing Atlas to already feel his mana pool slowly emptying. Apparently it took slightly more mana than Starswirl had calculated.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Starswirl said between gritted teeth, trying to not disrupt his spellwork.
Atlas cut off his mana supply, his breath slightly laboured after having lost so much of his reserves. He let out a deep breath and simply sat down where he stood, content to watch from now on and was soon joined by Discord on his right side. The rest was now up to Starswirl.
“See you in five minutes,” Starswirl said, before a bright flash of light, similar to a teleportation spell occurred and he disappeared.
As predicted, a shock wave washed over them, but it was barely enough to rustle their hair a little bit, like a light breeze.
“So now what?” Discord asked, staring at the spot Starswirl had just disappeared from.
“Now? We play the waiting game,” Atlas said. “If everything went without a problem, he should re-appear right over there in five minutes.”
So they patiently waited, not talking much, until five minutes had passed. They waited for five more minutes, but still, Starswirl didn’t reappear. Helpless to do anything, all they could do was speculate and wait for their friend to come back to them, wherever he had ended up.
But Starswirl didn’t reappear that night, nor the day after, nor the week after that. The experimental cave remained empty. The only thing left behind by Starswirl were his notes, and the empty feeling in Atlas and Discords hearts. There was no way of knowing what went wrong, but Atlas clung on to his last hope, telling him that he didn’t lose yet another good friend.
A little blue book, that told of the great achievements Starswirl the Bearded would accomplish in the future.
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About time!
Wow, two puns in one... Ehehehe...
But seriously, I can't wait! This is going to be so fan-freaking-tastic, I feel like Pinkie Pie when she became a literal firework!
But if Starswirl disappeared... what happens to eventually bring about Starswirls finished time spell and time studies?
Only time will tell, ehehehe...
Nuuuuu. Starswirl is my favorite :(
"apples"
Explains what happened to Aj's parents, Starswirl came through time and sent them to the future.
"Jonagold, it's your foals, something's gotta be done about your foals!"
I have to say that I am extremely excited. However even though you say the two sisters I have a feelinnnwe still won't be in canon times and instead we'll get the back story for the two.
Mayhaps well get a bonus sneak peek Chapter again?
Ah yiss. The sisters.
Wonder where Starswirl ended up. Human world, maybe?
8416688 fixed, thanks for pointing it out!
Awr... what an ignominious end for the great and vaunted researcher. Even if he's probably going to pop up again, when Celly, Woona and Atlas least expect it. Hopefully Clover will show up soon!
Fina-fucking-lly, the part we've all been waiting for! Atlas getting more children.
And just like that starswirl is gone for 100 years
I kind of think that maybe he'll reappear in 5 years, 50 years, etc etc. he likely put too much power into the spell
Well, Starswirl has to become bearded somehow.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/297/088/4d6.png
It claims another one! I will not be claimed... at least until October.
Be glad you can play dearly 2. Preordered it for pc then get told it's not coming till october
IT BEGINS.....
And oh my god I can imagine Star swirl not showing up again until the present timeline and Twilight just freaking out sooooo hard
8412704
Yeah, if updating once a month is regularly....
Don't hurt me I'm only joking.
Prank'd
Your not actually that bad, you have slowed down recently, or it feels like anyway probably just time going by slower making it seem longer.
I wonder what happened to his first friend?
Destiny 2 is ftw
I'm a Titan 271 power
I'm just excited to see the next arc starting. Not even this specific next arc, just that we're getting closer to more future scenes and reunions!
8417728
It totally is! I have a Hunter, a Titan and a Warlock, all between 260 and 270, depending on which guns I give them :3
Well.......shit. Poor guy...
8418137
I can wait for more chapters it's so beautiful
Oh, well that is sad.
If I'm right. Atlas wanted Starswirl to be remembered.
8417495
Fairly certain he’s referring to Amethyst Blade.
8419427
Actually I'm referring to Vibrant Colors from the previous story. Whatever happened to her?
8419570
Ah, you mean the earth pony painter that Atlas hasn’t been able to track down yet. I thought you were talking about the “lose another friend” line and were wondering which one he lost. I have no idea where she is but $5 says she’s either dead, will never be found, or will show up in one of those cosmic coincidences type scenarios — like she turns out to be the mother of the two future princesses or some other contrivance.
8419840
We shall see.
ok i can say this story is vary vary good but i am seeing a small problem with your time line.
at this point in time ware is Lula and Tia at?
as Starswirl was a close friend and teacher.
8477625
But starswirl can now show up at any time and the 2 remaining protagonists are immortal
8477625
Literally the next chapter introduces them
is discord just atlases version of spike?