It was a mess.
A complete and utter mess that had unfolded before Atlas that day. Looking back on it, he felt like maybe the gods had tuned in just to fuck with him one last time or something, because that whole sequence of events was just plain dumb.
Truly, he felt like the Greek God M. Night Shamalamadingdong was currently directing his life.
He’d finally found the two sisters, only to discover they were the daughters of his long lost friend, along with the whiplash of finding out she was dead, but not really. And just as he thought he could fix everything, a random magical surge from Luna destroyed the statues of her parents.
The resulting reversion into a flesh and bone pony, was unhealthy, to say the least. Which is to say… it was a mess. In quite the literal way, actually.
He just stood there dumbfounded at the sight of his old friend making a mess of her beautiful garden. Celestia meanwhile had finished calming down Luna, and after realizing that half of her house was missing, moved towards Atlas having assumed at this point that he could be trusted.
From there, the problems just kept piling up. Ranging from having to explain to Celestia the true meaning of death, to breaking his promise to save her parents all the way to trying to calm down a hysterical filly while doing his hardest to not lose it himself. What Celestia needed then, was some sort of stability, a calm adult to cry on.
It didn’t help that she more or less hated him for going back on his promise.
Eventually he managed to move Celestia and Luna into what remained of their kitchen and away from the dismembered bodies, which he didn’t have the time yet to do anything about. Celestia cried a lot that day and continued directing childish insults at Atlas. They were relatively tame but it still stung. All the while, Luna was oblivious to what was going on, happily trying to play with her sister and Atlas, but eventually fatigue caught up with them and they all fell asleep on the uncomfortable chairs.
The next morning, Atlas made to complete the task that had fallen into his lap. Even before Celestia and Luna had woken up he carefully searched and gathered all of the strewn about body parts, all the while the morbidity of the task weighed him down as he went about his solemn duty. It took him longer than he imagined it would to find the head of the yet unnamed father of Celestia and Luna, but eventually he had gathered everything.
While he felt like puking, his demeanor also had a certain kind of numbness to it, as if his spirit had detached from his body to allow him to work without breaking down. Like a mindless robot, he dug out two graves with his magic and deposited the corpses in them gingerly before tucking them in with a blanket of soil.
Atlas went into the forest and returned with the biggest rock he could find, which was almost twice his size and put it down above the graves. Using the spell he’d usually used for carving his arrays, he inscribed the rock with Vibrant Colors name. He’d have to ask Celestia what her father’s name was once she woke up.
While waiting for this to occur, Atlas made sure that the grave would remain undisturbed by carving various arrays into the improvised gravestone. Since he still had time to spare, he re-arranged the flowers of Vibrant’s garden around the graves and cleaned up as much as he could afterwards.
After he had done everything he needed to and ran out of work, Atlas sat down a respectable distance away from the newly created graves and solemnly looked upon them.
While Luna was a bit too young to appreciate the gravity of their situation, Celestia had a pretty good grasp on it. Saying she was unhappy about it would be a gross understatement, and Atlas did his best to deal with the upset filly.
It took a lot of talking and convincing, but eventually Celestia came around and agreed to let Atlas take care of herself and Luna. He’d have probably just taken them under his wing anyway, but everything would be a lot easier if he could coax the filly into willfully accepting his care.
With Vibrant’s home essentially in ruins, Atlas invited Celestia to come live with him at his “secret cave”, which she reluctantly agreed to. Incidentally, they weren’t even that far from Vanhoover, at most it would take them a week to go there, if they traveled at a sedate pace.
And thanks to Atlas knowing some basic healing magic, he wouldn’t even have to worry about somepony dying of dysentery.
“Are we there yet?” Celestia asked in a slightly miffed tone.
“Not yet, we should arrive sometime tomorrow I’d wager,” Atlas replied, walking next to her.
They had been walking for five days now, and had made pretty good time at that. Considering that he was traveling with curious children, he was expecting to get side-tracked a lot. As it turned out, Celestia seemed to have unending stamina similar to a happy dog, so walking a great distance didn’t seem to be a problem. She hadn’t really talked a lot during the whole journey, aside from asking a few things here and there, predominantly whether or not they had arrived yet. Atlas assumed that this was due to the fact that she had just recently lost both of her parents, and he didn’t blame her.
Wounds like that took a long time to heal. It was actually pretty impressive that she was even willing to accompany him so soon after the fact, without much complaint.
Luna, on the other hand, was quite the happy-go-lucky little foal. Oblivious to the hardships of life, she spent the journey either travelling in Atlas’ backpack and sticking her head out like a dog out of a car-window, or climbing around on Atlas himself.
While Atlas had never been overly fond of babies in the past, he didn’t mind Luna at all. In fact, he thought she was downright adorable. The one thing that worried him, though, was the fact that Celestia seemed slightly jealous of her little sister. She was suffering while the actual culprit, however accidental, was happily enjoying life.
He could see the conflict in Celestia’s eyes whenever she looked Luna’s way, between wanting to blame her for her parents death, and not being able to blame the sole remaining member of her family.
“Is… is your home… nice?” Celestia asked suddenly.
Celestia hadn’t really spoken much up to this point, to the point where she hadn’t even asked where they were going or where Atlas lived. So having her suddenly express interest in something took Atlas by surprise. Not in a bad way of course, since it might hint at her starting to recover from the shock.
“It’s a bit out of the way, but I’d say so, yeah,” Atlas replied while smiling. “I made it myself, with the help of a few… friends.”
“Will they be living with us?” Celestia asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.
“Sadly, they won’t,” Atlas said. “They’ve… moved on, I guess. I… I’m sure I’ll see them again in the future, but who knows when that’ll be.”
“Oh,” Celestia said, averting her eyes.
Atlas winced mentally at seeing this, realising that he might just have reminded her that she’d never see her parents again, while simultaneously rubbing in her face that he’d be able to see his lost friends again.
“It’s actually like a cave, since we just dug into the site of a mountain,” Atlas tried to bring the conversation back again. “The view from the second floor is pretty amazing.”
Celestia nodded in acknowledgement but otherwise remained silent, causing Atlas to sigh mentally. Well, even if he smothered the attempt at conversation as soon as it appeared, it was a start. Given some more time, Celestia would surely come to accept and overcome the loss of her parents. Atlas just had to make sure that he’d be there for her and Luna.
The latter had taken to standing on Atlas’ shoulder using his head as some sort of vantage point to curiously watch the world slowly passing by. He made sure to stabilize her with magic so she wouldn’t fall off.
And like that, they continued towards a new home for the two fillies that would one day change the world.
“Well, this is it,” Atlas announced. “We’re here.”
With one eyebrow raised, Celestia looked at Atlas skeptically. Just to make sure, she once again, looked all around them, but still came up empty.
“What do you mean? There’s nothing here!” Celestia exclaimed. “Just rocks and trees.”
“I see you’ve noticed,” Atlas smirked. “But, actually it’s a well crafted spell to make you think that there’s nothing here. A powerful illusion, if I’m to be exact. Follow me, the path to the entrance is over here.”
Atlas lead Celestia over to the small path leading upwards, Luna sleepily checking what was going on from the comfort of Atlas’ saddlebags. Slowly they ascended, Atlas being the first to pass over the illusions threshold, a smile appearing on his face when he heard the small gasp behind him shortly after.
“Welcome, to your new home,” Atlas said grandly, gesturing to what little of the secret lab that could actually be seen from the side. Namely, the balcony on the first floor and the safety railing.
“Wow, I didn’t know you could do something like that with magic!” Celestia said excitedly.
Apparently, she had still been sceptical even after Atlas had told her, but seeing it with her own eyes finally convinced her. Coincidentally, while she was still in a gloomy mood, seeing something like this seemed to distract her childish mind from her sadness for a bit.
“My good friend Starswirl helped me set this up, he was truly a master in his field,” Atlas said. “But come, let me show you what’s inside.”
Celestia followed Atlas into the main research cave that made up the entrance and her mouth opened up wide at seeing all the materials, research scrolls and doo-dads strewn about. It was actually pretty messy, but that’s just how researchers rolled, and apparently it looked like a wonderland of interesting things for a young filly.
“This here is what we call the main cavern, it’s where I do most of my experiments,” Atlas explained.
“Experiments? Are you an inventor?” Celestia asked excitedly.
“Something like that, I guess,” Atlas said.
“Cool,” Celestia responded, making Atlas feel like he just gained a few brownie points with her.
“Well, the cave is split up into two floors, but this one might not be that interesting to you two,” Atlas explained. “Pretty much everything on the ground floor is dedicated space for research, after all. So let’s just go upstairs, where the living arrangements are.”
“I’d still like to see everything down here eventually,” Celestia said meekly. “Would that be okay?”
“Of course!” Atlas beamed. “I’ll gladly show you around. But after such a long journey, we should really get some rest, in a proper bed.”
Celestia’s face lit up when she heard that she’d get to sleep in a bed again. After having spent the last week sleeping outside on mostly uncomfortable makeshift bedding, she was really looking forward to it, and eagerly followed Atlas upstairs.
They entered into the living room, a spacious cave that was sparsely decorated. Most of the furnishing, like the table and cupboards were bought from Vanhoover and brought over. Only a few things were made out of wood, while almost all of the remaining furniture and necessities were conveniently carved out of the stone that made up the walls.
Several doorways led out of the living room and Atlas made to show Celestia where each of them led.
“In here is the kitchen,” Atlas explained. “Since I’ve been absent for quite some time, there’s not much food around, so we’ll have to go look for some tomorrow.”
Next up he showed her where his bedroom was located, a rather small cave, which only housed a bed. The walls had been carved into the shape of bookshelves, which were filled to the brim with tomes that he had nicked from the Crystal Kingdom.
“This room once belonged to my son, I guess you’ll be living in here from now on,” Atlas explained as he showed her Discord’s room. “I’ll have to put another bed in here for Luna.”
“You have a son, Mr. Atlas?” Celestia asked tentatively.
“Still do, and drop the mister,” Atlas said with a chuckle.
“Where is he now?”
“He… went on a journey to see more of the world,” Atlas said. “I don’t know where he is right now, but I’m sure he’s doing good somewhere… Moving on!”
Atlas lead Celestia towards the last important thing that he wanted to show her, the balcony. They stepped outside into the cool afternoon air. It was actually in the middle of the night, technically, but things like time held little meaning since Discord had set out on his, “journey”.
“This is my favorite place: the balcony!” Atlas announced grandly while Celestia was blown away by the view before her.
Before the world went to shit, the view was quite beautiful. You could see Vanhoover clearly from here, as well as the sea. Of course, the absolute chaos that was Vanhoover was quite a sight to see, what with all it’s floating buildings, rioting furniture and the occasional color change of the sky.
“It’s beautiful…” Celestia said in awe, trying to take in everything spreading out before her.
Atlas could understand her fascination quite well, since he couldn’t get enough of this view. He stopped watching the excited little filly and turned his eyes towards Vanhoover, thinking about what was to come in the future. They had finally arrived at Atlas’ old and the sisters new home; from here on out, he’d have to give it his best shot at raising the future rulers of Equestria.
Starting tomorrow, this lifeless cave would finally be back to it’s former glory.
What a homo.
8513102
I can't believe you fucking guys. I put all that effort into editing this shit and you really fucking did that? Wow. Fuck off, hope your story dies in a fire.
I do believe this is what's called "shots fired"
8513106
Mrrrrglgl, rrrrrrglglglrrrrrgl mrglrlglgl rrgl! heroesofthestorm-es.gamepedia.com/media/heroesofthestorm-es.gamepedia.com/8/86/Murky_Angry_Emoji.png?version=e0ebe52350eaead81071859cbc421f65
I don't think that last part really belongs in the story, though I did laugh pretty loud when I saw it.
8513106
I think it's just a joke, man. No need to be harsh.
8513106
I... Think they were joking. That being said, it really wasn't cool of them to leave that in there.
8513106
IKR these guys are cucks.
Also. Good chapter. And despite what other may say. I think it is kind of good that you skipped the death scene.
Still faithfully reading.
8513106
Also when you gonna fukin update your story huh? So busy working other people’s stories you forget to do your own?
8513131
8513135
Yeah, it was a fucking joke, but he needs to learn to lighten up and actually take a joke, lol.
Dwl🤣, I had to read that one twice, one minute I'm imagining the scene from the balcony the next thing I know the image of a guy sucking dick in an ally pops into my head.
And thanks to Atlas knowing some basic healing magic, he wouldn’t even have to worry about somepony dying of dysentery...
I don't think I ever beat that game...
Damn. I sincerely hoped he had managed to save Vibrant, at least. But no, she died dismembered by her own daughter. Fuck. That hurt man, that hurt.
8513102
I know right? Such a lil' bitch
Is that a 'How to lose your editor 101' example?
I hate myself for feeling the need to make this reference.
Aw... rest in pieces Vibrant...
And hmmm... the stage is being set for future sister drama...
What was that last bit?
Now I will be paranoid when letting other people edit my stuff...
8513106
Is it safe to assume that you were too busy to help edit and had no say in the matter?
I'm going to hope that "azriel sucking dick in an alley" was something that was supposed to be there for him to catch in editing and then be removed but eh, if that's what you did and he didn't catch it...
kind of a bitch situation Atlas found himself in, though I do wonder when if ever Starswirl will come back.
is alive
and it seem my anel ass side of me is trying to bet it cod do a better job in the same time frame drunk dam it bran.
8513542
?!?!?
8513499
Maybe in an alley somewhere? Too soon?
8513635
Oh, I disagree, its very funny; far funnier than a lot here will realize.
Completely unexpected right there paused for a bit at that.
I can’t believe I glossed over that Azriel bit. I mean, floating buildings, rioting furniture, Azriel sucking dick somewhere in an alley, yep, that all seems like the sort of shit Discord causes.
8513154
Personally, I think you need to learn when a joke has gone too far. To me, this seems like the joke hit too close to home for him in a way that made it not a joke anymore, and I think you should apologize.
8513691
Agreed, It's hilarious
Skeptical.
Good chapter as always, mildly disappointed there wasn't a Magical Mcguffin to fix everything tho
i know Atlas did every thing he cod witch was not much,
but i feel so bade for Atlas Celestia and Luna, Celestia and Luna lost there parents and Atlas lost his first friend.
8513635
8513928
Right then everyone, I think it's time I explain; Az, Orth and I set this whole thing up between us to see how many people we could trigger and actually fall for this being a purposeful insult, as we possble could. There is no bad blood between us and such, you've all acted the part spectacularly, and so we thank you; however I feel the joke has acted it's course; hence my explaining of such, and so bringing it to an end.
8514156
Assuming it’s the magical field that interacts, what about inscribing tunes on Poison Joke? What about magical non animal objects?
Conversely, what about animals that don’t have magical fields?
I don't think the joke added much value or amusement; its nature is possibly against the rules, too.
The fact it was an 'in-joke' between a group of people just to exploit the audience makes it mildly infuriating. I concede that most of the internet is hypocritically oversensitized but there are contexts, and this was not the right context, imho.
8514305
Believe what you wish, I suppose Az saying it would have hammered the point in better, however literally anyone who's been on the DE Discord will know this behavior is common there between us staff; banter and such between us neither of us get offended at; we were more surprised that people actually took his message semi-seriously(seriously though, a message threatening to quit just because we made a joke?)
By the way, there's a reason Orth didn't change that in the story...
i.imgur.com/LrewNCO.png
8513106
Agreed, the way they treat you is abhorrent. I'm so glad you're leaving this story to come edit for me.
8514311 I suppose it could be considered an in joke, but it was a one off at the end of the chapter where immersion breaking didn't matter much. I'm sure Orthoros will get rid of it at some point, but til then it can be explained as Discord 4th wall breaking.
8514305 It was a well orchestrated joke... the curtain lift, not so much. We all live on opposite sides of the globe and I drank entirely too much last night.
8513928 My feelings were never endangered, but thank you for the concern nonetheless.
8513776 That's just an average Tuesday for me tbh.
8513607 There was quite a long line in that alley yesterday and my services are top dollar.
8513542 Are you having a stroke and do we need to send help?
8513499 Nope, edited the whole thing and that was a bit of a lighthearted retaliation from Orthoros for me telling him that he needs to add more detail.
8513304 Nah I'll be riding this train to the final station.
8513141 Soon.
8513131 I'll admit it was a bit over the top.
Now that I have all of your attention it's time to deliver a real apology. The joke was in poor taste and we never intended for it to go this far, as I mentioned above the author, Kilo, and me all live in separate time zones and while we executed the joke together we didn't really have a plan in place to mitigate it. We like to have a good time and we may have forgotten that this wasn't an extension of our usual shenanigans in discord, and that people may have become genuinely concerned for me as well as what it might mean for the story itself, and for that we are truly sorry. On behalf of me and the DE staff we extend our sincerest apologies for letting this get out of hand.
Sincerely,
~Azriel
8514506
It's okay. We're all just overly concerned about relationships...apparently. Anyway, it was a good joke. I laughed a bit when I saw it. I just thought that you were probably in on it since you were the EDITOR. Nobody else did though, so....there's that. Anyway, I liked it, and I thought it was done in good taste. You don't need to apologize to me, just try to make it clearer when it's a joke, as some people on fimfiction take things way too seriously. (Usually they're the ones who don't get the comedy stories here, little fun fact.) {---*Also a joke*
8514506
one the story alive tow it seem part of my asperger's sed hi and bit me but for online stories of this tip if there is not a chapter at minimum of once a month then all online auto see it as On Hiatus tow month they auto see it as dead and or the people making it as well in a way.
8513106
I’m wondering why you got a bunch of diwnvotes, then I’m wondering why I got a bunch of down votes. The only thing I can think of right now is that meme where there’s the guy in the red shirt and he’s shrugging his shoulders in a bunch of poses. Often accompanied by a rehtorical question. You know, that one.
That about sums up everything nicely.
Lol then I realized that sarcasm is really hard to communicate on the internet.
8514823
Uhhhh... English please?
8515028
I believe he said my story is dead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
My emotions about the end bit there were mildly confused, then mildly amused. A good distraction from what people would normally talk about. You know, what with everyone's favorite painter becoming a Jackson Pollock.
I came for the ponies... I dang near untracked this to avoid the drama...
I get enough of that in real life. Future note just don’t post about it. Leave it in and eventually oops didn’t remove a joke post cause this could have easily ended in a suspended account if enough people sent in reports.
8514506
Now I wanna know what this joke was because its gone now
8515468
It's still there, the root of the joke would be "Azriel sucking dk somewhere in an alley," and the social experiment came when Azriel himself seemed to react rather poorly.