18. Mana Batteries
Atlas took a step back to take a look at his latest creation. While impressed with himself, he felt like this whole experiment of his might have gotten slightly out of hoof. Currently, the central chamber of his lab was littered with research papers. They overlapped each other so perfectly that a bystander might think it was a stylized wallpaper, as the earthy gray walls of the cave were so thoroughly hidden.
On the other hand, if Starswirl returned right now, he’d probably have an aneurysm from excitement over Atlas’ work
What made the clutter more tolerable was that most of the papers were devoted to a single research project. It all started about five years ago, on Luna's fifth birthday, when Celestia gifted her sister with a gem that was made of pure concentrated mana.
Of course, Atlas took an immediate interest in what Celestia created and had her teach the process to him. While the thought process behind it needed an adult to jump through some hoops to understand, for children it must have seemed logical.
Or maybe just to Celestia, because Luna didn’t get it at all.
Atlas wasted no time looking into how the technique could be applied to variations of his past research and experiments. That’s how he stumbled upon an amazing revelation. Buried deep within a pile of research papers, Atlas found the schematics for the Crystal Heart that he had stolen.
The big flaw in its design was the need for a very specific and almost impossible to find crystal, that once found then needed to be carved meticulously and treated precisely on the first attempt. The odds and resources required for its success had made it laughably unviable. At least for Atlas, although it did make him wonder how much of a drain on resources the Crystal Heart had been, and just how many iterations the Kingdom must have gone through for a successful attempt. It certainly made him question their sanity, if not their results. But, what if you just made the crystal from scratch?
Using synthetic crystal made from pure concentrated mana would boost its efficiency by an order of magnitudes, since nothing was able to store and conduct mana more efficiently than actual concentrated mana. The ideas just came flowing to him afterwards, like an avalanche of genius in his head, and the project got increasingly complex until he arrived at what he was looking at right now.
Considering that the Crystal Heart could be used to generate energy equivalent to an atom bomb explosion, if this project succeeded, Atlas was pretty sure he could blow up the whole planet with just one battery. A battery a lot smaller than the original Crystal Heart.
Of course, he realized just how incredibly dangerous and stupid it was to even think of creating something like this, but he felt the intense need to see if it was possible. He never would blow up the planet! All he had to do was to keep it secret and protect his project after finishing it.
It was just that simple!
It had taken him this long to come up with a complete theory which he considered to be working, if he tried to do it right now, but he had learned from past mistakes. Projects like this had to be combed over with the finest comb you could find, time and time again, until you were completely sure that it would work. Especially if one wrong step could blow up an entire mountain, since Atlas was pretty sure the wards around here wouldn’t hold during an accident.
He turned a full three-hundred and sixty degrees, taking in all of his creation, taking a moment to relish in the feeling of having completed something that took a very long time to do. Soon enough he let out a sigh, the next seemingly insurmountable task already looming before him, mocking him even.
He took one last look towards where page one of his research was hung and decided that he didn’t want to deal with it anymore today. With a satisfied smile on his face, he turned to head upstairs.
A little time with his cute adoptive daughters would certainly be more enjoyable than brooding over scientific notes.
Atlas let his face slam into his desk. A task that was a lot harder if your face was long instead of flat. It took him another two years, but his gargantuan task was finally completed. He went over his complete research for a total of five times, making corrections and changes along the way that made him fear for the continued existence of ponykind if left untouched, until his fifth comb-over seemed to require no further changes to be made.
During times like this, Atlas really missed Starswirl, since he’d have probably been able to cut the time needed in half, at the very least. Of course, having Celestia or Luna help would have been amazing too, but the thematic was way to advanced and complex for them to even start to comprehend what was going on. Being the sweethearts that they were, they helped out in the moral department, making sure that he’d never lose his spirit or just outright give up.
Celestia had taken over his cooking duties, which gave him a lot of extra time. Her being around the age where kids usually went into a somewhat rebellious phase, Atlas was actually pleasantly surprised at her behavior. Even though she was living more or less cooped up in the cave system, she had become a friendly and gentle mare. While she was free to come and go as she pleased, as long as she returned, she chose to spend her time helping out with household tasks, and had apparently made it her personal goal to read every single book in Atlas’ vast library of stolen books.
While he couldn’t be too sure, Atlas suspected her to be a bit afraid of going outside. There could be an underlying trauma that made her afraid of the chaos outside while relishing in the stability that the cave system provided.
Luna, on the other hand, displayed an incredible talent for arranging runes, despite her tender age of twelve. Aside from watching and cataloging the many stars, the study of runes seemed to be her favorite pastime. Atlas took immense joy in her interest in the art and made sure to teach her everything he knew about them. He had high hopes for her, hoping that she’d one day be able to help him out in his task against the gods, since runes were apparently the key in some way or another.
Incidentally, Luna was at a nearby workstation, poring over her newest teaching materials. Hearing the sound Atlas’ head created when making contact with wood, she shot him a quizzical look, but otherwise left him be. This behavior wasn’t all too unusual and she didn’t want to break his concentration, so she simply returned to her studies.
A slow grin started to spread on Atlas’ face, looking forward to finally be able to get to the practical part of his research, which was admittedly a thousand times more interesting than the theoretical part.
Atlas had his eyes closed while continuously casting his spell. The low hum of active magic had a calming effect on him as he slowly completed his work. Since he had trained this particular spell to death over the past few years he was practically able to do it in his sleep. Making a mana gem was incredibly simple once you got the hang of it after all.
He was currently producing one of these, but contrary to the countless others he had made up to this point, this one would be used as a part for his new project.
Atlas opened his eyes again as he completed the last part of his gem, starting to inspect it by spinning it in mid-air, scrutinizing every part of it for imperfections. This particular gem was incredibly thin, to the point where resembled a sheet of paper. It’s actual width was exactly two millimeters while being shaped like a rupee from Zelda.
Due to its purity, it was completely see through. There was a slight pink tinge to it, though, since it was made by crystallizing pink mana.
There were several reasons for this decision, chiefly among them that mana from the school of energy would most likely be best suited for it’s intended purpose of storing mana. Aside from that, the color reminded him of Belle, his late wife, which he dedicated this project to. It seemed like this could easily become his magnum opus, so dedicating it to his true love was only reasonable.
During the theoretical part of his research he had done quite a bit of testing on these mana crystals as well, such as testing their durability, which was incredibly high. Just to be sure, he chucked this completed product at the nearest wall with all of his magical power. It bounced off the wall and came to a clattering rest on the floor a few feet away, not a single nick or scratch present from the violent treatment it received.
Atlas nodded, satisfied with his first sheet of mana crystal and picked it up off the floor with his magic, setting it down on a nearby table. Shortly after, a note with the number “one” drawn on it joined the crystal. Since he was working on a very precise plan here, it was important that he didn’t mix up the positions of any crystals he would make from now on, so it was important to label everything. Glancing over at a pile of similar notes, Atlas sighed.
One down, thirty-nine more to go.
Atlas set down another Mana Crystal, labeling it with the number forty. He let out a breath of relief at having reached another milestone in his research. Raw material: acquired! From here on out, his work would become a lot more complicated and detailed.
But just as any other good researcher, Atlas cherished a good challenge and was actually looking forward to it. Every step along the way would bring him closer to completion, so there was no point in doing anything else but take one at a time. Spread out on a table before him, were forty sheets of light pink manastone, the sizes of which varied slightly.
While easy, creating crystallized mana actually took quite some time, so he was limited to making just two sheets per day. Considering he had taken quite a few days off and spent some time teaching Celestia and Luna, making these forty crystals took him roughly two months.
Truth be told, Atlas wasn’t really looking forward to what he’d have to do next, since it would require incredible accuracy over a long period of time. Next, he’d have to inscribe every sheet of crystal with runes that he painstakingly drew out beforehand. To make matters more complicated, he tried to fit as many runes on there as possible, which meant each rune was rather small. Even worse, since the crystal sheets were only two millimeters thick, he would only be able to inscribe the runes to a depth of one millimeter.
The only saving grace was that he only needed to inscribe thirty-eight out of the forty he had made, since the two end pieces were meant to “close off” the battery, so to speak.
Silently, Atlas cursed his past-self for even coming up with this idea, but begrudgingly picked up the crystal with the label number two and brought it over to a workstation he had prepared specifically for this purpose. On it was currently little more than a fixture to keep the crystal in place, something to drink and the schematics for the rune array that was supposed to be inscribed on this crystal.
He unceremoniously plopped the crystal into the fixture and tightened it into place. If Atlas made even a tiny mistake here, he’d have to remake the whole crystal, and that was something he really didn’t want to think about.
As carefully as he could, he activated the spell he usually used for creating his arrays and started slowly scratching away at the surface. He had made sure that both Celestia and Luna knew that they weren’t supposed to disturb him during this time, no matter what, which at least allowed him some peace of mind while doing this.
It took him three days to complete the first sheet.
Feeling mentally exhausted, Atlas all but collapsed on his desk. The progress on the rune inscriptions was agonizingly slow. At first, everything seemed to go well, but as time went on he had to remake some of the crystals, since he messed up at some point.
He currently felt as if he could just sleep through all of next week, but all the same, a smile spread on his face. From starting the creation of the first mana crystal for the battery, it took him almost an entire year, but finally, just now, he had inscribed the very last rune.
The whole process was mind-numbingly boring and required a high amount of concentration and Atlas was pretty sure it showed on his face and body. The work started to take it’s toll on him around the half-year mark, much to the concern of the sisters. Together they made sure to support him as much as they could, which Atlas was infinitely thankful for.
Since there were a lot more setbacks than he’d have liked during this production cycle, he wasn’t sure if he could have completed it if it wasn’t for their constant support. The only thing left now was to meld the sheets together, to form a single working mechanism and the project would finally go into its last phase: testing!
Whether or not this would work was what would decide over Atlas course going forward in the future. It incorporated basically everything Atlas knew about magic, even contained some of the mechanics from the card game he invented back in his academy days. If the project failed, he might just kill himself.
Atlas chuckled at the thought.
Feeling tired, he got up from his workstation and headed back upstairs. Whatever would happen next, it could happen next month for all he cared. It was time for a long break from his work.
Atlas descended ever deeper into darkness, the only guiding light he had coming from his horn. In a satchel that attached to a string around his neck, rested the finished mana battery in all its glory. From the outside it looked just like a regular pink gem, not even hinting at its true purpose. Just as planned the final shape closely resembled a rupee from the Zelda video game series. There was no real reason to go for that shape, aside from Atlas finding it aesthetically pleasing.
It was finally time to test out the culmination of all his hard work up to this point. Every single piece of knowledge and skill he possessed was in this battery and being this close to testing it was making Atlas quite nervous.
Knowing about its potential destructive power, he had prepared a special bomb-shelter kind of cave deep, deep underground. It was outfitted with the most powerful protective spells he knew of, and just to be sure, he had told Celestia and Luna to evacuate to Vanhoofer until he came to get them. Much to their confusion, he told them to wait, even if they saw the whole mountain explode.
He didn’t plan to charge it with world ending amounts of mana, even if it worked perfectly, but with stuff like this, you could never be careful enough.
It took him almost ten minutes of navigating a dark and narrow hallway, but eventually, he stepped out into a sizable cave. In it’s center, he had set up a contraption similar to what was holding up the Crystal Heart back in the kingdom. While there was no essential need for this addition, it would allow him to better observe the battery if it floated in mid-air.
Not wasting any time, he levitated the battery out of the satchel and held it between the two prong-like protrusions coming out of the ground and the ceiling, where it started floating while slowly rotating along its own axis. There were no more uncertainties at this point, no more theoretical tests to run. This was it.
Either it worked or it didn’t.
Mentally preparing himself, Atlas took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. With a flick of his magic, he activated the dormant rune array resting within the battery. Hoping it wouldn’t instantly blow up on him, Atlas stood his ground and observed. It was a slow process, but slowly but surely, the gem started to glow a steady pink as the runes within lighted up one after another.
The whole cave slowly started to be filled with a pink light emanating from the gem, a steady hum accompanying it, growing slightly louder with each passing second. The start-up process took almost five minutes, which Atlas had intentionally designed this way, so that he could intervene in the case of something going wrong. Much to his relief, everything went off without a hitch. And, soon enough, the mana battery was in full working order.
Some of the runes inside would now begin absorbing residual mana at a slow rate to fill up its storage capacity. Hidden deep within the thousands of runes was something that resembled an on-off switch, which would allow Atlas to freely activate and deactivate this passive mana gathering, which was crucial if he wanted to control the amount of mana that was being stored.
Wouldn’t want to accidentally blow up the world, after all.
To speed up this process, Atlas started manually feeding the battery with mana. There was a certain threshold he meant to pass in order to complete this test. If he managed to pass over this threshold, he would be sure that there was absolutely no mistake in his calculations and his craftsmanship, and everything was working as intended.
It took another fifteen minutes of continuous feeding, but eventually, he came close to the threshold. Biting his lower lip, he took the plunge and went over it, bracing himself for impact. A few moment of nothing happening later, a strange feeling started to spread all around his stomach as he felt an emotion bubbling to the surface.
Feeling intense relief, he fell back on his haunches and started laughing. The weight lifted from his shoulders was immense and a few happy tears started flowing down his cheeks as he beheld his creation.
The battery, still spinning slowly was bathing Atlas in a world of pink as he simply sat there with a blank mind, happily smiling the time away as he watched. Now, more than ever, he was thinking about Belle.
The battery floating before him almost seemed to radiate happiness and made him feel closer to Belle than he had ever since she passed away. It almost felt like she was right there with him, standing behind him and watching over his achievement.
Atlas chuckled as he remembered all the good times he’d had spent with his friends, their faces flashing before his inner eye one by one, before finally his thoughts came to a rest when thinking of Vibrant Colors.
Just like Belle, Vibrant was taken from this life much too soon, and would never return. Looking at the crystal in front of him made him feel a deep connection to his departed friend and wife which he couldn’t quite explain, but still felt there all the same. It would be great if he had something like that for all of his friends, as they would eventually pass away, leaving Atlas behind.
Making even one of these batteries was a painful process, but looking at the results, he felt like he could make just a few more if it meant he would always have his friends close, no matter what. He decided then and there, that he’d create five more batteries, matching his friends' coat colors.
So that he may never forget.
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Knowing Atlas he'll only realized what he has done once he finishes them all, with a resounding "MOTHERFUCKER!!" or similar
I'm assuming he is trying to recreate the elements of harmony?
So those are the Elements of Harmony
Huh. If he just created the Orbital Friendship Cannon, then I wonder how the Tree of Harmony fits into all of this?
Those... are the Elements of Harmony, right?
HE MADE THEM!!!! HE CREATED THE RAINBOW!!!!!!
AWWW SHIT HES MAKING THE ELEMENTS YO!!!!!!
And he has no idea that he's doing it.
8594729
I don't think this is "trying". Pretty sure this is "Doing"
8594743
Or even how they become a friendship cannon instead of a bunch of mana batteries
AHA!!! Elements of Harmony!!! Woohoo!! ‘‘Tis a wonderful time!! And also, this chapter came out away sooner than I thought it would. I was getting worried, all the other stories I was reading started dying. Then this one started slowing down and I was like ‘NOOOOHOHOOOOO!!!’. BUT!! It’s all better now. Once again, you comepletely surprised me with this chapter. I had no idea it was an ELEMENT until the very end. Great story, great characters, great author, GREAT EVERYTHING!!! (Passes out )
Whelp.
Time to go and rethink everything!
I shouted "Yes!" when I saw a new chapter of this come out.
I was not disappointed.
camo.derpicdn.net/5c1a177453cb6c56553c449b22c4429be6a0eebf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fi67.tinypic.com%2Ffz98wk.jpg
Yeah. The original bearers of Harmony, my friends.
Aside from Vibrant Colors and Atlas, the other five represent, from left to right, is Magic, Laughter, Loyalty, Kindness and Honesty. Their coat colors match their respective element.
And now Atlas just had to go and create the Helements of Armory.
Thanks for the update!!
8594787
:o
So this is how the Elements of Harmony came about, as mana batteries. I am gusseting that they don't become the Elements until the tree is discovered.
Runic magic is the same as saying alphabet magic.
8595089
At this rate atlas is going to grow the tree as well.
Wow.
The Elements are each a memorial to Atlas' departed friends, as well as each one being a mana battery with enough energy capacity to destroy the planet if unleashed.
Hmm, now, where will the Tree come into this? Will Atlas make it as well, or does it already exist and he'll give them to it to protect and/or change into the Elements of Harmony proper?
8595113
Maybe, we will see next chapter.
Woahhhhhh... I can’t wait to see what happens when the Mane 6 find out the origins of the Elements...
So Atlas is the crystal tree?
The crystal things are the "fruits" of his labour, after all.
No. Bad Atlas. This is how worlds explode. (Or, apparently, get saved.)
8594743
My guess is that Atlas just made the prototype for the elements.
Wich Celestia and luna uses to 'defeat' discord.
Afterward starswirl returns.
He then uses the prototypes as a base for the 'harmony seeds' that he and the rest of the 'aventures ponies' uses to create the tree of harmony.
Did I miss a canon detail in this theory?
i think atlas is making the elements and the sisters somehow make the tree
poring.
8595000
<3
Did NOT see that coming. Thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of that surprise.
I knew it!
So, he just made an element of harmony?
8595547
No. He's got it correct. Pouring is the correct spelling. Poring is a mob in Ragnarok Online.
The ending me: "oh shit the feels
"
Ok, so, now we have possibly the prototypes for the elements of Harmony. Or maybe the elements themselves. That will depend on how you incorporate the adventure ponies. My dear Author, you never ever disappoint with these chapters. I eagerly await the next chapter
8595703
No, it's poring trust me. One of my editors fucked up and actually changed that from the correct poring to pouring for some reason...
8595879
Huh. I've had that wrong for a long time. Well. Shit. XD
8595703 oh?
8595703
No he doesn't, unless this is some American? special case. See: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/poring
In the context "pore", the verb of which is "poring", "to read or study with steady attention or application". "Pouring" is implying she was tipping water or something over the WorkStation :)
LOL I knew the moment he started conceptualizing.
So how will they become tree?
I would point out that the elements of harmony dont have set physical forms. In the pilot they were stone orbs until activated.
As such, even if those ARE the elements of harmony, (and the power level being comparable to a stargate ZPM, able to break the planet, does suggest) then it is still entirely possible he wont realize it for a while. Probably will only occur when they are attuned or something.
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I'm thinking the inscribed runes look something like this? Something... something, "The One Gem to rule them all". Great job, Atlas! You've now become Equestria's Celebrimbor.
So is this waste energy from aborbing the magic, or just storing it? If it's wasting stored energy it wouldn't be a very effective battery at all.
Oh... well here come the elements!
Which if shattered may or may not blow up the planet
Really poignant at the end. Good job.
8596107
They could be like seeds when planted all together maybe?
Atlas you maniac
Great chapter as usual!
Oh you lovely fucking cunt YOU SNUCK THAT UP ON ME