With eyes wide in disbelief, Atlas slowly crept toward his old friend, unsure of whether it was an imposter, or someone playing a cruel joke. “Starswirl?” Atlas asked tentatively. “Is… is that really you?”
He still looked exactly like he did at the time of the accident. Yet, it was a bit much of a surprise to just instantly accept the facts before him.
“Oh yes, definitely,” Starswirl replied. “Could you tell me how much time has passed? The note you left didn’t really specify, but judging by how much things have changed, I’d say quite a bit more than five minutes… right?”
“That would be the biggest underestimation I’ve ever heard,” Atlas said, finally warming up to the returned Starswirl. “Come here you old oaf, I’ve missed you!”
Atlas went over to Starswirl, embracing him in a totally bromantic way, much to the excitement to Celestia and Luna who were content with just watching up to this point.
“I would say the same, but really, it’s been about two days since I’ve last seen you. Sooo…” Starswirl said, letting Atlas indulge in his little moment. “So, why don’t you tell me why you’re now living in a castle and dining with the two gorgeously beautiful and newly appointed rulers of Equestria? Something going on here that I should know about?”
“Oh, you flatter us,” Celestia said, waving Starswirl off.
“Heavens no,” Atlas laughed out loud, letting go of Starswirl and turning to face the sisters. “Starswirl, this is Celestia and Luna, they’re my daughters.”
“Ohohoo, would you look at that!” Starswirl exclaimed loudly. “Barely gone two days and somepony lured you out of that cave and you knock them up! Don’t tell me it was someone I know? Who’s the lucky mare?”
“You wish, they’re adopted,” Atlas said. “They’re the daughters of an old friend of mine, who sadly isn’t with us anymore. I’ve been taking care of them as if they were my own.”
“Yes, Atlas has been a wonderful father to us,” Luna replied from the sidelines.
“I’m sure he was and will continue to be,” Starswirl nodded. “So what did Discord have to say to all of this? Where is the rascal anyway?”
Immediately, all of the color drained from Atlas face to the point where one could have said his fur got a little more white. Celestia and Luna furrowed their brows as soon as the question left Starswirl’s mouth, and they turned to Atlas for answers, whose brain was working in overtime.
“Well, where is…”
“AHAHAHA, Starswirl you old jokester, has traveling through time messed up your brain a bit?” Atlas interrupted Starswirl louder than he had to, much to everypony else's confusion. “Come, we should get that looked at! I actually have a nice lab in the basement, you’re going to love it!”
“Wait, what?” Starswirl asked as Atlas threw a leg over Starswirl's shoulder and started to lead him towards the exit. “What’s happening.”
“Just follow me!” Atlas said harshly under his breath. “Don’t mind the old codger, he’s a bit weird in the head sometimes!” he called back towards the confused sisters. “And please don’t disturb me for the next two or three days, we have a lot of catching up to do!”
Just like that, the two stallions left the room, one of them less willing than the other, leaving behind two incredibly confused alicorns.
“What just happened?” Celestia asked.
“I have absolutely no idea, dearest sister,” Luna deadpanned and resumed eating her dinner. “But I can’t say it’s the weirdest thing our father ever did, so whatever. We’ll find out if he wants us to.”
“And that’s pretty much everything that happened since your little experiment failed oh so spectacularly,” Atlas finished his recounting.
“Wow... over thirty years...” Starswirl replied, deep in thought. “Looks like I've missed a lot.”
After Atlas had lead Starswirl into his top-secret research facility, he had told him everything that Starswirl missed. Starswirl had just sat there and calmly listened to the whole story without commenting much along the way, just letting Atlas talk.
“So, Discord really is…” Atlas nodded to answer Starswirl's inquiring look. “That’s a shame. I’ll have to visit him in the gardens as often as I can, then.”
“So you’ll keep this a secret?” Atlas asked.
“It’s what he wanted,” Starswirl replied. “And coming clean would create a lot of problems neither of us could really afford I’d imagine. Will you ever tell the sisters that they actually have imprisoned their brother?”
“When the time is right, yes,” Atlas sighed. “But that’s over a thousand years off.”
“So you’re saying you’re confident that they’ll release him of their own accord in the future?” Atlas nodded. “Well, that’s good, at least. Maybe I’ll get to meet him again after all…”
“Does that mean…?”
“Yup, complete and utter failure,” Starswirl shook his head sadly. “My time is still stopped, it didn’t even budge…”
“Well fuck,” Atlas replied. “All that missed time, and nothing to show for it.”
“If nothing else, I’ve proven that time travel is possible,” Starswirl commented. “Even if it’s incredibly fickle. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to go forward from here, and eventually solve my little… problem.”
“Spoken like a true researcher,” Atlas smiled. “Feel free to use my facilities down here, I’m sure Celestia and Luna will give you a room if you ask for it.”
“That would be great, but it looks like we’re back to dank underground caves again, huh? Even if it’s underneath a palace, it’s not much of an upgrade…”
“The equipment I have is leaps and bounds better compared to the old lab,” Atlas remarked proudly. “Only the best of the best!”
“That remains to be seen,” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you show me around? I’d like to see what you’ve been working on.”
“Oh, I believe I’m about to blow your mind, dear friend,” Atlas laughed, getting up in order to start a tour for Starswirl. “And afterwards, I could use a little of your expertise, if you don’t mind. I’ve been working on something involving illusion spells on the side, but I’ve hit the proverbial wall recently, so you showing up couldn’t have been timed any better!”
“If it's about illusions, you’ve got the right pony,” Starswirl smiled confidently while following Atlas out the room. “But blow my mind, huh? What insane things has your brain thought up while I was gone? Should I be worried?”
“Maybe a little bit,” Atlas laughed. “Some of my new toys could blow up a sizable part of the country, if handled wrong.”
“Oh, I do love me some explosions…”
“Okay, so this will just be a proof of concept for now,” Atlas said, getting ready for an experiment he’d planned together with Starswirl over the last couple of days. “So we’re keeping the array simple.”
“Of course, what did you have in mind?” Starswirl asked from the opposite side of the table they were sitting at.
“Just a simple acceleration array,” Atlas replied. “I’ve drawn it on this paper here, so if you’d do the honors.”
Atlas slid over a piece of paper that contained the promised array. Being relative simple in purpose, the array merely contained seven runes. At this point, Atlas wouldn’t even have to think twice to make an array like this, so he’d just hastily scribbled it down. Starswirl studied the array for a moment before nodding.
“Looks easy enough,” Starswirl commented. “Remind me again why you can’t do this on your own?”
“My illusions lack detail at this point,” Atlas sighed. “Since runes need to be drawn rather exactly, I’d probably just cause an explosion if I tried, which would mess with the test result. I do look forward to illusion boot-camp if this works.”
“Alright, if you say so,” Starswirl shrugged. “Then, if you don’t mind, I shall begin.”
After receiving the go-ahead from Atlas, Starswirl’s horn started to glow. A mere few moments later, a perfect copy of Atlas’ drawing appeared between the two. The array was blue and slightly translucent, just like Starswirl's magic and floated between them, no bigger than either of their heads. A quick quality check from Atlas confirmed that the array was indeed, perfect.
“I shall move on to the second part, then,” Atlas nodded, his horn lighting up in a bright purple.
A wave of purple mana washed over Starswirl's illusion, the mana seemingly sticking to the illusion like an adhesive of some sort. Due to this, the illusion gained a purple outline, making the previously 2D illusion, 3D. Atlas then cast a spell he had learned a long time ago, from his friend Amethyst: Construct magic. His mana hardened in mid-air, now a solid construct and a technically perfect rune array.
“Alright, you can cancel your spell now,” Atlas said, prompting Star Swirls Illusion to disappear, leaving behind the construct array. “Try throwing something through the center.”
Starswirl grabbed an apple from their nearby lunch tray with his magic, and lightly chucked it through the array. It passed through without any issue whatsoever and landed on the table with a ‘thunk’.
“Looks like the array still needs to be powered up regularly,” Atlas clicked his tongue. “Would have been nice if it’d worked just like that, considering it’s drawn with pure mana.”
“Want me to do it?” Starswirl asked.
“Nah, in the end I’ll have to do everything on my own, so this will be a nice test.”
Slowly, Atlas started to pump more magic into his spell. He was taken aback by the amount of concentration and control he needed to do this simple task he’d done so often. After all, he almost had to think two things at once, keeping up the construct while simultaneously filling it with mana. Eventually, he managed to complete the charging process, which was signified by the familiar pulse of light from the array.
“Alright, try throwing the apple again…”
Once again, the apple was lifted up by Starswirl and thrown straight through the center of the floating array. This time, as soon as it touched the array, it was like a bullet from a gun and splattered against the wall.
The array dissolved in midair as Atlas completely lost concentration, his head snapping around to look at the stain on the wall. Starswirl was equally surprised by the strong reaction, staring as apple juice slowly dribbled down the stone.
“That… wasn’t supposed to be this strong,” Atlas cautiously said. “That was intended to just give it a little boost. Not… not this…” Atlas waved his hoof towards the wall, followed by stunned silence.
“So… I guess… concept proven?” Starswirl asked.
“I’d say that’s a wee bit more than just proven,” Atlas said slowly. “I think we might have stumbled upon something stupidly powerful…”
“After seeing those mana batteries of yours, I’m not even sure if this counts as powerful anymore.”
“Shush, let me have my moment.”
“No,” a sleazy grin spread across Starswirl's face. “You said something about a boot-camp earlier…”
“You…” Atlas slowly turned around with squinted eyes. “You’re not going to go totally overboard with this, right?”
Starswirl simply opted to say nothing and just continue to grin at Atlas, which was getting continuously more nervous.
“Right?”
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Wow. A true work of art.
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled bromance! Where Atlas and Starswirl begin faffing about and messing with things, all in the name of S C I E N C E !
I love these versions of Celestia and Luna. They're so natural and make so much more sense. This is where I'd put my Luna emoji, but we don't have one so
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smol horse
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I'm just a few minutes late and I don't get to see it. What even were those three comments?
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"horse", "horses" and "hi orth"
That was awesome!! I'm happy with how well you handled discord being gone when starswirl came back.
I'm a little confused on what you mean by "the spell that spawned this whole story" though. Could you elaborate a bit?
Good read. Keep up the good work.
I'm happy Starswirl is back. I missed the old codger.
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Truly, we've lost a modern masterpiece of art.
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Me too. Guess I’m gonna have to look back to the prologues for this one...
... What does a magic particle accelerator have to do with the greek pantheon trapping some schlub in a "reality marble" or whatever?
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I think it may be in reference to the first time he successfully used a rune spell. It was the several rings that accelerated the dragon killing javelin? Maybe, maybe not.
OK I only want to know one thing pony of shadows yes or no.
When you're talking about the spell that spawned this whole story, are you talking about the rune array from the last story that headshot the dragon?
“Dooooomed!”
Magical photoshop layers. With alpha channel.
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Maybe another human placed in Equestria by Zeus.
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Elaboration: Every story is based on an idea. The base for the Divine series is quite simply: Runes. More specifically, I thought: "Maan, runes sure are cool, it's just a shame that there's almost no stories revolving around them."
So I made the prologue, with the mountain full of runes, because I thought, hey that's cool. Then I asked myself the question: How do I get there, as naturally as possible without disturbing the canon too much?
The rest escalated from there.
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I have no idea what that's supposed to be, so no. (haven't watched season 7 yet, so if it's from that I don't have a clue)
I think what happened was that Starswirl traveled through time his exact age. Like, time itself tried to fix him by sending him to where it thinks he’s supposed to be, as he is both 30 and, technically, 0. So, instead of going forward 5 minutes, he went forward 30 years.
Though, this I assuming Starswirl was 30.
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Yea it is I enjoyed it an I spoiled something nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!
I look forward to more of this. Glad Starswirl is taking everything in stride. The bromance is awesome, these versions of Celestia and Luna are fantastic, lovely to see where they stem from. Eager to see how the story goes from here.
Although I still wonder if we'll get any more hints of the "Present" like in the prologue, or be force to wait till the story reaches that point in time. (I actually like the idea, that we only get the tease at the beginning of the story.)
8735169 Very much agreed. 👍
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I was confused because you said the acceleration spell was used before at the start of your story, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember that to be the case.
Amp up the M.A.C. (Magically Accelerated Cannon) or in this case the M.A.F.C. (Magically Accelerated Fruit Cannon) to shoot down your foes.
Also, did that apple have enough to kill somebody if it hit their chest or even put a hole in them?
I am both scared and excited, as I think I know where you’re going with this.
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nah, but it'd definitely hurt a lot.
Things finally picking up.
They don't need the elements. They just need an apple and a set of those.
Though you already did that to win a fight, so that would be boring story-wise.
Though Applejack would at least appreciate it, once she's born.
8737347 A rubber bullet equivalent thats naturally organic.
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Unlimited Anthro Works.
I may not look it, but I'm dying of laughter from thinking of this.
That sounds really rude.
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Fairly spoiler free explanation below:
The gist of the situation is that after Starswirl finishes teaching the Sisters about magic and stuff, he and a number of other contemporary heroes get gathered up by pony Jason to make the pony Argonauts. Starswirl, being a master of ancient runic magics, gets into an altercation with "Jason" (can't be bothered to remember his actual name) over a misunderstanding. Jason character is a scholar that reads up on a bunch of prophesies and also predicts a bunch of disasters. He essentially realizes that modern Equestria's "1k yrs ago lulz" was right now and everything was about to hit the fan big time, so he gathers up a bunch of heroes to deal with the problems (mainly stuff that happens post Discord, ala killing the kingpin destabilizes the underworld and starts a massive turf war, if turf was butholishness). They call themselves the Pillars. Jason pony gets tired of being the runty scholar that provides limited tactical support, so he tries a ritual where he nicks his friend's artifacts to upgrade himself with some of their talents/power. It was going to work, but he didn't communicate his intentions, so Starswirl assumes they all got stabbed in the back. They interrupt the ritual, beat the crap outta their friend, and leave him for dead. He then gets possessed by some sorta sentient shadow demon, ala Venom, becomes "The Pony of Shadows" and plots to destroy the Pillars while Starswirl and co. go on a banishing evil spree. In the final fight, Starswirl uses a runic ritual to banish the pillars plus Evil Jason pony to limbo, a plane where time is frozen. They then get unleashed way later by Twilight & co. when they discover the ancient relics, yada yada yada. Anyways, the Sisters take over for the Pillars for a while, then NNM happens, then fast forward a thousand years, and Starswirl's game of banish evil down the road starts catching up to everyone (guess where Celestia got that habit from, eh? Lol, thanks teach), and so does Celestia's.
So that's the long and short of it.
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That's what he used against the dragon at the academy
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That wasn't at the start of any of the stories though. I'm pretty sure that was near the end of one.
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More so half way through, rather than the start or the end
I've caught up on the story, and I think it's very well written. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to more.
I do wonder why Atlas puts so much emphasis on canon events occurring though, considering that unless the show was based on the future, the gods claimed the prison was made to resemble the show as closely as possible. So, why would Atlas bother pushing stuff to stick to canon? Honestly it feels like Discord forced Atlas onto that path, and once Discord had committed to it, Atlas decided to commit to it as well (in regards to Celestia, Luna, and the Elements of Harmony). But that's rather cold of Atlas going forward, isn't it? After all, Discord volunteered to take on the role of a villain, but Atlas would freely let Luna become Nightmare Moon and be banished, and Celestia left alone for a thousand years?
I've managed to consider at least one angle where it might be agreed to, and that's needing Luna on the moon to etch runes onto the "walls" of the prison. And if both Celestia and Luna were brought into the know before that event, then that would explain why Celestia had so much faith in Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
I am rather curious what changes in the Crystal Empire to get from a nation of racist unicorns into non-unicorn crystal ponies. And for the Crystal Heart to actually interact with love rather than being a heart-shaped magical nuclear reactor.
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heyo, thanks for reading(and enjoying)!
You seem to be under the impression that Atlas is a good guy (which he kind of is), which would prevent him from doing "cold" things to either Luna or Celestia. But at some point, his whole relationship with the gods got changed from "these guys are dicks" to "they will erase this entire planet and everyone on it if I don't stop them".
Now, you could argue that things might turn out better if both Luna and Celestia were always present and helping him out, for both Atlas and Equestria as a whole. But the thing about changing the future is that you won't know what will happen in the end. So would you rather choose the surefire method of everything turning out okay in the end and gaining the elements(twi and friends) in the process for added potential. Or risk it all on a 50/50 gamble? Considering what's at stake, Atlas might just be cold enough to sacrifice some things for the greater good(again).
But hey who knows? Maybe I'm just trying to distract you from things.
As for the Crystal Empire, they won't really get another spot in the spotlight I fear. I do have a somewhat canon explanation for it, but this would almost require a whole other story to go over it, which is why it will probably make an appearance in a planned side story at a later point...
Wish we got to see Crimson again. Sad to think he's probably in the dirt at this point since I think something like 80ish years have passed. The worst is that Atlas hardly ever got to say his proper final goodbyes to any of them. Its honestly very tragic.