Atlas let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. The research paper he had been studying drifted towards the table, as Atlas let go of the levitation spell holding it up.
Discord and Atlas had returned from their trip throughout Equestria about a week ago, and had enjoyed having a permanent roof over their heads again. The secret lab was just as they’d left it, albeit perhaps a bit dustier. According to Starswirl, he’d only been over a few times, to check if everything was alright and otherwise spent his time in Vanhoover.
As soon as they returned, Atlas pretty much dove into his studies. The material Discord had teleported from the Crystal Empire had awaited them, lying in the center of the main cavern. At first he was pretty enthusiastic about all the high quality research he’d get to see, but was soon presented with a pretty big problem.
Guilt.
Every time he tried to actually study one of the research papers, Atlas was reminded of how they’d gotten them. His mind would go back to the day it happened, but mostly to what he did to Lightning Rod. Her crying played at the forefront of his mind, making him feel even worse.
Atlas had committed a grave crime and he knew it. What Atlas stole wasn’t just some research paper, it was someponies crown achievement in life. The other things they’d snagged were most likely easily replaceable, since they were just simple spells. The papers describing the creation of the Crystal Heart, though, were as a beautiful and as thought provoking to him as a symphony might be to a composer.
Just the pages that contained the process of creating a giant mana storage like that, could be the basis to write an entire book. And since they were top secret, what Atlas now possessed was most likely the only copy in existence.
He had no doubt that Lightning Rod would be able to recreate the research, given enough time, but it would be a huge setback for her.
On the other hand, Atlas felt like he did the right thing, even considering what an asshole move it was in the end. A lot of the spells he had seen on their tour could easily be used in a combat situation, and they’d even be pretty effective; which made the existence of the Crystal Heart even worse. While they might be using it as an energy storage device to protect and power their city, used differently it was still little more than a magical nuke.
And leaving ponies alone with a nuke, that went so far as to seclude themselves in the frozen north because they couldn’t adapt to the new status quo was just a disaster waiting to happen.
The internal debate about the situation had continued every day since their escape from the Empire and only got worse once they made it safely back home. Atlas was, of course, prepared to make some enemies when he stole the research, but he felt like he let his own feelings escalate the situation far beyond what it needed to. Just yesterday, a new thought had entered the fray; what if his actions on that day had further reaching effects than he anticipated at first?
The implications were not nice to think about, yet, his imagination loved to play out every single worst case scenario he could think of.
Realizing that he was starting to go into a downward spiral yet again, Atlas used his telekinesis to shove every stolen research paper within sight into random drawers and storage spaces. Where they went didn’t matter, as long as they were out of sight for now. It irked him to no end that he had all this juicy research at the tip of his hooves, yet he couldn’t get himself to properly study it.
In an attempt to get his mind off of his crimes, Atlas dug out his notes on an experiment he actually prepared before they went on their trip. The topic of runes still had a vast amount of untapped potential, and this experiment might bring him closer to mastering them.
This particular experiment would determine whether or not it mattered on what material the runes were carved. So far, almost all of Atlas’ runic arrays had been carved into some kind of stone. More often than not, the floor of whatever room had unoccupied space.
He had prepared various materials on which he would carve the same array and then observe what would happen once they activated. If they’d even activate, if the potency would change or even the effect on the array.
Atlas crossed the cave over to where he had stored the materials before leaving, a wooden chest squeezed between a workbench and a crucible. He opened it with his magic and started pulling out the materials while simultaneously checking them off his list.
Wood, a slab of granite, a sapphire, a random stone, paper, leather, a tomato, fabric, and, last but not least, bones.
He’d have to get creative to put the runes on some of these materials, especially the tomato, but there was no point to the experiment if he didn’t at least try. Once he got to the bones, he’d have to put various amounts of safety measures in place, considering what could happen; the books specifically said to not put runes on anything living, but bones were technically not alive, or at least that was the theory, for now. Still, he wasn’t about to take any chances.
Eager to see some results, Atlas got to work. First, he inscribed each of the materials with the same array. Since he couldn’t just carve into them like he usually did with the floor, he had to use various methods of actually writing the runes. He burned them on the paper and actually cut them out of the leather. The tomato took him by far the longest, since he actually sliced off the skin from it. It took him almost an hour and a lot of tomatoes, but eventually, he got it right.
In the second step, Atlas powered each of the arrays and observed each one for five minutes, noting down it’s behaviour before powering up the next one. All in all, there wasn’t a lot of difference in the arrays effectiveness. Though there were differences, they were so miniscule that they could be ignored. The most interesting thing he discovered was that the array he cut out of the leather didn’t work. He summarized that, since he was essentially trying to enchant empty space, it was a logical conclusion.
To his astonishment the tomato actually worked as material.
Having gone through almost all his material, he finally got to the bones; the material he was the most interested in. For the safety of his home, he decided to conduct this particular experiment outside and quite a bit away from the cave. After about ten minutes of walking, Atlas arrived at a clearing in the woods and proceeded to place the bone in it’s center before backing away to the treeline.
He immediately began casting every single spell he knew for protection, until so many wards and shields surrounded the bone that the air hummed with the magic charging the air; Atlas noted on the side how much his mana reserves had actually grown over the past years. When he started out back in school, he’d have had trouble casting more than three of these spells, but now, more than twenty were active before him and he still had plenty of mana to spare.
Pulling his mind off unnecessary thoughts, he concentrated on the single bone lying in the clearing. Slowly, he began charging the array, carefully watching out for any sign of something going wrong. Contrary to his expectations, the array actually charged without any problems at all. He activated it, and just like all the others before, the array worked perfectly.
Just to make sure, he continued watching the bone for half an hour without incident. Assured that it was safe, Atlas dispelled all of his protection spells before approaching the bone and poking it a few times, even going so far as to pick it up with his levitation.
A smile spread across his face, as the experiment was a complete success. He packed up the things he brought with him and returned to the lab with a skip in his step. There was a need to write down his findings and expand on them, further experiments to run, and maybe, even return to that blasted stolen research after a few successes.
I'd like to see him place a rune on another pony
I like how he is not worried about the leather but only the bone.
Isn't a tomato a living thing?
8358707
The pony thinks he's just getting a sweet tattoo, but no! Now he glows in the dark and can never get restful sleep!
Updates and is featured within 5 minutes. Nice
8358743
No, a tomato plant is alive, but a tomato itself isn't.
He shouldve been concerned about the Tomato too, because it's technically alive.
Asshole moves and magical nukes! My favorite!
And knowing any story EVER, what will actually happen is worse than whatever "worst case scenario" the main character thinks of...
Why am I not surprised?
... This is going to be important isn't it.
8358743
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8358828
... The TRUE worth of a story is measured by how many people are made to wonder if tomatoes are alive
thanks for the update!
8358743
It is living the same way a fertilized egg is living. You can consider it living until it is no longer able to produce a new tomato plant.
Necromancy here we come
8358707
Well...
He did...
Or more exactly he will do it on himself as it was written in the first chapter of the first story.
The question is: will he experiment only on himself or on others and perhaps how many time he has to "respawn" before getting the hang of it.
8358923
Well, I mean, they were attached to the plant, which was alive. And they're its seeds, which are alive. Seeds are alive, they're just dormant until they're planted.
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8358743
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s3.amazonaws.com/achgen360/t/9mXToQKf.png
8359219 huh? It was? I just reread the first chapter and couldn't find any mention of this ^^
Dear god, he can make make a tomato bomb!
8358743
It's more so the seeds in it instead of the tomato itself, or at least I think so.
I, like many others, am of the opinion that a tomato is alive.
Unless it was seedless or something. Would an Acorn be alive for the purposes of rune magic?
Wouldn't this cause a war? I mean, he was in the Guard for some time.
Equestrian Mage Steals Research from Lab
8359531
Oops...
I reread it myself...
You're right... Somehow i was persuaded that Atlas was covered in runes instead of the room... Sorry.
8359554
And by extension, combustible lemons!
8359558
the tomato itself is not alive as the tomato is just food mass meant for animals to eat so the seeds can be spread the seeds are what is alive as it stores' the seedling that grows from the small reserves of food inside of the seed itself after being shat out by an animal in a dirt environment with sunlight and water to inhibit growth as is the course of a tomatoes life therefore the seed is alive not the tomato from which the seed comes from. this is a scientific outlook of why runes work on tomatoes as the rune array isn't on the seeds its on the tomato itself the same can not be applied to animals due to the fact that all cells except the outer layer of skin are all alive and still functioning which means if you had the ability to some how put the runic array on only your top dead layer of skin it would work fine the problem is if you etch a single rune on living tissue even only one it would probably blow up so its not worth the risk this might be looking into it to far but it does explain a few things and even the author would be interested by what I just brought up research is vital to all things you want to achieve and not fail horribly at to badly that is failure is inevitable research just makes failures happen less often it doesn't stop them from happening but this all theatrical and may be flawed in certain ways like if you add spiritual and soul variables anything could happen - WolfDeathNo
8362827
I can hear it from Celestia already, "...And that's how he burnt down the entire city with lemons, Twilight"
Followed by really confused incoherent sounds
8363111
My thoughts exactly
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8363111
I like how all of this ruckus is about a simple tomato
8364632
YOU WILL FEAR MY EXPLOSIVE, COMBUSTIBLE TOMATOES
Which also taste good
Also, please do try to be a little less offensive. By that I mean while I myself see your comment as funny, some other people might see it as pretty rude and insulting
8365004
Thats the first comment I made.
8364632
this reference actually made me laugh for a good minute your not wrong but we do have lives my friend this is just some fun banter and science on the side of our mediocre lives I'm a sandwich and pizza baker at a local caseys I may have the smarts to get a better job but there just isn't any place around that will need anymore techies as I live just outside of a town of people who hate technology so my degree is useless where I live and the few people that do need my help is only enough cash to get me by with my caseys job so I have a life its just not a good one
8366129
Yeah, I know, but I was just surfing YouTube when I found it and immediately thought about the ruckus going on in this comment section. It fitted so perfectly I couldn't not post it.
8366191
I cant rightly blame you it was hilarious while I like explaining myself sometimes just posting something funny is just what it needs to make the others laugh or smile don't be discouraged be encouraged to do it those who get truly mad about it are the ones who don't understand quite yet what dark humor is because they haven't truly felt what the world is like to us lower class people and even if we get out of the hole we get stuck in we wont forget we will recall our dark past and laugh at the absurdity of it its human life we move on and those that don't sadly are not meant to be and wither away so again don't be afraid to put some dark humor or something straight up silly occasionally it lightens the mood and puts smiles on our faces even if we wont admit it
Good to see he realized he was being a cunt.
8363111
But what is the definition of life? It must, by the current definition, consume energy, reproduce, and several other things. By that definition, strangely enough, it seems that each cell in the tomato is alive- but the tomato as a whole is not? It's... odd.
Why did he cut the runes into the leather instead of carving it in like the rest? Try imprinting them in with a punch, it might work then.
8381184
Given this magic, and it's seemingly changeable rules, I believe that it refers to the idea of an animal. Do not carve runes into an animal, but a tree is fine because it is, in essence, much simpler than an animal in terms of systems. Plants are not as complex as animals, but it might be the magical field of the animal that interferes with the runes.
Runes could become soulbound if you use your own blood to paint them. Like the vikings used to do occasionally.
Tomatoes are alive too and there is no technicality around that, ripening is literally the process of fruit dying. Unless the tomato is dead, everything should go up in flames. Other than that, much enjoyed.