So the days passed by. Aren and Celestia never left the other one alone because Aren still couldn’t control himself fully while Celestia wasn’t around. Aren also was not allowed to train anyone for obvious reasons. But even if Aren wasn’t able to control himself fully, he was still getting better at it. So three days passed, and Ravien returned.

He certainly seemed changed. The appearance was the same, but his personality made a 180°. He didn’t do something random anymore. He didn’t use his magic, unless he needed to and he also was uncommonly generous and friendly to everypony. The first thing he did, was apologize to Celestia for his rude behavior towards her, and he also reassured her that it was the right thing to do when she imprisoned him. He certainly was out of control and had to be stopped.

He also dismissed that useless promise she had to make towards him to gain his support. In the end, the two hugged, and they could start to be friends, just like old times. Luna wasn’t convinced that easily, but also came around quickly. Ravien and Luna started to spend time together. It was obvious for everypony that they liked each other very much.

After another three days, Aren was finally allowed to continue training guards and the immortals.

“Aren, are you sure you will be alright?” Celestia asked worried. Aren just sighed.

“I told you a thousand times, training and killing is something completely different. When I train someone, it’s like I protect them from their own weakness. You don’t have to worry about my control. And even if I lose it, you will be there to stop me.” He said with a mixture of annoyingness and happiness. Celestia just sighed.

“I know. I just hope there will be no need to stop you.” Aren just chuckled and walked over to the training grounds where all the guards were standing. Aren watched them intently and raised an eyebrow. He then turned around to Celestia and shouted to her.

“There are too many. Why are there night guards here?” He shouted over to her. Celestia perked her ear.

“What did you say?” She shouted back. Aren put his hands to his mouth to make his shout louder.

“I asked, why there are so many soldiers?” Celestia raised her ears more.

“Could you repeat that?” Aren had enough. He picked Celestia up, with his levitation and floated her over to him.

“Why are there so many guards? I don’t remember training night guards.” He asked simply. She suddenly had an “Oh” expression.

“Luna accepted them to train together with the day guards. When you woke up, she wanted to retract them, but the guards liked the training so much that she had no other choice, so she allowed them to continue their training under you. She still is not happy with it though.” Celestia explained. Aren sighed once.

“Alright, better for us. More soldiers, Better chances.” Celestia nodded once and left the training area. When she left, he looked back to the guards.

“Alright, who was my substitution while I was gone?” He asked. The purple Pegasus on the front lifted one of his hooves. Aren crooked an eyebrow, but then nodded. “What did you do?” Purple Edge walked forward and stopped before Aren.

“We saw that your resurrection field still worked and used it. Like our training with you for the two weeks, we divided our teams into two equally strong ones and battled to the death. Then we made a 10 minute break, where everypony could give another pony tips. We then trained one hour to get better through these tips. We repeated that two times a day.”

Aren hummed. He then looked at the guards and their motivated looks. “Actually, I have nothing against this kind of substitution. You handled it better than I thought. Well, let’s see how good you got.” He then lowered his stance to a fighting position. “You know the drill.” The day guards tensed and looked at him with seriousness in their eyes while the night guards didn’t look as impressed.

‘We all against one pony? He seriously can’t be this strong.’ Most of the night guards thought. Suddenly the earth ponies and Pegasi started to move. The earth ponies spread and circled Aren while the Pegasi started to fly in unusual patterns around him. The unicorns stood a little apart and readied spells for the upcoming combat.

One of the night guards thought back to a conversation he had with a day guard before this day. “You know, while training under Captain Purple Edge, we are divided between two equally strong forces. While this is nice, it is nothing compared to High-General Arens’ training. While training with him, we fight together against an unstoppable force.” He honestly couldn’t understand why he thought of him that highly.

Aren looked around, and saw that he could attack nopony without getting flanked by other ones. ‘They got better.’ He simply thought while smiling proudly. He only activated one of his passive omnipresence spells. The one that allows him to see everything in a 10 meter radius. Checking every soldier, he saw some of them getting ready to attack.

Behind him was an earth-pony ready to run at him, while two unicorns charged their horns with a movement and a changing spell. ‘I know what they plan.’ Aren smirked inwards. Suddenly the earth-pony started running at him. Reading the targets of the two spells of the unicorns, he saw that the movement spell was targeted at the earth pony and the changing spell at the floor around him.

Aren quickly jumped back, and two stone pillars crashed together where he stood before. They would’ve held him in place, so the stallion could tackle him while being buffed by that movement spell. Of course, the guards weren’t that stupid and wouldn’t let a charging earth-pony run right in those stone pillars. They practiced this scenario a thousand times. The pillars connected at a pretty high place, so the earth-pony could slide under it.

When he slid under the pillars, they suddenly crashed down on him and pierced him with stone shards. Aren obviously knew, that they planned this and jumped right back on the pillars and smashed them, in order to squash the earth pony under it. One down. He jumped to the right and just when he landed, a Pegasus came bolting through his old position. The Pegasus didn’t stop flying since he would be an easy target to hit and just made a wide curve.
Suddenly he got impaled by stone. Aren took one of the collapsed stone pillar pieces and threw it right at him, remembering that he always was the best at darts. Quickly jumping up, he evaded the earth pony that was passing through under him buffed with a movement spell. Aren quickly grabbed him and threw him at two unicorns. Suddenly there was a tremendous blood splash when the earth-pony started flying, but he still seemed to continue on his flight.

The two unicorns quickly targeted two points to teleport to, and teleported right away. Arriving at the new destination, they got smashed by the flying lower half of the earth-pony. Aren knew that those unicorns won’t let them get hit that easily and predicted that they would teleport away. So before, he threw the earth-pony-guard, he halved him while throwing and only threw the upper half at them. Reading their spells, he saw where they wanted to teleport, and threw the lower half. When they arrived at the spot, they got instantly stunned and Aren started running over to them.

Suddenly Aren jumped again, and two earth ponies crushed together under him. Using them as stepping stones, he pushed himself high up and grabbed a charging Pegasus. Tearing away a wing, he threw the wing at a unicorn that just released a fire spell. The fire spell hit the wing not two meters away from the unicorn, and the resulting explosion killed it. Aren, still in the air, threw the rest of the Pegasus to another charging Pegasus.

Arriving at the spot where the two stunned unicorns were, he grabbed them both and suddenly held them to the right. Two spears quickly tore through them, which were originally supposed to pierce Aren. Turning the Pegasi around, he took hold of the shafts of the spears and used the pierced Pegasi on the tip of the spears as hammers, to smash the two earth-ponies the spears belonged to.

Suddenly punching at a random point on the floor, a unicorn on the other side of the field collapsed. It planned to change the stone into something that could smash Aren, but he saw this and punched with all his power on it, so the exertion of its’ magical reserves far surpassed the expected value, resulting in magical backlash that rendered it unconscious. Grabbing the spear of a charging Pegasus, he rotated the kinetic power in its’ charge into an overhead smash, which destroyed a charging earth pony and the Pegasus.

Suddenly smashing his hands into the torso of the collapsed earth pony, he tore him apart into a shower of gore and insides, which blinded two swooping Pegasus, which then slammed into each other. Looking around again, he saw four unicorns charging their horns. They were preparing a swapping-spell, a changing-spell, a defensive spell, and an offensive spell. Aren realizing what they planned, looked at the charging purple Pegasus and jumped up, avoiding two stone pillars slamming into each other.

He landed on the stone pillars and jumped again in a 45° to the Pegasus. Suddenly the Pegasus was gone and in its’ place was a unicorn with a readied fire spell, having a shield spell, protecting it. Aren made a summer sault and flew over the fire-spell, landing on top of the shield spell. Holding himself with his legs, he smashed down once and punched a hole into the shield. Not stopping now, he grabbed the unicorn by its’ mane and rolled over it, so it was now on his back.

The unicorn got impaled, by the charging Purple Edge, who was swapped to the old position of the unicorn. Aren tore it apart, and the resulting blood, blinded the purple Pegasus momentarily. Taking the freed spear, Aren turned around and pierced Purple Edge through the head. Swinging in a circle motion, he threw him at a unicorn, pulling out the spear while throwing. The unicorns used shields this time, to protect themselves from the impact of the corpse. What they didn’t know, is that Aren planned this and made his strongest throw with the spear. The corpse hit the barrier with a thud, but before it could slide down, it got penetrated by a spear that was thrown with incredible strength, also penetrating the shield and piercing the unicorn behind it.

The fight continued like this for another five minutes, and after this, everypony was dead. Not three minutes later, they all got resurrected by the resurrection field. Aren was creating the point list while he waited for them. The day guards looked somewhat happy, to have their old trainer back while the night guards looked defeated. It was not easy on dignity when being defeated by one being.

Every guard walked over to the floating list and looked at it.

1. Purple Edge: 17

2. White Side: 15

3. Break Neck 14

4. Sang Pun 14

….

1. Timber Wonder 8

The lowest guard had eight points. They actually got better, but their scores were still not as high as they expected. Aren then explained them, what their flaws were, and they trained on them. There was another fight in one hour and another training session. Nearly every fight going the same way, as the first one. When the training of the guards was finished, Aren had a one hour pause. He walked over to Celestia.

“Did you enjoy the show?” He simply asked. Celestia still wasn’t comfortable with the violence, but was also happy that Aren could control himself. She didn’t want to destroy the moment and just nodded with a warm smile.

“The fight was really impressive. I never saw my guards fighting this good before. It even looked like they got you two times.” Aren snickered a little.

“Maybe in four years. Didn’t you notice that I didn’t even use my weapon or my magic?” he simply asked with a smirk. Celestia then realized that he was right and thought about, what they will be learning in one hour. When the first session of immortal training would begin. She felt kind of nervous.

One hour later, Chrysalis, Ravien, Luna, and Celestia were standing on the training area, looking at Aren, who looked around and nodded once.

“Good, seems like we are all here. So, welcome to immortal battle training. I will be your instructor Aren. Don’t ask for my full name, it’s too long.” That made Celestia snicker a little inwards, remembering when he showed Luna his full name, but she didn’t show her amusement.

“The first thing we will be learning is, how can magic win us a fight. One of you tell me, what can I do with magic, to win a fight.” He looked expectantly at the four immortals before him. Celestia looked excited to finally begin training while Luna certainly didn't want to be here. Ravien looked at Aren with respect since he was told by his parents, how strong he is. Chrysalis just seemed bored. Celestia raised a hoof.

“You don’t need to raise a hoof. Just tell me.” Aren simply stated.

“We can damage the enemy.” Aren wrote this down on a floating list.

“Right, damage. Now what else can we do?” He asked. Chrysalis and Luna looking somewhat confused. They weren’t watching the training of the guards and were not been instructed in another dimension, like Ravien.

“We can enhance battle capabilities.” Ravien stated. Aren nodded and wrote it down.

“Alright, what else?” Luna obviously taking the opposite of it.

“We can weaken our enemy.” Aren nodded and also wrote this down. He then motioned for them to continue. Celestia remembered back at the training of the guards and thought about more ways. There was one more.

“We can change objects and the environment.” Aren nodded and wrote it.

“Very good, what else?” This time it was Luna, who thought back to the moment, when Aren absorbed her moon beam.

“We can protect ourselves.” Aren nodded again and added it.

“Well done. I think that’s enough theory for now.” He then looked over to Chrysalis, who just seemed to not pay attention. “Not interesting enough for you?” He asked her. Chrysalis just rolled her eyes.

“Why do we need to know that? It should be enough to just shoot a beam and be done with this.” Chrysalis said. It was understandable why she said this since she never saw any immortal fight, except for Celestia on that wedding. Aren smirked a little cocky.

“That’s a good question. Why do we need to know more? How about I show you.” He then simply levitated Chrysalis up in the air. She flailed around but couldn’t do anything. “So what do you do now? What will you do, when your enemy just levitates you, like you are just some kind of object?” He asked. Chrysalis smirked.

“I will just shoot you.” Suddenly, she looked like she got electrocuted, and was stiff as a stone.

“So what will you do, if I just stun you while levitating you? Got any ideas?” He asked with a mocking tone. Chrysalis couldn’t answer since she was stunned completely. Luna and Celestia looked intently. This was a very good question. What would they do in Chrysalis situation? They then realized that they didn’t know the answer to that. Ravien knew the answer because his parents showed him the basics of magical combat, but didn’t say a word.
“I could do anything with you right now. I could shake you, I could let you dance, or I could just simply kill you. You would be dead, and I would just continue on with life. But since you couldn’t know any better, I will just let you down.” He then just levitated her back to the floor, where he also released her from the stun spell.

Chrysalis stood up, and looked like she was furious. She couldn’t control herself and released a massive green beam of magic at Aren. The other immortals just rolled their eyes because they knew where this was going. Aren simply made an orange glow with his hand, and caught the beam while forming it into a sphere. Chrysalis looked shocked. Why did her attack not work?

Aren looked at the orb in his hand and hummed. “You know, this lesson will come later. Right now we need to learn something different. As you can see, throwing around pointless streams of magic is well, pointless. Every immortal that knows at least something about combat can do what I just did.” He looked over to Ravien and formed the orb back into the beam that was directed to him earlier.

Ravien just simply did the same thing Aren did and watched the newly formed orb in his claw. Chrysalis felt humiliated. Her strongest attack, which destroyed the god of the sun some months ago, was just being played with like it’s a childs’ ball. She was furious, but she couldn’t do anything right now. Aren nodded approvingly to Ravien, for catching the beam.

“Good job, but like I said, this will not be taught right now. First we will learn to dissipate the auto-spells. Auto-spells are the spells that choose their targets automatically. Like my levitation spell earlier. While it is harder to dissipate the ones that are not used against you, it is easy to dissipate those, which are targeted at you. Ravien, a demonstration.”

Aren started to levitate Ravien, but before he even got lifted 30 centimeters, he was back at the floor again, not looking out of concentration or exhausted in any way. Aren nodded approvingly again. “There are two ways to dissipate an auto-spell. There’s and ineffective, but easy one, and an effective, but hard one. We will begin with the easy one. It really is one of the easiest spells out there. In fact, it’s so easy that even your world should know it for over 3000 years. Since this is no advanced spell, your world is not ready for, I should be able to teach it to you.” Aren then thought about something.

“Actually it’s not even a spell. It’s just a simply action. Celestia could you please levitate me?” Celestia was a little surprised by the sudden request but complied. Aren was now floating in the air. “Alright, as you see, I am now being influenced by her auto-spell. An auto-spell always takes a point as target. I can show you.” Suddenly a yellow point showed up at his left side of his rib-cage.

“Celestia took this point to attach the auto-spell. The easy way to resist one is to just use your magic on that target point. Your magic will cleanse your body of this point and the spell goes into nothingness.” He then just popped down at the floor. Celestia was surprised by the feeling to just loose her target like that. It was like leaning against a wall, which just vanished.

“To detect that point is also quite easy. You just have to check your body for any magic, which not belongs to you. When you found it, you just splash a little bit of your own magic at it, and the spell looses its’ focus. Now let’s test this. Celestia, you begin.” He then began to levitate Celestia into the air. She closed her eyes and suddenly she wasn’t being levitated anymore. “Good job.” Aren praised her. He then looked over to Ravien, and just waved dismissively. He already knew how to do that. Luna was next. He levitated her up, and she honestly seemed like she didn’t like him to just levitate her, but for the sake of learning, she suppressed her anger.

She also plopped down to the ground. Aren nodded and walked over to Chrysalis, doing the same thing. She also managed to do this exceptionally easily. He then went back to his old place and smiled at his pupils.

“Well done. That was the easy way, but I need to tell you one thing. Don’t even think about using a constant stream of magic to wash over you. It’s way to taxing on your resources. Now, could someone tell me the problem of this solution?” The only one who looked not confused was Ravien, but Aren didn’t want him to answer since he had an unfair head start.

Luna then spoke up. “Even if the spell dissipates rather quickly, it still affects us at the beginning.” Aren nodded approvingly.

“Correct. For this, we have solution two. This will be a little more difficult to perform. Have any of you, changed your sight with magic?” Luna, Chrysalis and Ravien nodded. Celestia knew how it works and what it does, but never performed one. “Good. For solution two, we need to use the passive spell, aura sight.” Celestia remembered that spell. It was the one, which her guards used in the forest to detect the wolves.

“To perform the aura-sight, you need to put a layer of your magic over your eyes. The only thing it does is to change your vision into one that highlights magical energy. It’s really easy to perform.” The four tried, with Ravien being the first to succeed. Chrysalis then followed quickly, just before Luna was able to do it. Celestia needed a little longer, but also succeeded. Aren nodded again.

“Good, now look at Ravien.” They turned their gazes to him, and they noticed that a dot flew from Aren to Ravien, which then settled on his shoulder. “That dot you just saw, was my ‘connection’ (I think that’s how you call it in Equestria). Actually it’s called the TP (Targeting Process). The dot needs about 0.3 seconds to connect to its’ target, and another 0.2 seconds to get activated, and send out a magical return signal to its’ caster.”

“Now you can see it before you feel it. There are now three ways to hinder your opponent from using the instant spell. The first is to simply swipe away the symbol before it gets active, or your opponent uses the spell.” He nodded for Ravien to try. Ravien shot his dot, and Aren just washed it away when it landed.

“The second is to make a simple impulse of your magic, when it lands. It costs no magic at all if the pulse is only very short since it’s all inside your body, but it can only swipe it away, as long as it doesn’t send magic.” Nodding to Ravien, he shot his target again. Before it could hit, the dot got reflected by an impulse from Arens’ magic.

“The last way, you can use it when you feel like boasting, is to deflect it with your own magic.” Nodding to Ravien, he did it again, and before the dot came even near Aren, his magical reserves changed form and a spike of magical energy swiped away the target while flying in the air. The four immortals knew that this was exceedingly difficult. Even Ravien couldn’t do this.
“It is very difficult to learn and I won’t expect you to, but this also has its’ perks. Ravien could you try teleporting beside me?” Ravien shrugged once then they saw the dot flying to the location, Ravien tried to teleport to. Arens’ magic quickly swished out and destroyed the dot. As a result, Ravien was not able to teleport. This certainly seemed interesting.

“There’s even more. Ravien, if you would please use an auto-stunning spell.” Ravien complied and used it. When the target flew, it got swiped away by the magical spike and changed course to a tree. It hit the tree, and 0.2 seconds later, the tree rustled like a stone impacted with it.

To say that the gathered immortals were impressed would be an understatement. They never heard about the opponent choosing a new path for a spell. If the wrong spell was used, this could be very dangerous. “Against inexperienced magic users, this is a little overkill, but you need to be able to do this, against experienced ones. I will show you why.” He turned to Celestia. “Try blocking all the levitation spells with whatever you want.” He simply stated.

He shot one dot and Celestia just swished it away when it landed on her. Then two dots at the same time shot out from Aren. Celestia had no problems. “Easy isn’t it?” Aren asked nicely. Celestia reluctantly nodded. Then there were hundreds of dots suddenly flying towards her. The sheer amount overwhelmed her, and she got hit by every dot. The others tried to get their jaws back from the floor, but failed.

“As you can see, the first two ways are too slow to stop this many spells. With the third way, you can create a magical shield like this, which could deflect every single spell, but like I said, you don’t need to learn this right now. I just show you what’s possible, and if you want you can try to learn it. It took me several years to get this good at reflecting targets so don’t try learning it over night.” Suddenly some stacks of paper appeared in the air.

“These are lists of auto-spells you should know for basic combat, against experienced and inexperienced fighter, but remember that the most of them will only work on inexperienced ones since the experienced ones can destroy the targets as they want. As homework, I want you to learn them and memorize them. You should know the most of them already. If you have any more questions, just talk to me. Training is dismissed for today.” Aren announced.

The immortals grabbed the paper and looked at them. Even Luna and Chrysalis looked interested. It seemed like this would be more fun than they expected. Little did they know that tomorrow would be less fun, but bloodier. The resurrection field wasn’t there for decoration purposes…

Author's Note

Damn, it's highschool all over again.