The Everlasting Drawback Of Immortality

Chrysalis and Luna were not happy with what Aren said. Of course, they would be trained in battle tactics and magic, but this came a little… sudden. They obviously didn’t like this. Ravien already knew that this would be coming sooner or later since his parents warned him from Arens’ training, and also told him that he will die more than once in it.

Celestia just sighed. She knew Aren better than all the others on Equestria, so it was obvious to her that they would come to this point eventually. Of course, she wasn’t looking forward to it, but she accepted it since she saw the advance her guards made while training under him. If they genuinely wanted to stop Oran, then it was necessary.

“I never agreed on this!” Chrysalis shouted at Aren, who simply smirked.

“Oh yes, you did. You agreed to getting trained by me, and this is training. If you are concerned about your life, I can assure you that nothing will happen to it. We are currently in a resurrection-field. That means that we all can die in here to our hearts content and be revived later on.” Chrysalis still didn’t like it. She wouldn’t die, but it was going to hurt obviously.

Luna was even more against it, but she knew from experience that the barrier of the rezz-field was impossible to break and that there was no discussing with him about his training methods. So instead of complaining, she just waited for him to explain what he wanted. When Aren saw that no one wanted to say anything anymore he continued his explanation.

“Now then. In five minutes, I will release this little baby.” He pointed at the fireball in his hand. “This little thing has enough power in it to blow Canterlot to pieces, but don’t worry. The barrier will block it from spreading any further than the training grounds. So I advice you to come up with a solution to block or absorb the fire, but I will give you another advice. With a fire attack of this magnitude, it would be easier and less painful to absorb it. Absorbing elemental energy isn’t as hard as you might think, but I doubt that any of you would succeed at the first attempt.“

“The time begins now.” He simply stated. The immortals simply started thinking about a way to absorb fire. No one wanted to feel the pain of being burned to a crisp.

‘Alright Celestia, think. I need to, somehow, block or absorb the blast, but since the blast is of such strength I won’t be able to block it without using all my magic, so it would be better to start thinking of a solution to absorb the blast. Since the blast will engulf my whole body, I need to absorb it from every side, so a barrier should be sufficient enough, but how can a barrier absorb fire?’

‘Since fire is heat, I can maybe absorb it if I give my barrier the properties of ice. Maybe, but I need to think further. This can’t be this easy. Think Celestia.’

“Ten seconds to go.” Celestia widened her eyes. Was she already thinking for five minutes?

‘No going back now, I just use the ice-barrier.’

“Alright, here it comes.” Aren said, and suddenly the fireball in his hand exploded with a ferocious force. Celestia saw the blast and her life flashed before her. Even if, she knew that she won’t die for long in here, it still felt like her life would end. She just hoped that her barrier would absorb or at least block the blast. The blast reached her barrier and instantly gulped up the barrier together with her body. The death was so fast that it didn’t even take three seconds for her to die.

Celestia woke up with a start. She was standing at the training field, being looked at by Aren. Aren smirked once and said something.

“So how was dying for the first time?” He asked. The immortals just looked at the floor. Celestia was the first to answer.

“Honestly speaking, it was not as painful and bad as I thought. It was just simply over, like thinking in bed and suddenly falling asleep, but the feelings I felt before the blast hit me can’t be described. It wasn’t really bad, just strange.” She said while sounding somewhat calm. Luna and Ravien felt similar. After Celestia didn’t see Chrysalis she asked Aren about her.

“Aren, where’s Chrysalis?” Aren pointed with his index-finger to the side of the training field. There stood Chrysalis outside of the training field. Celestia crooked an eyebrow. “Why is she out there? Are we already done?” Aren smirked.

“No, she succeeded. She was the only one who survived, and not only this, but she survived completely unharmed. To be honest, I haven’t anticipated that.” The eyes of the remaining three immortals widened, and they all looked over to her. A cocky grin spread across Chrysalis face while she turned around and walked back to the castle.

“How?” Luna just asked.

“Well that’s what you need to find out.” Aren simply answered. Then he opened his hands again, and there was the fireball again. “Next round. Five minutes starting now.” Celestia instantly went back into thinking-mode.

‘Alright, cold barrier didn’t work. I’m pretty sure that the barrier part is right, but there is still the problem of absorbing the fire. There needs to be a way to absorb it since Chrysalis apparently survived. Maybe I can do it when I heat my barrier further up than the fire itself. No, it doesn’t sound like this would be able to absorb anything, but maybe this is the blocking method Aren told us about?’

“Ten seconds.”

‘Alright, let’s just try it.’ She summoned a barrier that was burning more fiercely than the bomb would. Aren then let loose his fireball and then it exploded. The explosion reached Celestia, and she felt the same feeling. It felt like her life would end in some seconds, and again her life flashed before her eyes.

When the blast reached her barrier it stopped for a very short time, but her barrier collapsed, and it was over. Again her life ended. She suddenly awoke again with a start. Looking around, she saw that still all three of them were in the barrier. This meant that nopony survived the blast, except for Aren. He conjured the Fireball again.

“Five minutes from now.”

Celestia began to think again. ‘How can I absorb an elemental force? How can I negate the strength of fire? I tried ice. I tried more fire. The fire-barrier held longer than the ice one, so I assume that this is the blocking technique, but with that blast, blocking is nearly impossible. How was Chrysalis able to do this, this easily? Think Celestia. I am pretty sure that in terms of magical talent, she isn’t really superior to us, but something made it easy for her to absorb it. What’s the difference between her and us?’

Then Celestias’ eyes widened. ‘Of course, she is a changeling. This means that she absorbs emotions. So logically, the process of absorbing emotions is similar to absorbing natural forces, but that still leaves one problem. How can I absorb emotions? If Twilight would be here, she could tell me. She studied them after the wedding for quite a while. She would know how Changelings absorb emotions.’

“Ten seconds.”

‘Already?! I don’t even have a plan.’ And then the blast was released and again, Celestia didn’t survive it. Celestia awoke again and looked around. This time, Luna was missing. After seeing this, she turned to the border of the training ground and there she was, waving at her sister giddily. Celestia waved back, happy that at least her sister was able to do it. When Aren wasn’t looking, Luna pointed at the sun with one of her hooves.

Celestia didn’t instantly know what Luna meant, but she got it when Aren announced that the time starts running again. Luna meant that the process of absorbing fire is similar to how they control their celestial bodies.

‘Let’s see. To control the sun, I need to embrace her power and let it take over my body. With this, I build up a connection to the sun, and can use its’ own power to move it.’ Then her eyes widened. ‘Of course, I need to let my barrier embrace the energy of the warmth of the fire in order to strengthen it. When the fire hits, it strengthens the barrier which makes the barrier stronger and the fire weaker. It’s like absorbing magical energy to make oneself stronger, or emotions in Chrysalis’ case.’

“Ten seconds.” This time Celestia was ready. The blast exploded and hit her shield. Celestia didn’t even feel exhaustion. Her barrier just held, and she didn’t even need to use magic to hold it up. After some seconds, the fire vanished, and Celestia stood at the ground, healthy. Aren smirked.

“Good job, Celestia. You can go out of the training field while I wait for this pile of ash to figure it out.” He gestured at a pile of ash, where Ravien stood before. Did she look like this too?

When Celestia reached the edge of the barrier, it just let her pass, and she now was beside Luna. “Congratulations, sister.” Luna said to her sister while smiling happily.

“Thank you, Luna.” She answered with a smile of her own. Suddenly she realized that they were not alone. Many guards watched them while training, probably being lured in by repetitive sounds of massive explosions. There also was somepony else watching.

“Princess Celestia, are you alright?” Twilight asked worried. Celestia was a little taken aback that Twilight was watching all this.

“Yes, I am fine.” Suddenly she heard Aren announcing that there were only ten seconds left, and everypony looked at the training grounds. Celestia wanted to know how the explosion looked from outside the area. Luna walked beside her.

“You may want to watch this. It looks really impressive.” Celestia didn’t need to be told. The explosion went off, and it just looked… powerful. Every last bit in the barrier was engulfed in flames. She had to shield her eyes, because of all the brightness the pressured explosion had. She also noticed that the ground shook like there was an earthquake.

‘I think, I didn’t notice the ground shaking because I was preoccupied with surviving the blast.’ She thought with a little bit of humor, but what Celestia impressed the most, was the fact that the barrier around the rezz-field could contain such a force. If this barrier would be created by the most advanced barrier spell they knew, it would take an unreal amount of energy to hold it up. To let it block such a blast would take at least 15 Arens’. It certainly was fascinating how advanced this barrier was.

When the blast subsided, another pile of ash was adorning the floor. Ravien couldn’t do it.

“How can somepony be this cruel?” Twilight asked while sounding rattled. Celestia looked over to her.

“What exactly do you mean my student?” Celestia asked Twilight.

“Forcing somepony into a barrier, which they can’t escape from and killing them repeatedly if said pony can’t find a way to defend itself. It seems so cruel.” Celestia watched Twilight, who just looked terribly sad. Seeing this, Celestia embraced Twilight.

“Twilight, I thought like this too before I felt death on myself. To be honest, I was really scared the first time, but I am not anymore. Do you know why?” Twilight shook her head. “Killing somepony is bad, because of the pain they are put through, and because they are taken away from their loved ones. Here, we are not taken away, and I can assure you that the death is swift. It’s not as bad as it seems.”

“You need to know that the death is not the punishment for our failure. The death has absolutely no consequence in this explosion since you will be revived and it’s over too fast to feel any pain. The punishment for our failures are our own feelings of disappointment. You can trust me, when I say that it is not as bad as you think.” She smiled reassuringly at Twilight.

“It still seems very brutal to me, but if you say that it isn’t as bad as it looks, I will trust you princess.” They turned around to see another explosion, but this time, Ravien survived. Celestia was happy to see that Ravien survived, but Twilight had other things on her mind. It took all her courage to ask the following question.

“Princess, how can you be friends with Aren?” Celestia was a little taken aback by the suddenness of the question. Looking down at the pleading face of her student, she answered.

“Because he is lonely.” She made a short break to let the information sink in. “He is afraid to make friends because they either betrayed him or they died. Yesterday after your training, I had a talk with him. He told me that the reason he acted in front of you, like he did, was because he started liking you all and that he didn’t want to be hurt again when you die someday. So he decided to destroy any hope of being friends with you.”

“But to answer your question, Twilight. I am his friend because he has no one else.” Twilight seemed sad. She honestly didn’t like Aren for what he did, but at least she understood now why he acted like this. This didn’t mean that she forgave him, though. Twilight simply looked back at her teacher.

“Thank you princess, for answering my question.” Celestia chuckled a little.

“It’s quite alright. I always told you that you can ask me anything you want.” Twilight nodded once and walked away, back to her friends while Aren walked to Celestia.

“Well that’s it for todays’ training. Hope I didn’t overdo it.” He said sheepishly while scratching the backside of his head. Celestia shook her head.

“No, you didn’t. Actually, I kind of like your training.” She answered him. Then they both walked over to the castle gates until Aren stopped.

“Say Celestia, I haven’t trained myself for quite a while. Could you maybe try to learn the transformation of moving magic, out here?” Celestia crooked an eyebrow.

“Sure, why not, but shouldn’t you be resting? You still need to conserve your magic, and you used lots of it in our training.” Aren waved a dismissive hand.

“That wasn’t much magic. With enough practice, you can create such a blast with the power of a mortal. In the whole time, I didn’t even use 10% of my reserves. Now let’s go.” He just turned around and walked back to the field. Celestia followed behind. When she arrived at the side of the training area, Celestia summoned a cushion, and her utensils, which she always uses when she practices magic. Sitting down she looked over to Aren, who just got ready to begin.

“Alrighty then. Let’s begin.” He said and pulled out his sword. He then began to make some basic slashed with it. He also tried different elements. Fire, Lightning, electrified steel, cutting diamonds, even molten gold. Celestia still didn’t know how it was possible to conjure any other elements aside from the basic ones, but Aren told her that they will learn this too.

“Ok, I still can do everything.” Then he summoned mannequins. After using another spell, the mannequins started flying around in the barrier in high-speed. Aren got in fighting position and began. He suddenly charged forward with speed, she never saw him use before. He quickly slashed down, splitting a mannequin together with the floor beneath it.

Jumping to the barrier and pushing himself away from it, he was now flying around the air. Putting his hands out, he started to use different elements to hit different mannequins in the air. Every shot a hit. Every mannequin was destroyed before he hit the floor. “Alright, targeting practice successful. Now for strength practice.” He then held both of his hand out to the barrier.

“Aren, are you sure the barrier can withstand this?” Celestia asked form the other side of the field. Aren lowered his hands and turned to her.

“Celestia, this barrier is designed to contain immortals. Trust me when I say that it will hold. Not even Oran could break out of one without using his godpowers.” Celestia was surprised. She knew that the Barrier was strong, but not this strong. She stopped her learning to watch Aren train.

He put his hands out to the barrier and began to conjure a fireball. It got bigger and bigger until it shrunk down again. Then it got bigger again and shrunk down. Celestia wasn’t sure what he did, but it was obvious after some time. He pumped it up with magical energy and then squashed it into a smaller form. He did that already five times. Then she knew what this means.

The blast he used while her lesson would be a candle compared to this. Could the barrier actually hold this? After the final downsizing of the fireball, it glowed like the sun itself. He smiled and threw it at the barrier. From outside, the explosion didn’t look different from the first time. The only difference was that it looked brighter and that it apparently made no sound.

Another difference was that the explosion lasted for an awful long time. After a minute or such, it subsided, and Aren stood in it. He turned around and shouted to Celestia, but she couldn’t hear anything. After she hadn’t answered, Aren face-palmed and flicked with his fingers.

“I said that I am finished with training.” He started walking over to Celestia, but suddenly stopped. He turned around again and hummed a little. Then he walked back. While standing in the middle of the place, he opened his right hand and looked intently in it and didn’t move. Celestia watched, and watched, and watched. Nothing happened.

15 minutes later, Celestia was already back to learning her magic. She made a quick glance back to Aren, and saw that nothing changed. So she simply continued trying to manipulate moving magic.

“I don’t know why he’s doing that. I tried talking to him, but he doesn’t react to anything. The barrier is also active, which means that we can’t get near him. I don’t know what he’s doing.” Celestia told her sister. Aren has been standing like this for over 16 hours, and it was nearly time for the guards to train with him. Many of the guards were already standing around the training field and watched inside. There he just stood, watching his hand intently.

“I think, he’s concentrating on something.” Luna answered. Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“For 16 hours?” Before Luna could answer, they both felt magic coming from the barrier. They turned their heads to Aren, who still didn’t move. Nothing seemed to happen, but the magical power was rising. It was rising to unreal heights until it vanished. The magical tension was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

Luna and Celestia looked around but could feel no magic anymore. They turned back to Aren and their eyes widened. In his hand was a blue glowing fireball. It didn’t look any different than the normal fireball, except for the color, but somehow, they both were afraid of it. They didn’t know why, but they knew that this was dangerous. Aren finally moved, by smirking.

He then lifted his arms up and pointed them towards the sky. Suddenly a beam of blue fire flew out from his hand and impacted with the barrier above him. The barrier didn’t relent, but the beam also continued. It seemed like nothing would happen, but there was a cracking sound coming from the barrier. The cracking got louder until there was a sound, like glass shattering on the floor and the beam passed through the barrier. Aren quickly stopped it before it made any damage.

He turned around to look at Celestia and Luna, but he didn’t have the expression they thought he would have. He looked shocked beyond belief. No one seemed to move. Not even the wind. Even a falling leaf was standing in the air. It seems like time stopped.

“What did you do?” Aren heard from behind and turned around. “How were you able to destroy an IIB?” Oran asked Aren.

“I.. I’m not sure.” He still looked frazzled and looked at his hands. “I think I created a new element.” Oran shook his head.

“A new element does not explain how you were able to break an IIB. No one, not even I can break an IIB. Tell me what you did.” Oran seemed kind of shocked.

“I… just shot at it. I think it’s the new element that did it.” Oran raised an eyebrow.

“I saw it, but I don’t know what it was. Show me the creation sheet for this element.” Aren summoned a piece of paper and wrote something on it. He gave it to Oran who just raised an eyebrow.

“This is impossible. You can’t combine soul with a basic element.” Aren shrugged.

“Apparently it is possible. I simply combined fire with soul.” Oran scratched his hair violently.

“No, it’s not. I tried thousands of years to mold magic into soul, and I wasn’t able to do it. How can you just do it?” he looked angry while Aren looked at the floor.

“When I shared my soul with Rarity, I felt something. You know the feeling when you part your soul, aside from the pain? This feeling. Since I parted my soul this often already, I could remember this indescribable feeling. Just now I remembered the feeling and tried to conjure it.” Oran crooked an eyebrow.

“Just now? You stood here for 16 hours.” Aren backed away.

“16 hours? It felt like five minutes.” Then he just simply shook it. “Doesn’t matter. Somehow I was able to conjure the feeling of soul, and then I was just able to mold my magic into soul energy. After this I tried to fuse it with fire. It wasn’t possible. It just wouldn't stick together, so I used more magic. When I nearly used up all of my reserves, it finally happened, and they fused.” Oran seemed to accept it and began to concentrate on his hand. After some minutes, he looked back at Aren.

“It seems like I am not able to simulate the feeling.” Then he chuckled a little. “Well I didn’t split my soul as often as you. Make sure to make a photo of my face, when we fight in some years, and I don’t remember this. Also, congratulations. You created a new element. The first new element after nearly 500,000 years. You can be proud of yourself.” Aren smiled.

“Thanks… master.” He said with a satisfied grin. Oran also grinned satisfied and vanished. With his vanishing, the time ran again, and Aren walked over to Celestia and Luna. He scratched his head in embarrassment.

“Well, it seems like I created a new element just now. I think I’ll call it Soulfire” Most of the guards walked away, not knowing what just happened. Well didn’t seem so important anyway. Celestia and Luna congratulated him simply. “Would it be ok if we continue training tomorrow? I used nearly all of my energy.” They both nodded simply, and Aren walked over to the gates, but stopped.

‘Wait a minute. If I am now able to transform my magic into soul-energy shouldn’t I then be able to…’ he then began to simulate the feeling again. After some minutes, he was able to transform his magic into soul energy and then he absorbed the soul energy into his body. The energy warmed him, and he suddenly felt healthy again. After some seconds, he jumped high into the air.

“YEEEEEEESSSS!!!! IT WORKED!” He then ran around the plaza around Celestia and Luna like a kid that just got the best Christmas present of all time. They both looked somewhat confused and unsure of his current mental health. Maybe he used too much magic and went bonkers? He then stopped before Celestia.

“I did it! I was able to transform my magic into soul energy and absorbed the soul energy into my body, and now my soul is completely healed. Do you know what this means?” He nearly shouted at her with a happy voice. Celestia shook her head and went back a little, gaining her personal space back.

“This means that I don’t need to hold back anymore because my soul is completely healed again.” He shouted and jumped around. Celestia understood now what he meant, and also looked happy for him. Luna didn’t care. Suddenly Aren stopped.

“Since I am healed now, and I don’t need to hold back anymore.” He then turned to Celestia and Luna, and pointed to the training grounds. “Get in there. Training starts.” He simply commanded. Celestia laughed at the sudden change of his emotions while Luna groaned because of his tone. Suddenly he gasped and smiled again. “Be right back.” He then dashed into the castle and came back out some seconds later, with Chrysalis and Ravien on his shoulders. He plopped them down to the ground.

“Wait here, I need to make a new barrier before we can begin.” While he was creating the barrier, the immortals talked to each other. Mainly concerns about Arens’ mental health. After ten minutes, he was finished, and they walked into the new barrier. When they were at their respective places, Aren smiled like a schoolkid.

“Well then. Since you, all are able to defend yourselves against elements, and this only needs practice, we begin battle practice. For the next month, until you are able to manipulate moving magic, we will make the same thing over and over again. You can use whatever you want in order to reach your goal. Your goal is simple.”

“Kill me!”