There only was silence. Celestia did not say anything after what she just heard. ‘Over 9000?
There’s no way that can be right, can it? But on the other hoof, he also told me things that are even more incredible. Maybe everything he said is true, but if that’s the case, then how can we even think about standing a chance against him?’ Aren looked at the troubled eyes of Celestia.

“Like I said, this changes nothing. His magical power is no problem yet. The first thing we need to be able to do is to get him to begin using his magic. If we don’t have a brilliant plan, we won’t even get him to use his magic.” Celestia crooked an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Did Oran use any sort of spell while fighting you a thousand years ago?” Celestia thought.

“Well he used two. The first one was a shieldspell that blocked mine and Lunas’ beam. The second one was, when he waved his hand to disperse the beam of the elements.” Aren sighed.

“Say Celestia, were the Elements Of Harmony always this strong, like today?” She shook her head.

“No. At that time, only Luna and I used the elements. I think the bond, the current holders of the Elements share strengthened them.”

“That’s what I thought. He could not possibly disperse an attack with a power of nearly 6000 crunox. You should not get disheartened by what I now say. He didn’t use a single spell against you.” Celestia shook her head.

“That is impossible. You said yourself that if you get hit enough you get damaged. So how could he not have been damage by our rays if it weren’t for some kind of shield spell?” Aren sighed.

“He did not use any shield spell. Let me explain this to you. When you have a pony, and you always throw a ball at the same spot on its’ back, what will happen to that spot?” Celestia pondered over this.

“Well it would harden to ease the…” Celestias’ eyes widened. No, that couldn’t be. Aren noticed it and just sighed.

“So you figured it out huh? Yeah he just has that kind of resilience against magic. You know everyone in the multiverse is all like ‘Oh magic is so good. Magic is so great. Damn magic deals so much damage. Hey let’s only use magic in fight. It is so much more effective in a battle.’ Yeah this can be true, but if everyone uses it and you have 25 million years on your ass, then you build some kind of resistance to it.”

“With other words, he can withstand any magical attack with a power of under 2800.” He looked at Celestia. She just looked as if she didn’t believe him, but then shook her head.

“But what about the beam of the elements? Do you want to tell me, this is no spell too?” Aren nodded. “But how?” Aren sighed and pointed with a finger to Celestia. Then he gathered energy and shot a small beam at Celestia. Celestia, having contact with magic every day, unconsciously strengthened her resolve and looked at the beam. The beam dispersed.

“That’s how.” Aren just said. Celestia thought for a moment and then it came to her. If you get attacked by a weak spell, you can strengthen your will and the will itself will act like a shield against magic. If you get hit by a dangerous blast, you are able to weaken the damage you receive, but if a weaker blast races towards the target it already disperses by the shield your will creates around your body. Celestia looked at the ground.

“So he didn’t use magic at all against Luna and I?” Aren nodded.

“It’s like I said, the important thing is your capability and experience in battle. Magic is just a nice extra. Do you want to know something interesting? Your guards stood a better chance against him than you because you only used magic, while your guards attacked him physically.”

“If they would have hit him, he would get damaged like every other guy. Remember this for the future. If you see someone that does not receive damage through magic, run to him and attack him. Thrust your horn at him for example. Everything’s better than an attack that does no damage.” Luna and Twilight looked at each other. They did not involve themselves in the discussion.

They just seemed out of place, but they did not want to pass on the opportunity to learn something new. Just like Celestia, they learned a lot. Everything Aren said sounded plausible, and they realized this. They were absorbing the new information like sponges. Celestia shook her head.

If he did not even use his magic against me, how will we able to win if he starts using it?” Aren smirked.

“If he starts using his magic, we loose. There is absolutely no way to beat the old man if he uses his magic, but don’t worry. We have spells for that.” He winked at Celestia. She brightened up. Now Twilight walked up to him.

“Mister Aren?” Aren winced.

“Did you just call me ‘mister’ Aren?” Twilight looked down at the floor.

“Well you are pretty old. I was not sure how to address you. I’m sorry if I seemed informal.” She drew circles with her hoof. Aren just waved a hand dismissively.

“Don’t sweat it. Just call me Aren. I hate being called mister since it always seems so tense when someone calls me that. So what did you want to ask me?” He looked at Twilight, who raised her head.

“Well, you said that you will help us in the battle against Oran and that you will also train us, right?” Aren nodded. Twilight looked at the ground and she blushed a little. “Does this also include you training us in magic?”

“No.” Twilight looked sad.

“Could I ask why?” Aren sighed.

“I would train you in magic, but it’s against the ML, that means multiversal law. It is forbidden to show spells to worlds that are clearly not advanced enough. I bet you want to know why.” Twilight reluctantly nodded.

“If you show a spell to someone of a world that does not have this spell already, you risk destroying the balance of the world. Imagine if I showed this, how did you call her? Ah right Chrysalis. Imagine if I show this Chrysalis the omnipresence spell combination. What would she do? From what I heard she is quite evil.”

“I can tell you what she will do. She will use it and attack Canterlot. You won’t be able to do anything since she always knows what’s happening. Then she banishes or kills your rulers, and enslaves your ponies. Then she might do a mistake and kill too many ponies and the ponies go extinct. Then her changelings can’t feed on the ponies anymore and starve to death.”

“And looky here, just because I have shown one spellcombination two of the main species of the world are dead. Even a lesser spell, like one that uses a new kind of forming magic, would throw the technological and magical level of the people of the land far into the future. I just can’t teach you magic. The only thing I can do is tell you what’s possible, but not how to do it.” Twilight sighed. She hoped that she could get information on new kinds of magic, but she still seemed determined.

“Can you maybe make an exception for us?” Aren sighed and shook his head.

“You don’t understand. If I would be able to tell you, I would, but it is impossible. Do you know the one who created and enforced those laws?” Twilight shook her head. “Oran. We saw to many worlds in disarray, because of some guy that showed off his magic. So he used his godpowers to enfore the ML on every dimension.”

“If someone tells a world a spell for which it’s not ready for, it just won’t happen. Yeah I know that sounds complicated, let me rephrase that. Do you remember the time Oran had your crown in his hand?” Twilight nodded. “That is what happened. He decided that the crown was in his hand, and it was. Now if, someone tells you of a spell, he just doesn’t. I can even show you. Let me tell you about the omnipresence spell.” There was silence. Twilight looked at Aren confused.

“So?”

“That’s it. I want to tell you and I feel no restraint. I feel like I can tell you whatever I want, but I just don’t say it.” Twilight looked even more confused. Aren saw this and sighed. “Alright it’s better if you get some first hand experience, or in your case first hoof.” He grabbed one of Twilights’ hoof and before Twilight or any other pony in the room could react they both vanished.

They both reappeared at a green vale. It looked like Equestria, but there were other plants. Plants which Twilight never saw. There were some gray things talking to each other not 10 meters away from the both visitors. They looked just like piles of slime.

“Where am I? What happened?” Twilight began to panic. Suddenly Aren whistled her over to the gray blobs. She reluctantly complied.

“See these things? They are called graknarks. They are a race that will probably never have the mental capacity to visit the multiverse. Their anatomy just doesn’t allow for them to get that much intelligence, but they still can speak. Go ahead and tell them about a teleportation spell, and don’t worry about language barriers. I used a translationspell.”

Twilight first didn’t know what to do, but decided to walk over to them. The gray blobs looked at her in confusion.

“Are you one of those knarbark?” Twilight was confused and just smiled nervously.

“Eh hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” She looked at the confused blobs. “Do you want to know about how to teleport with magic?” The blobs looked even more confused.

“Tele-pot what is that?” Twilight inhaled a breath and began to explain.

Nothing happened. She couldn’t say it. She tried to, but it just did not happen. It didn’t feel like she has no power over herself. It also didn’t feel like something is hindering her in doing it. She just doesn’t say it. She decided to say it, but she just didn’t do it and there seemed to be no problem with that. Confused she walked back to Aren.

“Understand it now?” he asked. She looked to the floor and shook her head. Aren just smirked.

“Twilight, could you please flap your wings?” Now it was her time to be confused.

“What wings? I don’t have any.” Arens’ smirk got wider.

“Right, and does that bother you that you can’t flap your nonexistent wings?”

“Well no, I mean I am not able to…” Then her eyes widened, and she finally realized what he meant. Not being able to tell those beings of teleportation just was like to do something you were just not able to do. Like in her case, flap her wings. It was natural that she couldn’t flap them since she doesn’t have any. This is the same thing that happened when she wanted to talk about teleportation. She was not able to since it just seemed natural that she couldn’t.

“It seems like you finally got it.” She nodded. “Brilliant isn’t it?” She nodded again. This kind of power seemed unreal.

“Say Aren.”

“What is it?”

“Isn’t it dangerous to use power of that magnitude? I mean if Oran affects the whole multiverse with a spell of this strength, then isn’t he endangering the balance?” Aren shook his head.

“The answer to this question is quite easy. Just when he decides that it is impossible to tell them about futuristic spells, the also decided that this won’t endanger the balance. If he wanted, he could just go to a damaged world with a destroyed balance, decide that the balance was not destroyed, and it then just wasn’t. It’s not that he decides something and the universe does. It’s that he decides, and the universe is. It’s really hard to grasp this, but that’s how it is.” Suddenly one of the bushes rustled.

“Eh Aren? Can we go back?” Aren nodded, and they both vanished again and reappeared in the throne room again.

“Twilight, what happened? Where were you?” Celestia ran up to her student. Twilight walked to her mentor.

“Aren took me to another dimension and explained some things to me.” Celestia nuzzled her student.

“Are you alright?” Twilight sighed and looked at the floor.

“Yes princess. It’s just a disappointment that we won’t be able to learn magic from Aren.”

“It’s ok Twilight. We will find a way to win against Oran.” They both embraced each other in a hug. In the meantime, Aren walked up to Luna.

“Is this normal that they greet each other like they didn’t meet in ages? I mean, we were only 5 minutes away.” Luna looked over to Celestia and nodded.

“They share a special bond.” They waited some more seconds until Aren lost his patience.

“Alright, alright! How about you guys go to sleep while Celestia and I talk a little about what we will do in order to defeat Oran?” They looked at each other.

“Do you want me to keep you company, dear sister?” Celestia shook her head.

“It’s quite alright, Luna. I think I can manage.” Luna nodded and nudged Twilight to come with her. With a last wave, they saw each other off. Celestia walked up to Aren and nodded.

“So what was your plan before I got here?” Aren asked Celestia.

“Well, we planned to first get as much help as possible. Queen Chrysalis and Discord were our options in this matter.” Suddenly there were words in the air.

“1. Win Chrysalis and Discord over.” Celestia was impressed by this spell. She did not know how it functioned, but it seemed quite useful to just write something in the air.

“Continue.” Aren remarked.

“Well next, we wanted to train the bearers of the Elements Of Harmony, the guards and us immortals in combat.” Aren nodded and added the points to his list.

“And finally, we will, based on our acquired skills, form a battle plan and perfect it.” Aren nodded again.

“Sounds good. I think we can keep it that way.” Then he waved with his hand. Suddenly the writing in the air moved in the tactical chamber, where Twilight and Celestia talked earlier. On top of that, about 100 parchments, with the list impregnated in them, fell to the ground. Aren levitated them over to him and handed them to Celestia.

“Here are 100 copies of the list. Give them to whoever needs them.” Celestia nodded and teleported them to some warehouse.

“Well then.” He stood up from the chair, Celestia didn’t notice he was sitting in, clapped in his hands and stretched his muscles.

“When do you want to go and ask Chrysalis?” He asked while stretching his right Triceps. Celestia pondered about this for some seconds.

“I’ll try and arrange a meeting with her in a week or two.” Aren got down and started stretching his left leg.

“Well alright. I think I should not accompany you in meeting Chrysalis. Bad guys feel kinda threatened when I am walking around the good guys and switch to stubborn-mode, but I can accompany for the journey if there are dangerous things in this world. Well who knows, maybe I can give you a lesson in combat on the way.”

“That would be wonderful.” Aren nodded while he was doing some push-ups.

“Is it okay if I train your guards first thing tomorrow?” Celestia was not sure if she could trust someone she just met an hour ago.

“Well to be honest. I don’t know if I can trust you.” She thought a while. “But I think if I can watch you while you train them, I could allow it.” She smiled warmly at Aren, who just shrugged.

“Sure, why not?”

“Well, then it’s decided.” Celestia began walking to the door, but then she got the urge to ask him something.

“Say Aren, is there really no way for you to teach somepony in magic?” Aren just shook his head.

“The only way would be, to take someone as my apprentice, and I do not plan to take any apprentices yet.” Celestia hummed.

“So if someone would want to be your apprentice you could teach him about magic?” Aren nodded.

“But get this idea out of your head. I don’t want any apprentices, and on top of that, they need to be immortal anyway, and I do not think that any of you would want to leave your kingdom behind, just to follow me around the multiverse and beat up some stinky bad guys.” Celestia needed to chuckle a little, but nodded.

“Aren, I will prepare a room for you in the castle, come to me la-“

“You don’t need to. I don’t sleep, and if I need a room for myself, I just go to my homedimension and walk into my own room in my own castle.”

“Well if you are sure, ok. I will be going to my bedchambers, and I think we will see each other in the morning, when you will look at my guards. I wish you a wonderful night.” Celestia smiled.

“Yeah, good night.” Celestia walked up to the gates and the guards opened them. Just before, Celestia walked out of them, she made one last glance to Aren.

He was gone. She ran back into the room and looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. Deciding that he probably won’t do something stupid, she continued on her way to her bedchambers while thinking about the training he will put her guards through tomorrow. It can’t be that different from their own, can it?

There were murmurs everywhere in the hall. The gathered guards all talked with each other. ‘Why does the princess want every guard in the castle to gather here in the hall? Is there some kind of emergency?’

The hall went quiet when the princess of the sun and a biped creature walked up to the throne. Some quiet whispers could be heard when the human leaned himself against the side of the throne in a nonchalant manner.

“Could you please stop looking so disrespectful in front of my guards?” She exclaimed through closed teeth, so only Aren could hear her. He groaned silently and straightened himself. Celestia waited until the hall was perfectly quiet.

“My royal guards, let me first calm your nerves, through saying that we are not threatened right now.” Some of the guards let out a long sigh they withheld. “The reason why I let you all assemble here today is that I have an announcement to make.” Celestia gestured for Aren to walk to the front, and he complied.

“This is high-general Aren from Magenia. For those of you who don’t know, Magenia is a country far far away from Equestria. I was visiting Magenia some decades ago, and in my visit I noticed that their military is far more advanced than ours. I asked the king of Magenia if he would share some of his military secrets with Equestria, and he happily accepted.” She was lying like a pro.

“The king of Magenia then ordered his high-general to come to Equestria to train the guards for five years, and I am happy to tell you that the time has finally arrived for him to train you, my guards. I wish for every guard, to be at the training camp at exactly 1000 today so he can begin. I will over watch the training personally, and I hope that we can show high-general Aren our capabilities to their fullest. That is all from my side.”

With that said she made way for Aren, who should also say something. He walked to the front and spoke up.

“Royal guards of Equestria, I only have one thing to say to you. Only attend the training when you are prepared to be pushed to the absolute limit. Only attend my training when you have no problem with crossing the border of death and coming back because that is what I will do to you, but those of you who will succeed in my training will belong to the strongest kinds of soldiers this world has ever seen. I say it again. Do not attend the training if you are not ready to die for your princesses!” He finished talking and walked out of the room.

There still were some whispers around the room, but they died down when the guards dispersed and continued with their daily activities. For the rest of the morning, nearly all guards only talked about the training they will receive.

Celestia overlooked the training grounds from her balcony. Besides her was king Shining Armor and on the other side was Luna. They were worried about their guards. It was not every day that they let their guards get trained by someone that had over 100,000 years of battle experience. They just hoped that the training wasn’t so brutal he made it out to be.

All the guards stood unmoving at their respected positions. Aren walked around and inspected them. Not every guard showed up to the training, but the attendance was still at over 90%.

‘Well after todays’ training this will probably fall to 20%.’ Aren thought and sighed after he finished his thought. Then he straightened himself and spoke up.

“Guards! From today on, while you are on the training grounds, I have your lives in my hand.” He walked to one of the captains. “If I want, I can take your heart, pull it out and eat it as a nice snack.” Aren smiled to show his carnivore-teeth. The captain shuddered, but did his best to hold his composure. Aren started circling the guards like a predator. He did not say anything while doing that. He just walked around and watched them with open eyes.

The guards got nervous. Somewhere deep inside, their instincts told them to run away. They told them that they are prey and that a predator is circling them. Their instincts just shouted at them to run for their lives.

“If you want to leave my training just raise your hoof. I will then allow you to leave the training grounds, but don’t expect to come back later to continue the training. As soon as you leave, you won’t be able to come back. And what I tell you now, is the absolute truth about what will happen now. You will all die. Now if you want to leave the training, go ahead. Any volunteers?” No one raised their hoof.

“Good then we will begin training. Guards! Align yourself at the west-side of the training camp.” They reluctantly complied and walked over there. They still felt nervous around him. When they were all at their respective spots, Aren nodded and spoke up again.

“Now all of you, COME AT ME!” The guards looked confused. Aren raised an eyebrow. “Was I not clear enough? I want all of you to attack me with the intend to kill me!” They nervously shuffled around.

“I SAID ATTACK!” his voice was even louder, than Lunas’ royal Canterlot voice. It sounded like the sky itself was speaking. Suddenly everything went dark. Storm clouds blocked out every ray of the sun, and they began to produce lightning at an incredible rate. Loud thunder cracked through the skies and lightning impacted with the ground around Aren. Every bolt of lightning provided enough light to let the guards see the seemingly red glowing eyes of the human.

“ATTACK!” He screamed even louder than before and the scream was accompanied with eight lightning bolts striking down around the training ground. The guards were full in panic. They could not think rational anymore. The only thing they wanted to do was stop this, and there was only one way to stop it. They need to kill the human. Everyone screamed in panic as they ran towards Aren, who just licked his teeth while showing a malicious grin.

Celestia and Luna felt this feeling before. It was the same feeling they felt while battling against Oran, but it was not that strong at that time. Oran was modest and never showed any bloodlust. When they looked at Aren they felt his bloodlust, his need to kill, to slice, to murder and on top of that they could practically taste the magical power that was hanging in the air. They both finally realized how much stronger Aren is in comparison to them.

The guards ran at Aren with tears running down their eyes, because of the enormous fear they felt inside. With terrified expressions on their faces, they took their weapons and attacked Aren. The first guard that attacked Aren was picked up by his head.

‘Let’s begin training.’ He thought to himself. After placing a second hand on the other side of the head, Aren dug with his fingers into the skull of the guard who just screamed. The others could only watch in horror as Aren tore the guards’ head in half, blood spilling all over him. The guards and the princesses were terrified. Aren let the remains of the guard fall to the ground and began to lick along his blood-smeared right arm.

It was too much. They couldn’t handle this. All the guards turned around and began to flee from the training ground while screaming in horror. As soon as they reached the edge of the training ground, they bumped against an invisible wall. The unicorns tried to use their magic to disperse it, but it was just not possible.

Celestia and Luna who have finally regained their composure stood up and flew to the training grounds, but got stopped by the invisible wall. They also tried to get through it, but it was just impossible. This wall was obviously created with magic that was far more advanced than theirs. The only thing they could do was watch.

Aren walked slowly to the guards with the malicious grin. “You can’t escape. I said your lives are in my hands while you are here. The only possibility to survive is to kill me.” Aren levitated the remains of the dead guard to his side and bit a large part of bloody meat out of his torso. The guards shivered and covered their head with their hooves. Suddenly one of them got levitated away to the side of Aren.

“Attack me!” he ordered. The guards were frozen in fear. Suddenly the flying guard began to scream in a bloodcurdling manner. The sound was unbearable. “ATTACK ME!” The guards slowly stood up, and readied their weapons while shivering. Then they ran at him while screaming in terror. Aren just widened his smile and threw the screaming guard at them. Before the guard impacted with the soldiers, he had exploded, and a shower of blood and gore soaked the guards.

The guards did not stop running. They were too terrified. There was only one thing to do. Kill him. Their spears all were pointed at Aren while they planned to overrun him. Aren evaded every thrust and tore apart guard after guard until there were only ten guards left. Aren lifted all the dead guards into the air and impaled them with their own spears. Then he rammed the spears into the floor and let the corpses of the dead guards hang from their weapons.

The remaining guards just ran at him and got slaughtered. Celestia and Luna saw all this. They began crying a long time ago. They had to watch, their guards getting slaughtered in the most brutal of ways. They didn’t want to see it, but they just couldn’t avert their eyes. The last ten guards didn’t last long, and then all were dead.

The corpse of every guard was being demonstrated in an inhuman way and amidst all the corpses was a maliciously smiling human.

Author's Note

Yep. I hope i didn't overdo it. oO