Sorry for the absence in chapters, the new semester starting really threw my schedule for a loop!

"..."

We were relatively quiet as the princess led us towards the medical wing of the castle, increasing her pace with every step. Her long stride made it difficult to keep up, and we needed to walk at a brisk rate to keep up with her longer legs. While on the way there, many of the staff appeared to have concerns that needed her attention, but upon seeing the foreboding look of apathy on her face, they quickly stepped aside. My attention was only partially devoted to watching where I was going, and instead my eyes were still glued to my arm. Celestia had been able to use a light healing spell to fix most of the immediate damage, and the bleeding had stopped. But what worried me was the long, deep scar that was now across my arm. My thoughts were likely locked on such a trivial matter because I could not process the information that I had just been given.

Immortality.

...immortality...

My mind was almost numb from the sheer amount of thoughts that were racing through my brain. I was both terrified and intrigued at the same time.

We arrived in the medical wing shortly after, and upon entering the wing, a group of medical staff stepped forward, splitting into two groups. One of the groups claimed that they needed to take Austin. My attention was briefly drawn from my arm to the fracas in front of me.

"Whoa whoa, why do I need to go anywhere?" he asked the princess. She turned around, a look of mild annoyance plastered on her face.

"You were exposed to the same thing that Daniel was, correct? Then it stands to reason that you have the same condition as he does. These are some of the best medical staff in the entire country. They'll take you, and find out everything that they have to know about you, and the same will happen to him," she told him, gesturing to me with her hoof. I looked back to my arm.

After a few more brief exchanges of Austin being generally stubborn, we split up, the first half of the medical team taking Austin, and disappearing down an adjacent hallway. The second half of the team, comprised of three ponies, led the princess and I to a room almost identical to the one doctor Windy and I had argued in. I briefly thought about the doctor, but my thoughts were pulled away by another doctor talking to me.

"Alright... Daniel. Please have a seat," one of the doctors told me, looking to his clipboard for my name. I scowled at the cold informality of the doctor. I sat down in a chair opposite of a desk that was facing away from me on the other side of the room. Princess Celestia stood next to the desk, and leaned over to the doctor, who was apparently looking over some papers. She whispered something to him, and waited for a response. After a few seconds, the doctor looked to her and nodded. Apparently happy with the response she was given, Celestia came and sat down on a chair next to me. Before any remarks or banter could be exchanged, the doctor called out to me.

"Alright Daniel, please have a seat over in this chair," he told me, moving to the center of the room.

This is going to be a long fucking day...

Two Hours Later

We had taken the time to test almost everything physical about my body, save for things like endurance, though I'm sure that I'll be tested on that as well sometime in the near future.

"Alright, now that we have all of that out of the way, we can move on to examining your endurance and cardiovascular strength. Please, come with me," he told me.

...or right now...

Doctor Brown, as I found out his name was, led us out of the medical room and towards the outside grounds of the castle. I found myself standing in front of a large, open, rectangular courtyard. On the other side lay the barracks and armoury, with trees and benches scattered about the yard. From what Bell had shown and told me, this was a place that the guards could come and relax if they felt over worked. It was a relatively peaceful place, with a stone path running around the perimeter of the area, a few flowers here and there, and lush, vibrant green grass covering the inside portions. I had only seen this place once, when Bell was showing me around the castle, but from what I could tell, it was a very peaceful place. There were a few guards in the area, two were sitting on a bench apparently just talking, and a few were walking around the edge, probably to keep from slacking off. Overall it was a massive change from the greys and whites of the castle, and my eyes welcomed it.

"This is where you will be demonstrating your physical endurance to us, to see if anything has changed. When you are ready, please start jogging around the park," the doctor told me.

"...wait. Just... run?" I asked him.

"Well, he did say jog. Running will tire you out more quickly, but if that's what you want, no one is stopping you," the princess told me in a snarky yet slightly amused manner. I looked back and forth between the two of them.

"This seems highly unprofessional," I thought aloud.

"If my theory is correct, which I am quite sure it is, then we will not need to be professional, no go!" she urged of me. I shook my head, and turned around, starting a slow pace before slowly working my way up to a real jog.

Now, let's get one thing straight. I am not a runner, not by a long shot. That doesn't mean I can't run fast, I just never had a need to, save for a few times. I made it down the first stretch of path, and turned onto the short side, rapidly covering this and moving on to the opposite long side. I estimated the long sides of the park to be around fifty meters, give or take a few meters. The short sides, or the top and bottom, if you will, were likely only around twenty meters. Overall, it was not a long distance, but doing it over and over again would quickly get annoying.

As I passed by the starting point, I noticed that my breathing was not even remotely close to strained. Even though this was a relatively short "track," if you could call it that, my breathing was not impacted in the slightest. This genuinely surprised me, as I would expect to have at least a little bit of stress on my lungs. I also noticed that my legs felt barely any stress at all, as if the crude impacts of my feet on the stone beneath me did not have any effect on me. I rounded the track again, and so did the same feeling of ease. I felt no breathing problems, no stress on any of my muscles, nothing. Just a sense of easiness. As I rounded the track for the third time, I noticed that the princess and the doctor were sitting on one of the benches, having a simple conversation by the looks of it. From the way that neither of them paid my any heed, I knew something was up. Perhaps Celestia knew what was happening to me, and she wanted it to happen at its own pace? There was no real way to know, and as such, I digress.

The jogging went on for a few more minutes. After my eleventh time rounding the track, I decided that this was just too easy, and started running faster. Before, it was but a slight jog, but now I was moving at a solid running speed. Not sprinting, but running nonetheless. This went on for a little while longer. I made my way around the park at least ten more times, I had lost track at this point. When I came by the start again, I found Celestia and Brown standing before me. I came to a stop before them.

"Can you tell me how you feel right now Daniel?" the doc asked me.

"I feel light as air! That whole time I was running, I could barely feel anything holding me back! I could breathe normally the whole time, there was absolutely no stress on my legs, and look! I'm not even sweating!" I exclaimed, surprised beyond belief at what I had just accomplished. Never in my life before had anything like that happened to me, not even endorphins could compare!

"This is exactly as I predicted. Daniel, the reason you feel so amazing, the reason you can run like you just did for so long, is because of what happened with you and the elements," she told me. I tilted my head to the side.

"What does that mean?" I asked her.

"When my sister and I first encountered the elements and were blessed by their magic, we found ourselves at a serious advantage over our foes. We had endurance and strength that matched no other individual in the kingdom. We were the fastest, we were the smartest, we were the strongest. And the reason? The elements. Because of the elements good intentions, they strive to help anything they come into contact with the best that that thing can be. When they effect a person, that person is gifted with unimaginable physical and mental abilities. So, basically what happened to Luna and I that made us the way we are today, is what happened to you, which would explain why you are able to run like you just did. What say you, Daniel?" she asked me with a smile on her face.

I shrugged my arms.

"Let's go for a run!"

Writing these chapters really does bring me a lot of joy. I know it may sound old to you, but I really do like writing them. I hope you like reading them as much as I like writing them!