(Sean's wife)Ashley's POV

I looked around the area that Symbol had brought me to. It was a long pathway with pits, obstacles and enemies like the levels from Sonic Unleashed...minus the loops, there was even grind rails. "Why bring me here?" I asked him.

"There is a reason I brought you here and sent Sean to the arena. You are capable of defending yourself in tight spaces, but you don't know how to use your agility. Sean is the reverse. He is strongest in large open areas while he will struggle in close combat, and his stretching abilities give him an edge in courses like this."

I nodded, “I suppose I see what you mean. With his stretching he can hit people farther away and, while he’s fought before, he doesn’t have much formal training. I’m more adept with using a sword and fighting right there.” I looked around the area we were at. “So, what should we do first?”

“We should probably get you used to your magic,” he said. “What kinds can you use?”

“I’m pretty sure all of them,” I answered. “As Sean said, I’ve used chaos magic and pegasus so far. Haven’t tried unicorn, earth pony, alicorn (if that’s a separate magic), or any other kinds that there might be.” I didn’t mention dark magic because I was unsure that, even if it didn’t corrupt the user, I’d want to use that kind of magic.

"I couldn't help but notice that you left out dark magic." I immediately froze and looked at him unsure. He studied my body language and gave a small smile. "I see. Very well, we won't go near that for now." I breathed a sigh of relief. "However, you will find that there will be a point where you will be required to use it, whether you want to or not."

I nodded in understanding. There probably would be instances where my hand would be forced, so better to have an understanding of the magic then to blindly cast it.

“What should we work on?” I asked.

“How about fighting without your swords? You may find yourself disarmed and you should know how to fight without them.” Symbol said. He snapped his fingers and several monsters appeared a short distance from us. There were Red Rexes, Nightmares (from the game, not what Symbol dealt with), and Killer Bees. All three were of different sizes and varying speeds. “Try taking all of them out,” he instructed.

I raised a hand and aimed at one of the monsters. I focused my magic into my hand and an orange glow surrounded it. Once I figured there was enough magic, I fired it at one of the Nightmares. My aim was right on target, however the power behind it wasn’t enough to destroy it. The beam just slammed into the monster and pushed him back. The others didn’t react, but the one I’d hit glared at me and started charging.

As it ran, it threw its arm forward, stretching it toward me. I sidestepped the strike and grabbed its arm. I then yanked it toward me and charged magic into my hand. When it reached me I uppercut it, releasing the magic stored in my fist. The magic exploded outward, destroying the Nightmare.

Raising my hand again, I took aim and focused the same amount of magic into it as before. However, instead of shooting the Nightmare I aimed at the Red Rex. The small bulldog headed dino burst into purple smoke. Smiling, I took out the rest of the Rexes in a similar manner. I then watched the Killer Bees as they zoomed around in the air.

Focusing on my pegasus magic, I lifted myself off of the ground and charged at them. When I got near, one of the bees shot toward me. I charged toward it as well and tried focusing my magic into my leg. My pegasi magic was cut off, but my momentum kept me going for the moment. I noticed my leg start to glow and kicked the bee into another that flew into it’s flight path. After reactivating my pegasi magic, I heard buzzing behind me and I spun around just in time to see a bee heading at me with its stinger pointed at me. Not being able to dodge in time, I threw my arms up and braced myself for the attack. When nothing happened, I looked down and was shocked at what I saw. I had a hole in my stomach. However, there was an orange glow surrounding it.

I smiled as I realized what this meant. I was a Logia-user. ‘Now to make sure I don’t get overconfident with that,’ I thought. I willed the hole to close and it did. Launching myself forward I started taking the Killer Bees out with quick kicks and punches. After they all were dealt with I looked down at the Nightmares. Sudden inspiration hit as I remembered a game Sean played. I cut off my pegasi magic and started falling. As I fell, I gathered magic into my hands. When I landed, I slammed my fists into the ground and sent out an orange shockwave of magic, obliterating the remaining monsters.

I stood up and dusted myself off, “How was that?”

"Very good, you seem to already have a grasp on your powers. And since this means you can literally do anything you can imagine there isn't much more I can teach you outside of magic balance."

"Magic balance?" I asked with a great deal of curiosity.

"It's when your body is in perfect form, a perfect balance between dark magic and light magic. For many creatures that can use magic they only require one type of magic, mainly light. You on another hand, possess every type of magic from your Equestria. If your body should ever configure itself to only use a set type of magic, then you will be left extremely restricted with what you can do. Regardless of whether your magic is from a devil fruit or not."

“So what should I do to prevent that?” I asked warily.

“Keep using different kinds of magic,” he said. “Don’t just focus on just one or two, switch things up. It’ll also keep your opponents from guessing what you’re going to do.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. What should we do next?”

"Next we will test your agility." Symbol gestured towards a nearby course. "Complete that course as fast as you can, I will be waiting at the finish line to give my judgment." He snapped his fingers and disappeared.

I turned to the course and examined it. After examining as much as I was able to see, I started running through it as fast as I could. I decided to refrain from using pegasi magic unless absolutely necessary. Didn’t want to get too reliant on it. As I ran, the monsters charged at me. Since this was to test my agility, I didn’t fight any of them, but instead did my best to dodge their attacks. A few grazed me, but thankfully I focused on phasing through them and was left unharmed. Ahead of me, was a pit that more than likely had spikes at the bottom. I gathered magic into my hands and, when I reached the pit, I fired the magic at the ground, propelling myself over the hole.

Once on the other side, I raced forward and continued through the course. I soon came to a grind rail that was suspended above some kind of purple liquid. I didn’t see any other way across other than to use the grind rail. I contemplated on how to do this, when I had an idea. I took one of my swords and jumped up. Holding onto each end of the sheathe, I used it to slide across grind rail. As I neared the end, I saw a big group of enemies waiting for me. Not seeing another way around them, I tried to think of a way to deal with them quickly. I suddenly had an idea and I began to charge my magic into my sword. When the grind rail ended, I quickly returned the sword to my side and gripped the hilt. After landing on the ground, I slashed sideways releasing my magic outward. The released magic formed an orange slash that cut a path through the monsters. I sprinted through the opening, dodging or phasing through every attack I could. Some managed to nick me, as there were too many to keep track of.

I made a rush for a large pit to gain some momentum. As I jumped I slipped and fell down the hole. I looked down at the spikes that I was eventually going to get to know and started to panic. I looked to my right and saw Symbol quickly grinding down a rail and launch towards me.

He caught me and held me bridal style as he jumped from wall to wall until he reached the top. He landed and set me down. "You ok?" He asked as he knelt down beside me as I lay on my back trying to catch my breath.

"Yeah...sorry I failed the course."

"I never said you'd have to finish the course. I said I would wait at the finish and judge your abilities, and you got further than me when I first attempted this course so there's that." He chuckled as he sat down beside me.

"Really? But you were such a badass when you saved me and you grinded on that rail like you were actually Sonic."

"I wasn't always like that, the first time I grinded on a rail was when I first met one of my brothers, his name is Epidemic. I struggled to keep my balance but I couldn't afford to fall off."

"Why not?"

"There was a giant crystal snake chasing me." I laughed and sat up.

"You seem to have had a few adventures, mind telling me about one?" He put to finger to his chin in thought.

"I don't see why not." I summoned a bucket of popcorn and listened to his tale. "In my Equestria before I fought the great evil I was investigating a cult that had somehow predicted my arrival. I found one of their temples and began searching for an artifact that was supposed to be in the main chamber. After solving a few puzzles I made my way into the main room and the artifact was there. But when I took it, the temple decide to go Indiana Jones on me and started collapsing. I ran along the long hallway I had traveled down and found that the CMC had followed me in there. So I grabbed them and ran from the collapsing ceiling that was chasing me. Then the hallway suddenly started to get longer and the large stone doors that I had entered through started to slowly shut itself as the hallway grew. Now this was before I had any powers or anything so I had to sprint for my life as well as the filly's lives. I can tell you that I barely got out of there as the second I jumped out the door it slammed shut."

"So what did you do with the CMC?"

"I made them clean my house as payment for saving them from their own stupidity."

I giggled at his joke. "I bet Scootaloo was complaining the whole time."

"Oh she was, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle seemed fine with it though. Scootaloo and I never had any real interactions after that though. The only two fillies in the town I ever spoke to on a regular basis was Applebloom and Dinky. Although that would have to be because Dinky's mother was my best friend."

"You were friends with Derpy?"

"Yeah, I didn't get involved with the mane six that much. My friend group was Derpy, Vinyl, Lyra, Octavia and Bonbon. I occasionally hung out with Twilight on missions from Celestia, one of which I had to turn into a pony." I looked at him expectedly. "What?"

"Show me what you look like as a pony." I said excitedly.

He sighed. "Fine." With a flash of light his body transformed. He was now only three feet tall. His fur was dark blue and his mane was grey. His cutie mark was a necklace with the symbol of the sun on it and his eyes were sapphire blue. In a few words, he was adorable. "Happy?"

"Not until I get a cuddle." I picked him up and hugged him like a teddy bear. I had never seen a real MLP pony before as my world was full of anthros. I always wanted to hug one of the ponies and, while I’m sure I’d like hugging one of the anthro ponies, there was something about picking a pony up and hugging them.

"You will tell no one of this..." The adorable grumpy pony in my arms said in a car keys voice, but it was hard to be intimidating with that little body. I slowly reached up to his ear, but before I got close, Symbol said, “Don’t even think about it.”

“You’re no fun,” I pouted slightly and set him down. He changed back to his normal form and arched a brow at me. “What? Sean scratched Dinky behind the ears and she liked it. I wanted to see if it worked on you,” I said innocently.

"Fine, only because Tashigi is my favourite character in One Piece aside from Vivi." He changed back into a pony and I picked him up again. "Just get it over with..."

I smiled slightly, but, even though I wanted to try it, I didn’t really expect much of a reaction out of Symbol. He was pretty serious after all. I started scratching behind his ear and waited to see exactly how he’d react.

His eyes widened a bit and his frown became a straight line. His tail started wagging and his eyes became half lidded. Hard to believe that the big, tough Symbol that had just forced my husband out of his comfort zone and had these great dangerous adventures was now putty in my hands as a little pony. I smiled and began stroking his back slowly, which caused him to smile.

"Ok, I think it's time we got back to training." He was about to change back to normal but I continued hugging him.

"Just let me cuddle you a little while longer."

"Ok how about this. If you can disarm me in a sword duel without using your magic I'll let you carry me back to the arena."

"You just like to be held like this don't you?" I asked with a smirk.

"I never got any love as a child just give me this." I looked at him with shock. "Crap..."

"You never got any love in your childhood?"

"Another story for another time, now let's get back to training." He jumped out of my arms and turned back to his human self. I just watched him carefully as I got up and we readied our swords.