Looking up at the dragon fading away, Ashton looked back at the mare and the, previously sick, filly and sighed happily. "Well... At least I have a shot, now that I know what I am... Just need to learn everything that Silphen knows, now. I think he was working on Blood magic last, but I really don't feel like stabbing my hand every single time I want to use it..."

"So why not just let someone gut ya?" A voice said from behind the wolf.

"Oh yeah! Why not- wait, what?" Ashton said, turning around and leaping back just in time to avoid getting gutted by a unicorn stallion wielding what appeared to be a longsword by his standards.

"Whot? Ne'er seen a bastard sword 'efore, ha'e ye? Naht like it's gunna madda much once yer dead! HAHAH!" And with that, the stallion lunged at him again, planning on running him through with the sword.

Ashton barely had enough time to react before he leapt away, his magic creating a piece of crystal armor "Wait, that's what you call a bastard sword? That's nothing but a longsword at best!"

“OI! You jost call me sword small?” The bandit asked, rather peeved that he just had his sword called small.

“Wait, what? Why would i say you have a small- you know what? Yes. I did just call your sword small." Ashton said, using his magic to shrink the silver sword in his hands down, so he could stow it away.

"Now yer gonna regret that, ya overgrown mutt!" The bandit shot back, taking a threatening step forward.

And in a very calm and quiet voice, Ashton asked, "Did you just... Call me... a mutt?" Setting the filly that was still in his arms down, and taking a step forward as well as his eyes started to release a small amount of purple mist.

"Well ain't that what ya are, mutt?" The stallion growled, and almost immediately had to leap back to avoid getting a fireball to the face. “The ‘ell?! Yer a unicorn?!”

“No. I am the Archmage Silphen Dardo, second in command of the Soft Silver Wolves, and the only one of my kind here. I have studied all but three branches of magic, and I only need two to end your life. Call me a mutt again, you worthless little shit head. I fucking dare you.” At this point, Ashton was floating ever so slightly from how much magic he was channeling into the very air around him, his rage boiling over and showing through the purple mist of his eyes, though they didn’t change color themselves.

The unicorn stared at the floating wolf, and laughs. “That’s a nice illusion, mutt-”

Ashton roared at the foolish stallion, and sent the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, at him, which reacted in such a way that it created a cloud similar to the one that coated Pompeii on a highly accelerated rate, leaving nothing but a petrified stone unicorn, who had the cockiest grin in history, in its wake. After finally calming down enough to disperse the dark magic taint that he had gathered on accident, he realized two things. The first being that bandits travel in groups of more than just one, and the glade was far too quiet for what just happened. This spurred him to look around in a panic, and notice some more bandits running off into the trees with a gagged and tied Aurana on their backs. She looked terrified, if the tears pouring down her face were any indication.

“Aurana!” He shouted, starting to chase them before a pegasus turned around and shot a bolt at him from a hoof mounted crossbow, making him dive to the side, and almost land on Aurana’s sister. His world shattered as he looked back up and saw the bandits had left, leaving him and the sick looking filly.

“I have to make this right… I have to… I have…” He looked at the filly just below him, who had regained consciousness at some point, and was looking up at him with fear in her eyes. “I have to help you first… What’s your name little one…?"

“J-Jade Eversong…” The poor earth filly replied, clearly scared for her life.

Ashton smiled warmly, making the filly even more scared for some reason. “Don’t worry, Jade, I won’t hurt you. But I want to know one thing… Do you know anything about changeling’s aside from Chrysalis and her hive?”

The fillies eyes shrink to pinpricks, the fear very clear on her face. “I don’t know anything about changelings, because I’m totally not a changeling! Nope! No changelings here! Not even hybrid ones! Nuh-uh! Not a single one! Who are you?”

Her reaction was just as he had expected from the filly. It was a little frightening how accurate the Merchant had made this, going off word of text and whatnot. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. Just don’t shift anywhere near the element bearers until a changeling by the name of Thorax shows up in the Crystal Kingdom. Then say who, and what you are, to Twilight.”

The filly appeared to shrink down on herself. “W-what do you mean…?”

“Ξέρεις ότι μπορείς να με εμπιστεύεσαι.*” Ashton said, casting a animal companionship spell as he did, not entirely sure if it would work.

And luckily for him, even though she didn’t seem to consciously understand what he said, she still relaxed slightly. “I… I know… But why is that a good idea, Mister Ashton…?”

“Because that’s the only way I can help right now, Jade, and I promise you, that once I get my stuff straightened out, I’ll come back for you, ok? Take care, and stay warm.” And with those parting words, he teleported the filly to Twilight’s doorstep with a note explaining her situation, but leaving out a certain couple details. Sighing as he sent away his only ray of light, he steeled himself, got up, and faced the general direction the group of bandits had taken. He knew they probably had a unicorn or two that could teleport themselves a plus one, simply because they had to have used a sound negation field type spell to get that close and not be heard by him.

Author's Notes:

Hey! Hey! Watch out! Hey! Listen! Hey! Hey! Dislike if you enjoyed the story!

*You know you can trust me.