After visiting the sisters and realizing that far more magic types and variants were out there, including summoning, Ashton set about scouring his spellbook for the M127 spell. After a couple more days, and restless nights, something happened in one of his dreams that wasn't a memory…

Ashton was running, running, running… always running, but from what he didn’t know, all he knew was that he had to run… to escape… “Don’t stop… Can’t look back… it’ll catch me…”

“What shall catch you, creature?” A voice as smooth as silk asked from directly above the running Ashton.

“The white horse… The solar one…” Ashton replied, still running, still not looking back.

Naturally, this gave Luna pause, as she finally understood what he was running from. Deciding to end his torment for the night, she created a grove ahead of him with a bed and went to wait for him.

She only had to wait a couple seconds for the hairless minotaur to come running into the grove she created. “Greetings, creature.”

Ashton slid to a stop and stared at Luna. “Black horse. No, Luna... “ Was all he said before he collapsed to the ground, an exhausted smile on his face.

“Thou art dreaming, hairless minotaur,” Luna said, standing up and walking over to him.

“I know. And I am so glad for that… Hey, Luna, can I ask a favor of you?” Ashton asked, looking at her as she approached.

Luna blinked in slight confusion before replying, “Of course, minotaur.”

“Ok, one, not a minotaur. Two, talk to Twilight before I meet you in real life please?”

Luna was even more confused by the first statement than she was by the second one. “Then… What art thou, if not a minotaur?”

“Well… That depends. What am I truly, or what am I outside of the dreamscape?” He asked back.

“Um… We don’t understand. How can one be one species when they dream, and another when they awaken?”

“Not that hard, really. Humans do it all the time. That’s what I am, by the way. At least, while we’re here I am. Out there, I’m a Soft Silver Furred Wolf. Either way, I’m named Ashton,” he explained.

Luna’s mouth gaped slightly before she laughed, saying, “Oh, Lyra, thou hast a good imagination!”

Ashton sighed and asked, “Did you go to Lyra’s dream?”

As simple of a statement as it was, it made the princess of the night freeze mid laugh and stare at him, fear and realization clear on her face. “Surely thou jest… Humans are but myth!”

Ashton smiled at that clearly false declaration, then stood up and felt the world tilt violently. “The he- oh. I’m waking up, aren’t I?”

Luna simply nodded and flew up and into the moon, the dream world cracking and collapsing on itself. Ashton just sighed and flung his arms out to either side and shouted, “JUST WAKE ME UP ALREADY!”

He jerked awake in his makeshift bed of leaves and grass, surrounded by bandits yet again.

“So… Yer tha one that’s been givin’ me boys a ‘ard time, eh?” Asked the one in front of the wolf, earning him a sigh of annoyance.

“Just once i would like to wake up and not be surrounded by death. So, ただ急いで死んでるんですか?*” Ashton asked, casting a quick and simple death spell on the bandits around him, watching each one keel over from something else happening to them.

One pony, a pegasus, coughed up blood as his insides all turned to mush, being melted from the inside out. Another, this one a griffon, started foaming at the mouth as his lungs and heart were violently crushed. Yet another one, a minotaur this time, clutched his chest and fell over from a heart attack. A pair of zebras shot each other, and a dragon starting ripping his own scales off, screaming something about snakes under his skin. The only one out of the group unfazed was the leader, a unicorn, who smiled and held up a crystal necklace that was slowly turning black.

“Yer magic ain’t gunna work on me, dog,” he said, laughing darkly as he pulled out a small rondel dagger and lunging for the mage.

“Shit! Gelida gladio!*” Ashton shouted, leaping back to avoid the, quite possibly, poisoned blade as he summoned a sword made of ice.

They started to exchange thrusts, parries, and slashes in an attempt to cut, wound, and maim the other. It wasn’t until Ashton mistimed a thrust that the unicorn got the upper hand. That allowed him to nick Ashton on his left thigh. The giant wolf retaliated by giving the pony a nasty gash on his side, and they were back at it, albeit each one having to favor one side over the other one, making the next mistake the ending move for either one.

“Heh. Yer pretty good, lad. Didn’t exp-” his sentence was interrupted by a cough that spilt more of his precious life giving essence on the grass before he continued. “Expect ya to be able ta hurt me with that spell blade ah yers.”

Ashton smiled and gestured at his thigh after deflecting another thrust of the unicorns rondell. “Not that you aren’t good enough or anything, but why no poisons?”

“Heh… It takes away from the sport lad…” Was all the bandit could say before his magic cut out and he collapsed from blood loss. “D-damn… Already…? Good… Good luck finding that bitch, wolf… I was the last one, and the camp is burning by now…” And with that, the bandit leader breathed his last.

Ashton growled and kicked the bandit leader in the gut before realizing he had been carefully moving him in a specific direction. He turned around and saw a line of carefully placed torches leading further into the forest, and smiled.

“You mutineed. That’s why you didn’t use any poison.” And with that, he ran along, following the torches like they were a lifeline, as they were. While not for him at the moment, they were for his marefriend at the moment.

Author's Notes:

Bleh... 😐😒
*Japanese: just hurry up and die, would you?
**Latin: Frozen Sword