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// Chapter 12: Losing and breaking 
// Story: human of the everfree 
// by Aljazig 
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I had just finished with my morning hunt and was heading home, when I felt my eyes tingle like they if I stepped into a high density magic zone.

A high density magic zone or HMZ, from what Zero told me, is a place where either, a really powerful magic was used or a being with massive amounts of magic is currently there. In some very rare cases it can also exist in places where enough creatures with magic died.

Until now I had only ever encountered a HMZ when I accidentally stumbled upon an Ursa Majors lair. Luckily for me, it didn't regard me as a threat and allowed me to leave. At that time too, my eyes tingled, like if you were to spray them with tiny droplets of water, since magic was trying to flow through them, but couldn't.

For that very reason I was immensely confused when I felt that tingle. 'Is the Ursa moving, or something?' was my first thought, but was quickly thrown aside when I realized how close to the castle, my new home, I was.



I didn't know why, but I could feel fear grip my heart, so I decided to hurry home, to check on Control and my things. But as I was getting closer and closer to the castle and could feel the HMZ steadily getting more powerful to the point where my eyes stung, I started going faster and faster, when I was at the entrance to the tunnel I was already in a full on sprint, using what knowledge of magic I had gotten from Zero to reinforce my body and make me faster.

When I got to the courtyard I was met with a scene from my nightmares.

There, at the entrance to the castle insides stood the purple alicorn, as Zero called them, together with a green lizard like thing. At that point I was afraid, my memories of how this Twilight was chasing me once more fresh in my head. I was frozen stiff with fear as I watched her brightly glowing horn.

But then I saw him. Zero, caught in a purple bubble, with Twilight bouncing on her hooves around it. He too noticed me and mouthed to me 'get it, run'.

I knew what he meant since we had made a plan for a scenario like this, but I wasn't prepared. The plan was so simple, I would just have to sneak past twilight and the lizard, get to the library, get the book that Zero wrote for me to learn from, so I wouldn't have to read the whole library, and then, I would just have to run away, leaving Zero here.

When we made the plan, I agreed to it, but now, that I would have to actually do it, I wasn't sure I could leave him here. But there was nothing I could do, I had no choice.

So I used the side door while neither of the trespassers were looking and was off, sprinting to the library. When I got there I quickly grabbed the book that was at the designated spot and ran back. Being careful I slowly peeked through the side door I ran through.

I barely managed to stop myself from sobbing by holding my mouth shut. Zero was still in the bubble, but several things were different, for one, the alicorn had stopped hopping around and had a creepy, almost sadistic look on her face, Zero on the other hand had a horrified look on his face, while at the same time looking at the stump where his hand used to be and said hand glowing in a purple aura and floating outside the bubble.

Not a moment after I saw that scene, the screaming started. I could hardly tell it was Zero, with how horrible it sounded. I just couldn't stick to the plan anymore, so I ran into the courtyard and screamed at the top of my lungs: "MY NAME IS &#)&*!"

My cry was just barely louder than Zero's screaming, and the moment Twilight and the lizard heard my name they fell to the ground holding their ears. Consequentially, Twilight lost her hold on Zero, who quickly picked up his missing hand, reattaching it to his body. Then he ran to me and hugged me, me hugging him back with all my strength.

After our hug we ran back into the castle, since Zero couldn't leave it. We ran down corridor after corridor, hopping to lose the alicorn and lizard who wanted to catch us. Then, to my horror, a wall of purple energy I knew far too well passed by us, followed by a popping sound as Twilight appeared in front of us.

She grinned maniacally and said: "Could you please tell me what you just did? I would love to learn!" The question was obviously directed at me but the way she accentuated some of the words made me think, she didn't really want to hear the answer as much as she wanted to experiment on me until she figured it out herself.

In my panic driven mind I turned 180 degrees, intending to run away, only to see Zero quickly pass through me, followed by an explosion. I slowly turned around, looking at Zero's back, that appeared more solid than usual.

"Z-Zero, a-a-are you ok?" I shakily asked and stretched my hand to his shoulder. Only for his form to collapse into dust the moment I touched him.

'What... What just... what happened? Why did Zero turn to dust?! Why did this happen?! Why? Why?? Why?! WHY?! WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY?!?' I couldn't help it, I burst into laughter while I cried at the same time.

There, for just a second Twilight's face lost that infuriating grin, and in that moment it contorted into a frightened expression, before reverting back.

My eyes glowed a sickly green, I know I have seen them do it, as I used magic outside my body for the first time, taking the very molecules that made up her horn and ripping them apart all at once. I watched as her horn disintegrated at a molecular level, listening to her screaming as the nerves in it just stopped existing, before tearing open a hole in space-time and jumping through.

The moment I reached the other side I let sleep take me from this cruel reality.

That day, something important in me broke.