The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Loop 72

It was midday when Astral stood on the threshold of the Everfree, armed with her Shards and magic, and her illusion dropped. She gave herself a small smile before marching in through the undergrowth, purposely staying off the safe, monsterless path.

Almost immediately, a small pack of timberwolves peeked their heads around from trees, glowing eyes brightening even more at the sight of the pony.

The nearest one lunged at Astral, who neatly sidestepped and severed it's spine with Aegis. She broke the blade up into Shards, and, powering one up, sent it into the next wolf. With a quick flick of her horn, the Shard exploded, sending splinters everywhere.

The last two finally seemed to understand what was happening, and tried to scramble away, only for one to be thrown into the other, destroying them both.

Astral marched on, deeper into the forest.

---

The next monster that appeared gave it's location when it startled an owl, giving Astral enough time to leap out of the way.

She skidded against the mossy ground, almost running into a tree, which was shredded to pieces by the Manticore. Astral returned the favor by slicing off it's tail.

The Manticore roared in pain, not even trying to dodge the Shard that went through it's throat.

Astral casually wiped the blood off her muzzle before turning back to the foliage.

"Okay" she said. "Who's next?"

---

When Astral had woken up that loop, she was in so much pain that she had barely managed to crawl out of bed.

The magical blockage hadn't been as bad as the time she had blown up the Everfree, but it had been bad. She hadn't been able to concentrate long enough to learn a new spell that would help the pain, so instead she just threw on her strongest shield spell and teleported to the Everfree.

The longer she was in the forest, the bolder she became, and the more powerful spells she used (though she was still careful not to use any flame spells.)

She never seemed to really stop, always in motion one way or another, and kept it up until the sun was just starting to set.

Her muscles ached, and she was certain she pulled at least one. But her magic wasn't even close to drained. Though, bright side, she could now walk without being in considerable pain!

Hooray!