human of the everfree

by Aljazig

Chapter 20: Aftermath

Feeling the subtle drain of magic from the gemstone in front of me I would have jumped around from happiness if I wasn't badly hurt. My thoughts, of course reflected that: 'I did it! First try bitches! Who's the best? I'm the best. And it didn't even hurt like magic does normally for me! Maybe I can use stronger spells with this? Haha!'

After I calmed down somewhat, I decided to try to put some stronger healing magic into the other gemstone, after all, why would I destroy something that is already working, when I don't even know if the thing I will replace it with will work.

I laid the enchanted gemstone down into my broken right hand, so it was still touching my skin, and then picked up the unenchanted one with my left hand.

Like before, I closed my eyes and carefully pictured the matrix for the advanced healing spell in my head. When I was done I just imagined it being packed into a box that was the unenchanted gemstone.

This time the effects were far more obvious. The pain was receding at an incredible pace and when I opened my eyes I could see the the swelling in my previously broken hand and leg was practically gone. The only problem was, that I could feel my magical reserves running out. But because my body was being healed at such an incredible pace I decided to let it run for a little longer to finish healing me.

Minutes later I couldn't feel even a speck of pain and after a quick test I confirmed that all of my broken bones were healed. But the stone was still sucking up my magic like a sponge, so I made a quick decision and let it fall onto the floor. There the grass it landed on first got greener than before, but then suddenly in a matter of seconds wilted and turned to dust.

It took me a few seconds to comprehend what just happened, as I was fairly certain I put a healing spell into the gemstone and it wasn't meant to do whatever it did to the grass. As a test I put the gemstone with weaker healing magic from my hand into a new patch of grass. After observing how the grass did the exact same thing again, albeit much slower, it came to me: the healing magic in the gemstones was made to always run as long as the user had magic, but that included the magic that kept the user alive. Meaning, that after you were drained of the usual reserves of magic, it would literally squeeze you dry of the rest.

It didn't take me too long to think of how to change the matrix for the weaker gemstone, so it would only activate if the user had the magic in their reserves to activate it, but it wasn't really what I wanted. What I wanted was that it would heal me, only if I was injured.

I was woken up from my thoughts by the panther sliding under my left arm. Finally awake to my situation I carefully scooped both gemstones into the pockets of my pants and got up on my feet. The headache and sudden dizziness reminded me, that I was still low on magic, which I quickly nullified by using my magic sight.

But what I saw when I activated it actually disturbed me a little. Before when I used it in the forest I could see the magic in the plants and the earth like small light green rivers that together flowed deeper into the forest, but now there was no previous order, the rivers all had different directions, some just cutting off in the middle of nowhere and some flowing into others. Lastly everywhere around me I could see white dust like particles falling, what I imagine using immense amounts of magic would leave behind, a kind of magical fallout.

But what terrified me the most was what I could see in the direction of the previous battlefield. An unnatural whiteness, like a fog or a cloud, but more solid like paint. Unsure if I was seeing right I walked towards it like in a trance. When the dust like particles started becoming more and more frequent I finally realized the whiteness was made from them. But I wasn't dissuaded from taking a look at the actual place, so I turned my magic sight off and continued on my way.

Arriving at the glade I was meet with a horrifying sight, the ground was just a lake of lava, slowly cooling down. All of the trees in the surroundings were burned to a crisp and the trees farther than that were dead and withered. Of the mighty tree in the middle of the clearing only the burning stump was somehow resisting the lava. Everything in a 1 kilometer radius was dead, simple as that. And I dare say it was a contained battle as most of it happened in the air kilometers above ground.

Taking in the sight around me I shivered at the thought of what would have happened if I wasn't blown away when the dryad landed. Then I turned around and tried to walk away, only for my legs to lock up, causing me to fall to the ground.

Finally the stress had reached me and I curled up into a sobbing ball. I stayed like that until a paw touched my back. I shot up, fully prepared to defend myself, only to be met with the black panther that had saved my life more than once. And the dam shattered to pieces. Using both my arms I grabbed the panther and pulled it into my lap, where I then cried my eyes out into it's soft coat.

I'm not sure how long we stayed that way, but the next morning I woke up in another clearing, from where I couldn't even see the magical fallout, and the panther was nowhere to be seen. So I decided to think about something else other than how miserable my life is and stood up thinking about what I should I do now. I had quite a few options but the one I liked the most was a normal life in seclusion, where I wouldn't have to deal with crazy pony gods, or ponies, or any kind of self centered magical being with a huge ego in general.

There in the back of my mind there was still the thought of revenge against ponies for what they did to me, but my fear pushed it into the depths of my mind. I was afraid, not so much of ponies, not of their magic or their intelligence. No, what I was afraid of, was that I couldn't understand what they were thinking. I was always good at telling what the other party was thinking, but the inhabitants of this world were a mystery to me. I could play poker with a human and rob them blind, but these ponies, these mythological beings, including the dryad, to me, they were an unknown. And so my fear of the unknown prevailed over my wish for revenge.

Author's Note:

This took so long because I was on vacation, sorry.

Comments

[GlitchyFox]

my best guess is as magic has apparently crippled humans it might have cause a mental thing maby in creatures with magic? i realy have no idea where you would go from here so the best i can guess is things from your story. so you said if i remember correctly that the dryad is connectid to the forrest and this one might be the last one so now nature has no other avatars the you could explore that the ponies can no longer hijack nature as it no longer has any order to it. you could play with the villens of mlp actualy being good or better people like maby discords want for chaos in this world is justifyed as from what you have shown it seems your implying that the world has been brongt to order with magic.
however it turns out i hope the MC gets a peacefull ending at least or maby gets some sort of revenge like disconnecting the elements and taking them herself.
im sorry if me rambeling is weird but i like your story and get exitid to read and think about it

[Edgeblackstar]

hope you had a nice vacation, like seeing this story continuing. She can use da magic now she can face gods!! or you know not die as easily as before. looking forward to see what he can do.

[Aljazig]

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Don't worry, it's not weird. Plus, sometimes it helps to have someone comment, pardon the pun, on the story. The fact that people actually read my story already makes writing it worth it.

[toshibafox]

I forgot the saying, but it should apply here. It went something about a gentleman's revenge.

also she really doesn't have a choice, a pissed out twilight is already on the revenge train, while she selectively forget all the humans she's killed with no remorse for her actions or any punishment from anyone.

I don't think the human protang can plead self-defense for obvious reasons.

[MadCelly]

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I'm not "reading" this... I am enjoying this.