The Ursa Major (School Project)
“Get her!” One angry man shouted, a pitchfork in his right hand, in his left a lit torch. A chorus of shouts and insults echoed from the angry mob, The Great and Powerful Trixie was being chased out of yet another town. Being a traveling magician is not easy, especially when you’re as egotistical and self centered as she is. Her purple cape, adorned with yellow and cyan felt stars of varying sizes, was now frayed and singed at the tips by the hand of the angry mob now closing in on her. Her matching wizard’s cap resembled the condition of her cape: covered in dirt, rips, and burn marks. The turquoise gem, which held her cape around her neck, was now scratched and chipped beyond repair. Trixie will need to get some new performance attire, which will not be easy considering the menial amount of money she makes on magic shows.
Her plan was to set up a display of her awe-inspiring magical prowess on the streets of Manhattan, but once again her boastful nature got the best of her as one bold member from the audience asked: “So, Great and Powerful Trixie, what makes you think you’re so awesome, anyway?”
Trixie scoffed in response as she re-told the made up story of how she slew an Ursa Major, one of the most ferocious creatures in the world. The audience gasped with open mouths in response, as they always did. Such a feat has likely never been heard of. "When all hope was lost, AND the people of Canterlot had no one to turn to, The Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in with her awesome magic and quickly vanquished the Ursa Major, sending it back to cower in its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!"
An Ursa Major resembles a grizzly bear in appearance, yet they’re much larger. Their coats are purple, or blue, but not made of fur. It’s not known what exactly their coat is, some say its part of the night sky, and other’s say it’s the energy from stars, which have long since gone supernova. The Ursa Major is strictly nocturnal; its coat allows it to be transparent, to a degree, which is why they are never seen during the daytime, as they would likely get hurt from the intense sunlight. They glow in a powerful aura, the stars that gleam under their coat shine with vigor inside the darkness of the caves they tend to claim as home. Their fangs are as long as a bus, says the people who have lived to tell about seeing one. Rumor has it that the talons on their paws are sharp enough to cut through a tree with ease. Their eyes are orange, with a dark red iris that is said to resemble the color of blood. Compared to a grizzly bear, the only major difference, aside from size, is the length of their tail, which is significantly longer than a grizzly’s. Yet, the most intriguing characteristic of the Ursa Major is the blue, glowing, six-sided star on their foreheads. Legend is that’s the only weakness an Ursa has.
The crowd didn‘t like Trixie’s bragging very much, they began mumbling to each other in response of the clearly exaggerated story. "Well, well, well, it seems we have some naysayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of The Great and Powerful Trixie?" The crowd went silent, mostly, some giggles erupted from the crowd but those eventually died out to snide remarks said under one’s breath and subtle ‘Pfft’s‘ and the rolling of eyes in a complete lack of interest. "I hereby challenge you Manhattanites - anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anyone? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest magician who has ever lived!?!" The crowd began booing, some threw rotten fruit and tomatoes at Trixie, all of which missed, but a few came close to Trixie’s great and powerful face. Trixie dodged the volley of rotten fruits as she sprinted off the impromptu stage, which was a simple wooden table.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not deserve to be treated like this! What is your problem with her?” Trixie shouted to the angry mob behind her as she neared the Everfree forest, a place that has been rumored to house the fabled Ursa Major. Under the decrepit hat, Trixie’s white and azure hair, which was usually perfectly styled, was now a horrible mess of split ends and curls as she fought to keep it out of her violet eyes while she sprinted from the mob of angered people. The crowd saw where she was running to, nearly all of them turned around, other more brave persons kept on the chase to throw more tomatoes, or an insult or two, at Trixie. Trixie peeked over her shoulder to see the last of the crowd finally giving up the chase, she sighed in relief. Trixie turned her head back around to see a large tree not even a meter away. She skidded on her heels, but to no avail. She put her arms out in defense of the dead tree, Trixie squeaked as her skull collided with the hollow tree, the reverberation making her already bad headache worse, by about twenty percent.
The Aching and Annoyed Trixie rubbed her forehead with her gloved hand; a dark pink aura swirled around it. She looked up to see a sizeable dent in the dead tree; some of the bark was missing, exposing the rotten wood. She snapped with her free hand as a mirror spawned itself a few inches from Trixie’s face. She moved her glowing hand away from her forehead to see a large, brown bruise beginning to form. “Great…” Trixie roller her eyes and sighed. The mirror disappeared in a poof of cyan smoke, Trixie sighed once more as she forced herself to her feet. “Where to now…” Trixie pondered out loud. There weren’t many cities near Manhattan; however, Trixie had heard of a small village called Personville relatively close to Manhattan. “What a stupid name…” Trixie said to herself. She looked up through the dense foliage, small rays of sunlight fought for attention through the leaves.
The forest was dark, almost supernaturally so, it echoed ominously with the chirps, squawks, and grunts of unknown wildlife. Trixie waved her hand in the darkness that shrouded the forest; she closed her hand in a fist, and then opened it to reveal that a ball of pure light had formed in her palm. The sphere floated up above her head, casting a light down in front of her. She hadn’t noticed, but she’d ran rather deep into the forest, she turned around hoping to see the sky scrapers, but instead saw dead trees and dead leaves resting upon the soil. She knew Personville was on the other side of the Everfree forest, but didn’t know exactly where. She decided to keep going through the uncharted forest, hoping to be ignored by the dangerous animals. The forest seemed to be nighttime, no matter the time of day, which made navigating difficult. The weather has been known to spontaneously change on it’s own with no sign.
On Trixie’s trek through the dreaded and depressing forest, a crack of thunder stole her focus, Trixie screamed in response. The sphere of light came crashing down to the ground; it exploded into shards of glass-like matter, the sharp pieces dissipated into smoke as the magical energy returned to Trixie’s palm. A growl escaped Trixie’s lips. She opened her palm to reveal that the smoke was now a fine powder; it sank back into her palm. Trixie closed her eyes tight, trying not to scream out of fear of attracting one of the animals. The sun no longer shone through the leaves, it must be nearing nighttime. Trixie would need to take refuse somewhere for the night. Trixie sought an asylum from the dangerous Everfree.
Trixie began looking for shelter from the creatures of the night. Trixie could sleep in a tree, but that would take too much energy, something Trixie had barely any of remaining. Trixie continued searching around, Trixie could sleep on a bed of leaves, but that is not suitable for somebody as great and powerful as Trixie. She could spawn a tent with her magic, but that would exert way too much power. Trixie stumbled through the darkness; thunder began erupting from the sky. She searched desperately through the dimly lit forest, by sheer luck Trixie eventually found a large cave, a perfectly suitable shelter for the night, not like she has much of a choice anyways. Rain began to drizzle through the cracks in the thick foliage; Trixie spent valuable energy hobbling into the dark cave. She rested her head against the cold stone, sighing as she slid down to the dirt ground. A fire would have been nice, and normally it wouldn’t have been a problem; however Trixie just wanted to sleep. No, Trixie was shivering, she wouldn’t survive the night without some kind of warmth, and she knew that. She expended the rest of her magic with a wave of her hands to arrange a large pile of timber and brush; with a feeble snap of her fingers a spark lit the dry wood ablaze, giving way to a sizeable flame.
Outside it began to pour, the wind echoed in the cave, flushing out the crackling sound of the fire. Thunder shook the cave to its core, lightning lit up the sky every few minutes. With a warm fire heating up Trixie in the dark and desolate cave, she quickly fell asleep. A roar stole Trixie from a dream wherein she was performing to a cheering crowd, all of them chanting her name. A silhouette began to form in the darkness, as it got closer the shape seemed to resemble a Manticore, with the body of a lion, poisonous tail of scorpion, and a pair of large bat-like wings. The abomination ran past the terrified and cold Trixie, kicking out the dancing fire. One of the still lit logs flew towards Trixie, landing on her ruined cape. Unbeknownst to Trixie, the log lit her ruined cape ablaze. Trixie stood up and rubbed her violet eyes, feeling a heat near her knees, she looked down in confusion. She was greeted with the sight of her cape and part of her pants leg burning.
The shocked and confused Trixie slapped out the growing flare on her leg. The next thing that happened put out the second, significantly larger, fire that had started on her cape. A ferocious roar shook the cave and Trixie, her cape flew backwards as if she were walking against a violent rainstorm, her hat floated off her head and out towards the entrance of the cave, and her hair stuck backwards that way as if it were styled with superglue. Trixie’s violet eyes shrank in fear as she turned around to see the source of the roar: a fully-grown Ursa Major. Trixie stood frozen, staring into the bloodshot eyes of the obviously infuriated Ursa. A soft growl escaped Trixie’s lips; she was both petrified yet furious, how dare that simple creature be so ignorant as to affront The Great and Powerful Trixie! Her rage overpowered the fight or flight instinct, Trixie began shouting at the Ursa, to which the bear-like monstrosity flipped its ears and tilted it’s head to one side in confusion.
When Trixie’s spree of swears had ended, the Ursa let out a brief squeak that sounded oddly like a laugh. The Ursa picked up Trixie by her mangled cape; she dangled helplessly in the air, at the mercy of the Ursa. “Put me down you ruffian! Do you know who I am? I am The Great and Powerful Trixie!” A smile formed across the Ursa’s fanged visage, from momma Ursa, he learned never to play with his food, but this was too good an opportunity to give up. The powerful jaws of a full-grown Ursa were displayed for Trixie to examine; she saw the rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth and shook partly in fear, partly from the dying adrenaline rush. After not feeling penitent whatsoever from the cussing and verbal abuse Trixie delivered to the Ursa, she further resisted as best she could in the air. The Ursa put Trixie on the ground and watched as she scrambled to the entrance. It’s better to be soaking wet and sick than dinner for an Ursa. Trixie saw the entrance a few mere feet away from her, yet a large paw blocked her freedom and snatched her back up. She began to be juggled and tossed about the cave. With stars in her eyes and mustered bravery, Trixie shouted to the Ursa.
“Enough!” Trixie closed her eyes in focus, and then disappeared in a blinding flash of white. Stumbling backwards into its cave, the Ursa rubbed his aching eyes. Having never truly experienced light, the celestial bear could very well have been blinded by the flash. It looked through a cracks in its paw to see Trixie facing him a couple meters away. Her eyes glowed white with sheer power, she wore a wicked grin. Both her cape and hair flowed in a non-extant wind; she knelt down to retrieve her hat. She stepped closer to the Ursa, the beast of stars backed up until its tail touched against the wall. Trixie’s face contorted to fit the devious grin. The tables were turned, no longer was it a game of cat and mouse, and Trixie now had an opportunity to destroy the Ursa. She seized the opportunity in one fell swoop. The fuchsia aura that glowed around Trixie lit up the entire cave, forming a spear-like weapon in Trixie’s hand. Energy flowed without control from the sharp tip of the javelin, the same aura that glowed around Trixie moved to encompass the spear.
The brave and heroic Trixie took one last look at the pitiful excuse of an Ursa Major before her, she then threw the spear with all her might, it came to contact with the cyan star on the Ursa’s head. The beast roared in pain and anguish, a flash of white leaked from its skull, Trixie covered her eyes so that she would not be blinded. She opened them to see that the creature had materialized into a cloud of stars and the purple of the night sky, it floated silently out of the cave and up into the sky. Trixie followed it out of the cave and into the muggy forest. She watched as it ascended up into the sky, a constellation of stars formed that has never been seen before, it looked like a bear. Trixie dubbed the newfound formation “Ursa Major”. Trixie felt the magic flowing through her veins begin to die down as she rested against a tree and glanced up to the sky, watching the newly formed constellation.
The exhausted and starving Trixie’s stomach kept her awake, she had a friend who she grew up with, and his name was Sethisto. He too was an aspiring magician; he also was incredibly obsessed with Trixie. He taught her one trick that saved her life that night, and it was with pinecones that he did so. Trixie arched her neck to look up; she was sitting under a pine tree. She saw a branch adorned with pinecones, with her magic she snapped off the branch. Under her influence, the branch floated gingerly down to her lap. She pulled off a pinecone and began eating it, trying her best to ignore the horrible taste and texture. After eating a few more pinecones, Trixie drifted off to sleep, finally being able to fully experience that cheering crowd without being interrupted.
