Our trio approached the Ursa which stood up, not liking our approach. It had been nestling comfortably in front of the bridge and had quickly noticed our loud and abrupt entrance. It gave us a glance, starting from Pinkie, to Trixie, then to me. The beast stood in front of the bridge, in front of our path to the offering. We all shared a look at each other as well. Pinkie looked quite determined, and Trixie was oddly pleased. Our surroundings were favorable to fight such a creature. A large circular clearing with two bone piles of dead soldiers near the center. The bones themselves could make for quite a distraction if used correctly...

“An Ursa… I shall have my revenge,” Trixie said, her eyes narrowing as ideas circled through her head.

“Easy Trixie… It’s only a minor. While it is in the way, you shouldn’t make the same mistake as last time.” Being cautious would yield better results, and it would be smarter to incapacitate the Ursa rather than kill it.

“To hell with that. It’s in the way anyway. Let’s get it,” she said with bloodlust. Pinkie nodded in agreement.

“She actually does have a point.” And with that, I was outvoted. The Ursa would die. I gave my silence and a nod as my response. You might think Pinkie wouldn’t have agreed so quickly, but she wasn’t Fluttershy with her love of animals. Gummy was truly her only animal friend, and that was due to it being unable to harm her. The plan for the battle was simple: improvise and see what worked. If we had time during the battle, we would come up with a plan. The Minor, however, was tired of waiting for us. It inhaled, drawing in air and finally...

GROARRRRRRR!

The Ursa's roar pierced the silence of the clearing before it charged us, its paw going for a low overhead swing!

DUCK!

I bucked its back leg before galloping from underneath. To the right, Trixie readied her magic and launched ice spikes at the beast. The beast let out a roar of anger at this, turning its eyes to the caster. That was the case before the beast felt Pinkie crawling on its side. The aforementioned mare quickly lept from the Ursa as it rolled over and tried to crush her.

Crackle! Rattle!

The bones moaned and were crushed over the Ursa’s massive weight. To my satisfaction, some of the bones the Ursa landed on came to life. It was a welcome distraction as Pinkie and I rallied with Trixie.

“Pinkie, Rarity,come up with a plan yet?” Trixie asked. I moved my eyes to Pinkie who seemed pleased that I trusted her to handle this.

“Okay, Trixie, we need you to bring down that Ursa. Rarity, you’ll know what to do when shes brought it down. I’ll handle distractions once the big guy is done chomping on his bones,” the supreme party planner stated with confidence. Trixie and I nodded and then went the opposite direction from each other across the side of the clearing. Pinkie stood by herself with a cocky grin and opened her mouth.

“When we’re done with you, not even your momma’ll love you!” The bear recoiled its head, looked genuinely insulted, and let out the angriest roar yet. It recklessly charged Pinkie, who readied herself to dodge at the last moment.

RIP!

“Uh oh! Timberrrr~!” Pinkie giggled, sliding out of the Ursa’s grasp as it shattered its head against a tree. This tree in particular then fell onto it and was then ripped to shreds by the Ursa’s teeth. Before the Ursa could continue its rampage, however, it was interrupted by Trixie.

Groooooo….

The celestial bear let out a groan as its leg buckled and literally bubbled outwardly from Trixie’s magic. Taking the opportunity while the beast was down, I jumped and climbed on top of it, seizing the moment to buck it in the eye with a strong WHAM when it gnashed at me with its teeth. Pulling the sword out of the creature’s neck wasn’t easy, but it let out a smooth schlick as the deed was done. With the handle in my mouth and sword at the ready, I struck. The Ursa roared as I slashed at the back of its neck. With its attention on me, I had to act fast to avoid danger. Throwing myself off the Ursa was a good idea at the time. The loud thud and shaking of the earth made me glad to have thrown myself o-. SMACK, CRUNCH

“Buck…” Was my whimper of a response after coming to my senses. The hard wood behind me informing me the Ursa had smacked me into a tree hard enough to leave an imprint on the wood. Pinkie was by my side immediately, wrapping bandages and gauze on my right leg. She pulled me from the small imprint I had left in the tree and steadied me. Pinkie gave my leg another look before grimacing and steadying me. It seems that I had offered a pitiable attempt at guarding from the Ursa resulting in it being dislocated.

“Don’t say anything, just… relax!” saying relax firmly she reset my leg and received a dignified grunt of pain in response.

“Still good, Rarity?” She patted my face, concerned, and I nodded back to her. Satisfied, she lept up and charged over to the Ursa and the screaming mare it was attacking and missing. I took a brief moment before getting up, looking for my dropped sword. Seeing it, I broke into a gallop and reclaimed, turning to see the other two..

“Rarity, please get off your flank and help me!” Cried Trixie before said mare got batted into a pile of bones. Pinkie galloped off to pull her out of the pile, a pair of skeletons climbing after them waving their spears.. While I had some choice words for Trixie, my rage was directed firmly to the Ursa. It turned towards me and roared at a volume so loud that I thought my eardrums might burst. Thinking fast, my levitation grabbed hold of a spear and flung it at the wide open mouth of his. Its teeth chomped down on it and broke it in half almost immediately. Despite its utter uselessness at slowing it down, it made the perfect distraction for my next move. Charging forward and backstepping its wild swings in retaliation made it switch tactics. It snapped its teeth viciously, trying to snatch me up in its jaw. Eyes narrowed, I countered with a quick brief strike, plunging the sword into its nose. I expected the sword to jam into it, but instead it cut through like butter. The Ursa Minor actually whimpered, backing up away from me, seemingly shocked at taking actual damage.

“Nice job, Rarity!” Pinkie complimented, taking position to my left and chugging some hot sauce.

“Glad to see you contributing,” Trixie half complimented half alluded to me not contributing before hoof. She took a position to my right, magic at the ready..

“Alright girls, he’s scared of us, now’s our chance!” Pinkie and I quickly charged the beast from opposite sides. The beast could only switch its views between the two of us as we approached. Pinkie exhaled flames at the beast, who raised its paw in defense, roaring in pain from the flames. I took the momentary distraction from Pinkie to launch myself high. My sword raised to stab myself into the Ursa’s head which fell back, roaring. Gritting my teeth and holding on to the sword was all I could do. The Ursa rose onto its haunches, its paws smacking at me and trying to pull me off.

STAB, schlick, stab, schlick, stab.

If I was going to fall and break my legs, then the Ursa was going down with me! Down it went, blood splattering over my features as I stabbed again and again.

“TRIXIE, SHARP POINTY ICE BELOW IT NOW!” I screamed, as the Ursa tipped over and proceeded to fall backwards. With a mighty THUD, the Ursa hit the ground and it let out a pathetic whimper. Schlick, sword out, jumping off the Ursa to observe and…

“Ooh… too much.” Pinkie commented, wincing at the scene.. Trixie had followed my instructions to a dot. The Ursa was impaled quite heavily through the chest by a large and very sharp, jagged, ice shard. The beast was throwing its paws up in the air as it inhaled air weakly and in short bursts.

“YOU’RE MINE!!!” Lightning crashed before striking the Ursa’s chest and traveling through it. It stopped breathing rather shortly after, its misery at an end.

“Haha!” Trixie said in triumph, jumping up a bit happily. I could only offer her a questioning look. the Ursa was done for after all.

“Was that necessary?” Trixie then just scoffed and paid no mind to the creature’s body, walking past.

“Not like we have a use for it anyway.” But murdering the creature as she did was hardly necessary.

“So… coup de grâce, was the answer.” Despite my words, it was hardly a mercy killing.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” Trixie waved off my statement, not at all interested in discussing it. She then looked at me and winced, nose wrinkling at my unpleasant stench.

“Ugh, Rarity… You’re covered in that Ursa’s blood.” She gagged, and I sniffed a bit, insulted. The blood was starting to smell, but it wasn’t like this was anything new to me.

“Don’t worry. Let’s find somewhere to camp and I’ll clean up.” The girls kept a wide berth away from me to avoid the stench. The bridge to the castle hadn’t changed a bit as our party crossed over it.

‘It was only few years ago that we came here looking for the elements… how time passes when you no longer notice it.’ A somber mood passed over me. It was getting harder not to get overwhelmed by it all… Day and day out, I struggled for a long time with what had happened.

Approaching the steps of the large Everfree Castle, Pinkie asked to stop.

“I’m kinda worn out. Can we take a break before we continue?” Pinkie didn’t really wait for an answer, already putting her saddlebags and such down.

“That does sound like a wonderful idea,” Trixie agreed, finding a nicer spot off the path to set her things down.

“I could use the rest as well… along with a bath.” With that, I bid farewell to my partygoers for a bit. Taking a short detour at the river of the sea serpent was the plan. My fur and mane were quickly clean of the dried and wet blood that caked it during my bath. Unfortunately, my friendly serpent was nowhere to be seen, and the bath passed in silence.

Upon returning to the camp, they had already gotten a fire going for warmth. Strangely enough, nopony was really sitting near it as Trixie laid down a good few feet away. Pinkie herself was sitting down on the steps, seemingly satisfied with observing me. The fire was warm, and it crackled nicely under the darkness of the evening. I took the moment to appreciate the solace and calmness the clearing offered… However temporary it was, it brought me joy to have these times. Taking a moment to appreciate was nice, but I caught something in my peripheral vision. Trixie was eyeing me across the clearing. Sufficiently warmed up, I approached Trixie ready to ask her something.

“Rarity,” she greeted curtly, probably not very enthused to even converse with me. Shocking, we all know, considering.

“What do you know about where we are?” Interested to see what exactly she knew, I got down to it.

“This is the cliffside of the western edge of the Everfree Forest. Close to the base of the Dragon Mountain. And closer than that, we are standing in the shadow of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.” Nodding approvingly at this information, I went on further to ask…

“What can you tell me of Dragon Mountain?”

“Nothing much other than the Dragons had just recently re-migrated across the ocean before the invasion.” Which was true, and Equestria was lucky to not have to deal with pesky, looting, greed-driven dragons.

“What else can you tell me about the offering inside the castle?” I asked, trying to get more information about these offerings.

“Inside the crumbling ruins we will find the offering of the moon, but I cannot say more than that.” Which left me somewhat disappointed. Why did Spike insist on putting me through these trials?

“Anything else?” Trixie asked. It was her job to answer my questions related to the offerings and my quest. Otherwise, I’m not sure she would’ve stomached answering them. Now, however, was a good time to test and see if that was true.

“I was wondering if you felt like talking?” I asked putting on a more polite tone. Hopefully this would make her more receptive.

“Well, we are just standing around a campfire, Go ahead.”She nodded her head and then further added.“What did you want to talk about?” She asked cautiously, and straight to the point, I responded.

“Earlier, before the Ursa, you seemed to be hiding something. Anything I needed to know?" She stiffened and looked at me in disbelief.

“You have got to be kidding me.” I remained silent, although I did look briefly confused at her outburst.

“You treat me like dirt!? And then…” She paused to chuckle at how ludicrous the situation was in her eyes. “Then, you expect me to tell you something personal!?” I closed my eyes in response and said nothing, what was there to say?

“To hell with you, Rarity, get away from me!” she said in a fit of rage, and my neutral expression quickly became devious.

“Sometime soon… you might get what is coming to you.” My eyes narrowed mirthfully along with a smirk trailing my lips. She was greatly un-amused and remained silent for a bit before chiming up.

“I doubt that!” She then huffed and closed her mouth, stepping away and glaring at me. I decided to head back to the fire. Since that conversation was over and had hit a dead end, my eyes went elsewhere. Taking a moment to glance at the castle we would be going up too soon., I then lowered my eyes to see Pinkie looking very unimpressed with me. She quickly pulled me over and began angrily whispering.

“I know you believe in your heart Trixie deserves everything that has happened to her, but could you at least try a little harder to be nice or at least civil?” Idly, I wondered who she was to be asking me if I could be civil to Trixie.

“Aside from that, do you have time to talk, Pinkie?” Her hostile demeanor melted away at the prospect of just talking.

“OF COURSE!...What did you want to talk about?” My eyes drifted to Trixie and then I asked.

“What are your thoughts on Trixie?” She smiled and then responded positively.

“I think she has changed a lot. Not exactly sure what the reason for the change is! But, she is a lot more fun to be around now.” Hmm, so Pinkie was willing to look past what she’d done, if only I could do the same.

“Do you think she has a hidden agenda?” Given her hostility to my questions, and eagerness to come along despite it all… What was Trixie truly after traveling alongside Pinkie and me?

“Well, let me ask you a counter question, Rarity,” Pinkie stated, no doubt changing the topic to avoid giving an opinion. She took my silence as a cue to continue and then asked me…

“If Spike had given you strict instructions to follow, would you dare stray?” Pinkie asked me slowly, giving a deathly serious look. This was a deeply personal question, but I would play along.

“If I knew that he was dead, I would go about as I felt.” Experience had taught me sticking to the machinations of the dead was a fool’s task. Pinkie, however, disliked my answer greatly as she grit her teeth.

“Rarity…” Closing my eyes and frowning sadly, my response came immediately.

“Truth hurts, Pinkie.” My words were hard and bitter, and for a moment I hated myself for what I was doing.

“Yeah it does, but that doesn’t mean you should be so blunt about it,” She chided me, but it was no use for her to lecture me on this.

“You asked and I told you. It’s that simple.” Going on to ask any less of me would be wrong, so then I proposed this.

“Would you have rather I told a really good lie?” Then, her response shocked me a bit.

“In some cases, that is the better thing to do.” The shock quickly turned to disappointment, and frustration.

“Not sure I agree with that, entirely.” Pinkie shrugged, and it was simple to see no more words needed to be said.

The other two looked in no hurry to leave camp so I sat back down by the fire. Trixie was a mystery to me. She stated she was here on Spike’s orders, but could that even be true? Not only that, but her personality had changed completely. She had ditched her showmare clothes who knows where, and she was helping us find these, “offerings”... All because she supposedly owed Spike somehow. Had Luna and he known this when they had sent me here? And for what purpose? Our party was an uneasy alliance, Trixie only working with me due to her promise with Spike. I sighed. It wasn’t like the answers would find out themselves if I just thought about it long enough.

The time for pondering would last forever if left unchecked, but that time was over now. The fire was quickly extinguished, and the girls got up, taking their places by my side. Our party walked up the steps to find the offering that lay deep inside.

Author's Note

Trixie, Trixie, Trixie... It no doubt seems cruel, how I have treated her. However, I ask you to be patient, the answers to why will come in due time. Maybe it will not justify my actions towards her to you, but that does not matter to me. There is a time to learn these things, but it is not yours yet. - Rarity.