The snowy hills behind Luna Bay were inhospitable, with biting winds and thick mounds of snow that impeded pony progress, so Rarity was glad that she was bundled up in a heavy yet fashionable coat. Despite her elegant winter protection however, she was still holding her arms and trying to think warm thoughts to keep the chill at bay.
Applejack had no such issues, plowing through the snow like a machine, and as Rarity followed behind her and let her clear a path, Rarity found that she was incredibly grateful that Applejack had decided to accompany her on this journey.
Though she also found herself wishing that a certain someone was here as well; someone who had no issues with the cold at all and could melt the snow around them with her mere presence, and that thought caused Rarity to feel a little nauseous.
“Hey,” Applejack said suddenly, snatching Rarity’s attention. “We’re here.”
Applejack pointed into the distance, to a flat pane of light snow near the shore of the bay, where a hideous beast roamed; a manticore, part lion, part scorpion, all dangerous.
But not any more dangerous than two well-prepared Slayers.
“Let’s get this over with then,” Rarity said sternly as she stepped in front of Applejack, reaching over her shoulder to grab the bow on her back.
And grabbing at the air several times before she realized it wasn’t there.
“Applejack,” Rarity said casually, “do you see a bow on my back right now?”
“I don’t,” Applejack sounded quite unimpressed, and Rarity almost appreciated her blushing cheeks for giving her a reprieve from the cold.
“Well that is unfortunate,” Rarity hummed, letting her arm fall limply at her side.
“How’d you forget yer bow?” Applejack snorted.
“I had a lot on my mind!” Rarity shot back defensively, searching herself to make sure the rest of her equipment was present; and it wasn’t, her knives were missing as well, but she still had her sword, her axe, her shield, and Celestia’s onyx blade. “It simply must’ve slipped my mind.”
“Eh, no biggie,” Applejack shrugged and gently pushed Rarity out of the way, “we don’t need a silly ol’ bow to take this thing down!”
“You’re going to go after that manticore with your fists,” Rarity said flatly, crossing her arms, “aren’t you?”
“You betcha!” Applejack shouted gleefully, taking a running start and charging straight at the manticore.
“Gee, it would certainly be nice if I could support you from a distance!” Rarity shouted.
“Won’t need it!” Applejack yelled back. “Thanks anyhow!”
Rarity sighed. Melee combat was not exactly her forte, but beggars can’t be choosers and this was the hand she was dealt. She wasn’t going to let a silly missing bow stop her from helping out Applejack or from fulfilling her mission.
Applejack rushed toward the manticore; and while Applejack was giant for a pony, the manticore still had her beat in size, but that didn’t stop the beast from flying back when Applejack’s punch connected with the beast’s head, sending it crashing into the snowy ground.
As the manticore recoiled and jumped back, Rarity had a thought. She remembered her battle with the dragon—the one in Baltimare, not… not the one in Canterlot—and how Celestia allowed to her to reach an untapped well of magic inside her.
She figured that if that well still existed, she could try to reach it without Celestia’s help by diving into her memories of using that magic. It was worth a shot.
The manticore jumped forward and slashed its claws at Applejack, who guarded herself with her arms, but there was no need; Rarity’s trick worked and the manticore slammed headfirst into a solid wall of glassy magical energy, Rarity letting out a triumphant laugh.
“Applejack, did you see that?!” Rarity cried out gleefully.
“Sure did, hon!” Applejack laughed, swinging a solid punch at the manticore’s head, but this time the beast blocked with its foreleg, readying its tail to fire venomous spines at Applejack.
Or so Rarity thought before the spines were shot directly at her, but she was able to deflect them just in the nick of time with her shield.
Applejack wasn’t having any luck overpowering the manticore’s block, and it looked as though she was about to buckle as the beast snarled at her.
“Applejack, get clear!” Rarity called out, Applejack jumping away from the monster as Rarity used her magic to throw a heavy drift of snow from the ground directly into the manticore’s face, disorienting it long enough for Applejack to get a firm grip on it, raising it up over her shoulders before slamming it hard on the ground behind her.
Rarity rushed to the manticore’s position as Applejack took a second to recover from that maneuver, and Rarity raised her sword and prepared to pierce the monster’s chest and kill it.
Rarity froze.
Five little words echoed in her memory.
No creature acts without reason.
Those were the words Fluttershy had said to her the first time they met, after Fluttershy scolded Rarity for destroying the timberwolves. When Fluttershy explained to Rarity that perhaps the Slayers’ way of killing monsters— ‘monsters’ —first and asking questions never was unjust.
Rarity balked at such a notion at the time, but now? After her encounter with the dragon Twilight Sparkle? The way Twilight never even attempted to strike back at Rarity, the way she cared for Spike as if he were her own child— hell, not even just Twilight, but Fluttershy too!
Fluttershy saved Rarity’s life the first time they met. She found Rarity— a pony, supposedly dragons’ mortal nemeses— unconscious and vulnerable in her forest, and Fluttershy had nursed her back to health.
She was nothing but amiable with Pinkie Pie. Even after Rarity had chased an injured Twilight into her forest with the intent on drawing her blood, Fluttershy never reacted to any situation with violence or hostility.
Neither did Twilight.
The two of them were nothing like the dragons Rarity had been told about all her life, and she would be a damn fool not to question why.
“Rarity, what’re you doin’!?” Applejack yelled, bringing Rarity back to reality just in time for her to leap back and avoid what could easily have been a deadly swipe of the manticore’s claws.
The manticore shot its poison spines at Applejack, and Rarity acted on instinct and erected another magic barrier to defend her, and while Rarity was proud of herself for a second, she quickly fell to her knees from the exhaustion of over-exerting her magic, noticing a faint trickle of blood coming from her nose.
Or at least she thought it was blood at first, but blood wasn’t rainbow-colored.
Her legs were too weak to stand up, which was unfortunate since the manticore was now charging straight for her, but thankfully Applejack was there to rescue her by tackling the beast to the ground.
The two wrestled with each other for a moment as Rarity struggled to stand up, and eventually Applejack conceded with the beast and let it free, jumping back to stand in front of Rarity and stare the manticore down.
“This is no time to be zonin’ out, Rarity!” Applejack scolded, and rightfully so, but Rarity had more pressing thoughts on her mind than apologizing to her.
“Applejack,” Rarity bit her lip, “can we… can we defeat this manticore, can we incapacitate it, without killing it?”
“Whuh, why wouldja wanna—” Applejack sputtered but then stopped. “Oh. OH. I see. Yeah, Rare, we can do that.”
“Then let’s do it,” Rarity said, brandishing her shield and standing behind Applejack, ready to confront not just a simple manticore, but a lie she had been fed for her entire life.