The moon was standing high in the skies. It actually managed to shine its light into a pathway along the vegetation that continued to lead the mare into the depths of the forest. She didn't wanted to go to the castle of the two sisters though. She didn’t wanted to go to the castle that was rotting in the gears of time. It was a castle she knew almost from head to hoof but demolished by time. It also happened to have been a place that could have been easily searched if necessary.
No, what Rarity needed was another place to hide herself from the events. Perhaps a burrow deep under the ground, or a treehouse made in the thick vegetation of the leaves high up in the treetops above her. All kinds of those ideas just surged through her mind. The mare walked through the woods themselves. Ideas of madness and insanity fueled her mind. They made sure she kept on going like she did. She would never return to her old life.
She never would have been able to return even if she wanted. She had changed too much in those few little hours before everything went to hell. Yet the time to drop in sorrow or sadness just wasn't allowed. For the woods of Everfree were a harsh and unforgiving place where the right of the strongest being always counted. Rarity did happen to be aware of the creatures it housed and was ready to face them if needed.
Miles and miles she wandered through the deserted woods. All without having encountered even one living thing, or one thing that was even awake to begin with. The moon showed her the pathway to walk and she seemed to be trusting it for some reason. Perhaps princess Luna was trying to help her in a strange way, or it was just a fool’s luck that she managed to have found it. Whichever may have been the case, Rarity was quite content with the events.
Though even her luck eventually had to run out. The path would have led her straight through a massive opening within the woods. Yet when the mare looked even closer, she could see something even more terrifying. A manticore walked around the place and began to sniff the air.
There was no more doubt in the mind of Rarity, the creature had got her scent she needed to fight for her life. Every last bit of the pony she once tried to be was dropped and her mind went straight into survival mode. With a careful yet eerie calm trot did she walk up to the creature and prepared herself for the fight of her life. As did the manticore.
Arms flew through the air before punches were delivered by one another. Rarity avoided the talons of the manticore like they were nothing. Then they were blocked by her crystalline arms while the horn charged itself. Something done in order to release a near countless barrage of magic. The fight had been going on like that for minutes by then. Rarity could feel herself becoming exhausted. The troubles happened to have been that she wasn't the mare for fighting at all.
Yet it was the unicorn who actually went on with the duel. There was only one more thing that she could do and with the way the beast itself had positioned itself, it was the only way. The manticore had thrown himself almost right on top of Rarity. Yet her arms managed to capture the forelegs as well as the scorpion tail. The beast was locked in the arms and tried to drag the mare across but she had a rather firm grip on the ground.
With her one arm still free and her magic out, there was only one thing that could be done. All of the sudden was the final arm thrust forward, straight into the chest of the creature. The claw had disappeared deep into the flesh. That was before it retreated again with something in it. It took the manticore a couple of seconds before it went completely numb and dropped to the ground. Lifeless it simply laid there as the arm dropped the very heart of the beast.
Two kills on one evening, the psyche of Rarity wouldn't have gone forward on it. Though she had to push onward. Her eyes looked to where the moonlit path went to and made the decision to follow it before there would be anything else heading her way.
Rarity continued to walk down the moonlit path after having defeated the manticore in the opening. She panted like mad while her arms were even used to keep her straight up. Never in her life did she had to exhaust herself that much. The king of the Everfree was it often called and she could see why.
Pants and coughs were done by the mare every so often. She continued to stumble forwards with every little bit of power that was left in her body. Her magical reservoirs were emptied and her muscles sore from the fight. She happened to have become a rather easy prey for any timberwolf that could be lying straight upon her path. A little late night snack of fresh meat. Yet the looks in her eyes never had vanished. If anything, they just increased in their sheer insanity. Rarity wouldn't go down that easily after having slain one of the beasts.
Though even in the end did the mare had to take a rest of some sort. She needed to calm down and start to think about pretty much everything there was. Even if that happened to have been perhaps one of the biggest problems there was.
---
Eventually did the moonlit path stop al of the sudden. It had ceased near a little pond. A pond that fell straight into the eyes of the unicorn who calmly rose an eyebrow. She had heard of mythical ponds that could emerge in the woods of Everfree to those who needed it. But she couldn't believe that that one was actually meant for her. Who could have been able to tell the fact from fiction when it came to myths in the first place?
The mare gently approached the site. Then she dropped herself on her belly. Both of her forelegs calmly let their hooves touch the water. The head lowered itself on them. A deep sigh was released all of the sudden from her body. All while the eyes closed themselves. The arms were gently curled up around the body as yet another line of tears grew below her eyelid.
The time for sorrow and sadness had finally fallen upon her and every bit of misery of the situation was poured out under the bright moon. The silent crying that she did went almost unnoticed to the life within the woods and perhaps that was something for the better.
Yet inside of her mind did everything deteriorate even further. Slowly but surely was her persona of a lady released even more. That old persona would have been replaced with something that was unseen by anypony before. A nature that would have been able to survive the woods of Everfree. A pony who wouldn't have been bound to the rules of society.
The horses of old always had their traces hidden within the ponies. All that was needed in order to unlock their wilder nature, the nature they actually had before any form of society had ever been established had returned into the mind of Rarity. In the common tongue though, she would just have been called nothing else but criminally insane. Yet there was nothing that could prove such a feat there.
The eyes of the unicorn remained shut for the biggest moments in time as a deep sigh was once more released through her nostrils. She knew she had killed Twilight, there wasn't any other way around it. She was a stone cold murderer and the arms were her tools. Twilight was just dead, plain and simple like that. That was the strain of thought that continued to haunt her through the rest of the night, whether she would have liked it or not.