The mind of Trixie would be released the longer Rarity was gone. One moment she stood next to the wolf, acting as some sort of translator for the hunters, while the next she had begun to wander off. Shimmers of her life before she was enthralled by Rarity had come back. The unicorn didn’t knew what they were, but they looked nice. She wanted to know more about them. She wanted to know if they were actually her own thoughts.
The hooks that had been latched in the mind of Trixie for so long, finally seemed to be going away. The hooks that held her connected to the will of Rarity would vanish, since Rarity had vanished. The unicorn didn’t knew what would happen next. Only that a massive headache had come crushing through her skull. She reached for her head, standing on the hindlegs with a deep groan leaving her. “What’s, going, on?!” she exclaimed in terror. Her mind would suffer from a freeze, one that was many times worse than eating ice cream of any kind. Trixie’s mind would burn and perish itself from the thoughts of being Rarity’s slave.
The three hunters and the wolf had a look to her. They had gone out of the frying pan and into the fire. One way or the other, the misfortune of bad things happening in strings and series was still there. If they didn’t know any better, they would have to fight against Trixie soon enough. The three prepared themselves for the trouble that would be coming next. Though it was a trouble that maybe wouldn’t have come after all.
Trixie fell down to the floor at one point and laid down with her hooves still reaching for her head. All of the memories were wiped from her mind, the ultimate self-defense from Rarity’s side. The agonizing pain through which Trixie was put was audible by the grunting that she did. The mare didn’t knew what would happen to her, whether or not she was dying as well.
Her horn began to charge and levitate her from the stone floor. Within the sphere that she had created from her own magic hovered Trixie. She still reached for her temples to ease the throbbing pain. The sheer pain that went through her mind, was just terrible. Even looking at the sight had the wolf whimper in pain, like she felt it herself.
The blue unicorn didn’t knew what to do next or how to proceed. Though she would release all of her energy in a massive blast that knocked everypony off their hooves. Only to then fall back to the floor without a sound. The three hunters worked their way back on their hooves and rushed over to her. If she had broken something, they could help her. If there was something else, they could probably have done it as well. But there wasn’t anything in the world that could have prepared them for the things to come.
When they stood next to Trixie, the blue unicorn would open her eyes. A confused gaze would soon be taken within them and she crawled up to a sitting position. The wolf was never noticed by her. Instead she noticed how three, leather armor wearing, young mares had taken positions all around her. “W-What... Who? Why..?” she questioned to the three of them, seemingly not remembering them. Amnesia was a powerful thing to suffer.
“You don’t remember anything, do you?” Sweetie asked, wiping away the strains of her tears. She didn’t wanted to give Trixie much to work with or realize what had happened if she indeed had amnesia. Reminding anypony of what had happened there would have been a terrible mistake.
“Trixie, doesn’t remember anything. How, why? What happened? Trixie demands on explanation!” It was in that moment that she would reach for her head again. A jabbing pain went through her brain that caused her to shut up. Even trying to remember what had happened would cause her pain. The past couple of years would all be gone and Trixie wouldn’t know why. A growl came from her before she focused back on the there and then. She focused back on the three of them.
“Looks like yar gonna need a good rest, Trixie,” commented Apple Bloom with a well meant smile.
Scootaloo just stood there, nodding to the words and tabbing Sweetie on the back. It was time for her to do what she had to do. “Go right ahead, she doesn’t have to know more than she knows now,” the young pegasus spoke in a whisper. A whisper only loud enough to be heard by the unicorn.
Sweetie Belle nodded and took a step forward. Her horn had begun to charge yet Trixie didn’t trust the blood covered face. The young unicorn looked like she had been waging a war with somebody and actually killed. “We’re not going to hurt you, but this is going to give you some sleep.” With just one single flick of her head was the spell cast.
The other unicorn would have felt drowsy soon afterward. She wanted to say something to the three of them but before that happened, she fell back. Her body crashed against the floor and the mare was knocked out, brought to a deep, deep sleep in which not much could have disturbed her. Trixie would sleep until one of the three hunters would have awoken her. Until then, her mind would puzzle together what had happened the past years, what was most fitting for her to have done in all that time.
Sweetie nodded to herself and let out a deep sigh. She was ready to leave the place altogether but there still was the matter with the wolf to deal with. Her horn discharged and the aura fainted. Only then would she shift her attention back around to Fluttershy.
“Uhm, Sweets, ya might have given ‘er a bit too much...” Apple Bloom said in response, nervous about what happened. She had seen before how a thrall was brought to sleep after their master had been killed. The dose that Sweetie had given to Trixie appeared too much for the unicorn to handle.
Scootaloo checked the pulse that went through the unconscious unicorn and found out that it was indeed slower than usual. “She’s right, you did gave her way too much. What’s your excuse for it?” Her serious side had come out once more, demanding answers from Sweetie Belle herself. Of course could the fact that she just missed Rarity come to play in it. That she had lost the feel for her magic because of her troubled emotions, but they both suspected that there was more going on.
Sweetie huffed and gazed back to Trixie, than to the other two ponies. Her eyes had again that dead stare in them. She felt like she didn’t owed them an explanation of sorts, yet the glance in their eyes spoke more than enough. “I did it so that she could forget about Rarity completely. If there’s one pony who deserves to not know the truth of what had happened here, it’s her. She’s just a thrall that served her master, didn’t do anything wrong. She’s best the way she was, the showpony we all came to know her as.” That was the excuse that the sorceress had for it, the best one she could think of.
“But her mind will now piece together her own time-line! You know that, right? She will go to places where she thought to have been, but never went because she was here. And you know how Trixie’s mind work, small doesn’t appear in her dictionary,” commented Scootaloo to the matter. She did happen to have point, which brought the words of Sweetie to a grinding hold. “You, didn’t thought of that, did you?”
Apple Bloom chuckled to herself, shaking her head in the process. It was too precious to see Scootaloo and Sweetie butt heads against each other. The voice of reason and the loose cannon, she would have paid to even see it happening time and time again.
“No Scoots, I didn’t thought of that. I just knocked her out cold because I felt like it, happy now?” Sweetie growled in return. She wanted to shake some sense in Scootaloo, but knew that the pegasus had a point of her own. If anything, they both had so their reasons of being right and wrong. But it wasn’t the time to figure out whom was more right. “Let’s not go into this, not while there’s still one matter to solve. After we’ve returned to Ponyville, we can discuss this further.”
Fluttershy knew that they were speaking of her. She knew that the hunters would have come for her in the end. She was the last being to have dealt with before they could call it quits. But before they would do so, she would pay her own respects to Rarity. She couldn’t revert back to her old, pegasus self, not while the moon was still shining bright of course. A soft whimper for Rarity was first released, before it would turn in a howl of pure sadness.
The wolf was genuinely sad that Rarity was gone. And why couldn’t she be? She had lost a friend of hers that was dear to her heart. She had lost somebody with whom she could talk about her condition and always ask shelter to. Rarity was to her more than just a friend, she had become her guardian of some sorts. Yes, she had done horrible things, the both of them, but they both had been able to live their lives in relative ease and calm. If things were only that easy to explain.
The howl that went through the entire throne room showed to the hunters that it was a howl of mourning. No words would be spoken during it, it would have been disrespectful to do so. They had come up with the respect that they required to give the chance to Fluttershy to pay her respects and say her goodbye to Rarity in her own manner.
When silence returned to the room a couple seconds later, Fluttershy’s expression had changed. It was the true mare who had returned in control and the beast that she could be was locked away behind her toughest door. This wouldn’t have been either the time and place for it to cause havoc. No, Fluttershy had to stand up and take whatever came next as herself.
The three hunters would have walked up to Fluttershy, unsure what to do with her. She would basically be the only survivor of the ordeal that had happened in the castle. She was the only one who could testify against the crimes committed by everypony, showed the world how Rarity had worked and that she still was a good mare despite her vampiric nature. Of course, that was where Sweetie was hoping for. The chance very well existed that her sister had gone full berserk on more than one occasion. The situation was difficult to explain and even get an understanding of.
Sweetie Belle was the one that approached the wolf, placing a hoof in the neck, gently comforting Fluttershy and asking her in silence to remain calm for whatever came next. “You know we’ve got to leave this place, right? And, if you come with us, you will be put on trial by the Night Guard. What you sentence is going to be, I do not know, I don’t know how well they are going to respond to all of this. But, we three know what happened here,” she said to the wolf.
It showed to Fluttershy that they were ready to join her side, instead of their own if it came to a court. It was a major relief for the wolf who gave them a toothy grin of appreciation. Fluttershy was truly glad that they were wanting and willing to help her. “Let’s...go, she deserves...rest,” the wolf managed to say, wanting to give Rarity her final rest.
Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom all three nodded to those words. They wanted to leave the castle as well. The iron gate wouldn’t have been a problem from the inside, but the throne room would have been. Two of them wandered already out of the room, followed by the wolf. Only Sweetie remained for just a bit longer.
Her eyes went to the spot where Rarity had died and saw the last specs of dust laying there. She took a deep inhale and then smiled. For the first time in a long, long time she could smile again. She was glad that her sister had found peace somewhere. She would leave the throne room, but not before noticing the one painting.
Her eyes lit up at the sight of it and she couldn’t even believe that it was actually true. Tears shot in her eyes and she shook her head. A single chuckle left her, one that echoed through the hall. Only to be overwhelmed by the sound of her horn charging up.
Rarity’s finally resting place would be sealed off from the world. The room in which she had her final confrontation would become her final resting place. With a new sense of pride and feeling for retirement, Sweetie closed the wooden doors with help of her magic. That very same magic would cast a lock on the wood, making sure it would never open unless she allowed it.
The spell was cast and would suffice itself from magic for an indefinite amount of time. The final resting place of Rarity would forevermore be undisturbed.
Without a word would Sweetie have joined the other two hunters and the wolf. They could only return home and live their lives in the way they saw fit. They had done it, they had given a closure to the one of the darkest chapters in Sweetie’s life.
~~~~
When they finally stood back in the forest, the young unicorn had one last look over to the castle and sighed deeply. The place that Rarity had called home for so long, was finally her resting place. “Even though a story might not be over, sometimes it’s best not to know how it ends. Sometimes it’s better to remain ignorant of the possible future that it would take.”
A deep sigh was given by the young mare, who shook her head and forced the tears to stay where they were. “Because, if you start reading through what comes next, you might not be prepared for what you will discover. And in the end, every story does end...”