Bitterroot was confused — really, truly confused — as to how anypony, let alone Gale, could stand being Artemis’s traveling companion for any length of time, if she acted like that. Her tact was so nonexistent it had drained tact from the other ponies in the mill. Hence the threat on Artemis’s life. Bitterroot had never seen soul-crushing despair like that which she’d seen on the ranger’s face, and then Artemis seemed to want to go out of her way to twist the knife. The ranger had attempted to kill Bitterroot, true, but rubbing her face in her betrayal and death was too far in response.