When it was clear that Waterdrop had finished her story, the firefighters instantly created a commotion. Everypony, except for Cool Air, loudly expressed their opinion about it. Worries, disbelief, compassion, everything was in it.
“We can't trust her!” was shouted, as well as “She fooled us for years” or “I doubt any griffon would do that!”
On the other side of the argument, ponies shouted, “She did no harm to any of us!” and “She is still a pony, no matter what she can do!”
The upcoming arguing started to get out of hoof real quick. It was Cool who stopped it just in time by raising a hoof. “Silence!” he shouted loud enough that it was clear it was an order. “We don’t have time for this and it doesn’t matter at all!”
Everypony was now looking at him, hardly suppressing the will to speak.
He put his hoof back on the ground. “Listen up! We have to make a decision and we have to make it now.” He stepped a bit forward, closer to Waterdrop and pointed down on her. “Either we let her lay here and the royal guard handle this, or,” now he pointed at himself, “we help her and get her out of here ourselves. That also includes us coming up with a story to not blow her cover, otherwise we could give her to the guard and be done with this.”
“Cool,” Oven Cloth started, but Cool stopped her right from the start.
“No, Cloth, and this goes for all of you.” He looked them all in the eyes, one by one. “I can’t decide that alone, because we all will stuck with what we decide now. It is a majority decision of our team, whatever the result will be, we all have to promise to support the chosen way before we vote.”
“You really think that is a good idea?” Hot Cheese said, unsure. “We just vote and that’s it?”
“Shouldn’t we speak about this a little more?” Cloth added.
“No,” Cool ordered. He pointed at the orange mare, who was coughing again, lying weakly between them. “I won’t let her suffer more than necessary just because we have a long civilized discussion going on. She told us her version of the events like we asked and now it is up to us to make our move.”
He stepped further forward and looked down at Waterdrop, still addressing his team, “You all heard what she said, do you believe her and if you do, do you think she was right in what she did? Now promise to stuck with the result, whatever it will be.” He lifted his gaze and looked around. Everypony nodded in agreement, even if it took a few seconds for some to agree.
“Good,” Cool nodded himself, “then, who is for letting her lay here and the guard handle this?”
Three hooves raised up.
“Mhh,” he commented, “now, who is for taking her out of here and helping her keep her secret?”
Again, three hooves raised up.
“Stalemate,” he mumbled, “that is going to be a …”
A groan of pain interrupted him, Waterdrop slowly raising her hoof. “I… vote for... “ she coughed heavily and her whole body shook, “for getting… me… out… of here.” Powerless, her hoof sunk back.
They were all silent for a moment, it was clear to see that the gears in Cool’s head turned hard.
“You can’t be serious!” Chimney Cleaner said, indignant. “You can’t take account of letting her be part of the vote!”
“She has nothing to say to this,” Hot Cheese supported Chimney.
“You said,” Waterdrop quietly said, “it… is… a team… decision.”
“Nopony asked for your opinion,” Hot Cheese said, angrily.
Oven Cloth cleared her throat. “Technically, she is still part of the team.”
“You too?” Hot Cheese turned to Cloth and raised her voice, “You simply ignore the fact she has lied to us for years and now you still trust her?”
Cloth shook her head. “I only have a problem with letting a heavily injured pony lay there while I can help and instead let her face an unknown fate in the hooves of the royal guard!”
“Stop it!” Cool silenced them both. “We all agreed to deal with the result of the vote of our team.” He stepped right next to Waterdrop and lowered his head so his face was on the same level with hers. “Look at me.”
She did as she was told.
He held her gaze and asked, “Are you really Waterdrop?” He grabbed her chin when she tried to blink and look away. “Look me in the eyes and tell me, are you our team member Waterdrop, or not?”
“I… “ she started, “I… “ Her voice trailed off and her eyelids slowly sunk down more and more.
“Hey,” Cool carefully shook her head a bit, “don’t sleep in now.”
She opened her eyes again and tried to focus on him. “I am… your teammate… Waterdrop… even if that… is not… my… birth name.”
He stared in her eyes for a moment, looking for any hint of a lie, any betrayment, anything that felt suspicious… he found nothing. “Alright, I believe you.” He placed her head softly back on the ground and took a step back. “Four to three it is, we will get her out of here.”
“Cool!” Potato Cream yelled while she stepped over, stopping right in front of him. “What do you think you are doing? You just allow her to be a part of the vote because you voted for her yourself, you are biased!”
Cool Air steadied himself so he was able to look down on Potato Cream. “I said, it is a team decision. And actually, Potato… you are saying she fooled us for years, playing Waterdrop, a member of our team. That means, even you accept that she is Waterdrop, our teammate, as well.”
Potato opened her mouth again, so he placed his hoof on it. “No, Potato, I won’t let your fear be the reason for which she has to suffer longer than necessary. If the vote had been clearly against her, I still would have accepted it immediately. With the vote balanced, I decide we act the pony way and help her. Waterdrop is one of our team, regardless of using a fake identity or not.”
The mumbling of the others that followed his statement was a mix of approval and disagreement.
Cool let Potato’s mouth go, his gaze wandering over the rest of his team. “You all promised to support whatever decision we make as a team, now keep your promise.”
The ponies shared looks with each other, Chimney Cleaner’s worries were still clear to see on his face, and Cheese was not happy with the result either. In the end, they both gave the injured mare another look, then exchanged one with each other, followed by a short nod in Cool’s direction. Cloth and the last remaining stallion had voted for Waterdrop in the first place, so Cool returned his gaze to Potato.
“Can we count on you?”
She gave him a snort and kicked a stone away.
“Potato, yes or no?” Cool asked again, sharper this time.
Another snort. “Fine…”
“Thank… you…” Waterdrop whispered.
“Don’t thank us so quickly, Waterdrop,” Cool said. “We’ll get you out of here, but after we have done that and your wounds are taken care of, I insist you tell us everything about you.” His gaze became penetrating. “You heard me, everything. Who you really are, why have you joined our team and again, what happened here in detail.” He raised an eyebrow. “Did you really think we wouldn’t notice that there were a few really vague spots in your explanation?”
Without waiting for any response, he addressed the rest of the team again, “What we need now is an explanation as to why Waterdrop is here, but isn’t Waterdrop at the same time.” He stopped for a second, thinking. “Actually, this is complicated enough in the first place,” he looked back at Waterdrop, “and we need to call you somehow anyway when we carry you out. So, what is your real name, Waterdrop?”
Waterdrop took a few deep, slow breaths before she answered, “Promise… to keep it… a secret…”
“How dare you!” Hot Cheese burst out, angered. “You are the one who fooled us and now you expect us to keep your real name a secret?”
“Shh,” Cool silenced her, “this is still not the time. Waterdrop, we promise to keep it a secret until you are healthy enough to care for yourself. After that, we’ll freely decide what to do with that knowledge.” He looked around. “Everypony agrees?”
There was some hesitation, especially from Cheese, but they all nodded again.
“Good, so, Waterdrop, your real name is?” Cool asked.
“Snowflake… Burning Snowflake…” She winced when she tried to move a bit to look at everypony.
“That tells me nothing,” Chimney said. “Anypony else know that name?”
“No, doesn't ring a bell,” Cloth answered.
“Doesn’t sound familiar to me, either.” Hot Cheese scratched her head. “Snowflake, mhh, Snowflake as a family name… no, there is no family with that name in Canterlot as far as I know. It is your family name, isn’t it?” she inquired.
Burning Snowflake just closed her eyes, silent.
“Hmpf,” Cheese made and dropped the topic.
“Alright, we still have to come up with a plausible story why she,” Cool pointed at Burning Snowflake, “is in this building and why Waterdrop isn’t here for sure.” He looked around. “Any ideas?”
“A beggar who sought shelter?” Cloth suggested. “Made a home in this abandoned building, maybe?”
“Then somepony must have seen her before, trotting through the streets, begging for money or food,” Chimney denied. “This all will drag a lot of attention, whoever we pretend to have found here. Some ponies may ask questions why nopony knows her, if she is a beggar.”
“Good point,” Cloth agreed, “didn’t think about that part.”
Suddenly Burning Snowflake was far more awake again, realising what that meant for her. “No!” she said with emphasis, even if it caused her to cough again and wince at the pain it caused. “I can’t… be in…”
“Whoo, whoo, calm down,” Cool said quickly and placed a hoof on her forehead, softly stroking it. “Don’t panic, we are just considering possible explanations, nothing to worry about.”
“You don’t… understand…” she heavily panted, “there… are still… ponies who… know me…” A row of coughs ended her sentence.
That information caused the team to think about it for a moment.
“Somepony knows you and you fear they may find you?” Potato raised an eyebrow. “I knew you were some kind of wanted criminal!” she declared. “No wonder you took up somepony’s body shape as a cover!”
“What if she is right, Cool?” Cheese asked quickly. “Think about it, if she is a wanted criminal, we would help a criminal.”
“I don’t want to help a criminal, if I am being honest,” now the third stallion finally said something to it. “Helping somepony that fooled us,” he raised a hoof and turned the bottom up, “is one thing,” he waved his hoof slightly, “more so if she is in need of help, but helping a possible criminal?” He shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe we should patch her up and give her to the guard anyway.”
“Wait!” Cloth interrupted the upcoming discussion. “Wait a second.” She sat down and trailed off, her mouth formed silent words while she put her thoughts together and repeated something she had heard.
“What is it, Cloth?” Cheese asked.
Cloth slammed her left front hoof into her right one. “I know who she is hiding from,” she explained. “She isn’t a wanted criminal,” she looked over to Burning Snowflake, “right, Snowflake?”
A short look at the other mare’s eyes was all Cloth needed.
“You know who she is hiding from? Come on, spit it out already!” Potato demanded.
“Let’s take what she told us about her as fact for a moment,” Cloth raised up again, “she told us she is twenty-two.”
“Annnnd?” Potato requested her to speak on.
“She didn’t want to tell us her real name at first, and also didn’t give you,” she pointed at Cheese, “an answer, if Snowflake is her family name.”
“I don’t see where this is leading too,” Potato said, while Cool and shortly after him Cheese let out a loud ‘ohhh’.
“I see.” Cool rubbed his muzzle. “That explains it.”
“Indeed,” Cheese agreed, “if that is the case, we can’t use her real name for the public announcement.”
“Would somepony be so nice to explain it to me?” Potato asked.
“She is from Canterlot in the first place, Potato,” Cheese explained. “She didn’t hide from the guard, she hides from her relatives.”
Giving Burning Snowflake a look, Potato asked, “But I thought her parents were dead and she has no other siblings?”
That the orange mare avoided Potato’s gaze just confirmed that Cloth had guessed right.
“That was part of her fake identity as Waterdrop.” Cloth took over again. “Think about it, why Canterlot? From all places in Equestria, why of all things Canterlot?” Her voice sped up its pace as she put the puzzle pieces together. “It is the most risky place for her, in no other place you have so many guards, such a high population and a lot of eyes on you.” She started to walk around in a small circle. “If I could change shape and try to stay unnoticed, I would choose Vanhoover or even better make my home in the White Tail Woods, or any other lonely place like that.” Cloth stopped and let her voice get a more serious tone. “I say she was born here.” She tapped on the ground with her hoof. “Here in Canterlot, twenty-two years ago.”
Cloth stepped closer to Burning Snowflake and looked down on her. “Am I right?” It wasn’t really a question, it was more of a statement. She lowered her head till it was right in front of the other mare’s. “You still have a family here, don’t you?”
Burning Snowflake looked away and even tried to turn her head, but Cloth stretched out her hoof and softly placed in on Burning Snowflake’s left cheek, turning her back. When their eyes met again, Cloth asked, “What happened that you have to hide from them?”
It was then, when tears started to form in Burning Snowflake’s eyes, that Cool placed his hoof on Cloth’s shoulder. “That can wait, Cloth, we don’t need to know it now.”
Looking up to him, Cloth opened her lips but with a quick glance at the orange mare again, she just nodded.
“Let’s focus back on her cover story,” Cool changed the topic. “We can choose a code name for her when we know what story we tell the guards and Big Helmet.
“Mhh, what if we say she is a tourist,” the third stallion suggested. “Coming over to Canterlot for the festival. When she flew by the old brick-factory, she heard Waterdrop fighting with the griffons and went to investigate.”
“If the fight was loud enough to be heard outside, it would be expected that somepony else had heard it too,” Cheese added.
“We have to come up with something that explains why she was already in the building when the fight started, or why she flew in without knowing about it before,” Cool said.
“We could also say she entered the building together with Waterdrop,” Chimney said. “When Waterdrop, as an earth pony, wanted to enter the factory, she could have asked a pegasus to give her a lift over the wall.”
“That would only work if nopony had seen her entering the building,” Cloth denied.“At the moment, nopony witnessing her entering it was found, but somepony still might appear and raise suspicion.”
“She is right,” Cheese agreed, “it is too risky to say that. Somepony just has to remember that they saw Waterdrop climbing over the wall and our story is blown up.”
“The tourist thing seems to be the right start nonetheless,” the third stallion pointed out. “She can be from everywhere she wants, makes it easy to come up with a lie about her origins.”
“If we stay with that,” Cool picked up the thought, “Why would she enter the factory in the first place?” He waved his hoof around. “These halls were empty and only old forgotten stuff had lain around here, I don’t see the reason for it.”
“A window!” Cheese yelled suddenly, formuling an idea she just had. “She flew by and saw Waterdrop in a fight with the griffons through one, or better one griffon so it is more plausible she didn’t call for the guards at first and instead tried to solve it herself.” She shrugged. “With the factory burned down mostly and a huge part collapsed, nopony could say if it was possible to see her or the griffon.”
“A good idea, Cheese.” Cloth nodded. “That covers why she is here and nopony else.”
“Still, we have to think about why Waterdrop can’t be here anymore,” Cool reminded them. “If we didn’t find a possible answer, we have no excuse to stop our search. Waterdrop must have somehow found her way out of the building, otherwise our story will not work.”
“Did she?” Potato asked, sceptical.
“Huh?” What do you mean?” Cheese asked.
“Well, if she made it out, we still have to seek for her somewhere else. Even if we say the griffons escaped and foalnapped her for example, ponies would then expect us to start a search in Canterlot and surrounding areas.”
“You surely don’t want to say she died during the explosion?” Cloth suspected.
“Why not?” Potato answered brusquely.
“You can’t be serious,” Cool judged indignantly.
“It would make things so much easier for us, and, we still didn’t hear all of her backstory.” Potato pointed at Burning Snowflake. “Who knows if we are willing to take her back into our team when we know the full truth? Furthermore, Waterdrop hadn't existed in the first place, letting the world believe she is dead wouldn’t make a difference.”
“Do you listen to what you say?” Cool couldn’t believe his ears. “What you say is cruel and we wouldn’t be able to pretend we believe she is dead at all.”
“Hmm, I confess it would be difficult to feign the sadness we would have felt if she really would be gone for good,” she tilted her head, “but why do you think it is cruel?”
“Because...” Cool started, but Cloth answered the question.
“Did you think about her friends even for a second, Potato? Do you want to tell them she is dead? Do you care about what they would feel in the slightest?”
“Oh,” Potato made, ashamed. She rubbed her fore leg. “I haven’t thought about that.”
“Whatever we decide to tell,” Cloth demanded, “it has to end with something that allows ‘Waterdrop’ to come back safe and sound in the end, that much is clear. Either because we will welcome her back in the team or if we want her to leave, she can say goodbye to all who like her.”
“What if we have to tell the guards about her in the end?” Chimney asked. “I mean, after we patch her up and everything? We could end up in big trouble if they find out we lied to them.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Cool waved away his worries, “if the guards find out about her, we can pretend she lied to us.” He threw an eye on Burning Snowflake. “It wouldn’t be false completely.” Seeing her lay there, wounded and helpless, let the anger about it vanish as fast as it had raised up again. He sighed. “Alright, we can use Potato’s side idea anyway, Burning Snowflake saw some of the griffons take Waterdrop with them on the way out before the building exploded.”
He rubbed his muzzle and closed his eyes to think the story through one more time, adding a few points here and there to round it all up. “So, we have a tourist, flying by the building and seeing a griffon in a fight with a Firefighter officer of Canterlot, she tries to help but it turns out there are actually several griffons. They overwhelm Waterdrop and knock her out. In the fight with her,” he pointed at Burning Snowflake, “they set the fireworks or explosives on fire by happenstance.”
He hesitated. “No, better let them chase after our tourist and set the explosives on fire. So our tourist, as a pegasus, is a bit faster than Waterdrop and manages to not get caught by the griffons, so she sees them dragging the unconscious Waterdrop out of the building, but before she can get out herself, the explosives detonate and a piece of ceiling hits her. After that, she can’t remember what happened and the next important thing she notices, besides that she is buried under rubble, is that we dug her out.” He let his gaze wander over the others. “Thoughts?”
It took a moment for them, to think about it themselves.
“I guess that may work,” Cheese said. “Just to get things straight, in the fight with whom the explosives caught fire? It is a bit confusing with Waterdrop and our tourist being the same person in reality.”
“They caught fire when they chased our tourist,” Cool explained again, “if they caught fire in the fight with Waterdrop already, they all would have done their best to get out as soon as possible. This way, they had time to get Waterdrop out of here and that's what we need the most.”
“Wait,” Cloth said,” there is one thing we wouldn’t explain that way, look at her wings.” She returned to Burning Snowflake and with a “sorry,” she carefully lifted one of her wings a bit so the feathers were clear to see for all, or better said, what remained from them. “Plucked, mostly all of them,” she explained. Placing the wing back down carefully, Cloth continued, “If she got hit by the rubble, we don’t have an explanation for this.”
“What if one of the griffons got her right before the explosives blew up?” Potato asked. “He grabbed her midair and plucked her feathers out, only to get a kick from her, which threw him into the center of the following explosion. That would also explain why we didn’t find him…” She gulped. “Also, it would justify why Burning Snowflake feels responsible for the death of one griffon.”
A moment of silence followed, nopony liked the image in their heads. Still, it was a good explanation. Finally, Cool nodded. “Yes, that sounds g… uhm, okay.” He shook his head to get rid of the image. “Alright, that’s all we need for the moment. Chimney, Potato, get the gurney. Cloth, you free her,” he pointed with his head at Burning Snowflake, “from any rubble left before we can lift her. You two,” he turned to Cheese and the third stallion, “keep in mind what we have decided to tell the others, go outside and arrange a medical transport for her from here to the hospital.”
“Cool,” Cheese said, “what name shall we use for her? We haven’t thought about that one yet.”
“Right.” He scratched the ground, impatient. “What's your cutie mark, Burning Snowflake?”
She didn’t respond.
“Waterdrop!” he yelled to get her attention. “Your cutie mark, what is it?”
“A Snowflake… it is… on fire…”
“Melted Ice, that's her name now,” Cool decided. He repeated it a bit louder for the others to hear, “Her name is Melted Ice!”
With everypony having their task to do, he used the time Potato and Chimney needed to build up the gurney to speak with Burning Snowflake again. He told her the story they came up with again to make sure their stories would match and also distracted her from the work Cloth was doing.
It was several minutes later, when everything was arranged, that Cloth, Chimney, Potato and Cool lifted her up together, placed her on the gurney and carried her out of the ruin.