A soft, orange light fill the snowy cavern. The howling winter winds echo around the walls, almost making the thick, crystalline stalactite to vibrate.
A thick rag lay on the bitter cold floor. On it, a meditating unicorn mare sits, her horn glowing a gentle orange light. On her hooves is a blue gemstone. So blue and pure, even the orange light from her horn cannot touch its surface.
Minutes pass...
Slowly, her horn dims, until the orange light is no more.
Darkness takes over. Almost.
Her orange eyes open, reflecting the gentle glow of the blue gemstone on her hooves.
“...Rarity,” she whispers. A small, hopeful smile appears on her muzzle. “Up north,” she says. “There's something up north... Something that Rarity believed will—”
Her stomach growls quietly but painfully.
The mare winces, the smile gone in an instant.
How long has she been wandering around the cold world? She has forgotten. She and her little group of ponies had been moving from cave to cave, taking shelter from the merciless snow...
...and hiding from their freezing touch.
They took them, one by one, until one day, the mare woke up all alone.
Crying didn't do her any good. So with a heavy heart, she pressed on and—
She slipped and fell from a great height. Ironic that the killer snow saved her by cushioning her fall. And then she saw it: a blue, glittering light. It was a gemstone. It was...
“...Rarity,” the mare whispers before taking her third bite from her cold, tiny piece of bread. Gulping, she bites her lip as she carefully wraps her small bread with a thick layer of cloth before putting it inside her worn-out saddlebag. She's still hungry. She always has. But she'll deal with it later.
Scooping the blue gemstone up, she smiles a small smile before putting it inside her saddlebag.
“There's something up north...” she says to herself as she wraps the rag around herself. “Something... S-something that'll stop this. All of this. T-there must be.” With a small smile, she starts walking out the cavern, braving the snowstorm. “Rarity pressed on... She believed that something's up north. I just...need to keep moving forward.”
The cold snow pelts her white figure, but she presses on...
...with a hopeless smile.