In the dark, freezing wasteland, Rarity had entirely lost sense of time. All she knew was the sharp, freezing, soaking wet pain of the blizzard as she fought for every step through the shoulder-high snow, which provided small relief to her legs from the onslaught of half-frozen hail. The hail barraged and soaked her body with icy water, which she could hardly feel through its numbing cold.
She fumbled over her steps, struggling with her sensationless legs.
She fought to keep her eyes open, not only to shield from the wind and snow, but also because they ached for rest.
The cold hurt her mind. She couldn't think clearly. She wasn't sure if it was hours or minutes that she wandered, but she continued to wander through the grey void until she stopped feeling, until she was too stiff to go any further.
She had finally run out of energy, willpower, and hope. She stopped, and sat down.
Maybe if I freeze here... I'll wake up in Equestria...
She let herself slouch down, about to collapse into the snow. She looked up, to see the world one last time, and what she saw sparked a fresh burst of energy into her body. Rarity wondered if she had even seen it, or just imagined it. For a moment she wondered if it was nothing more than a ghost in the pattern of the hail. But no, Rarity, it has to be... She told herself.
She thought she saw her. It was nothing more than a hazy aberration in the snowstorm.
"Celestia?..." She was surprised that her intended call came out as barely a whisper.
But with renewed strength, she ran in the direction she had seen the shady figure, charging through the snow with strength she'd thought lost forever.
She suddenly fell off a ledge, rolled a short distance and struggled back up onto her hooves.
Rarity was at the edge of a large, natural shallow bowl rimmed with hills, sheltering its bottom from the harshest of the wind. In the middle stood a teepee made of tent material. A dark pegasus sat outside, thick winter gear covering his entire body. She froze for a moment at the terrifying dark figure. Goggles and black clothing nightmarishly obscured his face from her sight. He yelled something aggressively as he saw her, but she couldn't hear it over the wind.
No! Not more guards!
She gasped and turned around, running away with a fresh burst of adrenaline. There was another, much louder, angrier, but still indecipherable shout.
BANG
She jumped at the noise as a bullet flew by with a lightning-like air-rending crack. The gunshot sounded like an explosion as much as a gunshot. The shouting immediately became more intense and angrier than she had ever heard a pony yell, and another voice joined in.
"No! Get away from me you Ruff-" she stammered, to her surprise. She had tried to shout but her mouth refused to obey. Her numb legs failed, and she crashed into the snow. Now they, too, refused her will as she struggled with all her might to stand up. She was lying on her side, her head resting in the snow, eyes drooping.
She realized she wasn't even cold anymore. She felt hot, and a thick wave of exhaustion crashed over her.
She didn't know if it was seconds, minutes, or hours she lay there. Numb, vision blacking out, she was finally resting, giving in and going limp, before the dark pegasus gently rolled her over onto her back with his hoof.
He looked at her horn. "A unicorn!..." he noted, pausing for a moment. He rushed over to her flank, then gasped. "Diamonds!?" He scraped at it with his hoof, as if expecting it to come off. He looked at Rarity's face with shock. He was nothing more than a blur to Rarity. She heard him shout, but in her exhaustion she felt like it was too unimportant to listen. Her sore body and heavy eyelids demanded that she close her eyes, she struggled to stay awake as they fluttered down, closing, just as other blurry figures circled her and grabbed her.
* * *
Full Spectrum shot up in bed, panting, covered in cold sweat. She took a moment to look around the dark ornate room before sighing and letting herself relax. Moments ago, it seemed, she was soaring through a beautiful blue sky. She had basked in the bright, warm, yellow sun as she soared over grassy hills.
No, no Rainbow, you are not going to go insane over this like other ponies... Yet she longed to return there with every bit of her being. Heh, but what was I in that dream? Just some nopony with ambition, but here, here I'm so much more.
She wasn't sure where the light was coming from, but her chamber was barely illuminated well enough to see her personal desk, the back-lit clock on the wall, the wardrobe of finely decorated uniforms, and the many awards and the weapons of expert craftsponyship on the walls. A shiver went down her spine as she saw the spears and swords, and she pushed unwanted thoughts out of her mind. I'll be getting little sleep after that dream, anyways... she thought as she got out of bed and put on a warm bathrobe. After a dream like that, she knew she was more likely to lie awake all night, thinking of it like an insomniac, rather than falling asleep. No better night than this to admire the palace...
She stepped outside her chamber, and took a short airborne glide on her cyan wings down a flight of stairs to a grand, ornate hallway. With the domes lit only by incandescent bulb, Full Spectrum's palace was unusual in that she liked it dark at night. It was in the privacy of the dark that she could take in its grandeur without interruption. To appeal to the populace, there was a fine cover story: the geothermal powerplants couldn't provide enough power for the city, so enormous batteries were used in the day, then charged at night when most of the lights were off.
Granted, it was a true "cover story", but it would've been easy to build more generators and light the palace and city, at "night", equally well as at "day". But something about night's privacy and calm had led Governor Spectrum to respect its ancient tradition of dark in-between the days, a tradition that had ended in the natural world, and a tradition that few other domes of The Order respected.
As she strode down the palace grandeur, the sparse night guards and workers knew to clear the hall before she entered it; It was an unofficial, understood rule that her palace was to be her own empty, lonely refuge on her night walks.
She would not allow anypony to ever see her in this state. Not when she remembered the things she'd done. Nopony could be allowed to see their powerful and strong governor in her defeated, crushed state.
The palace's ivory walls and gold decor', so glorious and beautiful when lit by the gold light of incandescent bulb by day, were now all a dark, cold, dead shade of blue by night, as she walked along the stone-cold floor in an unnatural silence. Her rainbow mane and tail, normally finely crafted and cared for, were now dull, almost colorless grey bedwraggled wrecks in the dark. Her short cyan fur was no better, but mostly hidden under her dark red nightrobe.
Her head was lowered, her wings were out, but lowered to the point where their tips scraped the floor. She barely lifting her legs as she walked. Her expression was hopeless and sad. Like a dying plant, she was a living image of dejection. And though she longed to return to bed, her pained heart drove her to one of the many balconies at the edge of the hallway instead.
Her unwanted thoughts had won. Her undying devotion to The Order had come at a price. She knew the necessity of what she did, to maintain order, to keep the entire population of every dome alive against the endless, cold night outside. But no matter how much she consoled herself, nothing could drive her to forget what had happened.
Many centuries ago, when the domes had been built, hymns had been written, they were hymns that few ponies did not know. As she walked out onto her balcony, overlooking one of her grand gardens, she carefully made sure she was alone, then poured her soul into the First Hymn of The Order, singing it with the slow, long, and beautiful articulate voice it deserved:
"Though long and dark
This endless night
Yet deep inside
I keep my light"
She paused, slouching again, her singing strength having failed as the huge crowds of ponies came back to her mind's eye. They, many of them slaves, had demanded impossible things.
Anarchy, under the pretense of freedom. Corruption, under the pretense of truth. Death for all, under the pretense of the fall of The Order. These ideas were infectious.
Their pleas for what they called "natural rights" might have spread and brought down the last spark of life that was left in the world, were it not for the swift response she had ordered, that had led to filled prisons, and the burial of more than a thousand.
In her mind's eye, she came face to face with it all once more. The crowds full of hate, the mass arrests and executions of different methods. The ponies tied, led into the tundra to freeze, others kept the gallows busy. All of them, though, almost two thousand, haunted her mind.
It was a cruel necessity, it was what it took to keep the entire population alive against such dangerous ideas. It was necessary for the survival of their entire civilization, every single pony depended on those lies stopping then and there.
Ever since she was a filly, she had dreamed of being a hero, protecting The Order and preserving ponies lives’. Is this really the only way?... she thought.
She no longer felt any light inside of her.
I keep my light?... She mentally echoed the last line, then kept singing aloud.
"And long I wait
For b'loved dawn
Yet hopes of life,
Forever gone...
Why do I dream,
Of things unseen?
Are they not so?
It cannot be."
She remembered her dream. A world under a beautiful warm sun. It was ruled by a regal, beautiful alicorn that all had loved as a benign and wise leader. In that world of plentiful harvest, and beautiful day, there was no shortage, and no powerful order was necessary. There was no tundra, no bayonets, no ropes of such awful form. Only happy ponies, living free lives under the warm sun.
"And yet I know
That when I rest...
With azure sky,
I will be bless'd."
How much longer must I wait for my azure sky? How much longer must I preserve The Order at the cost of my heart and soul? When can I finally know my unending rest?
She sat down as a tear fell from her snout.
When will this cold, cruel life, finally be over?
A soft, familiar voice came from the garden.
"Cold and dreary
Is this waste
But warmth of heart,
Is endless space"
Goldfeather... she thought, seeing the yellow pegasus slave in the garden below.
"And now I know,
I have a mother
So far above,
This icy yonder"
If any other pony had seen Spectrum in this state, she would have been furious. But Goldfeather was one of the few she could tolerate to see her when she was weak and tired. She was the one creature Spectrum could trust. So instead of reprisal, she sang along, and the two joined in a short harmony, as the timid pink-maned pegasus took a short flight up to sit next to the governor on the balcony:
"So I live,
With purpose pure
And so in rest
Is no allure
Cry not my soul,
Long not for death
For with this life
I have been bless'd"
She approached Spectrum with eyes full of loving sympathy worth far more than her price. "Don't forget the second verse, governor. If you only listen to the first verse, it's such an awful song. But the second verse is quite lovely..." She smiled and walked a little closer.
"Goldfeather..." governor Spectrum growled.
She would allow Goldfeather to see her in this defeated state, but even for Goldfeather, there were limits on how close she would allow her to get to her.
"Please allow me to serve you, master," she gently plead. Spectrum's expression softened. She couldn't deny Goldfeather that.
"Of course, Fluttershy," she said much more warmly, calling her by her private name.
She simply sat next to her owner. The presence of another being was all Spectrum needed to rejuvenate some of her strength.
"It isn't safe for us to keep talking at night like this... I've told you too many things that aren't safe for you to know..." The governor looked at the floor.
"Sometimes everypony just needs to get things off their chest," Goldfeather said with a smile. "I'm just glad to be here to listen for you."
"What was your nightly duty tonight, Goldfeather?"
"None, governor. I apologize I found myself unable to sleep..."
"Why?"
"A dream, governor."
"Oh... What was it?"
"A nightmare..." her voice tapered off.
"A nightmare of what?" she asked, far more softly than any pony could have conceived the governor capable of.
"A nightmare, because... Oh, forgive your servant, governor!" She lay flat on the ground, bowing herself.
"No, no, Fluttershy! Please, I won't punish you for what you dream, just tell me what it was."
Fluttershy got back up, though her ears refused to straighten, and she looked down as she spoke. "It was the azure sky, governor. That beautiful land. I was preparing to cheer you on for a competition, in a warm, and beautiful world... I lived in a cottage with all kinds of little animals..." she sobbed.
"Why was that a nightmare?"
"Because... Because I had to wake up..." Spectrum wrapped her forehoof around her and comforted her sobbing friend, as she had been comforted by her only moments ago.
The master pegasus gently took the slave's hoof. "Goldfeather, I'm going to give you something I have given none other than my family. I don't want to see you falling down to me again. So I'm going to tell you, my true name is... Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy smiled.
"Thank you, Rainbow," she addressed her owner, for the first time, as a true equal, a close friend.
Rainbow set her hoof down, and they sat together.
The governor could feel the slave lean some of her weight onto her master.
She didn’t mind. She had become governor to help ponies. This was just another opportunity.
"Have you ever wanted to be a free citizen, Fluttershy?"
"No, not really... What would I do? I'd starve on the streets... No, my home is here, with you, Rainbow Dash."
Dash let out a little laugh. "I don't think I could give you a fair price, Fluttershy, even if I made you as expensive as an entire dome... Did it work?"
"Did what work?"
"When you sold yourself to the market. Did your family get enough to live off of?"
"Yes..."
"Are they still well?"
"Yes..." she said, sighing. "They have all they could ever want..."
"Good, very good."
They sat together for a few more minutes. To each, it felt as though they sat next to a small fire in the cold world, and so for a few more minutes they enjoyed each other's warmth.
Rainbow sighed, unable to clear her mind. "I can't forget it. I can't forget them. I was personally responsible for their deaths..." she said.
"Is this about the purges, Governor?"
She nodded.
The slave remembered acquaintances, nice ponies who had been on the receiving end of the purges. She looked at Rainbow's dejected posture. "Is it really true, that it was necessary? Did so many of them really have to die?"
The governor nodded. "I'm afraid that's just how it is... It was for your sake, you know. You, and every other living pony. If I hadn't done it, we'd all be dead... I know it. But, still... nothing will ever get their faces out of my mind..."
Fluttershy thought for a few long moments. "If it's really true, and they were really mistaken... They would forgive you, Rainbow Dash."
Their faces were clearer than ever in the governor's mind. She remembered many of their final gazes, the ones that pierced straight into her eyes, moments before they met death... They weren't nearly as bad as the ones that just gave up and cried. Those were the ones she could never forgive herself for.
"You think so?" the Governor asked full-heartedly.
"All they wanted was what was best for the world. You disagreed about what was best, but that's all either of you wanted. If you're really right, and now, under the Azure Sky, they know you were right... Then they would forgive you."
Rainbow imagined their faces again. The same goal, the same dream, but different methods. She could imagine it. She could imagine them forgiving her, and she could imagine the teary faces looking up and smiling under a blue sky.
"How did you end up as a slave? You're fit to be a governor, yourself, Fluttershy..." she said, putting a smile on the timid pegasi's face.
"Do you forgive me, Fluttershy?... No, let me say that differently..." Her tone switched from soft to harsh; "If tomorrow, I led you into the tundra, and tied you up, to let you freeze to death, or if I had you bound to a stake and stabbed by bayonets, or hanged on the gallows until your death... Could you forgive me, if I only did it to preserve The Order?"
Fluttershy trembled at the notion, as if Rainbow had meant a threat, an order she would issue in the morning. "I... I..."
Rainbow's eyes were wet.
The timid pony froze for only a few more moments after she looked into Rainbow's eyes.
"Of course I could, if really, truly, all you wanted was what is best," she forced out.
Spectrum grabbed Goldfeather, and pulled her tight in a hug, and sobbed on her shoulder, resting her weight on her only true friend.
After a few minutes, they simply sat down beside eachother again. The governor was sniffing. "I'd never let anything happen to you, Fluttershy," she said. "You have no idea what that means to me... Gold isn't valuable enough to be in your name." She said with a half-humoured smile.
The golden pegasus just smiled her gentle smile in response.
Morning lights began to come on in the city. A dawn pegasus Dome Guard Police patrol landed on a distant platform as the early morning patrol took flight in their stead, and the clamor of morning servants sounded from behind them in the palace.
As energy returned to the world, and life came to the governor again, she sighed, got up, and turned to her friend: "As far as anypony is concerned, Fluttershy... This evening never happened... It's unsafe for both of us if anypony ever found out... But, thank you... A lot." She nodded, and flew back to her chambers to prepare for the day, noting to herself to bring Goldfeather on the governor's conference trip the next day, for their mutual protection.
Before Fluttershy flew off the balcony, a dark, almost black purple unicorn hiding under the balcony took note of the night's dialogue, and vanished without a trace.
* * *
In a plaza, not far from the edge of the city, a morning crowd of tired, poor pegasi and earth ponies moved through their daily morning routine, overwatched by the pegasi guards that constantly patrolled the city. In a flash of light and a bang, a purple unicorn with a bowlcut mane, a pink pony with curly hair, and an orange pony with a cowboy hat and stuffed saddlebags appeared in the plaza, earning stares from the entire crowd.
"Good! It worked!... I think." Twilight Sparkle said. "Police!" she gladly noted, seeing the guards. "They'll know about this world," she said with a smile.
Applejack caught her before she approached the wide-eyed guards. "I dunno, Twi... Are you sure it's safe?"
"New ponies!" Pinkie exclaimed, grabbing her friends' attention before darting into the crowd and introducing herself to strangers.
Applejack and Twilight turned back toward each other.
"Applejack, I'm sure they're friendly. Have you ever heard of bad police?" Twilight asked as she approached the guards.
"Good evening, sirs -" she cordially began, smiling her small, friendly smile to them.
After their failure to capture the white unicorn earlier, they didn't give this one a chance to run. A quick spin and a buck to her head sent Twilight flying back on the hard cobblestone, unconscious. The crowd cheered.
"Twilight!" Applejack and Pinkie Pie shouted.
In an instant Pinkie Pie was face-to-face with the guards "Who do you think you are!?"
"Pinkie Pie, Run!" Applejack shouted at her.
"Why would I do that?" Pinkie turned to Applejack, only to be tackled by the guards from behind.
In complete defiance to their combat training and superior strength and size, Pinke immediately managed to stand up next to them, before they could get up. "You aren't acting like police at all! Just because you have some armor and weapons doesn't mean you can bully other ponies! Say you're sorry!" Pinkie demanded.
"Pinkie, just- Look out!" Applejack threw off her saddlebag and galloped towards Pinkie to physically intervene as two more guards approached. One sat down and pointed a hollow metal tube strapped to his hoof at Pinkie. The other charged forward, only to be met by Applejack's swift applebucking skills.
BANG
The world seemed to pause for a moment. Pinkie looked wide-eyed at the guard with the rifle for a moment, then down at her body, then fell over yelling and crying, curling into a sobbing ball.
Some in the crowd rooted. Others looked away, and others were obviously horrified.
"Oh, you little!" Applejack charged the guard with the rifle, only to be met by him and the other two guards all at once. He dodged her buck and batted her hindlegs with the hard metal rifle, almost breaking them, just as the other two guards grabbed her forehooves.
"Pinkie! Pinkie! Ya gotta get outta here, Pinkie!" she shouted, though Pinkie, still lying on her side and curled in a ball, didn't respond. Applejack struggled against their grip with all her might, but it was useless.
She saw Twilight was still lying on her back, unconscious. The guard winded from Applejack's buck staggered over to the unicorn and pulled out a knife. "You leave her al-!" Applejack's snout was tied shut.
The guard approached Twilight menacingly, and lifted the knife into the air. The crowd began rooting for him.
"Get'er while she's down!"
"Kill it! Kill it!"
Once again, others in the crowd were horrified and silent.
A small team of pegasi soldiers in decorated armor landed, led by one wearing finer armor than the rest. The leader shouted "stop!" as she approached the bloodthirsty guard, talking to him.
The crowd quieted down.
The high officer motioned for her patrol.
They surrounded the unconscious Twilight, just as the regulars that held Applejack tied her forelegs together and her hindlegs together.
"Citizen, you're under arrest. Lean against me to keep your balance as you're escorted to the jail. Attempts to escape will be met with lethal force." There was no choice. She couldn't keep her balance, or have any chance of running in her bound state, and she couldn't protest through the gag.
But as she was led away, forced to walk awkwardly, she noticed none of the guards bothered with Pinkie, who had stopped moving, lying on the ground in a small crimson pool, who's mane seemed to have lost all its lively puffiness. Their focus was on Twilight. The crowd started to disperse as the public spectacle ended.
Pinkie, Twilight...
It was the last Applejack saw of them, before she was led down the street and around a corner.
The unconscious Twilight was lifted away by the guards, tied, and her horn wrapped in a magic-reflecting gem-studded ribbon.
The crowd came apart, every pony continuing with their regular day. But a dark, dull pink earth pony with a mane as straight and long as Pinkie's approached her body. "Pinkie, was your name?..." she said with a tired voice. She leaned close to Pinkie, only to suddenly realize the pink pony was still alive. Sobbing, clenching her thigh, but alive.
"Sh-sh-sh" She put her hoof on Pinkie's back, like she was comforting a crying foal. "I know it hurts, but if you come with me, you'll be okay."
Pinkie's teary eyes looked up at her, as if asking, promise?
"I Pinkie promise," the dull pink pony said, with a crack of a smile, as she used her other forehoof to gently lift Pinkie onto her three good legs.
Leaning on the dull-colored pony, Pinkie limped down the street with a barely curled mane.
* * *
Rarity's eyes fluttered open. She was looking up at a tent roof, lit by a warm, yellow light, filled with a warm smell of delicious vegetable soup.
"She's awake," came a soft pony's voice.
"Is she up for good this time, or-" came a colt's voice.
The voice faded away as Rarity started to fall back asleep, only to briefly wonder who it was, then suddenly an alarm went off in her head, as she realized she didn't recognize the voice. HOW DID HE GET IN MY BOUTIQUE!? She tried to use magic to throw her covers off, only to feel her horn betray her, pushing her head into the pillow. Her horn was wrapped in something.
Her eyes shot open as she panicked wide awake. She was lying on her back, and a white pony sat over her. Nurse Redheart! Now awake, Rarity realized she wasn't in her Boutique anymore. Her memories came flooding back.
"Nurse Redheart! I cannot tell you how glad I am to see a familiar face!" The nurse responded with a shocked look.
All at once a pang of pain hit the unicorn's injured hoof and head. Fierce thirst clenched her throat. She instinctively covered her head with her good hoof as the headache worsened.
"How did you? - Nevermind, you need to get something to drink. Here, take this." She gave her patient a small white pill. Rarity put in her mouth, then gently, with fine composure, sat up slightly and took a small sip from the water canteen offered to her.
She took another sip. The small sip became a steady drink. Then she lost all of her composure and chugged the canteen empty. Her throat was burning and choking with thirst too intense for manners to hold back.
She didn't have to ask for more, just as quickly as she finished that one, nurse Redheart offered another canteen.
"Heh. That's really cute," came the colt's voice again.
Rarity froze in the middle of her drink, her pupils shrinking to dots. Only her thirst made her swallow instead of spraying the water everywhere as she saw the same nightmarish pegasus from before, sitting in the tent, looking straight at her.
"No! No!" she exclaimed as she backed away, bumping into the nurse.
"Careful, just try to relax," Redheart soothed, setting a hoof on Rarity's shoulder, and kept her from rising onto her hooves.
"Sheesh. I'm not that ugly, am I?" The pegasus laughed.
"I dunno, Flame," came Mr. Carrot Cake's voice. "When's the last time you saw a mirror that didn't break?"
All at once Rarity became aware of her surroundings. She was in the small, teepee-like tent. A lamp hung from the roof, glowing bright and very warm, casting a cozy yellow light on the scene. The floorspace was taken by a warm blanket that she was under, and a small stack of saddlebags and coiled rope. Mr. Cake sat next to the pegasus, and there was a smaller pony with a curly white mane sleeping under the same blanket, facing away from her.
Without his jacket, she could see the pegasus was a very dark brown, with a red, unstyled mane and tail with a single stripe of orange bordered by white, and his eyes were a solid green.
She was about to excitedly greet Mr. Cake, before another realization struck her.
She pointed her hoof at the pegasus "Did you shoot at me!?"
He blushed: "Yeah, well... Yeah, kinda shot at you, there. Sorry about that, thought you might be an enemy or something that'd spotted us..."
"Humph. Shoot first and ask questions later, I didn't think you'd do that, Flameheart. I'm proud of you. But your aim needs work," Mr. Cake said.
"You made no small deal-" the pegasus began.
"EXCUSE ME, MR. CARROT CAKE!?" Rarity interrupted.
Dead silence came over the tent.
"Did she say?..." the pegasus, Flameheart, stammered.
"Yeah. Yeah she did," Carrot answered, then continued, "Miss, where, and how, did you get my private name?" he asked flatly.
"Your what? Never mind that! Why on earth did you say he should have shot me!?" her voice broke.
"My private name! Where and how did you get it!?"
"Amber Light, please," Nurse Redheart addressed Mr. Cake. "She needs to rest, let's try not to stress her too much." She turned to Rarity: "Don't worry about it right now, miss unicorn. So, what's your name?" she gently asked with a smile.
"My name is Rarity, and thank you, my dear, for being so much more refined than these ruffians." She signaled towards the other ponies.
"Now, they're good ponies, too..." the nurse started, before she was interrupted by the small pony.
"Did you say 'Rarity'?" the smaller pony said with a rough, familiar voice, rolling over to face Rarity.
In an instant, Rarity recognized the smaller pony.
"Sweetie Belle!" she exclaimed as she grabbed her younger sister, who returned the hug, and starting crying.
"Sis... You ARE alive!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Of course I'm alive, darling! Now how did you get here?"
"I'm with this outpost team, Grandeur."
"Wow... It really is Grandeur!" Mr. Cake said with surprise, "What happened!?"
It took Rarity a moment to notice Mr. Cake was talking to her. She set Sweetie Belle back down and corrected: "No, my name is Rarity. Where ever did you get the idea that my name is Granduer?"
Confusion spilled over the room.
"Rarity... Your name is Grandeur..." Sweetie Belle said.
"What is that supposed to mean? Does one have two names? One certainly does not have two different names, Sweetie Belle! I am called Rarity, and nothing else, except I may also be called 'Miss', or 'Miss Rarity', but my name is 'Rarity', and only 'Rarity'..."
They gave her blank stares.
"What?" she asked after several long moments.
"Uhm. Ever heard of a 'private name' and a 'public name'?" Mr. Cake asked rhetorically.
"No, I cannot say I have." Rarity promptly replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
A dumbfounded silence fell over the tent, before Nurse Redheart spoke up; "Okay, it looks like something odd is going on... Miss Rarity, how did you get here? Please be silent everypony, we've hardly given her a chance to explain herself. Where did you come from?"
"Well... Okay, then, but it is certainly somewhat rude to not even introduce yourselves..." she began.
"Oh, my apologies, I'm Amber Light, I'm captain of this team," Carrot Cake started, "This is Flameheart" he pointed at the pegasus, "That's Snowglade" he pointed at Sweetie Belle "and that's Nurse Redheart" he pointed at the nurse. "Now, Miss Rarity, we really don't even know where to begin unless you tell us a little about yourself, first."
"I suppose I will, then..." she started, all her memories coming back, remembering she had been sent to a different world. "But I do hope you will all be so kind as to tell me where exactly I am when I'm finished..." They nodded, as a pang of pain hit her head again. "But would you please be so kind as to tell me how badly I'm hurt, first, Nurse Redheart?"
"Of course, Miss Rarity. We found you barely alive, a minute longer and you would've died of hypothermia, I'm afraid. And you have suffered some frostbite. Also, It looks like you've been shot in the hoof, and had a very close call with your head: your horn is scraped... Now, there is one thing I must tell you, also..."
The other ponies glanced at each other worriedly, knowing something Rarity did not.
"Now, I have you on antibiotics, that's the pill you just took... but to keep you from getting a really bad infection, we had to amputate your right ear."
"WHAT!?"
"Now, Miss Rarity..."
"GET ME A MIRROR! A MIRROR! QUICK!"
Flameheart grabbed a small pan, and pointed the reflective bottom side at Rarity.
She gasped. Her horn was bandaged in a gem-studded ribbon, there was a small bald spot next to it where the bullet had shaved some of her head, which spot was also bandaged. Her mane was a wild mess, and worst of all, her right ear was cut off near the base. The stump was also bandaged.
She stared at it for a few moments, wiggled it back and forth, and began crying.
"I'm... I'M HIDEOUS!" she wailed.
"Oh, boy." Amber Light sighed.
"Oh, Miss Rarity... Just be glad you're still with us." Nurse Redheart said.
"BUT I'M HIDEOUS!" she wailed again.
"You look beautiful to me, sis," Sweetie Belle said. Rarity stopped crying and sniffed, smiling at her sister.
"You're the most stunning pony I've ever had the pleasure of seeing," came a deep voice. All eyes snapped on Flameheart as Rarity was creeped out. "Okay, that came off the wrong way, didn't it?..." he said as an awkward silence threatened to creep across the tent.
"Now, the sooner miss Rarity can tell us about where she came from, the sooner she can get started on this nice soup." Nurse Redheart said, motioning to the source of the smell Rarity had noticed earlier. "And she needs it. So as medical officer, I'm asking everypony to please be quiet so she can explain where she came from."
Rarity was starving.
For her hunger, and for the sake of Nurse Redheart's kindness, she finally cooperated with her captors and rescuer. "Now, eh, leaving some rather unsavory comments behind... please allow me to begin... I am Miss Rarity, and I am from this beautiful little town called Ponyville..."