A lone white mare stood in a dark, musty alleyway, confused and afraid. Everything around her was old, dirty looking, and quiet -- eerily so. She looked to her left and right, but only saw heavily stained brick walls, large garbage pails, stacked and moldy wooden boxes, and smelly black bags.

Looking behind her, she could see a large opening into an endless expanse of white light. The light felt warm and inviting, like a mother calling her child home.

She wanted to be there, in that warm, inviting light. It was everything she ever wanted, it was perfect in every way, it promised peace, love, and protection.

It was wrong.

The white mare didn't know why she suddenly felt that way, but something about this warm white light unnerved her. It was as though the light were promising a way out, and that way out was at the bottom of a steep drop off of a cliff.

She shuddered and stepped away from the light, resisting its inviting aura.

Instead she turned away and looked in the opposite direction. At first, she could only see a dead end, a brick wall blocking off the rest of the path. Looking closer however, she could see that their was another path to the right, and it was dark.

This path felt nothing like the one behind her.

This path was dark, cold, and foreboding. While the light promised sweet and comforting lies, this path promised a harsh and unforgiving truth. The white mare knew deep down that this was the right path, but she didn't want to go down it.

She didn't want to go down either path.

And so the white mare stood there in that dark alleyway, frozen in indecision. She looked back and forth between the two paths, knowing she had to pick one, but refusing to choose either.

Sweet lies or bitter truth?

Before the mare could linger too much longer on her decision, a voice reached her ears. It was quiet and far away, almost like a breath on the wind. She strained her ears to hear the voice in the hopes that it would tell her what path to choose.

There!

She heard it again, still just as quiet, but much more pronounced. She frowned and listened harder, trying to pick up anything she could. It was difficult, but once the voice spoke again, she could just barely make it out.

A name.

Her name.

Rarity.

Her eyes widened and she shot a look towards the dark path of truth. She swore she could see something -- a flicker on the edge of her vision, but that was impossible.

Surely it was just her imagination?

But no, she had definitely seen something. Squinting her eyes, she trotted closer to the dark path, both eager and hesitant to get a better look at what might've been.

The white mare yelped and stumbled back as the shape flickered into view once more for a split second. It turned out a split second was all the mare needed to confirm her suspicions.

As brief as its appearance had been, the image was clearly a silhouette of a pony. Not just anypony however, the mare knew there was something more to this pony.

In the brief instance when it had appeared, the white mare could tell straight away that this pony exuded a powerful presence, strength, determination, grace, regal authority, and... fear and desperation?

The silhouette flickered into view once more before disappearing again. The mare stood there, frowning in confusion as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

Just who was this pony, and why did it know her name?

"...up..."

Why had there been such an air of desperation about the pony, and why did it make her feel uneasy?

"Get up, you useless equine..."

The pony had appeared before the dark path of truth, and the white was beginning to think that may have meant something. Maybe if she were to--

"ON YOUR HOOVES, GIRL!"

Rarity's eyes snapped open and she quickly scrambled away from the booming voice with a startled yelp. She hit the wall behind her and yelped again as she eyed the large feline creature before her.

It took her a moment to realize she was looking at the brawny bipedal cat from behind a set of thick iron bars. She frantically looked around her, only to see that she was surrounded on all other sides by heavy wooden walls.

After another moment, it all came back to her. She was being held prisoner on a ship with no memory of who she was or how she had gotten here. The only thing she knew for certain -- at least according to the stallion in the cell next to hers -- was that her name was Rarity.

She remembered that they had made a plan, and was her job to play the part of the subservient right hoof mare. According to Salvatore, she was supposed to keep the Captain distracted, as well as get her hooves on any information that might get them out of this situation.

In the meantime, Salvatore would try to convince the slaves to rise up against the Captain and his underling. Rarity herself had many misgivings about the plan, but she hadn't mentioned any of them out loud.

As risky as the plan was, it was more or less all they had at the moment.

As she remembered more and more of what had occurred recently, her heartbeat slowed to normal levels and she gradually calmed herself -- that is, until she refocused her attention on the feline before her.

The Captain for his part, looked rather amused at her reaction. He had been crouched somewhat to get a better look at the mare who would become his second, and now stood up to his full height, making the much smaller mare swallow nervously.

"Glad to see you're awake, little lady," the Captain said with a smirk, "hope you had a good rest, because we've got a lot of work to do."

"Work?" Rarity replied, shrinking back a bit and smiling at the feline uneasily, "w-whatever do you mean? What kind of work?" she then remembered her role and took on a more confused look, "w-who are you? Where am I? Who am I? What's going--"

She cut herself off as the Captain lowered himself back to eye level and glared at the mare.

"I am the Captain, you are my captive on this ship, and who you were is not important," he stood up straight once again as he spoke, "what is important is that you learn to rise above your status as a mere captive and serve me as a faithful second-in-command."

He flashed Rarity a toothy smile and the mare shivered involuntarily.

"I can make your life one of wealth, leisure, and, if you so desire... pleasure," he then frowned and stepped to the side, gesturing outside of her cell, "or I can make it a living nightmare, and you'll never be anything more than a wretched waste of life, the same as any of these fools."

Rarity followed his sweeping arm and saw several more creatures she hadn't seen before she fell asleep. There were more catlike creatures like the captain, large bird creatures she was sure she had never seen before, and she even saw a few griffons and diamond dogs as well.

What she didn't see were other ponies like herself.

She frowned as she looked upon each of the creatures in turn. They were all locked up in cells much like hers, and while she couldn't see all of them from where she was, each of the ones she could see wore an expression of defeat or resignation.

Oh, dear, this is going to make Salvatore's job rather difficult...

Thinking on the mysterious stallion -- or whatever he may have been, she had no idea -- she wondered just where he was in all of this. Was he still in the cell next to hers?

"Well?"

Rarity's attention was drawn back to the Captain, who had rested his hands behind his back and was clearly waiting for a reply from the mare. He raised a furry eyebrow and frowned.

"Do you believe you have what it takes to rise above the life of a lowly slave?" he asked pointedly, "would you stand by me as something of an equal, or would you grovel at the feet of some lecherous and abusive noble?"

Rarity bit her lip and looked from the Captain, to the would-be slaves in the other cells. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to take the Captain up on his offer, but doing so felt... selfish.

She knew she was being ridiculous and that this was the only way she could fulfill her role, but something nagged at her, telling her this was wrong and that she needed to help the dejected and downtrodden souls in those cells.

She thought back to Salvatore's plan and frowned in determination.

If their plan succeeded, she'd be able to help all of them, all it would take is a little patience. She was a lady, and she would handle this situation with grace, subtlety, and all the finesse of a mare who knew what she wanted, and knew just how to get it.

She turned back to the Captain and gave a single nod.

"I won't let you down, Captain," she finally replied with absolute conviction, "I refuse to become nothing more than a groveling slave. I will show you what a proper lady can do when she puts her mind to it."

The Captain frowned slightly before chuckling and giving the mare an approving grin.

"Well said, my little jewel... well said," the Captain replied, stepping back slightly, "now then, let's get you out of that cage and somewhere more comfortable, shall we?"

Rarity breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the Captain nodded towards someone just out of sight. After a second, a pig in a suit and bowler walked up to the cell with a pair of keys.

The Captain gave him a nod and the pig reached up to unlock the cell door, stopping briefly to give the mare what she could've sworn was a knowing smirk. Her suspicions were only heightened when the pig winked conspicuously.

She frowned in confusion as he opened the cell door

"Now don't try anything funny, mare," the pig warned before giving a small amused snort, "not that you could with that ring on your horn."

Rarity 'harrumph'd' and trotted out of the cell, ignoring the well dressed and smirking underling. As the three of them began to make their way out of the room, Rarity chanced a glance at the cell next to hers and her eyes widened in surprise.

There, sitting with its arms and legs crossed and leaning back against the wall, was not a stallion, but another creature she had never seen before. Rarity couldn't tell for sure, but it looked as though the creature was sleeping.

It's head hung low and Rarity could hear what sounded like soft snores coming from it. It appeared to be mostly furless save for a wild mop of black hair atop its head. It wore glasses, a rather nice looking black winter coat, with a plain white t-shirt and pants made of a material the mare didn't recognize along with strange footwear.

Rarity was snapped out of her shock when she felt herself pushed forward by a rough shove from the pig behind her.

"Don't worry about the human, mare," he growled, "just keep moving along. The Captain doesn't like to wait long so you'd best get it together."

Rarity glared at the bowler wearing pig before trotting forward once more, though she couldn't help but glance back at the cell contain this 'human' the pig spoke.

That... human was Salvatore?

Well... it certainly hadn't been what I was expecting... but that doesn't change what we have to do.

She faced forward again with a resolute frown.

I'll do my part, Salvatore... just make sure you do the same so we can get these poor creatures home and I can get my memories back.

Just so there's no confusion here, chapters without the 'Equus' portion of the title will always be from the POV of Twilight from Discord's Equestria. That means that if 'Equus' is in the title, it's taking place in the universe Sal is currently in, no matter who's POV it is.