//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 
// Story: A Taste of Her Own Medicine 
// by origami 
//------------------------------//

A bright flash had dropped Starlight and Sunburst back out in front of Starlight's home in her village.  The two unicorns recovered quickly, looking around at their surroundings and instantly feeling intense dread.

"Why did that pony drop us off back here?" Sunburst asked aloud.  "Were they one of the villagers?"

"No," Starlight answered.  "I don't know which alicorn that was, but there's no alicorn as a part of our village."

"It was an alicorn?"

"Yeah.  Didn't you see the wings and horn?"

Sunburst looked away sheepishly.  "I... might have been too scared to notice."

Starlight didn't say anything.  Instead, she jumped back up onto her hooves.

"It doesn't matter, Sunburst.  We need to get moving before the others find you."

Sunburst thought for a moment and gave her a nod, getting back on his hooves and moving next to her.  Starlight made a gesture with her hoof for him to follow, and the two made their way out of the village.





The two ponies had gotten a few hours head start, or at least that's what Starlight had estimated.  Finding a place among some rocks which could help camouflage a campfire, both Starlight and Sunburst agreed to make a camp for the evening, and then leave as soon as the sun was back up in the sky.

Resting on the ground beside the campfire, both ponies had not said much to one another since deciding to make camp.  Sunburst seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, while Starlight was lost in her own.  The mare kept wondering to herself what she was gonna do once the villagers caught up with them.

What would happen once they did?

Nothing good, she was certain.

"Starlight?"

The unicorn looked over at Sunburst, seeing the concern on the stallion's face.

"You said you started that village back there, right?  Why did you start it?"

Starlight was dreading this moment.  She'd now have to explain herself to her friend, tell him about everything she'd done and all the thoughts and reasons that she had.

"Starlight?" he prodded again.

"...It's a long story," she finally answered, sitting up to face her friend.  Seeing her movements, Sunburst rose up to give her his full attention.

"It all started after you left," she began, then paused.

"When I left?" Sunburst repeated.  "You mean when I went to Princess Celestia's school?"

"Yeah," Starlight confirmed, a bit of bitterness seeping into her voice.

"That was so long ago.  You really wanted to start a vil-"

"NO!" Starlight exploded, the feelings she'd tried to bottle up boiling over and now being directed at the stallion in front of her.

"I didn't want to start a village!  I wanted my friend back!"

Sunburst quickly adopted a defensive pose, taken aback by his friend's sudden change in mood.

"You never wrote me once you got to that school!  You were doing so well with your new friends that you NEVER ONCE THOUGHT OF WRITING TO ME!"

Sunburst tried to form a response, but all he could do was repeatedly open and shut his mouth in a poor imitation of a fish.

"You were so busy studying all that fancy magic and living up to your potential that you COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT ME!"

Starlight's anger then grew to desire a physical outlet, which resulted in the mare picking up a nearby pebble in her magic and hurling it at her friend.

Upon seeing the stone coming for his face, Sunburst made an attempt to duck out of the way, but he was too late, as the pebble struck the frame of his spectacles and shattered a lens.

Neither Starlight or Sunburst said anything for a few moments.  The mare's anger quickly died as she saw the end result of her actions, a few pieces of glass from the lens of his spectacles scattered around her friend's hooves, the frames lying among them.

After a moment, Sunburst finally put together a response.

"You're right, Starlight.  I didn't write to you like I should have, but it wasn't because I was having fun with new friends."

Starlight's mouth dropped as she looked at her friend.  His gaze met hers, and she could now see that he had a small line of red growing next to one of his eyes.

"I didn't write to you, or anypony back in Sire's Hollow.  The only pony I wrote was my mom, and that was just to feed her lines.  The truth is... I dropped out of school."

The revelation caused Starlight to drop flat on her flanks.  Sunburst dropped out of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?

"B-But... your cutie mark?" She stuttered.

"I'm a great theorist with magic," he answered, "but it only goes as far as theory.  If I try to cast any of the spells I create, they backfire every time."

With this admission, Sunburst hung his head in shame.  Starlight, having seen her friend's shame laid bare, felt worse than she had back in the mines when the equality spell took hold of her.

"I'm sorry, Sunburst.  I had no idea."

"It's okay," he answered, looking away so he wouldn't have to meet her gaze.  "I've accepted that I'm not as great as I once thought I was.  Not everypony has the potential to do amazing things."

"But you do!" Starlight countered.  "Sure, you might not have the skill to do those spells yourself, but that doesn't mean you can't make a huge impact!  Hay, even the princesses could find a great use for you!"

Sunburst didn't say anything, still feeling ashamed of admitting his failure in Celestia's school.  Starlight wanted to offer further encouragement, but couldn't think of anything else to offer her friend at the moment.  Eventually, she let out a sigh.

"I guess we both aren't quite where we thought we'd be one day," she eventually conceded.  "You dropped out of Celestia's school, and I created a village that convinces ponies to abandon cutie marks."

To this, Sunburst did finally respond.

"I'm still having a hard time with that.  Why would you create a village that made ponies give up their cutie marks?"

Starlight scuffed a hoof in the dirt for a moment before answering.

"Honestly, it's because I grew to hate cutie marks.  After you got yours, you left and I didn't have anypony else besides dad.  When I never heard anything from you, I guess I just let that hate bottle up until some other ponies and I figured out a way to remove them and I started my equality movement."

Sunburst blinked for a few moments before he asked her a simple question.  A very simple question that would effectively destroy her world.

"I know I didn't ever write you, but I never got any letters from you either.  How come you never tried to write to me?"

Starlight was about to offer a response, but stopped and went wide-eyed.  In all the time that she had been a filly and had grown to resent cutie marks, she had never once thought to write Sunburst and ask how he was doing.

With that revelation, Starlight let out a loud wail.

"OH MY CELESTIA, I'M SO STUPID!"

Sunburst jolted back, caught off-guard by the mare's outburst.  "What?!"

"All those years ago! I never once thought to write you!  I was so obsessed with hating cutie marks, I never thought about just writing a letter and asking how you were doing at Celestia's school!  I'm such a dunce!"

Starlight got up and began kicking random stones scattered around the campsite, letting out screams as she did so.  The point that Sunburst had accidentally made had the unicorn questioning herself and every decision she'd made since she and the colt were separated so many years ago.

If she had wrote him, would she still have resented cutie marks?

Would she have studied hard and attended Celestia's school herself?

Could she have helped Sunburst to improve his magic and maybe convinced him to stay in school and graduate?

...Would they have gotten closer and become colt and filly friends?

"I can't believe I've been so dumb!" she finished, dropping to her flanks after kicking another rock off into the dark night of the desert.  "I should've wrote you!  Everything could've been so much different."

Sunburst, seeing his friend finally calming down, moved over to her and placed a hoof on her withers.

"It's in the past now, but that doesn't have to dictate the future."

"But all those ponies whose cutie marks I took..."

"We can go give them back.  You can tell them the mistake you made."

"...I'm not sure I can."

Sunburst looked confused.  "What do you mean?"

Starlight looked the stallion in the eyes.  "I've had that village going strong for several years now, Sunny.  The ponies who helped me start it have been following my ideas for nearly a decade now, and pretty much all of them have bought into it completely.  Can you imagine ponies that dedicated to an idea hearing that their leader has decided to abandon those ideals?  What do you think they'd do?"

Sunburst sat and considered the argument, then frowned as he understood.  "We can't go back there."

"Wrong.  you can't go back."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm the village leader.  I have to go back regardless.  If you go back, they'll try to convert you and take your cutie mark by force.  It's..."

Starlight paused, a look of shame crossing her face.

"It's what we usually do when we have outsiders come into the village."

Sunburst sat confused for all of two seconds, until understanding, and then horror crossed his own face.

"You've foalnapped ponies?!"

Starlight hung her head.  "Yeah, we did, and I regret every moment of it now."

"And you were gonna do that to me?!"

Starlight, hearing the alarm in her friend's voice, looked up at him in a panic.

"No, Sunny!  Never in a million years!  That's why I'm trying to get you away from there!"

"Well, you failed in that endeavor Starlight."

The voice made the unicorn's blood run cold.  Coming in from the darkness around their campfire was none other than Double Diamond, and immediately behind him was Ancient Tome, his magic ready to cast a spell on both ponies.

"Why Starlight?" Diamond addressed the mare.  "Why are you abandoning our ways?"

"I'm not!" she denied.  "The way of our village isn't a good fit for Sunburst!"

"Isn't that up to him to decide?"

"He has decided!  He doesn't want to stay in our village!"

"I don't hear him saying that."

"I don't!" Sunburst spoke up.  "What is going on in that village is not only immoral, but also illegal!"

"Illegal?" Diamond said with a stunned look.  "How is it illegal?"

"You're foalnapping ponies!  Taking them prisoner and subjecting them to your ways!"

"Everypony is free to come and go as they please, Sunburst," Diamond told the stallion, his tone seeming to imply he was giving a satisfactory explanation of things.  "However, by the time everypony has heard our story and learned of our ways, they never want to leave."

"Horseapples!" Sunburst spat back.  "Nopony leaves because nopony lets them!"

Diamond looked down at the ground for a moment, but when he looked up again, his face had a deep scowl.

"I see how it is.  If you won't give our village a chance, then we'll just have to show you the benefits of our ways."

Sunburst lit up his horn in preparation to defend himself from Diamond, but a magic bolt struck him hard in the flanks, sending him to the ground and into a heap.  Groaning in pain, he attempted to stand up, only to find his legs wouldn't respond.

"Starlight!" he cried out to the mare.  "They cast a stun spell on me!  Quick!  Cast the counterspell!"

Starlight attempted to do just that, but she suddenly found herself tackled to the ground.  More of the villagers had appeared and surrounded the two ponies.

"Let us up!" she barked at the ponies.  "I demand it as your leader!"

"You're not our leader anymore," Ancient Tome told her, "and especially not after you demonstrated that even you are susceptible to the call of your cutie mark and its desire to lead you astray.  We'll choose a new leader, and then we'll make sure that you are properly re-educated.  In time, you'll come to thank us for this."

Starlight couldn't say anything, too shocked by how cold the stallion sounded as he approached Sunburst.  Trying to think quickly, she conjured a spell in her mind to send ponies flying.  The magic, however, never manifested as it should have.  Rather, it only sparked briefly before fizzling out.

"Wh-What?!"

"Now, Sunburst," Tome continued as he approached the immobile stallion, "it is time for you to learn first-hoof of our ways and be initiated into our village."

"NO!" Starlight cried out, fighting against the ponies that were pinning her down, but to no avail.

Ancient Tome looked over a scroll he had with him and gave a nod.  Putting it away, he looked at Sunburst as his horn ignited.

"NO!"

Sunburst was then enveloped in magic, and he began to scream in pain.  His cutie mark was being pulled off his flank, but his will fought to keep it attached to himself, not wishing to be removed from the destiny it had been given.

Alas, as happened many times before, the cutie mark eventually gave way and separated from its owner.  Sunburst's pained cries stopped, and the stallion fell unconscious, his coat noticeably duller and an equal sign now adorning his flanks.

The cutie mark of a sun and shimmers was then taken and placed in a jar, a lid screwed firmly on top and a special spell locking it into place.  With the process complete, Ancient Tome cast the counterspell to the stun spell, allowing the now recovered Sunburst to stand up on his hooves.

"Well, Sunburst," Diamond said as he approached the stallion, "Welcome to Our Town."

"...No."

Starlight had watched the entire event unfold before her.  Sunburst's cutie mark had been taken from him, and now he was subject to the same horrible spell she'd used on so many ponies before.  The tears poured from her eyes without so much as a sob as she saw her oldest friend looking at his flanks with the most defeated expression she'd ever seen on a pony.

"This is all my fault," she said to herself.

"Now for you, Starlight."

The mare's crying ceased as she looked up at Ancient Tome, magic again enveloping his horn.

"Now we'll take back your cutie mark and get both of you back to the village so we can educate, and re-educate, you two on the benefits of our ways."

Starlight cried out in protest, but she could not find the ability to cast anything more than a simple telekinesis spell, which did her no good at the moment.  Soon enough, she felt herself enveloped in magic and an intense pull from somewhere inside her.  She fought it as best she could, but there was simply no use.  Feeling something inside herself give way, her coat immediately faded as her cutie mark floated before her face and went inside another glass jar.

"Very good, Ancient Tome," Diamond praised the stallion, who simply shrugged it off with a simple thanks.  The white stallion then looked at another two ponies who were standing nearby with a wood cart with a large metal cage on it.

"Load them up so we can get back to the village.  We keep going, we'll get back in time to catch a few winks before Celestia raises the sun."

The two ponies nod and set to work, taking hold of Sunburst and Starlight and leading them to the cart.  Once inside, the two hitch up and head back towards the village with the other ponies.

Inside the cage, Starlight watched Sunburst, who in turn watched his own hooves.  The mare wanted to say something, but couldn't think of anything to say, except for one thing.

"I'm sorry, Sunburst."

The apology got her no response.

"I never wanted this to happen.  I just... I was so hurt and I wasn't thinking straight."

"How... could you?"

The question, asked with a heavy dose of accusation, came from a now glaring Sunburst.  Starlight saw his expression and looked away, shame once again taking over as the dominant emotion in her mind.

"How could you make something like this, Starlight?!" Sunburst continued, his voice elevated to almost shouting.  "How could you craft a spell like this?!"

"I... I..."

"This is a horrible spell, Starlight!  In fact, this could very well be considered dark magic!  If the princesses ever catch wind of this, they might just banish you to Tartarus!"

"I know, Sunny!" she finally answered.

"Then why do it?!  Why make a spell like this?!  Don't you know how many ponies you've hurt with this?!"

"Everypony in this village."

Sunburst paused for a moment before going in on her again.  "If we ever get out of this, I'm reporting this to the guard.  I don't care that we were friends once before Starlight, but this is something you have to answer up for."

Starlight was going to answer, but something Sunburst had just said had caught her off guard.  "What do you mean friends once before?"

Sunburst looked away from the mare as he said what he said next.

"After what I just experienced, and knowing what you've done, I'm not sure I want to be friends with you anymore."