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// Chapter 17: Final Day and Conversions 
// Story: Equal Equestria Enlightenment 
// by stupidhand14 
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Starlight Glimmer's Diary Day 406

My sleep from last night did nothing to help me with exhaustion. My dreams were plagued by worries... and my own anger. I can't help but think that it is somehow my fault that Twilight doesn't see the truth like everypony else. And yet, I cannot believe that. It is everypony else who is wrong in their beliefs and ideals, holding up cutie marks as good things. I cannot allow my determination to waver. If I do, everything I have sacrificed will be in vain. I need to stop thinking about this, and just get back to earlier today.
I woke up from a restless sleep early. I forced myself to get up out of my bed, my body struggling to so much as move. I felt drained, emotionally and physically. After forcing myself to get ready for the day, I went downstairs. Twilight's door was still closed, and locked. I put my ear to the door only to realize that I heard nothing.
"Starlight, you fool," I murmured to myself. I had left the bubble of silence in the room on, draining away my magic throughout the night. I quickly dissipated the spell and walked in.
Twilight was still asleep, but I could tell that her body now had several noticeable bruises covering it. As if my entrance itself was a looming threat, her eyes opened slowly and blearily. After a few seconds they focused on me and Twilight bolted out of her bed. Her eyes were full of fire, of rage, of a pony that was going to do something foolish.
"Good morning, Twilight," I said in my usual way.
"Good morning? Really?" she scoffed back. "You attack me and you expect me to say good morning?"
"Twilight, you tried to run away. You tried to destroy the harmony of this town. You had to be punished," I said, trying to comfort her. Her only response was looking angrily away.
"Twilight, you are coming with me. Now," I commanded her. I opened up the door more, and began to walk out before turning back and saying, "Don't say a word to anypony, simply follow."
Twilight's eyes shot daggers at me, but she didn't get up.
"We are going to the hospital to get your injuries looked at. You are coming one way or another, but I'm giving you the choice of avoiding any further embarrassment for yourself."
Eventually, common sense won out against stubborn attitudes and she followed. There were few ponies out in the streets this morning, but none of Twilight's old friends, fortunately. Twilight didn't make a dash for anywhere once, though I did catch a glance or two when we were crossing the main street.
The hospital was really just Cinnamon Fire's house. Cinnamon had gone to medical school for a few years,  but after stress and work overload she snapped and dropped out. Now she is our town's doctor, should it ever be required.
Cinnamon came out of the backroom still half asleep. Her legs were slow to move and her eyes were still fogged with sleep. However, she got a visible flood of adrenaline as soon as she noticed I was there.
"S-Starlight?!" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Cinnamon," I replied with a smile. "Twilight hurt herself last night, and I would like you to check to see if her injuries are anything to be concerned about."
"Oh, okay. Sure, just come on to the back room and I can check her out," she told me. She quickly turned and walked into the backroom.
We followed her in. I noted that the room looked like a normal doctor's office, minus any degrees or proof of being a doctor. Cinnamon was half way through examining Twilight and asking her questions when the elephant was brought up.
"So, how did  you hurt yourself, Twilight?" Cinnamon asked while taking Twilight's blood pressure.
Twilight stood silently for a moment, and began to speak before I cut her off.
"She slipped and fell down the stairs," I said. Twilight quickly closed her mouth.
"Oh, really? Hm... Well, you are lucky," Cinnamon informed us. "You only have bruises and a few scrapes along the length of your body. Nothing serious. You should be fine tomorrow, though there will be pain for most of today."
"That is good to hear. Cinnamon, mind if I talk to you for a second?" I asked, motioning my hoof to outside the room.
"Of course," she replied before following me out. "What do you need?"
"I think Twilight needs to stay in the safety room for today. She seemed unstable last night. I think something happened to her and is making her a bit... strange."
"What? You know I can't just put a pony in the safety room for no reason than suspicion, Starlight," she said, almost chiding me.
My eye narrowed. "She threw herself down the stairs last night. I think that's how she got hurt." Cinnamon gasped at this.
"If that's the case then... I have to put her in the room, for her own well being."
We turned and walked back into the room. Twilight was turned her head towards us when we entered, a look of apprehension on her face.
"There is just one more thing you have to do before I can say you are perfectly alright to leave, Twilight," Cinnamon said. "Please, come with me."
Cinnamon led Twilight to a small side room, and ushered Twilight inside. The room was surrounded on all sides by white, padded walls. Cinnamon quickly closed the door and locked it before Twilight knew what was happening.
"Okay, Starlight, I can guarantee you, she is in good hooves," Cinnamon assured me.
"Thank you. If she begins to act crazy again, be sure to come get me. I will try to calm her down."
"That will be helpful, Starlight. You are a good friend for doing this, for making her come here."
With Twilight safely handled, I quickly moved on to the preparations for Shining Armor. Leaving Twilight in the care of Cinnamon, I went quickly to Double Diamond's house.
He opened the door immediately, as if he was expecting me. After a few pleasantries, I decided to move on to business.
"We need to do something about Rainbow Dash," I informed him. "Soon, preferably."
"What can we do?" Double Diamond questioned. "She still refuses to break, and we cannot keep her here, ponies will begin to come looking for her."
"I know that!" I said, raising my voice slightly. "We just... we just need to find an excuse to keep her locked up."
"Hm... Yes..." Double Diamond trailed off into thought. The problem wasn't Rainbow Dash, it was other ponies, especially the guardsponies. If anypony saw the conditions Rainbow Dash was in, there would be an investigation in the entire town. That is not something that can happen at this stage.
"I have an idea," Double Diamond announced before standing up. "But I will need time to search through some old documents."
"Can you do that today?" I asked before following him in getting up. 
"If it's for you... Of course."
"Thank you, Double Diamond. You have been a great help."
"I only wish to help you, Starlight."
I checked the clock only to see that it was 9:53. I quickly bid a farewell to Double Diamond before rushing outside. I was planning on starting the final day at 10:00. Fortunately, I got to the stage at 9:58. After securing my note cards and going over my speech one final time, I walked up to the podium.
"Everypony, it's time to start the final day of the festival!" I shouted to the entire town. Very quickly and orderly, everypony in town came to the stage.
"This is the final day of the festival, as you all know. I have seen friendships strengthened, others made anew. Today is a day for celebration... A day of relaxation. Anypony that needs anything for today may ask myself or any member of the council. We will be happy to help. Let this day begin!"
After some polite applause, everypony dispersed. I saw that Fire Hammer and Forest Embers were being overrun with ponies asking for trivial little things, while Double Diamond seemed nowhere nearby. Chuckling softly at his planning, I stepped off the stage. At the side, waiting for me, was Applejack.
"Hello, Applejack. What do you need?"
"You, uh, said that I should talk with y'all today," was her short reply.
"Yes, of course." I had temporarily forgotten about that. "I was wondering, would you like to return to Ponyville when we go?"
Applejack stood stunned for a few seconds before answering, "Well o' course ah would!"
"Then I would invite you to travel to Ponyville with myself in a weeks time. I hope to see you then," I finished before walking away. I had other things to do, and time was of the essence.
Before I could get more than 20 steps away from the stage, I saw what I had been worryingly waiting for; the return of the entire guard. Shining Armor was leading back the entire force. In the middle I could see the one pony that was lost. I quickly changed my course so that I'd meet with the army before they got to the main part of town.
"You found him!" I shouted as they got close. I quickly rushed forward to put my hoof on the pony's shoulder. "Are you okay?
"Yeah, *huff* yeah. I'm... *huff* fine..." they said before quickly falling to the floor from exhaustion. I glared accusingly at Shining Armor.
"Sorry," was all he said as an apology. "We must have set too hard a pace."
"I'm just glad he's back. Thank you for bringing him back, Shining Armor."
"No problem. It's what we're trained to do," he assured him. He began to turn away before I stopped him.
"Oh, there is one more thing. A little thank you gift, for when you leave. Please inform me of your departure. I'm sure you'll love it."
Shining Armor looked shocked for a second, but recovered in the next. "Then I will have to make sure to get it." He trotted off to his room, and I knew that I had a moment. A hoof tapped my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Crimson Moon and a few other guardsponies standing sheepishly to the side.
"Hello, Crimson Moon. What do you need?"
"We were wondering if... if we could go through the... process," he asked, before he scratched the back of his head.
I looked around and, seeing that nopony needed my help, replied, "Of course. If you would kindly follow me?"
I quickly led them to the vault. Their eyes went wide once they saw the sheer scope of the vault and how many blemishes were in the vault.
"Now, there is one thing you must know before we begin, all of you," I started off. "The easier you give up your cutie mark, the faster and better it'll be. So, be sure to push away your cutie mark when I begin to use this" - I gestured to the staff of sameness - "to being the process."
The four guardsponies nodded silently and solemnly.
"Who wants to go first?" I asked sweetly. Crimson Moon was the first to step forward.
I channeled my magic into the spell to remove his cutie mark. Crimson didn't fight to keep his mark at all. The process took less than two seconds. I repeated the process with the three others, with varying results. Two had fought only slightly, but gave them up easily. The last one, for some reason, fought to keep his cutie mark for a few seconds. 
Once they had finished, I told them, "You are now part of our town. You will experience true friendship. This is the last day of the festival, and you can meet many new friends today. I'd suggest splitting  meeting as many as possible."
"That sounds like a good idea," one of the guardponies said. I led them back to town as fast as I could.
It was around 4:30 by the time we had gotten back to town. The town had fractured off into groups of ponies, each doing a different activity. I saw that some ponies were playing a game of cards, which immediately caught one of the guardsponies' attention.
"This is where I leave you," I informed them. "Have fun and... welcome, to our town. I'm sure you'll love it here." 
"Wait!" called out Crimson Moon. "Where are we supposed to stay?"
I thought about this for a moment. I had no solution for it, since we can't build four houses in a day or so. A full minute passed as I stood there, thinking it over.
"Ma'am?" one of the other guardsponies asked. "You alright?"
Snapping out of my train of thought, I replied, "Y-yes, I'm okay. Just... ask me later, I'll have an answer for you then."
With a quick farewell, the four soldiers went to go entertain themselves.
Thinking back to the problem at hoof, I looked around and saw that Forest Embers was talking with some friends, but didn't look terribly busy. I waited for a few minutes before she finally saw me. I quietly motioned her over, and she came with little hesitation.
"Hello, Starlight," she greeted me. "Do we have some new friends joining us?"
"Yes, we do," I answered with a smile. "Though, I do hope that nopony would be gossiping about such things behind other ponies' backs. It would be bad if our new friends were already known before the official greeting, right?"
"Of course," came the standard reply.
"On the topic of our new friends, they will need housing for the coming days while we make their houses. Can I trust you in securing such things?"
"Sure! I can do that," she replied with a happy smile. "I'll need to go arrange that now. May I...?"
"Of course. Goodbye, Embers." With that problem dealt with, I turned back and began walking to Shining Armor's room.
I was able to get to Shining Armor's room without too much hassle, and inside I found the stallion pacing. He very quickly took notice of me.
"Hello, Starlight. What do you need?" he asked. His eyes looked intently at me, as if trying to get a rough idea of what I wanted before I said anything.
"It's more of a reminder," I assured him. At these words, his body relaxed, and I noticed that he was tense before. "You will need to leave town by tomorrow." He tensed right back up after those words.
"What?!" he shouted angrily. "What do you mean I have to leave?"
"Well, rules are rules. The only reason I allowed you to stay before was because of the festival, but that ends today. You have to leave town by tomorrow." Shining Armor stood speechless for a few seconds.
"Fine. Now, if there isn't anything else?" he asked, his words dripping with venom.
"Sorry. I still have that gift for you though, as a thank you." I quickly walked outside as I spoke.
"Give it to me tomorrow if you really must," he said before closing the door.
After speaking some unflattering words under my breath, I went to Cinnamon's house. Cinnamon was not home, so I let myself into her house and into the room where Twilight was recuperating. I quickly made sure Twilight was doing okay. It appeared that she fell asleep, but her injuries looked to be healing quite nicely. 
I stepped outside and looked at the time. It was almost evening, and so I would have to give the last speech. Quickly and quietly, I made my way up to the stage. As I neared the podium, a crowd of ponies began to form and the noise began to quiet. By the time I was standing at the podium for a few minutes, most of the residents were waiting for me to begin.
Rather than start by talking, I looked out to the crowd with a smile.
"Friends, look around you. You all expect me to give a speech on our friendship, but it speaks for itself. For years this place has been a pioneer of true friendship, and it will not change. Many of you escaped from lives that left you unfulfilled, or were forced to leave by the lack of jobs. This is the one place in Equestria that is fair. I am not here to give a speech, I am here to share a truth with all of you that can be seen with your eyes. We here are true friends, in every sense of the word. That is the only thing we'll ever need."
There was no applause as I left the stage, not that I expected there to be any. I had tested this speech on a few ponies to gauge their reactions weeks prior, and they had all sat stunned by my words. They had, instead, let my words flow into them, and through them. They had seen the truth, and that was enough.