Chapter 1
Starlight Glimmer looked past the gate to the small village, still tentatively named ‘Our Town’. Our Town hadn’t had the gate the last time she visited, but it very much didn’t look for protection: after all, if it were, the walls would enclose the entire town, instead of merely being built on one side. The wooden gate and walls looked like they had been hoof-carved or possibly horn-carved. The Equal sign was present throughout the picturesque carvings. The ponies of Our Town had sworn off the perverse side of Equality that had required them to forgo their Cutie Marks, but they still very much remembered the ideology that had brought them here, summed up in a single motto in the arch hanging over the gate.
‘All Are Equal Here’
Starlight peered past the gate down what was nominally the main street, but still was really the only street in town. She had noticed it the last few times she had been here, but didn’t bring it up: her old cottage had been torn down, and replaced with a large tree in its place. Starlight wanted to say she didn’t mind, but that would have been a lie. Having lived there for a few years, as a hermit for part of it, Starlight had been attached to the homestead upon which the rest of Our Town was modeled.
She sighed. Starlight knew she was only delaying the inevitable by getting lost in thoughts about the past. With one deep breath of courage, the purple unicorn took a hoofstep past the gate and into Our Town proper.
Immediately, she was greeted by another unicorn with a coat of purplish-pink slightly lighter in shade than Starlight’s own. “Took you a few minutes?” Sugar Belle teased, having seen Starlight walk up the road. Sugar Belle was amused as Starlight had stopped just shy of the gate, but she waited for the other unicorn to walk in before speaking. “So, how was the trip?”
“Cold,” Starlight murmured as she looked behind her, seeing the hoofprints she had left behind in the fresh snow. “I am glad I decided to build relatively close to a train station.” Starlight looked back up. Sugar Belle normally had a dark purple mane, but it was hidden underneath a layer of white, while her tail was similarly covered in clumps of snow and frost. “At least there were so few ponies that I had a seat all to myself on the train.”
Sugar Belle’s eyes glittered with amusement. “Well, I know how I can get you warmed up fast. Celestia knows you look even whiter than I do under all that snow! Come on, come in,” she said, motioning to her own house further down the street. Waiting for Starlight Glimmer was the only reason she was out in the snowstorm, anyways: with Starlight’s old house torn down, the former leader of Our Town needed to stay at somepony else’s place.
Starlight needed little invitation to follow Sugar Belle. The instant Starlight entered the latter’s house, she shivered in delight as she took in the smell of pastries being cooked. The roaring fire that fueled Sugar Belle’s ovens gave off a significant amount of heat, and Starlight was already beginning to feel warm.
“The croissants will be done in about five minutes, and then give them ten minutes to cool down,” said Sugar Belle. “So, is it just you then? The other one, um, Trixie, didn’t come with?”
“No. Trixie suffers from wanderlust. She can never stay in the same place for more than a few days at at time. It’s why she has her wagon,” said Starlight. She swept the snow out of her mane and coat, deciding to let it melt on the floor instead of letting it get her body wet first, and took off her blue scarf. “So how has everypony been doing?”
“Oh, well, you know. Party Favor has been in-and-out, doing performances in the city. He’s been trying to put together a choir in town here.” Sugar Belle opened her oven and looked in. She said something, but it was inaudible to Starlight. As Sugar Belle took her head back out, Starlight could see there was a faint sheen of sweat on the other pony’s forehead from the hot air emanating out of the oven. “Night Glider is setting up a localised weather team so we don’t have any big snowstorms this season, Honeywell is continuing to grow the apiaries, Winter Wheat is working on expanding the farm, and Turbine is working on upgrading the dam. We want to start a new street next year for a new row of houses instead of continuing to build the two current ones out further, so we’ve been planning for that as well.”
Sugar Belle could have gone on and on about more ponies, but the list was exhaustive. Despite the small size of the town, each pony had been responsible for something, and with their Cutie Marks and talents returned to them, Our Town was truly taking shape. Still, Sugar Belle took a few moments of silence, waiting to see if Starlight would ask about the pony dearest to her own heart.
Starlight opened her mouth, then left it hanging partly open. Sugar Belle could see the very real struggle in her friend’s expressions, as Starlight agonised over it. Then Starlight closed her eyes, and asked, “What about Double Diamond?”
Sugar Belle winced. “He’s, well...you know.” She sighed, and started over again. “Double Diamond took it upon himself to keep the place running after we got our Marks back. There were a number of ponies who wanted to leave, but he talked to them and got every one of them to stay. Diamond still believed in the ideology that brought us here, even if one of our methods of being equal to one another ended...poorly.”
This time, it was Starlight’s turn to wince. No matter how delicately Sugar Belle put it, she couldn’t take the sting out of it. Sugar Belle continued, “He’s overworked himself on more than a few occasions, and so we’ve continued to grow and develop. New ponies are slow to come here, but the first generation of foals born here is already attending school.”
“That’s good to hear,” Starlight said, relieved. She used her magic to lift a tea kettle off the counter and pour herself some hot water, before steeping it with dried lemongrass tea. “That ponies are staying, that is. I never intended for things to turn out the way they did.”
“So you say,” Sugar Belle said, and both knew that time hadn’t yet chiselled away at the hard feelings left from Starlight’s control of Our Town. “We never really got together and decided on a new leader when you left. Double Diamond just sort of fell into the role all on his own, and went at it with gusto.”
“It doesn’t surprise me, honestly,” Starlight Glimmer admitted. “Even as I ended up leading this place, Double Diamond always was the one who came up with the idea for Our Town, and who invited the first few ponies to move here. Even if you find it difficult to believe, I was content to remain a hermit living alone out here.”
“Diamond did ask us not to read any of the personal effects you left behind, and we didn’t. But that does sound about accurate from what he’s told us of his past.” Sugar Belle pursed her lips. “You’re going to have to talk with him sometimes, you know.”
“What makes you think I haven’t already? I’ve been back a few times, he seemed fine,” Starlight said defensively.
“The fact you’re staying overnight here and not sleeping under the same roof as him, for one?”
Starlight winced. Sugar Belle’s words were an arrow that had struck true. “Alright. I...had issues, still, the last few times I visited, even during the Sunset Festival after I helped save Equestria. I’ve never truly sat down and talked it out with Diamond. Sugar Belle, I realise there’s a lot I did that went beyond simply just ‘wrong’. You all forgave me, but I know I still have much to atone for.”
The other unicorn scrunched her nose. “I’m not too concerned about that, Starlight. Sure, you were nasty and cruel, but I can tell you’re trying to change for the better, have changed for the better, and I’m alright with just that. Well…” Sugar Belle trailed off, “If it is really eating you up that much, try talking to some of the other ponies here. But most especially, please, please talk to Double Diamond. He’s the one you really need to see. He’s been overworking himself hard the last year, taking it upon himself to oversee every project and grow this place. The rest of us are worried, but none of us have really gotten through to him. You might be able to do that more than the rest of us can.”
The tone of finality with which Sugar Belle said it gnawed at Starlight. It was all the worse because she knew it was true. Starlight Glimmer had been a monster when she was hoofed control of Our Town as the only pony able to use the so-called Staff of Sameness. She had betrayed many things by keeping her old Cutie Mark, and brainwashing those others who desired to have their Mark back: she had betrayed common decency, she had betrayed their ideology of Equality, and she had betrayed the ponies of Our Town. However, of all those, Starlight had betrayed Double Diamond the worst.
She took her first sip of tea, now that it had cooled down. “I know,” she said. “Just...give me tonight, please. I need to work up my nerve to see him.”
“Of course. I don’t expect you to go out in this snowstorm. Oh, or maybe I do!” Sugar Belle exclaimed as she turned around, opening up her oven again. Taking out a tray of pastries, she cut out the fire in the furnace, and immediately Starlight felt cool relief, as the oven no longer blasted out hot air into the room. Sugar Belle set her trays out to cool off, before turning around. “You can help me go door-to-door at least and hoof some of these out!”
Starlight smiled as she took another sip of her tea. The smell of freshly-baked goods always gave her cause for cheer, and Starlight knew it would be a delightful gift for the others in town. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
If there was one thing Starlight loved about living out in the unsettled hinterlands of northern Equestria, it was winter.
In much of the rest of the land, the winter season was very much a planned thing, with a start date for the first snow, and a Winter-Wrap Up holiday approximately three months later. Out here, where there weren’t enough ponies to justify a permanent weather corps, winter was an untamed beast that came and went according to its own whims, and would display its wrath in a heartbeat. Every year, when the sky dumped several hoof-lengths of snow onto the ground followed by a harsh cold snap, some primal part of Starlight Glimmer could understand the fears her ancestors had of the Windigos.
As a hermit, however, Starlight had been close to self-sufficient, and Our Town followed that rugged spirit. Instead of fearing the quiet season, the ponies here rejoiced in it. Call it yet another influence of Double Diamond on this place. That colt enjoyed the winter season so much it was practically the second founding tenet of this place, after our belief in Equality.
Already, the fillies and colts were out and about, playing with wild abandon. Here, two fillies were sprawled out on the ground, flailing around to create snow pegasi. There, a colt was making a large snow pony. A couple of older mares Starlight recognised were using hooves and magic to clear off the main street, and packing the excess snow together into solid blocks to form a mock igloo. Winter brought out a side of Our Town that could never be seen in the spring, summer, or autumn. The hoofprints left in the snow were a reminder of all those who lived here.
Her heart beat heavy in Starlight’s chest. She tried to swallow, only for her throat to get caught. She had to physically force the swallow through, taking several seconds. How was it that she had become such a monster that even the last winter she had been leader of Our Town had been such a sombre, restrained affair? Only now that Starlight saw the festival cheer of the townsponies did she realise how much it had vanished when she was at the prime of her megalomania.
Looking around, Starlight didn’t find the pony she was looking for, but she did find a useful substitute. Trotting up towards the gate, she greeted him. “Good morning, Party Favor.”
Party Favor turned around from the ice block that he was sculpting. His face lit up as he saw who was talking. “Oh, hello Starlight Glimmer! When did you get into town? Just last night?”
“Yes. Sugar Belle agreed to host me while I’m here. You missed us last night, we went around handing out croissants and muffins door-to-door.”
The blue-coated stallion put down the pick he was holding in his magical grip, and wiped his forehead with the scarf he was wearing. Even in the cold, he was still sweating, a testament to how hard he was concentrating on the sculpture. “Ah, I was in bed early last night, that would be why. Double Diamond asked me for help with planning out the Winter Festival next week. I got a lot of ideas going, but when ponies come here from out of town, I want this to be the second thing they see!”
Starlight squinted at the ice block, which stood three times as high as her and four times as wide. It was still in its early stages, hence why Party Favor was using an icepick instead of finer tools, but she could almost make it out. “Is that supposed to be a dragon?”
“Yes. I thought about sculpting a pony of some sort, maybe the ponification of Justice, but I figured it’d be too boring. This should look more impressive!” Party Favour said, radiating with glee.
“I look forward to it,” said Starlight. “What is this Winter Festival, though? Sugar Belle didn’t mention anything about a festival to me.”
“Oh, that? We decided that if we were going to create some holidays of our own like the Sunset Festival, then we should have something in the winter time. We’d like to get out the word again to the rest of Equestria about Our Town, and holding a week-long festival when most of the rest of Equestria isn’t celebrating anything was an idea that came up a lot. There aren’t many things going on in winter outside of Hearth’s Warming Eve, and of course Winter Wrap-Up is about the end of winter, not the celebration of.”
Starlight was certain who had proposed holding a winter festival. “It sounds exciting. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying, but now that I’m here, I may as well hang around for the Winter Festival.”
“Oh, that’s great to hear. I’m sure we can find you something to do if you want,” said Party Favor. “You always were the most talented unicorn around.”
“Thanks, but right now I’d rather help with the manual labour. I’m...still a little tetchy about delicate spells. If you want ponies to get here, they’ll need to walk from the train station. I can use my magic to clear the road between here and there,” Starlight offered. It had been a nuisance to make that trip the night before, and she didn’t care to think of what it would be like with another week’s work of snow.
“That would be helpful as well,” Party Favor admitted as he unwound his scarf to leave the ends hanging over his neck so the unicorn could cool off. “I don’t think anypony has volunteered yet to do it, but it’s certainly necessary.”
“In which case, I’ll start right away. Oh, but sorry. While it’s nice to see you again Party, and I’d love to catch up some more, I came to ask if you knew where Double Diamond was.”
Party Favor’s good cheer evaporated, and he frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Starlight asked, reading the mood all too easily.
Party Favor licked his lips. “It’s...well...Double Diamond has been working himself pretty hard lately,” he said, unknowingly repeating what Sugar Belle had told her the night before. “We’ve tried to get him to slow down, but it’s like he’s thrown himself heart and soul into the town in a way I never knew him to, not even before we both came to Our Town.”
Ah, right, Diamond knew Party Favor before. He was the one to invite him here, of course, Starlight thought. It was something that had slipped her mind. It just never seemed important. When ponies came to Our Town, it had usually been to forget their pasts, not remember it.
“We’ve kicked around the idea of building a ski hill here. Like, we’ve decided to do it, but most of us were thinking about having it done by next winter. Diamond wanted to get it up and running this year, though! Ah, to open it hoof-and-hoof with the Winter Festival. It took a lot of talking him out of it by pointing out how impractical the timeline would be. At least by next winter we can get the magical leylines working and put in a chair lift or something, and maybe a resort.”
Starlight had to admit the plans were far too ambitious to have finished by the current season. Honestly, it sounds pretty ambitious even for next year. “Well, thank you for the heads-up, Party. But, um. Where is Diamond right now?”
Party Favor exhaled, and closed his eyes briefly. He clicked his tongue. “I’m decently sure he’s not in town right now. Of late, he’s been going up to the Cutie Mark Vault and staying there for an hour or two at night. I’m not sure if he’s using it as thinking time or just sulking, but you can find him there.”
Starlight Glimmer flinched, and she turned around to look at the snow. Sure enough, she could see hoofprints going out from the other entrance of Our Town, heading up towards the mountains. There were only two things of interest up there, and Starlight doubted anypony would be spelunking right now.
She gulped. It wasn’t that Starlight wouldn’t go up there, but the Cutie Mark Vault held a lot of memories for her, most of them bad. I guess I’ll have to confront two things at the same time. Starlight turned back to Party Favor. “Thank you. I guess I’ll head up there then,” she said. No matter how much I don’t want to.
“If you have any of your pastries from last night, take some with you. I don’t think he’s eating as much as he should, and it’d be great if you can get him to,” Party Favor advised.
Even in warmer seasons, it was a hardy trek to go from Our Town up to the Cutie Mark Vault, as it took a good twenty minutes going uphill. In the fetlock-deep snow, it was made more inconvenient, and it would get worse when the land was piled up with still more snow. Starlight found herself walking in the hoofsteps left behind. It was easier than to tread the unblemished snow. Her mission to bring some food along was aborted, as Sugar Belle was fresh out of bread and other vittles, needing a few hours to put together another spread. So Starlight went up empty-hoofed.
At last, she found herself up at the entrance to the cavern where they had built the Cutie Mark Vault. This was where it all began, more than it did at the mountainside roadway where I first met Double Diamond after he swerved into a tree to avoid hitting me, or at the cottage where I nursed him back to health. It was here where we were first inspired to the design of building a town based on Equality. Of course, it was also here that I forcibly took the marks of Twilight and Fluttershy and all the others, so I guess it’s also where it all ended.
It was a good thing she was by herself now. Starlight had found herself liable to verbally going through a checklist of her crimes every time it was brought up by somepony, as if she was cursed to give an exposition dump for those unaware of her past. For once, though, Starlight was able to keep it in her head.
The cavern entrance was much like the gates of Our Town the night before. This time, however, nopony was waiting on Starlight and watching as she struggled to go inside. Double Diamond wouldn’t know the difference if she took five seconds or five minutes. Starlight was glad that at least here, the only pony who could judge her was herself.
It was intimidating, but she made the step into Our Town. She could do it here as well.
With a grimace, Starlight put one hoof forward into the imaginary line that delineated outside and indoors, then another hoof. A few more hoofsteps later, and the tension in the moment passed, and she continued to walk deeper inside.
The cavern wasn’t like what she had remembered. When Starlight had first discovered the cave, she had to rely on light from her horn to see inside. Later, as they built the Cutie Mark Vault, the Cutie Marks had glowed with their own ethereal blue light, the phantasmal radiance being more than sufficient for the dark cave.
The vault was still there, with the small cubicle holes meant to hold Marks and the Equal Mark engraved over top of it. The glass had been shattered, however, and with it the Cutie Marks had left to return to their rightful bearers. Now, a few artificial torches provided the lighting, perpetually lit by magical power. Even if the Vault was gone, the ponies of Our Town still wished to remember their origins.
And the pony who had shattered the glass sat on the table that had once housed the Staff of Sameness. Sitting on his rear in a bipedal pose, hind legs hanging off the table, Double Diamond was arched forward, one hoof holding his head up as he stared forward at the Vault.
“Hello, Double Diamond,” Starlight said.
The white-furred stallion looked up, curious at who else had come up to the Vault cave. A series of expressions that reflected a world of emotions passed over his face in the first few moments, before Double Diamond settled for a tired acceptance. “Oh, hello Starlight Glimmer.”
Starlight followed his gaze as he turned back to look at the Cutie Mark Vault. She walked up and sat on the table as well, sidling next to him. Fortunately, there was enough room to support the both of them. Double Diamond might have been uncomfortable with Starlight sitting next to him, but if he was, he didn’t show it. Starlight appreciated it. Feeling his body heat and his coat against hers was a familiar sensation, one that gave her an automatic sense of security even after all that had occurred between the two.
“Do you come here often?” Starlight asked.
“Nearly every day.”
The mare sensed she wasn’t going to get more than that out of Diamond on his own. She would have to push him for more. “Why?”
Double Diamond looked down, finding his front hooves suddenly fascinating. The world was quiet for a few minutes, as Starlight waited out Diamond’s reluctance to speak. Finally, he said, “Where did it all go wrong, Starlight?”
It was a question Starlight had anticipated. It was also one that was difficult for her to answer. “It was when I became selfish and decided to put my mark back on.”
“When?” Double Diamond asked, bringing his head back up to look at her. With how close together the two were, Starlight could see the bright blue of his eyes. It was when those same eyes were brimming with energy that Starlight had first tripped over head-first into the vision Diamond had articulated of founding a town on an ideal. “When was it?”
“I had it for about six months before I was found out,” Starlight admitted.
Double Diamond was doing the math in his head. “So you went a year and a half keeping your Mark in a bottle. What changed?”
“The Cutie Mark removal spell. I was beginning to find that my magic wasn’t as strong as it should have been, and it was then I realised how intrinsically linked our Marks are to our very being. To remove the Mark was to remove a fundamental part of us, and it was only after I put it back on that my magic was fully restored,” Starlight said. If I had kept my Mark bottled up, how different would things have gone when those six came to town?
The stallion frowned. “So you knew the Cutie Mark removal spell was a dud for six months and didn’t try to do anything about it? No, a better question: when I first met you, you claimed that it was the Staff of Sameness that let you remove your Mark. Why were you lying even then? There was no need for some sort of mystique to the removal technique at the time.”
It was a double-whammy of questions Starlight didn’t want to answer. However, with Double Diamond, basically any question he could ask would be one she didn’t want to answer. I need to start somewhere, and here is as good as any, she thought. “Well, to answer the first part. I did try to revise the spell. I don’t know if any of you went through my spellbooks or journals, though I heard you asked others not to go through the more personal details.”
“At the time, it was more to protect myself since I didn’t know what you had written about me. But go on.”
“Well, I was working on a revised spell, and I was making incremental progress using myself as the test subject. But after a few months, I hit a wall. No matter how I tried, I simply couldn’t seem to get past that last block. There was always a little bit of our vitality, our magic, our being that was lost with the Mark removal. I was ashamed of myself, I still am ashamed of myself, for not fessing up about it. It truly would have been better if we kept our Cutie Marks but all did what I did, and covered them up every day with the Equal sign.”
Diamond frowned again. “That’s a discussion for another day. But what about the Staff of Sameness. Why lie about that when it was just me?”
Starlight fidgeted on the table. “I was, look, I was a hermit at the time, alright? I know I took you in and I nursed you back to health, but it wasn’t because I was outgoing that I did that, it was basic decency. You were the first pony I had interacted with in months who wasn’t somepony off the train delivering me goods or bringing me letters. I, uh, I didn’t want to reveal that I had come up with a spell to remove my own Cutie Mark, because who does that? I didn’t want you to laugh at me for being some crazy mare living out in the middle of nowhere, so I invented a magical artifact so I could claim I was doing research on it and its effects. That sounded a lot more reasonable in my head.”
“Hmmm…” Double Diamond said. He leaned over, laying down on his back. It was an awkward fit on the table, but he managed to sprawl out most of his withers across it as he looked up at the cavern ceiling. Blue eyes traced out the many stalactites that had formed in the top of the cave over a geological era.
Starlight found what Diamond was doing oddly enticing, and she sat back as well to look at the ceiling. After a few moments, she decided the activity was boring, but the stallion seemed to enjoy it. Starlight could imagine Double Diamond chewing on a blade of grass with how calm and introspective he looked right now.
“You know, I was never actually that invested into the idea of Our Town at first.”
Starlight turned her head to face him, awkward as it was in her laying-back position. “You weren’t? You were practically gung-ho about it,” she said, surprised.
“Yeah, I know that. But I’m not fooling myself, that wasn’t entirely it. At the time, I had found a mare who had saved me. Even if she was a recluse, we had spent a couple of days together with her pampering over me. I found the idea of Equality tantalising enough to buy into it, but founding a village on it? I’m not sure how much of it was because I genuinely wanted to share it with other ponies, and how much of it was to impress this new mare I had just met.”
She bit her lip. She had come to realise as much over time. Double Diamond’s behavior in the days following his injury had been that of a bashful colt. As he recovered, however, he became more assertive, inspiring her to create the village. However, the equality of the two founders in position had ironically faded over time, as Double Diamond slowly fell into her orbit as her follower instead of her equal.
“When did it all change, I wonder?” Double Diamond asked aloud.
“When I became leader of the village,” Starlight answered for him. “It was a slow thing, but I became an unequal among equals. That was when I began to decide the rules no longer applied to me, and any disobedience must be squashed.”
“And I followed you all the way through it like a lapdog,” Double Diamond said bitterly.
“I’m sorry, Diamond,” Starlight apologised. “It was my fault. I got a taste of authority, and I became hopped up on it. I wanted more of it, and with my magical might, I could cow everypony else into line. Again, I'm sorry. I should never have accepted being the leader.”
“I’m partly to blame,” said Double Diamond. “I felt like even if you wouldn’t have listened to anypony else, you still would have listened to me. I could’ve talked you down from when you were at your worst, and I should have been able to notice when put your Cutie Mark back on.”
“I...probably would have listened if you had asked me to stop,” Starlight admitted. “I mean, I likely wouldn’t have done it, but from you, I would have at least considered it.”
“All the worst that I fell into line like everypony else. No, worse than that, I rustled up those who questioned your methods to put them into the rehabilitation work. I spied for you, and helped with the dirty work. No, Starlight. You did horrible, awful things, and we forgave you for it, because we can see you trying to change yourself for the better. It’s myself I still haven’t forgiven.”
“Diamond…” Starlight trailed off.
The stallion snorted, but then moderated his tone to one of quiet contemplation. “I wonder, Glimmy. Can you still speak that nickname with affection? I’ve heard you mention your friend from when you were a foal, though you fell out with him. You’ve been in Ponyville for nearly a year training under the Princess. Any stallions catch your eyes? I don’t blame you if one has. I think we all needed fresh breaks after last year, as we all questioned what we were doing with Equality.”
Starlight thought about it. There was Sunburst up in the Crystal Empire. In her mind, he had grown larger-than-life, a fillyhood friend of hers who had gone to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Starlight had often wondered about the day she might meet him once more, but she had never wondered about if her expectations had grown out of hoof. Though Sunburst had saved the day with his ingenuity following the shattering of the Crystal Heart, her expectations had still been thoroughly deflated. In the end, though, it had been far too long since they had left met. Sunburst and Starlight were mere foals at the time, not yet old enough for anything such as romantic attractions.
No, Double Diamond was the only stallion she had ever loved in more than a platonic way.
“There isn’t,” she decided out loud.
She rolled over, facing Double Diamond. He could see her turned over from the side of his eye, and so he rotated his head to face her as well. Their muzzles were close enough that the puffs of water vapour from his breath left a ticklish sensation on her snout.
“May I?” Starlight asked, pleading more than requesting.
Double Diamond closed his eyes. It made it more difficult for her to read his expression without his eyes to rely on. Then he opened his eyes back up. Rotating onto his side, he hugged Starlight.
She melted into his embrace. Starlight had put on a brave face when she fled the village, and again when she had faced Twilight Sparkle in their battle through time. However, at heart, Starlight was still like every other pony, with fears of that which went bump in the night, and she had grown lonely in her hermetic ways. Double Diamond’s motivations may have been more towards courting a mare he had developed a crush on, but the two had genuinely grown to like one another. Starlight had missed their cuddles. She felt safe in his hooves.
Theirs was a kiss Starlight didn’t know how much she had needed.
The two ponies left the cavern, making their way back to the village. After being inside for so long, the glare of the late morning sun hurt Starlight’s eyes. The light bouncing off the snow made it even harsher. She had forgotten how strong the albedo effect could be here in the winter.
So she squinted and followed behind Double Diamond. The irony that she was now following him wasn’t lost on her.
As her eyes got slowly used to the outdoors again, Starlight found her eyes straying up to Double Diamond’s scarf. Scarves were a popular attire in Our Town, comfortable and practical for the winter nights and colder autumn days. It wasn’t correct to say that the ponies living there rejected materialism, but luxury goods simply wasn’t something they cared for, and so dresses were rare. Silver Stitch, the local stallion seamster, still made higher-end clothing on a commissioned basis, but it was the practical goods he was valued for.
Double Diamond’s scarf wasn’t one that had been produced locally. It was the scarf he wore when she had first met him, the fateful day when he had gone skiing and ran into a tree. Though he had hung up his skis, tinted goggles and helmet for a few years after, it was uncommon for him to be separated from his scarf. In fact, it was only after we got too deep into the Cutie Mark removal process that he stopped wearing it, Starlight thought, only to scold herself for thinking about her tyrant days again.
Starlight stopped walking for a few seconds, looking at the own blue scarf she was wearing. Starlight had picked it up in Ponyville one day, while browsing through a shop looking for winter wear. The colour was a darker blue rather than purple, but it was otherwise identical to Double Diamond’s scarf, down to the same material and feel. She hadn’t even realised it at the time, just knowing that this scarf was the one she had to buy. How much of an indelible mark had Double Diamond left on her over their few years together?
Enough that I wouldn’t mind growing together some more with him, Starlight decided. There were things to consider, of course. She was still Princess Twilight Sparkle’s student, and though it would be possible to make day trips to Our Town from Ponyville, or the other way around, both of them were busy. It was only because of the nature of her apprenticeship that Starlight could take two weeks off to go vacation if she felt like it.
Starlight would use those two weeks to sort out her exact feelings.
“Oh, it’s snowing again,” she said as she trotted after Double Diamond again.
“Doesn’t look like it’ll be too bad. It should be a light snowfall for most of the rest of the day,” said Double Diamond as he looked up at the sky. Starlight believed him. While Diamond was an Earth pony, and not a pegasi, his special talent was more than just about winter sports: he was an enthusiast for all things winter. He had been scarily accurate in the past with predicting the amount of snow they would get and hard it would come from just a single glance at the snowy sky.
“Well, that’s good. Oh, Party Favor mentioned that you had wanted to build a ski hill here,” said Starlight, changing the subject around.
“Yeah. It’s still on my agenda, they nixed it for now though,” said Double Diamond. “Putting a new street in for the next row of houses will have to come first in the spring, I guess.”
“When was the last time you went skiing?” Starlight asked.
“Late last winter. I tried to, but at the time, my heart just wasn’t into it.”
Both of them knew why. It would have only been a few weeks after Starlight had been forced to flee the village, tail in between her legs.
Unfortunately, Double Diamond’s answer also killed any conversation between the two for the next several minutes. Starlight kept plodding through the snow behind the stallion. The way she had betrayed him and their idea of equality still hurt him even a year and change later. Still, she could tell the wounds were healing, both the ones that were self-inflicted and the ones they had done towards one another.
At least, with the back gates of the town close-up, Double Diamond spoke again. “Hey, Starlight. Would you like to do something today still?”
The mare perked up at those words, interested. “Sure. What is it?”
“Give me a second. I want to go fetch something, first,” he said as they finally got into town. Ponies everywhere took a side glance at the two walking through the gate. Many of them were slightly thrown-off by the reversal of who was leading and who was following, but they shrugged it off and went back to their activities, continuing to enjoy the snow.
Starlight followed Double Diamond, walking behind him and into his cottage. As she entered, she noticed the stallion had decorated since last she was in here. Between painting the walls, putting out rugs, and hanging portraits, the house was a mosaic of purple, blue, and white, the wintry colours that would remind Diamond of the season he so loved.
She kept her mouth shut about the observation though. Too many things kept looping around back to her reign of terror as the leader of Our Town. Starlight knew she couldn’t let bygones be bygones, but the less she was reminded of it today, the better.
Double Diamond fetched a bag, before opening his fridge to grab a few items. As he closed the fridge, bag in his mouth, he said, “Mmphs mmmo.”
It took her a few seconds to understand his words, with the bag in his mouth, but Starlight opened the door to let them both out when she did. “OK, so where are we going?”
Diamond put the bag over top of his withers, balancing it out so it wouldn’t fall. “Building snow ponies,” he said as he trotted out.
Starlight followed after him for a few steps, before his words caught up with her. “What?! Building snow ponies?!”
“I don’t know how you conned me into this,” Starlight said as she formed the first bit of snow in between her hooves.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun! Didn’t we use to do this back in the day?” Double Diamond asked with a smile on his face as he started to roll a snowball around in the snow. The sticky powder adhered to the existing sphere, growing bigger and bigger as Diamond continued to push the snowball around.
Starlight couldn’t help pouting.
“Awww, c’mon Starlight,” Diamond teased her as the first half of his snow pony began to take shape. “Would you rather we have a snowball fight instead?”
She looked over, a sarcastic remark ready, only for it to die on her tongue. Double Diamond was no mere colt, but in that moment Starlight was reminded why she had fallen in love with him in the first place. There would be no denying a happy expression such as his. It was one that had gone out of style with his Cutie Mark, and Starlight was glad she hadn’t been able to grind it out completely in her pique of ‘rehabilitations’ she had made ponies undergo so often.
So she conceded. “Alright. What did you need the bag for, though? Ah, of course,” she said as he brought out a few carrots.
Starlight sat down on her haunches, gathering some more snow up into a pile. Licking her lips, she focused as she used her front hooves in conjunction with her magic to steadily bring the clump of snow together and harden it into a solid mass, one that wouldn’t fall apart within the day. Next, Starlight added some more snow to the back of the sphere, representing the torso of the pony, from the barrel to the withers. Snow ponies normally weren’t sculpted with limbs and hooves, or if they were, they were made in a lying down position. Starlight forewent them entirely.
Next, she created up another wad of snow, rolling it around with her hooves to pack some snow onto it. Though the final product was smaller than her first, it was spherical enough for her needs. Starlight grunted as she lifted it up with her limbs on top of the torso, and set it in place on the front side. There, now I have the body and the head. Now for all the rest of the features.
Starlight took a look behind her, seeing that Double Diamond was at about the same stage as she was, and he was fetching a couple of rocks to put in as eyes. It wasn’t a bad idea, and so Starlight searched about for a few rocks to put in, and grabbed one of the carrots out of the bag while she was at it.
Hmm...he looks nice with his mane and tail the way it is now, but I like how he had it before, too, Starlight thought to herself as she started to work on the finer details. How did we even get to that point, honestly? Really, mandating one of a few hair styles? Cropped manes and tails for the stallions, and either buns or twin tails for the mares? And like so many other things, I felt myself above even that.
Starlight stopped her heavy thinking, only to blink as she took in the snow pony in front of her. “Heh,” she chuckled, a little bit bitter.
“What’s wrong?” Double Diamond asked from behind her.
“Oh, it’s just that I got thinking too much and didn’t notice what I was doing, and I ended up, well, you know…” Starlight trailed off, knowing the sight of her snow pony would be enough explanation. She turned her head around to look over at Diamond, only to blink at his own snow pony. “Wait, did you?”
“Yeah. I don’t know, did you hate your old mane style? I thought you looked nice in it,” Double Diamond said as he put the last few touches on his snow pony. The two had ended up modelling their snow ponies after one another, but using their own hair and mane styles instead of their new one. “Oh, I see you still give me a horn.”
Starlight blushed, as she looked back and forth between the two snow ponies. Of course Double Diamond’s figure of hers would use a carrot as a horn, given she was a unicorn. However, she had done the same for his, even though the stallion was an Earth pony instead of a unicorn.
“I can’t help it!” Starlight defended herself. “Almost everypony where I grew up was a unicorn, we always used carrots as horns! Then I moved away and see ponies putting them in as noses, but I’m never actually thinking about it when I make them!”
“Ah, good old Starlight,” Diamond teased.
The two burst out laughing. Even after their chat in the cave earlier, there had still been a tension between the two. There still was, but Starlight was glad to know the two would be able to work it through, with few hard feelings.
She bit her lip. Double Diamond had asked Starlight some tough questions earlier. Now it was time for Starlight to ask her own tough question, but it would be difficult for her to ask it, not for Diamond to answer it. “Hey, Diamond.”
“Hmm, yeah?”
“Um. So I was wanting to stay for the next two weeks, long enough to attend the Winter Festival. I’ve already talked with Party Favor and mentioned that I could help with the manual labour in clearing out the path between here and the train station. Um,” Starlight’s cheeks burned even more than earlier. No matter what the two had done in the past, it was still embarrassing for her to vocalise it. “Sugar Belle said I could stay with her for the full two weeks, since my old cottage was torn down, but I don’t want to take advantage of her hospitality. Would it be alright to stay at your house for a while as well?”
The white-furred stallion raised his eyebrows. Starlight didn’t know if it was because of surprise or because she was being too audacious and quick at attempting to repair their relationship. It was a few excruciating seconds for her before Double Diamond softened his face and said, “Sure. When do you want to come over?”
“Is tonight good?” Starlight quickly asked, her heart thumping excitedly.
Double Diamond shrugged. “Sure, why not?” He looked over the two snow ponies they had built. Longing was evident in his features. Then he shook his head, and looked away. “Let’s head over now.”
The two made their way back into town, Starlight following Diamond with an excited hop. The next few days would be trying time. She still had a great penance to pay. But Starlight was getting the feeling that everything would be alright.
Life was good.
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"Hey, don't be rude..."
six*. So when are you going to reveal that you've been a GlimmerSpike shipper all along?
Nothing lewd about two ponies in love cuddling, I say.
Good fic yet again. To think you've come from "parodying Displaced to make wordplay jokes" to quality romance. My little Emperor has grown up so fast!
Ah yes...back after the episode, before we knew about Sunburst, I thought Starlight and DD were sweet on each other as well. They would have made a cute couple.
Fun fact: People actually use that Shakespeare quote wrong.
In context, "now is the winter of our discontent" is referring to winter as in the end of the year, right before spring arrives and it gets warmer and sunnier. As in: "We've had it rough but if we just push through this last bit, things will start to look up." So it actually means the opposite of what most assume.
Ironic, no?
I really liked your building the origins of Our Town in this story and the prequel. I especially liked the details with Starlight inventing the story of the Staff of Sameness. I would love to see an AU where everyone just paints over their cutie marks like Starlight did.
On a much darker note: Given what we know now of Starlight's capabilities, does anyone else wonder if she was covertly using mind control on the other inhabitants, and then altering memories/ using the rehabilitation shack as an excuse to explain changes in ponies behavior?
........I loved this. I'm not really a fan of shipping, but I do have a case by case preference, and in this universe, you have sold me on Double Diamond and Starlight.
I was a good read, hope you do more of this.
So many implications about their relationship... it definitely comes across, and frankly, I find that far more palatable than most peoples idea of shipping.
I have mixed feelings on shipping in general, but you are so talented with written word that I look past that.
A most enjoyable read. You tease and deliver on your setup. Well done.
I'm a hardcore StarBurst shipper, but I'm interested enough in the premise to add this to my RL list
As a whole, it was alright, but I don't think I'll come back to this one again.
Part of that, I'll admit, IS my own personal shipping reasons, though.
Do you want build a snowman lol
So this is the aftermath of season six finale so Starlight wanted to visit her Old Town and this time she's alone and she's meeting up with the other ponies like sugar belle and even party favor but the pony that she was actually looking for was Double Diamond those two told her that he's been very busy and hardworking lately try to keep the town working and everything so she knows where he could be and it looks like her guts was right this was the cave that all started with this whole equality idea and he was in the cave looking back at it and it looks like both of them really wanted to apologize for everything what just happened back then and despite everything they somehow forgive each other but not themself not just yet but somehow they will get by this whole situation and how much they really did care for each other and yeah I kind of ship them even though I'm a still a big shipper Starlight and Sunburst but this shipping is really adorable and it does have a pretty good history between those two before season 5 came around but anyway this was a pretty nice story keep up the good work