Starlight Glimmer took a deep breath and braced herself. It was crucial to be in the proper mindset before making her appearance. Too angry, and she’d scare off possible new recruits. Too cheerful, and they’d think their actions had no consequences here. She needed to hit that perfect balance of stern and friendly to make this work.
Especially since these ponies had to be put in the reeducation building before they’d even had their marks removed.
“Alright, so as far as you know, these ponies just walked right up to Our Town, gave gasps of horror, and immediately started attacking ponies?” asked Starlight.
“Yep. Only gave a few bruises before we pinned them down, though. They were screaming something about ‘cursed ponies’ and ‘monsters.’ I think the idea of equality really spooked them for some reason,” said Double Diamond.
Starlight raised an eyebrow. She knew there were going to be ponies who didn’t exactly jump around with excitement at the idea of equality, but striking ponies like that seemed like a bit of an overreaction.
…
Then again, the stereotypical pony wasn’t exactly known for acting rationally...
“Has anyone questioned them yet? Or at least asked why they started attacking?” asked Starlight.
“Well, you did tell us to let you handle any outsiders, so no. But I did overhear them mention ‘not technically being Celestia’s orders’ or something like that,” said Double Diamond.
It didn’t take long for Starlight to make the connection.
“Great. They’re a bunch of Celestia’s Witnesses or something. These are exactly the kind of ponies I knew would give us trouble with spreading equality to all of Equestria, and they found Our Town before I could finalize a plan on how to get them to understand,” said Starlight as she fought the urge to facehoof.
“So, what do we do then? Leave them in there for a few days and see if that does anything?” asked Double Diamond.
“No. Ponies like them are so devoted to their faith that nothing short of proving their ideology wrong will convince them otherwise, and even then that’s not a guarantee. If there wasn’t a danger of them running to the Princesses before we’re ready for that step, I’d say we’d be better off just letting them leave. We can’t just hold them here for months while we build up our community,” answered Starlight.
“Yeah. We only have one reeducation building, after all. So, what’s the plan, then?” asked Double Diamond.
“Well… I guess we can try to convince them that Our Town is something the Princess approved of. Hay, we can probably claim this was organized by the Elements of Harmony. They’ll probably buy that,” answered Starlight.
Starlight just stared. Her mind was temporarily on standby, so this was literally all she was capable of.
“So…Twilight? what’s the scoop with the thing?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Her companions looked at her with various degrees of confusion, with the exception of Pinkie Pie. She just continued making a house of books with the “literature” they’d been provided with.
“What thing? I can’t tell what you’re referring to with that vague a description,” said Twilight.
“You know, the thing in the place we’re not supposed to talk about?” answered Rainbow with an eyeroll.
“I don’t believe that narrows it down very much, Rainbow Dash. That leaves quite a great deal many ‘things’ you could be referring to,” said Rarity.
“Yeah. Ain’t like we constantly get involved in a lot of big government things or nothin’,” added Applejack.
“Creativity is a bad thing!” said the loudspeaker.
Taking a moment to glare at the speakers, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and made an effort not to yell at anypony. She succeeded, but it was a near thing.
“I’m talking about the thing you were telling us a few days after Tirek finished rampaging. With the mirror?” clarified Rainbow.
“Oh! That thing! Well, there were some delays, but things should start…” said Twilight.
“Um, excuse me?” whispered Fluttershy.
Everyone paused and looked towards the shy mare. Fluttershy didn’t say anything else, she just pointed at Starlight. Despite suddenly being the center of attention, Starlight could only continue to stare, mostly at the purple mare. The mare that happened to be an alicorn.
“Buck, one of them’s an alicorn! Why the buck did nopony tell me there was a bucking alicorn?! Buck, that must be Princess Twilight Sparkle! Buck, they must be the Elements of Harmony! And they attacked Our Town on sight! Buck, buck, buck!” thought Starlight Glimmer.
“Oh! Sorry, we didn’t hear you come in. Are you the mare in charge of this town?” asked Twilight.
Starlight jumped, shook her head, and desperately tried to regain control of the situation.
“Um… yes! I’m the mayor of this happy little community. My name is Starlight Glimmer. I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but after your actions upon arriving, I must admit I’m a little concerned. Why did you feel the need to attack the fair poines of Our Town?” asked Starlight with what she hoped was a troubled expression (it was).
“Did anypony else hear those capital letters?” asked Pinkie Pie.
Starlight didn’t even noticed her speak. She was too busy trying to come up with a plan.
“OK, just stay calm, Starlight. The ‘Elements of Harmony’ excuse isn’t going to work, but they’re clearly not Celestia’s Witnesses. They might be possible to convince. You can turn this around,” thought Starlight.
“Not now, Pinkie. Er, yes. Sorry about that. We saw the way everypony’s cutie marks are the same and thought this might have been a town full of ghouls,” said Twilight.
Any ideas Starlight might have started to form at that point fell apart.
“Uh… come again? Did you say ghouls?” asked Starlight, looking at the ponies in front of her in disbelief.
“Yes, Ghouls. More precisely, class G ghouls. There was a sighting of a town of them that believe cutie marks are some kind of evil curse. They took the form of normal ponies to draw victims in and, well, you know how contagious those kinds of ghouls are,” explained Twilight.
Starlight didn’t know, but that was besides the point. There were many responses a pony could have to being informed of the existence of a village of undead. Fear, confusion, disbelief, ect. But Starlight’s reaction was rather unique. The only thing she felt upon hearing this news was the sensation of all of her plans collapsing before they’d even gotten off the ground.
“Er… yes. Of course. I… understand where you’re coming from, but I can assure you that there are no undead in Our Town,” said Starlight with an awkward smile.
“OK, seriously, I can’t be the only one who’s hearing that,” said Pinkie.
Starlight continued to fail to notice her.
“How am I supposed to convince anypony the values of equality if the closest equivalent is a village of undead?! How the buck am I supposed to keep the ponies I’ve already convinced to stay by my side if they hear about this?! Oh buck me, what the buck do I do?!” thought Starlight in a mad panic.
Unknown to her, her panic was leaking through her face, making the other ponies in the room somewhat concerned, and more than a little suspicious.
“Um… Thank you for being understanding. Well, even without your reassurance, it’s apparent to us now that whatever is happening in this town, the ghouls we were concerned about are most likely not involved. We want to formally apologize for attacking like that, and do anything we can to help to make up for it,” said Twilight.
Starlight saw the opening, and failed to realize it had been left open intentionally.
“Yes! I mean, yes, there is something you can do for me. I was wondering if you could tell me why you six were in the area. I mean, I can’t imagine why an alicorn and her… companions would be out here in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason,” said Starlight with as sincere a chuckle as she could manage.
At this point, even Fluttershy was looking at her rather dubiously. Nevertheless, Twilight let out a cough and continued speaking.
“Well, that’s sort of the issue here. We were sent here by… let’s say a force of Harmony. We’re not entirely sure why we’re here, just that there is something here we’re likely needed for. I don’t suppose there’s any problems in the area we could help with?” asked Twilight.
“Yes. You can all get the buck out of here before all this talk of ghouls causes my ponies to leave! That would very much help! Not that you will, since apparently Harmony itself has...” thought Starlight before her train of thought screeched to a halt.
Harmony, true capital ‘H’ Harmony, was a mystery. Was it a benevolent spirit? A possibly perfect ideology to strive for? A myth from the Age of Light? It was something worth pursuing, that much was certain, but the fact was that no one knew what true Harmony really looked liked, or how to obtain it. Well, with the exception of those who believed that their vision of the future was the one true way to Harmony. And Starlight Glimmer happened to be such a mare.
“Could it be? Has Harmony itself delivered Twilight Sparkle and her followers to me to spread equality to all of Equestria? Is this the day where the next great Age begins?” thought Starlight.
The idea quickly took root in her mind, and refused to let go. The panic faded from her mind as hope began to bloom in her heart. Whatever complications or issues might arise, as long as Harmony willed it, Equestria would have equality.
“Well, nothing springs to mind. But if you have any business in the area I can arrange for a room for you all. I’m certain that with a little time, Our Town will leave quite the impression,” said Starlight with the first sincere smile she’s had since she entered the room.
“Wait, this place is actually called ‘Our Town?’ Geez, and ponies say ‘Ponyville’ is a silly name,” said Pinkie Pie.
Starlight heard her this time, and chose to continue ignoring her.
“If you’ll just excuse me for a moment, I need to speak with the rest of the town and explain the situation. We’ll let you out of here in just a moment,” said Starlight with a smile.
The moment she stepped outside, the six friends looked at each other.
“I bet this is some kind of cult. The loudspeakers are saying a ton of creepy stuff that makes no sense,” said Rainbow Dash.
“No deal on that bet. It’s way too obvious. The real question is what kind of cult, and mah money’s on some kind of political hooey,” said Applejack.
“I quite agree. Did any of you happen to notice how utterly plain and flat everything about this town is? There’s something quite foul in this place, I am sure of it,” added Rarity.
“Yep. This is totally going to end with us beating up or reforming that Starlight pony,” added Pinkie Pie.
“Well, I’m not sure about the beating up part, but I agree that something needs to be done. Ready to save the day again, girls?” asked Twilight.
There were five loud cheers of excitement, plus Fluttershy’s less than loud cheer. Creepy cults? Unnatural cutie marks? Weird harmony magic they really didn’t understand yet? Just another workday for the six of them, really.
In another time, another place, another series of events and variants, Starlight Glimmer ran from her village in anger, vowing revenge and scheming how to make those six ponies pay for ruining her dreams of equality.
In this time, this place, after a series of events that most would describe as “typical considering who was involved,” Starlight didn’t run in anger. For while other versions of Starlight could cling to denial, claim that such things didn’t even matter, or simply not even consider the possibility, this one had built what remained of her hope around a delusion that had been stripped away by one terrible truth:
Harmony did not approve of her plans.
“So… we’ve decided, unanimously, that removing our cutie marks is a bad idea and we don’t want to do that anymore,” said Sugar Belle.
“It’s not that we disagree with what you’ve been saying all this time… well, not entirely…” said Party Favor before he trailed off.
“But we really don’t want to end up as a town full of hate-filled undead, so… yeah. We’re going to have to stop the whole equality thing,” said Night Glider.
Double Diamond didn’t say anything, though his expression was very uncomfortable. It was clear he felt guilty about the whole thing, but whether that was from what was currently happening or because he’d followed Starlight so devotedly for so long was unclear.
Either way, Starlight could see that she had no support. The six ponies who had done this were simply part of the crowd, looking at her with various degrees of pity. And she didn’t have the strength to argue anymore.
“I… understand. I mean, ghouls, right? Who could have seen that coming? I guess I just have to accept that I was… wrong,” said Starlight, struggling to hold back tears.
Most of the ponies in the crowd gave her gentle smiles.
“It’s alright, Starlight. We know you were just trying to help ponies. And you did help us establish Our Town in the first place. Even without the equality thing, we’d be happy to let you stay the mayor and…” said Sugar Belle.
“No. I can’t. I just… I can’t. I’m sorry everypony. This town will just have to elect someone else. I… I need some time to think,” said Starlight.
As she turned to leave, however, Starlight noticed the alicorn step forward.
“Starlight, I understand you feel terrible right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to isolate yourself. We could…” started Twilight Sparkle.
But Starlight didn’t let her finish. She just lit up her horn and teleported away.
“Oh dear. I think she might be taking things a great deal harder than we anticipated,” said Rarity.
“Yeah. Ah guess she really did want to help ponies. She was just goin’ about it the wrong way,” said Applejack.
“And we didn’t even need to beat her up to make her realize that. That has to count for something,” added Pinkie Pie.
Many ponies in the crowd gave her funny looks, but they lived in the same town as Party Favor. Even if he’d spent most of his time in Our Town without his cutie mark, they weren’t entirely unfamiliar with party pony antics.
“So… now what? Do we look around and try to find her?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“If she wants to be left alone, I think the best thing we can do is let her be alone. And I really don’t think any of us should go after her. We are kind of responsible for this,” said Flutterhsy.
“I agree. If nothing else, I doubt she’d listen to the six of us right now. That said, we shouldn’t let her sulk for too long. if nopony sees her after a few hours, someone needs to look for her,” said Twilight.
“We’ll handle that. She’s still an important part of our community, mayor or not. And I bet Double Diamond knows all her favorite hiding places,” said Night Gale.
Double Diamond let out a sigh. He knew it’d come down to him. This was going to be all kinds of awkward.
Hours later, the ponies of Our Town had to accept the fact that Starlight had left the area. She wasn’t in any of her favorite hiding places, she wasn’t waiting in the cutie mark vault, and she wasn’t even in the cave they’d been surprised to discover under her bed. The six visiting mares choose to stick around and help with the search, even after their cutie marks had shown that their mission was complete, but it the end, no sign of Starlight was found.
In this time, in this place, Starlight didn’t run from the Our Town in anger and disgrace. She ran in shame and despair.
And so Starlight found herself on a lonely road, the only one she knew led away from Our Town. She didn’t know where it was going, but she walked alone. And as she slowly trotted down this empty street, her mind was lost on the boulevard of broken dreams.
Yeah. Ghouls. Don’t want to end up one of those. But if I’m honest with myself, that doesn’t really matter. Face it Starlight, this whole thing was doomed from the start. It’s not like you had any actual plans. Your entire strategy was to use that spell you memorized before it was locked up because it was too dangerous. Did you really think nopony would notice that? That the Princesses wouldn’t notice that?
Starlight kicked a small stone as her mind continued to spiral downwards.
And yeah, the Princesses. No real clue how to address them. It’s not like they needed their cutie marks to help them move the bucking sun and moon or anything. And really, what was the whole point of it all? Yeah, what Sunburst did was terrible, but can you really blame him for leaving you? You tried to make a cult. You built a house to brainwash ponies into following you. You were fantasizing about overthrowing the crown.
Starlight started crying again, but she didn’t stop walking.
Maybe it wasn’t because of his mark that he left you. He left you because he realized that you’re a horrible pony who deserves to be alone. And maybe you should be. Harmony opposes you. Equestria’s heros came to stop you. That makes you a villain. A monster. No better than Nightmare Moon or Discord, plunging the world into darkness for your own petty gratification.
Starlight stopped, collapsed to the ground, and began sobbing. Her thoughts fell apart at this point, an aimless wandering of self-loathing and despair. But then…
What if...
Starlight’s mind froze as the thought entered her mind. She paused, thinking it over. It was a stupid idea, even she had to admit it, and it would takes months to prepare if it was even possible, but the idea refused to let go. She shouldn’t bother. She shouldn’t even be considering it, but...
“I… I have to know,” she whispered.
She pulled herself back up, and continued on her way. She had a plan, a desperate one, but a plan.
A reminder to all personal:
Be aware incident #2605PTL is still scheduled to occur despite recent ripples in the time stream. Please make certain all necessary measures are still in place and functional. And if we have to go through another “sheepocalypse” because someone didn’t bother updating the air conditioning settings again, I’m firing everyone involved in this matter. That includes you, Socket. Get your flank down there and do your bucking job for once.
-Time Keeper, T.I.M.E. superintendent.
Think your the only one to put the story of the blanks in a Equestria with starlight
I'm thinking this Starlight will use time travel to first go back to the day Sunburst got his mark and try to stop his parents from sending him away.
When she can't, then she will do the 'baseline' temporal messing she did, or perhaps something worse, like trying to stop Twilight from winning against the villains.
Either way...
Chronoscanner, online.
Temporal shielding, on standby.
Now, where did I put the Chronoskimmer or the Vortex Manipulator?
Episode 26, season 5, paradox time loop?
A * gently slaps the author for getting a good song stuck in my head* B you could create a side story to this of starlight coming across the village before the events of se5 or just after as shes settling into ponyville
Gotta love Green Day
I am more interested in what are the 'necessary measure' those T.I.M.E. guys have in store.
Nice chapter and it was posted on my 24Th Birthday!!!!!
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Yeah, the whole "town of ghouls" thing kind of died off before Starlight came into the picture, and only this story's world has been updated often enough to reach that point. Well, that and one other, but Starlight was inducted into a far more evil cult in that one, so the comparison had no possibility of being made there.
So intriguing!
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And here I thought PTL was Princess TwiLight, but your thing makes more sense.
We're presuming TIME's measures are gonna work.
Lol if there'll be a Princess Starlight coming in and feeding non-Princess version, info so everything goes as planned.
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Starlight seems to just want to talk to Harmony so she knows she's on the right path... Alicornization might be a pre-req on getting that info dump though.
ROFL if the mirror gets involved somehow, or a Human Starlight.
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Typo;
side arch > side arc
To Starlight's credit, I believe that her method of handling things was much better then the Village of the Blanks. Much cleaner; She doesn't seem the sort to resort to burning a foal alive just because they got a cutie mark after all.
Look at that, a Starlight who realizes that her 'equality' would doom the world and she was almost history's end (and greatest villain) BEFORE creating multiple branch timelines/universes that pitched Equestria into war, suffering, oppression, and omnicide.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
When I first saw a trailer for the s5 opener, my first thought was SotB, but no one really ran with that.
I wonder why...
That's not entirely unfair.
You're taking this well.
Oh boy.
Ah, so this IS Our Town two parter.
You're dead on.
No kidding?
Ah, waxing lyrical. Good stuff.
Oh this oughtta be good.
Ah, so the Season 5 finale's gonna happen. Gotcha.
Considering that she's likely going to butterfly from an entirely different origin point, it's really not.
I'd say that the strangest thing about Our Town is that the strange things that made the town strange wasn't happening in Ponyville. It's strange that it's not Ponyville that's strange for once... Since when did Ponyville not being the central focus of strange for once actually stranger than Ponyville being strange?! And has anyone ever said "strange" as many times in just one paragraph as I just did?
I think I made my head hurt.
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It's implied that the town of ghouls only appears every 100 years. So it's unlikely that she would come across it after she moves to Ponyville.
Could someone please make a chart or something regarding the various classes of Ghouls? I keep seeing stuff about Class G and so I am curious.
Yet another example why communism always fails.
Only gave a few bruises before we pinned then down, though. them
"Maybe both."
"To aspire is to fail."
"Dibs on beating her face in with the PA system."
Booo.
I've only seen one other setting that uses both the Blanks and Our Town, and no association was made between the two. Mind you, Apple Bloom didn't become a ghoul in that world, so it's not clear how aware the Mane Six were of the ghouls at the time. Plus, there wasn't any governmental structure in place for friendly undead... to my knowledge.
Still, brilliant deviation. I do wonder what Starlight intends to change in the time battle. And how many times it will take for Twilight to talk her around. When droven by despair rather than rage, she could be much easier to talk down... or much harder. ("No! I'm going to keep trying until I make a world where I can be happy!") To say nothing of how ghouls, other changeling hives, and T.I.M.E. might alter the darker futures.
This should be fun.
Obvious reference is obvious
Also,
Should I even ask?
media.tenor.com/images/039b76f457e474fccd92a26f5562393d/tenor.gif
Great work, glad several of my favorite stories are making it passed the end of the show.
Sunnytown and Our town are very similar, but I hope Starlight never has to meet Grey hoof.
When ego's collide.
Sheepocalypse... Well, it could be worse, they could forgot to program the video, that is also very hard
Now I can’t stop imagining Party Favor, Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie going on a Kung fu karate chop spree of pain and rainbows on all the villains of Equestria. Certainly would be fun to read.
🎵 Don't know where it goes, but it's only me and I walk alone
Woops, guess I better learn to finish reading before starting to comment
Regardless, lovely chapter as per usual. I'm quite excited to see what you've got in store for the S5 finale
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Wow. Really? That's kind of disappointing.
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We don't talk about the sheepocalypse, mostly because all memories of the incident are a bit fuzzy...
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No one said it's the exact same same incident as the one in baseline, only that it's still scheduled to occur.
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I've got a chapter in the works on that very subject. Might even be the next one... maybe.
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I am so sorry. I was just trying to come up with a colorful metaphor for reflecting on her dying dreams and the the title came to mind, and then as I added details it stretched into a full paragraph and I just could not resist.
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Fixed.
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Just started "Seven Tribes". I shrugged at "Age of Light" when it appeared here, but is this the first reference to Pre-Hearth's warming in your main series?
That was an interesting way to incorporate Starlight into Equestria where the events of SotB exists in the world.
Let me guess, Starlight comes into the fold only when a 'Chrysalis kidnaps everyone'-equivalent event occcures where she met Thorax and Trixie on the lonely road. Without forcefully nerfed Discord, this might actually be better than what we saw in the show...
And so, it was at last time for Starlight to invoke time travel to fix everything... and thus destroy the world.
If only somepony had told her the only safe way to use time travel was in an effort to obtain humpback whales.
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Or power sources for stargates
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Nope she's gonna go back in time and try to fix herself
Pffthahahahahah!
Welcome to a new kind of tension all across the equestrian nation, where everything isn't meant to be okay....
Would make sense that Starlight was one of the watched ponies of interest...
In regards to the authors note, I have read a story that my gut tells me is at the very least a parallel to Our Town, and could in some sense be considered about dead ponies. The story is called 'The Destruction of the Self' by the writer Cold in Gardez. To avoid spoilers I will merely say that death/undeath doesn't necessarily have to mean tombstones and walking corpses.
So Starlight decided to Time travel not for revenge this time? So Twilight has to save her because she messes up somehow? Yea I can see it she becomes Twilight's student not to reform but to curb her need to fix everything with magic after the disaster of trying to fix her past with it.
hey guys I noticed this song in this part https://youtu.be/Od6TSIsFgBg
I cringed. For reals.