A Taste of Her Own Medicine

by origami

Chapter 1

Starlight Glimmer couldn't believe it. "How could those six mares ruin this all for me?1" she cursed to herself as she snuck through the caves outside her village.

Or at least, it had been her village.

She'd started it some time ago, having convinced a few stallions and mares of her ideology. She led them to this valley and there they started Our Town. They worked hard together and erected the first few houses and farms. Now, there were two rows of houses, with no one house different from another. The food grown by each of the farmers was no better than the other, and the jobs the ponies did were no more important than another pony's job. It was the mare's dream come true.

Then those six mares had to show up. They said something about a map leading them here, and Starlight became quite enthused. She showed them the town and the cutie mark vault, and then she used her spell on them, taking their marks and replacing them with her trademark equal sign. So sure was she of her victory that she failed to notice the six working against her.

The yellow one, whom she suspected thought more closely to her ideology, claimed she wanted to live with them in equality. She had left her go to see the town, but instead, she was a spy, and attempted to reveal the truth about Starlight Glimmer: she hadn't given up her own cutie mark.

When that revelation came about, the entire town demanded their cutie marks back. Starlight pleaded to them that her keeping her own cutie mark was a necessity, but the ponies wouldn't listen to her. The six mares had convinced the town of the crazy notion that ponies with completely different cutie marks could be friends with one another.

The notion made Starlight's stomach turn.

Shortly after the truth had been exposed, one of the ponies in the village attacked the cutie mark vault and freed all of the marks held within it. Everypony got their special talents back and began using them against her, forcing her into these caves. Now, she was trying to make her escape from her former town and the six mares who had effectively ruined her life.

"There she is!"

Starlight froze and looked towards the voice. It was the blue pegasus mare from the group of six. As soon as she recognized her, Starlight scowled.

"Stay away from me!" Starlight shouted as she shot a bolt of magic at the mare, which was promptly dodged and allowed to slam into the cave wall behind the mare. Before Starlight could get off another shot, the blue pegasus slammed into her and pinned her to the ground.

"Girls!" the pegasus called to her friends. "I have her!"

Starlight took the opportunity to counter the pegasus while she was distracted. A burst of energy into the pony's stomach, and the blue mare was sent backwards into a wall.

With the pony incapacitated momentarily, Starlight made a move to try and escape...

...only for a blast of magic to strike her in the back and paralyze her temporarily.

"Dash, are you okay?" A concerned voice called out.

Starlight knew which pony that voice belonged to and seethed. It was the alicorn, the purple one. Apparently, she had been a unicorn before, like Starlight, but had done something and was turned into an alicorn by Princess Celestia. She'd also fought a giant centaur and beat him, and in the process, got a castle, where the map that had sent them here resided.

Using what movement she could muster, Starlight flipper herself over to face the ponies, and she scowled as she saw each one:

The white unicorn with that hoity-toity accent that spoke as if her head was permanently buried inside her flank.

A pink earth pony that had a perpetual case of way too much sugar.

The orange earth pony that spoke like she was a backwoods hillbilly.

The yellow pegasus that snitched on her to the whole town.

The blue pegasus that she'd just blasted in the stomach.

And the purple alicorn, wings and all. She didn't look like Princess Celestia or Luna yet, but assumed she would only need time before her body filled out to alicorn proportions.

After a few moments, Starlight realized that their attention was on the pegasus she'd just attacked, and that this was her best chance at getting away. She made an attempt to stand up and get away, but the most she could manage was rolling around a little and making some grunting sounds.

Unfortunately, those grunting noises got the attention of six ponies, who refocused on her. The white mare scowled at her as she picked her up in her magic. Starlight tried to struggle against the magic grip, but it was no use. Soon enough, the alicorn took over and used her magic to call forth bindings to keep her from running away.

"I didn't want to do this," the purple alicorn says somberly, "but you've left me with no choice."

Starlight wanted to spit, but couldn't make her mouth work to do that. Rather, her response came out sounding strained.

"You took my village!"

The alicorn huffed. "No, I didn't. The ponies you tricked took it back for themselves."

"They were happy!" Starlight protested, regaining some more of her muscle control. "You took that happiness from them!"

"You took it first, you meanie!" the pink mare told her.

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. Next thing you're gonna tell me they were happier with their cutie marks than without them."

"They were," the orange mare responds, "and I ain't never knew of ah good reason to lie to anypony before, and especially about somethin' like that, so why did y'all do it?"

Starlight huffed. "I'm done talking."

The six mares looked at each other for a few moments before the alicorn let out a breath she'd been holding.

"Very well," she tells Starlight. "If that's what you want."

The alicorn carried Starlight in her magic as she and her friends left the caves and returned to the small town started by the unicorn.

---

The ponies back in the village rejoiced at having their cutie marks back. Those with cooking and baking-related cutie marks began preparing a feast. Everypony else was gathered in small groups conversing with one another, the air filled with electricity that came from the excitement everypony was feeling.

To Starlight, it was alien, and offensive. Why did these ponies, who had willingly given up their cutie marks because of the burden it made on their lives, rejoice at their return? The lilac mare seethed as she saw such revelry for the things that she had considered a bane her whole life. Even when she'd gotten her own as a filly, she detested it greatly.

"There she is!" one of the ponies in town shouted as they pointed a hoof in Starlight's direction.

Starlight was snapped from her thoughts as she heard the voice. Her attention turned to a group of ponies that were approaching her and the six mares keeping her prisoner. She recognized them as some of her earliest followers, and each of them had a scowl that would've made a manticore flinch.

"I see your village is getting ready for a celebration," the alicorn pointed out, hoping to distract what could possibly be a lynch mob in the making.

"We are," a stallion in the group answered, "but right now, I think all of us have some choice words for her."

He punctuated his statement with an accusatory hoof pointed straight at Starlight. The lilac mare didn't respond. In truth, she was playing possum. She could feel the effects of the stun spell starting to wear off, and decided that as soon as she had full control of her body again, she would teleport away from the village and go someplace where she could lay low and plot revenge against her captors.

The stallion lowered his hoof and looked back at a mare behind him, giving her a nod. The mare moved in front of him as he stepped back, and Starlight recognized her as the one of the bakers that first came to start the village: Sugar Belle.

"What you've done," she began with a quivering voice, "is one of the most reprehensible things I think anypony has done for centuries, maybe even the worst thing since Princess Luna attacked Princess Celestia as Nightmare Moon."

At this, Starlight rolled her eyes. How could taking a cutie mark that caused such an imbalance among ponies be equally as evil as what Nightmare Moon had tried to do over a thousand years ago?

"You took away our individuality," Sugar Belle continued, "and with it, our sense of self. I could never bake things the way I could before when I had my cutie mark. It didn't matter that I used the same ingredients or followed the same recipes. They never turned out the same!"

Starlight again rolled her eyes, choosing not to respond verbally. If she did, it might tip off the alicorn that she was recovered, and cause her to recast the stun spell; she was a gifted magic user and would likely realize at some point that her spell had worn off.

Sugar Belle went to respond but paused, taking note of the lilac unicorn's lack of empathy. "Y-You really don't care?!" she shouted at Starlight. "All the pain you've caused us by keeping our cutie marks from us, and you couldn't care about that at all, could you?!"

Starlight didn't do anything but glare back at Sugar Belle. In truth, Starlight did feel something at that moment: betrayal. Sugar Belle had been a strong follower of hers even before they founded the village, and was now chastising her.

To see a mare that had stayed with her for so long suddenly go against her?

It took everything for Starlight not to jump up and blast her with a spell strong enough to burn the fur off of her body.

Sugar Belle looked at the ground, her voice sad. "I can't believe it" she said, looking back at Starlight, "After all the time I spent following your ideals, you don't even care or realize how much you've hurt me?"

The anger that Starlight felt about those accusations, and especially who they were coming from, had tipped her over the edge. In a quick motion, Starlight jumped to her hooves and quickly charged a spell intended to cause extreme pain to Sugar Belle.

The spell fizzled out as she was struck in the side by another, the force of impact sending the mare onto her side.

She went to stand up again and paused, realizing that the spell that just hit her was nowhere near as powerful as the one used on her in the caves. She turned to see which pony did it, finding the white unicorn with her horn glowing and a small trail of smoke rising from the end.

"How DARE you try to hurt that mare again!" she shouted in her posh voice.

"Oh, bite me!" Starlight retorted with venom. "She's the one that's hurt me!"

Starlight pointed her hoof accusingly at Sugar Belle. "She was one of the first ponies to embrace the idea of equality, and helped me start this village! She helped me recruit followers and helped this place grow! Everypony here was happy and unburdened by their cutie marks! It was a utopia!"

"No, it wasn't."

Starlight then turned and faced the voice that just spoke up. It was one of the newer stallions to join their cause. He had a magic-related cutie mark like hers, but instead of a wisp of magic, his was a book opened to a page with a spell circle on it.

"Ancient Tome?" she said with confusion.

The stallion stepped forward and glared at Starlight. "This place was as unhappy as it got, Starlight Glimmer."

The mare did flinch a little at hearing her full name; it was a more or less universal sign you were in trouble as a foal.

"Ponies here were never allowed to have the lives they wanted for themselves," Tome continued speaking. "When you took our cutie marks, you took away the very things that made us us. When you took mine, I lost all zeal for studying magic. I was relegated to simple telekinesis and basic conjuring. If I wanted to try something more, I lost any and all desire to do so the minute I thought it. Your spell kept us from being the ponies we were meant to be!"

"That's timber wolf compost and you know it!" Starlight spat at him, not caring at all what the consequences were.

Ancient Tome looked at her with both anger and sadness. "You really don't understand what you've done to us, do you?"

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Of course I do! I've freed you all from the burdens in your life! Can't you see how bad cutie marks are for you?!"

Ancient Tome let out a sigh as he gave a solemn nod to Double Diamond, another pony in the village. The stallion came forward, and on his back was a small glass case, which Starlight recognized right away.

"What? You think I'm afraid?" Starlight spat at Ancient Tome. "Well, I'm not! Go ahead! Do it!"

"Um, T-Twilight, w-what's he g-going to do?" Fluttershy asked, clearly nervous about the events transpiring.

Twilight let out a breath. "I think Ancient Tome wants Starlight to understand exactly what she did to these ponies, and us."

Fluttershy looked at Twilight in shock. "Y-You mean...?"

Twilight noded.

Rarity looked at Twilight with shock as well. "Are you not going to stop this?" she asked her friend.

"No" Twilight answered. "I've heard enough to realize that this may be the only way to teach Starlight that what she was doing here is wrong."

"And doing that same thing to her is somehow justified?!" Rainbow said in disbelief.

"No," Twilight conceded, "but I don't think any other punishment will get the point across to her. Maybe this one will."

Applejack and Pinkie both went to protest, but Twilight stopped them with her hoof. "If it looks like it's not going to work, I'll restore her cutie mark, but for now, I think this might be the best chance at convincing her of her wrongdoing."

"And what if it isn't?" Pinkie shouted at her friend, her mane losing some of its puffiness. "What if she keeps being a great big meanie?!"

Twilight sighed. "Then the princesses will punish her in Canterlot and she'll suffer whatever they decide for her."

"Y-You don't think they'd send her to T-Tartarus, do you?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked to the pegasus and frowned. "They might."

As the conversation between the six mares went on, Ancient Tome and Double Diamond approach Starlight. "Last chance for you to apologize" Tome told her as he opened the glass case with his magic.

"The only ponies who need to apologize are all of YOU for betraying ME!"

Ancient Tome looked at her for a moment before he let out a sigh, and closed his eyes. "You have no idea how much it hurts me to do this" he said as he poured magic into the spell.

Starlight was suddenly enveloped in his magic aura, and then felt something pulling against her. She tried to relax herself as much as possible, but the pulling became very painful very quickly, and her body reacted to fight against it. After a few more seconds of pain, she felt something inside herself give way, and a sudden wave of exhaustion overcame her. She fell to the ground and stayed still for a few moments.

As soon as some of her energy returned to her, she looked up to see her cutie mark hovering in the air in Ancient's magic aura. The stallion moved the mark to the glass box Double Diamond was holding, placing it inside and closing the door. He then took the glass case and gave it to Twilight.

"Make sure the princesses know of her crimes," he told the alicorn, "and don't let her have that back until either the princesses say so or she learns her lesson."

Twilight took the box and placed it in her saddlebags. "I'll make sure it stays safe," she assured Ancient Tome.

Ancient Tome nodded and turned to look at Starlight. The mare was looking at her flank and saw the all too familiar equal sign adorning it, this one completely genuine instead of painted on like previously. "Maybe now you'll finally understand how much you hurt us by taking our cutie marks away," he said to her as she seethed at him. He and Double Diamond then backed up and rejoined Sugar Belle and the other founding ponies in facing the six mares who helped free their town.

Starlight felt magic lift her to her hooves, and then felt something slide over her horn. She went to remove it but felt a stifling sensation in her horn. One of the ponies had placed a suppressor ring on it.

The lilac mare looked to see the white mare with her horn glowing a blue color and looking at her sternly. "Just be glad I had one that went well with your coat color" she said as she closed her saddlebags.

Starlight just rolled her eyes. A rope bridle was then affixed to her muzzle, and the blue pegasus fell in line behind her, glaring at her as she did so.

"We'll have a member of the royal guard come out and check on all of you as soon as we get back" Twilight told Ancient Tome and the other founding ponies, who had become the de-facto town council. "I'll even put in a word with Princess Celestia to see if we can extend the rail line out to your village so you can have any supplies you may need delivered."

"That would be appreciated, your highness," Ancient Tome told her while bowing. Double Diamond, Sugar Belle and the others followed suit. Once they rose back up, they bid the six mares farewell and safe travels, and head back to their village, preparing to discuss the future of their small town.

Starlight watched the group of ponies leaving with agitation. She'd led them here and helped them start this village, and now they were just turning their backs on her and hoofing her over to a group of mares that ruined her perfect vision?

A sudden sharp tug caused Starlight to nearly topple over. Once she recovered, she looked at the source.

The orange pony wearing the hat was tugging harshly at the bridle. The blue pegasus stepped in front of her with a venomous glare to match her own. "Move it!" she spat at Starlight, then turned and walked behind the alicorn, tail twitching in agitation.

"Ya heard what Dash just told ya!" the orange mare followed up, giving another sharp tug for emphasis.

Starlight glared at her but complied as she started walking. At current, she wouldn't put it past anypony to take the noose now around her neck and do her in with it. Cooperation was her best option at the moment.

Falling into line behind the mares, Starlight was pulled along back towards Equestria, a prisoner of the six mares.

Author's Note:

I originally wrote a story about a changeling being fed on by Queen Chrysalis and reflecting on how it felt and his new perspective gained from it. I decided I wanted to do a few stories similar to it and make it a small series of stories with the central theme being the main character suffering some of their own wrongdoing, the proverbial 'taste of their own medicine'. This is the first one of those stories after the original.

Also, as this is being posted on December 25th, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Happy Hearth's Warming!

UPDATE 11/4/2023 8:19AM EDT - I decided to make some edits after rereading the first chapter. I'm going to go back through and do it with all the chapters as well. Most of it is to fix some mistakes I didn't catch in posting previous chapters, but I did change and add a few things that I feel improve the chapter overall.

Comments

[ChubbyNia]

Interesting! Can't wait to see the next chapter!
To be honest I did like Starlight as a villain better and I did think she got off way too easily anyways
Happy Christmas! 🎄⛄

[Pete100]

This is actually a very interesting concept. I always did think some of the villains in mlp got off too easily. Merry Christmas🎄