So, just where has Starlight found herself? · 4:16pm Feb 13th, 2016
One thousand years ago, Princess Celestia was forced to banish her sister, Princess Luna, to the moon...
But all the far more interesting events happened more recently.
When Twilight Sparkle failed her final magic test, she was nearly inconsolable. She lost her interest in studying magic, which turned out to be troublesome since she lost none of her magic power. An eventual, overly-emotional burst when her parents tried to cheer her up was what brought out her true powers and earned her her cutie mark. It also had the side effect of nearly leveling her family home and injuring both her parents.
Twilight was, naturally, in despair over her magic having such disastrous consequences. The appearance of her cutie mark made it even worse, making her believe that this destructive magic was her purpose. Fortunately (in her eyes) she met Starlight Glimmer not long after that...
Starlight had her equalization plan, and Twilight loved the idea of being stripped of her mark and talents. If Starlight's idea worked, then Twilight wouldn't have to worry about hurting anypony else! They went out, founded their town together, and gathered like-minded individuals. Using Starlight's "Staff of Sameness" it was easy to strip their cutie marks.
Twilight, however, wondered why Starlight never used the staff on her. It turned out that Starlight had a plan to quickly spread their message across Equestria. She just needed a pony that had the same magical abilities as her to pull it off.
During the Thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, when Nightmare Moon was to return, they struck out together into the Everfree Forest. Braving its dangers, Twilight and Starlight found the lost Tree of Harmony. Together, they invoked a powerful spell, feeding it into the tree along with huge quantities of magic. It almost wasn't enough, but Starlight burned through everything she had and, in the end, managed to turn her own body into magical energy to finish the spell.
And that enough. A massive blast of the Equalization spell rushed across Equestria. Practically everypony in Equestria found themselves stripped of their talents and cutie marks. Less than 1% of the population avoided it by either running, or hiding in locations heavily charged with their own magic. Most were horrified and confused, but the wave had also banished Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence to places unknown, their power too much to strip but to different to keep in this new world. Even Nightmare Moon was prevented from returning, leaving Equestria leaderless.
Until a certain, purple unicorn, now stripped of the mark and talents that had tormented her for so long, emerged from the Everfree Forest...
Like the tags say, this is mostly just for fun. I do have an idea for where each of the Mane Six (and even Spike!) are in this world that I might put up in a part two.
For the record, I don't plan to write any further stories about this world. If someone else is inspired to do so, however, feel free!
Ooh, that's one hell of a plot hook...