Where Starlight found herself (part 2)

So last time I revealed how the world's story had changed.

How about our favorite main characters?

Twilight Sparkle, revolution leader: This world's version of Twilight was close friends with Starlight Glimmer. In fact, Starlight was her only friend. Twilight never caught on that Starlight hadn't really removed her own cutie mark, or that the Staff of Sameness was anything other than an old branch. So when Starlight disappeared to complete their massive Equalization spell, Twilight felt she had no choice but to step in and take charge of all the confused, now markless ponies.

Twilight Sparkle is zealous about seeing Starlight's plan come to fruition: A world without cutie marks, where everypony is truly equal. She genuinely believes in this ideal and that it's a good thing for Equestria. Just look how much happier she is without her destructive magic going out of control! To that end, she works from Canterlot to keep Equestria organized so that it can run without individual skills or talents. Failing farms get more horsepower to work on them, frivolous businesses (like high fashion or jewelry) are discouraged, etc.

What truly confuses her is how someponies managed to escape the Equalization wave. Those "poor marked souls" get captured and packed off to re-education camps in order to be shown how their need to be special is hurting Equestria. Twilight's greatest dream is to one day get the Staff of Sameness working, since so far that's the only thing that's been successful in removing a pony's cutie mark.

Spike, assistant and friend to Celestia's personal student: Spike hasn't change much in this reality. Somepony hatched his egg with an impressive magic display, and he was raised to be their companion and assistant. He's ceaselessly loyal to his friends, eager to help, and loves nothing better than relaxing with some comics and a big bowl of gems after a hard day's work.

The major difference here is that the one that hatched his egg was Sunburst, Starlight Glimmer's old friend. When Twilight Sparkle failed her magic test, he was the next little pony to give it a try. His determination to help a little dragon be born almost matched what he felt when he saved Starlight from the falling book tower, and he succeeded. Since he'd lost contact with Starlight, Sunburst was happy to have Spike around for company, practically adopting him as a little brother.

Sunburst is also one of the few ponies that still has his cutie mark. When the wave hit, he protected himself and Spike with a magic shield. Spike is totally confident that Sunburst will find a way to reverse what happened... the problem is convincing Sunburst of that. Everyday that passes without any progress or anyway to contact Celestia just makes his big brother more and more despondent. Some days it's hard work snapping Sunburst out of his funk...

To be continued...