Was 'Our Town' Really About Cutie Marks? · 5:07am Mar 6th, 2017
I think we can all remember the Season Five opener. It had a healthy balance of humor and danger, our heroines were victorious not by Deus Ex Machina, but through their own intelligence, and most importantly it had My Little Pony’s first attempt at a moral grey area with Starlight Glimmer. Granted, it wasn’t a particularly good grey, but it was still a new and interesting villain: not one that simply took glee in causing havoc, but one who had an argument for why she were the hero and the mane six were the villains. In her mind, the mane six stood for chaos, for arrogance and selfishness that would tear friendship apart, and they used trickery and betrayal to ruin the friendships Starlight had.
However, I think there is a very interesting layer to Starlight’s town, and make no mistake: it’s Starlight’s town, no matter how much she tries to sell it as belonging to everypony. Starlight was the one who made everything tick. She organized the townsfolk, greeted the newcomers, and supervised all the brainwashing and psychological torture they used on new recruits. This was Starlight’s brainchild, and without her it quickly reverts to a normal village. IF they hadn't had their Cutie Marks returned, I doubt they would have survived.
Starlight needed to live by herself in order to conceal her Cutie Mark from her citizens. But did you look at her house? Maybe there wasn’t a lot of stuff in it, but it was a large, two story building with running, heated water. Her mane is also the only one styled uniquely, therefor she is also spending money on mane products that the others didn't have. One might assume that, “Well of course she did, she’s a hypocrite running a cult.” But she doesn’t think she’s running a cult. Starlight truly believes that she’s helping ponies, and she was devastated when she’d forced to flee. Clearly, there’s something bigger than mere greed blinding her to the truth, and I think it’s an issue that goes pretty deep.
Starlight’s emotionally scarring backstory has the whiff of contrivance to it, but it does add an interesting layer. Starlight's only friend Sunburst got his Cutie Mark before she did, and she was left behind. Starlight was devastated, and spent a long time studying magic and becoming one of the most powerful mages in the world. What did she do with this newfound power? She created a community where everypony was immediately required to give up their power to live. Granted, she couldn’t lord her power over other ponies directly, but it was still clear that she was in charge. She was the only pony who could induct others into her town, and by extension: She was a truly indispensable part of the community.
Starlight’s town wasn’t a cult, exactly. Starlight didn’t fool them into joining to take their money in exchange for false promises. And she wasn't just trying to take over a town because she deserved it. At the end of the day, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself, what her town was founded simply on a mare was scared of being left behind again.
Interesting point and I definitely agree with your last bit. Though I do wonder what would have happened if she had succeeded and how it would have been responded to by the rest of equestria, I mean foals would have probably flocked to her given the hardships with cutie marks and Celestia isn't as strong as she was pre-EoH and personally I think Starlight is stronger than most (if not all) of the princesses so I think it would have been interesting to see how it would have gone.