Collab? · 11:27am May 1st, 2017

A recent conversation about Starlight Glimmer's past inspired the following idea for a vigilante/masked hero origin story.

It's based on the ideas that:
• Starlight's special talent doesn't just take ponies' cutie marks and talents, it also absorbs some of their special abilities. This has given her a leg up in becoming more powerful.
• She has an imaginary mentor, that she doesn't realise others can't see.

I have other things to write first, so I'm leaving this on the back burner for a while, but if anybody is interested in collaborating with me on writing this, reply here or drop me a line.

A few days after Sunburst left for the SGU, Starlight is alone in the school yard. She's often alone. As an orphan she assumed it was because the other kids disliked her, while in reality they were unsure of how to approach her. Sunburst had been the only one to break through that barrier, and now he was gone. Starlight feels betrayed.

A colt approaches her, trying to show off his neat new magical talent. He's overly friendly, pushing into her personal space, badgering Starlight into trying to do magic as well. Magic was never her strength, but she has to try to get him to stop. Without explanation, the other foal's cutie mark peels off his flank, draining him of his talent. The cutie mark circles around Starlight's head accusingly. In desperation she grabs a flowerpot and hides the cutie mark under it. The colt's filly friend, who was watching this, smashes the flowerpot and the cutie mark returns.

Cruel stories about her spread among the foals and other ponies of the town, further isolating her. Everywhere she goes, harsh looks and whispered words follow her. The appearance of her own cutie mark is a time of suffering rather than joy. Just as Sunburst's cutie mark drove the two of them apart, Starlight's own isolated her from everypony else.

Isolated and alone, she's easy prey for a madpony, a mare with multiple personalities. The mare corners her, talking in multiple voices around the knife clutched in her throat. Starlight's spell goes off again, robbing the mare of her cutie mark and her voice.

At that moment another figure approaches Starlight, an older filly with an = for a cutie mark. The older filly bucks the mare in the head, smacking her knife away and stunning the mare. She tells Starlight to trap the cutie mark in a jar and keep it safe. The two escape with the jar.
The older filly tells Starlight that cutie marks are a curse, that they cause endless problems. Her own cutie mark was replaced with an = when she realised this.

She teaches Starlight to seek out criminals and bad ponies, those that society hasn't taken care of or can't cope with, and remove their talents. They become vigilantes, seeking out evil. To disguise her identity she wears a mask, and covers up her cutie mark with an =, just like her mentor's. The two act together on every mission, and find great amusement in the fact of newspapers reporting just one vigilante, not two.

With each villain she defeats and each cutie mark she takes, Starlight's own abilities grow...

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