"Hmm, hmm, hmm," I hummed as I strolled into the village Twilight had teleported me to after my magic was taken away for a second time. Not a good experience, do not wanna do that again.
A quick glance at the town robbed me of what little enthusiasm I still had left. The townsponies’ smiles were obviously fake and they all had an equal sign as cutie marks. That didn’t seem good. Something was wrong, and detective Pinkie Pie would find out what! I was greeted by everypony I walked by once I entered, but decided not to answer any of them. Tirek taught me to mind my words in some situations...."Those smiles are bad news," I mumbled to myself while looking around, trying to spot my friends. Ah, who am I kidding, they're probably being trapped and forced to smile unnaturally at this very instant! I've gotta find them before it's too late! If only I still had my hidden magic, then I could just grab a spy uniform out of nowhere or something like that. Maybe it's better like this though, otherwise, they'd think something's up and capture me too. I guess I'm just gonna have to gather intel: Classic Pinkie Style.
I climbed atop a roof to scour the village for my friends one last time. Since I couldn’t find any of them, I decided to sneak around the village, searching house after house for any traces. I didn’t come across any clues however, and was left to ponder on what could have happened to my dear friends…
While I was thinking, a grayish mare with cropped, brown hair walked my way, seemingly lost in her thoughts. She was thinking so hard that she crashed into my table and stumbled backwards onto the ground, blushing while she tried to get up. I offered my hoof to her, which she gratefully accepted. While I was suspicious of her, that was no reason to completely abandon my manners, now was it? Besides, somehow she seemed… not quite as unnatural as the rest of the town. Once she had stood up, she introduced herself as Sugar Belle and asked me if I would like to place an order. My grumbling belly was answer enough, and she asked, "So then, what can I get you? We have, muffins."
"..."
I said nothing as I waited for her to say more, but when she didn't, I replied, "Well then, I'll take 2 muffins then!" She giggled a bit and I asked her, "Something the matter?"
She stopped giggling, then answered, "Uhh, I'll tell you after I'm done making the muffins," as she said this, she forced herself to smile awkwardly and chuckled nervously, which led to me looking at her with confusion for a couple seconds.
After a few seconds of her smiling very nervously now I noticed that she was throwing glances at a pure white pony sitting across the street. "Okey. Dokey. Lokey," I replied, dragging out each word as long as possible, and so she trotted off to make the muffins. As I waited, I thought about Twilight's battle with Tirek, wondering how it was going. Probably not too well I suppose, considering he was as powerful as her before he'd taken my ultra super strong magic, which surpassed her's anyways! But then I remembered she was a genius, so she would just find a way around this with some good ol' fashioned battle planning.
Of course she'd be okay, this was Twilight we're talking about after all! She’d come up with a plan and then she'd mop the floor with-, My train of thought was interrupted as Sugar Belle came back with 2 freshly baked muffins. Before leaving, she whispered to me, "Come inside if you want to talk, there are certain ponies that don't want me to speak about it," she gestured towards the white pony sitting at the table opposite from mine. Afterwards, she galloped down the stairs with speed that nearly rivaled my own. Almost.
I took a bite out of one of the muffins and instantly spit it out. It was the most disgusting muffin I'd ever tasted, but I knew I had to eat the other one, since getting more was the only excuse I had to go downstairs. Ha, as if anypony would want to get more of those muffins. I stared at the terrible muffin for a few seconds, then gulped and took another bite out of it.
I kept on taking more and more bites, each one worse than the last, until I finally decided to just get it over with and ate the rest of it whole. After eating it, I groggily walked down the staircase, trying not to fall, but to no avail.
As I tumbled down the stairs, it made creaking sounds, showing it was old and rickety. As I got to the bottom (or fell), I moaned. "I've accidentally eaten cardboard tastier than that."
I heard some hoof steps, then saw Sugar Belle walking up to me. She looked around to make sure no one else was there before signaling two ponies behind her to move forward. "So, why'd you wanna meet here?" I asked.
"So nopony can see what's about to happen," Sugar Belle replied, in a whisper like tone. As I nodded, she continued, "I was laughing because earlier there was a group of four ponies, with one of them also wanting 2 muffins. I'm just guessing, but I think you might know those ponies, considering we almost never get visitors, let alone 2 visits in a single day." I nodded in confirmation at her theory, prompting Sugarbelle to continue the story. "They're locked up because we were telling them how much we miss our cutie marks," she said this while pointing at the other ponies behind her, concerned looks on their faces.
I let out a resignated sigh and quietly whispered, "I knew it, this village has my friends trapped."
I had to go rescue them, but first, I had a question for the ponies in front of me. "So, how does the removal of a cutie mark even work?" They told me all about some ritual that their leader, Starlight Glimmer, performs. It involved something called the staff of sameness. It was slightly concerning how enthusiastic they sounded about the whole thing. I was also explained that the cutie marks are stored in a vault. After asking where that vault is located, they told me to go see Starlight.
When I found her and asked to see the vault, Starlight was surprisingly cooperative, but I didn't let that fool me. I was on guard, as I knew this was the pony who had trapped all my friends except Twilight. We had a short conversation as we walked up to the cave where the cutie mark vault was, but otherwise, the tense air was deathly silent as we trekked up the long, treacherous path leading to the cold, harsh caves, home to none other than the prison of what was essentially a pony's soul...how was that!? I hope that sounded cool enough, but if not, oh well!
Getting back on topic, we arrived at the vault, and Starlight welcomed me in. What I saw blew my mind. It was HUGE!!! There must've been over 100 cutie marks in there, it didn't make much sense though, there was only like 20 ponies in town...eh, it's not important, Starlight probably had the book about how to make great plot holes, I've been dying to get my hands on a copy of that myself! Oh, whoops, I got sidetracked again.
Starlight thought about something for a second, then asked, "I'm curious, how did the subject of the vault come up?"
"Oh, there was just some ponies telling me how much they missed their cutie marks and-, oh, whoops!" Once again, I said too much.
"Oh, were they? It seems you and those other ponies inspire all sorts of free thinking, don't you?" as she finished these words, she narrowed her eyes at me contemptuously and her tone became aggressive. I chuckled nervously as I slowly backed away, only to bump into the white stallion from earlier. Many other ponies started to come from the shadows to trap me, and I realized that I'd been stupid. I walked straight into their clutches.
I was worried for a few seconds, but then I remembered something and laughed. "What are you gonna do to me? Take away my 'cutie mark'?" I asked mockingly, pointing towards my blank flank. Starlight however just seemed to be amused while replying.
"Oh, those other 4 said the same thing, but, although I can't say I know what happened, I do know that you usually have your cutie marks, judging from your slightly tired state. And as long as that's true, I can take away the essence of your cutie mark and replace it with the equal sign." she smiled wickedly at my stunned face and pointed the staff of sameness in my direction, which shot out a beam of bluish green magic, freezing me in place and ripping off my cutie mark from inside my body.
At the end of the ritual, an image of my cutie mark appeared mid-air within the staff’s energy, and Starlight whipped it towards the vault, trapping it inside next to four cutie marks which belonged to…my friends!
"I don't blame you for what you and those others tried to do today. You've spent your whole lives thinking those marks are a good thing," Starlight said, sneering at me.
I could feel my body becoming more and more exhausted, while the vibrant pink of my coat started to fade into grey. I mustered up the last bit of strength I had in me and furiously yelled, “Give it back!!!” but Starlight didn’t let it deter her.
"Well, now you can spend the rest of your life here, with us! And we'll teach you just how much better life can be without your cutie mark." the ponies in the room lined up in two columns, forming an equal sign.
As I got escorted to the room that I decided to call the brainwashing cell, I thought about how me and my friends were soon gonna be reunited and together, surely we could escape. In fact, I already had an idea...