//------------------------------//
// Memories 
// Story: Twilight vs Tirek 
// by RainbowSparkle3 
//------------------------------//

While the Mane 6 were talking outside Starlight's house, up in the Cutie Mark Vault, the betrayed ponies from Starlight's village were banging against the glass separating them from their cutie marks, a determined look on some of their faces, while on the others, a look of distress. Just then, from behind the group of equalized ponies, Double Diamond came running, while commanding, "Stand back, everypony!" Fury was clearly visible on his features, and he held the Staff of Sameness - which he now knew was nothing more than a simple stick - in his mouth.
Once he got close enough, Double Diamond brought his head back, then whipped the false relic at the wall that prevented the cutie marks from getting free. The staff hit the barrier and it created a large crack, which quickly spread, until the whole wall completely shattered, a dazzling burst of magical light spilling out, blinding everypony in the room for a second.
When they all opened their eyes again, the ponies watched in amazement as dozens of cutie marks shot out, whirling and looping around to get to their owners' flanks. The first to get his mark back was Double Diamond. As it reached him, he was lifted up into the air and his whole body glowed with a bright white light. Falling back down to the ground was a completely transformed pony. Instead of the plain mane cut he had, his mane was now ruffled and unkempt, he wore a genuine smile, his cutie mark had changed from an equal sign to three flowers, and he overall had a completely different complexion. Soon after, the rest of the cutie marks came back to their respective owners, each of them going through a similar process.
Pegasi flew out of the cave, beaming, while several cutie marks followed, rushing to the ponies still outside.



Meanwhile, we were still outside.
"Even without my cutie mark, I can tell this is beautiful," Rarity said, dreamily looking up at the sky filled with colorful beams of light shooting past. Turning my attention away from her and onto Starlight up in her room, I looked determinedly at her, though she didn't notice me. I heard a loud noise like something was being dropped onto the ground, and she fled out of sight with my friends' cutie marks, but not before I could draw the focus of my friends onto Starlight.
"Look, girls! Starlight's getting away!" Everypony quickly whipped their heads around to see her running, and they understood immediately what I was implying. We had decided to stay until everypony else got their cutie marks back, just in case they had trouble. But now, it was time to give chase. The ponies from the village who had helped us earlier raced towards the door, now with their cutie marks. Me and my friends did the same. 
As I ran towards the locked door, I easily blasted it away with a small beam of purple magic, completely disintegrating it, and causing debris to explode from the door. We all galloped through the smoke, the group of ponies who were helping us earlier following.
We soon found that Starlight had fled through a secret passage underneath her bed, and we all went down and eventually back up the stairs to find we had headed outside again. We all searched around for a bit until Rainbow saw Starlight, and shouted, "Look!" pointing a hoof in the direction of the purple unicorn.
Everypony immediately directed their attention at the fleeing unicorn. After a few seconds, the blue Earth pony standing beside us looked like he realized something. He looked down at his mark, smiling, and quickly crafted a pair of binoculars out of a balloon (don't ask me where he got the balloon or how the hay he did that). He then used it to see Starlight more clearly, and said urgently, "She's headed to the pass! if she makes it to those mountains, we'll never find her!" his expression had quickly gone from jubilant to discouraged. Pinkie grabbed the binoculars and also looked at Starlight.
"These are amazing!" she complimented. The pink pony beside Applejack looked to her, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie and Rarity, and spoke with equal urgency as her balloon liking friend.
"There's a whole network of caves up there! Your cutie marks will be lost forever!" she said.
Applejack responded, "Then let's get movin', y'all." However, before everypony could start, I stopped them.
"Wait," I commanded, which they all did. "There's no need for that. I've never tried it before, but I might be able to teleport all of us to Starlight."
Rarity looked unsure about this, and answered, "Are you sure about that, Darling? We wouldn't want you to waste all of your magic, when a clearly bigger threat is still ahead of us, if you know who I am speaking of."
"Yeah," said Pinkie. "Tirek is a preeeety big problem right now. And back in Season 1, you could barely teleport just yourself and Spike when we surrounded you for the ticket to the Gala."
I stared blankly at Pinkie for a few seconds, before replying. "Season 1? This isn't the time for your crazy terms. Yes, Tirek is a more major threat, but remember, I've gotten better at magic since then. Plus, I've become an Alicorn, and I now bear the powers of Celestia, Luna and Cadance in addition to my own."
"Hmm, good point," Pinkie said nonchalantly.
"Okay, with that out of the way...everypony, get close to me." the group obeyed, and so, I began concentrating magic into my horn. Purple magic fizzled and coursed around it, and eventually, with a loud pop, we were gone.
Hearing a large sound behind her, Starlight looked back, and her eyes stretched wide open as she saw all of us. She then narrowed her eyes in determination and started dashing faster, but I wasn't about to let her get away.
I galloped towards her, and since she had a cart with her, combined with the fact that I had Earth pony magic, I caught up quickly. Lighting up my horn, I captured her in my magical grip, preventing any and all movement on her part. With Starlight immobile, it was easy to free our cutie marks. One by one they reunited with my friends, bringing the color back to their coats and the happiness back into their eyes.
"Finally," I said. "Now, tell me, why did you do all of this?" Starlight didn't answer immediately, and struggled to get out. When she realized she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, she gave a defeated sigh, and so, she told all of us about her past…
Starlight and her friend, Sunburst were stacking books, and Sunburst had just finished stacking the last one, slowly slipping it on top before releasing his magic. The little Starlight clapped her hooves together happily, and then boldly tried removing a book from near the bottom. She was interrupted, however, when suddenly, the whole tower wobbled unsteadily, and almost collapsed on Starlight, but Sunburst grabbed it with his magic, and levitated all of the books in a circle around him. His whole body began to glow with ethereal light as he was lifted up into the air, levitating a few feet above the ground. A blinding flash emitted from the floating unicorn, forcing Starlight to shield her eyes for a split second. Then, all the books flew back to the shelf in correct order, and the aura around Sunburst gradually faded as he descended back onto the ground.
The luminosity around Sunburst completely dissolved as his hooves touched the floor again and he quickly looked to his flank as a burst of white light flashed there. When the light disappeared, an image of the Sun radiating light appeared, filling Sunburst with ecstasy, and he jumped high up into the air while cheering happily. He then ran out to show his family while still looking at his new mark, leaving Starlight behind to watch as his parents lifted him up and walked away.
"...and just like that, my friend was gone. His family recognized his magical talent and sent him off to Canterlot. I never saw him again," Starlight from the present finished, closing her eyes in remorse.
"Well, why not?" I asked, concern in my voice.
Starlight opened her eyes, and angrily shouted, "Because of his cutie mark! He got his, and I didn't! He moved on, and I didn't! I stayed there and never made another friend because I was too afraid another cutie mark would take them away too!"
"That's ridiculous," I responded. "A cutie mark can't take your friends away."
"Not everypony's lucky enough to get her cutie mark at the same time as her friend!" Starlight yelled, roughly wiping away a tear away. "You don't know what it's like to lose a friend because of a cutie mark. What right do you have to stop my dream of equalization!?"
"Starlight, you're right! I don't know what you went through. But I do know that the differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong.
"I thought me and Sunburst were the same," Starlight said, tears flowing freely now as she briefly looked to the side. "But we turned out different, and it tore our friendship apart!!"
"So try again! Make new friends, and if something that you can't control happens that changes things, work through it together. That's what friendship is. And it's not just my friendships that are important to Equestria, everypony's are. When yours ended, it lead us here. But just imagine all the others that are out there waiting for you if you just give them a chance," I said, hopeful that I was convincing Starlight.
"How do I know they won't all end up the same way?" Starlight asked, anguish clearly audible in her strained voice.
"I guess it's up to you to make sure they don't," I concluded, smiling, more hopeful than ever. Starlight seemed a little reluctant at first, but eventually, a smile slowly grew on her face too, and the two of us looked at each other for a few seconds, until Starlight broke the silence.
"Uh, Twilight, you can let me go now." Realizing that I was still trapping her with my magic, I blushed and put her down. We then shook hooves.
"Starlight?" The white pony from the village said.
"Y-yes, Double Diamond?" Starlight responded hesitantly.
"I just wanted to say that...we forgive you. We had no idea about any of this, and I guess we kind of understand why you would do this," the pony named Double Diamond said. The three other ponies from the village nodded, and Starlight smiled a bit more widely at that.
"Ahem," I cleared my throat to get attention, then continued. "This is a nice happy ending and all, but we kind of have a much bigger problem now." I told them about the whole ordeal with Tirek, and at the end, I made a request. "I've been able to tell you have very powerful magic, Starlight, and I was wondering if you could join me in my battle against Tirek? I could use every bit of help I can get, especially if that help is as powerful as you seem to be. It’s practically like I had another me by my side. One that wasn’t infused with alicorn magic, sure, but potent nonetheless."
Starlight nodded confidently. "I will help you. That's the least I can do after your kindness."
I smiled, and then said, "Alright, then let's get training! I'm still not 100% accustomed to my quadruple Alicorn magic yet, and I think you might want to get a bit stronger before we face the greatest threat Equestria has ever seen."
Starlight agreed, and so we split up from the rest of my friends, who headed back to Ponyville, despite my warnings about Tirek being nearby, and we headed off to a nearby wasteland in preparation for the upcoming battle.