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// Evil, Unless... 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
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"So you have brands," Valey began, "and there are three really important things about them. First, they're rare. Some ponies get them when they're young, some when they're adults, and most never at all. Second, it's a lot easier to have one and pretend you don't than it is to lack one and pretend you do. That's part of what clothes are for. And third, they give whoever has them cool powers... some better than others, often unique, always something. So before you start arguing," - she pointed a hoof at Starlight - "I'm just saying it how it is. Ponies who don't have them want them, and ponies who do get to choose whether to ignore them or not. Generally, they were considered a good thing."

Maple and Starlight blinked, huddled together under Starlight's blanket in the back of the mana-powered wagon. The rain around them was in a lull, sending down a mist so thick it might as well have been fog, touching the waterlogged earth without a sound.

"'Were?'" Maple asked, tilting her head.

Valey acknowledged with a nod. "I'll get to that. Anyway, brands are related to stuff you want to accomplish, so the ponies they turn up on tend to be the really driven, ambitious ones who aim high and naturally succeed. You see more of them at the top, you know?"

Maple nodded for her to continue, so she did.

"Eventually... and by that I mean pretty much since the dawn of recorded history... some of those higher-ups decided the brands themselves were the cause, not the effect, and started saying being branded made them better than the ponies without. Who knows if they are or not, what matters is that they all get the same idea. A bunch of other branded ponies went along with it, because if someone was saying you were awesome, why wouldn't you agree?" Valey rolled her eyes. "The ones without couldn't do anything about it 'cuz they weren't in charge, and from then on that was how the world worked. As to how much better they thought they were... I'm no history buff, but I know for a fact ponies can have some pretty twisted imaginations."

Starlight's brow furrowed. Maple shuddered.

Drawing a hoof in a semicircle, Valey sat with her back straight and wings folded. "Now, Ironridge has always had a bit of a superiority complex in the world. They were founded by this crazy explorer guy who went out thousands of miles into the middle of nowhere and found a totally unique climate where fruit grew and there was minable ore and nice places to live and even a water route to the eastern sea. Special snowflake city, right? They've always wanted to prove they were better and more advanced than other nations, and kinda passively make them look barbaric without insulting them too much because they were totally reliant on trade."

She flicked an ear against the cool air and continued. "So what they did was get a bunch of ideals and stick to them. Ever heard the phrase 'Earth District hospitality?' Ironridge figured, 'Hey, let's be nice and fair by treating every pony decently regardless of whether they have a horn or wings or brand or are young or old or missing a leg or any of the other stuff other places in the world care about."

"You don't sound very happy about that," Maple pointed out.

Valey smirked. "When was the last time you saw anyone being nice or fair to yours truly? You guys aside, because no offense, but you're idiots."

Maple tried to protest, but it died on her lips.

"How they treat me isn't important, though," Valey interrupted. "The point isn't whether it was a smart ideal, but that they had it. They went and let ponies be nice and happy members of their society, and tried for all the world to pretend it didn't matter."

She blinked off into the misty distance, eyes focused on something far in the past. "It did matter, of course. There were still classes. Ponies with brands still had more opportunities than ponies without. Maybe because they were more ambitious, maybe because society let them, but still. Ponies with brands sometimes didn't like marrying ponies without. That one was probably Yakyakistan's fault; I think they've got something in their doctrine that says earning brands can be hereditary, though I'm pretty sure it's random. What matters is that however Ironridge tried to make things equal, ponies without brands always wanted them, and sometimes, they wanted them bad."

Valey's ears stayed straight as she recounted the next part, narrating without flair or excessive emotion. "There were a lot of con artists, back then, who could make a ton of money with 'procedures' they said would improve a pony's chance of getting one. Stuff you could eat, stuff you could drink, stuff you could do... spells a unicorn could cast. There were ponies who dedicated their entire lives to getting brands. Sometimes, they would succeed, but there was nothing in the numbers to suggest it wasn't just the same distribution that everyone else got; that their efforts had made a difference. The wisdom from everyone who had one, and from everyone who was at peace with the fact that they might never get one was the same: if you get one, you get one, and there's nothing you can do to change that either way. And the world worked that way for hundreds of years... until."

"Until?" Starlight felt Maple shiver. "Until what?"

Voice hollow and haunted, Valey continued, punctuated by a distant flash of lightning. "Until that night, eight years ago. There was... some sort of magical kaboom from the moon. Nobody knew what caused it. Nobody still knows. The griffons call it a Lunar Flare, but I have no idea what they say about it. The yaks think it might have been related to their big war a few decades ago, though I haven't a clue how they reached that conclusion. But in the aftermath, there was a gigantic meteor shower that scattered material all across the world. It looks like black glass that reflects a colorless image when used as a mirror. We call it moon glass, or obsidian. And it didn't take very long for ponies to find it, and realize... that each piece contains a brand, and they can be given to ponies without them."

Maple and Starlight sat, wide-eyed. That time, it was Starlight's turn to shiver, her mind immediately tracking back to a time in the Water District when she had snuck after Maple by hiding in a crate. They had looted it afterward, she recalled, and stolen an important-looking glassy orb... but what they had left behind were dozens of mechanical parts incorporating glass that perfectly matched Valey's description. Shaking uncontrollably, she nudged the blanket aside, checking to ensure her flank was still bare.

Valey's eyes snapped to her. "You look like you've seen that before."

"M-Maybe," Starlight managed. Maple looked at her with concern, evidently not remembering the incident even though she had been present.

"Before you freak out," Valey said, "the effect is instant when it happens. The stuff works like a container, so there's no halfway point. And sometimes, you find it and it's already empty."

Starlight sighed in relief, but Maple kept staring, eventually biting her lip. "It does sound weird," she murmured. "Ponies get cutie marks when they're ready, if they ever are. That's the natural order of things. But wouldn't this be exactly what everyone was hoping for? It sounds like most ponies would think it was a dream come true."

"That's what everyone did think," Valey replied, voice monotone. "What's especially ironic is that according to the batpony legends... or, at least, what I've heard of them... the moon is associated with granting wishes. Hope... dreams... night... the moon... It fits together, you know?"

"I like looking at the moon," Starlight offered. It was true, though she hadn't had a chance to do it since wandering the mountains before Riverfall.

"Anyway," Valey said, "let's get on to the bad part. When ponies do get brands, they're about whatever that pony cares about most. So if you force yourself to get one but don't have anything you really care about, what do you think it would be?"

Neither pony had an answer.

"That's the first of it," Valey sighed. "It has nothing to do with anything. The brand you get is random. It might not even be possible to use it. You can see earth ponies walking around with brands of clouds and air stunts, pegasi with vague magical swirls, and unicorns with plants and trowels. Real brands always match a pony's personality without fail. They never change you, they always fit perfectly and just make you better at what you want to do. These don't. The power is real, but they're not real brands. They can't be. They're something else, something sinister and vile."

Her teeth clenched as she continued, spitting words through a tightened jaw. "Once a bunch of ponies had these fake brands, they started to notice the side effects. It wasn't just that the brands didn't fit their ponies... they changed the ponies to fit them. Family members and loved ones started noticing personality shifts, changes of interests. At best, they became twisted, but still recognizable. At worst, it was like they were completely different ponies. Sometimes they turned mean, sometimes uncaring. Sometimes ponies who used to be jerks even became nice. But every time, they were overwritten with something else, and were no longer ponies. And to cap it all off?" Her eyes flashed. "The brands left a mark, as proof that they weren't real. When they appeared, they would change the color of one of the host's eyes, as a permanent indicator that that pony was no longer real but possessed by a parasite posing as something everyone desired."

Chest heaving, she bitterly finished, "That's it. Nobody knows what they really are, or where they come from, but it doesn't matter when you can see plainly what they do. Those stones... there's something inside them that looks like something ponies want, but then takes them over and uses their body and memories for itself. They're monsters. I hate it..."

Slowly, dragging the blanket and Starlight along with her, Maple scooted to where the batpony had collapsed, reached out and laid a hoof on her shaking shoulder. "I'm sorry for making you feel like you had to say all that," she whispered. "It sounds terrible. I can't even think about watching that happen to someone I love, like Willow or Starlight. I hope I never have to live through it..."

"You wanna know something funny?" Valey asked, still facedown.

"A joke?" Maple frowned. "Now?"

Valey's head rose... and despite the hints of fresh tears in the corners of her eyes, her breathing was perfectly controlled, even. "You believed me," she whispered. "You think this stuff is totally, irredeemably evil, don't you? Just because I was dramatic about it? Just because I told you it is?"

"Now... Wait..." Maple blinked, confused. "Of course not! Or... it is, but not just because..." She blinked again. "What's your point?"

"Weren't you listening?" Valey grinned, sitting up and out of Maple's reach, though her eyes still weren't perfectly dry. She wiped them with a hoof, was satisfied, and continued. "The fake brands don't necessarily make ponies behave poorly, or do nasty deeds. I even said sometimes, they make mean ponies get nicer. But still, you can tell they're evil."

Maple bit her lip.

"I'm not saying they aren't," Valey said. "They're horrifying. I probably didn't even do them justice. Ponies sure don't need me to come to the conclusion that they're bad news; everyone reaches that on their own. But don't you get it? It doesn't matter how useful something is, or whether it gives you what you've always wanted... whether that's a brand or a safe ticket out of town. It can still be objectively bad, just because it is."

"It... You know what?" Maple drew herself up until she was standing, snagging the blanket on Starlight's hooves. "If that's what this is about, I'm not sure I care. What's the use in calling something bad if it only does good things?"

Valey snickered. "Do I look like a paragon to you? I wander around Ironridge ruining days, messing with bureaucrats, flirting with ponies who obviously aren't eligible and leaving banana peels in really annoying places. The me you've seen is not the me everyone else sees, because regularly, I'm a menace."

"Only because you're always trying to convince other ponies how bad you are," Maple pointed out. "Right, Starlight?"

Starlight took a step back. The whole situation made her uncomfortable, and she didn't want to voice a strong opinion until she had had proper time to think.

"Yeah, well, that and because they'd hate me anyway." Valey shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I said this earlier, but if you're gonna get blamed for stuff, you might as well have the fun of doing it, right?"

Maple didn't back down. "If you've never given them the chance, how do you know they wouldn't accept you with enough work?"

"One, 'cuz they're not all idiots." Valey stretched a wing, counting on its leathery spokes. "Two, because Herman would remind them even if I didn't, because that guy doesn't like me having nice things. And three, because they probably eventually would start to think I'm not all that bad..." Her eyes narrowed. "And they'd be wrong, just like you thinking I'm a big pile of cuddly hugs. Nobody in Ironridge knows what my real deal is besides me and Herman, and I'm not telling, but..." She stretched. "I promise you, I know this for sure, and even the judgement of a thousand clueless imbeciles isn't going to change fact. So hey, instead of you beating your head against a brick wall, why don't I continue the story? I was just getting around to how Ironridge reacted to all this."

Sighing, Maple sat, and Starlight gratefully pulled the blanket back around them as the rain poured down and thunder rumbled in the distance.