"Behold! Our cutie mark vault!"
Fluttershy heard gasps around her. She wasn't much of a gasper. Fainting was more her speed.
Still, she had to admit she was feeling a bit lightheaded at the sight before her; a monolithic wall of blue sheen, like a glowing plane of glass that stretched from floor to ceiling, divided into a two dimensional Spell Matrix forming boxes to restrain anything within in a 2D shape; and restrain it did, for every box held its own Cutie Mark, the culmination of everything that made a pony a Pony, contained in a tiny doodle- Special talent, Magic, Fears, Wants, Desires, all trapped in a thin sheet of Pocket Dimension proudly displayed under the all-imposing Equal Sign.
"I've never seen anything like this..." Twilight breathed.
And in front of it, sticking straight up from a stone pedestal in the ground, a wooden spear with a curving, twirling base and twin prongs nearly as long as the handle.
"And here.... is the Staff of Sameness." Starlight began, delicately lifting it in a weak lull of telekinesis to guide it through the air lazily. "It was one of the Great Mage Meadowbrook's 9 Enchanted Items. We are incredibly fortunate to have it here."
Twilight's eyes narrowed contemplatively like that, an expression well known to her friends- an idea was forming. But just behind her was a much subtler tell- Fluttershy's front hoof began to shift, grinding quietly on the ground like she was trying to bore a hole to fall through.
"This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks!" Starlight swung the staff in an arc ahead of her, gallons of pride laced with a toxic glee spilling from her words.
And like a bullet through water, a tiny, near imperceivable sound echoed in the empty cave, all ears swiveling towards the source.
"No."
Starlight blinked, her smile unwavering. "Pardon?"
The group all took a step back, leaving one in the center- Fluttershy, quivering with a much more visible fear, eyes trained on the floor. Still, she remained steadfast, and peeped out a louder,
"No."
"Whatever could you mean... Fluttershy, was it?" Starlight flashed her teeth like a chimp, waiting the answer calmly.
"Fluttershy, let's be nice..." Twilight seethed through her own smile, a forced one that read less be nice and more don't play your cards yet.
"I-I mean no." Fluttershy persisted, playing with her hair nervously. "I don't kn-know much about magic, or M-Mage Meadowbrook besides a few stories Dad used to tell me. A-And I don't know what her magical artifacts are, or even that she had any. B-But that's not one of them."
Starlight protectively drew the staff closer to herself, a subtle crack in the facade. "Well, I'd hardly consider you an expert, given what you've told me! Ah, why, exactly, are you sure of yourself?"
Make or break moment, Fluttershy. "B..."
Everyone's watching you, with interest, with fear, with curiosity. "B-Be..."
You've kept this secret so long. "Becau..."
You trusted these people. And their heirloom is a fake. How could they? "It's because..."
Fluttershy sighed.
"It's because that's the Spear of Longinus."
Silence. Then, a patient, prodding, "Pardon?" from the pony wielding the perpetrator.
The cork was loose, and the wine was spilling out now. Fluttershy didn't even think, she just closed her eyes and pushed on.
"Adam's Spear of Longinus, brought to Earth when he first collided with it, long before the dawn of pony. Adam's development was stunted when Lilith collided with the same planet, and her own Spear was destroyed, placing Adam in suspended animation while Lilith proceeded to create life in her image."
Starlight was glaring now, though few were focused on her anymore. "What are you-"
"Millions of years later, ponies attempted to remove it from Adam, causing the Second Impact when the Earth's magnetic pole was severely shifted and the Artic ice caps melted. Half of the planet's population was killed."
"Fluttershy, what are you talking about?" Twilight asked baffledly.
Fluttershy's eyes screwed shut tighter. "The Spear was then used in 2015 to kill Arael, the fifteenth angel, by impaling it through her, after which it collided with the moon, where it remained until the Third Impact, andcreatestheTreeofLife!" Fluttershy took a deep gasping breath, and squeed anxiously. "It's a nice replica. I didn't know you were a Neon Genesis fan."
Starlight sputtered, struggling to close her agape jaws. "A- Neon Genesis- You think this is- A replica-?"
Fluttershy fumbled in her hair, quickly trying to recover as she sorted through the brushes, makeup kits, dog treats, art kits, pens, bits, and deck of cards she kept in her locks. "I-I- Look at it! The twisted handle, the long prongs, the point where the handle meets them! It's a woodcarved replica of the spear! Here, right here!"
In front of everyone, she pulled out a folded slip of paper, and threw it onto the ground. It depicted a watercolor painting of a giant blue, slender figure with bulky hooves standing in a knee-deep ocean amidst a black void, wielding a spear twice as long as its own body. Behind it was a crucified pony with an alien face and a smooth head, entrails hanging from where its hindlegs had been removed.
"I-I was gonna finish it here, but enough of it was painted to get the point! It's fanart of that very same spear!" Fluttershy pointed an accusing hoof, cleaving an invisible path through the crowd that had gathered to peer at it towards Starlight. "That's not a magical artifact at all! It's an anime weapon!"
"ENOUGH!" Starlight shouted, slamming the base of the spear into the ground. "I am not an anime fan! I don't know what a Neon Genesis whatever is! I don't know Adam, Lilith, Rei, whatever! I don't know what you're talking about, or who these people are! You want to know why it looks like this!"
With a resounding heave, she lifted it off the ground with her bare hooves and slammed it into the stone floor, revealing why she was so fragile with it. It shattered instantly, and the crowd gasped yet again.
"Because it's a damn stick I found out in the desert!"
Starlight caught her breath, and looked at the crowd of villagers gathered around her.
"...Oops." She smiled nervously.