Party Favor drove his head at the door, burying his horn a full two inches into the thick wood. “What was I thinking? I can't believe I even considered asking for my cutie mark back.”
“Don't worry,” Rainbow Dash said, spreading her wings in what he assumed was a gesture of confidence. “Fluttershy will have us out of here in no time.”
She soon had a face full of crazed unicorn as Party Favor slid across the room. “Didn't you see what just happened out there? Your friend has accepted our way. You will all accept our way. It's only a matter of time!” With each sentence, he grew more frantic, as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle all backed cautiously away.
Forcing himself to calm down, he trudged over to a corner and laid down. “This guy's a barrel of laughs,” he heard Rainbow mutter.
The other five ponies began to talk amongst themselves, leaving Party Favor alone with his regrets. There was no denying it; he'd messed up big time. Well, technically he and Night Glider and Sugar Belle had all messed up, but at least he could spare them the pain of dealing with it. It had been bad enough barely remembering what life with his special talent had been like when he could commiserate with them. Now he was alone.
The loudspeaker brought him back to reality. “To excel is to fail. To...”
“Let's just hope they don't convert any of us first,” Rarity said.
Party Favor turned his head toward the five and allowed himself a...well, it wasn't exactly a smile. But his frown became slightly less pronounced. He wasn't totally alone now, was he? Sure he didn't have much to look forward to when the time came to leave, but at least he could speak freely with some un-acculturated outsiders for the time being.
“Ya really think that keepin' us cooped in here listening to that racket is going to make us wanna go out and...” Applejack fumbled around for a second before starting over, “is going to make us think like they do?”
Party Favor sighed. “It's not what goes on in here that does the converting.” He pointed his hoof at the door. “It's what goes on out there.”
Five blank expressions stared back at him. “You want to run that by us again?” Rainbow asked.
“I'm afraid I don't understand either,” Twilight said. “If this isn't an attempt to convert us, why are we locked up in here in the first place?”
Party Favor was about to answer when Pinkie Pie's monotone voice cut him off. “I think it's to get us acquainted with misery.”
He nodded. “Being locked up in here just makes you desperate to get out. It makes you want to say anything, or do anything just to leave.”
Rarity rubbed her chin. “Well, that certainly seems an odd way to acquire converts. It seems to me that you'd just wind up with ponies pretending to have converted so as to be released.”
“Well, yeah.” Party Favor stood up and walked over to where the five were standing, this time at a more sedate pace. “That's what Fluttershy is doing right now, isn't it?”
“Wait,” Pinkie said. “I thought...that you thought...that Fluttershy thought...” Her head dropped and she let out a groan as her equal mark pulsed. She started again, much more slowly. “Didn't you believe that she'd been converted?”
He shook his head. “She accepted our way. That doesn't mean she believes it. Not yet, anyway. Let me guess: she's planning on breaking you out tonight, or maybe getting your cutie marks back?”
Rarity practically wilted. “Will...will they be expecting that?”
“She won't succeed,” he said. “They keep night guards and wards around the cutie mark vault. And around the lockdown, when there are ponies here.”
“Hey!” Rainbow's face contorted in anger, and she stood straight in front of Party Favor. “If you knew all this, why didn't you warn us before we checked out the vault in the first place?” She poked his chest with her hoof, hard. “This was all part of your plan, wasn't it? It's still part of your plan! What are you trying to pull here?”
“I didn't know!” Party Favor yelped, panic rising again. “I swear! I'd never seen Starlight take anypony's cutie mark by force before. I didn't know it could be done that way! Everypony who joined us before agreed to it.” He shuddered and looked away. “I agreed to it,” he said softly. Taking a deep breath, he turned his head back towards the group and pushed Rainbow's hoof away. “We'd only ever used the lockdown before for ponies who changed their minds after going through the ceremony. Or who caused problems later. We all went through the ceremony willingly. Well, everypony that I know of, anyway.”
Silence settled on the group for a minute, until Applejack laid a hoof across Rainbow's withers and pulled her back to the side. “Ah think he's telling the truth.”
“I still don't understand,” Twilight said. “If this 'lockdown' only serves to get ponies to pretend they've accepted the equality mantra, then what does that accomplish? You just have a whole town of ponies going along with a lie?”
“Some of them,” he said. “Some really believe it. And some ponies pretend until they start to believe it themselves. If everypony you talk to says they believe in equality, and if you can only say that you believe in equality, then it gets really hard to believe anything else. And you always have to watch out for who you're talking to. It was years before Night Glider and I realized that we could trust each other, and even longer before we figured out that we could trust Sugar Belle.”
“But you know that you can trust them now,” said Pinkie.
He hung his head. “When I get out of here, I won't be able to go anywhere near them for a long time. It's too risky. Ponies might associate them with me, and then they'd be punished too. And we'd be kept apart even longer.” He looked from one pony to the next. “You know they'll do that for you all too, right? When you finally decide to play along and leave? They'll keep you separate from each other. 'All ponies are to be friends equally, none closer than others.' That's what they'll say. And if you try to go against it? Back in the lockdown. And they can make it worse than this if they want to.”
“None closer than others...” Rarity murmured.
Applejack quirked an eyebrow. “Ya got something there, Rares?”
“I'm not quite sure,” she said. “I can't help but feel that something is amiss here.”
“Ya think?”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, hush. It just seems that if this town is so thoroughly committed to equality in all things that they would attempt to equalize degrees of friendship...then why is it that a single pony seems to be the focal point of the entire town? I realize that Starlight Glimmer may be the founder of this town, but she certainly seems to take on a leadership role that goes far beyond what one might call 'equal.'”
“Ya might just have something there,” Applejack said. “Party Favor, didn't you just say that it was Starlight who always did the cutie mark removals? ...Party Favor?”
Party Favor's jaw hung slack as years of town life flashed through his mind. Years of Starlight Glimmer leading and controlling every aspect of town life. How had he never seen it in this light before? “I...she...” He gulped. “You're right. Starlight never has been very equal. I mean, she gave up her cutie mark like everyone else, but somehow she's always been in charge.”
“Sure sounds like something's rotten in the...the...” Applejack's equal mark pulsed. “Confound it all!”
“Party Favor, it doesn't seem like we're going to get a better chance at changing this situation than we have now.” Twilight's face was a mask of determination. “You're clearly not happy with the situation, and we need your help.”
“What do you think I can do?”
The princess nodded. “When they let you out, stay close to Starlight Glimmer. Watch her. Pay attention to everything she does. If we can discredit her, we may be able to convince more ponies to join us. And connect with Fluttershy. You can trust her.”
“They're going to ask me what happened in here, you know,” he said. “Especially if I start acting differently.”
Twilight smiled. “Well, our original plan was to convince you that it was possible to still be friends despite our differences. I guess you didn't need convincing, but you can tell them that we tried.”
Starlight Glimmer. He'd never grasped it before, but taking her down might just change everything. As he looked once more from one mare to the next, Party Favor began to feel a hope that he hadn't felt in years. “I...I'll try. What else do I have to lose, right?”
Rainbow raised a hoof in triumph. “That's the spirit!”
As the five mares and one stallion settled down for the night, Party Favor allowed himself a smile. The first real smile he'd worn in years.