"Pardon me, sir. Could you direct me to the Manehattan library?"
The elderly stallion looked down and smiled at the hooded unicorn that had asked the question, completely unaware that he was face-to-face with one of the most wanted mares in Equestria. "Of course," he replied, pointing a hoof down the street. "It's four blocks north of here, on your right."
"Thank you!" Starlight Glimmer's polite smile quickly faded as she began walking up the street, her pace slowed by several blisters on her back hooves. She cursed under her breath at the pain, and at the thirty-mile trek out of the mountains that had led to the pain, and at the collapse of her grand experiment that had led to the trek. Most of all, though, she cursed the names of the so-called Elements of Harmony, the ponies who had crushed her perfect society to spread their backwards doctrine of exceptionalism and identity. Thanks to them, she had lost her home, her dreams, and her standing in the community, and three weeks of living on the lam had only added to her frustration.
As she fumed, Starlight looked around at the haggard and hurried faces of the ponies rushing around her. What had trying to be special ever gotten any of them? They weren't happy, they were miserable! They were slaves to a broken system, all competing to be the most special of special ponies, and getting nothing but sorrow in return. It wasn't their fault, of course; the mantra had been drilled into their minds since foalhood. They needed somepony to show them the light, somepony to lead them down the true path to happiness. They needed her.
Unfortunately, one couldn't just show her face in society when that face was on a poster in every post office from here to the Crystal Empire, which is why she had made the long journey to Manehattan in the first place. She couldn't stand against the powers that be in her current state; Princess Twilight had proven that fact back at the village. If she was going to challenge the current world order, she was going to need more power, and this was the second-best place to start looking for it. (The best place would have been Canterlot's library, of course, but the princesses living there worried her even more than Twilight did.)
Upon reaching the library, Starlight made a quick stop in the bathroom to make sure her hood shaded her eyes, and then approached the circulation desk. "I'm looking for some books on ancient artifacts," she told the librarian. "Where can I find them?"
"Archeology and ancient history, second floor," the librarian replied curtly without looking up.
Starlight rolled her eyes and walked up to the second floor. A few minutes of searching led her to a quiet nook of the library, one filled with dusty texts that looked like they hadn't been opened since the banishment of Nightmare Moon. Starlight chose a few books with promising titles, found a vacant table, and started reading.
For the next hour, Starlight stared and scowled at various treasures from Equestria's past, most of which were nothing more than powerless trinkets. Halfway through her third book, however, she stumbled across a picture of a fierce-looking unicorn wielding a gray staff with a glowing silver ball at the tip. "Comet Tail served as the personal protector to Princess Platinum," Starlight read to herself. "Her staff, which was carved from the remnants of a meteor, was said to contain the power to pull the very stars out of the sky." An evil grin spread across Starlight's face. Her magic had turned an ordinary stick into the Staff of Sameness; just imagine what she could do with a staff with some actual power!
"Upon Comet's death, the staff was sealed within her tomb near the unicorn's capitol settlement," Starlight continued. Her smile faded as she recalled that the ancient home of the unicorns was buried somewhere deep in the woods outside Vanhoover, which was about as far away from Manehattan as you could get without swimming to another continent. It would take forever to get there from here, and there were a lot of ponies in between that wanted nothing more than to lock her up and throw away the key. But if the staff really contained the power that the book implied...
Starlight cast another glance at the picture of Comet Tail. With a staff like that, nopony would be able to challenge Starlight's authority, not even Princess Celestia! Forget running some stupid village in the middle of nowhere—she could overthrow the entire monarchy, and establish a new world order based on conformity and sameness, where everypony would live together in peace and harmony. Didn't her fellow ponies deserve that chance? Wasn't that worth the risk?
Starlight closed the book, placed it back on the shelf, and made her way to the library exit. She took a long look at her reflection in the library's glass door, and put on her most determined face before she pushed it open. No matter what happened, she had to find that staff. All of Equestria was counting on it.
Starlight's face fell as she read the fare board at the Manehattan train depot. Seventy-five bits for a ticket to Vanhoover was seventy-five more than she had, and nopony around looked eager to loan her the cash. She noticed a few well-to-do travelers walking by and contemplated just robbing them for the money, but she couldn't risk making a scene.
As she paced back and forth along the station platform, she spotted a mustachioed security guard standing in front of a door marked 'AUTHORIZED PONIES ONLY.' You know, she thought to herself, I've always fancied myself a talented actor... She took a deep breath, adjusted her hood, put on her best terrified expression, and scurried over to the guard. "Help! Help!" she cried.
The guard looked at Starlight curiously. "What's wrong, ma'am?"
"I saw her!" Starlight said. "Walking in front of the station! I'm sure it was her!"
"Who?"
"You know!" Starlight lowered her voice to a whisper. "That mare who was stealing other ponies' cutie marks!"
The guard's eyes widened. "What? Oh dear!" He took off running down the platform. "Alert the chief!" he called to another guard pony nearby. "There's been a Starlight sighting!"
Starlight watched as the guard ponies circled around the building, and then casually opened the door and sneaked inside the station. She emerged a few minutes later having exchanged her cloak for a chef's outfit, complete with a saddlebag bursting with kitchen utensils and a glued-on mustache made from a few carefully-trimmed tail hairs. "Excuse me," she asked one of the train conductors. "I'm new here, and I'm supposed to be working in the kitchen on the next train to Vanhoover. Could you point me to the proper train?"
"Sure!" the conductor replied helpfully. "Go down those stairs, take a left, and then take another left to get to the trains. You're looking for Engine No. 14. You'd better hurry, though—it's scheduled to leave in twenty minutes!"
"Thanks!" Starlight hurried in the direction of the stairs, trying hard not to smile behind her disguise.
Once aboard the train, Starlight made her way to the baggage car, where she hid out until the train started moving. Next, she exchanged her uniform for a green skirt and red baseball cap, and went to hide herself amidst the other passengers. The first few cars were filled to capacity, but she eventually spotted an empty seat next to a light-gold pony wearing a purple cloak and gray cloche. "Is this seat taken?" she asked.
The gold pony shook her head. "No, you can have it."
For a brief moment, Starlight thought the gold pony looked familiar, but she decided not to press the issue. "Thanks," she said as she sat down.
The pair sat in silence for a few minutes as the train sped across the countryside. "So," the gold pony asked, "is your trip for business or pleasure?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, business," Starlight replied. "Very important business."
"Too bad," the gold pony replied. "You look like you could use a vacation."
Starlight rolled her eyes. "I just came back from a trip to the mountains. It wasn't very relaxing."
"I know how you feel. No matter how far I go, I can't seem to get away." The gold pony turned and stared out the window. "My old editor use to say that authors had it easy, because only their characters became famous. Boy, was he wrong."
Author? Starlight suddenly realized why the other pony looked familiar. "Wait, are you... A. K. Yearling?"
Yearling smiled. "Guilty as charged. And you are?"
"Um, well..." Starlight racked her brain and grabbed the first name that came to mind. "My name's, uh, Comet Tail."
"That's interesting," Yearling replied. "Were you named after the old unicorn soldier?"
Starlight looked at Yearling in shock. "You know about her?"
"Sure," Yearling said with a shrug. "When your hero makes a living collecting ancient artifacts, you learn a lot about Equestrian history."
"Interesting..." The wheels began turning in Starlight's mind. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the location of Comet's tomb, would you? I'd love to go and visit my namesake while I'm in town."
"It's thirty miles due south of town," Yearling said. "The forest around it is almost impenetrable, but some of the local pegasi give balloon tours of the area. You should definitely check it out."
"I think I will." Starlight feigned a yawn and stretched out her limbs. "Forgive me," she said. "I think I'm going to take a nap—it's been a long day, and I've got a lot of work to do when we get to town."
"Fair enough," Yearling replied. "Pleasant dreams."
I think they'll be more than pleasant, Starlight thought to herself as she closed her eyes.
After ten hours of the most restful sleep she had had in weeks, Starlight awoke to find the moon shining bright as the train pulled into the Vanhoover station. She bid farewell to A. K. Yearling, and scampered off the train to see if she could find anypony who sold a map of the southern forests. Unfortunately, the town had rolled up its sidewalks hours earlier, and nothing was open save for a few all-night clubs and bars.
Having nopony around had its advantages, however, and Vanhoover had a plethora of signs that pointed visitors to its various attractions. Starlight followed the signs to a hot air balloon launching area on the south end of town, and smiled as she discovered that several balloon operators had helpfully left their equipment there unattended. Who needs a map of the forest, she thought, when I can just fly over it?
Starlight picked a sturdy-looking basket, pulled up the stakes that held it down, and hopped inside. She took a deep breath, cleared her mind, and tried to remember the fire spell she had learned as a filly scout long ago. Draw upon your inner fire, she heard her old scout leader say in her mind. The old woman had meant for the scouts to think warm thoughts about home and family and friends, but Starlight had a much deeper well to draw from: Anger. She thought about Princess Twilight and her friends, and how they had remorselessly destroyed her world to spread their misguided ideology, and how she had been sent running into the mountains and forced to live as a—
BOOM! The roaring flames that exploded from Starlight's horn startled even the unicorn herself. The balloon quickly filled with hot air, and the entire setup rose into the sky. The prevailing winds were blowing north rather than south, however, and Starlight didn't have a pegasus around to pull the balloon in the right direction, so she simulated the action by pulling the basket's ropes in the proper direction using her magic. This, unfortunately, meant constantly switching between spells to keep the balloon aloft and on course, which slowed her progress considerably.
Starlight spent the rest of the night scouring the Vanhoover wilderness for signs of Comet Tail's final resting place. While Princess Luna had cooperated by hanging a full moon in the sky, identifying objects from the air was still a chore, and the constant spell-switching strained Starlight's concentration right up to the breaking point. It wasn't until daybreak that Starlight finally spotted a large stone structure rising from a clearing near the base of a waterfall. "This had better be the right tomb," she grumbled.
Starlight set the balloon down carefully next to the front of the tomb, and ran over to the entrance. The stonework was showing its age, and much of the entryway ceiling was now lying on the floor, but Starlight picked her way around the smaller boulders, used her magic to move the large ones, and descended fearlessly into the tomb.
The entry passage led to a large room with numerous ornate drawings on the walls, most of which showed Comet Tail in various scenes and poses. At the front of the room was a large stone door flanked by two statues of Comet Tail, depicting the ancient unicorn reared up on her back hooves with her front hooves reaching out towards Starlight. Other passages, unblocked by stone doors, sat to Starlight's left and right, and a golden lectern stood in the center of the room.
Starlight stepped up to the lectern, which had an inscription written on its top. "Okay..." she said to herself as she skimmed the text, "so according to this thing, Comet Tail and his staff are behind that stone, and moving that stone requires some sort of intricate ritual involving a silver orb and a sacred spell book, neither of which I have." She decided that it would be quicker to move the stone herself, and tried to use her magic to pull the stone out of the way, but the stone held fast.
After five minutes of wasted effort, Starlight had had enough. "Fine," she told the stone. "If I can't go around you, I'll go through you." She reared back and fired a powerful magic blast at the stone's center, but the blast rebounded off the stone and came right back at her.
"Yikes!" Starlight dove out of the way, and the blast whizzed past her and struck the lectern, blasting it into a million pieces.
Starlight picked herself up off the floor, and smacked herself in the forehead as she looked over at the lectern's remains. "Right. Magic ward. Should've seen that coming." She turned and glared at the stone. "All right," she grumbled, "have it your way. I'll find your stupid book and your stupid orb. I don't know how the heck I'm going to do it, but I am going to do it, because I am not leaving without that staff!"
Starlight turned and stomped down the left passageway, too irritated to care about what might be lurking inside. "Where in the name of Celestia am I going to find those stupid artifacts?" she lamented. "For all I know, they've been destroyed, or stolen, or buried somewhere in the old city, or they may have just rotted away! It could take years to—"
WHAM! Starlight was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the passage was a dead end, and she smacked face-first into the wall. She stepped back, shook the stars from her eyes, and glared angrily at the wall that had blocked her path. She quickly noticed, however, that a small shelf had been carved into the wall about two steps to her left, and that somepony had left a polished silver orb sitting inside. "Wow," she said. "That was easy."
She used her magic to pull the orb off of the shelf, but the passage lit up as she did so, and she started to hear the sound of fire crackling behind her. She spun around to see a wall of magical flames spouting from the floor about twenty-five hooves behind her, completely blocking the passageway.
Starlight scowled at the flames. "Is that all you've got?" She set the orb back on the shelf and prepared to cast a water spell, but the flames disappeared the moment she replaced the orb. Starlight stared back down the passageway for a moment, and then lifted the orb up again, causing the flames to reappear. "Interesting," she said as she examined the orb under the light of the flames. "You know, this thing looks pretty fireproof..."
Starlight put the orb back onto the shelf, extinguishing the flames once more. She then walked back to the passageway entrance and used her magic to lift the orb off the shelf and bring it over to where she stood. As she predicted, the orb passed through the magical flames without any trouble. Not much of a trap, she thought to herself.
"Now then, according to that ritual," Starlight recalled as she walked past the ruined lectern, "the orb and book need to be placed like so..." She deposited the orb into the outstretched legs of one of the Comet Tail statues, and turned towards the right passageway. "I wonder how good my luck—" She stopped short as she noticed the image of a book just above the right passage's entrance. She turned, noted a similar orb picture above the left passageway, and muttered a few choice words under her breath.
Upon entering the right passage, Starlight found her path immediately blocked by a large square stone. Unlike the magical stone in the center room, this one could be pushed up into the ceiling, but this act only revealed another similar stone behind it. "Ten bits says the book is behind these rocks somewhere," Starlight guessed. "The question is, how do I get past them all?"
A quick look to her left revealed the answer: A large mechanical-looking contraption was mounted on the wall, and while it did not seem to have any levers or ropes to pull, it did have a glass canister with a small, dark sphere inside, as well as a pair of contacts just above the canister that stuck out from the wall. "Hmmm..." Starlight mused. "This is a unicorn tomb, isn't it?"
Starlight aimed her horn and fired a burst of magic at the contacts. The contacts absorbed the blast, causing the sphere inside the canister to glow faintly. Behind the wall, Starlight could hear a grinding noise, and the blocks in her way quivered slightly. She shrugged, and fired a prolonged magical blast at the contacts, lighting up the inner sphere until it glowed a bright white and started shooting bolts of energy out against the glass. Sure enough, the large blocks receded into the walls—it turned out that there were seven blocks in all—and revealed the contents of the passage: A large book, still in pristine condition, sitting on a shelf similar to the one holding the silver orb.
The canister sphere's light started to dim the minute Starlight stopped charging it, so she quickly grabbed the book using her magic and brought it back over to her position before the rocks slid back into place. "That was simple," she said to herself as she re-entered the center room. "Perhaps those traps were just to keep earth ponies and pegasi out." She placed the book into the hooves of the remaining statue, and was rewarded by a loud rumbling sound and the retraction of the magical stone into the floor.
Starlight stepped through the center doorway and into what appeared to be the burial chamber, a sparsely-furnished room whose walls were blank save for a sonnet written on the back wall that rhapsodized about Comet Tail's immense power and her loyalty to the unicorn monarchy. Comet's sarcophagus sat in the middle of the room, ornamented only with an image of the mare stenciled onto the lid.
Starlight surveyed the room a few times, but didn't see Comet Tail's staff anywhere, which probably meant it was inside the sarcophagus with its owner. She approached the casket slowly, and hesitated before opening the lid. She had committed a number of minor offenses on her journey here—stealing clothes, hijacking balloons, lying to authorities—but defiling the grave of one of history's great unicorns was a line even she was reluctant to cross.
Starlight paused for a moment, closed her eyes, and thought back to the sad and tired looks she had seen on the ponies of Manehattan. She reminded herself that her journey was not about disrespecting the past, but about using it to shape the future. Those Manehattan ponies, and ponies like then all across Equestria, needed somepony—needed her!—to step forward and show them the true path to happiness, and she needed the staff to combat the ignorant ponies that blocked this path. Surely Comet Tail would approve of her powers being used to push pony society forward like this! Why, if she were alive today, she would be standing by Starlight's side supporting the cause wholeheartedly! The idea moved Starlight to act, and she flung the casket open with authority.
Resting inside the casket was the skeleton of Comet Tail, clutching her staff to her chest with all four legs. Starlight carefully moved the skeletal limbs aside, and raised the staff over her head. "Success!" she declared. "This day shall stand forever as a turning point in the fight against individualism and specialty! With this staff, I shall—" She was interrupted by a loud rumbling that echoed through the chamber, and the entire tomb began shaking violently. "Is that you, Comet Tail?" Starlight shouted towards the ceiling. "Fear not, for your powers will be used not to suppress or destroy, but to free our fellow ponies from—"
This time, Starlight was interrupted by a large stone that fell from the ceiling and crashed down onto the sarcophagus, flattening Comet Tail's remains. Starlight sensed that the time for speeches had past, and she made a mad dash for the exit.
With Comet Tail's staff in tow, Starlight dashed out of the tomb right before the whole thing came crashing down in a pile of rubble and dust. She took a few moments to catch her breath before turning and surveying the damage she had wrought. She felt a little guilty about destroying the tomb, but resolved to work extra hard to spread the gospel of conformity as penance.
She raised her new staff over her head. "As I was saying... This day shall stand forever as a turning point in the fight against—"
"Thank you, my dear!" a voice suddenly cried out, and a blue hand reached over and snatched the staff out of the air.
"Hey!" Starlight shouted. "That's my—" She stopped as she got a good look at the strange creature in front of her. "Wait... Ahuizotl?"
"Aha! It seems my reputation has preceded me!" Ahuizotl cackled.
Starlight rubbed her eyes, and wondered if she had hit her head on a rock on her way out of the tomb. "You're real?"
"Was that ever in doubt?" Ahuizotl flashed an evil smile. "Ah, but where are my manners? You've saved me a great deal of trouble by bringing me the staff of the legendary Comet Tail!" He looked down and admired the staff in his tail hand. "With the power of this staff, I shall—"
"Give me that!" Starlight yanked the staff out of Ahuizotl's hand with her magic. "This is my staff, and I'm going to use it to bring happiness and conformity to all of Equestria!" she proclaimed. "Go get your own!"
Ahuizotl grimaced. "I am not here to play games with a foolish pony!" He grabbed a whistle that was hanging from his neck and gave it a sharp tweet, causing several large jungle cats to jump out of the brush. "Get her!"
The cats surrounded Starlight, but the pony was unmoved. "You don't scare me," she said, waving Comet Tail's staff menacingly in front of her. "With this staff, I've got enough power to blast you all the way to the Griffon Empire!"
Ahuizotl's cats all leaped at Starlight in unison, but Starlight summoned a defense shield to block their attacks, and then pumped out several precision magic blasts that sent the cats flying back into the brush. "You'd better get out of my way right now," Starlight told Ahuizotl, "or you'll get the same treatment!"
Ahuizotl gave his whistle another tweet, and forty more cats emerged from the forest and formed a large circle around Starlight. "You cannot stop us all," Ahuizotl said. "Surrender the staff of Comet Tail, or face your doom!"
Starlight gritted her teeth, and raised the staff above her head. "You asked for it," she growled as she focused all of her magical energy on the staff. "I call upon the fabled Staff of Comet Tail to unleash its full power, and smite those who stand against it!"
The orb on the tip of the staff began to glow. "That's it!" Starlight said. "Hear my commands! Tell me your secrets! Give me your power!"
Instead, the staff sparked a few times, and the orb went dark again. "Huh?" Starlight glared at the staff, and banged it on the ground a few times. "Didn't you hear me? I said give me your power!"
The staff sparked a few more times, but did nothing more. "What is wrong with you?" Starlight yelled at the staff. "Are you defective or something?"
Ahuizotl laughed at Starlight's predicament. "Fool! You are not pony enough to unlock the staff's power!" He motioned for his cats to move in. "Destroy her!"
For the first time since her showdown with Princess Twilight, Starlight felt real fear welling up inside her. She looked around frantically for an escape route, but there were none to be found. She gulped and racked her brain for an idea, praying for just one little spark of inspiration.
Suddenly, a beam of light split the sky, passed over the crowd, and focused on the stone remains of Comet's Tail tomb, forming a large circle of light on one of the rocks. All of the cats turned and stared, completely entranced by the light as it bounced and darted across the landscape. "What are you doing?" Ahuizotl demanded. "Attack the pony!"
Starlight saw her opening and turned to run, but instead was nearly trampled by a stampede as the cats rushed towards the light, stalking and pouncing as it continued dancing around. "You fools! Stop this at once!" Ahuizotl screamed.
"Looks like you need to invest in some better help, Ahuizotl!" a voice from the sky taunted.
Starlight's jaw dropped as she looked up and saw none other than Daring Do hovering in the sky, using a giant mirror to focus the sun's light into a makeshift cat toy. "You're real too?" she stammered.
"Curse you, Daring Do!" Ahuizotl shook a fist at his rival. "You're always ruining my plans!"
"I think it's time for you to get going!" Daring Do said as she aimed her light beam at Ahuizotl's feet.
"Ack!" Ahuizotl jumped back from the light. "Watch where you're pointing that—" He stopped when he realized his army of jungle cats was now charging in his direction. "Wait! Stop, you fools!" He turned to run, but Daring Do kept the light right on his heels, ensuring the cats chased Ahuizotl deep into the forest. "I'll get you for this, Daring Do!" Ahuizotl swore as he ran away. "We'll meet again!"
"We always do!" Daring Do waved as Ahuizotl disappeared into the forest, and then swooped down to Starlight. "Are you alright?"
"I, uh, I think so," Starlight replied tentatively.
Daring Do looked past Starlight to survey the ruins of Comet Tail's tomb. "So much for Vanhoover's balloon tourist industry," she offered. "Still, at least you managed to save the staff."
"Some staff," Starlight grumbled. "If it hadn't shorted out on me, I'd have crushed those cats easily."
"I'm not surprised," Daring Do said. "You wouldn't work right if you were a zillion years old either. Besides, somepony once told me that the tool doesn't make the pony, the pony makes the tool."
Starlight sighed as she recalled the Staff of Sameness. "So I've heard."
Daring Do shrugged. "Hey, look on the bright side—you'll get a heck of a finder's fee for a treasure like that."
"Finder's fee?" A lightbulb flickered on in Starlight's mind, and she looked back at the staff lying on the ground. The old relic might not mean power, but it least it meant money, which could mean food, materials, or even the means to travel and find other powerful artifacts! "Of course!" she replied. "I mean, I don't want to deny ponies the opportunity to study their history, but I wouldn't mind some compensation for my efforts."
"Hey, it's always worked out for me," Daring Do admitted. "Anyway, we'd better be getting back to Vanhoover." She pointed a hoof at Starlight's balloon. "I think a certain somepony would like their balloon back."
"Oh, right." Starlight grabbed her staff, hopped into the balloon basket, and fired up her flame spell. Daring Do took one of the balloon ropes in her mouth, and the pair was on their way.
As the balloon rose up into the sky, however, a disturbing question popped into Starlight's mind: Wait a minute. How did Daring Do know this balloon was from Vanhoover, and that it wasn't mine? This concerning thought was quickly followed by another: How long was Daring Do hovering above me before using that mirror? How much did she hear about my plans?
Starlight looked out at Daring Do, whose back was turned as she pulled the balloon northwards. Starlight hadn't read an A. K. Yearling book in a long time, but the Daring Do she remembered was one of the smartest, most intelligent ponies in all of Equestria. If she had somehow figured out Starlight's true identity... Starlight shuddered as she thought about what might be waiting for her in Vanhoover, but she took a deep breath and expunged the thoughts from her mind. Regardless of what Daring Do did or did not know, one truth remained: At this moment, the explorer was only the second-smartest pony in the sky.
Starlight raised a front hoof into the air, and smiled as she felt a strong, sustained breeze flowing from west to east. "Miss Do?" she asked innocently. "Are you sure we need to go all the way to Vanhoover? Isn't there someplace closer we could stop?"
"Nope!" Daring Do called back. "Whinnypeg's the next closest town, and it's forty-five miles east of here!"
Starlight's smile grew wider at the word "east." My luck hasn't run out yet, she thought to herself as she casually removed her baseball cap and tossed it over the side of the basket. "Oh no! My hat!" she squealed.
"Huh?" Daring Do looked down to see the cap falling to earth. "No worries—I got it!" she said, letting go of the rope and zooming down to catch the cap.
Starlight waited until Daring Do had almost reached the cap, and then fired a green bolt of energy from her new staff, striking Daring Do square in the hindquarters. "Ahhhh!" Daring Do wailed and writhed in pain as her cutie mark was ripped from her flank and pulled back up into the balloon, where it was sealed inside the orb on Comet's staff.
"Well, well," Starlight mused. "Perhaps this old thing will be useful after all."
Without her cutie mark, Daring Do could no longer resist the swirling winds at her altitude, and both she and Starlight's cap tumbled wildly back to earth. The pegasus yelled something up towards the balloon as she plummeted, but it was lost in the wind.
Starlight started her fire spell once more, and chuckled as the wind carried her eastward. Daring Do will be fine once she gets to a low enough altitude, she told herself, and if I can walk a hundred miles to Manehattan, a tough pony like her can deal with a scenic thirty-mile hike to Vanhoover. She won't be able to do it quickly, though, and by the time she gets to the authorities, the only thing left of Miss Starlight Glimmer will be a slightly-used skirt and an abandoned balloon just outside of Whinnypeg.
Starlight admired the cutie mark now trapped within her staff. She knew she would have to release it eventually—she didn't have any place to put it, she didn't know how many marks the staff could hold, and she might need to use that trick again someday—but she could free Daring Do from the tyranny of exceptionalism for a little while, and let her experience the joys of living without a cutie mark. The pegasus might be mad now, but in time, she would thank Starlight for giving her this chance.
Starlight extinguished her fire spell, put her front hooves behind her head, and laid back against the side of the balloon basket. Looking down at her back hooves, she was pleased to see that her blisters were starting to heal. For the first time in a while, it seemed that everything was going her way.
THE END?