//------------------------------// // My....Or Should I Say Our Town // Story: My History, Rise, Fall and Return: Starlight's Story // by StormLuna //------------------------------// Beginning the Unmarking Process Finally after what seemed to be forever and a half the train finally reached the outpost. The five of us got off the train and my companions looked around with confused looks on their faces. Night Glider was the first to say something. "Pink Sky, where is this community you were telling us about?" I replied, "Follow me." While I did not trust that old bridge one bit I decided that I would take the risk of crossing it. Now if it were just me I would teleport again but given that I am bearing the equals sign cutie mark, I can not use my advanced magic. I did suggest to Night Glider that she fly across the gorge so that there would not be so much weight on the bridge at once. As she flew across the rest of us began to walk across the bridge. As soon as we started to cross, it began to make creaking noises and the four of us were worried about perhaps falling into the gorge. After what seemed to be a long walk, we made it across and breathed a sigh of relief. I pointed my hoof off to the northeast and said, "Alright everypony, the town is off in that direction, it is down on a plain." We began to walk down the hill and after fifteen minutes we reached the town. While we were walking around town my companions were looking at the buildings and noticed that they looked alike. I looked back and saw that they were unimpressed. Sugar Belle asked, "Pink Sky, are you sure this is a town that has a lot of magical significance? It looks like a ghost town that has sat abandoned for a long time." I replied, "Don't worry Sugar Belle, soon you will learn how truly significant this town was." First I decided that I would have us take a look inside some of the houses, which were all identical on both the inside and the outside, with the exception of the one on the far north end of town. Each house had two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen in them. At first I began to think, "We are going to have to do something, if we get larger families moving out here these will not suffice." Then I remembered that I am bringing ponies out here to equalize them, not give them luxurious living quarters. Besides, what will soon become my home isn't exactly all that impressive either. I knew where I would lead them next. As I began to lead them up towards the cave Double Diamond asked, "Where are you taking us? Why are we leaving town?" I replied, "You'll see Double Diamond, soon the four of you shall see what truly makes this place so significant in the history of magic." As I lead them in I created light with my horn so that they would not run into the vault and shatter the glass. We stood before the vault and the four looked at it in a state of confusion and yet they were in awe as well. Night Glider asked, "Pink Sky, what is that thing? What used to be stored in these compartments." This was the moment I decided the time had come. The time had come to start equalizing those who think of themselves as better than everypony else. I gave her a smile and laughed, "You are about to find out." I grabbed my staff and fired some energy at the pegasus. Immediately she was held in my aura and as her cutie mark was removed, it flew to my staff and I then placed it in one of the compartments. She fell to the ground as her new cutie mark, an equals sign appeared on her flank. The other three began to panic and were running towards the exit. I could not let them escape though so I fired a bolt at them knocking them to the ground. I wondered if I could remove more than one at a time so I grabbed them in my aura and easily removed their marks together and placed them in the vault. As they lay there with their new equals sign marks, I felt a great sense of power. I felt a sense that if Meadowbrook were here, She would be proud. As they lay there terrified, Party Favor asked, "What did you do Pink Sky? Why would you take our marks?" Since they now had no powers, since they were equal, I decided the time had come to reveal my true identity. I backed them against a wall and began, "I want you to know that Pink Sky is not my name. My true name is Starlight Glimmer." Party Favor asked, "As in Professor Starlight Glimmer?" I realized that I was going to have to come up with some sort of lie. I can't have them thinking that I am an extremely talented professor, I needed to make them think that I was an ordinary pony like them. I replied, "No, not as in the professor. I have heard of her but my magic is not anything like her's." Sugar Belle replied, "But why did you remove our marks?" This is where I would begin to play on how they felt the envy of their housemates. I replied, "Sugar Belle, I could see the heartache that you and your friends here have. I could see that you were suffering because of your talents. Now you will no longer have to worry about being judged because of your talents." Night Glider asked, "But what about you? Have you always had that mark or did you have a talent at one time?" I led them over to the bottom left side of the vault, where the shield cutie mark was. I replied, "You see this mark here? At one time I had a talent involving battle and warfare. I was made fun of A LOT because I had what was considered 'a stallion's cutie mark.' All that emotional pain was too much to handle, so I had to figure something out to get rid of it." Double Diamond asked, "But how did you learn of this place and how did you remove your mark?" I replied, "I did a lot of research on ancient unicorn magic. I learned of this place and I learned about this staff." I pointed my hoof at it and continued, "I learned about the staff of sameness, a magical artifact that allowed me to remove my mark and place it in here." Night Glider asked, "Well now that none of us have any talents, what are we supposed to do? We will face even more heartache in this world with these equals sign cutie marks and having no talent than we ever have." I motioned for the four to walk over to me and I pulled them in an embrace. I replied, "Do not worry, we will live out here. Here we will be free from the judgement of other ponies that brings us so much heartache." Double Diamond asked, "But what if we were to want our cutie marks back? What would we do?" The other three nodded and I realized that I had to do something. Apparently simply removing their marks would not be enough. I would need a way to get them to accept the ideology I want them to. I replied, "Well all you would have to do is ask me and I would give it back to you BUT if you decide you want to return to a life where you are constantly judged, envied and hated because of your talent, that is your choice." I saw the four's faces drop as they realized that I was right. We headed out of the cave, back towards town and I noticed something. Their coats, manes, tails and eyes appeared to be dull. Night Glider attempted to take flight but she simply couldn't get very far off the ground before her cutie mark appeared to be pulsating. Eventually she gave up trying to fly and returned to walking. I was thinking, "Wow! This is better than I thought! Maybe whenever they try to do whatever their talent used to be, their new mark will prevent them from doing so." Once we got back into town we began to look through some of the houses and I noticed that one of them appeared to be more of a prison, as it had just one large room. I also saw that this room had loudspeakers in each corner. I began to wonder what those were used for. I wondered if Meadowbrook used these to force the spies and soldiers of Celestia to turn against the tyrant princess. I realized that I could use these to my advantage. I saw in a hidden compartment that there was a recording device that I could record messages on and have it play on a continuous loop. While my four new "friends" were looking through the house next door, I decided to work my magic and create a recording to truly equalize all who come here. I started recording, "In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best. Conformity will set you free. Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow. You're no better than your friends." I decided that by having this play on a continuous loop, I could get them to accept my ways. I will bombard them with this until they break and become what I want them to be. I knew that these four had not bought into my beliefs yet so I decided to put them in what some will call the "propaganda hut" and lock them in. I turned the recording on and they began to hear nothing but those slogans, in my voice of course. Reviving Meadowbrook's Village Three days had passed and after 72 hours of hearing nothing but my slogans, I led my fellow villagers out to talk to them. As I stood in front of them I could tell something changed about them. They were smiling and seemed content. Yes it was an odd, almost forced smile, but it was still a smile none the less. I asked them, "Does anypony have something they would like to say?" Double Diamond replied, "I do. I am so happy that we are all equal. Nopony is any better than anypony else." Night Glider added, "I am so happy that you helped me realize that true happiness is only achieved in sameness." Sugar Belle continued, "I am happy that you helped me realize that life is so much better without my mark and the talent that came with it." Party Favor finished, "I am so happy that you freed me from what brought me so much heartache. You are a true inspiration Starlight." I was shocked, but in a good way. I could tell that by the way they were acting, that they were being genuine in their statements. With this being the case, I led them to their new houses. While it was not as good as what they had in their old lives, they seemed truly happy and grateful. Double Diamond asked, "Starlight, will it just be us out here or will there be other ponies who are suffering heartache and learn about our village?" I knew that I could trust Morning Glory and Yellow Star to spread my message to other Celestial, aka Western ponies. I replied, "I am sure that other ponies will learn of our village as well. If ponies that are experiencing heartache truly want to find a way to escape it, they will do their research and learn about us." For a couple of weeks it was only the five of us, which was actually a good thing. I was able to establish very close relationships with them, Double Diamond in particular. While all four of them were loyal to me, I could tell that he would be the best one to initially welcome new ponies before they are introduced to me. Eventually more ponies and even families of ponies began to move here. Some seemed to be suffering more heartache than others and naturally with there being families, some were fillies and colts who had yet to earn their cutie marks. This at first would be problematic because what parent would want to see their child be stripped of their mark as soon as they earned it. Over time though it would prove to not be much of a problem because of the way I indoctrinated ponies. They knew that if their child had a special talent, that they would suffer a lot of heartache. With this being the case, when a filly or colt would discover a special talent and earn their cutie mark, their parents would bring them to me to be unmarked. I will admit that when fall arrived, I felt a bit bad that I had just abandoned my post as a professor at The University of Manehattan, but what I am doing here is much more significant than teaching at a university. What I am doing here is beginning the process of ending inequality in Equestria, I was in the process of stopping the heartache ponies feel from being judged by others, I was on my way to fulfilling my destiny and that was far more important than helping students learn how to handle everyday magic.