This wasn’t her first choice, but when it came to starting a cult and drawing in followers, she could think of worse places to be. Starlight Glimmer wasn’t sure if the over abundance of apple tree’s was a good or bad thing. Then again, trying to start a cult in the middle of a farm probably wasn’t a good idea to begin with, but like she thought before, she’d been through worse.
Now she just had to do all this without alerting the farm ponies who lived and worked here. The disheveled mess that could hardly be called a tree house would suffice. She’d already been there for a few days, maybe if she did a little work to it, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Knock knock.
“Oh crud,” she said, then immediately facehoofed.
“I know yer in there, now open up.” The voice was male, very strong sounding.
Starlight Glimmer gulped. She could try to make an escape through one of the windows, but the latches were rusted shut and the only broken one still had jagged pieces of glass sticking out.
She panic pranced in place, unsure where to go, what to do.
That’s when the door opened. She’d forgotten to lock the door.
In stepped in a massive red stallion, whose bulk was intimidating to enemies and eye candy to hungry mares. Sadly, Starlight found herself on the former list, and was sure this was the end.
“I brought you some breakfast.”
Starlight blinked, her right forehoof still mid-trot.
“What?” she asked.
“I brought you some breakfast.”
The stallion turned his head around, and from his back produced a tray with, shockingly, breakfast.
“I… what?”
Macintosh rolled his eyes. “Ya’ve been livin’ in this treehouse fer days, I figured ya needed some grub.”
“Wait, you’ve known I was here?”
“Eeyup.”
“But… why-”
“Ya weren’t hurtin’ nopony. Not even stealin’ our apples. When a pony’s down on ‘er luck, I figured why attack them any more?” He set the plate down onto the floor, then with his nose pushed it towards Starlight.
“Now, mah sister don’t know nothin’ about this, but she’ll find out eventually. Got somethin’ planned with our little sister ‘n her friends to fix this place up, so best if ya headed out by nightfall.”
Starlight Glimmer stared at the platter of food, still dumbstruck.
“I figured I couldn’t send you out with at least some food in yer belly. Hard to get motivated to move when ya got nothin’ ta power ya.”
“But… why? Why this?”
The stallion shrugged. “Why not?”
“For all you know, I could be some crazy pony out to steal cutie marks and take over the world!”
He shrugged again. “Ya seem nice enough.”
“BUT WE JUST MET!”
“That we did. Now ya gonna eat or what? I gotta take them dishes back before Granny knows they’re missin’.”
Starlight glared at the stallion, her gut telling her that she shouldn’t be trusting this pony one bit, that he’s up to something, that okay on second thought I haven’t eaten in days.
She dove into the plate, barely chewing the pancakes as she would down a quarter cup of her orange juice between gulps. The blueberries on the side were excellent. And the apple on the side?
The entire time, the stallion stood at the doorway and watched with a stoic expression. Not smiling, not frowning, just neutral. It put Starlight’s nerves on edge.
“Iph phere sphomphing wron?” she said between chewing.
“Eenope.”
They stayed silent again, although Starlight’s table manners were loud enough for the two of them.
Just as she was finishing off the last pancake, the stallion spoke up.
“So, what’re ya runnin’ from?”
Starlight stopped mid-chew, brows raised as she studied the stallion. No signs of intent, or maliciousness. Just… curious?
She swallowed, coughed, then taking the neglected napkin dabbed it onto her mouth before she spoke.
“I’m not running from anything, actually. I’m running towards my goal.”
The stallion raised a brow.
“I’m fed up with how our society, our leaders, run things and think they’re working with everypony’s goals in mind. None of which have been my goals, so I’m on my journey to start something new.”
“Something new?”
“I’m going to create my own society, of similar minded ponies like myself.”
“An’ just what’re your ideas?”
Could this stallion really be curious enough? Do I have my first follower? “Well, look around you. What do you see?”
He turned to the left, then to the right, then back to the mare. “Walls.”
Starlight resisted facehoofing. “No no, I mean outside, just what’s out there?”
“Apple trees.”
“And what’s on your flank?”
“My cutie mark?”
“Which is…?”
“An apple.”
Starlight Glimmer clopped her hooves. “That! That’s what I’m trying to do! Eliminate the stigma of our cutie marks controlling how we live, how we work, how we… well, everything!”
“But the cutie mark shows us what we’re best at, don’t it?”
“That may be true, but what if somepony wanted to do something else? But now they’re stuck doing what their boring old cutie mark tells them is what they are to do.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t follow.”
Now Starlight facehoofed. "Take your cutie mark, for instance. It’s an apple, you live on an apple farm, you harvest apples. But what if there was more you wanted to do?”
“Then I’d do it?”
Starlight twitched. “Okay, maybe, but will you be any good at it? As good as you are handling apples?”
“Well-”
“Your cutie mark doesn’t change, and neither will your talent. You’re always and forever will be bound to apples for your entire life. Now take me, for example.” She turned so that the stallion could see her cutie mark. She could feel the shock from him, as much as he tried to keep his neutral expression, it wavered.
“I found a way to take all of that stigma away. No more being forced to obey your cutie mark, no more being stuck doing that same dull routine. Now, I can do whatever I want, and either excel or be terrible. That’s entirely up to me!”
He interrupted. “Ya can do all that even with a cutie mark, though. Jus’ cause I’m a good apple farmer don’t mean I can’t do other things. I can play the banjo, sing, even whittle here and there. Don’t mean that I have to only do apple related things.”
“Okay, then lets take it from another view point. Say a stranger walked up to you and saw you had that apple cutie mark, what would they think?”
“That I’m an apple farmer?”
“Yes. Now, if a stranger walked up to you with my cutie mark, what would they think?”
The stallion looked at the two bars again, then back at her eyes. “That yer nuts.”
Starlight actually let out a chuckle. “No, my dear, they wouldn’t know what to think. You know why? Because if everypony had the same mark, we wouldn’t have to form biases or judgement on a pony for what their talent is. Have you ever seen a pony walking around with a toilet plunger on their flank?”
“Uh… no?”
“That’s because they have to hide it in shame! They may be a master plumber, but that symbol could mean so much more. We judge and form ideas on what we see on each others flanks. I want to eliminate that, so everypony is treated equal, and not shunned for what they may or may not do best.”
“So that’s what yer wantin’ ta do then? Take away the symbol on our flanks that makes each of us unique?”
“Yes.”
The stallion just stood there, thinking, then for the first time his muzzle formed a grin.
“Okay, so let’s just say that I get my cutie mark into one of them there bars, then what?”
“Then you live your life unjudged and able to achieve any goals you want.”
“But if I have no set goal, how will I ever be good at any one thing.”
“Well, you won’t.”
“So then everypony will just be mediocre at everything, and no pony be good at one thing?”
Starlight blinked, her turn to raise a brow in curious thought.
“How I see it, yer tryin’ ta set up a new thingie that lets everypony be equal and not judged. I get that, and it sounds like a lot of ponies would flock to it. But then what? If no pony is good at one thing, how do ya’ll actually improve? If you’re all just okay at everythin’, there’s no room to develop them skills. Having one thing yer good at gives a pony somethin’ to be proud of. You can go ‘Yeah, I can do all this stuff, but I can do this better!’.
“We like havin’ somethin’ ta be proud of, myself included. If we were just all the same, what fun would we have knowing that everypony could do the same stuff at the same levels? I fer one wouldn’t mind havin’ a cutie mark of somethin’ else. Heck, I’d love to be a professional banjo player, but I ain’t. I’m an apple farmer, and proud of it.”
Starlight Glimmer sat in silence, mulling over what he had just said.
“So, I ask again, what’re ya runnin’ from?”
Images flashed through Starlight’s mind. Grade school, the teasing and prodding of being a blank flank. Then the onslaught of mockery when she finally did get it, only for it to mean nothing. She could do magic with a stick, what else? they would tease. Working countless jobs, the most taxing thing being, well, taxes. We don’t have a job for your talent, so we’ll just make you do paper work.
The years of pain, knowing ponies judging her for what her talent was suppose to be. What it should be. What she was because of it.
She hadn’t realized she was crying until the red stallion had one of his arms around her. She didn’t fight it, try to push away and run. She embraced it, openly weeping into his chest. He didn’t say anything, try to console her or tell her it would all be okay. She knew it wouldn’t, and suspected he knew the same thing. Just being there for her was enough.
“What’re ya runnin’ from?” That question bounced in her head the entire time. And the entire time the stallion kept a soothing foreleg around her. His heartbeats helped calm her, if only slightly. He was so warm, and not as tough muscle as she’d first suspected. She could have stayed like that for hours, but once she’d stopped crying so hard, he finally let go and drew back.
“I-I’m sorry, I don’t know what…” She trailed off.
“Sometimes, we just need a pony to be there. Nothin’ more. I’ll be by later to bring ya some lunch. Then I’ll see about helpin’ ya on yer way.”
“On my way?”
“Eeyup. Ya got yerself a goal in mind, and challenge in heart. I ain’t one ta stop a pony from doin’ what they feel is right.”
“Even if it’s bad?”
He was silent. “Depends. I believe ponies need to figure out for themselves whether or not what they’re doin’ is good or bad. If yer told so, then how do ya learn anythin’?”
She was silent this time.
“If ya’d like, you can join us fer dinner before ya shove off. I’m sure Granny would love havin’ a visitor.”
There was a glimmer in her eyes. “Thank you, but no, and in fact I think I will take a raincheck on the lunch.”
The stallion raised a brow. “Headin’ out so soon?”
She laughed. “I’ve been here for three days too long. I… needed to let off some steam, and now that I have, I’m ready to go.”
“If that’s what ya want, then okay.” He grabbed the empty plate and cup, balancing them onto his back.
“Thank you for this, and for not being upset about me trespassing.”
He chuckled. “It’s been a long while since somepony used this place. Glad to see it occupied for once.”
Starlight Glimmer walked past the stallion, hesitant at first. His dark green eyes were so welcoming and warm, she could just-
No. And with that, she trotted past the bulking stallion, down the ramp, and away from the rising sun. She had a goal, a task to perform. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let anything get in her way. After all, this wasn’t just for her, but all of Equestria.
----------
Big Macintosh watched her trot away with pride in each of her steps. She had hesitated, only briefly, but that was enough for him.
He smiled.
Good luck, Miss.