“Stay here,” Starlight warned, her hoof outstretched to the three standing behind her, but directed towards Ultron. She leaned downwards, sun beating down on her back as she studied the quaint village roughly a hundred or so yards away from her. She smirked either way.
They made it.
Her town.
It was almost exactly how she left it.
Even from where they remained hidden, so, so far away from her home, both Starlight Glimmer and Ultron could hear the joyous laughter of fillies and colts. They could see all the ponies intermingling with one another, despite all the differences. All the color, all the genuine, real smiles the unicorn could hardly make out.
It was horrible.
Everything she had built was torn down, as she expected. Tainted, forever infected by the differentiation that cutie marks brought upon, the inequality, the horror, the terrible tragedy that the ponies had succumb to. She truly had lost everything…
But she wasn’t there to take it back. Yet…
“When you see the signal…that’s the moment you act,” Starlight whispered, as if the ponies had that good of hearing from where they stood. Head bent to the left, Starlight narrowed her gaze on the oh-so-small village. “I’ll enter the town first…”
“How will I know what the signal is?”
Starlight stood back up fully, wiping her chest of the dirt that accumulated against her pale coat. Turning her neck back, she offered a miniature smirk to the towering beast of metal and darkness. Ultron. Her first, true friend. The two sentries behind him didn’t even try and hide themselves like she had, nor did Ultron. That’s what she liked about him.
Fearless.
And that was truly, truly terrifying.
With that memorable smirk of hers, Starlight whispered, “When they try to attack me.”
He nodded in understanding, bringing his head to the right. With a quick whip of his right forearm outwards, the two sentries behind him burst to life, their feet lighting up with a blue beam of energy that pushed them up and off the ground. Surprisingly, as they hovered several feet and took off into the clear, afternoon skies, they were silent. Silent killers.
Starlight liked that.
And she smiled as she slid all the way down the hillside.
Reaching the rest of the dusty earth, Starlight stumbled forward, catching herself and instantly teleporting to cover. With a few cautious breaths, she peeked out from behind the large stone she hid near, left eye scanning the barren wasteland. Nothing. She was clear.
With a glow of her horn, Starlight focused on the area of her interests and vanished, reappearing behind another rock, always remaining hidden. With each flash of light, every burst of magical exhaust, Starlight grew closer and closer to the small town, closer to her home. Every inch counted, every centimeter closer to taking her life back. Forcefully if need be.
Soon enough, even the stones wouldn’t be enough to hold her body. She cared not for them. She wanted to show the foolish foals that chased her away just how powerful she truly was, that they were nothing without her and her strength. As she pushed herself up off the dirt, Starlight’s smile never died, her toothless smirk almost as venomous as the poison in her glare.
She could see them for where she stood, roughly twenty or so yards away from the front houses.
Holding that poisonous expression, Starlight Glimmer calmly approached the town.
One hoofstep at a time.
At first she went completely unnoticed.
One…
She slowly walked past the first two houses facing each other.
Two, three, four, five…
A colorful mare offering some delectable treats to a small family suddenly dropped the tray right in the dirt, ruining the cupcakes, muffins, and Danishes.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten…
Numerous gasps sang in unison, only to fall silent by the terrified screams that followed. The screams were loud, so loud in fact that it caught the attention of the entirety of the town. It wasn’t a particularly large village, so when something major occurred everypony knew about it.
Everypony.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen…
They broke out of their houses—all of the colorful ponies Starlight had lied to once before—each of them bearing looks of rage and hatred. As they spilled into the streets, shouting and cursing at the pale unicorn that walked by, Starlight paid no attention to them. None of them. Her stare, her venomous glare was centered on one cottage.
Her cottage.
And the white stallion that opened its front door.
Fourteen…fifteen…
She was running out of room, her hoofsteps slowly losing their collected pace and shuddering to an expected halt. However, she kept moving, kept her strength up, even as the ponies from her sides circled behind, cutting off her backside exit. Idiots.
They screamed at her. But she kept at it, kept counting.
Sixteen…seventeen…eighteen…
Double Diamond, Party Favor, and Sugar Belle were the three blocking her path, several others joined by their sides. Their glares were ferocious, necks straightened, frowns burning her on the spot. She kept moving towards them.
Nineteen—
And just like that, her counting and pace were cut off simultaneously as Night Glider landed directly in front of her, nose nearly poking hers. The Pegasus snorted, teeth showing.
Coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t leaving anywhere anytime soon, Starlight Glimmer backed off a few feet, giving her enough room from the insensitive Night Glider. She was always so insensitive, even with her cutie mark removed. Worthless pawn. Terrible friend.
But then came the others. Standing side by side, Party Favor and Sugar Belle glared down the mare in front of them, joined quickly by Double Diamond taking his place by Night Glider’s right. They all held looks of rage, seething hatred melting in their eyes, the residue landing on the lone unicorn standing in the middle of the town she once commandeered, surrounded by those she once enslaved.
And she was alone…smiling…
Double Diamond didn’t let that bother him. What mattered was that she was here, alone, surrounded and nowhere to escape. This was their chance, their chance to bring Starlight the justice she deserved. He would not lose this opportunity.
But it was so…unnerving.
He knew Starlight, and with her exposing herself like the way she was to them, so easily, almost in a defeated manner? It wasn’t like her. Not at all. That smile did not seem right…
After seeing the rest of the town’s citizens ready to take matters into their own hooves, Double Diamond took a rough step forward, shouting over the crowd, “Starlight Glimmer!”
The ponies around the unicorn began to settle themselves, but still held their guard, ready to pounce and fight if the opportunity presented itself. Starlight, on the other hoof, chuckled at all the expressions, laughed in the face of danger, and smiled into the hatred. Smiled at the four blocking her path home.
“My, my, you ponies certainly have made a name for yourselves ever since my departure!” Starlight said loud enough for all to hear. She expected no response at first, and received no response. So, she continued. “How have your cutie marks been treating you? Honestly, I expected this town to be in ashes by the time I got back. It’s just like I said…different talents lead to different opinions—”
Shocking to all, Sugar Belle was the one to interrupt her.
She screamed, “You had no right to dictate our lives, Starlight! You almost took away everything that made us who we are, everything that made us special!”
“And in turn…I brought you happiness,” Starlight interjected, smile never breaking, though it twitched bit from having been interrupted.
“If that blindfold is what you called ‘happiness’, then we want none of it, Starlight!” Double Diamond responded, earning several shouts of agreement from the crowd.
The unicorn, holding her horrific stare onto the four ahead of her, began to falter, her smile falling apart, slowly being rebuilt into a frown. In the midst of the crowd’s eruption, Night Glider leaped upwards, catching the wind and hovering several feet above the ground.
Smacking her hooves together, she shouted, “You’re not running away this time, Glimmer! We got you surrounded! And even if you try to make a run for it, you won’t make it long in that desert! Face it, Glimmer, you’re trapped! You lost!”
“You’re going to get your just desserts! For everything!” Party Favor finalized, receiving several roars from the crowd.
And in the end, after all the threats and all the hate, Starlight Glimmer just smiled away.
“Am I now?” she questioned, smirk growing by the second.
“What are we waiting for?! Let’s get her already!” a stallion lost in the crowd screamed, earning several supporters to his rising action. As if that was the kick starter, everypony began to move in on the unicorn, Starlight shifting her gaze back to and fro, body leaning down and prepared to fight back.
However, a white hoof was raised.
“No!”
Amongst the haze of confusion and chaos, all eyes turned over to the white hoof, belonging only to Double Diamond. Starlight straightened her posture, chin rising and eyes narrowing on the stallion glaring her down.
As his hoof fell, Double Diamond shouted, “We’re not going to diminish ourselves to her level! We’ll contact Princess Twilight and let her know that we have Starlight, so she can finally face justice under the supreme rule of Princess Celestia!”
His speech was met with praise, several mares and stallions nodding their heads in agreement. All eyes shifted back to the unicorn, her smile growing back the moment Double Diamond began speaking again.
“You’re going to pay for your crimes, Starlight! A pony’s cutie mark isn’t as worthless as you think it is! It makes us strong, gives us an identity, and makes us who we are! Inside and out! And that’s why you lost, Starlight, because you were too blindfolded to realize that!”
The crowd yelled in agreement, never breaking their hardened stares away from the unicorn, watching her moves, waiting for her to make the first strike. Surprisingly enough, she didn’t move much. Starlight merely raised her right hoof upwards to place it over her chest, chuckling in amusement, further angering the ponies around her.
At last, she spoke, her smile back in all of its venomous glory.
“So, I really lost, hm?”
“Yes!” all four ponies shouted, anger straining their vocal cords.
Starlight spun her neck around, twisting it from side-to-side. Her toothy grin held, hoof rising into the air infected with cruelty and detestation.
“How do you all feel about that?!” she asked the crowd of spectators, of friends, of ponies she lied to. They responded with harsh feedback, cursing at her and constantly repeating words of degradation, aimed clearly for Starlight.
She didn’t let a single word of their hateful tone get to her.
Starlight just smiled.
And smiled.
And smiled.
And smiled.
As if time seemed to slow to her command, her monstrous stare settled on the four she loathed the most in the town, her twisted grin growing into something far too sickening for any pony to enact. Still, she spoke the moment there was silence, her voice faded and distant, but still holding its dark grudge.
“And how do you think…he feels about that?”
At the exact moment those words exited her lips—Party Favor’s and Sugar Belle’s eyebrows rising curiously while Double Diamond and Night Glider intensified their glares—a powerful gust of wind blew from behind them, a crack of the earth following suit. Just as the crowd behind the four yelped in unified terror, the four spun around, nearly sharing their fate.
“Equality can be a touchy subject,” said the massive creature as it slowly pushed itself up higher and higher. Two more rose from behind it, their right arms morphing into what appeared to be some sort of staffs, the tips on each one glowing bright blue and aimed for the four equines.
Cracks buried into the ground surrounded the creature’s feet. As the eyes of the two stallions and two mares slowly rose up, studying every indent, every body part, every sharp claw, rib, and metallic armor that permeated the creature’s body, all the breath seemed to be stripped from their lungs, refusing to return.
They couldn’t breathe, not while it stared at them with eyes as red as fire, a body burning red and sickness.
A demon.
That’s what they saw. That’s all they could explain.
The demon began its approach, causing all to back away. It spoke as it moved, gesturing to the crowd. “You can accept it, break away from it, fall apart in its aftermath, but in the end does it all really matter? Do you all matter? How can you blatantly admit to saying that Starlight has dictated your lives when those cutie marks have been doing just that?”
Soon, the demon stopped, causing those around him to keep pushing backwards inch by inch. Still, the demon returned to its speech, whether they truly listened or not.
“Yes, equality can be a touchy subject…but when handled by those utterly and completely willing to accept its embrace…willing to submit…then it becomes something one can only dream of. After all…how can you be a shining beacon to the world of ponies if you don’t allow yourselves to…devolve?”
Nopony said a word. Starlight kept on smiling, smiling at the four cowering in front of her.
“Now then, I will begin my friend’s request with a more… What’s the word…?” the demon stumbled, snapping his sharpened claws. “Ah, yes! ‘Simplistic’! I will begin with a more ‘simplistic’ approach, if you only allow me to.”
In an instant, Ultron shot his hand forward and wrapped his claws around the neck of Sugar Belle, earning numerous cries and screams, especially from the unicorn whose life was in his hands. Literally. She kicked, screamed, cried and begged, but Ultron continued on, lifting the mare off the ground with no effort.
As he brought her in closer, he could see the fear rush through her teary eyes, the quiver of her lips, and the dying hope in her heart.
Good.
As expected from the devolved.
Just one more law to lie down, one more verse for Ultron’s bible of purification.
“Submit…or perish.”