Starlight found herself at the back door of her old cottage. She figured it was safer to go in through the back, rather than to risk being seen by a pony from either side.
And just as Sugar Belle had said, every window and door, including the back ones, were indeed boarded up. Luckily for Starlight, she had a magical horn which allowed her to use magical abilities, the same magical horn she used to remove cutie marks from ponies and brainwash them.
On another adventure she had used her magical horn powers to go back in time, and nearly destroyed the fabric of time and space altogether in order to get back at another unicorn. Those were some fun times.
Fortunately for her, a large piece of 1/4 inch plywood wasn’t as difficult to break as the space-time continuum, so even without any tools she easily removed the wooden board and set it aside.
She stepped in the long abandoned cottage and found herself completely in the dark except for the light creeping in through the open back door. She used her horn to illuminate a small section of the cottage until she found the light switch.
Flipping the switch she was surprised but relieved to find the power still functioning, after all her plan depended on it. The lights flickered on and the cottage was once again re-illuminated.
The sight of her old home brought Starlight back immediately. She felt her body nearly going numb as the cottage she still admittedly wasn’t ready to return to forced her to remember her past deeds.
Hanging on the wall and sitting on shelves were a number of photographs. Starlight walked over to one of them, it was caked with a layer of dust, just as everything else in the cottage was. She wiped off the layer of filth with her hoof and looked into it.
It was a picture of her and eleven of the first ponies to join her town. They all bore the same grey equal sign cutie mark and each one had an identical smile and gender based mane style. Starlight stood in the center of them looking as colorful as she always had. The smile on her face was not artificial as the others were, but rather a smug grin of accomplishment.
She set down the photo disgusted with her former personality, though she had to remind herself that she gave had given that up now. She couldn’t keep hating herself for what she had done, and if she could reunite the two towns, she might even forgive herself.
For now, she stepped away from the photos of her past. After all, she had work to do.
She stepped into her former bedroom and grabbed a lantern that laid on the dresser, careful to remove some of the dust before she lit the wick inside, lighting the lantern.
She then used her magic to lift her bed from it’s place, just as she had many months earlier, revealing the staircase she used to escape when her town turned on her. She stepped down the stairs slowly, the wood moaning and complaining with every step.
Once down the secret staircase, she turned around and opened a small hatch on the side of the stairs, it laid flush against the wood in the stairs and was nearly invisible to the naked eye.
She stepped through the small hatch and levitated the lantern in front of her before setting it on a table.
It was still there, all of it was still there just as she had hoped. She looked around the small secret room and found all the equipment she used to spy on her citizens including a feedback monitor, microphone, recording tapes and, most importantly, speakers. It was all covered in an even thicker layer of dust. Truly no one had entered the secret room since Starlight last used it to spy on Twilight and her friends.
It was a weird feeling. Knowing that the last time she used the secret room she had intentions to brainwash Twilight and her friends to join her. It was even more strange to think about how when she left the surveillance room to confront the princess, it would unknowingly be her last attempt at brainwashing a pony.
She sat at the once very familiar chair where she’d sit and spy on ponies for hours. She flipped a red paddle switch on the side of the big metal recorder and slowly the machine started up with a familiar whirring sound. She clicked the button on the side of the monitor, and it quickly flickered on.
The speakers she used to broadcast announcements in every one’s home’s also had a hidden microphone in it so Starlight always knew the loyalty of everypony in her town. It was something she had never revealed to anypony including Double Diamond. After all, what good would it do being a megalomaniac leader if you didn’t keep secrets?
The radial dial which selected who she wanted to listen to was still set on channel six, the storage house where she failed to convert Twilight. She turned the stubborn dial and clicked it to channel four, Double Diamond’s new residence.
She slowly raised the volume of the audio and switched on the speakers. She began to feel an awful pit in her stomach from resorting back to her former tactics, but she had to remind herself that it was necessary.
When she heard the sound of the glass bottles being clanged together, she knew she was on the right channel. Now she just hoped Double Diamond and Ember would tell her something new.
The clanging glasses continued for a moment before one of them spoke up. “Pass me that one.” Starlight immediately identified the voice as Ember Shine. He must’ve been instructing something to Double Diamond.
She could hear another glass clinging before Ember spoke up once again. “Starlight?”
There was quick silence as Starlight shot up in her seat. They were talking about her.
“Her head has been filled with lies. She came over here saying we had kidnapped Flame Heart.”
“So…why not tell her the truth?” he said. “About Flame Heart, not about us, of course.” He clarified.
“Because, Starlight doesn’t need to know what we do over here.” There was another silence. “Don’t look at me like that, she’s never going to side with us anyway.”
"It's that Sugar Belle and Night Glider."
"What about Party Favor?” Ember asked.
"Ehh," he responded.
There was another long pause accompanied by more rustling sounds the unicorn couldn’t quite make out. “It’s unfortunate though, about Starlight…”
“Why do you say that?” Double Diamond responded. “If I recall, you were rather nasty to her.”
There was another pause. “No bother, it doesn’t matter now anyway.”
Starlight could hear excited footsteps from within the small house. “Is this it?”
Ember must’ve nodded because he didn’t offer a verbal response.
“Incredible…” Double Diamond said mystified. “and you’re sure this will work?” he asked the green earth pony.
“I told you, I’m not a potion maker, but yes. Through all my research I can say with confidence, this will work.”
Potions? They were brewing potions? What could they have possibly created? Starlight leaned back for moment her eyes fixated on the small speakers sitting on her desk. She wasn’t sure what they were making, but she knew it only spell trouble.
“Is there enough for everypony?”
“Oh…I’d say so. Hey, hey careful with that thing, it’s highly unstable.”
“Sorry.” Double Diamond responded resting the glass bottle back on the table with a cling.
“Here, seal the top of it…There, trust me you do not want that stuff to get on you.”
“So are we almost ready then?” Diamond asked.
“I’d say we’re ready,” Ember responded.
“Good, I can’t say Starlight and her friend came at the right time, but with this.” He paused. “…with this, after tonight we won’t have worry about Starlight or any pony in the South ever again.”