Twilight sighed softly, the gentle breeze from the cracked window giving her a sense of relief.
She wondered if she would even be able to get any real sleep tonight, a twinge of paranoia in the back of her mind preventing her from drifting off into a wonderful dream where she could meet the famed Star Swirl the Bearded, or perhaps even figure out how Pinkie’s Pinkie sense worked?
Earlier that morning, she could have sworn she saw Starlight Glimmer when she was giving her lecture. Whether she had or had not truly seen her, the thought of the equality-obsessed mare had brought back bad memories.
The CutieMark map had instructed her and her friends to Our Town, a desolate village seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There, she had met Starlight Glimmer, a seemingly kind and benevolent leader despite coming off as a tiny bit controlling.
When Twilight had discovered what Starlight had been doing in Our Town, she was affronted to say the least. Robbing ponies of their cutie marks, and denying them of their special talents, just so everypony could feel equal, no better than anypony else; horrified her.
Glancing under the covers at her own cutie mark, she winced. She could still remember how it felt, her cutie mark forcefully being removed from her body. It felt as if she was alive, and yet not fully alive. Almost like a piece of what made herself unique, was gone and was never coming back.
After her cutie mark was gone, she could barely perform any magic at all. This frightened her, since magic was what her special talent was all about.
Not only that, but the longer they had their faux cutie marks, those equal signs, it..it was becoming harder to focus, her mind becoming hazy and filled with doubt. Having that equality propaganda constantly looping into her ear didn’t help either.
She had never told her friends this, but being in the Acclimation house for so long with that drivel being repeated over and over and over..had started to make sense to her.
She wasn’t some some empty-headed pony who would buy into whatever was presented before her without skepticism of her own part, which was why she was so driven to learn as much as she could. Yet the way how Starlight started to warp how she thought, provided a very scary yet true message: The mind could be very fragile, and it could be reprogrammed if worked at hard enough.
Shaking her head to try and rid herself of those awful memories, she hummed softly “It’s in the past..you're safe now. No pony is going to hurt you” Pulling the covers of her bed tighter to herself, she gently turned over on her soft pillow, hoping that she would be able to get some actual sleep tonight.
She felt her eyelids slowly close, warmly smiling to herself. Strangely enough, thinking about all of those things at once involving Starlight had been cathartic in a way. Maybe she just needed to try and give a long think about what had happened then, and today. Weariness slowly began to creep over her, as she could feel herself about to pass out. Yes, she couldn't wait too dream tonight.
“Hello Twilight Glimmer,” a voice echoed throughout the room.
*BZZT*
Twilight’s eyes snapped open instantly! She tried to raise her head up, attempting to brighten the room…but she could feel no magic coming from her horn. Blinking in confusion, she again tried to cast her magic, yet she could feel nothing. Nothing at all!! “I..I can’t feel my magic! This..t-this can’t be happening” she panicked.
She tried to roll out of bed, but her arms and legs refused to budge. “W-What? What’s going on?” she stammered out in confusion.
“It seems those horn locks really do work.”
Whipping her head around the room to find the intruder, she gasped as Starlight Glimmer suddenly appeared before her as she taunted “You princesses should get better security for protecting the dangerous and powerful magical objects you have. They could end up getting used on you.”
Twilight gasped as Starlight stepped out of the darkness in her room, wearing that same smug, condescending smile that she had worn when she had trapped her friends and her.
“Starlight,” she growled angrily!
Opening her mouth to shout, she suddenly realized what Starlight had said! Glancing up, she found to her horror; a dark, black ring wrapped around her horn; a red aura emanating from it. She couldn't...She couldn’t feel her magic at all! She began to panic, breathing quickly. A unicorn..or alicorn in this case, not being able to feel her magic at all was like an Earth Pony losing their natural strength, or a Pegasus’s wings not able to function anymore.
“Calm down, I’m going to take that back off,” waved Starlight’s hoof dismissively at Twilight’s fearful expression. Giving her a taunting smirk, she snorted “That is, after I get what I came here for,”
Twilight glowered angrily at Starlight...as what she had called her suddenly clicked in Twilight’s mind.
“Wait..what did you call me?” Twilight blinked, wondering if she had misheard her.
Starlight laughed at Twilight’s question, reaching over and ruffling her mane in an affectionate manner, like an older sibling would do when a younger sibling asked for another cookie from the cookie jar. “Ha Ha, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve had to go through just to get you like this,” she laughed teasingly.
Twilight puffed her cheeks out es, annoyed with how Starlight talked down to her like she was a foal.
Scoffing lightly at how Twilight’s expression, Starlight turned away from the bed for a moment; snorting lightly “I gotta admit, you really cracked me up today! Here you are, completely exhausted, wondering if or when I was going to show up at all in some kind of cheap ploy of revenge!”
Shooting Twilight a grin, she laughed “And all I did was show up to watch your lecture, and let you run yourself down”
Finding her voice again, Twilight accused “So you did show up! I knew that I hadn’t been seeing things!”
Rolling her eyes, Starlight heavily sighed “Twilight..I’ve been keeping an eye on you for some time now,” she explained in the same manner an impatient school mare would speak to a slow student. Trotting back up to Twilight, she smiled at the frozen mare “I’ve been keeping watch on you and your friends for awhile, seeing if there was some kind of weakness I could exploit in your friendship…and I believe I’ve found it,” she grinned lightly.
Pushing her hoof against Twilight’s snout, causing the alicorn to go cross-eyed for a moment; she continued “As an alicorn, your magic far does exceed my own. In a fair fight, I wouldn’t be able to win. Not only that, but seeing as how you buy into that dogma about friendship being achieved through uniqueness; I wouldn’t be able to change your mind.”
Wiggling her brow’s in a teasing manner, she smirked “Wanna know what I’m gonna do?”
Twilight’s confused stare of silence was her only response.
“I’m going to scramble your mind about a bit and make you into Twilight Glimmer, my starstruck, hero-worshiping little sister and the Princess of Equality!” declared Starlight, a cruel, villainous sneer etched on her face.