A Dream

by totallynotabrony

The Cutie Map - part 2

The equals sign-shaped town and its equals sign-cutie mark residents were certainly strange. But exactly how strange was up for debate, and the girls had a quick discussion.

"So you think they're Communists...like that thing Valiant was always shaking his hoof and muttering under his breath about?" Rainbow asked.

"The very same," Twilight confirmed. "Based on what I picked up, Valiant seemed to think the tenants of Communism were a desire for sameness, drab architecture, and oppressive social policies."

"What you picked up?" Applejack accused. "I seem to remember Valiant once gave you an all-night lecture on the subject."

"Which I attempted to purge from my memory after he left, so forgive me if I only remember bits and pieces," Twilight replied tersely.

"I know that feeling," Rainbow said. "Guinness has been going through it, too. Between getting Skyla and dealing with the fallout of Valiant leaving-"

Just then, a mysterious female voice echoed through town on loudspeakers. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail.

"Ugh," said Rarity. "This is positively Soviet, to borrow a Valiant-ism."

"Hey, I just had an idea," said Pinkie. "The ruins of the Crystal Empire would make a great commie gulag."

"Let's...not talk about that," said Twilight. It was still a sore subject, considering her brother and his wife's situation.

"So what do we do about these Communist ponies?" Rarity asked.

Twilight frowned in thought. "The number one enemy of Communism is Capitalism."

"That's good." Rarity smiled. "A successful small business owner like myself should be able to assist."

"I know a thing or two about runnin' a business," Applejack added.

"Big Mac does your books," Rainbow reminded her.

"Yeah, but I still run it," Applejack said. "You need somethin' sold or haggled, I'm your mare."

Twilight continued to brainstorm. "As a former Princess, I know quite a bit about how governments without free elections work. Applejack could undercut prices for necessary food items. Rarity could offer luxury goods to the townsponies. Rainbow could take on their best athletes in a headline east-versus-west clash. Pinkie would make a great larger than life personality to be eye-catching and tie the whole package together."

"What about me?" asked Fluttershy.

Everyone else paused and looked at each other.

"Uh, I'm sure we'll figure it out," Twilight said. "Don't worry about it."

"I don't like to worry about things," Fluttershy said.

And so they put their plans into action.

Twilight walked into the grocery store. Finding the proprietor, she asked, "How much do you charge for apples?"

"One apple for one bit," the mare answered.

A customer came along. "I'll have five apples."

"If you go to Applejack's apple stand just outside of town, you can get them for half price," Twilight said.

"Huh?" said both the customer and the store owner, blinking in confusion.

"It means you'll have money left over, money you can buy other things with," Twilight said. "It's called a deal."

"But...what am I going to do with the extra money?" the customer asked.

"Well, Rarity's traveling boutique at the edge of town has fantastic clothing and accessories to make you the most fabulous pony around. Don't you want everypony to look at you and admire your style?"

"That does sound good," she agreed, and left the store.

"Hey, wait," said the store owner, "what did you just do?"

"Your customer found out that she could get more for less somewhere else," Twilight said.

The salespony paused. "How...how is that possible?"

"It's called competition," Twilight explained. "There are new businesses that give consumers a choice, so they are no longer forced to buy everything from you."

Leaving the proprietor with that thought, Twilight exited the store. She stood at the entrance waiting for more customers, wearing a friendly I'm-going-to-sell-you-something smile.

Meanwhile, at the edge of town, Applejack was already doing a fine business. Ponies who weren't sure of the concept of more for less were being convinced by free samples. Because there's no better price than free.

Rarity was also plying her trade nearby. She'd supplied Applejack with coupons to distribute with her sales and business was booming. They hadn't yet moved on to monopolies and unions.

"Yeah! You look awesome!" Pinkie was cheering each new customer. It seemed that the residents of Equals Sign-ville needed a little encouragement, and the louder and more in-your-face the proclamation, the more they believed it. They were still ponies, after all.

Overhead, Rainbow was forming clouds into giant billboards with convenient arrows pointing to the two new businesses at the edge of town. Everypony nearby couldn't help but to notice them.

This included Starlight Glimmer, who showed up with a couple of associates.

She was a bright pink unicorn with a purple and teal mane. She introduced herself, and said, "I'm the founder of this town. What do you think you're doing?"

"We're just running our own businesses, aided by our various special talents," Rarity explained.

"Do you have a permit?" Starlight asked.

"Why should we need one?" Applejack asked. "We're outside town."

"Well, as of now, city limits have been expanded and you fall under our jurisdiction," Starlight shot back.

"You can't do that," Rainbow said. "Changes in city zoning require approval from Canterlot and those affected must be informed thirty days prior with a written notice."

Everyone stared at her. Rainbow looked around. "What? I was there when Guinness was doing the paperwork to open the pub."

Starlight grinned maliciously. "Well, it's a good thing that our little corner of Equestria is a sovereign city-state and we set our own laws. As such, you are all under arrest for violating them. Your property will be seized."

There was much argument. The girls probably could have fought and won: they'd fought changelings and worse back before many of them gained superpowers, however it seemed to make more of a statement to become political prisoners.

Starlight commanded her guards to take them into custody. The column marched into town, surrounding their four prisoners.

"Wow, look at them," one guard pony whispered to another. "So bright colored and with full cutie marks. What do you think it means?"

"Maybe it's a warning," the other muttered back. "The coloring could mean that they're poisonous."

"What? Really?"

"I meant metaphorically, as in they're trying to poison our great town with their outside influence."

"Whoa...deep."

Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity were taken to the town jail and locked up. Considering that every building in town was equal, the place was basically just a house like the rest. Some guards at the front door kept them from leaving.

A couple of curious onlookers hung around the back windows of the house, openly hoping to catch a glimpse of their cutie marks. Rainbow said, "What're you looking at?"

A steely-blue pegasus mare asked, "How can you be friends with different cutie marks? If you're so different, don't you end up hating each other?"

"No, why would we?" said Applejack. "Being different gives us something to learn about each other. Besides, not having special talents would mean that none of us would be able to do anything."

A pink unicorn lamented, "I'd love to have my special talent back even just for a day so I could make something besides disgusting muffins."

A blue unicorn stallion commented, "Daydreaming is one thing, but you mean actually having your cutie mark put back on? That seems extreme."

"But what's stopping you?" Rainbow said. "Get your cutie marks back. "How do you even lose them, anyway?"

"I'm not sure Starlight would like that," said the pink unicorn. "She wants us all to be happy in our sameness."

The pegasus added, "Starlight uses the Staff of Sameness to magically take cutie marks away and replace them with these." She gestured at the equals sign on her hip.

"Where do we find this Staff of Sameness?" said a voice.

The group of ponies looked around. "Who's there?"

Twilight uncloaked, becoming visible again with a sparkle of magic. Fluttershy was just behind her.

"How did you do that?" stammered the unicorn stallion.

"Well you see, my special talent is magic," Twilight said. "It means I'm really good at it. If you'd get your cutie mark back, you could be good at things, too."

A white earth pony stallion said, "Well, that might be nice, but how are we supposed to get them back?"

Twilight pointed at her hip. "Magic. Magic is the answer to everything."

"Well, that seems remarkably easy," said the unicorn mare. "Let's go to the cutie mark cave and get them back."

So they went. With Twilight's help, it was incredibly easy to escape the makeshift prison without being noticed.

On the way to the cave, the group of townsfolk introduced themselves. The unicorn was Sugar Belle. The blue pegasus was Night Glider. The unicorn stallion was Party Favor. The earth pony was Double Diamond.

Arriving at the cave, the locals led the girls towards what they called the Cutie Mark Vault. It glowed pale blue and contained rows of jars with cutie marks inside.

"We should help these ponies get their cutie marks back," Twilight decided. "How did they get taken off, anyway?"

"With the Staff of Sameness," Party Favor replied. "It was one of the great mage Meadowbrook's nine enchanted items."

Twilight frowned. "I'm pretty sure Meadowbrook only had eight magical items, not nine. And I don't remember any of them being a staff."

"Well, well, well," came a voice. "It seems you inspire all sorts of free thinking, don't you?"

They all turned. Starlight Glimmer stalked forward out of the darkness. She held a piece of wood with her magic, but tossed it away. It shattered against the wall of the cave.

"Careful, girls," said Twilight as the others struck combat poses. "Even I used to struggle with cutie mark magic. She might be a really powerful unicorn."

"You're quite correct about that," said Starlight. "It took all my power to get the residents here to see the true way forward for ponies everywhere. I don't even blame you for what you tried to do here today. You've spent your whole lives thinking those marks are a good thing."

"They are a good thing," Twilight insisted.

"Tut tut. Well, I'm going to fix that. You can spend the rest of your lives here with us! And we'll teach you just how much better life can be without your cutie marks." Starlight jumped forward, lighting up her horn.

Even with Twilight's warning, Starlight caught them all by surprise. Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack had their cutie marks stripped before any of them could react. Pinkie and Fluttershy were the next to be blasted. Soon, just Twilight was left, facing down Starlight all alone.

Spells flew back and forth. Both Starlight and Twilight teleported several times to dodge the other's attacks. Starlight fired a beam from her horn that met one from Twilight head-on. They both strained under the effort, struggling to overpower the other.

"I studied this spell for years!" Starlight growled. "How can you be so powerful?"

"I studied magic for years, too!" Twilight shot back. "I was briefly an alicorn. I'm Princess Celestia's personal student, selected based on magical talent. I might not know your spell as well as you, but - not to brag or anything - I've yet to meet another unicorn with as much raw power as me."

"It's true, she's a BAMF," said Pinkie, right in Starlight's ear.

Starlight jerked in surprise, the spell fading. "Get away! You're the same as all the rest now. You can't challenge me."

"Let me tell you something," said Pinkie. "Without my special talent, maybe I can't make others smile. I might not be the number one party pony in Equestria anymore. You may have taken away my cutie mark, but there's one thing you can't take away from me." She leaned in closer. "My gaiety."

She grabbed Starlight by the face and pulled her in for the most passionate kiss that anyone with an equals sign cutie mark had ever experienced. It went on for several seconds as the others watched, becoming more uncomfortable by the moment.

That was nothing compared to Starlight's discomfort as her face started to melt. She screamed and flailed, her flesh melting off with hissing clouds of steam.

Twilight's mouth dropped open. "Wha...what happened?"

"Pinkie is poisonous," said Fluttershy. "I've developed an immunity, but for everypony else her bright color should be warning enough."

Starlight lay twitching on the ground. With her spell broken, the vault opened and dozens of cutie marks came pouring out like a colorful magic wind. Sugar Belle, Night Glider, Party Favor, and Double Diamond all regained their marks instantly, as did the girls. The rest poured out of the cave and back to their rightful owners.

With that problem solved, they left Starlight moaning in the cave and went back to town for a party.

"Something I was wondering," said Applejack as they walked. "Did Starlight Glimmer remove her cutie mark like everypony else, or was that equals sign her mark?"

"Hmm. She certainly seemed to be much more talented than anypony else in town," Twilight said. "It might be possible that equality was her special talent. Then again, maybe she was so powerful that she could do that without her original mark. Or maybe she concealed it somehow with a false equals sign mark."

"Don’t know, don't care," interjected Rainbow.

"Fair enough," said Twilight with a shrug.

"But if that was her special talent, does that mean cutie marks can be inherently evil?" Rarity asked.

Twilight frowned. "I'd hate to think so. I want to say it's up to how you use it. But that did seem a little more evil than usual."

"I hope we don't have to go on a country-wide witch hunt for ponies with cutie marks that make them do bad things," said Fluttershy.

"That sounds like something Valiant would do," Twilight said. "So of course we won't."

"Hey, now that I think about it, Valiant was wrong about these ponies being Communist," said Rainbow. "They were just under the spell of their evil town mayor."

That cheered everyone up. Even if Valiant wasn't there to be wrong in person, it did feel good to develop their own solution.

"Speakin' of," said Applejack. "Starlight's probably going to want revenge or something. If she doesn't die, I mean."

"Well, we can't reform her. The Tree of Harmony ate the Elements, remember?" said Pinkie.

"We forgot about the Rainbow Power," Twilight said.

"That stale rainbow thing that Valiant gave us just before he left?" Rainbow said. "We don't even really know how that works. We used it like once as part of defeating Tirek."

"Plus we now have all these special abilities to help us out fighting crime," Applejack added. "One of 'em came in handy today."

"If we want to count Pinkie being poisonous as a superpower," Twilight said. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Stranger things have happened."

"Speaking of strange things," said Fluttershy. "Did any of you girls notice that there are so many more stallions in this town than normal? Maybe it's part of the equality. The gender ratio seems roughly half and half."

"That's a lot different than the normal six-to-one in the rest of Equestria," Twilight noted.

The majority of the girls were single, straight mares. Fluttershy's comment certainly got them to take notice of their options around town.

Back in Ponyville, Guinness jerked involuntarily, dropping a full mug of beer. It shattered on the pub floor.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Squibles, shaking his shoulder.

Guinness's look was distant. "I think my manhood has just been challenged."

"Yay!" said Skyla.

Back in the newly unequalized village, the girls partied for a good long while. Everyone agreed that they'd earned it, so it didn't seem like a problem to mix business with a little pleasure.

Beginning the long trek home later that day, they all trotted along with a sense of contentment. "Mighty good food they were able to throw together once they got their talents back," Applejack commented.

"I was surprised you ate so much," Twilight said. "Didn't you eat Starlight?"

"What?!" Applejack gasped. "No, she wasn't dead. I don't like playin' with my food. Plus, you never know what Pinkie might've done to her. On top of all that, I've been tryin' to cut back a little."

"It's so incredibly weird that we've become so used to talking about you being a cannibal," Rainbow said.

"How's Guinness like sharin' a bed with a dragon?" Applejack shot back.

Guinness was not thrilled.

Rainbow protested, "Hey, that only happened like twice!"

And then Pinkie took it too far. "How's Skyla like the milk from dragon teats?"

They all fell into an uncomfortable silence after that. It was a long trip back to Ponyville.

Comments

[StevieBond]

Pinkie kissing Starlight? I'm okay with this.

[Frost Bear]

Pinkie... what the fu-

[Lithl]

And then Pinkie took it too far.

I am a fan of taking things one step too far.

[Apocryphal Frost]

Oh come on. Her talent isn't inherently evil. There are many situations where doing what she does could be a good thing.

Like on prisoners who have done horrible things, and/or have cutie marks in escaping from prison. Or to make competitions fair. According to this episode, the only reason Rainbow Dash is as fast as she is, is because she was born with the talent to be that fast.

[Pentel123]

This story has gotten so strange. I am digging the lack of Valiant, it is making it interesting to see the effect he has had on ponies

[bobbananaville]

5852527 That's a great point.
The episode is evidence that cutie marks and 'special talents' are separate from ponies, and their personal skill has little bearing on what their 'special talent' does.
I mean, maybe S.T.s just makes one's skills removable, turning it into a weakness rather than any sort of strength, but it's still evidence that talents are contradictory to any definition of fair play.

[pahnazd]

Wat

[thatonerandombrony]

Where is Valiant?

[General Grant]

5819385

"The ruins of the crystal empire would make a great commie gulag."

Liberty Prime approves

[Alondro]

5867429 Nah, the brain can't properly replicate the sensation even partially for more than an instant. It requires actual firing of pain-sensing neurons and the activation of not just the brain regions for sensing pain but also the spinal motor reflexes, which the brain does not have that level of conscious control over.

A dream might have something akin to pain sensation in it at the moment of an injury, but it doesn't linger because the sensation itself requires far more specific and sustained focal activity than the resting brain in REM sleep can simulate properly.

Even direct, conscious memories of the sensation of pain are vague for the most part, again because the pain-sensing neurons aren't firing nor is the pain-detection region of the brain being stimulated. You can easily remember than something caused pain, and that it was very unpleasant... but you don't directly remember the sensation of a thorn pricking you; you can't make yourself recall every sensory neuron being activated.

[Alondro]

5867762 Kim Jung Un doesn't actually believe he's doing good.

Neither did Saddam Hussein.

Psychopathic whackos also never sleep.

A truly benevolent dictator will also be wary of causing harm and will listen to wise council. A delusional leader acting under blind self-directed ideology will not, and instead will charge ahead chanting the mantra of 'For the greater good!'.

Or something like 'For social justice!'...

[Kage no Brony]

Well, it's a good thing that our little corner of Equestria is a sovereign city-state and we set our own laws.

A sovereign city-state huh? And I'm guessing that your sovereign land is your city limits?
Glimmer: I don't see what that has to do with anything...
Ah, but it has everything to do with it, because the way I see it, we're on Equestrian soil. If you expand your city limits, well, that's a declaration of war.

[Hipparcos]

"Pinkie is poisonous," said Fluttershy. "I've developed an immunity, but for everypony else her bright color should be warning enough."

Um.

"How's Guinness like sharin' a bed with a dragon?" Applejack shot back.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

"How's Skyla like the milk from dragon teats?"

Er.

[Radioactive Dragon]

everyone knows this if its pink and bright stay away for its a blight

[ReformedNightmare]

7845028 Why are you everywhere I go? Its getting boring, I counted 12 stories where I've seen you, Its either world is much smaller now. Or you're MiB, and following me...😗