My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition

by SuperPinkBrony12

Chapter 102: Plan B

Shining and his friends were escorted from the cave, and quickly tossed into a hut, Starlight delighting in locking the door with her magic. "You just need a little time to conform to my ideas," She taunted. "I'll come back to check on you troublemakers first thing in the morning. Hopefully by then you'll understand why I do what I do."

"Starlight, this is your last chance!" Shining groaned, narrowing his eyes at the unicorn. "Let my friends and I go, or you'll suffer the wrath of the princesses of Equestria, one of which happens to be my wife! And let me tell you, she's scary when she's mad!"

Starlight only rolled her eyes. "Let them come, let them try to stop me. I've got you, and you'll make an excellent bargining chip. One way or another, I will spread my vision across all of Equestria! Don't bother trying to stop me!" And then she left.

The stallions soon discovered that the hut Starlight had locked them in, was a brainwashing hut. Nothing but books with equal signs, and a loud speaker that kept blaring out propaganda such as: "In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie.", "Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent.", "Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail.", and "Be your best by never being your best."

Soarin immediately tried to break down the door, but despite how hard he kicked it wouldn't budge.

Meanwhile, Shining was trying his best not to lose his cool. "We've got to find a way out of here!" He grumbled. "I swear, that voice sounds far more condescending and mocking than Starlight herself. I don't know how much more of this I can take!"

"Well, this is another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into," Fancy Pants remarked. "I swear, it seems like trouble always follows us wherever we go. And just look at where we are now, stuck in this hut that I can't even begin to describe."

"Why, the words aren't appropriate?" Thunderlane asked with concern.

Fancy Pants sighed. "No, this blasted equal sign won't let me. Everytime I try to think of something that could describe this place, that mark makes it leave my thoughts. I swear it's as evil as..." Then as if to prove Fancy's point, the mark glowed and Fancy Pants struggled to finish his sentence. "Ugh, you see?!" He complained.

Just then, Thunderlane spotted a bird perched on the windowsill. He immediately dashed over to it! "Oh, thank goodness! Can you help us out, little birdie?" Thunderlane asked, but as he tried to give out a command the equal sign mark on his flank started glowing. The bird flew off a short time later. "Oh, even tweets don't make sense any more!" He complained to himself. "Just what kind of magic could do this, and why would Starlight Glimmer want this sort of world?!"

"That's it, I've had enough of this!" Big Macintosh snorted. "Move aside, Soarin! I'm bustin' us outta here!" He rammed into the door and kicked it hard, but the door still wouldn't budge. "Dog gone it all, this here door's shut tighter than a... summer of..." He began, only to have the glowing equal mark activate and the words he wanted to say failed to form. "...uh, piglets in... shoot! Now I can't even speak country! I swear, when we get out of here, Starlight is gonna pay big time for this!"

"I'll say, this ain't fun at all," Braeburn lamented. "Heck, this mark keeps stoppin' me every time I try to have even a little fun. That Starlight's a real party pooper, no wonder those smiles looked so fake."

"There's something bugging me about that staff," Shining commented. "Twily was always fond of magical mages and wizards, she used to read anything she could find about Starswirl the Bearded, Clover the Clever, and Mage Meadowbrook. I'm pretty sure that last time she read it, she told me Meadowbrook had eight enchanted objects and not one of them was a staff. I just wish I knew where Starlight found that magical rock she mentioned, and who in their right mind told her about it."

"We can worry about that later, for now I think we gotta figure out a way to escape. That is, if we can." Big Macintosh replied.

---

A long period of silence fell over the cottage, as the stallions tried to brainstorm a method of escape. At last, Shining declared. "I've got it! I know how we can get out!"

"You can forget about the door, Shining," Soarin groaned. "Whatever Starlight did to it, it's unbreakable. Believe me, I've tried."

"And the windows are far too small for any of us to escape, seems like Starlight thought of everything." Fancy Pants reluctantly added.

"Whoever said anything about the door or windows?" Shining said with a wink. "There is a third option, one that Starlight would never think of!"

"I think I know what you mean!" Braeburn commented in delight. "Eventually the wind and the weather will wear down the walls until they start to crumble! And then all we have to do is wait for a big enough hole to form and we can just walk right on out! It's the perfect plan!" But then his equal mark glowed again and he glumly added. "I guess."

But Shining shook his head. "We don't actually have to escape. They'll just let us out when they think we've accepted their philosophy! We can then plant an agent right into their ranks and steal back those marks right under Starlight's nose, she'll never see it coming!"

"Great idea, Shining, but there's just one problem with that," Big Macintosh remarked with a frown. "They're never gonna believe that we switched over in just one night."

"Maybe not all of us, but there's one of us they might believe." Shining explained.

All eyes fell upon Thunderlane. "Oh! You mean me?!" He asked, as the realization slowly dawned upon him.

"Of course," Soarin replied, realizing Shining's logic. "Look, Thunderlane, you're the one who's been all but singing these villagers praises since you got here. It's not gonna take that huge a leap of logic for them to think you'll see this as just a misunderstanding, and that you'll be glad to be part of their society."

"Well, maybe at first I thought they weren't so bad. But, after what they just did to us, I'm starting to regret thinking that way," Thunderlane gulped. "I... guess I'm the best stallion for the job and with a little bit of acting, maybe I could fool them. But what exactly do I do once I'm out?"

"Simple, you've gotta find a way to get our cutie marks back," Shining explained. "If possible, see if you can free the cutie marks of Sugar Belle, Party Favor, and Night Glider as well. We owe it to them to free them from Starlight's control!"

Thunderlane looked all around at his friends, all of whom were clearly counting on him. "A-alright," He gulped again. "I'll try to do my best."

Just then, the loudspeaker began to crackle, and the voice of Starlight called out. "Good morning!" The door was swung open by Starlight herself a second later, and despite the events of yesterday she put on a cheerful expression as she greeted. "I trust you all had a pleasant night?" Without waiting for a reply she added. "Well either way, this way, please. There are some friends who'd like to see you," She escorted the six outside and stood them in front of the entire village as she announced. "Gather round, friends, gather round! We've come to ask if any of you here are ready to join us! There are so many friends to be made once you realize that you don't need your cutie marks or the special talents that come with them."

Double Diamond cheerfully expressed. "We have a welcome ceremony for new friends! The whole village joins together to build you your own cottage, it's lots of fun!"

"Not interested, thank you!" Soarin hissed. "You may have stolen our cutie marks, but you'll never break our will! Mark my words, we WILL get our marks back sooner or later! You can't hold onto them forever, cutie marks are an inevitable part of life!"

"Ya'll don't even understand, do you?!" Big Macintosh added. "You can't just force ponies to make friends! It don't work like that! And stealin' cutie marks to force equality doesn't work either, without special talents, society as we know it would cease to exist!"

Some of the villagers cried out. "Please, join us!" and "We love new friends!".

But Starlight just sighed and shook her head. "It's all right, everypony," She said in that sickeningly sweet tone. "This is all a perfectly normal part of the equalization process for those who haven't... quite seen the light just yet. But that's okay, we'll just try again tomorrow once you six here have had a bit more time to consider our philosophy! Now, back into the hut with you, no need to have your backwards thinking ways taint the foundations of our village!"

However, Thunderlane suddenly blurted out. "I'd like to join!"

The villagers began chattering, as Shining exclaimed. "Thunderlane?! How could you?! I thought we were friends!"

Author's Note:

I figured that some of the interactions and forced equality segments would have to change, since at least Fancy Pants isn't as dramatic as Rarity, and Shining isn't as magically knowledgeable as Twilight, not to mention Braeburn's not as hyperactive or random as Pinkie Pie.

I also opted to make Thunderlane a bit more sympathetic and considerate of his friends point of view. Fluttershy in the original episode was good, but looking back it does seem like a bit much of a stretch how she keeps defending the villagers even after she loses her cutie mark. You'd at least expect her to be a bit upset about it.

Comments

[Comickook]

Once again, excellent job on this latest chapter. As usual, good job mixing episode faithfulness with subtle differences. Yeah, I can certainly understand your reasoning mentioned in the author's notes.

I'll very certainly be looking forward to more of this, but will also understand that real life concerns have to come first.

[Yoshifan30]

Thunderlane asked, but as he tried to give out a command the equal sign mark on his flank started glowing. The bird flew off a short time later. "Oh, even tweets don't make sense any more!" He complained to himself.

I know right Sometimes Twitter doesn't make any sense 😑

[Yoshifan30]

well It looks like it's up to thunderlane to figure out how to get the cutie marks back from starlight