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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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It's that time again!
Oh my god! I can’t wait to see how this resolved. If Starlight is as cunning as she is in the show. This could go seriously south very quickly. I’m super excited!
Your twilight is no different a tyrant to starlight glimmer was in the show. Looking forwards to a deeper exploration of these two villans and maybe some role reversal.
The problem with The Cutie Mark Map is that you can take ANY world view, like say, vegetarianism: and make it look bad by turning the leader into a lying hypocrite, and having the main characters be kidnapped and trapped in a brainwashing hut.
The fact that Starlight Glimmer actually needs her own cutie mark to remove others, and thus hides her out of view, and obliviously avoided using it in public, all suggests the classic 'noble lie' that is needed to keep the community together (not to mention it might be impossible for Starlight Glimmer to remove her own mark, since she'd lose her talent for doing so in the process of removing it, and it'd snap back on).
And Starlight Glimmer is as broken as her followers, so has her own trauma related to cutie marks that she's trying to escape from.
You have to wonder how much self hatred Starlight Glimmer has for her own cutie mark.
She didn't have to, not with the power she held, and she had had enough. "
Too bad for Twilight she'd met her equal. And Starlight is actually her BETTER when it comes to mind control magic (seriously, it took Starlight all of a minute to throw together a powerful mind control that could brainwash several ponies AT A DISTANCE without needing a line of sight.)
"and then there's you."
It's a painful duty. To be the groundskeeper of paradise and yet never able to become completely one with the whole.
It seems Starlight changed who their 'Empress' was. Starlight has many flaws, but STUPID has never been one of them.
Ironically? Here? It's 100% justified.
Twilight and Starlight Glimmer are honestly not that different here. If a woman who mind controlled Princess Celestia and her friends showed up, drugging her was a decent tactical move. I honestly can find no fault what so ever in Starlight Glimmer doing this.
And I imagine Starlight is hoping for world of Alicorns one day. To free ponies of that horrid divide.
Then again... it all depends ... Starlight Glimmer considers cutie marks the problem, not race, it's a non-issue for her. Those magical butt stamps that tell you what to do with your life.
After all, where is the equality in a pony whose cutie mark is managing garbage and one whose cutie mark is quantum mechanics? Can you really say those ponies are equal?
wow um quick question when are we going to see dawnbreaker and nightmare moon appear to surprise starlight?
9004598
Starlight IMHO was such in the position of the Noble Lie, a nominal legal fiction everyone in the community accepts as true to keep the community together, every community has one to some degree or another.
Their community was based on the idea "those magic butt marks separate you from others" and all these broken ponies with broken Starlight wanted to get away from them, except Starlight COULDN'T get rid of hers, so she was stuck in the position of not truly belonging to the community she herself had created.
I found it annoying that everyone changed loyalties on the spot once her cutie mark was revealed, it implies to the kids "all you need to do to undo a world view you don't agree with is expose the messenger as a 'hypocrite'" (even though Starlight had no MEANS of removing hers).
And I'm looking forward to Starlight Glimmer giving Twilight Sparkle a tastes of her own medicine.
9004645
Starlight never played open card. She didn't even 'consider' just telling the ponies that she's unable to remove her own cutiemark, but would still like to make this utopia a reality. If the other ponies 'really' wanted equality like that, they wouldn't have minded that. Starlight's brainwashing cabins and the forceful removing of the cutiemarks tells otherwise. The fact that she pretty much 'acted' as the leader of the town, showed she had no problem putting herself in a higher role to further the cause of 'equality' and that is plain hypocrisy.
Starlight may be interested in getting equality in the cutiemark sense, but as shown, a village/town/species can't really 'thrive' without specializations. Or as used in this chapter, they get by with the lowest possible denominator.
Starlight's methods and how quickly everyone turned on her shows me that it wasn't really voluntary and that her lies were just the straw that broke the camels back (or rather, the brainwashing)
overall, not that impressed with this chapter, especially since, as paranoid as Twilight was she didn't take advantage of the fact she has Luna under her control, with her dream walking ability
9004603
I really don't buy your view of Starlight. And it's easy to paint someone as noble if you add trauma to them and whitewash all their sinister motives
Th difference between a garbage pony cutie mark and a quantum physicist cutie mark? Society will always need a garbage pony
now this is really interesting
i wonder if the outfit will return
Interesting chapter, you're really going to have fun diving into the moral quandaries of this.
9004705
Which is where the episode fails. You can turn any world view wrong by making the leader a hypocrite and having them lock people up and brainwash them. It's lazy writing.
9004645
Starlight most likely went to them with an equal mark already in place and pitched the entire idea from there. For them the loss of cutie marks was probably something they accepted as a necessary evil
9004806
And the point of the episode wasn't to paint equality as being bad, but rather as a good thing, being used as a tool by a bad person, right?
9004819
And that's the problem with Starlight's Glimmer's character. She was much more interesting as a well intentioned extremist rather than "totally evil" that she later paints her past actions as, when it was crystal clear from her back story that her desire to have a world free of cutie marks and the divisions they cause was very genuine. That's misguided good, and people have to learn to recognize the difference, otherwise, you will generalize things.
9004806
OR they never intended for her view to have any merit. This wasn't a sudden change to a character. It's not like Our Town and the Equality movement was a season long threat that only suddenly showed how recruits were gained. It was 44 minutes of cartoon, with Our Town introduced five or ten minutes in, internal opposition fifteen or twenty. It wasn't a stable threat with it's history undermined at the last minute to give the heroes the win, it was a house of lies undermined at it's first challenge
No twilight needs to dominate everyone she should be the evil mistress not starlight pls
Well, this should be interesting.
9004841
To me, it comes across as made of straw.
Twilight should dominate starbitch
I think Pinkie is speaking for all of us here.
Or rather they expected to — but now they won't.
I feel most sorry for poor Fluttershy. She and Pinkie were the only ones left who hadn't yet received specialised, personal attention from Twilight, this visit[1]. Pinkie's planned party would probably have served well as "doing something special" for her, if Twilight had set her mind to it, but even without that she strikes me as a mare who can keep herself entertained (and others!) if left to her own devices — but poor Fluttershy has been left high and dry… Well, metaphorically dry. <suppressed, almost inaudible whimpering>
Thinking about it, I feel that Rarity and Fluttershy were probably the ones that most needed special attention from Twilight. Obviously they all wanted it, but those two probably needed it most for their mental well-being. In Rarity's case, it was because Twilight wronged her in the past and her membership in Twi's marem was, at best, semi-voluntary. She needed the reassurance and special care, in order to let her truly feel how much Twilight really cares for her. I hope that Twilight's efforts have at least made a start of salving those wounds and putting her worries to rest. Fluttershy, for her part, doesn't need that kind of reassurance — she is quite happy being Twilight's sex-pet and member of a lesbian harem — but of all of Twilight's girls, she is the one least capable of reaching out to one (or more) of the others to have her needs met. I'll have to check back to chapter 13, whether Twilight said that the girls would remember their fun, when Twilight partially shared her control with Rarity, but I hope they do remember it and that it will be enough to tide Fluttershy over until Twilight's return — because otherwise Fluttershy really got shafted. And not in the way she likes to get shafted.
[1] That is, if you count the session with Zecora and Celestia as giving Zecora special attention. I kinda remember it as being a little more spur-of-the-moment than specially planned for her — but then again, it doesn't have to be planned in advance like Applejack's and Rarity's moments were, as long as it's done for Zecora, paying particular attention to her specific needs and wants. I'm sure she came out of that encounter fully satisfied.
9004598
I won't defend the version of Twilight from the first half of Friendship is Mind Control. For that part of the story, she was gleefully skiing down the slippery slope to villainy, and she well deserved to be stopped and punished for it. After her attempt to charm Celestia is a very different story, however.
The critical difference between them that makes Starlight a villain and post-memory-wipe Twilight not a villain is that Twilight truly does offer voluntary choice to those she enslaves. Every member of her harem freely chose to be there. Zecora and Rarity were in a way pressured into it by the leftover legacy of pre-reset Twilight's deeds, but post-reset Twilight did the best she could with a bad situation. She even protested and tried to offer an alternative solution; it was Zecora and Rarity who rejected any alternative and insisted on returning to charmed service.
Twilight's attempt to charm ponies at the end of this chapter is a last ditch self defense in a situation of extreme danger. As such, I do not consider it villainous or tyrannical. What matters for that is what she does with them when the danger is past, and I fully expect her to release them with, at most, an instruction to not remember being charmed. Assuming that her charm attempt succeeded in the first place, of course.
Wonder if Starlight has any kinky equality orgies? I find the idea of Twilight being disgusted by boring sex hilarious.
I feel I got a Henry Hazlitt economics lesson in the story.
And I was happy to see Pinky, even if briefly, brought in the chapter. There's never a bad time for squishy party pony.
Can't wait to read more.
orig00.deviantart.net/39ad/f/2015/351/0/e/cultural_marxist_equality_by_progressforpeace-d9kgbeu.jpg
9004603
I've seen a few comments around this site from you about you defending the decisions Starlight Glimmer made when she was obsessed with equality. At least, I think that's what you're doing, I'm not sure. I don't want to get in a fight with you about it, but I feel like something needs to be brought up.
I really don't see Starlight's village as any kind of paradise. The idea she has is that special talents lead to disagreements, so those talents need to be removed in order for everyone to be friends with everyone.
But what about people who don't want tons of friends? I know that's extremely rare in Equestria but what about people who are more at peace when they're alone? What about people who are socially awkward or have social anxiety? Imagine a pony that's an painter, or a writer, or a veterinarian. Imagine someone who works best when they're not around other people. In Starlight's village, their special talent is taken away and the town constantly pushes them to become friends with other people and to help build new houses. Starlight's power can take away a pony's ability. But what about their disabilities?
Starlight tries to frame her philosophy that it's your choice to have a cutie mark taken away and that you can get it back whenever you want. But in reality, she manipulates the town into always saying yes and never asking for their marks back.
Some people are more introverts than extroverts, and that's why Starlight's view on equality and Our Town just...makes me uncomfortable. And really scares me. Imagine if Fluttershy had gone alone to Our Town. Unable to talk to animals and unable to make friends with new ponies without the confidence her talent gives her.
That's the big problem I have with Starlight's philosophy. Some people...can't survive Our Town.
Which is good, because that sort of thing does hurt a lot after a while
... You know, it probably makes some sense in context, but considering who's involved, I don't know how much.
Ah, so you've been taking lessons from Uncle Iroh. Or Celestia. Or both.
So does that make Pinkie a cat?
Pardon?
... I mean, she has a good point.
Yup.
Be nice.
Oh this is bad.
Yes, we know.
Yeah, about that...
Also a convenient way to keep him out of the plot.
Smart.
You two planned this.
Uh-oh.
Which makes me wonder, WHY does the train lead to this place, anyway?
They still have their cutie marks, not the Equal Signs. What's going on here?
Oh. Never mind.
GOOD.
I wonder if Twilight is going to notice that her name is synonymous with hers?
Yes.
Oh. Neat.
Ugh, even the dialogue sounds creepy.
And we have a cult horse.
Oh you are going to be fun. It has been AGES since I've been exposed to some good evil Starlight.
You are creepy beyond all reason.
Oh holy shit. It just hit me. Starlight Glimmer works even better as a dark parallel to Twilight. All these ponies having a single thing linking them to her, because of a spell only she knows, except where Twilight is an Empress, Starlight is one of equals, except a cult leader. Oh this is going to make this fun.
Wanna know the worst part? I think she honestly believes her own spiel.
See, you say that.
Clever girl.
It seems you touched a nerve.
This is a trap. This is absolutely a trap. ROLL INSIGHT TO NOTICE THIS IS A TRAP!
You know, considering Our Town is usually considered the name of this place, there's a skit I'm going to be posting at the end of this. This is just what gave me an opportunity to bring it up.
It is.
Aaaaaaaaand there's the trap.
Good, that's clever.
Oh. Oooooooh. She pulled a reverse Starlight.
Guessing what's in the water or muffins prevents magic use or something in the air dulls magic.
Ah hell.
Well then.
So, this isn't fitting, but considering the name of the chapter, I have to.
(Think about the name of the town and the kind of exchanges that could lead to.)
9005064
Ironically Fluttershy was one who wanted to join in until Starlight's 'forcible conversion and brainwashing' was added in.
Incidentally, Ember's maid outfit was directly taken from an image that was sent to me, ages back. The image actually inspired me to bring Ember into the story, when she probably wouldn't have featured at all.
It's of dubious nsfw-ness, so to be sure, look for '1332755' on derpibooru.
9005098
I forgot about that. Bad example with Fluttershy, I suppose. Maybe I should have used Cranky Doodle Donkey or Moondancer instead. But then Fluttershy actually learned more about Our Town and decided she couldn't support the idea anymore.
And I suppose that if you took out the 'forced conversion and brainwashing' then there'd be nothing wrong with Our Town. Some people might want to live in Our Town and it would be their choice, and then there wouldn't be any problem. But not everyone could live like that. And Starlight wasn't giving anyone a choice.
9005091
The train doesn't lead to this place, nowhere close. Look at this map - there's a rail link from Canterlot to Manehattan, that passes through a lengthy tunnel under some mountains. Starlight's village is to the north of those mountains, in a dusty plain. Twilight and Trixie got off the royal train at the entrance to the rail tunnel, and hiked north for a few days to reach their current predicament.
9005143
Oh. Fair enough.
9005143
And yet SOMEHOW Big Mac is able to make several trips there over the course of one week. -_-
I really, really hope part of the betrayal came about because of Twilight's open hostility. This isn't the Princess of Friendship. She knows little about the concept.
Her exchange with Starlight read like something straight out of a fix-fic, and I would like to see the reaction be more than simply helpless, defeated outrage at this apparently very very much smarter than Show!Twilight. This Twilight is too fond of messing up lives and playing empress without getting much of the thing mentioned in the title: Consequences.
Yup, that makes it official. The two of them are already indoctrinated.
To tell him what to hit
Trix, err, Page Turner over the head with, of course.Yes, it's almost as if their philosophy was intentionally designed to be so obviously, screamingly stupid that even a young child watching it would be able to tell that it was wrong-headed, unsustainable, and couldn't possibly work, without having to be taught economics, social science, or philosophy first.
Oooh, I really like how you turned one of Starlight's initial defining moments (Her big "QUIET!" interrupting Twilight's patented Friendship Lecture™) around on her.
Correct. In fact, Expansion should be the last thing on Starlight's mind, if she wants her commune to survive. A society in which specialised skills and knowledge are allowed and encouraged will only improve as it grows, because every new member has a chance of bringing in special knowledge or exceptional skill, to the benefit of the whole. Even if their best talent is less developed than that of a specialist you already have, at least they're not dragging anyone down and are extending your society's capacities in that area. Even if a new member is badly handicapped, requires care, and cannot contribute to the society's productivity, you have enough redundancies and overcapacity (thanks to all those members who are good at something but not the greatest in their field) that you can afford to care for them without lowering the standard of living for everyone else.
In Starlight Glimmer's twisted, Harrison-Bergeron-style vision of "equality", every new recruit has a chance of crippling their society even further. What if the next recruit just happens to be really, really bad a weaving cloth? Everypony has something they're really crap at and can never seem to learn, no matter how they or their teachers try. Does everypony else now have to lower their weaving to his standard? Or does the weaving of cloth get tossed on the already overflowing pile of skills that have to be shunned, because not everypony can do them? What happens if a recruit is a pony who requires a wheelchair-analogue? Even assuming that Starlight is not yet insane enough to require everypony to forgo the use of their hind legs, building and maintaining a wheelchair is a specialised skill, so they're up shit creek, the first time their chair breaks a wheel or malfunctions in any way.
No, expansion across Equestria is a complete pipe dream. Starlight's experiment can only survive (just barely) if it's limited to a tiny, devoted group of true believers — and as we've seen in the show, many, possibly the majority, of them are not true believers, but only kept in line by peer pressure, fear, and possibly brainwashing (unless you think the "propaganda hut" was built overnight, especially for the Mane 6).
Eeeyup. Good thing you left your backup outside of town. Alone with the other brainwashed cultist.
Damn, what a cliffhanger! As if the blue balls you gave us earlier in the chapter weren't bad enough!
If only Twilight had preventatively charmed her seekers and given them failsafes in case they encountered mind-altering magics (Which she knew existed, even before she found the charm). But because she thinks of the charm as either something sexual or a panic-button to gain control of a situation, she decided against that.
And speaking of panicking, Twilight's use of the charm at the end there, was not particularly well thought out. There must have been a dozen better spells she could have cast instead. If she didn't trust her teleporting in her impaired condition, how about a shield spell that kept her safe in a bubble until she slept off the drugs and could dispel it when she woke up? Or why not a mass sleep spell to put everypony else to bed along with her? Or really anything other than a charm that requires complex (if extremely well-practised) gestures to cast, a verbal activation, and at least moderately well-thought-out commands to be of use. But the charm is the one spell above all others that makes Twilight feel safe. It is perfectly understandable that, in a panic, this is the spell she would reach for.
9004943
Starlight, if she's anything like her show self, is likely having one or more of the town's stallions dye his mane and coat orange, wear a wizard robe, and grow a goatee.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/6/18/1760575__suggestive_artist-colon-zouyugi_starlight+glimmer_sunburst_butt+grab_female_grope_male_shipping_starburst_straight_sweat_unicorn.png
Twilight didn't yet have a chance to turn her gay, like she did with Rarity and Applejack.
On a completely different topic…
Am I the only one who's kinda hoping that Twilight and Trixie take long enough to deal with Starlight Glimmer that Celestia is released from her restrictions? Because if that happens, once Twilight is back and safe again, thing would get really interesting between them.
I don't mean that Celestia would betray Twilight. I believe that she is sincere in her pledge… but I also believe that she is perfectly willing to stretch the definition of "not abusing her trust" ever so slightly, for the purpose of mischief and teasing. Celestia genuinely loves Twilight and she really does enjoy having Twilight as her domme, for the time being (as an Alicorn she can afford to wait a few centuries for Twilight to let her be an equal or even switch roles), but it's not in her nature to slip obligingly back into submission without making Twilight work for it. It wouldn't be an actual fight, like the last time, but she would make it annoyingly difficult to put her back on the leash, even if the final outcome isn't in doubt. And just when Twilight thinks that's finally over with and everything is back the way it should be, suddenly the surprise commands that Celestia left in her friends' brains trigger and blindside her. Rainbow and Pinkie would totally be up for having hidden prank commands put in their subconscious; Applejack, Rarity, and Zecora possibly; Fluttershy probably not.
Ohhhh Twilight is gonna mindbreak Stralight and fuck her senseless.
I guess we'll find out if the charm can help cure the clinically insane in the near future. I believe this came up in your Q&A blog post a while back.
A great introduction so far, lots of setup for interesting times ahead. Celestia is soon to be off her leash, that stuff with the stolen notes remains unresolved, and of course Twilight has had her first explosive meeting with Starlight. It will be tough waiting to see if Twilight's charm made it out successfully, and even if it did I wonder how that command will be interpreted.
Odds are Starlight will have been watching the house carefully just in case, and catch the two enthralled ponies trying to carry a drugged Twilight down Our Town main street. That will leave Twi with even more 'splaining to do when she wakes up. Of course, Trixie is also still hanging out with Burdock, and something tells me Trixie will be far too prideful to be defeated by some second rate seeker who got himself caught! I really look forward to the next episode of FiMC.
9005396
Trixie, in her current state of mind, just may kill Burdock for allowing himself to be controlled by someone other than Twilight and putting her in danger
9005098
she felt safe enough to enjoy it with her friends. Fluttershy is often more out of her shell when the rest of the mane 6 are there, imagine her allone for some reason...
9005449
She's also vulnerable to stuff like that. Remember how much she internalised Iron Will's assertiveness training? You are right, her need to feel safe and her trouble with saying no can lead her down dangerous roads.
Man... I really want Starlight to be punished, thoroughly.
It's just too bad I can't give you another like per chapter. 10/10
It is technically interesting here, in that Twilight's charm does, if not exactly the same thing with 'individuality'/free will, then definitely something similar - the main difference is that Twilight has purposefully shied away from explicit total 'permanent' personality alteration after seeing it used on the one guard, and that the charm is moreso the epitome of selfishness (on some level, you get to do what you want, with no consequences unless you invite them) versus Starlight's equality being the 'death-of-personality (and invention/progress)
That being said, she knows all too well on how her addiction/feel good about being enslaved is affecting Trixie, and has been affecting Zecora and Rarity, for example. Even her 'voluntary' slaves part has been cloaked (at times) in deception - she didn't, for example, tell Lightning Bolt about what the entirety of being inducted into her harem means.
That aside....honestly, I'm quite surprised Twilight was naive enough to trust her two 'agents' so freely - yes, on some level it might be overly paranoid, and that she has reason to not be overly paranoid, given her recent 'descent' into the more sexual aspect of her new position as a coping mechanism, but she got caught quite flat-footed, here, considering her agents were all deemed loyal, and would not have surrendered themselves into Starlight's commune so easily.
Like...not even a discrete charm to detect poison/drugs in the food, AFTER you already confirmed to the evil mastermind that you're on to her? If you suspect Starlight has been using magic to alter ponies' free will, she'd likely not 'only' be a one-trick pony, if you'll pardon the expression.
However, I imagine either Trixie will get involved, or Twilight and Starlight will have a little more to elaborate on the concept of free will, individuality, and specialization rather than Twilight getting insta-gibbed
.....granted, some of that may be because I don't necessarily know if I want to see another 'repeat' of the charm-war via Twilight getting (fully) subverted again, rather than a mix-up of ideologies and their extremes as Twilight attempts to moreso 'fight' against Starlight's brainwashing.
(That, and hopefully Trixie gets to ream Twlight out for saying she'd never leave her behind again, and then doing just that via going to Ponyville)
I just hope it isn't 'easy' to alter a Princess of Magic's cutie mark on a permanent basis, though....and/or to have her drugged self give up state secrets on what magic she was attempting to cast....although given the flashes of purple at the end, her subconscious desire to get away may have resulted in another teleport - she already has a precedent of doing it with her accidental teleport from the coronation - unless that's just 'stray' magic leftover from her attempts to use the charm.
At any rate, super chuffed at the update speeds recently, even if I'm sad no play time for Ember to really sell the 'voluntary submission' aspect. Looking forward (with some admitted apprehension) on how things will proceed.
9005443
Not to mention, Trixie's current state of mind comes from the charm, and that probably makes her immune to Starlight's brainwashing. She has a zealous obsession with serving Twilight, magically enforced via the charm's compulsion; I doubt that can be broken with Starlight's mundane Equalist propaganda.
That being said, this is the FiMC universe, and later on in the canon show we see Starlight put together an effective mind control spell of her own design in just a few minutes. It's not outside the realm of possibility that FiMC Starlight has a few MC spells on hand even at this stage, and that is perhaps how she managed to take control of the two seekers so quickly. And, it's possible that Starlight could Equalize Twilight herself and use her to command Trixie, though I doubt she'll manage to be that successful.
Interesting chapter, nice intrigue here, can't wait for the follow up.
So I potentially see this going down this way. First is that Starlight finds a way to break Twilight,(maybe using the type of mind control spell she used in the show, which seems to have less awareness than the charm does, though the brainwashing hut is also there) at least enough that we get a bit of sub Twilight back until Celestia breaks free of her commands and just goes full Sun Princess on Starlight. Now the charm that Twilight uses would be a thing to worry about if in Starlight's hands, but remember here Celestia is freaking OP. She just deflected the new charm like it was nothing the last time Twilight and Celestia faced off and seeing how Twilight and Starlight were considered magical equals in the show, I can imagine that carrying over, so that shouldn't be an issue with a fully aware Celestia. Only issue with that how a free Celestia might react.
9005121
And of course with some helpful suggestions from me :p
I think this chapter marks the turning point where I begin to look forward to more chapters for the plot instead of smut.
9004603
For a person with a genuine vocation for it, garbage disposal is at least as fulfilling as the intellectual exercise of theoretical physics is for someone that way inclined. The major difference between the two activities is that garbage disposal is so vital that people for whom it's not a vocation get persuaded to do it, while the minimum number of quantum mechanicists required for society to function is zero, so the challenge is not finding people to do it despite not wanting to, but for the people who do want to do it to find ways of supporting themselves while they do.
And, yes, send a blind deaf-mute quadriplegic pony to Our Town, and their policy of equality-by-subtraction will cause the place to implode.