Caught and Punished

by ThePinkedWonder

Prologue

After all I did for them, I can’t believe how those ponies turned on me. I gave them true happiness and friendship. I founded a village for them to be happy and equal. Yet after all that...

Starlight Glimmer, an exceptionally powerful lilac unicorn, found herself running up the path to the mountains near her village known as “Our Town” as fast as her hooves would go. Her grand plan for “Equality” was falling apart, and she was on the run.

The mountains were always covered in snow, but Starlight had no time to wonder why weather teams seldom paid any attention to the area. Normally, the mountains were free of life, but not at this moment.

Towed in bottles in a cart behind her were the Cutie Marks of six of the strongest ponies Starlight knew. She couldn’t teleport away, or she would risk leaving the bottles behind, and the Cutie Marks’ owners would retrieve them. After how they had ruined everything, she couldn’t allow them to get them back too.

Panting lightly, Starlight glanced back to see Double Diamond, a white earth pony, still on her tail. More ponies were right behind him.

No! This can’t be it! I won’t be caught like this!

Adrenaline allowed Starlight to pick up her running speed and managed to put some distance between herself and her pursuers. She ran across a narrow arch of rock that led to the other mountain, but a large pile of snow came crashing down on her and the cart, causing it to drift off the mountain. She shook off the shock of the impact and reached out her magic to levitate the cart and bottles safely back to her. Once back on her hooves, Starlight sped across a bridge and briefly stopped her running to destroy it with a beam of turquoise magic. Hoping that would buy her more time, she continued her getaway.

Starlight saw some caves in the distance. If she could reach them in time, she could hide in them and escape. But out of nowhere, a pair of ponies on skis flew over her. One of them was Double Diamond, and they landed on top of the cave's entrance, triggering the snow on top of it to fall. Starlight sprinted toward the cave, but the snow collapsed on top of her before she made it in. The impact forced her to lose her magical grip on the bottles with the six Cutie Marks. The bottles hit the ground and shattered, and the freed Cutie Marks immediately flew back to their rightful owners.

Starlight popped her head out from the pile of snow, growling. A few of her pursuers managed to catch up to her. She gritted her teeth, charged her horn with magic, and fired a powerful beam at them.

At the last moment, a magenta shield appeared to block the blast. When the shield vanished, it revealed who teleported to that spot to create the barrier: Twilight Sparkle, a lavender alicorn and the Princess of Friendship. Or so she said.

Starlight gasped from the shock of her spell being blocked, even if Twilight was an alicorn. “Wha-I’ve studied that spell for years! How can you-?”

“I studied magic for years too,” Twilight interrupted as her friends, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy rushed up to stand beside her, all with smiles. “But what I didn’t know then was that studying magic could only take me so far. Each of my friends has taught me something different about myself. It was their unique gifts and passions and personalities that helped bring out the magic inside of me. I never would’ve learned that I represent the Element of Magic without these five. And I certainly wouldn’t be here to stop you now!”

Starlight rolled her eyes and groaned. “Spare me your sentimental nonsense! I gave these ponies real friendships they never could’ve had otherwise!”

“How do you know that? You never even gave us a chance!” Double Diamond shouted.

Starlight said nothing, but she lit her horn and unleashed a blinding, turquoise light and dashed into the cave.

“She’s getting away!” Rainbow Dash yelled, flying toward the cave and spotting Starlight running into it with her horn glowing for light.

Double Diamond jumped in front of Rainbow. “You can’t go in the caves! There are a ton of paths in them and you could get lost!”

Twilight said, “We’ll be fine. If we can’t find her, I'll just teleport us out. Starlight’s too powerful to let her escape without trying to stop her.”

With nopony else protesting, Twilight and her friends rushed into the cave to continue their pursuit.

---

Deeper in the cave, the air was cooler, but the hair on the ponies meant they barely noticed the lower temperature. It was also a little darker, but not dark enough to hide anything. There was an eerie silence.

“Where is she?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t see her anywhere,” Applejack said.

“Maybe she’s already gone?” Pinkie guessed.

But Starlight wasn’t “gone.” Hiding just further ahead, but under the veil of an invisibility spell, Starlight crept away as quietly as possible. Her initial plan was to stay still and wait for the ponies to obliviously pass by her, but reconsidered when she realized the risk of one of them bumping into her by mistake.

Unfortunately for Starlight, with her eyes focused on her pursuers, she wasn’t looking down and tripped on a rock. She “squeaked” when she landed. The shock from the fall made the spell wear off and Starlight was visible again.

Twilight was the first to spot the now-visible Starlight and pointed a hoof at her. “There she is!”

Starlight leaped to her feet and ran. With her horn glowing, she looked back and fired more blasts, hoping they would at least slow her pursuers down. She was too rattled to aim straight, though, and most of her blasts slammed into the walls, blasting holes in them, but the friends stayed on her.

Starlight sped around a corner in the caves, but it led to a drop, which Starlight failed to see because she was too focused on the ponies chasing her. She tripped, fell, and rolled a couple of times.

She jumped back on her hooves, but it slowed Starlight down enough for Twilight, with her horn glowing, to close too much of the distance. Twilight's friends were right behind her. They all picked up their running or flying speed and charged, forcing Starlight to fire off blasts in a last stand. One blast reached Twilight just before she could form a barrier, grazing her, and she grunted from the hit.

“Twilight!” Rainbow growled and gritted her teeth at the sight of Twilight being struck. She flapped her wings harder to pick up even more speed and weaved between Starlight’s attacks. Out of desperation, Starlight grabbed Rainbow with her magic and held her in mid-air.

“Can’t you just leave me alone?! You took away my village and my friends! Isn’t that--“ Starlight told Rainbow before Twilight charged into her, freeing Rainbow from her grip in the process. Twilight and Starlight rolled around from the momentum of the alicorn’s charge.

After three seconds of rolling, the two mares stopped. Starlight’s eyes spun, but Twilight shook her head to recover her bearings. Seeing Starlight was still disoriented, Twilight took this opportunity to focus a massive amount of her magic to create a magic suppression ring. It was capable of blocking the magic of a unicorn wearing it around their horn, even one as strong as Starlight Glimmer, but was something Twilight told herself to do only as a last resort. Only another alicorn or a unicorn possessing alicorn-level magic, such as the legendary Starswirl the Bearded, could have resisted the ring's power; Starlight's magic wasn't quite strong enough to do it.

Twilight levitated the ring over Starlight’s horn to slip it on. But before the ring touched her horn, Starlight’s eyes stopped spinning, and she became aware of what was happening. Her eyes widened and she gasped. Fear prevented her from even trying to teleport away, or to go on the attack again. But to make sure she stayed put, Twilight froze Starlight in place with her magic at full strength.

“No, no, no, no, no! Not that! Anything but that, please!” Starlight begged. Twilight’s grip was too strong, so the little movements she could do weren’t enough to save herself. Tears filled Starlight’s eyes. “P-Please, don’t take my magic away from me. I’ll be nothing without it!”

Twilight stopped moving the ring closer, seeing Starlight breaking down, so it stayed right over the top of her horn. Even if it needed to be done, was taking away a unicorn’s magic, something that made them a unicorn, going too far? Even if Starlight had no problems taking away her ability to cast spells when she stole her Cutie Mark?

“Twilight? Are you okay?” Applejack asked as she ran up next to Twilight. Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy caught up a second later.

Twilight didn’t respond. Her eyes remained on the whimpering Starlight, still torn on what to do.

Applejack was the first to truly notice the ring hovering above Starlight’s horn and knew what it was, but was surprised Twilight wasn’t forcing it on. “What’re you waitin’ for? Put it on her already!”

Twilight looked at Applejack and saw her serious frown. She then looked back at Starlight, who was staring back at her with her lips quivering and tear-filled eyes.

“Come on! She deserves it!” Rarity urged.

Twilight gritted her teeth with her inner conflict still ongoing. After five seconds, she relaxed her teeth and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” Twilight muttered and slowly slid the suppression ring down Starlight’s horn. Once the ring hit the base of her horn, a bright blue flash filled the area.

“N-No!” Starlight clenched her eyes shut, though tears still flowed from them. She rolled over to face away from Twilight and her friends and wept.

Too angry over what Starlight did to her and her friends to feel sympathy, Applejack said in a stern tone, “Serves ya right.”

Twilight put a hoof on Applejack’s back and shook her head. After which, she levitated Starlight onto her own back with the unicorn's front and back hooves dangling off either side of her. To prevent an escape attempt, Twilight bound together the hooves on Starlight's left foreleg and left hind leg with her magic, then did the same with the ones on her right foreleg and right hind leg. A gag was wrapped around Starlight's mouth so she couldn’t speak. Twilight also cast a deafening spell on Starlight, hoping that hearing nothing could help relax Starlight.

“I’m sorry, Starlight, I really am, and I hate having to do that. I'm not a pony to do things like this. But, until I know you won’t use it to hurt anypony, I can’t let you use your magic,” Twilight said, even though Starlight was unable to hear her. She couldn’t help but feel bad for going this far. “Let’s go,” she told her friends with a frown.

With Starlight on Twilight’s back, the seven ponies made their way out of the cave. Surprisingly, Starlight didn’t try to put up much of a fight, even if she couldn’t put up one. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

---

Right after Twilight and her group made it out of the cave, the villagers crowded them and shouted hateful messages at Starlight, which were all unheard by said mare. A few, such as Double Diamond, seemed less angry and more “hurt” than anything.

Twilight explained, “Now, everypony, please settle down! I know you’re all angry at Starlight for what she’s done, but please, let my friends and me decide what to do next.”

The villagers looked at each other and talked among themselves. After ten seconds, they looked to Twilight with calmer frowns.

“Okay. You’re the Princess of Friendship, Princess Twilight, so we’ll trust you know what you’re doing,” Double Diamond said, but sadly shook his head at Starlight.

“Thank you,” Twilight said.

Twilight's, Rarity's, Applejack's, Pinkie's, Fluttershy's, and Rainbow's Cutie Marks all glowed. The marks' owners turned to them with puzzled frowns.

"Uh, any ideas why our Cutie Marks are doing this?" Rainbow asked.

"Maybe the Map is calling us to go somewhere else?" Fluttershy guessed.

Twilight rolled her eyes upward. "I have a feeling it means that we did what the Map wanted us to do."

"I hope that is the case. It would be the death of me if I have to travel across Equestria all the time," Rarity said. "I have way too much to do for that!"

“And, just outta curiosity, what’re y'all gonna do now?” Applejack asked the villagers.

“I think we’re gonna stay here in the village,” Party Favor answered.

“Really? Even after everything that’s happened?” Rainbow asked.

“Why not? Sure, we’ve had our...drawbacks, but we can still make the village our home, and it is quite nice out here,” Sugar Belle, a pink unicorn, replied.

Twilight looked at the villagers, and they all wore smiles. “Well, in that case, I wish you all luck. As for me and my friends, we should be going.“ Twilight motioned to Starlight, who was still whimpering on her back. “And as for Starlight, we’ll take her with us and decide what to do with her later. She won’t be taking Cutie Marks anymore.”

After some good-byes, Twilight, her friends, and Starlight made their way to where the train dropped them off. The villagers went to the village to celebrate their new freedom.

While on the way to catch the train back to Ponyville, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity argued over what to do about Starlight. Pinkie Pie simply hopped along, humming to herself. Fluttershy had more mixed feelings, but she stayed quiet.

As for Twilight, she occasionally glanced at Starlight, struggling to think of what to do with her. Starlight still had her eyes clenched shut, but the tears stopped flowing. Despite what she had done, Twilight didn’t want to simply have her imprisoned, not after seeing her fall apart in the cave. Some of the things she said as she broke down suggested there was more to her hating Cutie Marks than it seemed.

She looked back at her friends. Three of who were still arguing, and Twilight was worried they might think Starlight couldn’t be redeemed. Or, they were just too angry to consider it.

But if so, Princess Twilight would have to convince them to give Starlight Glimmer a second chance...

Comments

[LEGION55]

I know of a similar story I'd like you to revive with a few changes.

[LucarioFan2066]

Towed in bottles in a cart behind her were the Cutie Marks of six of the strongest ponies Starlight knew.

Starlight, you do realise holding a Princess against her will and stripping her of her cutie mark constitutes two very serious crimes, right? On top of being a cult leader, you directly attacked and imprisoned royalty.
If Princess Twilight wanted, she could easily get you prosecuted and thrown into Tartarus. Hell, if Twilight hadn't managed to escape, Celestia and Luna would eventually realise something's up (whether it's because a worried Spike sent them a letter, or because Luna saw the captives' dreams), find your village, and raze it to the ground; if they were feeling particularly pissed off, they could easily justify executing you due to your attacks against royalty.

You bucked up - all you needed to do is mind-control them, make them forget they ever arrived at your village, then had the princess teleport her group away. Still committing crimes - mind-rape is criminal - but there shouldn't be proof, so your chances of survival would be higher.

[V8]

10080273
Starlight has a stupid mind confirmed.

[Avatar Sprite]

10080273
If I recall, Starlight only gained access to the more, mind-controlly spells, from Twilight's library after/mid reformation