119. The Town, Part 2
Princess Twilight Sparkle lay trembling on the floor of the Crystal Castle’s throne room. Evil King Sombra loomed menacingly over her.
“At last, princess, I have you in my clutches!” he roared triumphantly. “Now you and all of Equestria are mine!”
The throne room’s tall double doors burst open. A stallion knight wearing full gleaming gold plate armor galloped into the room, sword in mouth.
“No! Not you!” cried Sombra in abject fear.
The knight charged the villain. Sombra reared up on his hind legs, shielding his face in horror. The knight leapt and swung his sword.
Sombra slumped to the floor with a heavy thud. His horn, cleanly cut, clattered to the floor beside him. It hissed and evaporated into a black mist. Sombra, howling, also dissipated, blowing away like dry leaves in the wind.
The stallion knight took off his helmet, shook out his flowing chestnut locks, and wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. He reached a hoof out to the princess.
“Are you all right, your highness?”
“Sir Root! You’ve saved me!” cried Princess Twilight Sparkle, rushing forth to embrace him. “My hero!”
“I’ve only done my duty, princess,” Radish Root said, holding her close.
She looked down at his chest. She noticed a small trickle of blood leaking from a puncture between the plates in his armor.
“You’re hurt!”
“A mere scratch, your highness. Sombra had that beast Tirek guarding the castle gates. He landed a lucky strike on me before I was able to vanquish him. Pay it no mind.”
“Oh, Sir Root, you’re always so stubborn. Please, allow me to deliver prompt succor.”
She gently spread her aura over his armor, detaching it from his broad muscular chest and lowering it to the floor.
Radish turned to hide his blush. “Princess…”
“Shh,” she said. “I order you to keep still.”
“...yes, princess.”
She tore a strip of cloth off the skirt of her frilly purple dress and used it to clean his wound.
“Oh my,” she said, “how can you still be standing after such a powerful blow?”
“I’d withstand a thousand such blows, just to keep you safe, dear lady,” avowed Radish Root, his eyes burning with sincere devotion.
Twilight let out a small gasp. Her heartbeat quickened. She leaned her face closer to his, her eyes shining like jewels.
“Radish… kiss me…” she tenderly implored.
“As you wish, my princess,” he softly acquiesced.
“Gah! Cut it out!” yelled Rainbow Dash.
Twilight awoke with a jolt. She looked around. She was on one of the benches aboard the Friendship Express. During her nap, she had draped herself over Rainbow Dash. She had been pushing her face into Dash’s, who was trying to hold her off.
“Oh,” Twilight said, straightening up. “Sorry.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it,” said Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her head.
The rest of her friends sat on the nearby benches, staring uncomfortably at her.
“Oh. Hi, girls,” said Twilight. “What’s wrong?”
They fidgeted.
“Um… nothing?” offered Fluttershy.
“We certainly didn’t hear you lustily moaning Radish’s name in your sleep,” assured Pinkie Pie.
Twilight groaned and leaned against the window. “Please, just forget what you heard, okay?”
“Come on now, sugar cube. We’re all friends here. Don’tcha wanna talk about it?” asked Applejack.
Twilight sighed. “There’s nothing to talk about. It’s just a silly little girlish crush. Radish has been kind and supportive about me and Flash- both Flashes- so of course I’d have a transference of emotions to him after those relationships didn’t work out. It’s completely natural. Totally expected. Practically cliché.”
“Now, Twilight, you mustn’t talk down your own feelings,” said Rarity.
“Never mind. We need to focus on the task at hoof. The map sent us on this journey for a reason, and it has nothing to do with Radish.”
Radish stalked close to Starlight, trying to get within striking distance without making it look obvious.
“Sorry? What was that you said?”
She laughed. “Oh, come on, Mister Super Spy. I know who you are. And I know you were sent here because of Storm Cell.”
“Where is he?”
“I'm right here, Root.”
Radish turned around. Storm Cell was standing behind him. His mane and coat looked different from what Radish remembered, but he was wearing his ranger uniform.
“Storm Cell? What- oh!”
Storm Cell rushed forward and hugged Radish.
“Root, I’m so glad you’re here. I needed to see you. To talk to you. To explain things to you.”
Starlight stood up with a chuckle. “I’ll let you two get reacquainted. I’ll leave the door unlocked for you, Radish Root- no more crawling through the windows, okay?”
She walked back into her house. Radish pushed Storm Cell off of him.
“Storm Cell, where have you been?”
He smiled. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
“I don’t- hey!”
Storm Cell swooped over Radish, seized him in his hooves, and took flight. He landed on a hill a short distance from the town. He beckoned Radish to follow him behind a tall wall of boulders.
“Check it out!”
He pointed to a deep depression in the hillside, like a crater with high curving sandstone walls. It was half-filled with bubbling water.
“It’s a hot spring! A natural hot tub! Great to relax in!”
Radish looked down at it. “That’s all well and good, but I’m not here to relax.” Radish heard shuffling behind him. Storm Cell had taken off his uniform.
“Ranger, what are you doing?”
Storm Cell turned sideways. His cutie mark was now an equal sign.
“Look. I took the Unmarking.”
“Why?”
“For you.”
“What?”
“Join me for a swim. I’ll explain everything.”
Storm Cell flapped up and cannonballed into the hot tub. Radish stepped back to avoid the splash.
“Come on in! The water’s fine!”
Radish sighed and took off his clothes. He hesitated before losing his pants. Storm Cell swam close.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’ll find no cutie mark prejudice here.”
Radish took off his pants. Storm Cell gave his cutie mark an appreciative nod. Radish slipped into the water. It was warm.
“Storm Cell, what’s going on?”
“I want to apologize to you.”
“For what?”
“I was awful to you in our Academy days.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“No. Don’t let me off the hook. I was cruel. I bullied you over your cutie marks from your first day. I told you you didn’t belong in the Rangers.”
“It… it doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. I heard about what you’ve been up to, you know. The Storm Centurions, The Battle of the Brides, the Equestria Games. You were out there making a name for yourself and defending Equestria, despite all the adversity you faced over your cutie marks. And I was part of that adversity.”
“Is that why you unmarked yourself? Some kind of repentance?”
“I think everypony should unmark themselves. The world would be a better place.”
“Storm Cell, have you abandoned the Plains Rangers for this… lifestyle?”
“Of course not! I still patrol my territory. I observe, record, and assist where needed. I just visit this village in my free time now.”
“Your status report was double overdue.”
Storm Cell sighed and looked up at the night sky. “I couldn’t send it, Root. My messenger pigeon denied service to me.”
“What?”
“After I changed my cutie mark, my pigeon wouldn’t accept me as the same pony. It refused to take my report back to HQ unless my mark matched the one on my Ranger ID.”
“Hmm. Royal pigeons can be sticklers about protocol.”
“Sticklers? More like bigots. I’m still the same pony, Root. I don’t deserve to be cut off from HQ just because I changed my marks. There’s no other couriers in this region, so I had no choice but to wait for them to send somepony to check on me. And I’m glad you were the one they sent.”
He swam toward Radish. He put his forehooves on Radish’s shoulders.
“Please, forgive me for all the things I said to you about your cutie marks back then. I was a jerk.”
Radish brushed his hooves off. “No, Storm Cell, you were right to call me out. I really did join the Rangers hoping to catch Celestia’s eye.”
“You were a victim of Equestrian cutie mark culture. And so was I. Like everypony else, I had bought into that culture as the status quo. As the way things had to be.” He leaned in close to Radish. “But that’s no excuse. I am very sorry.”
“It’s okay. Water under the bridge.”
Storm Cell hugged Radish. “Thank you, Root.”
“Call me ‘Radish’.”
“Thank you, Radish.” He let go. “You’re going to love being unmarked. We’ll be like brothers.”
“I didn’t come out here to change my mark. I only came to find you. HQ thought you were in trouble.”
“Well, you found me. And you can tell HQ- and their pigeons- that there’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t you want to get rid of your cutie marks?”
Radish sighed. “I’ve tried. I’ve shaved them. I’ve dyed them. It didn’t help.”
“Those are stopgap solutions. The Unmarking is a true answer.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Not one bit.”
“Do you feel any different?”
“Yes! I feel lighter, like I’ve dropped a burden off my sides. I feel calmer, like my head is clear for the first time. I feel free, like my destiny can be anything I want it to be.”
“What about your special talent? Can you still make thunderstorms?”
“That was just a silly, flashy way of showing off. Of making myself seem better than I was. But now I understand that the whole ‘special talent’ thing is a myth. Think about it- you’ve done so many great things, not because of your cutie mark, but despite it. You’re living proof that nopony needs a mark to be talented.”
Radish leaned against the edge of the pool, looking at the stars. “You have no regrets at all? There’s no downsides? No fine print you’re hiding from me?”
“Do rangers lie to rangers?”
“Never. Hmm.”
Storm Cell smiled. “Then that’s all you need to know. I’m going to get some sleep- I have to get back to my patrols tomorrow. Thank you for coming to check on me. And thank you for forgiving me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And whatever you happen to decide, I’m with you.”
Storm Cell climbed out of the water and shook himself off. He turned to Radish, made a gesture with his hoof- the ranger hoof signal for “all clear”, then took flight. Radish let go of the edge of the basin, letting himself float on the surface of the water to the center of the pool, staring at a halo of clouds enveloping the moon.
He turned his attention to one of the rocks on the ridge above him. “You might as well come on out. I heard you sneak up there.”
Starlight Glimmer popped her head out from behind the rock. She grinned. “Wow, sharp ears.”
“Miss Glimmer, you were spying on us.”
“You came here to spy on the whole town first.”
“Yeah, well, the spy fantasy is over. I’m leaving in the morning.”
“With or without your cutie marks?” She cast a spell, and the Staff of Sameness appeared above her head. She caught it and held it in her hooves. “You can’t tell me Storm Cell’s words didn’t get through to you.”
“Something still doesn’t feel right about this whole thing.”
She shook her head. “Only because you were born and raised in a harmful cutie mark-based culture, and now you’re seeing the outside of it for the first time. Growing out of an old mindset can be scary, but we have a whole community here to help you through it.”
She walked down from the ridge to the edge of the pool. “Radish, tell me the truth: do you even like your cutie marks?”
Radish floated silently for a beat. “It’s complicated.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I think- whoa!”
The Staff of Sameness leapt out of Starlight’s hooves, glowing bright blue. It flew at Radish and stopped mid-air inches from his face.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“It’s not me! It’s the staff!” she yelled.
The staff hovered over Radish’s head and spun around wildly like a confused compass needle. Then, it stopped and pointed its twin tines at one of the curved rock walls surrounding the pool. The wall turned bright white, and a moving image came into focus upon it as if it were a movie screen.
It depicted two adult earth ponies, a mare and a stallion, sitting at a table in a suburban home.
“Ma? Pa? Something, uh, happened to me,” said an unseen colt’s voice. The sound seemed to be coming from the staff.
Radish’s blood went cold as he watched. “It can’t be…”
“What? What is it?” asked Starlight.
“Those are my parents. That’s… that's the morning I got my cutie mark.”
Radish’s mother and father cast their eyes down. Their faces turned furious.
“Radish!” howled his mother. “That is disgusting! Take that off right now!”
“What is the matter with you, showing something like that to your mother!?” demanded his father.
Starlight Glimmer winced. “Oooh, not the words a kid wants to hear upon getting his cutie marks.”
Radish swatted at the Staff of Sameness above his head. It hovered just out of reach. “Cut it out! I don’t want to see this!”
“I’m not the one doing this, Radish. You are. I’ve seen this before- the staff reacts to powerful cutie mark trauma. I think Meadowbrook designed it to not only remove cutie marks, but help the patient work through the harm they cause.”
“There’s nothing to work through. I’m fine with my cutie marks.”
“You can lie to me, you can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to the staff. It wouldn’t be dredging up these memories if you didn’t need to confront them.”
The image shifted to a new scene inside the same house. Radish’s mother was preparing moving boxes.
“We can’t move away!” cried the young Radish’s voice. “What about school? What about my friends? I promised Praline I’d help her with her science project!”
“You should have thought of that before you did… that… to your flanks,” she answered coldly.
“Wow,” said Starlight, shaking her head, “what horrible parents.”
“They’re not like that anymore,” said Radish. “Celestia fixed things between me and them.”
The staff projected a new scene. Radish winced. It was a scene which he had already relived nearly every day of his adolescence. Celestia was looking down with concern in her eyes.
“You have a world of potential ahead of you,” said the princess, “but sex with me will not be part of it. I am confident you will find new interests, even love interests, and forget all about me.”
“Oooh,” said Starlight. “Shot down by Celestia at such a young, impressionable age. That’s got to leave… well, a mark.”
Radish sank lower into the pool. “It… did.”
The scene changed again. Celestia was now in Courtyard A, looking stern.
“I told you we were friends all those years ago, and friends don’t lie to each other. I want you to speak freely, but honestly. You aimed your whole career path towards fucking me, didn’t you?”
Radish shivered.
“Whoa, she really said that?” asked Starlight.
Radish looked aside. “She had me dead to rights. I absolutely transferred to the Guard hoping she’d sleep with me.”
“But why didn’t she?”
“She has her reasons.”
“Wait, who’s that?”
Radish peered at a new scene on the wall. “Oh. That’s Princess Luna. She looked like that when I first met her. She hadn’t recovered her strength yet.”
“We want thee outside our door all night long, so that when we are in need of cheering, we may look upon thy cutie mark again,” ordered Luna.
Starlight frowned. “She used your cutie marks as her entertainment!? That’s awful!”
“It’s… she was fresh from the past. She was lonely, weak, and miserable back then.”
“That’s no excuse! Radish, how much abuse have you suffered because of your marks?”
“I’m telling you, I’m fine with-”
The staff spun around, putting several overlapping scenes on the walls in rapid fire.
“Everypony knows who you are. You’re that sicko with the gross cutie mark!” shouted a younger Twilight Sparkle.
“You’re the pervy mark guy, aren’t you?” needled a palace tourist.
“What on earth is that!?” gasped Princess Cadenza.
“How dare you paint such filth of my aunt on your body!?” bellowed Prince Blueblood.
“What the fuck is that!?” Sodypop demanded. “This is who your boyfriend brings for me!?”
“Gahh!” growled Radish, lunging for the staff again. It was still out of his reach.
Starlight sighed. “That last one was a date gone wrong, wasn’t it? I guess dating would be pretty difficult for you, wouldn’t it?”
“That was just one bad blind date! My love life is-”
“Would you think I was a jerk, if I said I was married to my work?” Zecora asked abashedly.
“Taken, sorry,” said Hazy Shade apologetically.
“That’s mighty sweet of you, Radish, and you’re a real nice feller, but I’m so busy with my farm…” started Applejack.
“I’m flattered, I really am. But I just don’t see you in that way,” explained Fluttershy.
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Ouch. That’s a lot of strikeouts.”
Radish scowled. “Those girls were being honest! None of those rejections had anything to do with my cutie mark!”
“Maybe,” said Starlight, “or maybe you subconsciously picked up on their disgust for your cutie mark, and the Staff of Sameness needs you to realize that.”
“No. They’re all my friends. They wouldn’t lie to me.”
“So, a friend has never lied to you about how they feel about your cutie marks?”
The rock wall flashed to a new memory. Celestia was pinning Radish against the wall of Courtyard A with her backside.
“You said you found them flattering!” cried an exasperated Radish’s voice.
“I was taking pity on a mewling little whelp who thought his wet dream cutie marks entitled him to my body!” barked Celestia.
The scene then jumped to later that evening, in Light Fantastic’s home.
“The truth is, Radish…” sighed Celestia, “I hate your cutie marks.”
Starlight gasped. Radish turned away.
“She… she has every right to hate them,” he said softly. “She never asked to be on them.”
“Neither did you.”
“None of that matters now. I have a girlfriend, and she actually likes my marks.”
The image on the wall shifted to Light Fantastic’s face, smiling warmly up at Radish. Starlight’s jaw dropped.
“Wait… she’s your girlfriend?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Radish, I don’t know how to tell you this, but she was here.”
“Here?”
“She came here a little over a week ago. She was asking a lot of questions about the Unmarking. She seemed desperate to know how it worked.”
“Light came here? Where is she?”
“She questioned just about everypony in the village, learned what she wanted to know, and then left. My guess is, she went back to try to convince you to come here. I guess deep down, she hates your cutie mark, too.”
“No… not Light. She likes my mark.” Radish paused. “I thought she liked my mark. She said she liked my mark. She… really wants me to lose my mark?”
“I’ll ask you again: do you even like your cutie marks?”
The staff quaked violently above Radish’s head. It emitted a flash so bright that Radish had to cover his eyes. When he looked up, an angry mare was glaring down at him from the foyer of a Canterlot City Watch Station.
"There he is! That's the pervert who shoved pornography in my daughter’s face!"
The image went pitch black. A jangly ragtime tune filled the air.
“Beware the pervert!”
“As sure as sherbet!”
“He's coming for your kids!”
“He'll corrupt the youth!”
“It's the honest truth!”
“Like no one ever did!”
The walls all around the pool lit up again, showing a panoramic view of the courtroom from his trial. Radish was once again surrounded by an entire gallery of disgusted ponies. Their chant echoed over him.
“Pervert… pervert… pervert…”
“Stop it. Please. Starlight, make it stop. Send the staff away. Anything.”
“Pervert… pervert… pervert…”
“I said stop it!”
“We the jury, with righteous fury, FIND ROOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS!”
“STOP IT!”
Radish slammed two hooves into the nearest wall as the judge’s gavel banged. The rock cracked from the bottom up, then collapsed. Huge chunks of sandstone tumbled into the pool, making waves which tossed Radish out of the basin and onto the ground at Starlight’s hooves. He looked up at her, limp and quivering.
“Starlight… help me…”
She stood over him, a smile widening across her face.
“I will.”
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Gah, that bitch really...
Okay.
Wow!!
This chapter is just...everything i wanted!!
So much pain in Radish about his marks, and no one knows that at all!!
I hope Celestia and Luna get bucked in the face with realizing how awful they are being to Radish, who had no control over how his cutie marks would turn out. No one can control that!!
And they aren't realizing that.
I really want Celestia and Luna to get wake-up calls!!
11852526
Celestia had every right to be pissed at a guy who took over a decade to understand that "no" is a complete sentence. Try to imagine how infuriating it is when some rando like Light sexually harasses her on his behalf.
Manipulation at its finest. So can she read minds, or is this a genuine ability of the staff?
Wow this isn't nice at all. I don't like any of this
Well…
Let’s see how this turns out.
11852526
Don't forget Shining, Barrel roller, and pretty much half of the supporting cast as well. They're all fully aware of his pain and yet, Every time he's been physically and emotionally abused by Celestia or Shining in this fic, he's been quick to sweep it under the rug and let it continue despite lack of meaningful apology or consequences for either. I just hope the Mane 6 can actually help him here, Especially since they still seem to be actively trying to pretend Celestia's second breakdown didn't happen. I don't think anyone either than Cadence has even noticed how badly Radish has been treated, and she was criticized by Celestia for bringing it up.
11852540
If this was earlier in the Fic, I'd agree. However, this is years afterward where Radish has proven time and time again that he's moved on, is a very competent guard, has a marefriend that he loves, and can work in the castle without conflict with his mark. And yet, he's still constantly treated as a criminal. Celestia, Shining, Barrel, and a few other characters all act nice around him for a spell but are fully willing to treat him as a punching bag the moment things go south because, at the end of the day, all they see is the god damn cutie mark. Cadence, Light Fantastic, and increasingly the Mane 6 seem to be the only people in this story treating him as a pony and it's increasingly irritating that both the narrative and Radish seem to be fully fine with this arrangement and he refuses to grow a spine. I just hope that losing his mark is big enough to shake things up because I'm not quite sure how this will go. Especially with an overzealous Plains Ranger captain who seems to be willing to throw Radish into harms way to redeem himself to the Princess.
New revelations.
Light Fantastic didn’t come home, as for what reason, it’s ambiguous, but her relationship with Radish Root has been waning. She’s committed to liking him, yes, but does she truly want to actually love him? Also, yes.
She wants to fix him, or to fulfill his destiny of bedding.
She tried cosplay to pretend to be Celestia, Radish declined that offer.
She went to Celestia so Radish could do his life’s purpose, it didn’t work out.
And finally, Light went to try to remove his special talent via Starlight and since she’s very astute with others, she probably realized it would remove Radish’s whole personality and turn him like the town. A shell of his former self.
Where did she go next? It’s unknown, but probably still searching for a method to help Radish.
What probably makes it sad is that Radish’s Drive to keep going despite his prejudice is because of his cutie mark. If it’s removed, what happens? Is he just a Radish Farmer? Is the spineless stalwart stallion gone? Is he himself?
11852540
That would be true if celestia was a normal pony or ruler but thats not the full truth. Celestia is at this point the most experinced and informed on cutie marks in the entire world and even if this situation is diffrent she will have seen enough to know he wont ignore his mark and will go after her.
The truth of this matter is that celestia has had a long time to learn and experince things that others canot and has build equestia on the backs of mistakes and the fixes she has made in response but the problem with that is she can only fix a problem when it is seen as a problem. In the past there were likely ponys who had marks she was able to talk into changing their outlook on their mark (A bloody knife mark gotten by a scared mare in a moment of panic being pushed to join the guard insted of relising that she likes killing). Unfortunatly raddish is a victim of her view that cutie marks always are good with celestia by her reaction when he got his mark being unable to even suggest an alternative path for him. His path was doomed from the start and celestia knew it and was content to leave one pony behind as long as the world kept going.
What im curious about is 2 things now.
1. When raddish looses his mark and its set free from the vault will it actualy rejoin him? I know its part of him but theoreticly raddish's mark refusing to re-attach to him or shattering and leaving raddish blank flanked could be a good way to make celestia relise just what her actions could be doing. Because if destiny is a grand plan and raddishes is no longer accurate i wonder what that could mean for the rest of the ponys, maby a few other ponys have their marks fall off as a result of destiny breaking. Im not saying celestia should just sleep with the guy and get it over with but at least work with him to look into what his mark is.
2. I wonder how much of raddish is his mark? is he going to loose his mark and actualy be better off? Will radish not get a equals sign due to his disconnection from his mark thereby showing to the world that he is who he is with and without it
is their a ryhme or reason to why the cover art for this story changes every time a new chapter is posted?
11852586
It changes with every arc, not chapter, to whatever is happening in the story.
11852558
that's all true!!
11852541
Pretty sure the staff was fake wasnt it? So this would be all her.
She probably got information from light. Wouldnt be surprised if light is being kept in a conformity room.
CocktailOlive has adapted the usage of cliffhangers into a fighting style
Oh no, I sure hope they don't find a way to do it again next chapter
Oh who am I kidding...
Everyone brace for impact!
11852603
Yeah, but that’s radishes memories, visuals and all. you can’t just pull that from someones else’s head. Some kind of mind reading is going on.
11852564
I'm wondering if Light never left Our Town.
With how Starlight loves to manipulate people, it wouldn't surprise me if she has Light somewhere as a backup plan, in case her manipulation of Radish fails.
11852641
If Light never left Our Town, then the emotional blackmail arc is real.
11852638
Starlight is an incredibly accomplished Mage. Would not surprise me in the slightest if she found a spell somewhere that allows people to project their own memories, and she just has to prod them the right way to make them do it.
This is a bit of a frustrating chapter. Radish, so fsr has been getting pretty confident about his cutie mark, and this really sticks out as... rather forced. Unless, of course, moving on doesn't exist in Equestria. Would explain a lot of things, really.
11852558
It's worth noting that Celestia was fully ready to fight on Radish's behalf in his legal troubles, and between adjusting getting to know him properly the other primary cast have also changed their tune about him. You can't have character growth without something to grow about. And these characters ARE developing.
11852603
11852541
The staff was a fake, yes. Just a piece of wood she found in the desert, used as part of the "sell" that Starlight was offering. The Cutie Mark removal is all her own magic.
11852558
That's fair, I've been holding back this comment for ages longer than I should have. Tbh I'm mostly commenting on the other users with a bizarre fixation on Celestia and Radish ending up together. It's frustrating to see people still not get that.
11852541
yeah either this is Starlight ripping out memories out of Radish, or we have an OFFICIAL BREAK IN CANAON, by having the staff actually be a real artifact, in the show it was just a random stick and starlight did all the magic!
I said before , this story is at its best when it does its own thing and ignores canon events, whenever it tackles a canon event it just becomes boring because simply put, we all have seen the show, so we already KNOW what will happen.
So how much of this was the staff or was it talented Glimmer putting on such a good show that it would make Trixie jealous.
Either way, a damn powerful way to break into Radish, yes ?
That final piece of doubt about Light Fantastic really got to him. But I'm sure it's not because Light hates his mark, she just wants him to be free of them.
I hope everyone remembers Starlight isnt THAT evil in this part of the story. She genuinely believes marks are evil. Your mark is your destiny and what helps you fulfill your destiny from ponies perspective. Some people have amazing destinies like Twilight but something that many forget is there are people with tragic, painful destinies. Twilights first thought on marks would be how amazing they are along with everyone else’s for the most part, Starlights first thoughts from marks are not good ones along with others who have had bitter destinies and that’s not mentioning anyone who’s marked got them killed somehow. I’m her eyes she’s not being manipulative and destroying destinies because she had one bad experience from marks but she’s helping people remove cursed marks and hasn’t worked out all the kinks yet.
11852810
This was practically mind reading mixed with past images, I don't think there would be a spell like that, maybe the staff actually does this, as it makes it easier to remove the pony's mark
Respectfully, I hope Radish doesn't pull a Twilight, and actually finds it hard if not impossible to forgive Starlight for the awful shit she's pulling on him, once this is all over.
Oooh… sooo goood!
With that kind of mental manipulation, Starlight Glimmer NEEDS to be Double BUCKED Hard into a WHOLE month of Sundays!!!
Lots of people harsh on Starlight here.
She is misguided but she isn't evil. She sincerely believes Cutiemarks are evil and that Equestrian Society needs to evolve beyond them, and frankly Root is a fantastic case. She wants to help him. She'll probably be furious with the Mane Six that they never found the Spell first.
The fact of the matter is that - at this point in the Story - Root is probably better off without his marks. If you've got to this point in the story and not seen how much its screwed him I dont know what to tell you.
Its gonna be really hard for Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six to do their whole "Cutie Marks are Great" Routine with Root sitting there genuinely suffering for them.
Starlight is *wrong*, but she isn't insincere and I think there is a solid chance that Root will actually speak out in support of her redemption in this timeline *because* she has made a sincere attempt to help him. Something that Twilight hasn't been able to do.
Starlight is absurdly powerful, but her first motivation is try to fix the world. Not destroy it. The issue is that she is so traumatised by her own abandonment issues she has thoroughly misdiagnosed the problem with equestrian society.
Even when she screws with time, she isn't trying to destroy the world, shes just trying to unmake the Mane Six so she can go back to fixing the world (without even murdering them); and Twilight defeats her by revealing the consequences of this. Starlight caves all by herself once she realises what's at stake. She isn't a monster, she is traumatised Sorcerer with unfathomable magic which eclipses every non-alicorn we've ever seen and seem to tie directly with *Destiny*. Starlight's Domain is control over Fate: she can screw with Time, manipulate - and swap - the Destinies of others; even Alicorns. And her every instinct is to change the world for the better.
If anyone can truly, properly understand Root (who also seems to mess with Destiny in hitherto unfathomable ways, being at the centre and yet also the sidelines, and attracting the attention of three alicorns) it's her.
I shouldn't be surprised if Post-Redemption Starlight ends up making helping Root her personal penance when all this is over.
11852865
Canonically, Starlight is actually pretty good at coming up with new spells on her own. And given her downright obsession with the evils of cutie marks at this point in her life I’d be more surprised if she hadn’t come up with a way to confront other ponies with the “truth” about theirs the hard way if need be. (”Truth” in quotation marks because the magic conveniently omitted all the times in Radish’s life when other ponies did in fact look past his flank decorations.)
And right at the moment, all we have to go by when deciding whether or not that was her or the staff...is her word and what may or may not simply be some better-than-pony-average acting. Hmmm.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the hot spring they soaked in might've been magically tainted.
I find it funny how people are defending Starlight, saying she's not evil and just wants what (she believes) is best for ponies, when she's clearly willing to use all means to remove cutie marks. I can think of a few historic examples where people wanted to remove something to improve life for others..
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Wow, I'm thrilled now
11852638
Could be time travel magic instead. Looking into the past.
11853681
There's been quite an effort lately to rebrand villains as either being misunderstood victims of an unjust society, or being the true good guys simply because of the causes they supposedly fight for.
11852648
I disagree we just had equestrian games in which he painted it over.
If anything the peace was brittle at best and now he got pelted with essentially all trauma he had his whole life thats gotta hurt
11854976
The simple fact is that everyone thinks they are the hero.
And I know how cliché this sounds but history is written by the winner, if Starlight were to win then the mane 6 would be the villains.
Well, you made Starlight into a legit villain. I am now scared
I smell 57 different breeds of rat.
11854976
Given that “hero” and “villain” are pretty subjective terms positively dripping with personal judgment, that’s not exactly a huge surprise. Not everyone will automatically agree with those labels just because the person(s) applying them want(s) them to!
That said, the exact same of course holds true for those “rebranding” exercises. So ultimately everyone will likely...have to make up their own damn minds in any event. Funny how that works.
'slow clap' not bad, not bad at all
hopefully Light Fantastic could tell something was deeply wrong with the place and wanted to warn Radish against it
Also Twilight's saucey dream, nice heh heh
Very manipulatively. Starlight knew exactly what she was doing. That's how you run a cult, baybee!
I bet Light is still in town and is just de-marked.
11860349
I would have thought she'd have talked to Root were that the case. My money is she's racing back home to tell Radish to ignore anything he hears about a strange town where ponies remove their cutie marks.