Absolute Equality
Starlight Glimmer stood proudly towards The Crystal Empire. At her side was Daring Do’s longtime nemesis, Ahuizotl.
“At last,” she smirked as her cape flailed wildly in the wind. “Global equality is at hand.”
The dog-like rogue used the hand on the back of his tail to hold his hat upon his head as he stated, “At first I believed our partnership was foolish, but the way you evaded Daring Do has certainly proven most useful.”
“Yes,” the periwinkle-colored Unicorn stated. “With the artifacts we’ve acquired we can both finally have what we want.”
Ahuizotl let out a hearty guffaw as he triumphantly proclaimed, “Equestria in chaos!”
Starlight grinned as she gazed towards her saddlebag.
“Let’s go,” she said.
***
“Wow!” awed Spike. “They made an official holiday out of when we saved The Crystal Empire!”
Twilight smiled and looked towards her young, dragon assistant.
“When ‘you’ saved The Crystal Empire,” she stated.
Spike couldn’t help but raise his head and smile from ear-to-ear. He knew it was a team effort that saved The Crystal Empire from King Sombra’s return, but being known around the land as ‘Spike, The Brave and Glorious’ definitely made him feel special.
***
Every pony was gathered before the crystalline statue of Spike. There was a small stage set up where Cadence and Shining Armor stood along with Twilight Sparkle and Spike.
“Welcome one-and-all!” announced Cadence. “Today we gather to remember how our peaceful empire was freed from the tyranny of King Sombra!”
Cheers rose out through the crowd. This was accompanied by Unicorns using their magic to create magical fireworks while Pegasi flew about in fancy patterns. The Earth Ponies stomped their hooves proudly to create a thunderous boom of triumph.
“We love you Princess Cadence!” cried some ponies in the audience.
“Hurray for Spike, The Brave and Glorious!” cheered other attendees.
FWOOSH!
“What the…?” asked Shining Armor as the sky suddenly grew dark.
“Fools!” cried a voice as dark, crystalline spires began to form around the crowd. “I have returned!”
Panic filled the audience as the shadowy figure of King Sombra walked into view. He wasn’t quite as large as he was when he attempted his return a year before. However this fact didn’t make him any less frightening to the Crystal Ponies.
“What?” wondered Cadence. “How?”
The shadowy figure with glowing, green eyes came ever closer. With each step he took more-and-more dark, crystalline spikes formed.
“You all shall be my slaves!” he proclaimed.
“Not if we have anything to say about it!” proclaimed Cadence as she and Twilight unfurled their wings and leapt into action.
***
“Perfect,” grinned Starlight Glimmer as she took advantage of the commotion to steal the Crystal Heart and replace it with a very convincing fake. “Now I need only reach the highest spire of the crystal palace to complete what I started.”
***
“Ready?” asked Cadence.
“Let’s do this!” cried Twilight.
PYOO-BZZSHH!
“Argh!” cried King Sombra as he fell to the ground.
“Huh?” wondered Cadence as she and Twilight flew down to further confront the tyrant.
“Be careful,” warned Twilight. “This could be a trick.”
Shining Armor rushed in and conjured up a protection spell for the threesome.
“Surrender, Sombra!” commanded Cadence. “You’re finished!”
Sombra laughed.
“What’s so funny?” asked Shining Armor. “You’ve lost!”
“Quite the contrary,” stated a voice that was very much not King Sombra’s.
Cadence, Twilight, and Shining Armor were at a loss for what was happening.
“Wait,” said Twilight as she started conjuring a spell.
SHWEE-POOF
Everyone gasped as what appeared to once be King Sombra was now the renowned arch nemsis of Daring Do, Ahuizotl.
“Ahuizotl…?” asked Twilight.
“Got you!” cried Daring Do as she dashed in from behind Twilight.
“You’ve got nothing, Daring Do!” proclaimed Ahuizotl as he tossed an amulet outwards.
FWEE-YOO
Shining Armor became distracted by Daring Do’s arrival to the point he had dropped his protection spell. Poor timing, too, as the amulet opened and a strange force erupted from it that started tugging at his, Cadence’s, and Daring Do’s Cutie Marks.
“What’s going on?” asked Cadence as she watched the crystalline-designed heart leave her flank and be sucked towards the open amulet.
Twilight gasped as she knew the amulet’s power was now reaching her. Fortunately, she had experienced this spell before and knew exactly how to counter it. Unfortunately, it was not in time to save Daring Do, Princess Cadence, or her brother, Shining Armor, from losing theirs.
Ahuizotl laughed maniacally as Daring Do fell to the ground. It was as if all her enthusiasm had been sapped from her body.
“At last!” he proclaimed. “The great Daring Do has been defeated!”
Ahuizotl reached down for the now closed amulet.
“Oh, no you don’t!” cried Twilight as she rushed to reclaim the amulet.
Ahuizotl sneered as he blew upon the amulet. This action turned it into a yellow vapor that trailed off towards the crystal palace.
“You lose!” he exclaimed. “Ahuizotl has finally won and there is nothing any pony can do about it!”
“We’ll see about that!” cried Twilight as she created a magical, dome-like prison around Ahuizotl.
“What’s… happening…,” asked Cadence.
Twilight watched the vapor trail and narrowed her eyes.
“Only one pony could do this,” she growled.
“Do what?” asked Shining Armor as he felt himself flinch.
Spike had made his way towards the group.
“Is everything okay, Twilight?” he asked.
“I’m afraid not, Spike,” replied Twilight. “And, if I’m right, we don’t have much time left before things get worse.”
“Worse?” asked Spike.
“Climb on,” stated Twilight. “The Crystal Empire may need you again.”
***
Starlight Glimmer looked out from the window from the highest tower of the crystal palace. A sense of accomplishment filling every fiber of her body.
“Perfect,” she said as the vapor trail collected in front of herself and returned to the shape of the amulet. “Ahuizotl served his purpose well.”
Starlight went about positioning The Crystal Heart on a pedestal in front of the window. She then opened her saddlebag and took out a collection of jeweled artifacts and placed them upon herself. These included a sapphire crown, ruby necklace, emerald ring, and pearl anklets.
“Now,” she said. “Equality at a global scale!”
“NOT SO FAST!” cried Twilight as she flew into the window and knocked over The Crystal Heart. “Your plans are finished!”
“Ahuizotl…,” she groaned. “No matter. You can’t stop me this time, princess!”
Spike fell from atop Twilight’s back.
“You know her?” he asked.
“Yes, Spike,” stated Twilight while facing down the periwinkle-colored unicorn with the violet mane. “Starlight Glimmer here has a twisted concept of what makes for friendship and harmony.”
“How dare you!” stomped Starlight. “Equality is the only way to attain true harmony!”
“Except for you!” scowled Twilight.
“Some pony has to ensure equality lasts through the generations!” she snarled. “With Cadence’s Cutie Mark, I shall attain immortality and be the keeper of harmony and friendship throughout all of Equestria!”
“You’ll do no such thing!” announced Twilight. “Instead of running away, you need to listen to others and appreciate how sharing our talents and gifts create true harmony!”
“I’ll show you true harmony!” proclaimed Starlight as she evoked a spell and shot it towards Twilight.
Twilight, familiar with Starlight’s ‘Cutie Mark Removal Spell’, quickly conjured the counterspell.
PYOO
SHEE
FWIP-OOP
“What?” gasped both Twilight and Starlight as their spells interlaced and struck them respectively.
“No!” cried Starlight as her body began to shrink in size while her voice grew higher in pitch.
Spike had his eyes closed off in a corner of the room as the spell resolved.
“Huh?” he wondered as he took to his feet and saw no sign of Twilight, or the periwinkle Unicorn.
“NO!” shrieked some pony. “NO! NO! NO!”
Spike looked down to see both Twilight and the opposing Unicorn reduced to the size of foals.
“What the…?” he wondered.
Twilight crawled towards Spike and said, “It was a regression spell! Starlight was going to regress all of Equestria so that no pony had their Cutie Marks except for her! With every pony stripped of their abilities and made reliant on her with no way of fighting back, she would’ve taken over all of Equestria!”
Spike scratched his head. He couldn’t make out anything that Twilight said. It was all babble.
“Spike?” asked Twilight. “Don’t just stand there!”
“Uhh,” said Spike as he picked up Twilight in his right claw. “Perhaps Celestia can do something about this…?”
Twilight suddenly realized what had happened when her counter spell mixed with Starlight’s regression spell. Her mentality was intact, but her physical abilities had been regressed to well before she had even entered Magic Kindergarten.
Starlight had come to the same conclusion and knew it was time to make a getaway before she was caught. Perhaps she could use the Cutie Marks she captured in the amulet to reverse the spell and plan another effort to spread her concept of harmony throughout Equestria?
Twilight looked for Starlight and spotted her with the amulet in her mouth as she made her way for the door.
“Spike!” she cried. “Stop her! SHE’S GETTING AWAY!”
“It’s okay, Twilight,” he said as he patted her bottom. “The Princess will know what to do.”
“NO!” she cried while crying out of frustration. She then began to push at Spike’s head until his eyes were facing the escaping Starlight Glimmer.
“Hey!” he cried while carefully rushing over and plucking Starlight by her tail.
“PUT ME DOWN!” she cried.
Spike couldn’t make out a word she was saying. It was just like with Twilight. Just a whole bunch of babble, shrieking, and crying.
“Uhh,” the purple dragon wondered as he thought on what to do.
SPLAT!
“Yuck!” he cried as Starlight spit at his face. This caused him to drop her to the floor.
“SPIKE!” cried Twilight. “GET HER! DON’T LET HER GET AWAY!”
Spike’s ear hurt from the loud shrills of Twilight. However, he did know to not let the other Unicorn get away.
Starlight kicked, screamed, and spit like mad towards the young dragon. He was in quite a predicament. One that he had no clue how to fix until some pony came to the upper-most tower to assist him. So, he cried out for help as loud as he could from the window for some pony to help him as he struggled to keep hold of Starlight Glimmer as Twilight held on for her life making various babbles and uncontrollably drooling about Spike’s body. As he looked out towards the crystal statue of himself he couldn’t help wonder how brave and glorious he’d appear with Twilight as a foal as he held another foal by the tail while a bunch of gem-laden items lay scattered about the floor with The Crystal Heart humming away in another corner of the room.