Where Justice Is Due
"Starlight."
"...."
"I know you can hear me, Starlight. It's only been a day. Starlight!"
"Go away."
"I will. But only after I've read the list of your crimes. I realized I just shut you in here without telling you just what exactly you're guilty of. Just so you understand."
"...."
"Okay, here we go. Ahem! Starlight Glimmer, you are charged for the following crimes: the use of forbidden magic - specifically, the use of time travel, attempted murder, the deaths of thousands of ponies, wide-scale destruction to Equestria, endangerment of the Equestrian state and disrupting balance. As decreed, I hereby sentence you to--"
"W-wait a minute, what?! I never did any of that! I never killed anypony! I never destroyed anything!"
"But you did. It may have been through the actions of other dangerous individuals, but you were the cause. If you hadn't began this silly thing of revenge against me and my friends, none of what I saw would've happened. But it happened, and you're responsible. For once in your life, accept that all of this is your fault."
"...."
"Now, as I was saying. As decreed, I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment. You will remain in solitary confinement twenty-four seven. Your movements and access to magic are completely restricted. You will be monitored and punished appropriately at any attempts to evade punishment. Are there any questions?"
"...was starving me a part of this?"
"No. I just added that in there."
"...why?! This is hardly fair--"
"Fair? Fair?! You have a lot of nerve telling me about what's fair after what you've done!"
"So this is how I'm supposed to be punished?! Locked in this vault, chained to a wall and left to starve to death?! Are you seriously telling me that's what I deserve?!"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Starlight!"
"You're a monster-- GAH--!"
"And now you're calling me a monster?! You're such a hypocrite!"
"And what are you supposed to be?! Miss Honest and Truthful?!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Twilight... I thought you were really going to help me find them. The friendships that are supposedly out there, waiting for me. You said that all I needed to do was give them a chance. What happened to that?"
"Oh, that? I just needed to find a way to talk you down. I couldn't have you tearing apart the only thing that could get me back home. I'm sure you understand."
"...I hate you so much."
"Hate me all you want. It's nothing compared to what I feel towards you right now."
"What could I have done to warrant something like this?"
"I already read off your list of crimes--"
"Oh, horseapples! You're holding me responsible for the actions of others, others that don't even exist now! You're putting me in this position for crimes that shouldn't even matter, crimes that I didn't even know about! There has to be another reason!"
"...."
"Well?! Aren't you going to tell me why you're doing this to me?!"
"....you really want to know why? I thought you would've figured that much out by now, given the reason why you caused this mess in the first place. You made my friends suffer, Starlight. They might have not known me in the timelines that I saw, but I still considered them my friends. You took away their Cutie Marks and made them go through worlds without harmony, worlds in which they had to fight so hard to survive. In every instance I saw, they were either still fighting or they had already lost. You claimed that I didn't know what it was like to lose a friend because of a Cutie Mark. But thanks to you, I've experienced that. I'm not experiencing it again, not because your friend abandoned you over something so ridiculous."
"Ridiculous?! That Cutie Mark made him--"
"The Cutie Mark didn't do anything. Did you ever consider that maybe Sunburst never liked you? That he did it for reasons outside of genuine caring for you? Maybe he felt sorry for you. Maybe he wanted someone to make him look good. I don't know. But the reason for him just up and leaving you wasn't because of his special talent being acquired. It was because he was tired of you and looking for an excuse to leave you in the dust."
"SHUT UP! You're lying, he'd never--!"
"And being the overly attached mare you are, you couldn't bring yourself to believe that he'd ever have it in him to betray you. So in return, you come to the conclusion that a Cutie Mark did it, that all Cutie Marks are evil. You robbed an entire village of ponies of their Marks, brainwashing and threatening them into believing that they'd be happy. You tried to do the same thing to us when you locked us in that cell. That experience was anything but happy for us. I could literally feel my mind and my memories slipping away while sitting in that place, listening to that droning voice of yours. I was trying so hard not to forget the times I had with Princess Celestia, my first meeting of what would be my friends, and the other good times that I had because of my Cutie Mark. I had to try then, but there was something else that I didn't have to try for. You want to know what that is?"
"...what?"
"It was their faces. The faces of my friends. They were tired, they were in pain and they were... lost. They were pushed to the brink, to where hope didn't exist for them. I will never forget those faces, and I will never forget the fact that you did that to them. It was a reason why I picked this punishment specifically for you, why I didn't just take you out or sentence you to Tartarus. This is something to remind you just how I felt. You cut us off from the rest of the world because of your own selfish goals. I'm just returning the favor. Here, you'll be isolated. Here, you'll lose your sense of self. Here, there'll be nobody to remember who you were. The only difference is that you're not going to be let out for me to see if you've reformed. No, I gave you that chance when I showed you the wasteland. I showed you what would happen if you kept on your path, and you were still determined to carry out this ridiculous revenge plot. Yes, I believe you botched that up real good."
"....you can't do this to me."
"On what authority? Yours? I'm the princess here, Starlight, and you're just a prisoner. A sad, broken shell of a mare."
"Word'll get out that you did this to me. Your friends will--"
"They'll what? I believe that all things considered, they hate you just as much as I do. I don't think they'll care that I've given a criminal punishment. They won't care, and neither will anypony else - especially when they know that it was a princess who did it."
"Twilight, please--"
"And you have the nerve to beg. Maybe I should muffle you, too--"
"I don't want to die! Not like this, you have to--!"
"And we didn't want to have our Cutie Marks stolen! We didn't want to have to wage a long and gruesome war with King Sombra! We didn't want to live under an oppressive rule of eternal night! We didn't want to be clowns for a spirit of chaos! But you didn't care about any of that! Why should I care about you not wanting to die?! If you didn't want to pay, you should've never committed the crime!"
"...."
"Now, if you don't have any other questions to ask, I have a life to live and you have one to lose. I hope you've taken at least a little pleasure out of this visit, because it's going to be the last time you'll be seeing anypony ever again. Goodbye, Starlight."
"Twilight, please. You can't-- don't walk out that door, i-- Can't you give me another chance? I swear, I understand! I won't do it again, I swear! I just need--"
"You need to be quiet. You're giving me a headache. Goodbye, Starlight.
"No! No, this isn't right! You can't let me die like this! Let me out! For the love of God, please let me out! TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT!!!"