Sunlight dazzled in the high mountains. The mountain slopes so perfect for skiing down would blind most ponies and yet, he has eyes so used to the sun that in reflecting, they could at times look like steel. He was always ready for the next dash down the mountainside and was adept to life there, a rugged adventurer with thick locks of snow grey hair and a coat that could make him turn invisible in a snowstorm. Double Diamond was facing his element, the thin air and the blustering wind that felt like needles.
He was in the middle of taking a long break as he peered over the crest. Below were verdant forests and an enchanted waterfall from which a faint roar could still be heard in the utter silence of the slopes. He stepped away. It all looked beautiful but everything on the far side of this peak had a very treacherous edge. The fall alone from there could be fatal since he couldn’t fly. He hadn’t travelled there before and what lay beyond looked like a vast track of wasteland going as far as he could see which was ugly.
His ski slats were left standing near a rock wall like crossed legs. Sometimes the world told him to turn around and that nasty bit of desert sprawled out at the roots of the mountain gave him a uniquely bad feeling. Call it a skier’s instinct, one thing he has relied on for years. He could tell when a slope was about to give way into an explosion of powder or when a storm was coming. He wasn’t sure where he was exactly so his thoughts turned towards trying to find a small cave to take shelter in before working his way back where he came. In that time of rumination, he heard the soft crunch of steps not far off. It was absolutely perfect timing but not for him.
“Hey. Is somepony there?” he said. His alert ears angled in the direction of the hoof steps. He didn’t have to shout as the mountain walls did it for him, throwing his voice around and shaking it even more than his already wary mouth had.
A mare approached from a steep ridge. He first saw a vivid purple and blue mane nestled around the purple of a very solid looking horn. The mare carried herself as confidently as somepony born on the slopes, wearing not even a scarf much less the heavy and very expensive winter clothes that Diamond had cemented to his body. Her tail and mane were flowing by the wind.
“Who are you and what are you doing on my mountain?” she inquired. She had a surprisingly sweet air about her, with a voice tinged with eagerness and curiosity. She blinked her eyes rapidly to wipe flakes of snow that drifted downwards.
He waited a moment as the two sized each other up. “I didn’t know this area was yours,” Diamond said. His voice was quite hesitant towards the mare before him.
“I’m living here so I guess it makes the mountain mine, don’t you agree? But it doesn’t mean that others can’t come and share it with me. It looks like you’re a bit lost? Maybe a little?” Her voice was edged with even more sweetness and Diamond, his own edge dulled by two days in the wilderness, found it rather compelling.
“I am kind of like an explorer. I seek out new places for me to find an adrenaline fix,” Diamond said honestly.
“How delightful! Well, I don’t think this place will disappoint.” She gazed to her left where the desert stretched out further than they could see. “I came to the ends of our world to do a bit of exploring of my own. And as I have explored, I have carved out a place of my own here in this land that meets the edge of the far north.” She grinned amusingly. “Here and there, there are monsters. And in the frozen north, no pony dwells and in their place are hairy savage like creatures that consumes animals raw with giant teeth and have horns bigger than our heads!” She spoke swiftly and dramatically, waving a hoof near her head as if feeling the edge of a giant horn.
Diamond smiled but only to erase his growing unease. “Certainly we are far enough from the north to be afraid of that.”
“Truly but this mountain has its fair share of monsters if you know where to look. Come with me to my home below. You can rest there until you continue on your way.”
“Well, I suppose I wouldn’t mind a bit more travel,” Diamond said. He took a few steps forward towards her but truth be told, he felt rather vulnerable and conspicuous all of a sudden. The last thing he needed was to feel as though he was being watched by monsters. He had been frightful of campfire stories as a foal and his fearful self hasn’t changed all that much. The only thing he was really courageous about was the slopes and only because snow didn’t bite. But he was certain that she was alright so he hurried and followed her.
She led the way down the mountain. She was a great guide, her knowledge of the mountain very astute. She could see pathways that even he was blind to upon first glance. They jumped a few crevasses and navigated a difficult slope or two. Diamond used his ice pick to help keep him steady as he descended. But Starlight had it easier. It was there that he first saw that she had great magical power as her magic floated her down like a bubble, reaching the ground in mere seconds. He thought of bringing it up with her later when it would be more prudent so until then he would keep his distance. They kept going until the domain of snow turned to long stretches of winter trees. There were gurgling creeks and lakes where beavers lived. He could see the homes from the forest path. It was so misty where the mountain’s embrace held strong. It wasn’t until they left its roots that the desert air assaulted his senses. It wasn’t just dusty and harsh but cold unlike the deserts of the south. There was no respite from cold in this part of the world.
The two of them wove their way around boulders that were strewn about like a giant’s failed attempt at playing marbles. Brambles scraped his hooves and he almost stained his coat when an Ironside as thick as a ship’s rope hissed at him near some rocks. He hadn’t seen a snake like that so far north before. This was truly a dangerous land.
He took out his binoculars and gazed down a wide slope to where he could spot a tiny house in the middle of the desert plain. He was grateful to finally see an end in sight, even if it was in an area surrounded by giant spikes of rock and twisted remains of trees.
“We’re here…my home,” Starlight said. She smiled proudly as if they had just arrived at some grand place instead of some tiny speck of life that clung to the middle of nowhere.
She opened the door and let him inside. It was dark but from what light came in through the windows, Diamond could tell that the place was reasonably normal as far as houses went. The walls were a thick concrete like material inset with stones to keep it strong. The area was sparse as far as décor went. No colors or things superfluous in nature. Just a small desk here or a table there. Without much to look at, his eyes were drawn towards a picture of a couple horizontal parallel lines hanging on the wall. It was just that: two thick black lines. “Are you an artist?” he inquired. He stared at the odd thing.
She turned on some gas lamps and was then pouring them some water out of a utilitarian looking stone jug. “An artist? Whatever do you mean?” He gestured towards the picture and she nodded enthusiastically. “Oh…that is a wonderful symbol I have embraced in my life. Perhaps if you’re interested you can learn about it later. For now, we’ll eat.”
“Alright. I could eat.” He set aside his things and took off his coat which made things unnecessarily warm in the confined air of the house. They both sat on opposite sides of a table. Shadows played on the walls from the lamp set nearby. Starlight had brought out a loaf of bread so Diamond added some butter from his food pack to his along with a few carrots to add some crunch to it. Starlight seemed content with plain bread and water like how a criminal would eat. He didn’t say anything out of not wanting to sound rude by questioning her. They ate the food at a swift pace.
“Um…what’s with your cutie mark? I bet there’s a story behind that,” he said. That question sounded to him like safe territory and thankfully, she seemed to agree.
“Isn’t there always a story behind every cutie mark?” She let the rhetorical question hang in the air as her head rested on her hooves which formed a pyramid. He didn’t know why but she looked remarkably serene with a relaxed smile stretched out across her face. “Like I said earlier, you could call me an explorer too. Only not in the same way as you are, I don’t think.”
“What do you mean?”
Starlight’s eyes gleamed in excitement. “I delve into ponies and how they live. That symbol you saw earlier is my greatest masterpiece. It means equality and I would love to speak to you about it. Maybe right now?”
“I’m not sure. Isn’t it getting late?”
Starlight looked outside. “Well, perhaps it is. Then I will show you my inspiration for it in the morning. I’ll be glad to show you where the beds are. You must be aching for something to rest your head upon.”
“I could,” Diamond agreed. “Do you have a place for me?”
“There is a spare bedroom. You may use it.”
She led him to the spare bedroom on the second floor. His was to the right of the stairs and hers to the left. Straight ahead looked to be a washroom with a tub and buckets inside. The temperature had dropped as he ascended the stairs. Diamond saw a freshly made bed, some bare furniture and a window where he could see more of the desert which looked golden in the last beams of the dying light. Starlight set the fire in the wood stove ablaze.
Diamond was genuinely grateful for her hospitality and wanted to do something to show his gratitude but he couldn’t figure how exactly. Sure she acted polite and kind but the place didn’t exactly give him much to go by like interests or hobbies and he still had no idea what to make of that equality symbol. After he set his mountain clothes on the back of a chair, he turned and extended a hoof. She took it then pulled him closer before gripping his shoulder kindly.
“I will see you tomorrow,” she said.
“Yeah, sure thing,” he muttered half-heartedly. He gave a token effort towards reciprocating her friendly affection before she stopped and he withdrew, perhaps a bit too fast. He wasn’t sure. His cheeks also felt warm but he hoped that he didn’t blush at the touch of that mare who he must admit was not just the most beautiful mare in the wastes but perhaps the prettiest he had seen in a long time. The touch almost made him want more, to learn more about his mare and who she is. Instantly, he could tell they shared something in common. He had always been a lonely stallion and for better or worse, he thought she wasn’t so very different.
They said good night and she left into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. He slowly sunk under the heavy blankets and let his head lay like a lead weight upon the pillow. She was right. His body was exhausted. But his mind wasn’t and he couldn’t stop thinking, threatening to ruin his desire for sleep. Not just about the mare herself but that strange symbol on the wall. She said it meant equality. But what was she equal to out here? Having had enough, he shut his eyes and forced his mind to slow down by visualizing himself riding the slopes again of his homeland in winter. It seemed to work because all thoughts of the desert faded away into nothingness.
The first thing that met Diamond the next morning was a sliver of harsh sunlight from the window. He raised his head and rubbed his eyes as if to wash it out. Diamond considered himself to be an independent colt and he loved to camp in his backyard as a foal and go on adventures in his later school years. Waking to harsh light never bothered him too much, at least not as much as the emptiness of this place. Even deserts usually had a special kind of ambience but there wasn’t any kind of natural sound. No birds or wolves and barely any wind even. He did hear sound from below and his ears swiveled to meet it. Deciding to see what it was, he left the room and went down the stairs.
Starlight turned to face him down there. “Good morning, sleepy colt!” she said sweetly. She was holding a large wooden spoon in one hoof. “What’s up?” Diamond said, his words scraping out harshly. He had barely drunk water in the last 24 hours and his mouth felt as dry as the soil outside.
“It sounds like you have a sore throat?” Starlight said sympathetically.
Diamond shook his head. “It’s not bad really. I could use some water though.”
“Sure thing. Get a cup. I have oatmeal ready if you want some.” He saw a pot on the wood stove, steam hissing out of one corner.
He retrieved some water and gulped it for a minute. Starlight spooned some lumpy whitish brown mass into two bowls and set them on the table, his within hoof length. He blew on it and stuck some of it in his mouth. His tongue pulled some of the hot food in and his taste buds tackled the roughness of it. It didn’t taste like much at all really. He’s had plenty of oatmeal, rice and gruel in hotels, inns, hostels and barns but most of them at least tried to make them taste like something even if it was something best left on the end of a napkin. This was the essence of pure nothingness just like everything in the world outside those bare stone walls. Still, he kept eating as his stomach demanded something to fill it, taste or no taste.
Starlight seemed to enjoy the food. “I was thinking over last night about your cutie mark and some things came to me. When did you acquire it if I may ask? Where did you get it from?”
Eager for something else besides oatmeal, he put the spoon down. “Well, it’s a bit of a long story. I am an adventurer and I’ve tried to catalogue myself going to each of the tallest mountains in the world. I’ve reached the summits of most of them in the south and now, I guess it’s my time to journey in the northern lands before heading east. I hear the Griffin lands are particularly breathtaking…as well as dangerous I must admit.”
“Admit?”
“I’ve been on the cover of an outdoor pony’s magazine once. I guess most ponies think of me as fearless but that’s not the case. There’s lots of things that scare me and that includes fear of avalanches. That’s just the worst.” He didn’t want to but just thinking about the suddenness of something that can bury a pony with no hope of recovery got to him to hunch up his shoulders. He used to have dreams of being buried alive when he was young and it only went away through talking to a school counselor.
“Anyway,” he continued after sipping water. “This awesome mark arrived the day that I won a major skiing championship back in school. I just knew that I was destined to master the slopes and ride waves of snow. That’s what I’ve been doing with my life ever since.”
As he spoke, Starlight nodded along and kept eating that tasteless mush, her posture very ladylike.
“I don’t want to sound rude,” Diamond said. “But how did you manage to get used to this oatmeal? Isn’t it hard to eat?”
She lifted her head, her amusement piqued greatly as she stifled a laugh or giggle. “Well, it is no secret of mine that I can hardly cook unlike most ladies.”
Diamond thought he was out of line and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry…I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Of course. But I did. I am proud of what I cook because I can cook no better than anypony else.” She emphasized her words proudly. “Hey, I have an idea. I can show you around to my wheat field where I grow my food.” She stood up and took all the dishes away to the sink.
“You grow food out here?” Diamond inquired hesitantly. The info struck him as unusual even though it was logical.
She grinned. “Well, let’s just say that there’s no market anywhere near here.”
Some distance off through a path littered by scraggly plants and covered in rocks that Diamond occasionally caught his hoof on, they reached some mushy soil that smelled like rot. A small plot of wheat stood straight if unmotivated to grow any higher than a pony. “This is really all a pony like myself needs.” Starlight pointed down. “The soil is wet because it is fed by an underground chamber of water. It’s like an oasis that I’ve brought to the surface via my magic. I could grow far more food in the future. Potatoes, barley, what have you…” “So this is how you live?” Diamond said, visibly impressed. He let out a sharp whistle.
“I am one hundred percent self-sufficient,” Starlight boasted. “I work with the land and the land provides for me.”
“That’s a great relationship,” he said. “What about other ponies? Aren’t you lonely?”
She looked down which worried him at first until he noticed that her eyes had narrowed and a smirk made her appear intrigued. “I guess I don’t think about it enough…at least not until there is a pony right in front of me.” A sudden wind that neither had expected roared to life and shoved hair into each other’s eyes. Diamond stumbled and almost fell on his butt with his hooves bearing into the mud.
Starlight laughed. “Be careful. The desert is a harsh mistress and likes to make those who bear her ways second guess everything they do.” They walked into the field where a path was cut in between two sides. It blocked the bulk of the wind and allowed them time to rest. The wind made Diamond’s blood pump faster or maybe it was Starlight’s pretty eyes which bore holes in the earth and into his own soul when she glanced at him. She was a mare who knew everything she wanted and no pony or desert could deny her wishes. He felt that he could read who she was and he liked what he saw in that mysterious creature.
“Do you like it here?” she asked him. They stood next to each other in the mud.
“Here? In the desert?”
“Yes. My house. My desert.”
“It looks like you know what you’re doing and that it’s a pretty good system. I have to say it’s not bad.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So you do like it?”
He never really liked being asked those kind of questions that reminded him of an interview. There was a good reason why he only did that one in the magazine. He feared disappointing ponies. That’s why he often just told them what they wanted to hear.
He stared at his muddy hooves. “Yeah, I do.”
She grinned and elbowed him. “You better like it or I’ll throw you in the dungeon,” she said playfully.
“Oh, yeah?” he said, his voice rising sharply. He threw his hip to the left and bumped into her. He wanted to make the same cute contact but instead, she slipped and fell into the mud. At the same time, she grabbed on his hoof and pulled him down until splotches of mud dotted their coats all over. His face flushed heavily.
“Hey,” he said, panting. “If you have a dungeon in this kingdom of yours then would you also have a throne?”
She met his gaze. “Possibly.”
“But you don’t?”
“If I did, it wouldn’t be any higher than anypony else.”
Back at the house, they both took baths and got clean again. When Diamond got out, he smelled fresh bread which made him drool in his mouth surprisingly. It was as if he was getting used to things around here. He hadn’t expected that. He had no roots anywhere. No place he could really call home and that was something he never had a problem with before. Only the mountains were places where he had a calling towards and each and every one had its own unique spirit. He was beginning to see it in this house. In its plainness, he saw uniqueness. Its inhabitant, a queen of the desert who lacked a throne. She must have been drawn to the desert for the same reasons as he was towards the mountains.
He went downstairs and saw that she was cutting bread onto plates. But something new was placed on the table. A long twisted looking piece of wood that forked into two pieces at the end like an insect’s antenna. He blinked a few times, unsure what to make of it. “Finally down, I see,” Starlight noted.
“Yeah…what’s this? Firewood?” He sat down.
She feigned offence. “Dear heavens, no! Colt, I would be furious if you burned this piece of wood.” She pushed a plate towards him. Diamond fitted a corner of toast into his mouth and chewed on its crunchy surface.
“No butter this time?” Starlight said in amusement.
“Nope. I’m trying it plain for once. Maybe try your way on for size.”
“Excellent. Everypony should.” She drew in her breath like some kind of noble and he chuckled.
They ate the bread in silence and after she had cleared the table and washed the dishes, she hovered the stick in the air.
“This is a legendary device capable of wielding fantastic magic even more than I have ever seen in my travels. It is from the east where unicorns studied new and mystical spells that dazzled the minds of the greatest of mages.”
“So you know what that thing does?” Diamond said.
“I have my theories but what I have been lacking is a pony willing to be a subject of its powers,” Starlight said. “You see, I want to use this magic to make ponies equal. Where we have the same talents and powers. If I use it on myself first, it might not work but with a pony like yourself, I can see if this dream of mine is even possible.”
Diamond felt his body shrink as she spoke of him like a guinea pig. He was uncomfortable and expressed it outright by quickly standing and walking to a near window. Starlight teleported beside him instantly.
“Diamond…there is no need to be afraid. After all the ways I’ve shown my kindness, have I given you a reason not to trust me?” she cooed, a hoof gently placed on his back.
“I…don’t know.” He wanted to shy away from her since he wasn’t used to such feminine attention but he was kind of trapped there and he didn’t feel compelled to storm away. At least not yet. He then looked in her eyes, affixed in seriousness. “Starlight, could I use this magic? If you wanted it used on me then I could be one to use it on you? All things being equal, right?”
Starlight quickly snorted then waved an errant hair back. “Unicorns are better at using these devices because we have a magical conduit of our own. You don’t.”
“C’mon, Starlight!”
She withdrew towards the center of the room as if in contemplation or perhaps anger as Diamond’s worry felt like a weight in his gut. Then she took a deep breath and turned to face him.
“Very well, we’ll try it your way but the device might not take as well to you as it does to me. Regardless though, I wish to see it in action on you later.”
The agreement passed between them like lightning and there was no going back. Diamond gripped this strange and ancient device in his hooves and decided that maybe it needed to be aimed at the mare like a metal detector or a divining rod. He tried to concentrate and deliver thoughts to it to make it begin to work. At first it did nothing so he shook it a little like one might to do a malfunctioning remote to a child’s toy plane. Then he saw it light up at the end, a beautiful green spark that fluttered from one end to the other. He concentrated so much that he was gritting his teeth and folding his ears back. The rod turned alive in his hooves, waving counterclockwise and creating a magical field between the two prongs. He didn’t have to do anything but let it do its thing, its power growing.
He saw something incredible. On Starlight’s flank, her pretty mark split from her body as if lifted off. The mare squeezed her eyes shut and if he knew that it hurt then he would have stopped the magic immediately but he really had no idea. After a few seconds, the mark instantly flew back onto her coat and the magic ceased. A trickle of sweat was wiped from the mare’s brow as if she had carried most of the burden. “The staff is quite powerful,” she said with heavy words. Her voice and body was labored and she sat down on the floor. Diamond put the thing down and hurried to fetch her cold water. The mare took it silently and sipped some then poured a bit over her face, her puffy cheeks and scrunched nose.
“That was truly some amazing stuff. I hope it didn’t hurt or anything,” he said. He watched her carefully but she seemed rather okay if drained of energy.
“There was no pain. In fact, it felt rather good if only for a moment.” She got up and took the staff and proceeded to go with it to her room. He was guilty enough to want to inquire further as to whether she was alright or not but he kept his mouth shut instead. Nothing about the situation really settled with him right. The strange magic rod did something to her cutie mark. That was the most unsettling part of all. As he waited for her return, he remembered the equality symbol. He wondered if she was so obsessed with it that she would transplant her own mark away and replace it with that? He had never wielded magic before and none of it felt right. In fact, nothing did anymore in such a short span of time. He was sure that if he stuck around long enough, he would know all the answers but did he really need to know? Was anything worth gaining the friendship of this mare?
During dinner, he had come to the conclusion that it would be best if he took his leave and sooner the better. Besides, she mentioned that she would like to use the rod on him next when he was up to it. He tried to get his mind off of it and to maybe distract her by helping with some of the upkeep of the house. He used the ladder and repaired some fallen shingles from the roof. He asked her what her plans were and she mentioned that she would love to have others live on her land on a permanent basis. She offered him the upper bedroom opposite hers and he could live there as long as he wished. Politely, he thanked her and mentioned how fine of an idea it was even if he didn’t really intend on staying.
After they ate, she came to him and told him how lucky they were to have found each other. When he asked why, her explanation, somehow both evasive and direct at the same time, was that they both completed each other. That they both needed each other more than they thought. He carried that sentiment and her lovely gaze in his mind as he sat at the edge of his bed. He looked at his things, ready to be taken at a moment’s notice. He would have to think about it. Maybe he wouldn’t go after all but with so much to consider, he could go either way. He liked the idea of being important to a mare, even one he had only known a few days. It gave him a measure of warmth in his heart. That was one thing in favor. The weird magic and possibly being tested on? Maybe giving up his cutie mark? If any of that was negative, it was hard to tell.
He laid his head on the pillow and turned out the light. He looked up at the moon, its light entering the room. Later, it wasn’t there as if a heavy curtain had draped over the world. He was either awake or was enveloped in a lucid dream. Within sight, two glowing eyes floated beside the door. They came beside him. Diamond couldn’t force his body to move and his breath was ice cold. The slender outline of Starlight’s body was revealed slowly by a rising light from the staff in her left hoof. Diamond’s heart palpitated and he was unable to speak or resist as she climbed on him in one fluid motion. The blanket was mysteriously gone. She placed the staff behind his head and her hooves pulled it upward, bringing his head in contact with her own, and she clasped his lower lip between hers in what passed for a kiss. The freezing cold of his breath met an alien intensity of the mare’s tongue and steam blew between their mouths. Being a virgin himself, Diamond couldn’t resist allowing her to have her way with him. For him, sex was stranger than taking his first plunge down a steep slope. He was used to his freezing element but not the jarring heat of her body that was a furnace at first until the blood pulsed fast enough through both his heart and his engorged organ. Diamond’s masculine muscles lit up his body without much input from his mind, pulling him into the web of Starlight’s influence. Starlight’s sex offered no resistance and from how easily he slipped inside of her, it had to have been well used in the past. She squeezed on his penis as if trying to wring something out of him. To interrogate his virginity with all her arrogant ability. All the while, the light of the staff blew up brilliantly. As she rode him on that bed, there was a burning sensation on each of his flanks like an iron was being applied only really quick. But any pain quickly passed as pleasure took hold and nothing else seemed to matter. In the end, he practically blacked out.
Diamond was unsure why he was leaving but he was driven towards it. It wasn’t shame or embarrassment. When he was able to get up and get his things an hour before dawn, he thought of Starlight and knew that he would miss her. He didn’t want to admit it but this had to have been a retreat and the stale nature of it tugged at his heart. He wished he could stay but he had never committed to a mare before and he doubt he had the strength to do it now. The plain fact was that he couldn’t see himself as equal to her. She was way more powerful. She wanted something and got it without asking for it. That was something he could never comprehend because it wasn’t about love.
He left in the bitter cold of the desert morning. The wind stung his face the whole way south towards the rising slopes of the mountain. He still remembered the path. He had lots of time to make it to the upper reaches where he could turn back and take one last look at the wastes.
The hours passed. Diamond stopped from time to time to catch his breath. His chest felt hollow the whole way and his hooves dragged as if made of lead. Something was seriously wrong as he only made it a fourth of the way before the day’s light began to fade. He sat against a pine tree and gazed at the sunset. His lungs felt as though they were full of liquid. He needed to find a place and desperation crept into his mind as each minute ticked by. In his state, he had to have been more susceptible to cold.
He entered a small cave cut into the cliff but he smelled something awful like dead animal. Tufts of fur littered the entrance and he knew that he had taken a wrong turn. He ran out of there as fast as possible despite not knowing if there was a dangerous monster in there or not. He was in no condition to fight if there was.
On the second day, he rose nearly up to where he abandoned his skis. But he never saw them. He didn’t even make it to noon before he dropped to his knees. He thought he was going to die.
Diamond shot his eyes open. He couldn’t believe it but he was back in the same room at Starlight’s place. He scratched his mane and tried to remember what happened but his memory was fuzzy. His stomach roared too which dazed him.
As if on cue, Starlight opened his door and entered with a tray. On it, a bowl of fresh oatmeal awaited him.
“You silly colt! Don’t you know you’re supposed to eat before you go out and play?”
Her voice sounded more condescending than usual and Diamond’s ears folded back.
“Why am I here, Starlight?”
She clicked her tongue and set the tray down. “You are back here. This is where we live.”
Diamond glared at her. “I don’t live here. That’s why I left.”
“You don’t understand,” Starlight said. She had a grin that he could swear looked evil. “You and I are the same. We don’t have homes and we don’t really belong anywhere. We’ve only been searching for a place to belong to.”
“What are you talking about, Starlight?” Diamond was very nervous and began to sweat despite there not being any fire to warm up the room.
She went to the door. “Look in the mirror. You will have a lot to think about so we’ll talk later.”
She left and he heard a lock turn shut. He flew out of bed and pulled at the knob but it wouldn’t budge. He turned and saw the window was barred shut. His heart raced. He then noticed a mirror on the wall and stared at it, looking at himself up and down. He saw nothing out of the ordinary until he turned his body and saw a great horror. His cutie mark was gone and in its place were two solid black lines.
Starlight wouldn’t let him out. For days, he was kept in there almost like an animal. He was fed and given water regularly but he had nothing else and after that trek up the mountain, there was no hope that he could somehow overpower her when she came to give him food. Despite resting all the time, he couldn’t really gain much strength. He was unstimulated and the room now had a collection of books and papers set out on a desk near the bed. On it, a treatise on equality spelled out neatly in calligraphy was waiting to be read. And a book with no title but two golden lines on the cover remained unopened for now.
“All this is for your own good. I think you will begin to see the light very soon,” Starlight said. She was placing his food on the desk. Simple onion soup by the looks of it. She had her back to him but she may as well have had eyes underneath that mane of hers since she seemed to have a perception unlike most other ponies.
“Do you have my cutie mark?” Diamond said wearily. His tail was kept around his flank with that ugly mark on it.
“It is kept with me for now. I do have plans for your mark though as well as mine. Do you think I would keep it and remain unequal?” She turned and faced him, her expression quite serious.
“Who knows. I don’t get what you’re doing.”
Starlight shook her head in disappointment. “That’s because you refuse to open the book and read. Once you do that, you’ll begin to understand. All I can do is help lead you there. You have to be the one to take the next step forward.”
She left him with the soup and the books. He drank the soup because he had no choice and the confinement kept going. On the second week, he finally went and brushed off a thin layer of dust off the material. By then, his white coat was thinner and turning grey from the lack of light. He smelled worse than the wheat field. He turned the page and read the first line then the next after that. Before he knew it, a whole page was read and he learned about the Staff of Sameness and where Starlight had found it.
She let him out nearly a month after he was first confined. By then he had read the entire book and all the papers. She questioned him thoroughly and he answered her to her satisfaction. And in all of that, he couldn’t help but absorb the material into his very bloodstream since that’s all he had with no nourishment from decent food, the air or even the sun. The only thing that felt strong on his body was his new cutie mark which, like a donated organ, slowly became a part of him. His very mind was being reshaped by the fabric of equality. He took a bath and brushed his mane before they left the house. Outside, they took a walk. A few weeks ago, he would have run for it but Starlight must have known that he wouldn’t. She carried the magical staff with her. He had stopped being afraid of it some time ago. In fact, he hadn’t been afraid of anything lately as if all of his fears had been drained out of him with his mark. It actually was a weight lifted off his back.
“Can you see it? We’ll have our community stretch down in two rows with one street in the middle. It will be perfect,” Starlight said. She scraped the end of the staff in the dirt, tracing huge lines. “Each house will be exactly the same. No variation will be tolerated.”
“Surely your plan is good and all but there’s something lacking,” Diamond said.
She stopped and looked up. “What is it, then?”
“More ponies to join this new community.”
She smiled and looked at him proudly. “Indeed. There’s no community without ponies. But I can’t go get new ponies while I hopefully maintain my village. I need somepony to go and find those who will come.”
Diamond rubbed his hoof in the dirt. “Starlight, after all this time, I hope that you’ve considered me to be a full follower in equality.”
“Well…I am impressed by your quick progress but what do you imagine is left?”
“After you and I became more equal, I’ve been thinking about how to make our community grow.” He went and stood next to her. Both ponies now had the symbol of equality on their bodies. Some time ago, she had removed it and it surprised him as what little resolve he still had against her began to crumble. “And I think the time has come to begin the next step in the plan you’ve created.”
“Building the community? So soon? Even I hadn’t considered it just yet.” He quickly saw his idea flourish in her mind, the excitement building up in her eager grin. “Why not? I’ll begin construction immediately! You’ll go to the nearest town thirty leagues south of here and you won’t come back empty hooved,” she commanded. “I’ll have a dozen homes ready by the time you return.”
“I would have to go over the mountains for that and I am not sure that I can as I can only climb such places as good as anypony else.” Starlight mulled the problem over for a second. “I will build you a gyrocopter and one big enough for several ponies,” she declared. “That will get you over the mountains and back.”
“Thank you, Starlight. I won’t disappoint,” Diamond said. She gave her hoof and he kissed it gently.
Some might say that Diamond didn’t love Starlight as much as he should have. He did love who she was, his first love and the only love he refused to abandon; and for all of her mistakes, he saw great potential in her. But he would have said that he loved her no more than anypony else. That was what equality was really all about.
He landed his gyrocopter in the middle of a bland looking village south of the desert. He didn’t even know the name of it but ponies turned their heads to look at the strange machine and protected their faces from the rising dirt.
He stepped out, his refreshed coat gleaming once more, and lowered his galoshes. He spied several ponies gazing at him directly. One all-blue colt and a mare with magenta hair. He snorted in amusement at the pathetic lot before him who, like he had used to be, were blind to the great truth. He then smiled his brightest. The edges of his mouth still pulled at his face but he was getting used to it really. The time has come to build their community. Starlight Glimmer was waiting for more friends.