Nothing More Than a Cutie Mark
Useless, Unequal
By LooniestRumble
Nothing More Than a Cutie Mark
“You can call this place Hoofbutsel, but I won’t be surprise if you say that you never hear of it.”
The sun was shining high above bringing peace to a little village in the mountains.
“This is where I was born.”
All the ponies were going through their lives, buying in the market or selling some goods, chatting with some friends, but most of the town was celebrating the fact that Sunburst, a young colt of the town, got his cutie mark.
“That was the beginning, he was my only friend and I lost him in that exact moment.”
But a filly, Starlight Glimmer, was not celebrating. A few minutes ago Sunburst and she were playing, making towers of books, just another day of laughs, until a bad move brought the tower down over Starlight, a quick spell here and a little effort by Sunburst saved the day and got him a Cutie Mark.
“But what has to do this with all that you did?” asked Twilight Sparkle while watching the scene, after all that happened this day, the Sonic Rainboom being undone, the alternative futures, Starlight willing to destroy Equestria for revenge, this seemed really out of place, too peaceful, too natural.
“Allow me to tell you about my town, Twilight” Starlight Glimmer started to walk towards the opposite direction of the little ‘cutie mark party’ for the colt, walking away of the little filly watching the party as an outsider also, “This place is – how can you say it - special, this village was built not by a group of brave ponies looking for new lands to settle in, it was built as place for the workers of a factory, for them to never leave, to maintain the production high as they use to say.”
Every step away from the town was a step in some kind strange pressure, breathing became harder as well as seeing, and Twilight noticed right away that something was starting to consume the live of the plains that surrounded the town of Hoofbutsel.
But something that had all of Twilight´s attention was Starlight herself, she didn’t look altered by atmosphere, she walked through the dying land like she was walking for the streets of her hometown.
“Twilight, what is this place? It just keeps giving me a bad feeling,” Spike was clinging in Twilight’s back, he was looking to their surroundings while holding tighter to his caretaker’s back.
“I don’t know Spike, just stay close, ok?” Said Twilight while looking at the little child in her back, his nod and the fact that he was holding to her like there was nothing else in the world left her clear that he wasn’t going anywhere.
The walk went on for a few minutes, the grassland gave place to dirt and sand, and the sun got covered by blackness, before she could made head or tails of all this change Twilight notice she was standing in front of a monster of brick and metal, giant mouths expelling smoke to the air and even bigger machines sleeping in a massive pit; a pit big enough to hold, at least, Canterlot as a whole inside of it.
The vision and the function of the place were clear, but its massive scale made it hard to believe, a quarry.
“What is this place?” were the few words that she could mutter while beholding the place.
“This is ‘Ultraground Mines’, a place build to keep the demand of marble, clay, gems, gold and almost any mineral you could think of. Or at least it use to be before Celestia closed it,” The sight was breath taking, but for Starlight it was just the place where she was raised, “All the stallions and mares of the town work here, and as you can imagine their children will too.”
The walk was resume again as Starlight started to move inside the factory with Twilight not far behind.
“Miners, cookers, janitors, engineers, machine operators, no matter what you were good at you surely will find a place to work; but that’s the funny part, you didn’t have a choice, the place you get is the one your cutie mark tells you. You would think that the fact that Sunburst was send to Canterlot to study magic was because how good he was…you couldn’t be more wrong,” They were now going through the reception, here every worker reported themselves every morning, “His parents saved every bit they could, just in case…”
“In case of what?” Twilight was still unable to believe that a place like this could exist, she knew that the demand for minerals was really big, after all Equestria is always in expansion, but a place this big is just an overkill.
“In case his cutie mark will condemn him a live in the deepest and most dangerous pit in the quarry, of course,” Starlight answered while stopping in front of plate with a bunch of names, “In case his cutie mark will ensure him this.”
“In The Memory of Those Who Made This Mine Their Final Rest”
Names, tons of them. Twilight stopped counting when she reach the fifty, instead started looking the words written in front of every name, lost, drowned, burned, CK and many others.
“Starlight,” said Twilight still looking the plate, “what is CK?”
“Collapse Kill, the few that managed to survive one of those said that it was like being under water fighting for air while your bones are being slowly crush,” Twilight stood there looking between Starlight and plate.
They stood still a few minutes, finally Twilight tried to say something but stopped when she noticed that Starlight started to say something.
“Both of them were lucky, Sunburst managed to escape all of this…and he,”- Said Starlight with a cracking voice and pointing to one specific name, ’Sunbeam Glimmer – CK’ -“my father died instantly…at least that is what they told to my mother.”
“Starlight, I’m sorry-“
“Don’t be,” Interrupted Starlight, “He had a cutie mark of a brush painting the horizon, but my grandfather’s had a rock being pick a apart by a pickaxe… I never blamed their cutie marks for what happened, just an accident; but that all changed when Sunburst left.”
The silence was settling in the room; Twilight wanted to say something, to break through this new face of Starlight, show her that she was there, but she stopped herself when Starlight started to walk away the plate.
“Follow me, there is one last thing,” Starlight´s voice was now a whisper.
Twilight could only follow.
The walk back was silent; no words needed to be said, but the asphyxiating atmosphere was now less oppressive, Twilight could see and breath normally again.
“Look inside of that house.”
The sun was setting, storm clouds were approaching Hoofbutsel.
“Medals, honor mentions, trophies, all of them for the best student in the town.”
All citizens were inside their houses or closing their stores to head inside.
“But for one thing.”
A house stood from the rest; the paint has lost its color, the roof has holes in it, and the flame of the fireplace was small.
“She doesn’t have her cutie mark, and there is a lot of time to go before that but, it is less time before she has to get a work”
A small filly was sitting alone in the living room looking to her flank, until a bright light called her attention,
“It was just the storm,” Were the filly’s words before losing herself again in her own body.
“Five years later I was still living in there, but as a worker. Still without a cutie mark, so what do you think was my fate, Twilight,” The teleport was completed and Starlight and Twilight stand above the clouds now, “I had to work in those mines for years, I never got a chance to show others the things I was good at. And I wasn’t alone, I met some ponies in my work below the earth; singers, writers, mathematicians, they were the best ones in those things, they were diamonds, all of them, but they never got a chance to shine.”
“But why you didn’t leave that place or called for help?” Twilight asks, still trying to understand all what she saw.
“We weren’t pay in bits like normal ponies, the company paid us in their own money; and believe it was barely enough to bought food or pay your house, barely enough to life; so we were in debt with them and if we said something to anyone they could perfectly say that we were avoiding the debt and weren’t paying, and that only leaded to one fate, jail.” The fury was returning again to Starlight’s voice, “I saw how a cutie mark, mine and everypony else leaded to nothing more than pain. I saw how those that didn’t work their dreams, that didn’t try harder, how the lazy ones were the ones getting promotions, raises, beautiful houses, food, everything. I saw how differences bring nothing more than sadness.”
“You are wrong Starlight, you-“If somepony understand how hard is to talk while being shoot with magical rays is Twilight.
“¡WRONG! Didn´t you see what happened to me, for what I went through. After Celestia closed the place there was nothing for us, no money, no chances for a new job, my comrades lost their fate in their talents and skills; they didn’t know how to do anything else beyond mining; I didn’t had cutie mark, we were lost, abandon. ¡AND YOU DARE TO SAY THAT I AM THE ONE WHO IS WRONG!”
“I know Starlight, but-“ Shield spell always useful, “-but look around you, look at this place, does any of them look sad to you for their cutie marks, a in the future, does my friends and I, Ponyville or Canterlot look sad because of it,” ‘At least that stopped the attacks’. Thought Twilight before landing in a nearby cloud, “The only place that I have known were ponies were sad because of their cutie marks was your town; you cannot take as a general reality what happened to you, the entire word is not a slave of their cutie marks, they do what they want, they work for their dreams.”
“That’s because they don’t know what will happened, that’s because they don’t understand.” The magical battle came to an end as Starlight loses the rage in her eyes, but Twilight knows that the real battle has only begun, “Is just a matter of time, they will lose their freedom because of their cutie marks.”
“They won’t, the world is free already, they are free already; the place that haunted you for so long is now gone as well as those who made it, but you haven’t realized” Twilight has flied to the side of Starlight, “The only slave here is you, Starlight.”
Placing her hoof under Starlight’s chin, Twilight makes Starlight met her eyes.
“Your own paranoia has stopped you from seeing that you’re are free now, that you were slaving others because of what the world did to you; and is now stopping you from seeing that you are willing to destroy Equestria, that you are willing to make all of its inhabitants slaves.”
“But...”
“Look at me Starlight, you lost Sunburst and your father, you lost many years of your live, but there is still time to make more friends, to enjoy the years that you still have; not in fear and paranoia, but with happiness. You can change the past or you can live the future, what is your choice?”
The hoof extended toward Starlight looks so tempting to her, ‘live the future’ are the words that resonate through her mind. Rainbow Dash is coming close and gaining speed; ‘You’re free now’.
BOOOM
The Sonic Rainboom echoes through Equestria.
Author's Note
After the season five finale, I had this idea on my mind of how Starlight's backstory was so weak and really didn't gave her a reason to do what she did (I actually thought this story while watching the chapter), so I decided to give her a better past. I hope I have achieved that.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any comments, feedback,etc...