Mad and Marklessby Discorded SheepcityUSAChaptersUnrelentingDiscoveryDisinterestWhere destiny goes to die (Part 1)UnrelentingFor the most part, ponies are a peaceful race. They aren’t especially known for starting war with other nations if they can help it, and don’t like confrontation. They tend to be in general, a very docile species of creatures. Most of the time, they deal with their foes through the magic of friendship rather than physical violence, and on some occasions actually manage to bring their foes into their way of thinking and befriend even them; the most notable of those cases being the god of chaos Discord and most recently a powerful unicorn named Starlight Glimmer. Though, not every pony in Equestria is the same in personality in this aspect. To assume every single pony in Equestria is as friendly as say, Pinkie Pie, is laughable. Not all ponies are as happy and chipper as others, and on more rare occasions, do actually have the capacity to be downright hateful. It’s not incredibly common, but to suggest such things have never happened, and will not ever continue to happen in the future, is foolish. Because ponies can be angry. They can be resentful. They can be bitter. They can feel the same basic things any emotional and sentient creature can feel. But nopony just wakes up one day and decides that they’re going to be that way. It usually takes quite a bit of…outside influence. Not even the happiest of ponies are safe from raw emotion and the lasting effects those outside influences can have. That being said, what can be done to make things right again, and what lengths will those involved go to fix it? The sun began to rise up over the horizon and lighting all of Equestria once it was time for the night to make way for it. Many a pony was overjoyed to begin their day and bask in Celestia’s bright, warm sunlight. Though, not all ponies could really be considered the morning type. Some preferred to stay in the comfort of their beds without having to really move a muscle all day long. Starlight Glimmer was one of those particular ponies. Unfortunately, she did not seem to get the luxury of remaining asleep, as from her perspective, the entire universe was out to make sure she would not be allowed to. The sunlight of the upcoming day creeped its way through her room’s window, the crystal structure of the castle she was staying in only seeming to make the sunlight even harsher due to the way it reflected. Of course, the sunlight found its way right smack onto her eyes, making her face scrunch up in discomfort. She groaned a little in her sleep and pulled the covers back over her face. “Mmmph. Always at the worst times.” she grumbled under her breath. Starlight made an attempt to get herself back to sleep under these circumstances, but her efforts were hindered yet again. The sound of a bird landing on one of the many crystal branches of the castle outside her room and chirping its song loudly was grating to her eardrums. She wouldn’t stand for this. She got out of her bed, holding a pillow in her magic as she trotted to the window. Starlight very slowly opened the window and gave the bird a death glare. “You have exactly three seconds to leave before you get smothered.” She growled irritably. The bird held a terrified look on her for a moment before he got the message and flew away as fast as his wings would allow him. Starlight then shut the window, feeling somewhat proud of herself that she’d eliminated the threat to her slumber. “Now that that’s over with, maybe I can relax now.” She said to herself before shutting the curtains to her window so no more sunlight shone through, and climbed back into bed. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and shut her eyes, beginning to drift off. Only for Spike to come in. “Hey, Starlight! Twilight wanted me to come and get you for the council of friendship meeting!” he said with a big smiling face. “AAAAGH OKAY I’M SORRY I WOKE YOU UP!” Spike screamed as he was now being chased through the halls of the crystal castle by a very irritated purple unicorn. He’d gotten her up like Twilight asked him, but not exactly getting the reception he was hoping for. But maybe he could at least get Starlight to chase him to the map room. “DO NOT EVER DISTURB MY SLEEP AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME?!” Starlight screamed at him. Provided Starlight didn’t kill him before he made it there at least. Eventually, after much running and dodging flying pillows being tossed by Starlight, Spike eventually managed to make it into the map room where the rest of his friends awaited for them. He quickly ducked under the map before Starlight made it in. Once she DID though, she was really a sight to behold. Out of breath, even worse bed-head than she had before, and unbridled rage. “WHERE’D HE GO?!?” She yelled. The other six ponies didn’t say anything for a moment, but instead observed Starlight’s current state of mind. “…Nice of you to join us Starlight.” Twilight said, just barely even blinking while staring. “Yeah uh…ya sure are lookin’ rested.” Applejack added, though her voice laced with complete uncertainty. Starlight looked over the group of ponies, only then realizing that she was still holding several pillows in her magic, and in general was probably making a fool of herself right now. Quickly trying to save face, she tossed the pillows out of the door and shut them in her magic, smiling a little sheepishly. “U-Um, good morning girls.” She stuttered nervously. The mares all looked at each other questioningly before looking at Spike, quivering under the map. “Gracious, you sure did a good job of getting her to the meeting Spike…but maybe next time try a method that won’t get Starlight so angry.” Rarity said gently, taking him out from under the map and giving him a pat on the head. “N-Noted.” Spike replied with a slight blush. Starlight gave an annoyed huff. “Mmph. If you don’t want to be met with my wrath, you won’t wake me up. Would you poke a bear with a stick while it’s sleeping? Unless you want to get mauled, then I wouldn’t think so.” “Hey I hate being woken up from the bliss that is my afternoon nap as much as anypony else, but don’t you think you sorta overreacted? You’re really good at that sometimes.” Rainbow asked. Truthfully, that really got under Starlight’s skin. Everyone keeps telling her she gets too mad over insignificant things and ends up makes mountains out of anthills. On some level, maybe screaming and yelling about Spike waking her up wasn’t the best way to go about things, but then again, THEY were not the ones being kept awake by every little thing like she was. Starlight groaned a little bit and rubbed her head. “I’m just really frustrated. With the stuff you all have to deal with on a regular basis, how are you so level-headed?” “…Ah’ll be the first to admit we all got our moments. Fluttershy threw a fit at the Gala, Rarity has an overdramatic breakdown if somethin’ don’t go right, and Twilig-“ Applejack couldn’t finish her sentence due to Twilight’s hoof quickly covering her mouth before she could mention her big breakdown. “I don’t think she needs to hear about…THAT.” Twilight said with a nervous smile. “OHOH Yeah she does! Twilight made the whole town riot over a toy because she wasn’t going to meet her quota on friendship reports to Celestia! See, even the princess of Friendship isn’t COMPLETELY all there all the time!~” Pinkie spoke for Applejack, giggling a little. When that incident had first occurred it was pretty scary to the rest of them, but now that it’d had time to settle after a while, the entire scenario now looked pretty ridiculous. Twilight’s face turned red at the memory of one of her most embarrassing moments since she’d come to Ponyville. “E-Ehehe…I’m not exactly proud of it. But Pinkie does have a good point. Not everypony can always keep themselves together a hundred percent of the time. We all have moments of weakness.” “Except for me. I never lose my cool!” Rainbow boasted confidently, resting back in her throne that surrounded the map like the rest of them did. “U-Um, Rainbow, do I need to remind you of last winter with Tank?” Fluttershy asked meekly. Rainbow’s face fell almost immediately at the mention of her breakdown that happened when she realized Tank had to hibernate for the winter. When she thought back on it, maybe sabotaging Cloudsdale’s weather factory just so her pet didn’t have to sleep was one of her worse ideas. “…Dang it.” Rainbow grumbled to herself. Starlight rolled her eyes a little at that. “I get it, not everyone’s perfect. It’s just that some handle it better than others that bugs me. Sorry I just can’t understand how you six stay together with how different you are. Just look at this.” Starlight said looking between Rarity and Twilight and pointing her hoof to the former. “Here we have Rarity. Average unicorn with average magical skill.” This caused Rarity to deadpan. “Well goodness Starlight when you put it like that.” She said with a tone of sarcasm, clearly offended. Starlight didn’t take much notice but instead pointed her other hoof at Twilight. “And then there’s Twilight who’s a fucking alicorn. I don’t think I need to explain the vast difference here.” Starlight put both of her hooves down and looked at Rarity with a slightly confused frown. “Doesn’t it just burn you up that she’s so much stronger magic-wise than you are?” Rarity gave Starlight a more concerned frown of her own. She obviously hadn’t expected Starlight to drop her ideology concerning friendship and equality the first day of reformation, but this was just showing how much she truly held onto it. “Well darling. As much as I’d ADORE being a princess myself, I never let my…erm, how do I put it…fantasy, get in the way of my friendship with Twilight. I don’t let any envy I may or may not have fester. If anything, I’m quite happy for her being as skilled in magic as she is. Everyone has their strongest points. Twilight’s just happens to be her magic and look where it got her! Mine just happens to be in my sewing and I’m really going places thanks to it.” Rarity said, trying to put on a little more cheerful smile. Starlight said nothing for a moment while she tried to take in everything that Rarity was saying to her. Though from her perspective, she wasn’t quite getting the message as was intended. To her this was sounding like they both only had the current advantages and social status’ that they do because of their cutie marks and specialties. This however, was what society had been like since even before the founding of Equestria. She doubted this aspect was ever going to change. Maybe she would just need to face facts sooner or later and simply embrace it rather than scorn it. Not yet though. Not by a long shot. Starlight sighed and simply looked at the floor, wanting to just look anywhere but at the ponies before her. “I just can’t understand...If you’re so sure that this is what’s right for me, then go ahead. Convince me otherwise.” She mumbled quietly. Twilight stood up from her seat and trotted over to Starlight, patting her on the back. “I wish helping someone change for the better was that simple. But it’s a lot more complicated than just having one conversation Starlight. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the difficulty we’ve had with Discord.” Starlight flinched a little bit at Twilight’s patting. “I never said you could touch me. I might not be trying to hurt you now, but we’re not on that personal of a basis yet.” She said with the slightest hint of aggression and a little scowl. Pinkie popped up next to them, having a raised eyebrow. “Waaaaaait, Twilight didn’t you say you two were hugging when you came back to the present?” Starlight blushed lightly in response. “…I was emotionally weak. But now I’ve had time to brood.” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Suuuuure THAT’S it.” Starlight stayed silent for a moment before crossing her forelegs. “Don’t you patronize me Pie.” Ponyville was teeming with life in the bright morning light of day. Quite a few of the town’s foals were playing outside with their friends, while a couple of ponies were out working at their respective businesses or meeting up with their own friends wherever. A majority of the ponies were ecstatic about their daily lives and were mostly content with the typical status quo of Ponyville. Though dealing with the occasional monster or doomsday threat was part of the said status quo, it still kept things more exciting in the town. Though, in sharp contrast to the rest of ponies walking about the town in the morning, there was this one that was making his way through that stuck out like a sore thumb. The reasoning for this was because unlike the other ponies in town that had happy and content smiles and bright colored fur that accommodated their happiness quite well, this one looked nearly the opposite. His fur was a dull and lifeless red, the wings on his back having feathers of the same shade, with a mane of a much darker red and streaks of just as dark grey. In addition to the near-dead look on his fur, the look on his face only added to it. The stallion had dark bags under his bloodshot and exhausted purple eyes, and had a deep frown that looked like it’d been there for a really long time. The stallion could probably be compared to a walking corpse if his flesh was shown to be decaying. As expected, some of the local ponies took notice of the stallion’s rough state, but did little about it besides simply staring at him. They didn’t usually get ponies that looked this angry and uninterested in anything else around Ponyville, and it was actually quite jarring. The townsfolk were positive he wasn’t here yesterday, so just who was he and what was he doing here? Though they might’ve had several questions, none were willing enough to get the answers. If the look of this pony was any indication, he might not be very friendly. The pony didn’t look at anypony the second he’d come into town. Instead, he kept to his own thoughts and not on how everyone else was looking at him. That was the last thing on his mind right now. His eyes ever so slightly looked away from the ground and at the quiet and peaceful town around him, and he quietly mumbled to himself. “Hm…cute place. Not my first choice for a place to live, but literal beggars can’t be choosers.” He said with a hushed voice. He let out a deep breath of exhaustion and rubbed one of his forelegs with a slight wince of pain coming to his face. “Rgh. Laughingstock you bonehead, you have wings. You don’t gotta hoof it wherever you go, dummy.” He grumbled bitterly. “...Dear Celestia I’m talking to myself now. Heat’s probably going to my head. If I’d known I’d start losing my mind from thirst this quick, I just woulda drank my own piss hours ago.” When Laughingstock brought his head back up to hopefully find some kind of body of water in the village, he now started to notice the townsfolk staring at him. Were they doing this the whole time? He was pretty sure they weren’t. But what actually unnerved him about this was the specific portion of his body they were staring at. His flank. Not his flank in general, but what was on it. What it was was undoubtedly a cutie mark, but not a cutie mark like any of them had ever seen. It was just so bland and unexciting that one could hardly even think that one such as this exists. For all it was, was a black equal symbol and nothing more. Laughingstock took attention to what they were staring at an quickly folded his wings in a position where they covered the offending mark. He tried to take attention off of himself by trotting at a faster pace, away from the crowd. To him this was humiliating beyond reasonable measure. He didn’t know if they knew what the symbol actually represented in this context, but he wasn’t sticking around for them to contemplate it. Not a chance. As he tried to keep up his pace, the reality of the situation he was in was setting in more and more. It made his expression gradually change from nervous to infuriated. His nostrils flared and his teeth clenched in anger as it settled in his mind and his hooves came down onto the ground even harder than they did before. “I shouldn’t have to deal with this shit. I could be out in Las Pegasus doing standup in a crowd of hundreds…no thousands of ponies right now. Instead I’m in some sub-par looking town where already everyone looks at me like I’m a fucking mutant.” He growled, angrily kicking up dust on the dirt path, now out of earshot of any of the ponies. “I CAN’T FUCKING SHOWER IF I’M HOMELESS, JACKASSES!” he screamed. A few moments of lashing out at random things such as trees and rocks, Laughingstock, now out of breath, sat under a tree with his anger only slightly dissipated since he started. His breaths were a lot deeper now and he wiped sweat from his forehead. “O-Okay just save your energy. It’s not those ponies’ fault.” He panted in between a few words. This entire situation might’ve pissed him off, but getting at a bunch of random ponies wasn’t going to get him anywhere. It didn’t stop him from thinking about the one that DID put this entire thing on him however. The same pony that branded him with the equal sign cutie mark that he now had to bear on his flank. If he hadn’t tired himself out, he might’ve gone on another loud and self-destructive tangent. Since he DID tire himself out though, he resorted to simply cursing somepony’s name under his breath. “I tell you what. The day I knock that bitch’s teeth out’ll be a real happy day for me.” Author's Note I might as well say this now before I get any comments concerning this. You might be confused as to why Starlight is behaving the way she is right now, and not how she was depicted in the season 6 opener. That's because of the timeline this fic follows. The Crystalling hasn't happened yet. The entirety of this fic will take place in between the time Twilight and Starlight returned to the present, and before anything that happened in the ending song montage. So Starlight hasn't exactly let go of her ideology yet. Think Discord when he was first reformed basically. Anyway, comments are appreciated DiscoveryWhile the rest of the girls tried to give Starlight a good talking to regarding how they should go about teaching her the ways of friendship, Spike had decided that maybe it was a good idea to get out of Starlight’s hair for a while. She really wasn’t in the best of moods this morning after he woke her up and he didn’t want another incident like this morning happening. Though he would’ve liked an apology along the lines of ‘Sorry I overreacted and tried to smother you with a pillow Spike.’ He wasn’t really expecting it because he knew just how difficult it is to work with Starlight, but it didn’t make him feel much better about it. So with the time that he now had to himself, he thought he’d partake in a bit of much-needed rest and relaxation. He’d gotten a few donuts from Sugarcube Corner and was now heading out to Ponyville’s nearby lake to relax under one of the surrounding trees. He’d come to enjoy a lot of the quiet that came with that part of town, and after a few times of doing this when he had nothing else to do, it’d become a regular activity to him. “Phew. Well today’s off to a rough start already, but nothing a couple of donuts can’t help fix.” Spike said with a growing smile as he sat under the tree and put a donut in his mouth. The taste of the smooth icing reminded him a lot of the donuts back in Canterlot and he loved every second of it. As he sat there longer though, he couldn’t help but feel something was…off. Like he wasn’t alone at the lake. He couldn’t quite put his claw on it, but he felt some other presence there with him. He probably would have shrugged it off completely if he didn’t hear the breathing coming from the other side of the tree. He turned around to look at the other side of the trunk. Sure enough, there was somepony else there with him. Though when Spike got a good look at him, he wished he hadn’t. The pony was undoubtedly a Pegasus stallion, and he looked absolutely horrible. The color on his fur coat had no sheen or brightness to it at all, and he looked so malnourished that Spike swore he could see his ribs. He cautiously moved a little closer and noticed the stallion was passed out; whether it was from hunger or exhaustion he couldn’t tell. “H-Hey, buddy wake up!” Spike raised his voice a little and gently shook him. The stallion let out a slightly pained groan. At least he could tell this pony was alive. “C-Come on say something!” “M-Mmph…” The stallion groaned again. “If I say something will you stop shaking me?” He growled in slight annoyance at the dragon’s nonstop and frantic shaking. Spike let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. I thought you might’ve been dead for a minute there. Are you alright mister…uh…” “Laughingstock.” He grumbled, sitting up and resting his back against the tree and taking a couple of deep breaths. “And define ‘alright’” “Well I mean, no offense but you look pretty roughed up. When’s the last time you even ate?” Spike asked. Laughingstock didn’t actually answer in words, but just shrugged his shoulders. Spike’s jaw dropped in shock. “How do you not remember when you eat?!” “Been too long I guess. Couple days. Maybe more. I don’t know, I was in a desert for probably a week, pal. I wasn’t exactly signing on to eat tumbleweeds or cactus.” “I actually think the plural of cactus is ‘cacti’ Laughingstock.” Spike added, making Laughingstock deadpan, looking completely unamused. “Do I really look like I care? Do I?” Laughingstock growled in frustration. Who was this kid trying to impress with his proper grammar here? Spike flinched a little. While he’d come across his fair share of somewhat rude ponies in his lifetime, this guy was something else entirely. He didn’t know what it was like to be homeless and hungry like Laughingstock supposedly was, but he’d imagine that it’d stressed him out pretty badly to the point of him behaving like this. “Jeez…well um…you’re pretty hungry so do you maybe want a donut?” Spike asked, holding out the box of donuts to him. Laughingstock’s hardened face softened ever so slightly at the offer of food from the small dragon. It wasn’t by much, but it definitely didn’t look as irritable as it did a moment ago. “I’m not a charity case kid.” Immediately following that statement though, Laughingstock’s stomach growled loudly. “…Then again, starving to death isn’t on my to do list today.” He said, swallowing his pride along with one of the donuts. Laughingstock’s face softened even more after that as a pleased hum could be heard coming out of him. “Feel a little better now?” Spike asked, patting Laughingstock’s back a little. Laughingstock cleared his throat once he’d finished the donut and exhaled deeply. “You seriously have no idea.” He said in between breaths. “I don’t think I’d even be able to stand up if I didn’t eat soon.” Spike tried to smile a little. “Well heh, good thing I was here then. Name’s Spike by the way. Nice to meet ya.” “You too.” Laughingstock said, shaking Spike’s claw, clearly in gratitude from his generosity. “Hey listen, sorry if I came across as kind of…well, a dick. I don’t know if you can tell but I’m not in a really good spot so haven’t been in the best of moods lately.” Spike frowned a little. “Hey, don’t worry about it...but not ever in a good mood? I can totally get it because of how bad you’re in the hole right now but…never?” Spike asked. He could understand any frustration Laughingstock might be having with being in the position he’s in now, but to say that he’s never in a good mood had to be exaggeration. Right? Even in the worst of times there’s usually SOMETHING to be enthusiastic about. He shook his head and looked down at the ground. “Believe me, I know how that sounds and you don’t have a clue how badly I wanna say ‘yeah, I look at the bright side of things sometimes, I can overcome any depression, blah blah blah’. Might work for some ponies, but when you’re in the position I’m in, you’d be lying to yourself if you said that.” Spike’s frowned deepened a little. “Wow um, you’re pretty pessimistic aren’t you?” “My ass is pessimistic.” Laughingstock grumbled. He shook his head a little to shake off any bad thoughts he might’ve been having. He didn’t want to come across as a complete asshole to the guy that was nice enough to give him food. Though he did feel he just might have some reason to be worried seeing as he was talking to a dragon here. He’d come across some dragons before in his aimless travels; by no means were they nice. At least this one seemed a little different. “Uh-huuuh.” Spike nodded confusedly with a raised eyebrow. It sounded like Laughingstock was TRYING to make a point there, but saying that his ass is pessimistic didn’t make any sense. “Well, if you’re so bad off work-wise, maybe you should just focus on your special talent. My friends have run into a lot of ponies lately that seem to not want to do that.” Laughingstock rolled his eyes with a bitter scowl. “Now why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait that’s right. I did. And that’s the very problem. I can’t.” Spike’s confusion over the red pony before him’s attitude only grew. He can’t? What is that supposed to mean? “Why’s that?” “Because of this shit.” He growled quickly lifting up his wing away from his flank which was previously being covered by it. With it out of the way, Laughingstock’s equal symbol cutie mark was now on full display for Spike’s widening eyes. “This is why I can’t do anything right. This is why I can’t keep a job. My cutie mark was taken from me and now I’m stuck with this fucking piece of shit on my flank.” Spike’s jaw dropped at the sight of the mark Laughingstock possessed. It was just like the one Twilight described to him when they returned from Starlight’s old village. From the sounds of it, it had the same qualities that the ones forced on the ponies had too. Special talents being suppressed and turning their coat colors much more dull and empty. Now that Spike noticed it, Laughingstock’s shade of red was incredibly fitting towards this mark. Inevitably, Laughingstock noticed that Spike had been staring for an awfully long time. “…Everything alright with you?” he asked. Spike snapped out of it and looked up at his new friend with an incredibly nervous smile, a couple of beads of sweat coming from his head. “U-Um, y-yeah I just uh, need a minute.” Spike said, quickly running as fast as his short legs would allow him to run back towards the Castle of Friendship. “TWILIIIIIIIGHT!” Spike was in full panic mode now. Discovering one of Starlight Glimmer’s former victims was not something he’d expected or wanted to see during his relaxation time today. Author's Note Had to deal with a few things regarding college before getting back to writing this. Sorry about that. This chapter's actually been partially written for a while. Disinterest“So indeed while we all have different talents, different ways of looking at life and so on, ponies everywhere are still able to embrace their differences and come together to all be friends and….” Twilight stopped mid-friendship lecture to look at Starlight, whose eyes were half lidded and didn’t bother to look up at the group of ponies before her. Instead it looked like Starlight had taken more interest in building up a house of cards with her magic to a rather impressive height. Even then though, she still looked pretty bored and unenthusiastic. “…Starlight are you even paying attention?” Twilight asked. “Yeah yeah just keep going, I got it.” she mumbled almost inaudibly as she used her magic to place another card at the top of her ever-growing tower. Truthfully she’d barely retained anything that Twilight had told her over the last few minutes in favor of this. It was certainly more interesting than listening to Twilight go on about embracing individuality and differences and all that nonsense. All she was really getting from this was ‘some ponies are just going to be more important than others, get over it.’ She wouldn’t accept that. “Ya know, you’re makin’ this awfully difficult. If ya didn’t wanna listen to us, why’re ya even here?” Applejack asked, clearly annoyed at Starlight’s seemingly uncaring behavior. Starlight was about to continue her house of cards endeavor but stopped to answer Applejack’s question, expression not really changing all that much. “Be honest, you’re good at that. Where else was I going to go? I don’t exactly trust that you’d keep my past crimes a secret from Equestria. Sooner or later, someone would recognize me, and inevitably someone would kill me. It’d be in my better interest to stay here and let you try all you feel like to change my ways. Nopony said I had to listen.” Starlight replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Sooooo we’re trying to reform you and it’s just not sinking in by choice soooo…aren’t you just freeloading at this point then?” Rainbow asked. “Call it whatever you want, but I’m just going to say you’ve got your agenda right now, and I’ve got mine. I’m only saying this because I don’t have any reason to lie.” Starlight responded, about to put the final pieces atop her house of cards to where the entire thing ends at a point. Before she got the chance to steady the structure though, the door to the room swung open sending a gust of air right into Starlight’s house of cards and completely toppling it. Starlight, now completely stunned, looked down at the fallen cards in disbelief and then back up only to see she was still holding the final two. Now having a very bemused expression on her face, she took a deep and aggravated breath and let the cards flutter back onto the map table. “I really do hate my life sometimes.” She grumbled. The one who’d entered the room was a very panicked-looking purple dragon, frantically waving his arms. “T-TWILIGHT! GIRLS! T-Th-Th” Spike stumbled over his words while pointing to the outside of the door, followed by unintelligible gibberish. Fluttershy tried patting the young drake’s back to calm him down. “Shhh shhh, use your words Spike” she cooed. “Spike, what is it? Why’re you so worked up?” Twilight asked her assistant. It wasn’t uncommon for Spike to have an occasional freakout, but lately he’d been keeping them pretty few and far in between. Even then she hadn’t seen him this frantic since the events of chasing down Starlight through time. Spike breathed in and out to calm himself, along with the back pats from Fluttershy. “O-Okay so I went to my usual spot at the lake to take a breather a-and I see this homeless pony over there. He was practically just skin and bones so I gave him a donut and we started to chat it up. A-A while into it though I saw the guy...h-had one of those equality marks you told me about.” Spike nearly mumbled the last part, though not enough where no one could hear. Rarity put her hooves over her mouth and let out a shocked gasp. “O-Oh my goodness! You mean, he didn’t have his real Cutie Mark?” Spike shook his head. “Unless his special talent is math and he just hasn’t realized it, yeah his mark’s gone.” Immediately after Spike had finished his addressing of the situation he’d uncovered, all eyes fell on Starlight, who could feel the six mare’s stares weighing down on her. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t taken anypony else’s Cutie Mark since I was forced out of my village.” Twilight narrowed her eyes a little bit. “And how do we know you’re not just lying to us again?” Starlight scoffed at her question. “I already told you I don’t have anything to gain from lying. At this point I doubt you’d believe a word that comes out of my mouth. But the fact is that my hooves are clean here.” Normally Applejack could be able to tell quite well if a pony was truthful or not. It was in her nature to be able to do so. However since this was Starlight they were talking about, and given the facts presented about the pony Spike described, she couldn’t tell completely. “…Spike, did ya at least get the pony’s name?” she asked. Spike nodded. “He said his name was Laughingstock. Though with a name like that he sure didn’t seem like the type to mess around.” Starlight’s ears twitched a little when she heard that name pass Spike’s lips, and her eyes widened greatly in size. “…Well…it turns out I may not be as innocent as I thought I was in the case of the missing mark.” “S-So wait. You DID take this pony’s mark?” Fluttershy asked very nervously. She wasn’t a fan of the idea of putting one of the most unstable ponies she knew on the spot, but it had to be done. Starlight let a slightly aggravated sigh escape her mouth. “Yes. But I still stand by the fact that I haven’t committed those acts RECENTLY. Laughingstock was in my care during a time where I wasn’t as…refined when it came to my conditioning-“ “You mean brainwashing.” Rainbow blurted out. “Don’t interrupt me, it’s fucking rude.” Starlight growled a little. “Anyway, that stallion was one of the first few to get my unmarking treatment. My methods of convincing others to join me were not as effective when I first started. I hadn’t developed a nearly 100% success rate method of doing so yet. He was VERY resistant. So much that he decided he wanted to escape, which somehow managed to do. Must’ve known he was outmatched because he didn’t even look back to go for his mark.” Starlight explained, seeming to do so half-heartedly. Talking about her failures was always something she was never fond of doing. It felt all too similar to the notion of undermining what magical skill she had. But it was her early years, what else was there to say? The ponies before Starlight’s were all in a state of disbelief as shown very obviously for the bewildered expressions they all wore. “Starlight….that pony’s been out and about in Equestria, drained of his special talent, and according to Spike he was homeless and horrible-looking. Do you know how hard it can be out there for a full grown pony with no Cutie Mark?” Twilight asked. As partially expected, Starlight just dismissed her question. “Do you think I’m stupid? Of course I do. Which is why I wanted him to just stay with me after he was de-marked. In my society, that would NEVER have been a problem for him. But no, he just had to go and play rebel and escape. Now he’s paying the price for his own stupidity.” Before any of the ponies could counter-argue with her, Starlight received her own reply from a new voice that she recognized for sure, and not in a good way. “Oh of course she knows what it’s like. She just doesn’t give a shit.” Everypony jolted at the sound of the new voice, which came from none other than Laughingstock himself who was now standing in the doorway of the room. Spike of course, took this with the most surprise. “U-Um h-hey um…I didn’t tell you to follow me.” he stuttered nervously. “You expect any different after you run away from me, screaming like a maniac just from seeing my flank?” He replied with a sarcastic eye roll. “But it doesn’t matter, I’ve got something else to deal with now.” Laughingstock quickly approached Starlight, who was now standing up to meet him at eye level, and both of them were now glaring intensely at each other. “…How’s life been treating you, traitor?” she growled. “Shitty. But at least you’re looking awful comfy for a criminal, bitch.” He shot back with an ever-deepening scowl. Twilight quickly got in between the two of them, hoping it would at least keep them from coming to blows. Because if it did come down to it, the facts where that Starlight would physically destroy Laughingstock. “So um….you must be Laughingstock. We were just talking about you. I’m sure you know who WE are.” Still not hiding his anger, the dark red pony didn’t take his eyes off of Starlight but still gave Twilight his answer. “Exactly, no need to waste my time with introductions, Princess. Though since you ARE royalty, maybe you’ll be able to answer the question of why this lying monster isn’t locked up?” he growled. The ponies all flinched at the blatantness of Laughingstock’s question. Of course they’d experienced that Starlight was not a pleasant pony, but they’d never heard anyone call her a straight up monster until now. “Gracious, do you maybe think that’s taking things just a little far?” Rarity asked. “What, you expect me to be nice to the pony that ruined my life? I honestly don’t care to know if you see anything in her because from where I’M standing, calling her a cunt to the tenth degree is being subtle.” Laughingstock replied coldly. “Ooooh you are really pushing it.” Starlight growled, looking fully ready to fire magic from her horn at him at any given moment. “Okay everyone calm down, now!” Twilight raised her voice to a loud level. “Laughingstock, I’ll answer any questions you have as long as you answer mine. But neither of you are going to hurt each other, am I clear?!” Both the Pegasus and the unicorn looked at Twilight with slightly widened eyes, and then back at each other, both now giving the “I’ll deal with you soon enough” look. “…I don’t promise anything, but I’ll answer whatever you want.” He replied. “Disobedient and stupid as usual, looks like that hasn’t changed.” Starlight grumbled under her breath. Twilight put a hoof to her own chest and took in a breath of air before letting it out. Thank Celestia for Cadance’s breathing techniques or else she might’ve completely lost her mind about now. “Very well. Now can you tell me what exactly it is that happened between yourself and Starlight?” she asked. “I’d LOVE to.” he said raising his voice a bit and putting emphasis on his answer. “And you listen real good yourself, bitchlight Glimmer. I want you to know every last detail of what you fucking did to me.” “Name calling will not get you anywhere, Laughingstock.” She replied with a cold tone of voice. Ignoring his nemesis, Laughingstock deeply sighed and began to speak. “Everything started in Las Pegasus….” Author's Note That cover art with Starlight giving the most uncaring face ever is really beginning to make sense now isn't it? Where destiny goes to die (Part 1)“-So the captain gives me the mug and I jump. I probably would’ve drowned too if it weren’t for one thing…” Laughingstock looked down with a sincere look of deep thought. The room was completely silent and waited on his every word. “…Root beer floats.” He whispered into the microphone in front of him in a comedic manner, now looking up from the floor with a goofy grin on his face. The audience of ponies before the stage in the dimly lit comedy club erupted in laughter at the bright red stallion’s pun. “Yes, thank you everyone, it’s been a pleasure.” Laughingstock bowed to the audience before disappearing behind the stage curtain towards backstage with a couple of the other standup comics that’d be performing in the Las Pegasus Comedy Club for the night, some of them looking quite nervous. “Hey don’t worry guys and gals, I got em’ warmed up for ya. Don’t sweat it.” he said, patting one of them on the shoulder. “H-Hehe yeah, I think we’ll be fine. Nice job out there yourself by the way.” A short and pudgy purple Pegasus stallion said to him with a nervous smile. “Thanks pal, now go out there and make a name for yourself…but don’t do TOO well, or you’ll make me look bad.” Laughingstock smirked a little bit before trotting out from backstage and to the exit of the club. Outside, it was just as he’d expected a place like Las Pegasus to be at nighttime. Dark in the sky, but really flashy everywhere else due to all the neon that looked to be on every single building in the city, and quite a bit of trash littering the streets. Was definitely Laughingstock’s kind of place. But he didn’t have much time before he his train left, and he still had to get back to his hotel to pack up for the trip home. The life of an up and coming comedian was a real fun one, but he did have to up and leave his house a few times to try and perform wherever he could. He made pretty good bits off of doing this, but that was just icing on the cake. Hearing ponies laugh at his jokes made him the happiest he could be. Just knowing he could leave an impression on ponies like that made a smile come to his face. Laughingstock took a big whiff of Las Pegasus’ air, which upon doing so made him cough a little bit, but still smile nonetheless. “Heh…you’ve done good Laughingstock.” He said, lightly and proudly patting his flank, which had the mark of a minimalistic, light blue, laughing pony face next to a microphone cutie mark emblazoned on it. “Oooh you made ponies laugh for a living?! Best job EVER!” Pinkie cheered happily, smiling big. Laughingstock took a deep breath and nodded. “Probably one of the most rewarding careers a pony can have. I was able to make ponies nearly pee themselves in laughter, and at the same time was able to do it to support myself. I mean, not anymore for…” he stopped in the middle of his sentence and gave Starlight a sharp glare. “…Obvious reasons.” Starlight tried to just sit quietly and listen to Laughingstock with a straight face. It was beginning to get hard though due to her slowly building rage. She knew what was coming up next, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. “Wait wait wait, if you were going home on the train, how did you end up in Starlight’s village?” Rainbow asked with a confused expression. Laughingstock did his best to not make eye contact with the rest of the ponies in the room as he continued. “That part is…pretty embarrassing actually.” Laughingstock snorted loudly and his eyes shot open when he heard the blaring of the train whistle going off. He jolted up, noticing two things right off the bat. One, he was the only pony still remaining on the train. Second, a bit of drool that was left on his mouth which he quickly wiped off before looking out the window. Wherever he was right now definitely wasn’t his home. There was nearly nothing but rocks as far as he could see, only in very far distance could he make out what appeared to be a town. Laughingstock groaned a little at the sight of this. “Craaaap, I fell asleep. Must’ve missed my stop.” He grumbled to himself. And his trip had been going so well too. He thought maybe if he hadn’t filled up so much on all that Las Pegasus food that he might not’ve fallen asleep. Hindsight wasn’t going to be any use to him now though. This apparently was the very end of the tracks, and the train wouldn’t be operating for another day. He got off the train car and observed his surroundings. Again, still just desert it seemed. He sighed and made his way to the small town he could see in the far distance. Maybe there was somewhere he could stay there until tomorrow. Even the most basic of towns have some form of Inn or hotel right? The closer he got to the place though, the stranger it looked. And by strange, he meant strange in the sense that everything about the place looked so…ordinary. All the buildings looked exactly the same, no diversity at all. The designs of the buildings themselves weren’t even that interesting to begin with. Why? Who would want their town to look this mundane; it didn’t add up. Those thoughts were only pushed to the back of his mind though when he noticed somepony approach him from his left. It was an Earth Pony stallion of white color and a very neatly cut mane, and an enormous smile on his face that spread nearly ear-to-ear. Whether the smile was just disturbing or welcoming, Laughingstock couldn’t tell. Either way it was a little off-putting. “Welcome! I’m Double Diamond, very nice to meet you!” the pony greeted him, keeping that wide and unnerving smile. “U-Um, heyyyy there. You know when the next train leaves? I uh…kind of fell asleep and ended up here.” Laughingstock nervously replied with a sheepish smile. Double Diamond’s smile didn’t waver. “Oooh sorry buddy, next train doesn’t come till Sunday. Heh, maybe next time you’ll try to stay awake” he giggled a little. Slightly annoyed, Laughingstock cursed himself under his breath. “Rgh, damn my exhaustion. Well I guess since this is the only place for miles it looks like, I’m staying here until then. You know anywhere I can stay for a few days?” “Ooh I’m sure Starlight can set you up somewhere just fine. We don’t have too many ponies living here right now, there’s only four of us here besides her. We’ve got plenty of space!” Double Diamond replied cheerily. “Starlight? What does she run the place or something?” Laughingstock asked with a raised eyebrow. Double Diamond rolled his eyes a little. “Oh we ALL run the town, she just founded it and invited us in. See, nopony here is superior. We’re all equal.” Double Diamond said, turning around and starting to walk towards the house at the end of the town and giving Laughingstock full view of his cutie mark, that being a black equal sign. Laughingstock tilted his head a little and thought to himself. ‘That’s a really…bland mark.’ He then looked at some of the other ponies scouring the town, all three of them. One being a light blue unicorn stallion, one being a dark blue Pegasus mare, and the last one being a dark pink unicorn mare. All of them had the same enormous smile Double Diamond had, and even had the same cutie mark. ‘…Well I have a lot of questions.’ Laughingstock thought to himself again. When he and Double Diamond finally reached the house, Double Diamond gave it a good knock. “Starlight, are you here? We have a visitor!” he called out. After waiting a few seconds, the door very slowly opened. For a moment that seemed to go on forever, nothing came out of the door. It just stayed open with nothing happening for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Up until a light purple mare that Laughingstock could only assume was Starlight zoomed in the doorway to greet the two of them. “Ooh thank you for showing our guest to me Double Diamond! Welcome, I’m Starlight Glimmer!” she said happily, extending a hoof to Laughingstock. “Heh, cheerful huh? I like that. Laughingstock’s my name. Nice to meet you.” He responded with a smile and shaking her hoof. “So, what’d you two think of each other when you first met?” Twilight asked both Laughingstock and Starlight at the same time. “He seemed pretty nice. I hadn’t gotten many ponies coming around to my village just yet so I was always happy to see a new face around. I didn’t ever really account for how much trouble he would cause later down the road.” Starlight replied with an inkling of a scowl forming. “Considering she was my only chance at shelter, and the fact she seemed pretty friendly at the time, I liked her fine. But it’s like looking Discord in the eyes, it’s a very deceitful type of friendliness.” Laughingstock said with a straight face. “U-Um could you please not use my friend’s name in vain?” Fluttershy asked. “Wait, what now?” he asked with a very confused look at her. “…Never mind, that’s a story for another time. Keep going please.” Fluttershy said with a sheepish and nervous smile.
UnrelentingFor the most part, ponies are a peaceful race. They aren’t especially known for starting war with other nations if they can help it, and don’t like confrontation. They tend to be in general, a very docile species of creatures. Most of the time, they deal with their foes through the magic of friendship rather than physical violence, and on some occasions actually manage to bring their foes into their way of thinking and befriend even them; the most notable of those cases being the god of chaos Discord and most recently a powerful unicorn named Starlight Glimmer. Though, not every pony in Equestria is the same in personality in this aspect. To assume every single pony in Equestria is as friendly as say, Pinkie Pie, is laughable. Not all ponies are as happy and chipper as others, and on more rare occasions, do actually have the capacity to be downright hateful. It’s not incredibly common, but to suggest such things have never happened, and will not ever continue to happen in the future, is foolish. Because ponies can be angry. They can be resentful. They can be bitter. They can feel the same basic things any emotional and sentient creature can feel. But nopony just wakes up one day and decides that they’re going to be that way. It usually takes quite a bit of…outside influence. Not even the happiest of ponies are safe from raw emotion and the lasting effects those outside influences can have. That being said, what can be done to make things right again, and what lengths will those involved go to fix it? The sun began to rise up over the horizon and lighting all of Equestria once it was time for the night to make way for it. Many a pony was overjoyed to begin their day and bask in Celestia’s bright, warm sunlight. Though, not all ponies could really be considered the morning type. Some preferred to stay in the comfort of their beds without having to really move a muscle all day long. Starlight Glimmer was one of those particular ponies. Unfortunately, she did not seem to get the luxury of remaining asleep, as from her perspective, the entire universe was out to make sure she would not be allowed to. The sunlight of the upcoming day creeped its way through her room’s window, the crystal structure of the castle she was staying in only seeming to make the sunlight even harsher due to the way it reflected. Of course, the sunlight found its way right smack onto her eyes, making her face scrunch up in discomfort. She groaned a little in her sleep and pulled the covers back over her face. “Mmmph. Always at the worst times.” she grumbled under her breath. Starlight made an attempt to get herself back to sleep under these circumstances, but her efforts were hindered yet again. The sound of a bird landing on one of the many crystal branches of the castle outside her room and chirping its song loudly was grating to her eardrums. She wouldn’t stand for this. She got out of her bed, holding a pillow in her magic as she trotted to the window. Starlight very slowly opened the window and gave the bird a death glare. “You have exactly three seconds to leave before you get smothered.” She growled irritably. The bird held a terrified look on her for a moment before he got the message and flew away as fast as his wings would allow him. Starlight then shut the window, feeling somewhat proud of herself that she’d eliminated the threat to her slumber. “Now that that’s over with, maybe I can relax now.” She said to herself before shutting the curtains to her window so no more sunlight shone through, and climbed back into bed. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and shut her eyes, beginning to drift off. Only for Spike to come in. “Hey, Starlight! Twilight wanted me to come and get you for the council of friendship meeting!” he said with a big smiling face. “AAAAGH OKAY I’M SORRY I WOKE YOU UP!” Spike screamed as he was now being chased through the halls of the crystal castle by a very irritated purple unicorn. He’d gotten her up like Twilight asked him, but not exactly getting the reception he was hoping for. But maybe he could at least get Starlight to chase him to the map room. “DO NOT EVER DISTURB MY SLEEP AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME?!” Starlight screamed at him. Provided Starlight didn’t kill him before he made it there at least. Eventually, after much running and dodging flying pillows being tossed by Starlight, Spike eventually managed to make it into the map room where the rest of his friends awaited for them. He quickly ducked under the map before Starlight made it in. Once she DID though, she was really a sight to behold. Out of breath, even worse bed-head than she had before, and unbridled rage. “WHERE’D HE GO?!?” She yelled. The other six ponies didn’t say anything for a moment, but instead observed Starlight’s current state of mind. “…Nice of you to join us Starlight.” Twilight said, just barely even blinking while staring. “Yeah uh…ya sure are lookin’ rested.” Applejack added, though her voice laced with complete uncertainty. Starlight looked over the group of ponies, only then realizing that she was still holding several pillows in her magic, and in general was probably making a fool of herself right now. Quickly trying to save face, she tossed the pillows out of the door and shut them in her magic, smiling a little sheepishly. “U-Um, good morning girls.” She stuttered nervously. The mares all looked at each other questioningly before looking at Spike, quivering under the map. “Gracious, you sure did a good job of getting her to the meeting Spike…but maybe next time try a method that won’t get Starlight so angry.” Rarity said gently, taking him out from under the map and giving him a pat on the head. “N-Noted.” Spike replied with a slight blush. Starlight gave an annoyed huff. “Mmph. If you don’t want to be met with my wrath, you won’t wake me up. Would you poke a bear with a stick while it’s sleeping? Unless you want to get mauled, then I wouldn’t think so.” “Hey I hate being woken up from the bliss that is my afternoon nap as much as anypony else, but don’t you think you sorta overreacted? You’re really good at that sometimes.” Rainbow asked. Truthfully, that really got under Starlight’s skin. Everyone keeps telling her she gets too mad over insignificant things and ends up makes mountains out of anthills. On some level, maybe screaming and yelling about Spike waking her up wasn’t the best way to go about things, but then again, THEY were not the ones being kept awake by every little thing like she was. Starlight groaned a little bit and rubbed her head. “I’m just really frustrated. With the stuff you all have to deal with on a regular basis, how are you so level-headed?” “…Ah’ll be the first to admit we all got our moments. Fluttershy threw a fit at the Gala, Rarity has an overdramatic breakdown if somethin’ don’t go right, and Twilig-“ Applejack couldn’t finish her sentence due to Twilight’s hoof quickly covering her mouth before she could mention her big breakdown. “I don’t think she needs to hear about…THAT.” Twilight said with a nervous smile. “OHOH Yeah she does! Twilight made the whole town riot over a toy because she wasn’t going to meet her quota on friendship reports to Celestia! See, even the princess of Friendship isn’t COMPLETELY all there all the time!~” Pinkie spoke for Applejack, giggling a little. When that incident had first occurred it was pretty scary to the rest of them, but now that it’d had time to settle after a while, the entire scenario now looked pretty ridiculous. Twilight’s face turned red at the memory of one of her most embarrassing moments since she’d come to Ponyville. “E-Ehehe…I’m not exactly proud of it. But Pinkie does have a good point. Not everypony can always keep themselves together a hundred percent of the time. We all have moments of weakness.” “Except for me. I never lose my cool!” Rainbow boasted confidently, resting back in her throne that surrounded the map like the rest of them did. “U-Um, Rainbow, do I need to remind you of last winter with Tank?” Fluttershy asked meekly. Rainbow’s face fell almost immediately at the mention of her breakdown that happened when she realized Tank had to hibernate for the winter. When she thought back on it, maybe sabotaging Cloudsdale’s weather factory just so her pet didn’t have to sleep was one of her worse ideas. “…Dang it.” Rainbow grumbled to herself. Starlight rolled her eyes a little at that. “I get it, not everyone’s perfect. It’s just that some handle it better than others that bugs me. Sorry I just can’t understand how you six stay together with how different you are. Just look at this.” Starlight said looking between Rarity and Twilight and pointing her hoof to the former. “Here we have Rarity. Average unicorn with average magical skill.” This caused Rarity to deadpan. “Well goodness Starlight when you put it like that.” She said with a tone of sarcasm, clearly offended. Starlight didn’t take much notice but instead pointed her other hoof at Twilight. “And then there’s Twilight who’s a fucking alicorn. I don’t think I need to explain the vast difference here.” Starlight put both of her hooves down and looked at Rarity with a slightly confused frown. “Doesn’t it just burn you up that she’s so much stronger magic-wise than you are?” Rarity gave Starlight a more concerned frown of her own. She obviously hadn’t expected Starlight to drop her ideology concerning friendship and equality the first day of reformation, but this was just showing how much she truly held onto it. “Well darling. As much as I’d ADORE being a princess myself, I never let my…erm, how do I put it…fantasy, get in the way of my friendship with Twilight. I don’t let any envy I may or may not have fester. If anything, I’m quite happy for her being as skilled in magic as she is. Everyone has their strongest points. Twilight’s just happens to be her magic and look where it got her! Mine just happens to be in my sewing and I’m really going places thanks to it.” Rarity said, trying to put on a little more cheerful smile. Starlight said nothing for a moment while she tried to take in everything that Rarity was saying to her. Though from her perspective, she wasn’t quite getting the message as was intended. To her this was sounding like they both only had the current advantages and social status’ that they do because of their cutie marks and specialties. This however, was what society had been like since even before the founding of Equestria. She doubted this aspect was ever going to change. Maybe she would just need to face facts sooner or later and simply embrace it rather than scorn it. Not yet though. Not by a long shot. Starlight sighed and simply looked at the floor, wanting to just look anywhere but at the ponies before her. “I just can’t understand...If you’re so sure that this is what’s right for me, then go ahead. Convince me otherwise.” She mumbled quietly. Twilight stood up from her seat and trotted over to Starlight, patting her on the back. “I wish helping someone change for the better was that simple. But it’s a lot more complicated than just having one conversation Starlight. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the difficulty we’ve had with Discord.” Starlight flinched a little bit at Twilight’s patting. “I never said you could touch me. I might not be trying to hurt you now, but we’re not on that personal of a basis yet.” She said with the slightest hint of aggression and a little scowl. Pinkie popped up next to them, having a raised eyebrow. “Waaaaaait, Twilight didn’t you say you two were hugging when you came back to the present?” Starlight blushed lightly in response. “…I was emotionally weak. But now I’ve had time to brood.” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Suuuuure THAT’S it.” Starlight stayed silent for a moment before crossing her forelegs. “Don’t you patronize me Pie.” Ponyville was teeming with life in the bright morning light of day. Quite a few of the town’s foals were playing outside with their friends, while a couple of ponies were out working at their respective businesses or meeting up with their own friends wherever. A majority of the ponies were ecstatic about their daily lives and were mostly content with the typical status quo of Ponyville. Though dealing with the occasional monster or doomsday threat was part of the said status quo, it still kept things more exciting in the town. Though, in sharp contrast to the rest of ponies walking about the town in the morning, there was this one that was making his way through that stuck out like a sore thumb. The reasoning for this was because unlike the other ponies in town that had happy and content smiles and bright colored fur that accommodated their happiness quite well, this one looked nearly the opposite. His fur was a dull and lifeless red, the wings on his back having feathers of the same shade, with a mane of a much darker red and streaks of just as dark grey. In addition to the near-dead look on his fur, the look on his face only added to it. The stallion had dark bags under his bloodshot and exhausted purple eyes, and had a deep frown that looked like it’d been there for a really long time. The stallion could probably be compared to a walking corpse if his flesh was shown to be decaying. As expected, some of the local ponies took notice of the stallion’s rough state, but did little about it besides simply staring at him. They didn’t usually get ponies that looked this angry and uninterested in anything else around Ponyville, and it was actually quite jarring. The townsfolk were positive he wasn’t here yesterday, so just who was he and what was he doing here? Though they might’ve had several questions, none were willing enough to get the answers. If the look of this pony was any indication, he might not be very friendly. The pony didn’t look at anypony the second he’d come into town. Instead, he kept to his own thoughts and not on how everyone else was looking at him. That was the last thing on his mind right now. His eyes ever so slightly looked away from the ground and at the quiet and peaceful town around him, and he quietly mumbled to himself. “Hm…cute place. Not my first choice for a place to live, but literal beggars can’t be choosers.” He said with a hushed voice. He let out a deep breath of exhaustion and rubbed one of his forelegs with a slight wince of pain coming to his face. “Rgh. Laughingstock you bonehead, you have wings. You don’t gotta hoof it wherever you go, dummy.” He grumbled bitterly. “...Dear Celestia I’m talking to myself now. Heat’s probably going to my head. If I’d known I’d start losing my mind from thirst this quick, I just woulda drank my own piss hours ago.” When Laughingstock brought his head back up to hopefully find some kind of body of water in the village, he now started to notice the townsfolk staring at him. Were they doing this the whole time? He was pretty sure they weren’t. But what actually unnerved him about this was the specific portion of his body they were staring at. His flank. Not his flank in general, but what was on it. What it was was undoubtedly a cutie mark, but not a cutie mark like any of them had ever seen. It was just so bland and unexciting that one could hardly even think that one such as this exists. For all it was, was a black equal symbol and nothing more. Laughingstock took attention to what they were staring at an quickly folded his wings in a position where they covered the offending mark. He tried to take attention off of himself by trotting at a faster pace, away from the crowd. To him this was humiliating beyond reasonable measure. He didn’t know if they knew what the symbol actually represented in this context, but he wasn’t sticking around for them to contemplate it. Not a chance. As he tried to keep up his pace, the reality of the situation he was in was setting in more and more. It made his expression gradually change from nervous to infuriated. His nostrils flared and his teeth clenched in anger as it settled in his mind and his hooves came down onto the ground even harder than they did before. “I shouldn’t have to deal with this shit. I could be out in Las Pegasus doing standup in a crowd of hundreds…no thousands of ponies right now. Instead I’m in some sub-par looking town where already everyone looks at me like I’m a fucking mutant.” He growled, angrily kicking up dust on the dirt path, now out of earshot of any of the ponies. “I CAN’T FUCKING SHOWER IF I’M HOMELESS, JACKASSES!” he screamed. A few moments of lashing out at random things such as trees and rocks, Laughingstock, now out of breath, sat under a tree with his anger only slightly dissipated since he started. His breaths were a lot deeper now and he wiped sweat from his forehead. “O-Okay just save your energy. It’s not those ponies’ fault.” He panted in between a few words. This entire situation might’ve pissed him off, but getting at a bunch of random ponies wasn’t going to get him anywhere. It didn’t stop him from thinking about the one that DID put this entire thing on him however. The same pony that branded him with the equal sign cutie mark that he now had to bear on his flank. If he hadn’t tired himself out, he might’ve gone on another loud and self-destructive tangent. Since he DID tire himself out though, he resorted to simply cursing somepony’s name under his breath. “I tell you what. The day I knock that bitch’s teeth out’ll be a real happy day for me.” Author's Note I might as well say this now before I get any comments concerning this. You might be confused as to why Starlight is behaving the way she is right now, and not how she was depicted in the season 6 opener. That's because of the timeline this fic follows. The Crystalling hasn't happened yet. The entirety of this fic will take place in between the time Twilight and Starlight returned to the present, and before anything that happened in the ending song montage. So Starlight hasn't exactly let go of her ideology yet. Think Discord when he was first reformed basically. Anyway, comments are appreciated
DiscoveryWhile the rest of the girls tried to give Starlight a good talking to regarding how they should go about teaching her the ways of friendship, Spike had decided that maybe it was a good idea to get out of Starlight’s hair for a while. She really wasn’t in the best of moods this morning after he woke her up and he didn’t want another incident like this morning happening. Though he would’ve liked an apology along the lines of ‘Sorry I overreacted and tried to smother you with a pillow Spike.’ He wasn’t really expecting it because he knew just how difficult it is to work with Starlight, but it didn’t make him feel much better about it. So with the time that he now had to himself, he thought he’d partake in a bit of much-needed rest and relaxation. He’d gotten a few donuts from Sugarcube Corner and was now heading out to Ponyville’s nearby lake to relax under one of the surrounding trees. He’d come to enjoy a lot of the quiet that came with that part of town, and after a few times of doing this when he had nothing else to do, it’d become a regular activity to him. “Phew. Well today’s off to a rough start already, but nothing a couple of donuts can’t help fix.” Spike said with a growing smile as he sat under the tree and put a donut in his mouth. The taste of the smooth icing reminded him a lot of the donuts back in Canterlot and he loved every second of it. As he sat there longer though, he couldn’t help but feel something was…off. Like he wasn’t alone at the lake. He couldn’t quite put his claw on it, but he felt some other presence there with him. He probably would have shrugged it off completely if he didn’t hear the breathing coming from the other side of the tree. He turned around to look at the other side of the trunk. Sure enough, there was somepony else there with him. Though when Spike got a good look at him, he wished he hadn’t. The pony was undoubtedly a Pegasus stallion, and he looked absolutely horrible. The color on his fur coat had no sheen or brightness to it at all, and he looked so malnourished that Spike swore he could see his ribs. He cautiously moved a little closer and noticed the stallion was passed out; whether it was from hunger or exhaustion he couldn’t tell. “H-Hey, buddy wake up!” Spike raised his voice a little and gently shook him. The stallion let out a slightly pained groan. At least he could tell this pony was alive. “C-Come on say something!” “M-Mmph…” The stallion groaned again. “If I say something will you stop shaking me?” He growled in slight annoyance at the dragon’s nonstop and frantic shaking. Spike let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. I thought you might’ve been dead for a minute there. Are you alright mister…uh…” “Laughingstock.” He grumbled, sitting up and resting his back against the tree and taking a couple of deep breaths. “And define ‘alright’” “Well I mean, no offense but you look pretty roughed up. When’s the last time you even ate?” Spike asked. Laughingstock didn’t actually answer in words, but just shrugged his shoulders. Spike’s jaw dropped in shock. “How do you not remember when you eat?!” “Been too long I guess. Couple days. Maybe more. I don’t know, I was in a desert for probably a week, pal. I wasn’t exactly signing on to eat tumbleweeds or cactus.” “I actually think the plural of cactus is ‘cacti’ Laughingstock.” Spike added, making Laughingstock deadpan, looking completely unamused. “Do I really look like I care? Do I?” Laughingstock growled in frustration. Who was this kid trying to impress with his proper grammar here? Spike flinched a little. While he’d come across his fair share of somewhat rude ponies in his lifetime, this guy was something else entirely. He didn’t know what it was like to be homeless and hungry like Laughingstock supposedly was, but he’d imagine that it’d stressed him out pretty badly to the point of him behaving like this. “Jeez…well um…you’re pretty hungry so do you maybe want a donut?” Spike asked, holding out the box of donuts to him. Laughingstock’s hardened face softened ever so slightly at the offer of food from the small dragon. It wasn’t by much, but it definitely didn’t look as irritable as it did a moment ago. “I’m not a charity case kid.” Immediately following that statement though, Laughingstock’s stomach growled loudly. “…Then again, starving to death isn’t on my to do list today.” He said, swallowing his pride along with one of the donuts. Laughingstock’s face softened even more after that as a pleased hum could be heard coming out of him. “Feel a little better now?” Spike asked, patting Laughingstock’s back a little. Laughingstock cleared his throat once he’d finished the donut and exhaled deeply. “You seriously have no idea.” He said in between breaths. “I don’t think I’d even be able to stand up if I didn’t eat soon.” Spike tried to smile a little. “Well heh, good thing I was here then. Name’s Spike by the way. Nice to meet ya.” “You too.” Laughingstock said, shaking Spike’s claw, clearly in gratitude from his generosity. “Hey listen, sorry if I came across as kind of…well, a dick. I don’t know if you can tell but I’m not in a really good spot so haven’t been in the best of moods lately.” Spike frowned a little. “Hey, don’t worry about it...but not ever in a good mood? I can totally get it because of how bad you’re in the hole right now but…never?” Spike asked. He could understand any frustration Laughingstock might be having with being in the position he’s in now, but to say that he’s never in a good mood had to be exaggeration. Right? Even in the worst of times there’s usually SOMETHING to be enthusiastic about. He shook his head and looked down at the ground. “Believe me, I know how that sounds and you don’t have a clue how badly I wanna say ‘yeah, I look at the bright side of things sometimes, I can overcome any depression, blah blah blah’. Might work for some ponies, but when you’re in the position I’m in, you’d be lying to yourself if you said that.” Spike’s frowned deepened a little. “Wow um, you’re pretty pessimistic aren’t you?” “My ass is pessimistic.” Laughingstock grumbled. He shook his head a little to shake off any bad thoughts he might’ve been having. He didn’t want to come across as a complete asshole to the guy that was nice enough to give him food. Though he did feel he just might have some reason to be worried seeing as he was talking to a dragon here. He’d come across some dragons before in his aimless travels; by no means were they nice. At least this one seemed a little different. “Uh-huuuh.” Spike nodded confusedly with a raised eyebrow. It sounded like Laughingstock was TRYING to make a point there, but saying that his ass is pessimistic didn’t make any sense. “Well, if you’re so bad off work-wise, maybe you should just focus on your special talent. My friends have run into a lot of ponies lately that seem to not want to do that.” Laughingstock rolled his eyes with a bitter scowl. “Now why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait that’s right. I did. And that’s the very problem. I can’t.” Spike’s confusion over the red pony before him’s attitude only grew. He can’t? What is that supposed to mean? “Why’s that?” “Because of this shit.” He growled quickly lifting up his wing away from his flank which was previously being covered by it. With it out of the way, Laughingstock’s equal symbol cutie mark was now on full display for Spike’s widening eyes. “This is why I can’t do anything right. This is why I can’t keep a job. My cutie mark was taken from me and now I’m stuck with this fucking piece of shit on my flank.” Spike’s jaw dropped at the sight of the mark Laughingstock possessed. It was just like the one Twilight described to him when they returned from Starlight’s old village. From the sounds of it, it had the same qualities that the ones forced on the ponies had too. Special talents being suppressed and turning their coat colors much more dull and empty. Now that Spike noticed it, Laughingstock’s shade of red was incredibly fitting towards this mark. Inevitably, Laughingstock noticed that Spike had been staring for an awfully long time. “…Everything alright with you?” he asked. Spike snapped out of it and looked up at his new friend with an incredibly nervous smile, a couple of beads of sweat coming from his head. “U-Um, y-yeah I just uh, need a minute.” Spike said, quickly running as fast as his short legs would allow him to run back towards the Castle of Friendship. “TWILIIIIIIIGHT!” Spike was in full panic mode now. Discovering one of Starlight Glimmer’s former victims was not something he’d expected or wanted to see during his relaxation time today. Author's Note Had to deal with a few things regarding college before getting back to writing this. Sorry about that. This chapter's actually been partially written for a while.
Disinterest“So indeed while we all have different talents, different ways of looking at life and so on, ponies everywhere are still able to embrace their differences and come together to all be friends and….” Twilight stopped mid-friendship lecture to look at Starlight, whose eyes were half lidded and didn’t bother to look up at the group of ponies before her. Instead it looked like Starlight had taken more interest in building up a house of cards with her magic to a rather impressive height. Even then though, she still looked pretty bored and unenthusiastic. “…Starlight are you even paying attention?” Twilight asked. “Yeah yeah just keep going, I got it.” she mumbled almost inaudibly as she used her magic to place another card at the top of her ever-growing tower. Truthfully she’d barely retained anything that Twilight had told her over the last few minutes in favor of this. It was certainly more interesting than listening to Twilight go on about embracing individuality and differences and all that nonsense. All she was really getting from this was ‘some ponies are just going to be more important than others, get over it.’ She wouldn’t accept that. “Ya know, you’re makin’ this awfully difficult. If ya didn’t wanna listen to us, why’re ya even here?” Applejack asked, clearly annoyed at Starlight’s seemingly uncaring behavior. Starlight was about to continue her house of cards endeavor but stopped to answer Applejack’s question, expression not really changing all that much. “Be honest, you’re good at that. Where else was I going to go? I don’t exactly trust that you’d keep my past crimes a secret from Equestria. Sooner or later, someone would recognize me, and inevitably someone would kill me. It’d be in my better interest to stay here and let you try all you feel like to change my ways. Nopony said I had to listen.” Starlight replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Sooooo we’re trying to reform you and it’s just not sinking in by choice soooo…aren’t you just freeloading at this point then?” Rainbow asked. “Call it whatever you want, but I’m just going to say you’ve got your agenda right now, and I’ve got mine. I’m only saying this because I don’t have any reason to lie.” Starlight responded, about to put the final pieces atop her house of cards to where the entire thing ends at a point. Before she got the chance to steady the structure though, the door to the room swung open sending a gust of air right into Starlight’s house of cards and completely toppling it. Starlight, now completely stunned, looked down at the fallen cards in disbelief and then back up only to see she was still holding the final two. Now having a very bemused expression on her face, she took a deep and aggravated breath and let the cards flutter back onto the map table. “I really do hate my life sometimes.” She grumbled. The one who’d entered the room was a very panicked-looking purple dragon, frantically waving his arms. “T-TWILIGHT! GIRLS! T-Th-Th” Spike stumbled over his words while pointing to the outside of the door, followed by unintelligible gibberish. Fluttershy tried patting the young drake’s back to calm him down. “Shhh shhh, use your words Spike” she cooed. “Spike, what is it? Why’re you so worked up?” Twilight asked her assistant. It wasn’t uncommon for Spike to have an occasional freakout, but lately he’d been keeping them pretty few and far in between. Even then she hadn’t seen him this frantic since the events of chasing down Starlight through time. Spike breathed in and out to calm himself, along with the back pats from Fluttershy. “O-Okay so I went to my usual spot at the lake to take a breather a-and I see this homeless pony over there. He was practically just skin and bones so I gave him a donut and we started to chat it up. A-A while into it though I saw the guy...h-had one of those equality marks you told me about.” Spike nearly mumbled the last part, though not enough where no one could hear. Rarity put her hooves over her mouth and let out a shocked gasp. “O-Oh my goodness! You mean, he didn’t have his real Cutie Mark?” Spike shook his head. “Unless his special talent is math and he just hasn’t realized it, yeah his mark’s gone.” Immediately after Spike had finished his addressing of the situation he’d uncovered, all eyes fell on Starlight, who could feel the six mare’s stares weighing down on her. “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t taken anypony else’s Cutie Mark since I was forced out of my village.” Twilight narrowed her eyes a little bit. “And how do we know you’re not just lying to us again?” Starlight scoffed at her question. “I already told you I don’t have anything to gain from lying. At this point I doubt you’d believe a word that comes out of my mouth. But the fact is that my hooves are clean here.” Normally Applejack could be able to tell quite well if a pony was truthful or not. It was in her nature to be able to do so. However since this was Starlight they were talking about, and given the facts presented about the pony Spike described, she couldn’t tell completely. “…Spike, did ya at least get the pony’s name?” she asked. Spike nodded. “He said his name was Laughingstock. Though with a name like that he sure didn’t seem like the type to mess around.” Starlight’s ears twitched a little when she heard that name pass Spike’s lips, and her eyes widened greatly in size. “…Well…it turns out I may not be as innocent as I thought I was in the case of the missing mark.” “S-So wait. You DID take this pony’s mark?” Fluttershy asked very nervously. She wasn’t a fan of the idea of putting one of the most unstable ponies she knew on the spot, but it had to be done. Starlight let a slightly aggravated sigh escape her mouth. “Yes. But I still stand by the fact that I haven’t committed those acts RECENTLY. Laughingstock was in my care during a time where I wasn’t as…refined when it came to my conditioning-“ “You mean brainwashing.” Rainbow blurted out. “Don’t interrupt me, it’s fucking rude.” Starlight growled a little. “Anyway, that stallion was one of the first few to get my unmarking treatment. My methods of convincing others to join me were not as effective when I first started. I hadn’t developed a nearly 100% success rate method of doing so yet. He was VERY resistant. So much that he decided he wanted to escape, which somehow managed to do. Must’ve known he was outmatched because he didn’t even look back to go for his mark.” Starlight explained, seeming to do so half-heartedly. Talking about her failures was always something she was never fond of doing. It felt all too similar to the notion of undermining what magical skill she had. But it was her early years, what else was there to say? The ponies before Starlight’s were all in a state of disbelief as shown very obviously for the bewildered expressions they all wore. “Starlight….that pony’s been out and about in Equestria, drained of his special talent, and according to Spike he was homeless and horrible-looking. Do you know how hard it can be out there for a full grown pony with no Cutie Mark?” Twilight asked. As partially expected, Starlight just dismissed her question. “Do you think I’m stupid? Of course I do. Which is why I wanted him to just stay with me after he was de-marked. In my society, that would NEVER have been a problem for him. But no, he just had to go and play rebel and escape. Now he’s paying the price for his own stupidity.” Before any of the ponies could counter-argue with her, Starlight received her own reply from a new voice that she recognized for sure, and not in a good way. “Oh of course she knows what it’s like. She just doesn’t give a shit.” Everypony jolted at the sound of the new voice, which came from none other than Laughingstock himself who was now standing in the doorway of the room. Spike of course, took this with the most surprise. “U-Um h-hey um…I didn’t tell you to follow me.” he stuttered nervously. “You expect any different after you run away from me, screaming like a maniac just from seeing my flank?” He replied with a sarcastic eye roll. “But it doesn’t matter, I’ve got something else to deal with now.” Laughingstock quickly approached Starlight, who was now standing up to meet him at eye level, and both of them were now glaring intensely at each other. “…How’s life been treating you, traitor?” she growled. “Shitty. But at least you’re looking awful comfy for a criminal, bitch.” He shot back with an ever-deepening scowl. Twilight quickly got in between the two of them, hoping it would at least keep them from coming to blows. Because if it did come down to it, the facts where that Starlight would physically destroy Laughingstock. “So um….you must be Laughingstock. We were just talking about you. I’m sure you know who WE are.” Still not hiding his anger, the dark red pony didn’t take his eyes off of Starlight but still gave Twilight his answer. “Exactly, no need to waste my time with introductions, Princess. Though since you ARE royalty, maybe you’ll be able to answer the question of why this lying monster isn’t locked up?” he growled. The ponies all flinched at the blatantness of Laughingstock’s question. Of course they’d experienced that Starlight was not a pleasant pony, but they’d never heard anyone call her a straight up monster until now. “Gracious, do you maybe think that’s taking things just a little far?” Rarity asked. “What, you expect me to be nice to the pony that ruined my life? I honestly don’t care to know if you see anything in her because from where I’M standing, calling her a cunt to the tenth degree is being subtle.” Laughingstock replied coldly. “Ooooh you are really pushing it.” Starlight growled, looking fully ready to fire magic from her horn at him at any given moment. “Okay everyone calm down, now!” Twilight raised her voice to a loud level. “Laughingstock, I’ll answer any questions you have as long as you answer mine. But neither of you are going to hurt each other, am I clear?!” Both the Pegasus and the unicorn looked at Twilight with slightly widened eyes, and then back at each other, both now giving the “I’ll deal with you soon enough” look. “…I don’t promise anything, but I’ll answer whatever you want.” He replied. “Disobedient and stupid as usual, looks like that hasn’t changed.” Starlight grumbled under her breath. Twilight put a hoof to her own chest and took in a breath of air before letting it out. Thank Celestia for Cadance’s breathing techniques or else she might’ve completely lost her mind about now. “Very well. Now can you tell me what exactly it is that happened between yourself and Starlight?” she asked. “I’d LOVE to.” he said raising his voice a bit and putting emphasis on his answer. “And you listen real good yourself, bitchlight Glimmer. I want you to know every last detail of what you fucking did to me.” “Name calling will not get you anywhere, Laughingstock.” She replied with a cold tone of voice. Ignoring his nemesis, Laughingstock deeply sighed and began to speak. “Everything started in Las Pegasus….” Author's Note That cover art with Starlight giving the most uncaring face ever is really beginning to make sense now isn't it?
Where destiny goes to die (Part 1)“-So the captain gives me the mug and I jump. I probably would’ve drowned too if it weren’t for one thing…” Laughingstock looked down with a sincere look of deep thought. The room was completely silent and waited on his every word. “…Root beer floats.” He whispered into the microphone in front of him in a comedic manner, now looking up from the floor with a goofy grin on his face. The audience of ponies before the stage in the dimly lit comedy club erupted in laughter at the bright red stallion’s pun. “Yes, thank you everyone, it’s been a pleasure.” Laughingstock bowed to the audience before disappearing behind the stage curtain towards backstage with a couple of the other standup comics that’d be performing in the Las Pegasus Comedy Club for the night, some of them looking quite nervous. “Hey don’t worry guys and gals, I got em’ warmed up for ya. Don’t sweat it.” he said, patting one of them on the shoulder. “H-Hehe yeah, I think we’ll be fine. Nice job out there yourself by the way.” A short and pudgy purple Pegasus stallion said to him with a nervous smile. “Thanks pal, now go out there and make a name for yourself…but don’t do TOO well, or you’ll make me look bad.” Laughingstock smirked a little bit before trotting out from backstage and to the exit of the club. Outside, it was just as he’d expected a place like Las Pegasus to be at nighttime. Dark in the sky, but really flashy everywhere else due to all the neon that looked to be on every single building in the city, and quite a bit of trash littering the streets. Was definitely Laughingstock’s kind of place. But he didn’t have much time before he his train left, and he still had to get back to his hotel to pack up for the trip home. The life of an up and coming comedian was a real fun one, but he did have to up and leave his house a few times to try and perform wherever he could. He made pretty good bits off of doing this, but that was just icing on the cake. Hearing ponies laugh at his jokes made him the happiest he could be. Just knowing he could leave an impression on ponies like that made a smile come to his face. Laughingstock took a big whiff of Las Pegasus’ air, which upon doing so made him cough a little bit, but still smile nonetheless. “Heh…you’ve done good Laughingstock.” He said, lightly and proudly patting his flank, which had the mark of a minimalistic, light blue, laughing pony face next to a microphone cutie mark emblazoned on it. “Oooh you made ponies laugh for a living?! Best job EVER!” Pinkie cheered happily, smiling big. Laughingstock took a deep breath and nodded. “Probably one of the most rewarding careers a pony can have. I was able to make ponies nearly pee themselves in laughter, and at the same time was able to do it to support myself. I mean, not anymore for…” he stopped in the middle of his sentence and gave Starlight a sharp glare. “…Obvious reasons.” Starlight tried to just sit quietly and listen to Laughingstock with a straight face. It was beginning to get hard though due to her slowly building rage. She knew what was coming up next, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. “Wait wait wait, if you were going home on the train, how did you end up in Starlight’s village?” Rainbow asked with a confused expression. Laughingstock did his best to not make eye contact with the rest of the ponies in the room as he continued. “That part is…pretty embarrassing actually.” Laughingstock snorted loudly and his eyes shot open when he heard the blaring of the train whistle going off. He jolted up, noticing two things right off the bat. One, he was the only pony still remaining on the train. Second, a bit of drool that was left on his mouth which he quickly wiped off before looking out the window. Wherever he was right now definitely wasn’t his home. There was nearly nothing but rocks as far as he could see, only in very far distance could he make out what appeared to be a town. Laughingstock groaned a little at the sight of this. “Craaaap, I fell asleep. Must’ve missed my stop.” He grumbled to himself. And his trip had been going so well too. He thought maybe if he hadn’t filled up so much on all that Las Pegasus food that he might not’ve fallen asleep. Hindsight wasn’t going to be any use to him now though. This apparently was the very end of the tracks, and the train wouldn’t be operating for another day. He got off the train car and observed his surroundings. Again, still just desert it seemed. He sighed and made his way to the small town he could see in the far distance. Maybe there was somewhere he could stay there until tomorrow. Even the most basic of towns have some form of Inn or hotel right? The closer he got to the place though, the stranger it looked. And by strange, he meant strange in the sense that everything about the place looked so…ordinary. All the buildings looked exactly the same, no diversity at all. The designs of the buildings themselves weren’t even that interesting to begin with. Why? Who would want their town to look this mundane; it didn’t add up. Those thoughts were only pushed to the back of his mind though when he noticed somepony approach him from his left. It was an Earth Pony stallion of white color and a very neatly cut mane, and an enormous smile on his face that spread nearly ear-to-ear. Whether the smile was just disturbing or welcoming, Laughingstock couldn’t tell. Either way it was a little off-putting. “Welcome! I’m Double Diamond, very nice to meet you!” the pony greeted him, keeping that wide and unnerving smile. “U-Um, heyyyy there. You know when the next train leaves? I uh…kind of fell asleep and ended up here.” Laughingstock nervously replied with a sheepish smile. Double Diamond’s smile didn’t waver. “Oooh sorry buddy, next train doesn’t come till Sunday. Heh, maybe next time you’ll try to stay awake” he giggled a little. Slightly annoyed, Laughingstock cursed himself under his breath. “Rgh, damn my exhaustion. Well I guess since this is the only place for miles it looks like, I’m staying here until then. You know anywhere I can stay for a few days?” “Ooh I’m sure Starlight can set you up somewhere just fine. We don’t have too many ponies living here right now, there’s only four of us here besides her. We’ve got plenty of space!” Double Diamond replied cheerily. “Starlight? What does she run the place or something?” Laughingstock asked with a raised eyebrow. Double Diamond rolled his eyes a little. “Oh we ALL run the town, she just founded it and invited us in. See, nopony here is superior. We’re all equal.” Double Diamond said, turning around and starting to walk towards the house at the end of the town and giving Laughingstock full view of his cutie mark, that being a black equal sign. Laughingstock tilted his head a little and thought to himself. ‘That’s a really…bland mark.’ He then looked at some of the other ponies scouring the town, all three of them. One being a light blue unicorn stallion, one being a dark blue Pegasus mare, and the last one being a dark pink unicorn mare. All of them had the same enormous smile Double Diamond had, and even had the same cutie mark. ‘…Well I have a lot of questions.’ Laughingstock thought to himself again. When he and Double Diamond finally reached the house, Double Diamond gave it a good knock. “Starlight, are you here? We have a visitor!” he called out. After waiting a few seconds, the door very slowly opened. For a moment that seemed to go on forever, nothing came out of the door. It just stayed open with nothing happening for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Up until a light purple mare that Laughingstock could only assume was Starlight zoomed in the doorway to greet the two of them. “Ooh thank you for showing our guest to me Double Diamond! Welcome, I’m Starlight Glimmer!” she said happily, extending a hoof to Laughingstock. “Heh, cheerful huh? I like that. Laughingstock’s my name. Nice to meet you.” He responded with a smile and shaking her hoof. “So, what’d you two think of each other when you first met?” Twilight asked both Laughingstock and Starlight at the same time. “He seemed pretty nice. I hadn’t gotten many ponies coming around to my village just yet so I was always happy to see a new face around. I didn’t ever really account for how much trouble he would cause later down the road.” Starlight replied with an inkling of a scowl forming. “Considering she was my only chance at shelter, and the fact she seemed pretty friendly at the time, I liked her fine. But it’s like looking Discord in the eyes, it’s a very deceitful type of friendliness.” Laughingstock said with a straight face. “U-Um could you please not use my friend’s name in vain?” Fluttershy asked. “Wait, what now?” he asked with a very confused look at her. “…Never mind, that’s a story for another time. Keep going please.” Fluttershy said with a sheepish and nervous smile.
