"So, let me get this straight; you've become a prince..." Barb glanced at Dusk's new wings, which he flapped a little in response.

"Yeah, I kinda figured out the rest of a spell Starswirl the Bearded was working on while we were dealing with everyone's cutie marks being swapped around, and got zapped into a pocket dimension of sorts."

"And believe me when I say I will never gripe about how the weather is handled after that." Elusive commented, grimacing a little.

"Also, Prince Solaris freed, of all ponies, Eris, so you guys could try and reform her...still trying to wrap my head around the logic in that. And now Butterscotch is basically her parole officer?"

"She's not so bad now..." Butterscotch piped up. "Though her sense of humor is..." He promptly turned bright red.

"Well, 'humor' in that regard is a matter of opinion." Dusk Shine replied, muttering something about 'cola ice cream'.

"Right." Barb finished off her cake slice. "And the Elements are back on the Tree of Harmony."

"Yep." Dusk sighed. "Turns out the Tree was weakening and without it, some of Eris' old toys were running amok through Ponyville."

"If'n ya can call a bunch of trouble-makin' vines 'toys'" Applejack said, punching Blitz's hand for trying to steal his drink.

"And...Tirek..." the tone in Barb's voice left no mistake that she would've liked a piece of the centaur. "He steals everyone's magic, gets Eris to help him...and blows up our home."

"Yeah, Dusk wasn't a happy colt when that happened." Blitz shuddered. "He's scary when he's pissed!"

The newest Alicorn shrugged a little. "What Tirek pulled before that was bad enough."

Berry shifted a little in his seat, his voice getting squeaky. "I still pucker up remembering where he shoved Tirek's horn..."

"I could've gone the rest of my life NOT remembering that, Bartholomew." Elusive put the carrot he was holding back on the plate.

"Wait...Bart? But..." She looked at Berry.

"'Berry' Pie just sounds a lot better than 'Barry'. Makes it sound like I made myself into dessert!"

"Right." Barb replied. "Last, but not least...Star...?"

"Starlight Glimmer. The former leader of a town she talked into giving up their cutie marks."

"Give up their...?" Barb looked at Dusk incredulously. "Why would a pony do that!? And for that matter, how is 'giving up' a mark even possible??"

"At first she claimed it was a rod she'd discovered called the 'Staff of Sameness'." Dusk replied. "She said Cutie Marks only separated ponies and made 'blank flanks' feel inferior. Turns out she'd found a spell that let her put all the marks into a vault in a nearby cave."

"She was kind of a hypocrite too; talked everypony into it, but Butterscotch found out she'd kept hers, hiding it with makeup." Blitz added. "Dusk tried reasoning with her, but it didn't turn out so well."

Dusk downed his mug before continuing. "Ran into her again, but this time she intent on payback; mainly by using a scroll she'd found that let her time travel. She found out about Blitz's Rainboom having a hand in all of us getting our Cutie Marks, so decided that stopping him in the past was a good idea."

"Well, you're all still here, it didn't work." She replied.

"Actually, it did, multiple times. And each time it led to a future worse than the one before it; Umbra ruling the Crystal Empire and at war with Equestria, Chrysalid taking over in one, another with Flim and Flam bulldozing everything around them, an unchanged Eris, Tirek, and finally, a wasteland." He flicked a chocolate chip off his plate that Berry quickly snagged. "It was then that she finally showed just why she hated Cutie Marks. Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed."

"You see now why Cutie Marks need to be gotten rid of!?" Starlight demanded.

Dusk just looked at her, but underneath, he was seething. "That's...it? You tricked a town full of ponies, and now you want to ruin the lives of countless more...all because this Sunburst got his mark BEFORE YOU DID!?"

"You don't get it! That Cutie Mark is what broke us up in the-"

"BULLSHIT!" Dusk bellowed, getting in her face as he did. "YOU, Starlight Glimmer! YOU are the reason you two stopped being friends! You could gone up to him asked 'where does that put us?' But did you? No! You just sat there with wallowed in self-pity instead of mareing up and getting on with your life!" By this time, his horn and eyes were glowing from his magic.

"He abandoned me!" She yelled. "Going off to that fancy school, acting high and mighty..."

"Did you try writing a letter...CALLING him??"

Starlight faltered for a moment. "It..it doesn't matter! What about the abuse that's heaped on 'blank flanks'...!?

"There's no one doing that to you, Starlight." He cut her off, gesturing to the crying filly. "No pony calling you names, saying you're worthless, or anything. I mean....look!" He pointed to an older mare asking the filly what's wrong. "The ones who do are idiots, and assholes."

"I..I..." Starlight stammered.

"Did you at least try and make friends with the other kids?"

"They...they would've abandoned me the moment they got their marks, too!" She shot back, only for Dusk to sigh.

"At first, Starlight, I was really pissed off at you for doing all this for such a petty reason..."

"IT IS NOT PETTY!"

"Yes it is. I had originally thought you were taking marks for some ritual that'd let you have world-dominating power, but this? You took what you saw as your problem, and let it rule your life, then tried to force it on everypony else. So, yeah, it's petty...and kind spitefull, too. Like a little foal screaming 'if I can't have it, no one can'."

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, her eyes welling up. "You don't know what it feels like to lose a friend to those things!"

"Not personally, no." He replied, calming down a little himself. "But I know a pony who has. And experienced the abuse as well. Back home there are three young stallions; Apple Buck, Silver Bell, and Scooter. Before he met the other two. Apple Buck was friends with a colt named Twister. But, when Twister got his mark before Buck, the two did end up drifting apart. To this day, Buck admits they don't talk much due to Twister's work after he learned his talent."

"S-see?" She blurted out, trying her hardest not to cry. Key word, 'trying'. "That's what Cutie marks do..."

He cut her off. "Unlike you, though, Buck didn't let it eat at him. Instead of gnawing at it and try to blame everything on his not having one, he dealt with it like an adult and went on with his life. Not long after that, he met Scooter and Silver. Ever since then the three of them worked almost non-stop to figure out what they're good at. Even with a pair of bullies who heckled, hassled, even tried to humiliate them multiple times for not having their marks, they dusted themselves off - more often than not after giving those two their just desserts - and went back to figuring out what their marks were."

Starlight quickly wiped her eyes, an audible sob coming from her. It seemed to be sinking in for her as to how bad her plan was, but Dusk decided to make sure. "Look, I know losing a close friend sucks, but it's not the tragedy you're claiming it is. And all the results you've seen...Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, wiping every pony from Equestria, turning the whole place in a dead wasteland...is your revenge...your so-called 'justice'..." He gestured to the wasteland around them. "Is it really worth this?"

She shook her head. "N-no...it's not."

"Good. Now, I believe the first thing to do is get back to our own time. Then you, young filly, are going back to that town and apologizing to each and every pony there. After that, we're finding this Sunburst so you two can clear things up, understand?"

Starlight simply nodded. "I..I didn't really think this out, did I?"

"No you didn't."

"Well...one good thing came out of it, though." Her tone took a little more cheerful turn. "I proved I can hold my own against an alicorn."

Dusk tried not to smirk. "Actually, Gilm Glam, I was holding back to keep necessary collateral damage to a minimum." Before she could respond, Dusk was enveloped in a corona of magic, the force making her stumble back onto her butt. "If I had wanted to go all out..." His voice was distorted by the oscillating hum of arcane energy whirling around him. "You wouldn't be here anymore."

"Oh..." She pouted a little. "Horseapples..."

Dusk laughed a little. "Turns out Sunburst hadn't said anything to Starlight because HE was too embarrassed to tell her he was just a researcher instead of a powerful mage like he told her he'd become. Needless to say they both felt silly." He polished off his drink. "And now she's my student so she can actually learn about friendship."

"Speaking of Glimmer, where is she? I thought she'd be here." Butterscotch asked.

"Oh, she's grounded." Dusk replied. "I found out she and Trixie were goofing around and teleported the map table somewhere. They got it back, but it was off where it was supposed to be by a foot."

"Trixie...?" Barb looked up. "Dusk, isn't she the stage magician that got a weird ladyboner for you after you got the alicorn amulet away from her?"

"Well...I wouldn't quite say that." Dusk grinned nervously. "She just seemed a little enamored. A bit more than I'm comfortable with, though." He added under his breath.

If he'd been paying attention, he would've noticed Barb had heard him. And see the brief flash of animosity on her face.

Author's Note

Yeah..this one's not one of my better chapters...but the next should be better. no flashbacks at least.