"Listen up, everypony." Twilight called out, attracting the attention of the townsfolk. "Today marks a very special day in your lives. You're going to have to learn to live very differently. Rather than pretending that you're all perfectly equal, you're going to instead respect each other's specialities and talents, as well as your own. You can choose your friends, rather than have them being chosen for you. Your leader, Starlight, she... well, she has seen the error of her ways, and-"

A voice called out from the crowd. It was sugar-belle. "Does that mean I get to make pies?"

Twilight was taken by surprise, and nodded, trying to hide her cute little smirk. "Yes, yes it does. Now, as I was saying-"

Another pony called out from the crowd, one who would later be known as Party Favour. "Wait, so I can do lots of fun party stuff, instead of like, boring stuff all the time?"

"Yes." Twilight answered again patiently. "And that goes the same for everypony else. You don't need to pretend to do something you aren't good at anymore. You can start being yourselves. I'm sure it will take a while, but, you'l get used to it eventually. And please, go easy on your friend Starlight. I think she's had quite a nasty self-evaluation of herself, so she needs a while to re-cooperate properly. I think she might be a little unstable for a while, so try to be nice and understanding."

As she finished speaking, all the towns-ponies gasped. It sounded as if there were magical flying fireworks flying through the air. Flying, glowing cutie marks were flying through the air, and landed on the town-ponies' flanks, replacing their equal-signs that they had been cursed with prior. They all floated a few feet off the ground while shining brightly, retaining their previous, beautiful colours, before falling back to the ground looking much more different and vibrant than before.

"I think she went to break the cutie mark vault to restore everypony's cutie mark." Said Fluttershy, who had been standing there silently in the corner this whole time. "She really does seem sorry. It's so weird, too. I saw her smiling and chuckling in a really evil way last night, she hid our cutie marks in her home! I think they're still in there, actually... She's acting so different now. I hope she gets better."

"Speaking of our cutie marks," Twilight interjected, "it's time to get our cutie marks back!" Twilight said, beginning to march towards Starlight's home. "Come on, girls."

They entered her home, and found their cutie marks trapped in their jars, packed neatly on the table in the bedroom. They both took their cutie marks and opened the jars, letting their respective cutie mark fly and re-attach itself onto their flanks, making them sigh with relief. Rainbow Dash did a loop-de-loop in the air, glad that she could get flying again.

"This is great!" Rainbow yelled, "Look at me go, woo!" She then fluttered down to the floorboards next to her friends. "Can we go already? I'm sick of this place."

They turned to leave, but found Starlight staring at them in the doorway. They gasped, Fluttershy and Rarity falling over backwards in surprise. "This wasn't some kind of trap, was it?" Rainbow called out. But then they looked at Starlight's face, and realized she wasn't being a threat at all.

Starlight was panting in the doorway of her bedroom, out of breath, having to lean on the door for support. She had just arrived after freeing the cutie marks from the vault nearby. Her eyes were red from crying with disbelief, her mane was visibly and painfully torn apart. Apparently, on her way there, she had tried to pull her own hair out to make it appear less than the thick, neat mane-style that it did before, with some of the stray hairs sticking out and covering her left eye from a very ugly mid-parting. She began to stutter in between heavy breaths. "Please... don't... leave... me..."

The mane six exchanged horrified looks at each other, as if egging each other to say something nice. Finally, Twilight took a confident step forward, and spoke reassuringly. "Starlight, I don't exactly know what you saw in your dreams, but after your acts of selflessness today, I think it's safe to say that you have truly changed. I don't mind becoming your friend. Besides, I was going to offer you that all along." She looked around, making sure the others were on the same page, nudging some of them to nod in agreement. "In fact," Twilight continued, "As the princess of friendship, I hereby invite you to come back with us to our castle in Ponyville. Maybe you could tell us more about these adventures you've dreamed of, they sound quite interesting. After all, I see no reason why we shouldn't make the good ones a reality." Twilight winked, and continued. "It will also help you calm down and take some time off from the village, too. Which by the way, I'm sure it can take care of itself after some friendly advice from us to help them get started."

Starlight Glimmer wobbled her lip, shaking in place. This was a lot to take in for her. She felt a rush of emotion from Twilight’s accepting speech, but she couldn’t express it properly. She simply froze in place, breathing rapidly.

"Come on everypony!" Pinkie Pie chimed in with her usual smiles, especially thanks to her cutie mark being returned, "I know a pony that needs a hug when I see one, and this pony needs a BIG hug!" She jumped towards the distraught purple-haired unicorn, giving her a big hug around her neck. The others smiled, joining in, surrounding Starlight Glimmer in a big, warm hug.

That was exactly what Starlight needed. If she had any tears left, they now came out as tears of joy, and her sadness quickly turned into excitement for the new future that lay ahead of her.

This was her second chance, and she was determined not to make the same mistakes again.

Author's Note

I guess this is where it ends. I don't think this is a new idea, but I thought it was a cute AU to think and write about. This was pretty rushed though, but I don't know what else to write about.
If people do end up liking this garbage, I'll consider making a continuation about the Mane Six trying to cheer up Starlight by re-creating the good times they had in her dreams.