Starlight, I'm Serious. Run. Fast. Now.
A violet, ambitious Unicorn found her vision of “equality” under grave threat.
In a village known as “Our Town”, Starlight Glimmer ruled it with an iron hoof. On the surface, she seemed like a rather friendly pony. Trustworthy even. However, she despised Cutie Marks, thought that some ponies’ special talents made lives unfair for others, and believed ponies would be better off without them and be the same. Equal. Even with the same opinions. To grant the ponies of Our Town “true friendship” through “equality”, Starlight took away their Cutie Marks and special talents with magic. She then replaced them with a “Cutie Mark” of an equal sign, making the ponies the “same”.
Unfortunately for Starlight, other ponies felt differently about her grand quest for equality. Namely Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and her five friends, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. They believed that a pony’s Cutie Mark and being different from every other pony was a good thing; something Starlight Glimmer would have none of. To teach the six friends the error of their ways, Starlight stole their Cutie Marks and attempted to “help” them see things her way.
Yeah, yeah, this is about to put me to sleep too. You know what? We have all seen the show and know all that happened, right? So, before you yawn again and go read something else, let us skip to the part where things start changing from “canon”, shall we?
All right. Everypony got their Cutie Marks back. We're in the partly snow-covered mountains near “Our Town” where Starlight Glimmer fled to, after her Cutie Mark was exposed by Fluttershy. Starlight found herself cornered by Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and the villagers of Our Town. Twilight’s standing the closest to the snow patch Starlight’s standing on; about the length of a pony away from it. Starlight’s scowling and behind her is a cave, which entrance is mostly blocked by snow, and only the top of its entrance was visible. Oh, and the air's chilly, with them being in the mountains and all, but nopony's bothered by it.
With Starlight’s gaze focused on Twilight, Starlight sarcastically asked, “Let me guess, Princess Twilight: I’m going to be lectured with some lame friendship speech, am I?”
But instead of delivering a friendship speech as she would normally be inclined to do, Twilight shook her head with a frown. “Actually, no. I want to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Do you remember when I tried to give you a friendship speech a while ago?”
“What...wait, you mean the one you were about to bore me with, before I yelled at you to be quiet?”
“Yes.”
Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity, even though they stood behind Twilight and couldn’t see her face, knew what was coming and gasped.
Rainbow said, “Now that Twilight has her Cutie Mark back, you’re in for it, Starlight!”
”I feel bad for you,” Fluttershy admitted.
“What are you talking about?” Starlight asked in an annoyed voice.
“You never, ever, ever, ever interrupt Twilight’s friendship speeches!” Pinkie explained.
Rarity warned, “So get out of here, Starlight! Or else!”
Despite the warnings, Starlight only rolled her eyes. “Oh, what is she going to do? Annoy me with one about how friends don’t--”
“Starlight Glimmer? You know, I work really hard to think up friendship speeches for anything,” Twilight admitted in a deep voice.
“So what?” Starlight huffed. “I worked hard to learn how to steal Cutie Marks and founded ‘Our Town’, but you don’t see me complaining.”
In a more ominous voice, Twilight asked, “But did you practice that spell for five hours a day, every day, like I did with my friendship speeches?”
“Well, no, I didn’t practice the Cutie Mark stealing spell that much, but--”
“How about in your dreams?”
“What?”
Twilight glared directly into Starlight’s persian eyes. The piercing stares in Twilight’s violet eyes screamed anger that was increasing with every second. If Twilight had hands, they would have been clenched. “Did you learn a spell so you could practice it, or how to take over your village in your dreams, like I did for my speeches?”
“I-I never practiced it in my dreams, but--” Starlight replied in a less defiant voice than before.
But Applejack, in a voice showing surprising concern for the pony that took her Cutie Mark against her will, advised, “Starlight, I’m serious. Run. Fast. Now.”
However, Starlight merely laughed at Applejack’s warning. “Oh, please! Do you think I’m scared of Twilight Sparkle? Miss Princess of Friendship herself? What could she do to--”
A small magenta beam of magic struck Starlight, below her neck, and she grunted in pain and stumbled backward. It didn’t injure Starlight, but it still stung. The ponies watching on gasped at Twilight’s unexpected offense. Save for Twilight’s friends.
With her horn glowing and teeth gritted, Twilight threateningly answered, “I can do that.”
Instead of backing down, Starlight gritted her own teeth while growling, and her horn glowed turquoise. “Oh, you want a fight, Princess Twilight? I’m game.” With a grunt, Starlight fired a large turquoise beam of magic with her full power.
Twilight didn’t form a magical barrier to protect herself. Right before Starlight’s beam hit Twilight, she flicked her head up as her glowing horn knocked the magic harmlessly into the air with shocking ease.
While she watched her beam of magic streak through the blue sky like a meteor, Starlight’s mouth dropped halfway to the ground. She wouldn’t have claimed to be the strongest pony in Equestria, but she was nonetheless aghast about her full-powered attack being deflected so easily by anypony, Alicorn or not. Starlight lowered her head to Twilight, who wore a serious frown, and Starlight wasn’t even aware that she was backing away from the unexpectedly dominant pony. It was like Starlight’s hooves took over her brain’s job.
However, Starlight’s brain would reclaim its job. While shaking her head in disbelief, Starlight said, “But...that’s impossible. I heard stories about you and your magic, but they never said that you were this strong!”
Rainbow shook her head. “We tried to warn you, Starlight.”
“Yeah. Twilight hates showing her full power because she worries we might think she’s ‘showing off’,” Pinkie explained.
“So I bet that most of those stories are with Twilight holding at least half her power back,” Rarity added.
Starlight gasped, her eyes grew in size, and she exclaimed, “What?! Half her power?!”
This news, in addition to the intimidating stare on Twilight's face, sent shivers down Starlight’s spine. She knew Twilight was powerful, but learning that her full power was at best half of Twilight’s pushed Starlight to the verge of shaking.
Before the shaking could start, Starlight remembered something important. Without her Cutie Mark, Twilight would lose her ability to cast spells and become powerless. This realization let Starlight regain her previous bravado, and her smug smile returned. “Whatever! I can just take Twilight’s Cutie Mark again, so she won’t be able to use her spells.”
Starlight would not get a chance to steal Twilight’s Cutie Mark a second time. Twilight’s horn glowed with a more intense magenta light than before, and fired a narrow beam at Starlight’s horn. Starlight screamed out of instinct, though the impact was painless, and she only felt a tingly feeling as a magenta ring formed around the middle of her horn. Starlight focused her willpower to cast a spell, any spell. Yet, the only thing that happened was that the ring on her horn glowed brighter, then dimmed.
“W...what’s going on?” Starlight asked in a timider voice tone than her previous one. “Why can’t I use my magic?!”
“What I put on your horn is a ‘magic inhibitor’ ring.”
“Wait, you can make something like that, Twilight?” Pinkie asked.
“And for how long?!” Rainbow questioned.
Not turning her head away from Starlight, Twilight explained, “First, Pinkie, yes, I can. And second, Rainbow, I mastered the spell to create one after becoming an Alicorn. I hoped that I would never have to use the spell and promised myself to never cast it, unless somepony does something incredibly wrong. Such as interrupt one of my friendship speeches.”
Unsure of what to say, with a voice full of uncertainty, Starlight stuttered, “W-What a-are y-you--”
To cut Starlight off, Twilight raised her hoof. “Let me stop you right there, Starlight. I’m going to tell you some things you can do.”
Puzzled by Twilight’s unexpected words, Starlight hesitantly nodded her head. “O-Okay?”
Feeling that the situation could potentially get out of hoof, in a gentle voice, Fluttershy said, “Um...Twilight? I think that you should...”
But Twilight paid Fluttershy’s words no mind. With fire in her eyes, Twilight returned her hoof to the ground and crept toward Starlight, with Starlight retreating at the same speed with a fearful frown.
“You can pick on me. You can ponynap my mentor. You can corrupt my mind.”
Hoping it might calm down Twilight, Starlight lay in the snow in submission. “Okay, Princess Twilight, I get it and I’m sorry!”
But the act of submission failed to calm Twilight in the slightest. Twilight continued creeping closer until she towered over Starlight, with her hooves in the snow patch Starlight lay in. “You can trick my older brother and friends. You can try to take over the Crystal Empire.”
Looking up to the scowling Twilight, Starlight begged, “Please, I--”
“Starlight Glimmer, you be quiet. You can make the Everfree Forest go out-of-control.”
One of the villagers, Double Diamond, a white Earth Pony, interjected, “Um, Princess Twilight? Since we have our Cutie Marks again, we will be more than willing to forgive Star--”
Twilight spun around to glare at Double Diamond and yelled, “I’m not finished! And this is about more than Cutie Marks!”
The shout forced a yelp from Diamond and he jumped backward. “O-Okay, Princess Twilight.”
Knowing she would not be interrupted again, Twilight returned her gaze to Starlight. However, Starlight was no longer lying in front of her.
Raising her head to look straight ahead, Twilight shook her head and muttered, “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” at Starlight, who was squeezing her body headfirst into the cave behind her that was still mostly blocked by snow. She was halfway in. If stallions and certain males from other worlds could have seen Twilight’s current view of Starlight, they would have made wolf whistles.
But Starlight wouldn’t make it completely inside. Twilight grabbed and pulled Starlight with her magical telekinesis back to the same spot and position she had lain a moment before.
“Now, as I was saying, Starlight, you can steal all the magic in Equestria. You can blow up my home and books. You can even take my Cutie Mark and what makes me special from every other pony. But, Starlight Glimmer, let me make one. Thing. Clear. Nopony. And I mean nopony, interrupts my friendship speeches.”
With no magic and aware that escape was impossible, for the first time in years, Starlight Glimmer was helpless. Staring up into the irate eyes of Twilight, Starlight couldn’t resist shaking. She had more things to worry about than her mission for Equality coming to a screeching halt. She heard stories of Princess Twilight Sparkle as a very friendly, kind-hearted pony that would never harm a hair on anypony because of anger alone. Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, so this is fitting.
Yet, the scowling, teeth-gritting Twilight, that Starlight saw bearing down on her, felt like an entirely different pony than the Twilight in the stories. Nopony tried to intervene again and save Starlight, and only watched in silence.
In a soft voice full of fear, Starlight pleaded, “P-Please, Princess Twilight, I beg you, don’t hurt me. I’m really just a scared heartbroken pony that lost a fri--”
“QUIET!! Now, I have plans for you, Starlight Glimmer.”
With her mouth quivering, Starlight asked, “What...what are you going to do to me?”
In a type of voice tone not showing anger, but used for lecturing, Twilight answered, “For your punishment for interrupting my friendship speech, I’m going to give you ‘The Treatment’ for two months.”
Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Rarity gasped deeply. They knew the harshness of “The Treatment”.
“No, Twilight! Not ‘The Treatment’!” Applejack pleaded.
“Yeah, she doesn’t deserve that!” Rainbow shouted. “Sure, Starlight stole the villagers’ and our Cutie Marks, but at least she thought she was helping us!”
“Yes, she’s not evil, but just misguided, and we can reform her!” Fluttershy explained.
“And not even Tirek and Sombra showed to be evil enough to receive ‘The Treatment’ as a punishment!” Rarity reminded.
Twilight was not in the mood to listen. With her eyes still locked on Starlight, Twilight explained, “I’m not punishing Starlight because she took some Cutie Marks. I’m punishing her because. She. Interrupted. My. Friendship speech!”
Out of nowhere, Discord, the Lord of Chaos, teleported beside Twilight. He wore a type of frown that he only showed when heavily concerned about something. Which was usually about Fluttershy. “Twilight Sparkle, what is wrong with you?! As much as I enjoy watching ponies squirm, you giving this pony ‘The Treatment’ is going too far!”
Pinkie pointed a hoof at Discord. “See? Even Discord thinks it’s too much!”
“I don--wait.” Twilight stopped scowling at Starlight. With a confused frown, she turned her head to Discord. “Hold on, Discord? What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been watching the whole time just in case you blew it” -- Discord materialized a lavender balloon that blew up in a quiet pop -- “and I’d have to come in to save you all or at least Fluttershy. But enough about me: don’t you dare give Starlight ‘The Treatment’! You’re too good a pony to give that kind of cruelty!”
As Twilight and Discord argued, Twilight’s friends whispered to each other. After they decided on whatever they discussed, Rarity, with her magic, pulled Starlight to her, while keeping her out of Twilight's line of sight, and whispered, “Psst, Starlight.”
“Yeah?” Starlight replied in just as quiet a whisper.
“Listen. When Twilight and Discord stop arguing, Pinkie Pie will make a distraction to buy you some time. When she does, get into that cave that you tried to squeeze into earlier, and get as far away from Twilight as possible. Got it?”
Not willing to let Starlight attempt an escape, Twilight turned to where Rarity and Starlight stood and shouted, “I heard that! And if you try to get away, Starlight, I will catch you, and then you would get 'The Works’!”
Rainbow begged, “No, Twilight! Don’t even threaten to do that to her!” Rainbow looked to Starlight. “Okay, Starlight, forget trying to escape because ‘The Works’ is too extreme to risk it happening to you.”
Understanding there was no way out, Starlight sighed and said, “Okay, you win, Princess Twilight. But if I am going to receive this ‘Treatment’, can somepony at least tell me what it is?”
Applejack, not wanting the villagers to know what “The Treatment” was -- and would have lied before explaining “The Works” to them -- whispered in Starlight’s ear what she was in for. Once Starlight learned what would happen to her, she gasped loudly and a frown full of terror appeared on her lips. Her eyes widened to twice their normal size. She stared at Twilight as if she were an unhinged bloodthirsty psychopath, not the benevolent Princess of Friendship.
“No...no...please, not that! Banish me to the Moon, or even the Sun! Turn me to stone! But please, please, please don’t do that to me, Princess Twilight! You’re supposed to be the Princess of Friendship! How could you be so sadi--”
Twilight interrupted, “You know what they say: don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. If it were something more minor that you did, such as travel back in time, create a butterfly effect that destroyed Equestria, and fix the damage by giving up, I would let you off easy. You would have only needed to regret what you did and learn friendship as my student. Now, let’s go.”
Starlight considered screaming for help, but feared it could anger Twilight into giving her “The Works” that Rainbow warned was too extreme to risk it happening, so Starlight stayed quiet. Twilight’s friends wanted to try to talk Twilight out of Starlight’s harsh punishment. However, they knew it would be pointless. With the villagers still with them, the six friends -- which included Discord -- remained silent, and watched Twilight trot, while levitating a powerless Starlight behind her, down the mountain paths.
In a calmer voice that was more like her usual friendly voice tone, but not turning to face Starlight, Twilight said, “Okay, Starlight, once we’re in Ponyville, before we go to my castle, we’ll stop by a store that sells ‘hoof cuffs’ and buy some. And I'll get some paper and quills, so I can write a checklist for everything I will need to give you “The Treatment” correctly. If I don’t, it could be even more painful for you.”
“Can we at least take the scenic route?”
“Sure,” Twilight answered with a surprisingly cheerful smile, “and you can use the extra time to think about your punishment.”
“Uh...on second thought, can we not take the scenic route?”
“Nope, we are taking the scenic route and you will like it. And let’s get something out to eat. What would you want?”
“Well...how about some hay sandwiches?”
“That sounds good, so we’ll get some hay sandwiches. Don’t worry about paying, because it’s my treat." Twilight's smile turned into a puzzled frown. While still trotting, she turned her head around to Starlight. "Oh, and ‘Our Town’? You couldn’t think of anything better?”
“It was a working title.”
Every day over the next two months, Princess Twilight Sparkle would tie up Starlight Glimmer deep inside her castle with hoof cuffs. Then, she proceeded to give Starlight “The Treatment”. Starlight’s screams full of anguish that begged for mercy were heard by nopony but Twilight, thanks to a spell that muffled the voices of anything inside the room they were in. Therefore, nopony knew of the true amount of torture the still-powerless Unicorn suffered.
Until she completed her sentence, Starlight wasn’t allowed to leave the castle and potentially flee, despite the risk of receiving “The Works” for one year if she tried to escape Twilight. However, Twilight wasn’t heartless. She granted Starlight a comfortable bedroom to stay in when she wasn’t getting “The Treatment” and was allowed to walk through the castle. That is, when Starlight wasn’t in a fetal position after ‘The Treatment”.
After Starlight's two months of Tartarus were over, after removing the magic inhibitor ring around Starlight's horn, Twilight made Starlight her student. Starlight would go on to learn friendship, but was never the same again. Both because she was a reformed pony and because of the lingering emotional effects of "The Treatment".
What was “The Treatment” that Twilight Sparkle forced Starlight Glimmer to endure? I bet you are thinking it was something like “listening to Twilight’s friendship speeches for four hours straight” right?
Wrong.
It was listening to Twilight’s friendship speeches for five hours straight.
And what is “The Works” you might wonder? You will be better off never learning of its horrors.
Author's Note
Poor Starlight. All she did was take ponies' Cutie Marks. At least "The treatment" will toughen her up, so Queen Chrysalis won't know what she's in for if Starlight still has to save everypony's flanks later!
But seriously, I really don't think the canon Twilight is twice as powerful than the canon Starlight, but I needed to power up the Twilight in this story so she could own Starlight.
