(Mountain Top overlooking Our Town)

After about a day of travel by train, the duo managed to get to a practically abandoned train stop and hiked up a mountain to survey their destination at a distance. Spike had packed a few additional tools for their use, a pair of binoculars being one of them. Ruby was confused about its use until she accidentally looked through them and saw Garnet’s face up close.

Currently, as they stood/hid on the mountain top, swapping the binoculars between themselves and observed the town as it was waking up. “This is just scary, in a not so scary way.” Garnet said as she handed Ruby the binoculars.

“I don’t entirely understand.” Ruby said as she looked down through the binoculars. “What gives you that thought?”

“Take a look at their flanks.” Garnet responded. Ruby lowered the binoculars and gave her a weird look. “Not like that! Their Cutie Marks! Look at their Cutie Marks!”

Ruby looked and saw that all the gathered ponies had Equal Signs as Cutie Marks. “That’s...somewhat worrying. Can’t really take family into consideration. Even the Apples have different Cutie Marks with a singular theme. Nothing like this though.” She said, handing the binoculars back to Garnet.

“Yeah. Something is going on to cause this and-” Garnet paused as she saw the townsfolk surround a door and a unicorn pony stepped out from the crowd and opened the door, revealing Twilight and her friends and they had the same cutie marks and most of them looked unhappy about it. “And I can see why Twilight was a few days late. She and her friends had been forced into this condition.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked, looking over her sister’s shoulder in an attempt to see what she was seeing.

“Quiet! I’m trying to read their lips.” Garnet said, waving Ruby away. “Okay...the unicorn that opened the door is apparently the town’s leader...she seems to be saying something to the group and most are rejecting something about it.”

“Most?”

“Fluttershy seems to be accepting it, but I’m not going to judge her until we know why.” Garnet said. “And one of the villagers seems to be groveling to the leader over some minor wrong of some kind...and now he and the group are locked up.”

“Sounds too much like some sort of dictator problem.” Ruby commented.

“Yeah, but it’s best to get some intel by being closer...and maybe questioning one of the villagers or the group if we circle around town to a window.” Garnet said.

“Why around and not through?” Ruby asked, sounding somewhat insulted.

“Because you stand out like a sore thumb...or would it be sore hoof for the ponies?” Garnet answered. “Besides, it’s better safe than sorry.”

“Understood. I’ll circle around to them, you follow Fluttershy and see what she’s up to.” Ruby said. Garnet nodded and began to make her way to the town.

(Later that night)

“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy quietly said to herself as she hurried to the back window of the ‘Equalization House’. Just before she arrived, she saw something dark moving and she gasped a bit too loudly. The neighboring window opened and she froze. Just as the pony inside peeked his head out to investigate the noise, Fluttershy was grabbed and a hand placed over her mouth.

“Shhh…” Her captor said, hiding both of themselves in the building’s shadow. The pony looked around briefly before pulling back inside, mumbling something about ‘stupid coyotes’. When he was gone, the hands let her go and she got a good look at the one who saved her.

“Garnet?” She asked, her face showing bewilderment, relief and joy. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t party without me.” Ruby said behind her, causing Fluttershy to almost gasp, but she covered her mouth before she made a noise.

“Ruby?” Fluttershy asked after calming down. “What are you both doing here?”

“Spike sent us when you girls were taking too long.” Ruby answered. “Now, I’m not sure why you’re out and your friends aren’t, but we should save that for the whole group reunion and note sharing.”

“Oh! Right!” Fluttershy quietly exclaimed, rushing to the window as fast as she could. She began to share was she saw concerning Starlight Glimmer, both filling in the Argonians in on what happened and gave the startings of a plan for the group to use to both escape and unveil the falseness of Starlight’s philosophy and methods to enforce such.

(The Next Morning)

“Then how do you explain this?!” Fluttershy ‘shouted’ as she attempted to throw a bucket of water onto Starlight Glimmer. Starlight managed to dodge most of the water, but a few droplets hit her fake Cutie Marks, catching the attention of most of the townsfolk. One of the ponies managed to get a rag to her to wipe off the smudge and revealing her true mark in the process.

The ponies started encouraging her to use a certain ‘Staff of Sameness’ to remove her mark, only for Garnet, in her netch leather armor, to reveal herself, holding said staff in her hands while standing on a building’s roof. “It won’t work.” She said, catching the attention of the townsfolk and Starlight especially. “This ‘Staff of Sameness’ is just a piece of wood.” She dropped the staff off the roof to prove her point. “I’ll admit though, she either was loaded with bits or she was very lucky. That was mahogany. Very sturdy, and very expensive...mahogany…”

“And that is why my magic is what makes this whole thing possible!” Starlight began berating the townsfolk. “I brought you all Friendship. I created Harmony!”

“You lied to us!” One of the ponies shot back. “Either all of us are equal or none of us are.”

This ticked off Starlight and she instantly shut Twilight up when she tried to teach her something about Friendship. She shifted her attention to Fluttershy with eyes that practically screamed ‘bloody murder’. “You did this...YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!” She then fired an orb of turquoise magic at her, bent on ruining the Friendship of the group by killing.

However, she didn’t expect Ruby, in her ebony armor, to jump out from behind a house and stood between Fluttershy and the spell. The Spell bounced off her armor and started flying towards the crowd. Garnet thought just as fast and threw her Soul Dagger at the spell, intercepting it and absorbing the spell into itself. Everyone froze at the sudden and unexpected series of events, not bothering to move while Garnet retrieved her blade and examined it.

Starlight slowly began creeping away from the crowd, hoping to get away without being seen. “Halt!” She stopped, turned, and saw a crossbow aimed at her. “I’m not expert on Equestrian law, but even I can say that most forms of Necromancy and all forms of murder are illegal.” Garnet said, her look at Starlight showed a restrained form of rage.

“Necromancy! I never raised any dead!” Starlight objected.

“I never said you did.” Garnet responded. “To explain your charges, first off, Necromancy isn’t restricted to raising the dead. It also includes soul magic, which from what I could tell from examining my Soul Dagger, you’ve used enough of it to taint your magic. The only way that could have happened is if you used a lot of it.”

“And if I’m following my sister properly, the spell or magic you used to remove all of these Cutie Marks is a form of soul magic.” Ruby thought out loud.

“And that means she not only removed Cutie Marks, but she potentially fragmented all of our souls.” Twilight said.

“What! No! I’m only removing Cutie Marks! They’re the Evil of our Society!” Starlight objected again. “I’m saving them from the pain I went through!” She suddenly clamped her hoof over her mouth in shock.

“What pain?” Garnet asked. Before anyone could inquire further or even think on what Starlight said, she fired a magic blast at Garnet’s crossbow, knocking it from her hands and causing it to fire. Starlight began to flee to her private cottage as the crossbow bolt ricocheted all over the town, causing everyone, except Ruby and Garnet, to either jump behind cover of some kind or to just ‘flatten’ themselves onto the ground.

However, Ruby and Garnet’s confidence in their armor was misplaced in this one case. Their armor and equipment placed them several leagues above many soldiers and bandits back in Tamriel and probably in Equestria as well. Due to that, they were never prepared to deal with the ‘firepower’ they themselves used. Case in point, the ricocheting crossbow bolt eventually nailed Garnet in the shoulder, knocking and sticking her to the wall of a building.

Starlight was already in her house and out of sight when Garnet was hit, but when she was, Ruby could only see red as she looked at the building. With a scrape of her feet and visible steam blowing out of her nose, she charged the house. As soon as she crashed through it, the building collapsed and a few motes of light escaped the rubble, restoring Twilight and her friends to their regular selves. Ruby then dug herself out of the rubble and immediately ran to Garnet, activating healing spells and worked on keeping her stable.

“Where’s Starlight?” Rainbow asked, pounding her hooves together, hoping for a fight.

“She more than likely got away, which for now is for the best.” She answered.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked. “That meanie should be taught to not be such a meanie!”

“Pinkie! Rainbow!” Applejack admonished. “Think of this from her perspective. Her sister was just hit with a powerful crossbow bolt. If she went after Starlight, Garnet could have bled out.”

“Then why don’t we?” Rainbow asked in frustration. “I’m sure I could catch her...If I knew where she went…..And I now see why we aren’t going after her.”

“Exactly.” Applejack confirmed. “We don’t know where she went.”

“Besides, we have plenty to do here.” Rarity added. “Getting the cutie marks of these ponies back to them should be a top priority.”

“Agreed.” Twilight said, as she watched Ruby working on healing her sister.

“Go on without us.” Ruby said. “I want to be alone with my sister.” Twilight, her friends, and the townsfolk left for the Cutie Vault. “Garnet, I’m sorry. I should have taken that.”

“No need to be.” Garnet muttered, loud enough for Ruby to hear. “We both didn’t know that would happen, so the best we can do moving forward is reinforce our armor.” Ruby then hugged her sister as gently as possible, a few tears falling from their eyes.

Author's Note

If this chapter seems...meh, or ick, or whatever...tell me in the comment section, but do so in a positive/constructive way. Negative/nonconstructive comments will be deleted.