Years Thereafter

The cave's mouth exposes the outside light to the mane 6, each covering their eyes to some degree as they leave the dark and damp hideout. Sunset merely squints as she exits the cave. After all, in her time in the other world, light had been nearly everpresent for her, namely due to streetlights and car headlights. 'Light pollution made my eyes suck in the dark. Ugh.' Sunset thinks to herself, letting out a sigh in her head. The other ponies were talking to one another, trying to figure out plans and work out what they were going to do now that Twilight wasn't here to lead them. Although Sunset already figured that Applejack would take the lead, she decided not to take part in the conversation as much as she wished she could.

It just felt awkward, like what could she say? 'Hey, I know another you from another world! You can trust me to lead the way!' Yeah right. Although she did have to admit, she made for a decent leader for the girls back in the mirror world, even if Twilight did fill that role whenever Sunset couldn't.

"Huh. I wonder if Applejack would be the third in the lineup in my world. I feel like Rarity is a bit more down-to-earth there. Or even Rainbow Dash..." She taps her chin gently as she mumbles this aloud, unaware of the vocalization of her thoughts.

"Whatcha talkin about Sunnnnset?" Pinkie says as she slides over. "I think Applejack is wayyyyyyy more down to earth than the other two and a bit more handy, too." She says with a giggle, causing Sunset to stare.

"You know, I forgot to ask, are you my Pinkie Pie or Equestria's Pinkie Pie? Twilight told me that you two swap all the time at this point." She says with a flat yet somehow questioning stare.

"Mmmm not telling! That'd ruin the fun!" Pinkie says with a little giggle before bouncing ahead. Before anyone else could register what the pair were talking about, a white male pony approached them with a strange, unsettling smile. "Well, hello there, everypony! I'm so thrilled to see you! Welcome to this lovely little city! What brings you so far out here, away from civilization?"

The general invasion of personal space slightly takes Sunset aback as the white-colored pony presses directly into her face, causing her to recoil in surprise. "I see you are all quite weary! Please come into the city proper! We can provide you with a bed and some muffins to eat!" He says happily, turning around and marching into the city, his coat a surprising luster compared to the other ponies around the city.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Administrator Six, although you can call me Six for short! Pretty much everyone in my sector calls me that!" Six says with a happy little walk and pep in his step, smiling back at the group. "Let's walk and talk! Tell me about yourselves!"

The group looks at each other but follows nonetheless. Sunset and Pinkie stay at the back of the group, observing the area around them as the rest of the group chats with Six. Pinkie is the first to break the silence between the two as they pass by drab houses, smiling, uniform ponies with intensely de-saturated coats. Their smiles look incredibly fake, and their eyes are dull and hopeless, with little to no color visible in even the buildings until they enter further into the city.

"This place gives me the heebee jeebies. It almost makes me wanna do a long-winded exposition." Pinkie Pie shudders a little bit before continuing her whisper. "Ponies don't just... Smile like that." She tells Sunset before the pair speeds up to a trot, trying to keep pace with the rest of the group and not fall behind.

Sunset nods a little. "It reminds me of a boarding school, just on a city-sized level. I don't trust this place. It reminds me too much of another place in my world. At least we figured out why the map sent us here, considering how much of a mess this place is."

"So how did this town come to be, Mr. Six?" Rarity asks curiously, cringing internally at all the drab colors and lack of fashion. "And... I assume the colorless theme is a choice?"

Six waves to one of his residents as he passes by before turning to respond to Rarity as they walk. "Oh, of course! Firstly, it's just Six! Mr. Six was my predecessor. Dunno what happened to him! Ahahaha!" He laughs a little with a fake, exaggerated chuckle. "But in all seriousness, the drab colors are to remind everyone of the sacrifices they have made for TRUE equality. The color you see as we get closer to the city center represents the responsibilities you must uphold as you become of higher status! Equality is only true when there is a little inequality in the mix!" He says with a nod. "Still, it's amazing that the friends of Princess Twilight came to visit! Our leader is going to be so excited to meet you all! Shame the Princess didn't come."

Rarity presses in front of Applejack and continues to speak. "Yes, she got a little ill, so she stayed behind. I'm sure when she feels better, she'll join us here." She says with a smile that a merchant knows how to withhold the truth when needed. How is the fashion in the inner city compared to the outskirts, then?"

Six laughs a little before looking about and whispering, "Oh, we have your standard affairs, colors of all types, and professional artisans who came to the city! I do so very much hope you enjoy your stay here." He says with a smile as they arrive at a large checkpoint. "Now, you may all explore District Six at your leisure. Please meet me here in exactly twenty-two minutes! I must tell our leader about your arrival!" He says happily before he trots into the city proper. As the large gates open, there is a small glimpse of an appropriate, high-functioning city. With colors, glamour, and beauty abound, the monochrome gates shut, locking the group out.

"I don't like it here," Sunset says as the six ponies sit at an empty table outside a muffin shop they aptly named Muffin Shop #12. Sunset orders the group a batch of muffins and some water, and the rest of the group sits down to trade mental notes.

Pinkie Pie leans forward as she stares at one of the generic, grey, and rock-hard muffins, giving it a nibble and gagging a bit. "You're telling me. Even the muffins taste like nothingness and sadness. I didn't even know sadness was a FLAVOR." She then looks at the muffin and nibbles on it more. "Could go good with spicy food, though." She mumbles a bit after a moment, getting distracted.

Fluttershy looks around quietly and sighs. "A few years ago, this would have looked like paradise. Everypony seems happy and content with what they have. But..." She looks towards the various ponies marching down the streets to an invisible cadence. "It's just kinda creepy... No offense." She says to the baker who was arriving to give them their waters.

"Oh. No problem! It's always hard for visitors, but don't worry! Every pony deserves a chance to change their minds about equality!" She says happily.

Rainbow Dash and Sunset raise an eyebrow simultaneously. Rainbow asks, "How does this... Equality even happen anyways? I've never seen a town FULL of ponies with the same cutie mark. Similar ones? Sure, maybe."

Sunset adds, "It's possible for someone to MAYBE be born with twin cutie marks with someone else, but a town full of exactly the same marks is impossible."

"Oh! Admin Six didn't tell you? When you join our tow- I mean city- you go through a beautiful ritual where our leader removes your cutie mark! Then, you can share true equality with everyone else! Of course, if you're too important for your mark to be removed, you go through a separate ritual. Although I've never seen it! Even though I've been here since the beginning." She sighed, "Lost my old bakery because I wasn't worthy, but still! Smiles! Smiles all around! I'm proud that my mark is still in the original vault! Rather than in the metal one in the city center," She says with a peppy bounce.

Sunset raises an eyebrow. "A spell like that would take a ton of magic or a relic. I don't know of any relic that can remove a cutie mark like that." Sunset shakes her head, mentally running through every relic she studied. "The leader of the town must be... quite the pony."

The pony nods proudly, puffing her chest out a little in response. "She is. Starlight was and is quite the unicorn. I can't say much more than that! She is likely going to meet you herself anyway! I can say that she was the pony that taught everyone here the true meaning of friendship and equality." The pony then nods at the group, sighing quietly to herself. "Enjoy your stay~!" She heads inside, leaving the group to 'enjoy' their meal, propaganda playing endlessly through speakers sprinkled around the city.

"True meaning of friendship?" Sunset mumbles a little as she stares at the large, dreary city surrounding them. "They have skyscrapers, apartment blocks, and roads, but nothing feels alive here. It just feels. Fake." She then taps her chin in thought. If her hunch is correct, there must be some resistance. 'But worse than that, we're in serious danger here.'

Sunset then finally notices the rest of the group staring at her curiously. Rainbow Dash tilted her head. "You have the same look Twilight does when she's thinking way too hard." She says with a little smile. "We could use some good ideas right now, too, whatcha got?" The girls lean in towards Sunset, who blinks in surprise. She knew that they would be accepting, and I mean, of course, they would. But this is on a different level.

"Oh! I didn't wanna be rude or anything over this stuff. But uh. Honestly, I don't think we're really safe here." She says quietly, whispering to the others as quietly as she can. If she knows anything about places like this, it is that there are eyes and ears everywhere. "We need to figure out what's going on and fix this without getting ourselves wrapped up in everything." Biting her lower lip in nervousness. "Honestly, though, this seems more like something someone more important would handle."

"Yer kinda lookin' at those 'important' people, Sugarcube," Applejack responds as the girls sit back a little, each smiling in their own way. "And since yer here, you are too."

"It's kinda what we do, ya know. You even said you do it yourself in your world, too!" Rainbow Dash adds on, nodding proudly as always, before everyone tries to get her to quiet down a little. Waving away any stares they get from the surrounding ponies. "Okay, okay! Sorry." Rainbow says after a light scolding from Applejack, sighing lightly as she lays her head on the table.

The group let out a collective giggle, Fluttershy looking to Sunset. "Uhm. If you have an idea, we would all really appreciate hearing it. There's no bad ideas here." Fluttershy then tilts her head and gives a gentle smile. She is certainly much more confident than Fluttershy Sunset knows, something Sunset takes note of.

"In that case. If my world is anything to go off of, places like this tend to use something, in this case, everypony's cutiemarks being taken, to keep them here. But where there is oppression, there is resentment. It's just a natural thing. Even if Ponies are much more gentle than humans, there has to be a breaking point. I suggest we find any resistance around the town and see if we can't work with them. Course, we have to do it after the tour ends." She says as she looks towards the large gates slowly opening to reveal a small procession of Ponies marching forward. The rest of the mane 6 nod, wordlessly agreeing with Sunset's plan as they look towards the pony approaching their table.

"Hello there, friends! My name is Starlight Glimmer, and I am the leader of this lovely little city!" The light purple pony smiles as she brazenly has her cutiemark exposed, ponies staring in reverence... or perhaps fear at the unicorn. With one little glare at the large group, the ponies all disperse, returning to their duties. "I heard that you're friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle! So, of course, I HAD to come and greet you all personally. It's a shame that the Princess got sick, though. I hope she gets better soon."

Applejack takes the back seat, unable to keep up a charade like the others, who also formulate what to say. That is until Sunset walks forward. "She'll be coming in a day or two, I am sure. Till then, we're just here because a magical map sent us out here to fix a problem?"

Starlight's eye twitches a little, clearly worried by the idea. A map led them straight to her secret city? This is a problem. She was prepared to deal with Twilight Sparkle. Sure, after all, she was always watching and waiting. "Hm... A problem?" she rubs her chin before getting an idea. "Well, there is one issue! We have a group of evil individuals constantly trying to break the peace we have in our city! These ponies have escaped our grasp for quite a while! I'd really appreciate it if you could help us catch them." she nods. "Come, follow me!"

Starlight then turns around and trots towards the open gates. "You'll all be my guests here in the town center. So please come with me."

As the group enters the city's center, past the gates, they're greeted with a land whole of color, at least from the bottom. Once the buildings are exposed above the sight-breaking walls, they become grey and gloomy again, but they hardly have any chance to enjoy the sights. Starlight looks over her shoulder as the large doors slam shut. "That's what you thought I'd say, right?" Starlight turns to the cornered group, surrounded by several guards, as she stares at Sunset. "I'm not going to take any chances, having heroes wandering around my city. I hope you understand. But having you around has already caused more problems than I'm willing to deal with."

Starlight's horn begins to spark with powerful, unbridled magic. Energy crackles off of it with great intensity. Lighting-esque jolts and forks of energy fly off in all directions as the spell begins to charge up.

The mane 6 quickly tries to push past the guards. Rainbow Dash tries to fly up and tackle Starlight before the spell can be fired. But the guards rapidly use their bodies to block the attempt, toppling over. The Pegasus is greeted by the first blast of magic, which twists through her body, plucking her cutie mark from her body. A strange = sign mark replaces it as the prismatic thundercloud vanishes into thin air. Rainbow Dash falls to the ground with a thud as Starlight grins at the group. "That's one!" She says with a glint in her eyes and a smirk.

Sunset thinks quickly on her hooves, trying to push back some of the guards with a shield, projecting it around herself and her friends. "What did you do to Rainbow Dash?!" Applejack says with a glare behind the barrier.

Starlight was tsking at the attempt. "Oh, how adorable! What a thin and sad little shield! Don't worry about it, though. You'll be joining your FRIEND right NOW!" She says, rearing back as she fires the thick blast of magic at the group.

The ancient spell shatters right through Sunset's shield, the unicorn woefully unprepared for something that powerful. Even if she had her amulet... would she have been able to block it? All these thoughts run through her head. 'Would I have been able to block it if I still trained? Why did I never come home?' she grimaces as she and her friends are quickly gripped by the spell, each one progressively stripped of their cutie marks and dropped on the ground.

Everypony except for Sunset. While she lost her mark, yes, it was replaced by the equals mark, too. She landed on her hooves instead. Sure, she felt mundane and couldn't feel the magic she usually had.

But she didn't have that for years before returning to Equestria. Her body didn't feel burdened by the sudden sealing of her natural magic or her energy being drained. Heck, she felt more tired after finals than this. "What? How are you still standing?!" Starlight says in surprise before Sunset suddenly punches right past her guards. She can't move faster than a march but knows how to make every step count. PE class mile runs are handy when you can only step to an invisible cadence! Sunset only has a little she can do, but she knows she can do this at the very least. Rushing straight at Starlight, she gives the unicorn one quick headbutt, the pair's horns striking and forcing both to misfire. While Sunset's flare was slight and frankly pathetic, Starlight's horn fired up a powerful firework into the sky, one that could be seen for miles.

"Heh~. Might not be much, but consider yourself exposed." Sunset says with a cheeky, almost rude grin before she's tackled down by Starlight's guards. The orange unicorn never expected an introductory self-defense class to teach her something useful. At least she was able to send Spike a message.

Spike quietly watches the sky outside of the cave, staring upwards. Twilight was no longer thrashing in her sleep, but she still hadn't woken up. "They can do it without Twilight. I'm sure. Although we don't know what we're dealing with, this huge city is full of what looked like mind-controlled ponies!" He laughs a little dryly. "Ugh." he rubs his forehead and looks at Twilight, sleeping just a distance from the mouth of the cave. "As long as there's not any warning sign, they'll be fine-"

Spike stares up at the sky, seeing the fireworks go off. A magical spell he's seen Twilight cast only once or twice. While it wasn't the right color, he could still feel it. Something happened, as is honestly typical for these adventures. Still doesn't make it any easier.

Spike looks to Twilight's sleeping form, grabbing a quill and a scroll, beginning to write to Celestia and Luna. "Guess we might actually need the princesses." He mumbles.

Twilight's hoof then presses down on the scroll, still dazed and grunting. "Where did the others go? I have to warn them." She says to Spike before noticing the fading magical sparks in the sky. "Oh no..."

Sunset groans as she stands up inside the cell she was tossed into, a little grimace on her face as she rubs her forehead. "Great. I'm stuck in an actual proper jail. I was hoping for a weird small room that just plays propaganda."

"Oh, we stopped using that room a year ago or so," Starlight says from around the corner. "Although we do use it from time to time for fun." She smirks at the orange pony through the bars, making a hm noise. "I recognize the other ponies as Twilight's friends, but you. You're new. Who are you?" She says to Sunset with curiosity.

Sunset blinks and taps her chin. "I've been away. That's all you're getting out of me." She says with a smirk. "Not gonna get much more there." She chuckles to herself. "I don't deal with dictators."

"Dictator?! How dare you! I am NOT a dictator!" Starlight says as calmly as she can in the situation. "But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who you are. Because you'll never be getting out of here. I don't know how you can resist the effects of my spell so well, but you're a threat that I cannot allow to stick around!" She says with a stomp, attempting to intimidate Sunset. Sunset doesn't take a single step backward and glares at Starlight in response, utterly unimpressed by the unicorn's attempt at threatening her.

"You know, Twilight is gonna notice that we're missing, and she's going to come here. You'll lose. And when you do, every single pony that's harboring resentment. All those little rebels and everyone you've hurt will come for you. People and ponies like you always overlook something. You never see the full picture, and that is why you will ALWAYS lose." Sunset says with a snort.

Starlight glares down at Sunset. "I'll keep your marks close then rather than in the vaults." She says with a smirk. "So even if somehow you manage to free all the cutiemarks of the silly little serf ponies in the city, you'll NEVER be free. I hope you enjoy being markless for the rest of your life. Sunset, whatever!" Starlight laughs as she walks towards the stairs. Sunset sighed a little. "You get all that?"

"I got it." Says a voice behind Sunset. In the shadows, a cloaked pony steps forward. "I'll relay this to the resistance. Are you sure that Twilight will return our marks to us?"

Sunset nods in advance. "She's listening right now anyway. She knows what to do. There has to be something they missed, something... Important."

Sunset quietly taps her chin. "Another vault. The baker said that her mark is in an entirely separate vault, the original vault or something."

The cloaked pony nods, lowering her cowl and revealing her identity as said baker pony. "Oh, right. Honestly, I hoped you'd all take the hint and go to the mountains to find it. It's in a cave up there. Much of the resistance's marks are still there, but so are the marks of the administrators. Which could be an issue. We only know of one Administrator that would be on our side." She sighs. "But even just a hoof full of us getting our marks back could start a revolution. So we need to go for it. Did Twilight get that?"

Sunset nods, "Yeah. She's still here." She says as she stares at a glistening form of Twilight that only she can see. A powerful spell that, even with her suppressed energy, she can tell is draining the ambient magic rather rapidly. "Alright then. Time to break out. We got all the info we needed. Twilight, once you free the rebel's cutie marks, we'll storm the vault from the inside. So please hurry."

Outside the city, Twilight opens her eyes from her meditation. Spike looked at her expectantly, worried about the others. "The others are doing okay. Sunset is trapped in a dungeon. The rest are stuck in a shed that's just trying to brainwash them with constant propaganda. Sunset has a plan, though. We're gonna free some cutie marks from a vault out here." Twilight lifts Spike up to her back. "Which means we need to find greyslate."

"What's greyslate?" Spike asks Twilight, curious about what he should be looking out for.

"It's a special rock that has the ability to contain cutiemark magic. Theoretically, it can store cutiemarks permanently if you carve out little holes in it, meaning we need to find a semi-worked or hidden cave." She says as she searches around the nearby mountains from the air.

"Like that one?" Spike says as he points towards a small crack in the mountain. As they approach, it opens up into a reasonably wide cave.

"On point as always, my faithful assistant." Twilight says proudly, thinking, 'I was about twenty seconds away from just blowing the mountain up.'

Twilight then shakes her head as she enters the hidden cave, trotting just a few moments into the back, greeted by a wall full of cutiemarks. And another... In fact, all three walls are filled to the brim with at least 300 cutie marks! "Nine hundred ponies..." She says with a grimace.

'Nine hundred more ponies, plus the others. All your fault.' The little voice says in Twilight's head. The alicorn shook her head.

'Stop that. Stop thinking that way. Focus on the mission. Focus on what's going on. Deal with it later.' Twilight says to herself. 'There are more important things to worry about right now.'

The voice fades away after a moment. Suppressed by Twilight's current urgency towards her objective. "Hey, Spike."

Spike looks up at Twilight after a moment. "Yeah?"

"Let's break everything." She says with a smile, and with one punch, she shatters one entire vault of cutie marks, freeing all three hundred inside in that one mighty swing. "Oh, that felt good."

Starlight was confident. She knew that with all her planning and careful, well-thought-out ideas, she could beat back whatever resistance Sunset and her little friends could do with ease.

She was wrong.

Here she was, standing in the streets of her city, watching chaos unfold as hundreds of ponies found their cutie marks returning to them. While looking intimidating, the guard was still just a tiny force of forty. Even with the help of the one Administrator who had her back... There wasn't anything she could do. The vaults were being broken into, and all she could do was... well run. "How...?"

Sunset stands tall and proud, even without her cutie mark, staring at Starlight from the crowd. "Well... It was kinda easy."

Sunset smiles. "Once my friend here got her cutie mark back, she convinced some guards to let her in with her delicious baked goods, and from there, she released me from my cell."

Sunset pants as she keeps up her fast-paced march; PE class only takes you so far, and this is starting to get exhausting. "Where is the vault?! I thought you said you had a map of this place!" She says with a huff.

Sugar Belle stares at the map floating in her light blue magic. "Relax, we're almost there. It feels long because you can't run with that curse on you. We'll get you free soon, though. Everypony will rise up once they get their marks back!" She says proudly.

"Except my marks and my friend's marks aren't even there. We don't know where they are." Sunset says with a huff and puff. "But. If it's any consolation." Sunset mumbles as she thinks back to when her friends forgot about her. Working through figuring out the magic of the memory stone, sneaking into the restricted section of Canterlot Library... Getting caught by Luna twice. Avoiding Celestia was a pain then. In hindsight, she might have actually saved her friends in time to restore all their memories instead of only the partial restoration she managed if she had just spoken to her old teacher...

"I trust you all, though. Please help me save my friends. Please." Sunset says to Sugar Belle.

"Oh, don't you worry, Sugar. We'll keep you and your friends safe and sound. You can trust the resistance and the goodness in the ponies' hearts," Sugar Belle says with a smile as they push into the vast, circular vault. Thousands of cutie marks are stored inside the brittle stone and glass structure. Sugar Belle smiles as she stares at the cylindrical object.

"Now... Let's get everypony free." She says

"Turns out, it doesn't matter who you are. Hero, normal average pony, or even a villain. You can do good, and you CAN change. So how about you give us our marks back... and we can forget all about this." she says with a smile.

Starlight grimaces a little. "Cheesy. Way too cheesy. You and your friends ruined EVERYTHING! YEARS of work, YEARS of practice, and indoctrination! GONE overnight! And you talk to me about friendship and forgiveness. Well, let me tell you this, Sunset." She says with a glare towards the unicorn. "I will NEVER forgive you for this!"

Starlight then quickly charges her horn and teleports past the mob, rushing away at full speed while the large flash of light blinds the ponies around her. But even then, Rainbow Dash, with her quick eyes, notices something. "She has our marks in her bag!"

This riles up the citizens, who quickly make chase after Starlight... But her quick short-range teleports allow her to quickly create a significant lead on them. Before one last one sends her entirely out of sight.

Starlight pants as she appears from her final teleport right in front of a cave leading into the snowy mountains. She had lost them... All of them. Did she actually win in the end? How? "Hah... Haha.... YES! I did it...?" She trails off and sees a figure walk forward, wings stretching as Twilight reveals herself from the cave mouth.

"Your short-range teleports could use a little work. You left behind a trail. If Sunset had her cutie mark, she'd be able to track you from here to Yakyakistan." Twilight says to the pony. "But you already know that, right? Starlight Glimmer?" She says

Starlight is taken a little aback, stepping backward. "How do you-"

"Know your name? I know the names of all of her descendants. That was the first thing I checked when I returned. Although, using the equality spell. I gotta admit, you're just as dumb as I was at your age." She says with a sigh.

Starlight glares at Twilight. "What?! I gave them true friendship! I gave them peace and harmony! A place to live without strife! A place away from cutiemarks and the horrible things they impose on the average pony! I SAVED them. You don't get to say I'm dumb. What have YOU ever done for anyone? Disappear for years? Cause everypony to panic over you? Oh yeah, I keep up with the papers!"

Twilight just quietly stares at Starlight, looking at her with unchanging eyes. Not even reacting to the unicorn's anger. Twilight sighs once she figures that the pony is done ranting. "It's okay." She says with a smile. "You don't understand yet. Just. Give it some time."

Suddenly, Starlight feels a shift in the air, and Twilight has vanished from view. "I'm back here," Twilight says from the bridge, carrying each jar with her friend's cutiemarks inside. All six float in her colorless magic. I'm going to let you go, Starlight, not because I can't stop you or for any other ridiculous and illogical excuse you might come up with. But because unlike the other two."

Twilight looks downwards for a moment. "You resemble your great-grandmother the most. You might use the wrong methods and hurt some ponies, but." Twilight takes a deep breath, looking towards the confused unicorn. "You have good in you. I promise to bring that out of you, hell or high water." She says with a smile. A motherly smile even.

Starlight grimaces, but every fiber in her being is saying to flee. She's exhausted much of her magic and more. "I won't forget this humiliation. I will be back for you AND your little friends." She then quickly runs into the cave, a sneakily placed Spike dropping a small, dull rock in her path.

"I won't let your story end the same way as hers," Twilight says as she watches Starlight flee. Her magic glows violently as it breaks the jars open, releasing the marks inside from both her aura and the glass. All six marks go flying, returning to their owners. A festival and party quickly take shape in the town.

"Twilight, are you sure you don't want to go to the party?" Spike says to Twilight, who is sitting on the snowy mountaintop.

"Maybe later, Spike. You go have fun," she says, watching him leave with a wave and a smile, which fades shortly afterward.

"You can come out now," Twilight says. "Let's talk."