Starlight joins the legion

"Why won't you tell me how to use your magic?!" Starlight complained to Discord, who she held in a magic bubble inside "Grogar's" lair.

"I already told you! Locking someone up and forcing them to tell you what you want to hear isn't going to get them to cooperate! You might as well make them listen to extremely high pitched baby crying! Oh sure, THAT'LL get them to talk!" Discord literally talked about EVERYTHING but what Starlight wanted to hear, and it was getting on her nerves.

"If you won't tell me how to use chaos magic, then I will have no choice but to destroy....." Starlight proceeded to pull out some items from a bag she carried with her magic.

"Oh no........." Discord could only watch in horror as Starlight revealed,

"Your Tea set." Starlight stated with an evil grin on her face.

"No! Not our tea set! Fluttershy will be devastated!" Discord cried.

"Oops!" Starlight said, as she dropped one tea cup, breaking it into pieces.

"You heartless monster! That was Fluttershy's favorite!" Discord mourned Fluttershy's favorite tea cup.

"Now how, do I use chaos magic?" Starlight asked, as she pulled out another tea cup.

"I won't tell you!" Discord stated.

"Oops!" Starlight said as she broke another tea cup.

"Stop it! She'll be heartbroken!"

"Oops!"

"Wait! That one wasn't easy to get you know!"

"This can stop any time you like." Starlight simply stated, knowing she could do this until he was ready to talk.

"I'll never talk!" Discord stood his ground.

"Very well." Starlight stated, as she pulled out another cup.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

At Canterlot.........

"Oh, Celestia, Luna, please don't go into the light!" Twilight begged the royal sisters to wake up, but they wouldn't move a muscle until.....

"Ugh....... Twilight?......." Celestia opened her eyes, along with Luna's, and Twilight hugged Celestia with all her passion.

"Oh thank goodness! You're alright! I was afraid I'd lose you!" Twilight told Celestia, as the rest of the mane seven helped Luna on her hooves.

"It's ok, I'm fine...... But........ My cutie mark......." Celestia said, as her equal sign began to emit a flash of energy, signaling that she was losing less individuality.

"We need to find Starlight and save Discord! Starlight's power comes from Grogar's bell, we just need to take it from her and remove her stolen magic! Hopefully that will reverse the effects she made on the sister's cutie marks." Twilight explained to her friends.

"But how are we going to get out of here?! The entrance is caved in! And it's not like even if we do get out of here we'll know where to find them!" Rainbow Dash told Twilight.

"They're in a giant skull shaped cave in the everfree!" A familiar young voice called out, they turned towards the caved in entrance and saw orange magic removing the rocks from the outside, there they saw the unmistakable forms of Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis, and Lord Tirek.

"YOU!" Twilight growled, as she and her friends prepared for battle.

"AAH! Same team! Same team!" Cozy waved her hoofs and called uncle.

"What?...." Twilight and her friends lowered their battle stances.

"We've all been betrayed by Starlight Glimmer, and now thanks to her. We are without magic. We are the only ones who know where Starlight's hideout is, you NEED us if you want any hope of finding her." Chrysalis told the ponies plus dragon.

"You can do whatever you want with us as soon as we get our magic back." Lord Tirek stated.

"After that, truce off." Cozy finished.

"I see........ And you said she's hiding where?" Twilight asked the three villains.

"In a cave down in the everfree, it's where Discord took us while guising as Grogar." Cozy explained.

"And, what's with the unicorn?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, I'm Sunburst." Sunburst answered.

"Sunburst?..... Wait a minute........ You were Starlight's best friend before you moved away!" Twilight exclaimed.

"I was......... And I can't believe what she's done......... All this over my cutie mark?........." Sunburst questioned.

"It's not about your cutie mark, it's about you moving away. She thinks that because cutie marks are tied to destiny, that it only leads to heartbreak and friends being torn apart. You have to come with us and tell her that's not true!" Twilight explained to Sunburst.

"Well........... I'd do anything to unite with Starlight........... I just hope she'd listen to me......." Sunburst hopped.

"I'm sure she will......." Twilight assured.

"See? I told you he'd be useful!" Cozy assured the two other villains, to which they simply rolled their eyes.

At "Grogar's" lair..........

"That was the last tea cup in your set! WHAT, MAKES, YOU, TALK?!" Starlight demanded.

"Nothing, you can destroy as much as you like....... But I will never give you the answer!" Discord stated to Starlight, standing his ground to protect Equestria and his friends.

"Oh, stop with the hero act! You turned on your friends for lord Tirek! He told me!" Starlight stated to Discord.

"He lied to and used me! I'm not making the same mistake again! And I'm certainly not going to betray my friends for YOU, you deluded cretin!" Discord snapped.

"This 'CRETIN' can hurt you in 1,000 ways, and only with her bare hoofs! Choose your next words carefully....." Starlight threatened.

"You're right. Cretin is too polite, how about pathetic unicorn who spreads equality to compensate for the fact that deep down she's afraid she'll never reunite with her best friend, Sunburst?" Discord mocked Starlight with the smuggest grin he could pull, which made Starlight lower the shield and zap him with her magic, but Discord grabbed a rock and reflected the blast. It bounced off the walls until it blasted the rocks blocking the entrance, giving Discord room to escape.

"NO!" Starlight shouted, as Discord made a break for it out of the lair.

Meanwhile.......

"Come on! If we hurry, it won't be too late, Discord couldn't give Starlight the information she needed by now!" Fluttershy hoped Discord would be strong, until they saw the ponies of ponyville conversing with each other, they noticed how all the earth ponies, unicorn and Pegasi have stopped fighting.

"What's going on here?" Twilight asked a nearby pony.

"We have decided to put aside our differences and live in balance as equals!" The pony stated to Twilight.

"What? You can't do that! You have unique talents that make you special!" Twilight tried to get the ponies to see reason.

"But Starlight Glimmer said that being equal makes it so we won't fight or argue, or ever get into trouble again!" A filly told the princess of friendship.

"If being equal is really better for you, then what are THEY still doing here?" Tirek pointed above to the wendigos still freezing Equestria.

Numerous ponies were confused about why the wendigos were still present, as they thought that being equal would bring them closer and banish the wendigos forever. Starlight wouldn't lie to them, would she?....

"Listen, it is good to be close to other ponies, but being close doesn't mean giving up what makes you unique! It is true that things have been heated because of the differences between the different tribes, but being different is what brings us closer together!" Twilight stated.

The other ponies were confused about what Twilight meant.

"The reason I've come to love my friends is because I was intrigued about how different they were from me, I wanted to learn about their interests, their passions, and their dreams. I knew that is what drew me to them. I wouldn't have cared to like them for who they were if they were no different then me. And that is why the only way to banish the wendigos is to stand together as individuals!" Twilight gave off another astounding speech, to which all the ponies chatted amongst themselves.

"Is she right?"

"Princess Twilight's never been wrong before."

"Do you think we can get cider after this?"

"Way to go Sugarcube." Applejack praised her friend.

"You've done it again Twilight!" Pinkie congratulated her.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow hoofbumped Twilight.

"There isn't any time to lose! We need to find Discord before he gives away the secret to his magic!" Cozy Glow rushed the others to the everfree forest.

They ran and ran closer to the forest until they bumped into Discord.

"Discord!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

"Thank goodness I found you! Listen, there isn't much time! We need to get out of here before-" Discord was about to speak until,

"FOUND YOU!" Starlight roared at Discord, causing him to yelp in surprise.

"................... Sunburst?............" Starlight hesitated to speak.......

"Starlight?................." Sunburst called out to his BFF.

"What are you doing here.......... With them?............" Starlight questioned the orange unicorn.

"I came with them to find you, I heard about what you did and....... I can't believe it........ How could you?......." Sunburst was heartbroken to learn what Starlight did.......

"I......... I did it for you! It was that......... THING that took you away from me! We were happy together........ We were like two peas in a pod! Everything was fine until.............." Starlight was staggered......

"Until I got my cutie mark............" Sunburst finished her sentence.

"I created an entire community dedicating to getting rid of cutie marks! I thought that if I could stop marks from appearing on your flank, nopony would have to be apart." Starlight stated, with tears in her eyes.

"Starlight......... You're wrong........ A cutie mark isn't what separated us............ It was the community!" Sunburst claimed.

"The community?!" Starlight was baffled and confused.

"The community recognized my talent and took me away, I was so overjoyed in the moment that I didn't realize I might never see you again.............. Starlight......... If I had known............... I would have..........." Sunburst tried to find the right words.

"No............. You don't know that! You're only saying what they want you to say! They're differences have blinded you!" Starlight refused to accept the truth.

"No they didn't! This is coming from the heart! Starlight it doesn't have to be this way! You don't have to force ponies to be together!" Sunburst tried to get through to Starlight, who was in tears.

"This is getting good." Cozy simply stated, eating some popcorn she got from seemingly nowhere.

"You can come back, with me.......... I can show you that things can be better when we think like individuals!" Sunburst tried to talk to Starlight.

"No!" Starlight denied, who was in disbelief.

"Starlight, I know this isn't what you want. I know you believe that cutie marks aren't evil!" Sunburst stated.

"NO! It's what tore us apart! And now it's doing it again! It turned you against me! But I can save you! I can make sure that we never grow apart AGAIN!" Starlight commanded, as she blasted an energy wave at all of the ponies plus changeling plus centaur plus dragon plus Draconequus.

Starlight opened her eyes, and saw that they were gone, and began searching.

"We need to get the bell away from Starlight, It's our only hope." Twilight stated to the group.

"How are we going to do that?" Fluttershy asked.

"Some of us will distract Starlight while me and a few will grab the bell." Twilight planned with her group.

"Got it! I'll grab that bell in ten seconds-" Rainbow was about to speed in and grab the bell until-

"No Dash, you're the distraction. Me, Sunburst, Rarity, and Spike will take the bell." Twilight planned, to which Rainbow gave a shrug.

"Twilight, Twi-bright, where's the pony I want to fight?!" Starlight taunted while searching, until........

"SURPRISE ATTACK!" Pinkie shouted, as she, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack charged and attacked.

Starlight, surprised blasted bolts at Rainbow Dash, who spined circles around her with Fluttershy.

Starlight, now dazed fired random bolts at the ponies.

"Step right up! Test your luck!" Pinkie announced, as she dressed up like a barker and dodged all of Starlight's blasts.

"missed me!" Pinkie taunted while laughing.

"Stand still!" Starlight shouted, trying to blast her to remove her cutie mark.

"Close! But no cherry chimichangas!" Pinkie taunted while attached to a prize wheel that rolled down the hill when Starlight blasted it.

"Thanks for playing!" Pinkie taunted as she appeared next to Starlight holding a plushie of her, to which she just blasted.

Pinkie then ran away from the scene.

"Wait a minute! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Starlight caught onto the mane seven's trick, as she caught Twilight and some of her friends and even Sunburst trying to take her bell.

She blasted Applejack's rope that was grabbing the bell, when Spike grabbed onto it and tried to take it away.

Starlight grabbed the bell with her magic, while Spike held on.

Then, Rarity, Sunburst and Twilight pulled the bell with their magic.

However, Starlight blasted them with a shockwave of magic that sent them tumbling backwards.

Starlight then pulled the bell back to her and grabbed the rest of the group with her magic over to where the rest went.

"That's the problem with individuality, you do your own thing when you act out the same plan, so it comes crashing down when you're personalities collide!" Starlight mocked the group, as she charged her blast to remove all the ponies cutie marks.

"Even if that were true, it still makes us who we are." Twilight stated, as she and the group huddled each other.

Starlight merely scoffed, as she fired her spell.

....................

"What happened, can I open my eyes?" Spike asked the group.

"I don't feel any different!" Pinkie stated,

The group opened their eyes, and saw a white magical shield that protected them from Starlight's magic.

"Way to go Twilight!" Applejack praised her friend.

"It's not me doing this!" Twilight stated, then she and the group looked behind them, and saw an army of ponies, changelings, yaks, griffons, hippogriffs, and dragons charging at Starlight with all they got.

The pegasi swooped in and spun around Starlight, confusing her.

Then the changelings ran down and turned themselves into duplicates of the mane six, as Starlight blasted them not knowing where the real ones were.

The yaks stomped their hoofs on the ground, making Starlight nauseous.

Then, the magic pulled Twilight and the group to where the leaders stood.

"The changelings won't fool her forever, and I don't how long the unicorns' shield will hold." Thorax explained to the group.

"Thorax? I don't understand, you came back to save us?....." Chrysalis questioned the changeling king.

"We heard you guys were in trouble, thanks to Ocellus and her friends. We were able to unite and stand against Starlight." Thorax explained to his ex queen.

"Exactly! Just because we've embraced friendship, it doesn't mean we can't stand up and act as a unite!" ocellus explained to the former changeling monarch.

"You really did all that, without having to be commanded to?" Chrysalis asked.

"I guess it was just to protect those we care about." Thorax told his mom, which made her smile a little.

"So, this is what friends do for each other?........." Tirek questioned the draconequus next to him.

"Indeed. You see Tirek, being friends may forbid you from doing whatever as you please, but being friends means that those friends will stand up for you. And protect you from whatever harm may come to you. No amount of magic can keep you from being alone." Discord explained to the elderly centaur.

"I never thought of it that way........." Tirek pondered.

"Wait. So, friends only do what you need, not what you WANT?" Cozy was confused by the message.

"You see Cozy, if you just take and take from your friends and give nothing in return, they wouldn't want to be your friend anymore. Friends are there for your best interests, not your best desires." Sandbar stated to the power hungry filly.

"Oh.......... Gee............" Cozy commented, as she placed her hoof on her chin.

"Well, with everycreature here to defend us things will be easy peasy!" Pinkie stated with a grin.

"It's just like you said the day we opened that school." Applejack commented.

"The more creatures who know about friendship, the safer we'll be." Spike stated, as Twilight looked back with a smile.

However, a changeling hit the shield. And Twilight looked back to see the Pegasi landing atop the shield from impact.

Eventually, the unicorns couldn't hold the shield any longer, and it collapsed.

They looked down, and saw Starlight blast away all the creatures with a giant shock wave, knocking them unconscious.

She stared at the army with an angry scowl before running over to attack the mane seven.

However, Twilight blasted a beam next to Starlight to stop her.

"ENOUGH! Because of you I almost lost my way! But everycreature here has reminded me of the true power of friendship. There will always be differences in the world, but differences are what bring us closer together! That's why the elements of harmony exist!" Twilight stated to Starlight, as Celestia, Luna, and the pillars teleported from Canterlot to the field the battle was held.

"The elements showed me and my friends how strong our friendship could be! Together we worked to bring harmony to Equestria! Harmony is what binds us together as friends! It's what makes us all special in our own way."

As Twilight continued her speech, Chrysalis's appreciation for her subject's concern for her leads to her wrapping in a cocoon, and emerging in a new form, as Rockhoof evolves from his colt form, to his stallion form after getting his magic back, all the while the mane seven, the pillars, and the young six lift into the air magically.

"Now I truly understand! The elements were just symbols! The real magic has always been right here! And the more who understand how powerful friendship is, the stronger we will all be! Together!" Twilight stated, as the mane seven, pillars, and young six blasted rainbows at Twilight, who made one giant rainbow blast above which banished the wendigos.

"Uh oh........." Is all Starlight could say, before the rainbow beam charged down at her and blasted her, removing all the magic from the bell away from her, as the bell deactivated, and fell to the ground.

Celestia, Luna, and Cozy Glow then got their equal signs removed, and had their proper cutie marks restored.

Starlight fell to the ground, and stared at her sides. Realizing that her wings were gone.

The mane seven, pillars, and young six came back to earth.

Sunburst approached Starlight, who was on her knees, and cowering from the massive army.......

"Starlight, please come back with me...... I miss you....." Sunburst begged Starlight to see reason.

"I........ I've done too much.......... You all hate me......" Starlight stated.

"I could never hate you Starlight......... Not even after all you did........." Sunburst told her.

"But all I did was hurt you and the others! I- What the?!" Starlight gasped, as a giant cupcake fell on her, which made Sunburst jump back, concerned for his friend.

Then, Pinkie revealed that she held the bell, and was shaking with magic.

"Pinkie! You took Discord's magic from the bell?! How do you feel?" Twilight asked her friend.

"Hmm, tingly, itchy, also like.........." Pinkie then grew massive, and stomped the ground.

"I COULD TURN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE INTO FROSTING!!!!!!" Pinkie became mad with chaos.

"Maybe I should......." Discord flew up, took the bell from Pinkie and drained her of the chaos.

"Waiter..... There's some chaos in my soup........." Pinkie was a little out of it from absorbing too much chaos magic.

Discord then activated the bell and got his chaos back, then proceeded to give Celestia, Luna, Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, and the pillars their magic back as well.

Starlight moved out from under the cupcake.

"There isn't a punishment WORTHY of all you've done!" Celestia roared at Starlight.

"No! No........ Your majesty.......... Let me handle it........." Sunburst assured the former princess.

"Are you sure about this Sunburst?" Celestia asked the orange unicorn.

"I'm positive, just...... Please........." Sunburst asked the sun alicorn for permission.

"Ok........." Celestia allowed Sunburst to carry out Starlight's punishment.

Sunburst offered his hoof to Starlight, who was baffled.

"After everything I've done to hurt you.............. To hurt your friends........... You still want to take me back?........" Starlight asked her best friend.

"Starlight.......... You were always my best friend......... I never forgot about you........... No cutie mark, could ever change that.............." Sunburst assured Starlight, as he held out his hoof for her.

After a brief pause, Starlight slowly, but surely............ Took Sunburst's hoof.

Sunburst then lifted Starlight out of the cupcake, and they hugged.

Twilight smiled with tears in her eyes.

"When I sent you to Ponyville, I had high hopes. When you became princess of friendship, I knew I made the right choice. But nothing could prepare me for how proud I am right now. Equestria is definitely in the right hooves. You are ready." Celestia stated, as she, Luna, and Discord bowed for the princess of friendship.

To be concluded, in the epilogue.......