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How long had she spent in this nothingness? If it wasn't for the fact that the stranger that had attacked her had woken her up afterward, Apple Bloom would have been convinced she was dead. All she knew now was that she'd been dragged off to Celestia knows where, kept sedated for at least three weeks and was intended to be used as some kind of pawn. She had no idea where Pinkie was now, if she even had any idea what had happened, the thought that she might have looked like she bailed right after that touching moment on the outcrop was just...She didn't want to think about it. She'd have to deal with it later, the sense of feeling was starting to come back to her body, suggesting she was regaining consciousness.
She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes just yet though, trying to gauge where she was just from her body. She was lying on something cold, on her front in some sort of crumpled heap. Her muscles seemed to have regained their energy and she slowly pushed them into action, getting all four hooves back on the ground. A quiet groan escaped her throat and she finally managed to bring her eyes open a crack. The world beyond them was still blurry but her view was filled by something pink.
"Wakey wakey my little pony."
Apple Bloom felt a hoof tap against her cheek a few times, helping her out of her stupor. She blinked and saw the world come back into focus, realising that the pink thing in her face was actually Starlight Glimmer's face, wearing a disturbingly smug grin. Apple Bloom shrieked slightly at being nose to nose with her and scrambled backward as fast as she could until her back was against the wall. Now her eyes were working again she had a chance to look round the room, though it didn't do anything to calm her down. The only door was on the far side of the room, where another unicorn was watching with interest, the same one that had attacked her out in the desert.
"Oh...Oh no, sweet Celestia, this can't be happening..." Apple Bloom mumbled to herself, trying to think of anything she could do in this situation and coming up blank.
"Apple Bloom, please try to relax, we need to get introductions out of the way first," Starlight commented, seemingly indifferent to the breakdown happening in front of her. "I imagine your sister told you about me, or at the least your reaction shows you know, so the only pony left is my associate. Apple Bloom, meet Sunset Shimmer."
"I hope the stasis spell didn't affect you too badly. I'd hate to think it hurt anypony, everypony deserves equal treatment after all." Sunset said, her words making Apple Bloom's heart sink into the pit of her stomach. Sunset's words in the desert and the dark room had indicated that she had an agenda, now it sounded like she was simply wrapped round Starlight's hoof. That was even worse considering she clearly had some serious magic power, not even Twilight Sparkle had been able to lock a pony in suspended animation for several weeks at a time when she was still a unicorn.
Apple Bloom's mind was still reeling from the sheer influx of information dumped on her in the last minute. Stuck in a sparsely set up room with a cutie mark hating psychopath and a powerful wild card, her options were decreasing by the second. The only chance she could see of coming out of this relativly intact lay in the fact that Sunset Shimmer seemed to have a more rational mind. Even if she was caught up in Starlight's insanity, she seemed the type who could still be reasoned with eventually. For now, she decided to try and keep it civil, or as much as she could with her slight grogginess and what they'd done to her.
"I'm about as okay as I can get for feeling like I died out there. Thank you, Sunset Glimmer." Apple Bloom replied, catching her mistake a moment too late. Sunset looked slightly troubled at the comment, looking over at the now scowling Starlight and putting a hoof out in front of her chest before she could make a move.
"Ease up, she's already scared enough."
"With good reason!" Starlight snapped at Sunset. "She did that on purpose. Do you remember how much mockery the last pony who mixed our names up got in?"
"I remember your idea of 'discipline'," Sunset retorted, a look of disgust on her face. "You crossed the line with what you did to Peace Walker and even if it didn't threaten the stability of the village, it's still just, wrong!"
"Yes, you made that perfectly clear already." Starlight looked back at Sunset and narrowed her eyes slightly, the look on her face showing she wasn't willing to be lectured. After a minute she shook her head slightly and looked back at Apple Bloom, who had spent the whole tangent recovering her composure without anypony looming over her.
"I, err...I don't mean to interrupt but, I-I don't understand what's going on." Apple Bloom asked, rubbing the side of her head as Starlight stared her down for a moment before smirking and nodding slightly.
"Well, I suppose we can indulge you. Somepony should hear my brilliant plan for Equestria before it goes into full swing," She chuckled happily, not noticing Sunset facehoofing behind her. "After my daring breakout from the Canterlot dungeons, assisted by Sunset Shimmer here, we made out way out here while I came up with a new way to show Equestria just how far it's strayed with it's cutie mark obsession."
"Yeah, your breakout..." Sunset muttered, rolling her eyes. Starlight didn't seem to notice, pacing round in front of Apple Bloom with the arrogant air of a pony who thought she held the world in her hooves.
"So while Sunset Shimmer was using her magic to make this place undetectable unless you walked here, I realised just why everypony is unwilling to give up their precious sense of superiority. Celestia. When everypony looks up to a supposedly perfect ruler flaunting her special talent every day, they're going to think it's okay to do the same. How would anypony put up a different philosophy against that, you might ask? It's quite simple really, you show the public they're really nothing special, as flawed as anypony, that they really can't lead Equestria at all."
Apple Bloom couldn't help but feel her jaw drop at these words. The way Starlight Glimmer was putting it made it sound like she was trying to directly usurp the Princesses and install her own regime of equality. The plan to do so though was, for lack of a better word, insane. Any attempt to overthrow Equestria would require masterful tact, years of planning and manipulation, or enough magical strength to overcome three or four alicorns, potentially at once. The only thing she had that seemed to even come close to any of those was Sunset Shimmer, who seemed to be more concerned with keeping Starlight's craziness in check.
"Okay. Going out on a limb here, but I guess that's why you've been going after the food industry?" Apple Bloom asked hesitantly, trying to stay calm for their reactions. Starlight pulled her head back slightly, looking down at her with a puzzled expression. Sunset had a sudden look of realisation and stepped forward.
"Ohh, so YOU were the one who I had to trigger Lucky Roll to deal with? I'm impressed you caught on to that one so quickly."
"Yes...Wait, trigger? You mean the whole sleeper agent idea Discord mentioned is real?"
"Yes, it is." Sunset sounded distracted as she looked down, seemingly caught off guard by the mention of Discord being involved. Starlight gave an arrogant smirk and stepped forward again.
"It's what happens to those who get in the way but don't fit in with the plan," She said, getting nose to nose with Apple Bloom as a not so subtle warning. "Just some memory tampering, a quick spell containing orders, stick the mark back on as a cover and you'll be on your way, ready to serve whenever we make the call."
"...No way." Apple Bloom's eyes narrowed in defiance, refusing to believe she was skilled enough for that.
"Awww, it's so cute when you think you get a say in things. Unfortunately for you, Sunset is an expert with mind related magic. Of course, she's an expert with ALL magic, any protégé of Celestia's tends to be."
"Hey, I already told you that I'm not better than anypony." Sunset interjected, looking even more uncomfortable by the second. Apple Bloom briefly wondered if Starlight had done something to her before her focus was taken up by the pony up in her face again.
"Though if you insist on being troublesome, we could always just completely overwrite your mind, make you think you've always lived here with no special talent. You know, like all those bakers, chefs and farmers have been."
"What?!" Apple Bloomed down in thought, scrambling for options and going for the first thing that came to mind. "But...How does all this fit in with taking over Equestria? I-I mean, ponies can always just eat grass."
"It's brilliant when you think about it," Starlight sounded almost ecstatic at being asked. "Sure, grass is an option, but when it's the only food source it's going to go down fast. How long do you think a town like Ponyville would take to completely shred the surrounding area, let alone a big city? Food supplies dry up, ponies start to crack under the conditions, and what do they do?" Starlight stood there for a minute, smile slowly fading as she realised Apple Bloom was too busy staring at her in confusion to answer.
"They, uh...They blame their leaders." Sunset finally said, breaking the tension enough for Starlight to back up and start pacing round the room, back to her usual self.
"Correct! Then they blame whoever's above them and it all piles up until everypony realises that Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight," Starlight paused for a moment on that last one, her voice dripping with contempt. "That ultimately, any blame rests with them. Then comes social unrest, protests in the streets, calls for Equestria to be freed from those who let their smug superiority get ahead of their land! That's where we come in, our desert community, everypony as equal as the next, a shining beacon of what ponykind can do when nopony stands above the rest. We lead by example! We bring the masses over! Celestia is forced to stand aside as everypony willingly gives up their cutie marks and joins in following the path to Equestria's only future! MY future!!!"
By this point, Starlight was throwing her legs out to emphasise her points and probably would have been going on for hours if she hadn't needed to breathe. As she stopped the speech to recover, Apple Bloom glanced aside and realised that Sunset's jaw had dropped slightly in shock. Truth be told, she was having the an almost identical reaction. Aside from the fact that she could point out enough flaws in the 'plan' to fill a novel, the way that Starlight had put so much effort into just describing it had shown just how convinced she was that it was fool proof. At the same time though, it just sounded so ridiculous. The two of them managed to compose themselves before Starlight looked back round, looking far too proud of herself for what she'd said.
"Okay, that was...Wow." Apple Bloom eventually commented. That seemed to keep Starlight placated as she sat back down in front of her.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
"It's, certainly something, every time I hear it." Sunset added, still looking a little put out.
"It's taken longer than I'd like, but now, now we're that much closer to...The two of us, bringing Equestria back to where it should be, with everypony happily equal, separated by no more than names."
"Hopefully they wont mix them up..." Apple Bloom remarked, simply trying to make herself sound worse for the earlier mistake, only to stop as Starlight's eye twitched slightly.
"Ok, I tried being nice." Starlight's face twisted into a snarl and she swung her hoof up, punching Apple Bloom square in the muzzle and knocking her head back into the wall before lifting her up telekinetically.
"Sorry..." Apple Bloom finished weakly, stunned by the impact, vaguely aware of the feeling of blood starting to run down her nose. The magic around her tightened slightly and pushed her back legs apart in response.
"Hey, hey! Enough!!" Sunset shouted, pushing Starlight back and wrapping a hoof round her horn to disrupt the magic, dissipating the field around Apple Bloom and letting her drop back to the floor. "Stick to the plan!"
"The plan...Of course." Starlight seemed to shrug off her outburst in moments and grinned eagerly as she stepped forward again, letting Sunset use her magic to lift Apple Bloom over to them.
"Okay...This, this isn't going to be pleasant is it?" Apple Bloom asked as she watched them, having recovered enough of her wits to focus again, though it had the unfortunate effect of letting her focus on the pain in her muzzle.
"Probably, but it'll be worth it for you," Starlight's voice sounded dark but enthusiastic as her horn started glowing. "You'll finally free yourself from the dark and see the light, of a life without cutie marks."
Apple Bloom didn't have time to respond before Starlight shot a beam of green tinted magic, surrounding her body and freezing her body in place. Her eyes shot round nervously before a sudden burning sensation filled her chest, feeling like it was coming from deep within her. It was more intense than even her heart could have felt, as if her very soul was on fire, withering in the flames. It was joined moments later by searing pain in her flanks as the burning spread through the rest of her body. Apple Bloom cried out in agony, tears of pain forming in the corners of her eyes, her plight falling on indifferent ears as all her energy went into keeping her composure. Despite all efforts, her will simply faded as another scream escaped her.
As suddenly as it started, the magic faded and she collapsed onto her side, the pain lessened but by no means gone. Her eyes focused on the hoof in front of her and she tensed up. The formerly clear and bright yellow of her coat was now subdued and pale. She glanced back with rising panic joining the maelstrom of feeling inside her, which hit a zenith as she saw that the familiar saw cutie mark she'd worn for decades had been replaced by a grey equal sign. Apple Bloom groaned weakly, not the ideal reaction but all she had the strength for right now, at the final proof that she had gone in way over her head. She looked back at her captors and her eyes widened, seeing Starlight holding her cutie mark in her magic, eyeing it with the satisfaction of a hunter that had brought down their prey.
"You'll feel better soon. Sunset, you know what to do." Starlight said, turning and making her way out the room, carrying the mark off to some unknowable hiding spot. Sunset shook her head with a hint of sadness and leaned over Apple Bloom, touching her horn to her forehead as a fresh spell was cast.
For a moment, the pain coursing through her body seemed to be numbed, blissful by comparison to what she had just gone though. It was immediately followed up by a colossal influx of information directly to her mind, countless sights, sounds and memories in an overwhelming assault. With her strength already used up when her cutie mark was removed, Apple Bloom quickly found herself starting to black out. Even with her mind shutting down as it was seemingly overwritten, the last thought she had was one that gave her the faintest glint of hope.
Pinkie Pie was still out there, she was still safe.