129. The Collar
Radish stood before Barrel Roller’s desk. A large map of western Equestria was spread out over it.
“Root, regarding your request to join the Royal Excursionary Force squad hunting Glimmer…”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Denied.”
“I see, ma’am.”
“Because I think we found her.”
“Ma’am!?”
“The Rangers have had a lookout posted in the Mountains of Difficult Terrain ever since the bat pony mission. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s been hearing teleport bursts all over the place.”
“Hmm. Teleportation is a rare power, and it’s one Glimmer was good at. It could be her. That means she could be looking for Nightmare Moon’s lair.”
“That’s what the REFs are thinking, too. They’ve sent a unit out there. Pack your saddlebags- you’re going out there as a consultant.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You ever work with the Royal Excursionary Forces before?”
“No, ma’am.”
“They like to be difficult. Don’t be difficult back- guards take the high road.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“One other thing. The bat ponies know the area better than anyone. Try to convince Big Blue to send at least one.”
“Oh… it’s Tuesday. That’s their movie night together.”
“We all have to make sacrifices, Root.”
Luna’s tower guards directed Radish to her rumpus room. He knocked on the door.
“Enter,” she called from inside.
Radish entered. Luna was resting on a divan, reading.
“Princess Luna?”
“Radish Root! What a pleasant surprise. Come.”
“How’ve you been?”
“Quite well. And you?”
“Well…”
“Yes, I’ve heard about your recent ups and downs. You’ve not been having nightmares, though, so I’ve not had an opportunity to see you through them.”
“Well, there must be millions of ponies having nightmares out there. I wouldn’t expect you to notice mine.”
“Not at all. I have an order to these things. Those closest to me get preferential treatment. You are near the top of the list.”
“Really?”
“Who else? You are still my Champion, even if we no longer spend the nights together.”
“Thank you, Princess Luna.”
“Please, let us dispense with the formality, now and forever. Simply ‘Luna’ will do.”
“Oh, really? Okay... Luna. Whoa, that feels strange.”
“Not to me.”
“I have a request.”
“Speak it.”
“I’d like to take one or more bat ponies back to Nightmare Moon’s secret mad science laboratory. Starlight Glimmer may be sniffing around there, and they could help find or stop her.”
“That is fine. You may take Echo. He has been quite a pill lately.”
“Thanks, Luna. It still feels strange to say.”
“You’ll get used to it. But Radish- do not enter the lair under any circumstances.”
“What if Starlight Glimmer already has?”
“Then contact me. Send Echo back with the news. I will confront this Glimmer in my own home.”
“You mean, Nightmare Moon’s home.”
“Radish,” she sighed, closing her book. “All of Nightmare Moon’s misdeeds are mine to make up for.”
“You’re not her. You’re nothing like her.”
“Ponies can go bad, Radish. But ponies can also go good.”
“Are you talking about Glimmer? You know what she did to me. To Light. To a hundred other ponies in her town. To Twilight and her friends.”
“I know. I do not blame you for wanting to hurt her back.”
“I… don’t want to hurt her. I just want to take her in. By the book. For a fair trial. And I’m only going as a consultant. The REFs will make the collar.”
“Then I hope they share your commitment to doing things fair and by-the-book.”
“They’re professionals. Sworn to uphold the law.”
“Laws may become hard to read through eyes reddened with rage. I suffered greatly to learn this lesson.”
She stood up off the divan and approached him with worried eyes.
“I hope you will keep your eyes clear and focused, Radish.”
“I won’t disappoint you, Luna.”
“It is easier to say now?”
“It is… Luna.”
“Well, you don’t have to say it like that.”
Radish Root and Colonel Martingale of the Royal Excursionary Force stood in front of the hidden door to Nightmare Moon’s lair. Echo hovered over them. The sawtooth quicksand had been left intact, but every pony in the field knew how to identify and avoid it now.
“Well, this door hasn’t been budged since we last went through it.”
“The hangar door is intact, too,” said Martingale.
“Echo, are there other entrances around here?”
“Yes, brother. One under the big rock. One behind the other big rock. One-”
“Could you check them and tell me if they’ve been used lately?”
“Yes.”
Echo flew off. A pegasus in a REF uniform landed in his place.
“No strange hoofprints. She’s probably teleporting from rock to rock. And there’s a lot of rocks out here. The unicorns would love it if they could scan for her spell residue.”
“They scan, they set off Nightmare Moon’s traps,” said Radish. “I’d prefer if Glimmer did that first.”
The pegasus nodded and flew away. Martingale eyed Radish.
“So, major, any idea how Glimmer learned about Nightmare Moon’s base?”
“She mentioned she spent a long time traveling and researching old archives. She must be following up on a rumor.”
“You spent a few days with her, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure you didn’t let something slip about this place?”
Radish frowned. “Royal Guards don’t ‘let things slip’.”
“Unless it’s to the CAA, right?”
Radish scowled. An unconscious yellow unicorn stallion dropped at their feet. Echo landed next to him.
“This one was caught in a Nightmare Snare.”
“Thank you, Echo. This isn’t Glimmer, but it might be an ally of hers.”
Martingale clamped cuffs and a horn ring on the stallion.
“We’ll see what we can get out of him.”
“Okay, I think-” Radish started.
“I mean we. The REF can conduct its own interrogations. We’ll report our findings to your captain.”
“I may be able to get more out of him if he knows I was in Glimmer’s clutches, too. Build sympathy through shared experiences.”
“Maybe royal guards tell prisoners their life stories, but we don’t give them a thing.”
“Fine. Come on, Echo.”
Radish led Echo a distance away. They stood together on a hill, watching the troops.
“Echo, can you hear them from here?”
“Yes.”
“What are they saying?”
“Martingale is saying, ‘Don’t start until you get the soundproofing spell up. We don’t want that bat listening in.’ I believe he refers to me, brother.”
“Sonofa- they don’t trust us.”
“You don’t trust them, though.”
“Glimmer is dangerous. And they’re treating this like they’re looking for a lost dog.”
“We will acquire her, Radish.”
“Yeah.”
Radish sat down on a rock. Echo sat next to him. Radish took a swig from his canteen, watching the REF squad comb the mountains.
“I could’ve been a REF, you know. We got recruitment flyers in the mail at the farm. ‘Patrol exotic locales, meet exotic creatures, make your princess proud’, that kind of thing.”
“Was that not what you wanted? To make Celestia so proud she would tryst with you?”
“I was thinking about it. But Equestria was peaceful back then. It didn’t seem like that would change. Nothing to earn glory on- just endless marching. Then I got a flyer for the Plains Rangers. It was less about what the service could do for me, and more about what the service did for others.
“It had quotes from ponies who got rescued by Rangers when they thought they were about to die out in the wilderness. Something about that clicked for me. Saving someone when they were at their lowest seemed pretty great to me.”
Radish got his binoculars on the troops as they carried the unicorn to their outpost of temporary buildings. He was regaining consciousness, and looked around at his surroundings in a panic.
“Or maybe I was being selfish. Maybe I just wanted glory that was more personal, not diluted across a whole company. Heck, maybe I’d come across Celestia’s chariot crashed in some desert, and save her all by myself!”
“And then she would tryst with you?”
“I guess I was pretty stupid, huh?”
“But you did help others, nonetheless?”
“Yeah. Stranded carts, lost hikers, elderly coyotes. Nothing to scoff at.”
“Luna does not scoff at you. Celestia does not. The brethren do not, either.”
“Thanks, Echo.”
Echo looked at the outpost.
“They put up the soundproofing spell.”
“Can you hear anyone outside of it?”
“A meal between junior officers. They are… scoffing at you. I will not repeat their words.”
“Thanks.”
“Radish, we should check inside the Mistress’s lair.”
“Sorry, Echo, Luna specifically ordered us not to.”
“Then, what do we do?”
“Let’s check in at Glad’s Glades.”
“To examine the entrance at the township?”
“Wait, there’s an entrance to the lair at Glad’s Glades?”
“Yes. The entrance is within the basement of Nightmare Moon’s cottage.”
“Nightmare Moon had a cottage in Glad’s Glades!? Luna never mentioned it.”
“The Mistress rarely used it.”
“Okay. Show me.”
Echo kneeled, and Radish climbed on. They flew down the mountainside and into the town, where Echo dropped Radish off in front of a meticulously manicured cottage. It showed no sign of ever having anything to do with Nightmare Moon.
Then again, a hidden entrance to a hidden base wouldn’t advertise.
A pony trotted up the sidewalk hauling a cart full of garden tools.
“Excuse me, sir. Who lives here?” Radish asked him.
“No one. It’s been vacant as long as anypony can remember.”
“Really? It looks cared for.”
“Well, there are out-of-town owners. They pay to have it kept up, inside and out. I do the gardening, others do the dusting. But the owners never seem to come by. Their bank handles all the payments- they have for a long time.”
“But you know the owners’ name?”
“Yeah. The Moonglow family. Must be an old family- they’ve owned and ignored this house since before I was a colt.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“No prob. Say, are you with that military group up in the mountains?”
“That’s right. We’re conducting a search for a criminal.”
“Starlight Glimmer, right? Why here?”
“We can’t talk about it. But we’re dedicated to catching her.”
“Think she’s in that cottage, do you? Like she could be squatting in it as a hideout?”
“That, I can’t say.”
He fished a ring of keys out of his pocket.
“I’ll let you inside. But I’m not coming in with you. I don’t want to get blasted by a crazed unicorn.”
“Thanks.”
“Good luck.”
Radish and Echo entered the cottage. The interior had indeed been kept up. The layer of dust was normal for a home between routine cleanings. Junk mail had been collected and bundled.
Radish explored it. The furniture was old, resembling some of the pieces he had seen inside Nightmare Moon’s lair, and some rooms of the palace.
So this is what an ordinary home looked like a thousand years ago. I’m walking through history.
“Echo, could you show me the entrance to the lair?”
“Yes, it is in the basement. Come.”
Echo led Radish into the basement. It was bare. Echo trotted up to a stone wall.
“This is it.”
“It doesn’t look disturbed, either.”
“No. It has not been used since the old days.”
“Okay, that’s a load off my mind. But I’d like to check out the rest of the place.”
They returned upstairs.
“Echo, why did Nightmare Moon set up this cottage? Why did she need a hidden entrance in Glad’s Glades?”
“The apparatus needed to be built aboveground, in range of unwitting sleeping ponies.”
“What apparatus?”
“It is upstairs. Come.”
Echo led Radish upstairs. They took a hallway, and Echo stopped in front of a featureless metal door.
“I don’t see a knob,” said Radish. “Do you need magic to open it?”
“Yes, or the voice.”
Echo screeched at the door, and it slid open. They entered.
“Son of a sire!”
It was Starlight Glimmer.
She was inside a transparent sphere, hovering in the center of the room. She looked unconscious. Radish expanded his spear.
“Is that her, Envoy? The one who took your cutie mark?”
“Yep. What is that bubble she’s caught in?”
“The Fool’s Folly. Any interloper who tries to use the Mistress’s apparatus is caught in it.”
Radish looked at the wall behind her. It was dominated by a large lens, like that of a lighthouse, suspended on a lattice of golden struts. A control box stood apart from it, with thick conduits leading into the back of the device.
“What does it do?”
“She did not inform us.”
Radish walked around Starlight Glimmer’s floating body.
“Now I’m glad we never touched anything in the lair.”
“You would die, like her.”
“She’s dead!?”
Echo sniffed.
“She soon will be. She has been without food or drink for days.”
“Dang. It could have ended for her right in this room. Nopony might have ever known.”
“Could have? The Envoy intends to rescue her?”
Radish looked back at the door.
“We could just walk out. Seal the door again. Never report that we saw this. Leave her to her fate. It’s what she did to Light, after all. Maybe in another thousand years someone would find her skeleton, like Willow Wagoner’s.”
“But you do not desire her death?”
Radish stared at Glimmer’s helpless body. He closed his eyes and calmed himself.
“Desire or not, I can’t allow it. Not like this. I’d have to lie. I’d be sitting on that lie for the rest of my life. And knowing I left her wasting away in there would eat at me every day, worse than never knowing what happened to her.”
“Even knowing the harm she caused?”
Radish looked down at his palace expeditionary fatigues. Though they were designed with wilderness missions in mind, they weren’t camouflaged. In fact, they advertised- just as his armor had a star crest, his fatigues had a cloth star patch on the chest, signifying the wearer bore the authority of the crowns, and also the responsibilities that came with it.
“Especially knowing it. I have a duty, and that duty comes with a whole list of rules. And if I started breaking rules just because they didn’t suit me, I’d be just like her. And I’d expect you to arrest me, just as if I was her.”
Echo looked from Radish to Glimmer.
“I understand. You are saving someone at their lowest. For reasons greater than a tryst. But what do we do now?”
“Let’s go tell the REFs. They’ll take her in.”
“I am sorry that I told you of the cottage. You would be blameless for her demise.”
“No, Echo. You did the right thing. It’s just that sometimes the right thing doesn’t get us what we want.”
“You should get something nonetheless. Wait here.”
He left the room. Radish could hear the sounds of rummaging. He took the opportunity to snap photographs of the room and Starlight.
Echo returned with a rich blue cloak trimmed in silver. Its lining was deep purple. Its clasp looked like a full moon.
“A gift from a foreign land to Nightmare Moon. Woven of star spider thread. It will command respect, signify status, keep you warm, and protect from the sun’s baleful rays.”
Radish felt the cloak in his hooves. He threw it over his body and clasped it on. It fit well- Radish surmised it must have been more of a capelet for a pony of Nightmare Moon’s height.
“The Envoy looks grand! Perhaps even grand enough to captivate the Mistress!”
“Echo, I’m not trying to captivate Luna. I’m happy with Light.”
“The brethren have been talking. We feel you aim too low.”
“You just need to get to know Light.”
“We were bred to shun the light.”
“Hey, that was a joke, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Good one.”
“Thank you.”
“Come on. Let’s report this moron. At least they can arrest her, and she won’t hurt anyone ever again. Oh, and thank you for the cloak. I love it.”
“Captain Spitfire may love it, too.”
“Echo…”
“Something to consider.”
“Hey up there! Is she in here?” called a voice from the hallway.
The gardener from outside stepped into the room, warily brandishing his shovel like a weapon.
“Please stay back, sir,” said Radish, holding up a hoof. “This room is highly dangerous.”
He pushed past Radish. He saw Starlight and laughed.
“No kidding! So this is where she’s been! I didn’t think that door could open.”
“Sir, please step away.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“Arrest her.”
“And interrogate her?” he asked, cautiously.
“That’s royal business, sir.”
The gardener seemed distracted, as if turning something over in his mind.
“Why?” Radish asked. “Is there something she knows? Or is there something… you don’t want her telling anyone?”
The gardener now held his shovel close. He looked back at the door. Radish put his hoof on his sword’s hilt.
“You’re with her, aren’t you?” Radish asked.
“That’s quite an accusation, soldier.”
“I’m not hearing a ‘no’.”
“It is best that you answer the Envoy,” said Echo, cutting off his exit. “It is worst that you dissemble.”
“She showed up last week, all right? She knew this was Nightmare Moon’s place. Paid me for a spare key, and to keep quiet as she squat in it. Guess she underestimated ol’ Moony. What idiot would touch a supervillain’s doohickeys?”
“You knew this was Nightmare Moon’s place?”
“Open secret around these parts. Let me guess- Luna hasn’t noticed that one of her bank accounts has been paying to keep up this place for a thousand years? Must be nice to be so rich a whole house slips your mind.”
“You harbored a criminal.”
“Actually, it sounds like I caught a criminal. You’re welcome. There’s a reward, isn’t there?”
“Sure. Maybe it will cover your legal fees.”
“Now, don’t be like that. No one needs to know about any of this. I’ll split with you what she paid me, and we can seal her up in this room and go our separate ways.”
“Echo?”
“If Radish ignores the laws that do not suit him, I must arrest Radish,” said Echo.
“Looks like we’re out of options,” said Radish with a shrug.
“Well,” said the gardener, “maybe she can give me one.”
He reeled back his shovel like a baseball bat and swung it at Starlight. The shovel blade hit the sphere, knocking it out of the air and into the apparatus lens.
The sphere stuck to the lens like a fly on a spider’s web. Radish shoved the gardener to the floor and pulled out cuffs.
“Brother! The machine!” cried Echo.
Crackles of black energy arced between the Fool’s Folly and the apparatus lens. A green glow emanated from its center. The sphere faded in and out of existence, and Starlight’s eyes twitched.
Echo grabbed Radish by the scruff of his neck and ran out the door, crashing through a second-story window and taking flight.
“Echo! What-”
The room they fled exploded. Shards of roof tiles peppered the air, and chunks of flaming timber went flying in all directions.
A searing shockwave hit Echo, who was tossed head-over-tail. Radish slammed onto the roof of a house while Echo splat into its chimney. They both looked up.
Within the smoking ruins of the second story of the cottage, Starlight held herself and the gardener in a protective shield. She powered it down. She walked over to the gardener. He tried to struggle to his feet, but she kicked him back down to the floor. She shouted at him, though Radish’s ringing ears couldn’t make out what she said.
He motioned to Echo, who took his meaning. He hopped on Echo’s back, and drew the cloak’s hood down.
They gained height, then swooped toward Starlight. She didn’t see him coming. The gardener did, and covered his head with his hooves. Starlight, assuming he was cowering from her, laughed and kicked his face. He fell over unconscious. She spat more angry words at him, then teleported away just as Echo’s front hooves pierced the space she had been.
Echo skidded to a stop. He took flight again, taking a hovering position over the village. He scanned with echolocation while Radish glassed the area with his binoculars.
“I do not detect her,” Echo said.
“I don’t either,” said Radish.
“Such long teleports in such a weakened state! Her formidability was not exaggerated. I am sorry, brother. This is my fault. I will take all blame.”
“No, like I said, some days you do all the right things, and you still don’t get what you want.”
He saw the unconscious gardener in the smoking cottage.
“But some days you get a consolation prize.”
As they approached the lair environs with the cuffed and unconscious gardener, Martingale flagged them down.
“Root! Come see!”
Starlight Glimmer was on the ground- unconscious, bound, and with a stack of nullifier rings on her horn.
“How in the-”
“She just teleported right in the middle of us! Tried to run, but we took her down like cake. Who’s this?” Martingale asked, looking at the gardener.
“A townie. Working for her.”
“What was that blast we heard?”
“Another old trap. None of you came to check out the explosion?”
“We had our hooves full here.”
“What about that yellow unicorn?”
“Just another dumb patsy who fell for Glimmer’s claptrap. You know the type.”
“Glimmer would not have fallen to you if Radish Root did not set her up!” hissed Echo. “He deserves the glory for this victory!”
“Echo, it’s okay. All I want is breakfast,” Radish said, turning to leave.
“Nice cape, by the way,” Martingale called after him. “Oh, and major?”
Radish sighed and turned around. “What?”
He tossed an object wrapped in cloth at Radish. Radish caught it.
“We found this on her,” Martingale said. “Why don’t you keep it?”
Echo sniffed at it as Radish unwrapped it.
“What is it, brother?”
Radish’s eyes went wide.
“A consolation prize.”
Radish sat in front of Barrel Roller’s desk. She was chewing on a pen. She spit it out.
“Root, just finished your report.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Fine work out there. You know how often I get to brag that a guard brought down a supervillain that slipped AG1?”
“I didn’t do much, ma’am. The REFs nabbed her, and Echo made it possible to find her. And Glimmer and her accomplices made some pretty big blunders.”
“Root, don’t qualify your victories. Exaggerate them. Boast about yourself for once.”
“I’m a Level Ten Badass and I’ll have your job soon, ma’am.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Oh, the big horns want to see you. Courtyard A.”
Radish entered the courtyard. Several of the planters had been changed up, and new exotic grasses were being grown. Radish looked up at the Balencian orange tree. It still had a dent where Celestia had backed Radish into it, but now it had a Mourning Dove’s nest in its branches. He saw Celestia and Luna sitting at a small table. Luna was drinking coffee, and Celestia had a nightcap of brandy.
“Major, congratulations on your successes in the field,” said Celestia.
“Thank you, ma’am. I’m relieved Glimmer’s finally off the board.”
“Your testimony will be invaluable in convicting her,” said Luna. “She will no doubt be as slippery in court as outside of it.”
“I’ll be prepared.”
“And major?” said Luna. “Thank you for rediscovering my cottage. I’d completely forgotten about it. I purchased it a long time ago, as a birthday gift for Celestia. Then, well, Nightmare Moon happened.”
“Oh, really?” said Celestia. “Thank you, sister. It should be a nice fixer-upper.”
“Is there anything you can tell me about the device there?” asked Radish.
Luna held up the photographs that Radish had taken of the lens apparatus. She shook her head.
“I haven’t the foggiest what it was intended to do, and that worries me,” she said, looking at them. “I am having technicians examine its remnants.”
She then cast a scanning spell over Radish, who held his breath.
“You’re not radioactive, at least. Perhaps you should see Magical Decontamination again.”
“I will. Thank you, Luna.”
They traded salutes, and he left.
Celestia raised an eyebrow at her sister.
“He just calls you ‘Luna’ now?”
Luna sipped her coffee.
“Yes. Why?”
“No reason.”
Radish stood in front of the open wall safe in his palace quarters. He pulled the object found with Starlight out of his bag and gazed at it. It was his cutie mark, still encased in a chunk of crystal. He placed it in the safe.
“Okay, you two,” he said to the little Radish and the little Celestia. “Now you’ve got a nice private room to do that in. Enjoy it.”
Radish closed and locked the safe.
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Not sure how I feel about this chapter. Lot of conflicting feelings. That and the narrative whiplash. Things seem sorted, then they go to shit, then almost immediately they are back to being sorted.
Nice
I'm betting the cutie mark is a fake. If she can remove them and replace them with equals signs, who's to say she can't make fake ones?
I’m pretty curious to see how Starlight’s going to escape.
Hopefully now Radish can marry Light. Though I was sort of looking forward to the drama of the yellow unicorn waltzing into the palace with Radish's marks on him.
11941075
I agree about the narrative whiplash, and it felt SO WEIRD in the previous chapter when Starlight escaped...
But she escaped in the Canon episode , so she had to escape in this story as well....very interested how they are going to do the Timetravel stuff now.... I guess she will Escape AGAIN?? That seems REALLY weird.... Idk...
But this was a VERY NICE chapter on its own, really enjoyed it!
11941087
I feel like it would be weird if it would be fake.....I like this, because now RADISH has the power of when he gets his Cutie mark back, not somebody else. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't have it for a looong time in the future.
The story has followed canon so closely that people immediately wonder how Starlight will escape again, not even considering the possibility (however minimal) that Starlight will actually be tried and arrested
Starlight Glimmer is an anomaly in the magic department. If Twilight wasn't around there could have been the chance that she could have became the Element of Magic. So we may he going down the garden path till she tries to do the time travel shenanigans. So we'll have to wait to see what happens next.
I think Rad and Luna/batponies is my favorite dynamic of this whole fic hahah
Well whaddaya know only good things came from that development, definitely.
11941075
That's been happening a lot in this fic. A lot of the stuff that goes down could be built into its own arc with several more chapters, like having to chase Starlight into Nightmare's lair and going on an entire adventure trying to prevent her from doing anything too stupid.
It's still a good fic, but the author aims so low sometimes that it can get frustrating.
11941165
I'm probably wrong, but my speculation from this chapter is that the REF's will let her out for a DUMB reason, and somehow it will be blamed on Radish, or Echo and Radish will take the blame for Echo.
11941572
But thats NOT how Storys work!
If you have to bend over backwards to make up stuff that makes your story go the way you want thats not a Story then, thats just Bullshit at that point!
There should be NO REASON why starlight should be let go… NO FUCKING LOGICAL REASON !
The Flim and Flam Stuff was ALREADY just straight up bullshit…
11941324
I mean that is EXACTLY why I in general HATE storys that follow Canon to closeley, because you KNOW whats going to happen already, and the Story HAS to go a certain way to make the Events in canon happen. Your Brain doesnt go: oh what COULD happen next, it goes : HOW will this thing happen next!
Well, whatever else may come next (and I’ll freely admit that I wouldn’t mind having things go off script enough for Starlight to actually have to stand trial), it’s certainly nice to know that the time-honored tradition of inter-service rivalry is alive and well in Equestria, too. Seriously, double-you-tee-eff, guys?
11941608
I am going to make a guess on what may happen. So if my memory isn't wrong, originally Starlight just slunk around in the background and learned a whole bunch about Twilight, her friends, and how they got together and was determined to ruin Twilights friendship at the source...in the past all to make Twilight feel what Starlight had (( Still the dumbest villain backstory I have ever heard " My best friend moved away so now I'm sad " ))
It seems that for this story Starlight has just included Radish in her revenge...I think...but the story has changed slightly with her being caught.
If we assume that she still needs to follow cannon and do the whole time thing then we would have to figure out how she escapes proper imprisonment.
I think the answer is Twilight. If you follow the cannon then Twilight eventually makes Starlight learn all about friendship etc..in a similar way to what Twilight did with Celestia....more or less. Originally Starlight just snuck around in the background and used a spell on the magic map table...thing then blah blah blah...Twilight now has friendship student. Since we now have Starlight captured early I think that Twilight will step in and try to friendship the problem and Starlight will either fake going along with it or she will see no other option that isn't proper imprisonment. During this time things will seem fine and Starlight will learn about how Twilight and her friends came to be friends ( and in the process figure out how they all got their cutie marks ) , the map and probably the time spell and she will pull some BS to cause cannon to resume Starlight messing with Twilight's past. Radish will get mixed up in the mess...maybe even being one of the time travelers ( it was Twilight and Spike if I recall right ) and one or two of the possible futures we get to see will involve either Radish or his cutie mark. Whatever Radish sees in this future will lead him to returning his cutie mark to his butt or we'll see some twist involving it ( I'm betting on either Starlight or some rando Starlight manipulates into getting Radish's mark and this starts some event that could harm the fate of Celestia or in some way Equestria )
In the end Starlight will be stopped and either she see's the actual consequences of her actions and regrets what she did leading to our canon version of Friendship Starlight or she will be sent to a proper confinement until I guess Twilight releases her for friendship reasons.
BONUS ROUND
I would not be surprised if Starlight makes a move during Radish's wedding should he have one, though personally I'm 'Root'-ing on Discord doing that. ( Minus points if it's changelings...two wedding plots for changelings...come on! )
Absolutely loved this chapter!
Status: Complete
Pacing is way off this chapter. The latter half feels like a compilation of memories being played on a track at 3x speed.
Prediction: sometime in the future, someone is gonna free the mark and he's gonna have to deal with starlight again.