Twilight entered the tree-house, as she made her way to her bedroom she didn't bother to light any candles, or clean up the mess that last night's comradely produced, she didn't care that a dozen ponies in town asked why she was so glum, she didn't care. She wanted silence, she wanted darkness, ignorance of her punishment. She had no thoughts, she had no emotion, she had nothing. In her mind she was just a carcass with fur and a mane on top, a horn that was nothing more than a paperweight. She collapsed on her bed and stared out of the only source of light in her dark, desolate room; the window. Said window didn't show much, she could see Sweet Apple Acres if she craned her neck to the left, the top of the crusader club-house peeked from behind an endless score of apple trees, further still, but out of view, was the homestead itself, where Apple Jack and Big Mac likely were, doing Celstia knows what.

'At least they have something.' Twilight thought to herself, 'At least despite what they've done, they'll be of use to somepony. Who am I? Without my magic I'm....capable of nothing, I have nothing to contribute to the world.'

Twilight let out a heavy sigh and sank into her bed, a grim look on her face. She thought back to all the times she had spent in Ponyville, from her first encounter with Pinkie, to Applebloom's escape from her despotic assistant. The light was bothering her, it represented Celstia's sun, and frankly, any reminder of that thick-skulked snob was the last thing the unicorn needed. She traveled down to the one room devoid of natural light—the basement. Not much ever happened here, sans the recent events of course. She hardly ever came down here since she moved in. She spotted the toppled pile of books, 'likely where Applebloom was pinned down.' The unicorn dismally thought. She made her way to that spot, a scattered pile of books pertaining to a wide swatch of subjects from 'Equestrian Phonetics' to 'Techniques on enhanced procreation for mares and stallions'.

Her skimming brought her to a picture, it appeared to be rather dated—due more to the messy state of this room than the age of the photo itself. It was Twilight and her friends: this had to have been taken not too long after her arrival. Twilight sat down and looked into it, all smiling faces, all had their own trials and tribulations. They were so close, their bond was held together by some unknown force, they had been through their highs and lows, confronted their worst fears, and yet they all stuck around. Dependable, reliable, loving friends.

Twilight put the picture down, she smiled. She still had her friends, and they would have her back no matter what. For the first time in days she had a reason to be happy, considering all there was to be miserable about, Rarity respected her, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie was—well—yeah.

The unicorn went upstairs and lit some candles, she opened the curtains, tidied up her mess and examined what sat before her on her desk. Those stories, fables, damming accusations of the Equestrian Monarchy.  Any other day she would have looked the other way and labeled these as an engaging work of fiction, though, unlike yesterday and the days before, she had seen nothing but kindness, understanding, and good will from Celestia, they had a bond and a mutual respect for one another. That was gone now, and so was her cautious skepticism of these controversial rags before her.  

As she examined the words, scrutinized the dusty, fragile book that complemented them, she began to form correlations and confirmations, both in these text and long running folklore deemed unfit and uncivil. She played these tragic and awful scenes in her mind. The vivid, graphic scenes of famine, slaughter, fear, and an unquenchable lust for immeasurable power. As the pieces of this puzzle began to align and connect, the shackles of propaganda from her youth and her studies began to crack and crumble.

As day became night, the scholastic endeavor continued, only amplifying in reward as she came across new revelations and theories. Coupled with the fresh memories of her encounter with Celestia, one of the crusaders' uttered a phrase that plagued her mind repetitiously,

'..take the magic back.'

The princess was more than capable of removing her of her magical prowess, Discord was turned into stone, deprived of any substance, it seemed everything under Celstia's hooves had limits. There would have been countless times her magic would have come in handy, there are many times it failed when it shouldn't have, why was this?  Her studies guided her to the answer, and she didn't like it one bit. A particular passage in another rustic book she uncovered made it all very clear:

'...and once the monstrous duet of oppressors ascended to the highest order, they depleted the magic of all unicorns and alicorns alike, they brought forth an elixir, said tonic held a farce magic. Enough to substantively work, and meet the needs of the magically inclined, however, never enough to pose a threat to the oligharchy. Never again would anypony turn the soils of power....for this farce magic was limited, rationed, and never constant in strength.....'

Many years of damage to this text required here to re-assemble these torn pages by hoof. Agonizing but well worth it,

'...this magic, dare we call it this, is fiat magic, its power and dispersion is controlled by the princesses, only the Elements Of Harmony are immune to this rationed, debased magic hence their fierce protection of the elements, hence they are entrusted to their highness most loyal, submissive subjects...'

Twilight paused, and read this final line a multitude of times. Her disgust building with each new pass, if the Canterlot royal family wished to remove all magic from Equestria they could most certainly do so. Most of their world ran off of magic. They did not have the machines of old to free themselves from this system of control and—enslavement. She couldn't think of a time in which it was ever used malevolently but that didn't matter. In Twilight's mind, she already had enough of a reason to be disgusted and horrified by what was being made clear to her: They knew of this amazing technology, they have the reigns over an untold some of unused magical force that could in one fell swoop bring the standards of living nation-wide to an unprecedented level. And they knew this, and with this knowledge they kept it away—to keep their subjects at their mercy, to ensure nopony pose a threat to their unquestioned eternal reign.

She thought about the Everfree Forest, and its real purpose. It wasn't always there, the world they lived in once was ruled by natural forces, unregulated weather, spontaneous life-forms. Without magic, these confined, coddled, and powerless ponies had no means of defense as their ancestors did.--The fury began building in the unicorn's heart and mind.

A world without cutie marks? Cutie marks, a form of social hierarchy, these stamps of perpetual occupation were pointless. She had always wondered where they came from, and what magical force dictated their existence, and she found it. It was taught to young school-ponies that cutie marks were simply happenstance, they were just an effect of natural order. As Twilight discovered they are anything but. The Ministry Of Marks, a cloaked bureaucracy determined, guided by the census and other information at their disposal, who was assigned what cutie mark. Those who posed a threat to the monarchy were given insignificant, materialistic cutie marks, whereas those who were presumed loyal enough to serve the monarchy would attain something at the very least enviable.  And of course, as she had expected at this juncture, the magic that powered MiniMark was the very same fiat magic that was thrust upon the plebeians, the servants, the slaves.

A knock at the door interrupted her stream of impressive findings. She could see from the window that it was Rarity and the crusaders. She must be returning Applebloom. She smiled as she approached the door, she could finally spend some time with somepony who appreciated her. Though she was a filly, Applebloom was far from stupid, and while the same couldn't be said for her siblings, she and Twilight share a stubborn pursuit of knowledge and adventure that she had yet to really see in anypony outside of the mane six.

Sadly though, Rarity's face was far from anything positive.

“May I have a word with you Twilight?” The unicorn seemed rather peeved about something. The evasive looks of the fillies made it clear what it was.

They croaked.

“Do you mind explaining to me why you are burdening my sister and my daughter with such inexplicably tasteless filth?” Rarity was yelling now. “Why if you weren't a friend I would let you have it! What possessed you to even think that such ridiculous nonsensical garbage was something these fillies ought to be subjected to? Have you lost your mind?”

Twilight took this torrent of ludicrous babbling and simply looked at her friend with pity in her eyes.

“Rarity, allow me to tell you what happened to me this morning.”

She strolled to a window at the opposite of the room and took a look outside, turned around and sat on her haunches.

“I am no longer the Element Of Magic, nay, I am incapable of magic. My horn is nothing but an ornament at this point. Everything I have ever accomplished has been defaced and everything I ever hoped to accomplish has been destroyed—at the hands of your beloved princess. Why you might ask? Why I had the audacity, the nerve to commit one of the most unthinkable acts in Equestrian history.”

She paused for dramatic effect.

“I stopped a filly from being raped.”

Rarity was going to speak, she hadn't even heard of what happened to Applebloom.

“Yes Rarity, for future reference so you don't make a fool of yourself, I, Twilight Sparkle, the greatest disgrace to the royalty of Canterlot, did what I felt was necessary to protect a filly from harm. And for this, I have been deprived of most everything that made me who I was, my countless hours of tenure, trials, and travels, were all for nothing.”

“But Twilight--”

“Shut up. Everything I had ever worked and lived for was mercilessly stripped from me at the hands of a heartless, spineless, totalitarian monarch! Did she hear my side of the incident? No! Did she even bother to see what the victim herself had to say? I don't fucking think so! No, instead she saw me as a threat to her eternal reign of oppression and absolute power, and so instead of acting in the name of justice, she acted in the name of self-serving vigilantism. Like any low living savage.”

“Twilight...what on Earth are you talking about?” Rarity sat baffled at what she heard. She could tell there was something different about Twilight, something seemed off or missing.

“They didn't tell you?” Twilight cast her gaze at the crusaders who were reminded of the last time she had 'snapped'. They feared the return of the potion induced doll.

“Spike attempted to rape Applebloom Rarity. He pillaged the alcohol in the fridge, became intoxicated beyond reason, and attempted to rape a fucking filly.  I ask you one thing, would you have acted by your facade of lady-like conduct if he had done the same to Sweetie Belle? Would you have been understanding and cautious about your conduct? No. and don't tell me you would be.”

“I—is this true?” Rarity asked no-one in particular, though Applebloom was in her view and she hung her head low and let some tears fall as she remembered.

“I--”  The purple maned unicorn was speechless. “I didn't know.”

“There's plenty more where that came from Rarity.” Twilight hissed as she made her way to her desk, “And if you have the time to barge in here and call me a heartless liar for telling these girls the inconvenient truth then you have the time for me to show otherwise.”

As the night wore on, and Rarity's queue of objections began to shrivel into acceptance of this initially blasphemous series of assertions, Twilight’s mood have improved significantly. She remembered if there is one thing she could do that nopony else could, its simplify a vast and harrowing quantity of information. The crusaders knew most of the story, but were further impressed by the newer details that Twilight shared, especially the one regarding cutie marks.

The fillies had remained silent and attentive up until this point. They were of course, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, their misadventures, their misery, even their very friendship was originally based on their pursuit of something that, they were told to believe had weight and meaning in not just society, but in the very nature of existence itself. A cutie mark was supposed to be your special talent, it was supposed to represent who you were and what you contributed to ponykind. And while indeed cutie marks tended to correlate with one's talent, the fact that it was all artificially conceived and contrived was nothing less than devastating to their whole cause.

“So...” Sweetie Belle began cautiously once Twilight finished her rant, “we've been going through all sorts of trouble, tree sap, and teasing for....nothing?”

“I'm afraid so girls.” Twilight gave them an apologetic look. “We all fell for it. Heh, of all the things Celestia took from me, I'm kinda now wishing this thing was one of them.” She glanced at her flank, her cutie mark was still there.

“I still—this is simply morbid Twilight.” Rarity said, somewhat deflated.  “If this is all true then....what could we possibly do? I mean by your very words it sounds like any resistance would be futile.”  She had a point.

“But...if anything, what yourself, these girls, and Rainbow have proven, we can spread this message—perhaps we can get at the very least all of Ponyville to hear of these autocracies and get Celestia to act!” Twilight was slightly excited.

“Darling, if she managed to exterminate an entire species of alicorns, wipe out nearly all of ponykind and reign for a thousand years following without question than I doubt our quaint little village would have any effect, at worst it would cease to exist.”

Twilight deflated once more. She was right.

“We gotta do somethin'!” Applebloom stood up and leapt onto a table as if it were her soapbox, “Ahm right tired of these ponies gettin' away with these awful things! Mah own sister ain't been punished fer what she did ta me! How fair is that?”

“Well, Applebloom we already discussed--”

“She's right!” Scootaloo proclaimed, joining her red-maned friend atop the table, hoof held high, “We can't just sit here while she makes our lives even more lame than they already are!”

“Yeah!” cried Sweetie Belle.

“Okay then girls,” Rarity said, apparently unamused by any of this, “What do you suppose we do then?”

The fillies sat for a moment, thinking vigorously on an idea, only to be met with nothing. They simply shrugged. Sweetie Belle then came up with something,

“If-If we could get the Elements Of Harmony than we could take down Celestia for sure!”

“That's all fine and good but...I'm no longer the element of magic, we have no idea who bears that title now.” Twilight was delighted that the fillies were engaging in this discourse, but was wary of this idea.

“Yeah an' mah sister ain't gonna help any.” Applebloom groaned, “Element of Honesty mah ass!”

“Applebloom!” Twilight gasped. “Language!”

“Sorry.” Mumbled the dejected filly.

There was silence for a moment, save some snickering from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Well, perhaps we should get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the more minds the better.” Twilight suggested.

“This late in the evening?” Rarity was almost whining, it was getting awful later. The girls had school tomorrow.

“Hm, I guess you're right.” Twilight said, “We'll convene tomorrow night. I'll get Fluttershy, Rainbow will likely come on her own...she needs to re-new a copy of daring due she's had out for a disturbing amount of time.”

“Awwww!” The fillies groaned, they were having fun in the excitement of it all.

“Come now Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo.” Rarity crowed, “It is well beyond your bed times and you musn't be late for school.”

“Isn't school run by the government?” Sweetie Belle asked,

“Yeah! All a bunch of prop-propa—malarkey!” Scootaloo wasn't too pleased with her phonetic impairment.

“Girls, it's Cheerilee.” Twilight couldn't help but giggle at Scootaloo's slip-up. “We'll all see each-other tomorrow, now remember—”

“We--” the fillies began.

“No, it is obvious I have to remind you. Do not tell anypony else about this understood?” She gave a stern look to the three fillies. They simply nodded. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle followed Rarity out the door. Applebloom remained sitting on the table.

“Can ah stay here Twi?” The filly asked, those big beady pleading eyes playing their part.

“I don't see why not, but  as Rarity said, you must get some sleep. Don't go thinking we're off to adventure just yet, not even close.” Twilight had a small smile as she escorted the filly to the bedroom. Once again, Applebloom opted to cuddle with her. The filly felt oddly deprived last night. Scootaloo wasn't the touchy-freely type, and Sweetie Belle was on the other side of the squished bed. Next Chapter: Diamonds, Feathers, and Lettuce Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 24 Minutes