“What’s going on?” I asked as I joined them.

Twilight smiled, “Oh, I’m just asking Starlight Glimmer if she would show us the cave where they keep their old Cutie Marks.”

I looked between them and then nodded, “I see. Can we?”

Starlight Glimmer smiled and happily nodded, “Of course! Please, if you will all follow me?”

Said the giant spider to the pony. Hopefully not literally.

“Sure,” I agreed with a smile. “Excuse me for a second?”

Pulling back, I walked off and as soon as I was out of sight, I looked to the side. “Amber.”

There was a small pause before I heard a voice behind me, “Sir?”

“I need you to take a message to Canterlot and your Princess,” I said as I turned to my changeling guard, raising my hoof to stop her protests. “I know your orders, but this might actually put your hive at risk. Keeping Princess Skitter safe overrules everything, including her orders to keep me protected, right?”

Amber really didn’t look happy about this at all, but she finally nodded after a pause, “…Yes sir.”

“Good. Now, I want you to alert the Guard garrison in Las Pegasus and tell them to get here and secure the area. Then I need you to continue to Canterlot and tell Skitter and the other Princesses that they need to mobilize the rest of the Guard just to be safe. Something really fucking freaky is going on here involving the removal of ponies' cutie marks. I want Princess Celestia to come down on this place like a fucking solar flare before it can spread. Under no circumstances are any of the Royal Sisters to get within ten leagues of this place.”

Whatever happened here, it removed ponies' special talents. If that happened to Luna… or even worse for Equestria, Celestia…

It could end the world.

Amber nodded, “Yes sir. Anything else?”

I shook my head, “Go and go fast.”

The changeling hesitated for a second, “Be careful, sir.”

Smiling, I nodded and she took to the air, flying off towards the horizon before I turned and walked off, returning to the other side of the building to rejoin the group.

XXXXXXXX

“Just through here!” Starlight Glimmer exclaimed and paused by a cave entrance, waving her hoof before walking inside.

Letting Twilight take the lead, I shared a look with Sunset. Whatever it was that did this, it was in there most likely. If it was there all this time or if it was Starlight Glimmer that did it was yet to be seen.

I slowly moved into the dark cavern with the rest. Yeah, this wasn’t ominous at all.

“Behold! The Cutie Vault!” Starlight exclaimed and stopped, gesturing forward. At the end of the cave was a massive matrix of shelves behind glass. Each compartment seemed to have a floating hologram of a cutie mark in it, glowing and lighting up the cavern.

Before it a wooden staff was sitting on a low pedestal, balanced on its lower end.

Twilight gasped softly, “I have never seen anything like it.”

“And this, is the Staff of Sameness,” Starlight Glimmer said as she walked up to it, picking it up in her magic. “It was one of the great Metal Brook's nine enchanted items. We are incredibly fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks!” she said before she smiled at us. “I’m curiouAHHH!”

She finished in a scream as splinters and pieces of wood rained down all over her. We all turned to look at Sunset who shrugged as light faded from her horn, “What? If you gonna cast, cast, don’t talk.”

I just laughed and nodded, “Good girl!” before I turned towards Starlight.

“How… you… how DARE you!?” she screamed. “Stop them! Stop them!”

And just like that, the villagers rushed in from all sides, through hidden pathways. We were surrounded.

Shit, shit, shit!

If they were the villagers and just under some sort of mind control…

Twilight flashed away in a burst of teleportation, reappearing in the air, her wings spread to get a clear line of fire. Starlight lit up her horn and shot a beam at the alicorn.

As I watched, unable to stop it, Twilight’s horn lit up in a spell glow, but it was too late and the beam hit her in the chest.

“Twilight!”

I wasn’t sure which of the girls it was that screamed as Twilight’s mark ripped from her flank and floated away through the air before the alicorn dropped to the ground.

“Luckily, I no longer need the staff,” Starlight said as the mark floated over to her. “Now, hold them! They will all learn the greatness of sameness!”

“Sunset, pincher! It wasn’t the McGuffin!” I commanded her and didn’t wait for a response. Instead I ran to the right, slamming the stallion in my way off his hooves with a blast of energy before ducking beneath a beam of energy from Starlight.

Unknown spell, dodge, don’t shield.

Throwing myself to the side, I managed to just about avoid another beam before I hit the ground hard as something slammed into me from the side before I could retaliate.

“Get off!” I yelled and bucked the earth pony in the face only to catch the greenish beam from Starlight in the side.

The last thing I saw before everything faded to black was Sunset sending the pink unicorn rolling across the cavern with a yellow spell.