Writing this chapter and the next one was the original reason I started working on this story in the first place. Especially the next chapter.

Chapter Sixteen:
“Revelation”

The next morning, Starlight brought out a tired-looking Twilight Sparkle and her four other friends. She once again explained to her village what was going on, reminding then that they were there because they wanted to force them back into their cutie marks, and we're plotting how to accomplish this.

“However,” she told the village, “even after what they tried to do, we should still want them to feel welcome here. Let’s accept them with open arms, without judgment, and make them our friends,”.

She started to walk back to her house, the chatter of the village greeting the five behind her, but glanced over her shoulder to see Fluttershy whispering to the princess. Panic started to rise up inside of her. Fluttershy had seen Starlight’s mistake last night. She knew about her cutie mark. However, she forced herself to keep walking towards her house. She didn’t want to look suspicious. All she had to do was make it to her home, to safety, and she could come up with a plan from there.

Close, so close she was to her door when she heard the bucket of water coming at her. She instinctively jumped to the left, out of the way, nearly all of the water missing her. Nearly. She looked down at her flank to where her cutie mark was concealed. Just a few drops hit her, but just a few drops were enough to make the makeup smudge. A tiny glimmer of green was now visible against her pink coat. Her secret, her lie, was now visible to the whole town.

She turned around to see the entire village staring at her in stunned silence. She stared back at them silently, not knowing what to say. Everyone now knew that she still had her cutie mark. How could she have been so careless? Her entire world would now crumble because of a stupid mistake that could have been so easily avoided.

No, it hadn’t crumbled yet. There was still a chance to persuade them she needed it. Which was true. She did need it. She could fix this. All she had to do was convince them that she needed to keep her cutie mark and they needed to give up theirs. A tall task, but one that could be done. One that had to be done.

“You still have your cutie mark?” Double Diamond asked, completely shocked. Then his shock turned to anger. “How could you?” he demanded.

The entire village’s eyes were on him and her. That was good. That meant that all she had to do was convince him to convince them all. It was a very tough task ahead, but she could do it. She was confident she could do it.

“You said cutie marks were evil!” he yelled at her. “You said they lead to pain and torment!”.

“They do!” she tried to tell him. “That’s why I concealed mine! I didn’t want something like this to happen!”.

“But why did you keep it?” he demanded. “Why did you take ours and not give up your own?”.

“I wanted to give mine up!” she insisted. “You know that Double Diamond! You know I didn’t want to get mine in the first place! But once I got it, I had to keep it to use my spell! I couldn’t collect your cutie marks without my magic!”

“So the ‘staff of sameness’, was that another lie?”.

Starlight winced at that. “I- I didn’t want to lie to you. I really didn’t want to lie. You have to believe me,”.

“Then why didn’t you tell us that you were keeping it? You could have at least told me!”.

“I didn’t want you to think that I thought I was better than you,” she said, trying not to panic. “I didn’t want you to think that I was deceiving you,”.

“But you did,” Double Diamond said sadly, shaking his head.

“That’s not true!” Starlight said desperately. “I- look at our village! We’re all happy here, and it’s because we’re all equal!”.

“Except for you,”.

“Please, Double Diamond,” she begged, “please believe me. I didn’t want to lie to you,”.

Her begging didn’t matter. Before she finished, he had already made up his mind. “Come on guys!” he called. “Let’s get our cutie marks back!”. He then took off running in the direction of the rock, the rest of the group following after him. Starlight already knew what would happen. With their combined efforts, the rock would tip over and shatter, releasing the cutie marks. And there was nothing Starlight could do about it. She had just witnessed years of hard work crumble in just a few short minutes. She was stunned.

She then remembered the princess, and turned around to see a satisfied grin on her face. This was all her fault. All of Starlight’s friends now hated her because of Twilight. She would make her pay, and she already knew how. With a flash, she teleported inside her bedroom, took the jar of cutie marks out of the desk, and ran out the back door, towards the mountains, but in the opposite direction of the vault. She was headed towards the caves, the ones she could get lost in, where nopony would ever find her. The princess had ruined her life, and she was going to make sure she suffered for it by never letting her have her cutie mark back.

After sprinting for several minutes, she began to alternate between jogging and walking, never taking her eyes off the pass into the caves she was headed for. It wasn’t too far, and she knew she could make it there in no time. All she had to do was make it there. Then she’d come up with a spell to destroy their cutie marks for good.

A few moments later, she saw a bright flash, and watched as over a hundred cutie marks flew into the air, then back down out of sight. She clenched her jaw in anger. The town had broken her rock. No, the princess had broken her rock. That was a mistake, and Starlight would make sure she paid for it.

As she made her way across the bridge to the caves, she heard the galloping of several ponies behind her, quickly catching up. She didn’t bother to turn around, opting instead to sprint towards the caves that were right ahead of her. She was close, so close. “Just get into the caves,” she thought. “Get into the caves and use a teleportation spell. Then the princess will have to pay for what she’s done,”.

“She’s getting away!” she heard somepony, the princess, cry as she entered the caves. Good. It what she deserved for tearing her village apart. She galloped in for a few seconds, then stopped and turned to see the princess desperately trying to catch her.
“Too late,” Starlight thought angrily, as she geared up to use the spell to teleport further inside the cave. However, the instant before it could happen, a snowball hit the jar, causing it to leave her grasp and shatter on the ground.