Equestria Girls: Equal Marks (Book 6~Equestria Girls Series)

Chapter 8: A Runaway Starlight

The Main Seven and villagers all stared at Starlight Glimmer, seeing that she was markless. "How could you!?" Party Favor said to Starlight.

"You said marks were evil." Double Diamond said. "You said special talents led to pain and heartache."

"They do! Don't you see?" Starlight pointed to the Main Seven. " Look at them."

"But, why?" Sugar Belle walked up to her. "Why did you take our's? And not give up, your own?"

"I--" Starlight yelled. "I HAD TO, you fools! How could I collect your marks, without my magic!?"

"But the staff has all the magic, we need!" A village girl said.

"The staff is a piece of wood, I found in the desert." Starlight said. "It's my magic that makes all this possible. You'd all still be living your miserable lives, thinking that you're better than everybody else...if it weren't for MY magical abilities!" She yelled at the group of villagers. "I brought you friendship. I brought you equality. I CREATED HARMONY!"

"You lied to us!" Double said.

"So, what? Everything else I said, was true. The only way to be happy, is if we're all equal."

"Except for you," Party said to Starlight.

Starlight put her hand out, as she was about to blast her magic beam at him. But she stopped when Sunset Shimmer said something. "Everyone has unique talents and gifts. And when we share them with each other, that's how we--"

"QUIET!" Starlight was angry.

"You can't have that mark, Starlight." Sugar said. "Either we're all equal, or none of us are."

Everyone else looked mad and they cornered Starlight.

Starlight used her magic to create a forcefield to block them getting close to her. Then she ran away to go back in her house.

"Come on!" Double said. "Let's get our marks, back!" He ran off.

"YEAH!" The villagers all ran off to go to the cave.

"Come on, let's all get our marks!" Rainbow said. She was about to run off with the others, but stopped when Fluttershy informed her. "Our marks aren't in the vault!" She said. "They are in there, with her." she pointed to Starlight's house.

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The villagers were in the cave, banging on the vault with their hands. "Stand back, everybody!" Double grabbed the wooden staff and ran a bit. He then threw the staff and aimed it. It made a dent at the vault and broke it open.

The marks all got released from the vault, and flew around to each person to whom it belonged to. A mark of 3 blue flowers flew to Double, and changed his outfit and appearance. The other marks flew around to the other villagers.

Once they have received their marks back, the village people then ran out of the cave, seeing magical circle beams fly around (that were marks). "Even without my mark, I can tell that this is beautiful." Rarity said.

Starlight saw what was going on, from the view of her window. "They come up to my village and disrupt my life." She walked over to her dresser that had the jars of marks on top of it. "Let's see how they like spending the rest of their lives..without their marks," She used her magic to pick up her bed, which revealed a secret underground path with a staircase.

She ran down the stairs while using her magic to make the jars float above her.

Applejack tried kicking the door open. Rarity slapped her hands against the door. Pinkie looked through the window of Starlight's house. They both stopped when they heard a loud whistle.

"Stand back everybody!" Night Glider ran and burst through, making the door open. The Main Seven all ran in the house and began looking around for any clues to where Starlight went.

"They're gone!" Fluttershy said. "They were right over there!" She said that their marks were gone.

They were all in Starlight's room and saw the secret hidden passageway of stairs underground. They ran downstairs in it, which led to a shortcut outside from a small cave.

"Look!" Rainbow pointed to a  pathway to a cave that she noticed.

Party got an idea. He took out a balloon and made it into a pair of balloon binoculars. He used it and saw Starlight running from a far with the marks. "She's headed for the past! If she's headed to those mountains, we'll never find her."

Pinkie took his binoculars to take a look in them. "These are amazing!"

"There's a whole network of caves up there." Sugar said. "Your marks and talents will be gone forever."

"Then, let's get moving, y'all!" Applejack said, running to the lead. Sugar and her friends were the first ones to catch up to Starlight.

The Main Seven kept trying to run faster, but they were too slow. "Oh come on!" Rainbow said.

Starlight was running, with a wooden cart that had the jars in them. Night was running after her.  "Are all of you so willing to give up everything, because of these strangers!?" She blasted a magic beam from her hand on top of a mountain top, which made the snow fall on top of Night.

"We gave up, everything for you!" Sugar said to Starlight. "Because we thought you were our friend!"

"I can't believe we have to count on these other people to save our marks." Rainbow said, walking with her friends on the mountain pathway.

"Well, we have no other choice since our marks are gone. And our magic and geodes don't seem to be working." Sci-Twi said. "Even we're not fast enough to catch up to Starlight, at this rate."

"Rainbow, if we hadn't come here to help them. They'd still be living under her rules." Sunset said. "It's their turn to help us."

"And I know they can do it." Fluttershy said.