Princess Luna tried her best to smile as her sister got surrounded by admiring ponies, once more attracting none of their attentions. She took a long silent breath to collect herself, trying to reign the voice in the back of her head. She knew her sister loved her, and she'd just have to be patient to find her admirers. 'What admirers?' the annoying voice stated. She huffed and mentally kicked that voice, the one from her Nightmare Moon phase. She hated how it decided to stay and fester inside her, and usually when it did, all she had to do was have a rest and some tea from the royal chef. She tried to approach her sister to excuse herself, but a rude stallion pony bumped her out of his way to get a closer look at Celestia.

	Luna sighed and rolled her teal eyes before turning around, leaving the group to chat with Celestia, not knowing Celestia was trying to make her way thru the crowd to get to her sister. Luna groaned to herself as she walked down the lonely hallway, idly just trotting about for fresh air. The moon was high in he night sky as she made her way onto the lonely garden. She starred up at her place of banishment as she sat down to try and contemplate.

	'So unfair that she gets all the attention.' The back of her mind rambled on, and she found it hard to quill the voice. 'If only you were just as equal to her, and she as equal to you. Then you'd both get the same amount of attention, neither better than the other.' Luna blinked, shaking her head and arching her brow curiously. What had she just thought? The voice permeated stronger and stronger with every word, drowning all else. 'All that holds you back is the night. Give up the night. Nopony else has powers of the night. Why should you? That's why they fear you. But if you were just like them... Surrender the night.'

	Luna stood up and shook her head violently. She could not understand why she was thinking such things, nor why she even thought maybe... 'If I were equal to everypony, everypony would equally love me. I just...' Then the voice from the back of her head kicked in, making her feel woozy and weak. 'Just surrender the night. Release the hold of your cutie mark prison. That's all there is to it. So easy to give up the night, so easy to surrender your powers nopony else has.' 

        Luna rubbed at her forehead, groaning and frowning at the alien thoughts, though her more sensible half was getting drowned further and further. Thoughts of her and her sister equally the same, neither better than the other, flooding her every thought. Thoughts of all the ponies in Equestria just like her, no better or worse, no powers, just equally the same. She heard hooves trotting in close and her eyes turned to alight upon a pink unicorn mare bearing a smug smirk and confidently lidded blue eyes. The mare's purple mane and tail had a pale aquamarine stripe and her horn was glowing an alluring sparkling turquoise.

	It was at that moment, the small voice in Luna's that was her own came to the realization that this unicorn had somehow gotten inside of her head! She gritted her teeth, trying to call forth magic to overpower, but the unicorn was quick to brighten her own magic and quell the vain uprising. The unicorn began to speak, her voice all commanding and full of dominance and sureness of her control.

	“The only way to be happy is if we're all equal. You know I speak the truth. If all the ponies shared their love with you just as much as your sister.” Luna shook all over as those words invaded into her head. “My name is Starlight Glimmer. Remember it, for you will be thanking me shortly for freeing you.”

	“Fr-freeing us?” Luna managed to let out, her wings trying to spread out to make herself bigger. “U-unhand us before we call the gu-aaahh!” Luna gasped out, her eyes rolling back as Starlight's horn sparked fiercely.

	“Oh, you'll see my way soon enough, prin... no, we can't all be princesses now, can we? Titles like that only create superiority and unrest, everypony battling for who is better. In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie, Luna.” Starlight stated her beliefs in a simple by-the-fact tone, like she was simply reciting truths that had been hidden away, truths that Luna could only think of as being right. This unicorn was very right... “Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best. If Conformity will set you free. Accept your limitations, and happiness will follow. You're no better than your sister." 

	Luna's spine tingled all over as Starlight's confident voice washed into her ears and implanted the truth of her words. Luna struggled to think of anything else... 'Why should you think of anything else? I am right.' Starlight invaded directly into Luna's brain once more... and Luna nodded very lightly.

	“I only wish to bring equality, to create true harmony.” Starlight cooed out, her voice dripping like smooth tranquil honey, melting Luna's mind. “You saw how they treated your sister compared to you, Luna. Now, if both of you were utterly the same, both equally unmarked...” Starlight let her words hang in Luna's corrupted head, Luna's ears drooping down as her eyes began to decrease their once brilliant shine.

	“If w-we...” Luna swallowed down the royal we that she only used anymore. Nopony else talked like that, so why should she? She was no better, no different than anypony else. “If I... were the same...”

	“All it takes is to surrender your cutie mark. To give up that icon like the false sticker it is.” Starlight stated with her all-powerful smirk, eyes watching the once high and mighty alicorn princess. All too easy. “I can do that. I can give you the same freedom I will give your sister. And every other pony in Equestria. All you have to do is ask me.”

	Far in the back of Luna's head, alarms sounded as Starlight just simply stated her plan to rule all of Equestria with this equality idea. She gulped hard, giving a last futile attempt to grasp at that voice to save her sister, to save Equestria... 'from cutie marks. Useless, worthless cutie marks. Save them from their false destinies.' Yes. She had grasped upon her own voice... right? 'Yes, right. This is my real voice. Wanting, needing to be free. Free from the useless night.'
	“S-Starlight...” Luna's voice started weakly, sounding so far away to her own ears. Starlight simply kept her commanding smile, the aura of smugness, the unsubtle air around her that didn't leave any doubt that she knew she had won.

	“Yes, what is it, Luna?” Starlight asked rhetorically.

	“Please...” Luna gulped a bit, every thought in her mind all the same, all about asking... no, begging to be free, to be unmarked, to be the same as everypony else will be. Her body shaking, the princess a mere molding toy for Starlight now.

	“Please what?” Starlight pushed unrelentingly.

	“P-please free m-me.... take away my c-cutie mark... I...” I don't want it. Say it with me. I don't want my cutie mark, I don't want my powers. “I don't want it! I don't w-want my powers...”

	Starlight's smirk turned wicked in victory, her new conquest of Equestria going as easily as she thought. This new mind invasion spell would make all those ponies truly see how right her utopia truly is. Without a word or hint of hesitation, she tilted her head and zapped the former princess full on with her unmarking spell, making Luna gasp and stand at rigid attention. Luna's eyes widened a bit, her entire body enveloped by the mare's powerful spell, held a few feet above the floor. Then, just as suddenly, Luna cried out as Starlight's magic pulled hard at her cutie mark! Her voice was muffled inside the aura, only Luna could hear her own panting groans. Her legs shook and her wings tried to fluff outright, but they only twitched as her movements were held right in check.

	Luna's cutie mark began to bulge and stretch, the feeling so alien, like Starlight was taking not only the mark, but everything it signified, peeling at it and taking something deep within Luna... and there was nothing she could do about it. The realization of what was inevitably going to happen, that she had 'willingly' accepted this invader to take her very essence washed thru her and changed the alien sensation, to one of wonderful freeing bliss! Luna arched her head up, her eyes rolling upward as Starlight pulled and pulled without mercy, hitting the former princess with every ounce of the unmarking spell she had mastered. Luna's long flowing star mane and tail began to dim, becoming regular dark blue pony hair as her cutie mark began to peel off from her flanks.

	With a distinct wet sound, just like that of a sticker, Luna's cutie mark popped off, connected by a small fading string that held on tot he last minute, a sign of Luna's far gone true voice. Starlight simply huffed and formed a pair of scissors by the faint string – and snipped it without care. Luna gasped sharply, her maw hanging open as all ties were severed to her mark, to her essence, her identity. She was dumped unceremoniously onto the floor, her bare flanks slowly creeping with a new mark – Starlight's simple black equal sign. Starlight brought Luna's cutie marks over upon her hoof, looking it over.

	“See, wasn't that easy?” She plopped them into a jar and sealed it tight before pocketing it away out of sight. Luna shakingly caught to her feet, feeling very dizzy. Starlight then pointed up at the moon with a knowing smirk. She needed to make the equality deeper. “Why don't you see for yourself, dear princess?”

	Luna's faint normal blue eyes turned to the ivory object up in the sky, remembering in a haze that she could control it... Her horn started to glisten as she tried to concentrate, the moon being enveloped with a light sheen of her weaker magic. She gritted her teeth, her head aching as she groaned to move the object. She closed her eyes to concentrate, not seeing the moon wobble just a tiny bit. Starlight only smiled triumphantly, watching the black equal sign grow a glossy black, watching as it sent out an inky blackness across Luna's flank as it settled in deeper, halting Luna's magic as she of course couldn't control the moon. Nopony else could. Why should she be able to? Luna's horn faded and the magic went away as she panted, the new thoughts washing over her like that inky blankness from her new mark, her true mark. She had surrendered her princess powers.

	Starlight's magic enveloped Luna's normal dark blue mane and tail, began cutting and shaping it to that normal bland boring style she had made all the ponies of the village don. Luna began to smile creepily, her pupils shrinking, thinking only that all ponies would have to love her now as equally as her sister. Not yet. Luna blinked, turning to Starlight, her savior. 

	“After all,” Starlight continued with her voice. “Princess Celestia is not equal, is she? She doesn't see the truth of my ways. She's much too superior for our nonsense. But there's no way I could get her to see my way, so I guess she'll just remain more pop-”

	“No!” Luna said suddenly. “Starlight, thank you for taking my powers, thank you for making me truly happy. Please, allow me to help!”

	“Help?” Starlight repeated, her voice oozing with rhetoric tones. She knew exactly what she was doing. Twilight wouldn't be able to stop her once she got both the rulers into their place. Luna's muzzle beamed with that same big creepy smile Starlight knew all too well. Luna had broken.

	“Yes, let me help you show my sister this wonderful experience! She'd love to be one with me, if she truly loves me!” Luna giggled out, standing to attention before Starlight, the equality cutie mark giving off another wave of glossy ink black. Starlight brushed back her mane with an evil sinister smirk.

	Oh yes. Equestria will soon be Equalestria. No more playing around. Starlight had aimed right for the source this time. And when both these silly alicorn princesses had surrendered their cutie marks, the rest of all ponykind would fall right in to place. Where they belong.