Our Town

The place seems... quaint, if a bit drab. Thatch-roofed houses line the street in tidy rows, as if somepony had copy-pasted them from a storybook illustration. Ponies of all types roam around, doing their daily chores: baking, chatting, pulling plows, sweeping up, wasting time. Colorful banners flap lazily from poles, each featuring a peculiar symbol - an equal sign. An overly-friendly voice calls out, “Welcome! I am so pleased to have you here.” A purple-coated unicorn mare steps forward. “I am glad you decided to visit us.” This must be Starlight Glimmer, Our Town's renowned founder. “I see you have noticed the unique nature of our little community,” she continues proudly. “Here in Our Town, we have no divisive special talents. We are all equal. We do not flaunt our special talents because we do not have any special talents to flaunt.” She gestures toward a group of ponies laughing and playing a game together. “See? No petty jealousies or misunderstandings. Just friends united in true friendship.” As you watch, one mare stumbles awkwardly during the game. The others laugh good-naturedly and help her to her hooves. You glimpse two ponies sitting outside, one azure and one pure white, chatting over a plate of crumbly pastries. Their interactions seem warm, but something about the scene feels off. Scripted, almost. Starlight follows your gaze “Ah! They are Night Glider and Double Diamond, sharing the simple joys of equal conversation. Please, feel free to look around and sample what our village has to offer. When you are ready, come see me in my quarters. We have so much to discuss!” With a final warm nod, she trots away down the lane. As you watch her go, you cannot shake the nagging feeling that something here is not quite right.

Within her humble, but deceptively capacious two-story high house, Starlight Glimmer nervously paces back and forth. The floorboards creak under mare's anxious hoofsteps. She abruptly pauses and glances at herself in the mirror; critical eyes examine her flank, ensuring the equal mark sits firmly in place and has not wandered off. With a weary sigh, she tears her gaze away and continues her mindless trotting. Her hooves clop against the wooden floor in a nervous rhythm. Just then, there is a polite knock at the door. Glimmer's ears perk up instantly. “Enter,” she calls out in an authoritative tone. You step inside. “Ah, my most faithful friend! I am so pleased you have come,” Starlight greets you warmly. She gestures towards plush cushions and levitates a mug of cider over to you. The mug bears a chip on the rim as if it has seen one too many levitation spells gone wrong. “Please, make yourself comfortable. Any particular reason for your visit? Somepony causing trouble in the village? Remember! Any rumblings of disloyalty must be brought to my attention at once!” After a brief pause she adds, “I trust you have been keeping a close eye on the goings-on around town?” Starlight gives you an expectant look.

The depressing conformity of run-down houses and the sad music of drunken balalaika greet you in Our Town. You survey the scene to find ponies of every tribe engaged in mandatory labor for the glory of the motherland: hauling rocks, digging ditches, being re-educated through backbreaking toil. Faded red banners bearing the equal sign flap limply from poles. “Greetings, tovarish!” bellows a gruff voice. A unicorn mare strides forward, chest puffed out, her jaw set in a patriotic line. This is Comrade Starlight Glimmer, the iron-hooved leader of this communist pony paradise. An oversized ushanka sits atop her mane. “I am pleased you visit Our Town, the only place where ponies are free from the shackles of Equestrian rotten capitalism. And how did we achieve this utopia, you ask? By turning the entire village into a GULAG and enforcing equality through shared poverty! No more class divisions! Only equality... and borscht, if we meet this month's potato quota.” She gestures proudly at workers straining to pull an oversized plow. “In Our Town, friendship is obedience, and obedience is obligatory.” “No more special talents to divide us into bourgeois and proletariat classes! We are all equal in our happiness, sadness, sorrow, and love for communal barracks housing twenty ponies.” A pegasus prisoner attempts an escape, buzzing his wings frantically. Immediately, a guard pony blasts him from the sky with an anti-air magic missile. “A traitorous scum. He refused to sing the national anthem,” Starlight says dismissively. You notice two ponies, Night Glider and Double Diamond, engaged in what appears to be a thrilling intellectual discussion... oh wait, no, they are just smashing rocks into smaller rocks, for no apparent reason. “Is that not a delightful glimpse of our cultural revolution?” Starlight beams. “Soon they will receive extra rations as a reward for such productive activity! Then they can join the forced-voluntary cotton picking for some beet vodka!” Starlight wipes away a proud communistic tear. “Is it not glorious? Such struggle and hardship, yet ponies honor the party's 5-Year Plan! Now come, let me show you the Reeducation Camps where I harmonize dissidents. Or perhaps you would like to come inside and discuss things in private?” She nods toward her humble, yet deceptively capacious three-story high house...