Seconds from Disaster: Happiness of Horrors
******This fanfic is based on National Geographic’s Seconds from Disaster TV show and contains facts mixed with speculation******
"Starlight Glimmer's town is home to ponies of all types. It's a small, quaint town with few buildings. Suddenly, when Twilight arrives with her friends, the ponies they find take the Mane Six prisoner and force them to learn their ways of the town. Disasters don't just happen. They're a chain of critical events. Unlock the clues in those final Seconds from Disaster.
"Ponyville. -----> Equestria. ----> The Town of Equality. Along with her new castle, Twilight has received a crystallized map that displays areas beyond Equestria. When ponies are needed, it uses their cutie marks to pinpoint the location of trouble. 8:10 AM. Twilight and the others are called to the Town of Equality to deal with a crisis. 8:43 AM. They arrive and discover that everyone is happy and all seems well, even when they are greeted by the leader Starlight Glimmer. 10:48 AM. The group somewhat feel uneasy and head to a bakery for lunch. 11:02 AM. Waitress Sugar Belle attends to them but isn't a very good cook, leaving the ponies to somehow devour the pile of muffins. 11:50 AM. With lunch over, the group infiltrate Sugar Belle's bakery basement and learn that not everyone is happy as is. Starlight Glimmer directs them to a 40 foot vault of cutie marks and takes their cutie marks. With them under the same magical forces, the Mane Six are corralled into a tiny room and forced to convert over."
"Now by rewinding the events of that day and going deep into the investigation, we can reveal what went wrong at the Town of Equality. Investigators need to understand more about this town and its owner. Who is she and why did she want to convert everyone to be the same?" *Double Diamond comes on screen*
"She was looking for equality because she felt that since we were all different, it'd be much easier to make us all the same so there wouldn't be fighting," explained Double Diamond.
"It's a start but why didn't the ponies realize that the smiles on their faces were forced?" *Twilight comes on screen*
"We knew it was odd for everypony to be happy in a town needing help but that was just it. Their happiness masked their true feelings, not to mention their cutie marks," replied Twilight.
"Why didn't the others take action as it was happening?" *Sugar Belle comes on screen*
"I guess we thought it was for the best. That and maybe Starlight Glimmer was too good at manipulating us with lies," figured Sugar Belle.
"If everyone was under Starlight Glimmer's magic, why wasn't everyone completely affected?" *Night Glider comes on screen*
"It's hard to say but my guess is that for some of the ponies, their love for their cutie mark was strong enough that Starlight Glimmer's magic couldn't fully penetrate them, though their desire wasn't as strong afterwards and thus couldn't make the ponies rebel. That and likely they didn't want to rebel for fears of what would happen." stated Night Glider.
"The last thing investigators need to know is why didn't Twilight's magic counteract Starlight Glimmer's magic?" *Starlight Glimmer comes on screen*
"She let her guard down because there didn't seem to be a crisis. That and because we were all new to her, it'd have been wrong to simply accuse us of wrongdoing without proof. Besides, she wanted to try and be friends with us, which ended up being a mistake," recalled Starlight.
"Now that the pieces are in place, we can reveal the chain of events that led to disaster at the Town of Equality. 3 hours until disaster. The ponies arrive but the smiling faces of the town's ponies not only mask their true feelings but leave Twilight to let down her guard. 1 hour to go. They decide to try the food in town but since it's not up to their standard it's much harder to swallow. 45 minutes left. The ponies enter the bakery's basement where desires for their cutie marks are strong enough to partially resist Starlight Glimmer's spell but not fully. Disaster strikes. Starlight Glimmer shows everyone her cutie mark vault and takes the Mane Six's cutie marks. Now under her control, Starlight Glimmer traps them and starts their corruption."
"After the disaster, those under Starlight Glimmer's powers were freed and Starlight Glimmer is beaten. The Mane Six and the Town of Equality residents have become great friends. With no one to corrupt their minds or their personalities, the Town of Equality residents will make sure that no one tries to take away their freedom or their personalities again."
