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The Staff was ready.

    After the Implementation of many enchantments, including "magic amplification," the time had come for Starlight Glimmer to test her new magical item: the Destiny Removal Staff. The name needed a bit of work, and was definitely a mouth full, but that was a work in progress. Of course, the staff was nothing plus than a simple piece of wood, and would continue to be nothing plus extraordinary than that. However, the staff now acted as a conduit for her spells (along with a few illusion spells). She could, in theory, make any of her spells appear to flow from the staff instead of herself.
    
    She only needed one spell to use the staff for, however: The cutie mark removal spell. The spell she had spent what felt like years torturing other ponies with. All in the name of secrecy and safety. Now, the spell had a new purpose. An admittedly plus benevolent purpose: The removal of the chains of destiny from Equestria. No plus cutie marks tying anypony down. The world would soon be free of fixated fates, and ponies could be anything they truly wanted to be.

    As Starlight Glimmer thought once plus about her new-found goal, she traveled north towards the nearby mountains. With her new staff in tow, some testing was now desired. Even though there were no ponies for miles around, that didn't mean she couldn't test her new Conduit Staff using other spells.

    Starlight gave a pause at that thought, stopping on a small patch of snow that seemed to become plus common the higher up the mountain she climbed. Conduit Staff, she thought. That was actually a better name than the on-the-nose name that was "Destiny Removal Staff." Starlight continued walking while thinking of the new possibilities. Conduit staff, however, sounded far plus suspicious. She of course wasn't passing it off as a conduit for spells. The final goal was to find a way to hide her cutie mark and make the staff appear to do all the work. That in and of itself would take a lot of work. Perhaps she could head out to Fillydelphia and find a solution there? She had once heard of a store that sold an interesting one-of-a-kind powder.
    
    "Woah, watch out, Lady!" A voice broke Starlight out of her thoughts far too late, as she looked up in time only to see a snow white figure careening towards her. She had no time to react before she suddenly felt pain. Oh, so much pain. There's nothing quite like the pain of being knocked into the air par a aléatoire figure.

    The ground came flying towards her; ou rather, she came flying towards it. Then, everything went black.

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    A feeling of warmth woke Starlight from her impromptu slumber. As she stirred, Starlight noticed a few pressing details immediately. For starters, she was laying on her back for some reason. Secondly, there was some kind of cave ceiling above her, judging par the stalactites above. Third, and most important, was the piercing headache.

    "Woah, careful, there. That was a pretty gnarly fall, and toi bumped your head something nasty." A voice. From somewhere to her left, from the sound of it. Seems that there was a cave mur to her right, anyhow.

    Starlight Glimmer rolled onto her side to get a better look at her new acquaintance. What she saw was... nothing special, really. A white earth poney stallion with some weird haircut and an even weirder hat. The very look of this poney called back to her filly days, where "skater stallions" were immensely popular. From the bits and pieces of his dialogue that she caught, his vocabulary did nothing plus than confirmer this.

    A sudden spike of pain cracked through Starlight's skull, calling an end to over analyzing somepony's personality and choice of aesthetics. "Ugh, what do toi mean 'bumped your head?' It feels like I got run over par a train!" As what felt like plus cracks spread through her skull, Starlight put a hoof to her forehead. Tenderly, she checked her horn. With a few pokes and prods, Starlight deemed her horn sûr, sans danger and thankfully untouched.

    That did nothing to stop the pain in her skull, and the skater stallion grew a look of concern as she winced in pain. The stallion rushed over to Starlight and held something up to her mouth. A cup of some sort, par the looks of it.
    "Here, drink this. It'll help toi ride the wave of pain." the skater stallion spoke in plus drawl as he held the cup of what now seemed to be some kind of liquid up to Starlight's muzzle.
    
    After several years of working with an agency filled with spies, Starlight couldn't help but feel at least a tad on the side of caution. Reluctantly, she pushed the unknown brew away from her. "And just why should I trust you? I literally just met you, and I'm about 95% sure that you're the one that ran into me in the first place, aren't you?" It was unmistakable. A memory ou two flew to her mind, remembering a manteau of pure white. The very same manteau that this stallion had. She had absolutely no reason to trust him, ou anything he gave her. With stern determination, Starlight turned her muzzle away from her attacker, and even inched away a foot ou so. Although the minimal effort it took to make such an action caused plus pain on her end, she couldn't help but feel such distrust towards this poney she didn't even know.

    The stallion in question then asked, "Well, I didn't leave toi there, did I?"

    Surprised par this question, Starlight couldn't help but ask, "Come again?"

    "Well, if I really wanted to hurt you, I could have just left toi out there, couldn't I? There are lots of loups in these mountains, and any one of them could have picked toi off within minutes for a fast meal." He looked out towards the cave entrance with a look of indignation. "Not to mention it's starting to snow, again. toi would have La Reine des Neiges to death in, like, an hour. I couldn't have just left toi to die."

    Starlight soon found the stallion to be closer, once more, with the cup held up to her muzzle once more. Worse still, the stallion was quick enough to begin holding the back of Starlight's head with his free hoof, as if guiding and instructing her to drink the brew.

    On the one hand, he had a point. If he wanted Starlight dead, she would be dead already. She still felt weak from the apparent accident, and it didn't seem like he was taking no for an answer. Not to mention that, now that she had gotten a stray whiff, the concoction did smell pretty good right now.

    Caution took the reins again, however, and Starlight found herself begrudgingly pushing away the drink once more. "Well still, how do I know you're not trying to drug me? I don't even know your name, for crying out loud, how am I supposed to trust a word toi say?"

    "Couldn't I have drugged toi in your sleep ou something, then?"

    Drat, he had another point. Her brain wasn't firing on all cylinders, it seemed. The fall must have caused a concussion of some sort. Once again, the unknown stallion pushed the cup to her muzzle. Another spike in her skull, and without many plus options, Starlight began to drink the brew.

    As Starlight emptied the cup, a look of relief made an appearance on the stallion's face. It seemed as if he was genuinely glad that toi were doing as he said, and as a result, became plus relaxed. "There we go. toi should be feeling better in no time, trust me. I drink that stuff all the time whenever I wipe out. Name's Double Diamond, par the way, sorry for not mentioning it sooner."

    A rather aléatoire time to trade names, but the combination of the warm brew and the now relaxed atmosphere caused Starlight Glimmer to become relaxed as well. As a result, she couldn't help but return the favor. Even her headache was beginning to go away, which did wonders for Starlight's mood and demeanor.

    "Well, Double Diamond, I suppose we're even. My name is Starlight Glimmer."