There were kids there!

[Persona22 205]

Take a look at this screenshots from the first episode (or episodes) of season 5. The Cutie Map.

http://imgur.com/a/1RXHn#0

 

Noticed anything?

The villahe that Starlight was making everyone be equal, by taking away their cutie marks, by using a giant room to re educate those that didn't comply, that forced everyone to be the same, has colts and fillies living there.

 

Now, since we saw the episode and how it ended, it is safe to assume that all of the stallions and mares living there had already had their cutie marks and had them removed by the "staff" (which was a facade as Starlight Glimmer was doing the magic all along).

But how long had that village been going on? Weeks? Months? No, if they were all so much like that, and considering that the village was in the middle of nowhere, that you had to take a train and go on a seriously long hike trough a desert and mountains, it is clear that the village was there for years.

 

That means that all those fillies and colts, which by the way are all blank flanks, were born and raised in that village. And had to live there, and go to school there, and be educated from day one in that system where they were taught that they must never excell at anything, that they must hide what made them special, and if any one of them ever gets a cutie mark (unlikely since unlike the rest of Equestria, they were most likely discouraged from actually trying to find out their special talents), they would have it taken away and replaced with the = symbol.

 

It was already pretty bad when we saw what they did to Twilight and her friends, and then to whatever pony tried to "remember what it was like".

 

Now imagine kids having to live, go to school eat those horrible muffins and play in that village under Starlight Glimmer's regime of "Sameness" With parents that encourage said sameness, and that cannot just pretend outside and be themselves indoors because the magic of the = cutie marks prevents them from using their special talents (we all saw how Pinkie Pie was kept from being overly joyful, or how Fluttershy couldn't talk to animals anymore).

And that living there is the only thing they knew in all their lives.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Persona22

[Overlord0909 479]

That would suck... Good thiing it didn't continue like it did. We are who we are, and should never throw our talents away... Unless they are negative ones.

[Adorkable 2,737]

Without being in Starlight's mind-controlling way of thinking taking over the town, I think it's safe to say fillies and colts will be taught the proper way to live by their parents or guardians. 

[Pineapple Bloom 511]

Yeah, that's awful I don't know how anypony, let alone foals, could live on muffins though. O_O

The pony in that picture seems to be a teacher or a babysitter because she has so many foals with her.

[Persona22 205]

Yeah, that's awful I don't know how anypony, let alone foals, could live on muffins though. O_O

The pony in that picture seems to be a teacher or a babysitter because she has so many foals with her.

The first two are clearly teachers and/or babysitters, but the last three are parents, notice how the foals follow one of them. Or in the last case are around a single mare and stallion (I'm guessing that last one is a family)

[Eloquence 2,076]

That's very sad, more so for how accurate to our own world it is. Horrible as it is, kids end up in cults and similar groups, that's why there are little kids in the westboro baptist church, holding up hateful signs with words they don't even understand. It's surprising that MLP would include such connotations given that they're so sad and dark, but I can't fault their sense of realism here nor their willingness to fully tackle such a serious issue.

[Overlord0909 479]

We might actually be looking into it deeper... (Just throwing it out there! X3)

[Grepper 3,193]

I notice that the fillies haven't learned to do the unsettlingly fake smile yet.

Maybe there's hope for them!

[Persona22 205]

Did this happen to the other kids? Was it like this or something else?

I notice that the fillies haven't learned to do the unsettlingly fake smile yet.

Maybe there's hope for them!

This one kind of does. Look:

http://imgur.com/a/1RXHn#2

Edited April 13, 2015 by Persona22

[Grepper 3,193]

Did this happen to the other kids? Was it like this or something else?

This one kind of does. Look:

http://imgur.com/a/1RXHn#2

 

Now I see it. I guess some of them were learning.

Did you make that comic?

[Persona22 205]

Now I see it. I guess some of them were learning.

Did you make that comic?

No, I found it on derpibooru

https://derpiboo.ru/871251?scope=scpe25efed11f424976a556eab9c78288cd51c2738fb

[Honsou 399]

I noticed the foals when the episode aired. When they walk into the village and you hear all the welcomes there's a group of about 8 of them by a mare. And later on they get welcomed by three of the foals. Basically, it seems almost like the hitlerjugend. Educating the young to carry out the legacy of one.

[sweetolebob18 728]

If you have ever read Toffler's books (his big claim to fame is he coined the phrase "Future Shock" (IIRC)), the village is just doing what the American school system is designed to do.

[The Awesome One 1,315]

Doesn't matter now because Starlight is gone. Those kids are going to have a good foalhood now.

[chirox the pony 1,336]

All I can tell you is that in the real world there's kids suffering a lot worse then being told not to be different and eating bad muffins. Really that village isn't the worst thing imaginable.