How exactly does that differ from Starlight? She wanted others to adopt her beliefs whether they wanted to or not, put herself above all of the other ponies who were drained of not only their special talents, but pretty much any kind of useful abilities (including making edible food and, as it appears, simply galloping at faster than trotting speed) and took advantage of the fact that the others were so desperate for any kind of "friendship" that they didn't dare to challenge her ideas for fear of betraying the community, even when it was painfully obvious that many of them were not at all happy with their situation (except to Fluttershy, but yeah..). But sure, if your idea of ensuring other ponies happiness is brainwashing them into submission, then yeah, she's absolutely not evil at all.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that her intentions were to make them happy. Like I said, she obviously failed to do that, and she refused to admit that she had failed to do that. But at the end of the day her goal was to make others happy. That's all I'm saying, not that she was some sort of unsung hero or misunderstood do-gooder, or that what she did was somehow justified or okay. It was her intentions that were good. Not her actions.
And what I'm saying is that she didn't really care about the other ponies' happiness and this was just an excuse for her to boss them around. But yeah, I'm willing to admit that this point is open for interpretation and we'll just have to wait for her to return to know about her true agenda. One thing though: If the "Staff of Sameness" had really been the source of that equalization magic... do you honestly believe that Starlight would have given up her cutie mark then?
Joking aside, I have to agree with Bot-chan here. Starlight is just as evil as Tirek or Sombra, and a filthy commie. Sent from my pet rock using a Toyota
Gotta say I whole-heartedly agree with Bot-Chan on Starlight. She's a cult leader who took advantage of ponies' vulnerability to amass followers, all the while seeing herself as above them and superior to them. For some reason she reminds me of Lotso from Toy Story 3. Also, hi.