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Twilight woke up, yawning her biggest yawn. It was early in the morning when she always woke up every day. Her gaze fixed on her blanket, flashing red. "Spike, are you shining a laser pointer or something? There's a red light from my blanket."

She realized there was no one shining a light at all. Spike was in his bed sleeping softly, yet his scales were flashing red. "Spike, wake up! I think there's something wrong with your scales!"

"...five more minutes..." Spike murmured. Twilight groaned.

"Spike, your scales are flashing!"

Spike yawned. "My scales are flashing? Your cutie mark is flashing red!"

"It is?" She checked her flank. "Spike, the map must be calling us for something very important! We need to go!"

Spike and Twilight burst through the doors into the map room. There were Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders' marks, along with Spike's scales, shining bright red on the map. They were over Starlight's old village, which was also glaring red on the map. "What's going on? Why is it glowing red?" Spike asked.

"I have no idea. This must mean it's very important, at least that's what I think. I don't know!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Why do we have to be here so early?" Rainbow asked.

"If the map's calling us here at 3:00 AM, then it must be important," Starlight stated

"I hope I can earn back my beauty sleep," Rarity sighed.

"You need your beauty sleep?" Scootaloo yawned. "Us three have to sleep the longest out of all of you!"

The nine of them entered the throne room. There sat Twilight and Spike. "There you are!" Twilight said. "I've been waiting for you!" The map shined brighter than it ever had.

"Hopefully it's calling us to a dangerous adventure!" Rainbow exclaimed.

Fluttershy tensed. "Dangerous?" she said timidly. "Um, if it's okay, can I sit this one out?"

Twilight stood up. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. This might be too important not to pass up. The map hasn't called all of us in the while, so we have to go."

"Yeah!" Pinkie shouted. "It hasn't called us since season 5!" The other ponies stared at her.

Starlight walked to Twilight. "...Anyway, we need to get going. The map is calling us to my old village, so it must be something we can handle. The villagers haven't caused any problems since I left."

"Maybe the map is acting up," Applejack asked.

"Acting up?" Twilight said. "The map doesn't 'act up.' It's enchanted with age-old magic! It can't 'act up!'"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't we be going? I'm bored!"

"Alright. We can handle this together. We've tackled strong things before. Come on, let's go!"Twilight said, determined to solve whatever friendship problem the map called them for.

They arrived at Starlight's village, which was quieter than usual. None of the bustle of charming ponies the old village had. Not a sound could be heard coming from it. "It's quieter than usual," Apple Bloom stated.

"Not only that, but for some reason, they aren't wearing the same clothes they used to. They look... beige, instead of the multi-color dresses and shirts the clothing store sells," Starlight said.

They walked closer to the village. Everyone there was wearing long, beige cloaks, with abnormally large smiles, and the same hairstyle. "Uh, guys?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Why is everypony smiling like that?"

"I don't know. If they're all smiling, then there must be nothing wrong here," Fluttershy stated, relieved.

"Everything is wrong," Pinkie stated. "Their smiles. Their 'fake' smiles. They're back!"

"What fake smiles?" asked Spike.

"Those smiles aren't natural. When we first came here, I knew they weren't right. These are even worse than the first time!"

"I wonder what's going on?" Starlight asked. "This must be a big problem."

She walked up to Double Diamond, smiling and staring off into space. "Welcome!" he said, clearly not paying attention. "How can I help you?"

"Double Diamond, it's me! It's Starlight!" she exclaimed.

"Starlight?" Double Diamond's eyes widened. "Our leader has returned!"

The villagers all thew off their cloaks, revealing their flanks. Their cutie marks were all equals signs. "What?!" Starlight yelled, dumbfounded. "What happened to your...?"

"We used to have or old marks, but we were cleansed! Quill helped us, by sacrificing his horn to equality!" Diamond said, his eyes going lopsided.

"Quill? The librarian? He never wanted to stop being equal?" Starlight asked. "And where did your cutie marks go? I thought the cutie mark vault was destroyed!"

"Quill is keeping them for us in a safe place- his body!"

"Quill put your cutie marks all over his body?" Starlight yelled. "That's crazy! Why didn't you stop him!?"

"He has his way of... persuading us," he laughed sheepishly, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, fear stamped in his eyes. "And he isn't crazy! We were crazy! And you were crazy to leave us! We need revenge! Quill has been searching for you, to get back!"

"Quill has been looking for you?" Twilight asked. "That must mean..."

"He's headed to Ponyville!" Applejack shouted. "We have to go!"

"You're not going anywhere," the villagers said in unison, with a gleeful smile on their faces like they weren't about to indoctrinate ten ponies and a dragon into a communist cult. Thinking quickly, Twilight enveloped her and her friends in a strong force field. Suddenly, the villagers' cutie marks started glowing and shot beams of magic out from their flanks, carrying them to the prison cell.

"How are they doing that?" Spike asked.

"I've read about magical re-enchantment before. Quill must have fused his horn with Starlight's old stick, which bursted with magic, pooling it into their marks!" Twilight exclaimed. "I conjured the strongest force field possible, and they still were able to lift it! Starlight, how much magic did you put in that thing?"

Starlight laughed sheepishly. "Well, I was in power for a few moths, and cutie mark magic is very powerful..."

They arrived at the cell, which looked bigger than before. It had a more menacing look from the outside. "I have a plan," Rainbow said. "We need to play dumb, like the first time we were here. Let me handle this, Twilight." Twilight removed the force field and Rainbow cleared her throat. "Ahh! You got us good!" she acted horribly. Put us in the cell, we deserve it. Woe is us!"

"'Woe is us?' That doesn't even make sense!" Rarity whispered. "You are a horrible actor!"

Apparently the villagers bought it. The eleven of them walked into the cell now sporting multiple cells, and a separate room that wasn't there before. Each pony-and dragon- walked into a different cell.

"When Quill gets back, it'll be your marks," Double Diamond said menacingly. The villagers left.

"We have to get out of here!" Twilight whispered.

"I didn't know there would be different cells! My plan was to spin so fast to create a sonic rainboom and destroy the cell since they hadn't taken our marks, but this isn't enough room to do it!" Rainbow yelled. Twilight shushed her.

"I can teleport us," Starlight responded. She desperately tried teleporting, but she couldn't. "Oh, no. Quill must have used everyone else's magic to create a non-magic field around the prison!"

"I thought his horn was broken," Rainbow said.

"Horns don't work that way," Twilight said. "Breaking a horn only weakens your magic. As long as remnants remain, you can still use it. He must have used the cutie mark magic of the village to power up his horn!"

Suddenly, a pony walked in the room. He unlocked Rainbow's cell, immediately cuffing her hooves and wings. "Come with me," he said, walking to the unknown room.

"What's going to happen to her?" Scootaloo said, concerned.

"I don't know," said Twilight. "But it must be something bad."

Suddenly, they could hear Rainbow Dash screaming bloody murder from the other room. Suddenly there was silence. "Oh no!" Pinkie yelled. "We have to save her!" Quickly Pinkie strung her puffy hair outside her cell and began to pick the lock. "I'm a coming!" she yelled. The others stared at her. "What? You've seen my hair grab things like this before!"

Pinkie burst open the cell door and unlocked everyone else's cell. "Come on!" Twilight shouted. "There's no time to waste!"

The ponies (and dragon) crashed through the door. "Rainbow Dash, we're here to save you!" The guard pony began to stop them, but Applejack bucked him against the wall, knocking him out. There Rainbow sat, riddled with scars and blood dripping down her torso, not moving at all. "Oh no!" Rarity shouted.

"Is Rainbow okay?" Scootaloo cried.

"Don't worry!" Twilight said. "She's breathing. She's just unconscious."

Quickly they rushed out of the prison, everypony in the village noticing and starting to chase them. Twilight hastily teleported her and her friends to Ponyville.

They landed next to the castle. Crazed madness rung out from everypony. Half were running in shock, yet half acted like everything was normal. An anxious mare stopped next to Twilight, carrying Rainbow with her magic.

"Twilight, what are you doing? You need to evacuate!" the mare yelled.

"What? What's going on?" Twilight asked.

"Why, I'm going to cleanse you, of course!" said a pony with a staff walking out from the shadows, cutie marks stamped all over his body, his horn broken.

"Quill!" Starlight yelled. "We have to run!"

The ten ponies and one dragon ran into the castle. Applejack dashed through the halls, bucking furniture to barricade the door. "How are we going to stop this?" asked Twilight. "If this keeps going, all of Equestria will have the same cutie mark!"

"I believe I can help," said a voice from the end of the hall. Standing there was Discord, smiling devilishly.