"I hope he's okay..." Fluttershy said.

"Well, we'd best top worryin' and get to Rainbow," said Applejack. "Speakin' of which, where'd she go?"

Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found. The team searched all over the castle to find her, but no luck. After about 30 minutes, Spike called. "I found her!"

"Where?" Twilight asked.

"The top floor! She's going to the roof!"

"We have to catch her!"

Rainbow was standing on the roof of the castle. "STAND BACK! GET AWAY!" she bellowed at the others. "Don't make me do this..." She pulled out a knife she had gotten from the kitchen.

"Rainbow! You need to work through the pain!" Twilight said. "The only way to stop the Punishment Spell is to show you're not being punished for your actions!"

"I CAN'T," Rainbow said. "I ACTUALLY DON'T WANT EQUALITY LIKE THIS, IT JUST HURTS TOO BAD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, crying and smiling, her cuts opening, revealing her raw flesh underneath. She let out a scream of bloody murder. "I DO WANT EQUALITY! I DO! I DO!" she cried, but her wounds kept opening.

"Rainbow! They'll keep opening unless you work through the pain-or actually believe! You need to make a choice!" Twilight yelled, cringing at the exposed bones visible in her open cuts.

"I CHOOSE.... I CHOOSE...."

"Make the right choice! For Equestria!"

"BELIEVING IN EQUALITY!"

The ponies gasped. "Is she..." Scootaloo said through tears. Twilight nodded solemnly. Suddenly Rainbow jumped off the roof.

She landed on the ground, facefirst into Quill.

"Well, what brings YOU here?" Quill asked, smirking.

"I want to repent, because equality is the best way for Equestria to be fixed!" Rainbow yelled.

"We have a new member!" Quill shouted, the others cheering, while still banging their heads to break into the castle.

Suddenly Quill's staff lit. It levitated Rainbow's cutie mark onto himself. He laughed evilly, but was interrupted by Discord.

Fast forward to the end of the fight, and DIscord was hit. "Very good, Rainbow!" Quill applauded. "You are what we strive for here in the cult!"

"Thank you!" Rainbow said gleefully, her mark making her lose some color.

"Okay, Rainbow, since you demonstrated excellence, not that you're better than anyone else here, how should we punish Discord?"

"I have an idea. Why not let him never be able to snap again?" Rainbow said.

"Excellent idea!" beamed Quill. "Now do you want to help me take care of your old friends?"

"I couldn't be more willing, my leader!"

Meanwhile, Twilight and the gang ran to the bottom floor, holding back their tears for their lost friend. "I have an idea," she said, her horn starting to glow. She shot a beam of light out and created a staircase, leading to a large metal door. "Quickly, Starlight, bring me all the books in the library." Starlight nodded and left. "Everyone else, get inside. Don't worry-- no one without a cutie mark can get in." The others, in shock of their experiences, obliged, while Starlight arrived with a large mountain of books.

"Alright, I've got the books," Starlight said through heavy breathing.

"Great. Now we don't have much time-bring them through here!" Twilight ordered, knowing the cultists would eventually break in. "Now let's research cutie mark magic- we've got to save Rainbow!"

Author's Note

Had to edit because I lazily wrote the shelter scene as a simple explanation of what had happened.

I'm not an advanced author, so expect more mistakes to come, even though I'll try to prevent them.