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Twilight and Starlight frantically skimmed through their books, being handed to them by Spike, Pinkie, and the CMCs. The two shuffled through 'Daring Do', 'Advanced Spells for Gifted Ponies,' and her multiple copies of 'A History of Magic,' to no avail. They gasped at even glance of titles, such as 'How Not to Help Your Child earn a Cutie Mark,' ' What Your Cutie Mark Means,' and 'Bobby the Cute Marker' (strange how a fillies' book ended up in there,) but they couldn't find a single book on cutie mark magic. After hours and hours, the ponies felt pressed for time as they knew that Quill's army was just going to grow more and more powerful as time passed. Applejack and Rarity were growing impatient, and Fluttershy suddenly burst into tears.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" asked Applejack sympathetically.

"I miss Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy sobbed. "Usually s-she'd-" she sniffed "-start complaining at how b-bored she is-" she sniffed once more "-and she'd... she'd..." Fluttershy started bawling even more, noticeably distracting Twilight and Starlight, but Applejack started comforting her as Rarity brought her a tissue.

"Twilight's a brave pony," Applejack said softly. "I'm sure she and Starlight can stop this." Her comforting seemed to quiet down Fluttershy, but Applejack and Rarity knew she was still ready to burst again like a dam.

Meanwhile, Pinkie and Spike were looking for books while the Crusaders just threw any old book in the large pile, growing ever impatient. Suddenly, Pinkie shouted loud enough for the heights of the Crystal Mountains to hear- "I FOUND IT!" She happily sprinted toward the pile of books, crashing and scattering the books all over. As much as Twilight liked to keep her library tidy, she decided that reading the book would be a better idea than cleaning up.

The others gathered around Twilight as she read the book's cover: "'Cutie Mark Magic: A Complete History.' Pinkie, this is perfect! If any of the books can help us, it's this one." She cleared her throat and started reading:

"Cutie Mark History: Chapter 1.

"The origins of cutie marks are mostly unknown. Based on artifacts with an ancient language engraved into them, theorists have come up with a solution. There was a race of creatures in the olden days who lived alongside ponies, using them as vehicles or racing them. These ponies lived in a primal state-they were not capable of critical thinking like today. Even their physical appearances were mostly similar, the ancient creatures helped distinguish these ponies by stamping their flanks. However, as their technology advanced, they found no need for them anymore aside from pets to rich young ones who loved animals. The pony race was decreasing in numbers, as horse meat was growing to be a popular cuisine, going so far as making three hamburgers out of a single one without killing it. As a result of this violence, the remaining stallions and mares found themselves running away from the creatures and eventually seeking refuge underground. After a long war, the creatures had gone extinct, leaving destruction and radiation in their wake. These horrible landscapes helped the ponies adapt and have more advanced minds. As the ponies adapted, the leftover extreme radiation seeped into their bodies, eventually granting them magic powers. The original ponies, despite living thousands of years, still adapted even without waiting for new generations- some decided to venture into barren neapolitan areas where they settled and eventually found themselves needing extra help around places, thusly adapting into unicorns, some decided to stay away from the radiation altogether and stay underground, resulting in the earth ponies, and some decided to travel to high altitudes where the warfare had not reached, and adapted to the area's weather, resulting in pegasi. However, they all had one thing in common- they still had the stamp on their flanks, which little did they know would eventually gain enough magical power to be passed on through generations, and even develop minds of their own. These ponies were frightened at their flanks at first, thinking it was a disease. They eventually found a way to make these marks disappear, with a magical potion that required five ingredients-" she cut off there, and said with an ecstatic look in here eyes, "This is it. The way to rid Quill of his power!"

(TL;DR magical ponies were made because of a nuclear apocalypse and they made a potion to erase their cutie marks because of their unfamiliarity.)

The others cheered, yet the CMCs kept asking questions like, "What's radiation?" and "How did they get magical powers again?" and "What was the point of the hamburger section?"

Applejack explained to the crusaders everything but the last question. The hamburger part was definitely extraneous.

Twilight read off the ingredients. "Here's what we need..."

" *A pinch of lavender

*A uranium cluster

*A drop of blood from a pony's heart

*A cherry fresh picked

*Boiled in Crystal Spring water."

"I think we can get those ingredients easy!" Shouted Pinkie.

"Uh, Pinkie Pie, do you even know what uranium is?" asked Twilight.

"Isn't it that one planet?"

Twilight facehoofed. "No, it's a dangerous metal that's found underground." She quickly moved on. "We should start with the first item on the list. Where can we find lavender around here?"

"I usually get it from the flower shop, but the vendor's out of town," said Rarity.

"I find it growing near my cottage, but they're not growing at this time of year," said Fluttershy.

"Well, we'll have to find somewhere to get it," said Spike.

Suddenly Starlight remembered something. "The castle. In Canterlot. Luna lines up lavender every night. We can use that!" The others nodded, yet still worried about the state of Canterlot, and if they could even enter without being bombarded by markless, mindless slaves.

"We need to come up with a plan," said Twilight. "To infiltrate the castle!"