Chapters It was midnight in Starlight's village. The houses were quiet, the breeze soft, everyone was asleep soundly. everyone, of course, except Quill. He desperately flipped through pages, one book after another. The library was a mess, books all over the place, yet less than half were gone from their shelves. Sweat dripped from his forehead. Tears dripping from his bloodshot eyes, he struggled to stay awake. He had been at this for a long time. Days. Months. Maybe years. Since Starlight left, he had been trying to search for something, anything, that could help him. He struggled to lift the books with his magic. Not from fatigue, rather but from his cutie mark. A black, fading equals sign stamped his flank. It drained his magic, but he used all he had to read. He had to preserve his mark. He had to restore equality in the town. No, not the town. He needed to restore balance in all of Equestria. He badly wished Starlight could help, but she had changed. She pursued "friendship." But Quill knew that friendship was nothing. Equality was what mattered.
Suddenly, he stopped. His eyes flipped open and shut, struggling to keep open. Finally, he fell asleep. His head slumped over and hid the table with a loud bang, shaking the nearby shelf. A dozen books fell on his head, one landing in his hoof, yet he still dozed. He slept for hours, until finally, he awoke. "I'm sleeping on the job!" he realized, yet he remembered no pony came into the library because they all thought he, the librarian, was crazy. I'll show them who's crazy, he said. Then he saw the book in his hoof. The cover read, "Magical Sacrifices." He opened the book and started reading.
"If an item has been enchanted with magic in the past, a sacrifice of a horn can be made to re-enchant the item with the same spell, no magic needed," he read. "This is just what I need."
Quill walked into the cave. A stick lay on the ground, motionless. He looked at the axe resting on his hoof. He tried to strike but cringed before he could make impact. Was he really about to cut off his horn, all to avenge the cult? Should he give it up? Looking at his flank, almost blank from the fading mark, he knew what to do. He struck, screaming loudly as the pain rushed inside him. He still had not cut it off. He struck again, screaming louder than before, tears rushing from his eyes. Finally, his horn fell off and rolled next to the stick. He tried to conjure just a small spark- one that could combine the stick and his horn. He tried, struggling to summon magic with a broken horn and agonizing pain. A small flash of light connected his head to the two objects. A ball of dark magic enveloped the horn and stick. When it was gone, what was left was a large white staff with a black equals sign at the top. He had done it. Now it was time to equalize the entire village.
Suddenly, at Twilight's castle, her cutie mark flashed in her sleep.
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.
"Discord!" Twilight says.
"Of course it's me," said Discord. "Who else could help you?"
Spike cleared his throat overdramatically, but Discord didn't seem to notice. "Not only am I the god of chaos, but I also am not a pony. Thus I have no cutie mark! And I could, ahem, 'take care' of this Quill guy, while you help Rainbow Dash!"
"Can you help us a little faster? I think the door's about to give," said Applejack, pressing her back against the castle door. Discord snapped his fingers and the door disappeared, leaving just a wall with furniture stacked near it.
"I believe that helps your problem," Discord said. "Now I'm off to go assassinate Quill. Tootles!" He ;eft the room with a snap of his finger.
"Do you think he'll kill Quill?" Spike asked.
"One one hand, he's the spirit of chaos, but on the other hand, Quill does have a lot of magic," Starlight said. "I'm pretty sure he can do it." Starlight laughed sheepishly, and the room fell into dead silence.
"So are we gonna wake Rainbow up?" Scootaloo asked. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle poked Rainbow.
"She's not waking up," Applebloom said.
"She must be really out cold," Sweetie replied.
"Hold on, I think I know a spell that can wake her up." Starlight's horn emitted with magic, shooting out to Rainbow's scarred body. Suddenly she opened her eyes. Rainbow had a look of terror on her face for a split second, and started smiling, obviously faked, for there were beads of sweat on her face, her smile was extremely large, and she was obviously in pain.
"Rainbow! What's wrong?" Twilight said, a worried look on her face.
"Can't... stop... smiling," Rainbow said. "He'll whip me again..."
"Rainbow, he's not here right now. You can stop smiling now," Pinkie said. Rainbow didn't seem to hear.
"He said... I can't... listen... to ponies... who don't believe..." Rainbow smiled, yet tears pooled in her eyes. The others tried to console her, but she said, "No... Please... STOP IT!" Rainbow's scars seemed to be opening and widening, as if punishing her for associating with her friends. Blood dripped and stained her wings.
"Her scars are widening! Get away!" Twilight exclaimed. "She's been afflicted by the Punishment Spell!"
"How is she under a spell when the torturer pony didn't have a cutie mark?" Rarity asked. "I also thought there was a magic barrier around the jail!"
"Maybe they didn't bring their own magic in. Maybe..." Starlight said, "Maybe they brought a piece of the staff in!"
"Oh no... If the staff can use the Punishment spell, then Discord could be afflicted by it! I hope he's okay," Fluttershy said.
Meanwhile, above Ponyville, Discord grimaced. "The lowlife has controlled the entirety of Ponyville. How disgusting, wanting everyone to be 'normal.' Well I don't DO normal, right Discord?" A second Discord with glasses appeared next to him. "Correct!" A third one appeared. "I agree."
"Well, we'll have to stop Quill before he's taken over Equestria and made it boring. This should be easy!"
Discord flew down toward the village, full of scarred ponies, where Quill, his fur completely covered by the townsfolk's cutie marks, was shooting magic lasers at Twilight's castle. The lasers bounced off, as if magic couldn't affect the tower. "My fellow citizens," Quill said. "We mustn't focus on these cowards anymore. We need to expand!" He pointed toward Canterlot. "We must take the other Princesses, then we kill Starlight once and for all!" The other ponies cheered. Discord seemed unhappy.
"Although you want to do that," Discord said, "I can't let you." He snapped his fingers and he was equipped with a laser rifle and a suit of battle armor. "So I'm just going to murder you. No hard feelings. Oh, wait. Very hard feelings."
Quill didn't say a word and waved his staff. Discord quickly teleported away.
"You're going to have to try harder than that to stop me," Discord said, patting Quill's head. Again Quill shot at him, to no avail.
"People of Ponyville," Quill said. "I have equipped you for battle like this. Everyone, use the magic I gave you!" Suddenly the townspeople grabbed short, white sticks, and started to fire at Discord. The townspeople, even though about to scar a draconequus, held the smiling looks on their faces. However Discord was able to dodge every single one of the lasers.
"Fool! You can't stop me!" Suddenly Discord felt a shot of pain in his back. There, behind him, flew Rainbow Dash, holding a white stick, her cutie mark an equals sign.
Author's Note
It's kind of hard to juggle 11 characters and have them all get a part. Maybe I'll reduce their numbers...
"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.
Luna was searching throughout the ponies' dreams. Sure, it was hard keeping track of everyone, but she managed, even if she struggled sometimes. Every night she would wander throughout a dreamy, distorted version of Equestria, finding dreams everywhere. To anyone else, the realm would be horrifying, but Luna was used to it. After all, she preferred the tranquility over a hustling and bustling normal day in Equestria. But something didn't feel quite right to her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was a sort of lingering feeling in her chest. Not to worry, she thought. If I search through some ponies' dreams, this feeling will be sure to go away.
She came across a dreamy Ponyville, yet it looked peculiar. Twilight's castle had no door, the buildings all looked the same. She decided to find some dreams in the area.
There were none to be found.
Luna knew there were two options- one, no one was asleep, or two, an outside force was stopping the dreams.
She sincerely hoped for the former.
She had checked everywhere in Ponyville until finally, she decided to check the castle's inside. She took a while finding a dream, and saw a strange new room in the castle. She had no idea what it was, but it lead down. So she descended the steps downward, and she found herself in front of a metal door. She tried warping inside, but she realized the outside was protected by a magical barrier.
"SCANNING..." the door said suddenly, a ray of magic circling her body. "CUTIE MARK FOUND. SCARS - ABSENT. ACCESS GRANTED."
She stepped into the room, and it was so big and grand, it looked almost like a castle. But it was empty, with nine beds and a giant cupboard full of hay. She was curious as to what was going on, but she knew something bad was happening. Could it be an effect of the unstable dream world? Maybe. But she didn't know for sure. Suddenly, a dream popped up above one of the beds, showing Spike surrounded by smiling ponies. She leapt into the dream, and she popped up next to Spike.
"Luna!" Spike yelled in a horrified tone. "Help!"
Luna created a shockwave, turning the ponies into dust. "It is alright," Luna said. "They are gone."
"Woah, thanks. You really saved me back there," Spike said.
"Although I do understand everyone is afraid of something," Luna said,"why are you scared of smiling ponies?"
"Those aren't just ponies," Spike squeaked, "They're... they're..." He pointed behind Luna. Behind her was an army of smiling ponies, each with the same cutie mark. She saw almost everyone in Equestria- and she even saw herself among the crowd.
She let out another shockwave, destroying all surrounding her. Suddenly, it was just her and Spike, floating in an inky abyss.
"It is alright. Your dreams are safe," Luna said.
"Wait-I'm dreaming?" He let out a sigh of relief. "So everyone ISN'T brainwashed by Quill yet."
"Brainwashed by Quill?" she asked. "What do you mean?"
"Okay," Spike said, taking in a large breath. "So the map called me, Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, the CMCs, and Starlight to the old village but everyone there had the same cutie mark and was brainwashed and tortured into doing so then we got locked up and Rainbow dash was subjected to the torture and Pinkie freed everyone and Discord decided to help and then Rainbow got indoctrinated-" he inhaled-" then Rainbow shot Discord with a magic beam prohibiting him from using his magic and knocking him out and Twilight magicked us up a fallout shelter full of resources and now we're here!"
Luna looked shocked. "I'm sorry, Spike. I must go alert Celestia about this."
"Alright," Spike said. "You're not the first person to bail on me today." He sat down and dreamed up a comic book to read.
Luna was ready to exit the dreamy realm, but suddenly, a flash of light appeared in her eyes. Suddenly she was at a hallway, lined with doors. She knew where she was. She had been there a million times. It was the limbo between the dream realm and the Celestial Plane, the memory hall. She wondered why she was here of all places; she never chose to go here often, only when dreamers needed help. Since she was there, she decided it might be for a reason, so she tried the knob on the nearest door.
It opened, but it only showed a brick wall behind it. She opened several more, yet there was only walls.
She knew there must have been something keeping those memories out.
Suddenly, the doors disappeared, leaving one left. It was large, and was plastered with different cutie marks. She was frightened, but she entered the door. All of a sudden, she was transported into a dark room, with memories and thoughts everywhere, some blocked out with an equals sign. She decided to see what there was, so she checked the nearest one. It opened to a group of ponies marching down a village, led by... Starlight? The memory was on loop, the ponies singing, their words echoing in the realm. They chanted, "You can't have a nightmare if you never dream!" Suddenly the memory went black.
Quill's voice came echoing out of the memory. "Funny how I made that literally true... They can't be equal if they all have different dreams..." Then the memory started back again.
Luna realized she wasn't reading ponies' old memories--she was reading the current state of mind of Quill. And if Quill eradicated dreams, then the dream realm would eventually gain so much dream energy, the kind she used to create Tantabus, causing the dream realm to rupture and turn the world into a living nightmare, on top of all the ponies being equal. She couldn't let that happen. Not to anyone. Not even to Nightmare Moon.
The room suddenly went completely black, and Quill's voice echoed: "Once we take Ponyville, we take Canterlot.
She teleported out of the realm to alert Celestia, sound asleep in bed. Luna called out, "Sister?"
Celestia opened her eyes, seeing her sister next to her. "Hm?" Celestia asked. "You are finished with dream searching already?"
"There is an emergency," Luna responded. "We must position the Royal Guard for battle."
After explaining everything to Celestia, Luna reached the barracks. "Fellow ponies," Celestia said to the troops sternly, "Now that Shining Armor is with Cadance, I will be the new leader of the Royal Guard, along with my sister. A problem has arisen, and we must protect ourselves from a powerful menace."
"Yes sir! I mean, ma'am!" the troops said in unison, adapting to Celestia's newfound power.
"We must stand our ground," Luna said. "A war may be upon us."
Author's Note
If you didn't know, I'm referring to the weird dimension Twilight teleported to in Magical Mystery cure as the Celestial Plane.
Quill was enraged. His targets had evaded him, and there was no way to access their shelter. He had tried sending the pegasi in through the roof-but they said the door wouldn't open. He found it hard to take anyone seriously when they had that ridiculous smile on their face- but he remembered why he was doing this- for equality, yes, but also for revenge. Revenge on the ponies who were living their lives with talents that distracted them from their goals. Revenge on the six- or five, not counting his newest member- who stopped the de-marking process, the one thing he trusted most. Revenge on Starlight, a traitor to the equalization of ponies. Most of all, though, revenge on the world for humiliating him at every turn-ponies questioning him when he was the first to conform, ponies staying away after he was the only one to stick to Starlight's code. If the world wanted to make him suffer like this, he needed to make sure everyone knows how serious he is. If he couldn't spread the equality, he'd tip the scales giving himself the only power in Equestria. It was all he could do to continue the cult.
He was angry, even if he had already taken one of his enemies, because his main target was Starlight. "Ponies," he said through clenched teeth, knowing what he must do, "we cannot move on if we stay here. We have already indoctrinated all the ponies here, and we have even taken a draconequus captive. Instead of chasing after those filthy coward ponies, not able to accept equality, we must expand our reach! As you know, Canterlot and Cloudsdale have still not been overtaken by us. They still need to see the light that is our one true mark- equality!" The ponies cheered, their claps in unison with one another. They eventually stopped, not moving a muscle, smiling and staring at their leader.
Quill thought about what to do next. He could go to Cloudsdale and gain more members, or he could storm Celestia's castle. Pride getting to his head, he felt he could take on the princesses, and made his decision. "Onward to Canterlot!" he yelled, and the rest followed him.
Luna and Celestia were keeping watch over Canterlot. Shining Armor and Cadance were alerted the news as well, and came to conjure a force field around the city. A guard pony raced forward and said, "We have spotted Quill's army, headed straight for Canterlot!"
"Then there's no time to waste," Celestia said firmly. "Luna, keep watch on the central tower and alert me if anything goes wrong."
"I will, sister," said Luna, racing toward her station.
"Shining Armor, you keep up the protection spell, and Cadance, I need you to help him."
Cadance nodded.
Celestia continued, "I will lead the army. Whatever it takes, we will fight for Canterlot. Even if it means we die in the process." She sincerely hoped no one would die, yet she knew this was going to be a tough battle.
"Ponies, to your battle stations!" Celestia exclaimed, ready to defend her kingdom.
Author's Note
sorry for the short chapter
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!"
