Anisoptera lurked in the shadows of the alleyway as she spied on Discord, the lord of chaos was currently sat upon a throne, cackling madly at all absurdity happening around him. She looked around trying to see if anypony were still around, when she saw nopony she knew it was her time to strike. Anisoptera dropped her disguise and prepared to leap out of the alley, but then she felt a presence behind her.

"Y'know, this somehow might not even be the dumbest thing you've ever done." Said the all to familiar voice of Anax

She turned around to see Anax, along with Nannophya the goliath, and Telephlebia the seeker, all of whom were standing there without their disguises. "What are you guys doing here?" Anisoptera asked.

Telephlebia chuckled. "Oh come on, we've been your bodyguards for long enough to know your going to do something cool." She said as she took her own glance outside of the alleyway.

“H-Hey! I’m not that predictable.” Anisoptera cried.

Nannophya shook his head “Of course you’re not, you’re awesome.” He said reassuringly.

Anisoptera groaned, and then looked to her two bodyguards. “I really appreciate how supportive you two are, but you gotta tone it down a bit.” She then looked at Anax. “Let me guess, you’ve come to talk me down. Well sorry, but there’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind.”

“I know.” Anax said calmly.

"Goo-" Anisoptera stopped mid sentence as the words sank in. "Wait what?"

"I know I can't stop you, and I know these two aren't going to do it." Anax said as he gestured towards Telephlebia and Nannophya. "The only thing I can really do is either knock you out, and I'm pretty sure you need to be conscious to use your element. Or I can help you on your insane plan to make sure you survive."

"Huh. Well thanks I guess, you do know mom is going to kill you guys for this thought, right?" Anisoptera said peered out of the alley once again, this time joined by the others.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Nannophya said.

"Alright. So here's the plan, we need to distract Discord so we can make sure that he doesn't stop Twilight while she finds the elements and fixes the girls." Anisoptera said as she began to draw a crude map on the ground. "Anax, Telephlebia, you two head up on the buildings, Nannophya you head around back and flank him, I'll walk straight up to him and start talking."

Anax looked up to her and blinked in confusion. "Alright I take it back, this is the dumbest thing you've ever done."

Anisoptera groaned. "Look, we can't do anything against him. The best thing we can do is keep him entertained so he keeps his eyes on us."

Anax looked down in thought for a moment. "Alright, but we need to change this up a bit." He took a look out of the alley and pointed to a floating island. "Telephlebia, you head up to that island and provide long range support." He said as he turned to the seeker, who gave a nod of approval. "Nannophya will still flank around back, but I'm coming with you on the initial approach." He said as he looked at Anisoptera.

"And what about me Captain, where should I position myself?" Discord asked while wearing Canterlot guard armour, a manic grin spread across his face.

The four changelings staired wide eyed at the draconequus. All of them were stunned into silence by his sudden appearance. "Horseapples." Anisoptera muttered as the shock finally managed to waver from her.

(Meanwhile)

Twilight entered the library she called home... or she used to call home. "Pack your things Spike were leaving." She said with a huff.

Instead of the immediate response Twilight was expecting, but she was instead met by soft snoring emanating from behind the central table of the library. Rolling her eyes, twilight walked around and gave Spike a firm poke on his shoulder. "Huh wa.." he said groggily. “Twilight? Why are you grey?”

"Get your things spike we're leaving." Twilight said as she grabbed a suitcase with her magic and began to fill it with various books from around the library.

“Wait what!?” Spike shouted in alarm as he bolted upright. “What about Discord? Aren’t you going to stop him?” He asked in a panicked tone.

Twilight, not even looking away from her suitcase, just shook her head dismissively. “Discord won.” She said flatly. “He did something to the others, they all left.”

Spike was about to say something else, but he was interrupted by a familiar sensation of pressure building in his stomach. A sudden gout of flame erupted from his mouth, which then promptly took the form of a scroll bound by a red ribbon and golden seal.

Twilight knew what was going to be written on the letter. She thought that princess Celestia had found out that she was giving up, and had sent the letter to tell her that she was no longer her pupil. A part of Twilights mind wanted to begin to break down and start crying or panicking, but a much larger part was telling her to… just ignore it.

Spike bent down to grab the letter. "Aren't you go-" he was then cut off by another letter, and then another, and another. The letters began to form a small pile on top of one another, meanwhile Spike doubled over in agony due to the amount of them being sent.

Twilights curiosity and dread eventually won out over her apathy, so she grabbed the first letter from Spikes claws and began to read. As Twilight read through the letter however, she realised something, this was the letter she wrote to the princess when she sent back the tickets to The Grand Galloping Gala. Twilight then decided to grab another one of the letters, it was the friendship report she wrote after helping Applejack during applebuck season. Twilights magic seemed to begin acting on its own as it grabbed more and more of the letters, they were all friendship reports.

As Twilight read she felt more and more unsure about her decision to leave Ponyville, and eventually she recognised the thought as entirely foreign as it truly was. When Twilight was done reading she looked down at her hoof to see that it was back to its normal vibrant purple, she wanted to jump for joy, to grab spike and start spinning around in circles, but something much more pressing came to the forefront of her mind. "Dash was right..." She muttered to herself.

Twilight was then suddenly snapped from her thoughts by a knocking at the door. Twilight carefully approached the door and cracked it open slightly, standing just behind the door was Carrot Top, Thunderlane, and Doctor Hooves. "Twilight!" Carrot Top cheered upon seeing the unicorn. "Dash told us to bring your friends here, you have a way to fix them right?" The three ponies stepped aside to reveal several other residents of Ponyville, most of which were currently occupied with restraining her friends.

Twilight staired wide eyed at the crowed, these were the same ponies that used to run away whenever Zecora visited, 'why would they decide to stay behind and help instead of evacuating' she thought. Twilight shook her she had more important things to focus on. "Yes, I can get started in a bit." she said, Twilight then turned to address everypony present. "In the meantime could somepony help look for any clues as to where the elements of harmony are." Wordlessly many of the ponies present filed into the library and began to search every nook and cranny. With that addressed Twilight began preparing the spell she would need to cast, but not before asking a question. "Where is Dash now?" Twilight asked Carrot Top.

Carrot top gave Twilight a look of surprise upon hearing this. "She's not with you?" She asked a hint of fear in her voice. "She said she would be with you."

"No, we... I yelled at her and stormed off. I haven't seen her since." Twilight stated. But before anything more could be said a sudden thunderous boom rang out over Ponyville, followed by the tell tale shockwave of a sonic rainboom. After seeing this Twilight raced over to her other friend, and began to work on the memory spell as fast as possible, she had a sinking feeling that Dash wasn't doing something she would consider smart at the moment.

Anisoptera groaned in pain. It turns out that smashing into a building at supersonic speed hurt, even with a shield spell to protect her. It also tuned out that trying to tackle someone who could teleport, was also not a good idea. "Oh my, that looks quite bad." Discord said in a mocking tone.

He was right, Anisopteras right foreleg was completely broken, and her left one had a large crack running down the carapace. The other weren't faring much better, Telephlebia and Nannophya were both pinned to a massive board like they were insects in a collection, and Anax was currently being chewed on by a massive Venus flytrap. "I do have to give it to you though, solid A for effort, I would most definitely say I am 'distracted'." he said as a large piece of paper with a bright red A stamped on it appeared next to him. "But I don't think it means much, when I last saw your dear book horse she look like she had most definitely given up."

Anisoptera rolled onto her stomach. "I wouldn't count on it." She spat as she tried to raise herself up onto her hooves. "I trust Twilight, she wouldn't give up that easy, she probably managed to get rid of the brainwashing you put on her all on her own." Anisoptera said as she shifted the interior of her mouth and throat to that of a dragons, she then spun around on her hooves and breathed out a stream of red flames at the draconequus.

However Discord simply turned the flames into a cloud of butterflies, which all then swiftly reverted back into caterpillars . “Sorry to burst your bubble dearie.” He said as many of the caterpillars turned into bubbles and began to float away. “But the only creatures I know that can to that are you changelings, you all are a bit to conscious of how you act if you ask me.”

Discord was about to continue speaking but was interrupted when a blast of red magic glanced his side, turning around, Discord saw that Anax had managed to free himself and was now charging towards him. "You get away from the prince-" Discord sapping eagle claw, causing Anax to appear on the board with Nannophya and Telephlebia. "-cess." Anax finished before looking down to see himself trapped, he then let out a deep sigh, "Great." He muttered.

"Excuse me!" Discord said in an over the top voice. "I'm trying to have a conversation here and I would apricate it if you didn't interrupt." Discord then disappeared in a flash of light only to reappear beside the board, only now he was wearing golfing clothes and wielding a golf club. "FORE!" He shouted before swinging his golf club and sending the three changelings far over the horizon. "Well now that that's taken care of what to do with you?" Discord said as he turned back around, only to see that Anisoptera was no longer there. Discord blinked in confusion before shrugging, "Well she's certainly making a habit of getting away from me." he said before turning to enjoy the chaos he caused.

Anisoptera hobbled through the back alleys of Ponyville. "You guys alright?" She asked her bodyguards over the hive mind.

"Yeah were fine, Anax managed to teleport us out, but we still got sent pretty far." Telephlebia replied "We'll try to get back as soon as possible, but you'll probably have fixed everything by then."

"Alright see you guys later." Anisoptera said, she was about half way to the library, where she hoped her friend were. Just as she was about to step into the open streets of Ponyville Anisoptera decided that it would be best to put her disguise back on, just in case any of the regular citizens had stuck around. However as soon as the transformation began the pain from her wounds intensified, causing her to cry out in agony, and for the transformation to slow.

"Girls over here." came the all too familiar voice of Twilight, followed by the sound of galloping hooves. Anisoptera was relieved to hear that Twilight managed to break the girls out of the brainwashing, but that relief was soon over taken by panic when she heard how close their hoof steps were.

Anisoptera tried to increase the pace of the transformation, only to be met with another bolt of agony from her legs, resulting in her concentration slipping and for much of the transformation to revert, only the back half of her body was transformed and her friends were getting close.

"Rainbow...!" Twilight cried as she rounded the corner alone, only for her voice to catch in her throat as she looked at her friend "...Dash?" She finished as she stumbled backwards.

Anisoptera was at a loss for words, what could she say? She decided first she needed to complete her transformation, which she did much slower then she usually would, both as a means of reducing the pain of her wounds and to not scare Twilight. "Twi listen, I..." She was about to go on a long tirade about how she was and had always been the real Rainbow Dash, how her friend hadn't been replace by an imposter, but she was interrupted by the element of loyalty floating towards her and clasping around her neck which then began to glow in response to her presence.

Twilight nodded in satisfaction to herself. "Aright I don't know what... that was." Twilight said before putting on a warm and comforting smile. "But I trust you Rainbow, and I'm sorry about before."

Rainbow was at a loss for words, every time she had heard stories of this type of situation happening they had always gone horribly wrong, usually ending with somepony having their memory locked away or being sent to a psychiatric hospital, but here Twilight was just... accepting it, TWILIGHT of all ponies was just accepting it. "Thanks Twi." Rainbow said, as that's all she could think to say, followed swiftly by, "Please don't tell the others!"

"Don't tell us what?" Applejack said as she and the others finally caught up to Twilight.

"Nothing!" Both Rainbow and Twilight shouted.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and flew out of the alley. "Come on, we've got a draconequus to stop." This thankfully seemed to change everyponies focus back to stopping Discord, and the six friends charged off to face the Lord of Chaos.

Everything after that was a blur for Rainbow, she remembered confronting Discord, Twilight saying something about how great friendship was, Pinkie drinking chocolate milk, blasting Discord with a rainbow laser, and turning the town back to normal.

But after that, everything was just black.

Author's Note

Hey sorry this took so long, I'm starting Uni so that going to take up most of my attention.

Expect larger time gaps between chapters