The griffins were all gathered around the giant stage in the middle of town. It was made of wood, with red curtains with the words “EVERYONE MEET HERE” on them. There was an odd thing in the middle of town. It wasn’t chaotic, weird, evil-looking, or anything resembling Discord’s usual tricks. It didn’t even look all that out of place, being located in a clear place with plenty of room. Still, they remained skeptical. It was likely that the chaos would not come from the stage itself, but from whatever Discord brought to it.

After a few moments of mumbling in the crowd, The curtain parted revealing Twilight in a sparkly indigo blue dress standing in the middle. Her hair was put up in a fancy do and had a cute bow in it. She held up a few notecards and began to speak, “Welcome everyone, to a grand celebration! A true display of elegance this will be! A wonderfully concocted symphony of… Ok I’m not reading all this stuff Discord wrote. Basically, we’re doing a little performance just for fun!”

The crowd members looked at each other with suspicion in their eyes. Noticing this, Twilight continued, “And of course I know this seems odd, but there is no hidden intentions to this. No pranks or mean spirited jokes will be pulled today! Only some good wholesome stuff.”

At least I hope so, she thought to herself.

“For the first performance, we will have a member doing a trapeze act!” As she said this, the structure for the trapeze act materialized. “This individual whose name is…” She narrowed her eyes to the instructions Discord had written on the card, “Oh… ahaha, It's me! Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight didn’t really know how to use the trapeze, but she knew she had to give it her best shot. For the plan. The plan she didn’t even know the full extent of… The plan she wasn’t even sure would work… The plan that may even bring down her mentor. A sudden feeling of guilt washed over Twilight. She shook it away and began to improvise.

“Ok, so I’ll just climb this thing. Can’t be too hard.”

She began to climb the contraption, and immediately realized she may have bitten off more than she could chew.

Ok, just a little further and I’ll be at the top.

Once she reached the top, she looked at the bar she would have to hold onto. She knew she had to swing across and land at the other side. No biggie.

Nausea and fear suddenly washed over Twilight as the reality of what she was doing sunk it. “Ok, ok. I’ll be fine… I hope. Oh please let me be fine!” And with that, she jumped off, holding onto the swinging bar for dear life.

Twilight began to plunge down. Despite knowing she needed to reach the other side, she clenched her eyes. The swing down was fast and she knew the exact steps she needed to take, but when with her eyes closed, she realized she couldn’t bring herself to let the bar go.

Fudge.

Twilight let out a scream, but when she reached the farthest point of her swing, she felt some arms grab her hooves. It was Discord. He helped her complete the swing and reach the other side. A few cheers erupted through the crowd, which weren’t as unenthusiastic as one would expect a town of mostly Griffins to be.

“Thank you! Thank you!” shouted Discord, “So glad you enjoyed. Now, next up, we have… Greta on the banjo!”

After Greta went, a few more individuals that they had invited earlier went on stage to display their skills. There was a griffin who could juggle, another griffin who could bake, an earth pony who was great at dancing, and many more. Twilight watched as the citizens of Griffinstone seemed to enjoy themselves. She even saw a few individuals sign up for the show at the last minute, each of which had great things to share.

Wow, that worked surprisingly well, Twilight thought, Who would have guessed that the creatures in Griffinstone would be so willing to participate?

The show stopped long after sunset, when the last act went. Feeling tired, everyone began returning home for the night. Discord seemed to have had fun, and Twilight felt content.

Laying down on some hay, Twilight began looking up at the stars. Discord approached her and plopped down next to her.

“... So,” Discord started, following Twilight's gaze up at the stars, “You like the night sky?”

“Yeah, It's pretty amazing,” she replied.

There was a silent pause between them.

“Why did you choose to have a talent show anyway?” Discord asked, breaking the silence.

“I guess I wanted to show you what you could do.”

“What?” He stared at her with a bewildered look, “But, I already know what I can do.”

“No, I mean what you can do for others. You know, if you used your powers for… better things.”

He stared at her with confusion before replying, “You act as if I’ve never considered behaving before.”

“Well maybe you have, but I doubt you’ve ever tried it before. Admit it, it feels a bit good, doesn’t it?” she looked at him with a smug smile.

Discord considered her words for a moment, “Ick, don’t start with that.” he finally said, but she didn’t sense much conviction in his words.

The two were silent for a moment, before Twilight broke the silence, “I think it’s getting close to midnight, we-”

“Are you close with Nightmare Moon?” he interrupted her.

“What!? Who told you!?”

“She did. Well, actually… she told me not to harm you in any way, so I just assumed that was the case.” he turned to look at her, “So what, is she your friend or something?”

“... My teacher actually,” Twilight admitted, “Did she really say that?”

“Say what? That she’d twist me like a pretzel if I tried to throw you in a pool of lava? More or less.” he snickered, “Her serious face was kind of funny. I think she might dislike you the least out of everyone.”

Twilight suddenly felt another pang of guilt. Would working with Rainbow Dash count as betraying her mentor? She mainly agreed to join her as a way to escape the punishment she had faced, but she pretty much already had escaped.

Should I just leave?

She thought back to the last mission Nightmare Moon had given her: find a way to overthrow Queen Chrysalis. She put some thought into it. Couldn’t Rainbow Dash help her with this? Twilight felt conflicted.

Before she could decide what to do, Discord let out a long sigh and said, “I did enjoy our time together, but I’m afraid that it’s time for me to drift off.” He began to literally drift away upon saying this.

Twilight suddenly remembered what she told Rainbow Dash, and knew she had to make the decision to join her fast.

“Hey uhm, can we have some fireworks to end the day?” She asked, not sure how he’d respond.

“Hmm? Oh fine.” He snapped his fingers and many fireworks of different colors appeared.

“Wow, this may sound hard… but can you make them a mixture of colors?” She asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I can.”

“Like pink and green?” a pink and green firework appeared.

“Red and teal?” a red and teal firework appeared.

“... Rainbow?”

“Well now you’ve crossed the line,” he joked, but he snapped his fingers and a rainbow firework appeared anyway.

Twilight looked up. Now there was no turning back. She inhaled and looked up towards the sky, “...They’re beautiful.”

Discord spared her a glance before looking back up at the sky.

Meanwhile, Rainbowdash was staring upwards. Fireworks lit up the sky, each one a different color. She briefly wondered if this was as close as she would get to the signal before a rainbow firework exploded in the air. She smirked.

Things were about to go down.

Author's Note

YAY! I finally finished the cover art! :D :D :D
I'll add the rest of the villains later when they become important. :)

I actually have the next chapter completely written, but I wanted to get a few chapters ahead before I post it.