Rainbow Dash took off into the air. All the other rebels no doubt had seen the rainbow firework and were beginning the jailbreak. Twilight had clearly regained her magic, which was the most important thing for them.

She began searching the ground for Twilight, weaving through the town. Her eyes finally landed on the purple pony, who was sitting right next to Discord.

Shoot. How am I supposed to get to her now? Rainbow thought, looking around, Ok think, maybe I can get her attention and have her run over? Oh but then Discord would see. I need a way to distract him first.

She looked around for something that could help her. She spotted a few unused fireworks next to some matches that had been left over from a holiday a few weeks ago. She grabbed a handful and stuffed them in the launcher tube. Then, she aimed them towards Discords face.

“Here goes nothing,” she said while lighting the fuses.

With a high pitched noise, they took off. They streaked through the air towards the unsuspecting draconequus who had turned around just too late. With a yelp he fell backwards as the fireworks began to ignite around him.

Seeing this, Twilight jumped up and ran over towards the source of the fireworks. Luckily, the rest of the rebels figured out what was happening and had begun to launch their own fireworks at him, as well as diving through the air and creating a whirlwind as a distraction. In the chaos Twilight was sure her escape would remain unnoticed.

She looked at Rainbow Dash, who beckoned her to follow, and they began to run.

“THAT was your plan!?” Twilight shouted once they had run all the way to the rebels base, which was just a plain hut.

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Rainbow Dash argued.

“Just barely! I thought you would have been more organized!”

“Oh please. Organization is for nerds.”

“No it’s for responsible people who think things through before they drag others into their mess!” Twilight spat out in between gasps for breath.

“Ugh, ok I get it. There were a few holes in my plan, but we both got out ok, didn't we?.”

Twilight let out a sigh, “I suppose we did.”

The two eventually stopped running and Twilight gasped for breath.

“Wow, you sure are out of shape.” Rainbow dash laughed.

“Not… Funny…”

“Hehe, well now that you’re here, why don’t we get this meeting in order.”

Twilight looked at her in confusion, “Shouldn’t we wait for all the others?”

“Well, I’m sort of the brains of this operation,” Rainbow boasted, “So we don’t really have to wait.”

“Ok fine. But first, I need to cloak our location so that Discord can’t track us down.”

“Huh. Is that something I should have been doing before?”

“Do you have magic?”

“Oh right,” Rainbow laughed, “Nope, I don’t. Although, come to think of it… can’t Discord undo the cloaking magic?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight admitted, “but I’ll add a few different ones for good measure. Hmm… I’ve got it! I’ll also add a fake signal so that he thinks we’re somewhere else than we’re normally at!”

“Wow, that’s pretty smart! I knew I made the right choice in picking you for the team!” Rainbow Dash beamed.

“About that… What exactly did you need me for again?”

“Well, I overheard from your conversation with that pony on the train that your talent is magic. We could really use a powerful unicorn on our side.”

“Well yeah, but what am I supposed to do?”

“Uhm, well I was sort of going to assess your abilities and collaborate with you to formulate the best plan that utilizes your talent to its fullest potential.”

“So basically, you wanted me to form the plan myself.”

“No! We’re collaborating!” Rainbow Dash retorted defensively.

“Right. And how many times have you rehearsed that speech with all those big words?” Twilight scoffed.

“About 20.”

“Well, at least you're being honest.”

“Look, can we just figure something out please.”

“Fine, but I don’t know how you’ve kept this rebellion going by yourself for so long without a proper plan.”

“I’m very charismatic.”

“I guess I’ll be the real brains of this operation,” laughed Twilight, “So who are we targeting first?”

“Well, Canterlot’s where all the big meetings take place, so I think we should target Nightmare Moon because that’s her territory,”

“Uhm no, we can’t!” Twilight stammered, “I mean… I think that it would be much better to target Cozy Glow because of her role as the mediator of the team. I also think she would be the easiest to take down.”

“Well if you think it’ll help us, let's do it. But just know that if the others in the council discover us, we’ll have to deal with all of them.”

“Hmm, so I guess we'll have to make it look like an accident,” Twilight smiled as she started to formulate a plan.

Cozy Glow zipped through the air, heading towards the Canterlot prison. She almost bumped into a few guards in the way, but she made it without delay. She trotted into the prison and walked past the various cells around her until she reached the one she wanted.

“Wakey wakey!” she cheered, “I brought some breakfast!”

“Ugh, please stop,” a female voice inside the cell pleaded, “Your shrill voice is ruining my perfectly miserable morning.”

“Now now, former-boss, you wouldn’t want me to have to call the guards because of your sass, would you?”

“Call them! Anything is better than you.”

“Oh, Starlight! Now is that any way of treating your former assistant?”

“Oh please,” Starlight snarled, finally facing Cozy Glow, “You were disloyal from the start, you turned the others against me, and you took my place!”

Cozy Glow walked closer to the cell, “Maybe I was disloyal, but you deserved it. I knew it was only a matter of time before you turned on all of us and tried to take our talents.”

Starlight looked into Cozy’s eyes, a flicker of hurt appearing on her face, but she continued, “I wasn’t going to do anything of the sort! I thought we were…”

“Friends?” Cozy Glow smirked, “Of course we were! But friendship is temporary. You of all ponies should know that.”

Starlight glared at Cozy, who just smiled back.

“So then, why are you here?” Starlight inquired.

“Oh right, well our new boss claims to still have use for you, so you’re in luck!”

“Use for me?”

“Yes, she has a little job for you. All she wants you to do is to find a little unicorn named Twilight, and bring her to her. She should be in Griffinstone right now. If you can bring her back alive, you can be set free!”

“I see… and what’s the catch?”

“Hmm? What do you mean”

“I mean why do you have to have me do it?” Starlight began pacing back and forth, “I can tell there’s something about this job that makes it difficult, so spill it.”

“Welllll, Twilight is currently located in Griffinstone, and she is a very powerful unicorn who’s talent happens to be magic.”

“I see.”

“Aaand, she actually got captured for trying to take down Chrysalis and was sentenced to life in prison. She should currently be in one that Discord created.”

“Oh. That-”

“And and, the boss doesn’t want you to get caught, or tell anyone what you are doing, especially the other members of the council.”

Starlight stopped pacing,“Ok, that sounds very difficult.”

“Don’t worry she’ll let you have full access to your magic while on this mission. You just aren’t allowed to remove anyone’s cutie marks.”

“Then why does she think I won’t just try to escape?”

“Oh right, I forgot to mention this; If you can manage to bring her back, you’ll be let back in the council!”

Starlight's eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yep! You’ll start out small of course, only being in charge of your old village, but everyone has to start somewhere! Just think, soon you’ll be back in the life of luxury, with everypony caring about what you have to say.”

Starlight thought it over. The task was definitely going to be challenging, but the rewards were just so tempting.

“Ok I’ll do it.”

“Great! I’ll let the boss know right away! One more thing though. If you even think of betraying us, the boss will probably kill you. Haha, but I’m sure nopony wants that!”

And with that, Cozy zipped off, leaving Starlight standing there in worrisome anticipation.

Author's Note

Ok, Starlight will be sort of important the rest of this story.

And if you're confused about what happened with Discord, I'll get back to him in the next chapter.

Have a good day!