Discord awoke from a nap feeling a big groggy. He sat up straight on top of a throne on a hill in the middle of Griffinstone. He stretched and let out a big yawn.

“Wow, my head’s definitely clearer after that nap. Alright, where's Twilight and her band of hooligans?..."

He used magic to pinpoint their location.

"Dang.”

Twilight was gone, and so were the rest of the rebels. Discord sensed them in Canterlot.

“Ugh, guess I should follow them.”

Maybe this was getting out of hand. At this rate, he could get caught by the rest of the team.

But… he was bored. It had been a while since he met anypony quite as interesting as Twilight, and he was curious to see what she would do.

“Maybe I’ll just meet them wherever they’re headed,” he said to himself.

“What an awful idea, what if they’re going to head straight to the boss?” another Discord with glasses replied.

“True, true, but she is with the rebels. If I can play dumb, maybe I can say that they broke her out, and that I had no idea.”

“And if that gets us kicked off the team for incompetence?”

“Oh, no that would be… I’ve got it!” he yelled as a lightbulb appeared over his head, “I’ll just swoop in and stop them before they do anything! That way, I come out of this being the hero.”

“I don’t know…”

“Too bad, I’ve already decided.”

Discord then teleported to Canterlot.

The wagon came to a stop.

“Alright, when we’re done, just remember that we’re meeting at the road at the back of the castle. If anything happens that stops you from getting there, send out a flare if you can,” instructed Rainbow Dash.

“Starlight, are you sure you can know where Cozy glow’s room is?” asked Twilight.

“Of course I know.” Starlight scoffed, “I’ve only been living here for 5 years.”

“Hey, I have been living here for a while but hardly ever say you or her. Granted, I hardly left the library, but you can never be too careful.”

“I know where it is, ok?”

“Alright, fine. Do you have the fake evidence?”

“Yep right here,” Starlight levitated a black briefcase, “Although I don’t know why we need so much.”

“You can never be too careful.” Twilight repeated.

“Alright, time to go. Good luck everyone,” said Gilda with a tense face, “please don’t screw this up.”

“Haha, us? Never.” Rainbow assured her, “Alright Twilight, it’s you and me now. Oh, and Starlight too. Ready?”

“As much as I’ll ever be.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Twilight used her magic to teleport the three into the castle. The tricky part of this plan was going to be avoiding the bat guards. Fortunately, since it was always night in Canterlot, moving through the shadows was fairly easy.

Thanks to some well timed invisibility spells by Twilight, they were able to make it inside Cozy Glow’s room.

“Alright everypony, time to plant all this fake evidence”

Rainbow dash opened the drawers, and placed scroll after scroll of evil plans to take over the other members of the council. None of them were plausible, but all were technically possible and seemed to be in line with what a child would create. One planned to defeat Queen Chrysalis by using “massive bug repellant,” while another planned to defeat Tirek by having him consume magic someone with a curse that slowly weakens them.

Meanwhile, Twilight placed maps for magical artifacts, many of which were real, however none of which were significant threats. It didn’t matter though, as long as it looked like Cozy would think that they worked, they could successfully make it seem like she was planning something sinister. As she placed the last map, her eyes glanced towards a vase on the desk with a few flowers. She disregarded this detail and moved on.

Starlight trotted around the room, hardly helping at all. She seemed to be looking for something, but couldn’t seem to find anything.

“Are you going to help?” Rainbow asked.

“I believe I’ve helped enough by getting you here,” she replied and continued looking around.

“There's gotta be something incriminating,” she mumbled, out of earshot of the others.

“Alright I’m done.” Twilight finally said.

“Me too, let's go.” Rainbow said.

They were about to open the door to leave when Discord teleported right in front of them.

“I hate to crash the party but-”

Before he could finish, Starlight jumped ahead and blasted him with a huge beam of magic. When it disappeared, Discord was nowhere to be found.

“Ok, I banished him.”

Then a bookcase flew over and fell on her.

“Ow!”

“Twilight, please unbanish me,” Discord's voice said rather coldly.

“Uhhhhhhh… Do I have to?”

“Just… Please?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

“Oh come one! I won’t attack you, I promise?”

“Eeehhhhhhhh”

“It’s not like I can’t do anything I normally can do with my body. If I wanted to attack you, I would have already. You saw what I did to Ms. trigger-happy over there, didn’t you?”

Twilight sighed, “Fair point… but I still don’t know”

“Release me or I’m telling your companions about your teacher.”

Starlight stared at a wide eyed Twilight, realizing that she hadn’t yet told the others about who she was. Meanwhile, Rainbow stared at Twilight with suspicious eyes.

“Uhh- I-,” Twilight stammered, and then reluctantly, she cast the spell and unbanished Discord.

“Ok good,” he started, “So first off… What. is. wrong. with. YOU??!! For someone who claims to be Nightmare Moon's student, you sure are treacherous towards her, aren’t you?”

“What!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, looking at Twilight in shock.

“You said you wouldn’t tell!” Twilight shouted.

“Of course I lied! You think you’re the only backstabbing traitor who lies after gaining other’s trust!?”

Discord seemed surprised at his own words, and quickly added on, “Not that that matters to me,” then he crossed his arms and turned away.

“Wait, so your teacher is Nightmare Moon!?” Rainbow gasped, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Uhm I-”

“I just want to cut in to say that I knew,” Starlight interrupted, “That’s actually why I came to hunt you. I was actually chasing Twilight.”

“What! Why?” Twilight asked her.

“Oh stop changing the subject!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “What are you planning, Twilight!?”

“I don't know, ok?! I was trying to help Nightmare Moon stop Queen Chrysalis when I got sucked into this mess! I failed on my own, so I thought if we worked together, then we could defeat her!”

“But don’t you care about everything Nightmare Moon’s done?” Rainbow lashed out, “She keeps Canterlot in eternal night for equestria’s sake!”

“It's just- well she’s done so much for me…” Twilight hung her head low.

“Ugh,” Rainbow huffed, then she turned to Starlight “And why were you trying to sacrifice Twilight?”

“I was exaggerating about sacrificing her,” she scoffed, “I only needed to bring her to the boss without letting the other council members know.”

“I thought you didn’t know the boss?” Rainbow responded.

“I don’t. Cozy Glow relays all the messages she gives.”

“You know the new boss is a girl?” Discord asked, finally finished with his moodiness.

“Yep. Cozy Glow has slipped up once or twice when talking about her.”

Twilight raised her head and looked at Starlight with a puzzled expression, “What could she want with me? And why can’t the other council members know?”

Hearing this, a grin creped up on Discord’s face. He tried his best to hide it, but Twilight saw through him.

“You know something, don’t you?”

He let out a cough and said, “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“Yes you do,” Twilight continued, “As a member of the council you would know who the boss is and, because of this, you were able to piece together what she wants.”

“Oh, well, you’re not getting any information out of me!”

“You unempathetic moron!” Starlight yelled at him, “Why do you care so much about protecting the boss when she probably could care less about you!”

“Well, what else can I do!?” he yelled back, flying into the air in anger.

“Oh! I see what this is!” Starlight realized, “You’re just scared of her, aren’t you? You think that rebelling means you get the Starlight treatment, don’t you! So you’re going to continue cowering in fear in hopes that she won’t replace you with someone else, like she did with me!”

“Oh, please! You’re just mad that you got caught being a total wacko and you’re trying to act like we weren’t justified to kick you out!”

Hearing this, Starlight looked into his eyes with a hurt face, “I already told you! I didn’t do it! I wasn’t planning on betraying you all… I thought we all… were friends.” she looked down in sadness.

Discord looked genuinely shocked at her emotion, “But Cozy said-”

“She lied ok!” Starlight responded with tears in her eyes, before turning away and refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

“You think Cozy Glow is genuinely an evil mastermind?” asked Rainbow.

“Actually… I know she is” Twilight cut in, “take a look at this guys,”

In all the chaos, Twilight had taken a bit of time to look back towards the desk. While doing so, she realized that one thing in Cozy’s vase stood out.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked her.

“It’s a black rose.”

Author's Note

I like unhinged Starlight☺