“A black rose?” Rainbow huffed doubtfully, “What does that prove?”

Starlight turned back to the group, “Wait a minute… Those are used in potions to suck out love!”

“Exactly.” Twilight responded, “I used them when trying to take down Queen Chrysalis. Plus, she was there when Queen Chrysalis was explaining how they worked, so she would have known what they could do. Why would she have that specific rose if she wasn’t trying to take her down herself.”

Discord's eyes widened as he looked at the rose. “No way!”

“Wait, so we really didn't need all of this ‘evidence’,” Rainbow laughed, “Turns out there's tons of dirt on her already.”

“So she is a backstabbing wack!!” Starlight manically cheered, “I was right all along! I… was right…. all along.” she trailed off at the end, her voice cracking a little and her eyes blinking back tears.

“So, Cozy had to have been planning on betraying at least Chrysalis,” Twilight concluded, facing Discord, “So don’t you think it isn’t much of a stretch to conclude that she could do the same for you?”

“I don’t… I-,” Discord was at a loss for words, “Why would she do this?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted, “But it’s obvious what we have to do. We-”

She was cut off by the door opening, and an agape Cozy Glow staring at all of them.

“Uhhh… What are you all doing!” she yelled, “Discord? Twilight!... Starlight!? None of you should be here!”

Starlight then lunged for her. “Alright, I’ve had enough of you!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash held her back, but she kept pushing forwards.

“Hey, let me go!” she yelled at the two.

“Not a chance,” replied Rainbow Dash, “You’ll ruin the plan if you put her in the hospital!”

“Hospital!” gasped Cozy Glow, “Don’t tell me you were planning on attacking little ol’ me, were you?”

“Hah! You think they’ll be on your side!?” Starlight laughed with a satisfied smirk, “Now, everyone here knows what you are!”

Cozy Glow's face paled for a second before she turned to Discord.

“You can’t possibly believe whatever this traitor has told you! Remember how she-”

“Why do you have a black rose in your room, Cozy?” Discord asked apprehensively.

“I- Uhm. What are you talking about? What black rose?”

Twilight levitated the rose over until it was directly in front of Cozy’s face.

“What! How’d that get there?”

“Cut it out kid!” Rainbow demanded, “We know what you’ve been up to!”

“Well I-” Cozy started, “Wait a minute… What are all these blueprints doing in my room?”

“I don’t know Cozy. What are these blueprints doing in your room?” Discord spat out accusingly.

“I have no idea, I swear! Hold on… I do have an idea! You put them here! You’re with them aren’t you!?”

Discord looked at her completely flabbergasted, “Me!? Why are you accusing me when you’re the one with all this evidence stacked against you!”

“None of this is real!”

He picked up one of the scrolls and waved it around, “Feels real to me!” He then opened one, “Let’s see… You wanted to use the bewitching bell to beat us and then send us to Tartarus!? And you wanted to convince the boss that we screwed up and accidentally sent ourselves? And you wanted to open a money laundering place?”

“Discord, listen to me! Does that really sound like something someone like me could come up with?” Cozy said as she put on her cutest puppy eyes.

“Sorry Cozy.” he stared at her with a look of sadness that quickly washed away. “But I don’t believe you.”

Cozy looked around at the faces of everyone in the room. They had all fallen silent, and stared back with solemn looks. Even Starlight, who clearly felt strongly about this whole situation. She suddenly started backing away from all of them with a look of terror on her face.

“Well I was just trying to… I’m not actually-” she suddenly jumped out of the room and yelled out at the top of her lungs, “Guards! Help me!”

Her shrill voice probably echoed through the entire castle, but unfortunately for Cozy, she only made it a few feet out before getting kicked in the face by Rainbow Dash.

“Crud. They’ll be on us any second now!” Rainbow whispered with a harsh voice, rushing back into the room.

Twilight charged her magic and prepared a spell, but before she could do anything, Starlight jumped between her and Rainbow, and made them invisible.

The bat guards came rushing over, and upon seeing Cozy Glow lying on the ground, they quickly came to her aid.

“Are you okay, miss?” one asked.

But Cozy Glow did not respond. The blow to her head had dazed her too much.

“I believe we have an intruder! Go inform the princess!” another guard commanded the first one. “The rest of you search nearby!”

The other guards immediately dispersed. Two guards opened the door into Cozy’s room, and immediately came face to face with Discord.

“Hi there,” he grumbled, clearly not happy to see them.

“Oh uhm, pardon me Lord Discord, I was just searching for an attacker. You wouldn’t happen to have seen who harmed Miss Cozy Glow, didn’t you?”

“Why yes, actually, I have.”

“Really? Who, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“You’re staring right at him.”

A few other guards approached, looking at each other with uncertainty.

“Uhm… why, pray tell, would you do that?”

Discord glared at the guard, “None of your business. Honestly, you guards are getting too nosy in affairs that don’t concern you. Call off the search and go and summon the rest of the council. There’s a traitor we need to deal with.”

The guard looked at him in surprise, but he ultimately obeyed.

As soon as the guards left, Discord rubbed his temples and let out a heavy sigh.

“Ugh, what a headache,” he fumed, using his magic to close the door, “Alright, you can come out now”

Starlight stopped the invisibility spell, causing Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and herself to reappear.

“Why did you do all that?” asked Twilight, looking up at Discord with an earnest look.

“I just-” he stopped as his eyes locked with Starlights, “-needed to.”

Starlight averted her eyes with a gloomy look, an expression to which Discord responded with a guilty look on his face.

Sensing the tension in the air, Rainbow cut in, “Sooo, now what?” She looked at Twilight expectantly.

Twilight thought it over before saying, “Well, for starters, we have to convince the others of Cozy’s true nature.”

“Maybe they’ll believe it this time,” Starlight grumbled.

“She seems to be good at manipulating people,” said Rainbow, “So we have to be careful.”

“Are you testifying against her?” Twilight asked Discord.

“Definitely.”

“Then we can probably make a pretty good case. Of course we can’t exactly accuse Cozy of treason ourselves. Hmm… Firestreak and Giselle are still out there… Our best bet is to stick to the plan, but there’s no telling how things will go down.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” asked Starlight.

Twilight smiled, “Take Cozy to trial.”

Author's Note

In case you're wondering how the other rebels have been doing, we'll get to their POV next chapter while they handle Nightmare Moon.