The Rein of the Evil

by FloatingBlades

Rating: everyone
Tags: Discord, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, Adventure
Length: 12723

lIn an AU where the villains rule the world together, Twilight grows unhappy with the way things are. This leads to her quest of getting rid of Chrysalis. But, who will she trust to help her? And why does she feel so guilty about this?

In this world, a council of villains, comprised of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, Tirek, King Sombra, and a mysterious boss, have been ruling the lands for many years, dividing it into pieces that each of them control.

During this time, Twilight had been living in Ponyville under the order of her mentor to eliminate Queen Chrysalis, who had been getting more powerful over the years. This led to the spiral of events that force Twilight to confront life changing opportunities, like meeting a group of rebels, that make her question her allegiance.

With unexpected help from the less-evil villains, Twilight finds herself attempting to make a change for the world.

Published 2024-08-21 22:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-12-23 17:27:21 UTC

The Glum Town of Ponyville

The town was calm. Not a soul stirred, nor gave any hint of emotion. It was a cloudy day, and if one were to look around, they would immediately notice the dull and gray atmosphere.

Twilight walked through the town with her bag slung over her back. It was this world that the villains ruled. It was this world that the villains won.

She headed through town until she reached the flower shop, where she found no one attending it. “Hello, is anypony there?” She called out into the shop.

Lily Valley exited the shop looking wary at Twilight, “Oh, hey there Twilight… is it, well… you?” she asked.

“Yes it’s me,” Twilight replies, “and relax, I don’t need anything from you that would require you being sure of that. I just need one bunch of black roses.”

“Oh! Ok then, one moment please.” Lily responded heading back towards the shop to fetch the flowers.

While she waited, Twilight glanced back towards the town, a desolate and empty scene. Windows everywhere were barred up, and most doors were shut except for a few places owned by braver ponies. Even the flower shop she was currently standing right outside of was shut from the outside world. It had been shut ever since her sisters Daisy and Rose had moved away.

“I’m back!” exclaimed Lily as she returned, “and, here you are,” she said, handing Twilight the roses. Lilly pondered for a moment before asking, “What exactly are you going to use those for?”

“Oh! I… Well I just needed them for a small art project of mine” She replied with a smile.

That was a good enough explanation for Lily so she waved Twilight goodbye and returned to the shop.

Twilight felt bad for lying to her, but it was for the best. She couldn’t raise any suspicion about her latest activities and the less people who knew, the better. In reality, the black roses were for a certain spell she’d been learning with the help of some books in her library. She could get in a lot of trouble for doing this, but it was her best plan to get rid of the Changelings who tyrannized Ponyville.

It had been over a year since Chrysalis took over Ponyville and Cloudsdale, bringing her love-feeding subjects with her. She had forced everyone in Ponyville to allow any hungry Changelings to take their love. Of course, the other places in Equestria were no better, being cut up into various provinces controlled by a different tyrant.

Black roses were known to have magical properties associated with bringing heartbreak and rage, making it taboo to work with them, since no one wanted anyone to break up loving relationships. However, because of this property Twilight theorized they would be perfect against the love-sucking Changelings.

She peered up at the sky, her mind wandering with worries about whether her plans would be successful.

As she returned to her library, she carefully avoided running into any Changelings, and warned a few others if one was coming. Most of the ponies around her looked tired. Still, she much preferred it to her old home in Canterlot, controlled by Nightmare moon and her eternal darkness. With a solemn face, she remembered the day, two months ago, that she had to leave.

It had been a peaceful night outside. Twilight walked in the darkness as she returned to the Canterlot castle. She trotted up the steps, escorted by guards, and was let into the throne room.

“Greetings your Majesty,” Twilight said with a bow, “I’ve come to report my current studies on the current plantlife of the area.”

“Alright, you may continue,” replied the princess.

“Well, the mushrooms are doing okay,” she started, “But.. Well, most plants aren’t doing very well. Dare I say none of them are. Unicorns have had to shift all their focus on using magic to keep them alive. I know it’s not much of an issue since Canterlot doesn’t grow much food, but…”

Twilight hesitated, not wanting to speak out of line, “I think that the plants would do much better if you brought back the sun here.”

Nightmare moon looked at her with sharp eyes glaring. “Oh… do you dare question my reign?”

“No of course not!” Twilight quickly interjected, “I just wanted to suggest the notion that we occasionally remove the dark dome surrounding Canterlot purely for the benefit of the foliage! Not to take away your beautiful night!”

“Very well then. I will consider this option out of respect for you, my current student. However, do not forget your place Twilight.” Nightmare Moon replied sternly.

“Yes Ma’am” She replied with a little guilt in her voice. “If you’ll excuse me, I will be going back to my room-”

“Not so fast” interrupted Nightmare Moon, “I have an important assignment for you, Twilight. It is of utmost importance that no one else hears what I’m about to tell you.” she shot a glance at the guards.

Hearing these words, the guards promptly left the room.

“I require you to continue your studies in a small town called Ponyville.” she finally stated.

“I beg your pardon?” Twilight gawked.

“As you know, Queen Chrysalis controls that area, however I need you to be there to ensure that she does not get any more powerful. I fear that with all the love she has been consuming, she will believe it to be acceptable to attempt to take over my Canterlot.”

“W- what?” Twilight sputtered, “But your majesty isn’t the counsel supposed to intervene if something like this happens?”

“ ‘Supposed to’ yes, but I suspect that the others wouldn’t mind looking the other way if they obtained a larger share of land. And I believe that if Cozy Glow wanted, she would convince our mighty leader that I am a traitor of some sorts.” she huffed.

“Well, how can I stop her?” asked Twilight.

“Simply put, you will have to take her down.” the princess insisted, “I know what you are capable of, and truly believe that you will find a way on your own. I’ll have Shining Armor assist you with moving. You will be operating in the guise of a pony who’s taking refuge from my lands, and had to move into the town library. Is this understood?”

“Uhh… yes your highness.” Twilight sighed.

“Very well, I dismiss you now.”

“... Goodbye princess.”

And with that, Twilight left.

Author's Note

Constructive Criticism is appreciated. :)

An Honest Attempt

Twilight had prepared herself for this. She had to cast the spell directly in front of Queen Chrysalis or it wouldn’t work. This meant that she would need an audience with the Queen.

How am I supposed to approach the Queen? she thought, She’s constantly guarded by a group of changelings so I can’t just charge in.

As she pondered this, an idea struck.

I could try sneaking in. Then I can cast the spell and teleport out before I’m caught!

The plan was risky, but if it worked, then this whole fiasco would be over. The only issue remaining after that would be returning to Nightmare Moon’s everlasting night.

Twilight had missed the day and night cycle while living in Canterlot. Princess Celestia had always kept it that way, never allowing one to go on for two long. Remembering her former teacher, a wave of sadness washed over Twilight. She quickly shook it off and started moving. There wasn’t any time for regret. She quickly prepared the potion for the spell, and left her home.

As she walked, she approached the in-construction castle Queen Chrysalis had begun making. She originally lived back in her hive, but the commute towards ponies whose love she could feed on proved to be too long for her, so she recently had decided to just move to Ponyville. The new castle had many elements of the old one, giving off a similar atmosphere to it.

Twilight approached the castle and began brainstorming ways she could get in.

Maybe I could teleport in? No, I need to save all my strength to cast the spell and teleport out safely. Maybe there’s some other entrance I could try?

She walked around the perimeter of the castle, trying to find a way in until finally she saw it.

Is that a window on the floor? Oh, this must be the basement! Too bad the window is surrounded by guards, I’ll have to find a way to distract them.

After she said that, a pink pony with curly hair and a cheery attitude approached her.

“Heya Twilight! Whatcha doing?” chirped Pinkie Pie with a bright smile on her face. Despite everything in the world being the way it was, Pinkie still managed to keep a bright attitude most of the time. Twilight envied that of her.

“Oh, hey Pinkie. I’m trying to find a way… Say, would you be willing to distract the guards over there.” Twilight pointed towards the guards “It’s also very important that you don’t ask why.”

“Hmm, I think I can do that,” Pinkie said with a smile. She walked over to the changeling guards, then pulled out her cannon. “I heard it was your birthday today! Have some cake and some streamers and some confetti and-”

The guards hissed at her causing her to show a slight bit of worry, “Oh, not into celebrations? Well why don't we try group meditation? Or a group exercise! Or a-”

Not wanting to let her continue talking, the changelings charged towards her. Pinkie let out an “Eep!” and ran away.

With the coast clear, Twilight approached the window and went inside. I’ll have to remember to thank Pinkie when this is all over she thought.

Twilight roamed through the castle and made her way to the throne room. She turned the corner and the Queen came into view. She prepared the potion and held up the book she found the spell in, and began to chant:

Mortal rose with midnight wings,

Bring me an end, cut the strings

A cut half mourns the final piece,

Find the love, leave it deceased

…

Nothing happened.

Hearing the chant, Queen Chrysalis immediately turned around to look at her. “What the-” She stammered, “Guards! Seize her!”

Twilight felt one of the guards tackle her, and the room went black.

When Twilight awoke, it was in a small cell in a room. When she took in her surroundings, her eyes widened in shock. Standing right in front of her, was the council that ran Equestria! Thankfully, they didn’t seem to notice her waking up, so she began to secretly listen in on their conversations.

“I found this unicorn roaming around with black roses!” spat out Queen Chrysalis.

“Oh no!” mocked Discord, “How completely dreadful! A little flower being carried by a little pony!”

“I wouldn’t expect an imbecile like you to understand, but this flower can be used in spells that drain love. In other words, this pony was trying to rebel!” fumed Chrysalis.

“Oh pardon me, I just keep forgetting that I’m considered an equal with someone who doesn’t even know how to prevent magic uprisings.” Discord scoffed while materializing a fidget ball to mess around with.

“Please put that toy away! It’s distracting” huffed King Sombra earning him a defiant smirk from Discord.

“Make me,” he challenged.

“Ok, back to the matter at hand,” groaned Queen Chrysalis, changing the subject “How should we deal with this little traitor to the nation?”

“Just let me drain her magic and be done with it,” Tirek suggested, crossing his arms.

“And let you get too powerful?” King Sombra spat out with an accusatory tone, “We can all see her talent is magic!”

“Oh? Well what do you think we should do?” huffed Tirek.

Sombra stamped his hooves “Just leave her to rot in that prison!”

Without warning, a little pegasus entered the room.

“Sorry to interrupt misters, but if you want to settle this easily, I could just go ask the boss what she thinks! It would spare us soooo much unnecessary conflict!” said Cozy glow with a wide smile.

“Well, we can’t just interrupt the boss like that!” protested Sombra with a slightly nervous look.

Suddenly, the sound of hoofsteps coming closer led them all to turn towards the door where the last member walked in.

“What is the meaning of my summoning?” inquired Nightmare Moon with a frown.

“Ohhh, hey moonbutt, how’re ya doing on this nice day? Did you get a new tan?” snickered Discord with a mean smile on his face.

“Don’t patronize me,” she fumed, “Explain yourselves now.”

“I found this little pony attempting to cast a love draining spell on me, “ the Chrysalis said with a fiery rage.

“I see… this love draining spell would render you useless since you use love as an energy source, correct? Very clever of her.” replied Nightmare Moon. Twilight wondered if she was even worried about her.

“Well none of you better get any ideas!” the changeling queen began pacing in circles, “I’m going to set a new law to burn all spell books from now on!”

“How would that stop us?” asked King Sombra with an antagonizing tone, “We have our own libraries you know?”

Discord faced Chrysalis with a wide grin and an angel halo appearing above his head, “Well if you need any tips, you could ask me, I’d just looove to help.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, “Ugh, I think we’re getting off topic again.”

“I suppose we can just leave her. With my magic crystals blocking her magic, there’s nothing she can do anyways” suggested King Sombra. This made Twilight immediately reach a hoof to her horn, making her realize that her magic was, indeed, being blocked by Sombras crystals. Shoot.

“Well, we can’t just let a criminal loose,” protested Cozy Glow while feigning concern, “People like her have to be locked up for everyone's safety.”

“Ok, so who’s going to take her?” asked Chrysalis.

“Why not you?” asked Cozy.

“Well, I can’t have someone who knows how to take me down.”

“Ok, let’s just draw straws,” decided Discord, materializing 6 straws out of thin air.

“No way are we letting you provide the straws. Everyone knows you always cheat!” grumbled King Sombra.

“I have some long matches!” Shouted Cozy glow pulling some out of her bag. “We can use these as straws. Now, so everyone knows it's fair, I’ll cut them in front of you all.” She cut most straws a different, but similar size, and left one to be much smaller than the rest.

“I’ll take those,” decided Tirek, holding them in his hand with his palms hiding their length so that it was impossible to determine the length of each straw “Alright everyone grab one.”

One by one everyone grabbed a straw.

“Ok, who has the shortest?” inquired Discord.

"Not me"

"Nope "

"I don’t"

"Not it"

"Uh uh"

“Well one of you has to have it,” he insisted.

“Uhm, Discord, open your palm,” suggested Cozy Glow.

“What?” the draconequus opened his palm, “Oh poo.”

“Well I guess it’s settled then.” concluded King Sombra.

“Don’t let her escape!” Queen Chrysalis commanded.

“Another problem successfully solved!” cheered Cozy.

“I’ve had enough of this,” decided Tirek, “I’m leaving now,” and with that, he left.

Twilight paused to assess her situation. Her magic was being blocked, and she was being taken prisoner to wherever Discord ruled over. Where was that again? Somewhere called Griffinstone I think.

Commotion knocked Twilight out of her thoughts, and she faced forward and realized that all the villains but Discord had left.

“So, I guess you're coming with me,” he said looking down at her, “Ugh, I guess a more normal pony would be a nice change of pace compared to all the emo griffins and edgy ponies in Griffinstone.”

“Ponies?” asked Twilight, “I thought only griffins lived in Griffinstone?”

“Oh I give my sincere greetings to you too, I’m Discord by the way! Honestly, who taught you your manners? Who even are you?” he grumbled.

“Oh, I’m Twilight Sparkle,”

“I’ll probably forget that, but whatever.” he replied, “Say, is there even a prison in Griffonstone?”

“Uhm, I’ve never been there before”

“Oh well, I can just design you one.” he smiled with a sinister giggle, sending chills down Twilight’s back.

New Plan and New Allies

“I suppose we can head there by train,” decided Discord, and he opened the door to her cell.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Canterlot.”

“What!?”

He rolled his eyes at her, “You didn’t think we’d meet up in a shabby place like Ponyville, right? Plus Canterlot is right in the middle of Equestria, so it’s easiest to meet there”

“Hey! Ponyvilles not shabby! It's really nice! Plus there’s daylight which is always a plus.”

“You do realize that most of the land has the usual day and night cycle, right?” he asked.

“Oh! I guess that makes sense.” Twilight had lived in Canterlot for most of her life, so she still considered daylight a blessing instead of the status quo.

“Wait a minute, are you from Canterlot?”

“Huh?” Twilight internally panicked, thinking she would get exposed as Nightmare Moon's student, “Well yes, but, I recently moved to Ponyville.”

“I knew it! You have the face of someone who hasn’t seen the sunlight in days.”

Hearing this, Twilight grumbled, “ugh.”

It seemed that she wouldn’t have to worry much about being discovered.

Upon arriving at the train station, a thought came to Twilight.

“Couldn’t you just teleport us?”

“My goals are beyond your understanding,” he said, and just left it at that.

“Uhm, alright then.”

The two boarded the train and took their seats, as Twilight looked around, she began to wonder what all the other passengers were traveling for. While many traveled to meet family, lately there had been a lot more migration out of Canterlot.

“So… Do you know why so many individuals are moving out of Canterlot?” she asked, figuring she had nothing to lose.

“Same reason you left. Eternal night and all that. If tall, dark and ugly doesn’t fix her place fast, she’ll have no one left to govern. Still, I respect how she lets her people leave when she’d be better off forcing them to stay. ”

“Huh.”

“Huh?”

“I just wasn’t aware of all the differences between you rulers. I just assumed there was some… set of rules you all have to follow when governing”

Discord let out a chuckle, “Rules? Twilight, why would we all have the same rules?”

“Well, I'm sure there are some basic ones.” she argued, “There has to be!”

“Just one. Always listen to the boss.”

“So what keeps you from fighting among each other?”

“Sometimes her eminence does, and sometimes Cozy does. When neither of them stop us, though, we just keep fighting.”

Wait a minute… The boss is a girl? Twilight realized. It definitely would benefit her to learn more about this boss.

“Why doesn’t the boss ever appear in public?” she inquired.

“Too busy I guess? Or maybe because she’s too good for the public.”

“Have you even met her?”

“Of course I have!”

“Really? What does she look like then?”

“Well she has a horn- Wait a minute… You’re just trying to get me to talk!”

“Well you seem to love talking.”

“That's it! I’m ignoring you for the rest of this trip! And if anyone asks, I told you nothing.” he huffed.

“Alright then.” Twilight decided against pushing her luck any further.

Just then, the pony ticket collector entered the coach. When his eyes faced Discord, he gasped, “Oh! So you are here!”

“Ugh, no I’m not,” Discord replied, opening a window and jumping out.

“Why did he do that?” Asked Twilight.

“Why wouldn’t he do that?” he huffed in annoyance.

“Wait, so does everyone but me know all about the personalities of the rulers?” she asked.

“You don’t know the basics? Wow, you must be from Tireks lands, the ponies there face harsh restrictions. I’ve heard they aren’t even brought to schools! How I wish I could help them escape,” He sighed, “Speaking of escape, it looks like King Sombra has blocked your magic, I assume you’re a prisoner, right?”

“Right, I was caught trying to use a spell against Queen Chrysalis, I actually came from Ponyville.” As soon as she said this, Twilight saw out of the corner of her eye a blue pony with a rainbow main perk up.

“Oh my! How could you possibly have expected to succeed with that!”

“Well, my talent is magic. I’m completely confident it would have worked too, if my horn hadn’t decided to just not work. I was even already in the castle!”

“Oh, haven't you heard? Queen Chrysalis has some strange stones that block any magic. I don’t think she’s had time to bring all of them, but it makes sense that inside her castle, she’d block any magic.”

“Oh, I understand now. Wow, I really failed this mission.” a determined expression appeared on her face, “Ok, next time I’ll be completely prepared!”

“You’re still trying to fight her? Well good luck, I probably shouldn’t be talking about this with you, and I still need to check the remaining tickets. See you around, miss.”

“Thanks for everything,” she replied. He nodded in response and left. After the door closed behind him, the blue pony with the rainbow mane came over and sat across from her.

“Uh, hey! I heard that you were trying to rebel against the rulers” the pony said. Twilight noted that she had a raspy voice

“Oh, no! I was just trying to stop Queen Chrysalis from getting too powerful! All the love she’s been consuming is getting to be a problem.”

It was a half truth, since Twilight was trying to stop Queen Chrysalis, but she was pretty sure that doing this would put her out of commission, not just prevent her from getting too powerful.

“Oh, well… still took guts I bet.” the blue pony replied. “Why’d ya do it?”

“I-”

Wait… I can’t just reveal that I did it because Nightmare Moon told me so.

“I was just… so sick of her tyranny, y’know?” she finally responded.

“Yes totally! It’s the same situation in Cloudsdale! That’s why I’m escaping! Queen Chrysalis doesn’t like it when ponies leave, but it’s not like she enforces it enough to stop me!” she beamed, “anyway, I’m Rainbow Dash, and you’re Twilight, right?”

“Yes I am.”

“Well Twilight, I was wondering… Would you like to join my resistance?”

“What?” Twilight was bewildered. She never thought of herself as a pony who would go against the whole government.

“Just imagine! You, working with my gang to free everypony! Imagine all the praise we’d get for being the heroes who took down evil.”

“I don’t know… It would be hard to take down the whole council.”

“Maybe so, but we’re not going to take them all down at once! We’ll pick them off one by one, and then go for the big boss!” she explained, “So are you in?”

Twilight though for a moment. Nightmare moon would definitely be mad at her for conspiring against her, but if she were working in a team, she would definitely be able to take down Queen Chrysalis much easier. Plus it would help to have some allies while she remained without her magic.

“Alright I’m in. So, who are we taking down first?” she asked, hoping it would be the changeling queen.

“Not sure. But we’ll have to be sneaky about it. I’ll break you out of prison later and we can discuss things later.”

“One problem,” Twilight said, remembering her predicament, “My magic isn’t working right now due to the magic rocks on them.”

“Oh, that is a problem. Hmm, see if you can get Discord to remove them.” she said, “Then, when you’ve done that, send a rainbow firework to come get me.”

“Ok, first off, Discord would never do that! Second, a rainbow firework really? That's not very inconspicuous.”

“Look, Discord is kind of a simple minded guy. If he thinks something is fun, he’ll do it without hesitation. Just sweet talk him or something. As for the attention brought by the fireworks, don’t even worry! There are tons of fireworks all the time. Nopony will give it a second thought.”

As she said that, the train began slowing down. It became clear that they were stopping at a passing station to drop off some passengers and pick up others. Their train cart began to flood with passengers and Rainbow Dash returned to her seat saying, “Ok, see you later. Remember the plan!”

Twilight nodded her head and rode the rest of the way in silence.

Author's Note

I'm glad I spell checked this. I also fixed a lot of Rainbow Dash's dialogue because it was initially OOC, but now I think I've got a pretty good feel for her character.

Changes in Griffinstone

After a while, the train finally reached Griffinstone Station.

Discord never came back, so Twilight assumed that it would be fine to get off the train herself. She looked around for a bit, but didn’t find anything noticeable. Only mountains. So many mountains.

“Is this supposed to be the prison?” she wondered aloud, “Well there’s not much here.” as she said that, she glanced up. There it was.

“Griffinstone?” she wondered. It looked awful. It was overwhelming to take it in, but from what Twilight could gather, part of the floor was checkered, many of the trees holding up the houses had strange colors ranging from red to purple, so many houses were upside down, and there were a few pink clouds here and there.

“What the…” she started. She wondered if she should make a break for it and run away, but quickly remembered the plan. Funnily enough, now she wanted to find the prison for the sake of the plan. She took a few steps forward before a letter appeared in front of her. It read:

Dear Twilight,

Hi.

Sincerely, Discord

P.S. I trust you can make it to Griffinstone alone. Excuse my lack of hospitality, I just don’t feel like giving you the tour right now because I’m kind of busy. Also I didn’t even want to do this, so can you blame me? Anyways, when you get to Griffinstone, just do me a favor and look for the obvious sign with your face. I left you a surprise there.

Twilight felt annoyed. She looked up at the daunting mountain, and began her long traverse to Griffinstone.

Twilight hauled herself up the last mountain. Finally, her destination was in sight. There it was, in all of its glory. All around her were griffons in seemingly bad moods. She looked around until she saw it: a wooden canvas with a terribly made painting of her on it. Beneath the canvas was a wooden box. She approached the canvas and read the sign:

OPEN THIS BOX

Do I have a choice? She wondered while inspecting the box. She reached towards it and lightly tapped the top. It immediately flung open, and a handful of metal bars sprang out and surrounded her.

This must be the prison! At least this is all going according to plan, she consoled herself.

From out of the box, Discord sprung out with a wide smile. “I take it you’ve gotten quite acquainted with your new home.” he chuckled.

“Uhm sure.” she huffed, “But is this really it?”

“What? What more could there possibly be?” he challenged her, “Did you really want some grand parade just for you going to prison?”

“Erm, no, but I think that you could come up with something more exciting than a normal prison. Maybe I could be sentenced to community service?” she suggested.

“What? Your sentence is PRISON!” he said, placing extra emphasis on the “prison” part, “Not community service.”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t think you were such a sucker for the rules, I can relate! I just love rules, they make everything fun, afterall, what fun is there in making no sense?” Twilight was rambling, but from the look on Discord’s face, she knew her words were starting to get to him.

“I’ll show you who’s the sucker!” and with a snap of his fingers, the prison around Twilight fell, “Ok here’s the deal, you are going to help me with a few errands around town.”

“What kind of errands?” Twilight asked, feeling a bit worried.

“I need to meet my chaos quota,” he replied, “just follow me.”

Twilight decided to comply, and followed him as he led her towards one of the griffin's houses.

“See that griffon in there?” he gestured towards a griffon with white head feathers, “She’s been kind of lonely lately. I say we pay her a friendly visit”

The griffin, who was walking grumpily, did look rather lonely. In fact, everyone there did. Wow, Discord must have done a number on these citizens, she thought.

“Ok, here’s what you’re going to do,” Discord started, “take this wooden marionette, and give it to her.”

“Oh, is that all?” smiled Twilight. She grabbed the doll and started trotting over to the girl.

“Come right back when you're done!” Discord shouted after her.

“Alright then…” she came face to face with the griffin, “Uhh, take this,” she handed her the marionette.

The griffin sighed, “From Discord?” she whispered.

“Well, yes.” Twilight replied.

“Ugh, hey, just so you know, this reaction is totally fake,” she said in a rather monotone voice, taking the marionette from Twilight's hooves.

Suddenly, the doll grew 16 feet, and began flailing around like a ragdoll. “Woah! This is insane!” The griffin suddenly exclaimed in a very surprised voice, “It just doesn’t make any sense! I’m outta here” she turned to leave but paused, glancing back at Twilight, “Name’s Gilda by the way,” then, she took off.

Twilight returned to where Discord was. “So, was it everything you hoped for?” she asked.

Discord didn’t reply, only staring off in the direction where Gilda disappeared. He slowly turned his head towards Twilight. After a long pause, he finally muttered a disappointed “No”.

Twilight hesitated, “Well, you’ll get 'em next time, I guess.”

Discord turned to face her, “No, I won’t.” he said grimly, “people here are never surprised anymore. Everyone here is just… I don’t know, dead inside? It’s just an integral part of the culture… Honestly, it’s made me lose a lot of my motivation to even try bothering them.”

“Oh, well… Have you ever considered… maybe instead of bothering them… you could try and cheer them up.”

Discord gave Twilight a look of bewilderment “Uhm, yeah I’ve tried! Me showing up should be enough!”

Twilight wondered if he was actually this delusional or if it was just a facade. “It doesn’t look that way to me,” she countered.

Discord sighed, “Ok lackey, what do you propose I do to get a sense of excitement around here?”

“Well, I could show you. Oh, but it would be impossible with these rocks on my horn,” Twilight did her best to put on an innocent look, “They block my magic in case you didn’t know, and without my magic, I just can’t bring happiness, excitement, or any sense of chaos around here.”
She put on a frown which she hoped appeared genuine.

Discord huffed and thought for a few seconds. “Ok, you know what? I don’t think the boss will mind if I just…” he reached his hand and grabbed twilight's horn off her head. He then took a bite out of the rocks like they were rock candy. “There we go,” he dusted the rest of the rocks off and put Twilight's horn back on her head.

“Oh… thanks,” Twilight said sheepishly, staring at her poor horn, “Uhm, by any chance is there a sink around here?”

A sink fell from the sky, right in front of Twilight. “Thanks”

Twilight, with her sharp mind, quickly formulated a plan.

"Alright, hear me out..."

The Great Show

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.

Going Down

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!

Random Attack

Discord watched as the dust cleared. Now, there was no one around him. He looked around in confusion.

Twilight was gone.

“Uhm… what just happened?”

He looked at the spot on the floor where she used to be, and realization struck him.

“Did she… leave!?”

A flicker of sadness appeared on his face before he quickly shook it off, remembering what this meant for him.

“Oh, shoot! Oh no, Boss’s going to kill me! Well, more like kick me out of the council, but I’m definitely going to get heat from her! Alright, she doesn’t have to find out! Twilight could disappear and no one will be the wiser. Alright I’m ok. I’ll just have to find her to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid!”

He flaps his wings and begins to hover a few feet above the ground.

“Alright let me try to sense her… Oh? She’s using a cloaking spell? No matter, I can easily bypass this one. Another cloaking spell? Ok I’ll just bypass this one as well… HOW MANY CLOAKING SPELLS DOES SHE HAVE!?”

A nearby griffin stared at him as if he was crazy, which wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

“Ok, I’ll just bypass all of her spells!” as he said that every single cloaking spell Twilight casted, as well as the one with the false signal disappeared.

“ …Ok, I did it. Wait a minute… She’s with the rebels? Why would she be spending time with those morons? Ok, she clearly underestimates me if she earnestly believes that I can’t track her down… I suppose since there really is no chance of her eluding me, I can risk spying on their little plans. And, if anyone from the council finds out, I can just say that I was attempting to stop an uprising. Win win!”

Discord laughed, and teleported away.

“Alright! So does everyone understand the plan?” Twilight asked the group.

“I guess…” mumbled Firestreak, a former wonderbolt, “But how are we going to get to Canterlot undetected?”

“That’s where Gilda comes in!” beamed Rainbow, who turned to face Twilight, “She’s another member of the rebels, but she isn’t really here yet.”

“Oh I think I’ve met her before,” Twilight realized.

“Oh really? She’s a friend of mine who helped me start this rebelion,” Rainbow reminisced, “We used to have so much fun at camp before all of this. Anyway, she is coming over with a wagon full of hay!”

“So we’re being smuggled?” asked Giselle, a griffin with a dark head and a gray body.

“Uhhh, yeah,” admitted Rainbow dash.

There were a few uneasy glances in the small crowd, but no one opposed the plan.

Just then, Gilda showed up. She came in carrying a wooden wagon with a roof and a white cover that made the whole thing look like a tent. Inside, it was filled with hay.

“Alright, get in,” she said.

“Uhm, don’t you want to know the plan first?” asked Twilight.

“Oh right. Sure.”

“Ok, so… Once we get to Canterlot, me and Rainbow Dash will sneak into Cozy Glow’s room. Inside, we’ll plant ‘evidence’ that she was attempting to overthrow the members of the council. We’ve prepared banners, blueprints, you name it. She’ll try to deny everything, of course, so we’ll have Firestreak and Giselle sow the seeds of doubt in Nightmare Moon's mind. They’ll subtly convince her that Cozy Glow cannot be trusted. The icing on the cake is that Cozy actually replaced a former member of the council that she used to work for. You probably remember the big headlines that made. Her name was Starlight Glimmer.”

“Oh, right, I remember her,” cut in Gilda, “She was the one who took away cutie marks, right? She really didn’t last very long. Wasn’t she replaced because she was borderline insane?”

“That’s what the council said, but I think we can twist it against Cozy Glow.”

“Well, are we going to make this plan work, or what!” shouted Rainbow Dash, prompting a cheer from the small crowd.

“Alright everyone, here’s the hiding space,” Gilda said as she gestured towards the wagon.
The four members going on the mission entered the wagon and buried themselves in hay. They prepared themselves for a long ride ahead of them.

Twilight woke up with a sharp turn ramming her into the wagon's wall. She groggily opened her eyes and attempted to assess the situation.

“Huh? Gilda what's happening?” she asked with concern in her voice, waking up Rainbow Dash.

A scream from Gilda made them both jump in alarm.

Rainbow Dash shot out of the cart and Twilight heard her yell out, “Who’s there-” before getting cut off with the sound of a blast of magic hitting her.

Twilight peeked outside and saw Rainbow lying unconscious on the ground.

Fudge

Twilight wasn’t the type to charge into conflict, but she had to act fast. Whatever was out there wasn’t going to be so kind. She jumped out of the cart and quickly formed a force field around herself. When a blast of magic shot towards her, this precaution came in handy. She ran towards Rainbow who was right next to Gilda. Twilight saw both of them open their eyes and struggle to get up.

Twilight reached them and increased the size of her force field. Finally sure that Rainbow and Gilda were safe, she was able to analyze her opponent.

“Who are you?” she called out. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she saw a pink unicorn with a purple mane who stared back at her.

“Starlight Glimmer?”

Starlight rolled her eyes at being addressed, “Yeah, it’s me. Very observational.”

Twilight exchanged glances with Rainbow, before continuing.

“I thought you were in prison?”

“I was, but that’s not important right now,” Starlight said before firing another beam of magic, “and now, if you want your companions to survive, you’ll come with me!”

Firestreak and Giselle floated out of the wagon, clearly being levitated by Starlight’s magic.

Twilight felt nervous, like she was being backed into a corner. She began to think of a way out of this. If only she could disable Starlights magic, but the only one she’s seen be able to do that was King Sombra. Suddenly a thought struck her. She could try to cast a spell to make Starlight forget how to use magic.

But that’s considered dark magic, she thought, before looking back up at Starlight.

“Why are you doing this!?” she called out, taking a few steps closer to Starlight, “Is this some sort of attempt to get back into power?”

A look of surprise appeared on Starlights face, causing Twilight to assume she was right.

“Look, I don’t hate you or anything,” Starlight responded, “But if I’m going to ever have a future in this horrid place, I’m going to need to sacrifice you!”

Twilight seized this opportunity to ram into Starlight, catching her by surprise.

Here goes nothing! she thought as she began the spell. Her eyes turned dark, and she shot a blast of magic directed at Starlight's head.

Before she could react, Starlight’s eyes rolled backwards and she went limp.

“OH MY GOSH!” Twilight yelled in alarm, “Are you ok!? I didn’t mean to knock you out!”

Rainbow Dash, and the rest of the group ran over.

“Everything ok?” she asked.

“I think I killed her!” Twilight began panicking.

Luckily, Starlight opened her eyes. She got up and let out a groan, “I have a massive headache right now…” her eyes widened as the events of what just happened came flooding back, “YOU! What have you done!!”

She tried to lunge at them, but Twilight floated her in the air, “Sorry, but I can’t let you cast anymore spells like that.”

Starlight’s jaw dropped as she stared dumbfounded at her.

“Did you seriously make me lose the ability to do magic!?”

“Well… not exactly. I just took away your memory on how to do magic.”

Starlight glared at her, and Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, “Hahaha! Wow, you totally got a taste of your own medicine there, didn’t you? That’s hilarious! Imagine not being able to use your special skills.”

“That’s great and all, but how are we gonna keep her from talking?” Firestreak asked.

“Tape?” Rainbow suggested with a shrug.

“Starlight’s not going to talk because she’s going to help us,” Twilight stated.

“Excuse me?” Starlight objected.

“You were kicked out of the council, right?” Twilight started, “That means it could happen again.”

“No it won’t, this time I know who to trust.”

“And do you really think you can trust the other members?” Twilight gave her a look of genuine concern, “Starlight, they aren’t even very friendly with each other. A group of leaders who all want as much power as they can have are going to be competing with each other from the start, and they’ll be competing with you too.”

Starlight gave this some thought.

“It doesn’t matter because we stand no chance against all of them anyway.”

“Come on, if we work together to take the rest of the council down, we might be able to do it. We actually have a plan already made. We’ll turn members against each other, and then watch as their council destroys itself. you can-”

“Have you even thought about what the new boss will do about this?” she replied, “Who knows how powerful she’ll be”

“... New boss?”

“You know, the one who replaced me.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped, “You used to be the boss? Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“Well yeah, you didn’t think I’d tell everypony that I was the brains, did you? That would make me a massive target for assassins and stuff. It’s just safer to remain anonymous.”

“Well who's the current boss?” Twilight asked.

“I never saw her, but I do know Cozy Glow has.”

“In that case we should try and make Cozy tell us.” Rainbow suggested, and Giselle and Firestreak nodded in agreement.

“Well,” Twilight started, “How about it Starlight, are you in?”

Starlight thought it over for a few moments.

“...Fine.”

Author's Note

New team member! :twilightsmile:

Entering Canterlot

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☺

The True Intent

“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.