//------------------------------//
// Chapter 179: A Chancellor Too Far 
// Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Stallion Edition 
// by SuperPinkBrony12 
//------------------------------//

The vent didn't just lead back to the school, it led to the school's library. When the students were safely on friendly ground again, the vent closed up behind them.

"So, I guess we're all friends now?" Gallus commented to the others who all nodded in approval.

Silverstream could barely contain her excitement! "Oh, this is so awesome! Best first day of school ever! I get to make new friends, get recused by a glowing projection from a tree, and tell off the Storm King for being such a jerk! If there's an afterlife, I hope he suffers like he made us suffer!" Then the hippogriff blushed. "Sorry, don't know how that slipped out. I'm just so happy to be alive now!"

Ocellus breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm just glad we're as far away from Chrysalis as possible and that she's not a threat anymore."

Yona, meanwhile, held out the spider she had befriended down in the caves. "Yona can't wait to show professors new pet! Yona never have pet before."

Sandbar simply smiled. "Guess it goes to show that friendship truly is magic. If it's possible for the six of us to become friends despite never meeting each other before today, it's no wonder it's done so many wonderful things for Equestria and beyond! Looking forward to a terrific school year with all of you."

"Whatever, just don't act surprised if I end up needing to borrow your notes, Sandbar," Smolder replied. "Friendship might be in my nature, but that doesn't mean it comes naturally. There's still so much we don't know about it."

Just then, Shining Armor happened to stumble upon the group of six and when he did he breathed an immediate sigh of relief. "Oh, there you all are. Thank goodness you're all okay!"

"All thanks to the Tree of Harmony! Did you know it could make a projection of you?" Silverstream asked the prince.

"What are you talking about?" Shining questioned.

"It's a long story, prince," Sandbar responded with a giggle. "Basically, the Tree of Harmony turned into a sparkling version of you to save us all from Chrysalis. And then it tested us so that we'd see friendship was indeed in our nature."

"Well, I'm glad you've all managed to befriend one another," The alicorn firmly replied. "You couldn't have come at a better time! Chancellor Neighsay was just about to shut down this school for good and the leaders of the other nations were about to go to war to find you all. No time to explain, we've got to get out front before something horrible happens!"





The students followed Shining to the front of the school where they saw a tall, slender unicorn stallion with a very light gray coat. He wore a dark red robe with a gold medallion around his neck, his mane and tail were dark gray in color and styled short, and his moderate turquoise eyes reflected a look of strong disapproval. Disapproval currently directed at the leaders of the other nations, and at Twilight Sparkle.

"Chancellor Neighsay, esteemed leaders," Shining Armor spoke up. "The missing students have been found safe. As you can clearly see, no harm has come to them," Then he turned to Neighsay. "You know what that means, right? My sister and I have proven that the well being of our students comes first. Finding them was our only priority. You'd be hard pressed to justify shuddering the school for good after that."

Twilight smiled and added. "Chancellor, if you please, I need you to step aside. If you don't classes will start late."

But Neighsay hissed. "The EEA has spoken and none shall pass! This changes nothing! Though you may have found your missing students, they still disappeared under your watch and I cannot overlook that! Besides, it doesn't change my point about the teachers and the level of understaffing going on. For the greater good of Equestria, this school shall never be allowed to open. Allowing dangerous and unpredictable creatures to share in that which is extremely vital to the well being of Equestria? I can't even begin to count the number of ways that could go wrong."

Ember growled, her eyes narrowing. "Unpredictable?! I'll shall you unpredictable, Neighsay! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't burn you to a crisp right this instant?!"

Prince Rutherford stomped his hooves down in protest. "Yaks will not be insulted by puny pony! If pony thinks he can take yak, let pony try!"

Even Thorax seemed to have lost patience for he remarked rather coldly. "You've got a lot of nerve calling me unpredictable, Neighsay! I've worked hard to change the reputation of the changelings, but I guess it will never be good enough for the likes of you!"

Fortunately, Princess Celestia was on hoof to quell the leaders. "Everyone, please. Let's be civil about this," She advised and turned to Neighsay. "Chancellor, don't you think you should learn not to make a public spectacle of yourself like this? Your actions could provoke an international incident, which is the last thing any of us needs. I don't think you need to be reminded of the fact that Equestria has still not fully recovered from the Storm King's invasion."

Neighsay stubbornly protested. "Princess, I respect your authority greatly, but on this I'm afraid even you seem to be mistaken. A school like this? It could never work! How could friendship ever be taught to these other creatures?"

Celestia couldn't help but adopt a rather smug expression as she replied. "Funny, I seem to remember similar arguments among our kind when it was decided that all three pony tribes should be united, and ruled by a single leader. Heck, I seem to remember quite a few heads at the EEA who were convinced a school in my name to teach students in advanced magical feats would never work. But would you say they were right now?"

"That's different, Princess Celestia!" Neighsay declared. "None of those ran the risk of endangering the well being of Equestria. This one does, and so long as I'm head of the EEA, I will never grant accreditation to it."

Twilight sighed. "It's really a shame you had to say that, Neighsay. You've forced me to play my trump card," She proceeded to slam down a massive book that Neighsay didn't recognize. "My school won't be an EEA school, it won't abide by the standards of the EEA that you think all schools should have. Friendship can't be taught in a traditional school setting, and if this is the only way I can ensure you won't sabotage it then you leave me little choice. I assure you, though, my school will help to protect Equestria. I'll hire more teachers, streamline the courses, and ensure there are guidelines and a code of conduct in place for the students."

Then Shining Armor added. "Looks like it's check mate for you, Chancellor. And know that I take no pleasure in telling you this," In a serious tone of voice he added. "Now you've already made quite a scene out here today, including comments that could've provoked conflict with Equestria's allies. I'm sure Princess Celestia is already planning to discuss with the EEA how best to control the damage you will cause to its reputation. I would hope even you wouldn't want to risk forever losing your title and reputation for the sake of a personal agenda. Like you told my sister, you could be a great ally. And I didn't become the Prince of Friendship without making an honest effort to make an ally out of what could've been an enemy."





There was a long pause, no one spoke a word for quite a while. At last Neighsay broke the silence as he reluctantly spoke. "I suppose you have me on that, prince. You win this round. Perhaps my judgement was 'clouded' by personal beliefs. But I still stand by my assertion that this school was a disaster, and I won't rest until it's shut down for good!"

"Yeah? And I won't rest until you lose that 'no holds bared' attitude of yours, so I guess we're even," Shining grinned. "Make no mistake though, I better not catch you within even ten feet of this school without a good reason. If I do, I'll see to it that you are made an example of. I think stripping you of your title and forcing you to enroll here would be a suitable punishment in those circumstances. And you wouldn't want that, would you?"

Neighsay shook his head. "No I wouldn't. But don't celebrate yet, prince. You haven't seen or heard the last of me. I'll be back. Might be tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. But you can be assured that I will have my way."

"And just what are you going to do tomorrow, Chancellor, might I ask?" Shining innocently questioned.

"What I'll be doing every day from now on, trying to find a way to get your sister's school shut down!" Neighsay vowed. "So watch your step! And don't think your threats scare me either, if you punish me without going through the proper channels it'll be you who oversteps his boundries." Then he lit up his horn, vanishing through a portal he had conjured up.

Princess Celestia sighed. "You let me worry about the soon to be ex-chancellor, Shining," She advised. "It's a shame that it has come to this. I had hoped Neighsay would see sense and learn to moderate his views. Alas, it seems there are some who are too stubborn to change no matter what."

"You don't really think he'll try to sabotage the school, do you?" Shining nervously asked the princess. "Neighsay struck me as many things, but an idiot wasn't one of them."

Celestia shook her head. "I know Neighsay. He talks a big game, but in reality he wields little in the way of actual power. Once he loses his title and word gets out as to why that is, I doubt he'll have much support from anyone. I just hope that when he gets that long overdue dose of humility, he takes it to heart. I've seen many leaders and department heads in my time fall from the light, and I'd hate for Neighsay to be one of them," Then she adopted a more cheerful tone of voice. "But you can't worry about that. Focus on the here and now, you've got a school with several new students to help run. And I'm thoroughly convinced it'll be fantastic!"

"Assuming the other leaders allow their students to stay," The prince replied with noticeable concern in his tone of voice. "After what happened with Chrysalis, and after Neighsay's remarks, I wouldn't blame them if they decided not to trust us."

However, to the prince's surprise Ember declared. "Smolder can stay, so long as you promise she doesn't get kidnapped again. Just because she's a fire breathing, thick scaled dragon doesn't mean she's invincible."

Smolder jumped into the air and cheered. "Woohoo! This is gonna be so sweet!"

"If dragons stay, yaks stay too," Prince Rutherford declared. "Besides, someone need to make sure Yona's new pet is taken care of. Spiders not capeable of surviving in Frozen North."

Yona smiled. "Spindel loves making new friends, just like yak! Yona promise to take good care of Spindel if ponies help her!"

Thorax smiled too. "I can't take Ocellus away from her new friends. They've finally gotten her to come out of her shell so to speak. And I know she'll make the changelings proud."

Ocellus said nothing, she just blushed.

"Queen Novo has given her permission for her niece and nephew to stay if they so choose," Seaspray spoke next. "If the school does well enough, Queen Novo says she might see about enrolling her daughter at a future date."

"Awesome!" Silverstream happily proclaimed! "Oh, there's so much to learn! So much to see and do!"

Terramar more softly added. "It's gonna be interesting to be around so many new faces. I just hope they're all as friendly as Gilda is."





But while all the other leaders were gladly willing to give their students permission to stay, Grandpa Gruff wasn't so convinced. And Gallus was doing a poor job of hiding from the elder griffon.

"What? Don't give me that look, sonny!" Grandpa Gruff snapped. "You belong at home with me, Gallus! I'm your guardian, and what I say goes!"

"But Grandpa Gruff, I just made some new friends!" Gallus pleaded in protest. "I wanna stay with them."

Grandpa Gruff snorted. "You think I care if you made new friends, Gallus? This school is still lame. You can make all the friends you want back in Griffonstone. It's what your parents would want."

"Wrong, it's what you want!" Gilda declared as she stepped forward. "And if it were up to you, Gallus wouldn't even have Gabby and I around to be surrogate parents for him. He's much happier here than he ever was in Griffonstone, can't you see that?"

Grandpa Gruff shook his head. "I remember you saying the same thing when you were his age, Gilda. But all it took was one incident where you lost your temper and you wanted nothing to do with ponies anymore. I'm simply saving him the pain of having to go through that."

"Please, Grandpa Gruff?" Gallus pleaded as he adopted a pouty face. "This way I can be out of your hair."

Grandpa Gruff couldn't say no to the face Gallus made. "Alright, alright! Stop doing that!" Then he turned to Gilda. "You're gonna be responsible for him for long as he stays here, Gilda. You want it so badly, so it's time you took responsibility for it."

"If it'll get you to stop squawking, that's a price I'm willing to pay." Gilda replied, and so it was settled.





The school was soon re-opened and the real Photo Finish arrived to take pictures, both for the papers and for the inevitable yearbook.

As classes resumed and the students started to settle into a routine, however, Tempest happened to notice Shining Armor on the second floor balcony looking out towards Ponyville. Since the broken horned unicorn had a little time before she would need to leave, she opted to approach the prince. "Hey, what are you doing out here?" She asked. "Something on your mind?"

Shining reluctantly nodded. "I can't stop thinking about Chrysalis. Once again she was able to pull something off and I was powerless to stop her. If not for the Tree of Harmony, she would've succeeded."

"Yet whenever she does rear her ugly head you've always been able to stop her and undo the damage she's caused." Tempest reassured him.

"True, but she's still out there. And somehow, I get the feeling that she's not quite done trying to stir up trouble," Shining admitted. "She's holding onto that grudge. And next time, who knows what she might try?"

Tempest spoke softly. "You can't allow yourself to worry too much. Be alert but not super, hyper on alert if you know what I mean. Besides, you've got me you can call on for help if you really need it. And there's also your friends, your sister, your nephew, and your wife. With so many ponies and non-ponies by your side, anything Chrysalis might try would have a hard time succeeding. And you've faced down so many threats already."

Shining nodded. "Fair point, Tempest. Still, I'm gonna be keeping a sharp look out for that ex-queen. And I swear, the next time she shows her face in my presence, it'll be the last. One way or another, I'll make sure she doesn't get away."