"We have suspicions that the villain who took the girls was..." Sunburst trailed off as Starswirl held up a book with a picture of a terrifying creature, snarling at a group of cowering ponies.
"Grogar." Starswirl finished
"Grogar? Who's he?" Flash Sentry asked
"I heard about him when I was young. Tia and Lulu always told me what their other friends had heard about the guy." Discord replied, and Sky Stinger looked confused.
"Mind explaining?" Sky Stinger asked
"Alright then," Discord snapped his fingers, and the image became real, snarling at them, and the stallions backed away in fear.
Grogar is the cruelest of the cruel
he once ruled the land with fear
he made beasts that roamed the land as ghouls
and still exist to this very year
alas his reign came to an end
when Gusty the Great's crew
took his power which the fear would send
and off his throne Gusty threw
Grogar was gone
erased from history
thanks to Gusty, Equestria had won
and Grogar's whereabouts remain a mystery"
Discord finished, and Cheese looked at him strangely.
"That was a pretty bad song." Cheese said
"They can't all be winners." Discord shrugged. Spike laughed
"Yeah, Pinkie's 'Evil Enchantress' song was pretty weird too." Spike added, smiling as he remembered the accident that had resulted in meeting Zecora.
"Actually, I meant why you keep saying you knew the Princesses when they were kids. Weren't you evil then?" Sky Stinger asked
"I am the same age as Celestia. Do you really think a ten-year-old can take over the world?" Discord asked
"Well..." The others shifted uncomfortably. Discord was a being of chaos. He could probably overthrow Celestia and Luna even if he was a child.
"I'm offended." Discord huffed, then proceeded to explain. "Celestia, Luna, and I grew up together after we found Equestria. Though I always hid from anyone other than them. I didn't get along well with the other ponies who worked/lived in the Castle of the Two Sisters." Discord explained
"Now is not the time to discuss the secret friendship you had with my students that I knew nothing about until now. The song, bad as it was, nevertheless served its purpose. Grogar was indeed defeated by Gusty the Great in the height of his power. However, rather than destroying him, Gusty simply stole a powerful artifact that gave him his powers. Her failure to completely incapacitate him means that he must still be alive somewhere in Equestria. We believe he took the girls." Starswirl explained
"But why the girls?" Spike asked
"Wait...Grogar was defeated by Gusty the Great, a mare..." Dark Shooter said he and Shining thinking about something. The others followed their train of thought.
"If Grogar was captured by a mare, then he might think that mares are the competition, so he captured all the most powerful ones!" Soarin exclaimed
"Precisely. Now, according to legend, Gusty hid Grogar's artifact somewhere very discreet. Since he was not able to break my enchantment on the Ex-Queen's throne, he has clearly not found it." Starswirl said, rather proudly.
"So, we need to find and fight a giant goat to get the girls back? No problem." Flash Magnus boasted
"Aye, Flash, don't go countin' yer wins before they happen, mebbie Grogar hasn't his artifact now, but it don't stop him from gettin it back." Rockhoof warned
"Rockhoof is correct Flash, Grogar is smarter than to do this alone, he must have a reason for acting now." Sunburst said
"We need to get going, the mares need us." Fire Streak added, and Discord shuddered
"Discord, something wrong?" Fashion Plate asked
"No. At least, I don't believe so." Discord said, and they all stared at him. "You see, I can sense magical imbalances. But it's very strange, the last time I felt one that strong was when..." Discord trailed off and gasped.
"What?" they all demanded
"When Tirek was stealing magic." Discord finished. They all gasped, Sunburst so hard that his glasses slipped to the edge of his muzzle.
"B-but that means..." Thunderlane began
"The girls are in trouble! We've got to go, now!" Shining Armor cried, thinking of his wife and daughter.
While the boys were doing this, Grogar was stomping around in the room, watching the prisoners. They were very weak, having been taken in the middle of the night. Some were pacing around. The youngest ones whimpered and hugging the older ones. Tirek was standing guard over them, and had accidentally drained one's magic. The white unicorn with the purple mane had fallen over due to it, though she seemed to be acting. Cozy Glow was eating a sandwich in a corner of the room, watching the show.
"You won't get away with this!" Princess Cadence shouted, trying to break the strange lock on her horn.
"You're sure those things will hold, Cozy Glow?" Tirek muttered
"Of course, this key's the only way out of that lock." Cozy replied, swinging a key in her hooves. "Same goes for Princess Twilight's and her dumb pupil's." she added, holding up another two keys.
"Tirek, if you take another's magic without my permission, I will punish you most severely." Grogar threatened, and Tirek nodded, leaving the room with Cozy Glow, Grogar going out another way.
The second they had left, Rarity sat up, perfectly fine, but trembling slightly on her hooves. Twilight and Starlight ran to Cadence and struggled with the locks.
"Why won't it break?" Cadence asked in terror
"Because it's a Horavian Unichain." Came a familiar voice.
A mare had been staying in the corner, away from the others, and not speaking. Now that she had, Rainbow gasped.
"I know that voice!" she said, running to the mare and pulling back the hood on her cloak.
"Daring Do!" Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Fleetfoot said, then gasped along with the others as they saw the state Daring was in. Her pith helmet had a tear in it, she was sporting a black eye, and one of her legs was bent at an odd angle. Daring winced as she pulled herself up to their eye level.
"Daring, what happened to you?" Twilight asked
"I was fighting Ahuizotl and his henchponies when Grogar zapped me down here. I was about to use my whip when it happened, those Henchponies had me in a ditch. Actually, I probably would have been knocked out if he hadn't teleported me when he did." Daring explained
"You okay sis?" Rainbow asked
"I'll live." Daring replied, pulling off her cloak with her good hoof, making a saddlebag slide off her back and onto the ground. Daring flapped her wings a few times, then winced. Apparently one of her wings was injured.
"Sis?" the others echoed, just now registering Rainbow's choice of words.
"Oh, um, yeah, did I forget to mention Daring found some old Birth Certificates that said we were twins?" Rainbow asked sheepishly
"Doesn't matter right now." Applejack said, shaking her head. Rainbow nodded.
"Well, about what you said they put on our horns?" Cadence asked, as Fluttershy and Mage Meadowbrook stepped forward to try and heal Daring's injuries.
"Oh, right. It's called the Horavian Unichain, an awful way of subduing unicorns, and apparently alicorns. The lock is specially designed so that you can't use magic once it's put on your horn. The only way to remove it is with the key." Daring explained
"How do you know this?" Mistmane asked, sitting down
"We have an uncle who's a unicorn." Daring replied. Rainbow lay down beside the mare, brushing her muzzle against Daring's.
"What's going to happen to us?" Surprise had been repeating this question every five minutes until the villains had come in. She resumed it now. The others groaned
"We don't know Surprise, but just calm down, I'm sure by now the guys have noticed we're gone and are looking for us." Spitfire assured her friend, but was having doubts about this herself.