Chrysalis teleported in to Canterlot under the guise of a pink unicorn mare with a raspberry mane. She quickly looked around to find well-off unicorn socialite with a yellow coat and fabulous golden mane headed to the castle.
"Oh fellow unicorn, have you heard about the threat to Canterlot?" Chrysalis asked.
"Oh? Well dear, I'm afraid I don't follow rumors after that debacle with Princess Luna's alleged flank massage scandal..." he replied.
"Oh, but this came from Fancy Pants himself! He said that there's a plot by ne'er-do-wells to blow up the castle during the coronation, and go after any unicorns who don't swear their loyalty. It may be best to...hang back and watch," she elegantly spun to the stallion.
"Fancy Pants you say? Well he's about the last pony that'd accept smoke up his fancy pants... I must tell my friends and family at once, they could all be in danger if that happens!" he said, earning a grin from the changeling queen.
"Of course, spread the word far and wide! I must go myself, to make sure my little ones are safe. Who knows what a bunch of evildoers would do to them..." Chrysalis said with a slight dramatic flair before teleporting out.
Discord popped in to Grogar's room to find him ogling a golden globe of some kind.
"Ahem...are you sure this little plan of yours is going to work? Your little...trio or whatever you call them nearly ruined the Summer Sun Celebration. It was quite chaotic, I must say, but I get the feeling they did it under your nose..." he said with a glare.
"Hmph, you've always been skeptical of my plans, but this time is different. I let them have their little fun so they'd bond all the more over their dislike of me. If it was all sunshine and rainbows and no villainy, they'd see right through it all," Grogar replied sternly.
"We'll see...how about we check up on them..." Discord said as he laid back and used his claw as a mouth instead of his actual mouth. "You can say that I'm back to my old ways, so they can distrust me and find that I'm actually a good friend, bla bla bla...."
"You're still not as good as good at plans as I am, but I suppose it will work. Follow me," Grogar said with a sinister smirk and headed off.
As the two approached the meeting room, they could hear the three talking.
"So Grogar's bell is like a mega magic vacuum that can be changed from suck to blow? Sounds like my style," said Cozy.
"Yes, and if we split the power amongst ourselves, Grogar will be outnumbered as well as outgunned!" chimed Chrysalis loudly.
"I can tell they're not very stealthy..." Discord remarked quietly, earning a shush from Grogar.
"I think I hear him coming, hurry!" said Tirek as Cozy opened a little hidey hole in the wall...to find nothing.
"Looking for this?" Grogar said as he pulled the bell out from under his tail.
The three gasped in unison.
"Don't tell me, Cozy snitched so you'd give her cookies?" asked Chrysalis with a piercing glare.
"Yes, but also, I have a magic crystal ball that lets me look at anything, and it comes in hoofy," replied Grogar.
"Oh, we kinda forgot about that I guess," Cozy said with a shrug.
"Fine, so you found our little plot, would you mind telling us what you are doing with that traitor?" asked Tirek, pointing to Discord.
"Oh, who, me? I'm just here for the fun!" said Discord as he sipped from an upside-down teacup.
"Discord has been helping me keep the ponies distracted. It turns out they still don't even know we're working together, which means it will be all the more crushing when we strike. Now, would the three of you like a sip of power?" Grogar asked with a smile as he raised the bell.
The trio nodded, Cozy looking excited with her hooves at her mouth while Chrysalis and Tirek were more resigned.
Grogar blasted them with the bell, making each empowered. Cozy became an alicorn, while Chrysalis' body became much more warlike, and Tirek gained his full form once more.
Discord gulped audibly.
"Now remember, I can take this power away from you all at any moment. None of you will lay a hair on my bell, or it will be a one-way ticket back to Tartarus...or worse. Understood?" Grogar threatened.
Tirek sighed while Cozy began zapping about.
"Good!" Grogar said with a smirk. "Now, one more threat to my power to deal with..."
Grogar immediately sapped the power from Discord into bell, making the draconequus shriek.
"But...but...your plan! My powers are too much for to handle!" Discord said in shock.
"Still naive as ever! You thought I was reforming these three, and they definitely did learn something from it...how to be an effective team of evil! Now go and tell the ponies just how doomed they are!" Grogar said with a laugh.
Discord quickly began to run away, as Chrysalis prepared to zap him.
Grogar quickly grabbed her horn roughly. "I'll not have you uh...stop my diversion! He's got false information on my plans the princesses will eat up like cake," he said with a slight nervousness.
Chrysalis gave a mocking hmph.
Cozy Glow let out a short maniacal laugh. "I love it when we're winning. Say...how about you give me some of that chaos magic?" she asked with a grin that made even Chrysalis shiver slightly.
"You think you can handle it? Here!" Grogar shouted as he blasted her with the bell.
Cozy grew bigger than Celestia as she cackled and zapped parts of the room with her horn...but all she succeeded in doing was creating cotton candy, then pizzas that grew pineapples that began chomping at her.
"Aaagh! Take it back!" she demanded as one bit her rear.
"I...certainly think this is a good level of evil, but it might destroy us before our enemies, unless we fire Cozy at them out of a catapult," remarked Tirek as Cozy glared at hime.
Grogar took the chaos magic into the bell with a smirk. "Discord's unique pairing of lineages makes him able to handle his power naturally, a feat even I can't replicate with only my half. Becoming the most powerful beings in the universe will have to wait until after our conquest," Grogar said, making Chrysalis groan.
"Well I'm certainly down with conquest," said Tirek as he and Cozy made lovey eyes toward each other, smiling.
Twilight and friends nervously trotted to the castle, looking around at the many on-alert pegasus guards flying about, and the glimmering shield over the city.
"Do you really think it's Chrysalis again, Twilight? She has no hive. What is she gonna do, turn all the trees into psycho zombies to eat us? Wait...can she do that? CAN SHE?" asked Spike with a bit of panic.
"Celestia's not sure, but whoever made the threat meant it. They abducted guards without being detected and didn't exactly return them all in the best of conditions..." Twilight said, making Spike gulp.
"Oh, that's awful!" Fluttershy whined.
"They'll recover. More important is the here and now; with the school closed down and Canterlot's shield up, ponies here might get a little...skittish. Scared ponies might help whatever plan is going down to protect themselves, so we've got to reassure everypony that everything's under control. Celestia has the Pillars protecting Seaquestria, since it's too far away for us or the guard to handle. Be alert, everypony," Twilight said with a nervous look.
"You sure that'll work? Braeburn said he ain't comin' within a hundred miles o' Canterlot after the disaster at the Summer Sun Celebration, and with villains on the loose!" Applejack said, making everypony stop.
"Hey, if we don't show everypony we're still awesome, how are they gonna change their minds? I know Cloudsdale's gonna keep a pretty close eye on us and the Wonderbolts for this," replied Rainbow.
"She's right, we have to at least try," Twilight said confidently.
A shriek from Fluttershy made everypony turn...to see Discord, haggered and limping towards them.
"Twilight...trouble..." he said between breaths. "My magic...gone..."
Fluttershy rushed to hold him.
"What?! Who, how, why?!" Twilight asked, flying about in slight panic.
"Uh, what she means to say is, what happened, Discord?" said Spike as he stroked Twilight's wings in just the right places, making her sigh a bit and float down to the ground.
"Well...I may have made a teensy little mistake involving some ne'erdowells..." he replied.
"YOU are behind the return of Chrysalis and Tirek?" asked a shocked Rarity.
"Eh-heh...and uh...a few others..." Discord said sheepishly.
"Oooh! Did you resurrect the Storm King so you could go on a pirate adventure, but then he turned out to be the bad kind of pirate that makes ponies walk planks above big hungry sea monsters?" asked Pinkie, prompting Twilight to put a magic zipper on her mouth.
"Hmm...maybe I should try that next time. Actually um, I kind of...well..." he began with a nervous chuckle. "...had Grogar teach Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy about being evil when they were supposed to learn friendship and um...there was his bell and..." said Discord as he fiddled with his fingers.
"THEY USED GROGAR'S BELL TO STEAL YOUR CHAOS POWERS?" Twilight yelled, then began to hyperventilate loudly.
"Sorta kinda maybe?" replied Discord.
"This is awful! Discord, why did you do it?" asked Fluttershy.
"I just...wanted to impress you by reforming others and having them provide some challenges while Twilight got into her new role. I never expected Grogar to turn back to being evil!" he replied, earning a furious glare from the yellow pegasus.
"Wait, it was YOU behind King Sombra's return? I knew it!" said Dash. "You owe me 5 bits, AJ!"
Applejack sighed and hoofed the bits over.
"Aww, nopony ever bets on who was behind mysterious resurrections of villains with me! So...are we just about to get completely crushed by chaos magic? I'm feeling really gassy, that usually happens before we lose" said Pinkie with a look between concern and excitement.
"Pinkie, ya ate too much of Granny's six-layer bean dip yesterday, so I really don't think your bowels are gonna tell the future so much as grumblin' compliments to good ol' Apple family cookin'. Now, come on, let's hurry up and tell the princesses!" said Applejack as she began to run.
Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned. "Discord, how long do we have before everything goes...butts up, as Rainbow and Spike like to say?"
"They can't have figured out wielding my powers yet, but I wouldn't put it past the four of them to find an alternate means of getting here now that I'm out of the picture. We likely don't even have time for tea," said Discord as he hung his head low and Fluttershy switched to giving a sympathetic hug.
Twilight gulped and immediately teleported them all into the throne room.
"...I see," said Celestia as Discord finished his explanation. "I have half a mind to take advantage of your loss of powers and imprison you in Tartarus! The least you could've done was inform us about it so we could track their actions and stop them if it got out of hoof...but now the whole country is in danger!"
"Sister, calm thyself. While Discord's actions are most regrettable, the threat is imminent. How can we deal with these four, now that they have the bell?" asked Luna.
"I have some ideas on that, but we'll need to act fast..." started Twilight as she brought out a chalkboard covered in plans with little ponies and arrows and words.