Chapter 220: Red Alert!
While Shining Armor was training with Tempest and Grogar was beginning to put his plan into action, Twilight was making the final arrangements for an important decision of her own that was tied to today and the coronation taking place in just afew short hours. "I'd hoped B.B.B.F.F would have time to swing back here to see this, but I guess he's got enough on his plate as it is." She thought to herself as she sat at her headmare's desk and waited.
The door to the headmare's office soon swung open as Starlight Glimmer trotted in, her exact expression was difficult to read but she looked to be rather unsure of herself. "You wanted to see me, Twilight?" She nervously asked as she shut the door behind her. "If this is about stepping out the other day, I'm sorry. But you should know that I had no students to meet with and Trixie had this new magic trick she just had to show me, which was really just her mastering short range teleportation."
However, Twilight (after looking across to Spike) giggled. "Starlight, it's nothing like that at all," Regaining her composure she then added. "You know what day today is, right?"
"Yeah, it's the day your brother officially takes over as supreme ruler of Equestria. Everypony who's anypony knows that, it's all they've talked about for weeks," Starlight remarked as her unsure posture did not fade. "What does that have to do with me? I'm not his student anymore."
"Maybe, but you are part of the family," Twilight pointed out with a smile upon her face. "And I've seen your progress first hoof. That's why I'm fully confident in the decision that I've made," She cleared her throat. "I want you to take over for me as headmare of the school."
Spike was quick to point out. "Congratulations, Starlight! You've been promoted!"
"You... really mean it? But why?" Starlight pondered before gasping! "You're not planning to move back to Canterlot to be near your brother, are you?!"
Twilight immediately shook her head to dispel the notion. "No no no, it's just that Shining is going to be very busy adjusting to his new life," She explained to her fellow unicorn. "In fact, he's gonna be so busy he'll hardly have time to manage the things he actually wants to do. So I wanna be there to support him and help him at least map out his agenda. And for however long that takes, I won't be able to run the School of Friendship. I needed somepony trustworthy and capable to take over, and you immediately sprang to mind."
"Wow! I don't know what to say!" Starlight exclaimed as her eyes widened! "This is just... just... incredible! It's so much to take in! I'm a little bit... nervous, and also excited but mostly nervous! Do you really think I'm ready?! Oh, what am I saying, of course you do! You wouldn't ask this of me you had any doubts! But.. yes... of course... thank you! I won't let you down!" And with her emotions getting the better of her, the unicorn leaped up and tackled Twilight into a hug that she also pulled Spike into.
Despite how tightly Starlight hugged, Twilight forced a smile. "You're welcome, it's the least I could do after all you've done for my brother and I, and Spike. I really can't think of anypony who'd be better for the job, and you should know I have every confidence in you."
But all Spike could force out was. "Too tight... can't breath!"
Starlight quickly ended her hug as she struggled not to blush. "Sorry," Then a thought struck her. "But if I'm going to be the new headmare, who's going to take my place as guidance counselor? Not to mention the vacancy that'll surely be left for vice headmare or headstallion with Spike's departure."
"You have full range to hire whatever additional staff you need. I have a few candidates you might wanna look into, but I can't make the decision for you on who to hire or why," Twilight pointed out. "And it won't be right away. I'll do my best to help guide you through this transition, just like my brother and his friends tried to help you through your transition from foe to friend."
"Speaking of friends, where exactly are they? I haven't seen any of those stallions anywhere today." Starlight pointed out.
"They're probably already on their way to Canterlot to meet back up and help Shining prepare for the coronation," Spike commented. "And it's time we started preparing for it as well. A coronation like this only comes once in a lifetime, anyone who's anyone is gonna try their hardest not to miss it!"
And Canterlot was indeed where Shining Armor's friends were gathering at that very moment. Braeburn had already reunited with Fancy Pants and Big Macintosh, and now Soarin and Thunderlane were returning to the group as well. "Hey guys," Soarin called as he and Thunderlane swooped down for a landing. "Did you miss us? It's okay if you did, Thunderlane and I definitely missed seeing all of you."
Braeburn had an incredibly bright smile on his face! "Darn tootin'! It's so good to see y'all again! Just where has the time flown? Feels like it was only yesterday we were all venturin' off into the Everfree Forest with Shinin' Armor, and now we're talkin' about his coronation."
Thunderlane, meanwhile, looked to Big Macintosh and asked the stallion. "Is it true what I heard? Did you and Cheerilee finally get married?"
"Eeyup," Big Macintosh confirmed with a nod and a smile. "She'll be comin' up a little later with an entire train worth of students. There really wasn't much she could for the last couple of coronation preparations, and married mare or not she's still got her teachin' job to focus on."
"Way to go, big guy!" Soarin encouraged as he playfully nudged Big Mac in the side. "Now you, Fancy Pants and Shining Armor all have something in common, married life."
Fancy Pants then cleared his throat. "Well, we can discuss all of this and many other developments much later on. For right now though we still have our own contributions we must make if this coronation is to be successful."
Soarin nodded his head as he took charge of the five stallions. "Right, I hear ya. Guess it's on to the castle for us, then."
But there was little need, for at that very moment Shining came trotting out to meet his friends and embraced them all in a hug. "Even after today, you guys will never stop being my friends!" He told them! "I'm so glad you'll be at my side now. And wait 'til you here what I have planned for us after the coronation."
"All in good time, Shining," Fancy Pants calmly declared. "For now let's focus on getting you fitted for your coronation gown and making sure you look your best. The new leader of Equestria must capture a truly gallant image for all to see. With any luck it might even inspire another stained glass window display in the throne room."
"Just make sure it's not too much of a statement," Soarin cautioned. "We don't need anything distracting Thunderlane, myself or the Wonderbolts when we make our big fly by after the crown's placed atop your head. Spitfire really wants this to go off without a hitch, and I for one don't blame her, especially since it'll be my flank on the line for it."
Braeburn added. "And your dress better not get in the way of lettin' you have fun at the big dance durin' the coronation after party. We'll have so much fun it'll make your weddin' celebration look like child's play."
However, at that very moment there was a faint flicker of light and then who should tumble into existence but Discord himself? With the spirit looking rather exhausted and unusually weak to boot.
Fancy Pants frowned at the site of the draconequus. "Discord, really? This is hardly the time for your antics. Couldn't you wait until after the coronation?"
Discord weakly cried out. "Please, you must listen. I don't have much time to tell you this."
"Not this again," Soarin rolled his eyes. "It wasn't funny when you pulled this stunt on us during our last fight with Sombra, And it's not funny this time, Discord. You don't take us for fools, do you? Don't answer that."
"Please, I'm telling you this is not a joke or a game, this is real!" Discord protested as he lay limp on the ground. "There is a great evil on the way, an evil so powerful it's brought other evils together. If it's not stopped there'll be no future for any of us. I don't even have my magic to help you guys out, it's been stolen from me."
Even Thunderlane was not moved by this statement. "Likely story, pal," He sternly declared. "Now come on. Get up and stop fooling around."
Discord tried to stand up, but the moment he did so his body gave out on him and he collapsed again. "You see? This is real," He panted and pleaded. "You gotta believe me this time. I know I don't have the best track record for this, but it's not like I've ever truly steered you wrong. Even when I was faking it before, in doing so I gave you all the confidence you needed to save the day didn't I?"
"You did, yes. But how can we be sure this isn't another one of your silly pranks or somethin'?" Big Macintosh questioned the spirit.
"Well, maybe this will convince you," The draconequus answered in a croaky tone of voice. He brought his paws close to him and tried to snap his fingers, but when he made the motion nothing happened. No chocolate milk rained from the sky, no roads turned to soapy bubbles, nothing appeared out of nowhere and the landscape didn't change in the slightest. Everything was exactly the same. "You see now? I could never fake something like this even if I wanted to."
The gravity of the likely situation slowly began to sink in, especially once the soon to be ex-royal sisters arrived on the scene. "Discord, what has happened to you?!" Luna cried in dismay! "You've been suspiciously silent for weeks now, and this is your big return?"
However, Celestia seemed to know what the problem was even before anypony else could try to guess at it. "Your chaos magic was drained away entirely. Only two such creatures are capable of such a thing and one of them was imprisoned in Tartarus," She let out a gasp! "No, it can't be him!"
"Who's 'him'?" Shining nervously and reluctantly asked. "Is it part of some vision you received, Princess Celestia?"
The sun princess nodded ever so slowly. "I couldn't be sure of it until I saw and heard what I did from Discord. There's only one thing I can think of that would explain it all, but it's impossible."
"Sister, perhaps it is time to consider that the impossible is possible," Luna spoke up. "The last time your visions were this ominous it did not end well for any of us."
Reluctantly, Celestia explained and the words that left her mouth filled every heart with dread. "It must be the work of Grogar, the father of monsters. Only with the help of his magical bewitching bell could he have achieved something such as stripping Discord of his chaotic powers."
"No way!" Soarin's mouth dropped open in shock as all eyes widened! "You mean the Grogar of legend? The one defeated by Gusty the Great as the fairy tales say? He actually exists."
"He does," Discord confirmed. "He's brought together three of our greatest adversaries: Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis and the Storm King. He intends to set them loose on Equestria today as part of a plan to conquer it, and all life as we know it."
Celestia pressed further as she locked eyes with the weakened spirit. "Are you absolutely sure about this? How could you have obtained all this information and yet still escaped Grogar's clutches?"
The spirit answered. "I'm... not sure. All I know is that after the briefing he gave to that terrible trio, he said he had no use for me. He couldn't fully take away my free will but I was powerless to defy him. All I could think about was escaping to warn you all so that you'd have a chance. And somehow... someway... I was able to retain just a spec of my power, enough to bring me here."
"If that's true," Shining declared as his eyes narrowed. "Then the coronation's gonna have to wait. Because if we don't stop this threat there's not gonna be an Equestria left to rule over."
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And the plot thickens! Calling it now, Tempest shows up to go against her old boss. Can't wait to see what happens next!
Lol yeah I remember how ecstatic she was and it was nice to see Spike to be included the hug 😊
Starlight quickly ended her hug as she struggled not to blush. "Sorry," Then a thought struck her. "But if I'm going to be the new headmare, who's going to take my place as guidance counselor? Not to mention the vacancy that'll surely be left for vice headmare or headstallion with Spike's departure."
"You have full range to hire whatever additional staff you need. I have a few candidates you might wanna look into, but I can't make the decision for you on who to hire or why," Twilight pointed out. "And it won't be right away. I'll do my best to help guide you through this transition, just like my brother and his friends tried to help you through your transition from foe to friend."
Oh I'm sure we all know who going to be the guidance counselor Sunburst
You know after hearing the legends of the pillars and about the stories about daring do anything can exist lol
So basically Twilight gave the position of head mare to starlight because she needs to help Shining as a position being the prince of Equestria but it looks like things turn for the worst now hearing Discord gorgar is preparing for the attack alongside with the other three villains and it looks like they are preparing for war I wonder what's going to happen next guess we'll find out next time
REALLY good job on this latest chapter. LOVE the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. And, yeah, I admit that I thought that, in this universe, Twilight would be staying on as headmare of her friendship school (except for occasionally having Starlight filling in for her while she was pregnant [at Flash's insistence]), but I can see where she might want to help out her big brother and I DID enjoy how sweet that scene where Twilight was breaking the news to Starlight was. Yeah, It's pretty clear that Sunburst is going to be Vice-Headpony, though I have to wonder who the new Guidance Counselor is going to be since Mac is already the Honesty Teacher (if I remember correctly) and Trixie's, at least in this universe (and your What If? series), just honest enough to acknowledge that her talents lie in showbusiness not education.
And, yeah, I DID really appreciate the scene with Discord warning the others (and I personally think Grogar specifically WANTED Discord to warn the heroes just to give them a chance to try to prepare and make it even clearer how superior his Legion is to Shining's forces [i.e. rubbing the heroes' defeat in their faces that much more severely]).
And, well, to be fair, Starlight actually DID put up a pretty good fight against Chrysalis (didn't win, but still put up a pretty good fight) and the Pillars only lost as badly as they did because they were fighting Tirek, who was able to absorb their magic (kind of like the reason Superman has a lot of difficulty against the Parasite a significant portion of the time [though even worse because, unlike the Parasite, Tirek does NOT even need to TOUCH someone to drain them]). I seriously doubt too many others in Equestria would have fared much better, unfortunately (unless we are talking about someone who HAS NO magic TO drain AND has extensive experience against super-powered opponents [i.e. basically Batman in Equestria]).
But I digress.
Anyway, definitely looking forward to more of this.