"Cozy Glow!" Sandbar called out as he opened a hatch with Clark and the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the School of Friendship's library. "I-I could've sworn I saw her come down this way when she left her office."
"But what would she want with that secret entrance?" Scootaloo asked.
"I'm not sure," Sandbar frowned. "I was hoping you guys could help."
"Well, as Applejack's boyfriend, I can sure try, right?" Clark replied.
"Here's hopin'." Apple Bloom replied.
They soon walked down what looked like a crystallized slide.
"Enjoying yourself in there, Starlight and Atticus?" Cozy Glow smirked as two familiar looking Equestrian figures were shown to be trapped and there were items shown to be sucking out their magic. "I'm sorry I had to push you in, but what else could I do? You were going to ruin all my plans. Especially you, Atticus. You're the nephew of King Sombra."
"Believe me, it is NOT something I'm proud of," Atticus retorted. "Besides, even if Twilight and the group don't make it back, Lionel and the others will find out."
"You might get some company soon, if I can't make that annoying Neighsay BACK OFF!" Cozy Glow smirked before snapping, then she took a deep breath and an exhale as she soon continued her little speech, circling the two in her clutches. "All this magic needs time to drain from Equestria before my vortex sucks it to another realm," she then giggled. "Three days can sure seem like forever, huh? You know, you ponies got it all wrong. Friendship isn't magic. Friendship is power! With Twilight and her lackeys out of my way, all of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!" She then let out a maniacal laugh.
Meanwhile, back in the dorm room, Lionel shot awake.
"Why do I have the strangest feeling that I was just totally proven right?" he asked out loud. "Waitaminute...where are Darla, Amber and Phoebe?!"
The others looked all around, wondering about the remaining girls.
"They honorary students to School of Friendship!" Yona frowned.
"Well, we have to find them," Lionel explained. "They might be what we need to turn the tide!"
"B-B-But we can't leave," Ocellus frowned. "Chancellor Neighsay will be mad."
"Ah, who cares?" Lionel retorted. "That bigoted blowhard can yell at me till his face turns purple, but I don't listen to anyone who I don't respect. Besides, Atticus would want us to find Darla and the others, and I owe him."
Ocellus felt nervous about that.
"Ah, it'll be all right, Ocellus," Gallus told the Changeling. "Lionel has a point."
"Besides, if you wanna make a big difference in the world, you gotta stand tall and fight for what you believe in." Lionel replied.
Ocellus looked a bit curious and worried, but she soon mustered any courage she had. "All right... I'm in."
"That's the spirit," Lionel nodded. "Now we just need to find a way out of here..."
The Young Six soon took a look around.
Meanwhile, Cherry and the others were soon told.
"Cozy Glow was your pen pal?!" Cherry asked before glaring. "I should've known that kid wasn't all sugar and spice like the original Powerpuff Girls, but she was just sourness and distasteful like the 2016 Powerpuff Girls!"
"Also, I guess it makes sense why she gave us a magic key that could only be used once..." Twilight replied sheepishly. "Our bad..."
"I'm not usually a fan of ponies, but draining your precious world of magic so she could trap the six of you was inspiring!" Tirek laughed, before he launched into a fit of coughing.
"Um, there's eight of us." Spike said, counting himself and Cherry.
Twilight soon ran off in urgency which made the others follow after her. "I knew we shouldn't have left!"
"But Starlight and Atticus are in charge at the school," Applejack reminded. "If anypony can stop Cozy Glow, it's them!"
"Yeah, but what if something happens to them?" Cherry asked. "I mean, it's not like there's ANOTHER person back there who could help out in such a situation...oh, wait, there IS."
"Cozy Glow outsmarted the six of you! I doubt this 'Starlight' stands a chance!" Tirek mocked them before coughing.
"We have to get out of here," Twilight told her friends. "Starlight's students can't handle Cozy on their own."
"Then I guess we'll just have to bust our way out!" Rainbow Dash smirked before she soon charged at the door before splatting onto it. "That didn't work."
"Brilliant deduction," Cherry rolled her eyes. "Maybe next you can try for a concussion!"
"Not everything can be solved with brute force," Rarity remarked. "We need magic to escape."
"Yeah, well, we don't have any." Cherry reminded.
"Cherry's right! Maybe there's a way to get out without magic," Pinkie Pie smiled, coming beside her before hugging her tightly. "Like a secret lever or a secret button or a secret admirer who knows a secret about you but is all, 'Your secret's safe with me because I put it in Tartarus and I have a key'!"
"Get off of me!" Cherry grunted and groaned.
"I'm afraid not," Twilight frowned. "The most powerful villains and monsters of all time are trapped here. And without our magic, so are we."
Cerebus whimpered as he sat down after licking Fluttershy.
"Unless...these creatures might be losing their magical powers, but there's still a magic that makes up what they are," Twilight pondered. "Maybe we can borrow some of that!"
The Cockatrice looked to Twilight before hissing at her. The others looked both hopeful and unsure about that notion.
Meanwhile, back at the Friendship School at that very moment...
Cozy Glow knocked on the door and soon came in to see the stallion who claimed charge of the university. "Uh, excuse me? Um, Chancellor Neighsay?" she then called.
"You might as well get used to calling me Headstallion Neighsay," The stallion replied. "I plan to be here for quite some time."
"Gee, it sure is a relief to have somepony in charge, what with the magical crisis going on," Cozy Glow continued. "And we're all so grateful to you for taking care of those... non-ponies. But doesn't the EEA need you?"
"What the EEA needs is somepony to protect this school from the threats at Equestria's borders instead of gallivanting off on adventures beyond them." Chancellor Neighsay retorted.
"Twilight didn't just run off willy-nilly," Cozy Glow said as she came beside him innocently. "She left me in charge. I'm her right-hoof mare!"
"Another in a long list of mistakes the 'Princess of Friendship' has made," Chancellor Neighsay scoffed as he soon left the desk to go out the door as he opened it on his way out to get the filly out. "Rest assured, from now on, this school shall be run according to strict EEA guidelines. The way it always should've been."
"Well, that sounds just peachy!" Cozy Glow smiled innocently as she backed out of the door before it slammed in her face. "Headstallion Neighsay." she then concluded with slanted scarlet eyes as she walked off on her own.
Thor soon peeked out from the hall with his hoof to his mouth.
"Cozy Glow did all of this?" asked Darla. "How? Why?"
"I guess Lionel was right." Phoebe replied.
"I gotta tell Uncle Drell," Thor said to them. "You guys stay here. I have to go alone."
"Why do you have to go alone?" Amber asked.
"Because I'm in charge!" Thor proclaimed as he stood on his two legs with his hooves on his hips which looked awkward since he was a pony right now.
"Forget it," A voice remarked. "He'd be about as much help as a screen door on a submarine!"
"We've been spotted! Get down!" Thor cried out and ducked down to the floor, shivering.
"Calm down, you knucklehead," Lionel remarked. "It's me, see? But this is like an astral projection to myself. It's taking a great deal of mental power for me to project this here."
"Huh?" Thor asked before taking a look. "Oh, hey!" he then grinned a bit jokingly, reaching out to poke him to see if he was real. "Hello there, Lionel... Poke."
"Stop that," Lionel snapped. "This is important. Also, I was right about Cozy Glow, so score one for me! You're probably wondering why I have the voice of comedian David Spade in this form. Well, I just wanted to."
"Who's David Spade?" Amber asked Darla.
"Uh, I think I heard Cherry talk about him once after she and the others met Emperor Kuzco." Darla shrugged.
"What do we have to do, Lionel?" Thor asked.
"Well, Thor...I'll need you and the Crusaders to distract that little brat," Lionel explained. "Amber, Darla, Phoebe? Well, as I speak, Sandbar is probably busting us out right now. Can't tell cuz my eyes are shut. Anyways, we'll regroup in the next hallway and try to find where Atticus is."
"Oh, I hope he's okay." Darla frowned for her big brother.
"If we're lucky, he WILL be," Lionel replied. "Over and out." And with that, his image flickered out.
"Bye, Lionel," Thor said to him before looking to the others. "Well, that felt lucky."
"I guess." Amber replied.
"We have to get to the Cutie Mark Crusaders," Thor told the girls. "Only... Where could they be?"
"Home?" Phoebe shrugged.
"No, they're probably around here somewhere." Darla replied.
"Hmm..." Phoebe paused in thought before closing her eyes to use a special ability to help them find the CMC.
"Bebe? Bebe, no! You shouldn't use magic!" Thor told his sister. "We might get in trouble!"
"The world's in danger," Phoebe replied. "Sometimes, you just gotta break the rules."
"Yeah, but I don't know since you're a little witch, you might not be able to use your powers to track down the-" Thor replied, a bit smugly.
"Found them!" Phoebe beamed once she opened her eyes.
"Now what was that about her not being able to track them?" Darla asked with a smirk.
"...Shuddap..." Thor muttered. "Where are they, Bebe?"
"They're under the school." Phoebe replied.
"Then that's where we'll be going after we regroup with the others!" Amber replied.
Phoebe grinned to Thor.
"Hmph..." Thor rolled his eyes. "You got lucky."
"Lucky? No," Phoebe replied. "Skill."
Thor rolled his eyes to his younger sister.
Meanwhile, Clark, Sandbar, and the CMC were coming down together, and soon found Atticus and Starlight.
"Cozy Glow did all of this?" Sweetie Belle asked. "How? Why?"
"I don't know," Apple Bloom replied. "But come on, y'all. We gotta get Starlight and Atticus out of there before she comes back."
"Wait!" Sandbar cried out.
Clark soon flew as the fillies ran after him to save Atticus and Starlight. Once they passed through a barrier, Sweetie Belle was soon grabbed a hold of since she was a unicorn.
"Help!" Sweetie Belle cried out.
"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cried as they came to help their friend.
Clark soon pulled onto them with all his strength before they all fell on the floor together.
"That's gotta be what's suckin' up all the magic in Equestria." Apple Bloom said to the others.
"But if that's true, then Twilight and the others went to Tartarus for nothing." Sandbar realized. "And if all of Equestria's magic's getting sucked up in there, there's no way for them to get back!"
"We need to get help!" Scootaloo replied.
"But Starlight's trapped here, and there's no way to get word to Celestia or anypony else!" Sweetie replied.
"I guess we're on our own." Apple Bloom decided.
Sandbar frowned to them before he soon stopped to think out a solution.
Meanwhile...
Lionel and the others looked around in the dorm room they were stuck in. Gallus was struggling with the door and soon fell flat on his back.
"Still locked, huh?" Smolder rolled her eyes.
"Dabba-ding, dabba-done." replied Lionel.
"We gotta at least try to get out." Gallus stated.
"Why? If Sandbar's turned his back on us, every other pony probably has, too." Ocellus frowned.
"Sandbar not turn his back!" Yona glared. "Sandbar is our friend!"
"Uh, did you miss the part where he said he didn't want anything to do with us?" Smolder sardonically reminded.
Lionel chuckled. "You guys obviously don't realize that he was faking it." he replied.
"Maybe he just said that so one of us could be free to snoop around and figure out what's going on." Silverstreak suggested.
"Wouldn't put it past him." Lionel smirked.
"I dunno," Sandbar smirked as he appeared in the window. "That sounds too clever for a pony to come up with."
The Young Six all gasped in surprise to see the young colt.
Yona gasped and laughed before tackling down Sandbar with an excited smile. "Yona knew Sandbar was still our friend!"
"We ALL are!" Sweetie Belle replied.
"Except for Cozy Glow," Scootaloo said. "That pony is not who we thought she was."
"She's the one draining magic out of Equestria!" Apple Bloom added.
"WHAT?!" The Young Six gasped.
"I KNEW IT!" Lionel exclaimed.
"We'll explain on the way, but right now, we gotta get to get to Chancellor Neighsay." Clark said as he opened the window.
The Young Six looked almost unsure about that, especially Gallus.
"I know he doesn't like non-ponies, but if we tell him what's going on, he'll help." Sandbar said before leaving with Clark.
"Somehow I doubt it," Lionel replied. "Like he'll believe a filly did all that evil."
"Either way, we gotta get going. Now." Clark said.
They all followed Sandbar and Clark out along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.