Twice in Equestria's history, an unhinged flying pony has attempted to take over before being sealed in stone as indefinite punishment. The first failed usurper didn't mellow at all during her sentence. The second one though...

Moody, atmospheric character vignette that got 2nd place in the Cozy Glow Group's August 2020 Short Story Contest. Golly, am I honored.

This story is a sequel to Castling Cozy Glow

For one day, Cozy Glow was a Princess, and she has vowed to become one again as Twilight's personal student. It may take time and it may not be pleasant, but she is a headstrong filly who never gives up, no matter who or what comes in her way.

Having been born an alicorn, Flurry Heart is destined to become a Princess one day. Such a burden is heavy for a filly, and it is imperative that she learns to carry it. Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle has agreed to teach her and help her grow. With her unending kindness and bright optimism, Flurry is sure to succeed.

One filly who lost everything, and another who was born with everything. But even that's not all. There is a colt too, and whether he realizes it or not, his actions will have consequences.

Can Cozy Glow and Flurry Heart learn to become friends and help one another grow, or are there some gaps that not even the magic of friendship can bridge?

The cover art and proofreading was done by the amazing Vito, who is also on Deviantart.

Twilight releases Cozy Glow from her stone imprisonment, hoping to reform her, after she agrees to certain terms; no hurting anypony anymore or scheming to steal their power, no more conspiring with evil forces, apologizing to everypony she's hurt stuff like that. But the part of the deal Twilight is admittedly the most eager about is for Cozy to tell her about her past, how she got to the point she did, and help Twilight and everypony else understand her.

There's one catch to that last one though… Cozy Glow doesn't actually remember her past. More specifically, she took a potion that erased all her memories of her past, beyond her general objective of syphoning as much magic as she could and obtaining a position of power, shortly before arriving at Twilight's school. But she does have a list of possible origins for herself, that her past self left for her that all contain some motive for what she did. And Twilight's friends are willing to throw out their own theories.

No matter what the real answer, Cozy and Twilight's friends seem to have a good time with it. Much to Twilight's frustration.

Many of these parody other origin stories I've seen for Cozy Glow. Though not all of them. I'll give credit for the ideas other people came up with as best I can.

As the title states, this story was inspired by "The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo" (great story by the way). But only loosely.

Cozy Glow has long abandoned the lands of Equestria, carrying her burdens with her. Too many mistakes to count, she deserved to be alone. All she wanted was to get rid of her regrets inside her head. Even being an alicorn merely made the pain only a little more tolerable.

Spike is the last one left after the rest of Equestria's defenders are defeated and imprisoned. He's now on a mission to find help outside his homeland, where he finds a powerful alicorn filly.

Tragedy claimed the loved ones of many in Equestria's war against the zebras, and Cozy Glow was no exception. The Littlehorn Massacre took her family from her, as it did for dozens of other ponies. In another life, this loss would have have shattered her already fragile psyche and turned her into a monster. Instead, she vowed to protect others from suffering as she did. She underestimated what that would take. After the bombs she couldn't keep from falling, all she could do was rebuild.
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Set in the world of Fallout: Equestria By Kkat. It is also a divergent timeline from Fallout Equestria: The Storm.
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Cover art by Teardrops.

Dr. Nikolai dies in an accident while researching about wormholes, trying to turn back time despite it seeming impossible and ends up waking up in the Everfree forest in the body of a young pony, unaware of what he is.

His experiments on magic, his newfound interest attracts attention to himself despite his desire to remain hidden.

(The Art on the cover page is mine. Do not steal. You can ask and use if I agree.)

A long, boring trip through seemingly endless desert was not how Diamond Tiara had wanted to spend her summer vacation. Her parents, however, insisted that she be brought to their newest real estate acquisition: a tremendous and ancient house, built long before any pony could remember and for reasons that nopony could even recall situated hundreds of miles from even the dustiest and most rustic of towns.

At first, Diamond Tiara managed to tolerate this dusty, strange dwelling. After all, at least Silver Spoon, her dearest friend, was with her. Until her parents were called away on a business meeting, and the servants that they sent for never arrived. Until a strange figure clad in rags began to appear in the emptiness, watching the pair of fillies from the horizon. Until the dark and terrible history of that ancient house began to come to light. Until the voices started to whisper from the blackness.

Until it was already too late.

Written by Unwhole Hole
Edited by Unwhole Hole's sister
Cover art by μm

It was a major shake-up for most ponies: the loss of magic from Equestria. But for Cozy Glow, it just meant swapping her enchanted stone prison for a normal ball-and-chain one. Besides, that was ten years ago. What does she care of the humbled world outside? Or that it just delivered her an uppity new cellmate?

Luster Dawn cares. A lot. It's why she's here.

(Takes place between The Last Problem and Gen 5. AU Tag because these events are probably gonna get invalidated by canon someday.)

Second place winner of the 3rd Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest, double-dipping prompts with "Cozy's got a secret!" and "Cozy makes an unusual friend."

Everypony worth their salt should have a backup plan. Cozy Glow knows this better than anyone. And when things start going south, what better backup is there than to go back in time and try again?

But when she ends up accidentally flinging herself into the future instead, she finds that maybe some goals aren’t worth pursuing.

Written for the 2021 Cozy Glow Short Story Contest using the prompt “Cozy makes an unusual friend”.

Harry Potter had the (mis?)fortune to fall through a portal to the Everfree near Ponyville. He was transformed into a unicorn, to his surprise. After being found, Twilight Sparkle took him in as an orphan, and to learn more about him as he learned more about Equestria. His adventures there are another story. This story is about what happens when he is pulled back to the human world by the Goblet of Fire when he is fourteen.

Finding himself back in the human world is bad enough, but also to discover he has an unbreakable magical contract to compete in a Tournament that is known for the deaths of the competitors is just icing on the cake. What else can go wrong?

(Not a continuation of “If Wishes Were Ponies . . .”)
Scheduled posts on Monday and Thursday (UTC-4)

Edited by gerandakis. Picture by Quinn Kepner, from an image in the MLP comics.
Made the Featured List with Chapter 1! Hurray! And Popular Stories list on 9/14! A second Hurray!
And every 100 up votes gets an early release of the next chapter.