We're going to build an exact copy of Ponyville... right over there! We've got less than a minute!
Cozy Glow ventures into the caverns beneath the School of Friendship, looking for the Tree of Harmony. All alone. Completely alone. At least, she's pretty sure she is...
Follow-on to the episode What Lies Beneath, exploring why Cozy Glow suddenly takes a very hard left...
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Well, that was creepy, even if I didn't completly understand it.
...damn...
Okay, at first it was interesting with the revelation that Cozy was in fact immortal, somehow. But then it just got confusing at the end.
I have to say, I deeply enjoyed this one-shot. A lot of people often think that Cozy’s just a kid and often commented by asking why her parents never came into the picture.
But, this fic here...explains things about Cozy Glow that make a lot of sense. Of course she wouldn’t really be a filly and wouldn’t have parents.
I like how you also addressed her sudden personality change and ambitious nature. They were all nicely done.
I just have a few recommendations to make, which I’ll put in another comment.
What do you mean by that?
Here’s a remake of this sentence:
"Um..." Cozy winced. "I was sorry I said that to them, especially after I heard what they went through. It was my fault for doubting them. But, wait a second, how do you know..." Cozy stared at her image. "Are you the Tree, talking to me right now?"
Remake of the sentence:
"Yeah, but with no idea why! " the image stalked forward to stand snout to snout with her, making Cozy edge back uncertainly. "You're all tactics, but no strategy! So it doesn't mean anything. You're always perfectly prepared...but yet, you have no chance of ever actually winning because you don't have the first clue how to win!"
Remake of the sentence:
"On the outside," the image persisted. "But on the inside...you're a full-grown mare. With a full-grown mare's knowledge, skills... and ambition. With only a tiny little filly body to express all that with." She tilted her head in mock sympathy. "Is it any wonder you can barely remember your own name, sometimes? If you never have enough rope, is it any surprise you can't ever make ends meet?"
Remake of the sentence:
The other nodded. "Moving on, from village to village. Town to town. Staying just long enough, then moving on when you sensed it was time. Never staying in one place for too long, because sooner or later ponies start to wonder about the little filly who never grows old. Who's wise beyond her years. Keeps winding up with her hooves stuck into everything. And who would be running the place, if she could only turn her mind to it."
Remake of the sentence:
"Because you've never had the space to think it all out before." The image grinned. "You didn’t have the room to notice all the deadweight lumber cluttering up your thoughts!" She grinned. "But now you do. There's power here, in this circle -- it's attuned to your thoughts, giving you the extra room you need to really take a look at yourself. To decide what to keep...and what to sacrifice. So when you walk out of here, you'll be the kind of pony who can actually do something with all those skills, experiences... and ambitions."
Remake of the sentence:
The image glared at her. "Am I hearing right? Wouldn't you like being the pony in charge for once? Not having to coax, persuade, and manipulate all the time? Working behind the scenes, which always takes so much effort that you don't have time for anything else? Being able to just tell ponies what to do...and make them do it?"
Remake of the sentence:
"Ahem...and then you showed up?" the other corrected. "And I was finally able to figure out what it was that was cluttering up my thoughts all this time. Making it impossible for me to decide what I really wanted to do with my life." Sneering, she gestured with a forehoof. "All this...this sappy need to make friends. To be helpful, kind, and diligent. To be somepony they can count on, to do their bidding." She snorted. "I don't need all that crap! It just gets in the way. You get in the way. And now that I see that, I can make some space for the important stuff..."
Remake of the sentence:
And Cozy Glow, the real Cozy Glow, trotted away up the ramp, grinning smugly to herself. "I'm gonna need power," she mused. "Power to run that magic circle thing." She was enjoying the ability to make plans -- to finally make actual plans, and all with a purpose and a goal. At last, she was able to look forward... to the endgame.
Remake of the sentence:
Very dark, and very, very empty. For there was never anypony else here at all.
You know, I've seen mirrors like that, a painting that one time, and we mustn't forget the classical doppelgänger, but this was honestly a new one on me.
Nasty, very nasty. And its presence right there in the roots of the Tree has all kinds of unpleasant implications.
10462544
True, though don't forget the all-important line:
The students saw their Headmare, who gave them a test to restore their belief in themselves and their friendship. While Cozy Glow saw only herself. And Cozy Glow makes her living by manipulating others... what happens when that gets turned back on itself...?
.
.
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What the fyay just happened?
10462601
It kinda sound like reiteration of magic mirror from FoE?
I don't fully understand it, bc we do know that the Tree was, in fact, the Tree. Otherwise, it'd never show up again like it had. Which begs the question, of what all else is down there... Just what is Cozy Glow, the magic circle, or what she was talking to? Unless that was the Tree, making machinations of its own, for whatever mysterious purpose...
10462601
Okay, hold up, now I'm confused. I got the basic gist of the story—the cave doppelgänger swaps places with Cozy—but "Uprooted" established that the Tree of Harmony's spirit does indeed use Twilight's guise for a physical form.
But, according to your quote, the Harmony-as-Twilight didn't talk to the Young Six in the cave—the magical doppelgänger did that. So Treelight Sparkle wasn't real, but then it was later on? Or was that the doppelgänger, too? How could the doppelgänger-as-Cozy and Treelight exist simultaneously if you're implying they're one and the same?
TL:DR, pretty much what Het 10462649 said.
10462649
That's how the Tree's spirit manifests for the Students, to be sure. But that may be as much about them as about the Tree itself -- and about the trust they have in Twilight, as headmare.
And about Cozy Glow, think of it this way: what if you had a conversation with your own worst inclinations... when there wasn't room enough in your head for both of you?
10462670
Look again -- it takes that form to speak to the Students. And then disappears right before Twilight herself shows up. I think it's the form the Tree's spirit takes for them, as reassurance of its intentions.
The students did see "Treelight Sparkle" (and remember how cross it was with them before they passed its test, and what the Tree did to the Mean Six when they attacked it -- this is not necessarily nice magic, though it is generally beneficent).
But in Cozy's case, however, she didn't see "Treelight Sparkle" because that wasn't what she was looking for -- she was ultimately looking for power, and found it... and discovered too late there was another, buried side to her own persona that wanted it more than she did.
10462689
Okay, I think I'm starting to get it, but I'm still confused by the implication that these two magical entities, completely independent of each other, both decided "Let's be Twilight, but sparklier!"
10462701
I'm completely agreeing with you that it was the Tree both times. I'm also noting that both times, it was the students who saw the image of Twilight Sparkle -- possibly because the Tree chose that image as comforting for them. It would be telling, I agree, if Twilight herself saw the same image.
(To be fair, I did write another story where Twilight speaks to the Tree, and I implied there that the image of Twilight was the Tree's own choice in general as an image for itself... but that was for the purposes of that story, and I don't think it's necessarily a given in canon.)
10462715
I'm afraid you've lost me again. You're saying the Student Six met the actual Tree of Harmony in the cave, but at the same time:
So, according to the image's words, the Tree isn't down there. Then how were the Student Six able to meet it down there when there's nothing down there but what they brought themselves?
10462735
Was it really the Storm King, threatening Silverstream? Was it really Rarity and Rainbow leading Sandbar up the garden path? And is the "other" Cozy Glow that Cozy meets really telling the truth when she says there's nothing else down there? Remember, this is Cozy's own deceitful nature working against her. And Cozy is quite happy to let ponies believe whatever they want to.
I am suggesting here that either the Tree's magic, or for Cozy, perhaps something similar and darker, connected to the abandoned circle, is in play in all these cases. But in the end what the students and Cozy Glow each see as a result is, as Cozy's image says, "what they bring themselves".
Ultimately, whatever the source, the takeaway here is that the Student Six had each other, and returned safely as a result. But Cozy Glow only ever relies on herself... and pays the price for it.
10462764
You're still losing me.
My confusion boils down to two questions: When were the Student Six interacting with the Tree of Harmony, and when were they interacting with this doppelgänger? And if they were exclusively interacting with the doppelgänger in "What Lies Beneath" (as the doppelgänger's words to Cozy seem to imply), then why would the Tree of Harmony go on to use the doppelgänger's exact same appearance in "Uprooted"?
10462782
In "What Lies Below", the Student Six go down into the cavern, and encounter a magic force/entity, which presents the appearance of Headmare Twilight, and sets them a test to help them discover their capacity for friendship, and identifies itself as the Tree (or a magic expression of its spirit, anyway).
In "Uprooted", the Student Six again encounter the Tree's spirit, which again presents the appearance of their Headmare. But even though it presents the same appearance each time, it's not obvious this appearance is its "normal" or only appearance. Also, in both cases, the magic force/entity the students encounter appears beneficent (though some of the tests it set them, and the way the Tree handled the Mean Six, suggest it's not above a little "tough love" when needed).
In "What Lies Within", Cozy Glow encounters a magic force beneath the school. It might be the Tree's magic manifesting again, and presenting Cozy with a "test" of her own. Or it might be the lingering magic of the circle she encounters. Either way, its gives Cozy the mental "space" to consider her own nature and her ultimate goal(s)... and in the process, discover the darker aspects of her nature which have been unable to rise to the surface until now.
The "other self" Cozy encounters is not the same as the image of Twilight the students encounter, since each is a reflection of the percipient's nature. And furthermore, the image Cozy encounters might not even be the Tree itself -- it might be darker magic, lingering around in the caverns the Tree has grown into as part of creating Twilight's castle. But ultimately that isn't the point of this story. Cozy stumbles on a magical force beneath the school and is given her own "test", of a sort. And given her unusual nature as a pony to begin with, this has some unexpected and tragic consequences. In the process, it also explains why she suddenly changes tracks henceforth, and sets out to take over the School and drain the magic of Equestria.
That was my main goal here, to come up with an "explanation" for Cozy's behavior that fits what we see of her in Season 8.
I think something noteworthy about Cozy is, they were building up to her getting the Tree of Harmony destroyed as a part of her plan. That would've gave that one scene more context than "hanging a red flag on her." Neighsay was likely only ever a red herring.
Of course, that probably wasn't the best episode anyway; Starlight was too awkward, and Twilight could've been handled better by outright apologizing instead of just the actions afterwards, in addition to how quickly she turned on them (she'd likely been, for instance, mentoring Sweetie Belle in progressively better magic for probably years up to that point, for instance, so to jump to "they're doing this out of spite" is a bit jarring).
Overall, good story, and the other one... Became.
It's probably not the most reassuring question of if it's the circle she found causing this, and who made it and why.
I'm not sure if it was intentional, but this feels reinforced given how Cozy does not look like the average five-year old model (Sweetie Belle was 5, going through her fifth birthday here), so her being under the conscious delusion that she is adds to it. "I'm just growing early," she might tell herself.
Did you see my recommendations?
Also, I know I didn’t mention this before, but...
Having the nice-behaving Cozy Glow turn out to be the image was what I found to be a great way of breaking the rules and pushing the envelope to make a story unpredictable.
Hmm... A tree, a dark cave/cavern containing an evil force, and the line "There's nothing down here but what you bring yourself." Am I the only one reminded of Luke Skywalker on Dagobah?
10462764
So, no lion; there's a deep magic, and a deeper magic at work here?
How well do you think this story would do as a comic book published by IDW?
10827558
Maybe it might work -- it's a one-shot, so it's more like the shorter half/quarter comic stories. But it also plays with alternate personalities for a character, like the Accord storyline (which was pretty cool, including the Prisoner reference in the middle).
10750654
I was also reminded of Luke on Dagobah. It was the line, "There's nothing down here but what you bring yourself," that elicited the thought.
Cool!
Autocomplete suggested "Dagobah", after I typed "Luke on"!
Reading this a second time is rewarding once you pay attention to Cozy stepping on the circle.