Chapter 1
“Cozyyyy!” A familiar, shrill voice penetrated the calm air, approaching at a rapid pace.
Cozy Glow sighed. Another day babysitting “Miss Child-Empress” just to make sure she doesn’t end up in stone again. Is this what she’d been reduced to, just to keep the metaphorical lights on?
“It’ll all be worth it when I end up Supreme Queen of the Crystal Empire. Or would Empress of Friendship be better? Hm, worst case scenario I could just merge the titles together later down the line.” she pondered. “But anyway.” she said to herself as she put on her best fake smile. “They’ll all soon regret trapping me with those two idiots for eternity. Even if I have to play the long, long game.” She turned to face the young… well, young-er Flurry.
“Flurry.” Cozy stated. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but if you keep screeching my name at full blast, your mother’s gonna figure out I’m talking to you. And then we won’t be able to hang out anymore.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry.” Flurry blushed, looking aside for a second before facing Cozy again. “Why do you and Mom not get along, anyway?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“I like complicated things.”
“But, like, it’s the ‘boring’ kind of complicated.”
“Can’t be more boring than the meetings Mom goes to.”
“Golly gee willikers, you just don’t let up, do you?” Cozy paused. She *could* just straight up lie to her, but if she’s playing the long game that’d be the start of a web of lies that could spell doom. It’s a risky play, but if she simplifies it enough, maybe…
“Well… you see. I don’t have any magic or crown or anything like that. But I really wanted those things, and your mother and her friends have them. So, that makes us natural enemies; if I wanted to have cool wings and a horn like, say, Celestia does, I needed to take them away from her. You understand?”
“Okay, okay. I guess that makes sense.” Flurry held her hoof to her chin. “But why do you want all that stuff?”
“So I could get revenge on everyone who’s ever wronged me. Everyone who’s ever disrespected, underestimated, or insulted me… they’d pay. Big time.”
“Cool!” Flurry was interested. She’d heard of things like revenge from her mother, but she’d never gotten to see it herself. “And then what would you do?”
Cozy stopped. “What do you mean?”
“After you’ve gotten revenge on everyone, what would you do with all the magic and power you’ve got?”
“Well, I’d… I’d…” Cozy felt like her mind was hitting a brick wall. She loved the feeling of power, yes, but what about it enticed her so much? She could keep looking for more and more power, but eventually she’d collect it all at some point, right? And then what would she do all day, anyway? And, above all, how did this question not come up in her mind at all before? She was smarter than this. She was smarter than them all! And yet…
“Uh, Cozy?”
“Whuh?” Cozy snapped back to reality, realizing she was still in front of Flurry. “Well, uh, see… it’s a secret.” Cozy faked a smug smirk. “If I tell you, you’ll just copy my good ideas when you become ruler one day!”
“Awwww, but I love secrets!” Flurry pouted, before an idea swept into her head. “Well, what if… we make it, like, a guessing game?” Flurry’s horn glowed, and a box of markers and papers popped down onto the floor. “I guess what things you were gonna do with all that magic and stuff, and if I get one right, I win! Deal?”
“S-sure, that sounds fun.” Cozy stuttered out, still in the process of rebuilding her shields of cynicism.
“Okay!” Flurry immediately got to work, drawing at lightning speed. “Well, you’d start by building this big castle with statues and paintings of yourself everywhere, and in the middle is this gigantic chocolate fountain that you can’t miss. But here’s the catch: anytime anyone tries to eat out of it, there are magic sensors that detect it and a pipe at the bottom that makes the chocolate flow out.” Flurry began to giggle evilly. “So no matter how far you reach, you can’t taste any of it!”
“That’s…” Cozy instinctively wanted to finish that with ‘dumb,’ but… there was something… captivating about it. An enticing pool of chocolate that constantly taunts the hungry person? Stupid as it was, that was ironically clever. And sadistic. “Not what I was thinking. But keep trying…”
“Hm… well… you’d probably want to mess with Auntie Twilight, right? How about this: a library with all her favorite books from all her favorite authors, but they’re all filled with minor spelling errors! And she’ll be like ‘I have to fix this!’ but there’s a rule saying she can’t and that all the books are actually spelled perfectly!” Flurry held her hooves together with an evil face, looking like a supervillain.
“Still not it, but… keep going, keep going…” Cozy sat down, her focus on Flurry.
“Ooh! Ooh! I got it! Put my mom in one room and my dad in the other. They’re completely magic-proof, so they can’t just escape or blast through it. The only way for them to see eachother is through a singular mirror. But this is no ordinary mirror; it’s one-way! And it constantly switches back-and-forth! So they keep thinking they see eachother, but never at the same time!”
Cozy smirked, and began to giggle loudly. It was the first honest giggle she’d had since… forever. Eventually, she managed to steady herself, and sputtered out “You’re close, but not quite!”
And so they went back and forth. Flurry presented an idea, and Cozy absorbed it, before telling her it wasn’t her idea. Slowly but surely, without even noticing herself, her bright attitude morphed from manipulation to reality. She was having fun, listening to Flurry’s weird but somehow profound ideas. For once, she didn’t care if she wasn’t in the spotlight. She was just fine watching Flurry perform for her.
Before she knew it, an hour had passed.
Cozy looked up to the sky, a radiant, toothy smile beaming. “Great guesses, but unfortunately none of these are quite what I planned.”
“Darn. Well, I tried! I assume your ideas are like, 10 times as smart and cool as mine.”
“Of course, of course.” Cozy looked down, eyeing the scattered drawings that Flurry had made. “But, y’know, if I ever did run out of schemes when I become Empress of All Equestria, I think I’d be happy using yours here.”
“Really?! You can go ahead n’ keep them then! That way I don’t have to hide them from Mom.” Flurry scooped them up, placing them in Cozy’s small arms.
Cozy began to blush slightly, before stopping herself. “Ahem! You should, uh, probably get back to your mom before she gets suspicious. And if anyone asks, I was never here, okay!”
“Okay! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Flurry flashed a bright smile, before flying off.
Cozy looked up, feeling the wind in her hair. Maybe this whole “manipulating the heir to a throne to become its functional ruler” thing wouldn’t be such a pain after all.