//------------------------------//
// The marathon 
// Story: The Hero: Cozy Glow...? 
// by SoloBrony 
//------------------------------//

Remember, Quillon. You don't know how many there are, but there's at least the princess and that stallion. This is a marathon. Remember the stuff you read about!

I flew across Equestria; I could be incredibly fast, but I took it slow enough that I didn't waste my stamina. I wanted to be at my best this time.

It doesn't matter how many there are. I'm going to take them all down and get my friends back. That's a fact.

I clinched my teeth and scanned the Everfree as I flew over it. An ambush could be anywhere, after all. Yet all seemed as it should be, and I flew over the forest uneventfully, ultimately coming to stop at the edge of Ponyville. I scanned the area, and spotted that purple princess walking and talking with an unfamiliar yellow pegasus.

Here goes nothing.

I flew over and slammed down in front of them, causing both to flinch back. I'd been tempted to launch a sneak attack, but that wouldn't be heroic, and I'd lose the chance to ask the question I needed to.

"Princess Twilight, right?"

I strode up to the shocked princess, who flared her wings out and took a lower stance. I imagined she didn't recognize me in the dark blue maille armor that Luna had made for me, complete with a dark-blue chanfron sporting my cutie mark. I got up close enough to look her in the eyes before I continued.

"Where did you put Zecora?"

Twilight suddenly clicked what was going on and grit her teeth, and charged her horn as I did likewise.

"You're not going anywhere near her again!"

She fired off a blast, but I'd been in plenty of fights lately; my reflexes were on fire to begin with, and I'd heightened them for this fight. I leapt out of the way and blasted what looked like a giant energy beam at her. Twilight's eyes shot wide and she formed a shield around herself, but her expression turned to sheer perplexity when the 'beam' turned into sparkling dust on contact with her shield.

"An illusion...?"

While she was processing that, I dashed around to the yellow pegasus and carried her to safety.

"Get out of here, get to safety! I believe Twilight's being mind-controlled, she'll be dangerous until I stop her!"

I didn't bother listening to what the pegasus had to say in response, as I rocketed into the air to put distance between us before Twilight fired off another shot. I flew above her, and watched her carefully.

Twilight, for her part, seemed confused by something, looking between the mare and me.

"Uhh... what are you doing?"

"The only thing I want to hear out of you is where you're hiding Zecora!"

Twilight took in a deep breath, took a step back, and charged her horn again. I realized she was also going for the long game.

So she's not sure she can beat me. Good. But I can't waste the energy to just blast her, and I don't know how much she can take; I might end up seriously hurting her instead of just snapping her out of it. So what do I do?

I quickly went over what little I knew of Twilight, and came to an idea. I charged my horn as though I was about to throw a huge blast, while flying up as high as I could. Twilight squinted as I was silhouetted by the sun, and took to the sky to try to level us out.

That was the opening I needed. I cast my spell, and there was an utterly blinding flash of light; Twilight, disoriented and confused, crashed into the ground. I quickly cast another spell that created the sound of an incoming blast, and then readied a tracking spell. The moment Twilight heard the sound, she teleported, and I teleported after her. She was just opening her eyes when we finished, gasping to see me, and I blasted her full on.

With a dispel.

There! That should break the enchantment and snap her to her senses!

I essentially hosed her down with energy, and at first she freaked out and threw her hooves up, but quickly set them down and stared at me in confusion even as the energy kept washing against her.

"Are you hitting me with a... dispel?"

"Yes! Did it work? Are you back to your senses?"

Twilight worked her jaw open and closed a couple of times, blinked a few times, and then shook her head. "I wasn't under an enchantment, Cozy."

I paused, cutting off the wash of energy from my horn, and leaned back. "Huh? Cozy? Where?"

Twilight squinted at me like I had brain damage. "You. Cozy Glow. Obviously!"

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you calling me that? I'm Qui—err, I'm The Dashing Savior!"

Twilight groaned and smacked her face with a hoof. "I know your 'secret identity' is Quillon, Cozy."

"Stop calling me Cozy! Not only do I resent you conflating me with a known criminal, that name's really dumb! It's like a night light or something!"

"Hey, don't you drag my father into this!"

"... Huh? Look, just tell me where Zecora is!"

"It doesn't matter how you threaten me, Cozy, or Quillon, or whatever you want to be called! I won't let you near her!"

I groaned. "If you're not brainwashed, then what made you betray Rainbow Dash?! She said you were friends!"

"We are friends! I never betrayed her!"

"But then—"

I was cut off as powerful energy blasts hit both Twilight and I from the side, sending us both skidding into the dirt. My armor took the brunt of the hit, so I was back on my hooves momentarily, but Twilight fared much worse; there was a visible scorch mark on her coat, and she was groaning pitifully. It reminded me of something.

Rainbow Dash and that orange mare. I snapped my gaze to the origin of the shots to see that same grey-coated stallion laughing heartily.

"You did a good job tying her up so I could take her down, 'Savior'. Now it's your turn."

Welp, I've had about enough of this.

I zipped into the air so fast he struggled to track my motion, pouring all of my fury into my horn.

I'm sick of running. I'm sick of my friends getting hurt. I'm sick of being confused by everything and not knowing who I am. I'm sick of being called 'foal' and 'child' and 'kid' and being told I'm not ready. Not ready? NOT READY?!

"DOES THIS LOOK NOT-READY TO YOU?!"

I hurled an energy blast at him, much more powerful than I even intended. The stallion gasped and threw a shield up at the last second, but it was shattered on impact, and he was blasted into the new crater I'd made in the center of ponyville. It wasn't all that large – just a few meters across – but he definitely felt the impact.

I landed at the edge of it and yelled at him so hard my lungs grew sore.

"STILL WANT TO CHASE AFTER ME? WANT TO MESS WITH MY FRIENDS AND INNOCENT PONIES? YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?!"

The stallion suddenly snapped awake and fired a blast at me, but my enhanced reflexes were too quick; I dodged to the side and fired another blast, but he teleported away. I barely had time to pivot around and cast a shield before he slammed it with another wall of energy. I sighed.

"Should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Marathon it is, after all."

"Foal, you've gotten in my way too much. It's time to—Yipe!"

I really didn't like being called foal. The moment he said it I started casting a spell, and while he was concerned with rambling the grass at his feet turned into parasprites.

Carnivorous parasprites.

"HOLY EQUESTRIA WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?!"

He'd already been bitten on his rump and lost most of his cloak in the process, and two nasty bites had landed on his neck before he cast a shield that blew the parasprites away and disjoined them back into grass. By the time he had resolved that, I was gone; he looked around in confusion and panic, but was unable to find me.

Because he didn't look underground.

Ground-swimming didn't seem like a combat spell at first, but now I get why it was in there.

I sprang out of the ground with tremendous force, and he just barely managed to dodge backwards.

"Your Flying Hydra Punch again? Too predictab—AH!"

He had backed up right into the patch of dirt I had hollowed out while underground. He lost his footing and grabbed the edge of the pit reflexively, dropping the staff in the process. I snatched it in my telekinesis and hurled it away from us as hard as I could, and he screamed as he dragged himself back to his hooves.

"NOOOO! YOU, YOU LITTLE B—"

When he looked back, he realized I was under him again. And he was pinned in place with telekinesis.

"You should have noticed I didn't call my attack name last time."

"What?!"

"FLYING HYDRA PUNCH!"

This time I got him directly in the chest, and I heard the whoosh as I knocked the air out of him and sent him flying. As we fell back to the ground, I noticed an amulet had fallen from his neck in the process, without his cloak there to keep it secure. I walked over and picked it up.

"Huh. Weird fashion choice."

The stallion, flat on his back, coughed violently and looked around. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Where am I? What's going on here?!"

"Neighsay?!"

I whirled around to find Twilight back on her hooves. I braced for an attack, but she seemed more focused on the stallion.

"Princess?! What is the meaning of this?"

Twilight eyed the amulet I was holding, and levitated it over to her. I didn't exactly fight her for it; with all of the shiny armor I was wearing, I was feeling plenty gaudy already.

"The alicorn amulet. How did you get this?!"

She whirled back on Neighsay, who rubbed his horn.

"I was asked to secure it in Canterlot, Princess. Dangerous artifacts were being moved after the Battle of the Bell. Don't you remember?"

Twilight groaned. "Right, I signed off on that. But why were you wearing it?"

I slammed a hoof on the ground, causing it to shake and getting their attention. I glared at Twilight.

"I don't care about any of this! Where is Zecora?!"

Twilight hesitated, but looked like she might be about to answer when I heard an oddly familiar voice.

"There she is! Alright, guys, let's do this!"

I whirled around and saw a vision from my nightmares; those same six evil wizards that had blasted me right from the start. A gryphon, a yak, a changeling, a hippogriff, an earth pony, and a dragon. I didn't know what sort of ritual they were doing, but I'd thought about it over the past week and it seemed like it took all six of them.

And I'd made a plan.

I put a portal in the path of the yak, the slowest and least reactive of the group, and she ran straight into it. The others yelled in surprise, and as the portal snapped closed, the gryphon immediately whirled on me.

"Where is she?! What did you do with her?!"

I was about to just admit she was dumped into a Canterlot pond, but thought better of it.

"Tell me where my friend is, and I'll tell you where she is!"

"You... how dare you?!"

The gryphon started flying towards me, and I smirked.

"You're approaching me?"

"I'VE GOTTA GET CLOSER TO KICK YOUR FLANK!"

I put a portal in front of him, which opened directly behind him. He went through it about a dozen times before he braked in midair, and looked behind him, then back in front of him, in confusion. I snickered.

"Trippy, right? I did that by accident once."

I snapped the portals closed. "Enough fooling around! What have you all done with Zecora?!"

The gryphon reeled back in surprise. "Zecora? Wait, you're not looking for Chrysalis or Tirek?"

"Huh? Why would I be looking for Tirek? Who's Chrysalis?"

Twilight's voice boomed out over the field. "Could everypony just CALM DOWN?!"

Nice voice augmentation. She really is an expert at this stuff.

All of us looked expectantly at Twilight, who took a moment to take a deep breath, hold it a moment, and let it out.

"Okay... Quillon... first things first. Is Yona okay?"

"How should I know? Who the heck is Yona?"

Twilight's eye twitched slightly. "The yak you just teleported."

"Oh. Yeah, she's over at Canterlot. I dumped her in a pond so the impact wouldn't hurt her."

Twilight blinked a couple of times. "Oh. Well, that's... good. Now... you're looking for Zecora. Why?"

"Because she's my friend, and she never came home! And I know you're responsible, I saw you sneaking around the house!"

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "I was literally sitting in the hut and waiting for you to come home, once I realized you were staying there."

I thought back. I scuffed a hoof against the ground, mildly embarrassed. "Well, that is, I noticed you in the house while I was sneaking around it."

Twilight sighed and rubbed her face. "Right. Okay. Zecora's fine, she just left it to me to deal with you when she found out you were Cozy Glow."

"Stop calling me that!"

Twilight's eye twitched again. "Right. Whatever. So, she's staying at the castle right now."

"You mean the crystal nightmare at the edge of town?"

Twilight glared at me for a moment, but then rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah."

I narrowed my eyes. "What about Rainbow Dash? What have you done with her?"

"Huh? She's in the hospital; why do you care?"

"She's my friend! This isn't rocket magic!"

Twilight stared hard at me for a few moments. She chewed her lip over. "She's in the hospital, because of the injuries she got last time Neighsay came around."

What?!

I rushed up to Twilight. "What?! Is she okay?!"

"She'll be fine! She just needs to rest for a few more days!"

I teleported out immediately. The ponies at Ponyville General were pretty surprised to see me, but I didn't care.

"Where is Rainbow Dash?!"

The receptionist leaned back in surprise. "Uhh, I'm sorry, little filly, but visiting hours—"

I blew a hole in the ceiling and yanked him down to my level by his collar, right over the desk. "You will be sorry if you don't tell me WHERE IN TARTARUS MY FRIEND IS!"

"Room 2B!"

Stupid ponies! Even the non-evil ones are trying to get in my way! What is with this country?!

And with that I was off, down the hall and around the corner. The moment I laid eyes on Dash, with a big cast over her midsection and reading a book, I threw my chanfron onto a chair and bounded up to her, careful not to disrupt her wound.

Dash was definitely shocked to see me, but I didn't give her a chance to say anything before I wrapped my disproportionately large wings around her.

To Tartarus with the disguise, since Twilight knows I'm Quillon and an alicorn anyway.

Dash stiffened and just rested against me in the hug for a few moments. "Uhh... Cozy?"

I twitched slightly. "Twilight told you that too, huh? I'm not Cozy! What is with that mare?"

Dash slowly pried me off of her. I didn't really want to let go, for some reason, but I wasn't going to smother her, either. She fixed me carefully with her eyes.

"Your cutie mark is a rook, right?"

"Uh... yeah?"

A cold sensation started to settle in my gut.

"And your coat – your natural coat – is like a light pink? Your hair used to be curled?"

I leaned back slowly. "Uhhh..."

"Twilight saw you without the disguise, y'know. You can't hide it anymore."

"But... that's—"

Dash cut me off with a frustrated groan, and rubbed her head. "It's over, Cozy. Stop... stop messing with me, okay?!"

"Stop calling me that!"

That cold sensation had spread all the way down to my extremities.

It can't be... can it?

Dash just looked at me, fatigue obvious on her face.

"Look... I don't get what your game is at this point. Obviously we know who you are, so why bother carrying on the charade?"

I lifted a hoof and opened my mouth, but whatever point I was going to make wilted under her gaze. I set my hoof down and looked around the room.

What was I doing here? Just a minute ago I felt like an unstoppable hero, a knight clad in armor, fighting to save her friends.

But my friends didn't need saving. Well, maybe from Neighsay, but that was kind of incidental. Am I really...?

"Am I really... that loser we talked about? Cozy Glow? The megalomaniacal villain? Is that why everypony's been after me?"

Dash, for her part, cocked her head to the side. "I mean... you are, aren't you? I admit, I didn't really buy it when Twilight said it, but Cozy was really manipulative and all, so..."

"Do I... seem like her? To you?"

Dash shook her head. "No, definitely not. I mean, I guess there's the overlap of being a super-powered, really smart filly, but... wait, why are you asking me this? Are you saying you aren't her?"

"I... I'm saying... I don't know?"

Dash stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "You don't know? How could you know know?"

I considered trying to explain that I had amnesia, but it sounded lame, even to me. I just slid out of the bed and grabbed my chanfron. Dash leaned up as much as she could, groaning with the effort.

"Hey, you can't just walk out of here after that!"

I glanced back. "Rest well, Dash."

I need to go figure stuff out.

I teleported out of there. After checking in on the castle to ensure Zecora was alive and well where Twilight said she'd be, I set off for Luna's, my head still spinning from what they'd told me.