//------------------------------//
// New Friends 
// Story: Rise Of The Empress 
// by Mystic Sunrise 
//------------------------------//

Twilight gave the filly in front of her a hard look. Even as dirty and disheveled as she was, she knew that mane and coat anywhere. How she was here at all could wait though. "Let me get this straight. You want me to take you back, after everything you have done?" She asked, failing to keep the venom out of her voice.

The filly sniffed. "I don't have any place else to go now. All I knew is dead and gone a long time ago. Except you."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "What about your friend? Where did he go in all of this?"

The filly's eyes hardened. "He abandoned me. Got rid of me the first chance he got. I thought he cared."

Twilight was not shocked by this bit of news. She hadn't expected anything else really. "Considering what he could have done with you, you got off easy in the end." She took a step closer. "But that doesn't change the facts. Why should I not do the same? Give me one good reason why I should not throw you back out to the rad mutants?"

The filly gave her a hopeful smile. "Because you're not that kind of pony? You never were."

Twilight laughed, but there was no mirth in it. "A lot has changed about me since you and I first met in Ponyville all those years ago. More than you will ever know."

The filly's ears fell as she turned away. This had been stupid. Who was she kidding? Why had she thought she would be accepted? Let in like so many more before her had? Why had she thought Twilight Sparkle would ever care about her? Not after what she had done. Nopony had ever cared about her.

Twilight watched her go a moment, biting her lip. A part of her wanted to let her go and be done with it. The last vestiges of her first failure finally gone at last. But it was a very small part. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Her companion jumped as Twilight teleported right in front of her and gave her a hard look, one she couldn't help but gulp at.

"You have one shot at this. Either you pass it and move on like the others. Or it kills you in ways that I will not share here," Twilight said. She smiled a bit as the filly's eyes lit up. "And maybe, just maybe, if you do join the ranks of a Legion, you can make up for your past."

"Cozy Glow."





Midnight gave Cozy a dubious look as she was wheeled into the operating chamber. She knew the story of her by now. Why Twilight thought this was a good idea was beyond her at the moment. "I still think this is a bad idea," she said, turning to Twilight on her left.

Twilight shook her head. "She is young enough that the gene-seed would work on her. Tartarus had that effect on her, and her aging has not sped up since I let her out."

Midnight wasn't buying it though. "And what about what she did? That's the kind of thing I'd expect from ponies a lot older than she is."

Twilight nodded. "I never asked why she turned out as she did. We never found her family. For a time, I believe she did mean well. But something changed inside her."

"What's stopping her from doing all that again?" Midnight asked.

Twilight smiled. "You know what the Hypno-induction does to the mind. Cozy was already a genius when I first met her at the School of Friendship. Beat more than once at chess. She still will be that level of genius, but the training will put it to better use." She looked out as the doctors prepped all they needed. Cozy could not hide the fear in her eyes, and Twilight could see she was not faking it either. That was good. She sighed as she remembered how she had come here. "And Tirek's abandonment of her broke something inside of her. I saw it in her eyes. Her family died a long time ago, and she has no friends now. I am the only pony who knows her, and the only one she knows, at all here."

Midnight rolled her eyes. "She's not the only one like that you know."

Twilight nodded. "I know. But she and I come from a different time Middy. Whatever else, Cozy still wants the Equestria we knew. I have had time to grow with the world. She has not."

Midnight still wasn't buying it. But she also knew it was pointless to argue with Twilight when she had her mind set on something. "And if she survives?"

Twilight smiled as Cozy was hooked up to the anesthesia and was soon out cold. "If she does, then I feel she will rise high in whatever Legion she will be a part of."

"And Tirek?" Midnight asked.

Twilight smiled darkly. "If he still lives by then, and Cozy makes it that long then she can have the chance to get him back for all he has ever done."





Cozy Glow was beginning to wonder if whatever lay at the end of all this was worth the pain she was in at the moment. Seriously, everything about her hurt at the moment. She didn't think it was possible to get worse. It almost made her wish Twilight had left her to rot in Tartarus. Almost. But whatever else Twilight may have thought about her, the mare knew Cozy was not one to quit once she started something.

And no matter what Twilight did think of the filly, for all she had once done, she would be the first to say that she was impressed Cozy had survived the first stage implantation. Maybe there was hope for the wayward filly yet. But Twilight knew not to let herself get ahead of the game. Plenty of time remained for something to go wrong. As it had several times already for others going through the same thing.

She tried not to think about that. It was not something she would wish on anyone that young. She did wish it, and more, on several others though, but that was beside the point.

The pain aside though, Cozy was beginning to notice several other changes to her now. She was getting bigger it seemed with each passing day. It was not aging finally catching up to her though, but something else. Maybe that was why she hurt so much. On top of that, she felt her body beginning to harden in a way that she could not understand. Biology had never been her thing, but it felt like she was putting on muscle at a rate that even she thought did not make any sense. The only thing that prevented her from asking Twilight herself, besides her pride, was the fact that the same thing was happening to the fillies around her as well. Why they were all fillies, Cozy had no idea.

The fact that none of them treated her like she had the plague helped, but few of them had attempted to make friends with her as well. And it hurt, no matter what she wanted to think otherwise. No matter what else she had done while at the School of Friendship, she had wanted friends. The fact that all the ponies, besides one, she had known were thirty millennia dead wasn't a problem. She had not known anyone in Ponyville when she had arrived, and she still made friends no problem.

These were the thoughts running through Cozy's mind as she picked at the meal before her in what could laughably be called, the cafeteria. It was only long tables filled with ponies her own age underneath what looked like a giant piece of crystal. What was in this stuff she had no idea but seeing as she had not eaten anything in so long before coming here, Cozy took what she could get. It wasn't the worst food she had ever eaten, but she would hardly call it good eating either. Judging by the looks on the faces of those near her, she was not the only one thinking it either.

"I swear actual metal tastes better than this," a voice said, causing Cozy to jump and look up to see who it was. The filly across from her, though she was a few years older than Cozy herself, was giving her a lopsided smile. One that Cozy couldn't help but return.

But then again, Talon-Rip just seemed to have that effect on ponies. She could crack a joke at even the lowest moment of the day, and she was also one of the few who had genuinely tried to make friends with her since she arrived. Where her name came from was anypony's guess, for few thought it was her actual name. If it was given to her, as was a common theory, Cozy wondered just she had done to earn it. She smiled though. "Golly and I thought I was the only one who didn't like it."

Talon chuckled. "Join the club. I don't think any of us do. But it is a lot better than the gunk most of us grew up on. If we even got fed at all."

Cozy dropped her eyes. She heard that more often than she had ever thought possible once upon a time. She also knew that it was not something any liked to talk about. After a moment though, she looked around. "What about your friends?"

Talon sighed. "You try putting up with two of them for a while and you'd want to get away too. I swear Apolloyon needs to get that stick shoved up her flank removed one of these days."

"That's not very nice Talon and you know it," came a new voice as another filly joined the two of them. Talon rolled her eyes as she made room for Cerberus. If Talon-Rip had a rugged beauty to her, Cerberus had the kind of looks that would have made the colts fall head over hooves for her. Her dark blond mane stood out next to her lighter coat. Despite her attitude, she was well known for being one of the nicest fillies in the room.

Cozy looked over to where the new arrival was looking. Further down the table, they were all at, Apollyon sat with another filly, this one with the name of Axemane, deep in discussion about something. Axemane was plain if such a thing could be said about anypony around them. But Apollyon was anything but. Built like a tank, even as young as she was, and with a presence that earned her respect from all those around her. Axemane was friendly enough once you got to know her, but Apollyon was a whole other story. It seemed she was friends with only three other ponies in the whole room, and that had been easier said than done to even get that many if the stories were true.

Something must have tipped them off they were being watched, for both fillies turned to give the three of them a look. "You know, it's not nice to stare at ponies like that. I hope you make it worth it in the cages," Apollyon said, giving Cozy a hard look.

Axemane gave her companion a look. "Give her a break Appollo. You keep this up, and Cozy won't even get in the cage with you."

Apollyon laughed. "Then she shouldn't have come here from whatever backwater mud hole she came from. Cozy Glow has been leaning too much on whatever she and the Big Mare share. Either she has earned this, or she hasn't. I don't see it. None of us do. You're a fool otherwise."

Now Cerberus was giving her a hard look. "You are taking this too far Apollyon. She has done nothing wrong to you."

Apollyon stood up and walked over to the group as she stared at Cozy. "No. But she's done nothing to earn my respect either. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong you're not a mistake. Or I will enjoy beating you to a pulp."

Cozy fought back her tears but glared up at her in defiance anyway. "Why do you hate me? What did I ever do to you?"

That finally caused Apollyon to stop. Blinking, she sighed, and the aggression seemed to flow out of her as she did. "I don't hate you Cozy. But I've lived through too much to believe all they say about you. That you and the Big Mare share some kind of history together. That you're something special to her." Her gaze hardened again. "Prove me wrong. Prove you're not here just on her charity. That you're actually worth keeping around. Or I'll throw you out myself. Promise."

That caused a fire to be ignited in Cozy Glow's heart as she glared right back at Apollyon, as Talon-Rip, Cerberus, and Axemane, looked on. She would prove the filly wrong, no matter what. Even if it killed her.