Previously, Tirek and the dark creatures had defeated Luster Dawn and Cozy Glow, thanks to the immense power of Grogar and the Rainbow of Darkness. But the magic Luster possessed seemed to have gone away, as Luster was a unicorn once again. Though the mare was unconscious, and lacking any magic, the magic was not gone, instead, it had retreated elsewhere.
In front of Tirek, the bewitching bell glowed a bright glow. The bell seemed to have a mind of its own. It hovered in place, and glowed from all the powerful magic inside.
"Cozy Glow?" he whispered to himself.
Tirek paused, when all of the sudden he felt a great pulse of energy in him, compelling him to grab the bell, but he fought back.
"I command you to retrieve my bell!" Grogar ordered.
"No! I can't!" Tirek said as he struggled against the dark goat's control.
"What?" Grogar asked.
"Cozy's alive!" Tirek said.
"So what? Why does it matter?!" Grogar asked.
"She matters to me!" Tirek exclaimed.
"Then you are truly weak!" Grogar snarled.
Grogar's dark magic constricted around Tirek's body.
"You shall do as I say!" Grogar roared.
"No! I shall not be your puppet!" Tirek exclaimed.
Tirek pulled the Rainbow of Darkness away from his neck, and held it out. Then, suddenly, Rainbow of Darkness expelled from the sack all at once, and collected together into a large dark orb.
Tirek charged his own magic, and fired it at the Rainbow of Darkness, but the object fired back. The two were evenly matched.
The centaur struggled as he attempted to the destroy the dark orb. Tirek ran forward, in an attempt to destroy it.
*slash*
"AAH!!" he exclaimed.
The darkness conjured up a sharp blade, and stabbed Tirek through the chest.
"You're far more trouble then you're worth." Grogar said. "Fine, you may be together, under the caveat that you're DEAD!"
The darkness fled the scene, and regrouped with the other shadow creatures.
Tirek took quite the hit, he put his hands to his chest, and breathed heavily. He looked and saw the bewitching bell glowing with the intensity of a thousand suns. It was surrounded by light and magic. The powerful light stopped Tirek, and all of the shadow creatures in their tracks. The bell pointed itself at Tirek-
*RING* *SWOOSH*
The bell drained Tirek of all of his magic.
.
.
.
Tirek was reduced to his weakest form. When Tirek awoke, he was star struct at the sight.
The light surrounding the bell collapsed inward, and swirled around the bell. This was no ordinary magic aura, however, it was conscious. The light and magic slowed, as it settled around the bell, and light had begun to take shape. The magic took the shape of a little alicorn filly with curly hair.
He couldn't even move, all he could do was say-
"Cozy Glow?"
Astonishingly, right in front of Tirek, was Cozy Glow! Well, except there was something different about her.
"Tirek?" she said.
"Cozy Glow, is that you?" Tirek asked.
Cozy Glow was a radiant being physically made out of the magic and light. (She added a whole new meaning to Cozy Glow)
She nodded. "I think so. I've never felt more alive, yet dead at the same time."
"How are you doing this?" he asked.
Cozy shrugged. "I'm still not quite sure. I did what came to mind, and I ended up inside the bell."
"I-I thought you were dead." Tirek said.
"I was, Tirek. The poison was about to do me in, but Luster here saved me by putting my consciousness inside of her mind." Cozy explained. "But after her humiliating defeat, I put my soul into Grogar's bell. Now I'm back through the miracle of magic."
"I can't believe it... You poor thing, you've been through so much suffering and tribulation." Tirek said.
"I have, Tirek. But now, I'm powerful, and beautiful." Cozy said, bashfully. "I am all the magic now."
They both could hear the darkness roaring in the distance. They looked, and could see the Rainbow of Darkness congregating around all the shadowy creatures.
"Tirek, we have to stop it." Cozy said. "We can't let Grogar succeed."
"But, Cozy. Isn't this what you wanted?" Tirek asked.
"I wanted to defeat Twilight Sparkle and rule Equestria with you and Chryssie. And well *giggle* you should have seen me, I kicked that pathetic princess to the curb." Cozy said. "But this isn't what I wanted at all."
Cozy looked at Tirek's wounds. He wasn't fatally wounded, but he could be if he didn't back down now.
"Look at yourself. You're wounded." Cozy said.
"What, this? It takes a lot to take out a centaur." Tirek said, boastful. But Cozy would see through his ruse.
"You took a lot of damage." Cozy said.
The Rainbow of Darkness echoed and roared in the distance. It was unclear what its next action would be. It had diverted its attention away from Cozy and Tirek.
Cozy put her nose up to Tirek's face. The glow of her body was blinding.
"I've got to tame it." Cozy whispered to Tirek. "You should have seen yourself earlier. You were a miserable demon version of yourself, fueled by the pain of losing the pony you cared about the most. I have to stop it. If I don't, it's not just going to consume Canterlot. It'll consume every creature in Equestria."
Tirek didn't disagree with that, but in his mind, he thought about how their plans flipped upside down.
"We had all the power in the world to ourselves, and now you're trying to undo it..." Tirek said, feeling complete disbelief.
"Yeah, life's cruel like that. You think you want one thing, but then that thing backfires and tries to kill you." Cozy giggled morbidly.
"Think about all the havoc we could have caused if we were in control of that thing, and not Grogar." Tirek said.
Cozy nodded. "Life's no fun as a shadow zombie." she said. "What's the point in ruling the world if it means I'm incapable of loving you?"
Tirek was starstruck with how powerful Cozy looked.
"Cozy, I. I-I can't believe you're here. You've cheated death yet again, and you look magnificent." Tirek said tearfully. "You look so powerful! You really are the best of us three."
Cozy glowed brighter to signify her joy.
"Now then, lend me some of that magic, and together, we'll show Grogar who's boss!" Tirek exclaimed.
"I love the enthusiasm, but I'm afraid I can't do that, big guy." Cozy replied.
"Whatever do you mean?" he asked.
"I have to do this alone." she said. "I can't risk you getting hurt on my account."
Tirek was shocked to hear Cozy say that.
"B-but Cozy, I-"
Cozy wrapped her arms around Tirek, begrudgingly. The heat radiating off her magic body was tremendous, and was burning his skin, but the pleasure of holding Cozy again outweighed the burning pain of her glowing radiant form.
"If I see you again, I promise, we're going to frolic and enjoy being alive, and free." she said. "And if I don't see you again... *sniff* at least you'll have your memories of me... and if that's the scenario that goes down today... *sniff* goodbye, Tirek..."
"Cozy? You don't have to do this..." he said.
"But I do." Cozy said.
Cozy Glow patted Tirek on the forehead, and nuzzled him. The heat radiating from her body was intense, but he barely felt it in the heat of the moment.
Next, Cozy used a smidgen of her immense magic to pick up Tirek and Luster. The weakened centaur tried to escape, but Cozy couldn't let him fight any more.
She looked at Tirek's expression, as he reached out for Cozy. But for once in Cozy's life, she knew deep down what the right thing to do was.
She cocked her head, and with a little spell-
*poof*
Tirek and Luster disappeared.
Cozy wished that this final showdown could have been more momentous, but she couldn't let herself drag Tirek in, and risk him getting hurt. She never thought she'd care so much for the centaur, but with her life hanging on by a thread and tied to the bell, every bit of life was worth preserving. Therefore, the Rainbow of Darkness had to be destroyed.
Cozy Glow looked at the Rainbow of Darkness off into the distance. A swarm of shadow creatures surrounded a dark orb holding Grogar's mind. It was a terrifying sight to behold. Cozy held the bell close to her chest, and prepared for the most ridiculous thing she was about to do.
*sigh* "Show no fear..." she said to herself.
Cozy Glow, now a body made entirely out of light and magic, connected directly to the bewitching bell, slowly approached the army of vicious shadow creatures.
Alone she stood, determined, with the bewitching bell emanating the magic that formed her.
The Rainbow of Darkness floated high in the air, with all its impending might. It took the form of a glowing dark orb, with the spirit of Grogar in side. Beneath it were hundreds of shadow creatures.
Every creature stood still in this intense moment, simply opposing each other. Cozy and all the magic in Equestria, and Grogar with all the dark magic on the other side.
Dark Magnolia broke the standstill when she slowly floated in front of the group. Cozy's old childhood pal was gearing up to eliminate her. She raised her hoof, and at her command, a dozen other shadow creatures beamed magic into Magnolia to increase her power. Cozy watched as Magnolia charged a powerful magic in her horn. She was not intimidated, or worried. And finally, it came the time for Magnolia to unleash her magic upon Cozy Glow. Her horn glowed, and with all her might she fired her dark magic at Cozy.
*ZAP*
*BOOM*
She let out a massive blast of energy onto Cozy Glow. The blast kicked up massive amounts of earth, and dust obscured the scene. Immediately after, the scene was quiet, it there was no sign of activity on Cozy's side.
The shadow creatures watched intently, eager to see what had happened to Cozy.
"It is done." Grogar echoed.
Or was it?
Dark Magnolia inched forward to see the damage. And it was at that moment when-
*RING* *SWOOSH*
All of the sudden, the bell had rung, and a magic vortex had latched onto Dark Magnolia's horn. It put a powerful grip on the dark unicorn, and sucked out all of her magic.
As it so happened, Cozy Glow withstood the blast just fine, and was using the bell to suck Magnolia of all of her magic. She could see that Magnolia was starting to turn back to normal as the dark magic flowed out of the unicorn.
Within a few moments of sucking out the darkness, Magnolia was free of all dark magic! Once she was saved, she plopped onto the ground, defeated, and unconscious. This was the best outcome Cozy hoped for.
"Yes! The bell absorbs the darkness too!" she beamed with excitement!
The great dark orb attempted to reach for Magnolia, but Cozy put a magic force field around her childhood friend, saving her from reinfection.
"I've got you, Maggie!" Cozy exclaimed.
Magnolia slowly opened her eyes, and she could barely see the scene in front of her unfolding.
"...Cozy?"
But before she could take it all in-
*poof*
Cozy teleported the unicorn away to safety.
"One down, just a few more to go." Cozy said, confidently.
To say there were 'just a few more' was a gross under exaggeration.
The source of the darkness shimmered, which signified an order for the shadow creatures to scramble. They all disbanded, all going in their own pathway to fight Cozy.
Cozy, confident, and steadfast, went to work on the army. Cozy spun the bell perpendicular to the ground at many RPM.
"Here goes nothing!" she exclaimed.
*ZOOM*
Cozy released the bell, and because she's a spirit of the bell, she went with it, and zipped through the air at breakneck speeds, challenging the shadow creatures to come and get a piece of her.
Cozy's first target was Shadow Polomare. The dark mare appeared, and leaped from the cliff side, and with a set of sharp needles in her arsenal. She fired the sharp objects at Light Cozy, but she was able to quickly project a magic shield that stopped all the needles in their tracks.
Shadow Polomare charged into Cozy's face. The dark mare attempted to fist Cozy, but she blocked it with a kick, and another flip. Suri was quick in her combat, but Cozy used her other worldly body to her advantage.
Suri jabbed, but Cozy's body dispersed into particles. The particles gathered, and reappeared behind Suri. With the mare caught off guard. Cozy pressed the bell directly to Suri's head,
*RING* *SWOOSH*
She began sapping her of the dark magic. After enough, Suri had been freed, and she too fell.
Cozy grabbed the mare and held her in her hooves.
"It's a shame I never got to wear that dress you promised to make me..." Cozy said to her. "But nevertheless, I can't thank you enough for your service."
*poof*
Cozy bubbled an disappeared Suri.
Then came the matter of dealing with Flim and Flam's metal tank. Their tank had finished cooling down from their previous shot, and it was was ready to fire again.
Flim and Flam aimed the barrel, and fired a ballistic missile at the glowing filly.
*boom*
The missile fired out of the tank, and it cut through the air.
Cozy wizzed through the air in a wild flying pattern. Her flying pattern was unlike anything a pegasus, or even alicorn could do. Light Cozy's form wasn't necessarily set in stone. She was flexible, and morphed into various shapes. When she sped through the air, she really zipped and bolted like a lightning bolt.
Light Cozy flew head first at the missile. She put magic onto the magic the missile, and delicately redirected it, and pointed it at Flim and Flam's tank.
*BOOM*
In a fiery explosion, the tank blew apart into metal pieces.
Dark Flim and Flam were so powerful, they were not harmed by the shock wave or excess in flames. They landed on the ground to team up and combine forces. However, they would be no match for Cozy.
They charged their horns and fired two powerful beams of magic at Cozy. The magic filly flew head on and effortlessly dodged their magic beams.
Once she was close enough, she begun the process of stealing their magic.
"Chew on this!"
*RING* *SWOOSH*
The bell projected its beam and sapped Flim and Flam through their horns of the dark magic. They returned to normal.
Cozy bubbled the brothers, and poofed them away.
While Cozy looked for easy targets to go after next, she found herself swarmed by the dark Manticore. the creature reeled back its tail and stabbed Cozy's ghostly light body.
"WOAH!" Cozy exclaimed. "That would have HURT if I were still made of flesh!"
Fortunately for her, the tail simply passed right through her. And the Manticore was foolish to leave itself vulnerable and in close proximity to the bell.
Cozy lit up, and the intensity burnt the Manicore's tail. With the creature in pain, Cozy went in.
*RING* *SWOOSH*
She zapped the Manticore of all its dark magic, releasing it from the darkness' grasp.
The dark Bugbear growled, and swiped its claws at Cozy. With each swipe, the Bugbear missed as Cozy cockily stepped back, not even evading that fast.
"Gee, how many members of the mane 6 does it take to befall a Bugbear?!" Cozy asked rhetorically.
*RING* *SWOOSH*
The bell latched onto the Bugbear, and drained it of the dark magic.
"None, cause Cozy's stronger than all of them combined!" she exclaimed.
Cozy picked up the Bugbear, and flung it at Cerberus, knocking them over.
*bam*
When Cerberus opened their eyes, Cozy was right in one of their faces.
*RING* *SWOOSH*
Cozy zapped the magic from Cerberus, and even they returned to their normal selves.
"If you creatures were smart, you'd have either run, or forfeit. But golly, you guys are so mindless, you're just attacking me anyway even though I'm exploiting your weaknesses."
In spite of her cockiness, the toughest part was yet to come.
Cozy looked up, and saw the mighty Washadows, Lightning Dust, Wind Rider, Rolling Thunder, and Short Fuse. Now was the matter of taking care of the dark pegasi.
"Now comes the hard part." Cozy said to herself.
The four dark flyers flew in tight formation, and headed right for Cozy. They flew in a v shape, with bolts of electricity propagating between the dark pegasi.
Cozy stood and watched as the dark fleet zoomed closer.
As she expected, they broke formation and each went off in different directions, but all four on a path to attack.
Short Fuse came racing forward, and held out a fiery fist. He was coming in hot, and he was close, but Cozy dissolved into particles once again, and in a fraction of a second, she reformed underneath Short Fuse. She kicked her hind leg up and threw Short Fuse off course, sending him crashing to the ground.
Rolling Thunder came zooming, and Cozy once again dissolved, and reappeared on top of the pegasus. She grabbed onto her, spun her around. She flipped over, and dead lifted Rolling Thunder up and over, and eventually flung her to the ground.
Lightning Dust and Wind Rider flew as a pair, with lightning propagating between the two. They flew head on towards Cozy.
Cozy zipped forward directly at the two dark flyers. She flew faster and faster. Her glow became brighter and brighter the faster she flew. She flew faster and faster until-
*FLASH*
Cozy flew so fast, she exceeded the speed of light (in air), which created a massive flash of light, and released a massive burst of energy. The force of the blast wiped out the remaining Washadows.
Lightning and Wind Rider crash landed onto the ground. Cozy landed besides them and activated the bell to sap them of the dark magic.
*RING* *SWOOSH*
The bell sucked out all four of their dark magic auras out at once. The four flyers returned to normal.
"YES! I'm unstoppable!" Cozy beamed.
*magic* *POOF*
"And you guys, you're safe now." she said.
There were still many more shadow creatures to go. Shadowgallop (Svengallop) led all of the remaining creatures. Cozy needed a way to speed up her method, and very quick, she devised a method to speed things along.
Cozy lifted her hoof, and punched the ground, releasing geysers of energy. She impaired the creatures just long enough for the next part of her plan. Cozy flew overhead, and sapped the dark magic from the many creatures as she flew overhead.
She raised the bell, and projected a beam, and in a fly by, she latched onto to many many creatures at once. Once she latched onto all of them, and had many beams connected to the bell, she flew back around, and planted herself onto the ground, to stabilize herself while she took all that dark energy.
"AAAHHH!"
She felt the intensity of all the dark magic flow into her, but at least her efforts were working.
The darkness drained from all the creatures in waves. She befell all the remaining shadow creatures, the bell absorbed their dark magic, and they all returned to their normal pony forms.
Once she was clear, Cozy flew overhead and made the ponies disappear before Grogar could leach onto them, and repossess them.
Against all the odds, Cozy had done it! She looked around, and in the heat of the moment, she hardly realized that she had cleared them all away.
"Yes! I just, saved a bunch of ponies from terrible fate..." Cozy now just realized how heroic she had acted. It sounded wrong on paper, but in the moment, it felt so good helping them all.
But not all was cause for celebration. When she looked at herself, she saw the lower part of her body, up to about her hind legs, had turned dark. She was still in complete control of her whole body, so she tried not to worry about it.
There was however one more collection of darkness to take care of, Grogar himself.
The dark orb roared, and transformed itself into the shape of a big shadowy goat. The dark goat landed on the ground, and opposed Cozy Glow.
"It's just you and me, Grogar! It's two beings of unimaginable power pitted against each other." Cozy said.
"You think you're on the same level as me, child?" Grogar asked.
"Nope. I think I'm many levels above you!" Cozy replied with sass.
They both fired massive beams of energy at each other, and then-
*BOOM*
Their beams collided, and created a massive burst of energy. Their power levels were just about equal.
Grogar roared, and conjured multiple sharp spears, and flung them at the light filly. Cozy zoomed around, and she smacked and kicked each of these conjured weapons, sending them off course.
Grogar fired more dark magic at Cozy.
Cozy held up the bell, and it created a vortex. Grogar's dark magic impacted the bell, and Cozy started to absorb magic from the source of the Rainbow of Darkness itself.
The amount of dark magic she took in was incredible. It was almost completely overwhelming, but Cozy was strong, and she withstood the surge in dark magic. The more dark magic she absorbed, the more of her body was consumed by the dark. The dark crawled up from her legs, and was now up to her flank. Even so, Cozy was beaming with excitement.
The stream of dark magic stopped, when Grogar realized he was giving her what she wanted.
"Yeah, you might wanna think twice about attacking, Grogar!" Cozy exclaimed. "Anything you shoot, I can just absorb!"
"We'll see about that!" Grogar growled.
The dark goat dissipated, and split into two forms. It formed into a giant hammer and a giant nail.
"Hmm..." Cozy thought about how this might actually be perfect for her plan.
Cozy flew around the land, until she landed right in front of Twilight's school. She stood her ground, and waited for Grogar to attack.
The nail went in to spear Cozy, but she pressed the bell against the nail shaped darkness, and absorbed its power.
Cozy stood in place, holding the bell, absorbing very large quantities of Grogar's dark magic.
"AAAHH!"
Meanwhile, the hammer half reeled back, and was ready to press hard.
"If you want the darkness, here you go!"
Grogar reeled back the dark cognitive hammer, and was ready to pounce.
Cozy looked up, very anxious.
"Please be indestructible, bell!" Cozy pleaded.
Grogar slammed the hammer onto the dark nail, applying tremendous pressure directly onto Cozy.
*BOOM*
The darkness SLAMMED itself against Cozy and the bell, and plowed right through Twilight's school, causing mass destruction of the infrastructure.
After a moment of quiet, it all seemed done, but despite the heavy blow, the bell rung once again, and continued to suck up more darkness.
The bell had landed in the school basement, Cozy reformed, and absorbed the last bit of darkness.
"AAHH!" she exclaimed, feeling the darkness flow into her.
Cozy stood up, as the bell continued to slowly drain the last remnants of the darkness.
*heavy breathing*
The dark part of Cozy was crawling up as she absorbed more darkness. It got to the point where more than half her body was dark energy, instead of light.
"Heh heh heh heh..." a sinister laugh echoed in her head.
Cozy had consumed so much darkness, she could now she could hear Grogar's voice echoing in her head.
"I was wrong about you, you really are the most evil creature in Equestria." Grogar's voice echoed. "I've never seen any creature use my bell more effectively than you just did. I mean, hiding your soul in the mind of another pony, and then retreating, and putting your soul into my bell? What a stroke of brilliance!"
Cozy was flatted, but she was too stressed by the steady stream of dark magic coming in to easily reply.
"You know, you and I have a lot in common." Grogar said.
"You and I... *errgh* are nothing... alike." Cozy said.
"When Gusty the Great used my own bell against me, she spared my life, but banished me from Equestria for the rest of my days." Grogar explained. "I came to that island to retrieve the Rainbow of Darkness, but when I found it, it put an iron grip on me, and trapped my essence inside. I sense you were in a similar boat, losing your body, and being trapped in that peasant student."
Cozy was losing sensation and feeling in the rest of her body.
"Come on, come on!" she tried to do a spell, but she was having trouble controlling her horn. Cozy's horn sparked faintly. She struggled to conduct the spell.
"I'm so close. I came all this way, just to lose again..." she wept.
Cozy resisted the darkness, but it was slowly filling her body.
"Why do you resist the darkness?" Grogar asked. "It was you who was so adamant to set me free."
"You hurt Tirek! You hurt my friends!" Cozy exclaimed. "You controlled their minds, and turned them into something terrible!."
"It's not what you think it." Grogar explained. "I made them stronger, more powerful."
"You made them awful!" Cozy exclaimed.
"You hurt Tirek more than I did by abandoning your own body in Tartarus, and faking your death." Grogar said.
"I regret nothing more than what I did to Tirek!" Cozy wept.
"We've both made mistakes, but we have the ability to right our wrongs." Grogar said. "Together, we have the power control the cosmos, rewrite the rules of the universe!"
"No... I..." she wept. "Not like this..."
Cozy's body figure had turned almost entirely dark.
"You did me such a huge favor by collecting Equestria's most powerful magic in one place, and defeating its leaders. With all this magic, and all of the darkness in one place, there isn't anything to stop us from ruling the world now!"
"Hmm. All... of the darkness, you say?" Cozy asked.
"Yes! All the darkness all in one place!" Grogar added.
"Heh. All the darkness in one place." Cozy smirked. "It'd be a shame... if something... happened..."
Just about all her body had turned to dark, sans her horn, with still glowed a radiant bright glow. A glimmer of hope, and a bright idea was brewing in the filly.
To be continued...