//------------------------------// // Adjournment // Story: Cozy Glow: FIENDship is Magic // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// Three Years Ago Black bishop to f5. “Hmm,” Cozy’s daddy said. Seven-year-old Cozy Glow looked across the board at her daddy. He was frowning deeply. The two were lying on the floor – they never played at the table – and Cozy fidgeted. She’d spent almost the entire game setting this gambit up. Now Daddy was going to escape it. He always did. White knight to g3, where it could defend the pawn in e4 that the black bishop now threatened. Avoiding the obvious move of just taking the bishop with the pawn. That was too obvious. Cozy had to have a trap, her daddy was thinking. But that was the trap. Didn’t Daddy see it? Her daddy always saw all her traps. Every gambit. She’d never beaten him. Black bishop to e4. Bishop takes pawn. White knight to e4. Knight takes bishop. Cozy’s eyes widened. She needed to move quickly now. Not give him time to think. Black knight to e4. Knight takes knight. White bishop to e4. Bishop takes knight. Black pawn to d5. Threatening the bishop and thence the white queen, but if the white queen took the pawn then it would be exposed to Cozy’s own queen. Cozy tried to hide the fact that she was holding her breath. Take the bait take the bait take the bait… White bishop to d5. Bishop takes pawn. “Wait,” Daddy said, but it was too late. He’d taken his hoof off the piece. Grunting, but also with the ghost of a smile on his face, he moved his hoof and waved it at Cozy. Black queen to e3. Queen takes bishop. Check. White queen to e3. Queen takes queen. Black rook – the one that Cozy had castled earlier, the one she’d set up so many turns ago – to e3. Rook takes queen. Check. Not checkmate. Not yet. But Daddy had no way of taking the rook, he’d have to move his king…and after that rapid series of moves and counter-moves, his field had been eviscerated. Her daddy leaned forward, looking over the board. There was no way to deny that Cozy was the one in control of the game. “Now how am I going to get out of this…” “Sir.” Cozy looked up, glaring hate at the butler who’d interrupted the game. The earth pony paid her little mind, however, while Daddy didn’t take his eyes from the game. “Sir,” the butler repeated, “it’s time to go now, or you’ll miss your ship.” Daddy let out a long sigh. He stood from the game, stretching his wings a little. Cozy rose too. “But…but Daddy…” she moaned, “the game isn’t done! Can’t you keep playing for just five more minutes?” Her daddy smiled down at her, coming over to draw her into a hug with hooves and wings both, kissing her forehead. “You know I hate saying ‘no’ to those eyes,” he said, ruffling her mane in a way that he knew she hated. Her curls took work every morning! But she allowed it without complaint as he used a hoof to tilt up her chin. “But I have to go now.” Cozy felt herself trembling. “But…but I’m winning,” she said, waving a hoof at the board. Daddy’s grin became mischievous. “Oh no you’re not.” “Oh yes I am!” “Nope. It’s all just a cunning plan. I’ll checkmate you in five moves.” Cozy looked back to the board, then to Daddy, who was trotting out of the room and to the estate’s front door. She galloped after him, “That’s impossible! You’re lying, Daddy!” Daddy ruffled her mane again. One of the curls came loose, but she didn’t mind. “Maybe,” he said, “maybe I just don’t take to losing very easily and so I’m covering it with lies and bravado.” Cozy shook her head. “But I never beat you.” Daddy stopped at the door, and she did as well. There was a carriage waiting at the bottom of the steps. Her daddy once again scooped her into a tight hug, and once again kissed her forehead, and she kissed his cheek. “We’ll finish the game when I get back,” he promised. “Until then, you behave yourself for your Uncle Fork, okay?” “Okay,” Cozy agreed. “I love you, Daddy.” “I love you, Cozy Glow.” Cozy’s daddy was supposed to be gone for just a month, two months on the outside. That was how long it would take to sail to far southern Abyssinia, do his business with the felines there setting up trade routes and merchant shipping lanes, and then return. In the meantime, Uncle Royal Fork stayed with Cozy at the estate. Two months passed. Daddy didn’t come home. Not after three months either. Nor four. Nor five. No letters either. No word at all. After six months, Uncle Fork had a bunch of lawyer ponies meet with him in the house. He’d said that Daddy might not be coming home. He needed to be treated as missing, and so Uncle Fork would be running her daddy’s businesses and estate and managing his money from now on. For now, until Daddy returned, everything was going to be his. That was when a lawyer in the room had cleared his throat and produced a piece of paper, signed by Cozy’s daddy and a bunch of witnesses. The paper made it clear that everything actually fell to Cozy. Cozy owned the estate, and the carriages, and the businesses, and all the money. Uncle Fork could only manage it until Cozy came of age, and the vast majority of it would be held in trust and not be able to be accessed by anypony. Uncle Fork had been really mad for a few days after that. He wouldn’t get to spend Daddy’s money. Take it all. Cozy wasn’t stupid. She knew what her uncle really wanted, that all he wanted was his brother’s money, although Uncle Fork didn’t know that she knew. Uncle Fork tried to find some way to get around Daddy’s will and testament, but it was ironclad. So then he started acting super nice to Cozy, letting her do whatever she wanted. Spoiling her rotten, so that when she grew up she’d share Daddy’s money with him. Daddy was going to be so mad with Uncle Fork when he got back. Right after he finished the game with Cozy he’d probably…well, Cozy wasn’t actually sure what her daddy could do to her uncle. Not ground him, probably, since the adult version of grounding was going to jail but Uncle Fork hadn't done anything to deserve that. But Daddy could cut him off, that was definitely a possibility. Make it so that he wasn’t a part of Daddy’s company anymore. Wouldn’t get anything. But whatever happened, it could wait. Because first, Daddy and Cozy would finish their chess game. Just as soon as he got back...