//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 - Pen Pals // Story: A Cozy Tale // by Leondude //------------------------------// Brocade trotted back to her house. The door was left open. Worried that something terrible might have happened during her therapy session, she carefully trotted into her house. She could hear bubbling within the kitchen. It wasn't like Facade to brew something for himself, which made her even more certain that a stranger was in the house. She slowly made her way to the kitchen and creaked the door ever so slightly. But what she saw wasn't a random stranger making themselves at home in her house. It was something much worse. Something no mother should ever have to see. Her husband was dunking their daughter's head in the sink full of ice cubes and water. Every time Cozy tried to gasp for air, Facade would forcefully dunk her head right back in. She ran through the door and tackled her husband onto the ground. "Get your hooves off of my Glowie!" she yelled. As Facade quickly got up, Brocade began hitting him and shoving him out of the kitchen. His suit felt slimy for some reason but Brocade was too angry to care. She pushed him out of the house and slammed the door behind him. After all the arguments they had over the years, Brocade had never booted Facade out of their own house before. It felt good. Showed that she was done with his nasty behaviour. And if he didn't change his ways soon, Brocade would call the police on him. Seeing if her baby was alright, Brocade dashed back into the kitchen. "Are you okay?" Brocade asked as she hugged Cozy. "Not really," Cozy replied, "I like being cuddled but they're kinda hurting me now." Brocade stopped her embrace of Cozy and stepped back a bit. She had a big cut on her forehead and there were bruises all over her body, including a black eye. "Well, don't you worry, Cozy," Brocade said warmly, "Your daddy will never hurt you again." "I dunno," Cozy said concerned, "It's been forever since Discord checked in on us. What if daddy kicked the door down?" "Then he will go to jail," Brocade replied, "But let's not talk about him. I got a fun activity we could do." Brocade walked out of the kitchen with Cozy following suit, even though it hurt Cozy to even fly. They went down into the study, where Brocade turned the lamp on with her magic. "Do you have many friends, Cozy?" Brocade asked. "Nope," Cozy replied. "Don't worry," Brocade said reassuringly, "I didn't make many friends in school as well. I was always that weird unpopular filly that sat under the tree and read books. So that's why I'm teaching you how to write letters." "Uh...what does writing letters have to do with making friends?" Cozy asked. "It's called making a pen-pal," Brocade replied, "Though, you'd think 'quill pal' or 'letter pal' would be a more appropriate term." Cozy looked at the desk. It had a quill and a blank parchment illuminated by the lamp. As disappointed as she was in Tirek's history, she couldn't deny that she needed his help. If she were to stop her dad from hurting her, she would need to know from the best of the worst. And who better to strip ponies of their magic than Tirek? Within the deepest caverns of Tartarus, Tirek sat in his cage, bored out of his gourd. It annoyed him to no end that he was defeated by Princess Twilight and her friends despite taking away all of their magic. Not even he could have predicted they had a magical artefact of their own hidden away from him. He would have picked the lock and waited for Cerberus to let their guard down like they did last time but they used an enchanted lock on his cage. One that would zap him every times he stuck his claws in there. As he stooped in his cage, something unusual happened. As the gates of Tartarus opened, a grey cross-eyed pegasus flew a beeline towards Tirek's cage. She bumped her head onto one of the bars on Tirek's cage before falling over and creating a little earthquake behind her. "Delivery to a Mr Lord Tirek," the pegasus spoke as she pulled out a letter from her satchel. Tirek just stared at the wall-eyed pegasus before him. If this is the kind of creature that they send to deliver letters to the inmates, it is little wonder that Tartarus looked the way it did. He snatched the letter from the pony's hoof and tore away at the envelope. Dear Tirek It must be so lonely down in Tartarus so I, being the sweet little thing I am, thought I'd keep you company. Well, maybe not actually keep you company by being cellmates with you but by writing you letters. Golly, you must feel so alone being different from everypony else. I should know, my parents were unicorns but I was born a pegasus. Maybe we could be friends. You tell me about yourself and I tell you more about myself. Hope to hear from you soon, Cozy Glow Tirek snickered at what he had read. As if he would succumb to the same disease that claimed both his brother and Discord. He also knew better than to trust this Cozy Glow because anyone would want to be friends with him must have been insane, especially since the reason he was stuck in Tartarus was because he attacked her home not that long ago. But even with how laughable it was that a pony would be interested in befriending him, he knew that they would do anything to stay in his good graces. Besides, he needed to keep himself occupied during his eternal stay in Tartarus. Now all he needed was a pen and a piece of paper.