//------------------------------//
// How to Influence Ponies 
// Story: How Cozy Glow, Empress of Friendship, Last of the Alicorns, Super Cutie and all Around Great Pony, Conquered The World- An Exclusive Interview by the Canterlot Gazette 
// by Silvermyr 
//------------------------------//

"Please hold up for a moment, your Delightfulness," Buried Lede said, flicking the pen over his notebook as fast as he could. As Cozy got more and more into her story, she talked faster and faster, and he did not dare to miss a single word she said. "I just need a moment to catch up. And I'd love to ask you a few more questions before you continue."

Cozy stopped in surprise, but then smiled warmly. "Okay, that's fine. I need some more grapes anyway. FRUIT SLAVE, MORE GRAPES, RIGHT NOW!"

Buried Lede nearly jumped out of his skin at her sudden outburst and the downright demonic face she made. But he did manage to stay on his chair. The blue griffin though, he dashed out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him. 

Cozy's baleful visage vanished just as fast as it had come. "He is such a good friend," she said with a sing-song voice. "Golly, to think he was so grumpy when I first got him. But three months in the castle stockades with only two hours of sleep every night sure did wonders for his behavior. I just wish the dragon was as easy to win over. But I'll put her on the wooden pony soon. See if that won't make her friendlier."

Buried Lede took a moment to send a prayer to Celestia. He also found himself briefly wondering why he ever went into journalism. Why did he not just become a mushroom farmer like his mother always wanted?

The griffin returned, obediently holding up a silver platter with a fresh bushel of grapes on it. Cozy plucked one and hummed a few notes of a song. Three short notes and two longer, all of it repeated twice.

Buried Lede swallowed his fear. The sooner he concluded his report the sooner he'd be safe. At least, that's what he told himself. "Okay, Empress, so you have successfully liberated Starlight Glimmer and made her do as you wanted. Now how did that make you feel?"

"Oh, Wonderful! When ponies do as I say, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Because when they do, that means they are my friends, because friends help each other. So to me, whenever I make a pony do something for me, then that's a pony I consider my friend."

Buried Lede decided not to question her, even if he had a feeling there was something missing from that idea of friendship. "And when did you first learn the great value of friendship? Was it something Twilight taught you in her school, or did you discover it before that?"

"Way before!" Cozy said. "Mommy and Daddy taught me to make friends, and they showed me all the good things that came when you have many friends to help you with things. I've always wanted a lot of friends. Really, Twilight had it all wrong. I appreciate her trying to help everypony to be better friends, but she really should have done her research a bit better."

"I see, I see," Buried Lede said and wrote down the answers. "I think this will be a stellar article, your majesty."

"Oh, we're not even to the best part yet! I'm going to continue now, okay?"

Buried Lede nodded.

"Okay, so I made my way out of Canterlot." Cozy leaned back on her throne and seemed to think back. "Starlight would be looking for Twilight, and Twilight would be on her way back on her own. Also, Chryssie would soon realize Starlight was gone, and look for her. And Tirek would be looking for anypony to absorb. That meant nopony was actively thinking about me, so I had some time to work with. And I needed to pay a visit to Twilight's friendship school."





As I fly in over Ponyville, I actively have to suppress the desire to blast it all away. This place is the site of my failure… with the thatched roof cottages, the dirt roads, parks and shops. It's only because I don't have the time right now that I leave it be. 

But when Equestria is mine, then I will come back.

The school is closed, but as an alicorn I'm far past the idea of doors. And besides, destruction is fun! So I send a surge of power from my horn and into the door. It doesn't hold up for even a moment; it just flies from the hinges and smashes into the wall behind the entrance.

I land and walk through the opening. What I need should be in the storage areas below the school. I have been there a few times when I was a student. Since Twilight made me her helper for a while, I got to see nearly every nook and cranny of this place. I also know how to get down to the storages. 

But, again, doors are no longer necessary for me. Instead, I ignite my horn again and blast myself through the floor. Dust clog the air, but it is worth it to get some measure of revenge against this place. I flap my wings to clear the air, before jumping down into the hole. 

It's a pretty large room, with boxes stacked upon shelves. Sadly, I don't have the inventory list, so I have to go through the place at random. At least it should be well organized.

The first box contains extra chalks for the blackboards. Then there is a box of erasers. After that I find a shipment of baking supplies. I think it's for Pinkie's lessons. 

After a few minutes or so, as I'm looking, a small sound catch my ears. I pull myself out of the box and look towards the door. It's open, even if I didn't use it to come in here. Of course, somepony might just have forgotten to close it, but…

No, never mind. Nopony would even want to hurt somepony as adorable as me. And I don't have the time to investigate every silly little noise.  

The next box has pencils and notebooks for the students. 

"We've got you now!"

I whirl around, but not fast enough. Something slams into my side. It's blue and really, really fast. For a moment I worry it's Rainbow Dash, even if I saw Tirek drain her magic myself. 

Then I see claws. Orange, talon-like claws. And then it clicks, just moments before Gallus pins me against the wall. The dragon and the yak are just behind him and the other three, plus a grown-up pony with a cape and a wizard's hat, bring up the rear.

"We're gonna be heroes! We've caught Cozy Glow!" The dragon shouts triumphantly. 

"Yak best at catching mean little ponies!"

Evidently these fools does not realize I am not the same as last time we met. I ignite my horn. Only now does a few of them seem to realize I am an alicorn. Namely the changeling, and the two ponies. But they are too late.

I grab Gallus's claws in my magic and pry them open. His expression is really funny when he understands what is happening. He even try to pull his hands back, but I don't let him, of course. 

"How did you-" he begins.

"I'll teach you a friendship lesson you won't soon forget,” I interrupt and magic them all up in the air before slamming them down into the ground, hard. "Now, first lesson of the day: you will be making up for ruining my hopes and dreams." I speak to all of them, but I look at Gallus. He was the one who actually attacked me. And if I recall correctly, he was always a pretty poor friendship student. He probably needs my help the most.

"In your dreams, you little-" He snarls and try to claw himself forward. But my magic is way to strong for him, so he doesn't get an inch closer.

"Golly, I see all those detentions you got haven't helped you learn much about friendship, have they?" He looks really angrily at me. I just smile and pat his head. "But fortunately for you, I'll let you to do something nice for me. You can think of me as a guest lecturer if you want."

"I think it's clear who needs a lecture here," the changeling doormat pipes up from the back of the room. "And it's not Gallus." 

That does it. I will not have that doormat questioning me in friendship! "I KNOW MORE ABOUT FRIENDSHIP THAN ALL OF YOU NUMBSKULLS COMBINED!" That shut her up good. I take a deep breath to collect myself. "So here's today's lesson plan! You are going to help Empress Cozy Glow (me!) find what she is looking for down here, or you will get permanent detention in Tartarus! YOU HEAR ME!?"

"Trixie hears you!" The blue pony with the wizards hat calls from the back. "Don't hurt anycreature, and we will help you!"

"Great!" I drop them.

"Councilor, what are you doing?" The hippogriff shouts. "We can't trust her!"

The blue pony stares at me. I see she is afraid. I rather like that look on her. Nopony have been afraid of me before. "Trixie will help you if you promise not to harm anycreature."

Of course, as a Princess, I can harm whoever I please. But this is not the time to tell her that. Their help will make this much faster, and it's not like I have the time to torture anycreature right now anyway. So I nod. "Good Golly, of course I wouldn't hurt anyone. You attacked me first, so I defended myself, see? And now you can make up for attacking an innocent little filly."

"Yeah, innocent," Gallus spits. I lift him and slam him into the floor again. 

"You were saying?" I ask him sweetly, but I keep my horn shimmering.

"Trixie will help you!" The blue pony shouts again. "What… what do you need to find?"

"I need to find the artifacts I used to drain magic with."





"And we know for a fact that you got those artifacts," Buried Lede interjected. "Since nearly all magic is gone from Eq- I mean, Cozyquestria."

"Uh-huh! They were really great helpers," Cozy chirped. She turned to the griffon beside her. "Weren't you, fruit slave?" 

"Yes, your majesty," the griffin answered. His dead voice indicated he had answered that question many times before. "You are my best friend."

"Yes I am, fruit slave," Cozy said. 

"Just one more question before you continue," Buried Lede said. "That… uh, scoundrel, Twilight Sparkle, imprisoned you for trying to remove all magic in Equestria once before, right? This time you used the same artifacts, but there is a little magic left today, so what made you change your mind?"

"Golly, it really was a bit of an accident," Cozy admitted with a small blush. "See, I didn't really know what was going to happen with my new plan. It just sounded like a good idea. And it was."

"So you did, in fact, want to wipe out all magic, and accidentally left a little?" Buried Lede asked glumly. He did not want to be the one to let ponies know that what little magic they had left was only there because Cozy was too dumb to even bother researching her end-of-the-world-schemes beforehand.

"Well, I didn't want to wipe out my magic if I could help it. Being an alicorn is nice. But all other magic… yes, I wanted that gone. So everypony would have to bow down to me! And they do." Cozy got a thoughtful look on her face. "Actually, I think the magic left is actually coming from me, but I don't really know. If Twilight wasn't in Tartarus, maybe she could answer."

"I... see..." Buried Lede said, doing his best to keep despair from his voice.

"Now I'll tell you about the last part! And how I removed nearly all magic, except for my own."





On my way back to Canterlot, I see the the party is already in full swing. 

Tirek has grown even more since last I saw him. He towers over the buildings now, slinging fire-red beams of energy with wild abandon. He looks almost too large to move around in the city. The noises and lights tells me he has enough power to gorge up the streets and turn buildings to rubble with just a glancing hit. Chryssie is not much worse. Even if she lacks the sheer destructive... destructiveness, of Tirek, she is still nearly too fast to even see. I see her magic though. Sometimes she fires at Tirek, and sometimes at the two ponies who are flying and teleporting around. Twilight and Starlight. 

Beams of magic crisscross the sky, sometimes accented by the black and yellow vortex of Grogar's bell. Tirek still has it.

At least my plan so far seems to have worked. Since Tirek still has the bell, which meant he has absorbed Celestia's and Luna's magic. Twilight, Starlight, and Chryssie are all here, and Discord's magic should still be inside the bell. That means most magic in Equestria is here, and none of it is directed at me. 

All I have to do now is to set up the same ritual I did last time. Only this time, I will not only use Starlight to power it, but everyone here. If using only Starlight could wipe out all magic in three days, then using all of Starlight's, Twilight's, Chryssie's, Discord's, Celestia's and Luna's magic together should be able to do it in a matter of hours. And then, once the magic was gone, it would finally be my time to shine. 

And that is the worst option! If I manage to pull of my real plan...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't won yet, and one shouldn't count the apples before they were ripe. Applejack told me that once, in class. She said it means that I should not celebrate before I won. 

And I still had to gather all of them in a pretty small space for my ritual to catch them. I hover for a little bit and observe the battle before I double back. I don't want any of them to see me. Instead, I land near the Canterlot main gate. Here I'm still pretty far from their fight, and I can use the side streets to sneak my way up to the ruined castle. 

Tirek is there. He must not want to be hindered by all the buildings. Instead he stayed where he was. I managed to climb through the ruin and come up behind him. 

Now, if only the others would come a little closer…

Of course! I knew exactly how to get them close to one another. I just needed them all to see it... I huddle under a pile of rubble to quietly observe the fight.

I don't know how long it took, but suddenly Chryssie appeared nearby to attack Tirek, with Starlight right behind her. I didn't know where Twilight was, but I would never get a better chance. 

I jumped out of my hiding place and flew up just behind Tirek. As predicted, he reached out with the bell to suck up Chryssie's attack. "SNEAK ATTACK!" I roared, catching his attention the moment I unleashed my own energy blast. 

I could have hit him, but in his powerful state I doubt he'd even feel it. So I don't aim for him. I aim for the hand he held the bell in.

I hear how he hisses in anger, and in the corner of my eye I see him gathering power between his horns. 

But it worked. The bell slips from his hand.

Chryssie dives for it, only to be intercepted by a blast from Twilight. Tirek twists his massive bulk to try and catch it, but it's to small for his massive hands. Starlight appears in a burst of magic and catches it, only to be swatted by Tirek so hard she is sent tumbling away, the bell barely inside her magical field. 

But that doesn't end it. Chryssie and Tirek both lunge after her. Twilight snags one of Tirek's legs in her magic, tripping him, but not fast enough. He stumbles, but his reach is still so great he swipes for the bell. Starlight and Chryssie have gone into a swirling, hateful melee with hooves and horns and fangs. Twilight flies forward, tackling Chryssie from behind. 

And then I finally have them all. 

They stop. Twilight, Chryssie and Starlight all stop. Tirek's arm also freezes, even if the rest of him continue to fall. I wince when I see his arm twist in a bad way. 

Around them I hold the five artifacts I dredged up from underneath the school in my magic. They are connected by searing lines of energy forming a star. A bubble appears around my enemies, and I can feel my heart swell with relief in my chest. That bubble in unbreakable for those inside it. 

"COZY!" Chryssie roars and throws herself against the bubble, hammering with her hooves and hissing in rabid fury. But it's pointless. A vortex open underneath them, and searing beams of light blasts from the bubble and through the portal. Their magic is dimming by the second. 

Mine is, too. Now to see if I am really as good as manipulating ponies as I think I am.

Starlight's eyes widen as she spots me. "Everyone, we can still be rid of her! We can still save Equestria's magic!"

"How?" Everycreature asks at the same time. 

Good, good. Come on, Starlight, take my bait...

"If we are rid of her, maybe it will stop the ritual!"

I smile. "Golly, Starlight, aren't you smart?" I say cutely. "Only you can't reach me, can you?"

"But I can," Tirek smirks. "Lend me your power!"

"Not a chance," Chryssie hisses. 

"Starlight, if we use all that magic we will destroy Canterlot! Including everypony hiding!" Twilight shouts.

"We don't need all that power." Starlight smirks. "Cozy was kind enough to remind me that Tirek has stolen the magic of the elements of harmony. But he doesn't have your element Twilight. So together you can send her to the moon. It's our only hope!"

I am given just a moment to smile before Twilight touches Tirek's hand with her horn, and he roars so loud I think my ears will burst. From between his horns, a cascading rainbow erupts, swallowing me in an instant. 

Then… I feel weightless. 

Empty. 

I feel like sleeping. 

And I do. I feel myself slip away. It's a nice feeling. Because I won. 

They sent me to the moon in the hopes of it disrupting my ritual. But it won't. My ritual works as long as there is magic to power it. I know, because I designed it myself.

But the elements of harmony doesn't work like that. Artifacts are the last thing my ritual drains, and the elements' magic is artifact magic at its core. The strongest artifact magic there is, actually. 

I think their power will be the very last to disappear.

And when they are drained, then what is to keep me prisoner?

Nothing, that's what. 

I have won. 

I have won in more ways that they understand right now. Because not only did I drain Equestria's magic, and that of all my enemies, but I also tricked them into sending me away from Equestria. Away from my ritual.

And with me, all my magic. 

I will be free when my ritual is done. And my magic will be the only magic left. How's that for a master plan?

Now, every other creature gets to feel what I have felt my entire life. The powerlessness that comes from knowing that no matter how smart you are, or how adorable you are, you will never be taken seriously without magic.

They get to feel the bitterness that made me who I am. The bitterness of being born to be nothing, and knowing you can't change it, because you had the wrong parents.

It's fair. The entire world and every creature in it discarded me as just a worthless filly, and now I get to do the same to the whole world. I think that's what grown-up ponies call poetic justice.

I am Cozy Glow, Empress of Friendship. 

I am an alicorn. I am a genius. I am cute. But above all else:

I am the one pony who refused to be nothing. I knew I couldn't change my lot in life... but I did it anyway.

And with that, I drift of to sleep.