Cozy Glow considered the three dark slaves she still had in her possession as she trotted back into Midnight Castle, the slaves following her. How was she going to have a decent talk with Professor Dash in a spooky place like this…?
As she moved, she gathered up all the supplies that the cosplayers and Rainbow Dash had left behind in the entry chamber and took them with here. Up a flight of stairs and through a few doors led Cozy to a broad room that Erebus had informed her about. It was shrouded in darkness, of course, but Cozy knew it had stained-glass windows like the chapel below, depicting scenes of Lord Tirac’s conquests of the lands that would become Gar-Centauria. They all led up to a throne fit for a centaur lord, more of a bench, really, with plush cushions and arm rests. Cozy hopped up onto it, found it comfy enough, and got to work.
Tendrils of darkness set torches into sconces, and used tinderboxes to light them. More tendrils worked to lay out all the food the ponies had brought with them, and Cozy started mixing together the best meal she could given that she didn’t have much to work with other than water, hay, oats, salt, and a few spices for flavor – though then she remembered hers and Tirek’s own packs in the dungeon below, and teleported them through the darkness to her. The centaur nomads had given them a better variety of food then the emergency rations that Rainbow Dash’s airship had possessed.
“You could let me prepare the meal,” Erebus said through her mouth. “I’m actually a really good cook!”
“Nah, I want to do this,” Cozy insisted. “And hey, could you not talk with my mouth for a bit? I want to talk to Professor Dash and don’t need you interrupting.”
No problem! Erebus said in her mind, still sounding like her voice but with Erebus’ own layered underneath it. I have some questions of my own. But I can wait!
Cozy grinned at how well the two of them were getting along now that things were going there way. Really, all Cozy had to do was stall for a few more hours. Then the Sun would set and she’d be free to go…wherever she wanted to go, really. She could probably teleport all the way to Istanbull if she wanted, or even further, with the powers of the Rainbow of Darkness.
Not quite, Erebus said, but pretty far! And you wouldn’t get tired at all!
Cozy had noticed that – the magic she’d been using with the Rainbow of Darkness didn’t seem to draw on her inner magical reserves, such as they were for a filly, at all. Even Celestia would have been exhausted after what she’d just done downstairs, but Cozy hadn’t even broken a sweat. At this point probably even Discord was no match for her!
Probably! Erebus agreed.
Okay, Cozy thought, once she was done with her picnic. Give me a bit of time now, please!
Got it!
Cozy settled into Lord Tirac’s former throne, leaning against one of the arm-wrests, and flicked her hoof. Shadows retracted from around Rainbow Dash, flowing away until just one hind-hoof was clasped in a chain. The moment the adult pegasus’ eyes were freed, she glanced around, in taking her surroundings – and the moment her wings were free, she started beating them.
“Yeah no,” she said as she took off, though the chain around her hoof held her fast. She fell back to the ground and glanced down at it.
Cozy giggled. “Did you really think that would work?”
Rainbow Dash whickered. “Still had to try,” she said as she picked herself up. She waved a hoof at the cosplayer and Glory Pose, but the two were still wrapped up in shadows, unable to do anything.
“You gonna let them out too?” Dash asked, looking at Cozy.
Cozy shrugged. “In a minute,” she said as she hopped up and waved a hoof down at the picnic she’d made. “But I wanna talk to you first, Professor Dash. I’ve missed a lot of school, after all!”
Rainbow Dash froze, then glanced to Cozy with a picture-perfect look of incredulousness. “What, you want make-up work or something?”
Cozy personally didn’t think she needed any make-up work given that she’d been able to become friends with Erebus, but she did use shadows to go into her bag and bring over her notebook and writing implements.
“No thanks,” she said, “but I do want to hear about how everypony’s been doing. And every other creature.” She giggled slightly as she leaned forward on the throne. “I wanna make sure that I know everything I can before I go catch up with them.”
Ooh, good one, Erebus noted.
Cozy started to thank Erebus, but in the real world, Rainbow Dash’s only response was to roll her eyes and start tugging against the shadow chain harder, putting her wings into it. She flew up again, striving as hard as she could, but with a thought Cozy made the chain as hard as steel. It wasn’t going to budge, not even when Rainbow Dash flipped around in the air and started trying to push at the shadows with her forehooves.
“You really think you can break that?” Cozy deadpanned.
“I can try.”
“It won’t work.”
Rainbow Dash grunted for a few moments. “It gives me something to do.”
“Something to…?” Cozy let out, before what her former professor was implying caught up to her. Then all she saw was red. “What do you mean, something to do? I’m right here, you know!” She stomped her hoof. “You can’t just ignore me, you’re my prisoner!”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Rainbow Dash retorted, pausing in her efforts. “But you have no idea how often that happens to me.” She glanced over at the bigger of Cozy’s two dark slaves. “Right, Doc?”
Cozy ground her teeth together. She was acknowledging the cosplayer?! She stomped a hoof on the ground and the shadow chain yanked, pulling Rainbow Dash to the ground with a whinny. Cozy denied the chain enough slack to allow Rainbow Dash to even lift her leg as she hopped from the throne and surged forward; by the time the adult’s eyes were back on her, Cozy was right up next to Rainbow Dash.
“I went through all the trouble of setting up the best picnic I could for us, Professor Dash,” Cozy said, walking backwards. Shadows grabbed at Rainbow Dash’s hooves and forced her to follow Cozy’s steps, then pulled her down onto her barrel atop a blanket that Cozy had spread out on the floor.
“So,” Cozy continued, “we are going to have a picnic and we’re going to catch up. Get it?!”
“Alright, alright!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Cozy waited a moment more before releasing three of her hooves from shadowstuff. Dash pulled a serving of hay and oats and rolled her eyes. “Geeze, you’d think I owed you money or something…”
Cozy heard a snicker in her head at that. She did her best to ignore Erebus as she smiled once more. “Good! Finally, you were making me think I wasn’t ever going to get through to you. So, how about you start by telling me all about what Gallus has been up to? Oh, and Smolder. And Yona. And every creature else. How’s school been?”
Rainbow Dash bought herself some time by having a mouthful of hay. A big mouthful. She probably thought she was being clever, but Cozy just went over to her side of the picnic and sat down. Cozy let her smile twitch just a little bit, and Rainbow Dash got the message, finishing her bite quickly.
“Uh…school’s been fine,” she answered. “I mean…every creature has good days and bad days, y’know? I guess we have a buckball team now, that’s new. And a cheerleading squad for them.”
Cheerleading? Erebus asked. What’s that?
How do you not know? Cozy asked.
You don’t want me looking at your memories, remember? I didn’t learn everything.
Cozy fought the urge to whicker in annoyance. Fine, you can look at that one. Aloud, she pressed on. “Aw…I would have loved to be on a cheer squad! Who’s on it?”
Rainbow Dash blinked a few times. “How…exactly…does this help you take over the world?”
Cozy sighed, shaking her head. “I’m a ponies-pony, Professor Dash. I like to know what my friends are up to. And my future friends, too. Just because I’ve got the power of darkness now doesn’t mean I’m just giving up on the power of friendship.”
“Magic of friendship.”
“Same difference.”
Rainbow Dash didn’t look like she grasped it, which made sense given that she was the dumb one out of the Element-bearers. “How the hay did you manage to get help from Scoots and her friends, ace every test after that, get a whole bunch of friends, and still manage to get everything we were trying to teach you wrong?”
Cozy suppressed the urge to groan, though she couldn’t stop herself from rubbing at her temples in frustration. “I didn’t get anything wrong, Professor Dash. I was just looking at the big picture. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis twice, Sombra two or three times, the plundervines, Tirek, the Pony of Shadows, the Storm King…and me, I guess. There’s some serious power in friendship, you can’t deny that.”
“Yeah but it’s not just power – ”
“I know that! But there is power there, and I want it!” Before Rainbow Dash could interrupt her, a tendril of shadows wrapped around her muzzle. “Okay, so I answered a few questions for you, Professor Dash. So now, time to answer mine. Who’s on the cheer squad?”
Rainbow Dash was silent a moment after the tendril withdrew. “Wait…is that how this’ll work? I answer your questions, and you’ll answer mine?”
Cozy considered, tapping her chin. She felt a grin spread across her muzzle. Professor Dash was the stupid one, Cozy could already guess all the questions she’d probably ask her and she didn’t have a problem answering any of them.
“Sure,” she said, “I guess. If it makes things easier.”
Rainbow Dash shifted a little, but finally let out a sigh. “Okay, then. Lighthoof, Ocellus, Shimmy Shake, Smolder, and Yona.”
Cozy nodded a little, at least until the last name. “Yona? Okay…I can see why Smolder would join the team. Lots of attention. Showing off. Yeah, that makes sense. And she’d drag Ocellus along. Shimmy loved to dance so I know why she’d join, and of course Lighthoof would join her best friend. But Yona? Why would Yona join, it’s not like she needs an excuse to be loud and obnoxious…”
“How did you escape Tartarus?”
Cozy scowled a little at her thought process being interrupted. She needed to figure out how those six had changed over the past year if she was going to start her revenge schemes on them. She had plans, of course, but they needed to be adapted to suit each of them. Personalized torment, but also torment designed to make them her friends again.
Well, she had time. She grinned at Rainbow Dash. “Hmm…not surprised you’re asking that one, Professor. Well…it wasn’t King Sombra who broke out me and Tirek. And it wasn’t Chrysalis, either.” She considered leaving it there, but decided that she wanted to see the look on her former professor’s face too much. She leaned forward, grinning widely. “It was…Grogar!”
The look on Rainbow Dash’s face…was one of confusion. “Who?”
Cozy’s own grin dropped. “Oh, come on!” She exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. “Grogar! The Father of Monsters? Emperor of Equestria before Gusty the Great stole his bell and power? He’s got to have come up in those dumb Daring Do books.”
“Well, he hasn’t,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her hooves and glancing over at the dark slave with the Caballeron cosplayer in it. “So who’s Grogar?”
Cozy groaned. In her mind, Erebus let out a tsk sound. Dumb one, remember, he told her.
Yeah, she agreed. “He’s a big mean goat. A big mean powerful goat. And he broke me and Tirek out of Tartarus and got Chrysalis and Sombra. And all that stuff I just said about him being the Father of Monsters. Twilight would know who he was.”
“Yeah, about you not being in Tartarus – ”
“Nope!” Cozy interrupted. “My turn! Okay, let’s see…” she thought of those six students who had ruined her plans again, and the first one to pop into her mind was Gallus, with his dumb blue feathers. Probably because of the dumb blue pegasus in front of her, though Gallus was even dumber. “What’s Gallus been up to? Has he been kicked out of school yet?”
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, but didn’t stall. “No. He’s doing fine, at least in my classes, and in Twilight’s – Starlight’s, now. You know I don’t exactly stalk my students, right? Like I’m not gonna be able to tell you much beyond their grades and if they’ve been behaving.”
“And Gallus has been?”
“More or less.” Before Cozy could ask anything, Dash pressed forward. “So how come nopony noticed that you and Tirek aren’t in Tartarus?”
Cozy blanched. “Why would they notice? Nopony ever came to check up on me while I was there. Just a week of trying to cheer Tirek up and then, shooop! Teleported by Grogar.”
“A week? That’s it?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You’ve been free for half a year already?”
“I guess.”
Rainbow Dash was still shaking her head. “Nuh-uh, something weird’s going on here. I know that Twilight’s gone to see you like three or four times, and she’s said the other Princesses have too, and there’s…gah! That makes no sense! Like even if Grogar’s got like a fake-you or something down there, how could none of them tell?”
“Really powerful, Professor Dash,” Cozy reiterated about Grogar’s abilities. “And none of them showed up while I was there, like I said. I was just shoved in a cage and told I’d be staying there for a year. A whole year! Me! I’m just a kid!”
“Pretty sure that’s why you’re only getting a year.”
“Oh ha-ha,” Cozy stood, glaring. “So how come Counselor Starlight can break time in half but she gets to be Princess Twilight’s student, but I get shoved in a cage? How is that fair?”
Rainbow Dash began to retort, but stopped herself. “Cozy,” she said, her tone shifting, “what do you actually want?”
Cozy rolled her eyes. “To rule Equestria! Obviously!” Rainbow Dash was really not doing anything to make herself seem less dumb.
“Okay, but why?” Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings, and looked directly at Cozy. “Look, I’ve fought a lot of bad guys over the past few years. And yeah some of them were like the Storm King, just on a power trip. But you’re so smart, Cozy, so I can’t believe that you’re just doing all this for fun. So why do you want to rule Equestria?”
You don’t need a reason! Erebus objected.
“Yeah!” Cozy agreed. “I don’t need a reason, Professor Dash. Tirek didn’t need a reason! Besides, it’s not like anypony is doing a really good job with Equestria right now.” Cozy stamped a hoof. “First Nightmare Moon comes back, then Discord turns the world upside-down, then plundervines, then Chrysalis, the Storm King, King Sombra…the last few years have been just one disaster after the next!”
“Okay yeah, Equestria’s been through a lot lately…but things have always worked out pretty quick, and Celestia was princess for a thousand years of peace!”
“And what did she actually accomplish with that?”
“…a thousand years of peace? Isn’t that enough?”
No! Erebus put it. It’s pathetic! More like a thousand years of stagnation. A thousand years of wasted opportunities to expand, to grow!
“Exactly!” Cozy said.
“You agree with me?” Rainbow Dash looked surprised.
“No, not with…” Cozy shook her head, and glanced to the side, to the darkness. “Come on, Erebus, leave me alone.” She turned back to Rainbow Dash. “But he brought up a good point. A thousand years of peace was just Princess Celestia sitting around and not doing anything. She could have had so much more! Equestria could have ruled over the buffalo and the diamond dogs and the dragons and everything! Controlled everything!”
Rainbow Dash’s head tilted to the side. “So…is that why you drained all the magic from the world? Because I don’t see how that lets you control anything.”
Cozy – Erebus began.
Not now! Cozy thought back. Aloud, she pressed on. “Ugh! Not all the magic!” Cozy shook her head. “You could still fly, couldn’t you? Couldn’t every pegasus? Cloudsdale didn’t fall from the sky!” She started pacing. “And you really think I was going to take all that magic and just shove it away and forget about it? I was still going to be able to access it, Professor Dash! I would have been able to control which unicorns had magic and which didn’t. Which artifacts worked and which didn’t. Everypony was going to depend on me. That’s how I was gonna rule. I was gonna ‘find’ a way to make ‘new’ magic, get it?” She shrugged. “Everypony just looks at me like a kid, I know that! But if I was a kid with access to all the power, then everypony would have to do what I tell them and be my friend!”
“Okay, but…is that what you wanted?” Rainbow Dash tapped her hooves on the floor beneath her. “Friends? Because you had friends at the school. And you had friends before you came to school.” She scratched the back of her head. “When Tirek attacked Fillydelphia, you helped get all the foals to keep the adults safe. That was what got you noticed by Twilight when she was setting up the school. You had friends in Fillydelphia, right?”
You don’t have to answer that, Erebus put in. You’ve answered a bunch of her questions, she owes you some now.
In a minute! Cozy insisted. She glared at Rainbow Dash. “Yes. I did. But it wasn’t enough. The plundervines still choked my home, and Discord still turned the world upside-down, and parasprites still ate half of downtown, and the Storm King still flew in and conquered everything…” She shook her head. “The stupid ‘magic of friendship’ didn’t do anything!”
“So…why do you want friends, then? It sounds to me like you don’t really want friends, you want power. But now you’ve got power. You’ve got so much power that you can make Tirek look like a chump.”
Cozy felt heat flush through her body at that. “Yeah, but he still won’t listen to me in spite of that.” She crossed her hooves. “He still treats me like I’m just some kid even though I’ve got all this power now. What’s up with that? How would you like it if you were a filly who could beat a Wonderbolt in a race but your best friend still acted like you were just a little kid?”
Cozy turned on Rainbow Dash. “Where are you going with all this, anyway?”
She’s just wasting your time, Erebus insisted.
But Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I just…listen to yourself, Cozy! You say you want power, but you have plenty now. You say Princess Celestia’s done a bad job ruling Equestria but you don’t really have any plans for ruling Equestria yourself, just destroying it and controlling what’s left. You want your friends to listen to you but you won’t listen to them and you just see them as a way of getting power you don’t need. You say you want the magic of friendship but then you call it stupid. You’re all over the place!”
“So what?”
Rainbow Dash was silent a few moments as she looked at Cozy closely. “You don’t know what you really want, do you? You’ve got all these smarts and all this power, but you’re just using it for whatever comes to mind without really thinking about why you want everything you want.” Her head tilted to the side. “You…you really are just a kid.”
How dare she?!
Shadows lashed out at Rainbow Dash from all sides, grabbing her legs, her wings, her neck and hoisting her up into the air.
She does not get to talk to you that way!
“I am not just a kid!” Cozy screamed, charging forward, knocking over her picnic, glaring up at Rainbow Dash. “I might be young but I know what I want and I know how to get it and I’m working hard for it! It’s no different from anypony else trying to get what they want!” One eye narrowed. “You better say you’re sorry, Professor Dash!”
Rainbow Dash didn’t, instead remaining silent in the grip of the shadows coiled around her. Cozy growled. “I mean it, Professor Dash! Apologize right now!” She was still silent, struggling as best she could against the shadows “You can’t just accuse somepony who’s done everything I’ve done of just being…”
Professor Dash was still silent, still struggling…her mouth opened, but no sound came out…and Cozy finally noticed how tight her shadows were around the professor’s neck. The fact that her eyes were starting to bulge a little.
Cozy gasped, backing away. “Whoops, that was a little…” she began, but despite her wanting the shadows to let go of Rainbow Dash, they didn’t. “H-hey! Erebus, let go of her!”
“But she’s insulting you!” Erebus pointed out.
“Yeah but you’re hurting her!” Cozy said. She focused on the shadows around Rainbow Dash’s neck and put a lot more will into it, and they loosened up. Rainbow Dash sucked in a few hoarse breaths. She started to speak after a moment, but Cozy wrapped a tendril around her muzzle - though she kept her airways clear.
“What the hay, Erebus?!” Cozy demanded, turning away and glaring into the shadows. As expected, she could see them moving and twisting around. “You can’t just start choking ponies! We already had this discussion!”
“Cozy…” Erebus responded, “you do know that you’re gonna have to hurt a lot of ponies if you want to take over Equestria, right? And Rainbow Dash is one of your biggest enemies. You’ve gotta deal with her!”
“Yeah but not like that!” Cozy insisted, looking back to Rainbow Dash. The mare was still breathing heavily, and Cozy could already see ugly-looking welts forming under her fur. She shivered. “And Professor Dash is only really a threat when she’s with her friends. If I keep them separated then they’re no threat at all. And how am I supposed to convince them that they were wrong to stand against me if they’re dead?”
“Some ponies you just won’t be able to reach,” Erebus countered. “Trust me. It’s better to deal with it now - “
“I said NO!” Cozy stomped a hoof. “And you said you have to listen to me!”
Erebus writhed in the shadows, but didn’t respond. Cozy nodded, turning around to look at Rainbow Dash again, doing her best to ignore the welts on her neck. “Sorry about that, Professor Dash. Just some growing pains, two new friends getting used to each other. There’s arguments and disagreements sometimes. But you know about that!”
Cozy nodded again, lowering Rainbow Dash to the floor. “And of course you made me really mad. But I did go too far and I’m sorry. Okay?”
She unraveled the tendril from The mare’s muzzle, and most of her limbs. Rainbow Dash rubbed at her throat, coughing a few times. “G…gonna need a bit…before I accept that apology.”
Cozy started to object, but once more saw where Erebus had been choking her and winced. “That’s fine,” she decided. She scuffed a hoof on the floor, looking down at the picnic she’d made. She didn’t feel very hungry anymore. “I know I’m a filly, Professor Dash. But I’m not just a filly. So you better stop treating me like one!”
Rainbow Dash lowered her hoof from her throat. She’d bruise, but those would fade. “I…I just really don’t get you, Cozy. And it almost seems like you don’t get yourself, either. Like I said, you know what you want, but I really think you should spend some time trying to figure out why you want it.” She held up a hoof before Cozy could respond. “But fine. I’ll drop it. And you answered a bunch of my questions so now it’s my turn.”
Cozy fluttered her wings. For all that she was super-smart, and knew it, she didn’t get what Professor Dash meant by not knowing why she wanted power and control and friends – why did it matter? But she had let her temper get the better of her just now, so maybe it would be better to change subjects.
“Fine,” Cozy said. She waved a hoof at her other dark slaves, still stuck standing in place. “What’s the deal with the cosplayers?”
Rainbow Dash whickered. “They’re not cosplayers.”
“Yes they are. Daring Do isn’t real!”
The mare was rubbing her temples. “Sweet Celestia it’s Quibble all over again…Cozy I Pinkie Promise that Daring Do is real. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Cozy’s eyes widened at the fact that Dash actually lied over a Pinkie Promise. “But…that makes no sense! The only way it could possibly add up would be if Daring Do and A.K. Yearling were the same pony!”
Rainbow Dash was silent. Cozy’s felt her eyes growing wide.
“…what. What? What?!”
Tirek strode into Midnight Castle once again, the Sun Stone held aloft in his magic. Darkness pressed in all around him in its entry, but could not cross the light’s edge. For a few moments Tirek wondered at the origin of the Sun Stone, how something that seemed like it should have been little more than a mere bauble could stand against the power of the Rainbow of Darkness like it had been tailor-made for the purpose. Had it really been simply a jewel of vanity for Queen Rosedust, or had the ponies somehow known about the power of darkness even in the age before Nightmare Moon and King Sombra and the Pony of Shadows? And himself, if he were being honest. Tirek did not miss the irony of a creature like him depending upon the Sun Stone.
Tirek brushed the thoughts from his mind, heading through the castle’s antechamber and down its main hall, once more returning to the large chapel to Lord Tirac. He wasn’t interrupted in his trek, which somewhat surprised him. But according to Scorpan, though Erebus was connected in some way to every patch of darkness it could touch, could see and perceive through them if it desired, it was not omniscient. Its focus could be in only a single place at a time, and while it wasn’t the shadows were just shadows, nothing more than the absence of light. It gave Tirek time.
The irony of the fact that Tirek was trusting Scorpan for this plan to work wasn’t lost on Tirek, either.
Tirek got to the chapel, and stood with his hands folded behind his back, forcing himself to remain calm. If this didn’t work, then Erebus was going to turn him into a dark slave, force him to move and act against his will without being able to see anything around him…a prisoner in his own body. Tirek heaved a sigh. Freedom was such a fleeting thing. Then he stood tall, and looked into the deepest patch of shadow he could find.
“Erebus,” he said, “I want to speak with you. Just you.”
Erebus’ hearing – however that worked for an incorporeal entity – wasn’t any more omniscient than its vision. Nevertheless Tirek found it likely that the creature would occasionally ‘glance around’, as it were. Utilize its senses to see what there was to see. And so, it would see Tirek, still with so much of his power drained, standing in the chapel to Lord Tirac, protected by the Sun Stone but still hideously vulnerable.
Erebus’ curiosity would doubtlessly be piqued, Tirek knew. Perhaps Erebus would consider altering Cozy Glow…but no. Not if Tirek was right about how it thought and operated. Plus, after spending so much time with the little hellion, Tirek didn’t doubt that it would desire a break.
The darkness beyond the light writhed and shifted, like fog disturbed by the movement of a creature. A vague shape could be discerned there, small, the size of a foal.
“Well hi there, Lord Tirek,” Cozy’s voice said. But the word choice made it clear that it wasn’t Cozy. “Golly, I sure can’t even begin to guess what you’re doing here all on your lonesome, but it definitely can’t be good. So give me one good reason why I shouldn’t let Cozy know you’re here.”
“Because you’ve already won,” Tirek answered. He waved a hand at the stained-glass window that let in no light. “The sun is going down. Night is only a few hours away. You’ve already won.” He stood up straighter. “So why not indulge your curiosity for a few minutes?”
Erebus was silent a moment, though a rumble came out of the shadows. “Okay, I guess you’re right,” it finally said, and giggled. “It’s really important to take breaks every now and then. But why come in here? Why not try and escape across the desert, if you’re so sure that I’ve won? I know you have supplies stashed, and the nearest oasis isn’t that far away.”
“Of course, that is the only direction we could go, and so you would swiftly overtake us once darkness fell,” Tirek pointed out.
“Uh-huh.” Erebus stood and stretched, then started pacing back and forth just outside the reach of the Sun Stone. “But it still seems smarter to run than come in here. Just you and that stupid Sun Stone aren’t enough to keep me and Cozy back if I let her know.”
Tirek offered a smile. “Perhaps I wanted to learn a little more about you as well, Erebus. Learn your limits. Scorpan – ” the darkness growled again, “ – has said that you cannot do anything without the willing participation of your host.”
“Almost nothing,” Erebus confirmed, and Tirek could hear the smile in its voice, “but I have my ways. Scorpan should have told you that, too.”
“Indeed he did,” Tirek confirmed. “And your strengths. Tell me, Erebus…when we first met, you talked to me. Wanted me to free you. Well, I suppose you wanted any creature to free you…but you seemed most eager for me to do so. Why is that?”
Erebus stopped its pacing. The filly-form shifted, grew in size, changed in shape, until the vague silhouette of tall and powerful centaur could be made out in the shadows.
“Cozy Glow,” Erebus said – its voice now mirroring Tirek’s own, “is an impressively intelligent and conniving filly. But she is still only a filly, a pony. The darkness within her is present and it is potent, but it is immature, and tempered by her childish limitations and the shreds of morality that yet remain in her.” Erebus folded its new hands behind its back and leaned forward just slightly – just enough so that Tirek could see the vague outline of his own face. It was smiling.
“Though I must admit, you were most effective in destroying her sense of right and wrong, Lord Tirek,” Erebus said. “Long before Cozy Glow was Twilight Sparkle’s student, she was yours, and she learned your lessons well.”
Tirek bristled. “I may have told Cozy what she wanted to know, but I was not trying to ‘corrupt’ her. She was nothing more than a useful way to strike at my enemies from within Tartarus – a plan she came up with – and an end to a millennium of isolation.”
Erebus’ smile widened even as it drew back into the darkness. “And so it was ended.” Erebus stepped a little to the side an waved a hand back into Midnight Castle, “and look at where it has led her. To me.”
Hearing that in his own voice unnerved Tirek, but he didn’t let it show. Instead he stepped forward and towards Erebus, bringing the Sun Stone with him. The darkness hissed and drew back.
“You haven’t answered my question, Erebus,” Tirek said. “Why did you seem so much more interested in me?”
Erebus spread its hands. “The shadow in your soul is deep, Lord Tirek. So much anger and hatred and resentment, bound up for so long, aged and matured like a fine wine. Tirac was similar, you know.” Erebus again began pacing slowly. “Ah, Tirac…he started from nothing, you know, just a nomad from the deserts who clawed and claimed and gained power. You wouldn’t know what that’s like, Lord Tirek. You had a teacher. A family. A castle. Tirac was more like…” Erebus paused, glanced at Tirek, and grinned. “More like King Vorak.”
Tirek could almost hear Cozy let out a little gasp and then a giggle in his mind – the reaction she’d had to a centaur pushing his ‘family’ button only a few days ago. He indeed felt his fists clenching, felt himself snorting in anger and felt a thrum of power go through his body and up his horns. He saw red staining the shadows.
But he fought it back. “Perhaps he was,” Tirek allowed.
“I mean no insult,” Erebus said quickly, giving a slight bow. “There are many dark paths in a mortal’s life. You found your own way to me. We could have been a great team, you and I.”
Tirek cocked an eyebrow. “We still could be.”
Erebus was quiet. “Oh…?” it asked after a long moment, leaning forward and just barely into the light again. “Believe you me, Lord Tirek, if I could bestow my power upon multiple creatures at once then I would. But I’m afraid your chance at becoming my host has come and gone. I have Cozy Glow.”
“You have a pegasus filly,” Tirek said, “and nothing more. Are you really content with that level of power? Cozy Glow will never learn anything more than the simplest hedge magic. She will be entirely dependent upon you.”
“Perhaps I like it that way,” Erebus pointed out. “Perhaps I prefer that my host be some creature who has no other choice but to utilize my might.”
“No, I don’t think you do. If that were the case than you would have abandoned Scorpan or Tirac at the first opportunity.” Tirek held out one hand, creating a small bubble shield over it, only a foot across. “You can enhance my power, can’t you? You can restore me to my former glory, fill me with never-ending magic. And then I can use not just the darkness you control, but my own power to spread the misery and hate and fear that you feed upon.” He grinned as he clenched his fist, popping his shield-bubble. “And really, what creature is more miserable than one that has had all its magic pulled from its body? You know I can do that.”
Erebus scratched at his assumed beard as he looked at Tirek. “You tempt me, Lord Tirek,” it said, “you tempt me greatly…but no. It is important to know one’s limits. You would be a powerful host, but you are too willful. I will cross some moral line you didn’t even know you had left, and you will contrive some way to cast me out, just as Scorpan did. No, I think I prefer Cozy Glow, weak though she is – she is a young mind I can still mold to my whims over the coming years until the difference between Cozy Glow and Erebus dwindles to nothing.”
The words rolled through Tirek’s mind, and the anger returned at the thought of Cozy being reduced to nothing more than a puppet. “You will not do that!”
Erebus chuckled. “Ah…and now I see the real reason you came here. You don’t want me. You want Cozy Glow. You want to free her from me and offer yourself in return. The great and terrible Lord Tirek, galloping into the heart of darkness to rescue his precious little pony friend.”
“She is not my friend!”
Erebus’ chuckle turned into a laugh. “You’re right – and yet you are both such blind fools that you don’t even understand how. I’m going to enjoy what happens next.” Erebus’ form shifted once more, back into that of Cozy Glow. “Oh Cozy…!”
The shadows all around Tirek began to writhe and shift. Tirek couldn’t stop his eyes from widening as he stepped away from where Erebus had manifested itself, and needed to take a moment to remind himself that so far, everything was going according to plan.
“So let me get this straight,” Cozy said for the dozenth time. She wasn’t looking at Rainbow Dash, instead at the floor, holding out her forehooves like she was trying to picture something. “The Doomed Diadem of Xilati is real.”
“Yup,” Rainbow Dash confirmed.
“The Flankara Relics.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The Rings of Scorchero – wait you’re on the cover of that one! I thought you had just won some contest or something, but, if Daring Do is real, and you’re there, and…”
Rainbow Dash knew she had a one-track mind, and she was trying really, really hard to not let herself get distracted by talking about Daring Do – and herself, now – with Cozy and instead keep herself looking for some way to escape the psychopathic filly and Erebus. At least she wasn’t choking her anymore…Dash rubbed at her throat. It still hurt.
Dash honestly believed Cozy when she said she hadn’t meant to do that. But that was what made Cozy so frightening– she could snap in an instant and do things she didn’t mean to do, simply because she wasn’t really capable of thinking things through or understanding the consequences of her actions. Dash could see that clearly now: Cozy really was just a kid. A kid messed-up kid with an absolutely insane way of viewing the world…but a kid all the same.
Erebus was another matter…the Rainbow of Darkness had tried to harm her. In fact she was pretty sure that it wanted her dead, and Cozy Glow was the only thing holding it back. Which was kind of terrifying to think about.
“I thought you didn’t like the books,” Dash observed, to keep the conversation going and to push past the thought of depending on Cozy to keep her safe.
“I don’t! But a bunch of ponies do so of course I’ve read them. It’s something to get them to be my friend, if we can talk about Daring Do…wait that means that Ahuizotl is real?! How has nopony in Equestria noticed…the things I could’ve done if I’d only known all those were real artifacts…”
And then there were comments like that. Cozy kept looking at friendship as a formula to be followed, a series of steps to undertake. It was like she had all the ingredients to make a cake and was doing all the right steps and yet somehow things never really baked and the result was never a real cake. Or whatever. Dash wasn’t good with metaphors, that was Applejack’s job.
Cozy shifted, glancing over to the bigger of her two dark slaves. “So that really is Doctor Caballeron?”
“Yeah,” Dash said. She looked to him herself, and to Glory. “And he’s probably getting hungry and thirsty…Glory too. Maybe give them a break…?”
“Y…yeah, okay,” Cozy answered, fluttering her wings and waving a hoof. Shadows pulled back from the other two ponies, though they remained wrapped around their mouths and one leg each, as well as Glory’s horn. The moment Glory was free, she started scrabbling and trying to flee, eyes wide and whimpering. Caballeron watched her with concern but also kept a wary eye on Cozy.
Cozy rolled a hoof at Glory in a ‘get it out of your system’ gesture. When the unicorn finally slowed down, the filly held up a hoof. “Okay, Miss Pose, you can’t escape but I promise I won’t hurt you. So I’m gonna take the shadows off your mouth and you just sit and join the picnic, okay?”
Glory quivered, before finally giving a few tiny nods. The shadows withdrew, and she made her way back to the picnic and sitting down, though she kept fidgeting. “Th-thank you,” she stuttered out. “
“You’re welcome!” Cozy turned to Caballeron. “Okay, Doc, same deal, okay? And…wow, you’re real?”
Caballeron settled down easier than Glory, though he also made sure to sit down right next to the mare, offering a hoof. She took it, and he pressed his barrel against hers to try and comfort her. “Yes, Miss Glow, I am real,” Caballeron said. “And, if you don’t mind me saying, in a fair amount of pain from being used as a puppet.”
“P-please don’t do that again,” Glory said. “It…it was so dark, and I couldn’t control myself, and things kept hitting me…”
“Well that wasn’t me! It was Tirek and Scorpan and Rainbow Dash and everypony else. They could’ve just, y’know, surrendered.”
Dash began to retort, but stopped herself. Still, she remembered Cozy actually looking worried at the thought of having harmed her. Cozy didn’t think through potential consequences, but she wasn’t blind to them when presented with them…
“You don’t really need to do that again, though,” Dash pointed out. When Cozy looked at her, she made a point of rubbing at her neck where she’d been choked. “Look, you definitely don’t need dark slaves. And it’s not like Scorpan or Tirek are gonna pull their punches against us. We could get really hurt for no reason.”
Cozy giggled. “There’d be a reason! It’d be those punches that aren’t being pulled. But…yeah, okay, you got a point.” Her eye narrowed. “Well, except for you, Professor Dash. Because Daring Do would pull her bucks against you.”
“You got a point,” Dash admitted, deciding to give Cozy that one. It wasn’t like she’d be able to convince her otherwise, and it would keep Cozy feeling in control.
“Anyway,” Cozy turned to Caballeron. “So did you know that A.K. Yearling was Daring Do?”
“I did, yes.”
“Well…then why not tell anypony? Why not tell everypony! Then she’d never be able to go anywhere without ponies like Professor Dash constantly following her. Or her enemies could go to her home and kidnap her, or something!”
Caballeron considered, looking to Rainbow Dash – knowing she was more familiar with Cozy. Dash could only offer a shrug, and mouthed ‘play along’.
“We have an…arrangement,” Caballeron said. “Obviously many of my Equestrian clients would prefer the relics that they have paid me to acquire not be stolen, or reported to the authorities. Anything I get back to Equestria, she leaves alone. In return I do not reveal her true identity to the world.”
“Huh,” Cozy glanced away, thinking. “Gee, that…actually makes a lot of sense. Hey…” she looked back to Caballeron. “When I’m ruling my share of Equestria, I might want to get stuff like the Golden Horseshoes or the Flashstone Amulet. Artifacts and stuff! Would you work for me? I’d even pay you in Cozy Coins!”
“…Cozy Coins?”
“My own currency. Every Cozy Coin will be worth five golden bits!”
Caballeron, Rainbow Dash decided, deserved an award for keeping a straight face at hearing that. The stallion instead stroked at his chin as though in thought – there was no way he was actually considering it – before responding.
“My services are always for sale, Miss Glow,” Caballeron said.
“Great! We’re gonna become good friends, Doctor Caballeron!” Cozy pranced up to Glory, who flinched at her approach. “And Miss Pose? We’ll be neighbors again! Fillydelphia’s gonna be my capital. And I’ll throw lots of parties just like I used to, and you can even come to them! My uncle won’t be there this time, though, ‘cause he’s gonna stay in jail.”
“I…” Glory glanced to Caballeron, who squeezed her hoof slightly. “I’d…I’d come to them. And I n-never liked your uncle a-anyway.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Cozy’s grin didn’t leave her face as she turned to Rainbow Dash. “See? I’m really not so bad. How about it, Professor Dash? I don’t think Chrysalis or Tirek will really want anything to do with the Wonderbolts. What if I let you out of Tartarus sometimes and you could perform at my parties? Oh, I forgot to mention, you and your friends are going to Tartarus. Celestia’s going into the Sun and Luna into the Moon. Need to figure out what to do with Princess Cadance still…”
Dash did not know how to deal with a question like that, nor its follow-up comments. She was saved from her first reaction – shouting denials – by the shadows suddenly beginning to writhe.
“Wait, what?” Cozy asked, looking away from everypony, cocking an ear as she listened to something only she could hear – Erebus, probably. “He’s what?! That – but we’re supposed…”
Cozy went from curiosity to shock to anger to screaming at a speed Dash could almost admire. The darkness surrounding the four ponies suddenly surged forward and enveloped them. Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop from shouting in a mix of surprise and fear, though Caballeron and Glory both let out cries of their own. Just as quickly as the shadows swallowed them, though, they retreated, banished by a light as bright as a rising sun.
The Sun Stone, Dash realized as her eyes adjusted. She was back in the chapel to Lord Tirac. Tirek – looking far reduced in power now, though still better than when Dash had met him in Tartarus – was bathed in the Sun Stone’s light, holding it in his magic and keeping the shadows at bay.
Cozy Glow was standing in front of the three of them, glaring up at the centaur sorcerer. “You tried to convince Erebus to abandon me?! Behind my back?!”
“I don’t know what you’re so surprised about,” Tirek said. “I want you free of the Rainbow of Darkness, Cozy. If that means becoming its host instead…”
Cozy trembled, wings spread wide. “Oh, and the fact that you’d get all this power at the same time, I’m just supposed to ignore that, am I? You’re the one who came here looking for the Rainbow, you’re the one who kept ignoring me when I told you how dangerous it was! You want me to believe this is for my own good but you go behind my back and try and trick Erebus – ”
“You are not leaving me any choice, Cozy! Why won’t you listen to me?”
“Why won’t you listen to me?”
“Why don’t you try stopping and listening to each other?” Dash volunteered.
“Stay out of this!” Tirek and Cozy exclaimed at the same time.
“…you know what? No!” Dash beat her wings, getting as far into the air as the shadows still wrapped around her hoof let her, and flying as far forward as she could – between Cozy and Tirek. “Look, okay, you’re both evil tyrants that want to take over the world and destroy Equestria, fine. But look at you two! You’ve got some serious friendship issues.”
“Cozy is not my friend,” Tirek said. “I have allies, I do not have friends.”
“Yeah, I noticed, even though you’re my best friend…” Cozy said, crossing her hooves. She glared at Dash. “And I know what you’re trying to do, Professor Dash! You’re gonna try and turn this into a stupid friendship lesson about listening to each other, but he’s the one who just wants me to give up power now that I’m finally able to actually keep up with him!”
“Hang on, I’ve got this,” Cozy added in a far calmer voice, darkness seizing Dash and pulling her to the floor, wrapping around her mouth and closing it before she could react. Erebus, Dash realized. “Stay out of this, Rainbow Dash. Cozy Glow needs Tirek to understand – ”
“Why don’t you stay out as well, Erebus?” Tirek asked. “Only how can I know that you are. How can I trust anything that Cozy says as long as you can seize her voice whenever you desire?” He leaned forward. “How much did you tell her? Did you tell her about your desire to reduce her to nothing more than a puppet for you to control?”
“Pfft,” Cozy laughed. Probably the actual filly. “Yeah, right. Erebus can’t do anything unless I’m okay with it. Some ‘puppet’ I’d be.”
Dash reached up to her mouth, the shadows around it. They had to take a physical form to shut her mouth, so they were something she could grab and pull at. She fell to the ground in order to get her hind hooves in on pulling at the shadows as well, and manage to get enough slack on them to speak.
“Tirek!” She exclaimed, even as she felt the shadows begin to tighten. “Just – one question – why do you want – Cozy – to listen – !”
The shadows clamped her mouth shut, and Cozy – or Erebus – cast an arch look her way. “It’s simple. Lord Tirek wants Cozy to listen and obey because he wants everything to listen and obey. He grew up in the shadow of a centaur that spent his life building up a kingdom from nothing, and his every effort to measure up only made his father ever more disappointed and distant.”
Tirek snarled, but didn’t move. “No.”
Cozy-or-Erebus turned to look at Tirek. “Tirek, you’re usually pretty good at lying but that one was awful.”
Tirek shook his head. “And if Erebus had been speaking about any other creature, it would have been right.” Tirek drew in a deep breath, and let it out. He glanced at Dash, who stared back and tried to get what she knew Tirek had to say across with her eyes.
Tirek looked back to Cozy. “I want you to listen to me, Cozy…because…I’m concerned about you.”
Silence reigned for a small eternity. Dash really, really hoped that she’d been able to get through to Tirek. She hadn’t had nearly as much time with him as she had with Cozy, but maybe, maybe she’d had enough time with the latter that she’d realize…
“What?” Cozy asked.
“I’m concerned,” Tirek said. Then he cut the air with one hand. “No, not concerned, that’s not right…I’m…”
“Worried?” Glory asked from behind Cozy. She looked back at Glory and Caballeron, scowling. Shadows once more enveloped both of them, covering their mouths.
Cozy then looked back to Tirek. “Worried?” She asked. “Seriously?” About me?”
“Yes,” Tirek said. He clenched his fists and scowled at Dash, but then continued. “If this saccharine tendency of ponies to discuss their emotions is what’s needed to get through to you…then fine. If that’s what it takes. I’m worried. I’m worried that you don’t fully understand what you’re dealing with. You think you do, because you’re smart, because you’re clever, because you played all of Equestria so easily not so long ago…but Cozy Glow, Erebus is an ancient and powerful being…and you are just a child.”
Cozy’s fur stood on end. “I am not just a child! You can’t treat me like a kid just because I’m only twelve! I’ve accomplished way more than you have! You only drained power from ponies, I drained all the magic of Equestria! You were never able to get the Rainbow of Darkness, I got it and I’ve made friends with Erebus! And you and Chrysalis helped but it was my plan that got us the Bewitching Bell! Why won’t you take me seriously?!”
Tirek began to respond, and Cozy began to prepare a retort, but no sound came out of Tirek’s mouth. He instead looked confused, then shocked…and then he started chuckling.
Which only seemed to make Cozy even madder, if her trembling and clenched teeth were any indication. The shadows all around Tirek writhed as she nickered and stomped a hood. “Why are you laughing at me?!”
Tirek shook his head. “I…I’m not,” he said. “I just…I just realized.” He looked at Cozy. “Erebus…you were a fool to bring up my father.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve just now realized – you helped me realize – that I’ve spent a thousand years trying to surpass Vorak…only to realize that if I looked in a mirror I’d see his face.” He laughed again, holding his hands wide. “Look…look at me. I fear what Cozy could become with the Rainbow of Darkness…and that fear is driving her to become the thing I fear.”
“So you’re afraid of me?” Cozy asked. She grinned. “Good…great! Ha, so now I’m so powerful that even Tirek is afraid of me!” She began prancing in place, wings fluttering in delight. “So you’re finally ready to admit that I’m right?”
“I will admit,” Tirek said, “that you have, indeed, surpassed me in many ways. You are quite the little monster.” Tirek sighed, shaking his head. “But unfortunately…no, Cozy. You are still wrong to ally with the Rainbow of Darkness. And I must save you from it.”
Cozy grinned. “Puh-lease! You couldn’t even touch me back when you had Scorpan and a whole herd of ponies to help you! And now you’ve lost so much magic…you really think that itty-bitty Sun Stone is gonna help you?”
Tirek shook his head – and then he began gathering magic between his horns. Cozy grinned, as shadows enveloped the three adult ponies – but moved them out of the way, back against the far wall, out of danger.
“Okay, Tirek!” Cozy exclaimed. “Let’s finish this!”
“Let’s,” Tirek agreed, orange-yellow magic dancing across his form as he shrank and lost muscle mass before Rainbow Dash’s eyes. Now he looked no better than he had when he was in Tartarus – save that he was channeling immense magical power between his now tiny horns, so much that even Rainbow Dash could feel it. It was all being fed into the Sun Stone, which glowed ever brighter from the effort, painfully so, enough that Cozy was driven backwards. Yet the light, rather than spreading, seemed instead to concentrate in a hemisphere around Tirek.
“Oh, and I must apologize to you, Rainbow Dash!” Tirek shouted over the sound of his own magic. His eyes were closed, one arm shielding his eyes from the light. Dash could barely see him. “Your plan of escape from this chamber was what we should have done from the start!”
“Huh?” Cozy asked, barely audible above the noise. “What are you talking about?”
Tirek raised both arms over his head. Cozy steeled herself – but she needn’t have bothered, as Tirek turned and hurled all the gathered magical light given off by the Sun Stone and light at the stained-glass window of Lord Tirac.
There was an explosion of still-brighter light. Dash was holding her hooves over her eyes and she could still see it. She heard Cozy cry out in surprise and pain – but only a single shout. There was the sound of glass cracking, but nothing more.
The light disappeared, and Dash started blinking to try and clear her eyes. She squinted, and saw the Sun Stone, glowing its regular glow. Tirek had dropped to his knees and hocks, was breathing heavily, as weak as Dash had ever seen him. The stained glass window of Lord Tirek had a crack along its length, but no light shined through.
Cozy was in the middle of a flinch. She opened one eye, then the other. “Uh…” she let out. “Was…was that it? Seriously?” Cozy hopped forward, to the edge of the Sun Stone’s light. “Come on, Lord Tirek! The whole castle’s magically reinforced. You didn’t have the power left to actually break that enchantment!”
Tirek sucked in a few breaths, one hand at his chest as he steadied himself. “No,” he agreed. “But I did have just enough to let a bit of light break through the window, and…and I can’t believe I’m saying this…but after a thousand years of gathering power from fools like me who’d seek the Rainbow of Darkness…”
The stained glass window began to glow. Cozy turned to look at it, and her eyes grew wide. Before she could do anything, Tirek reached out with his hands, grabbed her by the back of her neck, and held her off the ground, just beyond the easy reach of a shadow.
“My brother is stronger than I am,” Tirek finished.
The stained glass window – and most of the wall around it – shattered, and sunlight poured into Midnight Castle.