“Cozy, come on! This isn’t right!” shouted Gallus as he grabbed the bars of the cage he was in.
“Let us out now!” Ocellus chimed in.
“Blah blah blah. Look, I don’t have time to talk. I’ve got some important renovations to work on,” Cozy replied.
“Renovations? You’re just turning the whole place into a statue garden of yourself!” said Sandbar.
“I know. Isn’t it just lovely? By the time I’m done, everyone in this town will appreciate me!”
“Cozy, if you don’t let us out of here, we can still use the power of the Elements of Harmony without the artifacts,” Smolder explained.
“That’s right, haven’t you learned anything from the time we last defeated you?” Silverstream added.
“Yeah, we still able to stop you!” Yona hollered, head-butting the bars of her cage, which made her dizzy momentarily.
“Then why haven’t you done it yet?” Cozy asked, staring at them suspiciously.
“Well…I dunno, have you guys been trying?” Gallus asked his friends.
“I have been. What about the rest of you?” said Smolder.
“Is it even working?” Sandbar asked.
There was a brief pause as all the teachers closed their eyes and tried to feel the power of the Elements, but there was nothing.
“Yeah, it’s definitely not working.” Ocellus added.
“What?! How?!” Gallus asked.
“Well now, looks like you guys have lost control of the Elements already,” Cozy jested. “Or maybe you just weren’t meant to take me down. Maybe this is the Elements’ way of saying I don’t deserve to be defeated and I’m not doing anything wrong.”
“That not true! You know that not true!” Yona barked.
“Whatever. I’m leaving. Here’s some food.”
Flashes of light appeared in their cages with small dishes of rotten or tasteless food. Cozy giggled and turned around to walk out the door to the cell she had placed them in.
“Geez, I can’t believe this is happening!” Smolder said, crossing her arms.
“We’ll find a way out of here, Smold.” Sandbar told her.
“What I want to know is why the power of the Elements isn’t working.” Silverstream said, quizzically.
“Yeah, we can use Elements without shiny necklaces just like we do years ago,” Yona added.
Gallus stroked his chin with his talon until he thought of something.
“Perhaps…perhaps it’s because there might be another way,” he said as everyone looked at him. “I mean, we all know that the Elements work in mysterious ways. Maybe this is just their way of telling us we don’t need to use them right now because there might be some other way of taking her powers.”
“But what could there possibly be?” Silverstream asked.
“I don’t know. There’s definitely not anyone around who can overpower her, but I highly doubt the Elements would just stop working within us.”
“Maybe we just not good enough for Elements anymore,” Yona said, sullenly.
“Don’t lose hope, Yona,” Sandbar told his yak friend. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the reason, but we’re not going to be connected to them forever either. Someone has to find a way.”
Meanwhile in Cozy’s new throne room, Celestia, Luna, and Discord continued to labor. Cozy had commanded them earlier to prepare a throne room for her in one section of the school. King and Queen Kriegspiel had already transformed the room, but they purposefully caused dust to appear all over that their slaves were still forced to clean. Without their magic, they had to painstakingly take turns spraying and then using their mouths to hold the feather dusters. Discord had been using his two hooves to hold his feather duster because he was having a hard time unzipping his lips. Luna was still so angry and finally decided she’d had enough of this. She threw her duster down and tore off her maid dress.
“GAAAAAH! Tia, I can’t take this anymore!” she screamed.
“Luna, shhhh! She might hear us!” Celestia said, quietly.
“Mmm fmm!” Discord said to Celestia, trying to get her to help him with the zipper.
“Discord, what is it?” Celestia asked.
“MMMMMPH!” he said louder, pointing to his lips.
“Oh.”
Celestia flew over and put both of her hooves on his zipper and slowly pulled it to the other side. Once it stopped, the entire thing disappeared from his lips and he was back to normal.
“UGH! Tha…thanks!” he said, panting and rubbing his cheeks. “Look, Luna’s right. We have to find a way out of here.”
“We’ll just be captured again! You saw her taking the teachers to the cell earlier.”
“Well the only other thing I have in mind right now is trying to talk some sense into her.”
“And just how do you propose we do that?!” Luna asked. “She wouldn’t listen to us then, she probably won’t listen to us now, Discord…or should I call you Acc-”
“DON’T SAY THAT NAME!” Discord yelled, covering Luna’s mouth with his hoof.
Luna grumbled and rolled her eyes. Discord removed his hoof and calmed himself down before talking again.
“Look, you two know about the original plan I had for Cozy and the others. What if I tell her about that?” he said.
“Do you think she’ll even listen?” Celestia asked.
“I think it’s worth a shot. She’s mad at us for turning her into stone but if she hears the part where I intended to-”
Suddenly the doors to the throne room swung open and Cozy flew in. Discord and the princesses jumped in shock. Cozy noticed some things were not as she wanted them to be.
“Hey, what are you three doing?! Why are your lips no longer zipped?! And what happened to your dress?!” she yelled.
“I tore it off! I’m not wearing that thing anymore!” Luna snapped before her sister rushed in front of her.
“She was getting hot in it!” Celestia said nervously.
“Yeah, we all were!” Discord said, taking his dress off and fanning himself with his hoof. “Oh, and I needed my lips because…uh…I needed to…blow away some of the dust?”
“UGH! You know what, forget the cleaning!” Cozy said as she used her magic to make the throne room spotless. A wave of energy passed over the whole room, and Celestia, Luna and Discord were now wearing jester outfits.
“What?! What are these?!” Celestia asked.
“GRRRRRRR!!! STOP DRESSING US LIKE HOODLUMS!!!” Luna screeched.
Cozy flew over to sit in her throne and used her magic to place the three of them in front of her.
“You little rats are my personal jesters now. Now entertain me! Dance or something! COME ON! CHOP CHOP!!”
Cozy zapped all of them and they performed silly dances against their own will. Cozy giggled with delight and crossed her legs. The door then opened and King and Queen Kriegspiel walked in to speak with their daughter. The three alicorn children stopped dancing and zoomed behind Cozy’s throne.
“Cozy, darling, your father and I are almost done with the auditorium,” said the queen.
“We just wanted to know what you thought of the idea of banners of your cutie mark adorning the walls,” the king asked.
“Awww, that sounds totally like me!” Cozy replied. “Oh and can we get some posters throughout the halls that look like this?”
Cozy used her magic to summon a giant propaganda poster of her face staring at the viewer menacingly. The text on it read “COZY GLOW IS WATCHING YOU.”
“Oh my! That is sure to strike fear into any grown stallion!” said the queen.
“We most definitely will hang that up everywhere!” the king added.
“Thank you kindly!” Cozy said sweetly, allowing both her parents to walk over to kiss her on the cheeks.
They took the poster and walked out, closing the doors behind. Cozy smiled contently and made a frappe appear next to her and began to sip from it.
“Hey Cozy?” asked Discord behind her.
Cozy turned the throne around to look at the three of them. She set her frappe next to her on a table that she made appear magically.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT!” she shouted.
Her voice echoed throughout the entire room and the wind from her voice blew so hard that it caused their jester outfits to rip off and blow away. Celestia and Luna’s manes were large and poofy, while Discord’s mane was slicked straight back from the wind. He shook his head around and continued to speak.
“Can we talk, please? For real, I really need to let you know something.”
“What do you want to talk about?! Haven’t you three done enough damage already?!” Cozy replied.
“That’s actually what we wanted to talk to you about,” Celestia added.
“Yeah, it’s about why we turned you into stone,” said Discord. “You really need to hear this.”
“Fine.” Cozy said, continuing to sip her drink.
“Well, you see, on the day we turned you into stone, I actually used a quick spell to talk with Celestia and Luna for a minute or two. It froze time so that’s why you didn’t see us talking, and I told them-”
Cozy rolled her eyes and set her drink down again. She was getting tired of hearing Discord talk so she just zapped him and made a large screen appear over his horn that was playing a flashback of what he was talking about instead.
In the screen were Tirek, Cozy, and Chrysalis emerging from the giant cupcake that Pinkie dropped on them after she took Discord’s magic from Grogar’s Bell. Celestia and Luna landed in front of them, ready to dole out some punishment.
“There isn’t a punishment worthy of all you’ve done!” Celestia said angrily.
Discord then appeared next to Celestia, whispering something into her ear. He made a duplicate of himself to whisper something into Luna’s ear as well. Suddenly everything around the two princesses transformed and they were relocated into a strange dark realm that resembled Discord’s lair.
“What? Where are we?!” Luna asked.
“Discord where did you take us?!” Celestia shouted.
“SHHHHHH!”
Discord’s voice could be heard all around them. He then slowly faded in and walked towards them.
“I froze time around us and put our minds into this realm so I could tell you something without those three hearing us.”
“Hear what?” Celestia said, suspiciously.
Discord lifted his eagle talon and made a small portal appear that showed the Trio still trying to get out of the cupcake. They were frozen and motionless. Time in the real world stood still while Discord and the princesses continued to have this conversation.
“Look, I agree that these three really need to be punished, but there’s something else you need to know.”
“We’re listening.” Luna said.
“You know how I said earlier that I disguised myself as Grogar and I did it all to test Twilight? Well that wasn’t all I planned to do. I was pretending to be Grogar this entire time and join with other villains because I wanted to try and reform them. My original plan was to invade Canterlot with them and then I; Grogar would betray them and take Canterlot for himself. I then give Twilight and the others a chance to try and defeat me with the Elements of Harmony but the Elements won’t work since it’s actually me. At some point, Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis will decide to work together to help everyone stop Grogar. Once I can see that the Trio has grown comfortable enough being the good guys for once, that’s when I reveal I was Grogar the entire time. The three of us all know what really happened to Grogar so there’s no need to panic about any major villains, plus, imagine if we actually reformed the Trio. I am the Lord of Chaos and I know I cause a lot of trouble, but I figured if it could be enough to prepare Twilight for the path ahead AND to get three major villains to soften their hearts, it would be enough. But of course everything changed when they took my powers with the bell and my plan was ruined.”
Discord gave them a chance to think. The sisters both stared at each other, shocked.
“That was your plan this entire time?” Celestia asked.
“Well, that would have actually turned out better now that I think about it,” Luna suggested. “If you were actually the one making the attack, you could have just undone any damage.”
“And you’re right about reforming them,” Celestia added. “That would have been a far better ending for these three, but they are still criminals. What do you propose we do with them?”
“Here’s my plan:” Discord continued. “We’ll use our magic to turn them all into stone so the kingdom will rest assured that they won’t do anymore damage, but they won’t stay that way forever. Just give me ten years. In ten years, we release them, and I promise you, I will reform them myself.”
Celestia and Luna paused and waited for a few moments. After some deciding, they looked at each other, smiled, and nodded their heads. They turned back to Discord and gave him their approval. Discord smiled and closed his eyes as he undid the time-freezing spell.
They were all transported back to reality and Discord and his duplicate had finished whispering into the princess’s ears.
“Oh, that does seem fitting.” Luna said.
“May I help?” Discord asked.
“Pleeeeeease?” asked his duplicate.
The sisters lifted their heads back as their horns shone brightly. Discord lifted both his arms, which were radiating electrical energy. All three of them shot beams at the Trio and the cupcake disappeared. Discord, Celestia, and Luna watched reluctantly as the villains turned into stone statues of themselves with Tirek and Cozy shocked and Chrysalis frozen as she lunged forward one last time. A pedestal appeared beneath them and the statue landed with a thud, causing some pink icing left on the ground to splash.
“Together forever!” Discord said as he leaned against Chrysalis and flicked her horn. “I can’t think of anything they would want less.”
The crowd of ponies and other species that came to help cheered them on, thankful that the villains were finally dealt with. Celestia walked over to congratulate Twilight and the others, while Discord smiled as he looked in their direction. He then turned to the statue and his smile dropped. He was lying about them being like this forever just so it would give everyone else hope, but he now knew he had much to prepare for if he was to reform them in ten years.
“Sorry that didn’t work out, you three,” he said under his breath. “I’ll deal with you later. I promise.”
The flashback ended and the screen over Discord’s horn disappeared once Cozy stopped using her magic. Discord appeared a bit woozy at first but shook it off and kept talking to Cozy.
“There, you see? I never wanted any of this to happen; I was just trying to help you out. It was supposed to only be ten years, but that obviously didn’t work out since someone else undid the spell and released you a year and a half too early.”
“Also, Luna and I have been searching for your parents ever since that day,” Celestia added. “If we had found them, we could have released you earlier and tried to work this out.”
“Now, is this not enough to make you understand?” Luna asked.
Cozy sat still and stared in amazement. She appeared angry but also confused. She looked down and stroked her chin. After a long pause, she sat back and exhaled deeply with her eyes closed.
“Okay, I get it now,” she said.
Discord, Celestia, and Luna all began to smile upon hearing this.
“I guess you three aren’t as bad as I tho-”
Suddenly, the Alicorn Amulet’s eyes glowed and Cozy opened her own eyes, which were also glowing. Her body seized up and the light died out. She looked angry again and started to raise her voice.
“No no no no NO!!! THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!”
She then jumped down from her throne and used her magic to push the three of them against the wall.
“I don’t believe you! Even if that actually did happen, you idiots still turned me into stone and left me there to stay frozen for almost ten years! I could have…I could have been growing up this time with my parents but you…GAAAAAAH!!!”
She let them go and they plummeted to the ground. Cozy walked up to them, breathing heavily like a wild beast. They shimmied up against the wall, as she got closer.
“What was that you said years ago? How there isn’t a punishment worthy of all you’ve done?!”
Her horn and eyes began to glow until the doors swung open and her parents entered again.
“Cozy, we’ve finished the hallways!” the queen called.
“Are we interrupting something?” asked the king as they noticed she wasn’t in her throne.
“Oh not at all, just these three were…eh, forget it,” she said nonchalantly.
“They were what?” said the queen angrily, staring at their slaves.
“Don’t worry about it, Mother. I think it’s time we broaden our conquest. The School of Friendship just isn’t enough. I want Ponyville now!”
Cozy’s eyes glowed again and she looked very sinister. Her parents both appeared confused.
“Uh…we’re taking Ponyville now too?” asked the king. “I thought you said you didn’t care about anything outside of the school and wanted to wait till they just surrender.”
Cozy then turned around angrily. Her eyes and horn glowed red and King and Queen Kriegspiel’s eyes shone the same color. They then changed their expressions to be just as sinister as Cozy’s was earlier.
“Of course, darling!” said he queen. “What would we do otherwise?!”
“If you want Ponyville, then Ponyville it is! Anything for our sweet little alicorn daughter!” the king said as he walked on with his wife at his side.
“Good to hear!” Cozy replied. “Now let’s go out there and spread some of my adorableness!”
Cozy made the throne vanish and boarded up all the windows in the room with her magic. She and her parents then walked out and slammed the doors behind them. Discord, Celestia, and Luna sat still and could not believe what they just saw.
“Did you see that?” Luna asked her sister.
“I saw it,” Celestia replied. “Something is definitely not right with those parents of hers.”
“Come on ladies!” Discord told them. “Those can’t be her parents! And if they are, she’s clearly brainwashed them with the amulet!”
“Then who are they?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know, but we need to find out. It could be the key to stopping her.”
“Also, that amulet really needs to be removed,” Celestia added. “It clearly increases feelings of aggression and insanity every time her eyes glow like that. It’s getting even worse than it did with Trixie.”
“That too! She sounded like she was ready to forgive us.” Discord said.
“So that brat actually does have some good in her, as much as I hate to admit it.” Luna grumbled.
“Even Trixie went too far with the amulet and she didn’t intend to at first,” continued Celestia. “The amulet clearly makes things worse and if we don’t get it off of Cozy’s neck, she’ll take over all of Equestria, and dare I say it…the whole world.”