//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Cozy Mark Crusadin' // by 5u0myn0n4 //------------------------------// In the land of Equestria, every creature was eagerly awaiting for the fast approaching stepping down of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and the promotion of Princess Twilight Sparkle to full time leader. But none of that princess stuff will be the subject of this story. Because while all of that was going on, in the background, a group of sinister creatures were planning a scheme to overthrow Equestria's leadership, and turn the land on its head. And in this story, Equestria's biggest threat would be challenged by three of Equestria's littlest heroes. Having recently retrieved the Bewitching Bell from the top of Mt. Everhoof, the evil trio of Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow, all lusted over the possibilities this powerful object would lend to them. The amount of power inside of this object was said to be unfathomable. The full power of Grogar. The Grogar who once ruled Equestria with an iron hoof a long time ago. All of his power was soon to be theirs. However, unlocking the bell's magical abilities would take some critical thinking, as it appeared from the outset just to be a piece of dead weight. Even rattling the bell produced no ringing or cackling. Tirek and Chrysalis would ponder for hours, trying different magic words, or using various magical spells, in the hopes something would awaken the bell's inner power. Cozy Glow, though lacking in possessing nightmare-ish world ending abilities herself(her thing was more being cute and influential on others), she was plenty energetic and full of many ideas. However, her ideas were rarely taken seriously, and often not even heard by her two contemporaries. They kept Grogar's bell a secret from Grogar himself, but insisted on hogging it all to themselves, and wouldn't let Cozy Glow take a look at it. "Hmm, how are we going to unlock the bell's power?" Tirek wondered. "Perhaps if we-" Cozy started, but was interrupted. "Oh, be quiet." Tirek said. "I have my own idea." Tirek opened his mouth wide and attempted to absorb the magic allegedly inside the bell. But no matter how hard he concentrated, no stream of magic, or anything came from the bell. "It didn't work." Cozy said, in a deadpan tone. "You did say you could only take magic from living creatures, so frankly I'm not sure what kind of result you expected." Chrysalis said in a condescending way. "I did say I could only absorb magic from living creatures." Tirek explained. "But if the magic of this bell is of creature origin, then maybe there is a way I could absorb it." Tirek opened his mouth and tried again, but still nothing. "It was a neat hypothesis, but clearly a negative result." Cozy said. "We've clearly hit the limit of your abilities. Now allow a real magic expert to give a crack at it." Chrysalis said. Chrysalis took the bell from Tirek without asking, and tried to unlock its magic herself. Chrysalis tried a variety of spells on the bell, but it remained inert and didn't respond to anything she did. *Ugh* "No matter what spell I try, or what magic words I recite, this bell refuses to bite." Chrysalis said. Cozy Glow nudged her way through and gave the two an overly exaggerated sad look. "What are you looking at with those big eyes?" Tirek asked. "Aren't you guys going to give me a turn to activate that bwell?" Cozy asked in a sob tone. "Pfft." The two villains scoffed at the filly, and brushed off the idea that she could provide any help here. "I helped you guys retrieve that bell in the first place! Surely I can offer some advice that might help unlock its secrets." Cozy argued. But the other two chose to ignore her. They asserted that she's a child and not a magic user and would be of no help to them in figuring this out. But since she was the one who helped them get it, she felt that she had plenty of insight to contribute. Hmm. Have you two already forgotten who got you that bell in the first place? If I'm just disposable, I'll have no issue double crossing you guys too. she thought in her head. Cozy snarled, but knew her place for the time being. She wouldn't take this sitting down though. She would soon come up with her own idea. Later that night, as the evil doers slept away, dreaming of revenge on their enemies, Cozy Glow awoke, and began her own plan. She took the bell from its hiding place, and took it for herself. She exited Grogar's lair in order to get some time to work on this thing alone. "Alright. We'll just pull an all-nighter, figure out how to unleash the bell's powers, and then double cross all of them! Not just Grogar, but Tirek and Chrysalis too! It's what they get for doubting me!" She examined the markings on the bell under the moon's light. She thought that the carvings on the bell might lead to a clue. She picked up on some olde ponish at Twilight's school, but there wasn't anything she recognized. "Well, I'm stumped." Cozy admitted. "This plan made more sense in my head." As intrepid as Cozy was, she couldn't help but be spooked by the mysterious sounds that went bump in the night. "What was that?" she wondered. It was hard to tell one's surroundings in the wilderness at night. Cozy was beginning to rethink her plan. "This wasn't the best idea. I should probably head back to the lair soon." Cozy thought aloud. But before she did that, Cozy wanted to try one more thing. It was then when she remembered something she learned from one of the lessons at school. "They say if you put your ears to a conch shell, you can hear the ocean. But that isn't quite the truth. What you actually hear when you put your ear to a conch shell is the ambient sound around you amplified thanks to some clever physics because blah blah blah......." the echoing of Twilight's voice faded away in Cozy's mind. "Hmm. Perhaps the clues to unlocking the bell's power is hidden within." she wondered. Cozy thought to put her ear to the inner part of the bell and listen. It was worth a shot. Fortunately it was quiet. So she should've been able to easily hear any hidden messages inside. Cozy listened deeply, and focused. It was quiet. But then suddenly she was spooked by a loud noise. "AH!!!" She jumped up in fear and hit her head against a solid object. The impact caused her to faint immediately. The following morning: It was a calm morning in the woods. And three little fillies had arrived bright and early to begin their exciting weekend adventure. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had grown fond of camping and exploring nature in their many travels with their older sisters. But now they felt they were grown enough that they could manage a camping trip by themselves. At least, that's how Scootaloo convinced them it'd be okay to camp alone. The Crusaders set up camp. Fortunately, their previous camping experience with their sisters was paying off, so they figured this shouldn't be too challenging. What Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were more concerned about, was just how eager Scootaloo was to be away from Ponyville, and had no desire to invite their sisters on this trip. "Thanks girls for joining me on this camping trip." Scootaloo said. "No problem, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle said. "Ah'm ready for some Cutie Mark Crusaders week of campin'." Apple Bloom said. "Just us three, taking a vacation from our long successful and fulfilling career of Crusading." Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle set up the main tent. She had plenty of experience setting up tents from assisting Rarity. She also went ahead and built a firepit, as they anticipated spending at least one night out sleeping. Fortunately there was a natural pit with solid edges, that made for an ideal place to build a firepit. Apple Bloom was practically attune with nature, and Scootaloo... was relieved to have some time away from her home life. Meanwhile, Cozy Glow was in the same woods, dealing with her own troubles. She had awoken slowly. She didn't even realize she'd fallen asleep. She was groggy, and her mane was messy. She had a rough night. She got up slow, as she tried to see through her blurry vision. "Oh... m,m,m, geez... What a horrible night..." she said in a drowsy tone. Her eyes quickly widened, and she sprang awake when she realized something was missing. "What? Oh, no no no no no! NO!!!!!!!" she exclaimed. She realized that the bell was gone. "Oh no. No no no no no! This is the worst possible thing that could've happened." she panicked. She frantically flapped her little wings, and flew hastily zipped around the scene searching for the bell. "Where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!!!" She exclaimed. "AAHHHHH!!!" Meanwhile, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had just finished setting up their camp. Being as small as they are, they only had enough strength between the three of them to carry one tent's worth of supplies, and only a little bit of food. Though they planned on living off the land. They had enough experience as filly scouts to know what berries were safe to eat. "I think we have enough berries." Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo agreed, but made up an excuse to look for more. "Looks a little empty to me." she said. "I'll just look for some more myself." Her two friends gave each other a look of confusion. "No need to fret about it. You already did most of the work. I'll just help finish collecting for you guys." Scootaloo said. Scootaloo went into the foliage for more berries, as well as other supplies she thought they might need, including more branches for the firepit. At the same time, Cozy was frantically searching for where the bell could've ended up. Scootaloo moved aside a bush, and spotted something unexpected. She rubbed her eyes, but no longer saw anything unusual. Strange. For a moment she thought she saw another pony. Somepony familiar. However, there was nothing now, so she shrugged, and went the other way. But unbeknownst to Scootaloo, Cozy Glow was hiding behind a tree trunk, foaming at the mouth after having encountered a member of her least favorite trio of good-doers in Equestria. Scootaloo returned to the main campsite, looking visibly concerned, and her friends immediately noticed. "You alright there, Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo couldn't keep secrets from her friends, so she immediately brought it to their attention. "Say girls, remember Cozy Glow?" she asked. "Is now really the time to bring her up?" Sweetie Belle asked. "What's Cozy got to do with anythin' goin' on right now?" Apple Bloom asked. "She was put away into Tartarus after she tried to banish the magic, right? And there's no way she could've... escaped *gulp* right?" Scootaloo asked. "Of course not." Apple Bloom replied. "But Lord Tirek did escape from Tartarus once already." Scootaloo said. "That was a long time before Cozy or the School of Friendship. However he escaped, I'm sure they couldn't just do it again the same way." Apple Bloom said. "Besides, if somepony as notorious as her did escape, don't you think somepony would've noticed by now? And alerted Princess Twilight?" Sweetie Belle said. "Suppose you two are right. There's nothing to be worried about." Scootaloo said, uneasy. Whilst their conversation was going, Cozy Glow lurked in the brush, and was ready to make her strike. "Ugh. Stupid Mark Crusaders. I've got a lot on my plate right now, and those three meddling in my plans, and giving my presence away is the LAST thing I needed." she said. "No worries. I'll just get rid of you three so I can keep searching for my bell in peace." In the time the CMC were chatting, Cozy was hard at work with her plan to get rid of them. She had tied an elastic vine around one branch, stretched it, and tied it to another. She pulled back on the vine as much as she could. She had essentially built a giant makeshift slingshot adjacent to their camp, and hidden in the bushes. It took a lot of breath out of her, using her wings and legs to pull it tight. It was her intent to put the vine around a large boulder, so that it would be flung at the Cutie Mark Crusaders camp site. "Soon as I get this stretchy vine around this rock, I'll make sure you three-" But before Cozy could get the vine wrapped around the boulder, suddenly, one of the branches came out from the ground and the vine pulled it towards Cozy Glow. "Uh oh." Cozy barely had time to react before it- *SMACK* ... "Y'all hear somethin'?"