“She did WHAT?!?!?”
Cozy Glow was thrown backwards by the force of the former changeling queen’s yell, and she desperately flapped her wings to right herself. Tirek looked like he would rather jump in the lake than face Chrysalis’ wrath.
“How could you let her escape?” Chrysalis demanded, advancing on the centaur. “She was chained to the wall, for Celestia’s sake!”
“I-I don’t know!” Tirek stammered, looking to Cozy Glow for support, or help, but she had none to give. His wild eyes landed on the unicorn and pegasus who were also cowering from the raging changeling, and he pointed an accusing claw at them. “It was their fault! I told them to keep watch over her, no matter what it takes!”
Permafrost seethed, and opened his mouth to snap back at him, but Sour Lavender jerked his head, and the unicorn fell silent, though he didn’t look happy about it.
Good for them to know their place, Cozy Glow thought scathingly. She didn’t trust them.
Chrysalis paced angrily around the meeting room. “I knew we should have put a spell on those,” she spat, whipping her head around to stare at the chains that had once held Sunny Starscout, barely visible through the door. “Then we would know the moment she tried to escape!” She whirled around to face Cozy Glow, and she sensed that she knew what the topic of her shouting match would be. “But you said that we wouldn’t need to!” Chrysalis snapped, her eyes flashing. “You said that there was hardly a need for chains - you said Sunny Starscout would be unable to leave!”
“It should have been that way!” Cozy yelled back. “We should have - I should have known everything that went on in her head!” She glared at Chrysalis, a biting retort on her tongue. “But I wasn’t the one who cast the spell - that was you. Maybe you did something wrong, and-”
“Don’t you get started,” Chrysalis hissed. “In fact, if it wasn’t for you-”
“Stop it!” Tirek wrestled his way in between them and put a hand to each of their chests, pushing them away from each other, though they continued to snarl at each other. “You’re bickering like fillies, and it is not helping! Sunny Starscout got away, but she’s one pony on her own. She’s not dangerous unless she has her friends with her.”
“The first thing she’s going to do is go find her friends!” Cozy Glow snapped, pushing away from him. “This was all a big mistake!”
“This was your idea!” Chrysalis informed her.
“And you made it fail!” she yelled back.
“QUIET!!!” Tirek roared, clamping his hands over his ears. “She’s obviously gone! There’s nothing we can do about that right now! So let’s make a plan so we can do something about it!”
“Don’t let her make the plan, though,” Chrysalis scoffed, rolling her eyes and stalking over to a stone chair. “She’ll probably suggest something completely ridiculous that is guaranteed to fail, and give our enemies the upper hoof.” She turned up her nose as Cozy Glow lowered herself into the seat across from her, and Cozy felt her anger boiling under her skin, and she longed to punch this ignorant changeling’s muzzle in-
“We need a way to track Sunny Starscout,” Tirek announced, taking the final seat and glaring at the other two. “I thought you had found a way to do that,” he said to Cozy Glow.
She glared back. “The mind link was supposed to be unbreakable!” she seethed, slamming her hoof on the table and wincing as she made contact with the hard stone. “I want to know how she managed to get rid of it. I can’t even enter her mind anymore!” She slumped in her seat and pouted. “It’s like it was in my reach, but now it’s slipped away.”
“What a helpful analogy,” Chrysalis quipped, and Cozy’s eyes practically shot lasers at the changeling. “In the meantime, we can now count the mind link out. It’s completely useless now unless something reopens the connection.”
Cozy Glow sat up, a new idea coming to her. “Yeah,” she said slowly, “something to reopen the connection… something like an overwhelming amount of power that you can’t control?”
In the corner of the room, Permafrost started, his eyes wide, but none of them noticed. An evil smile spread across Chrysalis’ face as she realized what Cozy Glow was saying. “Yes,” she said in the same tone, “something like that. Would be such a shame if, at the same time, we also gained a powerful ally that nopony could stand up to.”
“Very sad,” Tirek agreed, his eyes gleaming with pleasure. “I do believe we have a new plan for what to do with Sunny Starscout.”
Cozy Glow frowned as a new idea came to her. “But how are we going to keep her from her friends?” she asked, slumping again. “She’s going to want to run to them as soon as she gets out of here, right? And if she’s with them…”
Chrysalis sighed. “More ‘friendship is magic’ nonsense,” she huffed.
“The same way we were already planning to distract them,” Tirek pointed out, reaching forward to grab something, but his hand closed on empty space. “Aaand she took the book.”
“Great,” Cozy groaned. “Now she can have access to information that we used to be the only ones who knew. This is getting better and better.”
Tirek lit up his horns and pulled one of the torch brackets out of the wall, revealing an empty hollow behind it that previously held another book that they had decided would be best to be kept out of the hooves of Sunny Starscout, because it would probably give her ideas that would not be very beneficial to their plans. He growled and shoved the torch back into place, singing his hand in the process, which caused him to yelp and shake his steaming hand around in the air, trying to cool it off.
Chrysalis snorted and stood up. “So now she’ll be able to figure out everything,” she snarled. “Oh, how this day has taken a turn for the better.”
“Not so fast,” Cozy reminded her. “We’ve convinced the other creatures to join our cause, and I’m very convincing.” She gave her most adorable smile to prove she was correct, and Tirek and Chrysalis snorted. “That pony won’t stand a chance trying to convince them - if she even thinks about it. I doubt she even knows they exist.” She leaned back and smirked at them, as if she were better than them.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Yes, and we should count on your convincibility skills to save our flanks,” she snarked.
Cozy assumed an innocent smile. “Remember, we’re supposed to work together,” she reminded them, blinking her eyes infuriatingly. “If there’s a problem, we have a better chance of fixing it if we work together as… as… partners in crime! Besides, the only reason we didn’t win last time was because we were arguing and gave Twilight Sparkle and her friends a chance to obliterate us! Are we going to make the same mistakes again?”
Tirek and Chrysalis looked at each other with bored, annoyed expressions, though they had to admit that Cozy Glow was right. With a heavy sigh, each of them gave their consent. Cozy Glow’s smile widened. Even other villains were so easy to manipulate.
“Well, now that that’s all sorted out, I’m going to go get some fresh air,” she said, standing up and flapping her wings to raise her into the air. Ignoring the others’ suspicious looks, Cozy flew outside and perched on top of the cave that they had their headquarters in. The cool night breeze ruffled her mane and calmed her down. She looked up at the bright stars twinkling in the night sky, and a smile came to her face.
You may be free now, little pony, she thought, but not for long.
As she said it, she subconsciously reached out to Sunny Starscout’s mind, though the tunnel that used to be so open was blocked. No, not blocked - it wasn’t there at all. It had slipped from her grasp, and the very thought was infuriating. How could she have been so stupid? She should have realized that Sunny Starscout was getting too powerful - she should have checked in more often.
And now there were the memories that had been resurfacing after she had tried so hard to suppress them. Memories of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, three ponies who may have been the only actual friends she’d ever had - which made the fact that she had gained them through manipulation all the more sour. Thoughts of Sandbar, Smolder, Gallus, Yona, Silverstream, and Ocellus, a group of friends, each more unlikely than the last, and the reason that Cozy Glow’s first attempt to drain Equestria of its magic had failed. Despite that, Cozy had nothing but jealousy for their close friendship that wasn’t a product of lies built upon lies built upon convincing acts, that wasn’t for the purpose of world-domination or gaining power, that was so genuine and pure that she wished she had something like it.
Stop, she thought, though it carried no force behind it like it usually did. STOP, Cozy Glow. Don’t fall into friendship’s trap. Remember what it did to you. Remember what it took from you.
Magic is dangerous and cannot be trusted. Magic is dangerous and cannot be trusted.
Friendship is magic. Friendship is dangerous and cannot be trusted.
Friendship… cannot be… cannot…
“ARGH!!!” Cozy clutched her head in her hooves. “Why does this have to be so hard?” she yelled up at the stars. “Why can’t anything be easy?” Her eyes narrowed on a cluster of stars in the sky, five surrounding a sixth, all slightly glowing unnatural colors. She opened her mouth to keep yelling, but instead, all that came out was an agonized whisper: “Why am I doing this?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she clapped her hooves to her mouth to keep from saying anything else, looking around frantically to make sure she wasn’t being overheard. Slowly, she lowered her hooves and looked down at them - these hooves were hers. And yet… she could hardly recognize them. All she could see in them was… theft. Hurt. Pain. Accusations. Lies. All of it.
Was this who she was now? Her hooves started trembling, and she wrapped them around herself, the tears pouring from her eyes. Who was she? Why was she here? Why was she doing these things? These awful, awful things that just ended with ponies getting hurt - with her getting hurt?
She needed help - she needed a friend.
With a gasp, Cozy Glow sat straight up, shocked at what she had just admitted to herself. But, strangely, she didn’t feel angry at the thought, but more of a sense of yes, this is what you need to do, go do it.
But did that mean that… that she was just like everypony else? Vulnerable to the spell that friendship cast, ready to embrace it after everything that it had done to her?
A friend would be nice, she cautiously thought. Then I could use them for information and as a leverage against Sunny Starscout and her ridiculous friends. Just like I did with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and every creature else at that school.
But deep down inside, she knew - she didn’t want a pretend friend that she could manipulate to use for her own purposes.
She wanted a real friend - a pony who would stand by her side no matter what, who she could confide in, tell her deepest secrets, who would laugh with her and play with her and make her heart soar with happiness and simply be there for her like nopony ever had been…
You’re getting off track, she thought in a panicked tone. Don’t distract yourself. When you finally get what you want, everything will be fine.
Friendship is power, friendship is magic, and magic and power should only be in the hooves of ponies who will use it for good - to protect any and every pony. Chrysalis and Tirek can rule with terror if they’d like, but I’m going to make my citizens happy in the way I never was. They don’t need magic, they don’t need anypony other than me. Once I get my way, everything will be fine.