Grogar’s bell sat in front of Chrysalis, and she glowered back at it.
“What is the point,” she hissed, “of having an all-powerful magical artifact that can render our enemies powerless if we can’t even use it?”
Cozy Glow glared at her. “Because Sunny Starscout and her friends would know it was us,” she pointed out. “Think about it - who would steal magic right now? We have to time it exactly right.” The filly pounded the table with each syllable to emphasize her point.
“Which is…?” Chrysalis leaned back in her chair, her and Cozy having a staring contest.
“Golly, I thought you would be smart enough to figure it out,” the filly said innocently, blinking her large eyes. Then her face shifted back to a scowl. “Sunny Starscout and her friends are obviously going to try and track us down, and when they do, we’ll be waiting for them with that bell.”
Chrysalis froze. That was the plan? It completely jeopardized her plan. And from the look on Tirek’s face, he knew this, too.
So had they been planning behind her back?
She didn’t like this.
Sure, she had been planning behind their backs, but that was different. She had a cause that was actually worth fighting for - something important that needed to happen. What did her partners want? All of Equestria’s magic and complete power and control over all of ponykind.
A real noble cause. Without any real ambition behind it - without any real reason behind it.
How pathetic.
A new plan began to form in her head… Yes… If the fools wanted to use the bell, then the bell would be used… though on more than just those ponies.
But first, she would have to secure her own weapon - a back-up if she failed.
“The plan has a few flaws,” she said arily. “For starters, you all know what happened with Discord’s magic - too much power is too much for any of us to handle. We should obviously deal with her friends, but leave Sunny Starscout alone - only she can handle her own power, and we should use that.”
Cozy Glow sat, thinking. “The mind link does open up whenever she does handle all that magic,” she said slowly. “If we can get her back under our control…”
“Her friends - all of Equestria won’t stand a chance,” Tirek finished.
Chrysalis felt her expression curling into a cruel smirk. They would have no idea what was coming to them. “Wonderful,” she said briskly, standing up and picking up the bell. “We should keep this in a safe spot - we don’t want somepony to steal it.”
Cozy Glow and Tirek nodded, completely trusting of her, and Chrysalis picked the bell up with her magic and brought it with her out of the room and hid it behind a torch on the wall - a place only she knew about. She didn’t trust Cozy Glow or Tirek anymore - they were plotting behind her back, and she knew about it, so they were obviously both terrible at working behind her back and were not trustworthy.
She spread her wings and flew outside, a satisfied smile on her face.
Cozy Glow watched her go.
“She’s gone!” she called in a singsong voice.
Tirek glowered at her. “Obviously. Now where did she hide the bell?”
The pegasus filly led them out to the torch, where Tirek used his magic to remove it, revealing the faintly glowing bell inside. He reached out to take it, but Cozy Glow slapped his hand away.
“We can’t make her think we’re up to something like this,” she hissed. “Chrysalis thinks she’s outsmarting us, but her outsmarting us is really us outsmarting her.” She rubbed her hooves together. “It’s perfect. As if she didn’t know that we could tell that she was planning on backstabbing us. And when she does, we’ll be ready for her… with a nasty little surprise.”
“But why wait?” Tirek demanded. Behind him, Permafrost and Sour Lavender poked their heads out and nodded along. “Why not chase after her and drain her magic right now and deal with the whole thing?”
“Because she has to think she’s outsmarting us,” Cozy Glow said, all the pieces falling into place in her head. “Chrysalis wants to use Sunny Starscout against us - she wants to take over Equestria and rule it for herself. But it was working together that got us so far, so if Chrysalis doesn’t want to be a part of that, then so be it. We don’t need her. This is a new time with a new cause for evil.”
“So why are we waiting?” Permafrost spoke up. Cozy shot him a withering glare.
“Because,” she hissed, “Chrysalis has a good plan - such a good plan, in fact, that it can be turned against her.” She caressed the bell lovingly. “We’ll play her game for a while - letting her think that she’s the only one who knows where Grogar’s bell is, that she has the ultimate weapon at her disposal. But when she tries to stab us in the back, Tirek, you’ll whip out the bell and steal her magic. While she’s distracted with that, I’ll take over Sunny Starscout’s mind and use her to destroy her friends. Even if she does break away, that’ll be so awful that she’ll never recover from it. And then if anypony tries to resist, well…” Cozy Glow put the torch back and rubbed her hooves together. “They’ll wish they hadn’t.”
Tirek, Permafrost, and Sour Lavender were all nodding slowly, though even as Cozy Glow said the words with absolute certainty, she felt within her heart a horrible feeling that she hated.
Stabbing somepony in the back… This wasn’t new to her. She had done this before.
But with Chrysalis… Cozy wasn’t sure, but it felt different somehow. Maybe because she had worked with her before, had laughed around the campfire with her before, had told jokes and done evil and committed crimes and taken over the world with her before.
Cozy Glow was ashamed to admit it, but Chrysalis meant something to her.
And whenever she had betrayed ponies that had meant something to her…
Her mind flooded with images of her past friends, ponies and creatures who had trusted her, put their faith in her, hung out with her and told her their secrets.
And the looks on their faces when they had realized it… Cozy had pretended, on the surface, that it made her feel good… but pretending that only made her feel worse. Because, on the inside, the shock and hurt and pain in their eyes was something she didn’t think she would ever forget - not as long as she lived.
“Where are you going?” Tirek demanded.
Cozy shrugged. “Just… thought I’d get some fresh air. See if I can find Chrysalis.” She turned and flew away before he could ask questions.
Tirek glared after her, briefly considering the possibility that Cozy Glow might be planning to betray him, but he quickly dismissed the notion. The foal wasn’t giving off the same kind of tell-tale signs that Chrysalis had been. He was sure that she was fine.
The pegasus filly sought refuge in the scraggly forest that surrounded their cave, flying slowly through the trees with nothing but her thoughts and woes.
It was a great way to contemplate life’s problems. She highly recommended trying it.
But then she heard voices.
“Ugh! I got my hooves stuck in mud again!”
“Quiet, Rose! We don’t know who could hear us!” There was a massive sucking sound, like hooves being pulled out of a mud puddle. “There. Happy now?”
“Not even the slightest,” Rose said woefully.
“Here,” came yet another voice. There was a faint tingling sound, like magic, and the sound of Rose gasping. “Better now?”
“How did you do that?”
“Oh, it’s just a spell I’ve been practicing for a while,” said the third voice bashfully.
“A very very useful spell!” came the second voice. “Can I call you over whenever my parents tell me to clean my room, Jinx?”
“Absolutely not,” Jinx said, her voice firm.
Cozy Glow was so astounded at the fact that she was hearing the voices of ponies - and not only that, but ponies who must be her age - or the age she was when she got turned to stone - was enough to make her woozy. She made an emergency landing and stepped on a twig, which snapped, the sound echoing in the silence.
The three ponies froze.
“Sh. Did you hear that?”
“Of course I heard it, Lofty. What do you-”
“Sh.” There was a sound like wingbeats.
“Be careful, Lofty,” whispered a voice.
Cozy contemplated trying to hide, but she wasn’t fast enough before the branches of a bush in front of her parted, revealing a light orange pegasus filly with a bright orange mane. When her eyes landed on Cozy Glow, they widened in shock.
“Crusaders!” she called excitedly. “It’s okay! It’s just a pony!”
Cozy felt her heart skip a beat. Crusaders?
The branches parted some more, and a green unicorn with a purple mane and a pink earth pony with a lighter lavender mane appeared on either side of the pegasus. Seeing them made Cozy Glow remember the Cutie Mark Crusaders - Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. She felt a pang of sadness that she didn’t fully understand.
“Wow,” said the earth pony, whom Cozy decided must be Rose. “What are you doing all the way out here? We didn’t think there was anypony out here.”
“Well, except for-” the pegasus started, but the unicorn elbowed her, and she shut her mouth.
“What’s your name?” the unicorn asked instead.
She swallowed, and before she could stop herself, she said, “Cozy Glow. What’s yours?”
Stupid! she mentally scolded herself. You shouldn’t have told them that! How do you know you can trust them?
And yet trusting them was exactly what she was doing. She had barely met them for five minutes, but she already found that she trusted them more than both Tirek and Chrysalis combined.
“Nice to meet you, Cozy Glow,” the unicorn said, holding out her hoof. “I’m Jinx Evergreen, and these are my friends Rose Blossom-'' she indicated the earth pony, who waved “-and Lofty Skies.” The pegasus folded her arms and beamed. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing out here in this part of Equestria all by yourself?”
“Oh, I’m not alone,” Cozy said before stopping herself. “I - I mean, I got lost, and I’m just trying to find my way back. It was a real stroke of luck that I ran into you three!” She blinked her wide eyes and tried to look as innocent and woeful as possible, sticking out her lower lip.
“Where’s your family?” That was Rose Blossom. When she saw Cozy Glow’s brief hesitation, she said, “Y-you do have a family, right?”
“Not anymore,” Cozy whispered to herself. She caught herself and looked up - all three fillies were staring at her, concerned. So she stammered, “S-so I found a new family - a better family. We were just on our yearly camping trip - we try to go someplace new every year. And I got lost, and all I want now is to get back to them.”
“Don’t worry!” Lofty soared above her head and pointed at the sky. “We’ll help you get back to them!”
“Oh.” Cozy hadn’t thought this far ahead, but she supposed she would be able to work something out. “O-okay.” She walked next to Jinx and Rose as Lofty Skies led the way above. “So! What are… you guys doing down here… all alone?”
“We’re not alone,” Jinx insisted, putting her arm around Rose Blossom’s shoulders, the both of them grinning. “We’ve got each other.”
“We’re the Crusaders of Harmony!” Lofty told her from above.
Cozy stopped in her tracks, then leaped forward to catch up with them. “Oh?” she asked, trying to sound cool and collected. “What does that mean?”
“We’re on a mission to protect friendship and harmony,” Rose explained. “Because we don’t want to be without each other, and we know that it’s better when we work together instead of dividing.”
“That sounds… really nice.” Cozy Glow looked down at her hooves, wishing she had something like the bond that these ponies had, the kind of passion they had.
Because no matter how many evil things she did, it never seemed to fill that void.