//------------------------------//
// A Cozy Welcome 
// Story: Phantom Krystal: An Unstable Ruby 
// by Lifeblood_Wisp 
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Horrible memories hit Zoey when she approached the lost castle. In her mind, she would constantly replay the moment when she was informed that her siblings were deceased. It was one thing to lose your family, but to be the one to have committed such actions was something very different. She held back her tears as best she could, but it was too much a weight on her frail shoulders. They flowed from her eyes to her cheeks, and eventually, the ground. Arachnis didn’t even need to look at her to know her condition. 

“Listen. I’m-“

“It’s alright…I’m fine.” 

For what it’s worth, Arachnis had a large passion in exploring new places. Though he’d never show it often, he enjoyed investigating the mysteries of uncharted territory. Almost feeling exhilarated, he phased right though the door and Zoey opened it and entered behind him. The castles walls which were once red were now in hues of pink, cyan, and white. The start of the immense hallway that housed the visitors had various statues of what seemed to be a filly, standing in a commanding position. With every considerable amount of space, the statue repeated itself. There were many doors, each that led to different rooms for different purposes. Arachnis and Zoey explored each one, observing the contents within. The rooms served purposes such as potion brewing, spell documentation, and even execution. At the very end on the hall, was the doors to the throne room. 

Zoey was the first to approach, curious as to who the new ruler(s) of this place might be. “Hold on.” Arachnis said. “We don’t know who’s in there. They might not be open to visitors.”. Zoey stood back, giving confirmation of her understanding. Arachnis went invisible. “I’ll check for anyone hostile. I’ll let you know when the room is clear or not.”. “Okay.” Zoey said. Arachnis phased through the massive doors and entreated the throne room. Upon entry, he found a soulless Tirek standing beside a pink alicorn filly. At first Arachnis was perplexed as to why a filly was sitting at the throne as opposed to a grown stallion and/or mare. He went back through the doors and made himself visible again. 

“Anything?” Asked Zoey. “Well..Tirek’s still under control, but by a filly. She’s sitting at the throne.” Arachnis replied. “That’s weird. A filly is totally out of place.” She said. Arachnis smiled a bit, and looked to the doors. “I can take down Tirek without much problem. Then we can go confront her, and see what the deal is.” Arachnis proposed.   Zoey was a bit reluctant, but she trusted that Arachnis knew what the situation was, and how to  handle it. Arachnis kicked the doors open with his two hind legs, startling the filly in the throne. At first, she was annoyed, and ready to immediately engage in battle, but upon seeing the two intruders, she smiled a bit.

“Oh, what a surprise. I didn’t expect you to be back so early…Arachnis. You even brought along the zeta.” She said. Her tone was teasing, playful almost. She sat her elbow on the armrest of the throne and rested her head upon her hoof, ready to be amused by the child of her former partner in conquest. “Who are you? And…how do you know who I am?” Arachnis asked. He neglected to mention Chrysalis just yet, as she might’ve been why this filly knew him. He stood corrected with her response. “Chrysalis had you in the works for a looong time, but I was out of the loop. Sooo I guess that means she doesn’t think of me as an ally anymore. Such a shame, we had so many memories together. As for who I am, the name’s Cozy Glow.”. Arachnis was now interested to learn more about her affiliation with Chrysalis. “Wait, you know Chrysalis? She’s never told me about you.”. Cozy chuckled in response. “Your mother never told you much, did she? I bet you’re looking for some answers. Is that what you want, hm?” She teasingly asked. 

Zoey stepped forth with fury in her eyes. She was glaring at Cozy, and her pitchfork was aimed right at her. “YOU! You had me under control! You made me…”. Cozy Glow broke into a fit of laughter  that could only be described as one you’d hear from a psychopath. “Oh the sad reality of things can be most heartbreaking. I bet you’re just this close to lashing out. Even if you do win, which you won’t trust me, it won’t bring back what you lost.”. Zoey adhered to her impulsive tendencies, and lunged right at Cozy, pitchfork in hand. As she was mere inches away a pink glow formed around  her and she stopped dead in place, caused by Cozy’s magic. She threw her to the leftmost wall of the castle. She fell to the ground with a loud groan and Tirek stood over her “Tirek, be a good boy for your queen, and give this atrocious changeling a very warm welcome.”. The brutish slave obeyed, cracking his knuckles and chuckling at the puny adversary before him. “Say goodnight tiny bug girl.”. 

Arachnis attempted to aid Zoey in her altercation, but was promptly stopped by a rounded pink barrier conjured but Cozy. “Arachnis, I might just be the only person seeing your potential here. Chrysalis obviously isn’t treating you right, and most other ponies don’t like changelings, but I can help you get right where you want to be. All you have to do is join me. We’ll be powerful you and I. I can even show you so many things along the way.”. Arachnis gave a sharp stare. “I don’t do business with crazy ponies like you. All I want to know is about my origin, not to serve or work with you. I don’t care if other ponies aren’t willing to understand me, I’ll just live how I always have been.”. Cozy’s horn flared up. “Fine then. I tried being reasonable. I guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.”. 

Cozy fluttered her tiny wings, and ascended into the air and fired multiple magic blasts from her horn. Arachnis put up a reflective barrier around himself, sending the powerful concentrations back to their sender. Cozy smirked, and teleported out of the way. The blasts then bounces off the larger barrier that surrounded Arachnis and Cozy and they continued to fly everywhere. “You should’ve just let them hit you. Now how will you be able to attack me?” Cozy said whilst laughing. Arachnis cursed his lack of thought toward the possibility that Cozy would possess similar, if no higher levels of magical abilities than him. While he did have his intangibility, he decided to save that for when the time was perfect. Revealing it now would hinder his chance at winning.

Both ponies now stood at opposite ends of the barrier. Cozy concentrated energy in her horn and fired a powerful laser at the ceiling of the barrier. Now knowing the reflective property of the arena, Arachnis tried to counter it with one of his own. He fires a laser directly at Cozy’s and the beams struggled against one another. With every second that passed, Cozy and Arachnis would increase the power of their beams to ensure a victory in the struggle. Cozy saw this time as a good opportunity to show Arachnis just how powerful she was, in an attempt to give him a reason to join her. Her horn’s flare became larger by the second and her beam increased in size and power threefold. Eventually it over powered its opposer, and split it down the middle. Arachnid was then struck directly with the beams power, pushing him against the barrier’s walls. He hadn’t experienced so much pain in a while, and it caused him to yell. He very quickly, phased from the behind the beam and outside the barrier.

At first, Cozy thought she had completely destroyed Arachnis with her beam, and so she laughed maniacally. That was, until she saw him standing atop the barrier. “W-what!? How did you escape!? Nobody escapes my barriers!” She yelled. “There’s a first for everything little filly.” Arachnis said flatly. His horn flared up, and Cozy was surrounded in a red aura, hindering her movement. She was then transported behind Arachnis, where she was immediately kicked in her chest and into a nearby wall, cracking it. Cozy fell to the ground with a heavy ache in her midsection, and attempted to continue fighting. She levitated a nearby shelf and threw it at Arachnis. It phased right through him, leaving no affect on him. “Damn-! For someone only a few years older than me, you hit hard. You could’ve been so much more if you were under my wing.” Cozy said weakly. Arachnis smiled and stood over her. Cozy expected to be tortured or even killed right then and there, but arachnid phased his hoof inside her head. He then inserted the rest of his body, until he had phased completely inside Cozy Glow.

Tirek was holding Zoey down by her head. She grabbed her pitchfork and jammed it into his hand, spewing blood from his hand, and yells of pain from his mouth. Zoey took advantage of her opening and dragged the blade up his arm and to his shoulder, splashing blood all over the floor. Zoey then swiftly flew backward, careful to stay out of Tirek’s range. Tirel himself was in immense pain, and ready to charge at Zoey. He roared and began to run, but was immediately stopped. A pink aura surrounded him, and he stood idle. Zoey lowered her weapon, confused as to why Tirek suddenly stopped fighting. She looked to her right, and saw Cozy Glow working her mind control. “Why are you stopping him…? And where’s Arachnis!?”. “Zoey, it’s me. I sorta took over her body. Tirek’s just gonna stand there until Cozy actually wakes up. Arachnis said. He jumped out of Cozy, and she fell unconscious.

Arachnis flared up his horn and Zoey was encased in a red bubble. Suddenly, she felt her wounds being healed and her body being nursed to health. “Thanks, I needed that.” Zoey said. She looked Arachnis in the face with a slight blush. “Wait..why’s your eye hot pink? Wasn’t it red before?” She inquired. Arachnis levitated a nearby mirror to his face, and noticed that it was indeed a different color. Seeing as it was the same color as Cozy’s magic aura, he deduced that it had something to do with how he possessed her, its meaning was unbeknownst to him. He looked around the room, making sure his sight wasn’t affected, and he spotted a peculiar looking book. Almost instinctively he levitated it toward him. 

He opened it to a random page and read it for a few moments. Zoey looked over his shoulder, and found it to be a book of spells. Eventually, Arachnis found the mind control spell that Cozy had been using the whole time. Right then, something sparked in his mind. Suddenly he immediately knew how to use such a technique. “Strange..it’s as if I already knew this spell, but I didn’t.” Arachnis said. “That’s weird. Hold on, if you suddenly know how to do it after you possessed Cozy, you might’ve gotten it from her, almost like you copied it.” said Zoey. Arachnid pondered before saying “You might be right. I guess that explains why my eye is pink. Anyway, we gotta go, and I’ll be taking this. “. Arachnis said while levitating the book near him. “What about Cozy Glow? Shouldn’t we do something about her?”  Zoey asked. Arachnis looked back at Cozy and Tirek. “We can leave them be for now. As long as they don’t know where we are, we should be fine.” Arachnis said. Zoey gave an unsure “If you say so.” and Arachnis began to take his leave. 

Before Zoey took hers, she glared at Cozy and spat on her cheek. “You took away my family….one day, I’ll take you away too.”