Lying on her bed and staring at the wall, Cozy Glow let out a loud, grossly exaggerated groan that echoed inside her room in Grogar’s secret lair.
“Is it medically possible to actually die from boredom?” she asked with half-lidded eyes. The filly rolled over to her other side and now gazed at the other, equally un-decorated and boring rock wall. “It’s been days since we found Grogar’s bell, and weeks since he even brought us all here, and the old goat still hasn’t told us a single word of his real plans.”
Cozy rolled upright and flapped her wings, lifting herself into the air. The room she occupied could hardly be called a living space. The walls and ceiling were unpainted, the floor was coarse, and there wasn’t even a window. Though it was better than being caged up in Tartarus, it still felt more like a prison. If it wasn’t for the calendar and clock on her nightstand, the little pegasus wouldn’t even know what day or time it was half the time. “I actually miss living at the school,” she uttered. “At least they had regular meals and the living quarters had all the best comforts.
She clenched her teeth and groaned again. “I was so close! And I would have succeeded if not for those meddling students… that Sandbar… and Gallus… and the rest of them! Soon as we eliminate Twilight Sparkle and her friends, those interlopers are next on my list!”
Cozy took a deep breath, glanced at her pile of dolls resembling Twilight and her friends, and the anger that had built up inside her lessened slightly. “But there’s not much we can do right now. All we can do is keep pretending to be Grogar’s minions while we wait for the opportune moment to strike. In the meantime… what to do? Chrysalis is away on another infiltration, and all Tirek does is workout.”
Hovering in place, Cozy folded her forelegs and squinted her eyes. Several minutes passed by in total silence until finally an idea came to her.
“Well…” she said, “Grogar never said we can’t do things outside, we’re not far from the snowy slopes of Mount Everhoof, and he, just like me, recognizes the importance of working together to achieve a common goal. And who knows, maybe a certain centaur will actually enjoy it.”
Cozy smiled and flew out of the room. After a quick detour to make sure the bell was still where she, Tirek and Chrysalis had hidden it, the filly approached the open door to Tirek’s quarters. She heard grunting noises coming from the chamber. Cozy poked her head in, and just as she suspected, she spotted the large black and red, magic-stealing centaur lying on a bench pumping iron.
Completely focused on his workout, Tirek did not notice Cozy and tiny beads of sweat ran down his brow.
Cozy grinned before putting on her trademark sweet face and hovered into the room. “Hey, buddy!” she cried, holding each word for longer than was necessary for a simple greeting.
Tirek paused in the middle of a lift and stared at the miniature pegasus. “Oh, it’s you,” he said nonchalantly before resuming the workout.
Cozy’s bright smile turned into a large frown. When she spoke, her tone was excessively pouty. “Aww, Tirek, what kind of greeting is that for your bestest frenemy? Other than Chrysalis I mean. I would have thought by now, since we agreed to work together and all, you could at least call me by my name and be a little happier to see me.”
“I thought I said you couldn’t fool me with that sweet little filly act.”
Cozy dropped the fake pout and chuckled. “My ‘syrupy sweetness’ as you called it is what I do,” she stated with a little shrug. “Why stop when you’re good at it?”
Tirek rolled his eyes slightly. “What do you want?”
“The truth…” Cozy set herself down right on the large dumbbell Tirek was lifting—which, despite her added weight, didn’t slow the centaur down at all—and stared at the open doorway. “Apart from plotting the destruction of Twilight Sparkle and her friends… I’m bored! So bored! There is literally nothing fun to do around here!”
“Grown tired of playing Empress of Friendship with those dolls of yours have you?”
Cozy gave Tirek a bemused glance. “You could say that. But in my utter malaise, I had an idea. So I have a proposition for you.”
“If you’re going to ask me to play with those dolls with you, my first answer is no, and my second answer is absolutely not.”
“No no no… I was thinking of something else that we could use as a teamwork building exercise.” Cozy waited a few seconds before continuing. “Do you want to build a snowpony?”
Suddenly, Tirek stopped lifting the weight, holding it just above his chest so his elbows were square, and he furrowed his brow at the filly.
Cozy beamed and tilted her head cutely.
“Did you just ask… me… if I… want to build a snowpony?”
Cozy snickered as she took in the centaur’s sheer confusion. “Weren’t expecting that one, were you?”
“Oh, please!” retorted Tirek. “Just because we agreed to work together to overthrow Grogar by using his own bewitching bell against him, it does not mean we’re suddenly friends who do silly things like build snowponies together.”
Still seated on the dumbbell, Cozy folded her forelegs and gave Tirek a look that an upset parent would when scolding their child. “You know, Tirek,” she said firmly, “if we’re really going to learn to work together, we have to be able to do so with small and simple things as well as big. We can’t always be siphoning away, or expelling, all the magic from Equestria, you know.”
“Even if we were really truly friends, a snowpony is something that you forget it exists, then you remember it exists, then you remember why you forgot it. No thanks.”
Cozy’s eye twitched and she maintained her scolding stare. “What about this? Do you want to build a snowpony… of Twilight and her little friends groveling in defeat before us? I’m sure even you would have fun with that.”
Tirek didn’t reply, but he continued to gaze up at Cozy in silent reserve.
“Or do I need to tell Grogar about our little scheme?”
Tirek narrowed his eyes. “Even you wouldn’t dare betray such a brilliant plan.”
Keeping her forelegs crossed, Cozy leaned in slightly and gave the centaur an evil grin. “Try me.”
After a few moments of tense silence where the two just stared at each other, a defeated sigh escaped from Tirek and he put the weight away. Soon as the weight started to move, Cozy hopped off and hovered in the air without at all shifting her gaze or losing her grin.
“Snowponies..." said Tirek with a snarl and pointing a finger up at the filly. "If you ever tell anycreature—"
“You’ll tell Grogar about our little scheme?”
Tirek blinked several times and mumbled incoherently for a moment. “Yes. Exactly.”
“And you get testy with me for making that threat?”
“Let’s just go already.”
Cozy’s demeanor softened. “That little camp you made at the base of Mount Everhoof will be the perfect spot. See you there soon!” The little pegasus flew out of the room to retrieve her violet beanie and coat.
Meanwhile, Tirek stood up, slouched forward, allowed his arms to dangle at his sides, and stared at the doorway with half-lidded eyes. “I’d rather be lectured by Twilight Sparkle, while being caged up in Tartarus….”
“There it is!” cried Cozy with a big smile.
A couple hours after leaving Grogar’s secret lair, Cozy Glow and Tirek arrived at the base of Mount Everhoof. There were the remnants of the camp in the woods Tirek had set up during their quest to retrieve the bell. A snowstorm just a day prior had covered the area in a layer of fresh snow, but the fire pit could clearly be seen in the middle of the camp, and the log and vine chair the centaur had sat on stood tall right where it had been left.
“And just look at all that fresh snow waiting to be packed and molded.” Cozy grinned devilishly and rubbed the bottom of her hooves together. “Into the forms of Twilight and her friends after their crushing defeat!”
“Yes, yes,” said Tirek. “While I don’t dislike that particular aspect of what we’re doing, I’d rather not drag this out so let’s just get this over with.”
Cozy let out a sigh and gritted her teeth a little. “Okay, okay. Jeez, Mr. Party Pooper.”
Maybe he’ll change his tune when we actually get to the good part, the filly thought.
The two of them set about gathering up piles of snow, packing and molding them. After roughly an hour, seven snowponies had been sculpted into a kneeling pose before them. Two of them were sculpted with bulging sides resembling wings, two had horns, two had neither, and the one in the center had a horn and wings. Using a little stick, Cozy carved into the head of the snowpony the name of which of their enemies it was, while cursing them in her mind.
Twilight Sparkle.
Starlight Glimmer.
Rarity.
Applejack.
Pinkie Pie.
Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash.
Cozy and Tirek stared at their handiwork, the former blankly, and the latter with folded arms and half-lidded eyes. The minutes ticked by with the quiet broken only by an occasional soft breeze.
“That wasn’t nearly as fun as I’d imagined,” uttered Cozy as she hovered in the air. “I mean, of course it’s not the same as the real thing, but… I really thought that would be just a tiny bit more exciting.”
“So much for staving off the crushing boredom of living in Grogar’s lair for you?” asked Tirek flatly.
Cozy let out a groan, let her legs dangle limp and stared down at the ground. “Maybe you were right, Tirek. Maybe you were right.”
Tirek rubbed his chin as he continued to gaze at the snowponies with a look of contemplation upon his demeanor. “I think we’re missing something.”
Cozy looked up at Tirek. “Missing something?”
“Aren’t you always ranting about how those students from the friendship school are the ones who foiled your plan?”
Cozy didn’t respond, and she kept her eyes on Tirek.
“That was a question by the way, which requires an answer from you.”
Cozy narrowed her eyes and gnashed her teeth. “Ooh… As soon as we deal with Twilight and her friends, those little interlopers are next, and my vengeance will be relentless and swift!”
“Yeah, I heard you shout that from my room before you came knocking, and every other time you started going on about them. Why don’t we add that bunch to our group of defeated snowponies?”
After another silent moment, Cozy furrowed her brow. “You want to make more snowponies? Aren’t you the one who’d rather get lectured by Twilight Sparkle while being locked up in Tartarus?” She paused and chuckled. “And since we’re mentioning hearing each other say things, yeah, I heard you say that after I left your room.”
“I believe you, and I know you, and Grogar, would call it a teamwork exercise?”
“Hmm…” Cozy pondered for a second. “That was the other point to coming out here wasn’t it? Why don’t we go even further?”
“What do you mean?”
Cozy gave Tirek another sly grin. “I happen to recall the reason you failed to conquer Equestria hits a little closer to home than schoolmates you’re just pretending to be chums with to put on an act.”
“Wait…” said Tirek with a deep growl. “Are you talking about—”
“Oh, yes…” interjected Cozy. Maintaining her grin, she hovered right up to Tirek’s face and peered deep into his eyes. “It was in all the papers. The way he helped Twilight Sparkle and her friends stop you… and the way his gift to them became the final key to the chest which would become Twilight’s castle… He became a hero to the citizens of Equestria in his own right… that backstabbing, traitorous little brother of yours.”
She whispered the name directly into Tirek’s ear. “Scorpan.”
Tirek clenched his fists, his arms trembled, and he let out a deep growl while a fire burned in his eyes.
“You do want revenge against him don’t you?” asked Cozy.
“Oh… I want revenge against him alright,” snarled Tirek as the fire in his eyes burned brighter. “And I’ll start… by building a snowgargoyle of him, crushing it with my bare fists, then building it again and destroying it again over and over!”
Tirek raised his arms above his head and let out a furious roar that echoed throughout the area.
Still with a sly smile on her face, Cozy flew to the side, placed her hooves over her flanks and watched as the centaur began to collect more snow and build it into the likeness of his younger brother Scorpan. Looks like I finally found what really sets him off, she thought.
Cozy then slowly clapped her hooves against each other in an up and down pattern three times. “Game… set… match,” she muttered under her breath, though she doubted the angry centaur would have been able to hear her anyway in his current state.
The little pegasus hovered closer to Tirek. “That’s the spirit! Go all out and prove that we really mean serious business! We got enough snow around here to make an entire county of snowponies and what have you! Let’s start with the one I know you want to do now.”
Cozy and Tirek set about gathering up to make their next frosty creation: Scorpan. Tirek made the head and body, and Cozy made the limbs. When it was done, Cozy flew back and folded her forelegs in anticipation of the show to come.
“You…” snarled Tirek, glaring and pointing his finger right in the snow-Scorpan’s face. “It’s all your fault. We could have had it all—Equestria on a plate!”
“Go for it, Tirek,” said Cozy encouragingly.
Instead of saying anything else, Tirek roared again and began to break the snow creature apart piece by piece until there was nothing left but a pile of mushy snow.
“Excellent,” uttered Cozy. “Now use that energy to help me build and then knock down the rest of them, teammate.”
The two of them became fully engrossed in their no-longer-little project. After several more hours, and with a few breaks to let Tirek destroy the snow sculpture of Scorpan every so often, they had made little replicas of the School of Friendship complete with—for Cozy’s pleasure—Chancellor Neighsay, Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus and Smolder. They made a little replica of Twilight’s castle, added Spike and Discord, and finally, they finished with Princess Luna and Celestia.
There was no snow left in or around the campsite by the time they were done. Fatigued by it all, Tirek gathered up some logs and fallen branches and made a campfire for them to warm themselves.
“Not a bad afternoon’s work I’d say,” stated Cozy as she sat on her haunches just inches from the fire, holding her hooves up close to it. “Too bad Chrysalis isn’t here. I bet she’d love to get in on this now that we figured out how to make this fun.”
“She’d probably just ruin the mood by complaining how she can’t feed off snowponies,” said Tirek. “But what do we do now?”
Cozy deadpanned. “Seriously? You spent half the last few hours already doing what I had planned next for our friends here and you have to ask what comes next?”
“Oh? You mean metaphorically crushing them into a fine powder, just like we’re going to do once we figure out how to steal the magic from Grogar’s bell for ourselves?”
Cozy rolled her eyes. “Why don’t we just wrap things up. It is starting to get late and we don’t want Grouchy McGoat to get suspicious.”
“I’ll have to remember that nickname for when we spring the big surprise,” stated Tirek with a dark chuckle as he stood up. He spent a few moments flexing his arms.
Cozy gazed deep into the campfire, and before long, she felt the same burning desire build up within her. First she pictured absorbing the power of Grogar’s Bell into herself, then kicked into the air, now staring straight at the bunch of snowponies and others they had made. “I am an almighty alicorn…” she said darkly. “The power of ancients courses through me, and not even Grogar, or those prissy princesses can stop us.”
“It’s only a matter of time,” said Tirek. “And now, you little ponies and friends, with Chrysalis pulling the threads of your unity apart bit by bit from the inside, your greatest strength is about to come crumbling down.”
Cozy grinned and a gleam flashed in her eyes. “Tirek, let’s attack… as a team!”
The two of them charged forward at the same time and began to punch, kick, swing, and all manner of bare-knuckled and bare-hooved brawling. They made fierce battle cries throughout, and it wasn’t long before all the snow sculptures were reduced to literal powder and wet mush. Cozy and Tirek barely broke only a mild sweat, but once it was over, they both wiped their brows and grinned at their handiwork.
“Now that was fun,” said Cozy.
“I’ll admit…” uttered Tirek as he rubbed his chin, “Yes. Surprisingly, it was. We just had to get past the painfully dull part of making those things first.”
Still hovering in the air, Cozy turned to face Tirek. She flew over to him and wrapped her foreleg around the back of his head, giving him a sidelong grin. “Soon, we’ll get to do the real thing. After all their victories, Twilight and her friends probably think they’re invincible. That will only make our final victory all the sweeter. But of course that won’t happen unless we truly can work just like they do: as a team, even if it's something as mundane as making snowponies.”
Tirek stared straight at the filly for a moment. “I already said before that working with you and Chrysalis may not be the worst thing, didn’t I?” The centaur held up his hand. “I suppose a little high five is in order?”
Cozy went quiet and just returned the stare, only it was at Tirek’s raised hand.
“Weren’t expecting that one were you?” asked Tirek, keeping his hand up.
Cozy closed her eyes and let out a little sigh that was also sort of a laugh. “Well, isn’t this just the day of turning things around on each other.” She slapped her hoof against Tirek’s hand.
With the evening sun bearing down upon them, Cozy and Tirek left the campsite behind and began to make their way back to Grogar’s lair.
“We should do this again sometime,” said Cozy as she flew alongside Tirek. “You know… just so we don’t get rusty on the whole teamwork thing.”
A little smirk appeared on Tirek’s face. “Don’t push your luck.”