//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Ponies of the Prairie // Story: My Little Pony: The Great Defenders of Friendship // by specialhoof2022 //------------------------------// Let's go to the Everfree Forest. Cozy Glow was at the Castle of the Two Sisters as her hideout. She was overlooking at chamber. She was making her own minions made of lumber and wood. A machine was mixing the lumber with magic from the Bewitching Bell Cozy found since she was turned into stone years ago. Her wooden minions were a little scary for even foals ages 0-5. Cozy was remembering her past in ancient Equestria. When she was a filly, she attended the School of Friendship, but then villainous nature was revealed as she manipulates Twilight and her friends into going to Tartarus, captures a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, and, with the help from Tirek, steals some magical artifacts to harness their magic to take over Equestria. Her plans were foiled by the intervention of the Tree of Harmony, causing the magic she stole to return to its rightful owners. Caught between Twilight and other ponies and creatures, Cozy is defeated and sentenced to imprisonment within Tartarus, with Tirek. After her first fail, Cozy and Tirek were transported out of their cages by an evil goat named Grogar, who also assembles them with an evil changeling named Chrysalis, and an evil unicorn named King Sombra, in order to join forces against the Mane 6. Cozy wasn't familiar with Grogar since his name has all but faded into a legend, but she is interested in the idea of befriending the villains. Cozy, Chrysalis, and Tirek were tasked by Grogar with retrieving the Bewitching Bell from the summit of Mt. Everhoof, but she was not able to cooperate with Chrysalis and Tirek at first. Cozy tries to gain safe passage up the mountain from a guard, but he refuses, and all attempts to go up alone end in failure. When Cozy finally learns to work together with Chrysalis and Tirek, they successfully retrieve the Bewitching Bell and decided to use it in their scheme to overthrow Grogar. After they got the Bewitching Bell, Cozy, Chrysalis, and Tirek decided to infiltrate Canterlot's library forbidden wing to get information in how to activate Grogar's bell and use its magic. Cozy takes part in sabotaging the last Summer Set Celebration, and during the confusion, she and her villains stole a book from the Canterlot Archives, which they plan to use to learn how to unlock the bell's power. Cozy, Chrysalis, and Tirek successfully unlocked the power of the Bewitching Bell to make themselves all-powerful, with Cozy herself turning into an alicorn. They also drain Grogar of his magic, revealing him to be Discord in disguise. Cozy tricks her comrades into letting her absorb Discord's magic in an attempt to betray them. But, it failed due to her inability to control Discard's chaos, leaving her no choice but to let it be returned to the bell. In the evil trio's siege upon Equestria, Cozy attacks the Mane 6 and the Royal Sisters at the Canterlot Castle (using the bell to take Princesses Celestia and Luna's magic), and she, Chrysalis and Tirek overwhelm them as Twilight made her escape. The 3 villains imprisoned Twilight's friends and celebrate their victory, but fail to reach an agreement regarding what to do with the magic they stole. After the rest of the Mane 6 escape and the windigos appear as a result of their creating distrust among ponies, Cozy and the other villains face off against the Mane 6, and later an army of their allies in a grand final battle. At the end of the battle, Cozy was turned back into a pegasus, and she and her cohorts were frozen in stone as punishment for their crimes. After she thought of her moments over 100 years ago, one of her thugs interrupted her. "Excuse me, Miss Cozy Glow," he said. "I have good news: the army is going on schedule and we still have a lot more lumber to make extra henchponies." "Is there bad news?" Cozy asked. "A group of 5 ponies and 24 foals are on their way to us. I think they're gonna came and attack us." "Some travelers coming? Well, we better get ready for their arrival. Just keep the production in line." "You got it, my Empress." The guard left to do Cozy's orders, while Cozy started to do some thinking. "So you little ponies think you can come over and stop me? Well, not when I beat you with my army and make everypony in Equestria distrust each other for good." Then, Cozy let out her evil laugh as thunder and lightning appeared Equestria needed to be protected for good. For me, my friends, and the Mane 5, we were walking across the prairie for 2 hours after we left the Crystal Brighthouse. The prairie was amazing, it was planted with tall green grass, beautiful flowers, and it has great bugs. Everypony seems to be enjoying this quest. "Hello everypony." said Pipp. She was on her cell phone to livestream and broadcast the events of our quest. "Today, me and my friends are going on a quest to save Equestria again." Then, she pointed her phone at me and the other foals to us on screen. "We also brought along some foals with us. Say "hi" kids." Pipp told me and the other foals. We all waved and said "hi" and "hello" to the audience. "This trip is going to take days to get there, but I'm everything would go well along the way. I promise Equestria will be safe and sound once we complete the quest. Alright everypony, I'd better get going now. Pipp Pipp Hooray!" "Pipp Pipp Hooray!" everypony else shouted. We were still walking through the prairie, I was wondering what our next stop could be. So, I ran ahead towards Sunny Starscout and asked her a few questions. "Miss Starscout, do you know where we're going next?" I asked. "Yes, Special." Sunny said. Then, she pulled out her map her father kept years ago and showed me the next destination. "The prairie here is very big. It now might take like 7 minutes to get to the pond. The pond is our next destination." "The big pond? I asked. " How big is it?" "The pond is 2,000 feet big." "That's so big for us to get across, I don't think we can swim to the other side." "I'm sure we'll find a way." We were still trotting through the field, when Fruity Tooty spotted a big apple tree up ahead. "Everypony, I've found a really big apple tree." Fruity shouted. Then, we all ran towards the tree. As we stood right in front of it, we were amazed of how it looks, even Pipp took a picture of it on her phone. It was super tall like a skyscraper from a city, the leaves were purple instead of green, and all of the apples were very ripe and red and really big. "It looks like all the apples in the tree are so ready to be harvest." Izzy Moonbow exclaimed. "Luckily, I'm an expert of how the fruits are." Fruity said. "And, according to my theory, all the apples are ripe, meaning we could eat them." We all felt pleased to hear Fruity's words. "I know how to harvest them." I say. "Pegasi, we fly up and pick the apples, while the earth ponies and unicorns can catch them from below." "I brought some satchels with me." Needle Stitch replied. Then, we all get to work. The pegasi flew up high to pick some apples from the high branches and placed them in their satchels. The unicorns used their magic to levitate the apples from the low branches for the earth ponies to catch into their satchels. And then after it was done, we continue walking to the big pond. We saw the big pond up ahead of us, it was like 700 feet away, which wasn't far away. We continued walking there. "Wow, this meadow is amazing after all." said Violet Rosey. "All the flowers are blooming so beautifully, the grass os so tall for even bigger bugs, and the trees are so big for squirrels and birds to live in." "And, don't forget about the bunnies." Cloudy Carla added. "Bunnies are the cutest critters ever. Even when they have either horns or wings." Then, a bunny hopped out of hiding and stood in front of Cloudy. "There's one bunny now." Cloudy said cheerfully. She then started nuzzling with the bunny as the rest of us were laughing and enjoying Cloudy's playing. We all arrived at the big pond. It was really big, it was far away to get to the other side. "Wow, this is some big pond." Fearful Moe exclaimed. "This pond is 2,000 feet in diameter, it may be too deep for all of us to swim across." Hitch said. "How do we all get across the water?" Streamer Smooth asked. "Well, I think we should fly over the pond with our wings and magic." Izzy thought out loud. "No, Izzy." Sunny said. "The unicorn foals aren't strong enough to lift themselves and the earth ponies. And, the pegasi can't fly while carrying a friend." Luckily, Carver Crafty came with an idea. "Everypony, I got an idea, there's lots of lumber and wood over there. We can all build rafts and boats, they will float in water to help us get across the pond." We all agreed with that idea and started to get to work. Carver brought his tools for the trip, he used a saw to cut the logs in the right measurement. Disgusted Lex used her magic to line them up right. Then, Carver chopped the lumber into planks, and Joydan Gallop placed the planks on top of the logs. Finally, I used a drill to drill in the big screws, so that the planks won't get loose from the logs. The rafts were all done. Now we could all float across the pond. We only made 5 rafts for 4 to 5 ponies. We pushed our rafts into the water and started rowing and paddling across. Soccer Score taught us how to row as we were having a little trouble. "Everypony, let me show you how to paddle." said Soccer. " Have 2 paddles on both sides and row in the same beat." We listened to Soccer's instructions and we were able to paddle correctly and swiftly. As we were rowing, we saw some ducks flying by and began to swim in the water. We also discover some frogs hopping on leaf pads. Then, we found some beautiful fish swimming underwater. The fish were jumping out to play, making us enjoying their show. After paddling across the pond for 23 minutes, we made it to the other side. Now, our the next destination if the Grassy Hills. We got off the rafts and continued our on foot.