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// Chapter 6: Cipher's Secret 
// Story: Glowing in Everglow 
// by Darkmoon9 
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Diary Cozy Glow

It has been a year since I was nominated Knight Commander of the defenders of Taralos by the Queen Regent, who upon her coronation immediately reinforced the garrisons of the northern towns and started a recruitment drive for the Army. The gem gnolls started to increase the intensity of the raids on these reinforced northern towns, but the newly improved garrisons managed to hold them off. The defenders of Taralos have been participating in this war under my leadership, my tactical brilliance keeping us alive and has been able to turn the tide of battle on more than one occasion. Now, one year since the coronation of the Queen Regent, the war is caught in a stalemate, but I fear it would be much worse if Prince Shining Horn was allowed to become king and diminish the army.

While I do realize that Prince Shining Horn would be a much easier pawn to manipulate than his sister, and therefore easier to pave my way into power, Taralos would be useless to me if it falls to a gem gnoll invasion. And Scarlet Lance has proven to be someone I deeply respect, someone who is willing to use cunning and guile to get their way and grab power for themselves. If it was up to me, I would get rid of Prince Shining Horn permanently to enable the rise of a superior monarch. Alas Queen Regent Scarlet Lance says she will return the throne to her brother after the war is over, but maybe that is just another ruse. 

During this time there was another interesting development, Cipher sent me a message, saying he wanted to meet me in one of the back alleys of Vil, where we could talk in peace, and that I should come alone. Some part of me expected a potential trap, yet Cipher was not only one of my subordinates, but a close friend, so I made the decision to trust him. Cipher arrived at the back alley dressed in his regular black cloak and hood, his face was as inscrutable as always. What he was about to say shocked me:

“I have come across some rather interesting information about you Cozy, I heard you are from distant lands, where you were one of their most notorious criminals, is this true old friend?”

I had no idea where he had gotten this information, did Sunset squeal? No, she had kept her mouth shut for this long, but there wasn’t anyone else in this world who knew about my past. I would have prefered to keep it that way. 

“Depends on why you’re asking, Cipher” I told him.

Cipher give me a slight smile, he was amused.

“I believe you are like me, you desire power, and if we work together we can both accomplish what we desire, after all, I rather want you on the throne from that weakling Shining Horn.”

Now things were starting to get interesting, I shook his hooves to symbolize us reaching an agreement.

“I only ask for one thing in return, I want you to enforce the worship of my goddess, Kara, as the new state religion in Taralos once you are the reigning monarch”

“Kara?” I asked Cipher, who laughed and finally showed me his true face, the unicorn was just a guise, beneath it was the face of an insectoid pony with big blue bugeyes, a black carapace and a pair of insectoid wings. I knew what he was the moment I saw him in this form, a changeling, a doppelganger. They were creatures capable of taking on any form. Back in my world, I had once been working together with one of the Queens, Chrysalis, whose hatred has been the cause of the division that led to my defeat. To say that I was wary of changelings after this would be an understatement. Cipher answered my question:

“Kara is the queen of the hive, the mistress of shapeshifters, deceit love and lust. She is my goddess and one day the city will be hers. You can either be with me or against me, what do you say my dear friend? Just know that if you refuse my offer, I cannot let you leave this alley alive, you know too much.”

This put being quite the dilemma, even if I wanted to refuse him, I had seen his skill in battle, while I was still physically weak, my magic lying primarily in supporting my allies. Yet, he would be far more valuable as an ally than an enemy, and he was offering to help me fulfill my goals. I just wasn't sure I could trust Kara.

I just gave him a sly smile and said:

“You’re not giving me much of a choice, deal, still, the more allies the better, as long as you’re willing to support me, we are allies.”

Cipher shifted back to his unicorn form and we both left the alley in agreement. Yet, as a changeling had once been my downfall, I knew I couldn’t trust him completely.

Soon after, I had to get back to work, I had a couple of new recruits for the Defenders of Taralos lined up. One of them was a leatherwing called Shadow Chaser, a species of pony with batlike wings instead of the feathered wings of a Pegasus that in my world often served as bodyguards to the princes of the night, Luna. This particular one had a blue coat and a black mane, he was wearing heavy armor and wore a grim expression on his face. The other one was a familiar face, one I hoped that I would never see again, that of an old enemy, Twilight Sparkle

Diary Twilight Sparkle

I used to be the monarch of my own land, the Princess of Friendship. After the defeat of Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis, Equestria entered a new golden age under my leadership, but I didn’t do it alone, I had the help of my friends. Yet with time they went on with their lives and I was busy with my duties as Princess, so we didn’t see each other as often as we used to. Yet my kingdom was prosperous due to my sacrifices in dedicating most of my time to rule it. I had always been a meticulous planner and under my strict supervision every aspect of Equestria blossomed. Those that threatened my lands were quickly dealt, joining my ever-growing collection of statues in my garden. I had once been a more merciful mare, yet with the distance between me and my friends I felt that my heart had grown harder over the years. Now my number one priority was protecting my kingdom, by any means necessary. I wasn't sure I liked this change, yet I felt like I had no choice but to take on this role, because if I wouldn't, nopony else would. Celestia and Luna had long since vanished from these lands without a trace, and Cadence were busy running her own kingdom in the north. 

This was until one day, many years after the final defeat Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis, I noticed that the petrified form of Cozy Glow went missing from my garden. I detected magical residue in the area. It seemed to be from a portal to another world. There weren’t many in this land who could use magic to this level. Starlight would have been one of them, but I trusted her completely, or was that perhaps a mistake? After all, she had once been a villain. Of course there would also be Starswirl the Bearded, but I knew he wouldn’t defy me. This left only one, but she had long since left this realm and never come back. 

I was able to open this portal again. I had no idea what would be on the other side, but if Cozy and her unknown liberator was on the other side, I had no choice but to follow, I could not let Cozy endanger another world under my watch. In times past I would have called for the help of my friends, but I knew they were busy living their own lives and time was short, so I stepped through the portal alone. With confidence of knowing that no matter where it would take me I had the power to open up another portal to get back. 

I ended up in a strange world, populated by ponies like my home world, but here it seemed that the tribes had yet to unite under the benevolent rule of an alicorn monarch. As soon as I stepped through the gate, my wings disappeared, rendering me a normal unicorn once again. My magic was also greatly diminished, a lot of the spells that worked in Equestria didn’t work in this realm. Or worked differently. 

I soon found my way to the city of Vil, a place I soon found out was the capital of the unicorn kingdom of Taralos. I asked around for a pony matching the description of Cozy Glow, most ponies seem to be taken aback when they heard my name, either prostrating themselves before me out of fear, running away in terror or muttering something about me being a tyrant. I guess Cozy had been spending her time telling tall tales about me. The few ponies I was actually able to speak to, primarily by withholding my true name or using a false one, told me some rather interesting information, apparently the description of Cozy Glow matched the commander of the local knightly order called the Defenders of Taralos. 

But before I could confront Cozy, I had to restore some of my magic. Going to the local library I was able to find several books on spellwork, magic did indeed work differently in these lands than in my homeland, but only slightly so, the biggest difference being that ponies other than unicorns also had the ability to use the spells, even if unicorns had an inherent advantage because of their horn. I spent weeks pouring over books to learn as much about the magic of these lands as possible. 

Soon after my arrival in Taralos, a member of the Defenders of Taralos sought me out, having heard of me asking about someone matching the description of their leader. The first one I met was a Griffin called Silverwing, who seemed to be a kind and honest fellow, far from the abrasive and stubborn pride that was common of griffins in my world. If he was fearful one first hearing my name he didn’t show it, but he seemed to be taken aback when I explained that their Knight Commander was a wanted criminal, telling me that he didn’t think it was possible, Knight Commander Cozy having saved his life on several occasions. But he said he would bring this to the attention of some of his friends, when I heard the name of one of said friends, it shocked me to my core: Sunset Shimmer. I wondered if this meant that Sunset was the one who had freed Cozy from her stone imprisonment, that thought enraged me, how could someone I consider a friend betray me so utterly?

I would soon get my answer when Sunset visited me, she seemed surprised to see me here. Sunset explained that she disagreed with my sentence of Cozy Glow on the grounds of her being just a young filly at the time. Sunset told me that she intended to take Cozy to her home in the human realm to start a rehabilitation program, but that her spell had gone awry and they ended up here. I was still angry at her that filly or not, she had no idea how dangerous Cozy Glow was. I only did what I had to in order to protect my kingdom. Sunset told me something interesting:

“Twilight, there was once a time you used to believe in redemption, I was once as much an enemy of yours as Cozy was. But you reached out your hand to me, gave me a second chance. If you held the same attitude back then as you do know I fear you would just have turned me to stone and called it a day. I have been to other worlds, I have seen monarchs who decorate their gardens with the petrified statues that used to be their enemies, all of them were villains. You used to be better than this Twilight.”

Her words gave me a lot to think about, had we been too harsh on Cozy? On the other hoof she had attempted to take over Equestria, not once, but twice. It was true she didn’t possess the same physical threat as her co-conspirators Tirek and Chrysalis, but her abilities to manipulate and deceive were second to none. And as such I argued she was on par with the other two. I could tell that Sunset was shaken to the core by my rhetoric, the look in her eyes was one of pure pain. I asked her what was wrong, and she said something truly shocking:

“One thing you should remember is that I have met other versions of you, one of them is my best friend in the world I have called home for many years. There is another you I have encountered during my travels, one much darker than either of you. An interdimensional conqueror who calls herself Midnight, her nation appears to be one of order and harmony at first glance, yet underneath the surface her people are afraid to speak out of line, for Midnight as a garden full of statues that used to be her enemies, or sometimes simply  those ponies who dared to speak up against her. Don’t you see Twilight, you have already taken the first step on the path to become like her. "

I have to admit I didn’t see that coming, I did know of multi-verse theory, so I knew other versions of me were bound to exist. But to hear about there was another version of me that was a coldhearted tyrant chilled me to my core. Yet it didn’t change the fact that Cozy Glow was still dangerous. After a long discussion, me and Sunset came to a consensus, we would decide what to do with Cozy at a later date. She told me a war was raging between Taralos and the gem gnolls, in this war the Defenders of Taralos, including Cozy Glow had been instrumental. To defend Taralos against the gnolls, I agreed to sign up with the Defenders.

This was how I soon found myself in the palace, there was one other applicant waiting to be reviewed. He was a bat pony named Shadow Chaser with a blue coat and a black mane, he wore heavy armor and appeared to be a grizzled veteran. I tried being friendly with him, he seemed reluctant to speak with me, preferring to keep to himself. But as I kept prying, he opened up and explained that he was on a personal crusade against the gem gnolls, as they had killed his family. A cause I could be sympathetic to. I was soon led into a room to be interviewed by the Knight Commander herself.

Cozy Glow was quite different from how I remembered her, the small filly had grown into an older teenager, yet her pink coat, freckled face and curly teal mane as well as that ambitious look in her eyes was so unmistakably her.  She was wearing a light coat of chainmail as well as a richly embroidered cloak, it was quite odd to see her like this. Cozy expressed surprise upon seeing me, engaging me with a level of friendliness I was sure was fake, I had seen these tricks of hers before. Yet it was hard to not be taken by her charisma. I explained to her that while I haven’t forgiven her and still intended to bring her back to Equestria one day to continue serving her sentence of eternity as a statue, but our goals did align for now and we could work together until the gem gnolls were defeated. Cozy smirked when I mentioned I intended to turn her back into a statue, but otherwise seemed relatively unfazed:

“Are you sure that is necessary Twilight? I have no intention of coming back to your kingdom, I can get everything I ever wanted here and more. Think about it, if you take me back to Equestria and turn me to stone, there is a possibility I will one day escape, even if it is a thousand years in the future, maybe it will be when you are no longer around to protect it. However, if you leave me here with no way back, I would have neither the means nor the intention of returning to Equestria. Right now I have use for you Twilight as you are a powerful magician and therefore would be a great help against the gem gnolls. But after all of this is over, go home Twilight, your kingdom needs you, if I can’t rule over Equestria, you are the second-best choice.”

I knew she was trying to manipulate me, yet what she said made complete sense, I was putting Equestria more at risk by bringing her back than to leave her here. I started to regret opening the gate to this world as it had proven to be one way. Maybe I should be dedicating all my efforts into getting back to Equestria right now, it was true that my kingdom would suffer without my guidance. But the problem was I didn’t know why the interdimensional portal spell Sunset used didn’t work in this world, and I had found no trace of a spell that could replicate its effects in the grand library, nor was my magical power great enough right now to use such a spell even if I found it. I told Cozy that I would think about it and that I promised to cooperate with her for the time being, but that I wouldn’t swear loyalty to her. She just laughed and said:

“To me? No, but you should swear loyalty to the Queen Regent. You are in her domain now.”