//------------------------------// // The Day She Failed // Story: The Days She Spent // by Frazzle2Dazzle //------------------------------// Chrysalis and Tirek never returned to Canterlot. They were off some-bucking-where, either killing any creature they found or leaving them wishing they were dead. And Cozy found herself missing them. She hadn’t spoken to anypony for a month at that point, the days of studying being long and her nights of sleep all too short. It was so monotonous without anycreature around to even share an insult with, anypony she could see or hear or talk with- The two tyrants were the only creatures she knew wouldn’t die, couldn’t die. They were the only ones left who could survive. They wouldn’t leave her. They would come back. Cozy would just have to keep working until then… She had some small comforts in the meantime, however brief. It had also been a month since Cozy had found the cake. Kept frozen most of the time, she tried to portion it out to make it last, starting at one slice a day, but quickly turning to once every two days, then three, until, finally, she was left with one last slice of the cake, with the word ‘Happy’ still written out on it in frosting. It was tantalizing, it would be so easy to gobble it down… One last rush of sugary sweetness. It would only take a few bites… But she couldn’t bring herself to eat it. She couldn’t bare the thought of not having anything to look forward to, even if it meant torturing herself with the thought of it. But Cozy was strong, yes? She knew that the cake would need to be eaten eventually, but she would limit herself to only after the Windigoes were gone. And for her own sake, she hoped she would be rid of them soon… She hadn’t made much progress on banishing them, but she had finally found a spell able to at least block the Windigoes from entering the castle, a Zebracan ceremony involving gems, though it didn’t stop the eternal cold from seeping through the stones. She’d try and rectify that later. In the meantime, she experimented with the different rituals of fire and banishment in her books, from Zebracan rhymes to the blessings of the Deer. Each one offered little use on their own, only keeping her own being safe from the Windigoes touching her… Flying through her… Freezing her, leaving her as- Well… Anyway. Every other spell she had looked through required some form of group cast or another, like the Elements of Harmony’s own power of Friendship. Blegh… Like Cozy would ever go for something like that. She might be desperate, but she had standards. Villains didn’t give up their morals when times got tough! They didn’t need help! And she didn’t need help either! She didn’t need anypony… She would be fine on her own. She would find out how to do this, how to banish the Windigoes, how to save Equestria for her rule, and have everything she wanted. She could do it. She would do it! And she wouldn’t be alone… …Right? Cozy looked over the spells she had assembled for this test. She had layered them all together instead of trying any singular one on their own this time, laying the rest on top of the Zebrican protection ritual. She had already found minor success with mixing the ritual with a targeting spell that encompassed the castle, tying it down to some key lines to keep the Windigoes away from it. Now she just needed to… Broaden her horizons. She’d checked the city already with a modified fire tracking spell, the place free of any abnormally cold areas, meaning no Windigoes currently, and she could begin her work. Starting with the Zebracan ritual, she crushed some diamonds and other gems down, scattering them on top of a few branches. Nearby were two hewn quartz gems, with gold she had melted down and wrapped around their middles in rings. A sloppy job, but she could make better if she needed to. Starting with the first, she focused her magic into it, condensing an area target spell down into the crystal, focusing on picking up every part of the city for it. It was an intensive amount of magic, and the crystal barely held, the gold barely keeping the thaumic container stable. It was exhausting, picking out the buildings and layering each piece of information into the crystal with her magic, and she could feel sweat beading down her forehead, but she needed to continue. In the second crystal, she focused down a modified fire spell. She wanted to make the city warm enough to live in, but combined with the area of effect spell in the first crystal, she knew she couldn’t just demand fire from the magic. She just wanted a little bit of warmth. Just… Enough. It took a lot less magic for the second crystal, the gold ring holding firm, unlike the first which had deformed and bulged out. Still usable, but she’d need something stronger if she tried to make another one of those. She wiped the sweat off her fur, resting her body against a nearby pillar, “Almost… Done…” she said, getting up for the final preparations. One final inspection later, turning them over end to end for intense scrutiny, she nodded to herself. The crystals were ready, and she deposited them on top of the branches. Lighting them up with a spark from her horn, a multicolored flame danced up from the gem dusted sticks, and she let her senses wash away as she focused her horn on fueling the fire, much preferable to the chanting she’d have to use without it. She didn’t hear it when quartz cracked, but felt it in the spell, merging with the gems already dusting the branches and the magic mixing with the flames. She did feel the heat as the fire surged in front of her, soaring around her, bits and pieces of it moving around the city. She imagined it would’ve been beautiful if she were to see it. But she kept her will on the source of the flames, wrestling it to into the ghost safeguard she wanted while the other spells helped guide it. It was a short process, but one that left her horn burning. She felt a headache starting to form, going from her brain to the tip of her horn, but she only pressed harder as she felt the air around her feel a little bit warmer. She kept going, pressing on, until the spell had finally reached its peak. She collapsed, gasping to the ground as she layed there, her horn barely staying functional to keep the spell rooted. Looking up, she saw a bit of snow starting to melt away in front of her, and she weakly grinned. This was a breakthrough! She knew how to mix more than two spells together! With the Zebracan ritual, she could focus on region after region of Equestria. It wouldn’t stop the Windigoes from existing, but it could keep the lands safe, and warm, and… And… It was getting hot. Cozy was about to tie the mixed magics down to a ley line, letting Equestria itself power the city’s salvation, when she saw the snow turned water start to become steam. Around her, all the ice had melted, but the temperature kept rising. First it was steam. Then she saw a tree smoking. It only took her half a second more before she cut off the spell, but by that point the damage had already been done. Flying up into the air, she stared agape at the dozens of trees that had burst into flame, mind at a loss at the tragedy before her. “This wasn’t… I didn’t…” she muttered out, astonished. The spell was supposed to just keep things warm, not to make it this hot so quickly! She tried to wrack her head for an answer, but nothing turned up for her. She could only look on, despair slowly creeping in from her failure. Cozy Glow wrapped herself in her blankets, pouting at the wall. She was tired, sore, and in a miserable mood. The fires had started spreading before she finally snapped herself out of her reverie, a thankfully close cloud being the perfect catalyst to start some rain. She may not have been good with her unicorn horn, but she was a pegasus by birth and knew how to wrangle some weather. The smoke kept rising from the trees afterwards, but nothing was hot enough to keep burning, thankfully. She had barely reached the castle when the telltale chill of the rest of Equestria had invaded back into the city, and she hurried back to her room. Whatever protection she put on the castle, it at least protected it from whatever screw up she had made before, none of the books or bedding so much as smoldering inside. The rest of the city… She was glad she wouldn’t have to explain that to anypony. The worst part of everything? She had put so much effort into it. She was sure this spell would be the one, that she finally figured out how to fix the whole mess. But she failed… She failed to do anything good… Again… But she was a villain. Villains didn’t do good, did they? They were only good at being bad, and bad is what she would call her screwup. Tirek and Chrysalis would probably laugh if they saw her like this. She couldn’t even banish any of the Windigoes, and she had nearly burned the city down trying to stay warm. And all she could do was sit there, staring at the wall, waiting for sleep to claim her. Another day of no progress, and another night of nopony being there… But there was a somecreature there. “I… Hello, Cozy.” a voice spoke up, interrupting whatever thoughts ran through the filly’s head. She barely reacted, keeping her eyes on the wall, “Oh… It’s you.” “Yes… Me. Listen, Cozy, I wanted to ask you… Are you alright?” Cozy growled, her eyes narrowing, “Gee, do I look alright to you?” “I… I know it’s a sore topic. But what happened?” “Just messing up something big and important I was working so hard on… Almost burning down the city. Just being a- …a villain.” Cozy Glow sunk into herself even more. “You tried something new and you failed. I don’t see how that’s something bad.” Cozy snorted, “You don’t get why it’s bad. It’s not the first time it’s happened,” she lazily waved a hoof in the air, “I used to want everypony in my home town to like me, but I was an orphan. Everything I did for them, I still lived in a rundown shack with ponies who didn’t care if I came home the next day, and everypony else didn’t like me any better,” her voice became more heated as she continued, more aggressive, “So I decided to run away, to try something new, and to make myself the only friend ponies needed. I had a whole big plan, and put everything I had into pulling it off. Every pony would always like me if I was the only skilled pony left… I’d be the best, and ponies wouldn’t just have me as a friend, they’d want me as a friend! “But when I tried Tirek’s spell to get rid of all magic, to make it so I was the only pony they could rely on, I was stopped at the last second, and sent to Tartarus. All that effort, planning, time spent on it… And I failed again. “And then there’s taking over Equestria! I couldn’t make friends anymore with everypony knowing how much of a villain I am, how bad of a pony I am, so I worked with Tirek and Chrysalis, and took down everypony!” she flopped down onto the bedding even more, eyes screwed shut, “But I didn’t win… I conquered Equestria and everything in it, but now there’s nothing to rule. The Windigoes just came and took over… And now I’m losing again.” She got a burst of energy, violently springing to her hooves and glaring up to the ceiling, “And I hate it! I hate losing! I hate the world hating me! So yes, failing was something bad, and all of Equestria is going to keep making me fail!” She heaved breaths, letting them flow in and out of her, not caring how she might look. It was a rant that had built up for a while in her. “Cozy… I-” “And you…” Cozy interrupted the voice, “You’re here, mocking me. Trying to make me feel better? You’re just another pony waiting to see me fail, to point and laugh!” “No, I’m not, please, I don’t want you to-“ “Leave me alone!” Cozy screamed out, hurling all her frustration and anger into those three words. There was silence for a while as Cozy stood there on the sheets of the bed, her breath falling slowly. And eventually, the voice answered back one last time. “…As you wish.” And Cozy didn’t hear it again that night.