//------------------------------// // The Day She Goes To Ponyville // Story: The Days She Spent // by Frazzle2Dazzle //------------------------------// Cozy Glow wasn’t happy. It wasn’t some sudden realization she had come to, but a slow awakening to the truth. Every day she would wake up to a cold and lonely castle, every day she would go look for more spells to try and make stuff better, and every day she would go back to sleep no closer to finding a resolution. Some days she would test some of the spells, but maybe it was her inexperience with magic, or just that she hadn’t found the right spell, but every time it would almost work but fail at the end. Sometimes houses would catch on fire, other times the stonework would crack apart, and on one occasion several pieces of the city would disappear entirely. She may have been an alicorn, but her strength in magic was only in how much she had of it, and none of the skill that came from using it. Cozy Glow didn’t enjoy any of it. She didn’t enjoy the eternal cold, and the Windigoes, and being unable to do anything about them. She didn’t enjoy being alone. She was almost certain she was the only living pony left within Equestria. Everypony else had to have fled to some other country, or for the unlucky ones, fallen victim to the cold, the Windigoes, or even Chrysalis and Tirek. Those two… She was certain they were alive. At least… Cozy liked to think they were alive. She hadn’t been visited by them, hadn’t felt their magic anytime, and hadn’t gotten any messages from them. For all she knew, they had fallen off the face of the planet. They had to be out there, somewhere… Terrorizing the world, taking over other countries, maybe trying to find a way to banish the Windigoes themselves. But Cozy didn’t know if she’d ever see them again. She could only keep trying to find the right spell… What was the use of all the power she had if she couldn’t defeat a bunch of ghosts with it? There had to be a spell, a ritual, some kind of magic she could do, something that would let her win… She had to do this. She had to. She… … Would she…? Cozy decided to take a break. She had gone through almost every one of the books she could understand on wards, ghosts, fires, anything she thought could help, even the books left in Celestia’s and Luna’s old towers, though those didn’t offer more than diaries and some very… Strange fiction. The former only secondhandedly relayed information on some artifacts, while the latter she threw out the windows. She kept note of the artifacts for the future, but kept her focus on what was in the Castle. She hadn’t managed to get into the forbidden spells, an ever changing magic lock keeping them from even being looked at, much less opened. Whatever Celestia did to them, they were a lot more solid than other locked books. The rest of the library had everything else, spell books that weren’t useful against ghosts, magical theory of oh so many frustrating kinds, and various other fancy books on everything from the founding of Equestria to what last century’s best mage liked for breakfast. It was all so pointless, and she had tried all of the spells she looked at over and over and over and over and over- She needed this break. She needed to get away from the castle. It was only a matter of what to do, and where to go. Canterlot didn’t have much left of it, the only piece left intact being the castle itself, sticking out like a sore feather amidst the rubble, scorch marks, and various other things the city had been subjected to. The only thing she could say for sure survived from it was the piece of cake she had saved, the rest of the city too disrupted to recognize anything of value, nothing for anycreature to live in even if this mess was resolved. The streets were barely anything more than rubble. Meaning that that one... 'Statue', was likely gone too… …Cozy decided on Ponyville. If anyplace was going to have any more magic for her to use, it would be Twilight’s school of friendship, or maybe her big crystal castle. Even if she wasn’t going to try those spells out right away, she could at least see if they were there. She didn’t need to be burnt out even more while trying to get away from her problems. What pony would try and do that to themselves? Certainly not Cozy. Surely not. Cozy tore the inside of the crystal castle to pieces. Figuratively, of course. It would make a nice summer home when she fixed the Windigo problem, after all. But all of the furniture was overturned, drawers pulled out of desks and doors ripped off of wardrobes, everywhere she went through the castle there was a trail of ruined rooms behind her. What wasn’t there, though? Books. Not even something as innocent as a pamphlet or a paper plane. Everything was just… Gone. It was infuriating, and Cozy swore she could feel her blood boiling. Princess Twilight ‘Bookworm’ Sparkle, the pony who might have read twice as much in her short life than anypony else could have, so terminally involved in books that it was a health risk put on signs around her own school of Friendship! She knew, she helped put them up! But what does Cozy find when she visits the castle Twilight lived in? Not so much as a piece of construction paper. Sure… It had been a few months since Twilight had died. Maybe some stray ponies took some of the books in the meantime. But Cozy had gone through rooms of nothing but empty bookcases, stretching to the ceiling and along the walls, rows and rows in the middle, but not a single scrap on a single shelf! Nopony could do that much, right?! “Agghh!” Cozy screamed out, clutching her hair as she sat on one of the chairs, even if it was sideways, “What did Twilight do to this place?!” Who else could have gotten every single book in the entire castle except for the pony who knew it best. …But Twilight didn’t know it best. A half forgotten memory rose to the surface of Cozy’s raging mind, of a strange night where she encountered six peculiar students of the school in the halls, talking about the Tree of Harmony. They had met the Tree of Harmony, talked to it even. This castle was made by the Tree. But Sombra destroyed it, or at least that’s what she saw from Grogar- Discord’s, scrying orb. If it survived, though… “It’s better than being in this dump…” she muttered, wings fluttering her into the air and down the halls to the big front door of the crystal castle. Wherever those books went, she would get to the bottom of it. True to his word, Tirek had picked the Everfree clean of magic, no monstrous plants or chimeras or manticores were left to fight and keep her out. All that was left was a wasteland of dead trees, covered in snow and ice with their dead branches sticking out of the top. On and on she went, making her way over the canopies, navigating closer and closer to- “Finally!” she grinned as she saw the fabled Castle of the Two Sisters come into view. She looked around the area, fluttering her wings through the icy air while she tried to remember some half forgotten descriptions of the tree from when she heard Twilight and her friends talk about it. “If the castle is here…” she muttered to herself, “Than the bridge and chasm should- There!” Cozy dove down, plunging past a rickety bridge and into a small canyon in the ground, slamming to a halt inches from the ground with her wings. It was a simple matter for her to look and find the cave Twilight and her friends had gone through, and start on her own journey to the last place the Tree of Harmony once lived. ...Though she barely got two hoofsteps before she froze in her tracks, eyes wide as her ears twitched. She heard voices. Real, actual, living voices, muffled but still recognizable, coming from somewhere in the cave. Neither of which were Tirek or Chrysalis... She walked on cautiously, the voices growing steadily louder as she approached a bend in the tunnel, launching into stark clarity as she made it around the bend to see a big crystal structure, very similar to the Crystal Castle in Ponyville. "...I don't know how much longer we can do this." That voice! It was the same one that kept talking to her! "Everypony deserves a second chance." Cozy felt her heart stop in her chest. That was Twilight's voice. What- How- ? "But nopony deserves to be tortured!" The Voice snapped back, "It's been months here, when will it be enough?" "When Cozy learns her lesson," Twilight's voice was cold, colder than the icy world outside the cave, and Cozy couldn't help shivering, "That she can't win." "Celestia's sake- She's a foal! You haven’t been here, I've watched day in and day out, she cries to sleep most nights, she doesn't have anypony! And you just heard how she reacted to the dead pony! She might think she killed the world, for how she's acting!" Cozy shrunk into herself, though felt a building rage at her personal life being laid bare. She couldn't just sit outside this... Treehouse, or whatever it was, while this voice kept spilling what she did to this- this Twilight impersonator! Cozy started marching up to the structure as Twilight's voice continued, "You seem to forget your place, Armin." "And you've forgotten how to treat a scared Filly! She's not Discord, she's a pony who needs to feel wanted, not miserable, not-" The voice stopped as she got to the entrance of the structure, peering in to see a strange translucent image of Twilight, next to her a much more solid Crystal creature that looked just like Spike the dragon, wings and all, both of them staring at her with wide eyes, "...You weren't supposed to hear that." The Crystal being, Armin, finished lamely. "What the buck?!" Cozy shouted, staring at the pair of clearly not normal creatures. "What an interesting opportunity..." 'Twilight' seemed to think out loud, her expression schooling itself into a smirk before turning to Armin, "You claim she deserves mercy?" "What- Mercy?! What's going on here?!" Cozy glared at the two... Who seemed to be ignoring what she said. "Since she already knows, I think it's enough of the charade. Make me believe this Cozy has what it takes to be redeemed, and I'll let her be free of this," Twilight gestured around, seeming to emphasize something to Armin that Cozy couldn't figure out. "And if she isn't ready?" "We reset... We try again... Rinse and repeat," her tone was clinical in its coldness, and Cozy felt herself shiver even more. There was a sigh before he spoke again, "Fine. Give me a day with her before I plead her case." "One day... And not an hour more." With that the Twilight image blinked out of existence and left Cozy with the crystal dragon, standing alone in the cold crystal structure. "Listen... I know this is going to be confusing-" Cozy glared at the dragon, cutting him off, "Bucking hell it is! Why is-" she gestured to where Twilight was, "SHE, still alive!" Armin flinched a little, but stood his ground, "First of all, she wasn't who you think she was. She wasn't Twilight... She is the Tree of Harmony," he gestured at the crystal structure, which looked even more tree-like the more Cozy stared at it, "When Sombra destroyed the original tree, pieces of her were remade, and reformed to be this treehouse." "And what does that make you?" she walked up to the crystal dragon, poking her hoof into him with a small tink as it connected with his hard stomach, "Did you come here from the Crystal Empire?" Gently pushing the hoof away, he shook his head, "I may not be as powerful as her, but I am still a spirit of Harmony. And..." he tilted his head to the side eyes closed, "You were actually at this Equestria's version of me earlier. Sigh... I should've payed more attention..." "This version of-" Cozy's eyes widened at the various implications, but unable to ask everything at once, settled on the first, "You're the Castle of Friendship?!" He nodded, one claw raising to show a projection of a box she had seen pictures of, from the first time Tirek had tried to take over Equestria, showing it change into the crystal castle that stood in Ponyville, "From this seed the Tree of Harmony gave Twilight and her friends, I was born to assist them much the same way that Spike is Twilight's assistant. You could say that Harmony is... Something of a sibling, or a mother to me," closing his claw into a fist, the projection faded, "But please, call me Armin." Cozy Glow, however, backed away with her horn glowing as she readied her magic, "You... You've been spying on me! And you're from some- some other Equestria!" she felt her blood starting to pump harder as her breathing increased, but kept focused as she readied the magic in her horn. "What, spying-? I'm here to help you!" Armin held up his hands placatingly, "I don't want to hurt you, Cozy Glow, please." Cozy settled for a growl, her horn almost fully ready, "I don't want your help! I don't need your help! I just want you," the magic surged from her horn, "to leave me ALONE!" And her world turned black.