//------------------------------//
// Hedging Her Bets 
// Story: AlwaysDressesInStyle's Ponyville CiderFest '23 Interactive App Stories 
// by AlwaysDressesInStyle 
//------------------------------//

Hook: Cozy Glow tries to take out an insurance policy against deus ex machina... with cookies.

Cover art by volrathxp



Story: 188
Title: Hedging Her Bets
Keyword: Turncoat
Character: Cozy Glow
Hero/Villain/Chaos





The doorbell rings and you interrupt your routine to answer it.  A curly-haired Filly Guide is standing on your porch.  “Wanna buy some cookies?”

There’s only one correct answer to this question.  The more appropriate question is ‘how many boxes can I put you down for?’  “I’ll take one box of each flavor, please.”

The filly invites herself inside, pushing past you, then pulls out a glowing page with all kinds of odd writing on it.  She writes your order down, and the cookies appear out of thin air.

“How’d you do that?” you ask.

“Golly, it’s a little trick I picked up.  Gosh, maybe I can let you in on the secret since you bought so many cookies.”  She flutters her eyelashes at you, and giggles. There’s something unsettling about her laugh.  You look past her scout uniform and take a good look at the filly underneath.  You recognize her instantly – it’s Cozy Glow.

You start backing away from her in panic.  Not that you can go far.  Besides, she’s in your house.  She knows where you live.

“Look, I don’t have much time, so I’ll skip straight to the point.  Don’t think I’m going all goody four-shoes just because of this… but I’ve seen this play before.  I’ve got everything and everypony right where I want them… and then defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory.  I’ve had an all-powerful enchanted object before.  I’ve had partners in crime.  Despite every advantage, I’ve still lost every single time.  I’m getting tired of being defeated.  I think Tirek is too, even if he won’t admit it.  He’s really, really old, so he’s been defeated like a bunch more times than I have.  I want to beat him to the punch.  If somepony’s going to sell out our plans, it’s going to be me.”

She holds out several pages. “The villains are outsmarted.” She flips to the next.  “The villains are defeated.”  She keeps flipping through the pages.  “Dues ex machina.  Oh, I really hate that one.  The villain does everything right and still gets her hindquarters kicked.”  She reaches the end of the pile.  “Do you know how many of these stories end with the villains winning?”

“Uh…”

“Not many.”  She sighs.  “I’m not stupid.  I know how this game works and I don’t want to lose yet again.  So I’m hedging my bets, playing both sides of the field.  Maybe when this all shakes out you’ll be bowing to me and calling me ‘empress’, or as I like to call it, ‘the happy ending’. Or maybe this interaction is the only thing standing between me and being a pigeon roost.  Again.  I call this ‘the realistic ending’.  This time I plan on being on the winning side, whichever one that might happen to be.” 

She pauses.  “Okay, I get it, I’m not going to earn your trust in a few minutes.  So I’ll pose this question instead: would I sell out my own teammates?”

“If you had something to gain…” You trail off, realizing that the diminutive pegasus does in fact have something to gain.

“Oh, looks like both your brain cells are working.  I love a good backstabbing.”  She scribbles on her page again and more cookies appear.  “Now, do you want the heroes to have a fighting chance, or do you want to keep staring at me like you’ve never seen a Filly Guide before? You’d have to be a fool to trust me. I’m not a good pony, and I’m not going to pretend to be.  But… maybe this is all the hope your pathetic team has of winning.”  She offers the page to you.





[CHOICE]Do you trust her?

>Yes.  Take the page. (Hero)

>No.  Don’t take the page. (Villain)

>No, but you take the page anyway. (Chaos)