Diary of Cozy Glow
It was about 6 months since Prince Swiftblade first invaded Taralos, the winter snow gathered at my hooves as I stepped upon the podium to address the masses, trying to convince as many of them as possible to conscript. Some would consider the things I was about to say dishonest. I would say I would be willing to say anything if it strengthened the King's position against the usurper.
After months of bitter fighting, the attackers had been repelled, for now. The undead soldiers provided by Darkmoon and the Tribe of Bones shamans seemed to have given us a significant advantage, even if their existence was difficult to justify in my speeches, the pact had been worth it judging by the fact that unlike our enemies, our dead could be recycled, given a chance to serve Taralos once again. The soldiers who had chosen this path were grateful, but they did unnerve the commonfolk.
A battleline had been stabilized as both armies prepared for the winter. There hadn't been much aggression from the enemy since the heavy snow had started to fall. But this didn't mean I could rest, there were still matters of logistics, supply lines and recruitment to deal with. The weather could let up any day and allow the invaders to launch another attack, when they did, it was my job to make sure we were ready.
I had spent the last several months traveling from city to city, town to town, village to village, trying to inspire the people with my speeches. My current location was a small town called Green Square, the very same town where I had spent my first night of passion with Night’s Blessing. Unfortunately, she had to return to her husband and clan, I hadn’t seen her for six months, I hoped she was doing alright. The town had gathered to hear my speech, they seemed eager, yet apprehensive. Which made perfect sense during times of war, they didn’t know if they would live past winter both due to enemy attacks, the effects the harsh weather and the effetcs warfare had on their supplies. A lot of grain that would otherwise go to the villagers I convinced the King should now go to the soldiers. Some people may starve, yet if we couldn’t repel the usurper quickly, drawn out conflict would have yet to worse effects on the citizenry, and Swift Blade’s Clockwork soldiers didn’t seem they needed ordinary substance. This, among other things, is what I had to explain to the citizens of Green Square.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, I know times are tough right now, the enemy is at our doorstep, the vile Prince Swift Blade is seeking to overthrow our benevolent King Shining Horn. I know you are all upset over the additional supplies requested by the army, and you are uncertain if you would live past winter. That’s why I’m doing everything in my power to finish this war as quickly as possible. And to do that we require the aid of as many willing recruits as possible. I know many of you may die, which is why you are provided the option to return from the grave by the magic of our allies in the Tribe of Bones. I know many of you may think of necromancy as unsavory and unnatural, but the way it is practiced by the Tribe of Bones is different from how it would be practiced by a run-of-the-mill necromancer. The most important difference is that for the shamans of the Tribe of Bones, consent is key. While other necromancers force the dead back against their will and make them their slaves, the Tribe of Bones always offer the dead a choice, and they won’t be mindless puppets, but possessing the faculties and the spirit of the pony they were in life. It won’t be for everyone, but I am going to offer those that are willing a choice, both in whenever or not they want to join the army, and whenever they want to be resurrected upon death, as this is a privilege extended only to members of the military who give their lives in defense of Taralos. In order to achieve victory as quickly as possible and therefore minimize the suffering the citizens of Taralos have to go through, we need as much support as possible, I swear to you that those who risk their lives in the name of the King will be honored in both this life and beyond. For they are the foundation on which his kingdom is… ”
My speech trailed off as I thought I noticed a familiar figure in the crowd, a young mare with mane in the same style as mine, golden in color, with an ebony white coat, red eyes and a pair of rectangular spectacles, I knew this pony, yet this was impossible, it must just be a look-alike or an interdimensional counterpart. Yet when our eyes met, she gave me a warm smile as in recognition. Aurora? No, that was impossible, Aurora was dead. I tried my best to get my bearings in order to continue the speech, I had to repeat the last sentence.
“For they are the foundation on which his kingdom is built.”
After I finished the speech, about half of the audience clapped their hooves, the other half was still apprehensive. The pony that looked like Aurora was among the ponies that clapped. About 25% of the audience conscripted, rather good numbers all things considered, among those being the pony that looked like Aurora and an older, more mature mare with a light green coat, a dark red mane, a cutie mark resembling a ladybug and a pair of piercing green eyes that seemed all too familiar. Yet I couldn’t really place her. She introduced herself as Crackle Cosette, her “daughter” introduced herself as… I could hardly believe my ears…Aurora Glow. Now that I had a closer look at her, Aurora’s cutie mark what that of an alchemical vial, filled with a green liquid, potentially signifying a talent in alchemy or chemistry. And of course, she looked older than I ever knew her to be, as she died as a filly.
Explaining who Aurora was to me is complicated, she was like my best friend and my sister all in one. We grew up in an orphanage in Manehattan together, we were inseparable. Until my arrogance and desire for recognition drove us apart, and she ended her own existence shortly afterwards, left without a friend in the world. The price paid in blood to a demon which I inadvertently had made a contract. I had been trying to hunt down said demon ever sense and never had any success, even with all the dark arts taught to be by Tirek. I was so overwhelmed by the situation I could do nothing but stammer…
“But, you died. How can you be here?”
At this Aurora gave me another warm smile and approached me for a hug, I embraced her back, it was so long ago I last felt her presence.
“Believe it or not, you saved me.” She told me. It was then the memories returned, vague recollections of a horrific nightmare, a forest of whispering trees, gnawed upon by harpies, Aurora had been one of these trees. Until now I thought it was nothing more than a nightmare. Me and Aurora decided to rent a room at the local inn in order to catch up, after I finished my work handling the paperwork for the new conscripts of course.
Aurora told me many interesting things, including of how after her suicide, she was trapped in a nightmare realm for Celestia knows how long, existing only as a disfigured tree that was ripped apart by harpies on a daily basis, this was until I freed her from that torment and she was sent back to Equestria, now in the form of a fully grown mare. But Equestria was no longer how she remembered it, Celestia was nowhere to be seen and her protégé Twilight Sparkle had grown insane, becoming a horrible tyrant. So, she had joined the resistance based in the Crystal Empire, but as things went wrong, she had migrated to this world together with Princess Flurry Heart, Tirek and Chrysalis. I thought I recognized that mare with the ladybird cutie mark, Chrysalis had used this disguise before, I didn’t know why I didn’t recognize it immediately. But the things Aurora told me about Twilight were quite alarming, when I told her that Twilight had been at my side in this world for years, that whoever the tyrant who rolled over Equestria was, it wasn’t Twilight Sparkle. Aurora seemed somewhat relieved to hear that, apparently many members of the resistance had refused to believe this was the real Twilight Sparkle, instead calling them Midnight as a result. Some had even whispered that… Get this… Midnight was the archvillain Cozy Glow. I wasn’t sure if I should feel honored or insulted by that insinuation. But Aurora told me she never believed those rumors anyway, but then proceeded to ask me why I turned to villainy in the first place.
I didn’t really have a good answer for that as I didn’t really know myself, I could only speculate it had something to do with both my desire for glory and the emptiness I felt once I lost Aurora. I told her as much and she nodded quietly before telling me:
“Don’t worry, this time, I intend to stick around.”
However, what Aurora had told me about Midnight had made me rather desperate to seek out Twilight Sparkle, she either deserves to be warned about the tyrant who had taken over her realm, or she possessed valuable information on the subject, information she had been keeping from me for one reason or another. Maybe she still didn’t fully trust me, and honestly, I couldn’t quite blame her for that. However, when I tried to approach Twilight’s room, she was nowhere to be found. When I decided to go to Sunset’s room to question her about Twilight’s whereabouts, she just told me she was visiting a friend and that I should come back later. Sunset inquired if there was anything in particular, I needed from Twilight, I decided to trust her. Telling her how I ran into both Aurora and Chrysalis in Green Square and how both signed up for the army and what Aurora had told me about Midnight. Sunset’s face went pale when she heard that name, she clearly recognized it, and I have seen no other name inspire such terror in her before. That was certainly not a good sign. I demanded she tell me everything she knew about Midnight, Sunset sighed and reluctantly agreed:
“Ever heard of multiverse theory? It is pretty relevant to our current existence as we are currently in an alternate reality. In case you haven’t, imagine that for every choice you could have made during your life, there is an alternate reality where the choice was made. For that reason, there are realities where Cozy Glow never became a villain, and realities where Twilight Sparkle made the choice to be the worst villain of them all. Midnight is a version of Twilight from a world where she made the choice to be a villain. Note how I emphasize she made that choice, as no being is predestined to be either good or evil by their genetics alone, rather I have found it to more dependent on environmental factors that shape our decisions. When Twilight left Equestria, she left a power vacuum that Midnight decided to fill. Twilight has been trying desperately to get back to Equestria ever since, with little success. I think she regrets getting so distracted by the threat you could have posed while free that she momentarily forgot she was leaving her kingdom open for the taking by following you here.”
This was quite interesting information, with many implications. Implications I couldn’t help but get curious about. I asked her:
“If Twilight Sparkle in the universe was evil, who was Cozy Glow? Was she a hero?”
Sunset seems to get visibly uncomfortable by that question, very clearly was something she didn’t want to talk about. But I insisted as her military commander that she answer me to the best of her ability, she reluctantly agreed.
“Cozy Glow was the leader of a group known as the Elements of Freedom, that world’s equivalent of the Elements of Harmony. She led a rebellion against Midnight, Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, together with 5 other champions from the different creatures of that world, changelings, griffins, dragons, hippogriffs and Yaks. She is…was… A good friend.”
Sunset lowered her head in sadness as she said that last sentence. I couldn’t help but to inquire what happened to her. Sunset was at first very tight-lipped, refusing to answer my question. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened, but I wanted to hear it from her own mouth. Eventually, after minutes of argument, she eventually relented.
“After successfully destroying Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. Cozy Glow, champion of light, perished in the final battle against Midnight, together with the other elements. Leaving that world in the total control of Midnight, allowing her to expand her dominion into other worlds. I was reluctant to tell you as I am currently very pleased with your current direction in life. Being a hero suits you Cozy, I was afraid you might be discouraged from this path if you learned there was no guarantee for a happy ending. Or worse, become convinced you were always fated for failure regardless of your path in life.”
A sense of dread came over me when I heard what she had to say. Yet I quickly suppressed these emotions and portrayed a façade of fake calm.
“Don’t worry Sunset, I have no intention of ruining the great life I have built for myself here in Taralos, we will be successful in defeating Swift Blade, and when that’s said and done, we will eventually take the fight to Midnight as well and win back the throne for Twilight, she is bound to respect me after that. There is just one thing I need to ask you, villains normally have a reason for being the way they are, why did Midnight turn to villainy?”
Sunset appears to be deep in thoughts for just a moment before she replied:
“Honestly, I doubt Midnight ever saw herself as a villain, rather she prefers to see herself as an agent of law and order. She believes that personal freedom is a detractor to perfect order and therefore seeks to suppress freedom wherever she can, often by means of ruling through terror. Unlike me, who believes criminals can change and therefore always tries to help them become better people. Midnight is rather in the habit of inflicting horrifically cruel punishments upon those either brave or foolhardy enough to arouse her anger believing that the fear of punishment will keep people in line and in short order. But this tendency is also what makes her evil in the eyes of most reasonable ponies. You wouldn’t believe the things Midnight has inflicted on others in the name of order, you would be paralyzed by fear if I even described them. Let’s just say that while what happened to you, permanent petrification, is a horrific and barbaric punishment, if that were all Midnight would do to you, you should probably consider yourself lucky. It’s why I will always consider the likes of Midnight to be worse than you ever were Cozy. Villains who act out of selfishness and a desire for personal glory are one thing, but I have found the ones to truly watch out for are the ones that are willing to justify any atrocious act in the name of some greater ideology. The worst of villains nearly always consider themselves righteous and without fault.”
Sunset had given me a lot to think about, I thanked her for the information, giving her a hug to make sure she knew I appreciated everything she had done for me. Sunset’s views on villainy were quite interesting to me, and I had to admit that all I had heard about Midnight made my very blood freeze in terror. If I ever had to confront her, I hoped it was far in the future yet, if Twilight would find a way get back to Equestria, I was sure she was going to ask me and Sunset to aid her in taking back her throne. I tried suppressing thoughts about what would happen to us on that fateful day if we failed, given everything that Sunset told me about Midnight, I was glad the other Cozy only suffer death by her hooves, and not something significantly worse.