Chapter 175 - Surprise!
Hide n’ Seek, now that you had time to think about it, how the hell did you actually get roped into playing this? No, of course, you just followed along because Cozy is cute and wanted to play a game. Your mind muddled by all this doom and gloom, and now you have to try to uplift yourself in a childish game. Whatever, at least you get to sharpen your detective skills. Hell, if you’re quick, Silverstream will probably be even more impressed with you, meaning more feathery cuddles. Then there was that super secret surprise. The hell could that be? For some reason, it felt ominous, but you couldn’t tell why. Maybe it was just the castle, or the thoughts of the Storm Ravager. Either way, you find yourself lost in thought as you enter a wide hallway, adorned with dusty old tapestry and mostly rusty suits of armor set on both sides of the hallway in a line.
Actually, suits of armors, in a game of hide and seek. Welp, this is too obvious. Wanting to take the guesswork out of it, you simply go to the end of the hall and knock over the suit of armor on the right, causing a domino effect that causes suits of armor to fall upon themselves. yelps of surprise are heard as you see… Sandbar and Scootaloo? Two? Wut? Scootaloo was in an armor farther back than Sandbar, but, why were they both hiding here at all? “Sandbar? Scoots?”
“Gyah!” Sandbar yelped as he slipped out of the armor and onto his belly. “Woah! What?! How did you manage to hear me? I was super quiet!”
“Y-yeah, Anon. Wait, how did you know I was here too? Darn it! It was supposed to be the perfect hiding spot! You’d find Sandbar and then think nopony else was hiding in the armor! So how did you know?!” Scootaloo said as she quickly stood up and stomped over to you, annoyed that she could be found so easily.
You shrug. Geez, maybe she had a right to be upset, but come on! “I-I mean, I didn’t know who was in the armor. I just know everypony likes to hide in them, so… Y’know, I just knocked em over to find out who was hiding in them. Didn’t even know both of you were here. Come on, Scoots, haven’t you hung around me enough to figure out obvious tropes like that?”
“Tropes?” Scootaloo asked, confused, until she also realized you didn’t even know she was in the armor. “Wait… So everypony thinks everypony else just hides in suits of armor? I mean, what if they don’t fit?”
You shrug again. “Then they don’t fit. But I knew some of you did, soooo, y’know, why not check?”
“Yeah, no, that makes sense. Wow, didn’t even think it’d be that obvious though. No wonder you’re the hero colt, you pretty much got everything figured out.” Sandbar said, impressed with your deductive reasoning.
“I mean, yeah.” recognition of talent, you gotta love it. “Gotta figure out all the tricks if you’re gonna go face to face with a villain.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Scootaloo says with a defeated sigh, then gives you a bit of a stink eye, before finally smirking. “I mean, you’re cool, Anon. But just remember Rainbow Dash is just a little cooler.”
As if she couldn’t stop reminding you. “I know, I know. Welp, let me see if I can’t find everycreature else, seeya guys later.” And with that, you ventured deeper into the halls of the old castle. These halls, they were damned huge, and you had to wonder if anyone hiding from you had ended up getting lost themselves or hitting some sort of secret door. Then there was the second floor. Like damn, you got lucky with the suits of armor, but there was so much to explore, you may end up actually losing if you don’t try to figure out where the others might hide.
After some walking around, you end up in an old library, with shelves lined with old books. You had to wonder if they were all legible at this point, as you weren’t quite sure when this castle was abandoned for the one in Canterlot. You raise an ear to try to hear any deep breathing or movement, but there was nothing. “Yona? Smolder? Sweetie Belle?” No response. Cozy was the smallest out of all of them, so maybe if you… “Aha! No. HA! Darnit! Hmmm.” You thought maybe she’d be hiding behind the books on the shelves, but every time you moved some loose books, you found nothing. Perhaps the room was just empty.
Then again, you could always just be a cheap asshole. If someone was hiding here, there was an underhanded way of drawing them out. “Wow, this place is so darn dusty. I wonder what would happen if I used my horn to light a fire.” You say in a nonchalant manner.
“Anon! Are you crazy!” Sweetie Belle calls out as she stumbles out from behind some books on the higher parts of a bookcase, in a place you had no way of reaching. She herself falls on her head, and lets out a yelp as she holds onto it. “Agh! That hurts!”
“I mean, maybe for you.” Haha, seems that little trick worked. “Almost got me, Sweetie Belle. But you couldn’t hide forever.”
“Couldn’t hide for-What?!” Sweetie Belle suddenly springs into position as she looks at you with heavy surprise. “You t-tricked me?! You weren’t going to burn this place down?!”
“No. Wow, Sweetie Belle, you fell for the oldest trick in the book. Looks like you lose.” You say with a dominant snicker.
“That’s not fair! You tricked me!” Sweetie Belle repeats, defiant of her loss.
“Did I? I only said I’d wonder what would happen, not that I was gonna do it.” Another one down. And how good that the one took down was Sweetie Belle.
She raised her hoof, then nearly gave a goofy look as she realized you were right. “A-a-er. I-I guess that’s true.” Then she began to smack at her forehead when she came to the conclusion she made a dumb move. “Darn it! And I was in such a good hiding spot too! How could I be so dumb?!”
“Relax, Sweetie Belle, it’s just a game.” You say, acting mature, but really just wanting to rub it in as subtly as possible. “Just remember that next time, when somepony says something outlandish like that, they probably are just doing it to flush you or anypony else out.”
“I guess. Well, next time, I’m not falling for it!” Sweetie Belle said as she passed by you, staring at you hard, as if to seem like she was going to give more of a challenge next time.
“Yeah, next time.” You whisper to yourself, rolling your eyes the moment she leaves the room. “Literally beating a bunch of children here on this one.” You say to yourself as you make your exit, looking back at Sweetie as she heads back towards the throne room. “Hmmm, that surprise Cozy was talking about.” You say as you begin to wander down this train of thought, letting yourself be lead to an archway that seems to lead down to a spiral staircase downwards. Something, even with Cozy’s obvious innocence, was nagging you to take a look.
“I could take a peek, but…” You wanted to check, you felt like it would just be good to make sure everything was fine. But you also didn’t want to break Cozy’s trust. Or even worse, make her upset with most of your friends present. It wouldn’t be a good look for you. Probably would just be best to find everyone else for now.
But where to look? You had a ton of the first floor left, and god knows what was on the second floor. Smolder seemed the type who would just find a really good high spot and hide there, same with Gallus. Yona however, she shakes the floor wherever she runs or stomps, and yet you couldn’t get a sense of her position at all.
Gallus, Applebloom, Ocellus, Silverstream… Dammit, where could any of them be? You leave the spiral staircase for now and go looking for another big room to search in. And yet here posed the next problem; what was the time limit? Surely you couldn’t just spend all your time looking for everyone. “Dammit, how am I going to find everyone in time?” You say to yourself as you take a turn on a hallway, and notice paintings, old paintings, all staring back at you. “Huh…” Yeah, what was the possibility of someone hiding behind one of these? You know one of them has to have a hidden compartment of some kind, but which one?
“Anon? There you are.” Said a familiar voice, catching you off guard and making you jump in fright. Given the castle’s already spooky atmosphere, even expecting someone to be following you was a scary thought. “Woah! Woah! Hold on, it’s me!”
You look back, shocked, taking a breath before calming down. It was... Smolder? Shit, you tense up, relax, and try to act cool. “Smolder? Oh, uh, hi? Er, what happened to hiding?”
Smolder shrugged “I was hiding behind one of the old thrones. When you didn’t bother to check them, I sort of figured you were never going to find me and decided to give you a freebie. Noticed you found some of the others though, how’d you manage that but not find me?”
Er… “Um, I guess I didn’t think anyone was going to hide in the same room I was starting in, given how huge this place is. But really? The throne? Let’s say I did decide to check those first, why even hide there?”
Smolder shrugged “Dunno, I think maybe I knew you weren’t going to check there, because it would be pretty dumb for anycreature to hide there. Do they call that reverse logic or something? I dunno, but I’ll just consider this a personal win and use this time to ask you this question, been kinda bothering me all day.”
A question? “What is it? The question, I mean.”
“You and Cozy, don’t you think your friendship with her is a little weird?” Smolder asked. Why did she even think that? That was a random ass question.
“In what sense?” You ask, until you suddenly let out a groan. “Wait, don’t tell me, you’re gonna just mention how she’s a girl and stuff, right?”
“Actually, no. It’s more like it’s just a little weird. Did you know she’s been hanging around Silverstream a lot?” Smolder asked.
“Er, no? I’m usually doing a million different things. Is there a problem with that?” You ask
“Look, I’ll just put it this way. Cozy seems to know a lot of things about you, stuff I thought you only told me, Ocellus, the crusaders, and the professors and the princesses too. But that isn’t even the weirdest thing. Like, I get it if you told her some stuff, But then she’s been telling Silverstream stuff like ‘Anon has a lot of secrets he doesn’t tell anycreature else.’ or ‘Did you know Anon keeps a creepy changeling outside his window?’. But then Silverstream told me that Cozy told her about the fact you’re from another dimension. I told her that probably wasn’t true, but then Ocellus confirmed it. Only thing she didn’t mention was your whole thing with that bug queen. But she knows anyway, doesn’t she? She has to if she somehow knows about you having some changeling outside your window. What’s up with that anyway? Ocellus said it was her former captain or something, but then I thought that was Applebloom’s friend.” Smolder explained.
And then, oh god, you began to turn white. “W-well, did Ocellus tell her about the captain? I-I mean, just to let you know, he kinda lives in my basement now, since he isn’t crazy evil anymore.” You don’t remember telling Cozy about Jimmy, or as he was before, the X-Captain. And the fact that information was starting to spread was more than alarming.
“Pretty sure she didn’t, she seemed pretty surprised when I brought it up to her. She thought it was weird you’d tell anycreature at all about that. I thought it was weird you didn’t since you’re pretty open about her old queen, but apparently this former captain guy had a ton of screws loose.” Smolder, as she walked with you, noticed you stop as you began to turn ghostly white. “Anon? You alright?”
Cozy…
Your brain was working quick, and yet crashing at the same time. Was this a trap? Holy shit, a secluded spot, everyone in said spot, the lower floor holding a secret surprise? But then, why? Why them? Why you? What did Cozy have against any of you? Was she related to the Storm Ravager? No, he hates ponies… So…
It didn’t matter, you were sure you had things figured out, and so you began to double back towards the spiral staircase downwards. Smolder calls back to you, and begins to glide behind you, confused as to what you were doing. “Anon, are you ok? What’s up? Wait, are you going downstairs now? Isn’t it supposed to be a surprise?”
You stop at the start of the stairs. “Smolder, I need you to do me a favor.” You tell her as you look down the staircase, noticing that there was a faint shimmer of torch light coming from the walls.
“A favor? What?! Ok, now you’re really acting weird. Look, I dunno if what I said was wrong or bad or anything, but you're acting really off. Cut it out, ok?” Smolder said, crossing her arms as she gave you a stern look.
But the look you shot back at her, the deadly serious stare, it seemed to spook her just a bit. “Smolder, look, whatever is down there, it’s dangerous. I think I know what the surprise is, and if I’m right, I need you to find everycreature for me and get out of here.”
“Anon? Wha…” At first, she felt the dread, but then she shook her head and looked at you as if you were crazy. “You gotta be joking. Are you serious?”
“Smolder, I’m more serious than I ever have been before. Please…” You asked her, practically were willing to beg at this point. Did she not believe you? No, of course not, why would she?
She then gave you a gentle punch on the head, scoffed at you, grabbed a torch from the wall, and blew a small flame to light it up. “Yeah, I’m not doing that. Everycreature will be ok if we go deal with this now.”
“We?” Wut?! “What do you mean ‘we’? Look, I have insane chaotic magic, I can handle this on my own. Do you not remember what I did to your brother?”
Smolder shrugged as she carried on anyway, forcing you to follow behind. “Eh, Garble has been beaten lots of times. He acts tough, but he’s actually pretty gentle and nice deep down. Me, though? I’m tough, and if you’re that serious about something down there willing to hurt our friends, then I’m not gonna let you do it alone. Although, why would Cozy be behind whatever got you freaked out? Wouldn’t that make her evil or something?”
You were silent for a moment, thinking. Did it? Dammit, it pro- “Gyah!” Suddenly, you and Smolder nearly trip over when you both hear the screams of two familiar voices coming from the bottom of the spiral staircase.
“Silverstream?! And was that Cozy too?! What in the… Darn it! We’re coming!” Smolder looks back at you with urgency, grabs you, and begins to flap her wings as she zooms downwards, gripping you tight . “Geez! You were right! C’mon, c’mon! We’re already this close, we gotta get down there now!”
“W-waahh! Hold on! Woah!” But she just charged downward in flight anyway. Why was Silverstream down there?! Why did she scream now?! And Cozy too?! Why was she screaming?! You had no doubt in your mind now, it had to be the Storm Ravager. But then…
Dammit, what was going on?!
When Smolder and you reached the bottom, you both stood within a dimly lit and dank hallway, moldy, with tattered banners, webs littering the walls. But what shocked you the most were…. The baskets, there were baskets down here, same as in the forest, littering the ground. Smolder let you go to personally look around, as she found a few feathers belonging to Silverstream on the floor. “Anon! Silverstream… She was, she was here? What was she doing down here? What happened?!”
You gulped, fearing the worst. Did Cozy and the Sto- Oh no, nononno! What was that?! “Smolder, bring the torch over here.”
Smolder walked closer to where you were pointing, and when she raised the torch, you could see the visage of a young filly on the ground, against the wall, a broken torch beside here. She was barely breathing, bruised, and even as you approached, her forehead, it had… Blood? “Cozy Glow?”
It was her… It was her, why was it her?! As you stood in shock, trying to figure things out, Smolder rushed to Cozy’s side, immediately wiping the blood as she held Cozy carefully, asking if she was ok, begging her to tell her what happened.
Cozy coughed, she was awake but weak, her wings, her body, she was injured. She just looked towards you as her eyes became watery, and what she said filled your heart with the worst dread you ever felt. “S-sorry, Anon, I-I only tried to be like you…”
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so you're gonna pull the "cozy was innocent all along" card too?
Cozy kind of sus guy's
So...what she tried to `reform` the Storm Ravager or something like Anon or some stuff?
Now firstly I will admit the canon thing done to Cozy was...insane considering the other stuff, like turning the kid to stone...the hell people. But dunno how to feel about her being `innocent` or whatever. Eh I'll just watch and see how this plays out.
I don't know what to think on this one, for a few reasons.
Cozy Glow is absolutely a power hungry megalomaniac, that's what drove her towards trying to abuse friendship as a whole. Anon himself likely seems more powerful than Twilight and her friends just by the fact he's friends with a villain or two himself, and has more access to power than anyone else technically speaking. Him recruiting villain allies could and would likely make Cozy Glow want to attempt the same.
With that logic, Cozy saying she "Was trying to be like Anon" may not be false in this case. Its just that the Storm King is far more evil than any other villain in the show to date, a real Hitler, that guy.
Now assuming this isn't a massive trick, Cozy's "surprise" may have been that she was going to show that she has converted the Storm King to "good", OR was planning to ambush them once they were all together in the surprise room, but after the Storm King learned that Anon was going to be one of the people to see him, he full on 180'd and betrayed Cozy in knowing Anon wouldn't be convinced, and possibly fear, can't imagine the dude is in a rush to try to attack Anon again, after all, with what he went through both times before.
Plus him holding Silverstream in his escape would lend credence to him just trying to escape, by using her as a hostage.
It only just now occurred to me that Anon could absolutely traumatize the Storm King away from vengeance with what he's done to the Storm King already.
Tl : Dr
I think Cozy is still evil, she just bit off more than she could chew with trying to control the Storm King.
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Relax, my guy it's all according to plan
10470009
Don't underestimate the situation, your highness. Spoilers ahead. She was playing the Storm King too. Let's just say his missing arm has a point
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Oh yeah I forgot he is a little bit 'armless right now.
screws loose?
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Amogus
Holy SHIT!