Glow to the Future

by PerpetualMotion

Wake-Up Call

Cozy Glow had only been marginally interested in her history classes, but as the petrification spell swept over her, she recalled with horror that Discord was said to be completely awake as a statue. Always aware. Always watching. Always waiting. And sure enough, even as she found herself frozen for what was likely to be all eternity, she was stuck watching all the creatures before her frolicking and hugging and celebrating the victory that their friendship had once again bought them. If Cozy had still been able to feel her stomach, it would have made her sick.

For her and her former compatriots, however, even the simple sight of the sun was short lived. They royals had learned from their mistake of putting Discord on public display to celebrate their victory. By the end of the day, the trio were covered up and locked away in some obscure corner of the ruined Canterlot Castle. To be forever guarded and kept away from any outside forces that could potentially free them. And there Cozy sat, unsure of how much time was passing outside her prison. For a being like Discord, perhaps it would have been feasible to remain lucid and sane forever (for a given definition of sane, at least), but for the small pegasus filly, reality itself seems to slip away as the days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months. Soon she was left with naught but incoherent dreams and nightmares. Eventually, Cozy Glow stopped thinking altogether...

---

Cozy awoke to the sound of birdsong, and the blinding rays of the sun peeking through a partially curtained window. Groaning, she rolled over in bed and tried to go back to sleep. Her peace didn't last for long, though, as a sharp bolt of pain shot through her body. It was as if she had been numb until that very moment, and all sensation had returned in an instant.

Wait, I was, wasn't I? the pegasus realized as she regained her wits. How in Equestria did I end up here? Last thing I remember, I was... Cozy climbed to her hooves and took in her surroundings, wincing as she stretched her stiff wings. The room was quite fancy, all things considered. The bed she was on was huge, complete with a canopy and nice curtains. The walls were painted in a plain eggshell while, and decorative pottery and old books lined gilded shelves around the room. Judging by the layer of dust on them, they hadn't been tended to in quite some time. Fluttering down to the ground, Cozy found that the floor was made of stone, indicating that wherever she was was quite old. A swanky hotel, this was not. I need to get out of here and get my bearings, first of all.

Cozy tried the door first, but it wouldn't budge, despite not seeming to be locked in any visible way. Sealed by magic? she guessed. The window was similarly stuck, and made of frosted glass, so she couldn't even see where she was. It was likely reinforced by a spell, too, as her initial attempts to beak it with thrown books and vases proved unsuccessful. She had only had it for a few days, but she already missed the power to blast giant holes in things.

"UUUGH!" the filly shouted at no one in particular. "What's the point of not being a statue if I'm just going to be stuck in a boring place like this!" As if to answer her, a clicking and fumbling sound came from door, followed by some exasperated muttering.

"Oh, right, sealing spell," the voice said, and the door glowed white for a brief moment before slowly creaking open. Cozy considered darting out the door as soon as the opportunity presented itself and make an escape, but opted for the more diplomatic approach. If she had been revived like this, then whoever was keeping her might be an ally, right? In any case, the door opened to reveal a creature that she had never seen before. It was about as large as your average pony, but had cloven hooves, an almost tree-like horn, and what appeared to be scales peeking out from gaps in the creature's ornate armor. After a moment of staring, Cozy recognized it from a storybook she had once read.

A kirin? She tilted her head in confusion. They actually exist? The filly quickly pushed her confusion aside, though, focusing on the situation at hoof.

"Cozy Glow?" the kirin asked, looking down at his prisoner rather quizzically.

"That's me!" Cozy responded, putting on her best smile. "It's nice to meet you, mister..."

"I, uh, expected you to be... taller," the guard said, brushing off Cozy's prompt to introduce himself. "With me, please." He turned to exit the room, motioning for Cozy to follow. "This is who we're supposed to be so afraid of?" he added under his breath.

"So..." Cozy began. "Where're we going?"

"Look, kid." The kirin sighed. "I'm under strict orders to keep our interactions to a minimum. Even this sentence is a bit too much chatter."

"Aw, you can't even talk to widdle ol' me?" Cozy asked, laying it on thick. "I'm just a filly! What could I do?"

"Or, you could be a changeling, or casting an illusion spell, or doing any number of things to mess with my head. I've seen plenty of stuff in my time. If the princess demands caution, I'm going to have it, no matter how cute—" the guard almost seemed to spit the word out with a growl, "you may be."

A princess, eh? Cozy Glow smirked. Most any creature could give away too much information if prodded in the right way. Cozy's preferred schtick had the advantage of being useful both for disarming your average creature, and outright annoying the more cynical ones. Which princess would want me for anything, though? Surely not Celestia or Luna. And as far as I know, the Crystal Empire wouldn't employ kirin guards... That left two possibilities. Either she had been transported very far away in her stone sleep, or... Cozy shuddered at the thought. That was the one pony she most certainly didn't want to see.

Deciding to direct her focus elsewhere, Cozy opted to analyze her environment instead. Insofar as you could analyze a hallway, at least. It was certainly fancy, much like the room she had woken up in, and similarly very old. Color wise, it was not unlike Canterlot's castle. Lots of pastels, a stone floor, and a bright red carpet. What stuck out the most, however, was the lighting. Mounted between the hall's many closed doors were small sconces holding orbs of white light. It was a far cry from torches, or even firefly lanterns, and Cozy could only conclude that they were outright magical. As far as her limited knowledge of magic went, though, light-casting spells were rather energy intensive, needing a unicorn to actively maintain a single one. Lighting a whole castle, or even a single hallway, with so many seemed impossible. After a few minutes of traversing the halls and making a few turns, the corridor opened up somewhat to reveal a large, ornate double door.

"We're here," the guard said. He walked up to the door, knocked twice, and pushed open the right side. "Princess, as you requested, Cozy Glow has arrived."

"Let her enter, Snowfall, and leave us be." Cozy's heart sank. She'd recognize that voice anywhere. "That will be all, thank you." The other half of the door swung open, revealing the pony sitting inside. She sat atop a high, singular throne at the end of a vast throne room, surrounded on either side by stained glass renditions of past events, some familiar to Cozy, but many completely foreign.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle." Cozy Glow's voice dripped with venom as she fluttered into the room and made her way up to the throne, the door closing behind her. There was no point in putting on an act for this pony. "Golly, haven't you grown! I always wondered if you'd end up as big and gangly as the other princesses. I must have been stuck in there longer than I thought! How long has it been? Ten, twenty years? Long enough for you to start dragging even more creatures into your little friendship game, at the very least. I bet you—"

"Four hundred," Twilight stated solemnly, cutting Cozy's rant short.

"W-what?" the filly stammered, dropping like a rock and stumbling as she hit the ground.

"It's been four hundred years, to the day, since my coronation, Cozy Glow."

"But... But I..."

"No ordinary pony would be able to keep track of time in your circumstances. Fifty years, four hundred, one thousand. For you, it would make no difference."

Okay, okay, keep it together. Cozy took a deep breath and looked up to lock eyes with the princess. "Alright, so what's the point? You had us beat. You won! And yet you brought me back, out of the kindness of your heart, right?" The pegasus rolled her eyes. "What's the catch? What's in it for you?"

"Straight to the point, I see." Twilight smiled. "It's simple, really. You've served quite a bit of time already. I figured you deserve to be paroled."

"Parole." Now Cozy Glow was just incredulous. "I nearly conquered Equestria and vaporized you and your friends, and you're just going to put me on parole?"

Twilight's smile widened for a moment before her entire facade just collapsed in a fit of laughter.

"You should see your face!" the princess managed to gasp out between laughs.

"Ex-cuse me?"

"Sorry, sorry..." After what seemed like forever, Twilight regained her composure, though her affect was still noticeably different. "You have no idea how hard it is to keep up the whole 'calm and collected ruler' act all the time, especially with you here. After four centuries and countless threats to Equestria, seeing a filly like you here pontificating like that... Let's just say that the memory of your short reign or terror is faded enough that it's hard to take you seriously." Standing up from her throne, Twilight walked down to Cozy before continuing. "You were right about one thing, though. My reasons for freeing you are a bit selfish. Once upon a time, you were a student of mine. A very bright and promising student, at that."

"A student who betrayed you and tried to doom you, your friends, and your other students to a terrible fate."

"Your cheery demeanor eventually turned out to be an act, yes, though where exactly in the process you fell is a mystery to everyone but you. And that, in fact, is where the problem is."

"What problem? You won, and everyone lived happily ever after, right?" Cozy was more curious now than anything. The fact that there was still a bit of the Twilight she knew under all that pomp was a bit reassuring. No matter how much she actually despised the princess, she knew Twilight wouldn't do anything to harm her. At least nothing worse than perhaps turning her back to stone.

"'Winning' isn't everything, I'm afraid. You live as long as I have, and that becomes incredibly obvious. Besides, not everypony got their happy ending."

"...Me," Cozy said quietly, realizing where this was all going.

"To put it simply, Cozy Glow, I failed you. I missed tells and hints that something was wrong, and as a result you took all the wrong lessons from me. If I had just figured things out the first time around..."

"What, you wouldn't have locked me in Tartarus, or turned me to stone for centuries? You wouldn't have had to hide your failure from Equestria for the rest of time? Why the change of heart?"

"Your punishments were decided by Celestia and Luna, not me." Twilight sighed. "To be honest, they never really sat right with me. I strongly believe in forgiveness and rehabilitation, and it's hard for somepony to turn their life around when they're stuck in a cage. Your transgressions were... rather public, though. Even if I were to have disregarded the princesses' judgement immediately after my coronation, everypony in Equestria knew who you were, and what you had done. It's not fair to ask anypony to make true friends in a world that only remembers them as a tyrant. Now, though, enough time has passed that only a few creatures are left who remember you as anything but a footnote in a history textbook. "

"And let me guess, you want to send me back to school again." The pegasus rolled her eyes.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Honestly, I'm not sure there's anything for you to gain from further education. Evil plot or no, you were a top student. Knowing the material isn't the problem. You just need opportunities to apply it correctly."

"You're just... letting me go?"

"In a sense. What I'm going to do is make you an offer. You're free to decline, of course, but I'm hoping that you'll see the benefits of giving it a shot, at least in the short term."

At this point, why not? Cozy thought, shrugging her shoulders. "Alright, shoot."

"I have a position for an assistant open here at the castle. It's yours, if you'd like it."

"Don't you have a little dragon for that?"

"Well," Twilight chuckled, "he's not so little anymore."

"And what if I refuse?"

"Then you'll be free to go. You will have to be supervised, at least at first, but what you do with yourself is up to you."

"Gee, stuck in a castle with my greatest enemy, or complete freedom? Whatever will I choose?" Cozy would have trotted out the door that second, if she thought she could get away with it.

"Did I mention that being a Royal Assistant pays well?"

"So?"

"Well, you do want to eat, don't you? Job market's pretty tight in Canterlot these days, especially for somepony of your... stature. You could leave the city live off the land, if you know how, that is. The only other option would be to rely on the kindness and generosity of others, of course..." The princess gave a playful wink as she said the last sentence, meeting Cozy Glow's glare intently. She knew exactly what she was doing.

She sure had four centuries to plan this conversation, didn't she? All the filly could do was sigh. She knew when she'd been beaten. "Fine, I'll take the stupid job," she grumbled.

"Excellent! Just follow me, and I'll introduce you to your 'tools of the trade.' I think you'll find them to be rather fascinating!" Twilight took off towards the door with a brisk, cheerful trot, forcing Cozy to take to the air to keep up.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Hmmmm. A world where she's a trivia question. She's not going to like this.

[GamePlayer64]

It took Twilight 4 centuries to change her mind about her punishment? Peace and Harmony blinds anyone sense of time.

[Geminii]

I realize Cozy needs to take the job for Doylist reasons, but I half-expected her to think "getting ponies to feel sorry for me has never been a problem", and walk away anyway. Or do it simply because Twilight obviously wants her in the castle.

Of course, a four-hundred-year reign has most likely gotten Twilight up to speed on Xanatos gambits, so possibly it wouldn't have mattered what Cozy chose - Twilight could have had frameworks and setups in place for centuries waiting for Cozy to do anything at all.

[Geminii]

9935517
From the text, it seems like Twilight never changed her mind about whether she thought the punishment was a good idea. She may have decided very shortly after her coronation to leave Cozy where she was for long enough for memory to fade, and stuck to that decision.