• Published 15th Oct 2019
  • 6,411 Views, 259 Comments

Castling Cozy Glow - Silvermyr



Castling is a special move in chess where a player’s rook ends up just next to the king. Thanks to a friend’s kindness, a calculating young filly would end up closer to her princess than she ever thought. But can a filly like Cozy Glow be changed?

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Chapter 19- Desperate Gambits

She nearly sent her breakfast tray crashing to the floor in her hurry to get the small silver bottle. She was not meekly going back. Not this time. No, it was time to test just how far Twilight was willing to go to keep her prisoner. She grabbed the bottle and hid it just under her blanket. Four drops could kill her.

She still had eight. That ought to get her some leverage.

"Hi, Cozy," Twilight said carefully. "Rumble told me where you went. He said you lost your flight, even if he didn't know how. Are… are you well?"

Rumble? Why did that nincompoop betray her! After everything he had done to help her, why would he turn on her now? Did Twilight threaten him? Her hoof felt the silver cork, but she did not move it. Twilight had not tried to take her yet. She settled her face in a hard mask of hatred. "Don't even try to take me back. I won't let it happen anymore. Not this time. I have a poison on me. If you try anything at all, I'll drink it! I mean it!"

Twilight visibly flinched for a moment, as did a visibly shocked Rarity and Sweetie Belle, who stood back in the doorway. Twilight swallowed. When she spoke, she did so calmly and slowly. "I do not intend to take you back, Cozy. I promise. Don't do anything hasty."

"I could say the same to you!" Cozy snapped. "Anything hasty, and I will drink it! I'm serious!" Her stomach twisted at just saying those words. But she kept up the facade. It was just an act… just an act.

Twilight swallowed. "I brought this for you," Twilight said and held up the rook statuette. "Can I come in? I will just put it on your bedside table."

"Let Sweetie Belle bring it here," Cozy said.

"No. It is either me, or nopony," Twilight said.

Cozy glared, but she could not leave the rook in Twilight's grasp. It was like a part of her. She needed it back. She nodded, but she uncorked the bottle under the blankets. Her hoof was shaking. If Twilight tried anything… anything at all, she told herself. She could just lift it out, and that ought to be enough to get Twilight to reconsider… or she could take one drop, to really hammer her point home. But no more; it was still less than twenty-four hours since her nightly adventure, so she could only take one more drop… probably.

But it shouldn't come to that. As long as she kept up the act…

Twilight went in, moving just one hoof at a time, keeping her eyes on Cozy's face. Cozy too kept her eyes on her enemy, breathing hard and fast. Her heart hammered as if to escape her ribcage. Anything suspicious, Cozy told herself while hoping and praying Twilight would just leave. She felt tears starting to pool in her eyes from the stress. And the fear. She could not keep this up for very long.

"I'm not going to try anything. I will just put this down, and then go back," Twilight said. She looked like she was stepping on broken glass, so careful was every hoofstep. "I will just put it down, exactly like you say." The silver felt unnaturally cold in her hoof. Cold as death. She suppressed the instinct to throw it away with a scream. "Just an act just an act justanactjustanact…"

Twilight came up to the bedside table and put the rook down at the very far side. Then she quickly retreated, walking backwards. Cozy grabbed the rook and scooted it closer to her, finally daring to relax a little. The rook made her feel just a little better.

"Twilight, I don't think this is the time…" Rarity said quietly, glancing towards Cozy every other moment. Twilight nodded.

"I'm leaving," she said. "I won't try to take you away, Cozy. Pinkie Promise."

Cozy nodded. Her cheeks felt wet. Twilight stepped out of the room, but all three ponies still looked anxiously at her.

"Cozy… can I come in?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I promise anything you want, but please just let me come in!"

She really really wanted another pony near her. "Okay, but you are staying away from me!" Cozy pointed at Twilight.

"You heard her, dearie," Rarity said mildly and started to usher Twilight away. Sweetie Belle carefully went inside the room and closed the door behind her. Cozy finally dared to put the vial down. She exhaled in relief and closed her eyes for a few moments to let her heartbeat settle.

"Did… did you really think to… t-to…" Sweetie Belle stammered.

Cozy leaned back with a sigh. She felt strangely empty. "I don't think I could have," Cozy admitted. She would never have admitted that to any other pony. "But I cannot go back. I had to do something."

"Then that was a low blow!"

Cozy startled at Sweetie Belle's angry shout. She suddenly did not look scared anymore. She looked angry. "You scared Twilight and me and Rarity half to death! You are not allowed to say stuff like that!"

Cozy huffed. "I'm not going back. I'm Cozy Glow; I want my freedom, and I want to become a princess. I brought all of Equestria to its knees! Do you think I care if I play fair!?"

"Yes! Because Rarity and I are your friends! You don't do something like that to your friends, no matter what!"

"Well then maybe I don't want you to be my friends anymore!" Cozy shouted. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise and hurt. "There! I said it! I've done well without you before, and if you're just gonna drag me down then I don't want you here!"

"Fine!" Sweetie Belle shouted back and dashed out of the room.

Cozy glared after her. She glared so hard at the closed door that her eyes began to tear up again. It was just because she refused to blink. And her nose was runny because she had caught a small cold when sneaking through Canterlot.

And the hiccups that racked her body was…

Because she had just lost somepony who somehow was worth more to Cozy than all the minions she had when she took over Twilight's school.

She closed her eyes and did her best to stabilize her choppy breathing. Breathing in was fine, but when she tried to exhale it just came out like sobs. Why did she even feel like this? She got what she wanted; Twilight had left her in peace! Why did she suddenly care about what Sweetie Belle thought about that!? Sweetie Belle was a pawn! She had always been a pawn! Pawns must be sacrificed to win the game!

Besides, when Cozy did sit on the throne and had Twilight chained in Tartarus, it was not like Sweetie Belle would still be her friend anyway. It could never have lasted.

A small thought flitted past, touching a deep place in her mind. "Is it even worth being a princess then? If I have nopony?"

She swatted the traitorous thought and locked it away inside a dark corner of her mind before throwing away the key. She must not think stuff like that. She was Cozy Glow.

… Who had let Twilight bring her to a Wonderbolt's Game…

… Who drank the most delicious cocoa she had ever tasted with Rumble…

… Who had eavesdropped with Sweetie Belle outside Twilight's door…

… Who accepted Rarity's apology, and her food and shelter…

… Who had escaped through a hostile city together with Rumble in the middle of the night…

… Who Sweetie Belle had saved from an eternity caged in stone…

It had only been weeks since her release, but so much had happened to her since then. What was truly left of the Cozy Glow who had spearheaded the attack on Canterlot? She still had her coat, her mane and her cutie mark… and she still had the drive… right? She did still want to reign as Princess, adored by all. Yes. She still had that drive and that wish.

But there was something else now too. Her heart held more than just that fanatical wish. Playing chess with Sweetie Belle, flying with Rumble, being hugged by Rarity…she wanted that too! Those things… they meant something.

"Wait… what have I done?" Cozy asked nopony, her mind finally catching up to what had happened. "Don't… don't go! Wait!" She threw off her blanket and quickly went to the door. She did not even know what to do when she found Sweetie Belle, but she had to do something! She had never once apologized to another pony and meant it, but she had to try!

She could not get out.

The handle was to high for her to reach, and Redheart had explicitly told her not to fly under any circumstances. But Sweetie Belle was out there! Cozy needed to see her now, else everything she had gained, the one pony who she felt at ease around, might be lost!

And Cozy Glow had never once allowed herself to be stopped by her small filly body. She carefully spread her wings and prepared herself. This was just the last in a long, long line of desperate gambits that had led her here. She felt… a moment of clarity, in the eye of the storm.

The door opened.

"Cozy stop!"


"Dear Celestia…" Twilight said once she was out the door. Sweetie Belle stayed behind, but for now Twilight was too shocked to care. She knew Cozy was zealously bent on her freedom, but she had never in her wildest nightmares imagined Cozy would threaten to take a poison to remain free! How could it all have gone so wrong?! She had tried to be kind! Tried to give Cozy enough space to find herself!

She was the Princess of Friendship! How did she go this wrong!?

"I'll make some tea," Rarity said quietly. "I imagine we both could use something calming."

Twilight nodded lamely, still lost in awestruck shock. Not until a cup of warm, soothing tea appeared in front of her did she snap out of it. "Rarity…" Twilight said. "Do you think… Cozy can stay here for a while?"

"Hmm?" Rarity quirked an eyebrow.

"She won't live with me. And I won't ask her to," Twilight said. "But she needs a home… and Sweetie Belle is her friend… I'd ask Starlight, but how can I be sure she'd do any better than I did?" Twilight seemed to be fighting against her tears. "Wh-what if Cozy would try to… to…" she shuddered.

"If she would accept it, I will let her stay here as long as she wishes," Rarity promised. "With how desperate she must be, she should have her friends near."

A door slammed shut above them, causing them both to look to the stairs.

Sweetie Belle stomped down the steps in a rare fit of rage. "How dare she! I've always been a good friend! She does not get to say stuff like that to me, or to my friends!"

"Sweetie Belle, a proper lady must never lose her composure," Rarity said. Sweetie Belle startled for a moment before she took a couple of deep breaths. She still looked angry, but she did went up to their table. "Now, dear, what did Cozy say to upset you so?"

"Well, I asked if she really was serious with the poison… and she said she wouldn't do it, but then when I was angry she scared me like that, she… she said she didn't want me as her friend anymore."

Twilight and Rarity shared a worried glance. "Are… you quite sure she said that?" Rarity asked. "And you do not overreact?"

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No. She did say that."

"That was a lie," Twilight said. She was certain of that. She could see their friendship. It was in how they talked with each other, how Cozy seemed to tolerate Sweetie Belle in a way she never did with Twilight. Just how Sweetie Belle had gone out of her way to visit Cozy, how happy they both were when they saw each other. None of that would happen if there wasn't real friendship between them. "I… I will talk to her. Make her see that."

"Are… you sure?" Rarity asked hesitantly.

Twilight nodded decisively. "I have to. All friendships are worth fighting for, even if they are not my own. And I can't be scared to fight for what is right. That's what it means to be a Princess... I can't let her scare me."

"Then remember, dearie, that when your back has been against the wall in the past, you have never once failed," Rarity said. "If you feel ready, then I know you can make Cozy see the light, just as Starlight did."

Twilight nodded. She had to try again. Yes, she had tried every day for the past weeks to get past the galvanized steel shell around Cozy's heart, and failed every time. She failed just minutes earlier. But she had to try again nonetheless.

Sweetie Belle and Cozy were friends. Sweetie Belle had done what Twilight could not and somehow slipped past Cozy's shell. They were friends.

She had to safeguard that friendship, not only because it was the best way to reform Cozy, but because she was the Princess of Friendship now. It was her purpose, her destiny to help friendships grow. Cozy and Sweetie Belle needed help, and she knew she could give it.

If only Cozy let her…

She opened the door. Cozy stood behind it, her wings stretched and legs bent for takeoff.

"Cozy stop!"


"Cozy, you can't fly! You will seriously hurt yourself!" Twilight exclaimed.

Cozy looked up at her hated captor for a few moments before looking past her. The door was open. That was all she cared about. "Well now I won't have to. Out of my way."

"No, Cozy. You need to talk with Sweetie Belle! If you only apologize to her, I'm sure the two of you can still remain friends! Don't you want that?"

Cozy felt her mind grind to a screeching halt. She wanted to see Sweetie Belle herself! But if Twilight wanted it too… then maybe it was not a good thing after all? Twilight was her enemy; she was the reason everything had happened like this! Something Twilight wanted could never be good for Cozy's agenda, right? And… she did not even know how to apologize to another pony. Had she really thought this through?

Her heart told her to find her friend and make up, but her ever-calculating mind…

"Cozy?" Twilight tilted her head slightly. "Were you trying to get out? Did… you want to see her too, on your own accord?"

Yes or no? The two words fought in her heart and throat. But one of them won out in the end.

"No."

Cozy arranged her mouth in a hard line. "I just needed to stretch my legs… and I wasn't gonna fly at all." She felt hollow when she said it, but she ignored the feeling. She would forget Sweetie Belle soon anyway. When she was a princess she would have plenty of better friends… Rumble might still be her friend. When she was on the throne she could make him a vassal… Duke of Cloudsdale maybe? That would keep him loyal. It was a sound logic. So why did she feel so… wretched, walking away from the door and hopping up in her bed again?

"Sweetie Belle is your friend Cozy," Twilight said carefully. "She came for you when nopony else would… not even me. What she has done for you goes beyond most friendships. You know that too, right? You are too smart not to see that she cares about you."

"Hmph," Cozy sneered, even she could not quite muster the spite that normally came so readily when she talked to Twilight. "You're really stupid. I played her all along to help me. I never cared..." The words made her feel sick as she spoke them. "I never cared," she said again, trying to sound more secure. She didn't.

Twilight looked at her. It was not a pitying gaze or a dejected glance. There was a sharpness to her eyes now, almost like she was trying to dissect Cozy's very mind. "I don't believe you," she said. "I know more about friendship than you do. I know what I see in Sweetie Belle, and what I see in you. And if you don't go after her, then you will regret it for the rest of your life."

"Will not," Cozy snapped back. "She's just a silly foal. She's nopony to me." The lie made her blush in shame.

"Don't say that, Cozy," Twilight said sadly. "It hurts you to say that about your friends."

Cozy crossed her forelegs angrily. "Whatever. I don't care about her anyway. And I'm not going to go after her." And that fact made her heart feel strangely empty.

"Cozy, I know you hate me. But don't let that hatred stop you from caring for your friends! You can lie to me all you want! You can say that Sweetie Belle never was your friend to me all you want. But don't say that to yourself! Don't hurt yourself just because you want to hurt me!"

"You really are stupid," Cozy said flatly. "Don't you get it? I hate you more than I love any other pony."

Twilight recoiled as if she had been struck. Tears pooled in her eyes. Cozy bristled at the reaction. How dared she be surprised? After all she had done to Cozy?

"I thought you could help me become a princess!" she shouted, pointing accusingly at Twilight with her bandaged hoof. "But you have no clue about what friendship really means! Ever since I met you my life has only gotten worse! You don't get to be surprised that I hate you!"

Twilight visibly struggled to keep herself together. "A-alright," she said shakily, large tears falling on the carpet. "You can hate me if you want. But don't let that hate keep you from your friends! Even if we disagree on what friendship is, we both understand that friends makes us better! So please don't just discard Sweetie Belle just because of me! You are better together!"

"I… NO!" Cozy screamed. Though perhaps some would argue she really screamed: "I KNOW". "Just leave! I don't want to see you or her anymore!"

She really wanted to see Sweetie Belle… she would even try to apologize. She had never apologized for anything and meant it before, but for Sweetie Belle she could make an exception. She would do her best! She just wanted her friend back. But she could not give Twilight that satisfaction… But she wanted to! Why did it come to this!?

"Cozy, if you just answer one question for me, then I will let you go! I won't try to take you back to the castle ever again!" Twilight shouted in utter despair. "Just one question! One sentence! Please!"

Cozy just nodded blankly, her own emotional turmoil leaving her too dazed to fully process what she was hearing.

"Do you really hate me so much that you would rather permanently give up your flight just to get out that door than let me help you make up with Sweetie Belle!?"

Cozy blinked and looked back to Twilight.

"I am the Princess of Friendship! I can feel friendship in ponies around me! You and Sweetie Belle are friends! What just happened between you, it hurts! I just want to help you both! That is all! Please, can't you let me help!?"

And so, Cozy did something that all of Twilight's many adversaries had dreamt of. Queen Chrysalis had wished for it. King Sombra had vowed it. Tirek had demanded it. But only Cozy Glow did it.

She made Twilight Sparkle beg at her hooves.

"I know I have hurt you! I know everything I have done with you has somehow turned out wrong! So if this is the last time you see me, let me at least do something right! PLEASE!"

Cozy opened her mouth to speak.

Her words stunned them both.


"Stupid Cozy Glow…" Sweetie Belle mumbled angrily. "I' haven't been dragging her down at all. She's wrong!"

Rarity listened without interrupting. Sweetie Belle was not after advice, nor would she want Rarity to backtalk Cozy. She just wanted to vent and have her big sister listen.

"You don't get to do that… you don't say that to your friends."

Rarity listened, but said nothing.

"I thought she might actually do it! If she ran here, injured and scared, from Twilight only to be cornered again, who knows what she might do! Did she even think about how I would feel? I freed her! I know she could be better! I thought... I really thought she'd..." Sweetie Belle swallowed. Rarity quietly squeezed her hoof.

Hoofsteps sounded from the stairs. Sweetie Belle turned to look.

Cozy stood there, shifting her weight from one hoof to the other. More surprising, however, was that Twilight was there too, behind her. "Sweetie Belle, your friend would like to say something." Cozy, however, did not seem to inclined to say anything. She still shifted on her hooves, looking at Rarity's hardwood floor. But under the mess of curls that hid her face, she looked like she was blushing. Twilight leaned down and whispered something to her.

Cozy did not bat her away.

"I… don't think I did wrong…" Cozy began. "But… I guess you do. So… I guess I should… should… apologize and… stuff," Cozy said, still without looking up.

"I believe there is a certain word you are looking for, little miss Glow," Rarity said.

Cozy grumbled something inaudible.

"What did you say?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"You know the word my little sister wants," Rarity said.

"Don't rush her," Twilight said with a certain sharpness.

The room fell silent, watching. Waiting.

Cozy visibly swallowed. Her wings twitched on her back. Was she shaking? She took a deep breath… but said nothing. She inhaled again. Seeing her struggle, Sweetie Belle began to realize just how much her pride meant to her. For Cozy to struggle like this just to say a small word of five letters that Sweetie Belle herself had said so many times. Cozy's issues went deeper than a misguided desire for power. She had never once had a pony she cared enough about to apologize to.

"I'm sorry."

Her voice was small. Fragile like glass.

"I didn't want… to scare you… I just wanted to scare Twilight away. Not you too… I didn't want you to… I… I still want to be your friend… if you'd have me."

Her apology was stilted, stiff and lacking any eloquence. But Sweetie Belle knew it was genuine. It was just the first time Cozy had ever excused her actions.

Sweetie Belle hopped down from her chair and went up to Cozy. "And what does 'friend' mean to you?"

"Don't worry Sweetie Belle," Twilight said mildly. "Cozy has begun to learn. It will still take her some time, but she will learn. She will have better teachers this time."

Sweetie Belle did not really understand what that meant, but she decided it didn't matter. Cozy had apologized, and in her own mind endured a tough trial in doing so. That was a testament to how much Sweetie Belle's friendship meant to Cozy. And Sweetie Belle had never been a pony to hold grudges.

"I'll forgive you, Cozy. I want you back as my friend too."

Cozy finally looked up. She was smiling, even if her eyes looked puffy. "Can… can I hug you?"

Sweetie Belle chuckled. "Sure, Cozy."

Author's Note:

This chapter was a mess. When I went back and looked at all the discarded text, I wrote more than 8100 words in total for this, and I only ended up publishing this much. Suffice to say I am not a 100% satisfied with this version either, but it's one I can stand for. I hope it was worth the wait.

I would also ask some advice. Given the themes this chapter touches upon, should I change the story rating to Teen? I don't feel like that is necessary, but better safe than sorry, maybe? What do you think?