Glow in the Dark

by Shadow Spector

Excerpt 12

Excerpt 12:

“Dear Tirek,” Cozy wrote. “My name is Cozy Glow. I am an 8 and-a-half year old pegasus filly with information that might be worth your while. I’ve developed a plan that can bring you revenge on Princess Twilight Sparkle. She has been named the Princess of Friendship in celebration of your defeat, and I believe that together, we can make her reign end shortly. I just need you to come back to drain Equestria’s magic again, and I can help seal the deal for your victory.”

“Dear Inferior, first off, it’s Lord Tirek. And your plan has a few obvious flaws within it. The main one being that I cannot leave Tartarus. Only unicorn magic and the postal service have access in and out of these gates. While I would appreciate being set free to finish my job of draining your pathetic land of its power, it is not within my abilities to set into action at the moment. Not that I would for a prissy pony anyway.”

“But I need your help, mister. Alicorn magic is one of the strongest magics in existence and somepony like her cannot be trusted with that power. I need you to help me take away her magic.”

“I take pride in being one of the only living creatures that can drain magic through my abilities. I’m still the only creature who can drain pegasus flight. Not even the magic artifacts can do that.”

“These magic artifacts that you’ve mentioned: are you saying that there is another way to drain Equestria of magic?”

“Yes, there is but you need the series of them to perform the action. The non-ponies each have a magic artifact that goes back in their history. It has been long forgotten by most, but the non-ponies originally had the intentions of gathering these artifacts to rid Equestria of its magic in order to find the land easier to raid. Scholars would still be aware of this concern and be fearful of what they’re capable of. Alas, even if I knew where to find them, I wouldn’t tell you. You are probably just another failure waiting to happen.”

“Mr. Tirek, if I may strike a deal with you. Your attack was the closest that Equestria has ever come to losing. You strike fear into the hearts of everypony who hears your name. I’m sure Princess Twilight Sparkle is in dire concern of keeping you secure. If you tell me how I can harness the power of the artifacts, I can begin draining the magic from Equestria. I will tell Twilight that you are the one behind this, and she will gather her friends to come check on you. When they do this, they will be trapped forever with no magic to help them escape.”

“Very nice plan of yours, but you are unaware of one thing. Unicorn magic is the first thing to go so Twilight would not be able to enter into Tartarus in the first place. However, there is a stone you can use to bypass this for your plan to fully work.”

“Tell me, what is the name of the stone, and how can I get it?”

“Silly filly. If you are to fail in your efforts, the enchantments on my cage will become more severe. If you are going to take this plan into action, I need to know that you’re capable of all the things you say you are. I will only give you instructions and not explanations. Prove to me that you can do this.”

Cozy put down the letter from reading it. So now I have to figure everything else out on my own?

“Is everything alright?” the woll-eyed mare asked her.

Cozy turned and smiled at the gray pegasus. “Oh yes. Everything’s just peachy.”

“Good. I’m off to make my rounds now. I’ll be back for your next letters though.”

The yellowed-maned pegasus dashed off, leaving Cozy alone again.

Cozy turned to the partially-ripped calendar she had found in the town garbage. Each message she gave the mail mare to deliver had such a long trip that by now, the filly should’ve been nine years old. Cozy sighed at all the time that had passed without much progression of her plans.

Luckily for Cozy, she only had to sleep with no shelter for about a week before she was able to find torns rags in the town garbage center. With those, she made herself a makeshift fort to protect herself from any of the threats that the environment had to offer. It didn’t provide total protection, but it did provide a hideout.

Do I wait again today? Cozy asked herself. No, I now need to do research on what Tirek has told me.

Before she set out to leave her fort, she recalled the dangers of improper planning. Instinctively, she dug through her saddle-bag in search of more paper to try her best at a detailed plan of attack, but looking through her inventory, she found that she was running low on material. Through an annoyed sigh, she knew what her first task today was.

She had setup her tent just outside of the town. She was too worried that if her residence had been discovered, lots of attention would be dragged to her. She could not have that happen if her plan was to work.

When she finally entered in through the city, she scoped out her best plans of movements to where she could travel unnoticed. She wasn’t to be completely hidden the entire way; just enough to where her resting place couldn’t be traced back.

It wasn’t long until she was at the heart of the town. It didn’t seem as though anypony was around today. She quickly found her reason when she turned to see a herd of earth ponies staring at a stampede of buffalo. It looked like the perfect opportunity to claim her meal since the apple trees were left unguarded.

Just a couple to start off with. She snatched a dozen apples from the tree, storing some in her saddle-bag that had a bit more room to it from the bits that went to paying off the mail mare. She just began to eat one of her apples when a stallion interrupted her.

“What are you doing?” a demanding voice asked. “Those, there, apples are supposed to be for the apple ‘pahs’ that the buffalo are about to help us with.”

Cozy turned to meet a yellow earth pony with both a brown hat and vest. She smiled at him with the apple still in her mouth. After a bite, she turned on the cuteness. “Oh, sorry there. The apples just look so well kept. I have to say whoever tended to them really knows what they’re doing.”

“Aw shucks,” the earth pony said. “But you can’t-.”

“I really appreciate you letting me have some of these apples,” Cozy interrupted. “It’s good to know that there are still good ponies around.”

“Oh, well, uh . . .”

“You’ve been such a big help to me, but if you could be a little bit more help: where can I find the town library?”

The earth pony looked confronted about his decision until he finally shook the feeling. “Go up to the pastry shop. Go 2 buildings down to the building that says ‘Media’.”

“Thank you so much,” Cozy said before turning to fly to the location.

That was too close this time, Cozy thought while eating her daily meal.

She got up to the main road of the town to go to her usual location to get paper. She obviously knew where the library was, but she needed an exit to the situation. When she finally arrived, the sight of the building opposite to the library caught her eyes. In big, bright balloon letters, the words “Rock Convention” spread across the face of the building.

Cozy huffed. “Who would want to go to a rock convention?”

Cozy disregarded the building before entering in through the library. Before she could get five steps in, a voice stopped her.

“Can I help you?”

“Oh, golly, yes. I’m doing this research project about Tartarus and artifacts in my class and wanted to know if there are any books here that can help me.”

“Hmm, we do have books here, but they may not be exactly what you’re looking for. I recommend going to the Canterlot Archives for the best sources, but you’re welcome to search here. The books you’re looking for should be in the back over there.”

The librarian pointed to a darker section of the library, and Cozy was immediately off.

Cozy had imagined that it would be overwhelming to find what she was looking for, but with the miniature size of the location, she found the lone book within a minute. “Tartarus: an introduction,” Cozy read off before taking the book to a table.

Cozy flipped through the book, trying to find something that would be useful, but it mostly just talked about the current creatures locked away.

“Bugbear. No. . . Cockatrice. A single direct look can turn you to stone.” Cozy had to admit that this sounded awful, but her horrific thoughts were soon pierced with confusion. She realized something that didn’t add up with the mailmare she had acquainted, but the filly just persisted looking until her eyes caught on to the Manticore. “Hmm, Manticore. Originally believed to be reformed through Kindness, the Manticore was proven too much of a threat to be trusted and now calls Tartarus its home.” Cozy drooped her eyes in slight sympathy at the creature until she shook her mind off the subject to continue onto her goal.

Finally, she got to the final pages of the book to find something relevant to her searches. She began to quietly read to herself. “The Mystery Behind the Tartarus Lock. Originally, there used to be only 2 ways to open up the gates to Tartarus. The first being the complex spell from a powerful unicorn and the second being the combination only given to tenure mail ponies. But researchers believe that the third way lies in the indent upon the door. This indent mostly resembles the legend of the Key of Unfettered Entrance, but little is known about this artifact.”

Cozy remembered the mysterious stone that Tirek was referring to. She considered asking him through the letter if he knew more about it but quickly remembered that he wasn’t giving any information, only instructions.

Cozy looked up from her book in search of answers until her eyes caught on the now-populated Rock Convention building. Wait, maybe I can get more information on this key thing from over there.

Cozy stopped herself before she left. She still needed more papers for her letters and for trying to full-proof her plan.

“What’s going on out there?” Cozy asked the librarian.

“Oh, just this rock convention that happens annually. Earth ponies come from all around Equestria to this thing, and I still have yet to figure out why.”

Cozy’s eyes landed on the display of papers that she had been using as her source for months now. Everytime she had come in before, she hadn’t had to deal with the librarian, but this time, there was unwanted company. She still couldn’t understand why there was a price on paper, but she assumed it was from the fact that the town seemed to need their trees. Regardless of the fact, she needed paper, and she wasn’t going to use up her mail bits to get it.

“They don’t seem to be too critical of the way they spell things,” Cozy pointed out.

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t you see the error they put in those big letters across the building?”

The librarian stared closely outside, and Cozy took the opportunity to snatch a stack of papers to place quietly in her bag.

“Oh, I guess they didn’t misspell anything. Thank you for your time.”

Cozy flew out of the library smirking to herself as she traveled across the road. Her flight was cut short when she had to stop in front of the big herd of ponies that were checking in one at a time.

“Just show your tickets and then enjoy the convention,” a voice projected from a booth in front of the big group of earth ponies.

Cozy pushed ahead, trying to gain any sort of leeway through the crowd, but she ended up having to wait her turn as the herd slowly progressed. While waiting, her eyes caught on a few strange adult ponies looking her up and down, trying not to be noticed by her. Cozy took a deep breath, trying to keep her cool, but she found the nearest pony that matched her coat color and got close to her. She then smiled as though she were just a filly with her parent, and soon enough, nopony was looking at her anymore.

Finally she got to the front, and the pony who she pretended was with her signed up for one ticket. Instinctively, she hid under the booth window just out of sight while the transaction ahead of her was in progress.

This might be where it gets hard, she thought to herself.

After the adult pony in front of her was done, she began her way of sneaking through the doorframe, trying her best to remain undetected while keeping close to the ground. She didn’t care what the other ponies behind her thought, just as long as the booth pony didn’t see her. The inevitable sound from the guard sounded in front of her.

“What are you doing?” the guard asked.

“I’m sorry, but I got lost. I just saw my dad go in there, and I broke off from him to come back here.”

“I apologize but you need a ticket to enter.”

“But I can see my dad from here. Do I have to stay out here where basically anypony can come and snatch me up to claim me as their own?”

The pony looked in concern at Cozy before finally making up his mind. “Well, I can get a security guard to accompany you until somepony comes for you.”

“But what is the bother when I can just go to my dad inside? He has my ticket.”

The guard opened his mouth to speak but Cozy continued.

“What’s the sense in making this harder? I’m sure the long line of ponies behind me wouldn’t want to wait such a long time to enter, especially if they’ve traveled from all different parts from Equestria to come here. They probably won’t want to come back if they wait any longer.”

The guard regarded Cozy in annoyance. “Okay, fine. Go right on ahead.”

“Thank you,” Cozy said with a smile.

As Cozy was still in eye view of the booth, she continued walking forward to the acclaimed “father” of hers. Normally, she would shudder at the memories, but she got to the point where she had been through so much that she just didn’t feel anything anymore.

When Cozy was successfully out of sight to the booth pony, she dashed away in search of information behind her desired Key. One of these earth ponies had to know something about it. If they were willing to travel Equestria for rocks, then they would most likely have the information she’s looking for.

Cozy began her unwinnable task. “Excuse me, sir,” she asked to an earth pony who just kept on walking, ignoring her. Cozy scoffed before continuing. “Hello? You there. No? How about you? Can anypony help me?”

Cozy still didn’t even know the exact questions she would ask, but that wouldn’t matter if nopony would stop to even give her the time of day.

Finally, after several minutes of attempts, Cozy stopped to sit down next to a small attraction. The sign above her read “learn to rock-sculpt.” Unfortunately, for whoever was running the stand, nopony was stopping to take the class, leaving Cozy alone in front of the location for her small break.

“Hey,” a voice from the stand began. “Are you here to learn to rock-sculpt?”

Cozy looked back with an unamused look at the dark blue mare. “No. I’m here to learn the history of something.”

“Well, we offer that too. You can take the short class and be enlightened with whatever subject you deem interesting. You’ll be helping us meet our quota for the day.” The black-maned earth pony tried for a smile.

“And how many bits does the class cost?” Cozy asked.

“50 bits, Miss.”

Cozy’s jaw fell loose slightly before her brain went to work. “This quota you mentioned. Is it counting attendances or payments.”

“Well, we’ve tried making it count payments, but not enough ponies take the class, which upsets the boss. So we’ve compromised with her to tell her that we can come up with a set amount of ponies to attend the class so the expenses you see here won’t be a waste. I hope we don’t figure out what happens if we fail.”

“And how many ponies have attended so far?”

“Well, we’re hoping that you can be our first.”

“First?” Cozy repeated incredulously. “This convention has been open for over an hour, and you haven’t gotten anypony to come and take this class? Must not be very good.”

“Oh, it is; please believe me,” the older pony said frantically. “Ponies just haven’t given it a chance.”

“Even so, it isn’t worth 50 bits. I’m better off spending my bits somewhere else.”

“No, no. The experience is worth it. We’ll even make it half off.”

“It doesn’t sound like it’s worth 25 bits either. I’d rather do something else than lose my currency.”

“We’ll drop it to 15 bits.”

“You say your quota counts the number of ponies who take the class and not the payments given?”

The pony narrowed her eyes, puzzled. “Yes . . .”

Cozy smirked at her. “I’ll take the class and add a pony to your quota if you let me do this for free.”

The pony widened her eyes. “Oh, dear Celestia. We can’t just do that. We need some pay off for this.”

“Oh well. I guess you won’t add me as a member to the quota, and your boss will be upset.”

“Wait, wait. We can do this. Please. Just attend, and we’ll get everything done for free.”

Cozy smiled. “Aww, thanks. You shouldn’t have. It’s a deal.”

The pony frowned at Cozy. “Right this way then.”

Cozy trotted into the back in jollity, following the Sucker. It took a couple of twists and turns through the building to find her room. This was where she was going to get her information and not waste anymore time. After she took her seat in the back of the empty room, her eyes fell on different sized rocks that littered the table in front of her.

From a separate doorway entered an earth pony with the most unamused look ever. It wasn’t a frown. It wasn’t quite boredom. It was just expressionless. She was completely stone-faced. She was a dark gray earth pony with a pale purple main and light-turquoise eyes. She wore a pale dark blue robe with short sleeves and a black strap encircling her stomach.

“Hello,” the pony greeted in the most plain voice imaginable.

Oh great, Cozy thought. This is going to be boring.

“Congratulations,” she continued in a slow-paced tone. “You’re our first student. Here, you will learn about rocks and the many art forms it can hold.”

Cozy’s eye twitched in boredom, but she forced herself to be patient as she listened.

“Today, as you may know, is the rock-sculpting portion. You will learn how to make rocks look any way you want to with your bare hooves.”

“Bare hooves? Don’t I need some sort of cutting tools?”

“If you scratch the rocks in just the right places, you can manipulate the shape. Although you can make the rocks have a certain shape, please be aware that the only rocks that change their colors are those in the Peaks of Peril, Tartarus, and Griffonstone.”

“Tartarus has rocks that change colors?” Cozy asked the gray mare for clarification.

“Yes, magic works much differently in multiple ways in Tartarus.”

That might get annoying, Cozy said to herself.

“Now there are two ways to learn,” the gray pony continued in the same plain tone. “I can give you an instructional book on how to do it and fill the silence with educational material, or I explain the process verbally and help you let your masterpiece last. I advise the second option because keeping the rock sculpture from collapsing immediately is more difficult than making the sculpture.”

“It is?” Cozy asked.

“Rocks will work for you if you let them.”

“Right, okay. Actually, I’ll go with the first option. I would like to learn as much about rocks as I can.”

“Sure,” she said plainly before bringing Cozy an instructional book. “Now, rocks can be fascinating. The first rock recorded was around-.”

“Wait,” Cozy interrupted. “May I choose what to learn about?”

The gray pony nodded her head with still no expression.

“If you know about it, could I learn about the Key of Unfettered Entrance?”

The question seemed to catch the pony off guard because of the microscopic alteration to her face. “Little is known about that.”

As the gray mare turned away, Cozy peeked at the instructional book and began fiddling with the rocks.

“The Key of Unfettered Entrance is one of the most famous rocks due to its magical nature, but the knowledge about it stops at its name for most. I too am learning about the Key. I will gain more knowledge everyday if you’re willing to return.”

Cozy’s head dropped in disappointment. She didn’t want to return, but she knew she had to.

“Can’t you just tell me what you know about it so far?”

“The Key of Unfettered Entrance is a cubic artifact discovered by the great Starswirl The Bearded. It was deemed too powerful to slip into the wrong hooves, but that didn’t stop Scorpan who eventually stole it. He felt tremendous guilt over his betrayal of his family so he crafted it into the same shape as that of the lost key to Tartarus. Before Scorpan could use it, Starswirl found him and stole the Key back. Although punishment in Tartarus would have been suitable for his crimes, Starswirl took pity on him because the two were close friends, and he gave him a second chance.

“But the power of the artifact was apparent to Starswirl. The only thing that could destroy it is if the amount of charges given on it wore out, so Starswirl casted a spell on it, depleting its charges down to one. Now the next time to use it, it will be destroyed. The powerful wizard kept the Key though. He didn’t want it to be used by evil but he also knew that such an artifact should be kept and preserved.”

Cozy was listening to the history as she tried her best at building the rock sculpture. She was in a good position to get information but was worried that she’d be kicked out for not following the original intent of the class which was just to sculpt rocks.

Finally, Cozy looked up to the teacher. “Is it known where this key is now?”

“The Key has been hidden away for a great deal of time ever since Starswirl vanished, but it is believed that it was eventually passed down to Princess Celestia by one of Starswirl’s friends.”

“So, Canterlot?”

“No. Princess Celestia has been putting more and more faith in her former student, Princess Twilight Sparkle. The most likely location of it is with her.”

Cozy nodded before putting the finishing touches on her rock sculpture. She glanced at her masterpiece: a pile of rocks stacked up. She looked up to smile brightly at the gray pony before the rock stack collapsed below her gaze.

The tiniest of smiles twitched at the pony’s mouth. “Maybe you can learn more about sculpting tomorrow if you come in.”

Cozy’s eyes widened slightly. “Can’t you teach me more today?”

“The rock class has ended for the day.”

“Wouldn’t a good friend break the rules for another and continue?”

“You’re bad at friendship.”

Cozy widened her eyes. “What?”

“The class will continue tomorrow. You’re welcome to join again. You’ll get to hear more about the Key of Unfettered Entrance if you do. Since you’re a member of the class now, you’re free to come in any day; this class doesn’t stop.”

Cozy nodded before getting up to leave.

“Come also tomorrow for our poetry class,” the gray mare added.

Cozy flew out of the Rock Convention Center, believing she got the information she needed. Although the tone of voice of the teacher was boring, the material was interesting, encouraging Cozy to come back for more, but she knew she couldn’t since she had a mission.

She got back to her makeshift tent where the woll-eyed mail pony was waiting for her.

“Oh, hey there, little filly,” she greeted. “You ready to send another message?”

Cozy remembered that the librarian she talked to spoke of more informative books in Canterlot.

Cozy took a deep breath. “Actually, I was hoping you could follow me to Canterlot so I can continue giving you messages from there.”

“Oh, sorry to inform you so late, but there has been a changeling-watch decreed over Canterlot. The only ones allowed to send mail from there are the Canterlot mail ponies because the princesses know they can trust them. If you are going to Canterlot, I cannot send messages from there until the changeling watch is over. You’ll have to find someone else.”

“But are there other mail ponies that send messages to Tartarus?”

“Actually no. I’m the only mail pony who can do it since there is a cockatrice imprisoned in Tartarus. For any other pony, it would be too dangerous to travel passed, but I can do it since I am incapable of staring directly at the monster, so I am perfectly safe.”

Cozy realized her dilemma, but she also knew there was no way around it. She had to stay in place until the changeling-watch was over.

“I’m sorry,” the mail pony continued. “I wish I could help, but I’m not authorized to send letters in Canterlot. I can still transfer letters here though. Are you ready to send another message?”

Cozy quickly thought about the messages to Tirek. He told her that he wouldn’t give her any explanations, only instructions. But maybe there was a way she could word her messages to have Tirek give her more information without him realizing.

Cozy smirked at the thought. “Yeah, I’m ready.”