Epilogue
Later
Dear Mister Tirek,
I’ve been practicing that spell you taught me really hard, every day since we first met. Hopefully this time it’ll actually reach you instead of just burning up in the fire. I’m getting really tired of re-writing this letter!
I’m sorry that you lost. Well, I’m not really sorry, because if you had won then Discord would have gotten to do whatever he wanted to Equestria, and that wouldn’t have been fun for anypony. He might have made me croak and jump and act like a frog, or something.
I can’t believe that the Princesses just let him go after what happened. But I guess it helps to have friends in high places.
Anyway, I know that you probably really hate that you lost, so I’m sorry about that.
I don’t know if you have anything to write with in Tartaros, but I’m sending a whole bunch of paper so that you can write back if you want to. I bet I could even send you some books with enough practice so you’d have stuff to read.
I’d love to keep talking to you, you were really fun to play in chess, and you know magic and could teach me some, and I even got my cutie mark because of you! It’s a rook. My special talent is strategy. Seeing the big picture, playing all the angles.
Oh, sorry if that makes you mad, me getting a cutie mark. I don’t think one more pony’s power would have helped against Princess Twilight, though.
My revenge against Uncle Fork is going well. He was super mad when I told him I was planning on selling off Daddy’s companies, if not now, then when I become an official adult. He said he was going to fight it with lawyers, but then I said I would fight with my own lawyers. We got into a big argument and now he isn’t living in my house anymore.
Just in case he actually can hire good lawyers, though, I was planning on making it look like he was stealing my money and embezzling money from my Daddy’s companies. Only while I was starting to do that it turns out that he was actually already doing that! I’m waiting for the perfect time to reveal that and ruin him.
Oh, and do you want to play another game of chess? I’ll play white this time: Knight to f3. Your move!
I hope you write me back if you can!
— Cozy Glow
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pretty good end
An wonderful tale. Cozy's backstory doesn't get enough written about it - you did an excellent job giving her a build-up that makes sense and shows how she got to where she would eventually be. Well done!
This was great. A really strong backstory for Cozy. I can't wait to see what you do going forward...
Great ending that ties them together.
This is my favourite Cozy backstory. Personally I am rather anxious to formulate a backstory because it tends to be either exaggerated of melodramatic. This one gives her the right motive and she is pushed to evil with just the right force. The story is not too long for everything it fixes and explains. Good job!
Good backstory. I really like the explenenation for Cozy's mark and I do hope that her eventual imprisonment won't net Fork her fortune.
I wonder if that potential legal battle will come up in one of your future stories.
Hey, you did the thing!
Okay, overall a good story. A good backstory for Cozy. i only wanted to throttle her maybe a half-dozen times.
Same here, kid. Same fucking here...
Good story... Somehow while I was reading this, in the part of her telling the colts what to do, a idea flashed me... 'Cozy Glow, the Princess of Foals'... Leaving that aside, like I said, good story, liked it.
Right! I had a loaded week and so didn't get to respond to folk as much as I would have liked. But I'm free now!
10209496
A lot of this story orbited around giving Cozy Glow little tastes of what she would eventually be after in "School Raze". Never a whole lot, but a start.
10209431
To be honest, if I could get you to sympathize with her, then I know I did something right. My goal was to present her as a kid that was maybe a little off to start with but who began a clear slide into evil - but at the same time, make it clear why she slid into evil, that it wasn't just for shits n' giggles, but rather the result of how life treated her an how she responded to that treatment.
Mind, even at the end of this she isn't exactly evil so much as evil-curious.
She did!
10208909
Yeah. I knew that there would be folks like RK who are sort of predisposed to not feeling much sympathy for Cozy based on what she was like in the show, even if a backstory tried to present her in a more positive light and show that she had reasons for becoming an evil little Satan. So I admit that the character of Royal Fork was deliberately designed to be a hate sink, on the theory that if hate was expended into him then it might make people look at Cozy in a bit more of an objective light.
Mind, to be clear, this backstory is absolutely not trying to make excuses for Cozy, or claim that she's justified or right, or anything. It's simply trying to give her reasons. My goal is not "she may have had a point", it was "I can see why she thinks that".
10208863
Thanks! I've been knocking this around in my head for a while. Originally I actually imagined a larger cast but I decided to cut things back to just the bare essentials. The whole story, by the way, was inspired by Jyc Row's "The Demon Child", right down to the pacing of the story; like the song, it starts off with a relatively sweet melody before something goes wrong (Cozy playing with her father), followed by a huge orchestral piece of drums and brass and strings dominating the whole thing (Tirek's rampage) that eventually calms down a little bit as Cozy and Tirek begin to play chess. Then the sweet-but-wrong bells come back as Tirek realizes that the foal he's playing with is way more intelligent and cunning than he realized, playing him and everyone around her. The final chess game begins, in that video, at 3:16 with Cozy now firmly in control of the entire thing.
10208685
I actually originally was just going to have the letter be "Dear Tirek", but adding in "mister" like you did was just too perfect. The letter was always planned, though - before Cozy was Twilight's student, she was Tirek's, and I imagine that she spends the next two years sending letters back and forth to him in a dark echo of Twilight's friendship reports. Cozy has FIENDship reports, if you wil.
I did!
10208515
I'll probably offhandedly mention Royal Fork early on in Trouble at Midnight Castle, though don't be surprised if his goose is cooked. One of the other things I wanted to make sure of when writing this was that while I had this complex backstory for Cozy involving her dad disappearing and her uncle using her really messing up her psyche, both things are nevertheless resolved by the end of it. I don't think adding in a disappeared dad or conniving uncle that were the center of Cozy's world could really be justified in stories set during or after Seasons 8 and 9, since the show never mentioned them. This whole experience may have been the start of darkness for Cozy, but it's no longer what drives her actions.
10208507
Again: hate sink. Although I feel it worth pointing out that even though Royal Fork was designed as a hate sink he still has more backstory and ties to the world than Cozy ever got.
10208234
Well, this story was a rather deep character piece exploring the effect that being a very intelligent but still very young child would be in a world that seems to suffer some new disaster on a biannual bases. We watched a kid who could probably have become a great force for good instead slide into darkness due to her own decisions plus the environment around her, and the fact that one of the few truly positive interactions she had with someone at her level was Tirek, who is easily an analogue for Satan. Questions about good and evil, free will verses destiny, nature verses nurture, and psychology were raised and left unanswered that the readers might ponder it.
So of course, the next story in this series is going to essentially be a send up-to, chiefly, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and pulp adventure stories in general. The progression seems natural.
10208196
Thanks! Like I said a few months ago, I consider Glow in the Dark, Shine in the Sun to be a "touchstone" fic for how to write Cozy's character, and it was at the forefront of my mind as I wrote this out, particularly in that I wanted to show that the things that drove Cozy to being evil aren't insurmountable.
10208166
At the end of the day, Cozy's just a normal pegasus filly. Very smart and cute as a button, but otherwise normal. Defeating her even if she was dead-set on harming you physically doesn't require some ancient artifact or friendship lasers, it requires a baseball bat. In light of that, Cozy has to be conniving.
10208427 10208348 10208191
Thanks a ton!
10209954
I for one like the base of Cozy, the biggest problem I have is her 'anger' problems and how she decided to throw away everything for power. If she managed to use more her head, maybe she could managed to win... I even wonder how could look that, as Twilight visit the different timelines and find the 'Cozy Win' but I'm getting sidetracked...
I guess it was hard for Cozy to learn the truth about her father even if it was left out of scene... Who knows, maybe he is still alive in Abyssinia, waiting for Cozy to rescue him, and again sidetracking... Leaving that aside, as I said before, good fic, and wonder if Cozy could win in chess against others
This is one of the better Cozy-related stories that explain how she become this power-hungry villain. Good job, this a easy read to me and it doesn't feel rushed too.
I am moderately surprised she didn't arrange for her Uncle to die while he was weakened in some accident. Like falling in a fountain or something. Just thought you might go a tad more brutal. I'm happy you didn't though as this feels much more in character and in universe all around. A very interesting and nicely told story. Though perhaps wasn't...loud enough. Would've liked for a few more changes to things.
Guess she never figured out from her game with Tirek that while her uncle is indeed a hate sink, he never lied about the chess positions. That was what pushed her to the edge.
I take it that Cozy’s mom suffered from dead anime mom syndrome.
Her views on friendship getting more and more warped with each event, because not everypony can handle going through all the stuff Equestria goes through as a civilian caught in the crossfire without having a few screws loose.
So how did her dad die? His airship crashed or did he suffer an accident in cat country? It’s supposed to a plundered ruin thanks to the Storm King looting their cash and manpower.
10214216
Awesome! I'll let you know when it is done if you like? (If you are fine with Equestria girls and perhaps a little clop.) Thanks so much! :D
10214274
Sure! I like EqG. I don’t normally read clop but I’ve got nothing against it.
10214287
Great! Then I shall let you know. ^.^ Yeah I would say the same... but so much of what I have written contains it. XD (Majority of those side stories, but still...)
10214287
I have finished it! (heh and it ended up not having clop so is better for that right?)
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/469407/a-budding-friendship
Not my best work, but promised I would let you see it when I finished. ^.^
10268400
They could... or she could not be a pony and die multiple times. :p
10268405
Well, in that case he's not really killing her, is he?
10276661
I hadn't thought of it in quite that way--but I DID really enjoy the Season 5 finale. I think people were less annoyed with "they didn't use the Elements of Harmony/rainbow lasers" and more with "Starlight's backstory for becoming evil is really underwhelming and is instantly forgiven rather than face any repercussions for trying to smash space/time with a hammer." I wasn't as bothered by that, personally.
10276780
Who wouldn't after he pulled out that stunt with the note? ^^
For those playing at home, playing chess by mail was absolutely a thing people did before there was an Internet. And framing someone for something it turned out they actually did is one of those things that's always hilarious, like going out for Halloween as the thing you are.
10276667
Yeah, they just found different things to complain about. And also, as I said, that the so-called resolution plays out like it was supposed to be rainbow friendship lasers but was replaced with just talking things out without bothering to change the rest of the situation so that this made sense.
10214014
It's possible that his trip had the sheer bad fortune to coincide with the Storm King's attack, resulting in him being a casualty in a war that would take several more years before it had anything to do with him.
10276804
That was my thought, that Cozy’s dad was just unlucky — though given his brother’s name of Royal Fork, I’ve definitely left open the possibility of there maybe having been something more sinister.
Hmm. A well-written backstory that shores up the vague nonexistence of Cozy's background and motives and makes her into a believable and compelling character in the bargain. Well played.
This is criminally underrated.
Amateurs talk tactics. Experts talk logistics.
Wannabes talk strategy.
10196650
I know right?! I think that's one of many reasons why the Season 8 final bugs me the way it does. Rainbow Lasers Triumph yet again, there's no such thing as evil magic unless it's "evil magic" the badguy who can't be reformed is a Pegasus (like that wasn't getting as old as every unicorn ever getting off scott free) and it's not like anyone really learns anything, even when it comes to not trusting the wrong people.
They just chuck Cozy in jail and merrily forget the whole thing happened. And let's be real, if Cozy's actions had really resulted in the deaths of ponies, someone should've been talking about it, especially in places like Cloudsdale or Canterlot.
That . . . was an awesome piece of fiction. While I have my own backstory for Cozy, it's not meant to fit with the canon series, as it's far too grimdark for that. It's meant more for my own AU I'm working on. As for a backstory for the canon series, I agree with a lot of the others here. This one really fits, makes a lot of sense and just . . . works!
Ohhh my god this story made me cry, I loved it! The moment Tirek said ”Wait“ made me gasp. It was too perfect.
Poor Cozy, it was also nice to see what was happening to everyone else during the crazy events in the show. I can’t wait to read more of your stories!
Just got finished reading this, and I think it would work very well as a backstory for Cozy Glow. I always knew she would have had to meet Tirek while he was out collecting magic, but never thought very much of the finer details of the meeting.
I really sympathized with Cozy over her protectiveness of the chessboard. It symbolized her hope that her father would come back someday, even though she knew something had to have happened when he didn't come back when intended. Likely, the Storm King is at fault, and if Cozy ever meets him someday, he'll have hell to pay.
The uncle was a jerk, and he deserved Cozy betraying him to Tirek for trying to pull a fast one so he could get his hooves on the family fortune.
Here, we see Tirek's paternal interactions with Cozy begin even though they've only known each other for that afternoon. He understood her betrayal, and let her grieve when he could've just ditched her to continue his conquest. He stayed, even though he didn't have to, to teach her the fire mail spell. A little more on that later, but my absolute favorite part was the two of them playing the exact same game Cozy played with her father before he disappeared; it really whammed me in the chest when she realized what was happening. I interpreted them playing that game only one way- Cozy found her new father. She started the game with her father, and finished it with her new one. I think that's really beautiful.
Back to the fire mail spell. The way Cozy is taught to do it reminds me of the new Owl House cartoon. Luz learns to make specific patterns in a spell circle to get the desired effect because she doesn't have innate magic abilities, similar to how Cozy and other non-unicorns don't have an easy way to tap into magic like unicorns do.
I had my own idea for a Cozy Glow backstory- basically a Matilda gone bad- but your idea is probably much better than mine ever would be. Thanks for the great read!
It's very fitting that Discord contributed so much to Cozy's evilness. Which in hindsight would make me madder about the ending if it was true. Excellent story.
The audacity - actually doing what Cozy wanted to frame him for! Of course, it makes her job easier, but she doesn't have to know that...
(BTW, was Cozy's mom mentioned at any point?)
10534078
Nope. She’s been Disney’d.
10534342
I see...
10209431
Word dude. The amount of nepotism and just bull crap poltical moves by powerful players that have to have their way.
Is strong in MLP.
I always read Friendship as a code word, myself. And forgivness in the show as a extenuation of that double speak.
Just read your story, love it and so tragic for Cozy. Also great example on how Cozy manage to send letters to Lord Tirek.
Okay, finally got around to finishing this, and man do you certainly know how to write a compelling origin story. Well thought out, and establishing some excellent chemistry between Cozy and Tirek. You gave both of them plenty of three dimensional depth here, and planted the seeds of how they both could develop in the future.
Speaking of which, time to move on to Midnight Castle. Looking forward to it.
D'awwww ~
Oh, now I see! The whole "pen-pals" thing, you went for explaining that, too. :D Marvelous! Fantastic story.
11160072
Thanks! I tried my best. This story does require a slight retcon in that in "School Raze" Tirek actually states that he'd never met Cozy Glow personally before, and he doesn't have a reason to be lying about that to the Mane-6 when he says it. Still, while I normally hate retcons, this one is unobtrusive: removing that line doesn't change anything about how that episode would proceed or end, nor any subsequent episodes.
I pointed out in another comment that while I had this complex backstory for Cozy involving a conniving uncle and a disappeared dad, it was imperative for me to make sure that the whole of it was resolved by the end of this story - otherwise there wouldn't really be an excuse for none of it to have come up in the actual show.
A brilliant backstory for Cozy Glow with only a slight goof with canon. The good part about the writers never going into Cozy's backstory is that we get to enjoy stories like this.
Great work.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!
Fantastic read, much appreciated.
I'm planning on including Cozy Glow in my next feature length story and I was looking for inspiration for her. A friend recommended this and it's a home run.
If I use this as canon, I will certainly give you the credit.
Thanks for the great work!
11782158
Thanks! And by all means, the entire point of this was to try and create a backstory that could mesh with canon, so it's open to anyone who wants to use it.
11782240
Thank you very much, merry Christmas!
This is my first (but certainly not my last) reread, and this remains maybe the best fic I've ever read, were I to attempt to judge by whatever objective standards could be argued to exist.
The premise of this story---the dual structure with the chess game and the development of Cozy's attitude towards friendship---is absolutely genius, and I don't know how you thought of it. I don't have much more to say than that; it's just perfect.
I'm absolutely using this backstory in my future writing about Cozy (though I won't go into the details); I'll make sure to send people to this in the notes!