6.Comfort (Whether You Want It Or Not)
A searing white light hits Sunset's eyes as the crystalline prison around her is shattered. Her body is thrown backwards and lands on the ground, the softness of the soil cushioning her fall. Her wings extend out reflexively as if they were trying to break her fall after the fact. She blinks hard a few times, the whiteness receding to the corners of her vision.
She groans as she makes an effort to right herself. Her head feels attached to her shoulders only by a thread, like it's filled with so much air that it would float away if it were cut loose. Her front hooves push her up to a sitting position, and the weightlessness lessens. The feeling is replaced by a pounding at the front of her head, which has Sunset sucking in a breath in response.
Didn't think it was possible to overuse my powers, but this pretty much proves it. If this is what happens every time I do, I don't want to do it again unless I really have to… ugh, of course it's something like this. I bet all Fluttershy would have to deal with is a sore throat, or Rainbow Dash would only have to lie down for a while. Lucky me, getting the power to have a splitting headache!
She tries to take in the scene in front of her through half-open eyes. Directly ahead is a tree, felled next to several others. She surmises that she's in some kind of forest now, noting that the trees extend on into the distance. Quite nearer than any of that, though, is a familiar lavender coated mare bearing a worried look. She leans in and holds the end of her hoof up to Sunset's chin, examining her face.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Probably…" murmurs Sunset, moving Starlight's hoof away.
"Are you sure?" she asks. "It was a pretty rough fall."
Sunset hums in confirmation, something she regrets instantly as the vibrations from it irritate her headache further. Forcing her eyes to open fully, she examines her companion. The mare in front of her is covered in scratches all over; her mane is in total disarray, with a twig or two sticking out of it. The saddlebags she was gifted from Discord are miraculously still strapped to her back, without a single scratch or tear on them. Somehow, this doesn't surprise her at all.
Sunset raises her eyebrow. "Huh. You don't look so great either, Starlight. Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself right now?"
Starlight almost jumps at the realization, and she begins to examine herself in response. Unable to come up with a rebuttal to Sunset's statement, she plainly states, "Yeah, well, like I said - it was a pretty rough fall."
"Right." Sunset responds curtly. Her gaze shifts away from Starlight to the other pony in their presence, only unnoticed until now because of her small size. The pegasus known as Cozy Glow lies at the foot of the fallen tree, her eyes open but unfocused. Her hooves rest atop her head, like she's protecting herself from something yet to come.
A vague sense of discomfort hits Sunset. It intensifies the thumping in her skull, causing her eyes to automatically shut in pain. Like a chain, her emotions still feel connected to Cozy Glow, her already overused empathy powers being pushed even further. The feelings being transmitted to her are indescribable, foreign to anything Sunset has felt herself. Despite the unfamiliarity, it's clear to her that whatever these feelings are, they’re negative.
Sunset tries to mentally distance herself from the pegasus, focusing her thoughts inward. The headache and the alien emotions dissipate with each other, finally leaving Sunset with a clear mind. She opens her eyes to see Starlight turned to Cozy Glow, head tilted down. With her horn pointed at the still pegasus, it begins to glow, a spell preparing to cast. Sunset's heart leaps in her chest.
"Wait!" Sunset jumps forward, shoving Starlight to the side, but not hard enough to knock her over. She jerks her head up in response, the spell firing into the open air above them, it's light illuminating them for just a moment. They settle, and Starlight stares at Sunset, surprised but seemingly not upset.
"What was that for? I had to undo the freezing spell to let you out, but I still need to put another one back on her so she can't escape again!"
Sunset sighs and turns to Cozy Glow. "Hold on a second. Look at her, Starlight. Doesn't it seem like something is wrong with her? Her eyes are open, but it doesn't look like she's actually seeing anything. She's not even reacting to anything we're saying!"
Starlight also turns to the pegasus, whose wings are pressed tightly against her body. The two step closer, and nothing changes in her demeanor. Her breath is hitched in her throat, and it's hard to tell that she's even breathing, though Sunset knows she must be.
Starlight nods her head in agreement. "You're right, something definitely is going on with her. Should we… do something about it?"
Without hesitation, Sunset replies. "Yes! Of course we should!”
It looks like Starlight means to disagree, but she keeps her mouth closed, choosing only to watch as Sunset gets closer to Cozy. The filly is still unmoving, save for the faint shivering that's only noticeable up close. A rush of anxiety flows through Sunset as she sees the scene for what it is.
She's unresponsive, shaking, and trying to protect herself from something. This is just what Fluttershy is like when she has her freak outs! What was it she called them? Panic attacks? Shoot, how did we make her relax when she had them? Come on, Sunset, think! What did Rainbow Dash always do to calm her down?
Grimacing at how long it took her to notice, she walks next to the filly, reaching out a hoof in uncertainty. She rests it against Cozy's hoof, mentally preparing for the worst. Cozy flinches, but otherwise stays the same. Sunset exhales, glad that the filly didn't immediately bolt from the contact. The thought that her powers could have connected them again without her meaning them to crosses her mind, and she sends a silent thanks to no one in particular that they didn't.
She casts a fretful glance at Starlight, hoping for some kind of encouragement. She looks completely baffled at Sunset's actions, saying nothing but quite obviously judging her.
She's no help. What makes panicking ponies calm down? What do kids like? I'm completely drawing a blank. This should be obvious to me! What, I can manipulate nearly every student in a high school but can't figure out how to get a single pony to stop freaking out? How do Rainbow and Rarity make it look so easy? Oh Celestia, I'm so bad at this!
Wait. What was it that Celestia always used to do for me when I had a bad day? It was so simple, but it always made me feel better. It was something with her wings, and her hoof against my back. How did she do it again...?
The mare sits down next to Cozy, pressing her left flank against the filly's right. Despite the invisibility of her wings, she cautiously moves her left wing over, draping the pegasus in a cover of feathers. Her condition doesn't immediately improve, but nothing negative happens as a result either. Taking this as reason to go further, she takes her hoof and gently presses it against the middle of Cozy's back.
Slowly, she begins to move it around in a circle. The motion is deliberate, and she avoids the sections that connect to Cozy's wings, staying away from the sides. She presses in just a bit more, her hoof looping around and massaging the same place she started at. It goes around the circle again, completing rotation after rotation. It becomes automatic, the mare barely having to focus on the motion to make it happen.
She looks at Cozy Glow's face. Her eyes are still vacant and unfocused, but her eyelids are beginning to droop. The shaking is beginning to lessen, the constant shivering retreating back into her. Daring to take it a step further, Sunset leans down, bringing her head right behind Cozy's.
I think she used to say things, too. Things meant to comfort me. I can't remember the words she spoke. Maybe that part doesn't matter so much. It was always her tone of voice that seemed to do the trick. Those were the only times I ever heard her speak like that…
Her thoughts trail off, but the idea remains. Keeping her voice just above a whisper, she speaks in the gentlest tone she can muster.
"It's okay. You'll be just fine now. Everything will be okay."
The sound that comes out of her mouth is unlike anything she's used to. Her ordinary casual demeanor and confident attitude is gone, replaced with a sensitive and gentle tone that she can't ever remember using.
"There's nothing here that can hurt you. Nopony will do anything to you now. You're safe."
The words come to her, reaching out like they want to be spoken. She doesn't have to think about the right thing to say. She doesn't have to think at all. All that matters is the emotions she wants to convey, and how she wants the pony next to her to feel. It all comes naturally.
"Shhh. You can relax now. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. It's okay to take a break. It's okay to rest. You can take as long as you want. Everything is fine now."
The movements of her hoof don't stop through any of it. The thoughts, the feelings, the soft words of safety that go from one to the other blend in with the continuous massaging. The circular motion continues on, it's pace steady and its path set to repeat indefinitely. The fur her hoof moves through barely feels like fur anymore. It's become completely natural to her touch, like something would be missing if she wasn't in contact with it.
Cozy's head, which has been slowly drifting further and further down, finally rests against the dirt. Her eyes, still hazy, shut at last, and the shaking ceases entirely. Her breathing returns to a natural state of ins and outs instead of the sharp, anxious inhaling and exhaling it was before.
Sunset's wing stays draped around the filly, and the motion of her hoof continues. After a few more moments of quieter and quieter whispering, she stops vocalizing to her, letting silence fill the space. She lifts her head up and slowly breathes in, taking in a deep breath of victory.
I can't believe I just did that. I can't believe that actually worked!
Taking her attention away from Cozy Glow, Sunset lifts her head up and sees Starlight staring at the two of them. Her expression is one of incredulous confusion, her gaping mouth accentuating the look. Seeing Sunset finally looking back at her, she hisses a terse "What are you doing?" under her breath.
In an equally quiet but harsh voice, Sunset replies, "I don't know! I don't know what I'm doing! I have no idea what the right way to do this is!"
Starlight gapes at her again for a moment before regaining her composure. "No, not that! Why are you trying to help her with… whatever's going on with her? This is Cozy Glow! A criminal mastermind who almost destroyed Equestria twice! And now you're… rubbing her back like she's some innocent little foal that's just had a nightmare!"
The reminder that the one she's comforting has tried to take over the world a couple times doesn't much lessen the urge to tend to her.
Something occurs to Sunset. "Wait, you weren't going to do anything to help her?
Starlight seems confused at the question. "No? I thought you were going to cast a muscle relaxant spell on her or something. That's what I would have done, not whatever this is!" she says, pointing a hoof at Sunset and Cozy Glow.
It's Sunset's turn to stare in bafflement. "Why in Equestria do you know a muscle relaxant spell of all things? And why did you think it was the right thing to use in this situation?"
Starlight waves her hoof around in a circle, like she's turning an invisible wheel. "Well… you know how if you sit on your leg for too long, it starts to get all fuzzy and tingly and weird?"
Sunset nods slowly, confused at the sudden change in topic.
Starlight continues, "So, this spell helps to get rid of that by totally relaxing the muscles in whatever has that weird feeling. Makes all that fuzziness go away, at the cost of being, uh, unable to use the limb you cast the spell on. But hey, it works!"
She turns her head to the side and looks away from Sunset. "...It also happens to be good for immobilizing somepony trying to run away from you."
"Wha-" Sunset starts, cutting herself off. "Starlight! Seriously?"
She turns back to Sunset, throwing a hoof in the air. "What? I used to be evil! You already knew that!"
Sunset holds up a hoof and opens her mouth to respond. Before she can, the sound of Cozy Glow shifting and mumbling in her sleep stops the both of them. Sunset keeps herself still, holding her breath while she waits for something else to happen. A few tense moments pass before the pegasus adjusts herself, settling against Sunset once more. She lets out the breath, allowing herself to relax somewhat.
Maybe I should have Starlight use that spell on me once this is all over. I could really use some kind of magical shortcut that forces me to chill out for a while.
Starlight sighs and presses a hoof to her face, keeping it there. Sunset can only guess what she's thinking about. The unicorn breathes in through her nose and slowly exhales, putting her hoof back down afterwards. She takes a few steps forward and begins to speak in the same hushed tone as before.
"Look, Sunset. I don't really get why you're doing all this, but you have to let me do something to keep her in check. Remember before I made you fly-"
"Is that how you're putting it?"
Starlight continues like Sunset hadn't said anything. "-Cozy Glow said something about a bug monster. That ‘bug monster’ was obviously Chrysalis, right? I don't think she was making that up. We know that Chrysalis was there, and Cozy probably assumed that we were looking for her, which we were. Or, are, I guess."
Sunset curtly responds, "What's your point?"
"My point is," she states, "If she wakes up without us taking any precautions, she'll just fly off and we'll be right back to square one. But, if we can somehow keep her around, we might be able to get information about Chrysalis out of her! And, as a bonus, we get to turn in Cozy Glow when all is said and done. We can't just leave her be!"
Sunset clicks her tongue in annoyance. "I'm not going to let you put her back in one of those crystals again. Don't ask me why, cause I'm not totally sure myself, but trust me when I say that it would be a bad idea."
"I figured," Starlight says calmly, "which is why I propose a compromise. Instead of the crystal, how about I use that muscle relaxant spell I mentioned? If I concentrate it to only the tendons that control her wings she should still be able to feel them, but until I undo the spell, she’ll be unable to use her wings to fly! How about that? Nice middle ground, huh?"
"What? That's not how that works! It would wear off at some point, like the invisibility spell you cast on my own wings earlier. You can't just permanently make someone's wings stop working with a spell!" Sunset quietly exclaims.
Starlight nods. "Of course you can't. But she doesn't know that! She should think that I'm a talented spellcaster after seeing me in action. Which is true, obviously. Even as clever as she is, there's no way she could know the intricacies of the magic involved with this kind of spell. We just have to tell her that I 'turned off' her wings, and that I'm the only one that can turn them back on again. That way, she's forced to come with us, while being unable to fly away! What do you think?"
Sunset looks down at the sleeping pegasus. She looks calm, like her current situation was something that had played out dozens of times in the past. From the sight alone, Sunset could mistake her as somepony who is used to being here, away from the trappings of the trappings of a society she can no longer take part in.
It would be impossible to tell she had been hurtling through the air while confined to a crystalline prison fifteen minutes ago if all there was to go off was her current situation. Laying here in front of Sunset, she seemed like an angel that had come down to rest amidst nature, and not the clearly flawed pony she really was.
The rational part of Sunset's brain screams at her that this is a criminal that tried to both get rid of all magic in Equestria as well as take it over with two certifiably evil villains. It's difficult to connect the two images of Cozy Glow, especially considering she was experiencing the whole of her life less than half an hour ago, though it was through an incredibly sped up outside perspective where nothing really made sense.
All that she could really grab onto was the vague feeling that this pony was someone who was entirely on the wrong path, and had some incredibly misplaced priorities, among other flaws. The other, more resonant feeling was that she had been in Cozy's position before. She, too, had been completely lost and lashing out at anypony that scorned her and admonished her overzealous goals. Which, in Cozy's case, was every single authority figure in her life, as well as all of Equestria.
I think I can work with that.
The magnitude of it all is quietly realized as Sunset makes her decision. "Starlight?" she asks, grabbing the unicorn's attention. "I think I'll go with your idea. Make her stay with us, get information out of her, and turn her over once we've got Chrysalis. I'll agree to all of this on one condition."
Starlight brightens up, clearly pleased that Sunset wasn't fighting her on the plan. "Great! What's the condition?"
Sunset plainly states, "Cozy Glow never has to be trapped, imprisoned, or physically confined by either of us from here on out. That's it."
Starlight looks like she's about to question the statement, but backs down before she says anything argumentative. "You know what? Sure. I can totally deal with that. No imprisonment, no problem. There's ways to get around that, anyways."
Before Sunset can ask what she means by that, Starlight's horn begins to glow, and she steps forward to press it against Cozy Glow. A brief sparkle shines over the pegasus' wings before fading away. Though visibly unchanged, Sunset doesn't have to think very hard to realize what spell was just cast.
I wonder how long that spell is going to last. As a matter of fact, I don't even know how long the one she cast on me is going to go for. She said it was a day, but...
The sight of Starlight's flight spell being cast tells Sunset she isn't going to get an answer to any of her questions anytime soon. The now hovering unicorn quietly announces, "I'm gonna go pick up your bags while we've got time. Can't leave that stone behind, right? I shouldn't be gone too long, but keep an eye on her while I'm away."
Sunset nods, and taking that as confirmation, Starlight rises, flying off into the sky. Her shape in the air quickly gets smaller and smaller until she disappears from view entirely, the glow of her magic obscured by the sunlight and tree leaves.
Sunset looks back down to Cozy Glow. Her repetitive hoof motions had stopped at some point during her conversation with Starlight, and her hoof now simply rested on the filly's back. She sighs, unsure of what, if anything, she was going to do about this.
Starlight keeps telling me how dangerous she is, but I can't help but feel like there's something she's missing. I know she wasn't lying about any of the things Cozy Glow did, but there's something that isn't adding up. Maybe I just don't get it, and there's something that makes it obvious why she's so evil. Whatever it is, though, I haven't seen it.
Yet.
Still pressed against each other, Sunset can again feel the lingering connection to Cozy Glow's emotions and memories. They're not forced this time however, instead reaching out naturally, the same way it had felt for humans with her geode. Perhaps she could get something more concrete that could clear everything up if she tried to connect again, without the strange confines of the crystal muddling everything.
If nothing else, I owe it to Starlight to not mess up this mission by getting caught up in a scheme of Cozy Glow's when I'm the one who made her join me in the first place. It was pretty easy for me to believe her when I didn't know who she was. Hopefully looking at some of her other memories will keep me from falling to her tricks in the future.
Reaching out to the sleeping filly, tendrils of thought from Cozy Glow's mind connect to her own, and the two begin to link together.
Who knows? Maybe I'll find a memory with Chrysalis that'll give us some clue as to where she's headed. Wouldn't that be nice…
Someone from below had seen her. Cozy Glow wasn't exactly sneaking around, soaring away from the castle in the middle of the commotion. Perhaps a royal guard was on the lookout, or maybe a foreign dignitary happened to look up by chance and recognize her. She didn't realize they'd noticed her until a couple spells nearly fried her behind.
To say she managed to get away would be untruthful. Yes, she had escaped the castle in one piece, and yes, she lost most of the guards who rushed after her in the twisting and turning streets of the city. Most is not all however, and two remain on her tail, running after her with seemingly endless stamina and precision. The glimpses Cozy managed to catch of the sun show that not much time has passed, despite how long she feels it's been since the chase started.
Her legs and wings ache with the mixture of running and flying she's been doing nonstop since she'd been found. The sounds of hooves pounding against the ground behind her is all that's keeping her moving forward, her above-average stamina just barely able to keep her going.
She turns a corner and thrusts forward with a burst of speed from her wings, desperate to lose the ones after her. Ahead is an open street with the wall that marks the boundary of the city at the end. Cozy internally curses her luck before she notices a plain-looking pegasus close to the wall. Seeing a chance to use this random passerby to her advantage, she runs directly at them.
The pegasus, a mare, notices Cozy, and her eyes widen at the guards closing in. Banking on the stranger either not recognizing her or not knowing who she is at all, Cozy swoops behind her, putting on the mask of a scared filly in need of assistance.
The royal guards close in, and with her back literally against the wall, Cozy prepares a mighty plea for help to convince the (hopefully) unsuspecting mare to assist in her escape. The opportunity never arises, however, as something takes the attention of all three newcomers.
A fierce growl erupts from the seemingly ordinary mare, and a wave of green envelops her body, forcing Cozy to step back. In her place stands a creature nearly twice the size, one with a large crooked horn and holes through her legs. Cozy breaks into a smile, appreciating the supreme magnitude of her luck.
The changeling queen's horn shines a bright neon green, and two beams simultaneously shoot out of it. They go past Cozy Glow on both sides, and she hears the two guards groaning in pain behind her. Not bothering to check if they went down or not, she comes out from behind Chrysalis, excited that things are finally turning up.
Without moving her head, Chrysalis looks at Cozy Glow, her expression betraying her slight agitation. She speaks, the tone of her voice dry and intimidating.
"You."
Cozy's smile only widens. "Me!"
Cozy Glow moves in her sleep, disconnecting the rush of sights and sounds that Sunset had been receiving. She shakes her head, refusing to let herself feel disappointed. Undeterred, she nudges closer to the sleeping villain and initiates the viewing of her memories once more.
She's gone. Off into the woods, the last chance for Cozy Glow to come back to prominence disappears from view, her black outline slipping into the shadows. A feeble attempt to call out to the changeling falls flat, and the pegasus is left standing alone, whispers of wind over the plains now the only thing to keep her company. Now without a plan of action, her mind begins to wander.
She loses track of time in her thoughts, ruminating on how and why she's now stuck in her current situation. After rumination is contemplation, however, and the latter takes precedent in her mind. Unable to let herself be paralyzed by indecision, a plan of some kind is needed to save her. To pick up the pieces, confidence and analysis is required.
There's no way this is the end. I can still find some way to make this work, there has to be some plan I can put together that can salvage this mess. There's a way out for me, I just have to figure it out! If there's an opportunity to get something back so I can win them over, I'll take it. I just have to make sure I'm there for it.
Her allies are gone, one abandoning her for his own goal and the other doing the same for lack of one. Betrayal is never fun, but that's not what's threatening to send her over the edge from a sudden surge of anger. Her blood boils at their inability to see her for what she is: an asset.
Can't they tell how useful I would be to them? The only reason we ever teamed up was to benefit ourselves by helping each other at the same time, and there's no reason that would stop now! This is all just a big setback to our goal, so why are they treating it like our cooperation was a total failure? We got closer to ruling Equestria than we ever would have apart!
All three of us came so close to what we wanted, but we lost in the end, even together. But don't they understand it's not over yet? We were set free! We were all together! We could have taken advantage of the chaos to take back what was ours! Why can't they see the benefit of working together? Why can't they ever just accept that I can give them as much as I take?!
Her jaw is clenched, grinding her teeth together. A low growl comes out of her, though the sound is somewhat muffled by the wind. She's tempted to scream out her frustrations, but she knows she can't afford to be so careless. The rational undertow of her mind keeps her emotions in check, and the growl subsides.
Maybe I don't need to have actually convinced Chrysalis to get Tirek back on my side. He thinks that she left because she no longer saw the value in teamwork just like him, but if I tell him that I managed to convince her otherwise, it might make him more amenable to the concept again. Even if he gets skeptical that I didn't bring her with me, I can make it seem like she's off doing some other mission that the two of us agreed on. Yeah, I can see him falling for that.
Once I'm back in his good graces, I can coast along until I figure out a more permanent solution to keep up the ruse. If the princesses and their friends are too busy panicking about Tirek and I, they might not have a chance to think about Chrysalis much, which would allow me to come in and make something up. If there's some non-existent Chrysalis going around disguised as someone, then anyone can be suspect, and I won't have to prove anything!
She rubs her temples, her train of thought moving a million miles an hour.
Ok, maybe that part won't work out as well as I think it might, but I can deal with that when I get there! For now, I need to get to Tirek, tell him I got Chrysalis back on our side, and convince him to team up with us again. That's totally doable! Sure, it might be much easier to get there if he just believed everything I said, but he's suspicious of me now. Still, I've got a real shot at this! All I really need to do is get past the city's security and get up close to Tirek. I can talk my way through the rest of it.
With the outline of a plan forming, she lifts herself off the ground and begins to fly. Far higher than the ground is where she found Chrysalis, and the best way back into the city is through there. Despite her agility, her stamina wasn't the best, and so, climbing the mountain with short bursts of flight would have to do.
Her mind still ticking away, she ascends the mountain that holds Canterlot, getting closer and closer to the newly made entrance to the city. With her wings, the journey back up doesn't seem to take longer than five minutes, though she knows it must have taken more. Coming off the side of the mountain, she scans the wall of the city for the hole her former teammate blasted through it. Before long, she spots it, and soars over to it, excitement beginning to creep back into her.
Just as she reaches it, she notices something different. Upon the edge of the road that led to the wall are two ponies, both facing each other. Unicorns, one orange and one lavender. The latter looks familiar, but from this distance, it's hard to tell.
She gets closer, and her identity clicks as their faces come into view. Starlight Glimmer, alongside somepony unknown to her. The excitement turns to elation as a whole host of opportunities arise just by a known element appearing before her.
Starlight turns and sees her. A smile rises on Cozy Glow's face.
It goes by so fast. The plotting, the watching, the taunting, it all passes in the blink of an eye. It barely sticks to her mind, just a whirling set of sights and sounds that go from one to the next without pause. The orange one is thrown, and she jeers at the one that threw her.
Starlight comes after her. Amusement turns to surprise. She can't fly fast enough. Surprise turns to fear. She's going to be put back into that place, deprived of sight or sound or touch for the rest of time. Fear turns to panic. Everything is over if she's caught, but she can't escape. One mistake and it's over. One slip up and it's an eternity of that horrible, endless nothingness.
The panic doesn't leave her. The chase goes on. Her wings only get more and more tired, each terrified flap signaling the end, yet it's just barely staved off. The orange one is back. Dodge her and don't think about it. Her eyes flashed, but the panic driving her forward leaves no room for thoughts, only the blind instinct to run away.
She flies in circles. Against the wall, the beams from the one chasing her just barely miss. She can see that same hole in the wall up ahead. Her only way out is through there, losing the doom encroaching upon her. If she could just make it to that spot, she would have a chance.
A flash of orange. Something solid collides with her, and her wings beat once, twice. A presence engulfs her, presses against her in all the worst ways, clamping her wings to her back. Held in midair, it's as if she's floating, suspended in one spot. It's so disgustingly similar to the sensation that dominated her mind in that place that it makes her sick.
And after that, without warning, she loses the ability to move. All at once, her body is frozen. The pressure is suddenly here, pushing into her from all angles. The lights from outside don't matter anymore.
Her world becomes a prison once more. The fears that have been plaguing her erupt into an overwhelming sense of despair and horror. It was all for nothing. She's right back where she started.
Yet, it is not the same as it was in that deep, endless void. There are sensations to experience, sights to see, things to feel. Her prison is different now.
But panic provides her no avenue to appreciate this difference. All her mind tells her is that she is trapped again. Immobile. Inert. A death without finality.
For how long?
She cannot consider this, as time slips back into the realm of fiction. The expanse in front of her may as well be infinite. Her mind, too, is put into stasis. Thinking without comprehension, to not suffer the agony of truly experiencing this all for the second time.
The blood flowing through her veins turns to ice, and the vision her eyes still possess flows away to nothing more than vague shapes and colors. Her senses retreat inward, to return only when it is safe.
Time passes. It means nothing.
Something cracks. A burst of light blinds her, and the prison is broken. She can't know if it's for the last time.
"Get away from me!"
Sunset is jolted out of the memory as a hoof strikes her side. She quickly stands and backs up, her senses quickly becoming reacquainted to the reality around her. Her eyes focus on Cozy Glow, who she realizes kicked off of her in order to create distance between them.
A flash of surprise is all Sunset sees on her face before it changes to something else. Shock, fear, and unfettered anger is what appears in her expression. Sunset opens her mouth to speak, but the pegasus shouts at her before she can.
"You're a princess!" she spits, scorn embedded in her pronunciation of the last word.
Jolting from the accusation, Sunset immediately counters her claim without thinking. "Listen, I don't know where you got that, but I'm not-"
The sound of ruffling feathers stops her. She turns her head to the side, dreading what she thinks she's going to see. Splayed out in full view are a pair of wings, both connected to her. She flinches, and they immediately retreat, folding up against her torso. Slowly turning her head back to Cozy Glow, she sees the filly bursting at the seams with hostility.
I am SO getting Starlight back for this.
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Actually she is an alicorn, not a princess. She hasn't accepted that title.
I wonder if Sunset's Empathy powers can work like a two-way street: she can see into others memories but under certain circumstances, they can see into hers, meaning, possibly, Cozy saw who she was dealing with, and was initially shocked and afraid.
Or... maybe Sunset's powers overwhelmed Cozy as well as herself.
talk, or slap the crap out of the little brat. decisions, decisions.
Okay so far so good, it's not an instant redemption so far, lets keep it that way. Now I am saying this now, I am not against a redeemed Cozy as long as its done RIGHT and not just a instant thing with no bumps or issues or protests from Cozy along the way. Now I know some of my previous comments may suggest otherwise but those were only comments on how one punishes a pony like Cozy who in cannon is clearly a psychopath, there really is NO EASY way to deal with such a being.
Anyways looking forward to more
11179182
I know that and you know that, but Cozy Glow doesn't. To most ponies, anyone with both wings and a horn is automatically a princess.
i hope we got cozy we deserved. a filly that cannot broken by tartatus and can get respect from villains that value strength ith words and scheming alone.
and sunset's power is more fucked up than cadance's brainwashing love magic
Really loving this story so far. Its a good thing Sunset is there for poor Cozy now, I do wonder how their technically first real meeting will o down,
At least she didn't nearly destroy Equestria in multiple timelines for the sake of petty revenge.
11180858
I disagree… about a lot. You have actually described a sociopath. Both are damaged but in different ways. A lot to say but I’ll just pick on this one thing;
“Maintain a normal life as a cover for criminal activity”
That is over broad; almost all career criminals do that (that is sometimes why it takes awhile to get them in jail; evidence is sometimes hard to come by when they live normal lives off the clock)
Sunset going all Mama Shimmer was adorable. 10/10 will read future chapters happily.
11180040
I was really disappointed in Starlight Glimmer this chapter. As of a week ago she was a guidance counselor, supposedly the person in charge of helping troubled kids, and she watches an extremely troubled kid undergo an awful panic attack and doesn't seem to care,except that it will provide Starlight an opportunity to squeeze the troubled kid for information before having said child re-petrified.
I really love Cozy love/redemption fics. Nice to see this have potential to turn into one.
Not every villain is redeemable. FFS. Should I remind ALL of you, how Cozy CAREFULLY plotted, and PLANNED for all of Equestria to DIE without magic. How she IGNORED and TAUNTED the LEADING expert in FRIENDSHIP, Twilight. Nobody knows everything about friendship, but Twilight is the CLOSEST to leading authorised scientist/teacher, when it comes to this. She has the most wisdom accumulated from the times with her friends.
I HATE when people try to redeem people, who just can't be redeemed.
"why couldn't you have slept for five. More. Minutes!"
The best villains aren't villains.