Pre Burn
There is never a happy reason to have to clean out the belongings from someone else's bedroom. It’s an act that goes hoof in hoof with tragedy and loss.
A missing child. A deceased grandparent. A friend sentenced to prison.
It is the latter that can often cause the fiercest of heartache. When it wasn’t chance or bad luck or any other outside force that whisked a pony away, leaving their friends to box up the remainder of the life they left behind, but their own actions that shut the bars and turned the key.
It was with much such a heavy heart that Twilight Sparkle, Headmare of the School of Friendship, cleaned out the dorm room of the filly she'd once thought of as her most promising friendship student. No, even that felt insufficient for how she’d felt about the filly. Cozy Glow had been a model student. A shining example of everything that friendship stood for. A guide for the students, an aid for the teachers.
Stars above, she’d practically been a second Spike.
And then… she’d shown her true colors and the façade had shattered like stained glass.
Twilight folded a collection of mane and tail ribbons into a small box. There really wasn’t much to pack. If she’d thought to check the filly’s dorm room sooner, she wondered if she might have caught on to Cozy’s deception before it all.
The room was practically bare. No posters on the wall of inspiring ponies or places. No photos stuck around the rim of the vanity mirror of her friends and family. No mementos or keepsakes on the shelves. The only signs at all that a pony had even lived there was a rack of ribbons in the closet, a few neat piles of completed and half-finished homework on the desk, and a battered suitcase under the bed. Twilight had seen royal guard barracks with more personality.
It was good that she’d turned down her friends’ offer to help clean out the room; there wouldn’t have been much for them to do. She’d almost hoped it’d been a mess so it would take longer and give her a chance to… reflect? Maybe? She didn’t know exactly what she wanted, only that it’d felt right and important to gather up the bits and pieces of the filly she’d once had such pride in. Maybe she’d hoped to glean something from her possessions. Find an explanation in her choice of personal books. An answer in the color of her curtains.
But the spartan room offered no insight beyond the harsh truth that Cozy Glow had never thought of the School of Friendship as a home. She’d never even unpacked.
With the leaden weight in her heart no less lightened, Twilight gathered the pages of homework, tapped them together until the edges were square, and carefully placed them atop the ribbons.
Her hoof hesitated, leaving the pages hovering an inch above the box. “What am I even doing?” The words fell from her lips amidst a tired sigh. Why save her unfinished homework? Why save any of it? Did she think Cozy was planning on continuing her Friendship studies via correspondence course? She didn’t even have the address of Cozy’s parents to ship her effects to. Somehow that bit of paperwork seemed to be missing from their records. More of Cozy’s deceptions.
Still, even if it was pointless, Twilight was never one to leave a job half finished. This needed to be done. To put some final chapter on the story that was the rise and fall of Cozy Glow. The ribbons accepted the weight of a dozen essays on the nature of friendship and the shiny gold stars on the top of each page.
All that remained was the suitcase. It was a beat-up old thing, the kind made cheaply and sold cheaper at train stations for travelers who need to fit just a few more things. It was wedged under the bed, as far back as it could go. She'd have missed it entirely if she hadn't cast a spell specifically to search for loose objects.
A sharp tug with her magic pulled it free, but the force of it snapped the flimsy clasp and let its contents spill out onto the floor.
Twilight sighed again as she recognized the last possession of Cozy Glow. Even gone, the filly found new ways to betray her. "All that and she doesn't even take care of her books."
Of all the many copies of the Friendship Journal that Twilight had seen, sold, and signed since deciding to publish her and her friends' collection of life lessons and experiences, none was in worse condition than this one. The cover was scuffed and faded, half the pages warped from poor drying, and there was a very distinct smell about it.
But it had also clearly been read. Read over and over if the dog-eared pages and half a dozen bookmarks and carefully taped-together repairs meant anything.
Yet another paradox from the filly who seemed to embrace friendship wholeheartedly yet couldn't grasp the most fundamental essence of it.
She set the journal on the desk, only for it to slip from her grip and fall open to one of the bookmarked pages. Was it intrusive to peek? Maybe, but Twilight felt compelled to look anyway. As if she could hope to glean some insight from whichever lesson Cozy had thought was the most important.
It had opened near the middle of the beginning, on a page more water-damaged than not. The top half was completely illegible, but the bottom was just intact enough to read.
—and even though the fountain was destroyed and we lost the last clue, we still had a great time trying to figure out all the riddles up till then. We may not have found the Treasure of Rusty Shovel, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And I guess it just goes to show that even if things don't go exactly to plan (or even a little to plan) you can still have fun so long as your best friends in the world are there with you.
-Cozy Glow
Beneath it was a drawing. The colors had run and bled together into muddled shades of rainbow brown, but the amateur pen strokes still conveyed the idea of five or six ponies clustered in a grassy field.
Understanding came easily.
"She made her own Friendship Journal," Twilight marveled, allowing, for just a brief moment, a spark of pride to swell in her chest. The feeling didn't last long before reality settled back in and brought with it a new question. "But if she did have friends, how did she still end up so twisted?"
More importantly, what had happened to Cozy’s friends? Did they have something to do with it all? And if she tracked them down, could they tell her?
She flipped forward a few pages to a more legible page.
Dear Diary,
I gotta admit, Griffonstone was a dump. Like, major trashville. When Screwy and I got there I thought we were just in the slums outside the city or something, but nope. That’s their capital. Whole bunch of half wrecked buildings and a bunch of griffons grumbling and yelling at each other. Screwy split off right away, like she always does, so I got down to business figuring out what we were supposed to be doing there. Found an old geezer who said that everything went downhill since they lost some Idol of theirs, so I figured I find the thing, give it back to them, bing bang boom problem solved.
Not so easy as I thought.
To make a long story short, I got stuck halfway down a pit and Screwy had to do her weirdo magic to get me back out. Didn’t even see the Idol down there. Turns out though I wasted my time. While I was lost in the weeds, Screwy was talking to some of the less grumpy locals and somehow convinced them to put on a talent competition (I think the cash prize probably helped grease the wheels) and got some of them to actually start working together in teams to play to their strengths. Which, I guess, is something I should have kept in mind. We went there to work as a team but I just went off to do my own thing right away. We’d have gotten done a lot faster if I’d just realized it was better to work with my friends then assume I knew best. But hey, you live and learn, right?
-Kickflip
"That's not right," Twilight muttered as the details of the story clashed with her memory.
She remembered that particular adventure. But it had been Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie who’d gone to Griffonstone. Kickflip? Screwy? She didn't know either of them.
Beyond that, she wasn’t sure if that particular lesson had even been included in the published Friendship Journal. Hadn’t it happened after they finished filling the pages? Did this Kickflip hear about it somehow and want to take credit, or was it some strange coincidence?
She turned back a few pages to a different entry.
Dear Diary,
Today was a most educational experience in urban survival skills. While Manehattan was a simply grand place to visit, I learned the hard way that there are ponies willing to take advantage of a generous spirit. Looking back, I can’t help but be embarrassed at how easily I fell for that obvious conpony. Even after he made off with our tickets to Hinny of the Hills I refused to believe him a cad even as all my friends insisted. I ignored their advice and lost not only our tickets to the show, but my bits, my favorite hat, and even our hotel suite.
I can only thank my lucky stars that my friends refused to abandon me despite how cross I became and the harsh words I said to them. Not to mention that Applebloom had family in the city who were able to accommodate us at a moment’s notice, and that Cozy had a friend working backstage at the show.
-Primrose
Applebloom? Now Twilight was more confused than ever. As far as she knew, Applebloom and Cozy had never been particularly close. No closer than Cozy was to anyone else, at least. Definitely not close enough to take a trip to Manehatten together with another pony Twilight had never heard of. The hoofwriting and narrative voice were different enough between the entries that Twilight couldn’t imagine Cozy having written them all herself, baring some severe mental dissociation. But that seemed unlikely. Cozy was misguided and maybe sociopathic, but she'd never shown any signs of being delusional.
Something didn’t add up, and the ache of betrayal and loss in Twilight’s stomach had turned to fuel her investigative curiosity. She flickered through the pages, gleaning snippets and fragments from the many friendship lessons that skirted the edge of the familiar.
...the importance of not holding on to grudges, otherwise Applebloom's Grandpear might never have gotten a chance to know his grandfoals.
…when Wayfarer had the brilliant idea to trap the Tantabus in a recursive dream loop until we could talk to Princess Luna…
..and after that Cozy got to officiate the wedding between Ransack McColt and I-forget-her-name-but-she-had-a-really-cute-mane Hooffield and it was so adorable and they had a cake and everything even though it was a veggie cake which was kinda weird but I guess that’s how they do it or whatever…
…Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I'm a little glad Applebloom doesn't have her cutie mark. Otherwise Starlight Glimmer's spell would have left her as grey and weak as the rest of us. I guess it goes to show that it's not having a special talent that makes you special, it's what you do with the skills you have.
Mixed in amongst the stories were small mementos of the adventures. A crimson feather with a luster that still caught the light. A pressed flower, bone-dry but whole. A half dozen ticket stubs for the Grand Galloping Gala.
Twilight slowed her frenetic gleaning as her eye caught a particular line that stood out.
…but in the end we were able to intercept the delivery and get Miss Pinkie's persimmon cake back before it ended up on the princess's plate. Celestia was practically beside herself thanking me for saving her from that embarrassment. She wasn’t too happy that I had to tell Wayfarer and Primrose about her allergy, but she understood that sometimes it’s okay to share a secret when it’s for somepony’s own good.
-Cozy Glow
That one detail lent the Journal more credibility than anything else she'd read. Celestia's allergy wasn't a secret in any official sense, but Twilight was solidly certain that the only ponies who knew about the mortifyingly embarrassing side effects Celestia suffered from persimmons were the ones also wearing crowns.
It was private. Something Cozy shouldn't have known, couldn't have known. Unless she heard it from the source.
The remaining entries looked different from the preceding book. The pages were in much better condition, with none of the wear and tear and water damage she saw on the earlier ones. A quick flick through the pages showed them all to be written by the same hoof. Twilight turned back to the first of the last entries and began to read.
Dear Diary
I wouldn't normally write my thoughts in here before concluding an adventure, but I'm afraid that this time I might need to leave some kind of record just in case the worst happens.
Starlight Glimmer is back.
She was in my house when I got back from Canterlot. I don't know how she got in, but she was waiting for me, lounging in my favorite chair like she owned the place.
She didn’t say much, just that she’d finally found a way to get me out of the picture, and then she cast a spell I didn’t recognize and vanished into a portal. I thought it was just some kind of intimidation thing at first— “I know where you live and can get at you any time. Be very afraid. Blah blah blah.” —but then I accidentally reactivated the spell and piggy-backed along.
I still don’t know how she did it, but somehow she both found and upgraded Starswirl’s time travel spell. I thought I’d just been teleported to Canterlot at first, but seeing myself a few years younger running down the road was pretty convincing. I recognized the day we’d traveled to. It was the day I met all my friends.
But I got distracted watching old memories play out and didn’t pay attention like I should have, so I missed Starlight overturning a market stand and sending an avalanche of fruit rolling down the hill. Younger me got trapped in the landslide, and while she helped check everypony for injuries, Kickflip dashed out of an alley, across the street, and into another with a pair of guards hot on her heels. She didn't crash into me like he was supposed to and young me didn't send the guards off in the wrong direction. Starlight changed things so I never met her.
Before I could do anything about it the spell activated again and slingshot me back to the present. But the present was all wrong. It was night, and half of Ponyville was a crater.
Because Starlight changed the past, my friends and I never met. Because we never met, we never found the Elements of Harmony together. And because of that, Nightmare Moon returned and took over almost unopposed. Starlight Glimmer changed the whole world by upsetting an apple cart.
Some… stuff happened. The kind of things I don’t want to write down. But after a lot of work I was able to recast Starlight’s spell and go back in time to when she started changing things.
When I got back to the past a second time, I managed to hold up the fruit cart before it could topple, but while I was busy with that Starlight went and shot an ice spell at the street. She froze a score of ponies solid, young me and Kickflip included.
The spell pulled me back to a present that was worse than the one before. Equestria was at war with the Crystal Empire.
I got out of there as fast as I could.
We've been through the dance a few times now. I go back, fix whatever Starlight changed, and while I do she messes up something else and I get pulled back to a new and terrible present.
As I write this I'm in the sixth different version of the present. Maybe the seventh. It's hard to keep track. Some of them have been similar, but all have been bad. It's clear that there's no good version of Equestria where me and my friends don't meet.
Once the patrol of yeti guards pass by, I'm going to make a break for the Map and head back again. In case something goes wrong and one of these dark timelines gets the better of me, at least this journal will be left as a record of what happened. And hopefully, somehow, one of my friends will find it and know I tried my best.
-Cozy Glow
Twilight felt for the poor filly. She remembered well her own experience with Starlight’s timeline alterations. The fear she’d felt with every dark future. The growing sense of hopelessness as Starlight always seemed to be one step ahead of her. The grim memories lurked in her mind, twisting into a ball of uneasy that she couldn’t shake as she turned the page.
The next few pages were filled with nothing but indecipherable scrawl, half of it crossed out so roughly the pages were ripped. Then, from one line to the next, the writing changed to an almost mechanical precision.
She read on.
Is it working? Aha! Test one two three. Sassafras sassypants sans fracas. Goody.
Okay so. Uh... how to start.
I think I might really be in trouble this time. I don't know what Starlight Glimmer did differently, but this time when I went back to the day she keeps messing up and changing, I couldn't find her. When the timer ran out and the spell pulled me back to the present, I thought everything was normal until... until...
...until I realized my horn was gone.
Maybe she went back even… even farther and… and… Hiih. Ahi. Ach.
No. Stop that. You're okay, you're okay. You're a big filly who can suck it up and move past this. Oh it's still writing.
Obviously, without my horn I can't just find the Map and cast the spell again like I've been doing. But that doesn't mean I can't cast it at all. Runes were never my strong suit, but Celestia taught me enough that I was able to cobble together a rudimentary dictation spell. It's really inefficient magic-wise, but it'll have to do till I can learn to write with my wings. Heh, I guess Wayfarer was right after all. I should have practiced it more when I had the chance.
It’s going to take time, though. Both to research the runes I need, to do the math to convert a horn-spell into runeform, ugh, and to gather enough magic to cast it. Good thing time travel means I’ll still return to the same point whether I need five hours or five weeks to prepare.
On the bright side, this seems like a safe enough timeline to get my bearings in before I go back and fix whatever she changed. No eternal night, no changeling war, no global flooding. If it weren't for a few small things, I'd think I was back home and everything was normal again. But it can't be that simple. Hopefully I can wrap this up soon, defeat her, and get back home. It’s been… I don’t know how I’m supposed to measure time when I keep jumping back and forth, but I think it’s been at least a few days since I last saw my friends.
I miss them already.
-Cozy Glow
Twilight turned the page, rivetted, only to find that the next page only had three lines written on it. What they said made her blood run cold.
Starlight Glimmer is a monster
I found what she changed
In this timeline, Twilight Sparkle never died
She couldn’t breathe. The air felt like a solid block in her lungs. She’d died? Or rather, hadn’t died. Been saved. By Starlight? But when? She couldn’t remember ever skirting close to death to need saving. It was all she could do to read on as the next page continued.
Since Twilight Sparkle never suffered that accident, Celestia never went looking for a new student. She never visited the orphanage. Never met me and took me home.
And then everything unraveled from there.
What kind of pony even thinks of something like this? Starlight Glimmer is a demon. A monster of the worst kind. She finally found a way to tie my hooves with an impossible choice. If I want to restore the world I know, all I have to do is let an innocent ten-year-old filly die.
I… I don’t know if I can make that choice. But there has to be a solution. Some third answer that will get me home and keep the blood off my hooves.
But I don’t even have anyone to talk about this with.
I miss my friends.
-Cozy
The next few pages weren’t entries so much as they were notes. Book titles and copied passages. Fragments of arcane calculations and spell diagrams. Half of it crossed out in frustration. The next proper entry she found was written by wing instead of spell, in a legible if shaky grip.
It was a mistake to go looking for my friends. I just thought... I don't know what I was thinking. That if they saw me, they'd recognize me? Stupid. It's not like they have amnesia or something. They wouldn't know me because here, they never knew me.
But I had to try. After months of libraries and research and hiding from the local authorities, I’d give anything to see a familiar friendly face.
Applebloom seems about the same as ever. Still upbeat, still working with her family on the farm. She made new friends as well to fill the me-and-Kickflip-shaped holes in her life. I bought an apple from her stall at the market, but seeing her look me in the eyes without a trace of recognition was...
Wayfarer's about the same as well, though he never moved out of Fillydelphia. Makes sense, I guess, without ever meeting Primrose to follow after like a lovesick puppy.
Prim… I don't think was born in I can't find her. As far as the public records say, Ornate Garden and Tea Time only had one daughter, not two. I knew she was younger than the rest of us but even then I never
No one at the Ponyville joke shop could remember a filly fitting Screwball's description ever working there (and the manager didn't look like one of Discord's sonas) but at least she's listed on the Ponyville census.
Kickflip's in juvie. Apparently we were a better influence on her than I realized.
Can I even call this a friendship journal now if there’s just me as the author? Me, with no friends?
I can't— If my friends don't even—
I have to get back. No matter what.
The ink was smeared and ran in little circular patches. It didn’t take a genius to guess they were dried tears.
I looked up what happened to the me of this timeline too. There’s not much, but apparently she stayed in the orphanage until she was twelve, then was adopted by a pair of unicorns. Everything else is sealed outside the public record. I barely even remember the orphanage, so I can’t even imagine staying there for that long. No mentions of any friends or accomplishments. She’s a nobody.
For her sake and mine, I have to fix this.
I’ve run the numbers. It’s possible.
It’s taken over a year just to prove it and countless thefts from the Canterlot Library restricted section (thank the stars this world’s Celestia uses the same passcodes mine taught me) but I’ve finally recreated Starlight Glimmer’s time spell from Starswirl’s original notes in a form that can be cast through runes. The only problem is it’s so inefficient it’s not even funny. The amount of magic this needs to work is absurd. Just-shy-of-all-the-magic-in-Equestria kind of absurd. I can’t imagine the kind of devastation that would be left behind if I pulled it off. A world without magic… it’s unthinkable.
But maybe a more realistic option than I first thought.
Cause I've been doing some thinking. Starlight Glimmer is a very powerful unicorn, there’s no argument there. But there’s no way in Tartarus she has the kind of magic you’d need to create a whole new branch of reality. That’s magic on a cosmic scale. You could turn everypony in Equestria into an alicorn and still not be able to create a reality.
So if she’s not forking reality, she has to be overwriting it. Every time she went back and changed something, she rewrote the future. Like erasing the words from a chalkboard and writing a new story in the blank space. Same universe, different content. The timeline where Nightmare Moon won, the Changeling war, the Equestria where Trixie fused with the Alicorn Amulet, each of them ceased to exist when I left them behind. None of them are really real because everything that happens in them gets erased. They’re just bad copies of the true timeline. Shadows and dark reflections of the world I know.
So when I finally go back and stop Starlight from changing the past for good, it'll retroactively stop this timeline from ever existing. Nothing I do here matters because it'll all get uncreated in the end.
There are no consequences to my actions. Even if I drain this world dry of magic, it doesn’t matter. Not my problem. I'll be home, with my friends, in the true timeline. What do the fake ponies of this one matter? They're not real, not like my friends were. Are.
Even if I do go through with this, there’s still the teensy problem of actually gathering all the magic in Equestria together. I’ll need some kind of high-density magical nexus point to start with, and weeks to spend there setting up the spell. Not to mention, most creatures tend to resist having their innate magic drained away, naturally.
It's monstrous to even consider it as an option, but when it comes to forcibly draining magic, there's only one expert to consult. And I know exactly where to find him.
"Tirek," Twilight gasped as the pieces of Cozy’s true master plan all came together. What seemed like a mere ego-trip to become the Queen of Friendship was cast in a new light. The explanation that Cozy had just been draining magic away had never really satisfied Twilight, but gathering a massive amount for a powerful spell made perfect sense. Worse though, was her reasoning. In a world without consequences, ethics become nothing more than an inconvenience blocking the path to success. She could all too easily picture herself making the same decisions, had her fight with Starlight forced her into such a situation.
Except for one critical detail. Cozy was wrong.
The effects of Starlight’s time travel spell did make branching timelines and they definitely continued to exist after she (or Cozy) left. It didn’t need a cosmic amount of magic, it was practically a side effect of enacting changes in the timestream. Starlight herself had walked her through the proofs after becoming Twilight’s friendship student.
Well, in theory, at least. It was groundbreaking research without many ways to conclusively test it. And the ramifications if they were wrong...
No, Starlight had to be correct. Multiversal theory afforded less paradoxes that single timeline overwriting.
No matter what justifications Cozy told herself, she would have left a crippled and dying world behind.
Twilight was nearing the end of the journal, with only a few pages left to go, but if anything the weight on her soul felt heavier than when she'd started.
I can’t believe I used to feel guilty about weighing Twilight Sparkle’s life against me getting home.
She published a book today. A journal. My journal. This journal. But also not. It's wrong. Wrong ponies, wrong places. And it's not even complete. Her version just stops after they defeat Tirek, missing months of adventures and friendship lessons that came after. It's a cheap knockoff of the real thing.
So I made a point to research her, and guess what I found? The Adventures of Cozy Glow, starring an unexpected understudy. All the adventures I’ve had, all the ponies I’ve helped, except it’s her instead of me. There’s a few obvious differences since she and her friends are so old, but that’s just a cheap coat of paint. She stole my life. All the things I should have done, she did them first while other me was stuck wasting time in the orphanage.
It's not really her fault, I know. She's just a miscast character in this poorly written adaptation of my life. But it’s impossible not to look at her and see an imposter who’s taken everything that’s supposed to be mine. Her and her friends. Some Element Bearers they are. None of them could hold a candle to the real ones.
I still had a few reservations about my plan, but this has put them to bed. I refuse to give up everything to save some random pony’s life if she’s just going to use it to steal mine.
The very last entry was actually loose. The page teased free of its binding but nestled back where it should have been attached. The penmanship was immaculate.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It feels strange to start a letter like this again after so long, but if this is going to be my final message then I want to do it properly. If you’re reading this (and I do hope it’s you reading it, my Princess Celestia and not the one from this fake timeline who never knew me) then you’ve probably read my entries up until now and you know my plan. I can practically hear you now, softly advising me against it. Citing the danger and the risks. How it’s unethical and practically omnicidal. But that’s only true if it fails. If it works—and it will work—I’ll return to the past, stop Starlight for good, and come back to my castle in Ponyville with my friends waiting for me and everything I’ve done having no more consequence than a bad dream. When that happens, this letter will be little more than tinder.
I’ve found the perfect nexus point to set up the spell. It’s on a leyline with a direct connection to the Tree of Harmony, has almost no authority oversight, and there’s a school built on the spot. It should be a piece of cake to enroll as a student so I can coast by while taking all the time I need to carve the runes in some out-of-the-way location. The only problem is that the place is run by Twilight Destiny-Stealer Sparkle.
Anypony else I could stand, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach having to go to classes and listen to her of all ponies try to give me lessons on friendship. I’d blow my cover the first day.
But I’ve come too far to stop now, which is why I’m taking a drastic measure that I know you’d object to if you were here. It’s a forbidden spell, after all.
I’m going to cast a spell to seal away my memories. It’s the only solution I can think of so my composure doesn’t crack whenever one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends recounts one of my own adventures to me and takes the wrong lesson away from it. Or if I ever meet Applebloom or Screwball or one of my other friends. It’ll be easier to pretend I don’t know them if I don’t remember either.
I’ll leave out everything important. Knowledge and information. Everything I know about friendship. The plan, of course, and all the driving determination and passion to see it through to the end no matter what.
I’ve added a few rune lines to the time travel spell that will break the geas and set me free once it activates. But just in case something goes wrong or gets left locked away, I’ve set it so you can unlock it as well. You know how. Same way we helped Blueblood after the Changeling invasion.
Once I seal my memories, I won’t be writing in this journal again. Even reading it might be enough to unblock something and I can’t risk that. Not when there’s everything at stake.
Wish me luck. I love you and I’ll see you soon.
-Cozy Glow Solaris, Princess of Friendship
Twilight closed the book. The remaining pages were blank.
Her hoof slipped as she stepped back and fell onto her haunches. She’d read the journal hoping to find answers, but the truth she’d found carried a weight that could crush the world.
On one hoof, it could all be nonsense. Nothing but the deluded fantasy of a filly so obsessed with friendship that she couldn’t accept a world where she wasn’t the very embodiment of it and subsequently created her own. An easy-to-believe explanation if the book’s contents ever became public knowledge.
But that didn’t explain all the little details that Cozy couldn’t possibly have known.
The other option was that this journal spoke the truth. That this world, everything in it that Twilight loved and cherished, was one of the many alternate timelines created by Starlight’s actions. Not her Starlight, really, but a precursing one. That Cozy Glow was supposed to be a princess, an alicorn, and an Element of Harmony.
That Twilight Sparkle was supposed to be dead.
The sun was setting through the window behind her, casting the barren room in orange-soaked shades of evening. The hours had just slipped away as she’d read. No doubt somepony would come looking for her soon enough.
Then they would see the journal.
And then they would know the truth as well.
But for the moment, Twilight was the only pony who knew and she found herself faced with a choice.
And she wondered if the life of a villainous filly was worth her own, and what her answer would say about her.
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And all we know how well you treated Spike during those first seasons.
I'm not sure I'm concived about this is correct, given the paradoxes it would create. Then again, I suppose either route might create paradoxes.
It's still a interesting dramatic narrative, and a fairly unique origin, that's for sure.
Couldn't they just send her back in time on her own though?
It's more or less implied that the time spell is bound to the scroll Starlight uses in the episode.
So they could just give Cozy something similar, and have her go back in time, as many times as she needs, to in order to fix things.
And no one suffers, because all those universes left behind still exist, even without her.
The solution to the Cozy situation here actually seems quite simple to me, all they have to do is restore Cozy's memories and then show her the proof that the alternate timelines continue to exist and it's not just one timeline. This Cozy only justifies her atrocities with the belief that this timeline isn't "Real" and thus won't matter once hers is restored, she won't have that anymore once the truth is revealed to her, so unless she's gone completely insane and lost all her morals then she should hopefully be unwilling to sacrifice this timeline. Then they can begin researching into finding a safe way to return Cozy to her own original timeline, since it should still exist by this stories logic. With ponies like Twilight, Starlight, Cozy and the Princesses working on it, if there is a way they'll find it.
That said, there is one interesting implication of this story when you take into account canon. Because Twilight was the "Destined" Hero of the story. It was her Cutie Mark that was on the Tree of Harmony even a thousand years ago after all. How interesting it is then that the original timeline had the destined hero die only for somepony else to take her place...Unless Cozy's timeline wasn't the original one either. Twilight's "accident" was never elaborated on after all, who's to say it wasn't also the result of some form of time travel? Perhaps an even earlier instance of Starlight resorting to drastic measures against an earlier Twilight? But that's just a theory.
I enjoyed this story, it gave me some interesting things to think about.
Extremely interesting moral question here. I loved reading this and was on the edge of my seat the whole time, needing to know how it ended.
While it’s perfect contained within itself with no answers - as most moral quandaries are - I would love to see a sequel where Princess Twilight and Princess Cozy Glow speak.
11374083
Twilight's accident could be related to hatching Spike? I mean she did use a lot of magic to hatch him, maybe it backlashed and caused her to perish
Jesus!
Incredibly powerful, adding alot of implications, rational motivation and darkness to Cozy Glow. Especially her final aim to overtake the school.
Thank you for the attention and praise, early readers!
I've made a minor adjustment to the section about how timelines work, adding a bit more ambiguity such that that one obvious answer to the problem (that I overlooked while writing) isn't quite so cut and dry.
In addition, since some people were curious, I did plan out exactly the nature of the accident that befell Twilight but, though it makes sense narratively, it felt almost too comedic to fit the tone of the rest of the story.
For those interested:
In one timeline, Twilight Sparkle choked to death on a quesadilla while her foalsitter left to pay the bill.
In another, she was saved by a "helpful stranger" present in just the right time and place to perform the pony-heimlich maneuver, leaving her mildly traumatized but alive.
Yeah, that's definitely dark.
I love it. It's dark, it shows that Starlight is the true monster of Equestria and Twilight is in that very hard position of being the only one knowing the truth.
Interesting.
This is why i hate it when time travel is introduced to any universe.
Because nothing fucking matters anymore.
It is like the time travel war from the Bill and Ted Movie, where they
win purely because they decide they win and makt is so that they win.
11374250
you know, kind of thought you would go for Twilight dying during her surge but i forgot Starlight had to meddle directly. Also how did her not choking to death cause cozy not bumping into her future friend?
11374250
Well, since you edited I figure I should comment on the edited version now. Twilight not actually being sure whether it's a single timeline getting rewritten or multiple timelines definitely makes it harder to know what to do. She should definitely begin working on trying to figure out what the answer actually is there.
But, in case it is a single timeline and bringing Cozy's back erases this one, morally I think it'd be wrong to do so. Right now Cozy's timeline doesn't exist, it and all the ponies in it other than Cozy are purely a possibility, all while Twilight's timeline is the one that actually does exist in the here and now. The story mentions that Cozy's friend Primrose doesn't exist anymore, but how many Primrose situations would there be if they changed the timeline again? Especially since, if Starlight's attack took place at the same time as in Twilight's timeline, then they've long since passed that point by 3 seasons so more people would have been born in this timeline, many of which probably wouldn't be born in Cozy's world due to the differences.
At least during the Season 5 finale most of the timelines were miserable or even outright apocalyptic, and Twilight was in a rush to stop Starlight so she didn't have time to stop and consider the possible moral consequences. That's not the case here, Twilight's timeline is a happy place for the most part and they do have time to stop and think about things. You could argue that none of this matters since this timeline will have not happened in the first place once Cozy changes it back, but you could morally argue for a lot of awful stuff if you start going that road. If you go back and purposefully prevent someone from being born, is that not murder? You could argue you technically didn't kill them since they never existed, but from your point of view they did and you changed it to make sure they didn't. This isn't just about Twilight's life vs Cozy's.
That said, now I'm wondering something else...Where is Cozy's Starlight, if she's not the same as Twilight's Starlight? Does she still exist like Cozy does? Did she cease to be at some point, maybe when Twilight's Starlight herself started messing with time? But then why would Cozy still exist? I'd be concerned that there's another, possibly still evil Starlight running around too.
11374408
So many unanswered Question, what we need is a Sequel
I bet "evil" Starlight would feel satisfied when her "Cozy" fell into Sanity
While I did enjoy the backstory and motivation explanation for Cozy Glow, it paints her in a sympathetic light and I just can't find sympathy for a psychotic filly who was willing to resort to attempted murder MULTIPLE TIMES and showed no guilt for her actions AT ALL.
So, while I COULD accept this as a cannon backstory, I'm just going to simply think it of as "What could of been" and keep my headcannon of: Cozy Glow is a psychotic filly who would kill her own mom if it furthered her own goals.
dropbox.com/s/mnf6oyx5vws6jpb/Head%20Cannon%20denied.gif?raw=1
(Preemptive apologies for the big wall of text; I wound up with a lot of thoughts about this story, and it seems they've all built up like rainwater. All good things, I assure you!)
This is one of those little character moments that, while minute in the grand scheme of things, always really impresses me. Even in a world where she's wholeheartedly the hero, Cozy still has the inklings of the duplicitous side she'd earn and unveil in earnest down the line. Nice touch!
And this just raises a whole bunch of questions in and of itself. Which is to say nothing of the quick reference to Blueblood later on*. The joys of AUs and the Butterfly Effects they wrought, that right there.
*EDIT: Now that I think about it, the changelings going after Blueblood instead of Shining in Cozy's world makes a lot more sense. Given that, according to Word of God (see "For those interested"), Twilight died after she choked to death under her foalsitter Cadance's would-be watch, I imagine Shining would want buck-all to do with her from there on out. Hence, (amongst many other things), we get a different groom for the events of "A Canterlot Wedding". Granted, I'm not sure how Blueblood of all ponies would've won Cadance's heart (or if she's even still the bride, for that matter), but still. So many details!
All things considered, this was a fascinating, well-executed hypothetical (particularly, how the main revelation slowly, well, revealed itself) with some really depressing implications. Even disregarding the central moral quandary, there's a certain amount of ironic tragedy to the way Cozy, while having noble intentions, gradually slipped into spiteful despair, coming to despise Twilight and her friends — who, when it comes down to it, committed no real crime other than existing — perhaps just as much as her Starlight had despised Cozy and hers*. Whether or not it was intentional, it made for a really neat parallel, and that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of my enjoyment of this.
*Honestly, the sicker part of me has to wonder if Cozy still would've locked away her memories and gone through with her plan even if, hypothetically speaking, it still would've left her with no possible way to get home, all just to flip the middle feather to the ponies who "stole" her and her friends' lives. Probably not, but the thought is/was there.
All in all, kudos!
11374250
I didn't get a chance to really read this story before the revision, so I'm assuming the new addition was Twilight's "Cozy was wrong" aside. Even if it wasn't, that part does raise an interesting question about whether Starlight's theory or Cozy's is correct, and what error in math/logic the incorrect one made along the way.
From a purely psychological standpoint (as that's the only standpoint we can work off of, seeing as the math and logic required don't exist and/or are inapplicable to our universe): It'd inherently be a weight off of Starlight's conscience if all of those evil worlds she created had simply ceased to exist, so I imagine she'd be really, really thorough in verifying that no, they were all still real and all still suffering because of her creating them. On the other side of that coin, however, it's also possible that her burgeoning self-loathing gave her confirmation bias in favor of the theory that would've driven home "what a horrible pony she was" the most. Cozy, meanwhile, likely started with a relatively "pure" view of the situation (giving her stance more credibility), but it's equally possible she gained her own confirmation bias in favor of the "They'll get obliterated" theory as she grew more and more spiteful towards Twilight and her friends. Both cases' two outcomes feel equally possible IMO.
Personally, I'm still learning towards Starlight's theory — in which case 11374083 Base's cut-and-dry proposition would still be somewhat feasible — but keep in mind that that's coming from a guy who, when approached with the original Trolley Problem, would probably unironically ask, "Is it possible to pull the level as the trolley goes over the points, so it derails down the middle and hits nobody?"
:P
11374384
The story itself has an explanation as to why. After Twilight's death, Celestia was forced to look for another student, and her search eventually brought her to the orphanage where Cozy lived. Celestia adopted Cozy and took her back to Canterlot, Cozy met her friends there, and the rest was (albeit overwritten) history.
11374443
To be honest, I thought Cozy's canon callousness kinda complimented this story. Like I said at the top of this whole comment, it served as a testament to how far she'd fallen in her efforts to get home and fix/erase Twilight's "broken" timeline.
11374463
Lol, that was my solution also! Afterall, if you're in a no win situation, change the rules.
11374463
11374488
Well, if it worked for a certain disgraced and demoted-Admiral who should remain nameless....
Chills. Literal chills.
This is insanely good. A certainly interesting and deeply unique take on Cozy on her origin story. And poor Twilight. She came to the room seeking closure and answers, got it, but it just made things worse.
Excellent work. To ‘Favorite Horrors’ this goes and all the best for the contest!
I kind of hope we get a sequel to this, or more chapters.
Okay LOVE THIS!
This has to be the best origins for Cozy i've read yet! So hoping you give this a sequel, continuation, something because this idea has a lot of potential.
Shades of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Assuming infinite realities and that nothing done in one reality carries over or has any consequences in another, why wouldn't conventional ethics/morals be the first casualty? Even for a child?
I dare say this is the first Cozy story I've read that makes her no-kidding sympathetic and not just a preternatural sociopath.
If Twilight is right about branching timelines (and since she had it confirmed by Starswirl,it should be solid) then there is a timeline to send Cozy back to.
Figure out how to do that with Starswirl's help, then unfreeze her from stone, restore her memories using the codes she left behind, and kick her back to her own universe.
11374761
Same.
…
I wonder, I wonder, Just what will her answer Be…
I have to say, this is one of the more imaginative Cozy Glow origin stories I've read.
11374083
Double twist.
The timeline where Twilight Sparkle dies was the first alternate one created by Starlight. In her desire for revenge, she did the unthinkable and murdered her... but it just ended up leaving a different pony in the same place. She did the whole song and dance with Cozy for a while. Since that didn't go anywhere either and it was always more about showing her up, she stopped herself from murdering Twilight, leaving her as Princess of Friendship and Cozy Glow a regular old Pegasus.
Part of what made Cozy's character so interesting for me was not only the fact that she used friendship in selfish ways, something we'd not seen from a major villain before, but also precisely for the fact that she had no backstory. This isn't a popular take, but I believe that, sometimes, when good characters are kept under a certain veil of mystery, their actions are even more impactful because everything about them is being crafted in your head as the media goes along. You have more questions, more thoughts, more lore, and so the character has the potential to be more interesting than if their life-story had simply been laid out in a flashback.
This approach worked so well for Cozy because her character, itself, was already breaking molds within the show in how major villains were crafted. There was no brute strength, powerful magic, or imposing monarch, just a child with a disturbing level of intellect, cunning, and psychopathic goals.
As far as backstories for Cozy go, though, this is definitely one of the more creative I've seen, and if Cozy was to be given a backstory, I would have wanted it to be something intricate like this. She's too unique to have anything other than grandiose.
So to that end, stellar job. A fun read with a ton of thought put into it.
I think that if Cozy could be turned into a pegasus by altering the timeline, then her theory is correct. There's only a single line. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for her to remember anything. Unless we have a case of her consciousness invading her own self's in the current timeline. So on the one hand we have time travel bullshit so nothing matters, whether it is multiversal or linear. On the other hand we have "it's magic" AKA "a wizard did it", so any explanation can work either way. This is still an interesting look at a very divisive character. I kind of want to see where this could go if we further splinter the timeline from canon. If we go with the current canon ending, we know that Twilight just left her in stone and what that says about her. I also kind of don't want to see where it goes. A bunch of questions raised is good an ending as something as open as this can get.
There are other questions this raises. Is magic finite? If Cozy steals all the magic and uses it on the spell, does the magic vanish? Is it energy that can be created or destroyed? If so, where's the source? Or would using it on a spell return the magic to some sort of magic cycle, just like water goes around?
Nice attempt in trying to fix the problems the show's writers left behind.
All this brings to my mind one very, very important question: Where's the other Starlight?
11374250
I mean, it’s not all that uncommon for a child to choke to death on food, even with her powerful magic Twilight was still a foal/filly after all. I wouldn’t call it comedic at all, but I suppose it depends on how dark your humor is.
11374921
Similar thoughts.
Also, while Cozy was making a inefficient spell to perform her time travel, Twilight could rope both Starswirl and Starlight into helping her recreate a new time travel spell that would not require all of the magic in Equestria.
On top of that, they could go back into that time where the Original-original Starlight messed with stuff, and easily overpower her.
The story was good, but ending it with a moral dilemma doesn't work when the moral dilemma is easily solved.
Pretty half-baked ending. She doesn't really needs to sacrificed anything to abandoned or help cozy.
Feels like this needs a horror tag.
i agree with everyone wanting more story from this.
If this is continued, I would be able to die with a smile the second its over.
11375371
Also, the characters involved in said dilemma. I have a hard time believing Twilight Sparkle would seriously entertain letting Princess Cozy Glow take the fall. We've seen how Twilight acts when self-sacrifice is an option to do the moral thing.
That's actually part of why I believe Cozy's timeline isn't the real one. It's another sign she wasn't meant to be the Princess of Friendship. Her abandoning any supposed moral compass for her selfish sense of entitlement makes her unfit for the role.
It's an interesting twist!
Interesting and good story writing, way better than that "good moral with bad story writing" style in the canon. Will there be a sequel?
There's an unaddressed part I noticed in the story. With Cozyverse Starlight's change in preventing Twilight’s death, Cozyverse Starlight should still be in this reality. Where is she? Cozy didn't even mention trying to find her.
I have a suspicion of where she is.
Also, I know this was for the story, but Twilight never once got turned back into a unicorn by Starlight's meddling with her youth. So could it be safe to assume that Cozyverse Starlight altered the alicorn transformation spell Celestia casts on her "worthy" apprentices to turn Cozy into a pegasus?
11374463
The Starlight Glimmer question is always interesting.
Because Starlight Glimmer didn't simply ruin other ponies lives, she made their existence possible, for better or worse.
They can complain about being stuck in a sucky world, but without Starlight, that world as a whole would not exist.
So how do you really judge Starlight Glimmer in that instance?
It's a interesting conundrum.
Now I want stories about ponies dealing with the fallout from Twilight's death.
How would Cadence take it? How would Celestia and Twilight's family take it?
11374250
I still think the idea, that the other timelines still exist, is reason enough for Twilight wanting to reach out to Cozy Glow, but maybe that's me.
I never saw her as a horrible pony outside of Season 8.
There are times I've preferred her more than others, and I'm still not entirely comfortable with how she handles Spike in the early seasons.
But she usually tries to treat others well to a extent, even in the premiere where she hides her contempt for Ponyvile.
I can't concive of her not giving Cozy Glow a second chance, unless there really is no practical way to improve her lot in life.
I think the emphasis on Cozy Glow being wrong is meant to showcase how horrible she is, but erasing a universe carries it's own moral baggage.
That's just how I see it though.
As someone whose dealt with this recently, I can say that sometimes death comes down to things that feel really stupid.
I don't blame you for leaving it out though.
Ehh...
Amazing. Pure awesomeness. Great way to leave us hanging.
Personally, I could see this story getting a sequel, possibly one that is quite long, but for now, I guess we'll just cherish that the first stone has been laid.
11375904
Due to how Starlight said to Twilight that she had modified the Spell to keep her anchored in the past and summons her to that moment whenever Twilight uses the Scroll, the same could be for the Starlight Glimmer Cozy had been fighting against.
I. LOVE IT! You mind if I write my own sequel to this? I also wanna make a followup to that exploring what the original timeline could have been like
11376459
Ah, ok. Now that would answer on the where. I guess I missed that in the canon. But in that case Cozyverse Starlight would simply live in the past all the way up to the new present that Cozy found herself in.
That actually brings up a point of interest. Starlight's spell is what creates these different timelines, but when the event of change kept changing a new future was created in that new timelines place. So in this story Cozy & Twilight would each be half right. A forking in the timeline happens, creating a new a parallel timeline to the original that Cozy came from. Meaning every time Cozyverse Starlight changed the past the parallel timeline Cozy ended up in would be rewritten instead of multiple universes being created. This is further supported by the timespell itself being able to be canceled by the caster and undoing their changes thus returning them to their original timeline. This is what would be known as mute-temporal manipulation. It's not permanent as the timetraveling allows the user to travel back repeatedly to the same point in time without meeting themselves over & infinitum. The spell allows for time to be rewound like a videotape for simple comparison.
Additionally, a version of Zecora proved that their timeline wasn't correct, but instead was fixable by stopping Starlight from changing events. Which would mean that any new timeline created can be undone as if it never existed. For reference, watch the scene where Bruce explains to the Ancient One about timetravel effects and causality prevention.
Ok, so I got onto a bullet train of thought here.
This story is really good fanfiction. 
A very original take on Cozy's backstory! most folks take the easy route and say "She weren't raised right".
btw is Kickflip supposed to be a boy or a girl? You used a confusing mix of pronouns and I wanna make sure I vector them properly
11376894
They're all fillies. It was just one stray 'he' that slipped by me without getting an 'S'.
11376923
Are you sure about that?
Not trying to be rude just double-checkingNot what I was expecting, although I'm not sure what I was expecting first coming into this. Poor Twilight is going to be in a bit of a daze for a long time. I see a lot of sequel potential, so many routes to go! Twilight and Cozy actually meeting face-to-face after Cozy gets her memories back, phew! That'd be a sight to behold, that's for sure. Regardless, I loved it.
Well now, this brings up a very obvious question: What made our Starlight Glimmer not do the same thing that the Cozy verse Starlight Glimmer did? Shouldn't there be a cascade of Starlights changing the Roster of Who's Who in the Elements of Harmony? Should there not be a cascading effect of the protagonists being replaced by other protaganists and they by other protagonists and so on, all due to Starlight's meddling? What made this particular Starlight stop what should be a natural cascading across the infinite timelines?
As amazing as this story is, it brings up the moral dilemma of forgiving starlight if her time manipulation actually created branching timelines, because it means she indirectly killed billions of people.