• Member Since 20th Jan, 2015
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TheDriderPony


"Only the most subtle of references." -No fanfiction writer ever

T

The worst part of a betrayal is often not the act itself, but everything that lingers after. Trying to piece together the motivations of someone you once trusted, sifting through memories for some sign you might have missed.

Wondering if, somehow, they had a good reason behind it all.

Seeking closure, Twilight tries to find answers in Cozy Glow's abandoned possessions, but the truth she discovers is one that will make her question everything.


Written for the 3rd Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest.

Prompts used:
-Twilight Sparkle gathers Cozy’s belongings for disposal. One object surprises her.
-Cozy’s got a secret!

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 69 )

Stars above, she’d practically been a second Spike.

And all we know how well you treated Spike during those first seasons.:rainbowwild:

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.

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.

And she wondered if the life of a villainous filly was worth her own, and what her answer would say about her.

Couldn't they just send her back in time on her own though?:unsuresweetie:

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.

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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 :trollestia:
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!)

He didn't crash into me like he was supposed to and young me didn't send the guards off in the wrong direction.

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!

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.

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've made a minor adjustment to the section about how timelines work, such that that one obvious answer to the problem (that I overlooked while writing) isn't quite so cut and dry.

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.

SRY

11374463

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

Lol, that was my solution also! Afterall, if you're in a no win situation, change the rules.

11374463
11374488

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

Lol, that was my solution also! Afterall, if you're in a no win situation, change the rules.

Well, if it worked for a certain disgraced and demoted-Admiral who should remain nameless.... :trollestia:

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!:heart: 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.

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.

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

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.

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. :twilightsmile: 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

The story was good, but ending it with a moral dilemma doesn't work when the moral dilemma is easily solved.

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 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.

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.

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".

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :twilightblush: This story is really good fanfiction. :pinkiehappy:

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

guards hot on his tail.

Are you sure about that? Not trying to be rude just double-checking

Not 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?

DKing #50 · Sep 29th, 2022 · · 1 ·

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.

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