> Cozy Glow: FIENDship is Magic
>  by RainbowDoubleDash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Adjournment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three Years Ago

Black bishop to f5.

“Hmm,” Cozy’s daddy said.

Seven-year-old Cozy Glow looked across the board at her daddy. He was frowning deeply. The two were lying on the floor – they never played at the table – and Cozy fidgeted. She’d spent almost the entire game setting this gambit up. Now Daddy was going to escape it. He always did.

White knight to g3, where it could defend the pawn in e4 that the black bishop now threatened. Avoiding the obvious move of just taking the bishop with the pawn. That was too obvious. Cozy had to have a trap, her daddy was thinking.

But that was the trap. Didn’t Daddy see it? Her daddy always saw all her traps. Every gambit. She’d never beaten him.

Black bishop to e4. Bishop takes pawn.

White knight to e4. Knight takes bishop.

Cozy’s eyes widened. She needed to move quickly now. Not give him time to think.

Black knight to e4. Knight takes knight.

White bishop to e4. Bishop takes knight.

Black pawn to d5. Threatening the bishop and thence the white queen, but if the white queen took the pawn then it would be exposed to Cozy’s own queen.

Cozy tried to hide the fact that she was holding her breath. Take the bait take the bait take the bait…

White bishop to d5. Bishop takes pawn.

“Wait,” Daddy said, but it was too late. He’d taken his hoof off the piece. Grunting, but also with the ghost of a smile on his face, he moved his hoof and waved it at Cozy.

Black queen to e3. Queen takes bishop. Check.

White queen to e3. Queen takes queen.

Black rook – the one that Cozy had castled earlier, the one she’d set up so many turns ago – to e3. Rook takes queen. Check.

Not checkmate. Not yet. But Daddy had no way of taking the rook, he’d have to move his king…and after that rapid series of moves and counter-moves, his field had been eviscerated. Her daddy leaned forward, looking over the board. There was no way to deny that Cozy was the one in control of the game. 

“Now how am I going to get out of this…”

“Sir.” 

Cozy looked up, glaring hate at the butler who’d interrupted the game. The earth pony paid her little mind, however, while Daddy didn’t take his eyes from the game.

“Sir,” the butler repeated, “it’s time to go now, or you’ll miss your ship.” Daddy let out a long sigh. He stood from the game, stretching his wings a little. 

Cozy rose too. “But…but Daddy…” she moaned, “the game isn’t done! Can’t you keep playing for just five more minutes?”

Her daddy smiled down at her, coming over to draw her into a hug with hooves and wings both, kissing her forehead. 

“You know I hate saying ‘no’ to those eyes,” he said, ruffling her mane in a way that he knew she hated. Her curls took work every morning! But she allowed it without complaint as he used a hoof to tilt up her chin. “But I have to go now.”

Cozy felt herself trembling. “But…but I’m winning,” she said, waving a hoof at the board.

Daddy’s grin became mischievous. “Oh no you’re not.”

“Oh yes I am!”

“Nope. It’s all just a cunning plan. I’ll checkmate you in five moves.”

Cozy looked back to the board, then to Daddy, who was trotting out of the room and to the estate’s front door. She galloped after him, “That’s impossible! You’re lying, Daddy!”

Daddy ruffled her mane again. One of the curls came loose, but she didn’t mind. “Maybe,” he said, “maybe I just don’t take to losing very easily and so I’m covering it with lies and bravado.”

Cozy shook her head. “But I never beat you.”

Daddy stopped at the door, and she did as well. There was a carriage waiting at the bottom of the steps. Her daddy once again scooped her into a tight hug, and once again kissed her forehead, and she kissed his cheek.

“We’ll finish the game when I get back,” he promised. “Until then, you behave yourself for your Uncle Fork, okay?”

“Okay,” Cozy agreed. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, Cozy Glow.”





Cozy’s daddy was supposed to be gone for just a month, two months on the outside. That was how long it would take to sail to far southern Abyssinia, do his business with the felines there setting up trade routes and merchant shipping lanes, and then return. In the meantime, Uncle Royal Fork stayed with Cozy at the estate.

Two months passed. Daddy didn’t come home.

Not after three months either.

Nor four. Nor five.

No letters either. No word at all.

After six months, Uncle Fork had a bunch of lawyer ponies meet with him in the house. He’d said that Daddy might not be coming home. He needed to be treated as missing, and so Uncle Fork would be running her daddy’s businesses and estate and managing his money from now on. For now, until Daddy returned, everything was going to be his. 

That was when a lawyer in the room had cleared his throat and produced a piece of paper, signed by Cozy’s daddy and a bunch of witnesses. The paper made it clear that everything actually fell to Cozy. Cozy owned the estate, and the carriages, and the businesses, and all the money. Uncle Fork could only manage it until Cozy came of age, and the vast majority of it would be held in trust and not be able to be accessed by anypony.

Uncle Fork had been really mad for a few days after that. He wouldn’t get to spend Daddy’s money. Take it all. Cozy wasn’t stupid. She knew what her uncle really wanted, that all he wanted was his brother’s money, although Uncle Fork didn’t know that she knew. Uncle Fork tried to find some way to get around Daddy’s will and testament, but it was ironclad. So then he started acting super nice to Cozy, letting her do whatever she wanted. Spoiling her rotten, so that when she grew up she’d share Daddy’s money with him.

Daddy was going to be so mad with Uncle Fork when he got back. Right after he finished the game with Cozy he’d probably…well, Cozy wasn’t actually sure what her daddy could do to her uncle. Not ground him, probably, since the adult version of grounding was going to jail but Uncle Fork hadn't done anything to deserve that. But Daddy could cut him off, that was definitely a possibility. Make it so that he wasn’t a part of Daddy’s company anymore. Wouldn’t get anything.

But whatever happened, it could wait. Because first, Daddy and Cozy would finish their chess game. Just as soon as he got back...
> A Rook in Check
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

For the first time in more than a thousand years, everything was turning up Lord Tirek.

Raw magical energy slid into his mouth and filled his body. The taste was indescribably good, but that was only a secondary benefit. He could feel his body growing, not merely in size but in ability as well. Muscles bulged, his horns grew, and every movement because easier and easier as centuries of enforced lethargy and feebleness finally slipped away from him. All the aches and pains of his age were just gone, leaving only vitality – puissance – power!

He finished his meal and took a moment simply to revel in it, feeling the wind flowing through once-more thick hair atop his head, feeling the warmth and glow of sunlight after so many long years inside of the dark depths of Tartaros, feeling raw invigoration!

This! This was why he had learned at the hooves of Sendak the Elder, this was why Tirek and Scorpan had left the kingdom of Gar-Centauria and come to these realms so long ago…he and his brother had…

…his brother…

Tirek scoffed and brushed aside the sting of betrayal that welled up from within him as easily as he ignored the ponies that now lay listless and weak at his hooves. He was careful to avoid stepping on them but otherwise paid them no further mind as he walked forward and into the center of the park in this pony city, which featured a wide fountain. In it, he saw his reflection, and had to fight off a small urge to kiss it.

I missed being me, he thought. Aloud, he continued in his wonderfully restored deep timber, “are you sure this is all the adults?”

There was a flash, and Discord, the Lord of Chaos, was within the fountain, or at least his reflection was. “Bloo blout blee?” He asked, sounding like he was truly underwater. Discord rose from his own reflection and spat out a mouthful of liquid. “Really, Tirek, a little bit of professional courtesy is all I ask for.”

Tirek found himself stroking his beard as he gazed around at the city that he could see beyond the park. “Forgive me,” he said, “it is only that this ‘Fillydelphia’ is so much bigger than any city I’ve ever seen. So much has changed since my immurement.”

“Ooh, a vocabulary challenge?” Discord asked, now wearing some kind of suit and a pair of glasses and standing in front of a podium. “Immurement. I-M-M-U-R-E-M-E-N-T. Immurement.” A bright light shined behind the Lord of Chaos and there was the sound of a bell. He pumped at the air with his lion paw. “Now then, Tirek, your word is athragared.”

Tirek felt his teeth grinding together. “What are you doing?”

Discord blinked, appearing in his true form. “What, did you not invent languages while you were imprisoned? I did. I even invented one that didn’t have the verb ‘to be’ as a challenge. It went well until I tried to translate Haylet.”

Tirek had no idea what that was.

“Well, nevermind then,” Discord said. “To answer your question, yes, Tirek. Every single adult pony in the city was brought to the park. Remember who I am!” He leapt and floated backwards in the air, holding up his eagle claw. “One snap was all it took – ”

He snapped his fingers. There was a flash, and a brown-coated pony appeared, looking around in panic. Discord, meanwhile, looked flabbergasted, and stared at his claw like it had betrayed him.

Tirek stepped forward to the pony even as he eyed Discord. “One snap, eh?” He asked, reaching down and grabbing the pony before he could scamper away, ignoring its protestations as he opened his mouth and called upon his magic…

…but then the pony stopped struggling, instead smiling as his eyes took on a familiar set of yellow-and-red colors. “Just kidding,” Discord said as he dropped the disguise, appearing in Tirek’s grasp. He effortlessly slid out of it, to the applause of the other Discord that still remained. “I even had me fooled!” That Discord exclaimed.

Tirek looked at his now empty hand, then clenched it into a fist. He almost exploded before remembering who he was talking to – and how much he was depending on Discord right now to enable his rapid absorption of the power of ponies.

He let out a breath. “I think,” Tirek said, folding his hands carefully behind his back, lest he start throttling one or the other Discord, “that we have been indulging in me too much.”

The two Discords looked to Tirek curiously at that even as they became one again. “Oh?”

“Yes,” Tirek said. “After all, you agreed to aid me because you wanted to be free again, correct?” Tirek gave a slight bow. “You have been at the beck and call of these insipid ponies for far too long. It would hardly be in keeping with what I promised you to expect you to simply serve my every whim.” He spread his hands wide. “Why don’t you go and indulge yourself? Take a break and just go and be the Lord of Chaos again.”

Discord stroked at his own smaller goatee. “Hmm…I have been wanting to see about redecorating Manehattan. I’m thinking frogs and pigs. And if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.”

“I will still want to absorb all the magic there, of course,” Tirek added quickly, “so in the spirit of our alliance I do ask that you don’t do anything permanent to anypony there.”

Discord put a hand to where his heart may or may not have been. “Permanent? You wound me Tirek. Still, you do make a wonderful suggestion.” He pulled out an odd hat that consisted merely of a cap and a sun visor, setting it on his head, and was suddenly adorned in pants and a jacket that was festooned with bright patches and buttons. He held a suitcase filled to the brim with knickknacks and stuck out his lion paw, thumb raised. “I’m off! Discord Takes Manehattan!” A large cart appeared from nothing and Discord climbed aboard. “I’ll be back in a few hours!”

The cart sped off about six inches before disappearing in a flash. Tirek let out a long sigh of relief, rubbing his eyes. Finding Discord had been a stroke of luck. Convincing the Lord of Chaos to aid in his efforts to take the magic of Equestria into himself had been a masterpiece. But putting up with Discord was…trying. Extremely trying. Discord was best experienced directly in only small doses.

Still, he finally had a little bit of time to himself, and he took the time to look around the park. Well-tended grass, patches of flowers everywhere, trees to provide ample shade, artificial ponds and streams…it was quite lovely to look at. Ponies were not lacking in their decorating ability.

Well, except for the fact that the park was positively littered with the scattered, fallen forms of ponies too weak to do much more than crawl around, and even that only with extreme effort. Ponies were not good decorations. Grunting, Tirek snapped his fingers himself, conjuring bubbles around the ponies in groups of several dozen at a time, the bubbles depositing the ponies out of sight elsewhere in the park. It was a minor feat of magic, given the sheer amount that he had already absorbed.

His labor done, Tirek once again folded his hands behind his back and started trotting down one path in the park, looking it over. There were animals aplenty here, squirrels and chipmunks and birds that had no fear of ponies but were still trying to assess whether or not they should be afraid of him. He closed his eyes as he stepped, just listening to the wind, the birds chirping, the crunch of the dirt path or grass beneath his hooves…

…the simpering of a pony that was panicked and trying to hide and remain quiet. Two ponies, actually.

Tirek paused in his trot, opening his eyes. His aimless walking had taken him to a small plaza of cobblestone, adorned with tables. The surface of each table was adorned with a black-and-white tile pattern, and every table had a collection of game pieces set upon them…chess pieces, Tirek realized. His brow raised at the sight. So even after a thousand years, chess was still played? That was comforting to know.

The simpering had stopped, but with Tirek now standing in the middle of the plaza he didn’t need it anymore. The plaza was surrounded by thick bushes, to give it a bit of privacy and separation from the rest of the park. Those bushes would also make for an excellent hiding spot.

Tirek breathed in deep, then let out a contented sigh.

And then he charged straight at the bush, horns down, smashing through a table without even slowing down as he went.

There was a scream and the sound of scampering hooves. He continued his lunge through the bush and out the other side, though only for a few feet as the bushes were further surrounded by a stone wall. The tips of his horns collided with and dug into the wall. He could have kept going, but he stopped instead as he saw what was in front of him, trapped between his horns, the wall, and Tirek himself.

Tirek smiled as he looked over his brow. “What have we here?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “A little filly?”

Indeed, he was looking at a young female pony, with a pink coat unmarred by a cutie mark, and a blue, curled mane and tail, each with bows in them. Her red eyes were wide open and staring at him in complete, total terror.

Then she bucked Tirek in the face.
> Black Queen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eighteen Months Ago

Eight-year-old Cozy Glow shivered beneath the desk in her daddy’s study with all the lights turned off.

The Sun had not risen. The Moon was still high in the sky, but the dappled markings of the Mare in the Moon were gone. Word had quickly spread throughout the land as to the reason: Nightmare Moon wasn’t just some old pony’s tale. She was real. And she was back. And she ate foals. If Cozy knew one thing about Nightmare Moon, it was that.

Uncle Fork came into the study – Daddy’s study, it didn’t matter if Uncle Fork used it sometimes, it was still her daddy’s – and flipped on the light. Cozy Glow let out a yelp. Her wings started beating rapidly to give her extra speed as she rushed over. Some distant part of her noted that she was flying, truly flying and not merely gliding or hovering, for the first time.

Her Uncle Fork held out his hooves to grab her. She instead rushed past him and turned the light back off.

“Uncle!” Cozy hissed as she landed, giving her wings a break. “Keep the lights off!”

Her uncle didn’t seem to hear her. “Cozy, we have to go.” His voice was a little higher-pitched than normal. His eyes wider.

Cozy avoided his hoof when he tried to grab her, and ran back to under the desk. When Uncle Fork came over and looked under, he found her sitting with all the candy she could find in the estate piled under the desk – as well as the game. The chess game that she and Daddy would finish when he got back from Abyssinia.

It didn’t matter that it had been more than a year. He was coming back.

Uncle Fork looked over her hidey-hole. “What – what is all this?”

“Candy,” Cozy explained. “In case Nightmare Moon comes. If she finds me, I can give her candy. Then she’ll leave me alone.”

Uncle Fork opened his mouth, but put his hoof to it, stopping himself from shouting. He took in a deep breath through his nostrils and let it out slowly and carefully. “That’s very clever, Cozy,” he finally said, his voice still higher than normal, “but we have to go.”

Cozy shook her head. “Nightmare Moon is free.”

“That’s why we have to go.” Uncle Fork reached out and grasped Cozy about her barrel, tugging. She squirmed. “We have to go to Canterlot, now.”

Cozy almost stopped squirming at that. She flared her wings to get Uncle Fork’s hoof off of her and scooted back under the desk, looking at her uncle pointedly.

Uncle Fork looked back. “Cozy, you’re very smart for your age,” he said, “so I’ll be honest. Nopony knows where Princess Celestia is. There’s rumors she’s been sealed in the Sun the same way that she sealed Nightmare Moon into the moon. She might not come back for a very long time.”

“A thousand years. Same as Nightmare Moon.”

“Exactly,” Uncle Fork said, “and if Nightmare Moon could do that to Princess Celestia…we need to go to Canterlot. I’ve been discussing things with a few friends, and we’ve decided that we need to make sure that Nightmare Moon doesn’t do anything to Fillydelphia.”

Cozy Glow stared. What did her uncle mean by that? He wasn’t planning on fighting Nightmare Moon, that much was obvious. He was just a normal pegasus. So why go to Canterlot, why go to Nightmare Moon…unless…

“Uncle Fork, you want to side with Nightmare Moon?!”

Uncle Fork shifted. Cozy had a feeling that none of Uncle Fork’s friends had said it so loudly or obviously. They’d probably avoided talking directly about the issue. But at the same time, Cozy had guessed correctly.

He reached under the desk again, trying to grab her. “Equestria can’t be run by just a single pony, not even Nightmare Moon! If we act quickly, we can make sure that we stay safe, that you stay safe.”

“But she eats foals!” Cozy struggled to avoid her uncle, but he grabbed her and started dragging her out.

“That’s just an old mare’s tale!”

“So was Nightmare Moon!”

Cozy kicked, and bit the desk’s leg to avoid being pulled out. Her uncle’s plan made sense, except for one thing: bringing Cozy with him. She didn’t need to go to Canterlot, she wouldn’t be useful there with all the adult ponies pledging their loyalty to Nightmare Moon…except, her mile-a-minute thoughts raced, if Nightmare Moon did eat foals. Maybe then she’d be a delectable meal. 

Daddy had always said that she was so cute she was lucky he didn’t gobble her up. Daddy had only been joking, of course, Cozy knew that.

Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be joking.

“It’ll be fine!” Her uncle called. “But I’m not one of the richest ponies in Fillydelphia, you are, so you need to – ” Her uncle pulled hard, and she was yanked from beneath the desk. She flared her wings as she went. One of them knocked the chess board. She heard a piece fall over.

Cozy screamed.

Uncle Fork dropped her in shock at the sound, and she rushed to the chess board, eyes wide. The white king had fallen over, but she knew where it was supposed to be exactly, in check by a black rook. She put it back, then whirled around on her uncle.

There was a flash from the windows before either pony could speak, the brightest light that Cozy had ever seen, although somehow it didn’t hurt her eyes. Both ponies looked out the window, and saw the Moon in the sky – descending towards the horizon at incredible speed, passing out of sight. 

At the opposite end of the sky, the horizon began to lighten at the same time, the dark of the night melting away. After just another few seconds, the Sun rose, bright and brilliant.

Uncle Fork glanced down to Cozy, who was back under the desk. “Stay here,” he said, galloping out of the room.





Nightmare Moon had been defeated. Six ponies, one of whom was Princess Celestia’s personal protégé Twilight Sparkle, had discovered the Elements of Harmony and used them to cleanse her of evil magic, restoring Princess Luna within. Princess Celestia had returned from wherever Nightmare Moon had sent her, and Princess Luna had once more become the Shepherd of the Moon and a Princess of Equestria.

According to the papers, Princess Luna had been restored by Twilight Sparkle realizing that the powers of the Elements of Harmony could be realized and unlocked only one way: by channeling the Magic of Friendship.

Which, Cozy Glow realized, was the same magic that had supposedly banished the windigos back during the first Hearth’s Warming Eve. Cozy Glow had always thought that the Magic of Friendship had just been an old mare’s tale. And windigos, too.

Of course, she’d also thought the same thing about Nightmare Moon.

Uncle Fork had asked Cozy Glow to not tell anypony about his and his friends’ plans to swear fealty to Nightmare Moon. He’d only wanted to be safe and to keep Cozy safe, but since Princess Celestia was back, nopony ever needed to know. Cozy Glow had decided that, all things considered, her Uncle Fork was right. He’d just been playing this safe.

And once she’d had time to think, she realized that he wasn’t really going to feed her to Nightmare Moon. Because if he did, then he’d never get any of Daddy’s money once she came of age. Not that he was going to anyway, since her daddy would be back from Abyssinia soon.

Besides. Letting ponies know that her Uncle Fork had been planning on swearing fealty to Nightmare Moon wouldn’t do Cozy any favors at school. She might lose friends. And if the Magic of Friendship was real…

Not that she was likely to need it anytime soon.
> Desperate Gambits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

The kick from the filly did absolutely nothing to Lord Tirek, of course, except to make him grin somewhat as he drew back up to his full height, eyes never breaking contact with the filly as he crossed his arms and considered her. He wasn’t very familiar with how ponies aged, but if forced to guess he’d say she was probably about ten years old at most.

There was another pony next to her, Tirek realized after a moment – a brown pegasus pony stallion, an adult with a knight chess piece cutie mark. He, if anything, looked even more terrified than the filly.

“Now how did Discord miss you two?” Tirek asked.

The two pegasi tried to flee at Tirek’s words, the stallion grabbing the filly and beating his wings. But Tirek only snapped his fingers, encasing the two of them in a bubble which he then levitated before him.

“Answer me,” Tirek demanded, “how did you escape Discord’s magic?”

The filly and stallion looked between each other, before the stallion finally spoke up. “I…I h-have no idea! I…w-we were just in the park, and…and please…please, please, please don’t hurt us!”

Tirek stroked his beard as he regarded the two, trying to put things together. What had Discord claimed? Every adult pony in the city had been brought to the park…but what about the ponies already in the park? Tirek let out a small groan, rubbing his eyes. Discord had not considered that, most likely, which also meant that there were probably dozens, if not more, ponies who had been in the park and subsequently escaped into the city. Once the Lord of Chaos got back from his short break, Tirek would have to – diplomatically – explain his screw up and get it corrected. They might even have to go back to previous settlements to see if they’d missed anypony there, too…

“P-please, mister…” the filly finally spoke up, “wh-what are you going to do to us?”

Tirek peeked out over his hand at the filly. She was standing in the bubble, looking at him with huge eyes and a quivering lip. “I’m ever so small,” she continued, “a-and I don’t think I’d make a very good meal!” 

Tirek grinned, showing off his fangs. The filly yelped and stumbled away as best she could in the bubble. 

The stallion, meanwhile, mostly just quivered in place, curled up. “I-I’ll give you anything you want!” the stallion exclaimed. “P-pay anything! Bits? You want bits? I’m the richest…I mean, I have access to a lot of money! And it can all be yours, every last jangle!”

Tirek felt his eyes fluttering at that. Money? Was this stallion trying to bribe him? Why did he think that would work? “I have no interest in your petty currency,” Tirek said, setting the bubble on the ground, although he didn’t pop it yet. He looked back to the filly. “As it happens, little foal, I also have no interest in you.”

“’Cause I’m cute?” the filly asked.

The centaur wasn’t sure why she was asking; he would have assumed she’d just take her good fortune. The novelty of it amused him enough that he pressed on, shaking his head. “Because you’re young,” he said, and waved a hand at her hindquarters, “and don’t even have a cutie mark yet. It takes magic to take magic. I would have to consume more magic than I would gain to take what you have.”

Tirek flashed his fangs again as he looked to the stallion. “Your father, however – ”

“Uncle Royal Fork is not my daddy!” the filly exclaimed.

Tirek folded one hand behind his back and put the other to his chest as he mockingly bowed. “My apologies, little filly, for the presumption. The point is your uncle is a strong and healthy stallion…if not particularly brave.” He eyed the stallion, apparently named Royal Fork. “Not that any amount of bravery would matter.”

Royal Fork looked on the verge of passing out. Tirek stroked his beard again as he considered the terrified pair, and looked around the plaza he was in. While he’d knocked over one chess table and all its pieces, the others remained intact. Draining this stallion would be easy enough, something he could do on a whim. He also wasn’t in any particular rush: he was certain he already had the power needed to engage and defeat Celestia and Luna, possibly even that third alicorn, Mi Amore Cadenza. More to the point, if the three were going to try anything, they surely would have by now.

And if Discord was taking a break, then why shouldn’t he?

Tirek turned from the two, picking a table at random. With a wave of his hand and a bit of telekinesis, he re-arranged the pieces on the board and beside it, setting them up into their starting positions. “Chess originates among the centaurs, you know,” he said, “and it has been a very long time since I’ve played.” He glanced over his shoulder at Royal Fork, looking to his cutie mark. “I’m guessing you’ve at least dabbled.”

Royal Fork was frozen, not understanding what was going on. Tirek shrugged to himself, picking a side – white – and walking over to its side of the table, sitting down at it. He snapped his fingers, and the bubble around the two ponies disappeared. They at least knew better than to try and flee.

“How about a wager?” Tirek asked. “If I win, pony, then I take your magic. If you win, then you and your niece get to go.”

Royal Fork’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out. The filly, meanwhile, eyed Tirek. “Promise?” She asked.

“Of course.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

Tirek raised a brow. He looked to the smallest fingers on his hands. The hands that the filly, being a pony, didn’t have. “What?”

The filly rolled her eyes, and started doing some kind of dance. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She sang. “You can’t break a Pinkie Promise.”

Tirek crossed his arms. “I am not doing that ridiculous routine. My word should be enough on its own. Besides…the way I see it, your uncle doesn’t have much of a choice, does he?”

Royal Fork shivered, which at least let Tirek know that he hadn’t slipped into catatonia. He slowly made his way forward to the chess board, sitting down opposite Tirek without ever really taking his eyes off of him, and he didn’t so much sit as fall down before the black pieces. His niece approached at a moderately steadier pace.

The stallion audibly swallowed. “I…I’m really more of a hobbyist…”

“Not to worry,” said Tirek, “so am I.” Which was the truth, as Tirek had only ever really played chess against two opponents: his brother Scorpan, and himself while in Tartaros. Of course he had a thousand years of practice against himself. It would be amusing to see if that counted for anything.

“Now then,” Tirek said, grasping his queen’s knight and moving it, then waving his finger at the stallion. “Your move. Oh, and so that you don’t draw this out…we’ll have one minute to consider our moves. Any longer, and that player forfeits their match.”

Royal Fork stared at the board, his eyes wide and barely focused.

“Ten seconds,” the filly announced.

That made the stallion jump, and he looked at her. “Cozy!” He hissed.

The filly – apparently named Cozy – looked back. “It’s important, Uncle Fork!” she insisted. “Fifteen seconds now.”

“Thank you, Cozy,” Tirek said. “Sound off every fifteen, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Royal Fork had his eyes back on the board, visibly sweating now. After thirty seconds, he finally made his move, putting his hoof down on his king’s rook’s pawn and moving it forward…two spaces.

Tirek growled. “Is that mark on your flank just for show?” he demanded. “Do you even know how to play?”

Royal Fork sputtered. “I’m sorry!” he called out. “D…do you want me to make a different move, or – I th-thought you’d want me to really try…p-please, if this is just you t-torturing me then just g-get it over with – ”

“What I want is an honest game against an opponent who knows the rules.”

Cozy’s brow was furrowed at the exchange, but then she perked up. “Oh!” She exclaimed, making a T-shape with her hooves. “Time out! Um…mister, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

Tirek glared down at her. “Older than your princesses,” he said at length, deciding to indulge her.

“Golly! You look great! But anyway, I see the problem. The rules of chess have changed a whole lot!” Her wings started beating as she flew over to a nearby table, then brought back chess pieces from it. She began laying them out. “The pawn can move two spaces on its opening move, and when it reaches the eighth rank it can be promoted to any piece instead of just a counselor. The rook, knight, and king move the same. The bishop moves diagonally any number of spaces instead of just two, and it doesn’t jump. The counselor is the queen now. Instead of moving one space diagonally, it can move any number of spaces in any direction!” 

Cozy tapped her hoof to her mouth. “Oh! Also there’s a new rule called castling that you can do once per game. If the king and the rook haven’t moved and there’s no pieces between them, then the king can move two spaces towards the rook, and the rook moves to the space the king moved through, like so.” She demonstrated the move.

Tirek stared. Her explanation was too rapid, sure, and confident to be a lie, particularly this early in the game after just a single move each. A thousand years had drastically changed the landscape and cities of Equestria, after all, so why not the rules of games? He ran his fingers through his beard as he considered.

“So the game,” he said at length, “is much faster in the opening, with pieces advancing so much more aggressively.”

“Mm-hmm,” Cozy agreed. “This way the first part of the game isn’t just setting up formations.”

“B-but we can play the old way!” Royal Fork spoke up quickly, reaching out to his pawn. “I’ll just…”

Tirek held up a hand, palm out. He was genuinely surprised Royal Fork didn’t leap out of his pelt from the action. “No,” Tirek said, “No, I will abide this. The extra challenge should be interesting…and I suspect you could use the advantage.”

Cozy glanced up to Tirek, then over to her uncle. “Okay, then!” she said, making the T-shape with her hooves again. “Time in! It’s your move, mister.”

“Tirek, little filly,” the centaur said, “My name is Lord Tirek. And very well…” He grinned to Royal Fork, flashing his fangs once more. “Let the game begin, then.”

It continued to be miraculous that the stallion didn’t pass out.
> Fairy Piece
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One Year Ago

“Have you heard the new Sapphire Shores song yet, Cozy?” Ivy Song asked. She pranced alongside Cozy as the two walked home from school. “Serves – her – right! What else could she have done? Serves – her – right! She thought it was for fun!”

Cozy giggled and fluttered her wings. “You’re really good at singing, Ivy Song!” Cozy said.

No she wasn’t.

Ivy brightened. The earth pony stepped up to Cozy. “Really?”

She wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t really good, either. She was average.

“Really good!” Cozy repeated, bumping her flank against Ivy’s own. “I bet you could be a pop star!”

No she couldn’t be. Ivy was too plain-looking, nothing stood out about her. Maybe that would change, maybe it wouldn’t, as she got older. Her voice could change too, get better. But right now, Cozy Glow was lying through her teeth.

But Ivy smiled and giggled and kept on singing, and Cozy Glow laughed and sang along with her as the two walked home from school, which meant that the two were friends. In fact, best friends.

The friendship was new. Cozy had already had a circle of friends at her school, of course, and always had, but Ivy Song hadn’t been one of them. They lived in the same upper-class neighborhood of Fillydelphia but just hadn’t possessed overlapping interests. But ever since Nightmare Moon had returned, Cozy Glow had wanted to make sure she had more friends. She needed the Magic of Friendship, after all, and if the whole school were friends with her, then surely that would be at least equal to the six Elements of Harmony. 

Right?

So Cozy got to know as many fillies and colts at school as possible. She pretended to like everything they liked. To be interested in everything they were interested in. It wasn’t easy, especially when she had to fake liking something like sports or chemistry. But she could do it. She would get the Magic of Friendship.

Uncle Fork had approved as well. Ivy Song’s family was almost as wealthy as her daddy’s, and Ivy Song’s mommy was an influential member of the city council with a lot of connections. So ever since Cozy had started hanging out with Ivy Song more to make the filly her friend, Uncle Fork had been able to spend a lot of time with Miss Song. Make connections of his own.

Cozy and Ivy turned a corner. “So what are you doing this weekend?” Ivy Song asked.

“Throwing a party!” Cozy answered immediately, and smiled. “I’m going to invite everypony in school, and I’ll even bake my own cupcakes! I’m getting really good at them.”

Ivy Song looked sideways at Cozy. “Another party? But you threw one last week. And the week before.”

“So?”

Ivy shifted. “Nothing. I do like parties! But there’s always so many ponies.” She scuffed a hoof as she trotted. “I think I like it more when there’s just a few ponies. The ones you know really well.” She looked back to Cozy. “What if instead of the whole school, it was just me and Marble Heart and Nettlekiss and Silver Dare?”

Cozy was already friends with Marble Heart and Nettlekiss and Silver Dare, though. “I like making new friends…” she said, but noticed Ivy’s expression, “…but I guess you’re right. It’s still a party even if it’s only five ponies!”

Her best friend brightened, and Cozy did too. This was a momentary setback for her plan to become friends with the whole school, but it wouldn’t do to lose her best friend in the process. So if a smaller party would help with that, then Cozy could grin and bear it for now.

And then a nearby house turned upside down.

Cozy Glow and Ivy Song both froze. One moment, the house – a very large and very nice house – was sitting in place, just as houses were supposed to. The next, with the sound of splintering wood and shattering concrete, it simply lifted itself up out of the ground, rotated, and then set itself back down, somehow balancing on the point of its roof.

Cozy Glow swallowed. “What – ”

The sun set.

The two fillies yelped, grabbing hold of each other at the sudden change. Another nearby house rocketed into the air, soaring upwards a hundred feet before stopping and remaining suspended there.

The road beneath them rolled. The world tilted, and Cozy and Ivy screamed as they started sliding down a suddenly rising hill while the pavement turned to soap. Cozy started beating her wings, taking to the air.

Or trying to. Ivy was still holding onto her and Cozy was still new to flying. “You’re too heavy!” Cozy exclaimed, being pulled along with Ivy as she slid. “You’re dragging me!”

“Don’t let go!” Ivy screamed as she picked up speed. The two fillies were careening towards an iron fence. Ivy was moving too fast, faster than a grown pony could gallop. This was going to hurt. Cozy tried to get Ivy off of her, but her supposed friend’s grip was too tight and she was dragging her down with her…

But when Ivy hit the fence, instead of coming to a sudden stop, the fence bent inwards, slowing but not stopping her. Cozy was thrown from Ivy’s grasp and into the fence. It bent like it was made of cushions. Cozy rolled down the fence, landing on Ivy and driving the air from both their lungs.

The sun rose again, but into a sky full of pink clouds. Rain started falling – brown rain. A drop of it landed in Cozy’s mouth. It was chocolate milk.

Cozy and Ivy picked themselves up, swiftly becoming drenched in the downpour. “What’s going on?” Ivy asked.

“I don’t know!” Cozy answered.

“But you’re the smartest pony I know!” Ivy exclaimed, looking around. The streets rippled and roiled again, flattening out. Ivy stated galloping, and Cozy found herself following. “My home is closer!”

Cozy followed, trying to keep her panic down, trying to keep focused. Whatever was happening didn’t make it easy. Chocolate milk clung to her pelt and her feathers, sticky and gross. As she watched, another house came apart, separating out into individual rooms that then arranged themselves into a pyramid, the ponies inside screaming.

Ivy’s house came into view. It was intact. Ivy charged straight for her front gate and ploughed through it without slowing down – at least until she saw a dog charging at her. Her pet retriever Goldie.

“Meow! Meow! Meow!” Goldie called, causing the two fillies to screech to a halt. Goldie ran right up to Ivy and started rubbing against her like a cat would, with delicate steps and an arched back.

Ivy burst into tears. “Goldie!” she cried, grabbing her dog, looking him in the eyes.  “Goldie, what’s wrong with you?!”

Goldie responded by rubbing against Ivy more, which Ivy accepted even as she wailed. Cozy just stared. The house next door turned into gelatin. One of the maids that attended Ivy’s house came running, screaming, from the house – chased by a swarm of flying feather dusters that swatted at her.

Cozy turned and took the air, fleeing. She heard Ivy cry out behind her, but Cozy didn’t slow down. Flight may still have been new to her, but Cozy found strength in her wings that she never would have expected was there.

She tried to ignore everything she saw from the air.

She tried to ignore that the buildings of Fillydelphia’s downtown, visible from the sky, were twisting and warping and changing, coming apart or merging together or sinking or starting to fly.

She tried to ignore that she could see the trees in the park uproot themselves and begin to fight one another.

She tried to ignore that one of the streets became a deep, fast river, the ponies that had been on it suddenly needing to swim for shore.

She tried to ignore the sheer chaos all around her, and she focused instead on her house. She found it, and found it intact, mostly. Except that the grass in the garden was now twenty feet tall. And the greenhouse was now literally green. And the gate rippled back and forth like it was dancing.

But the house itself was still in one piece. Cozy landed on the front step and opened the door – and an ostrich ran out.

Cozy ran in. She ran past the parlor and the dining room and ignored the stairs entirely. She heard shouting from somewhere else in the house. The curtains turned into hanging snakes that snapped at her, but she ignored them too. 

One of the butlers appeared with a violin in hoof that he was playing expertly, oblivious to the chaos as he danced through the halls.

That made Cozy stumble, eyes growing wide. “Gray Leaf!” She exclaimed, the butler’s name. He didn’t react. She ran up to him and tried to prod him with her hooves, but he just kept on playing, ignoring her, eyes closed.

The chaos could infect ponies. Not just the world, not just animals and plants…the chaos could infect ponies.

Cozy let out a scream as she ran into her daddy’s study. The chaos wasn’t here yet. She ran straight for the chess board, the game, where it always lay, and dragged it under her daddy’s desk, slowly, carefully, trying not to disturb any of the pieces. Once she and the game were under it, she crouched down next to it.

“Don’t change,” she whispered to the chess board, “please, please, please, don’t change, don’t let it get you, don’t let it get me, don’t let it get you, don’t let it get me…please, please, please…”





Cozy had no idea how long it took. The sun and moon moved too much and too randomly in the sky to keep track of time. It felt like forever. It was probably just a few hours. But eventually, there was a rumble, a tremor through the whole world. Bright, rainbow light washed over everything. Warmth spread through Cozy’s body.

The white king fell over from the tremor, but it was easy to put back. And afterwards, everything was back to normal. Cozy’s uncle found her crouched underneath the desk again, curled up next to the chess board. She refused to move, but this time he didn’t try to pull her out once he made sure she was safe.

The chaos had been caused by the spirit of chaos, evil, and disharmony: Discord. Cozy had never heard of Discord before. Apparently he’d been a statue in Canterlot Garden, and had been for the past thousand years, but had escaped this morning. Once free, he’d set about spreading strife and panic and chaos across all of Equestria and beyond, warping the world according to his mad desires.

But he had been defeated, once more by the Elements of Harmony, by Princess Celestia’s personal protégé Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The Magic of Friendship had, yet again, defeated a great evil before it could do any permanent, lasting harm to Equestria.

Cozy Glow invited as many ponies to her party that weekend as she could.
> Castling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

Royal Fork enjoyed an early advantage due to Tirek needing to adapt to the new rules for chess. The pony seemed to have realized that the centaur would not be used to such an aggressive early game, and so found some degree of boldness within him and struck out in a rapid attack, trying to end the game quickly.

But though it took a few turns, Tirek did find his footing. A hastily developed defense allowed him to hold out against the initial assault of Royal Fork’s bishops and one of his knights, eventually managing to take all three pieces. Before long, the game had moved to a methodical pace.

A thousand years of chess strategy had been rendered mostly useless by all the rule changes, but Tirek was pleased to find that he remained skilled at perceiving his opponent’s moves before they could be realized. Either that, or he was facing a true amateur. The latter actually seemed more likely with each piece moved by Royal Fork, the stallion usually seeking only immediate advantage or escape. His tactics were fine, his strategy…if he had one, Tirek couldn’t discern it.

Tirek’s displeasure at that lack was echoed, surprisingly, in the face of Cozy. She watched the game intensely, and while she studied Tirek and what he did with great interest, her interest dropped sharply at Royal Fork’s own maneuvers. Several times she winced, sighed, growled, or otherwise made that displeasure known.

Finally, after Tirek had taken one of Royal Fork’s rooks with his king – the rook not even having been able to put Tirek’s king in check – Cozy let out a loud groan. 

“Come on, Uncle Fork!” She demanded. “Do you want to have all your magic stolen?”

The stallion ruffled his wings, glaring at Cozy. “I’m doing the best I can, Cozy,” he insisted.

“Well it sure doesn’t seem like it…fifteen seconds, by the way.”

Tirek stroked his beard, a chuckle rumbling from his throat. “I get the sense that you are much more than a mere hobbyist, Cozy,” he said.

The filly nodded her head vigorously. “I’m in the chess club at school! I’ve been playing ever since I was a little foal. Daddy taught me how to play when I was five ever since I beat him at checkers a bunch.”

Five? Tirek wondered. He crossed his arms. “And how old are you now?”

“I’ll be ten next month. Thirty seconds, Uncle Fork.”

“I know,” Royal Fork responded. After a few more seconds, he moved his remaining knight. At this point in the game, Royal Fork had three pawns, a rook, and a knight remaining. Tirek held both his rooks and two pawns.

Tirek grinned, moving one of those rooks up a single space, where it sat next to Royal Fork’s king – but could not be taken, because Tirek’s other rook was protecting it.

“Check,” Cozy hissed before Tirek could say as much himself. She rubbed one of her temples with her hoof, and whispered “which you could have prevented five turns ago…”

“Cozy, not now,” Royal Fork insisted.

“But daddy said that you used to play him all the time as foals! And that you even used to beat him sometimes! So how come a creature who hasn’t played chess in over a thousand years and who didn’t even know the rules is beating you?”

Royal Fork moved his king down one space, out of check. Tirek immediately moved his other rook up, putting the king in check once more. Royal Fork had at least seen that coming and wasted no time in moving his king once more. Rather than pursue, Tirek took the time to use his rook to capture a pawn, clearing the way for Tirek’s own pawn to continue its march towards promotion whenever Tirek got around to it.

“Where is your father right now?” Tirek asked Cozy, then found himself chuckling at the question. “Well. I suppose I can take a guess…”

He had been expecting Cozy to react negatively to his blithe musings on having probably drained her father of magic, but instead she shook her head. “He’s on a business trip, he’s not even in town…” Cozy’s eyes narrowed as her uncle reached out towards his king. “Really, Uncle Fork?” Having commented once, the dam was apparently burst for the filly as her uncle captured one of Tirek’s other pawns. “You could have put him in check with your knight!”

Royal Fork glared at Cozy. “What would be the point? He could have escaped it immediately – ”

“Because then he wastes a turn having moving his king out of check and then you could have moved your knight to c5! And yeah maybe he could take it with his rook but then you could take that rook with your own or with your king! You’re going to lose if you don’t do something about his rooks!”

“I know that!” Royal Fork snapped back.

Tirek tapped his fingers against his arm. “I am certain this counts as cheating,” he observed.

“No it’s not,” Cozy countered. “I’m saying what he should have done. He’s already moved the pieces and taken his hoof off of them.”

Tirek’s brow raised at the fact that this filly seemed to have lost all her fear of him so quickly. “Are you talking back to me?”

“Yes,” Cozy hissed, turning to glare up at Tirek and crossing her forehooves in front of her, “because you’re wrong.”

“I am not.”

Royal Fork reached out, putting a hoof on Cozy’s withers. “Cozy, please don’t argue with – ”

Cozy flared her wings to get his hoof off of her, but didn’t break eye contact with Tirek. “You are too wrong!”

Tirek raised a hand to gesture and opened his mouth to shout, but paused as he realized what the filly was doing, her true goal in engaging him like this. He chuckled again, looking down at the board and moving his remaining pawn before his sixty seconds could run out.

“Nice try,” he said.

Cozy’s glare disappeared in an instant. “Phooey,” she groused, then smiled sweetly up at Tirek. “But you almost fell for it, Mister Tirek! Thirteen more seconds and you would have been forced to forfeit!”

“It’s Lord Tirek,” the centaur corrected. He supposed, given the stakes, he could hardly blame the filly for her attempt at trickery there. Tirek scratched at his beard, looking at the board as Royal Fork did so desperately as well. “If he had moved his knight to check my king before,” Tirek observed, “I could have moved my king adjacent to his knight. He would have had to move it or sacrifice it to no gain.”

“No, because he could have moved his rook to b3,” Cozy countered. “If you had taken his knight, which would be in d3, you would have entered check.”

“And then?”

Cozy paused, looking to the board, then back to Tirek. “That would be cheating. Fifteen seconds, Uncle Fork.”

The stallion was shaking his head slightly. Even if he was only a rank amateur, he had to know the same thing that Cozy Glow had likely deduced long ago: that a knight and a rook were not enough to win him this game while Tirek still had both of his own rooks. That, barring a miracle, his defeat was a mere matter of time and patience on Tirek’s part.

Tirek held up his hand just before Royal Fork made to make his next move. “Pause a moment,” he said, and looked to Cozy. “How would you like to take over for your uncle, Cozy? It is clear that your talents are significantly beyond his own.”

The two ponies both started at that. “What?” Royal Fork demanded. “No – no, I’m not – yes, Cozy is very talented but she’s still only a child, and…”

“Gee, I don’t know if I can win at this point,” Cozy intoned, looking over the board. “I’m sorry, Uncle Fork, but even if I did take over there’s no way that Mister Tirek – ”

The centaur grunted. “Lord Tirek.”

“ – could lose at this point unless…” she trailed off, staring at the board, eyes glancing over the spaces, and the pieces. “I mean, maybe, but there’s no way that…hmm…”

Royal Fork looked at the board, then to Tirek, then to Cozy. He was sweating, and still trembling. “Cozy,” he said, his voice dry, “if there is any way…”

Cozy tapped her hooves together, then looked up to Tirek. “Would it really be okay? You’re a whole bunch of years older than me and I might be pretty good at chess but I’m starting from so weak a position…you’re not just doing this to torture my uncle, are you?”

Tirek shook his head. “No, Cozy. I am honestly certain that your uncle’s odds only improve if you…” he considered, and grinned. “If you castled him.”

Cozy matched Tirek’s gaze, a slow smile spreading on her features. “Okie-dokey!” She exclaimed, hopping up from where she sat and prancing over to her uncle’s seat. After another moment of consideration, Royal Fork all but fell away from his seat.

The filly wasted no time, reaching out to her knight and moving it to where she had said it should have gone previously – to where it could threaten Tirek’s king.

“Check,” she said. “Your move.”
> Pawns Advance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Six Months Ago

Cozy Glow tilted her head left and right as she looked at herself in the mirror, inspecting her face closely.

Her maid Tea Leaf clucked. “Please, miss, hold still,” she said, horn sparking as her magic wove through Cozy’s mane, while her hooves also worked at curling it. She tsked again. “Have you ever considered doing something…less complicated with your mane?”

“Nuh-uh,” Cozy responded. “I want my mane all curled like rolls covered in blueberry frosting!”

She held the smile that came naturally as she said that, studying it in the mirror. She’d lost her last foal tooth yesterday, and put it under her pillow for the tooth flutter pony. The following morning, she’d woken up with a golden bit under her pillow. The bit was in her hoof now.

Cozy glanced down at it without moving her head, then back to the mirror so that she could look at Tea Leaf. “Where did Uncle Fork get this bit from?” She asked.

Tea Leaf stopped her work for just a moment, looking at Cozy. She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Stayed up all night, did you?” She asked.

Cozy looked back to her bit. “No. I’ve always known. Even back before Daddy went on his business trip I knew it was just Daddy, but I didn’t tell him.” She turned the coin over in her hooves. “If Uncle Fork knew that I knew, do you think he would have been putting more bits under my pillow?”

Tea Leaf let out a long, sad sigh at that. “I think your Uncle Fork wants you to be the happiest filly in Fillydelphia.”

Cozy Glow turned the bit over in her hooves again. It was brand new. The face had Celestia and Luna in profile, their horns touching, while the other side displayed both the Sun and Moon prominently. The coins had been rushed into circulation, but by now – one year since Princess Luna’s return – they were becoming a common sight.

“Uncle Fork just put one bit under my pillow. That’s all Daddy ever did too. But is Uncle Fork just putting one bit under my pillow ‘cause that’s all that most foals get, or is it because he thinks that I’m only expecting one bit and doesn’t want to give me more?”

She turned the coin over again. “If Uncle Fork could take the credit instead of the tooth flutter pony, would he put ten bits under my pillow or still just one?”

She turned it a fourth time. “Did Uncle Fork use his own money? Or did he use Daddy’s money?”

Tea Leaf finished with Cozy’s curls. “It’s not my place to say, miss.”

Cozy’s head tilted as she looked at herself in the mirror. She smiled, studying it, the dropped the smile, then smiled again, a little differently. She giggled, and paid attention to that too. Cozy had heard that ponies who practiced laughing and smiling in a mirror were happier.

Not that Cozy was unhappy. But she could always stand to be happier! Happier ponies made more friends. That enterprise had come along nicely. She’d made friends with everypony in school over the past year. She knew everypony’s name and birthday and favorite color and favorite food. She threw a whole bunch of parties and went to a whole bunch as well. Everypony at school loved her.

And as near as she could tell, it had worked. Sure, things had been really bad when Discord was released. But then the next time something bad happened it was all the way in Canterlot, an invasion by some new race of creatures called changelings who could look like anypony and who fed on love. But lots of love could send them flying away, which was how Twilight Sparkle and her friends had helped Princess Cadance defeat them. The Magic of Friendship again.

Then there had been a whole new land appearing in the far north, the Crystal Empire. There had been an evil unicorn named Sombra there once, but he had been defeated, once again through the Magic of Friendship.

Canterlot. Then the Crystal Empire. Both places were far away from Fillydelphia, from Cozy Glow. And while maybe that was a coincidence, with Equestria embracing the Magic of Friendship, and with Twilight Sparkle having even become the Princess of Friendship and become an alicorn and everything, maybe now things could finally settle down.

Even Discord had embraced the Magic of Friendship, after all!

Cozy Glow hopped up from where she sat and carried her bit over to her piggy bank, putting it in. She turned around and looked to Tea Leaf. “Thank you, Tea Leaf!” She said, giving a big, toothy smile. Which showed off the gap from her last foal tooth having gone, but that only made her cuter.

“You’re very welcome, miss,” Tea Leaf answered, “now hurry along! You don’t want to miss the dawn!”

Cozy Glow nodded, and pranced from her room and out into the hallway. She knew that most adults were always really tired during the Summer Sun Celebration, but not her. She’d set her alarm and woken up extra early so her mane and tail could be done up just how she liked it, and now she and Uncle Fork would be going downtown to watch the dawn and to join the early-morning celebrations.

Uncle Fork was waiting for her at the bottom of the grand staircase, finishing up a mug of coffee. “Good morning, Cozy,” he called up to her.

“Good morning, Uncle Fork!” Cozy returned. She spread her wings and glided down the stairs, landing in front of him. “The tooth flutter pony came last night! She gave me a whole bit!”

Uncle Fork smiled, reaching down and patting her withers. “You have to wonder sometimes what she’s doing with all those teeth, don’t you?” He asked.

“Mm-hmm,” Cozy said. She put on a frown and scuffed her hoof on the floor. “But that’s the very last time the tooth flutter pony is ever going to visit me. I don’t have any baby teeth left. And I never got to see her…”

“Well, she doesn’t like being seen. She’s very shy.” Uncle Fork turned and started trotting towards the front door.

Cozy frowned. She had left a huge opening for Uncle Fork to explain things and take the credit if he wanted, but instead he’d kept pretending the tooth flutter pony existed. Why? She knew that plenty of foals at school knew the tooth flutter pony wasn’t real, so it wasn’t like she was too young. She might not have her cutie mark yet, but she was smart for her age. She could handle the truth.

Well, it didn’t matter. Cozy followed after Uncle Fork, pausing just outside the door to her daddy’s study like she often did. Glancing in, she saw the game where it was supposed to be, sitting on the floor with all the pieces in place. Someday soon, her daddy would finally come back from Abyssinia, and then they’d finally get back to that game, and Daddy could finally show her how he was going to beat her.

“Oh my Celestia…”

Cozy blinked, looking to Uncle Fork. He’d opened the front door, but had paused at it, staring out at the sky. Cozy Glow trotted up next to him, looking out herself. And her blood froze in her veins.

The sky was split down the middle. It was day and night at the same time, half the sky a bright and sunny blue and the other half a deep and starry night.

“…well!” Uncle Fork said at length, looking down to Cozy. “This…this must be something special that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are doing this year.”

Cozy stared at the sky.

“Now think about it,” Uncle Fork said, reaching out and laying a wing across Cozy’s back. “Think about it, Cozy. This is the first Summer Sun Celebration since Princess Luna’s return. They would want to make it special.” He waved a hoof at the sky. “How else could it be day and night at the same time?”

Cozy shifted in place, but nodded slowly. “O…okay,” she said. Uncle Fork was making sense. The two of them trotted down to the waiting carriage and hopped inside.

The ride to the center of town was slow, due to how crowded the streets were. The morning parties of the Summer Sun Celebration would have drawn a big enough crowd to the parks and restaurants on their own, but with the sky split down the middle like it was there were even more ponies out and about than normal, wanting to see such a rare sight.

Gradually, Cozy settled down. When their carriage reached the center of town and the crown gathered to see the Mayor of Fillydelphia speak, she’d even managed to relax. The sight of hotcakes and home fries and fruit cups at the breakfast pavilion cheered up Cozy even more.

And best of all, almost all her friends from school were here, in various states of wakefulness. Cozy sang with Ivy Song, and talked about hoofball with Nettlekiss, and laughed at Rosy Quartz’s jokes, and played a few games of hop-skotch with Silver Dare and Marble Heart, and got into a cinnamon roll eating contest with Coconut and Winter Gust…

It was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was going to be fine.

Until it wasn’t.

Cozy was sitting on the grass of the park talking about how Ivy Song had managed to get backstage passes to the next Sapphire Shores concert, when she felt something tickle the fog of her hind hoof. She kicked at it absently, but it tickled again, then started sliding up her leg.

She shrieked and took to the air, getting away from it. Her friends scattered away as well, though not too far. The foals were treated to the sight of some kind of black weed, growing out of the ground – visibly growing. Longer and thicker every few seconds, spikes poking out from it.

More cries of fright and shock went up throughout the celebration grounds. Cozy saw more of the vines beginning to sprout, bursting through the concrete pathways like they weren’t even there, slowly curling around the trees and signs and buildings in the park…the bigger ones even had thorns…

Ponies were trying to deal with them, of course. But they couldn’t be uprooted. Trying to pull or bite them in half had no effect. Some unicorns started trying to use magic, but many of the vines had flowers on them with spores that burst open, releasing pollen that sent unicorn spellcasting haywire and chaotic…

Their advance was slow, at least. Cozy and her friends had no problems outpacing the spread of the plants. But nothing that anypony did slowed them down for even a second. Worse, even the air wasn’t safe. Dark clouds with thorns like the vines’ own were advancing on Fillydelphia, hurling lightning at any pegasus that got too close.

Uncle Fork came to collect Cozy within just a few minutes, of course. They didn’t bother with the carriage, they simply took off for home, outpacing the vines and the clouds as best they could.

After only a few hours, the vines had overrun half of western Fillydelphia. Cozy watched from the skies over her roof. Watched as the vines crept up the sides of buildings. Watched as they dug through walls and streets. Watched as the biggest ones sprouted strange appendages that opened up and growled and hissed and spat out choking clouds of pollen. And overhead the skies continued to darken as more and more thorny clouds filled the skies.

Nothing stopped the vines. Uncle Fork told her that if they got too much closer they were going to have to leave the house.

Nothing stopped the vines. They grew and crept and coiled and suffocated everything in their approach.

Nothing stopped the vines.

Nothing.





Until suddenly, something did.

A rainbow light once more washed over Fillydelphia, and all the vines broke apart into black dust that itself disappeared into nothing. Cozy didn’t even need a moment to know where the rainbow light had come from, who had created it, and using what.

The Magic of Friendship.

Which had done absolutely nothing to stop the vines from appearing in the first place.

Cozy Glow stood in Daddy’s study. She’d put a whole year into making friends with everypony in school…

And it hadn’t worked.

It hadn’t done a single thing for her.

Cozy screamed.
> Tactics and Strategy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

Moving out of check was easy, Tirek simply moved his king up one space. That hadn’t been the goal, of course; Cozy had wanted instead to move her knight to between her king and rook, where it now threatened Tirek’s pawn. One of his own rooks could take the knight if it did, of course, but Cozy wouldn’t move her knight until she’d first moved one of her own rooks into position to take Tirek’s rook in recompense.

Royal Fork was smiling, seeing the ploy and probably hoping that Tirek didn’t. Tirek, himself, frowned. Not at the position, but rather the tactic. The math was simply not on his side; he could not move any of his pieces to save the pawn. But Cozy surely knew that and knew that Tirek would think nothing of abandoning the pawn; it had made it far, was only two spaces away from promotion, but it wasn’t worth the effort of trying to save. Tirek moved the rook protecting his pawn across the board, behind one of Cozy’s own remaining pawns.

Royal Fork started sweating again. Not the sweat that came from a good, solid workout, but sweat that was full of fear. Only a fool couldn’t smell the difference. Cozy, on the other hand, was not sweating. She was grinning, apparently unsurprised by Tirek’s move.

“So where is your father?” Tirek asked again. “You said out of town…”

“Abyssinia,” Cozy responded. She moved her knight, obligingly capturing Tirek’s last pawn. “Ever heard of it?”

“Yes, the feline land,” Tirek responded. He moved his other rook to behind Cozy’s other remaining pawn. The time had come to sweep the them from the board and remove their threat, and at the same time, start marching towards victory. Maneuvering his rooks into position would be time-consuming, but Cozy had been right: this game was won.

Cozy continued to seem unperturbed. Royal Fork continued to tremble.

“It was across the southern oceans from Gar-Centauria,” Tirek pressed on. “We had little contact with them. The felines did not like water.”

Cozy chuckled. “Well, Daddy went down there to open up trade routes with them. Ever since Princess Luna came back, Equestria has been opening up again. Making friends with all our neighbors, no matter how far away they are.” Cozy moved her rook up. One of Tirek’s rooks could take it, but then Cozy could take it with her knight.

Tirek did still consider it, though. A rook for a rook was not a bad trade when it would leave him with a rook and Cozy with merely a knight. Nevertheless, he instead moved the threatened rook down one space.

“How long has he been gone for?” Tirek asked.

Cozy had been reaching out towards her rook, but froze solid for several seconds. She took her eyes from the board, looking to Tirek. “Three years,” she whispered, then louder. “Three years.”

Tirek was taken aback at that. “Three years?” He repeated. “It did not take me nearly as long to travel from Gar-Centauria to Equestria. The distances are not much different…”

Cozy matched Tirek’s gaze, before closing her eyes and smiling brightly. Her hoof moved over to her knight, and she moved it down and over. “It’s just taking Daddy a little bit longer, is all,” she said. “But we have a chess game to get back to. He promised me we’d finish it when he got back.”

Tirek felt his eyes drifting over to Royal Fork, looking for some sign from the stallion that he believed any of this to be true. But his eyes were instead glued to the game.

“I even have the game right here,” Cozy said, holding up a neatly folded, pristine sheet of paper. Her smile dropped and her eyes grew cold. “There was a scare this morning, a stupid maid cleaned up the game, put it away! Even though everypony is supposed to know that they’re never supposed to do that! So Uncle Fork fired her.” Cozy held the piece of paper close to her chest. “And thankfully Uncle Fork had the game all written down already, so we could put back all the pieces where they were supposed to be.”

Tirek was a lot of things. He was ruthless. A centaur had to be ruthless. He was intelligent and cunning. He was powerful, none could deny that, and if they did he would be more than happy to show them how mistaken they were. He could even be charming when he wanted to be.

But Tirek was not cruel, not without reason, anyway. Not when there was no benefit to be had. So while he could see the truth of the matter plainly, Tirek decided not to press the issue. Instead, he nodded as he moved a rook down and captured a pawn.

Cozy moved her knight again. She was angling, clearly, to put his king into check. Tirek found himself frowning once more, however. Surely she had seen that…

Tirek moved his rook, taking Cozy’s last pawn…and putting her king in check.

Royal Fork sucked in a breath. “Cozy…”

“I know, Uncle Fork,” Cozy said. “Don’t worry! I got this.”

She couldn’t move her king up since that would put her in the path of Tirek’s other rook, so she moved it diagonally down. Tirek responded by advancing his other rook, putting her back in check. So she moved her king diagonally down once more. Tirek moved his other rook across, and once more the king was in check.

From here, the next move was obvious: Cozy would circle her king around her knight and get behind it. But that would only result in trapping the king. Victory for Tirek was inevitable…

Cozy instead moved her king diagonally back once more, right to the edge of the board.

“What?” Tirek asked.

“Cozy!” Royal Fork exclaimed, his voice high. “But – he – he can…”

Cozy frowned, looking at the board. “Oh,” she said. "Oopsies.” She looked to the stallion. “I’m soooo sorry, Uncle Fork! But me winning was always a long shot anyway. I really don’t think I could have even if Mister Tirek was really bad at the game, and he’s not!” She shrugged once more. “Look on the bright side, at least this way is faster!”

Tirek stared at the board, then to Cozy, then finally to Royal Fork, who stared back with pupils shrank down to the size of pinpricks. Without breaking eye contact, Tirek lifted his rook, and moved it to check Cozy’s king – which no longer had any place to go that wouldn’t put it right back into check.

“Shah mat,” he said in Centauri, and then translated: “The king is dead.”

“Checkmate,” Cozy agreed.

Royal Fork finally remembered that he was a pony and not a statue, and so had the ability to move. He let out a shriek, turning with wings beating and taking to the air – or trying to. Before he could get more than a few feet, Tirek reached out with telekinesis and seized him, pulling the pony into one hand. He tried to resist, but Tirek opened his mouth and called upon the magic taught to him by Sendak the Elder.

It was over in just a few moments. Royal Fork’s magic was drained, leaving him weak and feeble and empowering Tirek just a little bit more. Tirek placed him in a bubble and levitated him away…but then turned to Cozy.

His eyes narrowed. “You threw the match,” he intoned. “More than that…you set up your own checkmate. You only pretended to challenge me…but losing was your strategy the entire time. That was the reason why you wanted to even play me at all: to make certain that he lost.”

Cozy pursed her lips, then smiled and nodded. “Yup! Gee, you really are pretty smart! Being a thousand years old hasn’t done anything to you! I knew you’d figure it out.”

“You betrayed your own uncle!” Tirek cracked the knuckles of one hand with his other. “But why?”

Cozy’s face screwed up. At first it was a frown, but soon there was boiling, seething rage on it as she threw down the neatly folded paper that contained her father’s game.

“Because he betrayed me first!”
> Blunder
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This Morning

“I hate you!” Cozy Glow screamed as she rushed past the new maid. “I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU! I HOPE YOU DIE!”

Cozy barely even saw the maid, whatever her name was. She was still standing and hadn’t dropped dead, so it didn’t matter. What mattered was what she had done.

Daddy’s chess set sat upon a small table in his study. Not on the floor. Its pieces were all neatly organized into their starting positions, instead of exactly where they were supposed to be. The game was gone. The game she’d protected and waited three years to finish was gone.

Just like…

Cozy’s vision was blurred from tears and red from rage. She pulled the chess board down onto the floor, scattering the pieces as she did. Not that it mattered since they weren’t right.

“M-Miss Cozy,” somepony said as Cozy gathered up the pieces and started looking for the right ones. The maid came into view, it must have been her. “Miss Cozy, I’m sorry, I don’t know how – ”

“SHUT UP!” Cozy screamed. Her hooves trembled. She found the white king and set it down. It was in e1. She knew it was in e1. And one of the black rooks was in e3. She’d never forget that, not for a second. It had been at the front of her mind for years.

The maid sat down in front of Cozy. “Miss Cozy, I didn’t – ”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Cozy tuned out any further platitudes. She held both white rooks in her hooves. Where had they been…one was at a1, it had never moved, but the other one…

“What’s all the ruckus?” Uncle Fork’s voice called.

Black bishop at…at b5, right? It had been her queen’s bishop, hadn’t it been?

“I don’t – I don’t know, Mister Fork,” the maid said. “I came in and – ”

Cozy put the bishop down and immediately knew it was wrong. She moved it to c5 and knew that was worse.

“Oh, no,” Uncle Fork interrupted. “Oh no, Cozy – your game…”

She’d lost her other bishop, right?

Cozy whirled on Uncle Fork and the maid. “FIRE HER!” Cozy screamed. “She ruined the game! SHE RUINED IT! FIRE HER!”

The maid had tears of her own in her eyes. Good. Uncle Fork had a serious expression on his own face as he looked her up and down. “I’m sorry, Indigo,” he said…

Cozy had already turned away, looking back to the board. White knight…d2? Or still back at a1? The other white knight had been eliminated, right?

Black pawns, she’d barely moved her pawns, except the ones at d7 and e7, those were gone. She was…

Wait, the black king. Where had the black king been? Her own king? Why couldn’t she remember?!

Cozy let out a long, primal scream as she swept her hooves across the board, scattering pieces everywhere. Her wings were spread wide. Her whole body was shaking. Nightmare Moon hadn’t taken the game. Discord hadn’t taken the game. The Plundervines had never even come close. The last game she played with Daddy, it was…

…it was…

…gone…
 
She felt a wing close around her. She screamed again, turning and bucking and hitting Uncle Fork in the ribs. He let out a gasp of air as he fell away. The maid was no longer in the room.

“She ruined it!” Cozy screamed, falling to her stomach and pounding her hooves in the ground. “She ruined EVERYTHING!”

“Cozy – ”

“N-now…now if – when, WHEN Daddy gets back, he’s…he’s not gonna be able to play…”

“Cozy…”

“He’s gonna be so mad, he’s been looking forward to finishing the game for years and years and years…”

“Cozy! Cozy, it’s alright! I have the game right here!”

Cozy froze. She rubbed her eyes, wiping away tears, looking to Uncle Fork. He’d risen up, and was holding up a neatly folded sheet of paper. As Cozy watched, he unfolded it, revealing its contents:



Black: Rook e3 and a8, King g1, Knight c6, Bishop a5, Pawns a7, b7, c7, f7, g7, h7
White: Rook a1 and h1, King e1, Knight d2, Bishop d5, Pawns a2, b2, c3, f4, g2, h3



Cozy let out a sound somewhere between a cry and a shout. The next thing she knew, she had snatched the paper from Uncle Fork’s hooves and gone back to the game board, laying out the pieces. Uncle Fork was next to her, and helped her lay everything out.

And it was right. Cozy knew, knew down to her very soul, that it was right. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be, her Daddy’s game had been restored…

“I had a feeling this might happens someday,” Uncle Fork said, holding up the paper, “so I’ve been holding on to this, just in case. I know how much – ”

Cozy didn’t let him finish. She threw herself forward, wrapping her forelegs around him as she hugged him as tight as she could. “Thank you!” She cried. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Uncle Fork!”

He chuckled, and rubbed a hoof atop her mane. It kind of messed up her curls and she hated when her curls were messed up…but she didn’t feel any hate towards Uncle Fork right now. He was her best uncle in the whole world. Also her only uncle, but that didn’t matter. If Cozy had a million uncles, Uncle Fork would still be the best.

“Now then,” Uncle Fork said, pushing Cozy away from him a little. He put the piece of paper into her hooves. “Why don’t you hold onto that?”

“Uh-huh!” Cozy agreed, clutching the piece of paper tightly to her chest. She was going to make so many copies. Spread them all over the house, at least one in every room, plus she’d have some at school, and at her Daddy’s businesses, and…

“You look like you could use some cheering up,” Uncle Fork continued. “How about we go out for ice cream?”

Cozy’s wings flared at that. “Yes please!”

“Alright then. Go and get ready, dry your eyes, and then we’ll go out.”

Cozy nodded, putting the paper into her mouth and galloping off. She skipped the stairs entirely, wings beating steadily as she went up to her room and its bathroom, rushing inside. Uncle Fork hadn’t been lying, Cozy saw when she saw herself in the mirror. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and her feathers were all out of place. Her coat, too, her coat was all mussed up from when she’d thrown herself on the floor. She set about cleaning herself up immediately, not wanting to call a maid.

Once finished, she looked to the piece of paper, holding it out at forelegs’ length. Uncle Fork had really come through today. Sure, he just wanted Daddy’s money and Cozy was the best way to get it…but could Cozy really blame him? And even if it was true, that didn’t mean that Uncle Fork didn’t still care about her. He’d let her keep believing in the tooth flutter pony, after all. 

And he’d made sure to save a piece of paper with her’s and Daddy’s game on it. Who knew how many years he’d been saving this?

Well…not very many. The paper was still crisp and unblemished. It folded neatly, like it had only ever been folded once or twice before.

Cozy frowned.

And it was a good thing he’d had it right on him, instead of in a desk or drawer or something. He carried it on him at all times, it seemed, just in case…

…and yet, it was in perfect condition. Like he’d only just made it.

Cozy’s head tilted to the side.

Perfectly folded paper. Which he’d just happened to have on him. The first time, the only time, anypony had ever put away the chess game when they weren’t supposed to. All of Cozy’s butlers and maids knew that they weren’t supposed to do that. They were all told how important the game was to her. 

And Uncle Fork had just so happened to have the paper on him.

Cozy pulled the paper close to her snout, and breathed in.

It even still smelled new. 

“Cozy?” Uncle Fork asked. He’d come into her room, and was looking into the bathroom. “Cozy? Are you ready to go?”

Cozy looked at Uncle Fork. And she put on her sweetest smile. The one she’d been practicing for ages. The one that got her friends and made everypony around her just tell her how she was cute as a button and want to do anything for her.

“Yup!” She said. “I sure am, Uncle Fork!”





They went out for ice cream. Cozy got a big sundae with cherries and chocolate fudge and cookie crumbs and whipped cream. Then they went to the park, where Cozy was going to play some of the old ponies who came to the park to play chess. She knew them all really well, it was one of her favorite things to do, and they often had sweets for her too. So she got a snack and she got to play her favorite game. Some of the old ponies were even really good and sometimes they beat her. But they always gave her extra candy when that happened so it wasn’t so bad.

They were definitely going to beat her a bunch today, because Cozy’s mind would be elsewhere. She was planning.

Her Uncle Fork had crossed a line. It was one thing to want all of Daddy’s money because he was too lazy and stupid to make his own. That was normal, it was normal to want what you didn’t have. 

It was one thing to be all nice and stuff to Cozy and spoil her just because Cozy would get all of Daddy’s money if he didn’t come back by the time Cozy was an adult. That was just a reasonable way to get Cozy to share Daddy’s money. It was give and take. A transaction. It was fine.

But Uncle Fork had tried to worm his way into Cozy’s heart. He had taken something away from Cozy, something more important than anything, but covered it up. Then he gave it back to her and expected her to not figure it out. Like she was stupid. Like she was a child. Like she was a puppet dancing on his strings.

He was going to pay. Cozy was going to make Uncle Fork pay, was going to do to him the same thing that he had done to her. She was already planning how. It would take a long time to come to fruition, but when it did…

And then Discord and Tirek arrived in Fillydelphia.
> Touch and Move
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

“He used me,” Cozy growled as she finished explaining to Tirek, while she looked at the paper in her hooves, whole body trembling. “He’s always been using me. He always just wanted Daddy’s money ‘cause he’s too lazy and stupid to make his own so he just worked for Daddy. And I knew that and I didn’t really mind ‘cause he let me do whatever I wanted while Daddy was away. But he messed with our game. Uncle Fork…he m-made me think…”

She shook her head, and looked up to Tirek as she folded the paper. “So he deserved to have his magic taken! He deserves to suffer! This is just going to be the start. I wasn’t going to do anything today but you came and Discord came and presented the perfect opportunity! It’s only for now…but I’m going to take Uncle Fork apart. This is just the start.”

Tirek crossed his arms, brow raised. Well. He had sorely underestimated this little hellion, hadn’t fully appreciated how her intuition and intelligence would clash with the very real fact that she was still just a foal. But her reason for turning on her uncle…

Tirek grunted, thinking of Scorpan, his brother. Of Vorak, his father. Both had turned on him, betrayed him, Scorpan out of weakness and soft-heartedness towards ponies, Vorak out of fear and jealousy towards the magic power Tirek had possessed, greater than any other centaur’s. Tirek had been betrayed before…and he knew how to respond to it: overwhelmingly.

Cozy Glow hadn’t betrayed her uncle. She’d been betrayed by her uncle, and now sought retribution. Tirek could understand that perfectly.

Tirek found himself grinning. His horns glowed, and he waved a hand over the chess board. The pieces started re-arranging themselves into their starting positions. “Very well, Cozy,” he said. “I sympathize with your reasoning. No…I empathize. I too have been betrayed before. I can hardly blame you for wanting revenge.”

The little filly smiled sweetly up at him. “Aw, thanks, Mister Tirek!”

“Lord Tirek.”

“Mm-hmm. Anyway, I’d super appreciate it if you didn’t tell anypony.”

“Small chance of that,” Tirek chuckled. A part of him wondered why it was that Cozy seemed to still think that Equestria as a society would still exist in any meaningful for once he and Discord were through with it. But even that small part didn’t write it off as foolish naivety, not now that she’d shown him her true face.

He frowned. “Who would I tell, anyway?” He asked. He clenched a fist, and flexed his muscles. “Do you really think your Princess Celestia can save Equestria now? I have already taken the power of more than half of Equestria. Celestia and Luna are no match for me! And with Discord aiding me I’ll soon have all the magic in Equestria! Who could stand up to me then?”

Cozy shrugged, leaning against the chess table. She flicked a knight with one hoof, setting it wobbling. “Golly, I don’t know. You do sound really strong! Then again, it’s not like Nightmare Moon wasn’t strong…”

Tirek scoffed. “One overly emotional alicorn whining about not getting her way cannot compare to my power.”

Cozy giggled. “Okay, that’s true. But I’m just saying, Equestria’s been through a lot lately.” She laughed again, but the way her wings flexed and unflexed betrayed the nervous tension within her to Tirek. “But, it’s still here! Things just work out a whole bunch. Something-something Magic of Friendship.”

Tirek scoffed. “A cute sentiment. No wonder you ponies adore it.” And soft-hearted gargoyles like his brother. “But that so-called ‘magic’ pales next to true power. When you rely on friendship you’re only allowing yourself to become dependent upon others.” He lit up his horns like he was about to begin taking Cozy’s magic. “True power is power subordinated to nothing but your own will!”

Cozy didn’t even flinch, though her grin did drop. “I sure wish I could do magic like that,” she said, looking down. Her wings were spread wide. “When Nightmare Moon came back I just hid under my Daddy’s desk. The same when Discord turned the world literally upside-down. And when the Plundervines attacked…I tried making all the friends I could but it never did anything. All I did was waste a whole lot of time and effort and it didn’t even keep a few stupid weeds away!”

She shifted, then looked back up to Tirek and smiled again. “But…I’m kinda’ glad I wasn’t hiding under a desk this time. And not just ‘cause I was able to get back at Uncle Fork. This time it just wasn’t so bad ‘cause I could talk to the monster. Maybe…we could even be friends?”

Tirek blinked…and then threw his head back and laughed, hands clutching at his stomach as he did. “Friends!” He exclaimed, and looked down at Cozy Glow. “Did I not just finish telling you how friends are a weakness?”

Cozy Glow pouted, and she crossed her hooves. “You don’t have to laugh, you big meanie! You’re friends with Discord.”

“I am allies with Discord. Our interests align. He is aiding me in gaining all the magic in Equestria, and once I have it, the havoc he will wreak upon your kingdom without Celestia to protect it…” He grinned down at her. “You have grasped that I am granting you the last moments of relative kindness in your life, haven’t you? That after the two of us are finished, your world will be at Discord's mercy forever?”

Cozy Glow shrugged. “Like I said: Equestria’s been through a lot lately. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m sure you’ll be defeated in the end.” She grinned at him. “Maybe it’ll be Discord. If you’re not friends, then why shouldn’t he betray you?”

Tirek leaned down over the table, still smiling a smile full of fangs. “I’m sure that he will try.”

Cozy matched the gaze, and her grin returned. “Ooh…devious! I knew you were good at chess! You’re already thinking ahead, aren’t you?”

Tirek shrugged, leaning back. “I intend to give Discord every opportunity to honor our bargain. But should he prove to be less than trustworthy, I see no reason to be so myself. A creature should not be held to a bargain that is neither made nor kept in good faith. And expecting loyalty from Discord would be a foal’s errand.” He considered, and eyed Cozy. “No offense.”

“None taken!” Cozy laughed.

The centaur glanced up at the sky and the position of the sun, considering. The game with Royal Fork hadn’t taken very long, he still had more than an hour before Discord returned. He looked back to Cozy.

“Another game?” He ventured, and gestured to the chess board. “Now that I’ve seen what you’re like when you’re trying to lose, I would know how well you play when trying to win.”

Cozy Glow brightened further, though she soon checked herself. “I don’t wanna bet my magic,” she said.

“Of course not, child,” Tirek agreed. He stroked his beard once more, and grinned as he remembered Cozy’s earlier wish. “But to motivate you to play to your utmost ability…if you do manage to win, I will teach you a simple spell.”

The filly blinked, eyes growing wide. “But…I’m a pegasus…”

“Unicorns do not have a monopoly on magic among your race.” Tirek countered immediately. “It is harder for pegasi and earth ponies, perhaps, but not impossible.” He wave a hand nonchalantly. “The spell will be a very simple one, allowing you to burn paper in order to send it almost instantly to a creature of your choosing whose location you are aware of.”

Cozy’s eyes grew even wider. Apparently despite the basic nature of the spell, the full implications of its utility weren’t lost on her. “Okay!” She said. “You’re on!”

Tirek nodded, and indicated the chess board. “White or black?”

“Black! If you want me at my best, then I’m better with black.”

“Very well then.” Tirek once again stroked his beard, which also allowed him to hide a smile at how the filly practically trembled in place with excitement. She was quite endearing, for a pony.

Tirek selected his king’s pawn, and moved it forward – two spaces, as per the modern rules for chess. He looked to Cozy.

“Your move.”
> Shah Mat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

The game had progressed at a steady pace.

Black bishop to b4. Tirek could take it with his queen, but then Cozy’s knight would capture it.

White pawn to c3. If Cozy took it with her bishop, Tirek could take Cozy's bishop with no risk.

Black bishop to a5. White bishop to c4. Seemingly nothing gained, except for Tirek moving his bishop into a much stronger positon near the center.

Black queen to e7. White queen to f3. Nothing special in the moment, only getting them out onto the field. But again, Tirek had moved it near the center.

Black pawn to d6. White knight to d2. Cozy’s queen’s bishop was now free to enter the fray. Tirek’s knight was ready to defend the center.

Cozy had opened with the Nickerwitz defense, essentially allowing Tirek to take the center of the board – allowing Cozy to isolate and then wipe out the pieces if she played right. It was one of her favorite openings against new opponents, especially ones she knew to play aggressively, as Tirek did now that he had practice with what were to him brand-new rules for chess.

But she also felt uneasy. She couldn’t put her hoof on why.

Cozy moved her king’s knight to f6, then looked up at Tirek. He was huge, the biggest living creature that Cozy had ever seen. And he was scary. His sharp teeth made a more primitive side of Cozy fearful due to a basic prey-creature reaction to a predator. The corded muscles woven through his upper torso and arms made it clear that he could break her in half like a toothpick. 

And scariest of all, he was smart. Giant monster who got bigger by eating magic, you might have thought that he was just a brute. But he was playing Discord, and had seen through Cozy’s deceptions even if he’d gone along with them. And he carefully considered each of his moves in the game.

But for all of that, Tirek wasn’t what was making Cozy uneasy. Yeah, sure, he was big and scary and evil, but Cozy could talk to him. Understand him. He wasn’t like the Moon being pinned in the sky for too long, or the world turning upside down, or unbeatable vines and thorny clouds inexorably advancing towards Cozy.

Plus, Cozy was certain he’d be defeated in the end. Princess Twilight hadn’t failed yet.

White pawn to h3. Cozy frowned, not seeing the significance of the move. Possibly it was just a feint to throw her off – perhaps Tirek had sensed what Cozy was trying to do to the center of the board, bait him into a trap. She kept an eye on the pawn –and the rook that could potentially be released if it advanced another rank –but decided to otherwise continue setting up her gambit. She castled her king with her king’s rook.

There was that uneasiness again.

White knight to e2, adjacent to the other knight.

Cozy’s eye twitched. She flexed and unflexed her wings, but for the life of her didn’t understand her pensiveness. Everything was going the way it was supposed to.

Black rook to e8, behind her queen. Getting ready.

White bishop to d3. From here it could defend Tirek’s pawn in e4 from Cozy’s knight.

Black queen’s bishop to f5. Tirek could take it with his pawn, but he wouldn’t, it would expose his rook to her queen.

White knight to g3, where it could defend the pawn in e4 that the black bishop now threatened. Avoiding the obvious move of just taking the bishop with the pawn. That was too obvious. Cozy had to have a trap, Tirek was likely thinking.

But that was the trap. Didn’t Tirek see it? He’d seen so much else. But smart though he was, he wasn’t perfect. He’d misplayed and hadn’t even realized it – yet. Now, it was time to spring the trap.

Black bishop to e4. Bishop takes pawn.

White knight to e4. Knight takes bishop.

Cozy’s eyes widened. She needed to move quickly now. Not give him time to think.

Black knight to e4. Knight takes knight.

White bishop to e4. Bishop takes knight.

Black pawn to d5. Threatening the bishop and thence the white queen, but if the white queen took the pawn then it would be exposed to Cozy’s own queen.

Cozy tried to hide the fact that she was holding her breath. Take the bait take the bait take the bait…

White bishop to d5. Bishop takes pawn.

“Wait,” Tirek said, but it was too late – he’d taken his hand off of the piece. Grunting, but also with the ghost of a smile on his face, he moved his hand and waved at Cozy.

And Cozy’s world cracked.

No, Cozy thought, even as her hooves moved automatically, even as she felt tears filling her eyes.

Black queen to e3. Queen takes bishop. Check.

That’s not possible, Cozy thought.

White queen to e3. Queen takes queen.

That’s not possible!

Black rook – the one that Cozy had castled earlier, the one she’d set up so many turns ago – to e3. Rook takes queen. Check. But she barely saw it. The tears filled her eyes too much.

Cozy’s breath hitched, hooves at her mouth. Through the blurry world she could barely see she saw one of Tirek’s massive hands begin reaching out towards the board.

Cozy’s world shattered.

Tirek’s hand paused before any piece was touched. Cozy looked up at him, and he down at her, one brow raised.

“What?” he asked, and his head tilted to the side. “Why are you crying, Cozy? You played very well.”

Cozy rubbed the tears from her eyes as she fumbled with the piece of paper her uncle had given her. She looked at it, and looked back to the board…



Black: Rook e3 and a8, King g1, Knight c6, Bishop a5, Pawns a7, b7, c7, f7, g7, h7
White: Rook a1 and h1, King e1, Knight d2, Bishop d5, Pawns a2, b2, c3, f4, g2, h3



The same. The notation on the paper and the pieces on the board were the same. That was…it was impossible. It was mathematically impossible, Cozy wasn’t even very good at math for a pony as smart as she was, and yet she still knew that the odds of playing the same game were a million-million-million to one, or something like that. And yet…

…and yet it had happened. By accident.

Cozy looked back to Tirek, holding up the piece of paper for him to see. He reached down and took it, looking at what was, to him, comparatively small writing.

“Well,” Tirek said, setting down the paper, “that is unexpected…”

“You…you d-did this on purpose,” Cozy whispered. She wanted to shout it accusingly, but she couldn’t, because even she knew how impossible that was.

Tirek shrugged. “I have many talents. Mind control isn’t among them. Your moves were your own, Cozy Glow.” He scratched at his beard, then looked to Cozy. His face…Cozy wasn’t sure what the expression was. “Do you want to stop playing?”

Cozy stiffened, looking back to the board, She hugged her wings close to herself…and found herself shaking her head.

Tirek nodded. He reached down, to his king, and moved it to d1. The only move he could make to move it out of check.

The only move Daddy could have made.

Black rook to d8. White bishop to c6. Bishop takes knight. A meaningless capture – Cozy didn’t need her knights.

Black rook – the other one – to d3. White bishop to b7. Bishop takes pawn. Another meaningless loss for Cozy.

Black rook to d2. Rook takes knight. Check. Tirek couldn’t take her rook, though, thanks to it being guarded by her other rook.

White king to c1.

Cozy hugged herself with not just her wings, but her forelegs too, in between making her moves. Tirek spent several turns trying to bring his own rooks into play, but it was too late as Cozy spent time maneuvering her rooks to finally box him in. Trap his king.

Each move was almost physically painful. But each time Tirek tried to speak up, get her to stop, Cozy made her move. Until finally…

Black rook to b2. Check.

White king to c1.

Black rook to a2. Inviting the white rook to take it, so that Cozy’s other rook could capture that piece.

Tirek grunted. White rook to b1. He didn’t take the bait…because it would only be prolonging the inevitable.

With Cozy’s rooks totally locking down the movements of the white king, it fell upon Cozy’s remaining bishop to end it. Her hoof was violently shaking as she reached out. She could barely see the board through her tears. But she moved the bishop to e3.

The white king couldn’t escape. The white king was trapped. The white king had nowhere left to go.

“Checkmate,” Cozy said. From Centauri shah mat. It meant “the king is dead”.

Tirek nodded, reaching down and knocking over his king. Cozy watched it fall. Even through her tears, it was clear to her, as clear as day.

Thud.

Cozy’s father was never coming home.
> J'adoube
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

Tirek had a crying foal in front of him.

Cozy had fallen over onto her side, curling around herself as she wailed, hooves clawing at her mane, undoing the careful curls. Cozy Glow, Tirek was sure, was a filly who absolutely could be adorable while crying if she wanted to…but she was not being such right now. There was nothing cute about the strangled sounds she made, the physical, visceral pain she seemed to be in.

Tirek was ruthless. He was driven. But he was not cruel, not without purpose, not to those who had done him no wrong. So as grating as the noise was, Tirek crossed his arms and closed his eyes and simply let Cozy cry. Given that the game the two had been playing had somehow, against all reason, ended up as a copy of the game that Cozy had been playing with her father before his disappearance, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had broken Cozy so.

Tirek idly wondered what it would be like, to care about a creature as much as Cozy appeared to care for her father. Inhibiting, most likely.

Eventually, Cozy’s wails abated, becoming quiet sobs. Tirek waited through that as well. Finally, he heard Cozy moving, and opened his eyes. He saw that Cozy Glow had picked herself up, was rubbing her eyes. She looked atrocious, her mane disheveled, her coat dirty from rolling on the ground, and her eyes completely bloodshot. 

She hiccupped, and looked up to Tirek. “S…sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Tirek answered immediately, holding out one hand. “You needed that.”

Cozy nodded slowly. She rubbed her snout, and looked to the board. Seeing the fallen white king, she almost burst into tears again, but held herself in check this time, instead just taking in a few shuddering breaths and letting them out slowly.

“I…” she said, “I…lied. I said my Daddy is away on business.”

Tirek inclined his head. “You did.”

“But he’s not. Not…not anymore. He was only supposed to be gone for a couple months. But it’s been three years. I don’t know what happened to him, but…but if he could come back…then he would have by now.”

Tirek wasn’t cruel without purpose. But he didn’t see the benefit of letting Cozy preserve any illusion at this point. She needed bluntness. “No. Your father is gone.”

Cozy flinched, but nodded. She rubbed her snout again, then lay her head on the chess table. She reached out a hoof and knocked over her own king. “Thank you,” she whispered, and looked up to Tirek. “I…I got to play out my game with Daddy. You…you’re really good.”

Tirek grinned. “Not good enough to avoid losing.”

Cozy shook her head, standing up. “N-no, you really were! You just fell into some traps I set, but there were a lot of points where you could have won. You’re not familiar with the modern rules, is all. And you didn’t make any big mistakes.”

“Perhaps…but that trap you set up was exceptionally cunning.” Tirek stroked his beard. “From that moment on, I was on the defensive, but you eviscerated my ability to defend myself.”

Cozy nodded. “Uh-huh! It’s all about the rooks.” Cozy forced herself to smile as she took to the air, hovering of the board, putting her hooves on her rooks. “Maybe my bishop was what caused it…but you got trapped not just by my rooks…” she placed one hoof out, on the rook next to Tirek’s king, “but by your own. Pawns are important, they help you control the board, but you won’t win with pawns directly. Queens are the most powerful piece but they’re so powerful that they’re targets. Rooks are where the real game is, especially in the endgame. That’s what I think.”

“And of course you set up your entire winning strategy by that castling move,” Tirek noted.

“Yup!” Cozy grinned. She landed, and her smile faltered. “I…I wish my Daddy could have seen this…” she frowned, then looked to Tirek. “of course, you would have just drained him of magic, wouldn’t you?”

Tirek shrugged, not denying the truth. “Most likely. I doubt you would have been here in the park without your uncle’s machinations.”

“Well, I still think you’re gonna lose.”

“I look forward to proving you wrong.” Tirek considered. “In fact, I look forward to your apology letter once I win. I believe I promised to teach you a minor spell, didn’t I?”

Cozy lit up. She rubbed the last of the tears from her eyes, and nodded. “Yes please!”





The spell was simple enough to teach the basics of, but it required practice and repetition to master. An inscribed rune beneath the fire that was to be used, magic words said in exactly the right tone and at exactly the right speed, while making a specific series of gestures in a specific way. And without any organs to channel magic naturally, like the horns of a unicorn or centaur, Cozy would have to try much harder to master it.

In the limited time the two had left, Cozy still hadn’t been able to do it, though that wasn’t surprising: if hedge magic like this had been easy, then every creature would do it. But Tirek, anticipating that Cozy would need to keep at this for several weeks at least, left detailed instructions, inscribing them on the piece of paper that Cozy’s uncle had given her – it might as well serve some purpose.

And then Discord returned.

“I have had the most wonderful time!” the Lord of Chaos exclaimed as he manifested by growing out of the branch of a tree like some kind of disturbed flower. “You were absolutely right, Tirek, some time spent just being me was exactly what I needed.”

Tirek had his hands folded behind his back. He glanced to where Cozy Glow had been, but found that the foal had disappeared – save for a tiny bit of blue hair, the edge of her tail, under one of the chess tables.

Given that Discord had been responsible for two major disasters in her life – three, if one counted today – he could hardly blame her for hiding at his arrival. So Tirek stepped to the side slightly, blocking the table from view.

“I look forward to seeing what you have done with Manehattan,” he said, trotting forward and taking one hand out from behind his back, gesturing. “I have had a rather engaging time myself. It is good to be free of Tartaros at last and feel the wind and sunlight once more.”

“Freedom,” Discord agreed, floating through the air. “It’s so…liberating, isn’t it?”

“By definition. There is a small matter, however…when you conjured every adult pony in the city to this park, you missed a few after all.” Tirek’s eyes narrowed. “The ones already in the park.”

“Did I?” Discord asked, snapping his eagle claw. A couple dozen flashes resulted, and the sound of ponies crying out in shock and fear. Discord’s eyes widened. “Oh, so I did. How delightfully unexpected! Honestly, Tirek, I had no idea. Still, they’re here now, aren’t they?”

Tirek was already channeling magic, spreading his arms wide and reaching out to the screaming ponies. The screams devolved into moans and whimpers as their magic was drained, and Tirek felt himself growing incrementally stronger.

“Errors happen,” Tirek allowed as he finished, “but we cannot afford to many such errors if we are to defeat the alicorns.” Tirek glanced around, using the opportunity to check on Cozy Glow. The filly was peeking out from beneath the chess table, looking at him. She still looked awful after her breakdown…but she put on the widest smile she could, and waved.

Tirek grinned as well, and turned to Discord. “Come then! Let’s be off. I want this kingdom under our five hooves by this time tomorrow.”

“Right you are, my dear ally!” Discord agreed, raising his eagle claw. “There’s nothing that can stop us!”
> Endgame
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today

Cozy Glow came out from under the table as soon as Discord left, taking Tirek with him. Thanks to the angle of the bushes that surrounded the tables, nopony who Tirek had just drained would be able to see her. With Tirek finally gone, Cozy allowed her smile to drop, and the tears to return to her eyes.

Her Daddy was gone. She was never going to see him again, except in pictures that couldn’t hug her. She was never going to hear his voice again except in her head. Her Daddy was gone, forever.

The thought didn’t break her again, send her crashing to the ground again. She cried, but she held herself upright. She’d lied to herself for three years, deluded herself. Some part of her had to know that Daddy was never coming home, that was why she’d refused to move the game. 

But that delusion had allowed Uncle Fork to get to her, nearly make her love him. It had made her collapse to the ground in front of a magic-eating monster. She had been lucky that Tirek was nice. Some other creature could have taken advantage of her. Would have taken advantage of her. Uncle Fork had, after all.

So she repeated the words to herself, in her mind and out loud, over and over again: Daddy is gone. Daddy is gone. Daddy is gone. The first few times the words felt like a knife sliding into her chest. She almost stopped, but then she remembered Uncle Fork using her. She remembered how broken she had been in front of Tirek.

So she kept repeating it. Daddy is gone. Daddy is gone. Over and over again. Building up an immunity. Forcing herself to get used to the idea, to accept it, not merely on an intellectual level, but totally.

It took her hours. At some point, however, it stopped hurting. Not even a sting. Daddy is gone. That was a fact.

When that finally happened, Cozy took to the air, wings beating steadily. She flew away from the ponies that Tirek had drained, then set out to head out of the park. She had expected to find the streets of Fillydelphia completely empty, and wanted to know what that looked like.

She had been wrong, however. Fillydelphia’s streets were certainly much, much less full than usual, but she did find ponies out: fillies and colts. Some a little older than her, some the same age, many much younger. They were herding together, talking to each other, looking scared and not sure what to do. Most were crying. Some were arguing. When one group spotted her, the oldest, an earth pony, waved her down.

Cozy considered flying on by, but decided against it. She banked down and landed. “Hello,” she said.

“What happened to you?” The earth pony colt asked, looking her over, her disheveled mane, her dirty coat, her red-rimmed eyes. “Are…are your parents missing too?”

Daddy was gone. The sting returned with that thought. She hadn’t forced herself to get completely used to it yet. But it was a small thing, and she could live with it.

“Everypony’s parents just disappeared,” the colt continued. “We don’t know what’s happening…are you from ‘round here? Do you know what happened?”

Cozy stared at the colt for a few seconds. These foals were scared and confused and didn’t know what to do. They hadn’t just played chess with Tirek and hadn’t talked to him and didn’t know that they would be safe because they weren’t worth the effort from him. They really needed somepony to take charge. They needed a friend.

Cozy spoke the moment she realized that. “Golly, I do know!”

The foals – there were a few dozen – all seemed surprised, and gathered around her to hear. She stopped herself from smiling, instead putting on as sad an expression as she could. Not hard at the moment.

“Equestria is under attack by a big, mean centaur named Tirek,” Cozy explained, “and he’s working with Discord! They’re draining the magic from all the adult ponies!” The foals all whinnied in fright. Some of them bust out into tears. Cozy pressed on. “Look, we don’t have to worry. Tirek will be defeated, you’ll see! The Princesses already beat Discord before, they can do it again, and no centaur is a match for Princess Twilight Sparkle!

“But it might take a little bit. We have to get organized, and make sure that everypony is as safe as can be until then!”

Cozy took to the air, hovering in place so the foals could all see her better, and so that, while she was above them, she could see them clearly too. “You should all go and get all the bottles of water you can, and tell all the foals you can find to do that as well! Then meet me at the park, that’s where all the adults are!”

The foals all reacted to that as well. “If my mommy’s at the park, I’m not gonna wait!” One colt exclaimed, starting to head off.

Cozy flitted in front of him. “Wait! It’s been a few hours, right? Lying in the sun? You’re mommy’s gotta be really thirsty! Please, don’t you think you should bring some water?”

The colt considered, before he nodded. “Okay, you’re right.” He looked to the other foals. “Come on, let’s go!”

The foals set off. Cozy followed with them, doing what she could to organize the foals’ response. Soon she had managed to convince most of the pegasi to spread out and gather up more foals, spreading word throughout the city about what had happened, where all the adults had gone, and what needed to be done.

Soon, she was leading the foals in a great stampede into the park. The vague order that Cozy had imposed for just a little bit broke down as soon as the foals started seeing their loved ones, of course, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that as foals found their loved ones and started helping them, Cozy was sure to move between them, direct them. Tell them what to do, how to best help their loved ones.

As the Sun was setting, Cozy needed a break, and returned to the chess tables. The area was untouched since she had last been in it, obviously. She went over to the game she and Tirek had played, setting the pieces that had been knocked over back up and looking at the final board. How the white king had been trapped by Cozy’s rooks, her favorite piece…but finished off by the bishop, because they needed the help.

Tirek thought that friendship was weakness. He’d told her that it forced you to become dependent on others. But then…friendship had beaten Nightmare Moon and Discord and Chrysalis and Sombra and the Plundervines. There was a power there, there had to be, or else the Moon would always be up or the world would always be upside-down or everypony in Equestria would be slaves or plant food.

Maybe the key, Cozy thought, was not to depend on others. That was what the kings in chess did. They had no power of their own. They depended on all the other pieces…and on the player. All the pieces, in fact, depended upon the one playing them.

Maybe that was the secret. Not to depend upon others…but to have others depend upon you.

Like Uncle Fork depended on Cozy Glow and her control of Daddy’s money, how without it, he was nothing.

Like Tirek was making Discord depend on him emotionally, acting against his own interests in favor of helping Tirek.

Like Equestria depended upon the alicorns.

Cozy picked up one of her rooks, looking it over, rolling it between her hooves, and scowled. Like Cozy did. Like everypony in Equestria, her role was to sit under her Daddy’s desk and quiver in fear and hope that things would work out. That somepony else would solve the problem. She was doing that even now, hoping that Princess Twilight would defeat Discord and Tirek both. Save her again.

But then…this time she had sort of saved herself, hadn’t she? This time she hadn’t been shivering under her Daddy’s desk. Sure, Tirek was still out there, but a combination of quick-thinking and deduction of Tirek’s personality had allowed her to begin her revenge on Uncle Fork, and keep Tirek happy and not decide to just squash her or take her magic, and she even learned that pegasi could do magic without even needing unicorns if they tried hard, and had a whole spell to try and learn, too! 

She’d devised a strategy and carried it out, just like in chess. Just like she had when facing her Daddy. A strategy that actually let her beat Tirek…and would have let her beat Daddy. She was sure of it.

And it had been fun! She’d been face-to-face with a true monster and she’d had fun!

Cozy felt a strange tingle on her flanks at that realization – and a flash of light at the edge of her vision. She looked, and saw a glow there, a bright shimmer that after a few moments faded…and left behind the image of a rook. Her favorite chess piece…a piece that grew more powerful as one approached the endgame. The one around which all her best chess strategies rotated.

Cozy giggled…and then laughed, though she quickly had her hooves at her mouth and kept it down, lest anypony overhear her. It wouldn’t do to look so happy right now…but she had earned her cutie mark! Earned it for her brilliant strategy, for realizing how brilliant her strategy had been!

And already, her next one was forming in her head. She knew just where she had to start.





Cozy Glow found Uncle Fork slightly apart from all the other adults, under a tree. He was just as weak and helpless as all the other adults, and was whimpering. Some foal had given him some water, which was nice of them – Cozy would have to make sure to track down who and thank them.

But for now, she trotted up to her Uncle Fork an threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. “Uncle Fork!” she exclaimed. “I’m sooo sorry that I lost against Tirek! I tried my hardest, I promise you I really, really did!”

Uncle Fork just groaned.

“Don’t worry,” Cozy insisted, settling down onto her barrel in front of her uncle, looking him in the eyes. “I’m here now, and I’ll make sure you’re okay! Oh, and it’s not so bad, either. Look!” she turned a little, pointing to her flank. “I earned my cutie mark! It’s for strategy.”

Uncle Fork just curled on himself a little.

Cozy nodded, and patted Uncle Fork on the withers. “Don’t worry, Uncle, I’m sure that Tirek and Discord will be defeated soon. Everything will be back to normal! Well, except that I have my cutie mark now.” She tapped a hoof to her mouth. “Say, Uncle Fork, even when that happens I’ll bet that Fillydelphia will be in a really bad way. It’s been through so much lately already, there was the parasprites, and the Plundervines, and now this!”

She rolled over onto her back, looking up at the sky. Night was coming. She smiled. “I know you hold all Daddy’s businesses in trust until I’m old enough, but I bet that if I tried really hard and hired some really good lawyers that I could gain control of them myself! Ponies used to be considered adults as soon as they got their cutie marks, after all! I mean, that’s not true anymore, but I want to do more with all of Daddy’s money than just make more money.”

Uncle Fork’s eyes went wide. “Cozy…” he struggled to say.

Cozy looked at him, upside-down though he appeared to be in this position. “I wouldn’t do anything crazy like shut them down or anything. Just sell out Daddy’s shares! So maybe I wouldn’t own them anymore but then I’d have a ton of money. And then I’d invest them into Fillydelphia! I’ll open charities and sponsor public works…”

Uncle Fork let out a strangled cry.

Cozy rolled back onto her barrel, looking her uncle in the eye. “I bet I’d get recognized by the Princesses, even, if I did that. I don’t know what that would mean. Maybe I’d get a real special medal or something. Or ice cream! I bet I could get free ice cream for life. That’s totally worth selling all of Daddy’s companies and then giving away all the money, right?”

Uncle Fork was struggling to move. Cozy’s grin dropped. “Oh, but if I did all that, then I’d probably only be left with enough money to support myself. Just enough to get me into a good school and then I’d have to get a real job when I grew up! And so would you!” Cozy shrugged. “Well, that’s not so bad. I don’t mind working to get what I want. Gotta always plan a few moves ahead!”

Cozy stood and stretched, spreading her wings. She looked to the ruffled feathers, her dirty coat, her messed-up mane. “Anyway, I’m gonna go home and take a big long bubble bath. I could use it! You’ll be okay here, right?” 

She didn’t give him a chance to answer. She turned around, and trotted away.
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later




Dear Mister Tirek,
 
I’ve been practicing that spell you taught me really hard, every day since we first met. Hopefully this time it’ll actually reach you instead of just burning up in the fire. I’m getting really tired of re-writing this letter!
 
I’m sorry that you lost. Well, I’m not really sorry, because if you had won then Discord would have gotten to do whatever he wanted to Equestria, and that wouldn’t have been fun for anypony. He might have made me croak and jump and act like a frog, or something. 
 
I can’t believe that the Princesses just let him go after what happened. But I guess it helps to have friends in high places.
 
Anyway, I know that you probably really hate that you lost, so I’m sorry about that.
 
I don’t know if you have anything to write with in Tartaros, but I’m sending a whole bunch of paper so that you can write back if you want to. I bet I could even send you some books with enough practice so you’d have stuff to read. 
 
I’d love to keep talking to you, you were really fun to play in chess, and you know magic and could teach me some, and I even got my cutie mark because of you! It’s a rook. My special talent is strategy. Seeing the big picture, playing all the angles.
 
Oh, sorry if that makes you mad, me getting a cutie mark. I don’t think one more pony’s power would have helped against Princess Twilight, though.
 
My revenge against Uncle Fork is going well. He was super mad when I told him I was planning on selling off Daddy’s companies, if not now, then when I become an official adult. He said he was going to fight it with lawyers, but then I said I would fight with my own lawyers. We got into a big argument and now he isn’t living in my house anymore.
 
Just in case he actually can hire good lawyers, though, I was planning on making it look like he was stealing my money and embezzling money from my Daddy’s companies. Only while I was starting to do that it turns out that he was actually already doing that! I’m waiting for the perfect time to reveal that and ruin him.
 
Oh, and do you want to play another game of chess? I’ll play white this time: Knight to f3. Your move!
 
I hope you write me back if you can!
 
 — Cozy Glow