Chapter 1: The Missing Horn

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Diary of Cozy Glow
It had been an unknown amount of time since my imprisonment in stone since my second attempt to overthrow Princess Twilight Sparkle, but it felt like it had been millennia. I was conscious and aware of my surroundings, but unable to move a muscle or communicate in any way, it drove me to the point of madness.
Twilight had put the statue I had become in the palace garden in Canterlot, tour guides would frequently tell the story of my defeat and the defeat of my co-conspirators, Tirek and Chrysalis. Of course they would get the facts wrong, but at least I was pleased that I managed to achieve a level of infamy, in a way I had succeeded in my goals, leaving a legacy that would be talked about for generations to come.

I think it is time I told my side of the story. I was born to a regular Pegasus family living in the outskirts of Equestria, but my parents perished shortly after my birth, so I was raised in an orphanage. I was born gifted, with a sharp mind and impressive oratory skills. But I always felt isolated from my peers who couldn’t possibly relate to someone of my intellectual level. I found my Cutie Mark after I was first introduced to the game of chess, it took the form of a rook. Representing both my gift at deception and my gift for the game.

I would soon dominate local competitions. When foals proved inadequate against me, I soon entered competitions for adults, soon becoming the youngest Chessmaster in Equestrian history. However, I soon grew bored of this success, as even the adults of the chess world proved a little challenge to someone as gifted as I. To be honest I had trouble even pretending to be interested in the mundanity of most ponies’ lives. I yearned for something more, a real challenge, something that would really put my name in the history books. I decided that as I seem to have no equal, I was the best suited to rule Equestria.

Using means I rather not disclose, I contacted the demon Tirek, one of the most infamous villains in Equestrian history, imprisoned in Tartarus after his defeat. In return for promising to be his vessel for revenge, he taught me many things, including a ritual that would drain all magic from Equestria. I realized that if this ritual was successful, it would even out the playing field, making unicorn magic useless, in such an environment someone like me could truly emerge as the greatest of all.
Tirek and I devised a plan to use the ritual to trap Princess Twilight and her friends in Tartarus. In order to gather the artifacts necessary for the ritual, I needed contacts, so I decided to sign up for Twilight’s School of Friendship. I reluctantly must admit I learned many things from my lessons at the school, including how to master the art of persuasion to get ponies to regard me as a friend. I even made a few friends; I was especially close to the young changeling known as Ocellus. Even if I always knew they would abandon me if they knew the real reason why I was there. But ultimately, I learned that there was no more powerful force in the universe than friendship. Twilight may say that Friendship is Magic, I developed a similar yet still different philosophy, Friendship Is Power. For I would use it to elevate myself as the new ruler of Equestria once I got rid of Twilight.

When I put my plan into motion, I initially succeeded in trapping Twilight and her comrades in Tartarus. But my plans were ultimately foiled by a group of students who learned of my plans, one of them being the changeling I had grown so attached to, Ocellus. I was right, she abandoned me once she found out about my true nature. Twilight imprisoned me in Tartarus together with Tirek. This imprisonment was infuriating, yet I would eventually deem it less bad than my eventual imprisonment in stone. At least in Tartarus I could still move and communicate, I even had someone to connect with, Tirek.

I like to believe that I managed to form a genuine bond with the demon, I started to regard him as a sort of father figure. Eventually we would both be rescued by someone who claimed to be a sorcerer of olden times, Grogar the Necromancer. Grogar wanted to create a League of Evil to defeat Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony. Other than me and
Tirek, King Sombra was also recruited, as well as the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, who I eventually would start to regard as a mother. Grogar encouraged us to work together as only united could we stone a chance against our enemies, I agreed with this notion, after all, individually we had all failed, but Friendship Is Power and together we could accomplish
what we couldn’t on our own.

While Grogar would eventually be revealed to be the Spirit of Chaos, Discord, who had played us all for fools in order to create a test for Twilight. Once he found out, we managed to overwhelm him using the bell of the real Grogar, granting us unimaginable power. Yet our defeat would come at our own hoof, as Chrysalis spread her ideas of friendship being poison, which ultimately divided us against the united front that was the Elements of Harmony, who had mastered the magic of friendship,together with other companions they had forged bonds with along the way. Me, Chrysalis and Tirek were turned to stone to spend eternity in Twilight’s Garden. But my experiences in this final battle had ultimately proven me right, friendship was indeed power.

Eventually another pony would visit us in the garden under the cover of night, she was a unicorn mare, with an orange coat and red and yellow mane like a flame, her Cutie Mark was the emblem of a sun, much like that of Princess Celestia. I suspected she might be a relative, but I could swear I had never seen this unicorn before. She freed me from my stone prison, but leaving Chrysalis and Tirek petrified.
I asked her what her name was, and she answered me: Sunset Shimmer. She told me that she used to be a villain like me, but that she had found the light of redemption, the naïve fool wanted to give me the same opportunity. In the matter of minutes, my body quickly grew to that of an older teenager, when I asked Sunset about this, she told me that I had been stone for years and that my body was just catching up to my actual age. Sunset took me to a portal, which she told me led into another world, but it seemed that something went wrong and the portal took us to a different world
than expected.

Upon entering this new world, Sunset cursed, immediately attempting to open another portal, but to no avail. She made comments about her powers being weakened. But I didn’t particularly care where we went. We had entered into a new world, a world that didn’t know me, I saw this as an opportunity to start over, to make a name for myself and eventually make myself the ruler of this new world.
Granted, Sunset saw it as an opportunity for me to turn over a new leaf and become something other than a villain. I had no intention of doing that, but I would play along for now, being perceived as a hero could work to my advantage.

We quickly found out that we found ourselves in the unicorn kingdom of Taralos, this world was very much like Equestria, or how it used to be in the ancient past, before pony tribes
were united under one banner. We tried to establish ourselves in the city of Vil, the capital of Taralos. Sunset quickly drew attention because of her Cutie Mark resembling a sun, a holy symbol in Taralos, a holy symbol.of some deity called the Sun Queen. Sunset soon drew the attention of members of the Kings court. The first one to contact us was a a royal intelligence operative, a unicorn who called themselves Cipher. Cipher had a grey coat and a black mane, and he always clad himself in a black robe. The way he spoke was very deliberate and calculating, it was obvious to me that he was hiding something and that this was somepony used to the arts of manipulation. As such I detected a kindred spirit,
and he seemed to do the same, we hit it off instantly, becoming friends as the weeks went by in Taralos, Cipher using his connections to the king to grant us quarters within the city, I made my living as an entertainer, telling the masses stories from my home realm, as well as
playing the occasional game of chess, making a reputation for myself as both a storyteller and a tactician.

We would also eventually be introduced to Silverwing, a Griffin who served as a member of the royal guard, Silverwing came across as a dumb brute, but he seems to be loyal and honorable, if sometimes temperamental. So of course he and Sunset became friends.

One day, I woke up to the tolling of bells from the palace. There were shouts and cries as well as ponies running in all directions. When I looked outside I could see a maid running past with tears in her eyes and people emerging into the street, of what may have caused to be disturbance. When me and Sunset stepped out into the street, the maid was gone and the crowd was already gathering and swapping rumors.

The common consensus was that the Prince was attacked in his sleep, but no one seemed to be sure what had befallen him, maybe he was dead, maybe he was injured, no one really seemed to know. Some people are blaming Gem Gnolls, possibly a local variant of Diamond Dog. Yet others are saying that the
prince’s uncle, Swiftblade, tried to have him assassinated.
Eventually I saw a distinguished unicorn dressed in palace finery make his way through the crowd. he was well known in the town, so I knew his name, Staybright, one of the higher ranking members of the palace staff.
Staybright turned to me and Sunset and told us Cipher and Silverwing vouched for us, and that the royal family needed our help and that we should meet him in the palace Green Room in one hour. Staybright passing a small piece of paper that just had our names and "Green Room" written on it. The whole thing has me intrigued, if I could ingratiate myself with the royal family was something I could use to gain more power. I spoke to Sunset about it and she agreed that we should
go, at least to see what this was about.

When we arrived at the palace,
we noticed that the entire thing had been turned upside down. The guards at the gateglanced at our papers and then waved us through, but I noticed that anyone leaving was being searched thoroughly. As we were taken to the Green Room, I saw furniture, chests rifled through, and bags and clothing being from around. People were clearly looking for
something and very hard indeed. I asked around about what was happening and found out pretty quickly that the Prince had been attacked in the night but was still alive. The Green Room was a simple room with huge windows, live plants growing, that would have been calming if it were not for the commotion that was going on outside. Soon Staybright comes hustling into the room, together with Cipher and Silverwing. Staybright nodded solemnly to us all and then quickly explained that the Prince was drugged and then attacked in the nightand that his horn had been stolen. I couldn’t help but find the situation of a unicorn with a stolen horn humerus, but I kept back my laughter as that wouldn’t serve my purposes at that moment. But I had always despised unicorns, born with so much magical power, yet I, despite knowing quite a bit about magic couldn’t use any of it. I hated the fact I was born a pegasus. They didn’t know why the horn was stolen or by who. But this was according to them a serious issue as it meant that without his horn the Prince couldn’t be coronated as planned in one months time as the elderly King Graybeard stepped down for his son Prince Shining Horn. If the horn could be found then there were ways to reattach it, but no pony had yet found a way to regrow one without the missing piece.

Staybright explained this was clearly an inside job, someone inside the
palace must’ve helped drug the Prince and steal the horn. They had identified that he was given a potent sleeping potion that someone must’ve been slipped into his food or drink. Since they
didn't know who to trust on inside they are bringing in ponies from the outside to help with investigations.
Staybright already had multiple staff members ready for us to interview. We were told to report anything we found back to Staybright.

We started by interviewing the guard that guarded the prince’s door that night. He was a grizzled veteran who limped into the room, an old war injury perhaps? He wore the uniform of the guard. He gave us a polit bow as he entered the room and said: “Scarred Flank, at your service." Telling us that he had been instructed to answer any question we may have had about last night.

Before Sunset could utter a word, I took the lead in the interrogation, asking him to describe the shift during the period of time the Prince was drugged. The only unusual he noticed was a
window that had not been latched and was banging in the wind.

He left his post briefly to secure it but remained in the corridor and always had vision on the door to the Prince’s
room. If anyone had opened the door he would’ve known. He had heard nothing from inside the Prince’s room all night, and he saw no one go in or out after the milkmaid took to the Prince his bedtime glass of milk.

Sensing a potential suspect, I asked him for the identity of this milkmaid, I learned that her name was Lilac Blossom, she was always the evening maid so he would have remembered if it was anyone different.

The second pony to interview was one of the kitchen helpers. A young and nervous looking pony walked into the room and looked around. “Erm, hello.” He said in a high-pitched voice, “they said I need to come talk to you.” They introduced themselves as Orange Dreamer and was
working in the kitchen last night where he was to make sure everything was ready to start baking in time for breakfast. He told us he ate some of the stew leftovers from the evening meal and thought it tasted a little different from usual. But when pressed on this issue said that it didn't make him feel unusually sleepy or anything.

But he told me he did see one strange thing that evening, when he went to throw out some rubbish early in the evening, there was an argument going on in the courtyard. One of
the ponies arguing and one of them gave the other a small glass vial, although he said it was too dark to make out who either of them might’ve been. I told Sunset to investigate the strange tasting stew while I conducted the next interview.

An older female pony with striking blue eyes strode into the room. Her brand of destiny was a perfect square and she was immaculately groomed, with not a hair out of place. “My palace is being turned upside down and now I need to talk to you? Let’s get this over with quickly, I am very busy”. The snooty sounding mare told me.
When I inquired to her about her identity and why she called it “her palace”, she told me that her name was Pure Eyes and that she was the Head Maid.

I asked her if she saw something, but she told me she was asleep, She told me she saw nothing unusual before she went to bed. I asked her about Lilac Blossom, Pure Eyes told me that Lilac Blossom had been acting strangely for a few months now. She was even caught for trying to sneak out of the palace a few times which was not something that happened before. Pure Eyes saw Lilac Blossom first thing this morning looking upset, but had not seen her since.

By that point I was sure I had the right suspect I needed to find this Lilac Blossom. Soon after, Sunset came back from the kitchen, confirming that the strange tasting stew was just a new recipe the cook had been trying out that day, it was even tested by the court mages, who's numbers included Cipher, and was confirmed to contain nothing dangerous.

I told Sunset about Lilac Blossom, and she went to Staybright to tell her what we found out
and how I suspected that Lilac Blossom drugged the Prince. Sunset looked at me with a concerned look in her eyes, before telling me that she thought I was right.

After discussing the issue with Sunset for a while, Staybright
appeared at the door once more. “She’s left her palace” he informed us, “The guards saw
her leaving this morning just before the gates were sealed.

We asked around on the streets outside the palace and we found out that Lilac went straight through the city and then out to the south gate, heading for the Forest of Dreams. We went back to report this to Staybright. Who told us we needed to head towards the Forest of Dreams in order to bring her back alive. The mare potentially had information they could use.

Chapter 2: The Forest of Dreams

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Diary of Cozy Glow

Even during our short time here, we have heard a lot about the Forest of Dreams, it was a wild and dangerous place, reminded me of the Everfree Forest back home. Cipher and Silverwing also told us they wanted to join the expedition into the forest. I accepted as Silverwing seemed to be a powerful warrior, as a Griffin he was huge and imposing and he carried a massive halberd, Cipher was someone whose intelligence I already had started to respect, maybe not as an equal, but close. Staybright gave us a drawing of what Lilac Blossom looked like and urged us to set off immediately. We left the city exited through the South gate and Silverwing, the one with the most wilderness experience among us started tracking her trail, which he picked up with little difficulty.

The forest of dreams was dark and gloomy, sunlight barely being able to penetrate through the dense vegetation even during the middle of day. It did indeed remind me of Everfree, where I had taken several expeditions in order to retrieve the artifacts necessary for the ritual to drain magic from Equestria. I also happened to stumble across the cracked skull of a foal during one of my trips to Everfree, the wounds suggested death by blunt force trauma, probably not caused by a beast, but a blunt weapon like a mace. There were stories surrounding Everfree that gave even an archvillain like myself the creeps, one of them about a village of undead ponies calling themselves the Unmarked, whose denizens would kill any pony who had received their mark of destiny who ventured into their territory. For those reasons are part of me didn’t want to go deeper into the forest of dreams in fear of what horrors we could encounter inside. But I tried to push my fear down and continued deeper into the forest.

Silverwing seemed to have little difficulty following Lilac Blossoms tracks. He told me it was obvious she had little wilderness experience and seemed to be fleeing in desperation. We emerged into a sun-drenched glade, filled with long grass and wildflowers. A clear trail had been trampled straight through the glade, it looked like the pony was in a hurry. As we entered the glade, two tiny flutterponies, small equines with butterfly wings, the size of a pixie, came out of the long grass and stared at us aggressively, telling us to leave immediately. I asked them what was wrong, they told me that a giant pony had just charged through the glade and destroyed their homes. I told them we were hunting for the very same pony and offered to bring her to justice. The flutters told me that they didn’t care and threatened to beat us up if we didn’t leave immediately. I found this threat amusing considering their small stature. Yet Sunset suggested that maybe we should go around anyway just to avoid a conflict. I reluctantly agreed, flutterponies could be such dicks, and that was something that applied to them in my own world as well. Nevertheless, we went around the glade and continued into the forest.

Eventually as we were walking past a large tree, we noticed the roots arched out and formed a natural cave. A gleam of green came from within the cave. We saw a wolf and her cub emerge from the cave, they looked hungry, hungry for pony flesh. We had little choice but to fight them off, yet we had a giant Griffin on our side, so I was confident we would be able to overpower them. But it turned out that this wasn’t even necessary, as Silverwing gave the wolves an intimidating roar, they scuttled off with their tails between their legs.

When we searched the wolf’s lair, we found the skeletal remains of a pony. The skeleton did have the remains of a lilac mane, so we initially thought this might be the corpse of Lilac Blossom. But on closer examination, I realized that the tail and coat were both brown which did not match Lilac Blossom. Additionally, the skeleton had been picked clean and therefore had obviously been there for a while, maybe multiple months. There was no way to identify the body, but it carried a jade statue of a prancing pony, which was what produced the green gleam that could be seen outside the cave. I took the jade statue for “safekeeping”.

With no success in our search so far, we headed deeper into the forest, the trail became fresher and more obvious as we headed deeper. I felt we must be getting close, so it didn’t surprise me at all when I saw a pony in a tattered maid’s uniform drinking from a stream ahead of us. She does not seem to have seen us and looked both exhausted and muddy. She had a gray coat and a lilac mane with a mark of destiny resembling a Lilac Blossom. When she saw us, she surrendered immediately as she was too scared to run. Silverwing approached her and told her she was under arrest for drugging Prince Shining Horn. Lilac Blossom’s eyes ran thick with tears, I asked her about her side of the story. Sobbing back tears, she complied, explaining that she had been having relations with an earth pony named Brown Ochre. If her family found out they would be scandalized, as they are a family of fine upstanding unicorns.

Some unicorns in masks grabbed her and Brown Ochre yesterday and told her to drug to the Prince with a sleeping draught or her coltfriend would be killed and her family would be told about him. They took her into the palace and she was given a pouch full of gold and a vial full of liquid. They promised that it was just to make him sleep so people could steal something from his room. The pony who gave it to her even drank some of her vial to prove it wouldn’t hurt anyone before she agreed. Last night she put the vial in the Prince’s milk and took it to him as normal, when the news broke she realized what she had done and panicked. All she could do was to run away and hope the strange ponies released her coltfriend as they promised. Sunset promised that we would make sure her partner was safe and Lilac Blossom seemed very grateful to her for this promise.

On our way back to the palace, we ran into a gem gnoll, a strange bipedal dog creature who’s features resemble that of a hyena, their counterparts in my world were known for their greed and attraction to gemstones, he was alone and except for the hyena it used as a hunting hound. The dogs snarled and attacked, not seeming intimidated by the small group of ponies and the lone Griffin. Lilac Blossom screamed and covered behind a tree as the gnoll and the hyena lunged at us. I gave my companions and inspiring speech, pushing them towards greatness, there was great power in my words, more so than ever before. Were I drawing upon some ancient magic without knowing it? Silverwing, inspired by my speech and enraged by the gnoll roared and charged the gnoll, delivering a blow with his halberd, while Cipher flanked him and struck him with a hidden weapon he had attached to his front hoof, killing the gnoll instantly. The hyena tore at Silverwing, causing a minor wound, Sunset struck the hyena with a bolt of fire, wounding it. I tried to use the short bow I have acquired in town before we went out, holding it in my mouth while I used my right wing to draw the bowstring, but my inexperience showed and I missed, martial pursuits were never my forte. However, the enraged Silverwing managed to end the wounded hyena in a single blow.

Sunset offered to use her magic to heal the wounded Silverwing, he agreed. Sunset placed her horn on the wound, speaking a few arcane words, a bright light emerged from the horn, healing the wound as she touched it. As by instinct, I memorized those words, my subconscious knowing that they would come in handy one day. I took the studded leather armor of the corpse of the gnoll, modified it to suit a pony and used it for myself after cleaning the blood off it in a nearby creek. I thought it might be useful protection in the future.

When we returned to the palace Staybright was glad to see us return with Lilac Blossom, Sunset argued that they should show mercy given that she was blackmailed into the deed, however Staybright didn’t relent and saying she does deserve punishment for what she’s done. Sunset turned towards me, as if she was asking me to utilize my impressive charisma to help Lilac Blossom, reluctantly, I tried my best to argue with Staybright that Lilac wasn’t really the true villain here and that we should save the punishment for the true bad guys. He eventually relented, Lilac Blossom thanking me, giving me a hug in the process. I didn’t know how to feel about that, so I just stood there awkwardly.

Staybright decided to pay us each 250 gold crowns (the currency used in this world instead of bits) each for our troubles. I decided to show him the jade statue found on the corpse in the cave. Staybright told us it had been stolen from the palace the previous month, the corpse in the cave was probably the thief, who perished by wolves. He gave us a sum of 400 gold for its return, which we split evenly among us. Staybright thanked us for our services and asked us to return tomorrow after he and his staff had a chance to examine all the evidence that had been found.

Chapter 3: Valentine

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Diary of Sunset Shimmer

The story of how I ended up in the kingdom of Taralos is a long one, so I will spare you the hours of explaining every detail. But to summarize, I was into one of the most prestigious noble families in Canterlot, my family expected great things from me and I didn’t disappoint them, as my exceptional skill in magic granted me a position as the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, but for reasons we don’t need to go into here (mostly the study of dark magic without the approval of my tutor), a wedge was driven between us, and she fired me from my position, to avoid the shame of my family finding out, I fled through an interdimensional gateway to another world. A world full of strange creatures called humans.

Eventually I found a way back and I stole the Element of Magic, the crown of Princess Twilight herself in order to use it to take revenge against Celestia. I failed, yet Princess Twilight still reached out her hand in friendship, being willing to forgive me, and I took it. From that day onward I would try to find evildoers and give them a second chance, helping in whatever way I can to make them better people. Seems like this attitude drew the attention of a goddess of a distant land, Sarenrae the Dawnflower, a goddess of the sun with an emblem much like the one on my flank, my symbol of destiny. It then became clear that it was my destiny to serve her, the light of the sun, and serve as a Redeemer.

As an agent of the Dawnflower I traveled across many realms, fighting the forces of evil, and redeeming any villain I could, however it sometimes became necessary to end their lives in service of the greater good. While necessary, this act always pained me. For I believe that every wrongdoer, like me, deserves a second chance. Eventually a story would reach me from my home realm of Equestria, of a young Pegasus filly, little more than a foal, who led a coup against the reigning monarch, Princess Twilight Sparkle, not once, but twice. Twilight turning her and her co-conspirators to stone as a punishment, her name was Cozy Glow. There had been whispers across Equestria, whispered only where agents of the Princesses couldn’t hear that some ponies considered Cozy’s punishment unjust, that unlike the likes of Starlight Glimmer, she wasn’t even granted a chance at redemption.

There was something about the story that rubbed me the wrong way, no, it angered me greatly, I imagined myself in Cozy’s position, what if Twilight at the time didn’t reach out to me, but instead imprisoned me in stone for my actions? I would’ve never gotten the chance to be the person I was today. Had something fundamentally changed within Twilight since last I saw her? Cozy was only a kid, despite what she might’ve done, surely that meant she should have been given some leniency. My connection to my goddess seemed to confirm this was the path she wanted me to take. Was I destined to lead her to the path of goodness? Or if it became necessary, put her down? I wasn’t sure, but it was clear which Sarenrae would prefer.

After I made up my mind, I entered my home realm and snuck into Twilight’s Garden under the cover of night, her garden was full of creatures and ponies, I shuddered to think about how many of these were once living and breathing creatures. I had seen many villainous sorcerers and sorceresses of other worlds having similar collections of their enemies. I wondered if it was possible that Twilight had fallen from the ways of a Redeemer and instead have become a self-righteous Punisher. Perhaps if I could succeed in my assignment with Cozy, I would be able to guide Twilight back to the ways of redemption.

I eventually found the statue of my next client, Cozy Glow. Her statue was part of a diorama that also included the statue of a feeble-looking bearded centaur, frozen in an expression of terror, as well as an insectoid pony, who had to have been snarling aggressively in a moment of defiance before she was turned to stone. The centaur I recognized as Tirek, a creature some believed to be demonic who had the ability to consume magic, who had at one point threatened to destroy all of Equestria. The insectoid was the former changeling queen, Chrysalis, who stuck to the old ways even after her hive abandoning her in order to follow the ideology of Twilight Sparkle. The last statue was that of a small pegasus child with curly locks as a mane, she looked as terrified as Tirek, if not more so, her horror forever captured in stone.

I unpetrified Cozy using one of my spells, it took a few moments for her to regain her bearings, her body aging years in mere seconds, the pony that now stood before me was a teenager, her coat was pink and her curly mane a green-blue color. She smiled towards me, in what I assumed was gratitude, then looked at her own body and looked confused. I told her what I assumed to be the truth, but she had been imprisoned in stone for a very long time, and that this was her form as it looked now. I told her why I was here, she laughed, not in an evil maniacal way, but in a way that conveyed genuine relief, or was it amusement?

I led her back to the portal at the entrance to the garden, Cozy seemed hesitant to enter at first, I reached out my hoof, telling her to trust me, she took it and stepped through the portal with me. Only it didn’t lead where I expected, instead it led to another alternate reality, filled with ponies much like Equestria. As soon as I stepped through the portal, I felt that my powers were greatly weakened, I still felt a connection to my goddess, but it was not as strong as it was previously. Therefore, I was unable to open another portal. Not that this seemed to bother Cozy, in her own words: “I am in an unknown world where nobody knows who I am, I see this as an opportunity to start over with a blank slate.”

What she said made a lot of sense to me. I didn’t know what to think of Cozy at this time, she was supposedly one of the greatest villains in Equestrian history, yet she seemed so affable, brilliant and charismatic. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, she would either be the easiest client I had ever helped, or the hardest.

We found ourselves in the kingdom of Taralos, where we established ourselves with the royal family by investigating the matter of the crown prince’s missing horn. We found the maid Lilac Blossom, who had a secret boyfriend, an unknown group blackmailed her into slipping the Prince a sleeping drought. I promised her I would find her boyfriend and I didn’t plan to let her down. Throughout all of this, Cozy had been rather helpful, using her intelligence and charisma to lead the investigation, and with a little nudging from me, to convince the authorities not to punish Lilac Blossom who I really only saw as a victim in all of this. I don’t believe Cozy is such a bad pony deep down, at the very least she is capable of a lot of good when she puts her mind to it. Even if I had started to fear she only did so to increase her own notoriety. Every move Cozy had made since we got here seems to ingratiate herself in the royal court, maybe that wasn’t a coincidence. Was she planning something?

After spending some of our money on the town, we went back to the palace the following morning. Staybright smiled at us and told us we did a great job on the previous day. Lilac had been telling him a lot of interesting things, some which we already knew, that she was seeing an earth pony called Brown Ocher, and that she agreed to drug the Prince because her coltfriend was threatened by the true culprits. No one seemed to know where that earth pony was now, nor was there any trace of the horn.

Staybright managed to get a description of the pony who gave her the vial, as well as a description of the earth pony she was seeing Brown Ochre. Brown Ochre had a room in a house on Cooper Street, our mission was to go and see if he was still there or had been there recently. Suited me fine because of my promise to Lilac Blossom, that they would find her coltfriend no matter what. I could hit two birds with one stone. Staybright gave us a royal warrant allowing us to search any house on the street and question anyone there. He also told us to keep an eye open for a pony matching the description of the blackmailer, he was tall and had a deep purple coat and a black mane and tail, his mark of destiny was some kind of animal, although witnesses were not sure what animal. Cipher and Silverwing decided to tag along with me and Cozy, both friends we had made while in Taralos, Silverwing a Griffin of the royal guard and Cipher, a unicorn who was a member of the royal spy network.

Cooper Street was a narrow-cobbled road surrounded by neat and well-kept houses, it wasn’t a rich area but not a poor one either. We found the address we had been given without much difficulty; it was a small house with a bright blue door. The owner of the house was home, a unicorn with a silver hammer as his mortal destiny and a jet-black coat. He introduced himself as Black Smith and explained that he worked in the forge but couldn’t afford this house on his own without renting out a room to other ponies. His last tenant being Brown Ochre, who he was more than happy to talk about and was shocked when hearing he might be connected to events at the palace. Black Smith was eager to show us the room he rents out. The room appeared to be completely empty apart from the furniture, which seemed to greatly surprise Black Smith, who told us it wasn’t like this last time he stepped into the room.

He said that Brown Ochre came home late last night and left with a full bag, but he had no idea that his tenant might’ve moved out. Brown Ochre was alone and in a hurry, according to him, but didn’t seem scared or nervous. Cozy showed him the picture of Lilac Blossom from the day before, and the blacksmith told us he recognized her and that she had been spending a lot of time with his tenant for the last few weeks. Cozy followed with asking him if he recognized the description of the pony we knew as the blackmailer, he recognized that too, he had also been meeting with his tenant regularly, coming by at least once a week for the past month, he got a good look at him and saw that his brand of destiny was a white cat. When asked if, he could swear that Brown Ochre was called by the name “Valentine” at least once. Whenever the two met, they would just disappear to Brown Ochre’s room, and he had no idea what was discussed between them.

We proceeded to search the room, floor to ceiling, but found nothing of interest. When we reported back to Staybright, he called in the captain of the guard to hear the report. The captain was an impressive mare called True Blade, wearing chain mail, her brand of destiny a pair of crossed swords. I explained to her what we had found out about both Brown Ochre and the blackmailer. Upon hearing of the brand of destiny of the blackmailer was a white cat, the guard captain suddenly pounded one hoof on the floor, telling us she knew who that was. Midnight Cat, a notorious criminal who ran the Forge Cats gang. She told us they had an hideout down at Forge Lane. True Blade also recognized the name Valentine, she scowled as she heard the name, telling us that she had heard reports about that pony. Valentine was a well-known con artist that seduces people, manipulates them and then disappears with their life savings. True Blade told us she was very dedicated to bringing them both to justice. Upon hearing about Valentine, I realized that he had used Lilac Blossom, which made me very angry, I would make him apologize to Lilac if it was the last thing I did.

True Blade told us she had a pretty good idea where the Forge Cats current hideout was, but that she suspected they were watching her guard because every time she went to raid them, they were done before her ponies could arrive. She wasn’t aware that there was a connection between the Forge Cats and Valentine until now.

True Blade suggested that she would have her ponies stage a distraction elsewhere while we raided the hideout of the Forge Cats and captured the criminals inside. After staging the distraction her soldiers would move around and block the back exits to prevent the miscreants from escaping that way while we would go in through the front. Both True Blade and Staybright emphasized that both Midnight Cat and Valentine must be captured alive and that this was of the highest priority. Which suited me fine, I didn’t like killing anyone if I could avoid it.

The Forge Cats had an underground hideout beneath Forge Lane, which we could access through the drains, the guard captain staged the diversion and then moved her ponies to seal the back exits while we stormed the front. True Blade believed if she collapsed one area and flooded another, they could cut off their escape routes. She recommended us to go in quietly and take down as many of the gang as possible before we were spotted, as that would make things easier. She told me to not use my horn as a light as that would make us incredibly easy to spot.

We dropped down from the streets into the sewer system, following a narrow passageway heading east, the northern half of the passage was full of stinking and stagnant water. Cozy looked visibly disgusted just by the smell of it, I would have been as well once upon a time, as I was born into nobility, but I had been through a lot of adventures since then and I just I got used to mucking about in the sewers. It was not pleasant, but it was often necessary for the greater good.

Fortunately, the southern half of the sewers was raised up and we had the option of walking along instead of wading through the muck. A glimmer of light shone directly towards us from somewhere ahead. The corridor widened out ahead and there was a raised plinth in the center. A bored looking pony in dirty leather armor was leaning against the plinth and gazing into the light of a torch burning on top of the plinth. Cipher attempted to sneak up on him, the rest of us followed suit, but only Cipher and Cozy managed to get close before we were spotted. Cipher tried to strike at the thief and missed, the thief ran away and through some kind of bag at Cipher, he dodged it effortlessly and the bag turned the area around it to cement on the floor, the thief’s escape path was cut off by Cozy, who seemed to know that he was going to try to escape to warn the others of our approach, I cast a spell to make sure all damage would be nonlethal before we all beat the thief unconscious.

There was a side passage in the wall to the north, as we approached, I could see a passage that looked like it led to an octagonal room. From here it didn’t look like the side room had any other exits, however it was flooded by disgusting liquid so it would be hard to investigate without getting both filthy and wet, something that neither me nor Cozy was willing to do. Fortunately the nice dry walkway continued to the east. While walking along the walkway, Cozy noticed a tripwire going over the path, it was well concealed and seemed to lead to even better concealed hidden blades in the walls which I could see after she pointed it out to me. I asked if anyone in our group knew how to disarm a trap and Cipher told us he had expertise in the subject. Cipher managed to disarm the trap with ease.

We continued onward, eventually, as we peeked around the corner we could see another room ahead, it seemed to be where the underground drain ended. The far side of the room was raised up and there was a fire burning on the raised area. Two ponies were sitting next to the fire idly throwing dice and talking to each other, behind them was a gate. It seemed like we had found the Forge Cats hideout. It was fortunate for us but these guards weren’t paying any more attention to her job than the one at the sentry post earlier was. After talking to each other in whispers for a few minutes, this time we decided a quick frontal assault might be the best strategy, taking out the guards before they could sound the alarm. We would try to sneak up on them and then try to take them out as quickly as we could.

Of course, as we started sneaking, Silverwing accidentally kicked up some gravel, alerting the guards. We managed to take care of them quickly, although with great violence and bloodshed, which I deeply regret even if it might’ve been necessary. The door leading to the hideout seemed to be barred from the other side, but Cozy quickly pointed out that the hinges were attached to this side of the door, allowing us to pass if we remove the hinges, Cipher got to work and managed to remove the hinges of the door, allowing us entry.

The following room seemed to be some kind of gathering area. There were tables with dice on them scattered around along with an assortment of chairs and furs. Most of the tables seemed to have javelins lying around or leaning against them. But more importantly the Forge Cats seemed to be ready now, the two ponies who were close enough to hear the noise decided from her fighting the previous room met us with force, but they seemed reluctant considering the huge imposing Griffin wielding a gigantic sword among us and the fact that they were outnumbered. Silverwing roared in an attempt to frighten them into submission, getting the thieves to surrender without a fight.

We saw a crossroads leading to a room on each side, but we decided to press on to capture the boss first. Further on there was another crossroads, to our left we saw what was until recently a narrow tunnel angling upwards, this must’ve been one of the escape routes the guard captain promised to block as it was filled with fresh rubble. On our right we saw a narrow tunnel angling downwards, although it seemed to have become connected to a source of water somehow and was completely flooded, also the work of True Blade. We decided to take the road forward. Where we came across a sleeping area, if the hay scattered on the floor and personal items stacked around the room was anything to go by. The room was empty. Up ahead we came across another crossroads with rooms on each side and the path forward leading to a set of huge wooden doors leading to an important looking room.

This was the largest room we found in the hideout and was arranged almost like a throne room. There was a raised platform with an ornate chair on it with cushions scattered around the room for ponies to sit down and look up at the person occupying the chair, and the one occupying the throne was none other than Midnight Cat, a dark purple unicorn with a black mane and a mark of destiny consisting of a white cat. On his side was a pony I suspected was Valentine, with a black coat and crimson mane with a mark of destiny depicting a red rose. Maybe his identity as Brown Ocher was the result of using magic to disguise himself, his true appearance didn’t match our description of Brown Ocher. There were also four other thugs standing before the throne, ready to defend their boss. I told Midnight Cat and Valentine that we wouldn’t hurt them if they surrendered now, both Midnight Cat and Valentine just laughed at us. Valentine turning directly towards me and speaking:
“Are you here on behalf of that floozy Lilac Blossom? Did you seek to rescue me? Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t need rescue, I already have Lilac’s valuables. But you will never leave this room alive.”
With that Midnight Cat ordered his subordinates to attack.

We really entered a fight for our lives, while Silverwing and Cipher engaged with a group of thugs, I had my eyes on Valentine, engaging him in a magical dual, me firing a bolt of fire at him, which he was able to dodge. Cozy started an inspiring speech that drove us all to fight on within increased vigor, there seem to be some kind of lingering enchantment in that girl's voice, I had heard of such power before, in the world of Golarion, Spellcasters who infused their very words and music with enchantments, they were called bards.

Midnight Cat nimbly darted and dodged his way through the fighting, using the dagger in his mouth to attack Cozy, wounding her. Silverwing took down thug after thug with his gigantic sword he wielded in his claws. I used my horn to bathe the area in an invigorating healing light, healing the wounds of my allies. Valentine saw an opportunity and approached me and touched me with his horn, I entered into an uncontrollable laughing fit and was unable to help my allies for a few seconds until I recovered. But this was long enough for Midnight Cat to dodge past Cozy and stab Silverwing in the back, bringing him down with a potentially fatal injury. I tried to healing him with another burst of light from my horn, it didn’t seem to be enough to bring him up from the floor, but it was enough to keep him alive for now. Midnight Cat gave me a sadistic smirk before darting past Cozy once again and landing his knife directly in my back, the world went black, I wondered if I finally had met my demise.

But then I heard a familiar voice speak a string of words in the language of power, magical words I knew all too well, cure wounds, I opened my eyes and saw Cozy standing over me. I had no idea she was capable of magic, let alone healing magic. Her spell was enough to get me back on my hooves. As soon a side got up, I rushed over to Silverwing and uttered the words for cure wounds while holding my horn against his wounds, I saw his wounds close and now it was enough for him to get up. Valentine took his spear and rammed it into my side, I felt a sting of pure agony, I was standing, but barely. The last remaining thug managed to stab Cozy, she was also severely wounded. Midnight Cat turned towards me and was just about to finish me off as Silverwing blocked his path, and raised his greatsword, cleaving him in half. This dismayed me as we were supposed to capture him alive, yet Silverwing had done what was necessary to save my life and I was grateful for that. After the fight was over, I quickly patched up the wounds of the rest of the group using my magic.

After the death of Midnight Cat, Valentine decided to go quietly. We found various magical items on the bodies of Valentine and Midnight cat, including a cloak with magical protections weaved into it worn by Valentine. They also both carried keys which led to other rooms in the hideouts. Inside the room Valentine carried the key to the found an assortment of clothes belonging to different social classes and occupations, probably to help him run his con of exploiting young mares for money. In the room Midnight Cat had the key to we found an assortment of stolen items, including a scroll of cure wounds and a collection of gemstones in addition to a bag of coins, all bearing the image of what appeared to be the king of the Gem Gnolls. We also found documents in Valentine’s possession, something about Lilac Blossom being a good target for phase 1. And another note saying to take a package out of the city and give it to someone called Rotgut. I had no idea what the package could be, other than possibly the missing horn, so I was sure this was important, I would be sure to deliver this to Staybright.

Valentine tried to cut a deal with us as we attempted to interrogate him, promising to tell us everything in return for letting him go. But thinking of poor Lilac Blossom, I couldn’t do that. Cozy and Silverwing decided to play good cop bad cop using persuasion and intimidation respectively, with Cozy playing the role of good cop. It turned out to be very effective. Valentine confessing, he was hired by a Gem Gnoll called Rotgut to drug the Prince so that something could be stolen from the palace. In the middle of the night a sealed package around 2 feet long and 6 inches in diameter was dropped from the palace walls to a waiting gang member. They took it to the north gate of the town and gave it to Rotgut there who paid them 50 gold in exchange.

Outside the hideout, we met up with True Blade again, when she heard the news of Midnight Cat’s death, the guard captain sighed as she gazed down at the corpse. Mumbling something along the lines of: “Justice finally caught up with him.” However when she saw we brought in Valentine alive, she had a satisfied look on her face as she looked down on Valentine standing in chains, “I guess you won’t be stealing any more hearts or cleaning out any more lonely fillies of their valuables” she said.

When we got back to the palace, we gave Staybright our report, Silverwing taking full responsibility for killing Midnight Cat, but insisted it was necessary as we barely got out of that fight alive. We told him everything we knew about the Forge cats working with the gem gnoll Rotgut and handed him the papers and showing him the coins. After taking a good look at them, Staybright handed back the coin purse and told us we could keep it as payment for our job.

After this day, I started to feel closer to Cozy. After all, she had saved my life, I asked her why, she just told me that it was the only way any of us was going to get out of that place alive, Midnight Cat wasn’t going to spare us. In fact, he was very close to killing us all. She confessed that she had been frightened throughout the fight, especially facing down Midnight Cat who was more than willing to kill. Plus, she told me she had been in my debt since I freed her from her stone imprisonment, and that I could view saving my life as repaying that debt. I asked her where she learned magic, Cozy told me that she had known how to do it in theory for quite a while, but that her status as not being a unicorn had made her unable to wield it. It worked a bit differently here, but it seemed that the rules of this new world were different from our home realm, and that magic was possible even without the horn in this place. Cozy had just copied what I did when healing Silverwing back in the forest of dreams, she didn’t expect it to actually work.

We talked for a while that night, her telling me her story and why she became one of Equestria’s greatest villains. Her reasoning felt very familiar, so I told her the story of how I attempted to conquer Equestria. Cozy just laughed, telling me that an army of mind-controlled teenagers would be far from enough.

Chapter 4: Rotgut

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Diary Cozy Glow

The fight against Midnight Cat and Valentine was the closest brush with death I think I ever had, when I fought against Twilight and her friends, they were never willing to go for the kill, but Midnight Cat was more than willing to kill every single one of us if that meant he was able to escape the law. It seems I was too used to how things were done in my homeland, and I needed to accept the fact that ponies in this reality were far darker than I was used to.

But in a way that meant I fitted in more here than I ever did in my homeland. I seem to have awakened some kind of latent magical ability during the fight with Midnight Cat. In our desperate hour of need I had remembered the words Sunset spoke when casting her cure spells and I was able to channel that energy for myself. I didn’t have a horn, so I channeled that energy through my voice alone, even I were surprised it was successful. By healing Sunset, she was able to heal Silverwing and Silverwing was able to finish off Midnight Cat. While we failed to bring in the criminal alive, we were able to survive and fight another day. It was the most scared I had ever been in my entire life, yet some part of me also found the danger exhilarating. Had I finally found a challenge that was worthy of my abilities?

I spent a great deal of time during the evening talking to Sunset, she seemed grateful to me saving her life, her being in my debt was something I could use. To be honest I had started to grow fond of her, but she was naïve for believing that I could be a good person and that my friendliness was anything other than a means to an end. I merely saw the case of the Prince’s missing horn as an opportunity to ingratiate myself into the royal family and earn power and prestige for myself. But I could not let her know that because she like Twilight could decide to turn me to stone one day.

The next morning, we were summoned into an audience with Staybright. He told us that they had been examining the papers found in Midnight Cat’s lair as well as talking to sources of information around the city. This Rotgut that Midnight Cat and Valentine was working for was apparently a known criminal element. Rotgut had paid to have the maid blackmailed and to smuggle a package out to the castle, while nopony knew what was in the package, it was exactly the right size for the Prince’s horn.

Staybright explained that he thought that the Gem Gnolls were trying to disrupt the succession of Prince Shining Horn and make the kingdom weaker. I thought that sounded reasonable considering I had learned that the Gem Gnolls were longtime enemies of Taralos, and it was the sort of thing I would’ve done if I were their enemies. Staybright told us that while he already had people out looking for the gnoll, he wanted to add us to the search, and that he was willing to lend us an artifact from the royal vault to help with our mission. He showed us a wooden figurine of a bloodhound. This figurine could apparently only be activated once per year, but once activated it could track the scent of a target that had been around it for the last week. He gave the figurine to me and told me they found someone who saw the gnoll leaving town two days previously. He gave us a royal warrant to arrest Rotgut and seize any items he might be carrying. Once we met up with Staybright’s contact, I commanded the figurine to track Rotgut, the figurine animated into a wooden construct that behaved in a manner similar to a dog. It immediately picked up Rotgut’s trail, which led to the north.

We followed the trail into the forest to the north, the vegetation around us was significantly less green than in the Forest of Dreams, yet not any less rich in wildlife. Suddenly a wild boar burst from the vegetation, staring at us with angry eyes. Silverwing moved quickly to engage the beast, Cipher flanked the boar to put a dagger in its back. The boar went into a rage as it got wounded, but the combination of strikes from Silverwing’s greatsword, the dagger of Cipher and my arrows would eventually manage to bring it down with only Silverwing having suffered any wounds. Which were quickly patched up by me and Sunset working as a team.

After our encounter with the boar, the trail turned more towards the east and then climbed up a steep gully. The little wooden dog turned and panted at us then scampered easily up the steep slope. Before following the dog, Sunset stopped us, pointing out the hidden log traps in the woods, probably set up by Rotgut, I wasn’t sure how I was able to miss these. But one more step and they might’ve turned us into paste. Cipher did his best to disarm the trap, when he was finished, we were able to cross the area safely. The trail dropped down into a muddy hollow, the wooden dog running ahead of us.

Suddenly a bright green frog with vivid blue markings leaps up and tries to bite the dog! The dog ignores the tiny attacker, continuing to follow the trail when the frogs chewed at its back. As we engaged the frogs, more came up from the swamps to attack us, I tried to use my voice to inspire my allies while taking pot shots at the frogs. We made quick work of them, but Cipher was wounded by them, but the frogs seem to have been coated in some kind of poison that had now affected Cipher. Both mine and Sunset’s magic, more meant to heal the wounds rather than poisoned, were inefficient at healing Cipher. So we decided to make camp for the night and hope it would be enough for Cipher to recover.

We set off again the next morning, Cipher still didn’t seem entirely well, but he definitely seemed better than he had been day before. I asked him if he was okay, but he only said: “I’m fine”. The little wooden dog scampered ahead of us, some part of me started to think it might have been broken, as it led us directly towards a sheer cliff. Nonetheless we continued following the dog, the vegetation seemed to get thicker and we had to push our way through tree branches and undergrowth until we reached. As we approached it became clear that there was a cave opening in the cliff that had previously been invisible due to being obscured by the vegetation around it.

The trail went inside. As we approached the cave I saw sturdy wooden door to the south with a barred window and it, looking into the barred window, we could see a pair of ponies huddled together in a cell, they looked terrified. Cipher was able to open the lock to the door. The ponies got out to meet us, thanking us and introducing themselves as Fair Deal and Bargain Hunter, a husband and wife team trading team. They explained that they were captured by gem gnolls, who should still have some of their trading goods that they told us to take as thanks for rescuing them. I asked them about the Gnolls in this cave, they told me that there was currently only a single Gnoll present, but that he is well-equipped. They also told me that they think the gnolls buried something as they heard digging noises echoing through the cave shortly before they were captured.

As we continued deeper into the cave, I noticed what the rooms looked like it had been carved out of the rock, but not very neatly. The floor was mostly flat, but the ceilings and walls were all rough and uneven. Rubbish and debris were strewn across the floor and I was able to see bones and other remains of meals, which made me shudder, while in one corner was a sleeping area formed out a pile of furs and rags.

It’s here where we encountered a single Gnoll warrior, armed to the teeth with heavy armor and a greatsword. It was a difficult fight, with Silverwing being wounded, but nothing that Sunset’s magic couldn’t cure. I took one look at the greatsword the gnoll left behind and immediately noticed it was of exceptional quality, giving the sword to Silverwing. He thanked me, saying that the sword did seem like it was the work of a master smith. The gnoll was also carrying a set of scale mail as well as two keys, one which probably led to the jail we encountered earlier. We spent some time searching the cave for any sign of something buried, we recently came across oil but seem to have been recently disturbed, I told Silverwing to dig in that spot and we soon came about a chest. Using our newly acquired key on the chest we found a hoard of various potions, weapons and jewelry.

Still, we have yet to find to find Rotgut, as the trail continued, the gnoll we killed earlier wasn’t him. As we came to the top of a ridge, we saw a river winding away below us. The trail headed straight towards the river and to a camping site, the little wooden dog we had been following ran up the river edge and then looked out sorrowfully. It seemed our quarry crossed the river, and the figurine could not track them over water.

I decided to investigate a camping site, we found a cooking fire, may be a day-old, there were bones and skin scattered around where the gnoll made his food, it still had a foul stench around it. I found it absolutely revolting. Looking towards the river I noticed the shape of a Piranha swarm in the water. When I told Cipher he told me that the area was well known for piranha swarms that would eat almost anything. Silverwing could identify the remains around the campsite being from a foul eel, something that while not poisonous, not even a gem gnoll would eat something that revolting. These eels lived around the banks of the river; Cipher suggested that maybe Rotgut used the foul-smelling eels to get through the piranha swarms in the water. We discussed with the rest of our group how we were going to cross the river, I suggested that most of us had wings and therefore it should not be any obstacle at all. The only problem being how we were going to get Sunset and Cipher across the river. Silverwing suggested he could carry them on his back, one by one, he wouldn’t be able to fly with the weight of them both weighing him down at the same time. Once we were on the other side of the river the figurine once again picked up the trail.

After crossing the river, the trail turned north again. Just as we were looking for somewhere to rest for the night, we came across a valley, although the trail seemed to be skirting around it. Inside the valley we could see brightly colored tents and large cats with tawny fur lounging around in the evening sun. The trail was skirting around the camp, but I was sure we could pick it up again if we wanted to visit the camp first. The cats were friendly and offered to share camp with them for the night. We happily obliged, needing rest after a day’s travel.

I spent the time telling campfire stories to the cats, including the story of my failed revolt against Twilight, making myself sound like the good guy of course, Sunset had a sour expression on her face while I told that story. And then I moved on to the story of our current quest to find the Prince’s horn they seem to be quite entertained. The cats told me that they had smelt a gem gnoll skulking in the area this morning. I could feel we were that far from our prey.

The next morning, we left the encampment of the cats and continued following the trail. It headed north back towards the river again. Soon we came to the top of a cliff, and we could see the ends of a broken rope bridge before us. The dog figurine stood helplessly at the end of the bridge. It seemed like Rotgut had crossed the bridge and then cut the ropes of the bridge behind him in an act of petty vandalism, perhaps to shake any potential pursuers. Crossing wasn’t very difficult, me and Silverwing just attaching a rope to the other side of the bridge which allowed Sunset and Cipher to cross on the ropes. Silverwing and me assisting in holding Sunset and Cipher steady on the rope, being ready to capture them if they would fall.

After crossing the ravine, suddenly the dog looked excited and sped up, I could hear voices coming from over the next rise. As we went over the top of the ridge, we could see a group of ponies wearing chainmail and a gem gnoll that must be Rotgut. One of the unicorns passed a small bag over to the gnoll who looked inside and nodded and then drew a long and thin package out of its own bag. It looked like it might be the horn.

At that moment they all saw us and froze. The leader of the soldiers shouted: “spies, get rid of them”. The leader then attacked Rotgut, bringing him to the ground in a pool of his own blood before turning to run away, swallowing a potion which allowed him to run at supernatural speeds, leaving his soldiers to block our way. The soldiers were not wearing any uniforms or anything that could give away who they were or who they were working for. But it was clear to me this was a conspiracy that went deeper than the gem gnolls. I told them to halt while I showed the soldiers the Royal warrant given by Staybright, telling them we were emissaries of the king. I used my magical power to put a glamour on me that would make every pony who laid eyes on me perceive me as the most beautiful person they ever seen. With a combination of the Royal warrant, my incredible charisma and my magic, the soldiers halted, once again sheithing their weapons. The leader of the group introduced themselves as Sergeant Burning Oaks and his men as White Down and Spiral Horn. Sunset rushed over to Rotgut to stabilize his wound. The gnoll quickly regained consciousness, it was fortunate he was still alive.

The soldiers revealed they were low ranking soldiers from Taralos hired pretty much at random to serve as escorts for a pony named Duskflank, who the pony who had stabbed Rotgut and escaped, he was an advisor to Princess Scarlet Lance. He gave them orders to take the uniforms off, escort him and to keep their mouths shut. They apologized for trying to attack us. Telling us that they were just following orders, nothing personal.

Rotgut was angry that he was betrayed and told us he would share everything he knew. But it didn’t seem to be much, he was hired to pick up a package from Midnight Cat in the city of Vil and to deliver it to someone who would meet him at this location. He had no knowledge about who hired him, and he was paid half upfront half on delivery in good-quality gems. He also arranged for the maid to drug the Prince but had no idea who cut off the horn. He was handed the horn by Midnight Cat who was told to fetch a package from a specified location at the specified time.

It was clear to me that our next course of action had to be to track down this Duskflank, he could probably be found around Princess Scarlet Lance, who we were told were currently making war in the north, fending off attacks by gem gnolls.

Chapter 5: The Culprit Revealed

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Diary of Sunset Shimmer

Our Chase of Rotgut had truly left us in an unexpected place, finding out that an advisor of another member of the royal family was behind the theft of the prince’s horn was certainly shocking, but maybe it shouldn’t have been as infighting amongst royalty wasn’t uncommon. Cozy certainly managed to use her abilities to the fullest in talking down the soldiers without the need for a fight, the strange magic around her made Cozy seem almost radiant.

We decided to track Duskflank to the north. After following the trail for a few hours we came across the strangest site. An elderly zebra pony was balancing on his front legs with his hind legs sticking straight up in the air and his head looking towards us through his front legs. “Hi, who are you?” He asked us as though this was the most natural thing in the world. Me, Silverwing and Cozy introduced ourselves, while Cipher kept to himself in the background.

The zebra introduced himself as Fazban, a member of the Seekers of the One Herd. When I asked him about the Seekers he explained that they were an organization of diplomats that sought to unite the different pony tribes through diplomacy. It was certainly a goal I could get behind. His mark of destiny was that of two hooves crossed in peace. He told me his visions had led him here though he had no idea why. The zebra seemed very interested in news from the kingdom, I did tell him about the case of the prince’s missing horn, he asked if we knew who was responsible yet. I told him we weren’t yet certain, but it seemed like an advisor to the Princess was involved. Fazban told us that the Princess and her army were just over a day’s journey away to the north and that there was a large gem gnoll army seeking to engage with her troops.

After parting ways with the zebra, as we pressed on, we could see plumes of smoke coming from over the next rise. Soon enough the source came into view, a small village surrounded by a simple wooden stockade. The village was burning, and we could see slaughtered ponies and livestock line scattered around along with a few gem gnoll corpses, although there was no sign of any living attackers. But I was sure that the gem gnolls that attacked the village had to be here somewhere. I told Cozy to be on her guard as I didn’t want her to be hit by any projectiles that could come from any gnolls in hiding. She thanked me for my concern, but told me that I shouldn’t worry, she was always on her guard.

The soldiers we captured the day before begged us to have them released and be given back their weapons so that they could help defend the village from any potential enemies that might still be here. Cipher and Cozy protested, but I managed to convince them that it was for the best if we released them.

Suddenly we could hear screaming and I saw three ponies running past us, chased by a group of gnolls, whoops of pleasure coming from the gnolls, they were clearly enjoying themselves. The gnolls split up into two groups, one engaging the newly released soldiers and the other, consisting of two gnolls chased after the pony civilians, we intervened to stop them. We made quick work of them thanks to Cozy’s leadership, Silverwing’s brute strength and mine and Cipher’s magic. After the fight was over more ponies emerged from hiding in the woods near the village, I helped out tending to the injured both among my own group and the civilians. Soon moving on to putting out the fires that ravaged the village. This made us rather popular among the villagers, who begged us to stay overnight to protect from any further attacks, we all wholeheartedly agreed as the fight had made us all tired and it might be good to have some place to sleep. The villagers all praised us as heroes, Cozy especially seemed to enjoy that and spent the evening telling stories about our escapades, both truths, exaggerations and downright lies. Especially her story about leading a revolution against the “tyrant” Twilight Sparkle who in her words ruled her homeland with an iron hoof, portraying herself as a heroic liberator. I didn’t feel like contradicting her for now as the villagers seemed like they were entertained by her story, and if they knew the truth that could complicate matters for us.

Fortunately, there weren’t any more attacks in the night and we awoke the next morning rested. We all left the village in good spirits. As we neared the place the princess’s army was supposed to be we could hear sounds of pitched battle ahead. As we rushed forward, we came to the top of a small ridge from which we had a good position to get a good view of the battlefield. Below us was a sizable battle with several hundred unicorn soldiers fighting a similar number of gnolls. Directly underneath our position we could see a unicorn in full plate armor which was richly decorated and coated in gold, her coat was white like snow and her mane red like blood, she was wielding a greatsword using telekinesis. Scything her way through the gnoll horde. But she seemed to be cut off from the rest of her army, with just her and a few Royal Guard struggling to survive while the Army pushed against gnoll lines in a desperate attempt to reach her. The standard carried by her guard confirmed that this was Princess Scarlet Lance. Her prowess in battle was clearly not exaggerated, but nevertheless, she was in trouble.

In all the confusion we could see something that must not have been visible from down in the valley. Gnolls on the ridge near us were preparing some sort of huge spiked contraption that looked like it will be rolling directly into the princesses position. Even if it didn’t hit her it would cut up her reinforcements, either way the Princess would be in serious danger unless they were stopped. I told the rest what I saw and Cozy agreed that we must aid the Princess immediately by destroying that device.

As we approached the contraption one of the gnolls around it turned towards us, shunting as he walked and suddenly, he grew larger, towering above us as he marched forward with a flail swinging and shield held ready. Silverwing and Cipher engaged the gigantic gnoll while I and Cozy try to get around it to get to the machine, the gnoll snagging my leg. I tried to fight the pain and keep running, I saw Cozy managed to get away and that Silverwing was struggling against this enormous opponent, despite my efforts to heal him, the gnoll struck him down. I continued to pour my healing energy into him while Cipher distracted the gnoll, his blows bouncing off the forcefield surrounding Cipher. In our most desperate moment, Cozy came running back, telling me that she dealt with the contraption, the gnolls surrounding it, engineers only, no combatants it having retreated once they saw her. Cozy aided me in healing Silverwing, who staggered to his feet and drove his greatsword straight through the gnoll, ending his life.

Just as the fighting around us died down the army down below managed to link up with the Princess once more. With a loud cheer they pushed forwards and the gnolls turned to flee. The battle was won! The Princess turned and came trotting up the hill towards us, accompanied with her bodyguard and a small squad of soldiers. At the top she removed her helmet and bowed her head slightly.

“I don’t know who you are, but I must thank you for your intervention. Without you this battle could have well been lost. Please, be my guest in my camp and you can tell me what brings you to these parts.”

She led us to her tent, clearly used by a military commander and not a pampered princess as the decorations were maps and technical reports, with furniture functional rather than ornate. After studying the maps, Cozy told me that it seemed like the gem gnolls had recently been growing bolder in their attacks against Taralos. After waiting for a while and discussing the maps with Cozy and the rest, the Princess came into the tent accompanied by a few guards and advisors. She turns towards us and said:

“Thank you once again, so what brings you here?”

I explained to her that we were searching for the missing horn of her brother Shining Horn and we had reason to believe that one of her advisors, Duskflank was behind it. I dearly hoped the Princess wasn’t involved, for she could snuff out our lives easily if she deemed it necessary. The Princess listened with a frown and then said: “Fetch Duskflank immediately” to one of her guards. A few moments later the guard returned followed by a unicorn. The unicorn saw us and froze as we recognized him from a meeting with Rotgut.

“Princess” he said urgently, “these are the ones I told you about”.

The Princess looked at us all sadly.

“I owe you my life, and I do not forget that, while I am sure my advisor Duskflank here wishes for you all to disappear, I will not allow that. It was a simple plan, and no one except the gnolls were supposed to get hurt. Even the maid, we have made provisions to look after her and she’s already come into some unexpected wealth. My hooves might not be completely clean, but I will not add murdering honest ponies in faithful service to the kingdom to the list. I have already told Duskflank that he was wrong to have you attacked. Unfortunately, he saw you and he panicked. I am very glad that you were able to resolve the situation without killing any of my soldiers.”

I looked around to observe the reactions of my companions, Silverwing had his beak hanging open in astonishment, Cozy expressed a slight smirk in what I could only assume was admiration, Cipher’s expression wasn’t decipherable at all, remaining neutral like a porcelain mask. The Princess paced back and forth a few times and then swung around to face us.

“I will explain what we did, and why we did it. At the end I will place myself in your hooves. My brother’s horn is here, you can decide the horn’s fate. You can return it and say the gnolls stole it, or you can return and say I stole it or keep it back as I had planned to do and return it to my brother in a few years, these are the choices you are faced with. But know this, my brother is a pacifist and a weakling. He planned to appease the gnolls by giving them some of our gem mines and reduce the size of the army. But the gnoll king is greedy and will only exploit his weakness. They are mounting an attack on Taralos as we speak. If my brother’s horn isn’t found I will become Queen Regent in his stead, handing the throne back to my brother after the threat is passed. What say you? Will you do what is necessary for Taralos to survive or will you will you doom it by giving my brother the throne? ”

We discussed this within our group for a while. Silverwing thought it felt wrong to betray the prince, but nonetheless the princess’s words stood true, Shining Horn might prove too meek to manage a war. Cipher and Cozy were in full support of Princess Scarlet Lance as Queen Regent, Cozy explained that the tactical maps in this very tent proved the Princess’s actions necessary and that the gnolls wouldn’t be so easily appeased. I was the only one holding out, a part of me unwilling to sanction open war without first attempting diplomacy. Cozy had to talk me down with one of her speeches:

“You are naïve, doing what the prince wants would only weaken Taralos and the gnolls would never stop attacking if they had the chance to claim it all. No, in order for Taralos to survive we need to fight fire with fire. Scarlet Lance is what this kingdom needs, she has the loyalty of the soldiers and a proven track record in battle, Not to mention they will to do what is necessary no matter the cost. Remember my little takeover attempt back in Equestria? Do you think that a weakling like Shining Horn would’ve been able to stand against me and my allies? Do you think I would’ve stood down if Twilight would’ve offered me some of her lands in order to appease me? No, I would’ve seen it as a sign of weakness, a sign I could easily take it all from her. A firm hoof is sometimes necessary. We could implicate the Princess in her crimes, but it would only divide the kingdom, at a time like this they need unity more than ever, for Unity is Strength.”

I realized Cozy was speaking the truth and I relented. Agreeing to support Scarlet Lance as the reigning monarch until the war was over.

When we returned to the capital city of Vil we were granted an audience with the prince, where we explained we couldn’t find his horn. He told us that the coronation couldn’t proceed without it and that the princess would rule as Regent until she could recover the horn. We attended the coronation as guests of honor of the new Queen Regent. The coronation was a spectacle of great pomp and ceremony, which will be important ponies from around the kingdom and neighboring tribes in attendance. Cozy quickly drew an audience with her stories, probably trying to make contacts. Being used to nobility because of my family, I also made a few friends at this gathering. Soon after the coronation, the new Queen Regent knighted me and Cozy as Dame Cozy Glow and Dame Sunset Shimmer of a newly formed knightly order called the Defenders of Taralos. Cipher was knighted and joined this order as well as an intelligence operative, Silverwing, upon receiving his title of Sir, left the Royal Guard to serve the Defenders of Taralos instead. The former princess was especially impressed with Cozy and made her the Knight Commander of the Defenders of Taralos. This could either be a great opportunity for her to prove she was capable of being a hero, or it would eventually bite us in the flank, I wasn’t yet sure which.

Chapter 6: Cipher's Secret

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Diary Cozy Glow

It has been a year since I was nominated Knight Commander of the defenders of Taralos by the Queen Regent, who upon her coronation immediately reinforced the garrisons of the northern towns and started a recruitment drive for the Army. The gem gnolls started to increase the intensity of the raids on these reinforced northern towns, but the newly improved garrisons managed to hold them off. The defenders of Taralos have been participating in this war under my leadership, my tactical brilliance keeping us alive and has been able to turn the tide of battle on more than one occasion. Now, one year since the coronation of the Queen Regent, the war is caught in a stalemate, but I fear it would be much worse if Prince Shining Horn was allowed to become king and diminish the army.

While I do realize that Prince Shining Horn would be a much easier pawn to manipulate than his sister, and therefore easier to pave my way into power, Taralos would be useless to me if it falls to a gem gnoll invasion. And Scarlet Lance has proven to be someone I deeply respect, someone who is willing to use cunning and guile to get their way and grab power for themselves. If it was up to me, I would get rid of Prince Shining Horn permanently to enable the rise of a superior monarch. Alas Queen Regent Scarlet Lance says she will return the throne to her brother after the war is over, but maybe that is just another ruse.

During this time there was another interesting development, Cipher sent me a message, saying he wanted to meet me in one of the back alleys of Vil, where we could talk in peace, and that I should come alone. Some part of me expected a potential trap, yet Cipher was not only one of my subordinates, but a close friend, so I made the decision to trust him. Cipher arrived at the back alley dressed in his regular black cloak and hood, his face was as inscrutable as always. What he was about to say shocked me:

“I have come across some rather interesting information about you Cozy, I heard you are from distant lands, where you were one of their most notorious criminals, is this true old friend?”

I had no idea where he had gotten this information, did Sunset squeal? No, she had kept her mouth shut for this long, but there wasn’t anyone else in this world who knew about my past. I would have prefered to keep it that way.

“Depends on why you’re asking, Cipher” I told him.

Cipher give me a slight smile, he was amused.

“I believe you are like me, you desire power, and if we work together we can both accomplish what we desire, after all, I rather want you on the throne from that weakling Shining Horn.”

Now things were starting to get interesting, I shook his hooves to symbolize us reaching an agreement.

“I only ask for one thing in return, I want you to enforce the worship of my goddess, Kara, as the new state religion in Taralos once you are the reigning monarch”

“Kara?” I asked Cipher, who laughed and finally showed me his true face, the unicorn was just a guise, beneath it was the face of an insectoid pony with big blue bugeyes, a black carapace and a pair of insectoid wings. I knew what he was the moment I saw him in this form, a changeling, a doppelganger. They were creatures capable of taking on any form. Back in my world, I had once been working together with one of the Queens, Chrysalis, whose hatred has been the cause of the division that led to my defeat. To say that I was wary of changelings after this would be an understatement. Cipher answered my question:

“Kara is the queen of the hive, the mistress of shapeshifters, deceit love and lust. She is my goddess and one day the city will be hers. You can either be with me or against me, what do you say my dear friend? Just know that if you refuse my offer, I cannot let you leave this alley alive, you know too much.”

This put being quite the dilemma, even if I wanted to refuse him, I had seen his skill in battle, while I was still physically weak, my magic lying primarily in supporting my allies. Yet, he would be far more valuable as an ally than an enemy, and he was offering to help me fulfill my goals. I just wasn't sure I could trust Kara.

I just gave him a sly smile and said:

“You’re not giving me much of a choice, deal, still, the more allies the better, as long as you’re willing to support me, we are allies.”

Cipher shifted back to his unicorn form and we both left the alley in agreement. Yet, as a changeling had once been my downfall, I knew I couldn’t trust him completely.

Soon after, I had to get back to work, I had a couple of new recruits for the Defenders of Taralos lined up. One of them was a leatherwing called Shadow Chaser, a species of pony with batlike wings instead of the feathered wings of a Pegasus that in my world often served as bodyguards to the princes of the night, Luna. This particular one had a blue coat and a black mane, he was wearing heavy armor and wore a grim expression on his face. The other one was a familiar face, one I hoped that I would never see again, that of an old enemy, Twilight Sparkle

Diary Twilight Sparkle

I used to be the monarch of my own land, the Princess of Friendship. After the defeat of Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis, Equestria entered a new golden age under my leadership, but I didn’t do it alone, I had the help of my friends. Yet with time they went on with their lives and I was busy with my duties as Princess, so we didn’t see each other as often as we used to. Yet my kingdom was prosperous due to my sacrifices in dedicating most of my time to rule it. I had always been a meticulous planner and under my strict supervision every aspect of Equestria blossomed. Those that threatened my lands were quickly dealt, joining my ever-growing collection of statues in my garden. I had once been a more merciful mare, yet with the distance between me and my friends I felt that my heart had grown harder over the years. Now my number one priority was protecting my kingdom, by any means necessary. I wasn't sure I liked this change, yet I felt like I had no choice but to take on this role, because if I wouldn't, nopony else would. Celestia and Luna had long since vanished from these lands without a trace, and Cadence were busy running her own kingdom in the north.

This was until one day, many years after the final defeat Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis, I noticed that the petrified form of Cozy Glow went missing from my garden. I detected magical residue in the area. It seemed to be from a portal to another world. There weren’t many in this land who could use magic to this level. Starlight would have been one of them, but I trusted her completely, or was that perhaps a mistake? After all, she had once been a villain. Of course there would also be Starswirl the Bearded, but I knew he wouldn’t defy me. This left only one, but she had long since left this realm and never come back.

I was able to open this portal again. I had no idea what would be on the other side, but if Cozy and her unknown liberator was on the other side, I had no choice but to follow, I could not let Cozy endanger another world under my watch. In times past I would have called for the help of my friends, but I knew they were busy living their own lives and time was short, so I stepped through the portal alone. With confidence of knowing that no matter where it would take me I had the power to open up another portal to get back.

I ended up in a strange world, populated by ponies like my home world, but here it seemed that the tribes had yet to unite under the benevolent rule of an alicorn monarch. As soon as I stepped through the gate, my wings disappeared, rendering me a normal unicorn once again. My magic was also greatly diminished, a lot of the spells that worked in Equestria didn’t work in this realm. Or worked differently.

I soon found my way to the city of Vil, a place I soon found out was the capital of the unicorn kingdom of Taralos. I asked around for a pony matching the description of Cozy Glow, most ponies seem to be taken aback when they heard my name, either prostrating themselves before me out of fear, running away in terror or muttering something about me being a tyrant. I guess Cozy had been spending her time telling tall tales about me. The few ponies I was actually able to speak to, primarily by withholding my true name or using a false one, told me some rather interesting information, apparently the description of Cozy Glow matched the commander of the local knightly order called the Defenders of Taralos.

But before I could confront Cozy, I had to restore some of my magic. Going to the local library I was able to find several books on spellwork, magic did indeed work differently in these lands than in my homeland, but only slightly so, the biggest difference being that ponies other than unicorns also had the ability to use the spells, even if unicorns had an inherent advantage because of their horn. I spent weeks pouring over books to learn as much about the magic of these lands as possible.

Soon after my arrival in Taralos, a member of the Defenders of Taralos sought me out, having heard of me asking about someone matching the description of their leader. The first one I met was a Griffin called Silverwing, who seemed to be a kind and honest fellow, far from the abrasive and stubborn pride that was common of griffins in my world. If he was fearful one first hearing my name he didn’t show it, but he seemed to be taken aback when I explained that their Knight Commander was a wanted criminal, telling me that he didn’t think it was possible, Knight Commander Cozy having saved his life on several occasions. But he said he would bring this to the attention of some of his friends, when I heard the name of one of said friends, it shocked me to my core: Sunset Shimmer. I wondered if this meant that Sunset was the one who had freed Cozy from her stone imprisonment, that thought enraged me, how could someone I consider a friend betray me so utterly?

I would soon get my answer when Sunset visited me, she seemed surprised to see me here. Sunset explained that she disagreed with my sentence of Cozy Glow on the grounds of her being just a young filly at the time. Sunset told me that she intended to take Cozy to her home in the human realm to start a rehabilitation program, but that her spell had gone awry and they ended up here. I was still angry at her that filly or not, she had no idea how dangerous Cozy Glow was. I only did what I had to in order to protect my kingdom. Sunset told me something interesting:

“Twilight, there was once a time you used to believe in redemption, I was once as much an enemy of yours as Cozy was. But you reached out your hand to me, gave me a second chance. If you held the same attitude back then as you do know I fear you would just have turned me to stone and called it a day. I have been to other worlds, I have seen monarchs who decorate their gardens with the petrified statues that used to be their enemies, all of them were villains. You used to be better than this Twilight.”

Her words gave me a lot to think about, had we been too harsh on Cozy? On the other hoof she had attempted to take over Equestria, not once, but twice. It was true she didn’t possess the same physical threat as her co-conspirators Tirek and Chrysalis, but her abilities to manipulate and deceive were second to none. And as such I argued she was on par with the other two. I could tell that Sunset was shaken to the core by my rhetoric, the look in her eyes was one of pure pain. I asked her what was wrong, and she said something truly shocking:

“One thing you should remember is that I have met other versions of you, one of them is my best friend in the world I have called home for many years. There is another you I have encountered during my travels, one much darker than either of you. An interdimensional conqueror who calls herself Midnight, her nation appears to be one of order and harmony at first glance, yet underneath the surface her people are afraid to speak out of line, for Midnight as a garden full of statues that used to be her enemies, or sometimes simply those ponies who dared to speak up against her. Don’t you see Twilight, you have already taken the first step on the path to become like her. "

I have to admit I didn’t see that coming, I did know of multi-verse theory, so I knew other versions of me were bound to exist. But to hear about there was another version of me that was a coldhearted tyrant chilled me to my core. Yet it didn’t change the fact that Cozy Glow was still dangerous. After a long discussion, me and Sunset came to a consensus, we would decide what to do with Cozy at a later date. She told me a war was raging between Taralos and the gem gnolls, in this war the Defenders of Taralos, including Cozy Glow had been instrumental. To defend Taralos against the gnolls, I agreed to sign up with the Defenders.

This was how I soon found myself in the palace, there was one other applicant waiting to be reviewed. He was a bat pony named Shadow Chaser with a blue coat and a black mane, he wore heavy armor and appeared to be a grizzled veteran. I tried being friendly with him, he seemed reluctant to speak with me, preferring to keep to himself. But as I kept prying, he opened up and explained that he was on a personal crusade against the gem gnolls, as they had killed his family. A cause I could be sympathetic to. I was soon led into a room to be interviewed by the Knight Commander herself.

Cozy Glow was quite different from how I remembered her, the small filly had grown into an older teenager, yet her pink coat, freckled face and curly teal mane as well as that ambitious look in her eyes was so unmistakably her. She was wearing a light coat of chainmail as well as a richly embroidered cloak, it was quite odd to see her like this. Cozy expressed surprise upon seeing me, engaging me with a level of friendliness I was sure was fake, I had seen these tricks of hers before. Yet it was hard to not be taken by her charisma. I explained to her that while I haven’t forgiven her and still intended to bring her back to Equestria one day to continue serving her sentence of eternity as a statue, but our goals did align for now and we could work together until the gem gnolls were defeated. Cozy smirked when I mentioned I intended to turn her back into a statue, but otherwise seemed relatively unfazed:

“Are you sure that is necessary Twilight? I have no intention of coming back to your kingdom, I can get everything I ever wanted here and more. Think about it, if you take me back to Equestria and turn me to stone, there is a possibility I will one day escape, even if it is a thousand years in the future, maybe it will be when you are no longer around to protect it. However, if you leave me here with no way back, I would have neither the means nor the intention of returning to Equestria. Right now I have use for you Twilight as you are a powerful magician and therefore would be a great help against the gem gnolls. But after all of this is over, go home Twilight, your kingdom needs you, if I can’t rule over Equestria, you are the second-best choice.”

I knew she was trying to manipulate me, yet what she said made complete sense, I was putting Equestria more at risk by bringing her back than to leave her here. I started to regret opening the gate to this world as it had proven to be one way. Maybe I should be dedicating all my efforts into getting back to Equestria right now, it was true that my kingdom would suffer without my guidance. But the problem was I didn’t know why the interdimensional portal spell Sunset used didn’t work in this world, and I had found no trace of a spell that could replicate its effects in the grand library, nor was my magical power great enough right now to use such a spell even if I found it. I told Cozy that I would think about it and that I promised to cooperate with her for the time being, but that I wouldn’t swear loyalty to her. She just laughed and said:

“To me? No, but you should swear loyalty to the Queen Regent. You are in her domain now.”

Chapter 7: Niden's Hill

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Diary Sunset Shimmer

I must admit I never expected Twilight to follow us, she seemed really concerned about the capabilities of Cozy. Cozy was a skilled manipulator, I could give her that, but I had also seen that she could be a natural leader and an amazing tactician. I had to believe that Cozy could turn things around and use her talents for good, after all, I was once not much better than her.

It seemed like Twilight’s meeting with the Knight Commander went well and she swore allegiance to the Queen Regent together with our other new recruit, Shadow Chaser. I did an interview with Shadow Chaser while Cozy had her conversation with Twilight. Shadow Chaser was the brooding and vengeful sort, yet he had a strong desire for justice and to protect the people of Taralos, he was ideal for our organization.

Soon we were called before Staybright, a high-ranking member of the palace staff. He told us that even though we were unable to find the horn last year, we did good work and that the Queen Regent spoke well of our abilities. Twilight asked us what the deal was with the horn incident, and I told her I would explain at a later point. Staybright continued to explain that some of the problems out there needed something more flexible than an army division, so he was sending specialist squads to handle them. We would be reporting to General Moonshadow who was commanding troops on the northern front at this very moment.

We had an uneventful trip to the north, traveling with an army supply caravan. When we finally arrived at our destination we could see a bustling army camp, with tents laid out in rows and a command tent at its center. The scent of hundreds of unwashed ponies hung in the air and the ground was muddy underfoot, but everything seemed well-run and maintained. We were led into the command tent; the soldiers recognized the majority of our members from previous missions on this campaign.

As we entered the tent, we could see General Moonshadow. An imposing unicorn in full plate armor, she looked up from a map covered in markings showing troop movements.

“Ah, you must be the new squad Staybright said he was sending. I got a couple of things lined up for you to investigate, grab them off the table there.” She pointed her horn towards table in the corner. She told us we should speak to her if we had any questions, but that she needed people who can take a problem and make it disappear without needing her attention all the time. Cozy assured her of both our capability and our independence. There were two pieces of parchment on the table:

The Poisoned Well
The well at Ruby Sands has been poisoned, possibly by gem gnolls saboteurs. Investigate and make sure the water supply is safe.

The Bank Robbery
The vault of the bank at Emerald Peak was robbed yesterday. Investigate the robbery and apprehend the culprits.

The Knight Commander determined that the poisoned well sounded like a matter of the greatest urgency. Cozy Glow commanded that she lead a team consisting of her, Twilight Sparkle and Shadow Chaser to solve the problem of the poisoned well, while I led a team consisting of myself, Cipher and Silverwing to investigate the bank robbery.

Diary Twilight Sparkle

Soon after joining the Defenders of Taralos I found myself part of the group investigating the poisoned well, taking orders directly from Cozy Glow, who seemed to find this twist of fate amusing. Ordering me to carry her luggage on the five-hour travel by hoof to the village of Ruby Sands.

The village of Ruby Sands stood in a pass between two hills. Shadow Chaser explained that many locals worked at the Ruby mine from which the village got its name.

We quickly found the well in question; the water was unusually close to the surface of the well. Cozy decided to ask the villagers who said the water level had been high all year. The villagers told us that around a week ago, everyone in the village started to feel sick all the time, nausea and headaches being the most common symptoms.

Someone noticed a strange taste in the well water, so everyone started drinking from the stream instead and the symptoms were cured a few days after they stopped drinking the water from the well. But they told us that fetching water from the stream was a lot of work and would not be possible if the village came under siege from the gem gnolls.

Cozy ordered Shadow Chaser to bring a sample of the water and asked me if I could analyze its contents. I had no magic for such a purpose, but I was well read on all kinds of topics so I told her I would do my best. I quickly managed to determine that the source of the water pollution appeared to be some kind of green substance in the water, most likely a type of algae. A closer inspection of the well revealed that these very same algae grew around the edges of the well. It very much looked like the Green Scourge, a type of algae that was very poisonous. It seemed like this wasn’t the work of the gem gnolls after all.

I told Cozy that I needed time to work, but that I could whip up a substance that would kill the algae in a matter of hours if I borrowed a chemistry kit from the locals. They told me there was a local alchemist that lived in the village, and I asked him if I could borrow his equipment, he said yes. After a couple of hours, I had created a substance to kill the algae and we successfully put it to use on the well. Cozy congratulated me on a job well done. It felt good to be part of a team where I could put my skills to use in helping these ponies, even if I had to be working together with my old enemy. I hoped Cozy felt the same way.

Diary Sunset Shimmer

Emerald Peak was a small village built around the top of a spectacularly green hill. As I, Cipher and Silverwing approached more closely we could see that the green was caused by a vibrant species of grass that grew in this area and for some reason has never spread further. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful sight. But the village itself looked like it had seen better days, a few buildings standing empty and abandoned. We approached the bank which was a simple building with strong stone walls. We met with the bank manager, an Earth pony named Careful Bean, he introduced us to his son Cautious Bean who helped him run the bank. They explained that when the robbery happened, they were sleep in their house next to the bank and had no idea anything unusual had happened until they open for business in the morning. They discovered that a tunnel had been dug through into the vault and all the jewels within had been stolen. Not being ponies of war, the villagers had been too scared to enter the tunnel. This was when we came in, I was confident as we brought our muscle, Silverwing.

The vault was small and the walls were built of solid stone. The room was empty and Careful Bean explained that they removed the remaining valuables after they discovered the theft. A mess on the east wall showed where the robbers must have broken in. There was dirt on the floor and a tunnel had been cut through the stonework on the wall. I led my team into the tunnel, lighting the way with my horn, Silverwing and Cipher following me. The tunnel went for a straight line for about 30 feet and then the ground became softer, and I noticed the tunnel had collapsed upon itself. It seemed like this line of investigation hit a dead end, literally. However, upon searching the tunnel, we discovered pickaxes that were probably used to break into the vault, left near the entrance of the tunnel. Yet we were no closer to discovering where the culprits had gone.

Having no other recourse, I asked around in the village if anyone had seen or heard anything unusual. It turned out that several people around town thought they saw movement by the old blacksmith shop by the time of the robbery. Searching the shop, Silverwing were able to find tracks that looked like gnolls that left the shop and then headed northeast away from the village. We started following the tracks and soon catch up with the thief, who were in fact a gem gnoll, who was quickly overwhelmed by both Cipher and Silverwing and taken captive. We found a crazy number of gemstones on the gnoll, probably stolen from the vault. I realized we could live our entire lives in luxury if we took the gems for ourselves, but we had a duty to Taralos so we took the gems back to town and the bank manager rewarded us with 10% of the gems original value in gold. The gnoll being arrested for bank robbery.

Diary Cozy Glow

After successfully dealing with the poisoned well incident, where Twilight had demonstrated what an asset she could be for our team, we regrouped back at General Moonshadow’s camp where we were given another parchment with another task. A gem gnoll mounted on an enormous dire hyena had been terrorizing supply lines and villagers. He was alone and very fast, too fast for the Army to catch up with him. But the general thought that a smaller group might have a better chance to catch him. I asked around for reports where this raider had been seen the most often, after making a map marking each spot the raider had attacked ponies previously, I was able to narrow it down to two passes where most of the attacks had happened. I suggested a plan to the other Defenders, that we would disguise ourselves as a traveling caravan in order to draw out the raider, Twilight was the only one to object, saying that with a huge Griffin and a heavily armored batpony we would never be mistaken for travelers. I suggested that Shadows Chaser could hide their armor under a cloak and Silverwing roam the skies above, swooping down once the raider attacked. This finally got Twilight to reluctantly agree to my plan.

The pass where most of the attacks had taken place was not far from the camp, only a couple of hours. Eventually, we would see a pair of ponies laden with trade goods walking down the road towards us. These were the very same traders we rescued from the gem gnolls over a year ago, Fair Deal and Bargain Hunter. They seemed surprised to see us here, and even more so once I told him of our promotion to knights after our services to the Queen Regent. After hearing of the gem gnoll raider, the traders decided to stick with us for protection. Which was a good thing, because soon after we were attacked.

With a loud warcry, a gem gnoll mounted on a huge dire hyena burst out of the woods and charged towards those he thought was only a trade caravan with a single regular sized hyena in tow. The hyena he used as a mount towered over even the Griffin. Silverwing was ready to swoop down from the sky to engage him at my command. The battle started with Cipher cursing the enormous hyena the gnoll was using as a mount, the gnoll on the dire hyena charged across the field, delivering a ride by attack against Twilight who was wounded by the spear of the mounted raider. I did my best to inspire my troops, weaving enchantments into my inspiring speech, as well as giving Silverwing the signal to attack. Silverwing swooped down from the sky, trying to attack the dire hyena with his weapon, only for the hyena to sidestep the attack. Sunset hit the smaller hyena with a bolt of fire, catching the fur of the creature ablaze. Twilight directs a bolt of pure magical energy at the hyena wounding it further and Shadows Chaser, wielding a longsword in his mouth, manages to hit the smaller hyena, putting it down for good.

After the smaller hyena went down, Cipher sneaked up behind the bigger hyena, plunging his blade into its back, the curse he cast earlier further amplifying the damage. The raider attempted to direct an attack against Cipher using his longspear, Cipher nimbly dodging the attack, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the enormous hyena’s claws, tearing a gash in Cipher’s form. I found this was a good opportunity to try a new trick I learned since the start of the war, lacing my words with enchantments, I insulted the raiders mount:

“You are going to make an excellent belt!”

My hypothesis was correct, the words did seem to cause the creature pain. Using this power would prove to be fun. Silverwing was still not able to hit the big but nimble hyena with his huge and clumsy weapon. At that point, Twilight Sparkle fires another beam of magical energy from her horn, in combination with my psychic attack, it took down the hyena, leaving only the gnoll left to take care of. Sunset moved up to Shadow Chaser and blessed his weapon with divine energy, after she finished her incantation, it seemed to shine with the light of the sun. Shadows Chaser moved towards the gnoll, mumbling a prayer to some goddess he called the Moon Princess? Reminded me of Luna. Shadow Chaser’s form appeared to glow with silvery moonlight as he plunged his shining sword past the gnoll’s defenses, severely wounding it, but the raider continued to fight, wounding Silverwing. Cipher attempted to strike him from behind, but the gnoll managed to block his attack. I prepared another attack against the gnoll using my words, using the best insult I could come up with on the fly:

“If you were any more inbred you would be a sandwich!”

As my words were hurting the gnoll, this distracted him for long enough for Silverwing to actually hit, his greatsword managing grievously wounding the gnoll, he was barely standing now, yet remained defiant. Sunset cast a spell on Shadow Chaser that I found out after the battle would ensure the blow wasn’t fatal. Shadow chaser managed to hit the gnoll and knocked him unconscious using Sunset’s spell. Me and Sunset worked together to patch up the wounds our companions sustained during the battle, Twilight was reluctant to accept my aid, so Sunset took care of her wounds while I focused my attention on Silverwing and Cipher

The two traders came running back to us in order to thank us for saving them, even if they didn’t have anything they could give us as they were destitute. Sunset told them that it was okay and that a good deed was reward enough. While it was her usual namby-pamby nonsense, I had to give it to her, it did feel good to capture this raider.

We interrogated the raider on the way back to camp, Silverwing trying to intimidate him while I took the role of good cop, he revealed to us that the gem gnolls were invading this area and that he took this as an opportunity to go out and cause him trouble, we were given the location of a nearby gnoll base in the abandoned fort on Niden’s Hill.

When we returned to to the army camp, we reported what he found out to General Moonshadow, the general telling us that this was probably the place the gnolls were mounting their attacks from and that we to go and scout out Niden’s Hill, if it was only a small force of gnolls present we were told to deal with them, if the force was large we were told to make maps of the area and do a headcount of the number of foes. But first we did camp for the night in order to continue our expedition to Niden’s Hill in the morning. I decided to ask around for information about Niden’s Hill, it was well known it was the ruins of an abandoned fort that had been there for hundreds of years, no pony being quite sure who built it or who Niden was for that matter.

After we got up the next morning, after a few hours of travel, we finally arrived at Niden’s hill, we could see the ruins of a crumbled fort made of stone up on the hill in the distance. We came across the remains of what was clearly once a busy road snaking its way up the hill, I noticed clear tracks of both hyenas and gnolls on the dirt road heading up to the fort on the hill. Following the path, we soon arrived at the front gate, which must once have been imposing but had clearly seen much better days. The wood was rotten and was dropping from the iron reinforcements, leaving large cracks and holes in the door. Yet Twilight suggested going in through the front entrance might not be the best idea, for once I agreed with her.

The gate was clearly locked in place, not used for quite a while and if we wanted to open it we would need to smash it open, which would make a lot of noise and attract the gnolls to our position, the pawprints continued not through the front gate, but to the walls of the fort. I used my wings to fly up to use my elevated position to get a greater view of the fort, the stone walls of to the west of us had crumbled, forming a slope of sorts made of rubble, making climbing it a possibility even without equipment, it was here we saw the pawprints leading up the slope. In the courtyard I could see one of those massive hyenas that the raider uses as a mount, and yet another one just as large skulking in the shadows.

I told Silverwing to get up to my position using his wings, and to hold attach a rope I had been carrying to the top of the wall, dropping down the upper end to the foot of the wall. I thought about some of our companions who might need help climbing, especially Shadow Chaser with his heavy armor, too heavy for him to fly with despite his species natural batlike wings. Twilight was able to get up the wall with a teleportation spell, leaving only Sunset, Cipher and Shadow Chaser left at the foot of the wall. After many failed tries, Sunset and Shadow Chaser finally managed to get up the wall, Cipher having a little difficulty climbing. I knew now that he could’ve just as easily used his wings to reach the top, but that would involve giving away his doppelganger nature.

We suspected that the gnolls had to be inside the castle keep, but to get to them, the next step was either getting past or dealing with the dire hyenas in the courtyard and many of us were not especially stealthy, me included. Yet we did know that making a lot of noise would probably attract the gnolls in the keep. If we went in without a plan that would probably cause us to get into quite the fight. I did have a spell that could erect a dome that isolated all sounds from within the dome, meaning that those outside of it wouldn’t be able to hear those within the dome and vice versa. Yet I would only be able to create a dome of 10 feet in diameter so everyone would need to stick close to me, and we still had the problem of being seen. Twilight quickly offered a solution to that problem; she suggested that maybe we should use magic to create an auditory hallucination to make the hyenas look in another direction as we entered. This only left the problem of the hyenas sense of smell, yet that was a risk we had to take.

Every gathered around me as directed the dome of silence, Twilight using her magic to create an infernal racket in the minds of the hyenas, this worked for one of them, but the other one seemed to pick up our smell and didn’t turn away towards the hallucinatory noise. It was a good attempt, but the hyena immediately started laughing, trying to alert the nearby gnolls of our presence. We had to act quickly before we were overwhelmed.

Cipher quickly slipped behind the dire hyena that noticed us and stabbed in the back, the hyena fought back, rending Cipher with its claws, knocking him to the ground. I started an inspiring speech to stir the others into action as the second dire hyena attacked Silverwing, wounding him and knocking him down. Sunset cast a spell on Silverwing’s weapon that made it glow with the energy of the sun, Silverwing then got up, taking another mauling from the hyena, but tough as he was he just took it and swung his now enhanced sword at the hyena, severely wounding it, and allowing Twilight to finish it off with her magic both from her horn. Shadow Chaser moved up to distract the hyena that was attacking Cipher, enabling Cipher to stop the hyena in the back using his dagger, killing it instantly. Sunsets taking the opportunity to heal some of the wounds of the group by emitting a golden light from her horn, enveloping us.

We only had a few moments now before the gnolls from the keep would come rushing out to see what the commotion was about, so I ordered the other Defenders to take a position on the stairs that led up to the wall, slightly out of sight of the keep. This enabled us to get the drop on the gnolls that came out of the keep. There were three gnolls in total, one of them clearly in charge, the one in a dark cloak wielding a dagger. As the gnolls spotted us, the leader drank some kind of potion and disappeared. At this moment I ordered the rest to attack, Silverwing rushing towards the gnolls, roaring while attacking, missing, but managing to frighten them. Twilight spoke words of arcane power and two bolts of pure force fell from the heavens, wounding the two gnolls. I took the opportunity to insult them with a magical enchantment:

“I’m guessing you weigh 50lbs while wet, which is the same as your sister when you found her drowned in her own cauldron. ”

This appeared to have worked, the gnoll in question writing in pain. Sunset fired a bolt of fire from the horn at the same gnoll, narrowly missing.

This was when I felt a sting of pain in my back, the gnoll leader had finally manifested, plunging a dagger in my back, it stung horribly. Cipher managed to come to my rescue in the nick of time, stabbing the leader in the back and turn, but he was still standing. I slowly backed away from the gnoll leader and formulated my best insult:

“Are you a dog crossed with a pig?, Oh, yeah, there are some things even a pig wouldn’t do.”

This made the leader howl with pain. Sunset backed away from the fighting and the Golden glow from her horn healed some of my wounds, as well as the wounds of my companions. At this moment, Twilight called down another pair of the bolts of magic from the sky, killing both regular gnolls, leaving only the leader. Shadow Chaser moved up to block the path between me and the gnoll leader, striking a wounding a blow at the gnoll, but the ferocious warrior was still standing. The leader nimbly jumped over Shadow Chaser and tried to hit me with his dagger once again, I tried to dodge to the best of my ability, but it wasn’t quite enough, fortunately the dagger hit the chainmail barding I was wearing, opening up an opportunity for Silverwing to kill the gnoll leader with his gigantic sword that still shone like the sun from Sunset’s spell.

The dagger wielded by the gnoll leader appears to be the work of a master smith, so Cipher replaced his current dagger with it. He was also wearing some type of shirt with a magical enchantment placed on it, while we weren’t yet sure what it was, Cipher put it on.

After taking care of the gnolls defending it, we searched the keep. We first entered into what seemed to have once been the great hall of the keep, where the inhabitants feasted on food and the lord welcomed his guests. But whatever furnishings there might have once been had long since disappeared. There was nothing of interest in the great hall, so we moved on to the kitchen. Where among the rotting remains of various shelves and cabinets were four defiant looking earth ponies dressed in fur and leather, hobbled together and chained to the furniture. We immediately freed the captives. Who introduced themselves as Night’s Blessing, daughter of the chieftain of the Black Hooves clan. Next to her was Dawn Rising, son of the chieftain of the Red Rock clan and fiancée of Night’s Blessing. The other two ponies were two of their friends, Daffodils Blooming and Larksong. They thanked us for rescuing them, explaining that they were from Turves clans, Taralos’s earth pony neighbors. They expressed surprise that the ones to rescue them were from Taralos and not the clans. I explained that we were here by coincidence as our General had ordered us to capture the fort at Niden’s Hill, as we were at war with the gem gnolls, but that we were happy to be of assistance.

Night’s Blessing explained that they were going on a seekers journey together to ask the gods blessing for the union between her and Dawn Rising, a sacred ritual for all the clans. Unfortunately, they ran into a group of gem gnolls, that didn’t care for how sacred the ritual was and brought them here to be questioned. As thanks were freeing them, the young couple invited us to the gathering of the clans at Turves in just two weeks, we would be the first outsiders to attend in a very long time. They presented us with a plain white banner with two hooves crossed in friendship and told us that if we would show the banner to other tribesponies, it would mean that we were going to be gathering and no tribespony would dare attack them. At the gathering we were told to seek out their clans of The Black Hooves and the Red Rock, as the chieftains of both clans would want to thank us in person for rescuing their children.

As we were leaving the keep, we once again ran into that strange zebra from before, the one that Sunset befriended, Fazban. He was quite curious about the ponies we rescued, asking them about their identity, which they answered honestly. We would soon part ways with Night’s Blessing and her group, but Fazban followed us back to General Moonshadow’s camp. As we reported to the general that we managed to take the fort, she was quite pleased with our efforts. But she was especially interested in hearing about the rescued tribesponies, telling us that there was a massive gem gnoll army approaching their position, led by their King. And that we would be of great need of the Turves tribes making an alliance with Taralos in order to push back the invasion.

Moonshadow told us she led an ambush against the gem gnoll King last week and thought they might’ve ended the war, but the king managed to disappear without a trace. They had scanned for invisibility, but he didn’t go invisible, he just vanished. And according to their investigation it wasn’t the first time he had pulled this trick. In addition to securing an alliance with the tribes, we were asked to ask around for any information pertaining to how the gem gnoll King was able to escape from battles when he was cornered.

Fazban, seeing an alliance between Taralos and the Turves tribes as beneficial to the goals of the Seekers of the One Herd decided to travel with us to the gathering of clans in order to help as best as he could. I was hoping that our combined charisma would be enough to secure the alliances necessary to defeat the Gnoll King, as it would be hard to rule a Taralos reduced to ruin.

Chapter 8: The Gathering of Clans

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Diary Sunset Shimmer

Taking Niden's hill had proven a challenge, but not one we couldn’t overcome through friendship and cooperation. It was delightful to see Cozy and Twilight cooperating in trying to get past the hyenas, even if their plan didn’t work out. When we were discovered, it had required us working together as a well-oiled machine to overcome the fort’s defenders, everyone contributing something that would ensure our success. Cozy’s tactical insight and inspiring leadership, my holy magic, Twilight’s arcane might, Cipher’s quickness and dirty fighting, Silverwing’s intimidating frame and brutality and Shadow Chaser acting as a shield.

After her close brush with death at Niden’s Hill scared her quite a bit, Cozy commissioned two suits of chainmail made of mithral, a metal as light as a feather but stronger than steel, one for her and one for Silverwing. The light weight of the armor would make sure that Silverwing could still wear it while flying while being properly protected. Twilight spent her time identifying the shirt that Cipher took from the gnoll leader, turns out it had an enchantment on it that could greatly amplify the wearer speed.

When we made our way to the gathering at the Turves a few days later, I spent quite a bit of time talking to Fazban, about his goals and his organization. Turns out that the Seekers of the One Herd were diplomats of sorts, sacrificing a permanent home to travel the lands preaching unity to the different tribes in service of their goal to one day unite ponykind. As this gathering could end up with a permanent alliance between Taralos and the Turves tribes, it was in his best interest to make sure everything went smoothly. I wasn’t too worried, my own diplomatic skills were not insignificant, neither were Fazban’s, but we also had our secret weapon, Cozy Glow, the most charismatic pony I had ever encountered. If anyone could rally the tribes behind her it would be Cozy. By this point I had absolute faith in her, at least when it came to her abilities to persuade others. And if Cozy fell short, I would be there to aid her.

Our journey took us out of the hills and then onto the rolling plains that the Turves Tribespeople called theirs. With me acting at the group’s banner bearer, we saw ponies on the way, just watching, but not interfering with our travel, seemed like the banner was doing its job. I had heard tales of terrible things happening to people who cross these lands without permission. After a few days of travel, we came across an incredible sight, a tent city completely filling a small valley before us. The town at the center of the gathering was dwarfed by rows and rows of conical tents spreading out in all directions. Earth Ponies of all colors, genders and ages were running around yelling and talking. The noise was deafening, and the smell of unwashed ponies was even more overwhelming than at Moonshadow’s camp.

We immediately sought out the leader of the Black Hooves clan, whose chieftain’s daughter we recently rescued from gem gnolls. Upon entering the camp of the Black Hooves, ponies started whispering to eachother, I could overhear the words:

"Are these the outsiders who saved the chieftain's daughter?" Some ponies went to the biggest, most important tent to inform what I presumed was the chieftain.

Soon a familiar pony came out to meet us, a thin earth pony with a jet-black coat, a dark blue mane with strings of red that flowed in the wind, she was built for stealth and speed rather than raw power, her brand of destiny was a Cresent Moon. She was Night's Blessing, one of ponies we rescued from the Gem Gnolls at Niden's Hill. She was the reason we were invited to the gathering in the first place. She seemed perky and upbeat, greeting Cozy with an enthusiastic hoofshake before moving on to shaking my hoof and then the rest of the group's. Night's blessing then told us to follow her to see her mother.

As Night's Blessing led us into the chieftain's tent, we came face to face with a mare that looked a lot like her daughter. She had a jet-black coat and a matching blue and red mane, but unlike her daughter, her demeanor was reserved rather than enthusiastic. She introduced herself as Chieftain Silent Hunter and quickly got to the point:

"I thank thee for saving my daughter. I am in your debt, anything I can do for thee in return?"

Cozy explained that we were there at the behest of Taralos as diplomats to secure alliances against the Gnoll King. Silent Hunter told her in a short and concise manner us that an alliance against the gem gnolls would be mutually advantageous, but that we needed to prove ourselves amongst the clans first for an alliance to not make the Black Hooves look bad. Night's Blessing told us there was a contest of skill going in at the gathering and we should join up. The glory we would win would not only prove us worthy allies of the Black Hooves clan, but of the other clans as well. Not all the clans were friendly to outsiders, and it would take a lot for some of them to agree to an alliance with Taralos. Especially the Thorn Briar and Bloody Ear Tribes.

Before we left the tent, I decided to take the opportunity to ask the chieftain:

"Do you happen to know anything about the disappearing act the Gnoll King tend to do when he is close to being defeated in battle. "

The chieftain looked like she was deep in thought for a moment, then told me there was a network of tunnels under the forest to the north, the Black Hooves sometimes used them to explore the area she provided a location for a tunnel entrance.

Night's Blessing decided to keep us company while she led us to the first trial in the competition. She told us about her clan, the Black Hooves. They were a clan preferring subtlety to warfare, she told us a legend from her clan about a trickster who outsmarted another clan to make it off with all their cattle. Cozy especially seemed to take great interest in that story. Night's Blessing told her that her clan greatly honored those who could outsmart their foes. The chieftain’s daughter told me that her clan were the most open to contact with the outside world.

The first trial we entered was a contest of strength in the form of a rope tugging contest. The contestants were to bite down on opposite sides of the rope and attempt to drag the opposing contestant into a pit of mud. We decided to enter Silverwing into the competition. Silverwing struggled quite a bit in his first round as his opponent was quite strong, despite Silverwing's size advantage, but he eventually dragged his opponent into the mud.

Silverwing made it to the final where we was facing a familiar face, a sturdy and well-built young earth pony with a sun rising as his brand of destiny, carrying himself with dignity. Dawn Rising, the son of the Red Rock clan chieftain and Night's Blessing's coltfriend. I picked up that he gave Night's Blessing a sour look, I guess their relationship was on rocky grounds for some reason. I decided I would speak to him after the competition.

Dawn Rising proved strong, but quickly fell into the mudpit, overwhelmed by Silverwing, but Dawn remained stoic as he got out of the mud pit. Silverwing was crowned the winner of the contest of strength.

This is where I decided to approach Dawn Rising. I introduced myself, he said he recognized me from the fort. We got into small talk before I asked him about his and Night's Blessing's relationship. He told me that they got together after the Night's Blessing had started coming to watch him during wrestling competitions, but she had done so under the guise of a pony of his clan. When he found out about the deception he had been pissed, Night's Blessing had apologized for her trickery, but he felt he couldn't trust anything she says because of it.

I had to go to Twilight for advice, she told me that she understood Dawn's conundrum, but that they should try to talk openly about their problems to re-establish their mutual trust. After all, we hadn't heard Night's Blessing's side of the story. The Princess of Friendship still had it.

Diary of Cozy Glow

During the gathering at the Turves I found myself getting along well with a mare called Night's Blessing, the same mare I had rescued a few weeks earlier. Both her and her entire clan seemed to have an appreciation for intelligent tricksters who could outwit their enemies. I told her modified stories about my past and how I almost became the ruler of my home realm. She seemed to listen with great interest. She told me that the gathering of clans had storytellers telling various stories from the different clans and that I could increase my standing with the clans and more easily secure an alliance with the more difficult clans if I participated.

Me and Night's Blessing talked for quite a while during the time Silverwing was conquering the Contest of Strength. She told me of how she used to sneak into the wrestling competitions of the Red Rock clan and saw this amazing warrior named Dawn Rising who she fell in love with. She did woo him, and he fell in love with her as well. But he did feel betrayed when he found out she had been lying about being in his clan. I told her I hoped they could work it out.

I think I made another true friend that day in Night's Blessing. I was never good at making friends, not real ones, only ones who liked a version of me that didn't exist. I did think back to my time at the orphanage growing up. At the time I was a shut-in academic that the other foals picked on. It was only when I pretended to be sweet and innocent as well as equally dumb as everyone else that I gained any friends at all, and the bullies left me alone.

I had kept up this habit after I got in touch with Tirek, during my time in Twilight’s School of Friendship and even as I entered Everglow. Other than Cipher, the only pony I ever had opened up my real self to was Sunset, and she would not stand by me if she knew what I was planning. That only left Cipher as a real friend, as he knew of the darkness within my soul. Yet he had threatened me. Would a true friend really do that?

I wondered if I could be entirely honest with Night's Blessing, or if she would abandon me if she knew the truth. Night's Blessing stuck with me as I joined the circles of storytellers, it was starting to get late and the storytellers had gathered around a campfire, tribesponies were gathering around the storytellers in order to listen to their stories. Among their number was unicorn in flamboyant and colorful garments with a flute hanging from his mouth, he wasn’t very physically imposing, but his voice had real presence. I remember him from Niden’s Hill, one of Night’s Blessing’s friends Larksong. Larksong invited me into the circle of storytellers, Nights Blessing telling the rest of the circle that I had a real talent for the art of storytelling. Larksong then urged me to tell a story for the rest of the circle. I cast a glamour spell on myself to enhance my charisma and started telling the story of the prince’s missing horn, of course changing the ending to not implicate Scarlet Lance and implied that the horn was stolen by the Gnoll King instead. The story went well with the audience as well as the other storytellers who cheered and applauded, the sounds of hooves being smashed together was overwhelming.

At that time, I noticed Sunset and Twilight in the crowd. They approached Night’s Blessing, telling her they wanted to ask her a few questions. They told her that her fiancé, Dawn Rising felt concerned over the fact she had lied about her clan. Night’s Blessing told them what she had told me, that she had made a habit of sneaking into the games of the Red Rock Clan and that it was there she had first fallen in love with Dawn Rising while watching him wrestle. She apologized for causing her fiancé and he worry, but she also told him that trickery was basically the way of her clan, and it being something about her that he just had to accept if they were going to be together. This seems to satisfy Sunset and Twilight, the relationship police, going back to Dawn Rising to explain things to him. This entire time I was just listening. Feeling a sting of concern for my friend, I asked her if she thought everything would be alright with her relationship. She told me it was probably fine, her and Dawn Rising have had arguments in the past, but they had already decided they would join in matrimony, and more importantly, both their parents had already made arrangements for the wedding.

It soon became time to rest, we were welcomed as guests in the Black Hooves camp, where we rested for the night. The next morning it was time for the trial of agility, in which we entered Cipher as a contestant. An obstacle course had been set up among the tents. Nights Blessing also decided to participate in this event. Cipher was fast and jumped over each obstacle with ease but had a little bit of trouble walking on a narrow ledge that was part of the competition. Nevertheless, he placed second in this competition, second only to Night’s Blessing. Cipher looked very displeased by these results and told me he thought he could do better, yet second place would still give us a decent amount of notoriety. We just needed to keep this up if we wanted the respect of the clans.

The second competition of the day was a wrestling contest, for which our group unanimously decided that Silverwing was our best candidate, after some grumbling from Shadow Chaser. This was the competition that Dawn Rising was the grand champion of. Meaning that if things went well, Silverwing and Dawn Rising would have a rematch after Dawn Rising’s defeat in the trial of strength. Silverwing pinned the first opponents to the ground with ease and moved on to the finals where he was facing Dawn Rising. Dawn attempted to grapple Silverwing to the ground, but it was difficult for him with an opponent so much larger, Silverwing used his great strength to his advantage and threw Dawn Rising to the floor, but Dawn used his superior agility to slip out of the griffin’s grasp and reverse the grapple, trying to pin Silverwing to the ground. Silverwing roared and summoned all his rage and strength to get out Dawn Rising’s hold, but the more agile Dawn Rising kept avoiding his grapples. It seems to me that he knew that he had the disadvantage when it came to raw strength, but he was much faster than Silverwing and much nimbler. The contestants struggled against each other for a while until Dawn Rising once again got Silverwing on the ground, he failed to get out of the pin even with his superior strength. Dawn Rising now needed to only hold Silverwing to the ground for a few more seconds, Dawn Rising was successful and won the match.

Despite Silverwing’s loss, she told me this was the closest anyone had gotten to defeating Dawn Rising for a very long time and that Silverwing should be proud of that accomplishment.

With the end of competitions for today. I spent the rest of the day talking to the tribesponies about the threat the gem gnolls posed to both our people. And that it could be the end of both of us if Taralos and the tribes of the Turves did not work together. Twilight, surprisingly enough, joined me in trying to convince the tribespeople of an alliance, I had to admit I appreciated her help even if I was certain I could manage this on my own. Even if Twilight’s friendship speeches were a bit cheesy. Our combined efforts seem to have garnered us quite a bit of positive attention. Soon everyone in the camp was talking about us, our performance in the contests and our mission to secure their alliance against the gem gnolls.

When the final day of competitions came around, the first trial was a trial of accuracy, which involved throwing knives at targets hanging from ropes attached to the roof of the tents. Cipher was the obvious candidate as a contestant for this trial. There were going to be three targets increasingly further away in each contest, the one that hits the most of them in around was considered the winner. Both Cipher of his opponent hit all three targets in the first round. Meaning the contest would need to be decided by a bonus round, which went to Cipher, giving him the victory. Cipher faced off against Night’s Blessing in the finale, yet another rematch. Both hit their first target, the second target Cipher hit while Night’s Blessing missed, Cipher acing the first target as well while Night’s Blessing once again missed her target. Night’s Blessing looked visually irritated by her own back performance in this competition, meaning that I spent the next couple of minutes assuring her that it was fine and that she wasn’t losing her touch. Cipher seemed gleeful and heckled Night’s Blessing about her loss. I wonder if Cipher employed any kind of trickery to win the competition.

The last competition was a riddle contest. Me and Twilight were butting heads over which of us to would be the contestant in this competition. We decided to settle the score with a riddle contest of our own. Twilight started by giving me her riddle:

“I have cities, but no houses. I have water, but no fish. What am I?”

I had to think for a little while to figure out that one, but eventually I decided that maybe the riddle was referring to something inanimate. Then I remembered the map at the center of Twilight’s castle, yes, that must be it.

“A map” I told her. She seemed a bit annoyed that I was able to take that one.

Now I needed to figure out a riddle that would stump even the great Twilight Sparkle.

“What is it, but no one wants, but no one wants to lose.”

This seem to confuse Twilight who after a while told me she couldn’t figure out the answer. I told her:

“A lawsuit.”

Rather than sulking about her loss, Twilight came to her senses:

“You know what Cozy? Well done, not many ponies would be able to come up with a riddle I couldn’t solve.”

Then it became time for the actual competition, I easily managed to crush the first round by answering this riddle:

“What bird do you associate with lifting weights?”

I knew the answer to that one, a crane. Quite amusing.

I moved on to the final, where my opponent was none other than Larksong from the storytellers group. Larksong gave me a riddle to solve:

“Sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, wind or rain, I stay outside. Even if there’s heat or snow, from house to house I will still go. What am I?”

I knew the answer to that one, it was obvious.

“A path.”

Now it was my turn to come up with a riddle that would wipe the floor with him.

“Who can finish a book without finishing a sentence?”

This riddle seemed to confuse Larksong. Who told me he has no idea what the answer could be, after a few incorrect guesses, I told him:

“A prisoner”.

With that the riddle competition was settled with me as the winner. Night’s Blessing congratulated me on my victory, and Sunset and Cipher soon joined in. Twilight reluctantly complimented me once again, telling me that I was indeed quite a smart young mare, but that I shouldn’t get cocky and let it go to my head. Too late.

With the competitions over and with several winners from our group, we were the talk of the entire gathering. We were soon invited back to the Black Hooves camp to seal our alliance with Silent Hunter. Who told us we should go and see the other clan leaders. Our first stop being the Red Rocks clan, where Dawn Rising was from. Dawn Rising told us about his clan, and how they valued strength and honor above all, his having the physically strongest warriors of all the clans, apart from the Bloodied Ear clan. He took us to see his father, who turned out to be a very old Earth pony with silver hair and wisdom in his eyes, he was sitting by a campfire surrounded by his warriors as we came into the camp. He introduced himself as chieftain Salty Ground. As we had already secured an alliance with the Black Hooves, Salty Ground agreed to an alliance after I explained to him the importance of stopping the Gnoll King. Salty Ground told me that the Gnoll King had his main base in a ruin in a nearby forest. Salty Ground recommended that we should see the Stone Marchers next. He told me they were a democratic clan where each family that made up you can have as much say as the chieftain.

The Stone Marchers were not as welcoming as the two clans we had previously dealt with. Our reputation and success in the competitions allowed us an audience with their chieftain, but the ponies still gave us wary looks. As we approached the chieftain’s tent, two guards stopped us from approaching a middle-aged pony who was listening to his tribe members. After a few moments, he said something to them, and then the middle-aged pony turned towards us. His coat was grey with flecks of muted color that gleamed in the sunlight. He introduced himself as Flint Thinker. He asked me what we were doing there and I explained to him about our mission to gather an alliance against the Gnoll King. Flint Thinker seems to be a cynic, telling me about what he perceived to be the faults of our plan:

“What if we lost? There would be a massacre and our clan would lose even more ponies. I remember when your kind forced us out of their cities, half of our clan died before we found food and water. And now you’re telling us to sacrifice our lives for your sake? “

I told him the following:

“The more clans we can rally to our cause the less ponies will die, the Gem Gnolls is a threat to all of us and if we don’t stand together, they may kill all of us. Your clan has a better chance of survival standing united with the rest of us than standing alone against the Gnoll King.”

The argument seems to have convinced the chieftain:

“Very well, I heard you already have an alliance with the Black Hooves and the Red Rocks. You speak sense, the Stone Marchers do have a greater chance of survival standing united with our fellow clans and the people of Taralos than we do alone.”

With our alliance secured, I asked chieftain Flint Thinker if he knew anything about the Gnoll King and his mysterious disappearances. He told me that he had heard rumors of the Gnoll King having an unusual amulet containing a teleportation spell that would take him to a specific ruin deep in the forest. I surmised this must be the same base of operations we heard about from the chieftain of the Red Rock clan earlier. Flint Thinker told me that the other two clans were the most hostile to the people of Taralos and it would be a miracle if I managed to convince them to join our alliance. Yet I still had to try, I was completely confident in my abilities.

Night’s Blessing told me about the next clan I would have two try to agree to an alliance. The Thorn Briar clan was a clan of runners and scouts who valued speed and agility, thinking of all city dwellers as slow weaklings. As we approached their camp, we could hear the shouts and cheers of children, there were many racetracks scattered across their camp and young foals competing in races. Made me think back to my time at the orphanage, where the ponies would participate in such games, I always would come in last when I participated, making myself a laughingstock. So, I mostly stuck to watching them, reading a book on the sidelines.

There was an elderly pony watching the foals race, she had a blood red coat and a wistful smile upon her face. She introduced herself as Thorn Rose, the chieftain of the Thorn Briar clan. She recognized both Cipher and Night’s Blessing as the ponies who took second place and first place in the trial of agility, beating out even her own tribesponies, something the chieftain was very impressed with. I told her about the alliance we were gathering to oppose the Gnoll King. Thorn Rose told us she would agree to an alliance, but only because we had the two fastest ponies in the Turves on our side. She also told me something interesting about the Gnoll King, at the very heart of his home base, there were the ruins of a temple. Perhaps it was this temple his amulet of teleportation could teleport him back to.

Now it was time to try to convince the final and most hostile clan, the Bloodied Ear, who according to Night’s Blessing was a clan of warlike berserkers, who took any excuse they could to fight everyone, not just with people of Taralos, but the other clans. The gathering being one of very few times they were not on the warpath. As we entered the camp, we could see two ponies engaged in a mighty duel, one dressed in hide armor and wielding a massive double-headed axe. The pony with the axe quickly downed her opponent, barely winded, she turned towards us, holstering her axe as she does. The pony was covered in warpaint and introduced herself as Tongue Splitter, the chieftain of the bloodied ear. Night’s Blessing had told me everything I needed to know about her, a fearsome warrior who was famous for having decapitated four opponents in a single blow, severing all their tongues at the root.

The chieftain asked me:

“What do you want outsider?”

When I try to explain to her about the alliance, she has told me this:

“Sounds to me like this alliance would greatly reduce our number of enemies we could fight, no thanks, I rather prove the might of our clan by fighting the gem gnolls on our own.”

I tried my best to convince her that it would be for the best that she joined our alliance. But she quickly grew tired of my talk and ushered us out of the camp. I guess getting all but one clan to agree to an alliance was good enough.

We spent the rest of the week just having fun at the gathering. I spent most of my time with Night’s Blessing, she had many interesting stories of her past trickery and the trickery of her ancestors. We entertain each other with stories of how we fooled other people, as well as pranking other ponies at the Black Hooves camp, who did seem to take it in good fun.

At the final night of the gathering, I was the last one to remain awake at the Black Hooves camp. This week at the gathering had given me a lot to think about. I think I had made my first genuine friend in quite a while. And because of that it would not be easy for me to let her go. Maybe after the war was over, I could visit her at whatever location her clan had chosen to camp. But her people were nomadic so it would never be the same place, which could mean she could be challenging to track down. I might not ever see her again; the thought really bothered me.

As I laid awake on my bedroll, a familiar pony would approach me, Sunset Shimmer. She asked me if there was something bothering me. I told her the truth, that we would leave in the morning and that I would maybe never see Night’s Blessing again. Sunset laughed and told me she could always come see me in Vil, we could talk to the Queen Regent to make sure that the tribes would always be welcome in Taralos. Then she asked me:

“So you don’t consider me a friend? Considering you said she was your first one for a long time.”

I just told her:

“If you knew everything there is to know about me, you would abandon me, just like everyone else. With her, it’s different, Night’s Blessing and her clan appreciates my trickery, they accept me for who I truly am. Not what they want me to be.”

My statement seems to amuse Sunset.

“You mean how you secretly have a plan to become the monarch of Taralos? I have suspected that from the very beginning, but I hope you will come to realize that maybe power isn’t what you really want. After all, Twilight told me that you told her that one of your reasons for wanting to become the Empress of Equestria is that then everyone would have to be your friend. What I am suggesting is that maybe your desire for power is just a means to an end.”

I have never considered that before, why was it exactly that I desired power? I always just thought I was different from other people, smarter and more talented, and therefore deserving over the rest of them, if I ruled over them everyone would need to accept me as their superior. Yet maybe she had a point, maybe this desire for recognition came from my childhood at the orphanage, where I was absolutely no one, and had no friends, no real ones anyway. I just told her:

“How do you know this anyway? How do you know I am not just born evil?”

Sunset glanced at my flank and said:

“Have you taken a look at your own mark of destiny? It’s a chess piece, more specifically a rook. In my experience marks of destiny, or cutie marks as they are known in your home world are multifaceted. While it is likely yours does represent your skill at the game of chess, in addition to your skill as a tactician. The word rook could also mean to deceive. But I think there is a deeper meaning than even that. All your life, you have always desired to be a queen, but if that was truly your destiny, your mark of destiny would’ve been a queen piece, but it’s not, it’s a rook. I do have some knowledge of chess, and rooks are some of the most important endgame pieces vital to many checkmate strategies. But more importantly, rooks can be used in the act of castling in order to protect the king. Don’t you see Cozy? Your destiny is not to rule, but to be a vital support piece in protecting your kingdom. As the leader of the Defenders of Taralos, I say you are already fulfilling your destiny, you are truly being the Rook of Taralos.”

Sunset’s words gave me a lot to think about. Maybe she was right, maybe it was not my destiny to rule, maybe being a monarch would give me what I desire. Yet the idea of having to serve another for the rest of my life irked me, especially if that someone was Twilight. And even if I wanted to give up on my plans, Cipher would make sure I wouldn’t live to breathe another day.

Chapter 9: The Underground Passage

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Diary Twilight Sparkle

The gathering at Turves went off without a hitch, the Defenders of Taralos all contributing to making the alliance with all but one of the clans possible. And both me and Sunset helped Night’s Blessing and Dawn Rising with the relationship. When it came to uniting the clans, Cozy’s help might’ve been the most valuable of all. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that she might turn against us someday. I have been burned before by her; I knew better than to trust her. Yet Sunset faith in her was unshakable, I didn’t understand why. I decided to have a conversation with her about it during the final few days of the gathering. I told her:

“How can you put so much faith in Cozy Glow? You know what she is responsible for, do you truly think she can change?”

Her answer was pretty much what I had expected:

“Did I used to be any different that when we first met? I also attempted to conquer Equestria, and for similar reasons to Cozy. Yet you were able to help me become a better person, if I was not a lost cause, then I also choose to believe Cozy can be helped. And more importantly, Twilight, if you ever go down a dark path, I am willing to stretch out my hoof to help you as well. We are all capable of both good and evil Twilight, Cozy Glow is not an exception, and neither is you.”

I told her that I thought that Cozy was planning something. This time her response was rather unexpected:

“I know, there is certainly something going on, but I have absolute faith in that when it comes down to it, Cozy will choose to do the right thing, as long as I am here for her as a friend, and I believe that Night’s Blessing will also push her in the right direction.”

I had come to terms with the fact that me and Sunset would probably never agree on Cozy, but I hoped she was right. She was right in that she wasn’t that different from Cozy once upon a time. But if she was wrong it could lead to disastrous events that could threaten this entire world.

After the end of the gathering, we traveled back to the camp of the general Moonshadow to report what we have learned, both Night’s Blessing and Dawn rising decided to accompany us. The general invited us to a war meeting for us to give our report. I told the general everything we had learned about being Gnoll King and the mysterious amulet that allowed him to teleport back to his hideout, as well as the tunnels that had been dug underneath the Turves clans territory. General Moonshadow told us there was a powerful artifact in the ruined temple where the Gnoll King had made his base, called the Orb of Mathias, if the orb was destroyed, the Gnoll King would no longer be able to escape from battles. Cozy suggested that we should strike at the orb while the collective army of the Turves Tribes and the kingdom of Taralos engaged with the main Gnoll army. That way we could cut off the Kings escape route. Leaving it up to the forces of General Moonshadow and Queen Regent Scarlet Lance to deal with the Gnoll King. I told her that the Gnoll King’s fortress was probably heavily defended and that attacking it would be suicide. It was then that Night’s Blessing came up with a suggestion. She had been in the tunnels underneath her clans territory, she knew there was a path directly into the Gnoll King’s fortress using these tunnels. So, she suggested we should sneak in that way. General Moonshadow told us that she was confident she could overwhelm the Gnoll King’s forces thanks to the assistance of the tribes, making a comment about that while they might not be disciplined troops, they had numbers on their side as well as ferocity and experience. She then proceeded to tell us that we no doubt wanted to get out of the fortress alive, but that she couldn’t send a rescue party after us while they were dealing with the Gnoll King. She did, however, tell us that she would have ponies hire a boat and wait for us at the coast, if we were able to get to water, we would be safe. Despite this precaution, we were warned that this might be a suicide mission. Sunset told the general that this wasn’t the first time she had accomplished a seemingly impossible mission.

Night’s Blessing told us the entrance to the tunnel started at some underground docks that was currently occupied by gnolls, from there the underground river would take us to a set of underground ruins, which would lead into some natural caves before leading to the ancient temple at the center of the gem gnoll territory.

After leading us to the docks, Night’s Blessing motioned for silence. She led us into a passage she claimed would lead us to the docks. Whoever built the passage were not tall people, the ceiling was low enough for us to reach up and touch it. But it seemed well-crafted and secure. The passage soon opened up to a large square room with another passageway leading through to the far side. The room was empty, yet marks in the dust suggested it had been used reasonably regularly. There was also a set of tracks in the room that appeared to be from gem gnolls. But Cozy pointed out that they seemed to follow a strange zigzag pattern. Night’s Blessing suggested that this might be because there were pit traps in the floor. I suggested that if that was true, we had to be careful to follow the pattern of the gem gnoll tracks, not once putting our hooves on the parts of the floor the tracks didn’t frequent. Following my advice, we all managed to get across the room without incident.

The room above us after passing the room with the pit traps seemed to be a sleeping area for the gem gnolls, Cozy spotted bells attached to string scattered all over the room as a crude alarm system, we decided it would be best to not disturb this room and search for another way to the boats. The passage to the south led to a square room but seems to have been used as a storage area. Going through this room, we could hear running water before we could see it, we arrived at the underground river. To the side of this river was a pier and tied to be pier were two boats, each one of them large enough to hold eight ponies. We also spotted two gem gnolls in the process of patching up a leak in one of the boats with tar. The gnolls tried to push the boats into the water upon seeing us, but were quickly overwhelmed by Cipher, Night’s Blessing, Silverwing and Shadow Chaser jumping them at once, taking them captive and tying them up by the riverbed. We then all helped push one of the boats into the water and got into it. As we pushed it away from the pier the current gripped the boat, sending it spinning away downstream. We spent the next few hours watching cave walls go past as we continued down the river. Then Night’s Blessing pointed out a landmark, a bridge had collapsed into the river, the river running shallow over the remains of the bridge, beyond was a second bridge that was still standing. Night’s Blessing told us that this meant that it was time to get off. Night’s Blessing pointed out that we could skip navigating through most of the ruins if we got up on a steep cliff that led to the final section of ruins that led directly into the natural caves that followed. Cozy and Silverwing got up on the cliff using their wings while I employed a teleportation spell to get up there instantly. We were just to let down some ropes to let Cipher, Shadow Chaser, Sunset and Night’s Blessing get up there, but before he could look down the road we were ambushed by strange small pale human-like creatures with a pale skin, clad in black rags. The first time I had ever encountered humanoid beings outside of the world that Sunset originally fled to. But apparently humanoids existed in this new strange world in addition to ponies.

Cozy quickly finished tying the rope to the top of the cliff as one of the creatures cast a spell that emitted darkness across the area, eliminating the light from my horn. We were now fighting in pitch blackness. I could hear Night’s Blessing quickly climb up the rope and jumping between Cozy and one of the stalkers, I heard her blade strike something in the darkness, it shrieked. I could feel one of the creatures trying to strike me, but it seemed the force field I had erected around me blocked it. Cipher then jumped up and aided Night’s Blessing, who then was able to finish off one of the creatures, a blinding flash of light illuminated the area as she struck down the creature, blinding the other creatures used to the darkness. With that it wasn’t difficult for us to overwhelm the remaining creatures.

“What was that?” I asked the rest of the group. I had never even heard of anything like this, even with my extensive knowledge back in my world. Night’s Blessing answered:

“Dark Creepers, foul creatures that live in the underground, thrive in the darkness and their blades are often poisoned. You were lucky not to get struck. They are servants of the stronger Dark Stalkers; their presence probably means there is one of those around here somewhere.”

Where the dark creepers had fallen, there were no remains of their bodies, only the black rags they had been carrying and their poisoned daggers, as well as the vials of poison they used to poison them. Cipher gathered as much of the poison as he could. Something I took specific note of.

The next room we entered was fully furnished, almost luxuriously so, there was a four-poster bed, a chest of drawers and even a vanity stand with a mirror in his room, there was a tunnel to the north of that into what appeared to be a natural cave. But the most eye-catching of all was a circular hole about 10 feet across in the corner of the room, there was a rope attached to it, leading down into pitch blackness. Out of the hole in the ground came a strange creature. It looked a lot like the dark creepers earlier, with its pale skin, humanoid appearance and dark garb, but this one was much bigger, fully the size of a pony. It wielded a pair of scimitars in each hand. Night’s Blessing moved to engage it, connecting a blow from her own jet- black scimitar. Then the Dark Stalker submerged the room in pitch darkness, drowning out the light from both mine and Sunset’s horns. There was the sound of intense fighting in the pitch blackness before a flash of light once again illuminated the room, putting an end to the darkness. The black garb of the Dark Stalker was lying on the ground in the corner of the room where it had emerged from the dark hole in the floor, standing on top of its remains was Night’s Blessing, who had finished it off in a matter of seconds in pitch blackness.

Cozy was in awe over Night’s Blessing’s fighting skills. And to tell the truth so was I. Cozy questioned her over where she learned to fight so well in the darkness, and she told her that her clan trained themselves to fight effectively at night. I inquired about her special looking black scimitar, she told me that it was a family heirloom passed down from chieftain to chieftain, a magical blade called the Blade of Night. We found various potions in the room, as well as some gold in a hidden compartment. Cipher collected the poison from the remains of the Dark Stalker, maybe it was just to help against our enemies, yet I found myself unable to fully trust him. He seemed to be close to Cozy Glow, even if not as close as Night’s Blessing, so I was wondering if they needed the poison for a more nefarious purpose. I didn’t say anything for now, but I was going to watch the two of them more closely from now on.

We continued into the natural caves, following the lead of Night’s Blessing. She seemed to be able to detect marks on the ground that revealed which way we should go, it was clear she had been here before, or at least her tribe has. We spent over two days without much incident navigating the cave system in the darkness. The only light coming from mine and Sunset’s horns. Taking breaks whenever we got tired to get some sleep, always making sure there was at least one awake, watching for danger. I made sure to always accompany Cipher or Cozy during their time to watch, I didn’t trust them and was afraid either of them would plunge a knife in my back while sleeping. I also made sure to only eat my own rations, knowing full well that Cipher might attempt to poison any food cooked for the group. Sunset seems to take notice of my paranoia; she told me that my caution was excessive and that I should knock it off. But I knew it was better to be safe than sorry.

When continued through the cavern in what I presume was the next morning, it was hard to tell time this far underground, we came across a cavern that split into three different passages. Night’s Blessing seemed to be deep in thought over what path was the correct one, while she was thinking, I noticed a giant centipede, big as a small house come down from the ceiling. It wasn’t as strong as its size suggested, the creature was quickly overwhelmed by Night’s Blessing, Silverwing and my own spells, not before it managed to bite Silverwing, poisoning him severely. Sunset’s magic unable to cure the poison, we had to leave it to Silverwing’s on natural hardiness to fight the poison. He was able to overcome it with a little bit of rest, but not before the poison had severely weakened his body, making him significantly slower than before. Nevertheless, Silverwing insisted we had to continue forward, regardless of his weakened state, as our mission was more important.

Night’s Blessing soon remembered which way to go, leading us into the tunnel to our right. As we squeezed through a narrow passageway into a stone room, I could see the shape of a pony in the darkness in front of us. But upon closer inspection it was just a stone formation that somewhat looked like a pony, not even a pony that had been petrified, just regular stones. But the sight of the stone formation still seems to have made Cozy uneasy. Maybe her time as a stone statue really had severely traumatized her, I must admit that was never my intention. Maybe Sunset was right, maybe we did go too far with the punishment we gave her. Those petrified were never supposed to be self-aware while in their stone form, they were supposed to be in suspended animation, yet Sunset told me that Cozy had been aware of every single second. I remembered Discord having mentioned this was the way it had been for him, but he was the God of Chaos, so I thought it might be different. Maybe Discord created a special kind of petrification when he punished Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis as a form of revenge. If that was so, I needed to speak to him about this once I finally returned to Equestria.

We continued forward, entering a cave that seemed empty apart from a scattering of rock on the floor that seemed to have fallen from the ceiling. Night’s Blessing whispered to us to be quiet, as even the slightest sound could cause a cave-in. We all remained quiet as we crossed this cave, the only sound being the sound of our hooves against the hard rock beneath us.

As we stepped out of the caves, we started to see stone works around us, Night’s Blessing told us that we had entered the undertemple. As we continued forward, we entered a large hexagonal chamber. I must admit I was impressed by both the scale of his room and the huge arches that supported the roof. In the center of the ceiling there was a large ornate metal disc together with a matching metal disc on the floor, both covered with various markings. It seemed to be a mechanism to open a stairway to the temple above, but how to open it I wasn’t certain, but I suspected that there might be mechanisms in the other rooms.

The chamber to our left was a room dominated by a huge wheel that emerged from the ground, it looked like it was designed to be pushed in order to turn it works a mechanism beneath. I suspected that this was how you opened the way into the temple, Cozy seemed to have the same suspicion, as she ordered Silverwing and Shadow Chaser, the two most physically strong members of our group to push it, but it was no use, the wheel seems to be stuck, probably due to a lack of maintenance. Had we really come so far just to be unable to progress due to a broken wheel? No, I wouldn’t stand for that. After all, I had read some books on these types of mechanisms, I just needed to find some sort of workshop that would have the right tools. Maybe there would be one somewhere around here, the people who once maintained these mechanisms must’ve had maintenance workers nearby. I told the others of my idea, and we started searching through the rest of the complex.

In the room to the right of where the entrance to the temple proper would be, we found a room dominated by a waterfall tumbling down one of the walls. There was some sort of contraption collapsed on the floor near the waterfall, and a large metal cube stood beside the waterfall. The cube had a ladder leading up to its side, climbing up the ladder, the cube turned out to be hollow upon further investigation. The collapsed remains near the waterfall seemed to have once been a chute of some kind, funneling water into the cube, which I surmised to be some kind of counterweight. Probably a part of the mechanism that would open the path to the temple. Great, now I had two things to repair.

Further into the undertemple we discovered what seemed to be an engineer’s worship, I knew such a thing would be present here. There were rusted tools and spare parts scattered everywhere, barrels scattered in one corner and a forge in the other corner. While there was a layer of dust around the tools and spare parts, everything seemed to be functional. I decided to get to work repairing both the broken wheel and the water counterweight system in the other room. This took a few hours, but once finished we were able to turn the wheel, that raised the lower half of the stairway leading upwards. The other half of the stairway came from the top of the ceiling and was activated by the counterweight system. We now had a path upwards to the temple. But attempting to go up the stairs faced us with yet another problem, as there was yet another door, sealed by a magical seal my current level of magic couldn’t break. It would’ve been easy if I still had all the power I had back in Equestria, but alas that was not the case. Searching for a solution, I realized that there was yet another room we hadn’t explored in the undertemple.

This final room was large and strangely shaped, dominated by pits in the floor. In the center of the east wall was a pedestal with some kind of markings. Both me and Cozy decided to go and inspect the pedestal closer, the pedestal had three concentric rings on it that could all be moved around. Working together, me and Cozy worked out that maybe we should move the rings in such a way that it aligns with the markings. As we moved the rings into place however, it seems to have triggered some kind of teleportation spell, a group of skeletal ponies teleporting into the room. Their bones appear to be animated by some kind of dark magic; I had never seen anything like it in my entire life. I had only heard stories about the so-called undead ponies, yet here some were right in front of us. We prepared ourselves to fight the guardians.

Cipher moved to engage one of the skeletal archers, but his dagger didn’t seem to be able to do much against an enemy but was only bone held together with magic. One of the other skeletal archers fired two arrows at Cozy in rapid succession, both hitting the weak spots of her armor, but despite the pain, Cozy was still standing. Night’s Blessing moved up to engage one of the skeletal guardians with heavy armor and melee weapons as Cozy put some kind of enchantment on Silverwing that seemed to increase his battle fervor. One of the skeletal champions moved to flank Night’s Blessing, but she parried their attack and inflicted damage in return with a counterattack. Silverwing at this moment took to the skies and used his momentum to descend upon the skeleton that had just attacked Night’s Blessing, annihilating it completely. Sunset emitting a holy light from her horn but seem to be causing pain to the undead, weakening every single undead warrior in the room. I decided to blast one of the skeletons with a ray of magic, annihilating it completely. It was now that even more undead ponies teleported into the room, these ones still appearing to have their rotten flesh attached to their bodies, they appeared to be zombies, but far faster and more agile than is usually associated with zombies. Night’s Blessing struck down the last skeletal champion and moved to engage the zombies. The last remaining archer from the first wave who was engaged with Cipher seemed to have the upper hand against him, managing to strike him with the long sword they used as a side arm. The zombies focused their attention on Nights Blessing, but she parried their attacks with ease.

It was by the point I started to hear Cozy’s voice echoing in the chamber, I could feel the enchantments she laced into her words, bolstering the morale of each and every one of us. The holy light Sunset emitted from her horn managed to take down the skeleton that Cipher was fighting and hurt the zombies. The enchantment on Silverwing spread to Night’s Blessing, who used her increased fervor to cut down another zombie, just as Silverwing slaid another. I tried to help with my magic, shooting force bolts at the remaining zombies.

It was now that the first and most horrible wave teleported in. Accompanied by another one of these strange agile zombies, as well as another skeletal archer, there was another far more horrible undead. It had the form of a horrifically decayed pony wearing a tattered brown cloak, its eyes alight with red balefire, where it should have had hooves, it instead had horrible long claws. The thing exuded an aura of pure terror. By this point Cipher decided to cast a spell and vanished from sight, it was either a teleportation spell or an invisibility spell. I guess he was feeling outmatched by these horrible undead creatures. Night’s Blessing, obviously invigorated by Cozy’s spell bravely challenged the horrible undead abomination, the only one to dare approach them. Cozy turned towards the horror and decided to insult their mother, oddly enough the vindictive enchantments laced into her words seemed to physically hurt the creature. Sunset’s light managed to kill off the zombie. But someone needed to deal with the skeletal archer, remembering having read something about skeletal undead being especially vulnerable to bludgeoning weapons, I took out the club I carried with me just in case from my saddlebags and charged at the skeleton with it, lifting it with my telekinesis and striking it as hard as I could. The club cracked its skull and the enchantments that bound it together fell apart, leaving only checkered skeletal remains on the ground.

Now there was only the horror to deal with, the creature managed to savagely claw at Night’s Blessing, wounding her quite badly, but she was still defiant. Working together with Silverwing, who was also resistant to its order of terror due to Cozy, they managed to severely wound the creature. Seeing an opportunity, I decided to act, blasting it with magical energy. Destroying the creature utterly.

After destroying the undead guardians, Sunset and Cozy work together to heal those among us who had been wounded in the fight. Sunset patching up Cozy with her magic, Cozy healing her friend, Night’s Blessing, and Cozy and Sunset worked together to heal Cipher, who had now mysteriously reappeared, as well as Silverwing.

When we were ready to continue, we once again checked the door at the top of the stairway, turns out that what we did with the pedestal did indeed dispel the magical seal on the door. We now had access to the temple where the Gnoll King had hidden the Orb of Mathias. We were now very close to accomplishing our goal of destroying it and rendering the Gnoll King vulnerable to the combined forces of Taralos and the tribes of the Turves.

Chapter 10: The Orb of Mathias

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Diary Sunset Shimmer

With the magical seal broken, the way into the ancient temple in the center of gem gnoll territory was open. It was here that we had been told about the Gnoll King was keeping the Orb of Mathias, a magical artifact that was connected to the amulet he was wearing, allowing him to teleport to safety at any time. If we destroyed the orb, that would trap the king so he could be killed by the combined armies of Taralos and the Tribes of the Turves. We entered the temple through a trapdoor in the floor that had been covered by a red velvet rug.

We entered a fabulous room, dominated by a massive bed and littered with gems of all sorts and sizes, as well as many interesting and exotic looking items. There was a large door to both the East and West, both with heavy bars on the side. There was also a staircase to the north leading up. In the center of his room stood a small stone plinth dominated by a large glass sphere built into it. The sphere was crackling with silvery energy and glowing slightly. This had to be the orb of Mathias.

Before dealing with the orb, we decided to look around the room, where we found both a magical greatsword which Silverwing happily equipped, and a magical chain shirt that Night’s Blessing equipped. Cozy had her eyes on a magical headband made of silver with attached orange gemstones that possessed an enchantment to increase her already incredible charisma further. Cozy also acquired a pair of goggles that greatly improved perception. I personally took a cloak with powerful protective enchantments, and Cipher acquired a pair of horseshoes that increased his speed. We also made sure to get as many gemstones as we could. This was probably the Gnoll’s Kings personal treasure hoard.

Now it was time to deal with the orb, it appeared like smashing it would be a simple matter, Cozy ordered Silverwing to smash it with his newly acquired greatsword. But soon as his sword made contact with the orb, the plinth beneath the orb shuddered and creaked and then began to move. Folding itself into the shape of a humanoid golem, with the orb where its head should have been, lightning crackling from its fists. It seemed like the Gnoll King had one last line of defense for the orb. I could also hear gnolls shouting from upstairs. As well as shouting coming from both sets of doors on our floor, the doors suddenly began to shake as gnolls on the other side was pounding on them. The bars on the doors were holding them for now, but we needed to be quick.

The golem acted with incredible speed, boosted by the lightning that surged through it. Silverwing managed to dodge one of the golem’s fists, but the other one hit him square in the jaw, Cipher took the opportunity to sliding behind the golem and hit a vulnerable spot, sending it reeling. Night’s Blessing tried to take the opportunity to strike at it, but even her magical sword has trouble piercing its thick armor. Cozy tried giving us a rallying speech, telling us what we could do this, she had such magnificence in her voice that it was hard not to feel inspired. Silverwing, inspired by her words took his sword and struck at the golem, which was heavy enough to penetrate its armor, the golem was still standing, but it wouldn’t stand too many more hits like that. Twilight tried firing a bolt of force at it, but it seemed like the golem was warded against magic, so it just bounced off its armor like it was nothing. Cozy pointed out that it might not be a good idea to not use magic against it after witnessing this useless display. But I wondered if enchanting my ally’s weapons would work, so I cast a spell that encased Silverwing’s weapon in the holy light of Sarenrae. Shadow Chaser, like Night’s Blessing couldn’t inflict the necessary force to pierce the armor.

A group of gnolls now came running down the stairs, blocking our only exit. One of them attacked Shadow Chaser who managed to fend them off and another attacked Twilight, wounding her with their spear. The golem gave Silverwing a beating, but under the berserk rage he was under he just shrugged off the wounds like they were nothing. Cozy cast a spell on Silverwing that seems to make him even more of a raging berserker, Silverwing swung his light-enhanced sword at the golem, inflicting massive damage, it seemed like magical enhancements were still effective. Another blow like this and the golem would go down. But Silverwing seemed badly hurt by the golem, so I decided to run up to him and patch up his wounds with my glowing horn. Twilight seems to be getting overwhelmed by gnolls, so she positioned herself to have all gnolls in a straight line in front of her and then her eyes started to glow with green and purple energy, I recognized this kind of magic, dark magic, the last time I have seen any version of Twilight use this kind of magic was during my last encounter with Midnight. This didn’t bode well, but Twilight did manage to use the dark magic to summon a bolt of dark lightning, striking all the gnolls by the stairs, killing them instantly. Despite the corrupting nature of dark magic, I had to admit it was effective. Yet seeing her use it still concerned me. After taking another pummeling from the golem, Silverwing managed to finish it off and Cipher climbed up on its head and destroyed the orb.

As the orb was destroyed, there was a massive crackling sound as part of the ceiling fell, the wall by one of the doors buckled and fell down and the floor beneath us shook. Giant cracks appeared everywhere, looking down I could see lightning blazing throughout the room below us. We could no longer go back the way we came. The only way forward was up the staircase, and we had to act fast as gnolls came pouring out of the hole in the wall. There seem to be an endless tide of them, there was no way we could fight them all.

Shadow Chaser placed himself by the foot of the stairs, gesturing to us to get behind him:

“I can hold them off, you need to leave, NOW! Don’t worry about me, without my family, I have nothing left to live for, but with my final act I will make these gnolls pay for what they did to my family. Don’t protest, you don’t have time, LEAVE NOW!”

I opened my mouth as to protest his decision, but Cozy looked at me and told me:

“He is right, his sacrifice will buy us time, but if we linger here, we will all die. We need to go.”

I decided to listen to her, and we ran up the stairs as quickly as we could, I could hear the fighting from downstairs, sounded like Shadow Chaser took down gnoll after gnoll but I knew he would eventually be overwhelmed. But he was doing a good job of buying us time, blocking the stairs, which meant that if the gnolls wanted to get at us, they first needed to get past him.

The spiral staircase soon opened onto the roof of the temple. I saw a stone dome extending away from us in every direction, the entire structure was shaking and rocking around as if it was caught in an earthquake. Two landmarks around us could offer us a potential escape route, one would mean scrambling down some stairs and running across the courtyard, but the walls around the courtyard were full of gnolls using ranged weapons. Alternatively, we could make our way across the roof of the shaking building, out of range of the bows of the gnolls. I turned to the Knight Commander, asking her which way we should go. Cozy didn’t hesitate making a decision, she told us we needed to make our way across the roofs, as the majority of our number could fly anyway.

The path across the roof required us to jump several gaps, Silverwing decided to carry me on his back while he flew across, Twilight teleported across the gaps and Cozy led the way, flying. Eventually we managed on a path towards the docks, Silverwing put me down. On the way we could see a tall statue of what looked like a bearded dwarf, however the gnolls had heavily vandalized the statue with graffiti, we made our way down a set of stairs leading down between the statue’s feet, a heavy steel door standing open in this courtyard. Cozy ordered Silverwing to close the door behind us in order to slow down the gnolls. The docks at the bottom of the stairs were empty of gem gnolls, and there were several empty boats waiting for us. It was an underground river, as we still seem to be in some kind of cave complex.

We quickly hurried down to one of the boats and got on it as quickly as possible and took it down the river, the boat swept across a turn and came out into an open pool. I could see an exit ahead, but it was blocked by a solid iron gate, fortunately there was a winch next to the gate that must have been used to raise it.

Positioning our boat next to the winch, Silverwing climbed up on the gate and started pulling it. As he reached the winch, I could hear an angry roar and I saw the largest gem gnoll I have ever seen lurching towards Silverwing. The creature didn’t seem to be armed, but it did have long claws that seemed more than capable of ripping us to shreds. As Silverwing was unable to defend himself while pulling the winch, Night’s Blessing jumped out of the boat, positioning herself between the giant gem gnoll and Silverwing. The rest of us provided support from the boat. This creature almost looked as if a gem gnoll had been crossbred with a troll.

Cipher’s horn lit up with an aura of darkness, sending a ray at the giant gem gnoll, cursing it. The gem gnoll attempted to attack Night’s Blessing with its giant claws, she nimbly dodged one of the claws while the other inflicted a massive gash on her stomach. This didn’t stop Night’s Blessing from continuing to fight. Inflicting a wound on the gem gnoll in return. I decided to summon one of my most powerful spells and blasted the gnoll with a blast of holy energy, Twilight fired a blast of energy from her horn in tandem with mine, a blast of concussive force it seemed, as it instantly knocked out the gem gnoll. But it didn’t seem like it killed it. But while the creature was knocked out, Silverwing finished raising the gate and we were able to continue forward.

As we floated down the river, I finally got the chance to catch my breath and let my brain catch up on everything that had happened. I could feel the sting of remorse as I thought about the grisly fate Shadow Chaser must’ve met at the hands of the gnolls, he was fighting so many of them, and the building was about to collapse on his head. There was no way he survived that. I at the very least will always remember his sacrifice, and I hope that Cozy will also remember what he did for all of us. I could feel a single tear streaming down my face. Twilight noticed it and told me that while she didn’t know Shadow Chaser that well, she too felt the loss of a companion. Silverwing joined us in solidarity telling us that Shadow Chaser’s bravery would forever live on in the history books of Taralos. This only left Cozy and Cipher. Cozy sighed and told me that she would deliver a speech during Shadow Chaser’s funeral that would bring justice to his sacrifice. Cipher remained just as inscrutable as always.

We came across more gem gnoll settlements as our boat continued down the river, but we seemed to have since outrun the alarm, and we avoided any undue attention by keeping our heads down. Finally, after what felt like a full day on the underground river, we finally emerged in daylight once again, as we entered the open ocean. Before us was a welcome sight, an entire ship crewed by ponies. This was probably the rescue crew general Moonshadow had sent to retrieve us. The boat picked us up as we got closer, and he took us back to Moonshadow’s camp. We were welcomed as heroes into the general’s tent where we also met up with Queen Regent Scarlet Lance. The Queen Regent told us how the battle had gone. While the combined forces of Taralos and the tribes had suffered some casualties, their alliance had allowed them to crush the gem gnoll forces, while if they had remained divided, they would have almost surely lost. The Gem Gnoll King, without his teleportation device had been slain in battle by a combined effort of Queen Regent Scarlet Lance herself and Dawn Rising. Night’s Blessing told them that she was proud of her partner’s accomplishment. Even if she did make clear we deserved at least half the credit for the death of the king as we were the ones who destroyed the orb. The death of the king had ended the war and it was all thanks to us, both our efforts in destroying the Orb of Mathias and in establishing the alliance between the clans and Taralos.

The Queen Regent as reward for our services knighted both Twilight Sparkle and Night’s Blessing making her the first knight of Taralos from the Turves clans. We were all given medals for our exceptional service to the kingdom. Cozy kept her promise and convinced the rest of the work camp to hold a requiem for Shadow Chaser. While we didn’t have a body, we erected a symbolic grave on the site of the final battle between our forces and the gem gnoll army. Cozy Glow, as promised delivered a speech that managed to move even the most hardened warrior:

“I didn’t know Shadow Chaser for very long, but for a short time I did know him he had been an exceptional companion and warrior in the service of Taralos. The little I do know about his personal life is that he was once a father with a beautiful wife and foals, this life of his was cut tragically short when gem gnolls butchered his village, including the rest of his family. He was the only one who survived. I heard that Shadow Chaser gave himself to the Moon Princess in order to make sure what happened to him wouldn’t happen to other families. Ever since that day he had been a dedicated Defender of this glorious kingdom, not only a foe to the gem gnolls, but a defender of the weak and helpless. While he may no longer be with us, know this, his death was not in vain. His sacrifice allowed the rest of us to escape the heart of gem gnoll territory alive. I will personally never forget this sacrifice. And I assure you, The Defenders of Taralos will continue his legacy of protecting the innocent, and to protect Taralos from any threat, within or without.”

The crowd cheered as Cozy finished her speech. I wondered if what she said was genuine, in any case, I would hold her to that. For I too wanted the Defenders of Taralos to be a force for good in this world. When we got back to the capital, we were welcomed as heroes, for even the common people knew of what we had accomplished. Cozy was clearly enjoying every moment of glory and attention, and for that matter so did I. I feel like we had more than earned our place as heroes of Taralos. Twilight however was a little bit more withdrawn, after the festivities were over, she told me there was something she wanted to discuss with me. She took me to the royal library so we could have some privacy. When we got there, she told me about what she noticed with Cipher, he had made sure to pick up every single dose of poison from the Dark Creepers and the Dark Stalker, but he didn’t use a single dose this entire time we had been fighting. She suspected that maybe he intended to use them on someone else. I told her that she didn’t have evidence for such a thing, but that I would keep my eyes open. But one thing Twilight told me he did in fact worry me:

“Whatever Cipher is planning; I suspect Cozy Glow has something to do with it. Your faith in her will be your downfall, Sunset.”

Chapter 11: The Rook of Taralos

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Diary of Valentine
My time in the dungeons of Taralos had been a living hell. I had been living the high life on the money stolen from the many mares I seduced and exploited. I was even of a high rank among the Cult of Chaos, worshippers of the Unspoken, the God of Chaos. But now I had been reduced to being confined to this cell, eating stale bread. The only news of the outside world being what I gleaned from other prisoners and the guards.

I have heard rumours that the group of adventurers who captured me had all their members knighted, Cozy Glow, their groups leader had been promoted to the leader of a knightely order, the Defenders of Taralos. This boiled my blood even thinking about it. I swore that if I ever got out of this place, I would have my revenge against the people who put me in here. Especially that orange unicorn I got into a fight within the lair of the Forge Cats.

One day I was visited in my cell, the visitor was a pony, and it must have been a high-ranking one, as he ordered the other guards to get out so I could speak with him in private. He pulled back the hood that had obscured his face once we were alone, revealing a familiar face. It was the same unicorn who was part of the group that had arrested me, I could recognize his grey coat, orderly black mane and piercing green eyes anywhere. I asked him:

"What do you want?"

The pony chuckled, his green eyes staring intensely into my soul:

"Well, I am here to grant you your freedom, as long as you perform a favor for me in return."

I was immediately suspicious, favors like this was not granted without a string attached.

"Other than my freedom, whats in it for me? Do I get to kill the pesky ponies who put me in this awful place?" I told the unicorn. He explained everything to.me calmly:

"Oh, you will have your revenge, I have arranged for you to become the leader of the Cult of Chaos. The only thing I ask of you in return is to command your followers to restore the Temple of Chaos in the Forest of Dreams. This will spread chaos across Taralos and the Defenders of Taralos will be sent to respond to the threat. When they do so, kill them. As for their leader, Cozy Glow, I have great plans in store for her, she will not be present among them, neither will I for that matter."

Realizing that this pony was going to hand me everything I wanted on a silver platter, I accepted the deal. He opened the door to my cell and handed my a potion of invisibility. Now everything was suddenly going my way.

Diary of Cozy Glow

After the defeat of the Gnoll King and the end of what colloquially became known as the Gem Gnoll War among the people of Taralos, the kingdom entered an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. The horn of Prince Shining Horn was "found" among the belongings of the Gnoll King, leading to Queen Regent Scarlet Lance stepping down, the coronation of King Shining Horn taking place just a month after the end of the war. It seemed like Scarlet Lance kept her word of stepping down for her brother once the war was over after all. It was a shame, as Scarlet Lance was a much stronger monarch than Shining Horn. For my role in the defeat of the Gnoll King, I was invited into the inner circle of the King's advisors.

I did sense an opportunity, for Shining Horn was without a romantic partner, if I could manipulate him into marrying me that was a pathway for me to become Queen. I did attempt to woo him, starting by accompanying him during his walks in the palace garden, casually talking to him. He was quite curious about my life and how I had contributed to beating the gnolls. Most of what I told him were lies, keeping my dark past and the true reason his horn was stolen hidden.

Shining Horn told me some very interesting facts about his family history. His father, the former King Greybeard had recently passed away due to what most assumed was an illness. He had been sick for years before his demise, which was why he wanted to step down and give the throne to his son, this was around the same time me and Sunset first showed up in Taralos.
Yet his sister suspected their father might have been poisoned. For a couple of years before our arrival, the Old King's brother, Prince Swiftblade had attempted a coup against his brother and been banished from the kingdom as a result. Scarlet Lance suspected an agent of Prince Swiftblade was responsible for the death of Greybeard. I had to agree with Scarlet Lance, the entire situation did sound suspect.

With time I think Shining Horn started to take a liking to me as we got to know each other. Shining Horn talked a lot about his beliefs, that we could unite the different tribes under one banner with diplomacy, and that he was hoping to avoid conflict with the Gem Gnolls through a peace offering. He was very naive in my eyes, but sincere, which was sort of admirable. The King still valued my more pragmatic advice, and he said he really appreciated how I convinced most of the Turves Clans to accept the alliance.

However, when I finally made my move, asking the King if he wanted to get more... intimate... in our relationship. He just told me:

"I am honored you would ask, Dame Cozy Glow, but I have already been engaged to Morning Rose. She is a mare from from one of the most powerful noble houses in Taralos, our future marriage will strengthening the connection between our families. While you have done alot for Taralos Cozy and your noble title is more than earned, you simply don't have the pedigree of the more established houses. Plus, you are a pegasus, the other noble houses would never accept their King being married to anypony other a high-class unicorn. I am truly sorry, but I am more than willing to have you as a friend Cozy"

While his answer was disappointing, seems another path to power had run into an obstruction, I did see the value of having the King himself as a friend. And I had to admit part of me genuinely cared for him. That floozy he was engaged to on the other hoof...

The ties between Taralos and the Turves Tribes that had participated in the final battle against the Gnoll King continued to strengthen over the following years. Night's Blessing continued to visit Vil for diplomatic meetings, we spent some time together as friends throughout these visits. She told me about how her union with Dawn Rising had brought their clans together like never before. The Black Hooves and the Red Rocks were almost like a single clan, but their closeness had made the other clans nervous.

I heard from Sunset that she joined the Temple of the Sun Queen, becoming a preacher to spread her word of forgiveness and redemption. Twilight didn't interact with me much, word on the street was that she spent most of her time searching in vain for a spell that could penetrate the barriers between dimensions so that she could go home. Whenever Twilight intended to bring me with her as a prisoner or leave me be in this world I did not know. I would never allow her to take me back alive, I would rather die than to return to a statue.

The King would soon get married to Morning Rose, their union producing a son.

During one of the many visits of Night's Blessing, while spending time gossiping back in the room I aquired at the palace during one late evening. I suddenly heard a knock on the door. I told Night's Blessing to wait while I answered the door. It was Cipher, telling me he wanted to speak to me in private. Sensing a matter of great importance, I asked Night's Blessing to wait out in the hallway. Cipher immediately approached me and whispered in my hear:

"I see you have been getting close with King Shining Horn. That will serve our purpose quite well. A path has been cleared to make you the Queen of Taralos. There is just one thing left for you to do."

I asked him about whatever that one thing might be, Cipher handed me a vial containing a strange black liquid.

"Sneak into the Kings bedchamber at night and pour this liquid into the mouths of the King, his wife and their newborn child. The guards trust you and they will let you in. After their deaths, only Scarlet Lance stands between you and ultimate power."

I had to admit the offer was tempting. Yet thinking of the time I had spent with Shining Horn, something didn't sit right with me. Plus, there was something else that was off here. Shining Horn had told me the elite of Taralos would never accept a pegasus ruler, especially not one who didn't come from the established noble families. And how exactly would I get away with such a blatant murder? No, there was something fishy about this. Cipher clearly had his own agenda. He did not want to establish me as Queen, he was working for someone else, and he was using me as a pawn to get the royal family out of the way. I remembered what Shining Horn said about there being an agent in their midst working for Prince Swiftblade, I think I found him.

"You have no intention of making me Queen do you Cipher? I am only a disposable pawn in your game ain't I? The one you truly want on the throne is the Kings uncle, Prince Swiftblade, isn't it?"

Cipher gave me a sadistically cruel smile, his true insectoid eyes being momentarily visible. He held his dagger against my throat using the telekinesis from his horn in a threatening manner.

"Very smart Cozy, no, I do not have any intention of making you a monarch and I never did. Swiftblade is far more worthy of that position than you can ever be. Only a pony of royal blood can hope to hold on to the throne after all. And you my friend is not of royal blood. Nevertheless, you will do what I say, or I will slit your throat where you stand.”

Even with the dagger against my throat. I tried to take time to analyze the situation: The king was in check by an enemy bishop, there were no ways out of the check, except one. It was time to castle, but this move would end up with the rook being taken. Fortunately, reality was not like chess, there was room for uncertainty. If I did what Cipher wanted, I would be truly screwed, the guards would know who was responsible and I would be found guilty of regicide. Who knew what kind of punishment would be inflicted upon me for that. Perhaps even worse than my stone imprisonment back in Equestria. No, however dangerous it seemed, the other option was better.

First, I needed to get his knife off my throat, so I told, Cipher:

"Fine, I will do it."

This was enough for him to relax the pressure against my throat. I took the opportunity get away from him and to scream for help as loud as I could, hoping that Night's Blessing was still lurking somewhere out of the corridor. In response, Cipher lunged at me with his dagger, I tried my best to dodge it, but he plunged it deep into my back. The world suddenly became blurry as I felt a sting of pain. Just before the world went black, I could see Night's Blessing rush into the room, engaging Cipher in combat, just before Cipher cast an invisibility spell on himself and disappeared.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself lying on my own bed, a unicorn's glowing horn pressed up against my wounded back. I opened my eyes and saw Sunset at work patching up my wounds, together with Night's Blessing by her side.

"You are lucky to be alive, if Night's Blessing didn't stem the bleeding and rushed to get me immediately you would have bled out on the floor" Sunset told me.

I wasted no time telling them exactly what happened, holding nothing back. No more lies, not with those two at the very least, because they were my best friends in the whole world. I told them to immediately inform the guards to be wary of an assassination attempt from Cipher, and to immediately wake up the royal family.

Sunset leaned over me with a smile on her face and said:

"You did the right thing Cozy; I am proud of you. Just wait until I tell Twilight about the sacrifice you made here tonight. You just proved without a shadow of a doubt she was wrong about you. You just took a dagger to your back to protect the King, that’s downright heroic."

Night's Blessing rushed to warn the guards about Cipher while Sunset remained by my side. Eventually guards came back to me and said they searched the entire palace without finding a trace of Cipher. Yet they would make sure no one made it into the royal family's bedchambers, invisible or not, until the crisis was over, and Cipher was apprehended.

Fearing Cipher lurking in every shadow, I asked Night's Blessing to sleep in the same room as me for the next couple of nights. Yet despite the presence of a dear friend, I slept uneasily, and when I did sleep, I only had nightmares.

Chapter 12: The Haunting at Green Square

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Diary of Cozy Glow
The news of me getting attacked by Cipher spread fast throughout Vil and it was soon the talk of the town. That Cipher had attacked the Knight Commander of the Defenders of Taralos and tried to assassinate the King on behalf of Prince Swiftblade soon became public knowledge. None except Sunset and Night's Blessing knew of my involvement in the plot to kill the King. But they did know my warning might have saved his life. No one had seen Cipher since the incident, it was assumed he had skipped town by now to return to whatever hole his master was hiding in. Security at the palace had been greatly increased. I had overseen it myself to make sure it was airtight. Yet I knew I could not sleep well until Cipher was caught, during this time I had the most awful nightmares, one in particular was so horrifying I had to write about it in another journal.

Sunset had told Twilight about what had transpired, causing her to seek me out and offer a formal apology for not giving me the benefit of the doubt. She told me that she had suspected Cipher was up to something, but that she suspected I was the mastermind, not Prince Swiftblade. To be honest, so did I. I had been closer to falling for Cipher's trap than I liked to admit. I was almost set up to take the fall for his crimes. Just because he dangled the carrot of power in front of me. I must not let my desire for power distract me from the fact that someone is trying to manipulate me in the future.

After she saved my life, I offered Night's Blessing the chance to be a permanent member of the Defenders of Taralos. She agreed on the conditions that she would be allowed to go back to her husband between assignments. Which I agreed to.

About a week after the attack. King Shining Horn summoned the Defenders of Taralos to his chambers. He thanked me sincerely for saving his life and the lives of his family. He also told me that there had been certain matters he wanted us to investigate. One matter coming from a town called Green Square thathad petioned the crown for help because of strange happenings at a local inn. The king told us that the innkeeper of the inn called “The Lettuce Head” would inform us more about the specifics once we arrived in town. The other was a report from the Tribe of Bones saying intruders had been desecrating the graves lately and they had trouble catching the culprits so they would like our help. Deciding that the matters at Green Square didn’t require all of us, I told the king that me and Night’s Blessing would investigate the inn while Sunset, Silverwing and Twilight took care of the graverobbers. I thought this mission could make for a nice holiday for both me and Night’s Blessing as a lot of this mission might involve staying at the inn and trying to figure out what was wrong.

I set out towards Green Square with Night’s Blessing in the morning, it was a warm spring day, the sun was shining and there were very few clouds in the sky. I spent most of my time during the journey time talking to my friend, primarily about the nightmares I have been having since Cipher’s attempt on my life. I told her I had seen some truly horrific things, being trapped in a realm of nightmares where I saw people being tortured in ways I previously couldn’t even imagine. I told her that as a result I have had trouble going to sleep. Night’s Blessing told me she remembered, having been the one to keep me company the nights after I was almost killed. She told me having someone to watch my back to make sure that Cipher didn’t plunge another knife into it did seem to calm me, and that I would get through this if I continued to accept help from other people. Night’s Blessing told me that her people believed their dreams were protected from nightmares by their tribe’s goddess, the Moon Princess, nightmares being believed to be sent by the Night Mare, another goddess who represented the darker aspects of night, including nightmares. She told me that it might help if I prayed to the Moon Princess for protection. Night’s Blessing taught me the rituals of worship for her tribe. I hoped that this would help me fend off the nightmares.

We had traveled for about seven hours when I could suddenly hear shouting and the sound of weapons clashing from just around the corner. When we rounded the corner, we could see a pair of earth ponies, running from a pack of gem gnolls. Presumably another pack that used to be part of the Gnoll Kings army, but after the death of their king had resorted to banditry. I had already dealt with many packs like that during the six years since the Gem Gnoll War. Just as me and Night’s Blessing were to jump into action to defend the innocent earth ponies, another individual turned up to help. It was the biggest earth pony we had ever seen, as big as ancient alicorns like Celestia. His coat was brown and his mane yellow, he wore heavy plate armor and carried a greatsword in his mouth, despite its massive weight.

When the gnolls saw the stranger, they fled in the other direction. The two are ponies that had previously been running stopped and thanked us all for driving off the gnolls. They introduced themselves as Apple Patch and Steady Leaf, citizens of the nearby town of Green Square. The stranger also took his time to introduce himself, he seemed relentlessly cheerful and optimistic, he didn’t as much speak as proclaiming things loudly as if he was a superhero in the comic books I used to read as a kid.

“Greetings citizens, I, Strong Mountain, champion of goodness and righteousness in service of the Sun Queen is glad to be of service.”

I decided to introduce myself in turn, trying to match Strong Mountain’s extravagant way of speaking to gently make fun of him.

“Greetings Strong Mountain, I am Knight Commander Cozy Glow, The Rook of Taralos and the hero of The Gem Gnoll War. It was I who made the alliance with the Turves clans possible and who destroyed the Orb of Mathias that allowed for the defeat of the Gnoll King”

If he understood I was making fun of him, Strong Mountain didn’t show it. He seemed to genuinely consider my accomplishments impressive contributions to the greater good.

“Nice to meet you Cozy Glow, I have indeed heard of you, it is nice to meet you in person, for you have proven yourself to be a great hero in these lands, I hope you keep up the good work and resist the temptations of darkness. By the way, I need to go after those gnolls, as long as they live, they are a threat to innocent ponies. Would you mind escorting Apple Patch and Steady Leaf to their home? There might be more bandits on the road, and I would like to make sure they have a safe journey.”

Considering we were going to Green Square anyway, I agreed to escort them. Apple Patch and Steady Leaf thanked me for the offer. With that, Strong Mountain set off in pursuit of the gnolls. But you know As soon as he left, Night’s Blessing smiled and whispered in my ear with an amused voice:

“Paladins, am I right?”

“What’s a paladin?” I asked her, genuinely not knowing what that was.

Night’s Blessing laughed, like she couldn’t believe I didn’t know what that was.

“Paladins… Well… The best way to describe them is that they are holy knights dedicated to upholding the values of goodness and justice. The gods granting them divine power because of their dedication to these values. Much like your friend Sunset’s dedication to redemption grants her favor with gods. I can’t believe you don’t know what that is considering our fallen comrade Shadow Chaser was a paladin, granted… He was more… Vengeance oriented than Strong Mountain. Strong Mountain is a known figure among my tribe, he is a good stallion, but he is also a stick in the mud. Paladins are not known to appreciate the value of a good trick. Not like you or me. Remember this Cozy, just because trickery is your preferred method of getting things done, that doesn’t mean you have to be bad, okay? Regardless of what stick in the mud paladins like Strong Mountain or killjoy wizards like Twilight Sparkle tell you. “

I nodded in agreement and with that we continued our journey towards Green Square. The rest of the journey was uneventful, with no bandits, gem gnoll or otherwise attacking Apple Patch and Steady Leaf while we were escorting them. I asked them if they knew anything about the strange events going on at the Inn in their hometown, they told me that while they haven’t stayed at the Inn personally, they had heard strange reports from there that suggested the Inn might be haunted. I didn’t put much stock in ghost stories, even if Applebloom once told me she had an encounter with the undead, I believed she only made up the story for attention. I was relatively sure we would be able to confirm there was nothing strange going on after we stayed a few days at the inn.

When the evening started to approach, we finally arrived at Green Square, it proved to be a picturesque village with small stone houses arranged around the central square of carefully maintained grass. Many of the houses had neatly maintained vegetable gardens. We escorted Apple Patch and Steady Leaf to their respective houses, them thanking us for protecting them during the journey. We made our way to the Lettuce Head inn, which seemed to be a rather small inn. We immediately approached the innkeeper, a friendly middle-aged and rather overweight pony called Twilight Repose, this would be the second pony called Twilight knew. But she had very little in common with Twilight Sparkle other than being friendly, I guess.

I told Twilight Repose that we had been sent from Vil by the King to investigate the reports of a haunting going on at this very inn. Twilight Repose told us everything she knew about the strange events. She told me that she had been feeling an eerie presence at night, there was red stains in the kitchen that looked like blood and that a maid that worked there had reported seeing a strange unicorn walking through the hallway with a red liquid dripping from its horn. When the other personnel went to investigate, they couldn’t find the apparition, and I noticed one of the guests was missing. When the guest in question had later woken up in a thr garden surrounded by the same red liquid found in the kitchen, he had decided to leave and never come back. Twilight Repose thought that we were dealing with a ghost, but she didn’t know of any recently deceased pony in Green Square. She didn’t know where all the blood came from either as there were no casualties inflicted by this ghost, as far as she knew not even animals. I thanked her for telling us and asked for a room for two ponies. Swearing I would get to the bottom of this.

When me and Night’s Blessing got up to the room, it turned out to be a rather cozy looking room with two beds and a fireplace, with a single desk and a chair, both the furniture, walls, floor and roof were made of wood that creaked slightly when I put my hooves on it. As we were waiting for something strange to happen, Night’s Blessing decided it would be a good idea to tell each other ghost stories, after all, the mood for such a thing was perfect while staying in a supposedly haunted inn. She told me a story about the mysterious Tribe of Bones that lived to the south of Taralos:

“There was a time when my mother Silent Hunter had sneaked into one of the mausoleums of the Tribe of Bones in search of valuables. She had come home with gold jewelry and other valuables and been greeted as a hero. However, this wouldn’t last, as a few weeks after she got back. She was woken up by something in the night, she opened her eyes and in front of her was standing a pony with decayed flesh, speaking with a disturbing moan. It told her she must return what is stolen or it would eat her brains. My mother was scared to death by this and immediately gave back the jewelry. The undead pony disappearing into the night, and Silent Hunter swore to never steal from a gravesite again.”

I thought this was a quite interesting story, but if it wasn’t for the fact that I had seen the undead during our quest to bring down the Gnoll King, I wouldn’t believe they existed. When it became my turn, I decided to tell her the most horrifying story I knew, the legend of the Unmarked:

“In my homeland there is a horrifying place called the Everfree Forest, it’s a lot like the Forest of Dreams. Everfree is filled with mysterious ruins and various monsters. But among all the monsters that terrorize ponies in this forest, the worst are the Unmarked. I originally heard this story from a former friend of mine, Applebloom. One day, when she became lost in the Everfree Forest. She saw a mysterious filly that was watching her and shr decided to follow the filly deeper into the forest. She eventually came across a strange town in the middle of the forest called Sunny Town. The ponies there seemed normal at first, other than the fact that they didn’t have a mark of destiny despite being nearly all adults. Neither did Applebloom though, and as someone who was frequently mocked by her peers for not having her mark, she felt at home. But this was until she discovered the truth. She decided to explore an abandoned house, finding the burned skeleton of a filly sitting in the fireplace. Turns out that Sunny Town was founded by a cult of ponies that rejected marks of destiny. But when one of their own had gotten a mark, a filly named Ruby, they had executed her by burning her alive in the fireplace. The horrific act cursing the town forever. When the sun went down, the moon would reveal the true nature of the village’s residents. They were undead creatures with decaying flesh and bone, they tried to kill Applebloom when she decided to flee in terror. She was only saved by the intervention of the ghost of the filly that had been burned alive. Applebloom fled back to her hometown of Ponyville. But not all ponies were as lucky as Applebloom, as I have found the skulls of young ponies in Everfree, their heads bashed in by a blunt instrument. Presumably they were killed by the Unmarked because of the mark they carried on their flank. I believe the only reason Applebloom wasn’t murdered on sight by the town residents was because of her lack of a mark.”

As I finished my story Night’s Blessing clapped her hooves together in applause. Congratulating me on an exemplary story. But just at that moment, we could hear the floor creaking from outside in the hallway, like a pony just set their hooves just outside the door to our room. We quickly opened the door to check if anyone was in the hallway, but we didn’t find anypony. It was probably nothing, but as we went back to our room, I had this strange sensation of being watched. Despite all of that, it was late, and we were both tired, so we decided it was time to go to bed. Night’s Blessing guided me through a ritual to ask for the blessing of The Moon Princess. After that, despite all the ghost stories, Night’s Blessing fell asleep like a log, leaving me to stare into the ceiling, trying my best to fall asleep. Yet I kept hearing the same strange noises as before outside the door. I decided to go out and check once again, but once more there was no one there. I went back to bed and by some miracle managed to actually fall asleep.

This was the first time since the assassination attempt I didn’t have any nightmares. Just a dream of being a cook and whipping up a delicious stew in the kitchen. But when I woke up, I found to my horror that I was in the inn’s vegetable garden, right next to a cottage, lying next to me was a pot filled with a red liquid that looked like blood. But on further investigation, it didn’t have the consistency of blood, it was far thicker, like paint. I dipped my hooves in it and tasted it, it didn’t taste like blood either, it tasted more like a combination of different herbs and chalk. Definitely not blood. Looking around the garden it appeared like I was in the process of digging up some beetroot and adding it to the paste. This was certainly strange. When I went to check the cottage, I found that the door was locked, but there were hoof marks on the door as if someone was trying to kick it down and failed.

Night’s Blessing quickly met up with me in the garden, she had been worried when I wasn’t in our room when she woke up. I explained what happened and what I had figured out about the liquid that the innkeeper thought was blood. We checked the kitchen, and it was also quite a mess. Apparently, I have been sleepwalking trying to make red paint. Why I had no idea. When I asked Twilight Repose about who was staying at the cottage. She told me that she had hired out the cottage to a famous painter known as Sunset Radiance, seriously, what’s up with this place and ponies with similar names to ponies I already knew? Twilight Repose hadn’t seen him for a while, but that wasn’t unusual Sunset Radiance was a known hermit who didn’t like being disturbed. I asked Twilight Repose if we could have a look in the cottage to make sure that Sunset Radiance was alright. She gave me the keys.

When we entered the cottage we found a horrific sight, the decaying remains of the unicorn lying next to a magnificent painting depicting a landscape with a setting sun and the first colors of spring, it was beautiful, but incomplete. It seemed like Sunset Radiance had died before completing something that could’ve been a masterpiece. Given the fact that I was mixing paint in my sleep I had a suspicion about what the ghost wanted. Though because I lacked the necessary skills to finish painting myself, I could do one thing to allow Sunset Radiance to finish their masterpiece. I could lend them my body to use in finishing the painting. The next night, we would make certain to leave the door to the cottage open so I could get in. I told Twilight Repose what we had figured out and she would make sure that I would be given unrestricted access to the kitchen and the gardens during the night.

Me and Night’s Blessing would spend the day chatting and telling eachother various stories. Both ghost stories and stories of how trickery won the day. I told her more legends from my home realm. Like the story of the headless horse. When it was time for bed, this time I fell asleep like a log, maybe I didn’t get enough sleep being up making paint the previous night. According to plan, I woke up in Sunset Radiance’s cottage, the painting being closer to being finished than it was yesterday, it was even more breathtaking. I spent another day with Night’s Blessing at the inn, I was feeling very tired the entire day, but I needed to remain up until nighttime so that Sunset Radiance could finish his painting.

Towards the evening, while we were both lying in our respective beds, there was one story Night’s Blessing wanted to hear from me, she wanted to know the story of my first crush. I laughed:

“I spent most of my puberty as a statue and before that I was too young to prioritize such things. But if you absolutely must know, I went to a school once, and there I did have a small crush on a colt named Sandbar, as well as a changeling filly named Ocellus.”

This seemed to really amuse Night’s Blessing who fell over laughing.

“So, you are into girls, eh? I guess I better be careful unless you seduce me. Unless I seduce you first that is. I guess I could ask Dawn Rising if he minds me having you on the side.”

That was a proposal I hadn’t even considered before, Night’s Blessing might have been the best friend I ever had, and she was certainly beautiful, but I never considered her a romantic prospect until she said that. I told her:

“I don’t know what to say to that, I don’t think there is anypony I like being around as much as you. But love has never really been my top priority, friendship, yes, but never love. I don’t know if I see you as my best friend or as something more.”

Night’s Blessing threw herself on top of me, pinning me underneath her, her lips uncomfortably close to mine. But I had to admit, there was something to her in that moment that was irresistible.

“What about friends with benefits?” She asked me in a sensual tone. I gave her a mischievous smile

“I think I can do that.”

Her lips immediately met mine, my first kiss, it was better than expected, even if I was too shocked to do anything other than to lay still and make Night’s Blessing do all the work, Night’s Blessing was obviously quite the experienced kisser. The only word I could use to describe the experience was amazing.

Night’s Blessing showed me many wonderful things that night and after it was over, I fell asleep like a log. Not even a trace of nightmares, my dreams being filled with nothing but memories of the previous night.

I woke up the next morning in the cottage with the painting finished. Hopefully that would put an end to the haunting. Me and Night’s Blessing said goodbye to Twilight Repose, her telling us that we could keep the painting as a thank you for our services, as Sunset Radiance had no family to inherit it. Being a masterpiece by a famous artist she suspected it could be worth a fortune. On our way home, Night’s Blessing asked me to never speak of the night we had to her husband, Dawn Rising, as he wouldn’t be too happy with her being unfaithful like that. I agreed, the last thing I wanted was to get myself involved in a marital dispute. It seemed like Night’s Blessing was a free spirit, I wondered if her husband could accept that about her.

The road home was uneventful. When we returned to Vil, we told the king about what had caused the haunting. When I brought up the painting Shining Horn told me he wanted to see it. I obliged and showed the painting to the king, he loved it so much that he offered to buy it for 5000 gold crowns. Certainly not a price I would complain about.

Chapter 13: A Desperate Plea

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Diary of Twilight Sparkle

I must admit the last couple of months had been overwhelming, I had spent most of my time with my muzzle in books trying to find a spell that can do interdimensional travel, but to no avail. The magic users of this world just didn’t seem to have that level of power. I had told Sunset to keep an eye on Cipher for me, I couldn’t go to the king yet as I didn’t have solid proof against either him or Cozy, plus Sunset wouldn’t let me publicly accuse Cozy without solid proof. Imagine my surprise when the assassination attempt was thwarted by Cozy of all people. According to Cozy, Cipher had led her on with false promises for quite a while, Cipher deciding to kill her once she was able to see through his charade. The wounds Cipher inflicted on Cozy were quite bad, it was a good thing that Night’s Blessing had gone to get Sunset as fast as she could. Sunset had managed to heal her, leaving only a faint scar on her back, but the situation was further complicated when Cozy entered a coma a few days after her injury. The coma seemed unrelated to her injury, I detected traces of strong necromantic magic, something similar to an astral projection spell, magic far more powerful than anything I could currently cast. I wasn’t even sure I could cast a spell like that at the height of my power back in Equestria. The very thought of a being holding such power was enough to send a chill down my spine.

Sunset asked me to prepare a spell to allow her to enter Cozy’s mind, in order to follow her to whatever plane her soul had been sent to. While it wasn’t something I could do on my own, me and Sunset worked together to devise a spell using both arcane and divine magic. Upon casting it, Sunset entered the same kind of coma as Cozy. I guess she was successful in bringing Cozy back from the brink, as both of them awoke about a day later. But neither of them would speak about what they had seen on the other side. It must’ve been really really bad. After making sure they were both safe, I decided to apologize to Cozy, I had been treating her like a criminal this entire time, not even allowing her a chance to reform. But I saw now that whenever I liked it or not, me and Cozy were on the same side, at least for now. She wouldn’t be the first villain I had met that had reformed, maybe Sunset was right, maybe I should put more faith in rehabilitation.

Soon after this incident, I went back to my books. Among the many hours of research, I found a strange notebook among my possessions. It was unmarked, with no name or title on the cover. Upon opening the first page I could see an entry titled: “a Distress Call to Twilight Sparkle”. I recognized the hoofwriting, it was that of my faithful student Starlight Glimmer. I will now repeat what was written in the notebook word for word:

I hope this message will reach you Twilight, wherever you are, you have been gone from Equestria for many years now and your friends were starting to wonder where you went. With Celestia and Luna out of the picture, the people of Equestria elected me, Starlight Glimmer as regent in your stead, with my best friend Trixie taking over as headmaster of the School of Friendship. I am proud to say I think I managed to keep the country together during this time, even if you were still dearly missed. There was no real serious crisis during this time with the exception of a few minor squabbles between ponies and other creatures, squabbles me, Trixie, and the remaining Elements of Harmony were easily able to fix with a friendship speech or two. But that was until she arrived…

A couple of years ago we celebrated what we thought was your return. Someone that looked like Princess Twilight Sparkle showed up at your castle in Ponyville and asked for her throne back. I gracefully stepped down, thinking she was the true monarch. At that time, I hardly suspected anything was wrong, but looking back she had been acting uncharacteristically cold and distant, she did at this point look exactly like you, but her demeanor was haughty and regal, like someone used to being in charge. The first act of the pony I thought was Twilight Sparkle was to summon the other Elements of Harmony and Discord to her castle. I was also present at this meeting. Twilight gave us a speech equally authoritative and frightening:

“Citizens of Equestria, I, your dear Princess have returned to you, on my journeys to the planes beyond I have seen many things, chaos and disharmony without measure. I fear that if we don’t take the necessary measures to guard against disunity, this kingdom will also fall. I hope you; my dear friends, will join me in this endeavor, chaos will be cleansed from the lands. To do that you need to sacrifice whatever lives you have established in my absence and dedicate yourself full-time to the eradication of disorder. My first act in this quest is to contain the living embodiment of chaos itself. Discord, I sentence you to an eternity in stone!”

Discord acted fast, channeling all his chaotic magic at Twilight, who just flicked her horn and dispersed the chaotic energies like it was nothing. A counterspell to chaotic omnipotence, something that should be impossible. Discord quickly surrendered and begged for mercy; the pretender wouldn’t have any of that. Fluttershy had to put her hoof down, telling the pony I thought was Twilight that if Discord was going to become a statue, so would she. The imposter let a sinister smile consume her face for a split second before returning to a cold neutral expression as she spoke her sentence:

“Very well, Fluttershy, I sentence you to an eternity in stone for treason against the crown.”

Twilight’s eyes turned green for a moment before a ray of burning light emerged from her horn, Discord and Fluttershy huddled together with expressions of horror upon her face as they were turned to stone. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie just stared with her mouth open. The False Twilight turned her attention upon them:

“Now, if any of you object you will be sharing their fate, got it?”

The other Elements all seemed to be ready to join their companion in stone until I telepathically told them that resisting now would be futile, we would play along for now and figure out what is going on. With that the imposter didn’t waste any time promoting Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to her own personal enforcers. I was made into the False Twilight’s right-hoof mare, because I kept quiet the entire time, hiding my horror behind a stoic face. Turns out this new Twilight admired my work with the Equalist sect I used to run. But definitely seemed off, not that anything she had done so far wasn’t off from the Twilight we used to know.

The Imposter didn’t waste any time transforming Equestria, the first edict The False Twilight enacted was to change her title from Princess of Friendship to Empress of Friendship. Wasn’t that what Cozy Glow used to call herself? Cozy Glow’s statue did go missing about the same time the real Twilight disappeared from Equestria after all. Was this False Twilight Cozy Glow? Whoever she was, she wasn’t Twilight, at least not the Twilight I knew.

The second edict the False Twilight…Cozy…or whoever she was made was to make the virtues that made up the Elements of Harmony mandatory. Soon there was plaques in Ponyville with various bizarre laws. Twilight’s Law of Honesty: thou shall not lie, or thou shall lose thy tongue. Twilight’s Law of Generosity: thou shall donate half your income to charity, or thou shall have no income. Twilight’s Law of Loyalty: if thou betray the crown, thy shall spend an eternity as a statue. Twilight’s Law of Laughter: thou shall smile and make merry, or thy frown shall become permanent. Twilight’s Law of Friendship: thou shall enforce the Laws of Harmony, or thou shall suffer the fate of the heretic. There was no Law of Kindness, the imposter seemed to have dispensed with the concept after Fluttershy was petrified.

Horrible things started happening to ponies who disobeyed these laws, some were given the exact fate proscribed by the laws, others were taken away never to be seen again. I was forced to carry out some punishments, fish I personally petrified mares, stallions, even young foals, I hated every moment of it, but I couldn’t let the tyrant become suspicious of my real plans. In secret I worked together with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to form an underground resistance against The False Twilight, who we collectively started to call Midnight. Whenever we thought she was Cozy Glow or someone else, Midnight needed to be stopped. But thanks to the draconian measures inflicted by Midnight’s regime, very few ponies dared to openly stand against her, worse, some started to believe in her radical interpretation of Harmony and Friendship. It was quite risky to reveal we opposed Midnight to anyone, lest they sell us out to the tyrant, and we might suffer a fate worse than death for our “betrayal”. For now, we could do little but work within the system, trying to minimize its cruelties wherever we could without being discovered. This involved releasing a prisoner here and there and telling Midnight they escaped, but only so often, we couldn’t afford to let her become suspicious.

Midnight spared no time in using her magic to erect a massive black tower where Twilight’s Castle used to stand, it quickly became a monument to tyranny, feared by all. It’s massive size casting a dark shadow over Ponyville. The top of the power was constantly burning with magical energy, I suspected it was some kind of beacon to further strengthen Midnight’s magic. Midnight was truly unstoppable. By this point Midnight’s appearance had also shifted, she was no bigger, as big as Celestia or Luna, she was clad in a cloak that appeared to be made from the night sky, the stars on the cloak moving and shifting as she moved. She wore an iron crown on her head, much like King Sombra and her eyes were always green, exuding the purple smoke that was the signature of dark magic.

The theory that Midnight was Cozy Glow crashed and burned after Midnight decided she trusted me enough to let me into the deepest dungeons beneath the tower. The horrors that I saw in those dark halls defied description, but let’s say that there were countless ponies, horribly mutilated, strapped to the magical machinery, screaming in agony as their vital essence was sucked out of them. The machines letting the ponies rest for only as long as they needed to recover the vital essence it seemed to be harvesting from them. Midnight seemed quite proud of her creations as she told me:

“Don’t you enjoy the screams of agony from traitors, heretics and sinners? These halls house the worst of the worst, the people that don’t only need to be removed, they need to suffer. Their righteous suffering further fuels my power. This is the result of our glorious work and one day I will use this power to cleanse this world of disharmony forever.”

I nodded, pretending to agree with her, it was obvious what she would do to me if she suspected my true intentions. Midnight took me into the very depths of the tower, into the darkest cell beneath all the rest. Only the radiant glow from Midnight’s horn and mine provided any light. The room was empty except for a single figure, a pony, at least what might’ve once been a pony, each and every limb was broken, rendered into limp tentacle like appendages the creature tried to move, but couldn’t. The mass of its body still had tuffs of a soft pink coat, most of the coat shaven off together with its mane, the body was filled with various runes, I recognized them as life-sustaining runes meant for healing, but here they obviously served a much darker purpose. The only thing that could be used to identify who this creature might have once been, was a cutie mark of a rook on what used to be its flank. Upon making the realization of who this used to be, it horrified me to my core. Midnight wasn’t Cozy Glow; she was something much worse.

The scarlet eyes of what had once been Cozy betrayed a fear greater than any I had ever seen in a creature when she saw Midnight approach, her mouth was sown shut to prevent her from screaming, but I could still hear a muffled sound. Midnight carrying that sadistic smile on her face that I first saw when she turned Fluttershy to stone. Midnight did things to what remained of Cozy, things that I will not talk write about for the sake of mine and your sanity. The life sustaining runes on Cozy’s body keeping her alive no matter what cruelties Midnight inflicted upon her. After she was finished with her unspeakable acts, Midnight turned towards me:

“This is what remains of my once greatest enemy, reduced to nothing, a sad creature that cannot do anything but suffer the righteous torment I have in store for it. Burn what you have seen here today into your mind Starlight, for if you were to ever think of treason, I will prepare a similar fate in store for you. But as long as you remain loyal, don’t fret, for you are about to help me bring about a glorious future of ultimate harmony and order, where the guilty and disharmonious will suffer the punishment, they truly deserve and the righteous will reap their eternal reward.”

These events horrified me so much I realized that we couldn’t do this alone, we needed the real Twilight, we needed you. Once I got back to my own quarters, I wrote what I had to say down in this very Journal, and summoned what I could of my magical might, casting a locate spell together with an interdimensional portal spell. Hoping this will somehow reach you.

Please, Twilight, I don’t know what you are doing or why you have remained away from your homeland for so long. But please, heed these words, if you can read this, come home. We need you more than ever. For I am worried what Midnight will manage to do to Equestria if she gets what she wants. I put the hope of Equestrian in your hooves.

This entire document disturbed me beyond words. The things I had just read were so disgusting that I couldn’t believe they were done by a being wearing my face. If I wasn’t motivated enough previously to my research to devise a spell to get home, now it was my number one priority, beyond even protecting Taralos. I stormed into Sunset’s room and gave her the Journal. After she read it, her face went white.

“This is bad Twilight, this is really bad. You should try to find a way home, it’s imperative that you go back to Equestria to stop her. But Midnight is powerful, more powerful than you, even in your prime, you need all the help you can get to defeat her. I think we need to gather a new team of Elements of Harmony, you can’t guarantee that your friends would be okay when you manage to get back. I think we have already found a couple.”

I saw that look in her eyes, like she knew I knew exactly the people she was referring to.

“Cozy Glow and the Defenders of Taralos? You really think she’s capable of becoming an Element? By the way, Starlight said she saw Cozy in Midnight’s dungeon, how can she be in two places at once? ”

Sunset took a deep breath and try to explain things the best she could:

“Midnight is from another reality, she was the protégé of the duo of tyrants who ruled over that realm, Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, but she proved worse than both combined. There were people who resisted the tyrannical trio, a group known as the Guardians of Freedom, a group led by King Lumen of the Crystal Empire, who is basically the good equivalent to King Sombra, and Queen Chrysalis of a hive of freedom loving changelings, much like the hive Thorax now leads. The two of them were married and adopted a filly who they had grown attached to, that filly was Cozy Glow. Cozy proved to be a master strategist and was partially responsible for the Guardians of Freedom being able to gain the upper hand against the Trio of Tyranny. Cozy’s plans succeeded in destroying Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon with the help of the full power of King Lumen and Queen Chrysalis. But they couldn’t overcome Midnight, and upon the defeat of the Guardians of Freedom, Midnight made sure its leaders would suffer a fate worse than death. I also aided the Guardians of Freedom in this battle, but fortunately I was able to escape through a portal before I was also captured by Midnight.“

I think I was finally starting to understand things, understanding why Sunset had been acting so strangely lately. She did know the other Cozy, the one who had been fighting against tyranny. It was a shame that in a universe where Cozy actually was on the side of good, she would suffer that kind of fate. That was poor thanks for being a hero.

“So, is that why you think Cozy has potential? Is that why you seem to have such a fear of me turning evil? I promise you Sunset, I will never turn into a monster like her no matter what happens.”

Sunset gave me a warm smile before trying her best to explain herself:

“The multiverse is an amazing thing; it can essentially be understood as what if scenarios of what would happen if people would make different choices in life, probably they were raised in different circumstances than the world you are used to. All these scenarios are true at the same time and as real as the reality we are from. But it doesn’t alter who people are at the core, there is a fundament to their souls that always remains the same. That means both you and Cozy had the potential within you to become a hero or a villain depending entirely on the events you experienced and the choices you made. There is no such thing as an inherently evil soul, I have seen good versions of even the worst of people. You Twilight are a prime example of that, I can’t believe someone as good as you could become someone as vile as Midnight given different circumstances, but that is what happened, so I know that you can. But despite what I said, even I think there is a line from which there is no going back, a line once crossed there is little hope for redemption, and Midnight has crossed that line long ago. I would save her if I could, but I just don’t think it is possible. Midnight is one of very few villains I believe cannot be redeemed, she is that bad. By the way, can you do me a favor and not tell Cozy about this journal or its contents, I am not sure she is ready to learn what happened to her counterpart.”

I promised her that I would leave Cozy out of this for now. After that it was time to leave, I needed to get back to my studies, as I now felt time was of the essence. I left Sunset’s room that evening with a lot to think about. Sunset Shimmer, the pony who believed in the goodness of even the worst criminal, the pony who would give a second chance to someone like Cozy Glow and somehow succeeded in reforming even her, even Sunset didn’t think she could save Midnight. That spoke volumes to me, this Midnight might be the most dangerous foe I had ever come across. How ironic that I would become my own greatest enemy.

Chapter 14: The Dead Rising

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Diary of Sunset Shimmer

It had been a few days since Twilight showed me Starlight’s call for aid, ever since we have found ourselves in a desperate situation, stuck in another world while our homeland was ruled by the worst of tyrants. I spent some time during those days explaining to Twilight in detail what I knew about Midnight and the Cozy Glow of the other universe. I remembered my previous encounters with Midnight, they have not been pleasant, there were times I had helped the local defenders of a plane resist Midnight’s invading forces, there was also another instance when I found myself in Midnight’s home realm, this was the tale I wanted to tell Twilight.

That realm was a dark mirror of the Equestria, its people living in fear of the three tyrants that ruled it, the ones known as the Triumvirate, Daybreaker, Nightmare Moon and Midnight, the citizens that hadn’t turned into a statue or been subjected to one of Midnight’s abominable experiments dared not to make a single move against them. The things I had witnessed over in that world would be forever burned into my retina and cement Midnight as amongst the most evil villains I ever had the misfortune to encounter. But while there was darkness in that realm, there was also light, there were some who resisted, an alliance between the Crystal Empire and the changelings, united when King Lumen married Queen Chrysalis of the changelings, her people being able to drink from the power of the Crystal Heart, the love within making the changelings truly beautiful and luminous beings. Then there was also her, the one who would eventually manage to tip the scales of the war, King Lumen’s adopted daughter, Cozy Glow. A young filly who wielded the most powerful weapon of all, friendship. Her first close friend was the daughter of Chrysalis, Ocellus.

It was around this time I had first entered that world, aligning myself with the Crystal Empire. The fight against the Triumvirate was going badly, only the light from the Crystal Heart preventing them from being overrun completely, for its power protected the Crystal Empire, making it difficult for those with a blackened heart to enter. Yet realizing they would need help I was the one who suggested they should seek alliances with other countries who might also oppose the Triumvirate. Cozy Glow, together with Ocellus volunteered as diplomats on that mission. While Cozy, even in this universe was quite self-aggrandizing, she had a gift for persuasion unlike any other, capable of swaying even the most stubborn of hearts, so the king and queen agreed to make Cozy head of this diplomatic mission. I was sent as well to protect her on this journey, King Lumen making me promise to make sure nothing bad happened to his daughter.

The first stop on this journey was the griffins, Cozy befriending a young Griffin named Gallus, their friendship becoming a catalyst for an alliance to be made with Griffonstone. Gallus then decided to accompany Cozy to the Dragonlands, where Cozy befriended a dragon named Smoulder and convinced Dragonlord Ember to join the alliance against the tyrants ruling Equestria. Smoulder decided to accompany Cozy on the journey. This continued with a visit to Yakyakistan where Cozy befriended a young yak named Yona and secured an alliance with Prince Rutherford. Yona, like the other people Cozy had befriended decided to accompany her on their journey. The last kingdom Cozy and her friends would visit, however, turned out to be quite difficult, for Hippogriffia was found abandoned, initially believed to have already been destroyed by Equestria. Cozy was able to figure out that they were hiding in the nearby waters, having used an artifact to transform themselves into seaponies. Queen Novo turned out to be nearly impossible to convince that it was a good idea to risk her people in an alliance against the Triumvirate, who they were hiding from. Yet after befriending her daughter Princess Skystar as well as another seapony named Silverstream and their brother Terramar, they all performed a song that was able to convince the Queen. Silverstream decided to accompany Cozy back to the Crystal Empire.

The alliances Cozy had formed turned out to be enough to turn the tides of the war, the Crystal Empire that had been losing this entire time was able to turn the war into a stalemate with the help of their new allies, this new alliance being called the Guardians of Freedom. But they still required another ace up their sleeve to be able to push Equestria back and take the offensive against the tyrants. The years passed and as she got older, Cozy turned her attention to using her brilliant tactical mind to command the troops, and her new friends would help her on the front lines, during one of these battles, they befriended a pony named Sandbar, a soldier who had been forced into service by the monarchs of Equestria, who Cozy was able to convince to desert and join the Guardians of Freedom. With that final friend and years of growing their bonds, Cozy was able to tap into a power never before seen in those lands, drawing power from friendship and harmony in a more wholesome way, the opposite of the Triumvirate’s twisted version of harmony. Her relationship to her friends was enough for Cozy to transform into an alicorn, becoming a demigod as the Princess of Friendship in that world.

That was the ace the Guardians of Freedom needed, Cozy Glow, her friends and her parents, King Lumen and Queen Chrysalis led an assault against Equestria from the front, Cozy’s enormous power and strategic insight being enough to successfully fight their way into Canterlot and topple Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. The only thing that remained was to assault Ponyville and invade Midnight’s Black Spire. The dark tower that acted as a beacon to empower the Empress of Order to unfathomable levels. I was there during that final battle, standing on top of the tower, fighting off the legions of demonic entities summoned by Midnight, while Cozy, her friends, Lumen and Chrysalis fought the final remaining member of the Triumvirate, the tyrant Midnight, for the fate of the world.

At that time, Cozy Glow truly lived up to her name, glowing with the welcoming light of friendship and harmony, a truly transcendent being, a radiant champion of all that is good in the world. On the other hoof, Midnight took the form of a pony surrounded by darkness, radiating the very dark magic she collected from the Spire, she was more horrifying than a demon, something truly dark and twisted. But that day I saw something I didn’t think was possible, the power of friendship and light faltered, the darkness around Midnight proved more powerful and one by one, Midnight struck low Cozy’s friends, with each of them dying horribly, Cozy’s power weakened and when Midnight had struck down the last of them, the light around Cozy had dimmed so much it was barely visible and Midnight was able to overpower her with ease. At this point I knew the battle was lost and I escaped through a portal to another world. Vowing to one day come back and help topple Midnight. That day I was certain that Midnight had killed off Cozy Glow, I only recently found out that what she did was so much worse.

From that day forward, Midnight would turn her attention upon other realms, conquering them one by one with an army of both demonic and angelic beings, hordes of the undead and arcane constructs. In each and every one of those conflicts I had stood at the front lines, but each and every time the resistance had been crushed, Midnight erected one of those Dark Spires in every world she conquered to further increase her power. If only one of those spires was enough for her to conquer the power of friendship, the countless spires she now had erected across the multiverse made her invincible. Yet there had to be some way to defeat her, and somehow, I knew the key was Cozy Glow, who was ultimately the individual who had come the closest to defeating the tyrant. Maybe together with Twilight Sparkle, the other champion of light, if the other Cozy Glow could be redeemed and made to resemble the one from Midnight’s world, maybe with both of them fighting side-by-side, it would be enough to topple Midnight once and for all. Maybe the secret lay in destroying the spires midnight erected across the realms, but each of them were guarded by incomprehensible horrors from beyond the veil.

I wasn’t yet sure why Cozy Glow in the other reality had turned out to be the greatest hero of that realm while the one in the Equestria I was born in turned out to be one of the greatest villains. But I knew what about her past was different between the two worlds, the one in the dark mirror realm had a pair of loving parents, while the Cozy from my realm was always alone. Maybe it was that simple, that people who grow up knowing the love and affection of others also would show that love to others in return. Yet, while she wasn’t there yet, I had seen sparks of the other Cozy in the one that came with me to Taralos, especially when she united the clans against the gnolls, and when she stood up to Cipher and defended the king. Maybe she could become the hero Equestria needed yet, if not the one they wanted. For alone Twilight couldn’t hope to stand against Midnight. This would hinge on Twilight’s ability to find how to perform a planeswalk spell, but I also knew that when she did succeed, we also needed to be powerful enough to actually defeat Midnight.

After I explained everything to her, Twilight asked why I didn’t want to tell Cozy about her other self, thinking that knowing she was a hero in another realm could help inspire her to be better. I told her that that would be all well and good, but considering how that story ended, it would reveal to Cozy that being good was no guarantee of success and that she put herself more at risk fighting for our side than she did being a villain. For villains would usually be willing to subject the heroes to worse fates if the heroes would end up losing. I feared that Cozy would succumb to fear and refuse to oppose Midnight if she knew what would happen to her if she lost.

While Cozy and Night’s Blessing dealt with the issue in the town of Green Square, me, Twilight and Silverwing were sent to the territory of the Tribe of Bones, located to the south of the city of Vil. Apparently bodies had been going missing and they requested aid from the crown of Taralos in order to get to the bottom of this problem. The journey only took a couple of hours, The Tribe of Bones territory turned out to be a collection of round wooden huts, scattered throughout a valley. The arrangement seemed random at first, but after closer inspection, clear patterns started to emerge as if the layout served some kind of ritualistic purpose. An elderly female zebra came to welcome us to the Tribe of Bones:

“Welcome, my name is Final Whisper, did you come to say farewell to a friend or relative?”

I explained to her that we had come to investigate the missing bodies, Final Whisper sighed and explained that there has been someone disturbing the dead lately, desecrating the graves and doing something to the corpses that is causing them to rise as undead. Fortunately, mostly skeletons and zombies so far. Final Whisper explained that the purpose of the Tribe of Bones was to serve as caretakers of the dead and aid the passing of souls into the afterlife, using necromancy in this manner, without the consent of the person they are raising was an abomination against the goddess Soft Whisper. Final Whisper also told us that tribespeople would go out tonight to check the Barrows, hoping to catch the culprits in the act and they requested we should accompany them. We agreed.

Approaching nighttime, we were asked to check on an ancient burial barrow that hasn’t yet been defiled, making it a likely target for the culprits to strike next. The other tribesponies were sent to guard other barrows in the area. On our way to the barrow, we could hear ominous rustling from the trees and then rotting figures emerged, the zombies shambling towards us, they were the rotting corpses of three ponies and that of a single goat. Silverwing immediately flew towards the zombies and cats down one of them. The goat then started to emit some kind of strange haunting braying, compelling the need to move towards them, I just barely managed to resist its call, but it hypnotized Twilight who started to brainlessly walking towards the zombies. While I tried to cast a small bolt of fire against the goat zombie and missed, Silverwing hacked down yet another zombie. The goat then cast some kind of spell, summoning a pair of snakes to attack Silverwing, maybe the goat was some kind of spellcaster in life, Silverwing fortunately were able to dodge them. While hypnotized, Twilight unfortunately wandered into another zombie. To help my friends I cast a ball of fire amongst the zombies and snakes that exploded in their midst, killing all of them except for the goat, they definitely seemed to be of a more powerful type of undead, but fortunately between Twilight’s and my spells and Silverwing’s greatsword we were able to make quick work of it now that his minions were gone.

With the zombies out of the way we continued our journey towards the barrow. Approaching the small hill where the barrow stood, a huge and imposing stone monument to the dead, there were probably a lot of corpses buried within, all of which could be raised by the culprits. I could immediately see that unwelcome visitors had already been here. The door to the barrow was closed, but I noticed marks on the ground that suggested it had been opened and then closed within the last few hours. There was also various undead roaming outside, we took to battling them, most being easily cut down by Silverwing or blasted apart by magic, but one of the more powerful undead seemed to drain the life force of the living, it fed on Silverwing’s life as it is during the battle, weakening him. But we decided to press on regardless.

We rushed towards the barrow entrance but found that it had been sealed off by magic, fortunately Twilight was able to counteract the spell, allowing us entry. The barrow was dark and gloomy, the only light being from mine and Twilight’s horns and some kind of strange eldritch light coming from up ahead, I could also hear chanting coming from the back of the barrow, it seemed like we were interrupting some kind of necromantic ritual. We went up the long staircase leading to the very top of the barrow, a massive chamber. The two necromancers turned out to be a goat and a zebra, both wearing dark robes, the necromancers stopped their ritual as they saw us, the zebra commanding his partner:

“Intruders, Corpsecaller, kill them all.”

The fight started off with Silverwing engaging the zebra in close combat, Silverwing having the obvious advantage, the goat cast a spell on himself that created multiple illusionary doppelgangers around him, making it difficult to discern which one was real. To circumvent this defense, hitting all of them at once, I threw a ball of fire at him which exploded on impact, wounding both him and his zebra companion. But I needed to be careful with those, they took a lot of my power, and I couldn’t do too many of them in a day. Yet the effectiveness of that fireball could be denied. The zebra then chanted something, and he started to emit a wave of dark energy, sapping our very strength. Twilight’s horns started to crackle with lightning, and she hurled the lighting both at the goat, who dodged to the side, managing to avoid the worst of it, before he rushed forward towards me, his horns glowing with the dark purple color of negative energy, he hit me with those horns, and I could feel the life slowly being drained from me. I channeled a wave of holy healing energy to counteract the dark energy the zebra was emiting, but I felt the wave he produced was much stronger than mine, if this went on for too long, I would lose. I could feel the dark energy coming from the zebra overwhelming us.

Twilight at this point actually managed to hit the goat with a lightning bolt, but the goat still was able to get up and launch another attack towards me, draining more of my energy, but the energy coming from my own horn was able to counteract some of their effects, from both the goat and the zebra. I’m sure the only reason my friends were still standing was because of my efforts. Twilight seemed to switch tactics and fired one of those bolts of force that never seemed to miss at the goat, the bolt seemingly being able to determine which one was a real one among the illusions. Silverwing was able to knock out the zebra before the dark energy they emitted overwhelmed us, leaving only the goat left. But they were aggressive, trying to drain the life from my body with their horns and they were hard to hit because of the illusions around them. I prayed to both Sarenrae and to the Sun Queen, the local equivalent, and fired a bolt of fire at the goat, my prayers were answered as it hit the real one and in combination with Twilight’s both of force, we managed to bring him down. The first thing I did after the fight was to use a lot of my remaining magic to heal the wounds of both myself and my companions. I surely hoped this would be the final fight for today.

We found a lot of interesting the bodies of the necromancers, including a set of horseshoes enchanted to allowing the user to levitate. They also carried a lot of coins, in addition to a bunch of onyx gems together with some half burned candles. Twilight told me these things were common ingredients needed in rituals to raise the dead. There was another detail I thought kind of strange about the coins, other than the number, over a thousand gold coins, they were coinage from Arcys, the kingdom of earth ponies to the west of Taralos, not to be confused with the clans of the Turves to the east. But the strangest of all was the holy symbol carried by the zebra. I didn’t recognize it at all, despite having spent the last several years familiarizing myself with the different faiths of Taralos and the Turves, I knew the Sun Queen, the most common religion in Taralos whose teachings were similar to those of my own goddess. The Moon Princess, worshipped by Night’s Blessing’s clan, goddess of the night and protector from nightmares. The Night Mare, the opposite of the Moon Princess, goddess of nightmares and the predators that hunted in the dark of the night. Blaze, the brutal goddess of war worshiped by the Taralos military, a prayer to her being said before each battle. Even the Unspoken, the god of chaos. But this symbol looked like the symbol of neither of them.

When the necromancers woke up, they found themselves bound, I decided to interrogate them, the zebra introduced himself as Deathwatch and his goat friend as Corpsecaller. When questioned about why they were doing this they told me they were paid to, when I asked them by who they told me they never saw them, the only one who interacted with their patron was Darkscythe, a strange creature even they feared, they told me it wasn’t over yet if Darkscythe remained at large. When Deathwatch was questioned about the strange holy symbol found in their possession, they told me it belongs to the Devourer of Nations an Archdemon they were in the service of, but it didn’t seem like this madpony knew much about his deity other than that they were drawn to the service because of her love of inflicting suffering and death. It did kind of bother me that there was one more necromancer at large. We left the necromancers there to rot, telling myself we would send for the Tribe of Bones to take them captive once we got back.

On the way however we were approached by a cute little bunny carrying a message:

Six of our hunting parties have been successful in slaying the desecrators, but one group ran into a fell creature we have been unable to scry clearly. We know the hunters fell in the fight and that the creature is running west, we are sending everypony we can after it, but your group is the only one in position to get ahead of it. Head northwest as fast as you can and try to cut it off, but be careful, it’s clearly very dangerous. When you see a glowing bat, follow.

Final Whisper.

While my magic was mostly depleted, I knew this could be this Darkscythe the other two were talking about, despite the risk, we must apprehend the final necromancer, Twilight and Silverwing agreed, and we set off after them. We pushed through the night as hard as we could, until we noticed a faint glow approaching, a bat flew over our heads and turned to lead the way, this must’ve been the bat the note spoke of. Recognizing it as the familiar of Final Whisper, we decided to follow. The bat led us for several hours over rough terrain until our muscles were starting to burn. It led us towards the hill where we could see a single pony in tattered robes, it turned immediately as they saw us, the bat guided us to intercept. With great effort we managed to catch up to it. The pony we were chasing turned out to be some kind of strange abomination of cogs, springs and sinew. Some part of the cogs even appeared to be made of bone. It held the shape of an earth pony dressed in dark rags and wearing a circlet of tarnished silver upon its head while brandishing a blackened scythe in its mouth. This strange pony was also accompanied by a strange scorpion also made from a combination of mechanical and undead parts; it was probably Darkscythe’s familiar. We prepared for the fight of our lives.

Darkscythe leapt at me with incredible speed. It’s choice to use melee might signify it had run out of spells while slaughtering the Tribe of Bones hunting party, nevertheless its scythe managed to cause a massive wound on my back, I could feel it saturated with dark magic, it was a miracle I was standing at all. Silverwing moved to my aid, blocking the path between the creature and me, trying to block its blows, but with the relentless assault Darkscythe gave him he was unable to get go on the offensive, the familiar appeared to try to cast some kind of curse on Silverwing, but what is was wasn’t immediately apparent. I summoned all the holy light they could into a single beam which I fired from my horn against Darkscythe, the holy energy weakening it. Twilight followed suit and hit it with a burst of pure magic from her horn, sending it reeling backwards which allowed Silverwing to land a blow, but its mechanical body seemed very resistant to the weapon he was using. Darkscythe retaliated, wounding Silverwing horribly with that accursed scythe. The second beam of light for my horn also made contact and so did Twilight’s second beam, this thing had to be incredibly powerful if it could stand up to this much magical power being thrown at it all at once. Silverwing fortunately managed to deflect Darkscythe’s next attack, and he threw his weapon on the ground and punched it with his claws folded, which seem to do a lot more damage than his sword ever did on this thing. To finish off the creature, I summoned all the holy energy I had left into a single wave of positive energy, the kind that is lethal to the undead. This wave eradicated this being leaving only their equipment and clothes. The scorpion familiar escaped into the nearby forest. We decided to let it go, not having the strength to pursue it right now. I used all my remaining energy to heal the wounds on me and Silverwing, he thanked me for my efforts, telling me he would be a goner if it wasn’t for me and Twilight.

As we got back to the Tribe of Bones, we saw the bodies of the fallen hunting party being carried solemnly into town. I paid my respects to them as well, saying a quick prayer to Sarenrae. Final Whisper approached us and nodded in respect:

“You did well out there, taking care of the desecrators in the barrow and hunting down the fell creature responsible. You have the gratitude of Soft Whisper and the Tribe of Bones. Your names will be sung to the spirits tonight.”

Final Whisper offered for us to stay for a few days to witness the funerals of the slain. We obliged and we spent several days among the solemn company of the tribe’s members. The tribe managed to get a few things out of the necromancers we captured alive. Some of which we already knew, that they were hired by the creature known as Darkscythe, they were paid in Arcys coin from Darkscythe’s mysterious benefactor, no one knew who it benefactor was, but it seemed likely that it was someone with a lot of power and wealth in Arcys.

Chapter 15: The Inevitable and the Temple of Chaos

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Diary of Cozy Glow
After the nights I spent with Nights Blessing in Green Square, the nightmares had subsided, whenever it was because of the prayers to the Moon Princess I always made before bed now or the night of passion we had spent together, I didn’t know, perhaps both. The nightmares were instead replaced by dreams about her, maybe the Moon Princess had a twisted sense of humor. There was never any person I have felt such feelings for other than Night’s Blessing. I had crushes before, at a time when I was too young to truly comprehend what it meant. Primarily for some of the other students at the School of Friendship, Ocellus and Sandbar in particular. But with Night’s Blessing, I felt like she understood me better than any other, she had been the only one from which I had to hide my true self, because she was like me, a trickster and manipulator, someone who would use their intelligence to get what they want. And most amazingly of all she was considered a hero among her clan as a result. I had thought long and hard about why Night’s Blessing meant so much to me, maybe it was that she was basically what I could’ve been if I had taken a different path in life. But me having these feelings for her did make things complicated for us both, as she had her husband back home and if we were discovered that could mean not only strife between the Red Rocks and the Black Hooves clans, but perhaps even conflict between the Turves clans and the kingdom of Taralos. Yet I found what truly bothered me was the possibility that our night together didn’t mean as much for her as it did for me.

Shortly after returning to Vil, Night’s Blessing had to return to her own clan, I was sad to see her go, but I knew she couldn’t stay forever. Soon after my return, Sunset filled me in on how things had gone on her end and about the mysterious creature of clockwork and bone that was working for someone in Arcys. Apparently, someone was seeking to disrupt the Tribe of Bones. She had already informed the king about her suspicions, suspicions which I agreed with. Someone was seeking to undermine Taralos, someone whose agent I already suffered a lethal wound from, Prince Swiftblade. If our suspicions were correct, he had established a sphere of influence for himself in Arcys and it was only a matter of time before he would make a move against his nephew King Shining Horn in order to claim the throne. Shortly after the King was informed of our suspicions, we were called to his presence as a new crisis had arisen. The king informed us that Flutterswarms had started attacking the village of Daisy’s Hope, a village that boarded the Forest of Dreams, no one knew why. So, the king wanted to send the defenders of Taralos to investigate.

Words were sent to Night’s Blessing, who would meet us on the way to Daisy’s Hope. It didn’t take long for her to catch up with us. It was nice seeing her again, even if there was only a short time since our last mission. It seemed she was eager to see me again as well, for she couldn’t stop subtly trying to flirt with me, even if it did go under the radar of Sunset, Twilight however seem to have picked up on that something had changed between us and that we seemed closer than ever. The journey itself took less than two days, and the weather remained clear and bright. Spring flowers were filling the air with an amazing fragrance. We met many ponies on the road that seemed happy. When questioned about Daisy’s Hope they said that they hadn’t been to the village and knew nothing about it.

Eventually we finally reached the village, it really was just on the edge of the Forest of Dreams, I remember the first time I put my hoof in that place after I just arrived in Taralos, when we entered the forest in search of the maid Lilac Blossom. I had encountered angry flutterponies at that time as well, they did seem temperamental. In a way it wasn’t a surprise that they could be attacking, but I guess it was now up to us to get to the bottom of why. There was a farm a short distance from the road, but there was a strange shimmering around the farmhouse, and I could hear a lot of voices shouting from inside. We immediately rushed to their assistance and found the farmhouse surrounded by a swarm of flutterponies. The swarms of these very small butterfly-like ponies seemed even more aggressive than usual; we had little choice but to fight our way through the swarm in order to save the ponies hiding in the farmhouse. The swarms were easily dealt with through a combination of fireballs and lightning bolts from Sunset and Twilight respectively, Silverwing and Night’s Blessing taking only some minor damage that Sunset easily healed.

The family within the farmhouse seemed grateful for our intervention. When questioned they told me that flutters were always common in the area, but they didn’t usually cause trouble if you treated them with respect. But recently something had happened but made them far more aggressive. They told us they would have to abandon the farm if things continued like this. I assured them that I and the other Defenders would do our best to get to the bottom of this and that if everything went well they would be able to stay in the area. When I asked them if they’d seen anything strange in the area apart from the flutterswarms, they told me that there had been sightings of a strange huge bipedal creature wearing what appeared to be heavy armor. It didn’t seem to be attacking people, but I surmised it was very likely this strange creature was connected to the aggressive flutterswarms.

With one family rescued we continued towards the village itself. The village of Daisy’s Hope was really nothing more than a scattering of houses and a small shrine dedicated to multiple deities. The village didn’t even have an inn. As we approached the village an elderly unicorn approached us and introduced himself as Wise Apple. He asked us why we had come and when I explained the situation, they immediately offered to let us stay in his home for the night. During our stay, I asked Wise Apple about the mysterious armored creature that had been sighted nearby. Surprisingly he had a lot to say about it. Wise Apple was scared of the creature at first but had managed to gather enough courage to approach it when it became clear it was causing no trouble. When he asked the creature what they were doing here, the creature responded that they were tracking an oathbreaker that had defrauded a lot of people in towns to the north of here. Wise Apple had told it he had seen a stranger heading into the forest a few days before, the armored creature soon followed suit into the forest. It was clear where we needed to go now.

Next morning, we proceeded into the forest of dreams, Silverwing managed to find the trail of the armored creature pursuing this oathbreaker. Which eventually led us to an ancient labyrinth. Or at least that was what it appeared to be, for there were signs of repair on its stone walls, suggesting someone had been here recently. My suspicions soon were proven correct as we were ambushed by a group of robed figures, hiding on top of the labyrinth walls. Night’s Blessing attempted to climb the wall to attack one of the robed figures, a goat wielding an axe in their mouth, but the goat knocked her down, keeping her at the ground level, a robed pony wielding a slingshot shot a rock towards Night’s Blessing, but she nimbly dodged it. From behind me came an enormous griffin, trying to hit me from the wall using a polearm, his first blow struck my armor, but his second blow drove into my flesh, I screamed in pain. Silverwing hearing me and coming to my aid, flying up the wall and decapitating the other griffin with a single strike. Sunset and Twilight turned their attention towards the slinger and made short work of them with a combination of fire and arcane magic. The goat threw an axe at Night’s Blessing, but her hoofwork was too quick for them. She finally managed to get up the wall with a single acrobatic jump and drove her blade into the goat. I decided to aid her, weaving a wicked enchantment into my insult which I directed towards the goat:

“You’re not a complete idiot, some parts are obviously missing.”

The insult was enough for the goat to fall off the wall and knock themselves out. We decided to bind them with rope and for them to wake up. During this time Sunset took some time to heal my wounds. After a quick good cop bad cop routine involving me and Silverwing, the goat decided to tell me what was going on here. The goat was a member of the Cult of Chaos and he had been told to guard this place by their leader, Valentine, who had restored the temple of chaos and used its power to summon a creature of chaos from the beyond. Valentine eh? There was a long time since our last encounter with him. I didn’t know he was the leader of a chaos cult, but it honestly didn’t surprise me given his knack for mischief and deception. He was a lot like the pony I used to be now that I thought about it, before I had found a purpose as one of the protectors of Taralos. I had thought long and hard about why this change had occurred in me, but I think it had something to do with the fact that, in Taralos, my skills and talents were appreciated. I never felt they were back in Equestria.

The cultist didn’t know how to get to the temple’s inner sanctum, a secret only reserved for the higher-ranking members of the cult. But after a quick investigation, Twilight detected the use of illusion magic at the very center of the labyrinth, dispelling it revealing a 40-foot drop to the temple below, a trap designed to trap whoever fell down this hole in a gravity well. Silverwing took Sunset down, while I flew down of my own accord and Twilight teleported. At the center of the room there was a figure in metal armor, suspended in midair by the gravity well Twilight spotted earlier. Twilight explained that the creature was kept in place by powerful gravitational forces summoned by powerful magic and therefore were unable to move. The creature had a physical form of a mighty gorilla, yet where there normally would be flesh, there was only arcane energy binding the armor together. The creature turned its judgmental glowing red eyes towards me, judging my very being, and spoke, a robotic voice that I instinctively knew couldn’t utter a lie because it was against its very nature:

“I sense a liar and a deceiver, through dishonesty you acted to benefit yourself, yet you are not a servant of Chaos, for your heart is that of Order, who are you? Why are you here?”

I answered the creature as best I could, sensing it would know if I told even the most minuscule lie and that it wouldn’t be too pleased with me if I did, I stuck to the truth.

“I am Dame Cozy Glow, Knight Commander of the Defenders of Taralos, these are my fellow knights, Sir Silverwing the Strong, Emissary of the Griffins, Dame Sunset Shimmer, the Redeemer and Dame Twilight Sparkle, the Wise. We are here to stop to Valentine and his Cult of Chaos.”

The creature nodded in approval and continued to speak:

“You speak the truth, I may not approve of your deceptive nature, Knight Commander Cozy Glow, but for now we have a common enemy. I ask of you to free me from this prison, and I shall assist you in taking down Valentine and his Chaos Cult. This device I am trapped and can only be disabled if you destroy the Heart of the Temple, it looks like a large crystal pulsing with different colors. But beware, the fabric of reality is being distorted by the sheer amount of chaos magic present in this place.”

I smiled towards the creature and told it:

“Before I decide to help you, can you tell me who you are and what you are doing here?”

The creature shook their head disappointingly.

“Help always comes with price with you, doesn’t it? Fine, if you must know I am a Vanguard of the Inevitable, it is my duty to protect Order and destroy Chaos. I am here because that is my purpose as an Inevitable.”

While the explanation of the Inevitable, as the creature called itself, left a lot of questions, it did confirm one thing, if this being existed only to destroy Chaos, they would be of use as a temporary ally. I made a promise to the Inevitable that I would track down and destroy the Heart of the Temple, and the Inevitable detected I was telling the truth, as I truly meant every word. Despite, I personally had no love for Chaos as a concept since Discord screwed me over back in Equestria, and despite being just as guilty of sowing destruction across my homeland as me and my co-conspirators were, if not more so, he was the one who had the gall to suggest our punishments to be imprisoned in stone forever. If I was any justice Discord would have served his sentence as a step to write a long side me, Chrysalis and Tirek. I swore to myself that one day I would come back to Equestria with and give Discord a piece of my mind. But for now, I needed to focus all my attention on stopping Valentine, whatever he was doing, it couldn’t be good.

Chapter 16: A Selfless Act

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Diary of Sunset Shimmer

I didn’t think this day would come; I thought Valentine to be safely locked away in the dungeons of the Royal Palace in Vil. But now he was leading the Cult of Chaos in spreading anarchy across the border of the Forest Of Dreams. We had no choice but to go deep into the newly restored Temple of Chaos and shut down the source of chaotic energy. We found an Inevitable trapped in the temple as well, promising us aid if we could disable the Heart of The Temple, the source of the chaotic magic that was spreading across the land.

Inevitables, I have had interactions with them before. Beings from the plane of order known as Axis dedicated to exterminating chaos across the multi-verse and maintaining order. They were neither good nor evil, for all they cared about was order. I remember hearing about incidents where the Inevitables fought against the forces of the upper planes and on the side of the Nine Hells, not to be confused for the Hell me and Cozy went through a harrowing journey to get out of. But they would just as often ally with the forces of the upper planes in their battle against the chaotic demons of the A mouse right Abyss. For that reason, I knew better than to trust Inevitables completely, but for now where we were battling the forces of chaos, this Inevitable would absolutely have our back. I don’t have time to explain every nuance of interplanar politics right now but know that the Inevitables are a mixed bag. Inevitables are also known for their ability to detect lies and being able to see the truth at the core of our being, for their nature is the absolute opposite of deception. Which made its observations about Cozy rather interesting. Her heart was that of order eh? I would keep that in mind.

Our next task was to navigate the confusing labyrinth that made up the underground level of the temple. We started going north at Cozy’s orders, we stepped into a rectangular room with an ornate fountain at its center. The centerpiece was that of a bipedal creature (possibly a human) wearing a dress and holding up a stone urn from which the water flowed, trickling down into the pool at her feet. A large battleax lying in the pool of water. Cozy seemed uneasy while in this chamber and shuddered when she looked at the statue, urging us to move on as quickly as possible, poor thing.

We decided to continue north, we were taken to an empty and featureless room, but it was the room besides that was interesting as in this room had a pedestal with a huge emerald sitting on top of it, electricity arcing all around it as a protective measure. Suspecting this might be the Heart of the Temple the Inevitable was talking about, Night’s Blessing tried to disable this electric protective measure, taking quite a shock in the process, but were ultimately successful, Cozy putting the gem into her saddlebags before we continued forwards.

Next, we stood before a crossroads, Cozy decided we should go left, but by doing so the labyrinth corridors brought us back to the gravity well chamber where the Inevitable was still trapped, we were going in circles, but didn’t seem to make sense as all we had done was moving forward, but we were told this place was coursing with chaotic magic, so maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. But if we truly had taken out the Heart of the Temple, the Inevitable wouldn’t still be trapped, so it stood to reason we had yet to find the chamber of the Heart.

This time Cozy decided we should go left, reaching a chamber filled with multiple statues of bulls made of brass, once again, Cozy shuddered when she saw them, like they reminded her of some bad memories, and I could understand why. Spending as much time as she did as a sentient statue was bound to leave a mark, yet I hoped that she would one day be able to overcome this fear and put the past behind her. So, I put one of my front hooves around her neck and gave her a hug, telling her that they were only statues and couldn’t hurt her and that I would make sure she never spent any more time as a statue ever again. At that exact moment the brass statues animated, the bulls moving with as much fluidity and grace as they would if they were truly alive. Silverwing and Night’s Blessing moves to engage the bulls animated by chaotic magic, while me and Twilight rained down spells on them until these living statues were reduced to rubble. Cozy stood in the background petrified by fear the entire time, only composing herself after the fight was already over and apologized for her reaction. I told her it is okay and that we all understand. Night’s Blessing hugging Cozy in turn, this seemed to calm Cozy down more than my own hug ever did.

After calming down from her panic attack, Cozy led us forward through the labyrinth. We eventually reached a large room that seemed to have been reshaped by some kind of strange force, the stone appeared to have been pulled and stretched into abstract sculptures and the walls reshaped to contain shelves, on each shelf sat a single stone, none of the stones appeared to be the same but none of them looked particularly valuable. Just appeared to be reshaped grey rocks. The room gradually began to brighten as a sculpure in the ceiling began to glow and suddenly there stood before us waiflike pony, tears streaming down her eyes, forming a puddle by her delicate hooves. I recognized this creature as a Lampad, a type of nymph that often lived underground, beings rumored to possess immense beauty, and this particular exemplar was no different, in fact she was one of the most beautiful ponies I ever laid my eyes upon.

Cozy asked the Lampad if we were allowed to pass through the room into the corridor beyond, the Lampad was at first reluctant, telling her that she would only be allowed to pass if we gave her a pretty rock to add to her collection and we were careful to not knock out any of them over as we went through the room. Cozy presented her with the enormous Emerald from earlier and the Lampad’s eyes really shined as she laid her eyes upon, like she fell in love with object as soon as she saw it.

We continued forward and we were once again back in the room where we originally found the Emerald, this made no sense as this was in a completely different direction from where we went last time. It was literally impossible, but I guess that is the nature of chaotic magic. We decided to take the third path away from this room, the only path we had not taken previously.

We continued forwards until we entered a room that had drops of liquid dripping from the ceiling and disappearing through grates in the floor, as they first entered the room the liquid burned Silverwing, who quickly retracted back into the corridor. It appeared this liquid was acid. Night’s Blessing managed to use her skills to block the drip from the ceiling a few feet at the time, allowing us to move from the room. After everything was said and done Cozy congratulated Night’s Blessing and told her:

“What would we ever do without you? Good job.”

I was glad the two of them seemed so close, Cozy really needed another friend and seeing them so happy together made me happy and turn.

To the north we came across a dead end with a pile of gold sitting in the middle of the room, with a strange message carved on the floor. It was an obscure language from another plane, I recognized it as primordial, and I could translate the message. It simply said: “Above cognition”. Twilight warned against touching the gold and Cozy agreed, so we left it where it lay. Taking the other path forward we soon found herself in the central room with the gravity well where the Inevitable was trapped once again. Taking the only path we hadn’t yet traversed, we passed into a blue room with nothing in it. I could swear we already navigated the corridor before us as it looked identical to the corridor we took from the room with the Emerald originally, yet it took us somewhere completely different.

It appeared we had reached the Heart of the Temple, it consisted of a vast pool of liquid of many different hues of color, constantly shifting, it was clearly infused by chaotic magic. In this liquid were multiple platforms, each containing several of Valentine’s robed minions, as well as a strange creature that appeared to be a hybrid of a strange bipedal creature and a bird with useless tattered wings, one of its arms were a claw and the other a paw, one of its legs were a paw and the other a hoof, it gave off a foul smell. On the platform on the other side of the room, behind a forcefield of chaotic and ever-shifting energies, were standing Valentine himself, a black earth pony with a red mane and the mark of destiny of a red rose, behind him on the altar a glowing multicolored gem, this had to be the Heart of the Temple. Yet the most eye-catching of all was the creature at Valentine’s side. It looks almost like a dragon, fat and without wings, completely lacking hind legs, but with multiple mouthed tentacles with sharp fangs on its back. This was a Protean, the opposite of an Inevitable, creatures that were manifestations of unbridled chaos who lived in a plane called the Maelstrom, a realm of absolute chaos, existing only to spread chaos and disorder across the multi-verse. This was a very dangerous foe, I wondered if we stood any chance.

Valentine seemed to know he had an advantage, for he was quite cocky when he addressed us:

“Sunset Shimmer, welcome to my humble abode, the Temple of Chaos has a will of its own, but it answers to my will and my will alone. I allowed you to reach me so I can finally have my revenge against the person who put me in prison. I was promised that your commander Cozy Glow would already be taken care of by the person who rescued me, but no matter, I will enjoy killing her as well.”

Cozy engaged Valentine in conversation and began asking him:

“Your rescuer, it was Cipher wasn’t it? I barely survived his attempt on my life. Do you know his whereabouts?”

Valentine shook his head and answered her question:

“I haven’t seen Cipher since he freed me from prison, but he gave me very clear instructions, I would be greatly rewarded by his master if I awakened the Temple of Chaos and spread its chaotic energies across the lands, and I would be granted my revenge against the ponies that put me behind bars. And I have to say I think I will enjoy this, minions, attack.”

Diary of Cozy Glow

The journey through the Temple's underground level had been a terrifying one for me. And not because of the things most people would find scary. But because of so many statues. When those lifelike brass bulls came alive, I almost had a heart attack. I had found lifelike statues of any kind unsettling ever since I spent half a decade of my life as one, trapped with only my own thoughts for company. Twilight could never understand what that does to a person. But what made matters worse is that I had read about brass bulls in history books. They were an especially horrific means of execution that would involve placing a pony inside a hollow brass bull and lighting a fire underneath it. As the unfortunate victim was being boiled alive, their screams would only escape the bull as a braying sound from the bull’s nose. A horrifying way to go for sure, but their suffering would not be nearly as lengthy as my own punishment.

If not freed by Sunset, I might have been trapped as a statue to the end of history. Unable to live and more importantly, unable to die. Watching the world crumble around me, even after the fall of Equestria, even after the heat death of the universe, I would still be there, long since driven mad by my own thoughts, until one day, maybe I would find release when the planet finally exploded. These were the thoughts that went through my head whenever I saw a statue, why I couldn't stand the sight of them. Anger towards the one responsible for my fate filled my entire being as well. Discord, the so-called Spirit of Chaos. Believe me, I took great pleasure in delivering a decisive blow towards the forces of Chaos here in Taralos as a consequence of my hatred of this trickster.

Fortunately, both Sunset and Night's Blessing were there to comfort me, and the latter's hug was even enough to snap me out of my trance.

Soon after we would face down against the leader of this Cult of Chaos, Valentine, an old enemy from the time me and Sunset first arrived in Taralos. Apparently, he had been let out by Cipher, the same agent of Prince Swift Blade who tried to have me killed. Valentine bragged about how he was in full control of the temple, and he would soon have his revenge.

Valentine sent his minions after us. But as the fighting broke out, one thing Valentine said struck me, he was in control of the temple, that meant the entire temple was a magical artifact he was attuned to. I had much experience with magical artifacts, I used the power of a couple to dry to drain the magic from my original homeland, and another time I had used the power from the Bell of Grogar to try to usurp Princess Twilight Sparkle. I knew artifacts like few others. Maybe I could attune to the temple in order to contest Valentine's control of it. I placed my hoof on the ground and tried to communicate with it.

I could hear the voice of Valentine echo in my head.

"Good try Cozy, but there is no way your will is stronger than mine."

I begged to differ; I summoned all my mental fortitude to engage him in a battle of will. And I would dominate him, preventing him from using the power of the temple against us.

As the fight start, Night’s Blessing jumped across the gap to the first platform and quickly dispatched one of the cultists standing on it, the other cultists on the platform attempted to attack her, only for Night’s Blessing to parry the blow and make quick work of him as well. She was truly beautiful in the heat of battle, graceful like a dancer. I tried my best to cheer her on while still maintaining my focus on my mental battle with Valentine, I was to keep him from using the temple against us no matter the cost. One of the cultists standing on the platform furthest away hit Night’s Blessing with one of their slings, my heart skipped a beat for a moment, but it turned out that her injuries were mostly superficial. Silverwing flew to engage the cultist on the middle platform. Taking quite the beating from the slingers further away in the process. Sunset cast a fireball to deal with the slingers, but most of them survived by taking cover. Twilight teleported to the platform that Night’s Blessing just cleared from cultists and fired a strand of dark and shadowy energy that killed several of the slingers.

Suddenly, I could feel the presence of Valentine in my mind:

“You shouldn’t have let yourself be distracted.”

He was right, I let Night’s Blessing’s injury distract me from my mental battle. Valentine then promptly kicked me out from my control of the temple and used this control to create a flash of light in front of me in an attempt to blindly, fortunately I was able to close my eyes before I got too disoriented, a similar flash of light appeared before Silverwing and he was rendered completely helpless. Reality distorted around Sunset to grab her and chained her to the ground, she was fast enough to dodge it, but Twilight wasn’t so lucky, and the very ground appeared to shift, Twilight sinking into it like quicksand, her hooves now stuck in the platform. Valentine then electrified the platform, shocking the both of them. I was quickly able to regain control of the temple, but the damage was already done. If only I knew how to use the powers of the temple in an offensive manner like Valentine did. The best I could do was to simply prevent him from using the temple’s powers.

The platforms appeared to have a will of their own, as the one furthest away where the remaining slingers stood moved to the west, the one with the horrific monstrosity that resembled some kind of bipedal bird with body parts of various animals moved to the east and connected with the platform Silverwing stood on, it sort of reminded me of Discord.

Night’s Blessing quickly jumped to Silverwing’s platform and cut down the cultist that stood on it with ease. The slingers continued to bombard Silverwing while he was blinded. I turned my attention towards the monstrosity with the parts of the many different animals and decided to insult its appearance. But it appeared my enchantments were ineffective, so that meant it was probably some kind of golem, a construct made by a magician which specifically had immunities to magic. So, I shouted out to the group to tell them what I discovered. Twilight and Sunset nodded, agreeing that it would be a waste to target it with their magic. Night’s Blessing telling me she would take care of it next. Sunset fired another fireball and killed of the remaining slingers. Now only the golem was left. The golem attempted to hit Night’s Blessing, gracing her with its talon. But fortunately, it still appeared like she was okay. Twilight used her teleportation magic to get out off the floor and teleported to the same platform where Night’s Blessing and the golem were fighting.

The platform furthest south moved down so it directly connected to where I was standing by the entrance. Night’s Blessing made quick work of the golem, striking it multiple times with her obsidian scimitar, and parrying it when it’s tried to attack her back and took the opportunity to make a killing blow. With all his minions defeated, the force field around the platform with the altar and the Heart of the Temple shattered and Valentine ordered the dragon-like creature at his sides to attack Nights Blessing. It distorted reality around it and teleported to her. Sunset had mentioned that this was a Protean, a creature of chaos from another world. The opposite of an Inevitable. The tentacles on its back attacked Night’s Blessing and managed to grab her, its touch seemed to do something to her mind because she seemed out of it. Yet that didn’t prevent her from stabbing it back and wounding it, escaping the grasp of its tentacles. Valentine muttered an incantation which put Silverwing to sleep before hiding behind the altar, the chaotic gemstone of ever shifting colors that was the Heart of the Temple in his grasp. This didn’t look good, as the Protean seemed very powerful, perhaps a match even for someone as skilled as Night’s Blessing.

I realize that if I could get to Valentine and destroy the heart, the Inevitable that was trapped in the gravity well would be able to lend us a. I tried to fly as fast as I could towards Valentine while Sunset summoned a spear of light and hit the Protean with it while Twilight teleported to hit it with a lightning bolt in the other direction. But this barely seemed to face it. The body of this Dragon-like creature appears to shift like rubber to absorb the blow. Whatever the creature did to Night’s Blessing seemed to really take effect now, as she stabbed herself with her own sword before the protean’s tentacles beat her quite badly. She was now dying on the ground in front of the protean who were just going to devour her. I yelled out in desperation, barely being able to keep Valentine from accessing the temple before I without thinking changed course and flew directly towards the monster, putting myself in its path between it and Night’s Blessing. Before uttering a curse-laced insult.

“I will not allow you to touch her you waste of space, you’re so ugly even a troll mother would abandon you."

My words seemed to affect the monster, as it now turned its full attention upon me. As its mouthed tentacles turned upon me, I was sure I was a goner. What a foolish mistake it had been to put myself in its path, in the past I would’ve never taken this kind of risk in order to protect another. But here I had acted on instinct, I didn’t even get any time to think. But I knew I couldn’t live without Night’s Blessing so no matter what happened to me, I had to do whatever I could to protect her. The mouths at the tip of the monster’s tentacles took several chunks out of my flesh as they grabbed me, their very touch muddled my mind, making me forget who I was.

Just before I was sure I was going to die I remembered back to that wonderful night I had spent with Night’s Blessing, and realized I had a lot to live for. No, I wouldn’t let it end like this. This memory was enough for me to break out of my muddled state. While still in the creature’s grasp I reached out as far as I could towards Night’s Blessing, I could barely touch her body straining against the tentacles, but it was enough, I channeled all the magic I could muster into a single healing spell. The spell was successful in healing some of her wounds, enough for her to get on her hooves and as soon as she saw me in the creature’s grasp she acted on instinct, cutting off the tentacle that was holding me in a single swift motion. She was still badly wounded, but thanks to my efforts she was conscious and no longer dying.

Sunset proceeded with bathing the entire area in holy light, healing both some of mine and Night’s Blessing’s wounds. As Valentine uttered another incantation that put Twilight to sleep. The platform that Night’s Blessing and the protean were standing on separated from mine. Leaving her to do duel the monster alone. She looked towards me and smiled, thanking me for saving her life. At this moment Valentine turned his magic upon me, I was starting to feel sleepy, but I tried to keep my thoughts on Night’s Blessing, the feelings I had for her giving me the strength I needed to stay awake. I cheered her on as she dueled the Protean. She parried all its tentacles one after another and then exploited an opening and plunged her sword directly into the head of the beast, killing it in an instant. Its body flickered and then disappeared, like it was never truly there.

After waking Twilight and Silverwing, and we quickly ganged up on Valentine who immediately surrendered, begging us to spare his life. I took the Heart of the Temple from his grasp and gave it to Silverwing who smashed it with his greatsword, breaking the magic of the temple. The Inevitable showed up soon afterwards. Disappointed the fighting was over, but pleased that we had captured Valentine. Now we just needed to decide what to do with Valentine…

Diary of Sunset Shimmer

I witnessed something truly incredible during the fight with the Protean, Cozy throwing herself in between her friend and this powerful creature of chaos. She was not a fighter, she had no reason to believe she could take something this powerful, yet she did it anyway to protect someone she cared about, a truly selfless act. Cozy had come a long way from the selfish schemer who had tried to take over Equestria twice. For the first time since I got to know her, she acted like the other Cozy, the one who challenged Midnight in the other world. She had the same radiance about her. She hadn’t noticed it herself, but she was glowing like a Crystal Pony, but only for a moment while she reached out for Night’s Blessing. The Cozy of the other world had been a Princess of the Crystal Empire. Did the Cozy of my world also have Crystal Pony descent?

Now Valentine was at her mercy, begging for his life at our feet, telling us that they would tell us everything he knew about his employer, Prince Swift Blade. We agreed to take him captive but unfortunately he didn’t know much. Swift Blade’s servants had approached him some time ago and asked for their assistance, some sort of attack was coming, and Valentine were offered terms in exchange for his services. We found the following letter in his possession:

I hear negotiations have gone well.

I am writing to agree with the final proposal.

Your cult will have dominion over the Forest of Dreams and the village of Daisy’s Hope and everything within 10 miles of your temple.

In exchange you will provide distraction, intelligence and assistance as we require.

Chapter 17: Invasion

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Diary of Cozy Glow

After the destruction of the Heart, the temple began to collapse all around us, we were barely able to escape alive together with our prisoner. Valentine looked upon the crumbled ruins of his legacy with bitterness. Yet he knew he was defeated. The Inevitable helped us escort Valentine to the capital, only parting ways when they personally saw Valentine behind bars, when they knew for certain justice had been served. Its parting words would forever echo in my mind, as it came from an authority higher than mortal.

“While I still see deceit in your heart Cozy Glow, you have dealt a great blow against the forces of chaos today, for that your name will be spoken of favorably among the denizens of Axis. An individual who holds great favor with our leaders speaks of another with your name with disdain. But as far as I’m concerned, you have proven them wrong.”

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride over having spread my legacy to the plane of Order itself. Yet, another with my name? Did they mean there were other people named Cozy Glow? And who was that individual who held great sway with their leaders?

We reported our findings to the king, Shining Horn seemed quite worried about the implications, it was clear that Swift Blade was intending to attack Taralos from somewhere within Arcys. But as the kingdom of Arcys and King Blueblood were close allies of Taralos, there was little we could do except send word to King Blueblood and wait and see if their investigation was able to locate the exiled prince.

After I threw myself in front of the Protean in order to save Night’s Blessing, our relationship had grown even stronger, she spent the next few nights in my quarters, incredible passionate nights, refusing to go back to her clan and her husband, insisting that her place was by my side. I didn’t know what to say about this, I obviously appreciated her company, yet if our affair was ever discovered it might mean war between the Black Hooves clan and the Red Rock clan. When I raised these concerns with her, Night’s Blessing told me something interesting:

“Don’t worry, I’m sure if we work together, we could convince my husband, Dawn Rising to take you as his second wife. I have never seen a pony as charismatic as you Cozy, your words could convince anyone of anything. I’m sure you could seduce my husband just as easily as you seduced me.”

I remember things a bit differently, as if I remember correctly Night’s Blessing was the one who had seduced me back at the Lettuce Head inn, not the other way around. And I wasn’t sure I had any real interest in Dawn Rising as a person, yet if marrying a pony I didn’t love was the price I needed to pay to be able to be with Night’s Blessing, then so be it. We made plans to visit the Turves clans and clear up this whole situation, one way or another.

But this plan would not come to fruition yet, as just the night after we had our discussion, we awoke to the sounds of bells ringing all over the city, followed by hammering on the door, Night’s Blessing didn’t even get time to hide before the door was opened from the other side. On the other side I saw one of the palace servants, telling me that King shining Horn and Princess Scarlet Lance wanted to see me and the other members of the Defenders of Taralos in the palace War Room immediately. I was sure that the servant must’ve seen Night’s Blessing in my bed, but given the circumstances, it didn’t seem to be their top priority. Even so, if there were witnesses, news was bound to make it back to the Turves clans eventually. We needed to deal with this problem before it came back to bite us, as soon as we dealt with whatever emergency just came up. I had a strong suspicion of what might’ve happened, and I was proven right.

When we finally got to the War Room, we found both King Shining Horn and Princess Scarlet Lance pouring over maps and scouting reports. Sunset, Twilight and Silverwing appeared soon afterwards. The Princess gestured towards us to join them in conversation and then explained what was going on:

“It’s an invasion, several of the Arcys barons has gathered their forces along our borders together with an army of strange ponies that are more machine than flesh. We are talking an army consisting of over two and a half thousand earthponies and over a thousand of the strange machines, more than a match for the forces of Taralos.”

Scarlet Lance gestured towards her agent, Duskflank to give her further reports from Arcys. Duskflank reported that there had been no orders coming from the capital, so he suspects that some of the Barons are acting of their own accord. He explained to me that though Arcys is a kingdom, the king has very little real power, its territories being completely dependent on the barons who have complete control over their baronies, who even often go to war with each other. His reports seemed to suggest that the invading army wore the iconography of three different baronies. As for the strange clockwork creatures, no one knew where they came from.

I suggested asking the Turves clans for help, but Night’s Blessing interrupted me:

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, the clans respect strength, and if Taralos is weakened, some of the clans will take the opportunity to attack, especially the Bloodied Ear clan, we cannot risk being at war on two fronts. But I promise, I will remain here and defend Taralos for as long as this war lasts, such is my duty as an honorary knight.”

Eventually it was decided that King Blueblood must get his barons under control, as from what he knew he wouldn’t want this war any more than we do. An ambassador would be sent to the king for negotiation, someone who had previously proven they had the ability to unite disparate factions under one banner during the Gem Gnoll war, that is to say…me. We were to unite with an agent of Princess Scarlet Lance in the Arcys capital. And then gain an audience with the King in order to try to gain allies to oppose the invading army. There was only one problem, in order to reach the capital of Arcys, we needed to get past the gathering army at the border.

Diary of Twilight Sparkle

During the fight with the protean, I saw something and never thought I would see, in fact even now I wasn’t sure if it had been a dream. For I had fallen asleep soon afterwards due to a sleep spell cast by Valentine. Cozy Glow putting herself in harm’s way to protect another, that was not something the Cozy I used to know was capable of, she must be really attached to Night’s Blessing to even consider doing something like this. But the fact that the two of them had been close for a while now was obvious, especially since their mission together to the village of Green Square. I remembered what Sunset had said, maybe I was wrong about her, maybe Cozy had the potential to change after all. Yet there was something about Cozy and Night’s Blessing that made me suspect they were more than friends. So, I used a scrying spell to observe Night’s Blessing’s movements, turns out I was right, she spent quite a bit of her nights at Cozy’s personal quarters and they seemed to be getting intimate. My face turned red when I realized what they were doing. A part of me felt bad spying on them like this, another part of me felt happy that Cozy was able to find love, yet there was also a part of me but wondered about the implications of this affair on the alliance between the Black Hooves and Red Rocks clans. If I wanted to, I could bring this to the attention of Night’s Blessing’s husband, he did deserve to know, but if a part of me suspect in the if Cozy were to lose Night’s Blessing, that could potentially cause Cozy to regress into villainy, perhaps it was better that I kept my mouth shut.

After that night, I stopped spying on them, they deserved their privacy, and this kind of thing was not for my eyes to see. Honestly, I shouldn’t have been spying on them in the first place, I guess part of me still didn’t fully trust Cozy.

And I had other things to worry about. I remember something said by the Inevitable to Cozy, about someone who had connections among the leaders of Axis that hated some other version of Cozy, I had a strong suspicion of who that might be. If Midnight had allies among the planes of order, she must be powerful indeed. I needed to get back to Equestria as soon as possible, yet my research still hadn’t shown any results, I had yet to conceive any spell that have the power to penetrate the barriers between worlds, this task was made even harder when I was being constantly distracted by threats to Taralos. Yet I couldn’t in good conscience leave this world to its fate either, if I could help, it was my duty to do so.

When the war between Taralos and Arcys truly broke out, when Cozy Glow was chosen as the Taralos ambassador, I volunteered to go with her on this mission, together with the other Defenders of Taralos. We would initially go south towards the Forest of Dreams and then to the west towards the border of Arcys, careful not to step into the forest. In this unpopulated area we encountered very few ponies during our journey along narrow trails and scrubby trees. After several days we were approaching the borders of Arcys and yet we have seen no sign of the invading army, which according to the Scout reports were farther north. Cozy had suggested going this far south so we could slip by them undetected.

But we would eventually run into a patrol, I noticed this as I heard hooves approaching, we decided to hide in the bushes to ambush this patrol. Turns out to be a pair of these strange clockwork ponies. Cozy was determined to capture them alive for questioning, and I agreed with her reasoning. There was still a lot we didn’t know about these strange clockwork creatures. I had encountered them before together with Sunset when we were trying to help the Tribe of Bones, the strange leader of the Desecrators had been one of them, and they were powerful indeed.

Night’s Blessing jumped out of the bushes and knocked out one of the clockwork ponies with these, the other started to run, but I teleported after it and fired a stun bolt at it, knocking it out as well. We now had two of these strange clockwork ponies as prisoners. They were reluctant to talk at first, but Cozy had a way with words, and they would soon tell us an incredible story. They told us they used to be ordinary ponies living in a great city ruled by powerful magicians, until one day a calamity struck, destroying their home and transforming them into machines. The reason for this curse no one knew, perhaps it was a magical accident brought on by their mage leaders doing some kind of experiment, perhaps their leaders had challenged the gods themselves and the city had been cursed as punishment for their hubris. Whatever the case the calamity had destroyed most of the city and rendered the area uninhabitable, the survivors banding together under the leadership of Prince Swift Blade, who had also been struck with the machine curse, who claimed he had a valid claim to the throne of Taralos, promising them a land where they could live in peace. Swift Blade had made a deal with a couple of barons in Arcys to divide Taralos between themselves and the clockwork ponies.

I couldn’t help but to have some sympathy for their plight, yet I was sure that the exiled prince was using them to gain the throne for himself. Either that or maybe Prince Swift Blade had a good reason to do what he was doing. Whatever the case, Cozy told us that we were sworn to support King Shining Horn and whatever reason Swift Blade might have, she considered the king a friend and her support would always lie with him. I agreed with Cozy, whatever reason the exiled prince might’ve had for his attack, we had to assume the worst and defend those we had already protected for so many years. Sunset on the other hoof did mention she had to talk with Prince Swift Blade, for she thought she could maybe come up with a compromise that would satisfy all parties.

While we were busy discussing the clockwork ponies and the exiled prince, I suddenly heard a voice in my head, I recognized that voice, Fazban, the zebra we met many years ago. He was obviously using some kind of sending spell.

“Clockworks and cultists of chaos are digging for a Foundation Stone; it is vital that you protect the stone. I will explain why later, move it, then bury it again. Go northwest, to Greystone Hill, hurry.”

I decided to trust Fazban, he had been a help to us in the past. I explained to the others what was going on. Cozy seemed suspicious, telling us we didn’t know what the deal with the Foundation Stones were and they have nothing to do with our mission. Sunset told her that it sounded important and that he couldn’t afford to ignore it. Night’s Blessing, however, had heard of the Foundation Stones before, a legend among her people that told of the origin of Taralos.

“It is said that the original king of Taralos had made a pact with an unknown being of great power in order to become a monarch and was in return given five Foundation Stones, one Emerald, one Ruby, one Opal, one Amber and one Diamond. Four were buried among the borders and one underneath what was to become the capital of Vil, causing an entire city to spring into existence overnight. The magic of the stones were said to protect the kingdom and subtly encourage loyalty towards the royal family of everyone within the kingdom. It is said that as long as the Foundation Stones stands, so will Taralos, but if they are ever destroyed the kingdom will collapse. Of course, I always just thought it a legend with no bearing on the truth until now. But this Fazban seem to know otherwise.“

That was enough to convince Cozy to make a detour to protect the Foundation Stone. But a thought entered my mind, if the stones had the power to encourage loyalty towards the monarch, was Cozy’s newfound loyalty to King Shining Horn perhaps influenced by magical compulsion from the stones? Granted, that still wouldn’t explain her attachment to Night’s Blessing.

Following Fazban’s instructions we eventually came to a pit dug into the side of a hill, looking into the pit we saw more clockwork ponies and chaos cultists along with a huge gem troll wearing thick manacles and chains to a post, a large block of solid Jade had been exposed and the clockwork were forcing the troll to try to dig into it with its claws, the troll snarled at the clockwork ponies standing over it, but the shock of lightning quickly drove it back to its task. In order to save the Foundation Stone, we needed to act quickly. I focused my magic into a blast targeting the manacles binding the troll, the troll quickly turned upon its captors, slaughtering the clockwork pony that had been giving it electric shocks before escaping into the wilderness. The chaos cultists and the remaining clockwork ponies were quickly destroyed by Night’s Blessing’s obsidian blade, Silverwings greatsword, and a combination of mine and Sunset’s magic.

Yet it seemed like we were a bit late, for when we went to inspect the Foundation Stone, we found it to be a solid block of jade 2 feet long and 1 foot wide and about half a foot high. It glowed with a soothing green light, but the light wasn’t even and flickered slightly while the surface was marred by deep scratches and a long crack where the troll’s claws had started to do their work. We reburied the stone a bit further to the south, where hopefully our enemies wouldn’t find it again. But I was wondering if the damage it already sustained was enough for it to destabilize Taralos, assuming Night’s Blessing story was true.

Chapter 18: The Last Changeling

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Diary of Chrysalis

Hatred, that was what consumed me after so many years as a stone statue in Twilight’s Garden, but also, reflection. I had stood defiant to the very last, the only one among my co-conspirators who was not frozen in time with an expression of terror on their face, weaklings. If I were to be immortalised as a living statue, I would do so displaying a fearsome snarl that would strike fear unto my onlookers for ages to come. After all, I wouldn't grant my hated enemies the satisfaction of begging for mercy.

Mercy, the ponies of Equestria always pretended to hold such lofty ideals, it was all a lie, a front for brainwashing and propaganda. I knew that better than anyone, even if what remained of my people were too young to understand. They were not there more than a thousand years ago when the changelings were on the brink of extinction, and only thanks to me were reborn as something stronger, something more suited for long-term survival.

Long ago, the lands that are now Equestria were the original home of the changelings. A peaceful species that fed on the love they felt for other creatures, much like the weakling pacifists that followed the usurper Thorax. I was one of them, I was once weak, pathetic, just like them, until my eyes were opened to the truth. Everything changed when the colonizers came, pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies, their original homeland a frozen wasteland, ruined by their infighting. Now united under one banner, that of King Sunlance, and desperate to claim a new homeland, ponykind trampled the changelings underhoof. I remember when my original hive was put to the torch by General Blaze himself, I was only a hatchling at the time, I was hiding in terror, the soldiers put all of the changelings to the sword, but they never found me. As the sole survivor of my hive, I swore vengeance upon Equestria, a crusade I have continued to this very day.

I survive in the wilderness for years after that, communicating with the bogs and swamplands I made refuge in, I learned a respect for nature in its purest form, for in nature only the strong survive, a lesson I learned well when my original hive was destroyed. I would use my shapeshifting to appear as beautiful ponies to seduce unlucky travelers who decided to travel through my bog, trick them into loving me and drain them dry of every drop of love, leaving only an empty husk. After all, the principle of the whole world ran by was survival of the fittest and I prefer to be predator rather than pray. With time my original green carapace turned black and holes started appearing all around my legs and body, but it also turned harder, more resilient to damage. I realized that this new metamorphosis was the next step in the evolution of my people.

With time, without any readily available food source, with most ponies hostile to them, the surviving changelings flocked to me, asking me to teach them how to live as a predator rather than prey. How to hunt others and drain them of their love. Those changelings went through the same metamorphosis I did, becoming strong in the process. Those who didn’t go through the metamorphosis didn’t survive, soon the only remaining changelings were the ones under my banner. And we gave Equestria hell, even after King Sunlance was overthrown by his own daughters, Celestia and Luna.

Equestria entered a more peaceful era under the rule of the two sisters, yet I didn’t trust it, I had grown wise to pony trickery, friendship, unity, all tools of control, only a way to force their way unto others. The way I see it the only difference between the royal sisters and Cozy was that at least Cozy was honest about her manipulation, she admitted that what she was doing was for selfish gain. How could it not be? No creature ever does anything that is not to the direct benefit of themselves and their group at the exclusion of all other groups. Cooperation between the different creatures was nothing more than a fairytale, a delusion. The only world where the changelings would be safe would be in a world where the other creatures were trapped in eggsacks to be drained of their love.

So, I led my people in continuing to live as predators, for over a millennium we survived this was until Starlight Glimmer convinced that traitor Thorax to embrace the old ways of the changelings, the way of weaklings that had almost led to our destruction. A new metamorphosis happened as Thorax convinced the rest of my hive to embrace the old pacifistic ways. I was the only one who resisted metamorphosis. Because I saw this for what it really was, a trick, a way for ponykind to make my people weak so that they could conquer them, like always. I was the only one alive who still remembered those times, who understood it was a trick.

I found myself alone, without a hive to support me. But support was overrated, I always managed to survive alone before I gathered a following, and I would continue to survive relying only on myself, for codependence breeds weakness. I had allowed myself to get attached to my hive, this had weakened me, I felt pain over what I lost, and I would make sure that Starlight and Thorax paid for that pain in blood.

Yet I was encouraged by a great magician named Grogar to cooperate with two other enemies of Equestria, Tirek, a powerful warlock, strong and self-reliant, and Cozy Glow, a weak and pathetic pony who relied on others to pose a threat. Yet Cozy had a silver tongue and somehow managed to convince me to cooperate with her and Tirek. Cozy, as I described earlier, I considered to be the epitome of the deceptive nature of ponykind, using friendship as a means of conquest. But I couldn’t deny her methods were effective, given her track record, but the allure of that kind of power turned out to be just as poisonous as Cozy’s words. With time I started to enjoy working with Cozy and Tirek, and I felt that if I kept this up, I would undergo metamorphosis, back to my original weak state. I couldn’t let that happen; friendship was a disease that if embraced would endanger my very identity as a survivor. The bonds I made with Tirek and Cozy needed to be cut before it corrupted me and made me weak, like my kin had become.

Of course, Grogar turned out to be none other than Discord, a demigod of chaos aligned with Equestria, it had been a trick all along, a way to infect my mind with pony propaganda. Equestria needed to pay for the deception, while no longer friends, Tirek and Cozy were likewise angered by Discord’s deception, and we made a last-ditch effort to lash out against our common enemy. This would eventually result in our defeat. As expected, despite their talk of mercy and redemption, the rulers of ponykind wanted to make an example out of us and had their pet Discord turn us all to stone. My co-conspirators both begged for mercy to no avail, I refused to give them that satisfaction.

Time passed while I was in my petrified state, many years, my whole focus being clinging onto my hatred and what I would do to my enemies when I got out. Eventually an orange unicorn with a red mane with yellow stripes came to visit the garden and free one of us, Cozy Glow. Of course, it wasn’t me, who would be stupid enough to free someone as fierce as me? Of course, it was the small, innocent-looking filly, that orange pony would learn the error of their ways the hard way. Get more years passed, my hatred starting to wane, and I had to concentrate hard on the indignity my enemies had subjected me to keep it going. More statues started appearing in the garden, the first one was Discord, not too great of a surprise there, he deserved it for his part in bringing destruction to their homeland, it was strange he wasn’t petrified to begin with. But the pony frozen beside him, in a pose that looked like she was trying to shield him from harm, took me by surprise, Fluttershy. Why? Did she accidentally kill one of Celestia’s pets?

These two wouldn’t be the last either, eventually the statues of random ponies would start appearing all around me, followed soon by the statues of changelings and eventually even Thorax himself. I knew it, Twilight was only using friendship to weaken my people so she would be able to destroy them. I didn’t know if any of them were even still alive. The very thought made me indignant, how dare they? My people rejected the only person who could have saved them, their pacifism had led them to this path of destruction. I felt an unfamiliar feeling when I thought about it, mixed in with my hatred, was it sadness? During the same time, Twilight’s old castle of gemstones was replaced by an enormous Spire made of pure obsidian. Like if made by King Sombra himself. Ponies were always hypocrites and liars, yet this did seem a bit more extreme than I expected. Whoever was in charge now was a far darker nature than who has been in charge before. Did Celestia retire and Twilight show her true dark nature? Because no matter how much I hated the two sisters, I knew them well enough to know that these blatant displays of evil were beyond them. Yet even that assumption soon became questionable as statues with the resemblance of Twilight’s friends started appearing in the garden, one after another. First came Rainbow Dash, frozen in the middle of what seemed to be a battle pose, together with Applejack. Next came Pinkie Pie and Rarity who both had expressions of terror on their faces. With how much Twilight prattled on about friendship, why would she do this to her closest? Maybe she had been lying from the beginning, friendship really was a means to an end for her and she discarded it when it was no longer convenient.

Eventually the monarch of his kingdom would appear before me, just to look at me and gloat. She looked like Twilight Sparkle, only her mouth was frozen in a stern expression and her purple eyes filled with a sense of cruelty and malice. She was clad in a dark cloak that may or may not be hiding a pair of wings, iron armor reminding me of that of King Sombra and a cruel looking crown pulsating with energy. Twilight gave off a sinister aura of great power inspiring fear by her very presence, I have to admit even I was shaken to the bone. For the first time in a very long time I felt truly afraid. Was this really the Twilight Sparkle I had been fighting against all this time? She has never displayed power of this nature before. Twilight looked right into my soul with those eyes of hers and spoke, as if she was a judge pronouncing a sentence.

“You are lucky you are not the Chrysalis of my home realm, for then I would have a fate even worse in store for you. For now, I am satisfied with settling with having you suffer the torment of being alone with your own thought forevermore, unable to move a muscle ever again or interact with another being. And to add to your torment, know this, the changelings have all been wiped out, your disgusting people are no more. Ponies are the purest incarnation of order, and I will not rest until all other creatures have been wiped from the lands.”

These words fill me with a lot of different thoughts, not of her home realm. So, this was not actually the Twilight I knew. I wondered what would happen with the princesses if this creature was in charge of Equestria now. A lot of different emotions for me when I thought about the fate of my people, wiped out? If only I could be free of my stone prison, I would do everything in my power to destroy this individual. My wish would soon come true when Starlight Glimmer would eventually appear in the garden. She wore a similar black cloak and armor to “Twilight”. Yet what she did next was something I would’ve never expected, she cast a spell to free both me and Tirek from stone. In normal circumstances I would report to shreds the first opportunity I got but considering the circumstances I decided to hear her out:

“I don’t have much time, so listen; Midnight could discover what I am up to any minute now. Equestria has been taken over by a being with incredible dark power who bear the guise of Twilight Sparkle. I beg you to forget whatever grudge we had in the past as we now have a greater adversary, and I wouldn’t do this unless I was desperate. Journey to the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadence has been informed and will welcome the both of you with open arms. Drink from the power of the Crystal Heart, it will empower you and with it we could maybe have a chance of defeating Midnight. Go, now, however much I hate to admit it you two are the only hope we have left, and I would rather take a reality of Equestria being destroyed than under iron hoof of Midnight.”

I didn’t get much time to question her as Starlight disappeared as quickly as she arrived using a teleportation spell. But what she said made sense. After a quick discussion with Tirek we both agreed to journey to the Crystal Empire, because she was right, the Crystal Heart would have the power to allow us to once again pose a threat to Equestria. And I certainly wouldn’t mind eliminating this Midnight, who had the audacity to try to exterminate my people. As the last remaining changeling, I wouldn’t rest until I had made this Midnight wish she never been born.

Chapter 19: A Daring Rescue

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Diary of Cozy Glow

After burying the foundation stone in a safe place, we continued towards the capital city of Arcys. We had instructions from King Shining Horn to seek out an agent of his known as Darkmoon at the Bothered Hen Inn in the capital. Arcys seemed to be nothing more than a small town, smaller than Vil, and certainly not a match for the natural grandeur of Canterlot back in my original homeland, Arcys had a stone wall built around it and an inner keep containing a palace with a pair of tall towers. The guards at the gates seemed distracted by something and just waved us inside along with other travelers. As we moved through town, I noticed that the streets of the city were mostly empty, the few ponies that were about were whispering to each other, something about events going on at the palace. The little I managed to gather while we navigated towards the Bothered Hen inn whispered about some kind of coup.

Once we reached the Bothered Hen Inn, I found it to be a humble establishment, but it seemed to be well cleaned. Among its patrons a unicorn in his 30’s with a white coat and an unkempt black mane with red stripes approached us. He wore a pair of rectangular glasses, slightly obscuring his emerald eyes and he was wearing a regal red cloak with white stripes, he introduced himself as Darkmoon and asked us if I happened to be Knight Commander Cozy Glow. I said that I was, Darkmoon got rather excited and told me he had heard stories about me which he would love to hear more about us another time. Then he proceeded to tell us what he knew about what was going on in town.

Apparently, the king had been deposed by two of the western barons, Baron Fury Heart and Baron Cold Steel, who had imprisoned the king in one of the towers in his own palace. If we could free the king and deliver him to the barons still loyal to him to the north, it would mean a civil war within Arcys, but this conflict would also weaken Swift Blade’s forces and the northern loyalists could be powerful allies in the upcoming war.

But there was a slight problem, the palace’s defenses were impenetrable, the guard entirely loyal to the two usurping barons. I suggested that maybe the tower the king was held could be reached using flight. Which would mean only me and Silverwing would be able to participate in the rescue. It was here Twilight came in handy with a helpful spell, telling us she would be able to create frail butterfly wings for the rest of us so Sunset, Night’s Blessing and Twilight herself would be able to get up on the roof of the tower. But considering there was still a risk of being shot down by the palace guards, we needed a diversion while we performed this rescue. Darkmoon had an idea. Leading us out of the city and into a nearby forest. As we entered a small empty clearing Darkmoon told me he had set up a meeting with a potential ally.

When we entered the clearing where we were supposed to meet with our potential allies. I could hear a faint sound from aboe as a group of winged ponies dropped out of the sky. A magnificent Pegasus with feathers shimmering of all colors of the rainbow stepped forward and introduced herself:

“Welcome, you must be ambassador Cozy Glow of Taralos, my name is Rainbow Step, ambassador of Mae Mae’s reach. I heard about the attack on Taralos but am not certain if my people getting involved is worth the risk. Yet, Mae Mae’s Reach had a good relationship with King Blueblood of Arcys so we are uncertain we can truly trust the barons that deposed him. Tell me, why should we help you? I heard that you can be quite persuasive, Cozy Glow.”

I remember reading about Mae-Mae’s Reach, it was a small island nation to the southwest of Taralos populated almost exclusively by pegasi. They could prove to be a powerful ally in the upcoming conflict. I tried my best to convince Rainbow Step that an alliance would be mutually beneficial:

“Ambassador, there has long been a close relationship between Mae Mae’s Reach and Taralos, if you help us in this, we will also help you in turn whenever you are in trouble. Also, if Taralos falls, who’s to say that the rogue barons and Prince Swift Blade won’t turn their attention on Mae Mae’s reach next? I think your best option is helping us get rid of this problem before it’s too late, because if Taralos falls there would be no one left to help you if Swiftblade does feel like conquering Mae-Mae’s reach once he is King.”

Rainbow Step looked at me for a second before smiling and said:

“Very well, you make a good point, the forces of Mae-Mae’s Reach are at your disposal. Tell me, what do you need us to do?”

I told her that we needed them to create a diversion while we flew up to the tower the king was imprisoned in and rescue him. While they told me this diversion might not be without casualties, Rainbow Step accepted the terms.

While the pegasi forces were waiting for Darkmoon’s signal. We prepared for a flight up to the tower, Twilight cast a spell that gave Night’s Blessing, Sunset and herself a beautiful yet fragile-looking pair of butterfly wings. Twilight warned them that the wings were quite sensitive to heat, and they shouldn’t fly too close to the sun, once upon a time a friend of hers, Rarity, had almost died making that mistake. Twilight also told us to hurry up as she only had enough magical power to make the wings last for a couple of minutes. With that we told Darkmoon to give the signal to be Mae-Mae’s reach forces and we began our ascent, soaring high above the town of Arcys before descending towards the palace and the power that the king was being held captive in, landing on the roof. On the roof was a set of stairs leading down into the tower.

The room below was unusually shaped, made of plain stone and with a high ceiling. On a chair in this room was sitting a single heavily armed earth pony, guarding the cell on the other side of the room. The cell itself appeared remarkably comfortable, which I guess befitted the royal status of the prisoner. The floor was carpeted, and the windows had solid steel bars covering them. The room was furnished with a bed and a writing desk. A middle-aged earth pony with a white coat and an arctic blue mane who I assumed to be King Blueblood was in this room. As soon as they saw us, the guard shouted for reinforcements and almost immediately an important looking earthpony together with another heavily armored guard came from the stairs below. The important looking earthpony was clad in gilded armor and had a grey coat with a white mane. I suspect that he might be one of the barons. The Baron immediately ordered his soldiers to get to the door to the cell open and the king killed. But we couldn’t allow that order to be fulfilled, so we attacked immediately.

King Blueblood was thinking quickly and managed to blockade the door to his cell using his bed before the guards could get to him. Night’s Blessing quickly engaged the guard who was ordered to kill the king by the Baron. Her first blow clinked when hit the guard’s armor, but her second strike was true and struck a weak point. The Baron during the commotion focused all his attention on breaking down the barricade the king had placed in front of the door. Ordering his guards to keep us busy in the meantime, the two guards formed a shield wall to prevent us from getting through. I ordered my subordinates to reach the baron as quickly as possible before he could reach and kill the king. The guards attempted to hit Night’s Blessing, but she easily parried their blows and managed to land a counterattack in turn. Silverwing attacked the shield wall with his full ferocity but was unable to break through their heavy steel shields. Twilight fired a bolt of pure energy at the guards making up the shield wall and severely wounded one of them, while Sunset was able to finish them off with a bolt of fire. It was strange to see a goody two shoes like Sunset getting so used to killing. Earlier on when we first ended up in Taralos, she used to have trouble killing her enemies. Now she seemed to have accepted that sometimes it was just a fact of life and couldn’t be avoided, especially in war.

By this point the Baron was able to destroy to break down the door and make his way into the cell, he was just about to raise his weapon towards the king when I took the opportunity to act and uttered a lethal insult towards him:

“Get away from him you sack of lard.”

The enchantments on these words weren’t enough to land a lethal blow, but it was enough to distract him while Silverwing exploited the opening in the shield wall to get past it and attack the Baron with his heavy greatsword, a powerful blow left the Baron winded, and Twilight and Sunset exploited this opening to land the killing blow with a combination of arcane energy and holy fire.

The king was breathing heavily, probably thinking he was a goner, before he quickly collected himself and spoke with a regal tone.

“I, King Blueblood, I can hardly believe you killed Baron Cold Steel, he locked me up in this tower, intending to take the throne for himself. I am grateful you saved my life, but who are you? How did you get here? And how do you plan for us to get out?”

I tried to explain what I could to him, that I was Knight Commander Cozy Glow of Taralos and I was here to rescue him. We got up here in the tower using our wings and we planned to get him down the same way. I could hear the sound of hoofsteps coming from the stairs below, so I decided we needed to hurry up, so I told the king to climb on top of Silverwing and with that he hurried to the roof and took flight. The king appeared quite frightened when we first took flight, but quickly calmed down after we managed to get out of town and therefore we could afford to slow down. We met up with the pegasi from Mae-Mae’s Reach just before Twilight’s butterfly wings spell wore off, who promised they would take the king to his allies in the north of Arcys. Before he left, the king had a final few words left to say to his rescuers.

“This might be the first time we meet, Cozy Glow of Taralos, but I owe you and your companions my life. I have heard that the other renegade barons have amassed forces to attack Taralos, and therefore I hope we will be able to form an alliance between the forces of Taralos and the loyalists in Arcys in order to fight this common enemy. Maybe together we could defeat them and maybe you could help me reclaim my throne.”

I told him that this news would greatly please King Shining Horn, who needed all the help he could get.

Before we could return to Vil, Fazban once again contacted us telepathically and explained that he wanted to meet us in a small village in the outskirts of Taralos to give us more information about the Foundation Stone he asked us to rebury. We complied and upon reaching the small village, we could see that its people seemed quite worried about the approaching armies. I gave them a speech:

“Citizens of Taralos, now that the forces of the usurper Swift Blade approaches, I know that you are afraid, you may be thinking, why should we lay down our lives and die because of the squabbles of the upper classes? The answer is quite simple, Shining Horn is a benevolent king that will treat you fairly, Swift Blade is a ruthless tyrant who will not care if you starve or now. You shall also know this, as one of the knights of the realm, I promise you we will do whatever we can to defend the common people. I don’t know if the king will issue a draft, but if he doesn’t, we will be in need of volunteers. While these volunteers do risk death, know that every life lost will be in service of ensuring the prosperity of the rest of us. And you wouldn’t fight alone, but together with many of the greatest heroes in the realm, Night’s Blessing the Swift, the deadliest blade of the Black Hooves clan, Silverwing the Valorous, the strongest knight in all of Taralos, Twilight Sparkle the wise, the most powerful mage in the realm and Sunset Shimmer, the kind, who are capable of healing any wound. In addition to fighting together with all of these great heroes I, Cozy Glow the clever, whose strategies turned the table in the gem gnoll war, will personally command the forces of Taralos. Together I know we can win.”

The dour mood in the village changed, now many of them seemed hopeful and many even volunteered to sign up for the army. I realized that many of them would still die, but now they would at least die fighting, the numbers contributing to a greater chance of victory. Some would say that I was tricking them, leading them to the slaughter in the name of personal gain. They would be right to some extent, because I didn’t know if Swift Blade would really be all that much worse of a king than Shining Horn, I just knew I would support Shining Horn because I saw him as a friend. But I meant every word I said about wanting to minimize casualties among the common people, I had started to like being seen as a hero among the people. I loved their attention when I performed speeches like these, then I could see they saw me as someone important, someone worth listening to. I knew that I would eventually make speeches like this one in every town or village in order to gather an army for the king and I would enjoy every minute of it.

Fazban was found among the crowd that was listening to my speech, after I was finished, he congratulated me on the well performed speech before leading us to a nearby inn and up the stairs to the room he had rented. Once we were out of earshot. Fazban was finally willing to explain all he knew about the Foundation Stones. The Zebra did so in the form of retelling an ancient legend, one he had a surprising amount of knowledge about, it was the same legend he told us before, a few days ago, but with added detail.

Once upon a time the founders of Taralos made a pact with an unknown being in return for 5 Foundation Stones, 4 to be planted at the borders, one at the heart of the land, the city of Vil itself. The stones magic subtly encouraged loyalty towards the rightful monarch of the land and if they were ever destroyed, Taralos would fall. But there was more...

According to Fazban, over time the kingdom would become more and more dependent on the stones. And the magic of the stones wouldn't last forever. When the magic finally failed the entity that the Founders made the pact with would feast on the denizens of Taralos. It was here Fazban told us the real kicker, he suspected the entity that originally gave the Founders the Foundation Stones were none other than an ancient Archdemon of Chaos known as the Devourer of Nations, who he suspected dwelled somewhere below Everglow.

It was said the Devourer allowed civilization to form in the world only to sweep in to destroy it when it was ripe, feeding on the despair and misery as a nation falls in order to grow stronger in the process. There had been several civilizations before ponies on Everglow, including the ancient empire of the dwarves, allowed to grow by the demon to eventually serve as its feast. Fazban told us that according to his calculations, the magic of the stones would last a total of 338 years. This would mean we had about half a decade before the Devourer awakened to destroy Everglow, but because of the damage to the Emerald stone, this calamity might occur earlier than expected.

I have had earlier experience with demons, in fact I suspecedt that it was a demon that first put me on the dark path. A pact which price I didn't realize until it was too late. I lost my best friend in a pact for power. A pact that led me to eventually meet Tirek. I remember having a nightmare about Aurora some time back, twisted into a grotesque tree. This was before Night's Blessing taught me the prayers to the Moon Princess to ward off bad dreams. Considering listening to demons had always screws me over, listening to Solar Justice led to me losing my best friend and listening to Tirek led to me becoming a statue, I had since learned to be wary of demons.

But Fazban had a dream, a plan. There was a prophecy among ponykind about a Great Uniter who would come and unite the tribes of ponykind into a single great Empire. This uniter was said to have the horn of a unicorn, the wings of a pegasus and the strength of the earthbound. While I lacked the horn of a pegasus or the strength of an earthbound. Fazban had seen me unite Taralos with the Turves Clans, the King's Loyalists in Arcys and Mae-Mae's Reach. He thought that perhaps I was the Great Uniter the prophecy spoke of. If Taralos had to fall to the demon, perhaps a new and much better empire was destined to rise in its place. An Empire under my rule with the other Knights as my advisors.

When Fazban spoke the words, I was sure he was right, a newfound sense of purpose had come over me. Yes, I was destined to become the Great United and rule as the Empress of a United Empire of Ponykind. I had always known this to be my destiny. I just didn't predict I was destined to rule a world that wasn't my own. I just needed to figure out a way to become an alicorn once again. Yet there was a voice deep down that told me to be vary, for false promises of this nature had always managed to ensnare me in the past.

Chapter 20: The Occultist

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Darkmoon’s Journal

For a long time now, I have dedicated my life to understanding the secrets of the universe. I guess this obsession of mine had been a part of me since colthood. Growing up among the Tribe of Bones, the concept of death has been ever present in my existence for as long as I can remember. I was taught the rituals to bring the dead to rest, and if the situation calls for it, bring them back to the world of the living. But my culture always stressed this should only ever be done with the consent of the departed.

I was also taught the ability to read the aura of people and objects. Just by looking at them I could get a good grasp of their general nature. And by investigating the aura of an object belonging to people with a great destiny, I could get a good read of their entire history, their thoughts and their feelings. As well as unlocking powerful magic of a nature depending on the nature of the owner of the object. The greater the destiny of the person, the more powerful the magical aura. My very first object of significance was a talisman belonging to my long-dead mentor, a shaman of the Tribe of Bones. It radiated with power allowing me to exercise greater control over the spirits of the dead.

Sometime after my mentor's passing. I moved to Vil to get better access to powerful objects to study. My abilities were recognized as quite valuable for the purpose of recording history. And my abilities also proved useful in my work as a spy for Princess Scarlet Lance herself. As I had the ability to read the aura of a person with but a glance, granted, it was rare to me to find creatures of true significance to history, outside of the Royal family itself. This was until the two strangers appeared in the city of Vil, both radiating with importance. The first was Sunset Shimmer, a unicorn mare, surrounded by an aura of light from the upper planes, and Cozy Glow, a young pegasus mare with an aura of the majesty of a true ruler, stronger than that of King Greybeard himself or either of his three children. I knew just by looking at her that this mare was born to lead. When I told King Greybeard about what I saw in the two strangers, he wanted them involved in the case of his son’s missing horn. From that point onward, I kept a close eye on both Sunset and Cozy, observing their accomplishments from a distance, watching how Cozy quickly gained the position of Knight Commander and saving Taralos time and time again. And they were eventually joined by another figure of destiny, a unicorn mage named Twilight Sparkle.

During that time, I knew I had to get a significant object of theirs in my possession, as that would greatly increase my ability to understand these great figures of destiny. I eventually had some luck in that Sunset published a religious text that was quite successful within Taralos, a book called The Way of the Redeemer, where she talked about her philosophy of redemption and rehabilitation, as well as her experience traveling the planes. The book itself radiated conjuration magic; more powerful than any implement of that nature I had ever encountered, it seemed this book held great emotional significance to Sunset, for otherwise it wouldn’t be linked to her aura. Using the book as a focus I found myself able to channel healing spells of positive energy as well as the ability to call outsiders from beyond with greater ease than ever before. Combined with the ancient rings of summoning I previously acquired I was able to call upon being from other worlds to do my bidding. I had long possessed the ability to use a hoof band I received from my mentor to call upon Psychopomps, beings that guided the souls of the dead into the afterlife, as they were venerated in my culture. But with the magic I received from this implement connected to Sunset Shimmer, I was able to call upon lesser angels of the upper planes using another special hoof band in my possession. I was also in possession of a third hoof band, made of iron with several sharp barbs that dug into the flesh when equipped, a curiosity I didn’t know the purpose of until recently. Turns out it carried the ability to contact Velstracs, horrific creatures of the lower planes that couldn’t tell the difference between pleasure and pain. I knew I had to be careful when dealing with them, but they could offer me significant knowledge of matters I didn’t previously know.

The book also allowed me access information about Sunset’s past by reading its aura. Like she claimed, Sunset was a creature from another world. I was able to read that she was born in a world called Equestria, the daughter of a powerful noble, who was lucky enough to earn a position as the apprentice of her nation’s ruler, a demigod called Princess Celestia. Yet she took her position for granted and started researching dark magic against the wishes of her mentor. When she was discovered, she was stripped of her position and Sunset retreated into another world in shame in order to avoid facing her family using a magical mirror that enabled the plane shift spell. Even from this other world Sunset schemed to one day return and in order to do so she stole a powerful artifact called the Element of Magic from Celestia’s next protégé, Twilight Sparkle. While Sunset was ultimately defeated, Twilight spared her life and taught her the ways of friendship.

From that day onward, Sunset was a changed mare, she managed to prove herself to Twilight by helping her fight against a group of Sirens, and later fought against a corrupted form of Twilight called Midnight as well as a rampaging forest spirit. Sunset would eventually use the power of the mirror to travel to different universes as a champion of good, fighting evil and redeeming any villain she could, for she believed that everyone should be given a second chance like she was. This was the reason she decided to free a known criminal from her original homeworld, Cozy Glow, at the time a young filly who somehow managed to commit a crime severe enough to be punished by being turned to stone for all eternity. Having met a version of Cozy from another universe who was a champion of light who fought against the archvillain Midnight, Sunset believed wholeheartedly that this other Cozy could also rise to the occasion and become a pony others could rally behind. Ever since they both entered my world Cozy did do nothing but impress her.

All of this just made me desire to know more about this Cozy Glow. And to do that I needed to get a personal item of hers in my possession. But it wasn’t until I was sent on a mission of espionage to Arcys I got an opportunity to get closer to her. Working together to free the king of Arcys from the tower where traitor barons who intended to usurp him had imprisoned him. I got to see the Defenders of Taralos in action personally. Other than the three significant figures of destiny, Sunset, Cozy and Twilight, I could also see lesser auras of destiny around Night’s Blessing and Silverwing. Night’s Blessing read as an unpredictable trickster, yet one whose bond with Cozy made her part of Cozy’s destiny, their bond appearing to me as a tether of light connecting the two mares. Silverwing read as a mighty warrior seeking a challenge, but his aura was surrounded by an umbra of necrotic energy. In my experience that meant his thread of destiny would be soon cut off and he would never again return to this world. That unless an agent of Soft Whisper, such as myself, intervened. I knew exactly how I would receive a personal item from Cozy Glow.

I decided to invite her into my study after we both returned to Vil. If she thought this offer suspicious, she showed no sign of it. Other than placing guards inside the door and making sure to take Night’s Blessing with her to the meeting, so I guess she was rather suspicious after all. I could sense the two were truly inseparable, the tether of light connecting the two stronger than ever. I started by explaining to Cozy about my abilities to read the auras of ponies with great destinies and that hers were one of the most powerful I had ever seen. Cozy smiled at me when I told her she had a great destiny ahead of her, seemed like her ego was her weakness.

I explained that if I could come into possession of an item that meant a great deal to her, I would be able to channel the power of her aura to enhance my own magic. Cozy told me that she would consider it, if and only if I could make a major contribution to the war effort. It was now I explained to her about my past as a shaman of the Tribe of Bones, how my people shepherded the dead to their final resting place. Yet I also knew rituals to bring the dead back to life. While they would be undead, my people considered the more based arts of necromancy, the ones that revived only mindless slaves, to be an affront to our goddess, Soft Whisper. Instead, I offered her the ability to raise willing soldiers from the grave, the ones who wanted to continue fighting for their homeland, even from beyond the grave. For such undead were considered holy warriors by my culture. While it was obvious Cozy was at first unsettled by the prospect of an army of the living dead, she quickly came around to it once she realized how much of an advantage this would give our forces. I could send for my brethren of the Tribe of Bones to be able to reanimate more soldiers than I could ever do alone. This much I pledged to her.

In return for my promise to raise willing dead soldiers to serve Taralos once again, Cozy handed me her yellow hairband, the one I had never seen her without. She told me she had worn this one since she was a young filly and that her attachment to this piece of clothing was great, for it was given to her by someone very dear to her that had since passed away. She was right, for this hairband radiated powerful enchantment magic, magic that could enhance the presence and charisma of those that channeled its power. It would allow me to add enchantment magic to my arsenal of spells, like I had now mastered necromancy and conjuration from my other implements. But most importantly of all, unbeknownst to her, I would now be able to access the memories of Cozy Glow, so I could better understand this figure of destiny that Sunset Shimmer put so much faith in.

This hairband’s aura told me that Cozy had grown up in an orphanage in Equestria, where she made a friend who meant everything to her,who had given Cozy this very hairband, a friend who she would later lose to suicide because of her own hunger for power and influence. With nothing left in life except the pursuit of power, in a desperate attempt to fill the hole in her heart that her friend left behind, she dedicated everything she had to conquer her homeland using every dirty trick she could device. I saw Cozy forming an unlikely bond with a centaur warlock named Tirek, who gave her the means for her ascension. A ritual that would drain the magic from the lands and therefore reduce the demigods that ruled it to the power level of regular ponies. Cozy would come to believe that friendship was power, yet she failed to establish many genuine friendships, the closest she ever came was Tirek, and their relationship was abusive to say the least, as there was a massive imbalance of power between the young filly and the powerful warlock. Cozy would eventually fail to take over the world twice and be imprisoned in stone for what she believed was forever, together with her co-conspirators, Tirek, and a changeling Queen called Chrysalis, who was the closest she ever had two friends since the childhood friend she lost. I could feel Cozy’s pain as she stirred in hatred against those who had imprisoned her, and the entity called Discord that had tricked her.

This should have been the end, a figure of great destiny cut short before their time by those who thought the cruelty Cozy inflicted on others made the cruelty inflicted upon her justified. But she would encounter one individual who would rebel against that notion, one who thought no creature, no matter how evil, deserved to suffer, Sunset Shimmer. When Sunset took her to Everglow, Cozy, at first intended only to continue her crusade for power, a desperate attempt to drown out the sorrow that not only she still felt but had been amplified since her imprisonment in stone. But something happened Cozy didn’t expect, here, in a world where she had a chance to start anew, she formed her first genuine bond since her early childhood, the mare called Night’s Blessing. A friendship that would soon blossom into love. Not only that, but she found she enjoyed her role as the protector of Taralos as the people for first time regarding her not as a villain, but a hero. I could see that Cozy had started to genuinely care for not only Night’s Blessing, but Sunset Shimmer and King Shining Horn as well. Cozy was now torn between her desire to be the one who fulfilled the prophecy of the Great Uniter and her loyalty to Shining Horn. Her aura was interesting, while Cozy was a creature of self interest, there was a light within her that had yet to fully blossom.

The Great Uniter, this figure had long been prophesied by the Seekers of the One Herd. But I had always thought it was nonsense, could it be that this Cozy Glow was the one destined to unite the pony tribes? Or was it someone else altogether? Whatever the case it would be interesting to see where Cozy’s destiny took her, and I intend to be there and record all of it for the history books.

Silverwing’s Journal

I had long served as a knight under King Greybeard of Taralos. But it wasn’t until I met Sunset Shimmer and Cozy Glow during the incident with the prince’s missing horn that I found my true calling. I had long been a wanderer only seeking to challenge the powerful in combat in order to win glory in the eyes of my deity, White Talon, she who judges the souls of the dead. What I managed to accomplish since joining the Defenders of Taralos eclipsed everything I accomplished beforehand. White Talon always favored those who rose to their full potential and punished those who wasted their talents. But given my role in winning the gem gnoll war, stopping Valentine in the Temple of Chaos and defending Taralos against the usurper Prince Swift Blade. I am sure that White Talon would look favorably upon my actions when I eventually kicked the bucket, which I always knew could happen any day, because that was the life of a soldier. Yet, I didn’t mind, as I lived for combat, it was my true calling. While I was always loyal to the royal family of Taralos, it was under the command of Dame Cozy Glow I had been truly able to shine, and for that I would always be undyingly loyal to her, my true lord.

That is why I never questioned her orders, for Cozy Glow was a strategic genius and seldom made mistakes. Shortly after our return from Arcys the forces of Prince Swift Blade attacked Taralos, the king gathered a war council to decide what to do about the invading army. King Shining Horn, advised by Princess Scarlet Lance, decided to send an army to fight the intruders head on, Knight Commander Cozy Glow was skeptical of such a direct approach, but relented under the condition that I was to be put in charge of that army. I had a bad feeling about it, Cozy obviously believed it was a bad idea, and I trusted her judgement. Yet she didn’t have more authority than the king as his word was final.

I marched out from Vil the following night spearheading over a thousand warriors. We would soon meet the one of the hosts of Swift Blade upon the field of battle, a host numbering an even number of ponies compared to our own, consisting of both clockwork ponies and the soldiers of the rogue baronies of Arcys. Leading from the front, I would slay pony after pony with my greatsword until I came into contact with the leader of the enemy army, Prince Swift Blade himself. I remembered him from the time before his banishment as a unicorn as well as a gempony with a shining white coat that sparkled like a diamond, the clockwork curse had transformed the prince into a creature of clockwork that appeared to be made out of solid gold, wielding six rapiers with his telekinetic ability. I decided to duel the Prince to the death, only the most powerful warrior would emerge alive. The test that would truly prove my worth in the eyes of White Talon.

The Prince immediately charged, striking me in the chest with the rapier he held hovering close to him while the others surrounded me. I managed to strike only a single blow against the Prince, denting his metal carapace, before I was torn apart from every side by the swarm of blades he was controlling. At that moment life left me, I found myself in a void, guided by a strange skeletal pony. When I regained consciousness again, I was at the perch leading to the domain of White Talon, who according to the folklore of my people would judge me when I reached the top of the cliff. I hoped that my goddess wouldn’t judge me too harshly for being defeated by the Prince so resoundingly. A part of me wished I would get another chance to strike down Swift Blade, and as if the universe itself heard my wish, I could hear a voice from beyond, that of a mature male pony I recognized as that of Darkmoon:

“Do you wish to return to serve Taralos once more?”

I jumped at this opportunity and told the voice that I didn’t know if I could truly rest until I had bested Swift Blade. The perch faded around me and when I would next awakened it would be on some kind of ritual table, surrounded by canopic jars containing various organs and jars with other ingredients. Cozy Glow was standing by this table, looking worried, and then finally relieved when she realized I had woken up. Darkmoon was busy doing some kind of mystical chant. It took me a while to realize what had happened. I was dead, but Darkmoon offered me an opportunity to come back to the world of the living. I remember now that he was of the Tribe of Bones, a tribe that was said to have the power to bring back the dead.

Looking down at my own form I realized I was now a skeleton, held together by only dark magic. At first, I was horrified, and Cozy Glow didn’t seem to know if she wanted to be happy because I managed to return or horrified over what I had become either. Darkmoon informed me that that while my new undead form was physically weaker than I used to be, I would be able to continue fighting on the front lines as long as I was careful. Cozy informed me that while the army I was leading was defeated, it had been a close call and Swift Blade’s forces took significant losses as well. Which should buy us time to fortify the city against their assault as well as conscript a larger army. The more I thought about the smug face of Prince Swift Blade and the grin he gave me as he finished me off, the more I appreciated this new opportunity to take him down. Then and only then did I felt I could die in peace and face White Talon’s Judgment with pride.

Chapter 21: Death of an Empire

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Diary of Princess Flurry Heart

I remember my early life in the Crystal Empire was quite idyllic. Being the first naturally born alicorn in thousands of years, I was the apple in everyone’s eye. The greatest treasure in my mother’s eyes. All as should be with me at the center of the universe This was until there was a change in my auntie Twilight. Soon after less people were doting on me and they began to be consumed by other matters, matters of war.

According to my mother, it all began after she disappeared from Twilight’s Garden, a villain so horrendous that stories were told about her to scare children into obedience, Cozy Glow. A filly so vile that she was to be turned to stone for all eternity, while still a foal, a warning example to other foals not to follow in her hoofsteps. Twilight disappeared soon after, only to return a changed mare. Where once she had a heart of gold, she now had a heart of ice. I have heard whispers that my aunt didn't return at all, but that Cozy Glow instead took her place, after all, her reputation was bad enough to make the theory possible. This new Twilight soon became known as Midnight amongst the Crystal Empire, but who came up with the name I didn't know.

I didn't know why, but I had always felt a strange connection to Cozy Glow. I would often dream of her, horrible dreams about being trapped as a stone statue for all eternity, and I have had these dreams ever since I was a baby. I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for her. Was she really as bad as everypony said? Because of these dreams I have always had a fascination with Cozy Glow and the stories told about her, like when she tried to drain all the magic from Equestria. Fascinating stuff.

When it became clear to my mother that Twilight had changed, she closed the border to the Crystal Empire and erected a powerful barrier using the Crystal Heart, a barrier to keep away evil, and protect her people, as well as the jewel of her kingdom, me. Mother would then declare war on Equestria. This was around the same time two guests arrived in the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis, the former Queen of the changelings, and Tirek, a powerful warlock with the ability to drain magic. Both of them old friends of Cozy, if friends were the right word, more like frenemies. But they were here to lend help the Crystal Empire in our fight against Midnight, would they really side against Cozy? Assuming Midnight was Cozy as some said.

Mother at first was careful not to let me be alone with Chrysalis or Tirek, seemingly not trusting them entirely. But I was still able to talk to them from time to time. When I told Chrysalis about the rumors of Cozy Glow being Midnight, she laughed, must have been the first time I ever had Chrysalis laugh. Then her tone became full of hatred and spite.

"Cozy? Ha, that wannabe villain? Trust me, Midnight is vicious, whatever you think of Cozy, Midnight is worse. Cozy, for all her ambition and lust for power was still a pony through and through, with all her focus on friendship and cooperation. You know, I always mistrusted ponies and their friendship, so I just thought that Princess Twilight finally showed her true colors when she ordered the death of my people. If the changelings still followed my ways, they would have been able to fight back. I always knew that Thorax's weakness would be his downfall. I am now the last of my kind, not only because of Midnight, but because it was inevitable that someone would come along exploit Thorax's weakness. But because they listened to pony foolishness. I guess I was proven right, just wish it wasn’t at the expense of my people. Now only one thing that remains for me is to claim Midnight's head."

I knew what my mother had told me about Chrysalis, how she got kidnapped and how the changeling queen tried to replace her during hers and father's wedding. But I still couldn't help but to feel sad for her, after all, her people were gone and she didn't have a single friend in the entire world, except for her old frenemy, Tirek. And wherever Cozy was, assuming she really wasn't Midnight. Yet I still had to ask:

"What do you mean by Cozy having a focus on friendship? Isn't she one of the bad guys? I was told you were turned to stone because you all rejected friendship."

Chrysalis scoffed at that notion.

"From the first day I met that filly, she always insisted we had a better chance sticking together, without her we would have probably gone separate ways and tried to take revenge on our own. I tend to value self-reliance over your namby pamby notions of relying on others. Yet I must admit that without her, we would never have received the power necessary to have a chance at revenge. She had an epiphany when we tried to recover the Bell of Grogar on top of Mount Everhoof, we had to work together to get past the barrier. But after we were successful Cozy said something incredibly foolish, and it has stuck with me ever since. She said that helping others felt better somehow. At that point I knew she was no different from other ponies, I had to shut it down before she infected me with her nonsense and I became weak like Thorax and look what happened to him. She almost infected Tirek too."

This was the first time I heard of it, I had been told many stories about Cozy's misdeeds, but this is the first I heard of Cozy almost finding redemption. I remember when I was younger, when my aunt still hadn't been replaced by Midnight, she had told me that Cozy Glow was beyond redemption. And not only Cozy had almost found redemption, but also Tirek.

"Don't you regret dragging that filly down with you?"

I asked the former Queen, who just brushed it off.

"Regret? Remorse? Such emotions are for the weak. Cozy was only a means to an end. Without me the changelings would grow weak and perish, I failed, they paid the price for their weakness. Thats all there is to it."

Despite her words I could detect a hint of sadness in her voice. For all her faults it was clear she at least cared about her people. As time passed and the war dragged on, me and Chrysalis would become close. After the war meetings she participated in and various battles, she would grace me with stories about the war. Describing the strange metallic creatures serving under Midnight, as well as horrific nightmares she called Velstracs, who were obsessed with inflicting pain on others as well as a high tolerance for pain themselves. While scary, I found these stories fascinating. Chrysalis told me that Midnight had summoned these unnatural creatures from another plane of existence and that they were fierce combatants. My mother, after fighting for months side-by-side with her once arch enemy, she had started to let her guard down around Chrysalis, which allowed me to spend some more time with her just the two of us. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that the former queen had started forming an attachment to me.

I started telling her how I viewed the world, how as a naturally born alicorn, how I was destined to rule and that the Crystal Empire would one day be mine. At first, she considered the notion ridiculous, telling me that nobody was fated to rule by destiny, and that if I wanted to rule, I needed to claim that power using my own hooves. According to her, only the strong deserved to wield power. Little did she know that despite only being 12 years old, my magic was already stronger than most unicorns. Chrysalis offered to teach me how to fight and I agreed, my mother and father approved due to us living in times of war. Chrysalis taught me how to wield weapons using my telekinesis, my father would also join in for lessons, I had a feeling he was starting to get closer to Chrysalis as well.

While I had mostly remained at the distance out of fear, one day I decided to approach Tirek to ask him about his experiences with Cozy Glow. Tirek had always an intimidating guy, especially since he absorbed a great deal of the magic of the Crystal Heart to use its power as a weapon during the war. He was an enormous, red-skinned centaur, bigger and more powerful than a minotaur, who he shared his horns in common with. Yet I had heard stories that he was once as big as a mountain, whatever the Crystal Heart could spare must have been less power than he had during that time. Yet his current size was comparable to how he looked during the time he invaded Equestria together with Chrysalis and Cozy. I used to be afraid of him, but since Chrysalis and father had started teaching me how to fight, no more. I approached Tirek confidently.

“So, I heard you and Cozy Glow had an epiphany at the top of Mount Everhoof, did anything she stay stick with you? Did you ever regret doubling down on your villainous ways?”

Tirek looked down at my small frame and grunted:

“Chrysalis talked, didn’t she? I don’t know why she would spill the beans considering she was the one who convinced me that Cozy was talking foolishly. But it’s true, what Cozy said that day has stuck with me. I don’t necessarily believe it, mind you, but has never left my head. I guess I am doing what she suggested now, working together with others towards a greater goal. Not that I have as strong a reason for doing so as Chrysalis, as far as I know Midnight didn’t kill my people. As far as I know they are already gone. I originally set out to destroy Equestria to prove my worth to my father and my clan, yet I do know if he still lives, or if any of my people are still around. Makes the whole affair quite pointless now that I think about it. I just keep thinking that given the current situation, Cozy Glow would have been useful for the, that filly always had a mind for strategy. I wonder where she is.“

Tirek almost seemed depressed, with a sense of longing in his voice. I continued to ask him questions:

“Is it true that you knew Cozy before she became infamous?”

Tirek chuckled, barely being able to hold back his mirth.

“That is correct that is correct, imagine my surprise that during my second stay in Tartarus a young filly found a way to send me a letter through a ritual. Asking me for details about the nature of the demons I commune with. Cozy said she had a run in with a demonic entity, someone she wanted to identify. A demon who caused the death of a friend of hers. We were never able to identify this demon and to be honest I’m not sure if they ever existed, maybe it was all in Cozy’s head. But I could sense in her a longing to drown out her sorrow and sense of guilt with power. So, I encouraged her to embrace her ambitions, a filly that brilliant deserved to rule Equestria I told her. But in truth, I just wanted vengeance against Twilight and her friends for imprisoning me a second time. Trapping Twilight and her friends with me in Tartarus for the rest of their lives seemed like a good idea at the time. And Cozy would get what she wanted as well, enough power to finally forget her dead friend. Cozy impressed me from the start, I have never encountered a filly her age showing such command over ritual magic, I swear that if she had been born a unicorn, she would have been unstoppable. For under my tutelage, she showed a great aptitude for magical theory. A shame she couldn’t use it to it’s full potential. ”

I asked Tirek what he meant by that, and he explained that while Cozy had been willing to use artifacts to her advantage, she had shown hesitation when it came to his insistence of her making a pact with a demon like he had. Cozy telling him that she had made a pact with the demon before, and it didn’t turn out great for her. I suspected this pact. Of hers might have been what led to her friend’s death. I wondered who that friend really was.

I didn’t need to wait long as I would soon get my answer. That answer came from a young alchemist who had recently managed to get into the good graces of my mother with her explosive brews, traps and tactical knowledge. A young mare named Aurora Glow. I suspected the name Glow was unlikely to be a coincidence. And this Aurora looked a bit like Cozy, especially when it came to her mane, which she kept in locks resembling Cozy’s, but otherwise she was a small and feeble earthpony with a white coat and a blonde mane, an alchemical vial as her cutie mark. Except for the way she had chosen to style her mane, her only physical similarity to Cozy was her scarlet eyes. But they were of a brighter shade compared to Cozy. I wondered if she could potentially be a relative, sister perhaps. It was after Aurora had been promoted to take place in the same Council meetings as my mother, father and Chrysalis that I was able to catch her leaving one of those meetings. I asked Aurora if she was perhaps related to Cozy Glow, the question seemed to have taken her aback, it seemed where Cozy was confident in social situations, Aurora was awkward and shy.

“Me? Related to Cozy? I’m assuming you made that connection based on our names and perhaps my mane. Truth be told Cozy is my sister in all but blood. You see, we were both orphans raised in the Sunrise orphanage in Manehattan. We were both left there with no idea of our origin and with no names, so we made up our own. As her close friends we decided to create matching names, the name Glow was to unite us forevermore. But sadly, things were not to last. Honestly, I have a hard time getting used to how infamous Cozy’s name has become, I wonder what spurred her to do those horrible things. The Cozy I knew could be selfish and arrogant, sure, but a villain bad enough to be turned to stone for all eternity? Perish the thought.”

Aurora had already given me quite interesting information, and I felt I was starting to connect the dots. I continued asking her questions:

“So, I heard from Tirek that Cozy started to change after a close friend of hers died, something about a demon. Do you happen to know anything about that?”

Aurora blushed before continuing, she was clearly quite pleased with something.

“Unfortunately, that friend would be me. I know what you’re going to ask me, if I died, how could I stand before you today in the flesh. You are not going to believe this story. But we used to be bullied by a unicorn colt named Solar Justice, who made our life a living hell, our only solace was each other. But this changed after Cozy made it big in the chess world, Solar Justice suddenly started giving her positive attention and she soon abandoned me as her friend to chase popularity. With my best friend gone, I just couldn’t take it, so I ended my own life. That should’ve been the end of it, but it wasn’t. After death I found myself in a realm of torment where I was trapped for what felt like centuries but can’t have been more than a decade. Yet there would come a day where Cozy would save me from this place of perdition. I don’t know how, but she did something that allowed me to return to Equestria. I did find that my body had grown since I took my life and they soon discovered my special talent in alchemy. Upon hearing of the horrors of Midnight’s rule I joined the resistance here in the Crystal Empire and the rest is history. Not that you are going to believe me anyway. There is one more thing I found strange, while we were trapped in the realm of torment, Cozy would keep insisting that Solar Justice was a demon, but I seriously doubt that. More likely is that Cozy’s mind simply broke after my death, and she has been imagining things. Trust me, I have read a lot of books about psychology.”

Aurora’s story was indeed unbelievable. Yet I had few reasons to doubt her. I thanked her for her time, I felt like I had gotten what I wanted out of this encounter.

Months would pass as the war continued, our forces steadily losing ground against Midnight, until her legions surrounded our capital. I wanted to fight, but my mother and father forbade me. Instead, opening a portal to somewhere, telling me this was the location that Starlight had told them was the place where she had sent an emergency message to Twilight, but she had never responded. Cadence told Chrysalis, Tirek and Aurora to watch over me before they sent us all through the portal. Mother believed I wouldn’t notice, but it was very unlikely she would be victorious against Midnight’s forces, Midnight’s dark magic having proven more than a match for even Tirek, who had been humiliated in the field, barely surviving on a flicker of magical energy, which had otherwise been almost completely drained from him. The barrier produced by the Crystal Heart had failed, we no longer had any protection from the evil outside the Empire. I knew Cadence and Shining Armor would perish, and that I would never see them again. They were sending me away to spare my life. I tearfully said goodbye to my mother and father, promising I would one day return and defeat Midnight. Taking my rightful place as the ruler of both Equestria and the Crystal Empire.

Chapter 22: An Irresistible Offer

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Diary of Princess Celestia

Me and my sister’s retirement at Silver Stable retirement community in Silver Shoals had been calm and relaxing. Our status as the former rulers of Equestria had meant that we were treated a bit like celebrities by the other residents and the personnel alike. While we had moved to Silver Shoals to get away from it all, I guess it was inevitable that people would recognize us wherever we went. Being two of only 5 alicorns in Equestria and their former rulers on top of that.

Our retirement had been a long time coming. I had grown tired of ruling Equestria ages ago to be honest. But it had taken a while to find a worthy heir. Sunset Shimmer had once shown promise, but her fall to the dark side had shattered that promise, and she had been only the latest of a long line of failures. It wasn't until Twilight Sparkle that this project had borne fruit. Or, this was at least how it had seemed at first. But only a couple of years after Twilight first assumed her role, she vanished, and returned a changed mare. Many didn't believe the fiend that came back was truly Twilight Sparkle, so they took to calling the imposter Midnight, some even whispered that the imposter was none other than Cozy Glow, whose statue vanished around the same time. I wouldn't put it past that devilspawn that took the form of a young filly.

Me and Luna discussed for a while whether we should return to Canterlot to reclaim the throne. But there was a significant problem. Even if were to return, we had already transferred most of our alicorn powers to Twilight, so we wouldn't stand a chance against Midnight. Yet Luna insisted we could not just sit around and do nothing while the realm we helped build was destroyed by a tyrant. I agreed, but on the other hoof knew it was fruitless, we were not the bearers of the Elements of Harmony anymore, and the current elements were rumored to either be petrified or missing. The only hope was for a new generation of element bearers to arise to challenge Midnight. Without our alicorn magic, we would both die in a few decades, it was about time, when time came, I would welcome the sweet embrace of death. Or at least I would if I knew my kingdom was safe and secure. While me and Luna argued, the war between Equestria and the Crystal Empire both started and resolved, I heard word of Chrysalis and Tirek fighting on the side of the Crystal Empire, I wasn't sure what was going on anymore. But I hoped Cadence and her family were okay.

While we were arguing, the problem would eventually come to us, as Midnight paid a visit to our retirement home. We were welcomed by a regal procession of otherworldly ponies fashioned from what appeared to be metal, radiating with orderly power. I knew them for what they were, Inevitables, servants of the Aeons, the true Arbiters of Order in the Universe. If Midnight commanded them, then she had the approval of at least a portion of the cosmic forces of law and order. The very same force from which the Elements of Harmony was derived. The Aeons were not a power we could ever hope to challenge.

Midnight herself looked a lot like my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, only instead of the warm smile I often saw on Twilight's face, Midnight had a stern expression. She carries herself regally, like a monarch who had ruled for decades, if not centuries, and she was clad in a black cloak that covered her wings. When she saw me and Luna, her face seemed to light up for a moment, like she was reuniting with old friends she thought she had lost. She wasn't our Twilight, but she still considered us, or at least a version of us, friends. Yet there was something that needed to be addressed:

"Who are you? What did you do with Twilight? Are the rumors true, are you Cozy Glow?"

The hatred in Midnight's eyes was clearly visible by the mention of that name.

"Cozy Glow? That detestable usurper? I am offended you would even compare me to her. No, I am Twilight Sparkle, yet not the one you knew. As for my counterpart, I haven't done anything to her, she left this realm of her own accord in pursuit of the Usurper. Some call me by the name Midnight, both in this realm and my original home. I like that name, has a nice ring to it. The other great ones took new names upon their ascension, Nightmare Moon, Daybreaker, surely these names are familiar to you. For their power also dwells within you two. I ask of you, embrace that power and we will being order to this realm together."

She was right about one thing; it was true that Dayreaker dwelled within my soul. Her indignant rage always flared in me when my kingdom was at risk. For I greatly desired to protect the peace and harmony in my kingdom, and Daybreaker would go to any lengths to do so. I found the means she would sink to horrific, but over several instances when a villain threatened Equestria, I had felt it appealing to give in to my darker side. But I knew that if I listened, I would become a lot like the villains I despised, yet, the allure of Daybreaker had become more and more appealing with time. Another reason I had wanted to retire, some part of me had wanted to do something horrible to that child, what was happening to me? I knew that my actions were wrong yet I was unable to stop myself. I knew it was only a matter of time until Daybreaker would rise if I remained in charge. No, I couldn't give in now, I needed to resist the corruption, yet Midnight's words were like a siren song in my ears, perhaps enhanced by some magical power:

"When the trio threatened your kingdom, I believe you said that there wasn't a punishment worthy of all they had done. I agree wholeheartedly. Petrification is too good for them. Listen to the fire in your soul Celestia, traitors deserve the worst of torments. There is no good in either of them, none. Those who cause suffering deserve suffering in return, such is the law of the universe. With that example none will ever dare to rise to threaten order and harmony ever again. Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow are still on the loose. With your help I can make sure they suffer the punishment they rightfully deserve. "

Those words were all Daybreaker needed to burst to the surface. I tried to resist but I soon felt my darker side overtake me. Empowering me with strength I hadn't felt in a long time. I could see the truth, the light on the sun was not only the giver of life to the righteous, but a flaming scorch to the unworthy. The heretics who dared not to subjugate themselves before the holy sun as was due of all lesser beings were only fit to be burned by its flames. Midnight was right, only by embodying the sun completely and utterly could I have the strength necessary to protect my realm forevermore. I was wrong about Midnight, she was not a tyrant who needed to be stopped. She was an even more worthy successor than the Twilight I used to know.

Luna appeared horrified by my sudden transformation, she charged her horn with what meager power still remained, which Midnight dispelled with ease. Then Midnight turned towards her and said.

"I can read your thoughts you know. I know there was a part of you who wanted to submerge Cozy in an eternal nightmare that would drive her insane. Search your feelings, the bitterness and hatred will always be there, only now instead of your poor sister it will be directed towards a worthy target. Cozy Glow hurt you, therefore she doesn't deserve your protection, you can be my instrument during the night hours, your ability to see into ponies dreams means we can discover treason before it even takes root. Embrace the Nightmare, I know you want to."

Midnight's words seemed to have an effect on Luna, some of the darkness within bubbling to the surface, but she was still restisting. With tears in her eyes, Luna took to the skies and fled. Midnight looking towards the skies as Luna took off and said:

"Don't worry, you will be reunited with your sister soon, she cannot resist the seed I planted in her mind forever."

I took comfort in these words, soon we would be reunited as we would rule Equestria as the Triumvirate of Order, I intended to go to any lengths to stop whatever evil Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis were planning, and next time we would make sure to break them completely.

Chapter 23: Reunion

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Diary of Cozy Glow
It was about 6 months since Prince Swiftblade first invaded Taralos, the winter snow gathered at my hooves as I stepped upon the podium to address the masses, trying to convince as many of them as possible to conscript. Some would consider the things I was about to say dishonest. I would say I would be willing to say anything if it strengthened the King's position against the usurper.

After months of bitter fighting, the attackers had been repelled, for now. The undead soldiers provided by Darkmoon and the Tribe of Bones shamans seemed to have given us a significant advantage, even if their existence was difficult to justify in my speeches, the pact had been worth it judging by the fact that unlike our enemies, our dead could be recycled, given a chance to serve Taralos once again. The soldiers who had chosen this path were grateful, but they did unnerve the commonfolk.

A battleline had been stabilized as both armies prepared for the winter. There hadn't been much aggression from the enemy since the heavy snow had started to fall. But this didn't mean I could rest, there were still matters of logistics, supply lines and recruitment to deal with. The weather could let up any day and allow the invaders to launch another attack, when they did, it was my job to make sure we were ready.

I had spent the last several months traveling from city to city, town to town, village to village, trying to inspire the people with my speeches. My current location was a small town called Green Square, the very same town where I had spent my first night of passion with Night’s Blessing. Unfortunately, she had to return to her husband and clan, I hadn’t seen her for six months, I hoped she was doing alright. The town had gathered to hear my speech, they seemed eager, yet apprehensive. Which made perfect sense during times of war, they didn’t know if they would live past winter both due to enemy attacks, the effects the harsh weather and the effetcs warfare had on their supplies. A lot of grain that would otherwise go to the villagers I convinced the King should now go to the soldiers. Some people may starve, yet if we couldn’t repel the usurper quickly, drawn out conflict would have yet to worse effects on the citizenry, and Swift Blade’s Clockwork soldiers didn’t seem they needed ordinary substance. This, among other things, is what I had to explain to the citizens of Green Square.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, I know times are tough right now, the enemy is at our doorstep, the vile Prince Swift Blade is seeking to overthrow our benevolent King Shining Horn. I know you are all upset over the additional supplies requested by the army, and you are uncertain if you would live past winter. That’s why I’m doing everything in my power to finish this war as quickly as possible. And to do that we require the aid of as many willing recruits as possible. I know many of you may die, which is why you are provided the option to return from the grave by the magic of our allies in the Tribe of Bones. I know many of you may think of necromancy as unsavory and unnatural, but the way it is practiced by the Tribe of Bones is different from how it would be practiced by a run-of-the-mill necromancer. The most important difference is that for the shamans of the Tribe of Bones, consent is key. While other necromancers force the dead back against their will and make them their slaves, the Tribe of Bones always offer the dead a choice, and they won’t be mindless puppets, but possessing the faculties and the spirit of the pony they were in life. It won’t be for everyone, but I am going to offer those that are willing a choice, both in whenever or not they want to join the army, and whenever they want to be resurrected upon death, as this is a privilege extended only to members of the military who give their lives in defense of Taralos. In order to achieve victory as quickly as possible and therefore minimize the suffering the citizens of Taralos have to go through, we need as much support as possible, I swear to you that those who risk their lives in the name of the King will be honored in both this life and beyond. For they are the foundation on which his kingdom is… ”

My speech trailed off as I thought I noticed a familiar figure in the crowd, a young mare with mane in the same style as mine, golden in color, with an ebony white coat, red eyes and a pair of rectangular spectacles, I knew this pony, yet this was impossible, it must just be a look-alike or an interdimensional counterpart. Yet when our eyes met, she gave me a warm smile as in recognition. Aurora? No, that was impossible, Aurora was dead. I tried my best to get my bearings in order to continue the speech, I had to repeat the last sentence.

“For they are the foundation on which his kingdom is built.”

After I finished the speech, about half of the audience clapped their hooves, the other half was still apprehensive. The pony that looked like Aurora was among the ponies that clapped. About 25% of the audience conscripted, rather good numbers all things considered, among those being the pony that looked like Aurora and an older, more mature mare with a light green coat, a dark red mane, a cutie mark resembling a ladybug and a pair of piercing green eyes that seemed all too familiar. Yet I couldn’t really place her. She introduced herself as Crackle Cosette, her “daughter” introduced herself as… I could hardly believe my ears…Aurora Glow. Now that I had a closer look at her, Aurora’s cutie mark what that of an alchemical vial, filled with a green liquid, potentially signifying a talent in alchemy or chemistry. And of course, she looked older than I ever knew her to be, as she died as a filly.

Explaining who Aurora was to me is complicated, she was like my best friend and my sister all in one. We grew up in an orphanage in Manehattan together, we were inseparable. Until my arrogance and desire for recognition drove us apart, and she ended her own existence shortly afterwards, left without a friend in the world. The price paid in blood to a demon which I inadvertently had made a contract. I had been trying to hunt down said demon ever sense and never had any success, even with all the dark arts taught to be by Tirek. I was so overwhelmed by the situation I could do nothing but stammer…

“But, you died. How can you be here?”

At this Aurora gave me another warm smile and approached me for a hug, I embraced her back, it was so long ago I last felt her presence.

“Believe it or not, you saved me.” She told me. It was then the memories returned, vague recollections of a horrific nightmare, a forest of whispering trees, gnawed upon by harpies, Aurora had been one of these trees. Until now I thought it was nothing more than a nightmare. Me and Aurora decided to rent a room at the local inn in order to catch up, after I finished my work handling the paperwork for the new conscripts of course.

Aurora told me many interesting things, including of how after her suicide, she was trapped in a nightmare realm for Celestia knows how long, existing only as a disfigured tree that was ripped apart by harpies on a daily basis, this was until I freed her from that torment and she was sent back to Equestria, now in the form of a fully grown mare. But Equestria was no longer how she remembered it, Celestia was nowhere to be seen and her protégé Twilight Sparkle had grown insane, becoming a horrible tyrant. So, she had joined the resistance based in the Crystal Empire, but as things went wrong, she had migrated to this world together with Princess Flurry Heart, Tirek and Chrysalis. I thought I recognized that mare with the ladybird cutie mark, Chrysalis had used this disguise before, I didn’t know why I didn’t recognize it immediately. But the things Aurora told me about Twilight were quite alarming, when I told her that Twilight had been at my side in this world for years, that whoever the tyrant who rolled over Equestria was, it wasn’t Twilight Sparkle. Aurora seemed somewhat relieved to hear that, apparently many members of the resistance had refused to believe this was the real Twilight Sparkle, instead calling them Midnight as a result. Some had even whispered that… Get this… Midnight was the archvillain Cozy Glow. I wasn’t sure if I should feel honored or insulted by that insinuation. But Aurora told me she never believed those rumors anyway, but then proceeded to ask me why I turned to villainy in the first place.

I didn’t really have a good answer for that as I didn’t really know myself, I could only speculate it had something to do with both my desire for glory and the emptiness I felt once I lost Aurora. I told her as much and she nodded quietly before telling me:

“Don’t worry, this time, I intend to stick around.”

However, what Aurora had told me about Midnight had made me rather desperate to seek out Twilight Sparkle, she either deserves to be warned about the tyrant who had taken over her realm, or she possessed valuable information on the subject, information she had been keeping from me for one reason or another. Maybe she still didn’t fully trust me, and honestly, I couldn’t quite blame her for that. However, when I tried to approach Twilight’s room, she was nowhere to be found. When I decided to go to Sunset’s room to question her about Twilight’s whereabouts, she just told me she was visiting a friend and that I should come back later. Sunset inquired if there was anything in particular, I needed from Twilight, I decided to trust her. Telling her how I ran into both Aurora and Chrysalis in Green Square and how both signed up for the army and what Aurora had told me about Midnight. Sunset’s face went pale when she heard that name, she clearly recognized it, and I have seen no other name inspire such terror in her before. That was certainly not a good sign. I demanded she tell me everything she knew about Midnight, Sunset sighed and reluctantly agreed:

“Ever heard of multiverse theory? It is pretty relevant to our current existence as we are currently in an alternate reality. In case you haven’t, imagine that for every choice you could have made during your life, there is an alternate reality where the choice was made. For that reason, there are realities where Cozy Glow never became a villain, and realities where Twilight Sparkle made the choice to be the worst villain of them all. Midnight is a version of Twilight from a world where she made the choice to be a villain. Note how I emphasize she made that choice, as no being is predestined to be either good or evil by their genetics alone, rather I have found it to more dependent on environmental factors that shape our decisions. When Twilight left Equestria, she left a power vacuum that Midnight decided to fill. Twilight has been trying desperately to get back to Equestria ever since, with little success. I think she regrets getting so distracted by the threat you could have posed while free that she momentarily forgot she was leaving her kingdom open for the taking by following you here.”

This was quite interesting information, with many implications. Implications I couldn’t help but get curious about. I asked her:

“If Twilight Sparkle in the universe was evil, who was Cozy Glow? Was she a hero?”

Sunset seems to get visibly uncomfortable by that question, very clearly was something she didn’t want to talk about. But I insisted as her military commander that she answer me to the best of her ability, she reluctantly agreed.

“Cozy Glow was the leader of a group known as the Elements of Freedom, that world’s equivalent of the Elements of Harmony. She led a rebellion against Midnight, Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, together with 5 other champions from the different creatures of that world, changelings, griffins, dragons, hippogriffs and Yaks. She is…was… A good friend.”

Sunset lowered her head in sadness as she said that last sentence. I couldn’t help but to inquire what happened to her. Sunset was at first very tight-lipped, refusing to answer my question. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened, but I wanted to hear it from her own mouth. Eventually, after minutes of argument, she eventually relented.

“After successfully destroying Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. Cozy Glow, champion of light, perished in the final battle against Midnight, together with the other elements. Leaving that world in the total control of Midnight, allowing her to expand her dominion into other worlds. I was reluctant to tell you as I am currently very pleased with your current direction in life. Being a hero suits you Cozy, I was afraid you might be discouraged from this path if you learned there was no guarantee for a happy ending. Or worse, become convinced you were always fated for failure regardless of your path in life.”

A sense of dread came over me when I heard what she had to say. Yet I quickly suppressed these emotions and portrayed a façade of fake calm.

“Don’t worry Sunset, I have no intention of ruining the great life I have built for myself here in Taralos, we will be successful in defeating Swift Blade, and when that’s said and done, we will eventually take the fight to Midnight as well and win back the throne for Twilight, she is bound to respect me after that. There is just one thing I need to ask you, villains normally have a reason for being the way they are, why did Midnight turn to villainy?”

Sunset appears to be deep in thoughts for just a moment before she replied:

“Honestly, I doubt Midnight ever saw herself as a villain, rather she prefers to see herself as an agent of law and order. She believes that personal freedom is a detractor to perfect order and therefore seeks to suppress freedom wherever she can, often by means of ruling through terror. Unlike me, who believes criminals can change and therefore always tries to help them become better people. Midnight is rather in the habit of inflicting horrifically cruel punishments upon those either brave or foolhardy enough to arouse her anger believing that the fear of punishment will keep people in line and in short order. But this tendency is also what makes her evil in the eyes of most reasonable ponies. You wouldn’t believe the things Midnight has inflicted on others in the name of order, you would be paralyzed by fear if I even described them. Let’s just say that while what happened to you, permanent petrification, is a horrific and barbaric punishment, if that were all Midnight would do to you, you should probably consider yourself lucky. It’s why I will always consider the likes of Midnight to be worse than you ever were Cozy. Villains who act out of selfishness and a desire for personal glory are one thing, but I have found the ones to truly watch out for are the ones that are willing to justify any atrocious act in the name of some greater ideology. The worst of villains nearly always consider themselves righteous and without fault.”

Sunset had given me a lot to think about, I thanked her for the information, giving her a hug to make sure she knew I appreciated everything she had done for me. Sunset’s views on villainy were quite interesting to me, and I had to admit that all I had heard about Midnight made my very blood freeze in terror. If I ever had to confront her, I hoped it was far in the future yet, if Twilight would find a way get back to Equestria, I was sure she was going to ask me and Sunset to aid her in taking back her throne. I tried suppressing thoughts about what would happen to us on that fateful day if we failed, given everything that Sunset told me about Midnight, I was glad the other Cozy only suffer death by her hooves, and not something significantly worse.

Chapter 24: The Fairy Tale Cottage

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Diary of Twilight Sparkle

Since I first found myself in this realm, I had seen many things that I had once deemed impossible, both good and bad. One of them being the trajectory the life of archvillaness Cozy Glow had taken, becoming a hero of the people. I wondered if Cozy still desired to rule over others, whatever the case it seemed she had what she wanted now, being in command of her owntroops and greatly respected by both the common people and the royal family. Another impossible incident being the mysterious letter I was given supposedly written by a relative I thought was still in my home world of Equestria, my niece, Princess Flurry Heart. In some ways I was glad she wasn’t stuck living in a realm controlled by Midnight, for that might mean she would have perished at her hooves, or worse, but her presence here had other disturbing implications, what happened to my old babysitter and wife of my brother Shining Armor? Heck, what had happened to my brother? Whatever the fate of the family rest of my family, I was glad Flurry was still alive and well. I hoped I would see both Cadence and my brother in the place Flurry had told me to meet up with her. But who I would actually meet there I could not have predicted in a million years.

Flurry Heart written to me about how she escaped from Equestria 6 months ago when the Crystal Empire was overwhelmed by Midnight’s forces, she had since been living in a cottage on the edge of the Forest of Dreams, being taken care of by mysterious people only referred to as her mother’s trusted “caretakers” in her letter. She instructed me to meet her at the cottage and I was obliged to come to the meeting. At first, I wondered if this was some kind of cruel trick, yet even if it was a possibility, if this really was my niece, I had to see her. The cottage at the edge of the forest was like out of a fairytale, with a straw roof and smoke coming out of the chimney. A rounded door only increased impression that this cottage was like the dwelling of the halflings of fiction. Or the dwelling where Princess Fancybottom hid from her evil stepmother, the Enchantress during her formative years in the story of Sleeping Cutie, raised by the benevolent Fairy Godmother. I wondered if Flurry had such a Godmother, maybe it was her dear aunt, or whoever this mysterious caretaker was.

I knocked on the door and only moments later I was greeted by a familiar face, Flurry was older than I remembered her, she should have been about 12 at this point, a similar age to what Cozy Glow was when she originally tried to usurp me, but she was slightly larger, perhaps due to her alicorn status, looking more like an older teen than a filly. She had a soft pink coat, purple mane with stripes of artic blue set into an elaborate manestyle reminiscent of her mother, or perhaps even Rarity. Her light blue eyes gave off a glow like crystal. Her wings were big and healthy, perhaps bigger than was natural for a pegasus her age, same for her horn, that was almost already as big as mine, this was also natural, she was not a pegasus nor a unicorn, she was an alicorn, the first naturally born one in thousands of years. The aspect about her appearance that was the most unfamiliar to me was her cutie mark, a light-blue heart that contained a darker blue heart, her mark of destiny was reminiscent of her mothers, yet the differences were striking, and I wondered what they could mean. When Flurry saw me, she rushed forward to envelop me in the embrace of her wings, I embraced her back using mine. She had been much younger last I saw her; it was amazing to see she had grown.

Flurry gestured for me to come in and took me to the kitchen where I saw probably the last thing I expected to see. Tirek in an apron trying to use the oven to make cookies, it didn’t seem to be going especially well considering the cookies were horribly burnt. But I didn’t expect a figure like him to be doing something like that at all. My jaw dropped to the floor when I first saw him. Tirek seemed to be in a somewhat powerful state, not the fragile form he inhabited when he was imprisoned in Tartarus. Muscular and intimidating, but not the giant he was when I last faced him in battle.

“Uncle Tirek and Auntie Chryssi has been taking care of me in my mother’s and father’s absence. Together with my older sister Aurora.” Flurry blurted out like it wasn’t strange at all.

I had no idea who Aurora was, but this entire situation was madness, what could possibly have transpired that made Cadence and Shining Armor and trust their daughter to two of the most dangerous villains in Equestria?

“You don’t think it’s strange that him of all people are taking care of you Flurry? And who the hoof is Aurora?” I told her, losing my temper for just a moment.

It was Tirek who answered my question, his voice was surprisingly calm sounding:

“Aurora is Cozy Glow’s sister, they are not related by blood, but they did grow up together. As for mine and Chryssi’s presence, after a tyrant called Midnight took over Equestria, Starlight got desperate and freed us from our stone prisons. We both joined the Crystal Empire in the resistance against Midnight, overtime we proved our loyalty to the cause, enough so that Princess Cadence couldn’t think of any she trusted with her daughter’s life other than us two. Chrysalis was motivated by vengeance as Midnight was responsible for making the changelings extinct . As for my reasons to join the resistance? My time in stone had made me to reflect on my actions. The original reason I invaded Equestria was to prove to my father King Vorak that I was worthy to be called his son and that magic was equally valuable as strength of arms, if not more so. I intended to steal the magic of Equestria and make myself the most powerful being in the universe to prove him wrong, my brother Scorpan was as you know initially supportive of the plan but betrayed me in favor of the Equestrians. After spending centuries in Tartarus, my family were probably long dead while I was kept alive by sorcery, I wanted vengeance against Equestria for assuring that my father would never witness me achieve my goals. I wanted to destroy your kingdom, but I think I found genuine bonds among my latest set of co-conspirators, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. You will probably find this strange, but while I denied it at the time, I started to consider Chrysalis as a partner and Cozy as a daughter and they granted me a reason to live beyond vengeance. While I lost Cozy and was not sure I would ever see her again, I still had Chrysalis. When I was freed by Starlight, it was my bond with Chrysalis that convinced me to join her in defiance against Midnight, her desires are my desires, she was the only one left I considered family, even if she might see things differently. The Crystal Empire might have fallen, but Cadence wanted to make sure her legacy would survive. Once she returns together with the true Princess Twilight, Flurry will be able to rally the people of the Crystal Empire behind her. I understand you will never truly forgive me Twilight, nor do I really care, but we have a common enemy. Which means that for now, we are allies as far as I am concerned. As long as Chrysalis desires the destruction of Midnight, so will I.”

It was certainly unexpected, but his explanation makes sense, I told him that as long as he refrained from hurting Flurry Heart, I had no quarrel with him. Midnight was my primary enemy right now as well, and I have already had evidence that a member of the old villain trio could redeem themselves, so why not Tirek and Chrysalis. When Tirek asked me about what I meant by this. I told him that his old companion Cozy Glow was currently an officer in Taralos and in the minds of some, the kingdom’s greatest hero. Tirek seemed intrigued by this.

“Aurora and Chryssi did see mention of someone named Cozy Glow heading a recruitment speech for the military. They went to investigate. I’m glad to hear that it was indeed the very same Cozy we used to know. I never imagined the three of us would be in each other’s presence and free to act without being stone statues ever again. Brings back old memories. But everything has changed from those times, hasn’t it? I don’t think any of us are the same person we used to be. Maybe that even applies to you, Twilight.”

“And that’s probably a good thing.” I told Tirek. I took one look at the burned cookies and asked him:

“Do you need help with the baking? I have been taught a lot from Pinkie Pie.”

I got the impression that Tirek wanted to decline out of stubborn pride if nothing else. But one look at the burned cookies made him relent and allow me to help. Mumbling something about Chrysalis usually being the one who did the baking in this household.

Chapter 25: Assassins

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Diary of Cozy Glow

It wasn’t long until Aurora had been inducted into the army and made my personal lieutenant. This allowed us to spend a lot of time together in my private quarters, talking about our past, our present and our future. It didn’t take long before the subject of the time I spent in stone came up, I told her she couldn’t possibly understand what it was like being frozen in time, unable to move trapped with only your thoughts for company, she just told me:

“Trust me, I can, I was a tree, remember.”

I didn’t even consider that at first, but now that I thought about it, what she went through seemed rather similar. Except she was trapped for an even longer time in conditions that were even worse. For a moment I felt bad to complaining about my fate, when she had been stuck in literal hell. But she just told me to not worry and that she would be here for me from now on, I told her:

“I will never allow something to happen to you ever again, I will never abandon you again Aurora.”

It was at that point the alarm sounded, guards rushing into my chambers to inform me about the situation. It seemed like we had reports about ponies, seemingly up to no good, entering the sewers under Vil. Ponies who didn’t seem like the usual criminal types. I decided to investigate this issue in person. Gathering together a small squad consisting of me, Aurora, Sunset, the newly reanimated Silverwing, Darkmoon, as well as a small group of guards.

As we reached the location where the report indicated, we saw a closed sewer grate, hidden from plain sight from the ponies walking down the street by a pile of barrels from a nearby inn. Upon further inspection the sewer grate seemed like it had opened recently. We decided to go in through the grate in search of the intruders. As soon as we dropped into the darkness, we could hear a “Psst” coming from the tunnel behind us, I turned around with lightning speed, ordering the guards to detain whoever it was, only to see a young unicorn foal with a ragged brown coat standing behind us. He introduced himself as Quickhorn, an orphan who lived on the streets. He said he had seen something, but he expected a reward in turn for his information. I smiled and hooved him a gold coin, probably more than this orphan ever seen in his life. Quickhorn smiled and told me he had seen a group of strange ponies with cloaks that completely covered their bodies enter through this very grate and made their way towards the palace, following the stream of sewer water. I told the guards to let him go and hooved him another gold coin. He thanked me with tears in his eyes. Sunset and Aurora smiled at me. Sunset especially seemed proud. I considered it nothing special, I have been a poor orphan once upon a time, so I could empathize with their plight.

After following up the stream for another hundred feet or so, we could see iron security gate that used to block the passageway, but it had been cut and pulls to one side. We rounded the corner and 40 feet or so to the north was another grate with a small group of ponies gathered around it. I could hear screaming and shouting coming from the palace gardens on the other sides of the grate. A group of robed ponies with metal showing from under their robes blocked our path to the gardens in order prevent us from interfering with whatever was happening there. Aurora quickly mixed vials of different chemicals she was carrying together and threw that vial at the clockwork soldiers, it exploded the moment it made contact with one of the soldiers faces, taking him and several other soldiers out of commission. Aurora shouting “Boom” as the explosives went off. The clockwork soldiers not taken out by the blast ran for their lives. Allowing us access to the palace gardens.

When we arrived in the gardens, a ghastly sight awaited us, the guards were busy fighting clockwork soldiers while King Shining Horn and his Queen lied motionless upon the ground, if they were not dead yet they soon would be. Standing over the bodies of the two monarchs were two shadowy figures, one a clockwork pony draped in a cloak, the other an all too familiar changeling, Cipher. As the two figures blocked our path to the King and Queen, I gave an order to Darkmoon and Silverwing to engage the Clockwork assassin, while I, Sunset and Aurora focused on taking down Cipher. Fortunately, it seemed like Cipher was reluctant to engage all three of us directly, vanishing from sight in a manner that could only be the result of an invisibility spell. Together with the other assassin.

Seeing an opportunity, Aurora moved to the King to determine if he was still alive. Aurora confirmed that he was, but that he was both severely wounded and under the effects of a powerful poison. Aurora fortunately had an antidote that worked against most poisons in her satchel. When the antidote had been administered, Sunset put her glowing horn on the Kings’ wounds to heal him. Aurora confirmed that the King’s life was no longer at risk, but that he would remain unconscious for a while recovering.

It was at this point a shadowy figure appeared behind me, barely giving me time to react before plunging his dagger into my back, I could already feel the poison the dagger was coated in spread through my system. Cipher laughed maniacally:

“You may have escaped death during our last encounter, Cozy Glow, but this time I will make sure you will not escape alive. Prince Swift Blade deems you the biggest threat to our conquest of Taralos, and I tend to agree.”

Aurora saw that I was in danger, but during this exact moment Darkmoon, who was in the process of checking up on the Queen, yelled at her that the Queen needed an antidote as well, Darkmoon being unable to provide an antidote, even if his necromancy was more than enough to heal her physical wounds. Hesitating for only a moment, Aurora chose to come to my aid, she was always a good friend. But I dreaded the potential consequences to Taralos if Shining Horn lost his Queen. On the other hoof, it would open the door for me to become his new partner, to rule Taralos by his side.

Aurora threw a bomb with a small blast radius at Cipher, so that it didn’t risk catching me in the blast as well, hitting one of multiple illusionary mirror images that surrounded him, which making it very hard to tell which one was real and which one was an illusion. At that very moment, the other assassin emerged from the shadows, engaging some kind of device that spit-out multiple throwing stars and shooting them at Aurora, wounding her and presumably poisoning her as well.

“Why are you doing this? Why did you align with him?”

I shouted at Cipher, getting only enough time to hear his reply before I passed out from a combination of blood loss and poison.

“My kin, the doppelgangers have always been treated like pariahs within Taralos, because of our association with the Hive Queen, the goddess of insects. Swift Blade promised to change that, creating a new home both for my kind and for the Clockwork ponies.”

After I didn’t know how long, I regained consciousness and found Sunset standing over me with a glowing horn, my wounds healed. I surveyed the battlefield trying to assess the situation, Aurora seemed like she was safe for now, Darkmoon having summoned multiple skeletal ponies around her to protect her from the assassin’s shuriken. Cipher was still only a few feet behind me, but busy fighting off Silverwing, who seemed to have immediately rushed to my aid. The skeletal griffin, animated by the magic of Darkmoon made blow after blow against Cipher, hitting only a mirror image each time. But Cipher realized he was in a losing battle and decided to use an invisibility spell to vanish once again. It was fortunate that most common invisibility spells didn’t allow you to stay invisible while attacking, forcing him to reveal himself when he wanted to strike. But he could still strike anywhere, which was the reason I tried to make sure that if he appeared behind me again, I would be ready. Darkmoon reminded Aurora about administering the antidote to the Queen and ordered the skeletons around Aurora to protect the King, as well as summoning more skeletons around the Queen to protect her.

Silverwing decided to guard me from that point onward, trying to make sure Cipher couldn’t get to me with another sneak attack. That effort was in vain as despite Silverwing’s best efforts, Cipher once again appeared behind me and struck twice. I felt a fierce pain in my back, but I fought through the pain. Aurora once again chose to protect me over the Queen and attempted to throw a bomb at Cipher, narrowly missing him, before the other assassin appeared behind Aurora and struck her down. I screamed at Cipher, lacing every word with harmful enchantments.

“You will pay for this Cipher.”

The enchantment in these words seemed to take Cipher aback for just a moment, which allowed Silverwing to land a hit, not on a mirror image, but Cipher himself, coating the ground with green bug blood. At this point Darkmoon turned his attention towards Cipher and uttered an incantation, a dark spell that caused Cipher’s carapace to age and rot in the matter of seconds. Cipher screamed before looking around, the palace guards had managed to overwhelm the clockwork interlopers and were now surrounding the two assassins, we managed to distract them from long enough. Probably deciding he was fighting a losing battle, Cipher, as well as the other assassin cast yet another invisibility spell, this time disappearing for good. Probably using the invisibility to safely escape the palace garden and flee back to Swift Blade to report their failure, the King was safe. As for the Queen, her faith was far less certain. I also wasn’t feeling too good and collapsed moments after the fighting stopped.

I spent quite a lot of time in a hospital bed the following days while Aurora treated both me and the Queen for poison. I was glad that Aurora was able to survive they wounds she obtained during the battle, telling me that after Sunset and Darkmoon had healed her, that she administered an antidote on herself. It was lucky that she managed to stop the poison affecting both the King and herself in the early stages. With me and Queen Morning Rose, our fate was far more precarious as the poison was given a longer time to wreak havoc. But with great effort from Aurora, both my life and the life of the Queen were spared. During our stay in the hospital, Aurora was visited by Princess Scarlet Lance, who scolded her for taking so long to save the Queen. Aurora telling her that she regretted nothing, as without her assistance, I would have perished, and she prioritized the life of a close friend, over that of even the Queen. Scarlet Lance admitting that I was also a vital military target and therefore was saving, but that if it had come to pass that her brothers child had to grow up without a mother, that she would forever hold Aurora responsible for her failure to save her.

During the long hours of our hospital stay, I spent quite a bit of time talking to Queen Morning Rose, a unicorn with a white coat and a mark of destiny depicting a red rose. She was a gentle soul, not one for fighting and warfare, preferring instead to spend her time tending to the garden, as gardenin was her special talent. In that, she was truly like King Shining Horn, who also abhorred conflict and warfare. Yet despite all of that, Morning Rose told me she was grateful for the efforts of both me and my knights in protecting the kingdom, as without us, Taralos would have surely fallen to Shining Horn’s treacherous uncle by now. After all, someone had to do all that fighting so that the people of Taralos could live peaceful lives in the future, after the war was over. Yet, there was something that Cipher had told me that was bugging me. He claimed that Swift Blade wanted to claim the throne to provide a home to the Clockwork ponies and the doppelgangers, was this the truth? Did our enemy really have good intentions? Or was it just something that he told his followers so that they would help him claim the throne? Whatever the case, Shining Horn was a good king and more importantly, a friend. Therefore, I would stand by him in this fight, no matter if we were the good guys or not.

After both me and Morning Rose were released from the hospital wing. Rumors had already spread across Vil about the attempted assassination, and the role of me and my knights in thwarting it. I once again took the opportunity to take a walk around the city, surrounded by guards of course, in order to bask in the adoration of the people. I truly loved being a hero, if only I had realized that sooner. Maybe I could’ve saved myself, and others, a lot of grief.

Chapter 26: Bound by Destiny

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Diary of Cozy Glow

After the attempted assassination of the King and his Queen, it was discovered that they were not the assassin’s only target. The library had been ransacked, books containing information about the Foundation Stones missing. I didn't know what reason our enemies could have for searching for the Foundation Stones, but I knew it couldn't be good. Still being out of commission from my injuries, I had no choice but to form a new team to find the Foundation Stone our enemies were after before they did, it did not take much to figure out which one was the target. The stones to the south and east were in the middle of military encampments, but the one to the north had been abandoned since the start of the Gem Gnoll war. Time was of the essence. Sunset, Aurora and Darkmoon were busy aiding King and Queen in recovery, Night's Blessing busy with dealing with matters of her clan. This left only Twilight Sparkle and Silverwing. Of course, I also had the recruit, Crackle Cosette (Who I was rather certain was Chrysalis in disguise.)

Another option would soon present itself as another pony arrived in Vil. Whispers were heard among the people before I even had the pleasure of meeting her in person. An Alicorn, who was assumed by the populace to be the Chosen of the Gods, the mythical Great Uniter destined to rule all of ponykind. Of course these rumours had to be exaggerated, nopony here had ever actually seen an Alicorn before. Which was why the arrival of this one was such a novelty and why she was subject to such fanciful rumors. But I was curious and summoned this Alicorn to the hospital wing were I had been residing since the assassination attempt, under heavy guard of course, I was still vulnerable from my wounds and the remains of the poison, and I was no fool.

The alicorn was tall and pink, with a mane that looked like toothpaste, yet she was little more than a child. But I knew better than to underestimate her because of that, after all, I was either her age or even younger when I managed to become one of Equestria’s most infamous villains, and this girl radiated power beyond anyone I had ever met. The alicorn arrived in the company of both Twilight Sparkle and, curiously enough, Crackle Cosette. As soon as she arrived, my mark of destiny started to glow with golden light, and so did hers, that was quite curious. This kind of phenomenon didn't usually occur unless involving two ponies connected by destiny. Who was this girl? Her mark of destiny was that of a blue crystal heart, with that of a darker blue heart at its center, surrounded by what appeared to be a royal banner.

I would soon find out, as she introduced herself as Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire. Of course she was, while I had never met her I had heard stories of the miracle birth at the Crysal Empire, the first naturally born Alicorn in over a thousand years . Flurry quickly followed up her arrival with a demand to join the Knights of Taralos, to Twilight’s protests. I could only laugh; the girl was quite eager to prove herself. Yet I could see a deep ambition in her eyes, an endless thirst for glory. I had not seen eyes like that in years, other than the last time I looked in the mirror. Such people could be dangerous, yet I could also see Flurry being a great asset for Taralos. For those reasons I agreed to her demand to be knighted and put her in charge of tracking down the Foundation Stones before Cipher's cronies could. I dearly hoped I was not mistaken for putting my trust in a child, but then again, I of all people shouldn't underestimate someone because of their age. For in the past, I always hated it when others underestimated me.

For that reason, I was glad to give Princess Flurry Heart a chance to prove herself, but I dearly hoped I wouldn’t regret that decision. Not only because she might fail and get hurt, and in that case, Twilight would blame me, but because, if she succeeded, it might inflate her already large ego. I knew better than most that ambition like hers couldn’t be constrained, would she really be willing to serve the king, or would she seek to be named the monarch herself? An Alicorn like her certainly had the power to take the throne for herself if she so wanted. I wished I had that kind of power as a young filly, and for a short time, I did. When I wielded the power of the Bell of Grogar I had powers beyond anything I had before, and I have hadn’t found a way to match that power since. Yet I could sense Flurry had magic beyond what I thought possible, beyond what I processed at my most powerful while I used the bell, she could only channel a fraction of her true power, as of yet. But if Flurry Heart managed to reach her full potential, she would easily be the most powerful being in Taralos, and such power could be harnessed for the good of the kingdom, if only I could find a way to keep her in check.

Diary of Flurry Heart

After auntie Twilight visited our cottage, I begged Tirek to let me accompany her back to the city of Vil, for I had long longed to meet this Cozy Glow I heard so much about. Reluctantly, she agreed. Little did she know I had more than one intention of coming to the capital. Ever since I first arrived in this world I have been trained in the arts of combat by Chrysalis and the magical arts by Tirek, preparing for the day I would have to face Midnight and reclaim my kingdom. But I didn’t see why I couldn’t use these skills to earn a name for myself here in Taralos, if Cozy could do so, so could I. After all, she was only a humble Pegasus I was the first Alicorn born in over a thousand years.

Once in Vil I noticed that the people were staring at me as I entered through the gate, this was expected, it didn’t seem like anyone in this place had ever heard of Alicorns. While I was special back in my homeland, here, I was truly unique and more powerful than even the monarchs of the realm. Wouldn’t it then stand to reason that it was my birthright to rule over the regular ponies of this kingdom? I could feel it, it was my birthright to rule Taralos, but to claim my kingdom, I needed to be patient. I needed to grow more powerful and make a name for myself here in Taralos. After a couple of years as Cozy’s number one knight, I would be so notorious that the king would willingly abdicate the throne and sign over rulership to me, because I would be his superior both in power and in popularity. After all, he was a weakling, and I was a goddess. This was the true reason I needed to see Knight Commander Cozy Glow, I needed to become one of her knights. And of course, I was curious to meet the pony who Tirek, Chrysalis and Aurora thought of so fondly. I had never met Cozy in my entire life, yet she somehow felt like family.

Soon, we approached the castle, the curious ponies that had been gathering around me kept at bay by the guards at the gate, the presence of Twilight easily granted me access, yet even the guards were staring at my magnificence. The guards informed her that Commander Cozy Glow wanted to see me and currently resided in the hospital wing as she was horribly wounded fending of assassins who tried to kill the king and queen. I thought that was quite heroic of her, putting herself in harm’s way like that, all for an unworthy ruler that wasn’t even an Alicorn, quite unlike the Cozy Glow of which Chrysalis and Tirek told me of, but quite on the mark for the stories Aurora told me about Cozy. I wondered if she could be taught to be just as loyal to the one true ruler of these lands, the Alicorn Princess Flurry Heart.

On our way to the hospital wing, by chance we ran into Chrysalis, still in her guise as Crackle Cosette. She was at first disapproving of me, putting myself in harm’s way like this, telling me that she promised my mother that she would keep me safe, no matter what. Given her reputation, I wondered why she cared so much, according to my understanding, before the war against Midnight, Princess Cadence and Queen Chrysalis had been enemies with a long history. Maybe that was exactly why she was so intent on keeping her promise, Chrysalis respected my mother both as a foe and later as an ally. I told her that as long as she and Twilight were by my side, I was not truly in danger, despite, I could fight, she taught me well, and I was currently just as powerful as her, which seemed to placate her.

Once we reached the hospital wing, I found myself in the presence of a salmon colored Pegasus lying on a hospital bed, a bandage covering her torso. Her mane was artic blue with elaborate curls unlike any I had ever seen. My mother and my aunt’s friend Rarity also had quite some style, but it paled in comparison to Cozy who seemed to take great care of her mane, despite her current role as a military commander. She wasn’t physically imposing, but I could see a gleam of intelligence in her eyes, and ambition, however it seemed a bit faded. Like someone who had once desired to rule but had since become content in her current position. Which I guess was proper for a normal Pegasus, she never really had any claim to rule and therefore she would always be a usurper. As soon I laid eyes upon her, both our cutie marks started to glow for a moment, before the glow faded away. This seemed to take everyone by surprise, especially Twilight, I wondered if she knew what it meant. Cozy’s mark, like the stories suggested, was that of a single red rook.

I was quick to get to the point with Cozy, I wanted to become a member of the Defenders of Taralos. Which took Twilight by surprise, but Chrysalis didn’t seem shocked at all. With some reluctance, Cozy agreed, and told me about my assignment. Cozy told me the story of the Foundation Stones that marked the borders of this kingdom and magically bound it together. There were still strong garrisons that defended the stones to the south and east, but the stone to the north, one made of ruby had been abandoned since the conflict known as the Gem Gnoll War. Cozy promised me she would tell me the story about that conflict later. My mission was to find this Foundation Stone before an enemy agent known as Cipher could and bury it at a different location where Cipher could never find it, but we better hurry as Cipher had quite a head start, but fortunately none of the books at the library revealed the Foundation Stone’s exact location, just it’s general location, so we still hopefully had some time. On the other hoof, we did have more precise information given to us by a sage known as Fazban. The Foundation Stone was located in a cave to the north, close to Gem Gnoll territory. Cozy marked the location on the map and told me to seek it out as fast as possible, bringing with me any companions I wished for the mission.

In order to keep me safe, Twilight and Chrysalis both volunteered to accompany me, and when we went back to the cottage to tell Tirek of our endeavor, he volunteered to accompany me as well. So began my first mission as an official Knight of Taralos, I hoped I would be able to prove my worth during these escapades, and the mission wouldn’t disappoint, as we would fight many dangerous creatures on our way.

Chapter 27: Ruby Rook

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Diary of Chrysalis

I have seen a lot of strange things during my long life, one of them being the phenomena of glowing cutie marks. I had only encountered this event a couple of times in over a thousand years, but it usually came about when two ponies who had a connection met for the first time. It surprised me greatly when the first meeting of Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow triggered this phenomenon. Curious, but also worried about what this could mean, I decided to ask Twilight Sparkle, she had a quite peculiar reaction to witnessing these events, she clearly knew something I didn’t. This was why I decided to knock on the door of Twilight’s quarters at the castle, of course still in my disguise as Crackle Cosette. Hoping she could shed some light over what this meant for both Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow. I wouldn’t admit it at this time, but those two ponies I regarded almost like my daughters.

After a few knocks, Twilight opened the door and I quickly got to the point, explaining why I was there. Twilight invited me in, while she got a book from one of the shelves. Both of us taking a seat by the only table in the room. As I expected of Twilight Sparkle, her room was little different from what you would expect from a student, only a simple bed, a desk and a single table with a couple of chairs for when she had friends over. Most of the room being dominated by multiple bookshelves, books Twilight probably borrowed from the castle library. The titles ranging from ancient grimoires of magic to social studies and seemingly random fairytales. But I could notice a pattern, as quite a few books had titles pertaining to interdimensional travel, maybe Twilight was trying to find a way back to Equestria? But if she had had any success so far, she had not mentioned it. I decided to ask her about this and what she told me confirmed my suspicions.

“Oh, those books. Yes, I originally came from another realm, together with Cozy Glow and Sunset Shimmer. But you already knew that didn’t you? Crackle Cosette. Yes, I remember seeing you back in Equestria. I also know that three individuals accompanied Flurry Heart to this world, I have already met Tirek, who told me that Chrysalis is somewhere in Vil. You can drop the act, Queen Chrysalis, I know it is you.”

Twilight’s observational abilities at first took me off guard, I tried to deny it, but I eventually caved to pressure and revealed my true form.

“If you knew my true identity, how come you have not had me apprehended?” I told her harshly.

Twilight laughed before replying:

“If I didn’t witness what I did since I came to this world, I probably would. After all, you were perhaps the most dangerous villain in Equestria, your only competition being your co-conspirators, Tirek and Cozy. When I first came to this world, I didn’t think either of you three could ever change. But Sunset saw potential in Cozy and given who Cozy is now I must admit she was right, if this was the Cozy I knew back in Equestria, she would be a great asset to the crown, as she has proven to be here. Everypony knowns the valiant ´deeds of Knight Commander Cozy Glow. As for Tirek, last I saw him he was baking cookies for my niece,, something I didn’t think I would see in a million years, so surely there is some good in him as well. As for you, former Queen of the changelings, Tirek told me you fought at the side of my brother and Princess Cadence against Midnight and that during this conflict you earned the trust of Cadence to such a point that she left her daughter in your care. There was one detail back when we turned you to stone that was a bit odd. The Rainbow of Light usually either turns those It deems beyond redemption to stone, or eliminates them altogether, like in the case of King Sombra. Yet, you three were just robbed of the extra power granted to you by the Bell of Grogar. Sunset has argued that if you were meant to be turned to stone, the Elements of Harmony would have done that on their own. In retrospect, I think we did you a great disservice. The Spirit of Harmony recognized your potential, but we were too stubborn to see it. “

I couldn’t believe I would ever hear such nonsense, even from the mouth of someone like Twilight. If she continued to display such weakness, there was no hope she could ever defeat Midnight, no, she needed to get stronger, more ruthless, otherwise Midnight would dispose of her with ease.

“You had it right the first time, turning us to stone was a show of strength, providing a warning example of what would happen to those who would defy your rule. If your people know that defying you has little consequence, more of them will turn against you. You need to be firm; you need to be strong.” I told her with disdain in my voice.

Twilight just shook her head.

“If I were to do what you suggest, how different from Midnight would I really be? No, we will find a way to gain the strength we need without sinking to her level. After all, if Sunset didn’t act, I would have quite a few less allies. But of course, I regret leaving Equestria in the first place, Midnight saw an opportunity to exploit my absence. But that means she wasn’t confident enough to launch an invasion of Equestria while I was still its monarch, she fears me and the power of friendship. That’s why I know we can and will defeat her. I know you reject the very concept of friendship, but I hope you will still stand by my side against a common enemy, while I had once forgotten, friendship is about compromise, both giving and taking, and I think we both get something out of this partnership, for we have something we didn’t have before, common ground. For I believe you hate Midnight just as much as I do. But this wasn’t why you came here was it? Let’s address the phenomena of Cozy’s and Flurry’s cutie marks.”

I knew she was in the right, not about friendship and redemption, all of that was nonsense. But however much I despised Twilight’s weakness. I hated Midnight more. Twilight proceeded to tell me all she knew about the glowing cutie marks and its many possibilities. One thing in particular among the explanations she listed caught my attention. Apparently, such phenomena could occur when long lost siblings met for the first time. Which awakened a long-forgotten memory within me.

A long time ago when Princess Cadence was still a teenager, she was impregnated, by who, it wasn’t known. But even at the time the stunning stallion who was the brother of a filly she used to foalsit for was a prime candidate, the stallion she would later marry. Shining Armor, the Captain of the Royal Guard. The two had apparently been sleeping together during this period, or at least some say. Given Cadence’s reputation as the Princess of Love, she wasn’t opposed to fooling around with stallions who caught her fancy, even as a married couple, her and Shining had a reputation for being swingers. As this was before her relationship with Shining got serious, the father could be almost anyone in a long list of candidates. But whoever the father was, Shining decided to take the responsibility to help Cadence raise this kid, a child that they named Ruby Rook. I knew that the child of the Princess of Love would prove to be a strong source of nourishment for my people. So, I launched a plan to kidnap the young princess, replacing her with one of our own so soak up the love from her parents in her stead, like us changelings had a habit of doing.

Things didn’t go as planned and the kidnapping attempt was discovered, I remember losing the young Princess Ruby Rook in a river not far from Canterlot. The Princess was never found, I had heard that Cadence and Shining grieved for months. I was also quite irritated to lose such promising prey. But I had a vague memory that the baby had a salmon coat and artic blue mane. Was it possible that Cozy Glow was none other than Princess Ruby Rook? I considered whenever I should tell Twilight about my suspicions, and after a moment’s hesitation I decided to tell her. After all, it would be entertaining to see her face after she realized that Cozy Glow, the pony that had been turned to stone while she stood on the sidelines and did nothing, was in fact her niece. Her reaction didn’t disappoint, as her jaw hit the floor. Having gotten the information I came for, I soon left Twilight to her devices, letting her digest the information. I needed to seek out Flurry Heart, she would be happy knowing she had a sister.

Diary of Twilight Sparkle

I couldn’t believe it; how could I have been so blind? Both Cadence and Shining Armor were reluctant to talk about the lost princess. I didn’t find out until after their wedding, as I hadn’t seen Cadence for years before that point. Not since some type of event stopped her from foalsitting me. I realized now that maybe the reason she stopped is that my brother knocked her up. Ruby Rook, at the time was believed to have been stolen by changelings, never to be seen again. Could Chrysalis’s claim be true? Was it true that she had lost the Princess and that the foal was found by someone and raised without knowing their true heritage? Was it true that Ruby Rook was Cozy Glow of all people? Wouldn’t Cadence recognize her own child if she saw her? Then again, I don’t think Cadence ever met Cozy during her coups, and she would have little reason to visit the garden where we kept her statue. She wouldn’t be recognizable to her anyway as a statue with all the color drained away.

There were two primary details that seem to support this theory. Cozy’s cutie mark and her name. There were records of other ponies with chess related cutie marks, but most of them were from the Crystal Empire. Suggesting having one of these marks was a sign their family descended from the Crystal Empire. It wasn’t uncommon for common themes among cutie marks to be passed down genetically from generation to generation, an example being the Apple family or the Pie family, who’s marks generally seemed to follow a theme, even if Pinkie was an exception to the rule, like she was with many things. The problem being that before the return of the Crystal Empire, the only family that had Crystal Empire blood were the direct descendants of Princess Amore, who had fled the kingdom before it disappeared. The very same line Princess Cadence was a part of. The line had interbred with Pegasi and therefore the vast majority of the ponies of this line were Pegasi, this was also true of Cadence before she was elevated to Alicorn status. Cozy also happened to be a Pegasus, who also happened to have a cutie mark that most frequently occurred within a very specific family. Not to mention that I had witnessed Cozy display some of the powers of a crystal pony not too long ago when we were in the temple of chaos.

The other detail was that the names seemed to match; I always thought it was odd that the name Cozy Glow seemingly had nothing to do with that pony’s mark of destiny. Cozy was obviously a chess prodigy, so it would make sense her name would hint to her ultimate destiny. For that reason, I have long suspected that Cozy was either a fake name or a name she had taken as her own, not one she was given at birth. For when each pony was born, it was customary to use divination to determine the name, which would include a hint of that pony’s ultimate destiny. This was true of most ponies, as most had a name that somehow reflected the cutie mark they would eventually end up with. This was why ponies like Diamond Tiara had a name that so closely corresponded with their mark, as well as ponies like Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack. Granted, in the case of Applejack, her family had always had an apple-related cutie mark for generations, so it wasn’t exactly hard to predict. I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize until now what a perfect fit the name Ruby Rook was to Cozy’s cutie mark. It had to be her, and if it was, Cozy Glow was potentially my niece. I needed to confirm with my brother if he was the father to know for sure, if he was still alive that is.

I felt sick to my core thinking that I was once willing to leave my own flesh and blood as a statue for all eternity without a second thought. Cozy might have done many awful things, but there was so much I didn’t know about her. Even if she was the lost princess, I realized I knew next to nothing about her past or why she was the way she was. But it did seem like she had a connection to Chrysalis from the very beginning, I wonder if she had a hoof in raising her, though she claimed to have lost her. That is, if Chrysalis could be trusted to tell the truth. Maybe she was just messing with my head. But the idea Cozy was Princess Ruby Rook made too much sense to just ignore. But given the speculative nature of all of this, I decided it was best to not tell Cozy about my suspicions just yet. But it might be time for me to ask Cozy herself about what she remembered from her past.

Chapter 28: Friendship is Magic

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Diary of Twilight Sparkle

I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing this earlier, there was just so much about Cozy Glow I didn’t know. Until recently I pretty much knew nothing at all, she seems to have shown up out of nowhere at my School of Friendship, I could not think of anyone who had known her before that point. Cozy did try to conduct a ritual to drain all magic from Equestria, but why was still a mystery, did she really only do it in order to trap me and my friends in Tartarus? Somehow that felt like complete overkill. I knew she wanted to rule Equestria, but where could that desire come from? Was it perhaps that Cozy subconsciously knew she was supposed to be a princess? I was hoping to find an answer to both questions and more when I knocked on the door to Cozy’s chambers. There was a short delay before she opened the door, Cozy looked rather tired, had she been sleeping? It was currently early evening, under normal circumstances she would stay up later in this, strategizing and managing the war efforts, but she had been recently wounded, her side was still visibly bandaged, perhaps this was the reason she decided to get some rest early this evening.

“What do you want Twilight?” She said in a slightly irritated tone.

I told her that I had a couple of questions about her past, as there was a lot about her, I didn’t yet understand, things I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of. She brushed me off at first telling me:

“You had no interest in my past when you confronted me at the School of Friendship after my original scheme had fallen to pieces, and you refused to hear me out before you let Celestia, Luna and Discord turn me to stone, why do you suddenly have an interest in me now?”

From a certain point of view, she was right, I had taken very little interest in why she did the things she did, simply accepting Cozy’s surface level answer of her belief of friendship being power. I told her I realized I neglected her in the past and that they realized now there was clearly something more to her than I first thought. Cozy accepted that answer and invited me into her quarters to talk things over. Her room was not as neatly organized as mine was, but in some ways, it was similar, as Cozy and also collected quite a few books from the library to adorn her shelves, primarily books about warfare, strategy and psychology. There were also a few books about magic, but they were more rudimentary in nature compared to the grimoires I was studying. A other than her bed, there was also a table in the middle of the room, currently occupied by multiple maps and miniatures to show both the troops of Taralos and that of our enemy. As me and Cozy both took a seat by the table, she asked me what I wanted to know. I told her to start from the beginning as I knew nothing about her upbringing, where she was from and where was she raised.

Cozy told me a story of how she was raised at Sunrise orphanage in Manehattan, where she had come from before that point, she didn’t know, she didn’t think anyone did. The employees at the orphanage had told her that she was found as a baby in a nearby river and brought to Sunrise, but she had herself no memory of this. At the orphanage she had befriended another young orphan named Aurora, the very same Aurora which she had recently been reunited with. But back then, Cozy had made a fatal mistake and abandoned her friend after she made it big in the chess world after winning the annual Manehattan tournament, and Aurora ended her own life soon afterwards. I told her that if this was true, how was it that Aurora was still by her side. Her answer was perplexing, and I had more questions after than before:

“I can’t fully explain that either, but I remember I had a dream after I got wounded by Cipher the first time, a dream where I rescued Aurora from the underworld. Despite these events most likely not being real, Aurora remembered having the exact same dream and she was insistent I rescued her. I don’t know how this makes any sense, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, I am just happy that Aurora is alive.”

I let that go for now, it didn’t make any sense, but it was obvious I wasn’t going to get anything more out of her on that topic. As Cozy continued her story, she told me that Aurora’s death drove her to desperation, when an old bully of hers, Solar Justice was found missing, with clear signs of demonic activity in his room, Cozy had investigated the matter. Her research of demonology is how she first encountered Tirek, who Cozy at the time knew as a powerful warlock, conducting a ritual that allowed her to send letters to him in Tartarus. I asked Cozy to describe the signs that were found in Solar Justice’s room, and she told me an ancient grimoire was found in his possession, as well as a pile of sulfur. Cozy was right, that did indeed point towards demonic activity, and if demons had been involved in Cozy’s life so early, what was to say that they didn’t give her a push in the wrong direction? The mere thought was quite worrying. I had to ask Cozy a question:

“Why was it you decided you had to rule Equestria as the Empress of Friendship? Why was it you became convinced that friendship was power?”

Cozy sighed and paused for a few moments before answering:

“Truth be told, I always felt like I was smarter than my peers and that most of them were unworthy of being called my equals. When most of them were busy reading simple picture books, if they were capable of reading at all, I was engrossed in classical literature, magic theory and rituals as well as advanced psychology. Even Aurora, who was definitely smarter than the rest wasn’t quite my equal. Perhaps that is why I abandoned her, believing I should find better friends, who were more on my level. Yet, when I lost her, a void filled my soul, and I couldn’t quite connect with anyone ever again the way I did with her. While I was eventually adopted by a stallion named Bishop, who was also a professional chess player, I would soon lose him as well, as he died of a terminal illness only a couple of months after he made me heir to his empire. But all that wealth couldn’t fill the hole in my soul that both Bishop and Aurora left. I did everything I could to drown out my sorrows, nothing helped, except one thing. I loved basking in the attention and admiration of others, I still do, it makes me feel big, important, and most importantly, it makes me forget about what I have lost. That is why I sought to become the ruler of Equestria, for I believed that my intelligence made me the most suitable candidate, and with such a high position, it would finally satisfy my intense hunger for admiration. I have seen how the citizens of Equestria regard you Twilight, I wanted to be you, I guess you can say that jealousy got the better of me. As for what is the root of my belief that friendship is power, you had to live under a rock not to come to that conclusion. I have heard stories of how you and your friends channeled the power of friendship against your adversaries, it made you invincible, it was a power I wanted for myself. I realized something that no other villain did, there is no connection between friendship and goodness, villains benefit from cooperation just as much as heroes, after all, with an army of loyal followers, I could become far more powerful than I ever could alone. Yet, for all my efforts at your school, I couldn’t quite form a genuine bond, the other students only liked my sugary sweet façade, not my true self. For what creature could truly love the monster I had become?”

Finally, I was starting to understand, I had also once felt like my intelligence isolated me from others. Which was why I didn’t make many friends while I still lived in Canterlot. I guess some part of me didn’t feel like other ponies would understand, as my interests were quite a lot more advanced than most of them. Of course, Celestia eventually proved me wrong, as when I moved to Ponyville I made friends from all walks of life. Applejack was just a simple farmer, yet I admired her integrity and sometimes she had wisdom that couldn’t be gleaned from books. The same principle also applies to the rest of my friends, they weren’t truly inferior to me just because they were not academics, they each had their own talents, a field I was their inferior in. For example, I could never design a dress as well as Rarity, or understand animals as well as Fluttershy, throw a party as well as Pinkie Pie, or fly as well as Rainbow Dash. I had to tell Cozy my thoughts on the matter:

“Of course you never succeeded in making friends at my school Cozy, you were never yourself and therefore the other students never got to know the true you. No amount of fake friends can match a genuine connection. A simple pretense of friendship could never give you the power you sought, only when you truly care for somepony and they care for you in return is the true power of friendship unlocked. I once thought my intelligence isolated me from other people, but I was wrong, I found friends who were willing to accept me for who I am, even though we have different interests. Most of all I think that what truly isolated you from others was your own sense of superiority. You are a smart cookie Cozy, I will give you that, but you are not the only one. I have met many academically intelligent ponies in my day, from Sunset Shimmer to Starlight and Sunburst. But academic knowledge is not the only type of intelligence, neither is strategic cunning. In fact, I consider each and every one of my friends a genius in their own field. Try to get off your high horse sometimes Cozy, and I think you will find that other people have more to offer than you think. I think you will find true friendship more fulfilling than any amount of power or adoration. Power isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, it can never fill that sense of loneliness deep inside your heart, only bonds with other creatures can.”

Cozy giggled to herself for a second before she replied to my advice:

“So I am starting to understand, when I first came to these lands, truth be told I wanted to be the ruler of Taralos, which was what made me vulnerable to Cipher’s manipulations. Once upon a time I was genuinely tempted to help him overthrow the king and put myself in his place. But this changed after I got to know Night’s Blessing, and the King as a person. Around Night’s Blessing, I felt happier than I ever did, and after I got to know the person behind the crown, found myself unwilling to betray Shining Horn’s trust like that. Truth be told, I have everything I ever wanted right now and more, I have the adoration of the people, more than one genuine friend, a loving partner and most importantly, I got Aurora back. I no longer need the crown. Despite, Cipher was only trying to use me. I think I understand what you meant with Friendship is Magic Twilight. For since I gave up on the throne, I have never been happier.”

Now it was my turn to giggle to myself, I was truly happy that Cozy finally seemed to get it. Now there was only one more bothered me:

“If you don’t mind me asking Cozy, why was it exactly that you felt the need to use that ritual to drain magic from Equestria, couldn’t you see the obviously disastrous result?”

Cozy sighed and looked down, as if in shame:

“Truth be told Twilight, the ritual was originally Tirek’s idea, when I told him that I always felt jealous of unicorns because they could perform magic and I couldn’t, he told me he knew of a way to even the playing field. He told me that the ritual wouldn’t affect the magic of friendship, so if I had the most friends in the land, I would be the most powerful source of magic in the world. Plus, it also had the upside of trapping you and your friends in Tartarus with no way to escape. But there is no guarantee that is how it would turn out would it? This thought has been eating at my mind ever since, is it possible that the ritual would actually turn Equestria into a barren wasteland? If so, Tirek most likely knew this. Why would he want such an outcome? Was it all in the name of revenge?”

I nodded as I told Cozy:

“Most likely, both Tirek and Chrysalis were driven mad by their desires for vengeance, and so was also once true of you. I guess that is why I thought you were lost on your dark path. But now I have seen that the three of you are all on a better path, even Chrysalis, she obviously cares a lot about you, as well as her new adoptive daughter, Flurry Heart, feelings I once thought were beyond her. And Tirek seems to have fondness for Chrysalis. Perhaps there was a reason the Rainbow of Light left you three deprived of your powers, but otherwise unharmed, the rainbow is known to destroy those with no goodness inside completely, or trap a villain in stone own their own, it doesn’t need help with that. I should’ve taken it as a sign that you three are not beyond redemption. I should never have allowed Discord to turn you the stone. Can you ever forgive me?”

Cozy seemed deep in thought for a moment before she answered:

“We have both done things to the other we now regret; I think it is for the best that both of us forget about our past conflicts and focus on our future. Do you want to be my friend Twilight?”

At that moment, I decided to rise from my chair and go over to Cozy and hug her. To think that I had once come to these lands to turn her back into stone, but now Cozy had become a dear friend, and more than that, she was potentially family.

“I am happy to be your friend Cozy.”

Glowing in Everglow

by Darkmoon9

Chapter 1: The Missing Horn

Chapter 2: The Forest of Dreams

Chapter 3: Valentine

Chapter 4: Rotgut

Chapter 5: The Culprit Revealed

Chapter 6: Cipher's Secret

Chapter 7: Niden's Hill

Chapter 8: The Gathering of Clans

Chapter 9: The Underground Passage

Chapter 10: The Orb of Mathias

Chapter 11: The Rook of Taralos

Chapter 12: The Haunting at Green Square

Chapter 13: A Desperate Plea

Chapter 14: The Dead Rising

Chapter 15: The Inevitable and the Temple of Chaos

Chapter 16: A Selfless Act

Chapter 17: Invasion

Chapter 18: The Last Changeling

Chapter 19: A Daring Rescue

Chapter 20: The Occultist

Chapter 21: Death of an Empire

Chapter 22: An Irresistible Offer

Chapter 23: Reunion

Chapter 24: The Fairy Tale Cottage

Chapter 25: Assassins

Chapter 26: Bound by Destiny

Chapter 27: Ruby Rook

Chapter 28: Friendship is Magic