Twilight brings Sunset over to help try and reform Cozy. They'd never expect what they'd find...
Cozy Glow was turned to stone, and Twilight thought it was time to free her. So she called Sunset Shimmer over from the human world, to hopefully be able to better understand Cozy and help her out. Sunset was able to understand Cozy, on levels she never expected...
Written for the Cozy Glow contest, for the prompt "Cozy's got a secret."
“Thank you for coming,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said. “I know you’re really busy over in the human world.”
“Hey, it’s no problem!” said Sunset Shimmer. “I’ve been meaning to visit Equestria more often anyway. Canterlot High is my home now, but I have friends here too. Besides, it’s not every day you get summoned by the new ruler of Equestria!”
Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, well, it’s not really a summon, I just thought I’d ask if you could help. I’m not quite out of ideas otherwise, but you’re the best option I can think of I haven’t already ruled out. Did you bring your geode like I asked?”
Sunset held it out in her hand- hoof- for confirmation, her expression becoming more serious. “Of course. Where is she?”
Equestria had more magic everywhere than even the most magic-scarred portions of Canterlot High, and it was possible the geode would have more dramatic effects. Twilight didn’t want to accidentally see something she shouldn’t, or have something be seen she didn’t want. So she had left Sunset alone in the garden.
Well, not quite alone. There were three statues in front of her. Today, she was here for the smallest.
Sunset stepped forwards, climbing onto the small wooden block which would give her the height she’d need. She took a deep breath. She’d seen inside the mind of villains before, but never before had it been so… calculated. It felt wrong, doing it this way. Cold, premeditated. Like something the old Sunset would have done.
But no, this was really the best thing to do. They couldn’t help Cozy without knowing where she came from, what made her do what she did, and all investigations had turned up nothing. It was like she just appeared one day. Looking into her mind might be an invasion, but it was still better than leaving her trapped in stone for who knew how long. It was the right thing to do. And she wasn’t just telling herself that.
Sunset took another deep breath to steady herself, and reached out the tip of one hoof to Cozy’s statue. There was a second when nothing happened, and then-
Grasping the letter from Everton in her hands, shakily opening it… scanning, not even reading… the word “accepted” drawing all her attention…
Meeting her advisor for the first time, a tall man with dark skin, black hair, and red eyes…
Joy giving way to frustration, then anger. She was accepted here for study! Not to clean out test tubes and sit back while Sombra got all the credit for any of the work she was actually allowed to do!
Following the rumors of strange events happening, things that couldn’t be true, she opened up a MyStable video of the Friendship Games, and saw an impossible face staring back at her…
Desperately showing Sombra what was going on, begging for the chance to investigate, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. His cold laugh echoing in her ears in return…
Sneaking out of her dorm, determined to find out the truth once and for all, hitchhiking her way over to Canterlot High…
Buying an outfit, putting pink makeup on herself and a blue wig, not wanting her true identity to cause complications…
Talking to students, until a yellow girl with a bow in her hair pointed at a statue in the front of the yard…
Her bags packed, stepping through into the unknown, to find the magic, find the power…
Popping out in a strange world, with a strange new form, surrounded by books…
Searching through the books, searching through spells, until she stumbled across one which was capable of changing form, letting her avoid suspicion…
Trying to decide what form she wanted, eventually picking one that mirrored her disguise, which would let her hopefully spend enough time as a student to learn the power she needed…
The panic, as she realized she’d lost her horn, that she couldn’t change back…
The fear of not knowing how much being in this young body would affect her emotions, her stability…
Looking in the mirror she came from at the slow smile that spread over her face, now pink instead of orange, as she realized just how much this could be used to her advantage…
Stepping out and finding bizarre dopplegangers of the students she’d talked to at Canterlot High, deciding it was time to once again find that young yellow girl…
Sunset gasped as she recoiled from the imagery, falling off the block as she did so. She rubbed her head. That was more images than she’d ever seen before! That might be because of the additional magic in this world, but as she processed what she’d seen more, it might also be because…
…because Cozy Glow was her?
Cozy Glow was the human Sunset Shimmer?
What?
“Well, on the bright side, I guess we know you asked the right person for this,” Sunset said drily. Princess Twilight was busy freaking out.
“THE RIGHT PERSON? I just asked you to look into your own head! I don’t- who knows what effects this could have on either of your psyches? Ponies who have tried that in the past have gone mad, started trying to gather power and- and- and no offense, of course, but-”
“None taken,” Sunset interrupted. “Look, I really think you’re freaking out over the wrong thing here. Honestly, I’m the one who should be upset about this, but I’m fine. Neither of us could have known.”
“I could have! I should have! I’ve met you, I know you, I should have realized she was the same! Maybe then I could have-”
“Hit her with the Elements of Harmony like you did me? You tried that, and this is what they did. Besides, my days of manipulating people for popularity were over by the time you met me, you never got the chance to see it in action. So even if she did stick to the same playbook- which, given the disguise and what you’ve told me, she probably didn’t- you wouldn’t have been able to recognize it.”
“But- But-” Princess Twilight stammered.
“Nope! No buts about it, you did nothing wrong. But right now, we need to be worrying about her. She’s okay for now, but whatever spell she found to change herself has been slowly making her grow worse and worse over time. I think the petrification stopped it, but I can’t be sure, especially given that her subconscious was active enough for me to be able to retrieve the memories at all. We shouldn’t leave her in there for too much longer. Do you know a way of restoring a body to its original form?”
“Well, I- Well, there’s the spell she used. You said the reason she couldn’t change back was because she lost her horn, not because it was one-time use, right?”
Sunset smiled. What she said was true, but she was glad that talking about the magic would be enough to distract Twilight. At least some things from her days of manipulation were still useful. “Yeah, or at least, that’s what she thought. Um, I think- I think the book she got the spell from was red? Her eyes looked red after casting the spell, and it looked like it matched the color of the book. Does that help?”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Yes, I know exactly which book that would be! Wait right here!” There was a flash of light, and Twilight was gone.
Sunset looked at where Twilight had been. She looked around. She didn’t particularly feel like stewing in her own thoughts right now. Maybe Twilight wouldn’t mind if she read one of the books? Ooh, or maybe she could look at the Friendship Map, see a scale model of Equestria! She wondered if it was magical enough to show individual ponies if she looked closely enough…
There was a flash of light, and Twilight was back, a red book held in her magic. “I got it! I- Sunset? Why is your eye pressed against the table? No wait, never mind! We have to help Co- Su- what do we call her?”
Sunset looked up. “Um, I’m not sure. She didn’t think of herself as Cozy when the memory ended, but it’s been long enough that she might have started since. I think it doesn’t particularly matter, though? I don’t think I’d care much in her shoes. She was clearly happy being called Cozy for years.”
“Okay, well, Cozy then. We have to go find her and put her back to normal!”
“OOF!” Cozy felt like she’d just fallen out of bed. She rubbed her aching chin and blearily looked up at- Twilight Sparkle?
“Gah!” She quickly got to her feet and scrambled back. “Couldn’t you have at least tried to catch me?”
“I’m sorry! I thought you would still be flying!” said Twilight, looking genuinely contrite. Idiot. “We’re trying to help you!”
Cozy paused. We? There wasn’t anyone else clearly standing there. “Who’s this ‘we’? I only see you! And if you’re trying to help me, you could start by not dropping me on my face onto a platform of stone! Ugh!”
Twilight frowned. “The other pony who’s here is… a bit special. We didn’t want to risk making you think this was a dream or something when you first came out of the stone, so she’s just around the corner.” Twilight vaguely waved a hoof at a nearby hedge, never taking her eyes off Cozy. “You know that you’re just a pegasus, now, right? As long as I’ve got my eyes on you, you can’t escape.”
Cozy growled. “I know that, Professor! I’m not a fool like these two!” She jabbed a hoof at Tirek and Chrysalis. “I don’t plan on wasting both of our time and getting trapped in stone again over foolhardy revenge schemes we both know wouldn’t work. Go ahead and ‘redeem’ me or whatever it is you do, let’s get this over with.”
Twilight shook her head. “I won’t be redeeming you, Cozy. She will.” She reached out a hoof towards the same hedge, and made a beckoning motion. Out from behind it came…
No.
No, no, no! Why couldn’t they just leave her alone! Now she had to deal with this annoyance, trying to keep the truth from another Sunset? Ugh!
Cozy made one of the hardest smiles of her life. “Golly, it’s nice to meet you! I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but-”
“Save it,” the other Sunset cut in. “I know what you’ve done, and I know where you came from. More importantly, I know who you are.”
What? How! She’d hidden her tracks thoroughly, she was sure of it! No way did this namby-pamby mockery somehow track her down! No, she didn’t know the truth, she just thought she did, that was it.
She dropped her smile and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m a monster, we all know that.”
Sunset shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean. You’re not a monster.” She touched that strange rock hanging around her neck, and from her horn came a burst of light, coalescing into a moving image that hung in the sky. In it was the image of herself, back when she was a human- no. An image of the copy, as a human, putting a crown on her head, and transforming into a red-skinned demon.
“And neither was I.”
Cozy looked at her with disdain. “Congrats, some monkey got a cool dye job. What’s that supposed to show?”
Sunset frowned. “Sunset, I know you know that was me.”
DAMNIT!
DAMNIT, DAMNIT! They knew the truth! They could send her back! They’d leave her trapped there forever! And she wouldn’t even be able to get out of this damnable body!
She managed a weak smile. “Yes, well, I’m sure you’ve come to peace with your terrible past. It sure seems like it was such an unforgivable offense. Making friends with everybody at school with everyone must have been such a horrible ordeal.”
The other Sunset laughed. She laughed, how dare she! “Well, I did enslave them and attempt to use them to conquer Equestria, so it took a while for them to warm up to me. Honestly, if I hadn’t saved the world I don’t know if they’d have ever trusted me. But they do now, and…” Sunset gave a disgusting sentimental smile, the sort of thing Cozy could never get quite right. “I’m happy now.”
Suddenly, Sunset fixed her with a hard stare. “Are you happy?”
Cozy looked back and forth between Sunset and Twilight, whose head had been swinging between the two like a spectator at a tennis match. “Twilight, how are you letting her do this! You saw what she did, why are you letting her lie like this?”
Twilight started. “Oh! Um, Cozy, I’m sorry to tell you, but she’s telling the truth. She really did that, and she’s my friend now. But, um, honestly, right now I’m mostly here to keep the situation safe. She’s the one who’s here to talk with you.”
Sunset stepped forwards. “Cozy, are you happy? I know that when I was in your shoes- or, at least as close to them as I ever got- I was miserable. I only did what I did because I didn’t realize there was a better way to be happy, to feel safe and powerful and connected- friends.”
Cozy laughed, a genuine laugh this time. “Friends? I know about friends. I know friends are power, that’s why I sought so many of them! Of course I’m not happy, I was turned into stone and had all my power and friends stripped from me!” She waved a hoof wildly at the statue. “And there they are! You dare talk to me about FRIENDS?”
Sunset took a step back, and Twilight interjected. “Cozy, they aren’t your friends. Friends wouldn’t goad each other into doing such things, friends would work on protecting each other and helping each other get better. I saw how you three interacted during the battle, you could never truly trust each other.”
“Trust? Hah! Of course we couldn’t trust each other! So what? We were still friends! We were still a team, working together to DESTROY YOU!” Cozy shook with anger. She hadn’t meant to yell that out loud, really she hadn’t.
Sunset stepped forwards again. “Being a team doesn’t mean you’re friends. You were a team with Sombra-”
Cozy turned on her in rage. “Sombra? Which one? The one who tortured everybody he knew, who ruled over everything in his domain with an iron grip? Or the wannabe king who got vaporized after spending five minutes with me? Sombra was never on a team with me!”
Sunset held up a hoof in an infuriating placation. “Exactly. A friend isn’t just someone you work with towards a common goal, it’s someone who is truly on your team, in every way that counts.”
Cozy fumed silently.
Sunset saw that Cozy wasn’t responding, and continued. “I have friends back at Canterlot High, true friends. And I hate to say it, but I know that you don’t. And- I know you want them, more than anything. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what I was looking for when I ran away from home. People who truly cared about me.”
Cozy began to giggle. “Cared about you? Truly cared about you? Hah! Like that would happen! Friends don’t do that. Friends don’t truly care. They just pretend to.”
Sunset lit up her horn again, sending another illusion into the sky, this one a series of images. An image of clones of her professors stepping in front of a strange beam of light directed at her. An image of herself and the clones all sitting around and laughing. An image of a hand, reaching up to pull her out of a dirty crater.
“They cared about me.”
Cozy stared at the images. “Yeah? Well, then they’re dumb.”
Sunset shook her head, the image nearly shaking apart. “No, Cozy, they’re my friends. And I know the ones here can be your friends too.”
Cozy laughed again. “Really? After everything I’ve done to them, they’d just forgive me? Like that?”
Twilight stepped forwards and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Sunset’s illusion fell out of the sky in front of her, a strange being stepping out of it like it was a hole in reality.
“Not like that, silly. Like this!” And with a snap of his talon, the traitor Discord summoned a periscope. He looked at it and said “Go on, show her!”
The periscope lifted up one end like a snake to look at Discord, then Cozy, and began slithering off like a snake. Only the front end moved, though, the back end stayed put, the whole contraption just growing in length. and soon the front end had climbed up the castle to Twilight’s room. Discord reached out, handing the back end to Cozy.
Cozy fought herself for a second before taking it. He’d figure out some way of making her look anyway. She put it to her eye, and-
“Letters? Really? She’s going to have me do friendship reports? I’ve already been to Friendship School and I got straight As. I can do friendship reports. Watch. Hey Twilight! Today I learned you shouldn’t try and spread tribal tensions, conquer Equestria, and become an Alicorn. Instead you should try talking to your friends. Maybe you can convince them to give up everything they’ve ever wanted instead!”
Discord shook his head. “It’s not about the friendship reports, Cozy, it’s about the connection. You’re right that they wouldn’t forgive you immediately, any more than they did me. They’ll want to keep a close eye on you to ensure you don’t go back to the fun ways. But they will be your friends, as much as possible. There’s a reason little Princess Harmony over here talks with the Spirit of Chaos, and it’s not because we like to work together on paperwork. Besides, it’s better than being stone again. I should know.”
Twilight stepped forwards. “He’s telling the truth, Cozy. We’d put a magic inhibitor on your horn, and we’d probably keep you in the castle for a little bit, but we really would try to be your friends- and if we couldn’t, we’d help you make new ones. But we already know we get along well with one Sunset, no reason it can’t be two.”
Cozy tilted her head. “Horn?”
“That’s right,” Sunset said. “We think the body change might be having adverse effects on you, and we want to put it back. Sunset Shimmer is probably a lot less hated here than Cozy Glow anyway. You’d be able to make a fresh start.”
That… That wasn’t something she’d expected them to offer. Were they being serious? She couldn’t come up with any reason why they’d restore her body otherwise- a unicorn was a lot more dangerous than a pegasus kid everyone knew.
She hesitantly took a step, looking at the three of them. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
This was a bad idea. They’d be as incompetent idiots as Tirek and Chrysalis were, and they’d probably betray her like Grogar. They’d never be her friends, and under their watch she’d never be able to escape.
