A Nightmare UndoneView OnlineA Different Kind of CozyA Nightmare UndoneCozy Glow tried not to flinch as Princess Celestia gave her and her companions the harshest glare she had ever seen. "There isn't a punishment worthy of what you've done!" Discord leaned over and whispered to the sisters, but Cozy heard them all the same. "You what I would do if I were..." Celestia and Luna shared a knowing look. "Oh. That does seem fitting," Luna beamed. Discord grinned. "May I help? Please?" Celestia and Luna nodded. Combining their magic, they blasted the trio before them. Cozy felt her legs and then her whole body go numb as she was turned to stone. To the side, she heard Chrysalis snarl in rage. She tried to fight it, but the magic was too strong. Her tears welled up as she looked again at the princesses. Both had looks that would have made King Sombra proud. "Please. I never wanted this! I never wanted to be here," she tried, but the words barely came out as a whisper. "I just wanna go home. I want-" But she never got to finish the sentence as her mouth was turned to stone. The last thing she remembered before her sight failed was the princesses turning away with a dismissive sniff. "ENOUGH!" Cozy's whole body jerked as the petrification was reversed. In a moment her body was flesh and blood again as she fell to the grass with a thump. Looking up, she watched as the scene around her faded into a starry void. From the void came a figure she knew. "Princess Luna?" She asked, not trusting anything at the moment. The Princess of the Night nodded, her face set in a calming smile. "Indeed. I had felt a disturbance in the Dream Realm this night. But I did not expect it to come from you." Cozy looked around. "Golly. You mean all that was just a dream?" Luna nodded. "Yes. Everything you saw from the moment you helped Princess Twilight with the fake Friendship University has been a dream. Or a nightmare to be more precise." Before she could say more though, she felt Cozy Glow latch onto one of her legs and begin sobbing uncontrollably. Her smile softened as she looked down and wrapped the filly in a wing. They sat like that for a time before the sobs finally faded and her leg was let go. She still had questions, but for now, she waited. Cozy wiped her eyes. "Why did it all feel so real? I felt myself turning to stone." Luna nodded. It had been many a year, but she knew this magic. "Yes. It is called Elder Magic, or Deep Magic to some. In the Dream Realm, it makes everything feel as though it is actually happening to you for real." Cozy wracked her brain. Professor Twilight had talked about this in her History of Magic Class, but very little of it had made sense to her. It seemed more fit for unicorns than Pegasi. She did remember one bit though. "Professor Twilight said that only the oldest alicorns know that magic." Luna chuckled. "While I wish I could claim that is true, neither my sister or I know that magic. It is indeed beyond our ability to cast it." That got Cozy's attention. "Then who did it?" Luna shook her head. "We do not know her name. But there is one that even Celestia and I bow to. It is not this, Faust, ponies keep saying is one thing we know of for sure. One that is as above us in all sense as we are to most ponies." Cozy didn't like the sound of that. "Is that a good thing?" Luna shrugged. "I do not know. She rarely involves herself in matters like this as far as I know. But she must have seen a reason to do so now." Cozy thought back to her dream and gulped. "Am I in trouble?" Luna shook her head. "No. You are not the first to have such a dream of taking over Equestria. Nor do I think you will be the last either." She giggled after a moment. "Besides. If we delt with everyone who had the same dream, we wouldn't have time for anything else." That did get a giggle out of Cozy. After a moment though, she gave Luna a look. "But I was with Tirek and Chrysalis, and some old goat named Grogar that turned out to be Discord." Luna rolled her eyes. "It would just be like Discord to play the part of that old goat. But Grogar is long gone from Equestria thanks to Gusty. Chrysalis is powerless by herself, and Tirek is locked away in Tartarus. Sombra I will make sure that he is as dead we believe him to be." She paused a moment. "I will make sure to check that Tirek is still safely locked away where he belongs of course." Her smile dropped though. "But I am curious as to why you had such a dream in the first place?" Cozy shifted uncomfortably. Luna caught the shift and her smile returned. "I will not judge you Cozy Glow, but I cannot help you if I do not know more." Cozy sighed after a moment and began her story. *** Luna pondered this as Cozy finished her story. "I see. I must speak with Princess Twilight about all of this. This is out of my hooves." Cozy looked worried at that. "Will I be in trouble?" Luna shook her head. "I believe not. Princess Twilight is a reasonable mare with a big heart. She will know what to do." That helped eased Cozy's fears a lot. "So um. Can I go back to sleep now? I kinda need it. I have a big test tomorrow with Professor Fluttershy." Luna giggled as she patted her shoulder. "Indeed you can. I will make sure you only have good dreams for the rest of the night." And true to her word, for the rest of the night, Cozy Glow had no more nightmares and dreamed only good dreams. *** As she retreated from Cozy Glow's mind, Luna's own mind was troubled by what she had seen in the filly's nightmares. Discord doing something so stupid like this was not beyond the realm of possibility of course. That King Sombra could somehow still be alive did worry her to a degree. But he relied on fear far too much and mind-controlled slaves. It had been how the Crystal Empire had first fallen to his rule. She would be sure to go and speak with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor to make sure that it would never happen again. In the time since she and Celestia had developed ways to break his hold on any he could command. Luna hoped it would not be needed in the days to come. But that was not all she had taken away from the nightmare that stood out to her. She would have to talk that over with Celestia in the morning at breakfast. It would be an interesting conversation, to say the least. Author's Note Say goodbye to a lot of season 8 and all of season 9 as we know it. Everything past Friendship University now will change from what we know in some way. What Lies Beneath has been erased entirely because the Tree of Harmony now has no reason to screw over the Mane 6 and go to the Young Six. Past that, it's only minor changes to episodes. Chapters set during or after them will point the changes out.
Princess MeetingView OnlineA Different Kind of CozyPrincess MeetingWhile Twilight was always happy to meet with one of her fellow princesses, the fact that it was cutting into her teaching time at the School of Friendship was a bit of a downer. The fact that Princess Luna had come all the way to Ponyville for the meeting though, told her that something was on her mind. That it was just the two of them eased her worries, however. "So um. What brings you to Ponyville Luna?" Twilight asked, passing Luna's coffee over to her as she took her seat in the Headmare's Office. She herself had a cup of Earl Grey tea waiting for her. Luna took a moment to savor the sweet elixir. No matter what Tia said, coffee was the drink of the gods themselves. Tea was an inferior beverage. Why her sister thought so highly of it eluded her for the moment. But that was a question for another day. This meeting was cutting into her sleep schedule, and after last night's Dream Walk, she needed all the sleep she could get. But this could not wait. "Tell me Twilight. What do you know of Cozy Glow?" She asked, setting her cup down. Twilight was taken aback by the question, but she quickly recovered as she tried to think of all she knew of the filly. "She is one of our best students. None of the girls have ever said anything bad about her, and the CMC can't stop talking about her." She paused as she raised an eyebrow. "Why?" Luna nodded. "And how much do you know of where she came from?" Twilight wracked her brain again. "Cozy came to Ponyville by herself. She had a permission slip from her mom saying she could stay at the school by herself and if she wanted to stay in Ponyville for longer, she was welcome to." Luna nodded gravely as her expression turned serious. "That is what I was afraid of. That is not the true story Twilight Sparkle. Yes, she has permission to be here alone, because she has no other place to go." Twilight's brows creased. "What do you mean?" Luna sighed. "Cozy Glow has no family to speak of to go back to. The mare who signed her slip is the matron of Tall Tale's orphanage. The orphanage recently closed because there was no other filly or colt left. Cozy was the only still there when she came to the school." Twilight nearly choked on her tea. "What!?" Luna nodded. "Tis true. I spoke to her last night after she had a nightmare. She told me everything. She did not tell you for fear that you would send her back to a place that no longer exists." Twilight tried to digest this while not choking on her drink. "I wouldn't do that. Not if I knew the truth. Sure I am not really happy she didn't tell me this sooner. But we could have helped her before now if we had known about this." Luna nodded. "You and I both know that. But Cozy Glow is at an age where not everything seems to be as rosy as we see it now. And look at it from her side. What does it look like when you've spent your whole life wanting and wishing for a family, but never have one? To see your friends get to leave with a family of their own, while you are left behind?" Twilight's ears fell as she thought about it. "I hadn't thought about it that way." Luna's voice softened as her smile came back. "It is the root cause in fact of the nightmare I helped her with. In this dream, she had turned to evil, and with Tirek, planned to steal all of the magic in Equestria." Twilight's mouth dropped in shock, but Luna held up a hoof to forestall her questions. "And when that had failed, the two of them were banished to Tartarus, where in time they were freed by Grogar. Or at least Discord pretending to be him at least. Alongside Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra." She paused as she recalled the events she had seen. "Sombra was defeated of course. In the course of their misadventures, the three of them did, in fact, steal all the magic in Equestria, after exposing Discord's lies as Grogar. In the end, they were sentenced to an eternity as statues." Twilight tried to process this. It was a lot to take in for sure. "But why would Cozy ever join with them? Tirek's in Tartarus, and who knows where Chrysalis is. I didn't even think King Sombra was still alive." Luna nodded. "In her heart, she wanted a family. It drove her to think that by stealing all of the magic, her friends would never leave her side and they could be her family. The same could be said with the Legion of Doom." Twilight bit her lip. "That's not how friendship works. That's not how family works." Luna nodded. "In the end, Cozy saw that as well. She will always want a family, but she has seen that the path she might have taken would never have given her one. Or the friends she wants." Twilight nodded. She was glad that the disaster had seemingly been averted. Or so she hoped. "But what do we do now? I will have to talk to her about not telling us the truth. But I won't send her back." Luna nodded, a knowing look coming to her face. One that reminded Twilight of Princess Celestia. "I believe you know what you can do Twilight. If not you, then one of your friends. All of you are more than qualified for the task. Can you do that though? Take on that responsibility?" Twilight nodded, not bothering to hide her gulp of fear. Of course, she knew what she could do for Cozy Glow. But could she go through with it? Could any of her friends do it for that matter? Author's Note So now you know most of Cozy's story. Or at least the parts that are relevant to this story. I won't explain everything about her life before coming to Ponyville. If it's not that important to the story going forward, I don't see the need to.
Solar ThoughtsView OnlineA Different Kind of CozySolar ThoughtsBy the time Luna returned to Canterlot, her sister's Day Court had finished for the morning, and Celestia was now taking a well-deserved break from the constant pestering of the Canterlot Elite. While it was annoying enough on a good day, Celestia's legendary patience was beginning to wear thin on one subject in particular. Chancellor Neighsay had once again come in demanding she close down the School of Friendship. There were just two problems with that. No matter what he thought otherwise. Even if Princess Celestia or Princess Luna wanted to close down the school (which they did not), there was no law that prohibited what the school was doing. And as she had said repeatedly, laws of the realm superceeded what the Equestria Education Administration held. No law had ever been passed banning other races from joining in Equestria's schools for a very simple reason. Nopony had ever thought it was possible it could ever happen. Even Celestia herself would admit she had never thought it would happen. And as Celestia was also quick to remind Neighsay, his recent actions with the false Friendship University had put his role as leader of the E.E.A. up for debate in several weeks. And if rumors were to be true, he was on the way out as it was. As it turned out, Friendship University had never come up for a vote by the Board of Trustees. In fact, Neighsay had fast-tracked it through the accreditation process, bypassing any and all due process that would have caught Flim and Flam's scam. What little goodwill he had left had evaporated when the news of that had come out. Even those on the Board who agreed with him were now backing out. Despite all that, however, he was still Chancellor and still held some power. But no longer near as what he once did. Celestia often wondered what had happened that made him this way. She remembered when had been very different from today. Or maybe he was always like this, and the School of Friendship had only brought it to the surface. But that was all beside the point. Celestia was far more worried about what Luna had told her of Cozy Glow earlier that morning. When Luna had mentioned the use of Elder Magic, her worries had shot through the roof. She had despatched a Royal Guard company to make sure Tirek was still safely locked away in Tartarus where he belonged. Finding Chrysalis would be harder, but the former queen no longer was the danger she once was. She would be having words with Discord when she had the chance about his taking on Grogar's role. The old goat was long dead thanks to Gusty, and a little bit of otherworldly help to make sure he stayed dead. His Bewitching Bell was locked away in a place only Gusty had known of. What worried her the most though was Cozy herself. Celestia had known the matron of Tall Tale's orphanage personally, and never once had she mentioned anything like this. It seemed the danger had passed though. She hoped so at least. But what really interested her though was one bit of Cozy's dream. One that involved her and Luna in a big way. One that also involved Twilight. An idea she had honestly never thought of herself. But now that she had heard about it, the idea would not leave her alone. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea, and she knew Luna did as well, though maybe not as much. There had never been an occasion really when either of them had thought of retiring and hoofing off their duties to another. Some times Celestia had given temporary rulership over to Princess Cadance when she had been younger. But that had only really been for a short time. And as much as Celestia loved her niece, she had always known that raising the sun and moon were not something that lay in her future, though given the right instruction, Cadance was more than capable of doing both. Unicorns had once moved both celestial bodies before the founding of Equestria. Starswirl himself had once helped move both and was, in fact, the only unicorn whose magic wasn't depleted forever after a certain amount of times of doing so. Despite what some thought though, Celestia's cutie mark did not mean she was some sort of sun goddess or avatar of the sun. The same holds for Luna and the moon. If they truly wanted to give their celestial duties to another, they could. Of course, it would not be easy for them to do of course. But Celestia wondered why she would ever half-ass something to Twilight like that with the Great Wheel. Twilight had once moved both sun and moon when Tirek had first returned. It hadn't been perfect of course. But given time and the right instruction from both her and Luna, Twilight was more than capable of doing so again. Maybe even better than the Royal Sisters themselves. Celestia would have to think long and hard about this. This was not something they could just do at the drop of a hat. Too many things risked going wrong if they did. Author's Note Just to be perfectly clear. Never once in her talk with Twilight did Luna ever mention anything about her and Celestia retiring. I know it was an open question before. Now you know. With that said though, this is more of an interlude chapter for the story. We'll get back to the main part of the story next chapter.
