She came home to find them attempting another raid. Why did they make her keep doing this?
CRUNCH!
She didn't enjoy having to do this to them. When would they learn?
CRUNCH!
Did they want her to respond like a monster? She didn't want to be a monster.
CRUNCH!
Why couldn't they just leave her things alone? Why did they have to steal from her? Why couldn't they be friends?
CRUNCH!
The last of the latest round of intruders was dead beneath Cozy Glow's hoof. She didn't know why they kept trying to steal from her, and couldn't care less about their reasons. All that mattered was they needed to be stopped every time, and she was the only one who could.
The remains of the small buglike creatures littered the area around her. All of them were now just broken bits of legs and goo, along with some scraps of cloth that had been their clothes and a few twigs that they counted as spears. It hadn't even been a fight, but a massacre. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at them.
"Stupid bugs, don't you care about the families that you left behind? Why do you keep doing this!"
They didn't answer. No one ever answered her.
She turned away the broken husks and back to what they had been trying to steal. She crossed over the fractured flagstones and looked down at it. Forcing a smile onto her face, she bent down and cradled it in her hooves. "Can you believe these guys, Pinkie? I slay them every time I find them trying to steal things from me, but more of them keep coming back. Why do they keep making me do this?"
The broken pink stone bearing Pinkie Pie's cutie mark didn't answer. Not that she expected it to. She wished she knew where the rest of that statue could be found and what it had looked like—if it had been a statue, it being only one stray piece made it hard to tell. "It's time to get you back with the rest. Maybe I'll go out looking for more of you again tomorrow if the rain isn't that bad. I'm pretty sure it's going to rain tonight. My pegasus senses are tingling."
She picked the piece up and put it in her sack, careful to avoid ripping the fabric with the jagged edges of the stone. Her poor sack showed signs of wear again. Perhaps she could steal some thread from those stupid insect creatures again, so she could try fixing it up. She'd hate to have it tear on her. Raiding them for thread always ended up being miserable since it usually ended with them trying to mount massive attacks against her for days after. They didn't get upset about the deaths of the fools that came and tried to steal her friends and treasures, but they'd attempt a crusade against her if she raided them for supplies. It hardly seemed fair that she had to put up with their little expeditions, but they got so outraged if she did the same to them, filthy little insects.
A cold wind blew down off Canterhorn Mountain, and she shivered. Hopefully, it wouldn't be windy during the coming storm. Keeping dry and relatively warm was easy enough when it rained as long as the wind wasn't blowing. It was a nightmare trying to keep a fire going when it was both wet and windy, though.
She gave the old broken street a final nervous glance around. The shattered foundations filled with bushes and other overgrowth seemed still enough, aside from the impact of the breeze. She'd never seen anything large enough to be a real predator to her, but there could always be a first time for everything. It was starting to get dark, though, and she didn't like to be out here after the sun had set. She imagined things in the shadows, and even though she knew they were just figments of her imagination, she did not care for their company.
With a few strong beats of her wings, she was in the air, soaring high above the remains of Canterlot—if it could be called that anymore. A bunch of rocks buried under plants, with only some bricks in the ground to mark the outlines of buildings. She flew along the edge of the mountain, past the broken remains of the old ramparts of the castle. At the end of that broken wall was the hollow cylindrical remains of what had once been a tower, now lying on its side like some rotting log on the cliffside. How it remained somewhat intact, she didn't know, but it was the most intact part of the castle. It wasn't much, but it was mostly dry, and it took those bugs forever to get to it and steal anything else out of it. She'd once wanted to have Canterlot Castle as her own. Well, now she had it—what was left of it.
She landed in the gaping circular hole that had been the bottom of the tower and gave her wings one final stretch before settling them down at her sides. "Luna! I'm home!"
A short walk into the tower brought her to her fire pit and her meager supply of firewood beside it. She set her sack down and gathered up two smaller pieces of wood, and began rubbing them together as fast as she could over the fire pit. Once she had a fire going, she dropped them into the hole and started feeding twigs and then small pieces of wood into it. She observed the wood supply getting low; she'd need to go gathering again soon. At least that was one thing she'd never fail to find outside. The Everfree extended straight up to the mountain's base, and wood was plentiful.
She talked to her friend as she worked on the fire. "You know, I need to figure out a better way of keeping those bugs out of here when I'm gone. I've tried talking to them, scaring them, moving you all to a harder to reach location, and just slaughtering them on sight. They don't give up. I don't get it, Luna. Can't they understand how important you all are to me? I tried being nice, but it doesn't work with them, stupid bugs."
The tower remained quiet. Her friend never gave her any feedback.
With a nice healthy fire going, she let herself smile and look over at the face of Luna, a short distance away. "Forget the thieves; I have lots of good news. First of all, I found a new type of berries today. I'm even fairly certain they aren't poisonous since I watched some birds eating them. So I've got something to go with that nasty bush fruit. They taste pretty disgusting as well, but at least they are a different type of disgusting. A little variety will do me good, don't you think?"
Luna didn't answer, which again wasn't surprising. Luna only existed as half the face of a statue. It might not even be Luna for all she knew, but she liked to think that it was the princess, listening to her. To Luna's sides were piles of objects lovingly gathered from all her excursions. Anything she could find with a cutie mark printed on it. She found bits of trash and other items all the time, but things with cutie marks had unique value. They'd been personal objects to some pony or another once, and seeing those cutie marks made her feel a little closer to those ponies. These were her friends, and no bug would steal them away from her, not while she still lived.
"But that isn't the best thing!" Cozy continued excitedly. "Three days out from here, I found a pony's cutie mark, a storm cloud over a moon. Is that anyone you know?"
No answer.
Cozy shook her head. "I didn't expect you to say. It's drawn on a broken jug, and those squirrels have it. I think they're worshiping it. What's with all the intelligent species around here? They're willing to worship a cutie mark drawn on a piece of clay, but treat the actual pony with one on her flank as a monster? It's completely unfair!"
It was getting dark outside, and only a quick flash of light warned of the ear-splitting thunderclap that followed. Cozy winced and nervously whimpered, but breathed deeply a moment later when she realized all was well.
"Golly, that one was really close! I miss the old days when the weather teams would give ponies some warning about that." She looked out at the now falling rain and listened to it hitting the stone of the broken tower. "I miss a lot of things."
She turned back to Luna. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Cozy Glow! Why didn't you rescue that poor pony's cutie mark from those barbaric squirrels? You rescue Pinkie all the time. Are you playing favorites? You have a point in saying that, but hear me out. Those squirrels seem smarter than the bugs, and even though I haven't figured out how to properly communicate with them without them all running in terror yet, I'm confident that it has to be easier than dealing with the bugs. I mean, squirrels are mammals; I'm a mammal; we've got that in common. I should be able to figure out their language easier than all those weird clicks and chirps the bugs do. They've got to be more understanding than insects if I can get them not to fear me. I haven't hurt them, so no bad blood, right? Wouldn't it be great if I could make friends with them?"
Another lightning strike outside lit up her surroundings, followed by another deafening crash of thunder. At least the rain seemed to be coming straight down without any wind. She'd take her small blessings.
"Not to belittle you and Pinkie; I could really use someone who can talk back to me," she continued. "I miss a good conversation."
She grabbed a previously burnt stick and walked over to the wall in order to add another mark. After adding the tally, she dropped the stick, then began counting marks.
"Four hundred and nine. That's a lot of marks!" she exclaimed. "That's not even counting when I go away for a few days looking for anypony else. The real number might be twice that. Luna, don't you think it's about time you ended this?"
She looked over at the broken face and saw no change in it. She hung her head and then turned back to the downpour outside. "I mean—I know I screwed up. I tried to take over Equestria, and you guys sent me to Tartarus. I tried again, and you turned me into stone. You set me free to give me a chance, and I blew it, and back to stone. We went through that song and dance at least a dozen times. I know after all of that it has to be hard to believe me, but I'll be good from now on. Just tell me this is all a bad dream you've been using to teach me a lesson. I don't want to be here anymore. Luna, are you listening to me?"
More thunder and lightning came, further off in the distance now. The storm must have been moving, even if the rain was still coming down hard. She walked over to the entrance to lie down and watch the rain fall on the cliffside below.
"I wonder whatever happened to Tirek and Chrysalis. I remember the day I woke up, and Tirek wasn't there anymore. You guys never told me how he reformed and what he did with his freedom. Chrysalis and I were by ourselves for a while, and then finally just me the last two times. Isn't that sad? The magic eating glutton and the queen bug reformed, but not me? Is there something wrong with me, deep inside? Is that why I'm here now?"
Rainwater collected together and formed little streams going down the cliff, and she watched. How much of Canterlot had been weathered away by those rains before she finally woke up here? How many eons had she spent as a statue before the magic had eventually faded away? Why couldn't she have just reformed in one of her many, many chances?
She laid her head down in her forelegs and cried. "I'm so sorry! Just please… make this all go away! I'm ready to be friends for real this time!"
No answer and no reprieve came—just the sound of distant thunder and the fall of the rain against the mountain. Cozy Glow continued to stare off into the distance over her kingdom, as the most powerful pony in Equestria.
