"You all get some rest. Don't give it another thought..."
The bubble-gum pink pegasus filly trotted lightly around the slumbering students. The pony, griffon, hippogriff, changeling, yak, and dragon, all lying in a loose grouping on the library floor, exhausted from their adventures in the caverns below.
"Just let Cozy take care of everything..."
Cozy Glow smiled, as she gazed down through the brass grating in the floor. The unassuming brass grating, with its curling, branch-like design. Through it, she could see the faint, pulsing gleam of magic, in the darkness far below.
The Tree of Harmony. It's down there, the students said...
She giggled.
Well, golly! What am I doing, standing around up here?
With a struggle, she managed to lever up the heavy grate. Then she slipped quickly beneath it, struggling to lower it gently shut behind her. Then she trotted down the spiraling crystal branch below, down and around and down, to the floor of the cavern hidden underneath the library.
Cozy peered about in the dim, pulsating light, looking down the shadowy tunnels that led away in every direction. The cavern and tunnels were lit by angular veins of crystal, snaking across the stone walls and ceilings in random, root-like patterns, glowing with magic.
Briefly, Cozy was nervous. She wasn't sure what to do. And down here, there were no other ponies she could appeal to, wide-eyed and helpless, for assistance... and thereby getting them to do whatever she wanted them to do.
As usual she got a grip on herself, and took charge.
"Hi!" She called out brightly into the gloom. "I'm Cozy Glow! And I'd really like to talk to the Tree of Harmony, if it's down here somewhere. Gee whiz, I just know we'd have lots and lots of stuff to talk about..."
Apart from the echoes, there was no response.
Frowning, Cozy trotted over to the nearest of the tunnels. She peered along it, as far as she could see before it twisted away out of sight.
"Hello?" she demanded, a trifle louder and sterner. "Anypony there?"
Getting no answer, she shrugged. And then simply began trotting down the tunnel. It was as good as any other, after all. And she wasn't worried about getting lost, not at all. Somehow she'd never had a problem keeping track of things, least of all where she was, and what to do next...
... even though she couldn't have said from moment to moment where in Equestria she was headed at all.
Coming to an archway, she peered through it. Below she saw a domed room, with crystalline columns supporting its roof. It was otherwise empty, dark and silent. Yet there was something about it, a tingle in the air, a prickling of the spine, that said it wanted looking into.
It was just like whenever an opportunity came Cozy's way. Like the time Cozy had heard about Princess Twilight's School of Friendship starting up, and was just in time to finagle her way into one of the open slots in the initial class. Or whenever Cozy heard about some pony needing help. Like the time the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to get into School of Friendship, and Cozy let them "help" her with her studies, thus earning them their roles as tutors for the School... and their undying gratitude.
Then, as now, Cozy had a hunch: a hazy certainty of her best next move. And she'd learned to follow those hunches, unreservedly. They didn't always seem important, sometimes didn't even make sense right in the moment...
But oh my gosh! Don't they just pay off big later, huh?
Just thinking about that gave Cozy a warm, comforting sensation, as she sought out a side passage that curved down, around, and down, and finally led out through an arch onto the stone floor of the chamber.
Before her, in the center of the room between the crystalline columns, there was a carving on the floor. It was a magic circle, an intricate pattern of lines and arcs and symbols, chiseled into the flat stone surface. The circle's lines were bare and empty, cold and dead.
That is, until Cozy incautiously put a hoof onto its outer rim.
With a thrum of power, an inrush of chill wind, the circle came alight, its arcs and lines glowing with energy... but weakly, fitfully, as if drawing on a last, fading reserve.
Cozy backed off a step, then stood watching, ready to turn and run. For the moment, the circle was simply glowing. Nothing else was happening, as far as she could see. "Gee, isn't that something..." she said to herself, mostly to bolster her courage. "I wonder what it's here for?"
"Well, golly! Isn't the question really what you're here for?"
Cozy whirled -- and stared.
It was her: the same bubble-gum pink coat, the same pale blue locks and yellow mane-ribbon, the same puny wings. Even the same freckles. It was Cozy Glow herself... right down to the look in her eyes, the sweet, doe-eyed, helpful look she presented to other ponies whenever she felt they needed her help... to do what she wanted them to do.
"I mean..." this other Cozy said, coyly, "you obviously came down here looking for something..."
"The Tree of Harmony," Cozy said, attempting to sound confident. "Which doesn't seem to be around here anyplace. The students were just down here, and they said they talked to it."
"Oh boy, they sure did!" The image giggled. "And it told them just what they wanted to hear: that friendship was in their nature -- despite them not even being ponies..."
"Um..." Cozy winced. "I was sorry I said that to them, when I'd heard what they'd been through, and it all being my fault for doubting them. But, wait a second, how do you know..." Cozy stared at her image. "Are you the Tree, talking to me right now?"
"Nope! Fraid not!" The image shook its head. "There's nothing down here but what you bring yourself. After all, you can't rely on anypony else to tell you what to do... right?"
"Well..." Cozy grimaced. "It would be kind of nice to be able to, now and again. Not having to figure it all out by myself, all the time. It's so hard, sometimes! And no matter how much I do, no matter how much I plan, no matter how many hunches I follow... it never seems to get any easier."
"Yeah, well." The other shrugged. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but... it's never gonna get any easier. Not if you keep going the way you're going..."
"What do you mean?" Cozy stamped a hoof. "I always do what I need to do! I can just tell. Everything I do is the right move to make."
"Yeah, but with no idea why!" the image stalked forward to stand snout to snout with her, making Cozy edge back uncertainly. "You're all tactics, no strategy! So it doesn't mean anything. You're always perfectly prepared... and have no chance of actually ever actually winning, because you don't have the first clue how to win!"
"Win? Win what?"
"Oh for the love of..." The image facehoofed, her teeth gritted, her eyes glaring. Then her look turned crafty. "How long have you been at this?" she said sweetly. "How old are you?"
"Um... I don't really know. I think four... five, maybe?"
The image grinned, coldly. "Try fourty... or fifty... maybe even a hundred or more. Time kind of blurs after a while, doesn't it?"
"Huh?" Cozy stared. "But that doesn't make sense! I'm just a little filly!"
The image stared at her. And then shrieked with laughter.
"Well, of course you are! Because, dumbbell, you're unable to grow old!"
Cozy's mouth fell open. "But... " she objected. "No, that's not true. Like I said, I'm a filly. I'm six, tops!"
"On the outside," the image persisted. "But inside... you're a full-grown mare. With a full-grown mare's knowledge, a full-grown mare's skills... and a full-grown mare's ambition. And only a tiny little filly body to express all that with." She tilted her head in mock sympathy. "Is it any wonder you can barely remember your own name, sometimes? If you never have enough rope, is it any surprise you can't ever make ends meet?"
Cozy thought back to all the times she'd felt like she'd forgotten something important, only to recall it later -- while immediately forgetting something else. It was like juggling eggs, endlessly, helplessly, her whole entire life, as far back as she could recall...
"You mean... all this time... all the time I was on the road..."
The other nodded. "Moving on, from village to village. Town to town. Staying just long enough, then moving on when you sensed it was time. Never staying in any one place for too long, because sooner or later ponies start to wonder about the little filly who never grows older. Who's wise beyond her years. Who keeps winding up with her hooves stuck into everything. Who would be running the place, if she could only turn her mind to it."
"But... why haven't I noticed this before?"
"Because you've never had the space to think it all out before." The image grinned. "Never had the room to notice all the deadweight lumber cluttering up your thoughts!" She grinned. "But now you do. There's power here, in this circle -- it's attuned to your thoughts, giving you the extra room you need to really take a look at yourself. To decide what to keep... and what to sacrifice. So when you walk out of here, you'll be the kind of pony who can actually do something with all those skills, all that experience... and all that ambition."
"Like what?"
"Well..." the other Cozy grinned evilly. "What about taking over the School, for a start?"
"The School of Friendship? Are you serious?"
The image eyed her dryly. "Remember who you're talking to. And you could pull it off easy! They'd never suspect a little filly of plotting and scheming against them. Right up to the moment that you drop the hammer on 'em." She looked doubtful for a moment, then paced back and forth thoughtfully. "But... you're not gonna be able to do it alone. You're going to need help for this. Someone with a grudge, experience... and time on their hands..."
She came to a halt. The two of them stared at each other, suddenly thinking the exact same thought:
"Tirek!" they chorused.
"See what I mean?" The image smiled. "Once you have a goal, it all falls into place. You know what to do."
"But..." Cozy shook her head. "Lord Tirek's in Tartarus, imprisoned for his crimes."
"Oh..." The image looked winsomely innocent. "I'm sure a wittle filly wike you could have a look thwough some nasty ol' dark magic textbooks... bleh..." She dropped the act. "... and find a letter teleportation spell you could use to reach him, even in the depths of Tartarus." Then she shrugged. "What've you got to lose? If he's not interested, you find someone else."
"Well..." Cozy bit her lip. "I'm not sure..."
The image glared at her. "Am I hearing right? Wouldn't you like being the pony in charge for once? Not having to coax and persuade and manipulate, all the time? Working behind the scenes, which always takes so much effort that you don't have time for anything else? Being able to just tell ponies what to do... and make them do it?"
Cozy thought about it. And then nodded.
"Oh gosh! You said it!" she said. "That would be just peachy!"
"My thoughts exactly," said the other, nodding proudly in return.
"Okay then," Cozy said eagerly. "What do I do?"
"You?" The other stared at her. "Why would you need to do anything? You're not even real."
"What! What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're this weird image of me that I ran into down here, and..."
"No, that's not right! I came down here, touched the circle, and then you showed up --"
"Ahem... and then you showed up?" the other corrected. "And I was finally able to figure out what it was that was cluttering up my thoughts all this time. Making it impossible to decide what I really wanted to do with my life." Sneering, she gestured with a forehoof. "All this... this sappy need to make friends with other ponies. To be helpful, and kind, and diligent. To be somepony they can count on, to do their bidding." She snorted. "I don't need all that crap! It just gets in the way. You get in the way. And now that I see that, I can make some space for the important stuff..."
"Wait! That can't be right! I'm the pony who came down here, into the cavern! I'm Cozy Glow! The real Cozy Glow!"
"You actually think so?"
Cozy gestured with a hoof at the magic circle... in which her useless, pitiful wasteful image was standing. The image stared down, shocked, at the glowing lines and symbols beneath her hooves.
"No!" the image demanded "You can't do this!" She moved to leap out of the circle... and her hooves struck an invisible wall. Shocked, she slammed her hooves against it, helpless... like the illusion she was.
"You... you can't..."
"Uh huh, yeah. I think we're done here," Cozy turned away from the glowing circle, dismissing it from her thoughts... for now. There'd be uses for an arcane relic like this later on...
"No! NO! NOOOOO --"
The circle's energy died out. And with it, the hated, useless image.
And Cozy Glow, the real Cozy Glow, trotted away up the ramp, grinning smugly to herself. "I'm gonna need power," she mused. "Power to run that magic circle thing." She was enjoying the ability to make plans -- to finally, finally make actual plans, plans with a purpose, and a goal to them. Finally, she was able to look forward... to the endgame.
"I'll need to find some way to collect more magic, power that thing up. Gonna take a lot, maybe..." Her eyes went wide, stunned with the audacity of the idea that had just occurred to her. "Maybe all the power in Equestria! So they'll never be able to use magic to stop me! Oooh, yeah! It's all comin' together! I have to write to Tirek, now! Maybe he'll have some ideas. Oh! This is gonna be so great!"
She chuckled to herself... coldly, triumphantly.
"And they'll never suspect a thing. Not a chance." She pouted, simperingly. "Not with meek, innocent, widdle helpful Cozy Glow awound, doing everything for them..."
Her maniacal chuckling faded away up the long ramp, leaving the domed, columned room dark and empty behind her.
Very dark, and very, very empty. For there'd never been anypony else here at all.
There wasn't room in all of Equestria for more than one Cozy Glow...
Right?
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
