Cosy Glow’s room located inside of Grogar’s lair wasn’t the cleanest nor the most well-kept child’s bedroom in all of Equestria, yet it certainly was organized enough for her standards as she was entering the room that evening after finishing dinner with the former prince of the off-monster lands and former queen of the changelings, once again the old powerful goat was out on another solo business trip. Chrissy was right about creating another plan to soon betray Grogar those several moons ago as otherwise she too would be driven mad by waiting alone. Being prisoner in Tartarus was one thing when she was just waiting for the right moment to escape with a plan in mind with all the time in the world to plan or even back in Twilight’s school when she was just living in the moment with thoughts of her conquest ever present in the back of her mind.
Yet now she and her power house of allies were still in the wait; Chrissy planting the rumors while Tirek searched over the book about Grogar’s bell stole from the secret wing from Cantorlot archives, Cosy simply organized the plan in the back of her mind while she was the one to distract Grogar during the few times he was around. It was not hard at all really, just a question here and a compliment there. She was a natural after all in this field, but it certainly was not as fun as Chrysalis’s or Tirek’s jobs.
How long has it been since she read a good book anyway?
Cosy made it up to her seemingly cluttered desk as she moved a few papers around in no real order. At the corner of her eye, a piece of paper was under a stack of old notes she made during her first few days here. She moved the stack of documents to grab the crumbled paper, laying it flat on her desk. She scrunched up her nose upon seeing what it was.
A drawing of a light salmon unicorn with a blond mane and red eyes next to a darker shade of Pegasus foal with light blue curly hair. The older pony had a chart with arrow pointing up upon a notebook. The younger pony didn’t have a cutie mark yet in this drawing as she smiled without a seeming care in the world.
Cosy sighs as she flattens the picture more with her hoof to see more crayon markings of curd word labeling the age, she drew the drawing at three years of age.
She huffed as she began to let her mind wonder of a different life; before the cave and Tartarus, before Twilight’s school…
Before Cosy Glow.
....
....
....
Gossamer Chart was a simple mare. A business pony that was manager of the Orange company in Manehattan. She was the expert of nearly every subject to do with statistics and marketing tack; she was already in charge of lower staff members and was expected to be vice president before her twenty-fifth birthday.
She went home to an empty apartment late in the evening and cleaned it only on her day’s off. Chart couldn’t see the point in having the place other than to sleep in. The place didn’t have a bedroom, or rather didn’t have room for a bed to begin with as the only room in the apartment outside of the bathroom was full of boxes of documents and an old wooden desk gifted to her by her late grandmother before she moved out. Chart did not have nor really know of any other family outside of her grandmother so no letters to family get togethers in the mail or unexpected warm visits with talks of how the family is doing.
She didn’t really have a social life either, so her co-workers and lower employees would say. Chart really didn’t see the point in anything but doing her job most days after all. No point in trying to, as they say, settle down with somepony or just have fun with friends at a club; She just didn’t see the point of such ponies in her life. Not even a lonely pet cat to brush and cuddle, she was allergic anyway.
With all that in mind, no pony, wither in the office nor at the coffee shop she visited every morning before work, saw how she became pregnant seemingly one day out of the clear blue. Only Celestia knew for sure as they saw her belly slow grow bigger each month with her random vomiting in the mare washroom or emotional outburst never seen before by the stagnate pony.
Maybe she did go to a bar once or even somehow spend time with one of the employees during an office party and just ended up spending the whole night with them in some shady hotel room after getting too drunk to notice what was happening.
Regardless how it happened, ten months later she had to be rushed to the hospital when her secretary at the time after getting her lunch, with her clutch her chest surrounds by her unrein. That night, Gossamer Chart gave birth to a Pegasus girl with a tiny blue mane and red eyes that matched her mother’s.
Rook Piece was the bane of Chart’s life after the filly was born. The crying alone kept the already drained unicorn awake during long work nights. And boy did this leech ate up her grocery bills with food, diapers, and bottles!
Chart didn’t have a crib, a highchair, nothing when she arrived back to her apartment as soon as she was released. She just keeping putting such things off for her work, she just didn’t want to think about the thing growing inside of her all those months.
Why didn’t she just take some time out of her day earlier in the year to nip this thing in the bud before it started to fester? Heck she wanted to leave it at the hospital, but the nurses and surprising visits from her co-workers were ever present! It was her secretary, Note-something earth pony, who decided to name the darn thing and stated that Chart was blessed with such a beautiful filly.
Oh, sweet Celestia, give her a break!
Chart decided on that first day back in her apartment to work out such details later for caring for it as she cleared out one of her boxes then plopping both a nearby pillow and it before going back to filing over the documents, she had to make up from her days out of the office, allowing the noise of the brat shouting its head off as she flipped on her portal radio to her favorite classical station.
“Mommy! Mommy!” a tiny filly of age three came running in from her half bedroom with a picture in her mouth towards her mother. The older pony was on her couch bed with her messy mane in a bun like it was on her days off looking over some orange paper with her glasses near sliding off her face from leaning down into her table tray.
“Look at the picture I made Mommy!” the child held it up with her hooves at her mother’s unflinching face that was still not looking at her, “It’s you and me at the park! Can we go to the park?” The mare continued to look over her work as the filly kept babbling on about swings and the slide that she saw during her afternoon walks with her new babysitter Rattle Dash. Rook loved visiting the park with her sitter whenever they could, but she really wanted to go with her mommy just this once. Rattle told her she been a good girl after all!
“Please, on pretty please can we go to the park?” Finally, to the filly’s joy, her mother looked away from the boring papers.
“Rook Piece please,” she spoke in her usual flat tone of voice, “I’m in the process of archiving prominence documentation of this hitherto quarter’s assembly of the personnel departments dealings of the extraction sector. I have not a twinkling of a day to part take in trifling recreation.”
The filly just stared up at her as the older pony went back to work on her papers. The young one’s ears flopped down as she tried not to cry. She slowly turned back around and went inside and closed the door. She walked past several large stacked boxes to a blanket off wall. She pulled back the curtain and closed it up right so her mommy wouldn’t be mad.
Her half room had large pillow at the wall with a worn blanket. Her toy chest was small enough for her toy rabbit, her coloring book, and crayons she got from previous babysitters on her birthdays. Her pulled up her little stool and sat down right in front of her toy chest; she got that chest from that nice lady that sometimes visits mommy with stacks of more boring papers and mommy drinks. She liked it when Cosy Note came. When she did, she said her drawings were the prettiest in the whole world. Too bad she hadn’t been around that much as of late. Too busy at work, her mommy said; It was one of the few things’ mommy said that she understood.
Rook allowed her tears to fall now that she was alone as she taped up her pretty drawing and laid with her face head down looking up at the picture. The window high above showed a pretty blue sky with only a few clouds, just like in her drawing.
School was a funny place to be. Every pony was laughing and playing with each other and around Rook. She didn’t know what to make of the place when Pencil Pusher, her mommy’s new assistant, dropped her off. Pencil Pusher told her to have fun as she gave her the lunch that she packed her along with an apple for the teacher.
Rook walked in with expectations of great proportions, at least that’s what Pencil said to expect for kindergarten last week. The young pink filly looked up at the purple Pegasus with blue bright hair and a large smile with a crayon red, yellow, and blue set. The mare walked up to the board.
“Alright every pony, settle down now.” The mare waited for every foal to sit down at one of the circle tables in the front. Rook sat at one that already had a yellow unicorn filly and green earth pony colt.
“Now than,” she smiled as she wrote some words on the board, “I’m Miss. Ever Glow; I’m your new Kindergarten teacher. We are going to have so much fun this year! Before we get started, go ahead and meet the other foals around your table. Meet your classmates and make some new friends!”
Looking around her table, she introduced herself and got to know both the filly as Sunny Dias and the colt whose name was Ray Bright. After a bit of time to speak with each pony at the table, the teacher had each of them introduce someone else at their table and then class officially started with Miss. Ever Glow talking about what they all would be doing each day and so on.
The rest of the day was fun in Rook’s opinion though a bit slow. While every pony else was having difficulty just sounding out the first letters of the alphabet, Rook went through the whole set without a stutter in her tone. The teacher was very impressed, and Rook Piece was even proud of herself, she learned at age three just for mommy after all. Rook was even the first foal to successfully write out a long sentence on the board while every pony else only wrote things like ‘Cats are nice’, she wrote out ‘My favorite thing to do is to color with my favorite crayons then show them to my mommy when she gets home from the office.’ Once again, Miss. Ever Glow was impressed.
For some reason though, the other foals didn’t feel so good after Rook did that. They didn’t even like it when later, during math time, when Rook could count to twenty-nine before Miss. Every Glow told her in a calm voice that she did a good job but to give another student also a chance to go.
They also didn’t play with her during play time for some reason as they did with each other. Rook thought that maybe they didn’t know what to think about her knowledge and decided to just read for the day instead, even though the books in the bookshelf were too short and a little dry in storytelling. Even Sunny Dias and Ray Bright didn’t ask her to help with their tower even though they were table buddies like the teacher explained at the start of class.
Still, it was a good day to be with other foals her age, so she didn’t mind and didn’t bother to ask when Pencil Pusher picked her up in the afternoon after naptime.
As the days moved on though, Rook Piece realized with shock that her classmates were avoiding her! Why would they do such a thing?! Just because she was smart or something?
Rook Piece went to Miss. Ever Glow about it during outside playtime so that she could ask her alone. The teacher suggested being nice to them first, that she needed to actively seek out their friendship.
Ok, she decided to do just that and went outside to ask Sunny Dias to play with her and some blue earth pony colt and a light pink pegasus filly at four squares as they needed another player. Yet for some reason, they didn’t say yes right away.
“Well Rook…” Sunny said holding the ball in one of the chalk draw squares looking unsure, “We…umm…”
“Don’t’ know if you know how to play,” the other filly brought up.
“Yea! You never played this game before, right?” Rook was taken aback by this response both mentally and physically.
“Well…no I- “
“Yeah,” the colt said, “So why don’t you…go find a game you can play!” the other agreed and just before Rook could argue, some yellow unicorn colt came up and asked to join in. To Rook’s own dishearten expression, they didn’t even flinch as they soon played as if Rook wasn’t there first.
Rook just walked away with her face towards the ground. They didn’t even ask if he knew how to play. Did they just…
No, maybe they all just knew each other better. Yeah, that must have been it.
Rook piece breath in and out, walking around the playground to search for a different game to join in.
Yet each time felt the same; each gave off a different reason or another then just let another foal play with them as if Rook didn’t ask first. Rook felt that unnerving feeling grow with each rejection as she tried not to let herself get worked up about it.
She soon found herself near the grass area just lying on the ground picking yellow weeds one by one till the bell ringed. Miss. Ever Glow wasn’t watching every pony outside, as there was an older foal doing that from one of the higher up grades, so she didn’t even seem mad at any of her classmates for dismissing Rook from playing with them.
Rook wanted to bring it up, even after it was the end of the day with Pencil picking her up, but just didn’t. She tired but the clenching in the back of her throat pulled her back from doing so.
Rook Piece wanted to talk to her mommy about what was going on at school, but she was busy with work almost all week now. She got a promotion recently, so she was always busy getting paperwork done at the office. She hired baby-sitter after babysitter but at some point, Rook Piece had been left alone all night once. That was really scary when mommy’s new assistant Ink Board dropped her off and just let her inside only to then turn back around to head back to the office, Rook didn’t think she liked him very much. She ended up eating some left-over pizza and colored in the dark next to her night light because it was too high up for her to reach the light switch.
The next day mommy came home telling her she stuck and looked a messy while Rook was just thankful that a grown up was there to help her. Yet her mommy didn’t do that and just told her that she’s old enough to take her own bath. Rook didn’t know how to start the water though and couldn’t get her toothbrush from the bathroom mirror. Still, she did what she was told and tried to give herself a bath.
When she nearly flooded the bathroom, mommy grounded her to spend the rest of that Saturday in her room. Rook Piece cried into her pillow bed.
Weeks passed on in a blur. Rook Piece went to school with a fake smile for Miss. Ever Glow but said nothing to any pony else. She still did her work, there was no point in not doing so and just sat alone each playtime.
At home, she left mommy alone. She stopped asking for a good night kiss or even tried to show her a picture anymore, they weren’t really that pretty.
One day however, during outside playtime, Miss. Ever Glow asked to speak with her. Rook sat down with a small smile on her face but this time, the teacher wasn’t smiling back.
“Rook, is something wrong sweetie?” she asked in a sadden tone.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“Maybe I should have came to you earlier, but you don’t seem to be having a good time in school as of late,” she walked in front of her desk, “You have been making friends, right?” Rook didn’t say anything as the floor looked more interesting than her teacher’s face. The mare sigh and kneed down to Rook’s level.
“Why haven’t you been saying anything about it?” Rook said nothing still as the teacher sighed once more.
“I’ll speak to the class about it before reading and naptime today ok? I’ll let you sit in the hallway if you like.” Rook bite her lip but just nodded in response.
So, when the class was getting a lecture about manners and being kind to your fellow ponies, Rook just sat in the hallway looking around at all the close classrooms with their own lessons going on.
Not too long after, Miss. Ever Glow let Rook back inside. Rook walked back in to see conflicted faces of both anger and just some that didn’t want to look in her direction.
Rook realized that letting Miss. Ever Glow silently know what was going on was a mistake. Never again inside the classroom did they outright exclude her as they begrudgingly allowed her to play with them and during outside playtime where they were now watch by the playground monitor but Rook saw their hurt faces and begrudging tones.
They still didn’t like her, they just dealt with her.
Yet they certainly weren’t silence for long, or rather their parents weren’t. She overheard many of her classmates talk, talk about telling their mommies and daddies. Then about them talking with Miss. Ever Glow.
It was hurting her and Miss. Ever Glow, all of this was.
Then one day, Rook Piece walked into see another pony sitting in Miss. Ever Glow’s desk! She told the class that she was the new teacher as Miss. Ever Glow had been let go!
Everyone was upset, Miss. Ever Glow was nice! Yet the school must have thought otherwise as this new teacher, Mrs. Raspy Rain was everything that Miss. Ever Glow was not.
She didn’t let anyone have any more special inside playtime. Everyone was upset at first but then, when Rook Piece was telling her the correct answer to a math question, Miss. Raspy yelled at her!
“I will not have smart mouths in my classroom!” Then told Rook Piece to sit quietly in the corner for the rest of the lesson. Every pony else in her class smiled and giggled at Rook’s heart breaking.
She was left alone during outside playtime again, only now ever pony was being rude about it.
“You’re such a know it all!”
“Stop being so weird!”
“Know it all Rook Pee…!”
That last one became her new nick name from every one of her classmates. The moment she started to cry, everyone called her a cry baby and Mrs. Raspy told her to grow up.
Since then, Rook Piece hated going to school.
No pony noticed all that much when Rook stopped going to school. Ink Board may have dropped her off, but Rook never went inside. She would end up running of as soon as every pony was inside the school when the bells ringed.
She walked around Manehatten for hours, no pony seemed to notice her as she made sure to stay mostly out of sight. The city was so huge! Why hadn’t she see seen how big it was before?
Still, she was hungry. It was a good thing she always had a packed lunch and just ate her snack later. She made sure to be right by the school when Ink was supposed to pick her up. He didn’t ask questions as usual as the walk home was silence as always.
Rook Piece laughed as soon as he was gone. Boy why didn’t she do this sooner?! Freedom from adults nagging at her was amazing!
Since that day for months to follow, Rook just took off towards the city and played in the park or just walked around for hours.
Then when mommy told her that Ink Board was being transformed, Rook was nervous that she would get another pony to just ask her stupid questions about her day again. Only to then be greeted with a key by her mommy telling her that she was old enough to go to and from school on her own! What a relief! She had grown taller during this time that she could reach the doors now as well as the light switches if she stretched enough so that was no longer a problem!
When Rook turned six, mommy got a new job. She got a new job offer to be president at another company and she had to move to the other side of Manehatten. Rook Piece wasn’t in the least upset over the move itself.
Mommy did somehow find out about her walking around the city alone though! Yet she wasn’t mad, outside of few times in her life Rook hadn’t seen her be emotional, she just had her start home schooling instead.
“Primary public schooling is a waste of time anyway. It would be more effusion for you to learn at a higher level on your own time.”
Rook Piece found homeschool to be more at her speed as she exceled in her classes that she was even given more difficult work in the mail. She only saw other foals during tests and exams at the located buildings, even then she never spoke to them as they went about their tests in silence.
During her free time, Rook Piece found herself attending the local library. Since re-discovering her love of learning, she set down the crayons for good and picked up reading literature and philosophy of the masters. Hours passed on in her new bedroom.
No longer a half room for her dwelling, she now had her own whole room and a new bed of her own. Her mommy’s salary had tripled what it once was as she just bought Rook Piece only the basics for her bedroom that also include a desk.
She was going to turn seven in a few months when it happened. She was in the library as usual in the adult section now that she read all the children’s’ books without much struggle alone in her own private reading chair when she heard the crashing and felt the shaking around her.
Earthquake?
Rook Piece question when she saw a library aid rush by her several feet from her. Rook Piece got up and took her book with her to follow the young mare. She rushed pasted the book wall shelves when she saw a crowd of ponies gathered in the back huddled together. The aid spotted her and gestures to walk towards her with shaking hooves.
Confused, Rook Piece did just that as all the grown ponies around her quivered in fear. Then the aid asked in her a nervous tone of voice to please go hide somewhere! The aid, rushing Rook to a nearby door, quickly explained that Equestria was in a state of emergency. Rook didn’t get the chance to ask what was going on before they reached the door. The mare opened the door to a small closet of some sort and told her to close the door without locking it before running off to hide herself. Rook Piece, barely even getting the chance to response to all this chaos around her, decided to be safe than sorry as she closed the door enough to still leave it ajar. For several minutes, the young filly watched as several ponies went into hiding in random locations throughout the library.
Then it happened in an instant.
Rook’s month dropped open as she saw a giant creature smashing threw the walls of the entryway like paper! It was a large being that had pony feet but also had some sort of elongated upright body that had strange looking hooves connected that had smaller appendages on each hoof. The filly looked up at his red body and face, his head was covered to the sides and back with black fur and he had long grey horns on top of his head. He stomped around the building scaring every pony in sight as they screamed trying to run away from the being!
Rook Piece then saw another creature was with him. Rook only knew this creature was Discord, the Lord of Chaos, from newspapers from a year ago and when he created city wide panic when he was released from his stone prison. She though the Elements of Harmony reformed him but apparently not as he was helping the larger creature gather up ponies. She watched with wider eyes as the larger creature, whom she heard the Lord of Chaos refer to him as Lord Tirek, drain the life forces of the ponies’ magic!
She continued to watch in amazement as soon Lord Tirek completed his magic drain and grew even larger than before! Rook remained firmly behind the door as the duo then left the library soon after. She slowly walked out of hiding along with a few others that too weren’t caught. She didn’t walk over to the ponies on the floor crying out in pain, nor did she dash over to the still healthy ponies to know what to do next.
No, Rook Piece walked up to the torn-out entryway of the library and stared wided eyed at the duo, who’s backs where facing her from a distance, as Lord Tirek stomped off into the rest of Manehattan.
She found out by paper that he was soon drained of pony magic and sent back to Tartarus. Rook Piece huffed at that as she set the paper aside on her desk. Since that day she witnessed up close of Lord Tirek’s powers, she had to admit that she was fascinated by his feds.
He was so, powerful.
She didn’t know why such power drew her to learn more about him, but she dived into every book that she could get her tiny hooves on; only to find very little information on him as the books ironically speak of him as a legend. Rook would most likely have to wait for updated entries to be published soon enough but the information she did find would have to do for now.
In her research of the being known as Lord Tirek, she found only a story of him being a centaur and that he traveled to a young Equestria with his brother Scorpan looking to conquer the land of ponies. Yet his brother instead ended up creating a friendship with the ponies along with famously known unicorn wizard Starswirl the Bearded. It was this friendship that changed his mind and begged his older brother return home with him but Tirek refused. It was Scorpan who went to the princesses and asked for help. In turn, they sealed Tirek in Tartarus with Scorpan leaving Equestria forever after. Judging by the esteemed date of this event, this took place about a thousand years prior.
Rook Piece was both impressed with Tirek’s long life span and disappointment in his careless brother that betrayed him in favor of strangers. It made Rook Piece think to be sure but there was nothing more to be done at this moment in time as she decided to simply continue with her studies.
More time passed, Rook Piece grew more intellectual with her studies and remained recluse from the rest of ponies her age, save for testing dates of course. Meanwhile, her own mother continued her own work and was rarely ever home anymore. Yet Rook didn’t mind all that much, it has been a long time since she really cared for her mother’s presence.
Instead, she continued her own work during her own time and thought nothing of it.
It had been three months since she last saw her mother when the police arrived at her home that one spring morning. Rook Piece hardly noticed though, she took to learn how to order pony services that brought groceries to the home long ago and she had her normal solitary routine so engraved in her mindset that she was surprised at the sight of the police ponies arriving that day. Apparently, her mother had moved to another city and forgot to bring Rook Piece with her over two months ago.
Of course, this didn’t really phase Rook Piece, to the strange confusion of the police at the sight of this eight-year-old just being calm and even slightly annoyed by this intrusion into her home.
Only when they told her that she had to leave and move into some foster home did she show any emotion, pure outrage. They literally had to drag her out of the apartment with her kicking and fighting them. Of course, she tried to explain to them as they were inspecting the apartment that she was perfectly fine living on her own and that she will take care of everything by herself. That didn’t fly with the police as they simply took her words with a grain of salt as they forced her into the colored carriage outside. She didn’t care that others were surrounding the carriage giving her looks mixture between pity and bewilderment, she had her life literally being torn from under her feet and she couldn’t do a thing about it as it!
She felt herself being hoof cuffed of all things too! She cried out how insulted she was as the carriage rushed out of sight of her street address.
That was the last time she saw her apartment.
Her new living arrangement was completely unacceptable. She tried speaking to the head of the household of this matter but was talked down to! The mare’s name, Peach something, told her in a sicken sweet tone of voice that she was in a better place now and that she will soon love it here once she got used to the place. Yet Rook Piece just felt insulted and decided it was a lost cause to speak to the mare anymore.
The other foals in the home were simply boorish; The ones that roomed with her kept her up with their snoring and cessative mumbling, the colts that were only a few years younger than her kept stealing her toast and eggs at breakfast, the older fillies told her to shut up when she was complaining about their manners, and even the foals that didn’t directly invade her space just kept hogging the bathroom when she had to use it in the mornings!
Oh of course, as if life couldn’t get much worse, she had to start attending public school again! The educational system hasn’t seemed to change much since she last saw it, her fellow students droned on and on about mudang activities such as trips to the comic shop or some sport of other. She tones out their drib and tried to focus on her studies.
Thankfully, the teachers were much more intelligent than when she was younger and had to move into the honor classes right away. She was graced with silent from the dribbled of the lower minded peers of her age group. Yet the gratefulness didn’t remain as the other peers of her classes seemed almost too intelligent for Rook Piece to keep up! They spoke of private tutors and attending magic lectures in Cantorlot! Rook Piece felt it was soon best to remain silent in every shape and form, it was best to simply do her work in peace.
Her salvation came in the form of an assignment by the whole school. The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, requested primary school to take up the social lettering system known best simply as pen pals.
At first, she thought this too was dribble, she didn’t care to speak to some random pony on a week to week bases about her life when there was so little, she rather thinks about herself.
What happened next came to her in the form of mistake, a miscalculation in the mail system perhaps? A conspiracy by the princesses? Or was it just a mail mare placing the wrong names into the wrong paperwork.
Somehow, someway, shape or form; Rook Piece saw it as a blessing in disguise when she found the mail address of Tartarus on fall morning on her desk as the teacher was passing out, not really paying attention to the addresses themselves, as she told her students that this was the pony the school chosen for them to write to. Of course, any other foal her age would have question it right away, maybe the matter would have soon been addressed instantly and that would have been that.
Maybe certain other events later down the line would have never taken place if this one fortuitus didn’t subtle onto Rook Piece’s desk that fateful day.
Yet this wasn’t some random filly or colt, this was Rook Piece. The young blue curly mane filly looked at the addressed with wide eyes and a small smile upon her face.
Dear Lord Tirek,
I was gifted your addressed for my school wide project of communicating threw peer interaction, a pen pal if you will. I know that such trivial communication is process drivel for intellectual beings such as you and me, yet I believe speaking with you would be beneficial for a creature such as myself in the long run.
You may not prefer in perusing in keeping contact with a filly such as myself, yet I do implore you; I have a desire to learn more about what it takes.
Sincerely,
A Filly with a Rook Piece Cutie Mark
To Filly with some Mark on her Flank,
First off, I would like to state that you are certainly a strange sort to write to me period; such an action would normally be conceived as the mark of an insane being (which you may be).
I should just toss this letter you send me into the lava below.
Yet, when it comes to living in Tartus: you tend to grow bored.
You seem to have at least some brains within that skull of yours, though this could be just a trick created by the Princesses to see if I have any plans to escape my imprisonment. Regardless, I desire to have some form of active hobby.
Do not make me regard this,
Lord Tirek
Dear Tirek,
If one where to deal with irritating from certain foals with IQ that are dangerously low that sea faring creatures would see them upon the forest floor: What response she would enact if they so happen to be near my breathing space during my reading?
On another note, are you interest in a game of Algebraic Chess Notation? If so, I call the white side.
Move D4
Your Filly Pen Pal
Dear FPP,
To deal with the riffraff of daily monotony is pointless, they are but weak insects that died too quickly for any sane being to care. That being said, try either punching their little lights out if they get too close or move your own being to a secluded area to concentrate. The former will create either instant isolations from these pests or create more waste of time dealing with them as they may want to calm their lost dominance. I would personality not even bother interacting with them myself and go seek a more private place to relax.
Your idea of chess is amusing of a mind game, enough that I will partake.
Move C6
Lord Tirek
P.S: That is Lord Tirek to you missy.
Time moved forward; Rook Piece took to her letter writing with Tirek on a nearby-weekly basis. Living at that one location was thankfully limited as she was placed in another household when a pair of ponies were looking for a foal to look after. At first, Rook Piece didn’t think much of this pair of ponies, they even left soon enough with one of the colts that was slightly younger than her and that seemed to be that.
They returned soon after with that same foal asking for a much less… needy pony. It did through off the head of the house along with the other foals but this… sounded promising.
It didn’t’ take long for her to volunteer, with the helpful encouragement from the other foals as they couldn’t stand her presences anymore than she did with theirs, seemed to have the couple’s eyes set on Rook.
The head of the house needed some convincing, looking quite unsure and even a little distressed, but Rook Piece converted her with a cute smile and large eyes that usually got the younger ones they’re way. That seems to have done the trick, yet she still told Rook Piece that if she didn’t like it there that she would have them return her as soon as possible. Rook Piece nodded but was in deep though when the head of the household was signing documents with the couple in her office.
To her relief, she was pleased to learn that her suppositions have been correct: the couple only wanted her for the government support but mostly just to look good in front of their community. She was still given food money and a key to the apartment but otherwise, she was told that she was on her own. It was pleasing to hear this news to say the least.
Since then, she does still have to attend school, a different one than before as she now lived in a different distrait, yet she decided that this was a good idea. This would be a golden opportunity after all.
After some speculation upon her past actions, though she still agreed that she could care less for the credence that were around her, she would play the part of the innocent and work her way around the system in that way. If she plays too smart, they will sooner notice her correspondence with a certain centaur.
Another changed occurred by her own choice: that she needed a new name for this persona she invented. Even by this point in their writing to one another, Lord Tirek had recently requested for her name to enclosed within the next letter. Now to come up with the name itself took some time but she allowed her mind to wander back to before: before the letters and the foster homes, even before homeschooling when she was just a little thing.
She smiled a wide smirk as she picked up a pencil.
Dear Tirek,
I have recently started that new school within my home city and find the experience for be surprising delightful; masking myself as an innocent wide eyed has allowed my own wonderings to not be bothered with schooling itself. Now I have much more free time on hoof to pursue the simple pleasures in life, I returned to the library that I so longed missed. Has it only been five months since I last seen these shelves of knowledge?
In request upon new happenings that have been going on, I found within the newspapers about a royal birth has happened in the Crystal Empire. You wouldn’t believe it; it’s an alicorn princess. What are the odds am I right?! Princess Flurry Heart seems to be her name, no idea where in Equestira Princess Lovesick and her dippy husband came up with that one.
Regardless, I have enclosed my name within the letter as you requested.
Move Nxd7
Your Pen Pal,
Cosy Glow
Author's Note
I written this story two years ago around the time of the series finale and planned to write up until the time looped back to the start. However, life became complicated once Covid-19 and the final year of college came around, so I never found the time to complete this and forgot about it. Last night however, I had the random need to look threw my old files and found this gem. I realized that, while it didn't end the way I wanted it, as it left it more opened ended as to how she got to the school and her cutie mark, I was more than happy about the way it turned out. So I'm posting what I did complete and hope you all enjoy. Please remember to leave feedback and I hope you all are having a wonderful day.
