Glowing in Everglow

Diary of Cozy Glow

After the defeat of Prince Swift Blade, the clockwork ponies that followed him were integrated into the population, settling in the lands north of Taralos, abandoned since the Gem Gnoll war. They were viewed with suspicion at first but were soon accepted by most as citizens of Taralos. Taralos knew peace for ten long years. At which point Valentine had served his sentence and released into my care, while Swift Blade remained imprisoned. I didn't know what to think of Valentine, he was a charlatan and a con artist, in that way he reminded me of myself, but more importantly he used to be the leader of the Cult of Chaos, though he had lost control of his cult since abandoning his worship of the Devourer of Nations. Valentine told me that the Cult of Chaos had started out as a group of ponies seeking freedom from the rule of Taralos's monarchs by consorting with proteans, but had later fallen sway to a promise of power by demonic overlords, the Devourer being the most noteworthy. Today it is led by an individual known as the Cardinal. An individual who's true identity was unknown, even to Valentine. Valentine had proven amiable after I told him what the Devourer had planned for Taralos, realizing he had been a fool all along.

For the last decade, after recovering from her wounds after her battle with Cipher, Twilight had continued her obsession with her research to find a way back to Equestria, to no avail. I suggested she should take it easy and build a life for herself here in Taralos like I did. She just replied with:

"I cannot just abandon my friends and my people, not while they might be in danger."

"Danger from who? Midnight?" I asked her.

Twilight just nodded in response. Her voice was melancholic:

"So, you know. Who told you? Sunset? Flurry?"

I told her Aurora was the one who told me. After which I told Twilight that while I could understand her desperation to get back to Equestria. Maybe it was a lost cause, maybe it would be better if we all forgot about Equestria and focused on our new lives here in Taralos. After all, in Equestria I was a convicted felon many would have trouble forgiving. Here I was the heroic Knight Commander, beloved by all. Twilight was a beloved hero here as well, and she did have her niece escape from Midnight, so at least she had some family. Twilight said that all of that while this might work for me, she couldn't just abandon her homeland to the rule of a tyrant. I guess that was understandable, so I just left Twilight alone to focus on her studies.

Tirek and Chrysalis both recovered from their wounds, Chrysalis's secret of being a changeling outed to the palace medical personnel. The King was worried, but I vouched for her, if I deserved a second chance, so did she. Her species had a bad reputation in Taralos, even before the actions of Cipher, now it was much worse. Fortunately for Tirek, his people didn't have much of a reputation, neither negative nor positive. Centaurs were rare in these lands, almost as much of a myth as Alicorns. Tirek and Chrysalis spent the next decade raising their adoptive daughter Flurry Heart, who grew into a young mare and perhaps my most powerful knight. Yet the lack of conflict during this decade left her eager to prove her worth. Flurry didn't think the small jobs that remained after the end of the Civil War were worthy of her talents and she would continue to pester me for assignments.

The long peace has me time to focus on my personal life. Me and Night's Blessing decided to finally reveal our relationship to her husband, Dawn Rising. At first he didn't know what to think, but with time he started to appreciate having two marefriends. I enjoyed his company as well, but I never truly loved him the way I did Night's Blessing. After about a decade of being Night's Blessing's and Dawn Rising's side chick. Night's Blessing brought up the idea of having a three-way marriage. I saw great potential in the idea, as not only would it mean that Night's Blessing could finally officially become my wife, but it would also create powerful family ties between Taralos and the Black Hooves and Red Rocks clans.
There was only one problem, I was warned by Silent Hunter, the mother of Night's Blessing that a member of the clans marrying an outsider might draw the ire of some of the other clans, especially the Bloodied Ear clan, who was the most distrustful of outsiders. Nevertheless, we decided to proceed despite the warning.

Since the end of the Civil War, Night's Blessing started to train me in the art of swordplay, training which intensified in the months leading up to the wedding as Night's Blessing insisted I would more easily win over the favor of the other clans if I knew how to fight. The training was grueling, I wasn't used to exerting myself to that degree. My weapon of choice was a rapier, as it was both light and quick, leading me to adopt one of the swords confiscated from Prince Swift Blade as my own. It already had a name according to the prince, Legacy, that name suited me just fine.

With great effort I was able to master the basics of swordplay, for my genius didn't quite seem to extend to physical combat. When the wedding was drawing to a close, I could almost hold my own against Night's Blessing in combat, or I did while she was holding back and toying with me. I had seen how she defeated Prince Swift Blade, there was no way I could ever hold a candle to the Night's Blessing I had witnessed that day on the Storm Tower.

There was also some other worrying news, we sent Valentine to infiltrate his old cult and got news of a plan to sabotage my wedding, a ploy intended to sabtotage the alliance between Taralos and the Black Hooves clan, perhaps sponsored by the Bloodied Ear Clan, though I had no evidence of that accusation. It felt strange being in charge of security at my own wedding, but few other ponies were prepared for the job. Expecting shenanigans, I decided to station 50 soldiers to provide security for the event. Personally I decided to travel with an escort of elite royal guard, generously provided for me by the King, which also included Flurry Heart as a personal bodyguard. I tried to provide a royal escort to Night's Blessing and Dawn Rising as well. But they declined, stating that they will be travelling with an escort of the best warriors from the Black Hooves and Red Rocks clan respectively.

I was right to suspect foul play, for on the way to the wedding venue my escort was ambushed by a group of cultists and a strange birdlike demon my sources later confirmed was a Vrock. The combined efforts of my royal guard escort, Flurry Heart and my own skills managed to slay the demon, but it was no easy feat, as both me and Flurry Heart was wounded in the attempt, and several of the royal guards were slain. Fortunately the divine magic of Flurry Heart was able to close our wounds and make ourselves presentable for the wedding.

The trouble did not stop once we arrived at the venue. Several of the clan leaders had already arrived and were already arguing about whenever this three pony wedding was an insult to clan traditions. But the most controversial point seemed to have been that no son or daughter of the cheiftain had ever married a pony not from the Turves clans. Things did not get any better when someone tried to burn down Night's Blessing's tent during the night. Fortunately Night's Blessing had been awake and was able to escape her tent in time. The assailant was at first unknown, but further investigation revealed the culprit to be False Step, a member of the Black Hooves clan who was blackmailed by an unknown pony into trying to assassinate Night's Blessing. I suspected this unknown pony to have a connection to the Cult of Chaos. Night's Blessing decided to show mercy on False Step by granting her amnesty.

The next day, two days before the wedding, there was even more trouble brewing. Silent Hunter and Dawn Rising woke me up early in the morning with some troubling news, I could see the worry in the eyes of both of them. The Bloodied Ear, Stone Marcher and Thorn Briar clans were already upset about how close the Black Hooves and Red Rocks clans were getting. Adding a potential alliance with Taralos had made the other clans feel like their entire way of life was under threat. For this reason, Tongue Splitter, the chieftain of the Bloodied Ears clan had declared that Cozy Glow, a weak pony from Taralos, was unworthy to wed ponies from the Turves clans, and that if this wedding was allowed to proceed, the three clans were going to declare war.

Fortunately, Night's Blessing had a solution, an ancient rite of the clans that would allow me to prove my worthiness. By challenging Tongue Splitter to a duel and winning, I could prove to the other clans I deserved to stand amongst their leaders. While I was at first very apprehensive, if not terrified of facing a seasoned warrior like Tongue Splitter in single combat, Night's Blessing informed me that the rite of challenge is fought between the challanger and the pony being challenged as well as two champions of each pony's choice. I decided to pick Night's Blessing and Flurry Heart as my champions.

I wasted little time marching up to the Bloodied Ear camp and declaring a rite of challange right in the face of Tongue Splitter. The Bloodied Ear chieftain was a massive brown earthpony with mane the color of blood, with a mark of destiny depicting a massive greataxe splitting a tongue. I almost has second thoughts about challenging her, surely I stood no chance against such a mountain of muscle, but I persevered due to focusing on my love for Night's Blessing and my desire to enter into a union with her, to be finally able to express my love for her in the open, for her to become my wife. With all of that in mind I declared my challenge to Tongue Splitter:

“You question my worthiness. You insult me and my Clan of Taralos. I demand the

Rite of Challenge. Or are your champions to weak and feeble to face mine? Do your strongest cower in their tents or will they face me?”

Tongue Splitter was indignant that somepony as puny as me dared to challenge her, but she accepted my challenge nonetheless with the following words:

“Soft city dweller! Your champions will be crushed before the Bloodied Ear like so many more. We have never been
defeated by weaklings like you”.

So it came to pass that a dueling area was created on a nearby hill in the field the wedding would take place. On my side I was flanked by Night's Blessing and Flurry Heart respectively, my two best warriors, the swordsmare that bested Swift Blade and the young and arrogant alicorn who nonetheless could back up her arrogance with some real skill, Chrysalis had trained her well. I hated to admit it, but among this group I was the weak link. On the other side of the arena was the massive form of Tongue Splitter, flanked by an older pony in robes named Glory's End from the Thorn Briars clan on her left and a large pony named Rolling Boulder on her right. The older pony was probably a spellcaster, so I knew not to underestimate him.

I only had time to give my companions a few encouraging words before Tongue Splitter charged at me, brandishing a giant axe she held between her teeth. Panicking, I uttered the words for the mirror image spell, which I had learned by observing Cipher, creating 7 illusionary doubles. Tongue Splitter's axe hit one of the copies, which exploded into a thousand glass shards. As I was desperately fending off Tongue Splitter, Night's Blessing surged forward to engage Rolling Boulder, her obsidian scimitar inflicting a critical wound. Rolling Boulder hit back, Night effortlessly parrying their giant axe and inflicting a devastating counterattack, slitting his throat without mercy, a bit cold, even for her. But it was clear she was serious about protecting her soon to be spouse and would take no nonsense from anyone threatening me.

In the meantime, Flurry engaged the wizened old spellcaster Glory's End, Flurry using her magic to create a crystal copy of her warhammer. Glory's End called down lightning from the heavens, hitting Flurry Heart and wounding her, but she shrugged of the pain and kept advancing towards him. In the meantime, I was busy trying to find an opening in Tongue Splitter's defenses, who upon seeing the ease of which Night slew her opponent got increasingly frantic and desperate to strike down the real me. Just like Night taught me, I exploited that desperation and managed to strike at her, inflicting a minor wound. Tongue Splitter howled in pain and rage, swinging her axe in a wide arc, hitting one of my clones, but then bouncing of my mitrall armor, which was too close for comfort. I glanced at Flurry's duel with Glory's End, she had inflicted a wound on the old shaman, but he jump back and caused a wild growth of plants in between him and Flurry, animate vines lashing out at Flurry as Glory's End called down another bolt of lightning, Flurry charged at the old shaman, dodging both lashing vines and lightning bolts. I decided to cast a haste spell to speed up my allies, aiding Flurry in her pursuit of the shaman and making Night's Blessing even faster than she was before. Night rushed towards Tongue Splitter's flank, sensing she had little time, Tongue Splitter struck hard at me and struck true. A glancing blow from her axe inflicting a gash in my flank, it stung hard, making it difficult to even stand, one more blow like that one and I would be a goner.

At that point, Night came to my aid and launched her attack on Tongue Splitter, inflicting a wound on the massive Bloodied Ear Cheiftain. Tongue Splitter, eager to prove my inferiority kept launching attacks on my mirror images, there were only a few left now, but they were enough to disoriented her. I could feel my form glowing with energy, my heritage as a crystal pony, that energy being focused through me and into my alles empowering them further with divine magic. That additional power in addition to my earlier haste were enough for Night's Blessing to disarm Tongue Splitter in a single flurry of motions that seemed to be as fast as lightning. Flurry was also able to use that energy to make short work of Glory's End. As Tongue Splitter lay on the ground defeated, Night's Blessing spoke:

"Out of respect for your position as cheiftain of the Bloodied Ear clan, I will spare your life. But I want you to remember the names of the ones who beat you, I am Night's Blessing, the best swordsmare of the Turves, and this is Cozy Glow, Knight Commander of the millitary forces of Taralos, she who will soon be my spouse. If you try to hurt her ever again, I will always be here to protect her. Always"

Tongue Splitter snorted and turned towards me with disdain in her eyes:

"You are lucky to have someone like Night's Blessing to protect you, on your own you are weak, unfit to stand among the leaders of the Turves clans, relying on trickery and the power of your supporters to win. You don’t have the courage to face me on your own, weakling."

I could feel nothing but pity for the Bloodied Ear chieftain. She didn't get it, she didn't understand true power the way I now did. I tried to tell her as much:

"Don't you see Tongue Splitter, relying on others is not weakness, it is the only path towards true power. However strong you are on your own, you will be no match for a pony who has many friends and allies, all working together in harmony. You remind me of my old father figure, Tirek, he had all the power in the world, yet he could never beat Princess Twilight and her friends, even if they were individually weaker than him. Heck, even working together with Tirek and my mother-figure Chrysalis, I could never topple Twilight. For while our enemies were individually weaker, Twilight had allies of such number that they rivaled the stars in the sky. When everything is said and done, friendship is the true power. Not brute force."

Tongue Splitter slowly got to her hooves, the warriors of the other three clans surrounding her. She laughed at my words before uttering the following words:

"What a bunch of nonsense. I have allies of my own, don't think you are alone in that. This isn't over, this will mean war, and with my strength and the power of Bloodied Ear, Thorn Briar and Stone Marchers clans, we will raise Taralos to the ground, your bond with Night's Blessing will not save you. None may threaten the traditions of the Turves clans and live."

Night's Blessing looked Tongue Splitter dead in the eye and said:

"Then we will meet in the field of battle, the next time we meet I will show you no mercy, threaten the life of my future wife again and I will slit your throat."

With those words, Tongue Splitter as well as the rest of the Bloodied Ear, Thorn Briar and Stone Marchers clans left the wedding grounds. Flurry had been able to finish off Glory's End while me and Night had been talking to Tongue Splitter. Flurry seemed quite excited at the prospect of a war as she considered it a chance to prove herself. But despite the coming conflict, I would not back down from the wedding. Even if every pony in the world was against our union, I would still marry Night's Blessing, and I knew she felt the same way.