One morning. In a dark place hidden in the shadow of a mountain, there was a small house, at the end of a sinuous path that Tirek knew, for he had taken it numerous times in the last few years. But this time, it wasn't the owner who had invited him, it was someone else.
The door of this modest habitation was already opened and so, he entered.
"Hello?" the centaur called.
"Over here," a voice answered, coming from a room in the back.
Tirek moved around the table and the chairs, avoiding knocking over some of the portraits and photos lying on the shelves. Most of them were depicting the three of them, the Legion of Doom, as they used to call themselves. Here, an angry picture of Chrysalis, caught off guard by the photograph, there, a photo of Tirek admiring his own muscles, oblivious to the picture being taken. And finally, a little selfie made by a smiling adult pegasus.
Tirek went to the hallway in the back and found Chrysalis, back turned, standing in a doorway.
"Why did you summon me?" the centaur asked, walking up to her. "I was supposed to stay in my lair until Twilight forgets about me. I almost managed to take over a whole city this time."
"It's Cozy..." the changeling answered with a slightly confused tone. "She... She died."
"What!?" Tirek said with surprise. "What kind of remarkable foe could have defeated her!? Is it the Elements of Harmony, did they finally get the last of her?"
Chrysalis didn't move, she stayed back facing the centaur, looking at something inside the room, blinking, trying to understand as she answered:
"No, it's... age."
"Huh?"
"She died of old age. Like... ponies do," Chrysalis said with an absent voice.
Tirek waved an unbelieving hand, arguing:
"Non-sense, we freed ourselves only..."
He stopped, for he had to count on his finger.
"One, two, three... Seven decades ago," he said, before hesitating, suddenly wondering. "Is this how long ponies live? I have... trouble remembering, I'm going to be honest."
"I think it is," Chrysalis replied, still a bit shocked. "Almost all of Twilight's original friends have died already, so it might be true."
"Oh..."
A little silence fell, during which Tirek tried to glance over Chrysalis shoulder and see what she was looking at. Inside was a small bedroom, with a small bed – at least for his standard, but it was technically pony-sized. And in it, head on the side, mouth opened, immobile, visibly not breathing, there she was. The old pegasus.
They both looked at her for a moment, trying to process. They didn't enter the room right away, instead staying on the doorstep for a few seconds, observing an unexpected and hard to believe scene. Then, Chrysalis walked in, slowly, approaching the bed. Tirek hesitated for a bit, but followed, going to the other side, looking at the devilish pony.
"Well... It's a bit weird, don't you think?" Chrysalis said, looking at Cozy's body. "Usually I'm more used to villains dying because the heroes defeated them. I mean, Sombra pretty much made that his whole trademark, dying and resurrecting, but this... I don't think she's coming back."
"How could this happen!?" Tirek shouted, confused. "There was no sign of anything! I mean, she did say that her joints were feeling a bit more painful than usual, and her heart felt weak, and that she was tired... but I thought she was putting on an act! You know, pretending to be all feeble and fragile to better dupe us!"
"Yes, I thought the same, but..." Chrysalis wondered, her eyes lost on the body, "maybe she was telling the truth. She does look a lot older than when we first met, I find."
"You think?" Tirek honestly asked, frowning, looking at the pegasus' wrinkled face.
There was something unsettling for him in the act of looking at her and her not moving in response. No "what?", no little hoof-wave accompanied by a grin or proposition to sing an evil musical. She was just there. And gone.
"Should we... do something?" the centaur wondered, looking at Chrysalis with a raised eyebrow.
"I feel we should, but I don't know what, I'm really new to all of this. It... almost looks like she's gonna wake up at any moment and be like Aha, I tricked you, I had a plan to overcome death all along, but..."
Chrysalis' words lost themselves in her own stupor. It wasn't registering in her brain, her partner in crime had died just like that, without even fighting an enemy to the death or attempting world domination one last time. The ex-queen managed to put her hoof on something that was bothering her:
"How many villains aren't immortal? As... She really stayed like that? A mortal? She was never interested in living forever and plotting against Equestria for all of eternity? She just accepted that one day she was going to die?"
Chrysalis was at a loss for words, this sounded so stupid. Being immortal was villain 1-0-1, it almost came included with the whole "world domination" thing. Or at least, she thought so. Tirek shrugged, as lost as she was, saying:
"I can't even imagine how that goes. I mean, my species lives for thousands of years, and even with that... well it was still painful when my grandfather passed away. All of that precious magic lost... That old thing held onto it until his last breath. But I managed."
"Yes, it was the same for me with my mother," Chrysalis emphatically replied. "Well... I did have to kill her to take control of the hive, so... But still."
Another awkward silence fell in the room, as they both contemplated a future without this pegasus.
"Do you know if she had any relatives?" Tirek asked, unconvinced. "Brothers, sisters, father or mother that should... know about?"
His words became all the more uncertain as he talked, rubbing his head. That idea seemed ridiculous, Cozy didn't have a family, right?
"I don't think she ever talked about it?" Chrysalis realized. "All we have is her name, we don't even know where she was born."
"Oh... Well, this is awkward, right? I mean, if you were to die, I would know who to tell that to. If I was to die, you'd know who to warn. But her? We don't know anything about her, honestly, after all those years we haven't learned anything? Are we really that bad?"
"Learning about each other is what friends do," Chrysalis argued. "And we're not friends, so..."
She did not finish her sentence, as the words had caused an unpleasant pinch in her heart. She felt emptier than before which, as an old-school changeling, had only one possible meaning: She had lost a love source. This caused her to wince with frustration, angry at the idea that this pegasus might have cared for her. Especially now that she was gone.
"Why does she look so calm...?" Tirek pondered, as he could not look away from her face, without really knowing why.
"I suppose she died in her sleep... Alone..."
The pinch became stronger in the changeling heart, and Tirek felt his own heart falling down his torso. Chrysalis slowly realized, with a troubled voice:
"How long has it even been since she...?"
Cozy could have died days ago, maybe weeks. They could have been left unknowing for a while, until her body would have been nothing but bones and unrecognizable withered flesh. And that idea sank into the mind of both Tirek and Chrysalis, infuriating them. She deserved to die on the battlefield, surrounded by uncountable threats, for all to see at least one last time. Not in the darkness, in that lonely bedroom.
"I guess we should warn her enemies," Tirek supposed. "Otherwise, it's going to be awkward if they suddenly come to catch her."
"What enemies?" Chrysalis replied with a slight doubt. "Which enemies did she have left?"
"She did ease up on the whole evil thing in the last few years," Tirek slowly agreed. "I thought she had lost her mojo, or that she was preparing something big, but maybe she was just..."
Tirek couldn't finish his sentence. It felt wrong to say it, it felt wrong to see it. Yet, it was there. So, Chrysalis said those words for him:
"Tired... And old."
The pinch was joined by a feeling of guilt. They didn't see it coming. She was just too old to pursue her villainous antics, and they hadn't been able to see it for what it was.
"She..." Tirek began, hesitantly, fearing he might sound silly or weak. "She really is..."
"Gone... Yes..." Chrysalis replied with a heavy tone. "I can't believe pony lives are so fragile and yet we keep on losing to them. It's uncivilized, she was a master of deception – and that's high praise coming from me – yet... just like that, old age, and she's gone. Not even a century."
For she, who had never truly experienced a loss outside of her hive, getting angry and frustrated was Chrysalis' instinctive way of dealing with grief. Yet, something was going on in her, something that tightened her throat, that broke her voice as she continued, letting out a different kind of rage, shouting at that lifeless body:
"Really!? And you call yourself a villain!? You couldn't even outlast a single generation of ponies!?"
"She was a pony too," Tirek pointed out.
"I know!" Chrysalis vociferated, her legs shaking from those unknown feelings boiling in her. "I know that she couldn't prolong her life with magic, because she didn't have any! She couldn't steal magic or love from her defeated enemies to gain strength or anything! Because she was just a pony!"
Usually, Tirek would have answered with a snarky comment on how she was weirdly taking it personally, but, currently, he really didn't feel like saying that. For some reason. In his eyes, there was a good amount of truth in the ex-queen's words. Cozy was just a pony...
"Yet, she plotted against Equestria with us," the centaur lord said out loud with a subtle touch of admiration and respect. "She posed a threat for years, by all accounts, she was our equal. I should feel somewhat humiliated by that, but..."
A feeling shared by Chrysalis. As they both watched the lifeless body, the emotions finally settled in them, the conclusion appeared as clear as crystal. A tear appeared at the corner of the changeling's eye. The centaur clenched his fists, containing himself. They understood, what should have been impossible. What they had believed to be unimaginable, a treason to the most fundamental part of their beings. They liked her. That silly pegasus, with her overplayed joy tinted with mischievous intents, her emphasis on deceiving her opponents with her innocent look, contrasted by the ease with which her mask would fall off when her plans were ever so slightly thwarted. They enjoyed her company, her evil schemes and, more simply, her presence.
And it only took them losing all that to realize it.
"I feel like we should at least... bury her," Tirek slowly said.
"I agree..." Chrysalis replied, swiping the tear away with the tip of her wing. "Let's bring her outside."
The tall centaur silently agreed and took upon himself to carefully lift the dead pegasus, carrying her in his arms like a precious and fragile thing. She felt cold.
They headed out the house, passing by the table and the two chairs next to it, the photos, the couch, the memories. What would happen to all of this? To this place? They didn't think about it.
Once outside, they looked around. Chrysalis suggested:
"She deserves more than a simple grave. She was a villain, she should have a statue in her name, or something. Well, maybe not a statue..."
Her tone was serious, heavy, and Tirek followed all the same:
"I agree, and I have an idea already."
He walked away from the house, heading for the small cliff at the foot of which the house was built, part of the greater mountain overseeing them.
A sparkle appeared in the sky behind them. The moment after, a purple haze swooped down towards them and brutally landed only a few meters behind Tirek and Chrysalis, digging a little crater in the ground. The dust settled and revealed the now tall princess Twilight, a determined look on her face, teeth clenched, ready to fight.
"I finally found you, Lord Tirek!" she shouted. "No more running away! And of course, you are with him, Chrysalis..."
Twilight's last word slowed down, her aggressiveness fading, as her face went from a revengeful combativeness to a cautious confusion. Tirek and Chrysalis had both slightly turned towards her, allowing the princess to see the pegasus that the centaur was carrying with a carefulness she had never seen from him. The two evil creatures looked at her, not with their usual disdain and disgust, but with cold stares, filled by a simple wish to be left alone. Chrysalis' horn was glowing slightly, and a small red sphere had formed in between Tirek's horns. They were ready to fight, by all accounts, but they would not initiate the confrontation themselves, only defend if necessary.
It only took the Princess of Friendship a second to understand what was going on, but a lot more time to sincerely believe it. Was this a trick they were playing on her? What would they have to gain from it? Would Cozy suddenly jump at her by surprise, dropping her act? That was absurd and would never work against a magic user such as herself.
So, the only explanation was that this was reality. Cozy Glow was dead, and the absence of answers from Tirek and Chrysalis said it all about their own emotional state. It was strange for Twilight to see them manifest such feelings, after so many years spent looking like irredeemable scourges for Equestria, but she couldn't ignore what she was seeing in their eyes. She knew that feeling, for she had experienced it many times over the years. No matter how hard their nature tried to repress it.
And, for once, she felt empathy for the Legion of Doom. She made a choice. One that she probably would come to regret later, but her heart was yelling it was the only right thing to do.
With a toned down resentment, she whispered:
"I give you one day to mourn... We'll settle this tomorrow."
She leaned a bit, wings deployed, ready to take off again. Yet, she held herself for a second, looking at Tirek and Chrysalis, her face becoming kinder only long enough to add:
"I'm sorry for your loss..."
Then, she took off, disappearing into the sky she had come from.
Silence fell in between the two, as the wind blew in their respective manes. They were waiting for something, a small joke, coming from their pegasus frenemy. Something along the line of "huh, I should be dead more often, if it keeps the princess away". But, alas, nothing came.
Tirek brought his eyes back to Cozy's body, still cold, still unmoving, and of course it was. The presence of Twilight wouldn't suddenly bring her back to life or anything. Yet, there was something so disheartening for Tirek, to not hear that annoying voice commenting on the situation. To have lost it, forever.
He sniffed, way too loud to just be a simple breath, before gaining back his composure, resuming his walk. Chrysalis didn't say anything and simply followed. Words had been unnecessary for the princess and, now that she had come and gone, bursting that surrealist bubble seemingly trapped in another time, they didn't need words in between them either.
Tirek walked up to the foot of the cliff, slightly raised one arm while still being careful of the pony's head resting against it, and clenched his fist. A rectangular portion of the rock was suddenly carved out, the rubble falling at the centaur's hooves.
The body of the old pegasus was slowly lifted into the air, cautiously put inside the cavity. But not lying down, no, she was standing on her two hind legs, one hoof against her torso and the other one raised into the air in a pose reminiscent of her sometimes over-the-top attitude. Small, barely visible supports poked out of the stone behind her, as Tirek continued on molding her grave with his magic.
A little green flash of light, and a small crown appeared in front of Chrysalis. One mounted with a badge engraved with a six-branched star and six ruby-like shapes. The ex-queen looked at it with bitter regrets, before she put it on the pegasus' head, on top of her pale blue and white hair faded by the years.
"I thought the day would come for this gift to be revealed..." she whispered, looking at the crowned pony. "A shame you never got to wear it as the official empress of friendship... It suits you."
They waited here for a moment, under a small wind, Chrysalis magically readjusting some of the curls in Cozy's long mane and closing her mouth. She looked like she was smiling. As she usually did, before.
"Anything you want to add before I seal her?" the changeling asked the centaur, without turning her eyes away from the pegasus.
Tirek thought for a second, before he briefly focused, teleporting a small necklace made out of colorful rocks reminiscent of her, putting it around her neck.
"She made a little statue of us before we met you," Tirek explained. "I tried to look for it in Tartarus once, but I couldn't find it. So, I made this. Not because I like her or anything, simply-"
"I understand," Chrysalis gently cut, as she'd rather not hear his excuses. "It is the same for me, the crown was mostly to mark the occasion, in case we eventually succeeded in our plans."
"Sure," Tirek replied.
Chrysalis suddenly cast a beam straight at the pegasus. The cavity filled with a weird translucent greenish goo, until the body was completely encased in it, a shiny and smooth surface now making up this part of the cliff, as the goo solidified.
There she was. Eyes closed, solemnly standing, for as long as the cliff would exist. Resting, no longer a threat to the world. The old pegasus.
Tirek discretely ran a finger under his eye, whipping something away. Chrysalis fired another beam of light on the casing, this time engraving words into it. An epitaph, that she began simply with "Cozy Glow" in cyan glittering letters, before stopping, realizing.
"Do you... know when she was born?"
Tirek rubbed his neck, searching in his mind. He knew she had told him, a long time ago, but it was hard to remember. Unable to remember, to his own regret, he replied:
"I think she was eight when I met her. So, including the time we spent in stone..."
Chrysalis didn't say anything, already upset enough against herself for not knowing that, as she carved the probable year of birth and death, following with the note "An evil threat to the world her whole life." She stopped again, feeling her throat tightening. She knew she had to add something else, but she couldn't tell what.
Tirek did it for her, magically engraving the following words himself. "A good frenemy."
"I think this should do it," he said right after, taking a little step back to better view the results, under the sunlight.
"It does look like the tomb of an empress," the great changeling admired.
"... Well, now I might want my own done this way too."
"If you die before me, I'll do the same for you," Chrysalis almost jokingly said, arching an eyebrow at her partner. "Next to her even, if you want."
"Oh, that would be glorious," Tirek suddenly envisioned, extending his hand in front of him. "All three of us here, a wall of villains, forever."
"We'll need someone else to do that for us then, if we're all dead. Maybe Discord? Or Grogar, if we ever find him."
Tirek laughed at those suggestions and the way she had said it, and Chrysalis joined in with a small laugh of her own, which was rare for her. Tirek added, still giggling:
"I think I'll pass both of them, I don't want to end up in a bell or covered in pink cake, even dead."
"I agree," Chrysalis replied, chuckling, before waving a hoof. "Oh well, we'll see when the time comes. Or, at least, one of us will."
"Yeah..." Tirek approved, before losing his laugh and eyes on the pegasus, becoming emotional. "I'll remember her for a long time."
"Definitely," Chrysalis nodded. "And Equestria should too."
"Do you remember when we faked an earthquake, and Cozy managed to fool Twilight into believing it was that Pie sister's fault?" Tirek suddenly said, fondly recalling.
"Or that time when Applejack tried to catch us with a rope, but she had sabotaged them all beforehand?" Chrysalis added with a smile.
"Or when we crushed the wedding of-"
The discussion went on for a while, the two of them delving into their shared past as villains. Of course, most of it was composed of good memories from failed world-domination attempts, but there were also some good times spent talking, plotting, planning. When a particularly good joke had landed, or when the situation had become laughable.
Things that frenemies do. But not friends! Definitely not friends...
As the afternoon was ending, they left the now old mare in her transparent sarcophagus, talking with each-other, already plotting a new mischief, in honor of their now deceased partner in crime. Looking, searching, for a better way to be bad.
Before the sun was too low on the horizon, a silhouette appeared out of the nearby vegetation. A young mare, who had been watching for a couple of hours now. She walked up to the transparent coffin, looking at the mare in it with a sad frown.
"I knew the little arts and crafts session we had the other day would be among the last ones..." she sighed. "But not that it would be the last one..."
The earth-pony searched into her saddlebag, getting a little sheet of paper out, with a drawing on it. A drawing depicting herself and Cozy Glow, sitting at the table in the old pegasus' house, having tea. She put it in front of the grave, in the stack of rubble, moving some rocks around to make sure it wouldn't fly off into the wind.
"I finished it," the mare said, looking up at the pegasus. "As I promised you last time... Don't worry, it's enchanted paper, it won't get wet in the rain."
The mare had a sad giggle, thinking out loud:
"I'm pretty sure this spell comes from Twilight, and she told it to Luster Dawn, who taught it to Setting Glitter. Guess I'm lucky I'm not a unicorn, otherwise I would have had to learn that too."
She stared at the pegasus frozen in the cliff, her frown becoming even more apparent.
"I'm sorry I could never tell them about how I thought I could help you... Setting has been asking me repeatedly who I have befriended, but now... Well I guess I'm just going to tell her the truth... I could only become friends with Cozy Glow, of all creatures. But..."
Tears filled her eyes as her voice broke down.
"I wish I had found you sooner... It was just a few months, but it meant so much to me, and I know it meant a lot to you too, great-aunt. They all see you as evil, but I saw it in you. That spark of kindness, of joy, of friendship. You could have been a good mare, only if..."
Her words died out, her sentence left unfinished. Just as her story with Cozy Glow would be. An abrupt end to a journey that had barely begun for them.
Such was time. Such was life.
The wind blew, her mane floated in the air. She sat down, and continued her monologue. As if the friend she had planned on visiting was still alive.
The sun began to set. In a cozy glow.
Author's Note
Back to my roots of making characters die, yay!
But it's the first time where I don't narrate the very last moments of their life. Different emotional bits, I guess.
Also, I kinda want to write about old Cozy now.
