A Monster in the Attic

Chapters

01 - I Don't Like Magic
02 - A Monster
03 - For Worse
04 - Fly Away
05 - Retribution

01 - I Don't Like Magic

"I don't hate magic per say. I just really, really wish the people using it would disappear. Ponies or others. I wish they'd realize how useless they are without it."

"Now, now, Cozy," the stallion with a barely functioning voice said. "What did we say?"

The teen filly readjusted her feathers, sitting on a chair with an old stallion by her side, both facing headmare Starlight behind her desk. The unicorn had a concerned face, but was nonetheless listening to Cozy, who was still looking a bit embarrassed after the stallion had corrected her. But, she took a deep breath, getting back some composure, as the word painfully escaped her mouth:

"Sorry."

She was sincere, or at least sincerely trying to be. All of this felt awkward, at best. But it was a necessary path.

"Go on," Starlight precociously invited.

"Right," the young pegasus scratched her throat. "Let's talk about my foalhood."

I was born in a valley, west of Equestria. A very rural place, the closest train station was Tall Tale, which was itself at least a week away on hoof. Among the hills, many villages had sprouted here and there, with their own costumes, their own cultures. Small villages, barely interacting with each other, aside from trade and the occasional family reunion.

But I was different. I was born in-

"CozyDim Rook! Would you come downstairs, we have guests!"

"Yes mom!"

The young filly happily dropped her book on the dark arcanes and headed out of the library. Once in the hallway, she galloped for a few meters, before turning right, arriving in the main-entrance's hall, a large room with two big sets of stairs on each side, leading to the great double-doors. Coming from the mezzanine, the little pegasus rushed downstairs, meeting her mother and the two guests standing in the middle of the hall.

My mom was a unicorn. A tall mare, the kind you usually only see in Canterlot – not that a lot of ponies around here knew what Canterlot even looked like – with semi-circular glasses hiding strict eyes that never filled with anything other than judgment, a too-well maintained mane, and a very straight posture.

"Welcome to our home!" Cozy said with a bright smile, saluting the two other ponies, as they made their way into the next room.

We regularly received guests. From all the neighboring villages, ponies would come over to visit the mansion and talk to my father. I never really knew why, but it seemed important. Having magic made him special

While the two ponies walked into the living-room, Cozy and her mother stayed in the main hall, side by side.

"Will they stay for the night?" the filly asked.

"Probably," the mother said with utmost neutral tone.

"Will I be able to play with them?"

The mare refrained from rolling her eyes, instead answering with a pinch of bitterness:

"You know how your father is. I'm sure he'll let you play once he's done."

"Will he watch me...?"

This demand was made with a more cautious tone, she knew not to ask for too much. Yet, the hope it bore was coming from a deeper place in the young pegasus. And it's only by pity that her mother didn't snicker out loud but internally.

"Ask him, and you'll see."

It is... interesting what ponies consider to be normal, you know? I mean, you enslaved a whole village, stripped everyone of what made them unique, and it only seemed reasonable to you. A necessary evil at worst, and probably more like a gift you were giving. No offense, I wouldn't judge you or anything. It's just that I now see what we might have in common, what I have in common with everypony, actually. But I did... so much worse than you...

The dungeon was quiet. Every time her father had been at work, his guest would always be silent, so she had to find other ways to be creative. And she was just a filly, after all. Still, it's incredible what one might do with some ropes, a few nails and a weight.

Her father was watching, from the entrance, waiting in the darkness, the room only lit by two magical spheres put in places of torches.

The filly finished her contraption and turned a happy face to her father, saying:

"Look! With that, her tailbone will be ripped in just a few hours!"

"Yes," her father said, refraining a sigh. "It is very clever, Cozy. But I'm sure you could've done better, with a rune that will prevent the tissues from tearing apart too fast, for example."

"A-A rune?" the filly stuttered, trying to keep her proud smile since she had technically received praise. "But I'm not a unicorn, I can't do that."

"Yes, I know."

He wasn't harsh. He was worse than that. He sounded disappointed. As he always was.

The stallion in the shadow turned away and left the dungeon, leaving the filly all alone, with the two barely breathing bodies strapped on the table and on the wall, unsure as to what she should feel. But her heart had decided for her: it was aching, painful, helpless.

The spheres stopped glowing, and she stayed in the shadows.

02 - A Monster

"I... can't believe people like this still exist in Equestria," Starlight whispered in disbelief.

"They always have," the stallion by Cozy's side answered in his low and rocky voice. "And always will. The only thing we can change is how little evil they can do and how much they have to hide."

"You've still not introduced yourself," the headmare pointed out, while she agreed with him.

The stallion, a somewhat old pegasus with a frail body spotting a large scar on his throat, replied by raising a tempering hoof, saying:

"Let the little one finish her story first."

The rules were numerous in the manor. Don't disturb your father, only talk to him if he talks to you first, don't be late for meals, don't tell the guests what goes on at night, be polite, don't use the dumbwaiter in the living room, don't be a disappointment. Things like that.

But there was one that seemed... strange to me, even in this house. Especially in this house, in fact. It was the rule about not going in the attic. That was odd, I could go to the dungeon and look at the skulls and heads of our previous guests, but I wasn't allowed up? We even had two entrances, with retractable stairs, but both had been boarded-up before my birth. My father even had put magical seals on them, so that "no unicorn would pass".

I asked my mom once, and she had told me to never talk about this place again and to never tell my father about it.

But they hadn't planned for everything...

It was a sunny afternoon in the valleys. Cozy could see the mountains in the distance, as well as some villages, down there, far away. The mansion was up a hill, overlooking a dense forest, and was surrounded by a beautiful large garden.

In between the patches of flowers, by the fountain, the small pegasus was training, as she did almost every day. She had her wings deployed, flapping with all her strength, and yet was making no progress.

She had read books on pegasus, but they were mostly anatomical records, observations. Nothing that really explained how they flew, just what physically happened, which was a given since all these books had been written by unicorns. No pegasus experience could speak through those lines.

Still, she tried. Different angles, sometimes waiting for the wind to blow her way, only to get carried off for a few panicked meters before falling on her face.

"Aouch..." she winced in personal pain, before standing up.

As she was trying to figure out what was wrong in her attempts, she heard a chirp. A bird flew by and landed about two meters away from her, at the foot of a flower. The filly got an idea.

She observed the small creature from a distance. The bird hopped around, sometimes glancing at the filly, sometimes focusing on the flowers. It stood on a small rock, turning its head in many directions. Then, the moment Cozy had been waiting for happened: it flew away. Flapping its small wings, up it went, without any trouble and, soon enough, it disappeared from her vision, too small to follow. But she had gathered some information from it. Up until now, she had been using her wings like flat paddles, but there was a rolling to their movement in the bird's flight. She knew what she had to do next.

After a few trials, some faceplants and a whole lot of internal "I'm still making progress, I can feel it!", she managed to hover off the ground for a few seconds, before she came crumbling down on the floor from sheer wing-exhaustion.

"What is the meaning of this?" a disapproving voice coldly asked.

The filly jumped and turned her head around, trying to get back up, her legs shaking. Her father was there, standing on the path, with a harsh but somewhat neutral expression on his face. Impenetrable. He was a unicorn not as tall as her mother, with a gray coat and long cyan hair, curling up on their end.

"I-I'm learning how to fly, father," Cozy answered, straightening her stance to look proud. "And I've managed on my own! See!"

She flapped her wings again, her hooves leaving the ground as she raised in the air, barely a few centimeters. But just enough for it to be called flying.

He didn't look impressed...

"Would you cease this nonsense, Cozy Dim Rook. No pony flies in this mansion, nor on its domain."

The filly's flight slowed down as she quietly landed, looking at her father with an apologizing and shameful face. But she couldn't form the words to excuse her intolerable behavior, they just didn't reach her mouth. She felt hollow but she knew complaining would make everything worse, she would have been even more of a disappointment. So, she just stared at him, trying to not look too pitiful and not dishonor herself and her father even more.

All of this for nothing... I learned later that pegasus usually begin to fly when they are two or three years older than I was. But even that, he couldn't be proud of. I doubt he even cared enough about the other races to know that.

"We'll be having special guests tonight," her father continued. "You'll prepare their room."

"As in, regular room...?" the filly asked for confirmation.

"Yes," the stallion answered with an already failing patience. "I told you they are special guests. They need a proper place to sleep."

"Very well," the filly nodded, chasing away the bad thoughts constantly forming in her mind. "May I ask what is special about them?"

"The mare just gave birth to a unicorn."

The dining room was, by all accounts, way too big for just a few ponies. But it was a part of the family's pride. The long table ensured ponies had to raise their voices to be heard, and the master of the house could then tell them to not speak so loud in his presence. A way for him to ensure he would always be the one being heard.

Everyone was already eating. Cozy was sitting at one end of the table, while the invites – two earth ponies and their foal – were at the other. Her father and mother sat in the middle and were still some three meters away from both their daughter and their guests.

This was the usual, making sure our guests wouldn't have to bear my presence from up close, that I wouldn't speak to them easily. Father once told me that he didn't want to "impose our shame on them". I was the shame. The dishonor of the family, from birth.

That day, I realized it more than ever, right from the start. Because the baby, that lowborn little piece of... That thing was standing two chairs closer to my father than I ever did, in his little crib.

"So, mister Lowkey, do you have unicorns in your family?" my father asked.

"Not that we know of," the guest replied, with politeness. "A few pegasus here and there, but we're mostly earth ponies."

Or at least, he tried to be polite. He wasn't used to that. He didn't even say "my lord" after his sentences.

"The members of your family have always been the only unicorns around," he followed. "And I doubt my ancestors had that kind of relationship with yours."

He giggled a bit at what was implied, but that didn't make Cozy's father laugh. If magic could have clenched around his fork, it would have. The simple suggestion that his blood could mix with them was infuriating.

Seeing his joke not landing with his hosts, the guest stallion awkwardly cleared his throat and followed:

"Same goes for my wife and her family. No unicorns in any record, not even any err, interactions, is that how you say it?"

"That's nonsense," Cozy's mother said with self-importance. "Unicorn babies don't just appear out of nowhere, everypony would be aware of it. We would be aware of it."

"Well, I don't have any other explanations," Lowkey shrugged.

"Sometimes nature has its mysteries," his stallion host replied with a very neutral tone. "This is why we pursue knowledge in my family."

"And how about your little foal over there? How come she's a pegasus?"

The guest couple looked at Cozy, while her parents didn't even give her a glance. The filly focused on eating rather than trying to answer anything, she hadn't been invited to talk, but she was paying attention. A smile on her face, perfectly hiding her inner turmoil.

"Another mystery," her father plainly answered. "It's a shame she doesn't have the necessary... baggage to explore it."

That was a surprisingly nice answer coming from him. Lowkey stared at the filly for a second, before bluntly saying:

"She looks a bit dumb. No offense, of course, but I always find pegasi a bit... you know, bird-headed. Nothing comparable to the grace of a unicorn or the solid physic of an earth pony, if you know what I'm saying."

Cozy froze, looking at her plate. She didn't stop smiling, but she couldn't eat anymore, nor raise her eyes to see the reaction of her parents. But the fact that she was still hearing forks and knives being moved around told her that they hadn't stopped what they were doing. Which only broke her a bit more.

"She is quite smarter than she looks, for a pegasus," her mother replied. "But nothing to the level of a unicorn, I'm sure your own little foal will outclass her with the proper education."

"Which we will provide," her father followed. "If you allow me, I'd like to arrange the future of our children together."

"What do you mean?" Lowkey's wife asked.

"Since my family only marries unicorns, it is for the better if we can avoid looking for one for too long. I, myself, had to look for a wife at the other end of the valley. Of course, he'll be a little younger than my daughter, but this won't be a problem."

"What!?" both guests exclaimed.

"You want to marry our little Miracle Mud to your daughter!?" Lowkey shouted with surprise, standing up, hooves on the table.

"Not so loud!" his host coldly scolded, before wincing in disgust. "Also, you'll need to change that name."

Lowkey quietly sat back on his chair, still looking confused, but also amazed.

In the meantime, Cozy hadn't said a word. She was trying her best to hold her nerves, to not shake too much, at least not her forelegs, since that would be noticeable. She held her tears as best as she could, her father would have beaten her if she cried during a dinner. But it was hard. So hard to just hold back, bottle-up everything.

That's why he hadn't said anything when Lowkey had told she looked dumb. Her father had the choice to either defend his family, his pride, his honor, by putting his guest back in his place. Or, agree, and secure a marriage that she hadn't even been told about in the first place. This was how little she meant to him, between standing up for her or pat a commoner in the back, he had chosen the latter.

Because there was no pride for her. Nothing worth defending, faced with the possibility of having a unicorn in the line.

Cozy knew why.

Cozy Glow stopped in her story, slightly scratching her head from embarrassment.

"Something's wrong...?" Starlight kindly asked.

She knew there were a lot of things wrong, of course. That's why they were here in the first place. But something had changed in the salmon-pink mare's eyes.

"I... I am scared to talk about what followed."

"Go on, Cozy," the headmare reassured. "It happened either way. No ghost is going to jump at you to bring you back to those times."

Cozy Glow took in a deep breath, before she resumed her story.

After the dinner was finished, Cozy led her guests to their bedroom, wishing them goodnight. Afterwards, the little pegasus was summoned to her father's study and so, like a good filly, she went.

The room was what you'd expect from a noble house, one wall dedicated to shelves and books, the other mainly composed of a great and large window with metal framing, oriented such that it would always catch the moon and its light at the highest part of the night. The other walls were reserved for portraits and a whole family tree.

The special things around were the lights. Levitating in each corner of the room, lighting up on their own when the night fell, all with a different color. Blue, yellow, green and red. And, in the middle, a desk.

Her father was sitting behind it, examining some weird artifact that looked like a crown. Cozy knocked on the open door, to signal her presence.

"Come in," her father replied with the same uncaring tone he always had with her.

The filly obeyed and walked up to his desk, curious. With caution, she slowly asked, already looking apologizing:

"Did I do something wrong at the di-"

She was interrupted by a dry slap on the cheek. The translucent flat piece of magic stayed near the filly, menacingly, ready to do it again. Cozy held back a yelp and only rubbed her cheek, waiting for the reason to be spoken. As he always did, and this time wasn't different.

"Why did you look simple-minded?" he coldly asked, glancing at her.

"I was just-" Cozy began quietly, before being slapped again, sending her muzzle to the side.

"I can't hear you when you speak like that."

She heard it, in his tone. Clearer than ever, that hate for her that he was always trying to hide, to hold back, to no avail. This time, it had spoken with no veil. It wasn't an anger provoked by some bad attitude of hers, those were just the excuses. He despised her very existence. Yet, not moving her head to not contrary him, she still answered, louder:

"I was-"

Another slap, on the other cheek this time, causing her muzzle to face him again.

"Look me in the eyes when you talk to me."

She did, staying focused on her answer, despite the tears which began to appear at the edges of her eyes, both from the physical but also psychological pain. She would feel those slap for a day, at least.

"I was just smiling," she finally managed to say. "As you told me to."

"Are you blaming me?" her father growled.

She had expected another slap, yet none came for now. So, she followed:

"I'm guessing it is just like he said: It's a pegasus thing. I'm sorry for looking dumb, father. Maybe it'll get better when I grow up."

Yet again, no slap. The magical slat wasn't gone, but it didn't make any sudden movement.

"Maybe," her father replied.

"Is t-"

Again, and this time stronger than the previous ones. Enough so that it left a mark under her coat and she felt her teeth hurting. Yet, she stayed standing, trying not to wave too much. He hated that, when she looked weak.

"You didn't thank me," he said, returning to his artifact.

"My apologies. Thank you, father."

She knew asking "for what" would be a bad idea. Even if she had no idea what he was referring to. Which seemed to be planned, as he asked:

"Do you even know for what? Make your brain work, it's about the only thing you have going for yourself."

Cozy did think about it. And it appeared to her quite quickly, in fact:

"You've managed to arrange my future wedding. I'll be married to a unicorn, and our line will keep on living. Maybe that way I can give birth to a unicorn too and... erase my mistake."

How painful it was for her to say it. But it is what her father wanted to hear. That she recognized she was, herself, her own mistake. The tears were slowly flowing on her face, but she kept her stance, doing her best to not have a quivering voice.

Her father seemed somewhat pleased with her answer.

"Exactly."

Cozy stared at him for a moment, in silence, as he was still levitating and turning the artifact with great care. He hadn't told her to leave, so she couldn't. The month prior, he had her stay like this for two hours.

Then, suddenly, without any warning, another slap. Even stronger than the one before, it threw the little filly on the floor, one tooth escaping her mouth and getting lost under a shelf.

"When I was your age, I could already make a shield to protect myself from that," her father whispered through gritted teeth.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, slowly getting up, her legs shaking.

She couldn't contain a sob, a little stream of blood running from her lips. She couldn't do anything, just react and try to not anger him any further. She felt powerless, even her life wasn't in her own hooves. It never had been.

"Out, now," her father said with a dried tone, the small magical slat disappearing. "You should already be in your room by now."

"I'm sorry, Father," she replied with a shaky voice, trying not to sniff too loud. "Good night."

She bowed with as much politeness as her legs allowed her, staining the floor with a bit of blood and her tears, before she left the room.

Silence fell in the headmare's office. Starlight's eyes had filled with concern, looking at the now grown pegasus. Cozy was understandably upset, staring at the floor with a frown. The old pegasus by her side wrapped a scraggy wing around her, as a way of comforting her, which she did appreciate.

"I'm sorry you grew up in that kind of place..." Starlight whispered.

"It's over now..." Cozy said, more to convince herself that it was than anything. "But... It's not the worst thing that happened that night..."

I went back to my room to cry. I could taste the blood in my mouth, feel my painful cheeks becoming wet, my vision blurry. I can't describe what I felt at this moment. My very existence was something my parents didn't care for, that they outright hated, and it had always felt like that. And yet, for some reasons, they were keeping me alive, only to make me understand that I shouldn't be.

For a moment, I thought about... I could drown in the fountain, I could let myself fall from the roof, I could just venture into the woods and let one of the horrible creatures there devour me. That would have been easier, or at least temporary. It would have been an end.

But, in the midst of that darkness, I realized something. Something that changed my mind. My life had only one problem, and there was a solution, here, sleeping in this house.

In the darkness of her bedroom, the filly progressively stopped her tears. A thought had been formed in her head and was taking it over. Her cheeks were still reddened, her eyes still moist, but her gaze had become absent, overwhelmed by that idea.

She stood up on her sheets, sniffing distractedly. Her mind was focused on one thing. She didn't even notice the steps she took, heading out of her bedroom on the first floor and towards the guest room on the second. She didn't hear the stairs cracking slightly under her small hooves, nor did she hear the door as she opened it.

Before she knew it, she was among the sleeping guests, facing the cradle. Wrapped in little blankets, there he was. The little baby unicorn, sleeping quietly, with his cute little blue face and his brown mane. Her future husband.

I realized what I was missing...

She haphazardly flew above the cradle, using her wings without really noticing it, and took the baby in her legs. He felt so light, she could fly with him despite barely learning to do it. And she did. She headed for the window, opening it just enough to fit through it with him, throwing herself under the moonlight.

She hovered in the air, in the cold and silent night, looking at the doll-like foal in her hooves, before quietly landing next to the fountain.

The little thing hadn't even woken up. He was still peacefully resting, a shiver running along his small body in the coldness of the night. As the filly observed him, her absent eyes suddenly focusing on his forehead, with a dark glimmer in them.

I was missing a horn...

She grabbed him firmly and bashed his head against the marble of the fountain. A disgusting fleshy sound echoed through the night, before she shoved him again. And again. And again.

He didn't even make a noise... I think he couldn't just from the first hit... But I kept on smashing his little head against the rock... Every time, it felt even softer than before, every time the fountain became redder, every time there was less of him to bash against the marble... And all the while, I was making sure I didn't hit the horn in the process. That was the only thing I could think about. I didn't think about him, about his pain, I had been taught to not really care for those outside the family. And he wasn't even old enough to think, to dream. Killing him this young was less cruel than to kill someone my age. Or so I thought, at the time.

The filly kept on doing it, relentlessly, her mind someplace else, her consciousness implicitly accepting it, while refusing to see it for what it was. If she was to be a monster for her family, she would be one they love.

Covered in blood and other despicable remains, she finally stopped, looking at the almost headless baby, pulling on what was left of his cranium with her teeth and tearing away the horn. She dropped the body, holding preciously the small blue appendage. She had one. Her heart felt a cursed happiness, a dark relief, as she gazed at it. There was hope for her.

03 - For Worse

The search for the baby began early in the morning, and ended quite rapidly, a scream of terror echoing through the entire domain. The mother had found her foal, or rather what remained of him, in a black puddle of dry blood, staining the sheets he was wrapped in. She was soon joined by her husband, as she was carefully holding her infant with shaky legs, filled with incomprehension, tears flowing down her cheeks. And the questions she could only yell remained. Why? And who?

Standing at the top of the entrance stairs, their host looked at the scene with a confused frown, his wife by his side. The unicorn mare glanced at him, uncertain, fearing his reaction. They both knew who had done that.

"Take care of our guests," he said in a dark tone. "I'll go find her. Do not let them leave."

The mare nodded, walking towards the two broken parents, while her husband went back inside the mansion.

He didn't need to search for long. He went to her bedroom and there she was. But not in a way he had expected.

Cozy was sitting at her desk, sobbing, a bunch of small tools laying around, her mane messy and bloody. She hadn't even heard the door open, but she heard her father stepping inside.

She slowly turned around, still sobbing, and what her father saw froze him on the spot.

She had dried blood all over her face and dark rings under her teary eyes. But worst of all, she spotted a dangling blue horn on her forehead, pitifully attached with strings, sewed into her flesh yet still barely holding. He could make out traces of staples, of small pins, all planted in the horn and in her head, a sign of a succession of desperate self-mutilations.

"I can't make it stick..." she cried in the small pleading childish voice of a filly that couldn't understand her failure. "Father, I can't make it stay on my head..."

Her father stayed in the middle of the room, looking at her, his frown growing confused while still angry. Cozy broke into tears, hiding her face behind her hooves, the small appendage dangling even more after one of the strings loosened.

"I can't!" she yelled, sobbing uncontrollably.

She knew how much he hated to hear her cry, but she couldn't hold it inside. She was shaking, covering her face in shame.

Finally, her father muttered:

"We'll talk about this later. Go wash your face."

Before heading out of the room.

He sounded... less disappointed than usual...

Silence fell again in the office. A lot of things had just been put into perspective into Starlight's mind, as Cozy had continued her story. She was horrified, so much so she didn't know what to say. What could anyone say to this!?

"Father took care of the guests..." Cozy slowly followed, looking at the floor with regretful and absent eyes. "This time, he could not blame their disappearance on the creatures living in the woods near our mansion. That would have made too many of them in too little time. So, instead, he said that the baby had a magical mishap and burned down the bedroom with his parents."

Starlight waited a little bit, glancing at the pegasus near Cozy. He didn't intervene and simply nodded, inviting her to answer something.

"And you were punished for that as well, I suppose...?" Starlight tried, indirectly encouraging her to resume her story. "Seeing how your father was..."

"Not in a way I expected... He said..."

"You want a horn?"

Cozy looked up at her father with confusion. His eyes reflected the fire in front of them, with the three burning corps in it, behind the mansion. He slowly turned his gaze to her, awaiting an answer.

She nodded, fearfully. Her father's expression became thoughtful, before he turned around and went back to their house.

"Follow me," he said, after noticing she wasn't.

The filly trotted behind him, unsure, yet hopeful. He hadn't slapped her yet, for what she had done. Despite killing her future husband, and one of the only other unicorns around. She thought he would be mad, way, way too mad.

But instead, he led her through the mansion, to the windowless room behind the kitchen. Cozy knew it used to be the maid break room, back when there was one, during her father's childhood. Now, it was unused, not even for storage, since they already had a couple of rooms for that purpose already. The place was mostly empty, just a few pieces of furniture here and there.

Her father walked into the middle of the room, then turned towards her. Cozy went up to him, her frown a mix between naive curiosity and fear.

"You wanted to be a unicorn?" he patiently asked.

She carefully nodded.

"Do you know why I am doing all those experiments on other ponies?"

"... Because they're inferior and they deserve it?" the filly guessed, remembering what he had once told her.

"That too," her father nodded. "But also for one thing: To understand the anatomy of ponykind and, maybe, find a way to transform you into a unicorn."

Cozy's eyes filled with incomprehension, as something weird happened in her heart. Something that felt weird, pinching, yet... warm? He was doing that for her? He was trying to fix her? She didn't know what to reply but, for once, she had the impression her father was actually... caring for her.

That feeling didn't last...

"But, for that, I need a unicorn to study," her father followed, his tone progressively becoming more severe. "One whose magical abilities have grown enough. One that is not a baby. One alive."

The realization hit Cozy hard, under her father's reprimanding stare. What he had planned, what she had done. She gulped in terror, her breath suddenly becoming faster.

"I-I didn't know," she tried, taking a step back, knowing that her punishment was about to come.

"Yet, you acted," he replied, his horn beginning to glow.

Cozy laid down on the tiling and covered her head, wincing, expecting some atrocity to rain down on her. But nothing came. She opened one eye, only to see that the walls were starting to glow. Red runes plastered all over them, circles inscribed with magic formulas, slowly rotating.

"You will stay in here for the next twenty-four hours," her father explained with a cold anger. "The doors will be magically locked. Every ten minutes, one of the runes will cast down a spell at you. Either you manage to raise a magical shield to deflect them until the day has gone, or you find a way to teleport outside of the room. Or you die."

"B-But," Cozy panicked, looking at her father with pleading eyes, still folded on the floor. "But I can't do any of this! I don't have magic!"

Upon those words, her father teleported the little piece of horn she had snatched earlier and threw it at her hooves.

"You wanted to be a unicorn?" he said, despising her with every word he spoke. "Act like one."

Before he disappeared into a flash of blue light.

The magical lights in the room turned off, leaving the filly in the dark. Immediately, one of the runes on the wall brightened up and a magical bolt was cast right at her, sending her flying against the wall in a yelp of terror and pain.

He didn't really go easy on the spells... It's more of a case of casting so many of them over such a long period that forced him to make ones only strong enough to barely break a rib. Each had the strength of a good kick, I'd say... With some elemental effect...

She stood up, looking around, terrified but also lost. She could barely see, she felt a slight burn on her coat where the spell had struck, but worst of all, she didn't know what to do. She rushed to the door, but of course it was locked. She looked at the furniture, but they were too heavy for her to move, and none could offer any protection currently. Nothing to crawl under or to hide behind. She searched everywhere, her heart beating fast, as if it would make a difference. But it wouldn't. None of what she was doing would, and she knew it. Every second spent in there only reinforced that knowledge to an absurd degree.

"Please, Father!" she begged with all her heart, screaming into the room. "I'm sorry! Let me out! Please!"

No answer came. He was already gone. He had already forgotten about me and I was to be remembered only in twenty-four hours.

... Which was probably a relief for him...

Another rune glowed, and this time, a cold beam of magic hit Cozy right in the head, knocking her for a few minutes. She woke up with a frostbite on the entire left side of her face and the truth only became more apparent: Without a solution, she was going to die here.

Just as she had processed that, a wind spell was thrown at her from the ceiling, slamming her against the ground, the air scratching light cuts into her legs.

She spent the next hour running in circles, searching for a way out, for a means to dodge the spells. But they were targeted at her, they would correct course to hit. She was flung against the wall, burnt, had part of her coat slightly melted by acid. And she was already exhausted. Her last meal had been the day before, she hadn't slept all night. Tired, panicked, hurt and alone. She would not last the twenty-three hours left in here, yet she had no other hope than for it to stop. She was counting the spells, but it was so slow.

In the darkness, the only idea she had was to try and hide against the large sideboard. Maybe, depending on the angle they were coming from, it would protect her from the spells.

The next spell was thrown, and it hit the piece of furniture with a large metallic sound, causing it to wobble next to the filly. She let out a desperate sigh of relief, her legs feeling weak. That one would have knocked her out for a while, or worse.

Suddenly, the sideboard fell down, crashing on the floor and breaking into pieces, making the poor filly's heart jump, as she screamed in terror. But once that was passed, she realized how much of a chance this represented. She searched around the remains and found a large but slim piece of wood almost intact.

Hiding under it proved to be useful. For one spell. As soon as the fiery magical hammer landed on her improvised shield, it shattered into a thousand blazing shards spreading in the room, leaving the filly yapping in terror.

Her eyes went everywhere in the room, seeking a solution, something, just a slither of help. But nothing, the other fragments weren't big enough to protect her.

A weird smell attacked her nostrils. In the darkness, a light appeared, but it wasn't a ray of hope, rather the coming of hell. The shards had caught fire and it was spreading to the bits of the sideboard laying around and the other few furniture.

The filly stepped back in terror, her back hitting the nearest wall, watching the room slowly being set ablaze. She couldn't scream anymore, she was left panting, desperate, hugging the wall as much as possible, standing on her hind legs, flames dancing in her eyes and in front of her.

She was going to die here. By fire or by smoke. The room was getting filled by black clouds obscuring the newfound horrifying ambient light.

By the corner of her eyes, she caught it. The little reflection of a metal pan on the wall. The dumbwaiter panel, previously hidden behind the sideboard. An escape.

She immediately flew towards it, dodging the flames but not the smoke, losing her balance because of them, couching, weakened. She hit the foot of the wall, but quickly got back up, her heart beating faster than it had ever done before, adrenaline rushing in to help flap her little wings to that panel, to that escape.

The mechanism was jammed, but it didn't stop her. She pulled on the handle, as much as she could, the heat reaching her coat, curling her hairs, darkening her feathers, until the panel gave in and opened.

The platform to lay the plates on wasn't there, but she could still get inside the vertical tunnel, barely wide enough for her, slamming the panel shut behind her to prevent the smoke from getting in. But it still was, just slower.

There was no way to escape down, she was at the ground level, but she could fly up. Hitting the walls, so close around her, still disoriented, her eyes having lost their acquaintance to darkness, she rose up. It took her a bit of time, but she found the second floor's panel and managed to open it, storming out coughing into a room. She closed the panel behind her, getting away from it, taking a breath and collapsing on the floor, panting.

I didn't think about how my father would react to me escaping. I didn't think about where I was, or if I should warn anyone about the fire. All I thought, all I cared about, was that, in this moment, for once in my life, I felt safer now than during the previous hour.

As she was recovering her breath, lying on her back, looking at the roof, the filly coughed again. Not from the smoke this time, but from dust. Little gray sparkles were flying around her, in this dimly lit room. And it's when she noticed that she didn't recognize it.

She stood up, looking around. It was a bedroom, but neither was it his parent's, hers, or the guest rooms. Light was filtering through light blue curtains and barely opened shutters, the rays hitting countless small particles of dust flying around. That place hadn't been used in years.

The bed was simple, which was unseen in this mansion, even Cozy's bed was a large one. She walked around a bit, looking at the chests of drawers and the walls. Everything looked plain, simple, outside of the portraits.

All of them were of ponies she didn't know. And almost all of them wore valets or maid outfits. She could walk down whole generations of servants by simply following the wall, until she arrived at the last maid, the one that was serving under her grandfather. A beige pegasus with a kind smile. She wasn't sure it was her, but that was Cozy's best guess.

So, that was her room. Opening a wardrobe, only to see an assortment of chores-related outfits, confirmed that. That explained why the dumbwaiter led here. But why was this room unused now?

She looked at the door. It was sealed, physically and magically, but she wondered where that door led. She was above the kitchen, drawing the map of the house in her head, Cozy realized this was right next to her father's desk. But there was no door in the hallway there, just... a large tapestry. So large it covered the whole wall.

But why? Why would her father go to such length to hide this place? She looked around again, searching in the drawers, her curiosity piqued. She had nothing else to do anyway, her father had probably fireproofed the room below too.

She found what she was looking for in the bottom drawer next to the bed. A pile of photos. Some old, really, really old, taken in front of the manor with ponies so ancient on it she wasn't even sure they were family members. And she had learned about her family tree. A lot.

There was a photo of her grandfather, a tall unicorn with the same coat as her father, but with a much kinder look to his face. But he wasn't the heir of the family, her grandmother was, standing right by his side. She was the "pure blood" Dim, and he was just a stallion found somewhere else, to preserve the line.

They were standing in front of the mansion, with Cozy's great great parents by their sides, and the maid on the side, barely in the frame. Just the five of them, compared to the older photos where ponies were plenty, even with commoners on them. Or, at least, non-unicorns.

The most recent photo was a much closer shot, inside the mansion, with just the maid in the middle, holding a probably four years old foal in her hooves. Cozy's father.

For a moment, the filly didn't even notice half of the picture was missing, having been ripped apart. She was too shocked, too lost by what she was looking at.

He was smiling...

An honest, innocent and happy smile. Her father, that horrible, cold and cruel colt, had once been a young and naive smiling foal.

She couldn't grasp what this all meant. Why was all of this stored here?Why was the room sealed away?Why was half of the photo missing? Why hadn't her father taken a new servant, as it seemed to be an old tradition in the family?

Something wasn't right, but I was too young to really understand it. For me, for the scared little filly that had barely avoided death a moment ago, it was just another confusing piece of lore in that obscure family and mansion.

She looked outside by the window. She could just fly off the room and act like she had just regularly escaped. But her father would be furious and find out. She wasn't going back in that room until the twenty-four hours were past, though.

She decided on a half-lie. She opened the window, sneaking in between the shutters and flew outside. As long as she didn't get caught, things would be alright.

She spent the best part of the day outside, having fun on her own, as she always did. When the sun set, she even got the luxury to snatch a few leftovers from her parent's diner after her mother had left the kitchen, and got to sleep in her own bed.

When the sun rose again, she waited in the old maid's bedroom, having stolen a book from the library to keep herself busy. Then, as the hour dawned, she went back down the dumbwaiter shaft, heading for the room she had supposedly been locked in a day prior. The smoke was gone, the fire had died out. She carefully opened the panel, checking inside.

The room wasn't in a great state, burned spots on the floor and on the walls, all the furniture were gone, there was some water and rocks on the tiling and, as well as a puddle of what she guessed to be acid, in the darkness.

She waited a bit, in the frame, just to see if the spells had truly stopped. When ten minutes had passed, she walked in, closed the panel, and waited in the middle of the room. She didn't expect to make it out without being scolded and beaten. Her father would understand what she had done.

Minutes passed and, for a moment, she imagined he had forgotten about her or just supposed she had obviously died. But it took less than half an hour for the door to magically open, casting some light into the room. The shape of her father appeared, walking in, turning on the magical lights.

She stood, straight and firm, staring at him with a strange determination, a confidence that should have been absent, crushed. She tried to look proud, for him. But he didn't seem impressed, nor disappointed. Just, his regular anger, stopping right in front of her.

He looked down at her, seeing her suspiciously decent state.

"You cheated," he deduced without even looking at the dumbwaiter.

"Yes," she replied, still trying to appear proud. "Because I would have died otherwise."

"You dodged your punishment."

The tone was as icy as ever. His horn glowed, ready to strike. But Cozy held strong:

"Killing your only child would end the line, father. Even if I made the mistake of being born a pegasus, I still thought you might want to preserve your legacy."

As far as I can remember, this is the first time I argued with dishonesty without being beaten prior to it. And, to my surprise, it worked. To some extent.

The stallion frowned, considering her words. He looked around, his eyes falling on the dumbwaiter and becoming angrier.

"You hid in it?" he growled.

"I did. I stayed in it the whole time, at the bottom."

She knew saying she had flown up would only bring trouble. That room had been sealed for a reason.

The stallion judged her, up and down. His face softened in the sense that his anger became bitter, slowly returning to its passive state.

I think... I think he recognized my ability to find workarounds despite not having magic. I wouldn't call it respect, more like... the same low fascination you would feel for a fly that manages to get out of a spider web.

"Very well. If you wish so much to stay alive, then so be it. Clean the room, that'll be your chore for cheating on your punishment."

Way better than anything I had expected. But I tried to not look affected by it.

The filly nodded, waiting for her father to turn around and leave the room. Once he was out, her legs began to shake and she sniffed loudly, her muscles relaxing, her mind at ease, knowing she had avoided a heavy physical retribution. Barely.

It took her a few minutes to start putting things back in order, mopping the floor up, removing the debris and the dirt. In the midst of the ashes, she found something. A deep blue little nob, partially melted.

Cozy picked up the horn, looking at it with a mix of surprise and curiosity. It was now unusable,but it had never been to begin with. At least, not for her. And now, she didn't care,she didn't need it anymore, she didn't want it. She had survived this room, it hadn't. She would go on in her life, while this thing, after burning in a fire, would never Glow.

04 - Fly Away

Cozy was playing in the garden behind the mansion with her new friend, Numb Glitter. He was a colt, about her age, that her father had taken under his wing a month ago. He was from a commoner family her mother had to seek out for one very specific reason: he was a unicorn.

As the Dim family was the only one around knowing how unicorns should be educated, he was now a permanent resident of the mansion and, of course, after his magical teaching, he would marry Cozy Dim Rook.

The filly had been assured by her father that it was an occasion to kill two birds with one stone. She would have a unicorn husband, and her father would have a young colt to study and, perhaps, find a way to transform her into a unicorn as well.

While she didn't mind the second part, the first one had revealed itself to be a bit problematic, in her opinion. For a very simple reason: Numb was very, very, very dumb. But, for now, it meant she had a friend to toy with a bit. That was new.

"But with hide and seek, don't I have to find you just once?" he asked.

"No, no," she said with a smile. "You have to find me three times. It's in reference to the three tribes, of course. And if you can't find me, then you'll owe me a favor."

"I didn't know it was played like that..." Numb said, uncertain.

"Well, maybe in your muddy village it was played differently," Cozy dismissed with disdain. "But you are in the Dim family. You'll need to play like a unicorn."

"You're not a-" Numb began, Cozy's eyes immediately filling with anger, making him reconsider. "Aright, I'll count to twenty then."

He turned around, closing his eyes and began to count out loud. A mischievous smile appeared on Cozy's face and she immediately flew up in the air, despite her father forbidding her to do so, and she perched herself into the nearest leafy tree. She watched, as Numb finished counting and went around to seek her, refraining a laugh as he passed under her branch.

She waited a few seconds, before she teased "Over here!", forcing him to turn back, looking confused. It took him a good five minutes of walking in circles – and a quite loud giggle from Cozy – for him to find her.

"Hey, you flew up there, that's cheating!" he said.

"It's not," she said, hovering down towards him.

"Your father said you can't fly in here."

"And I'm sure my future husband won't snitch on me," she playfully replied, resting a hoof on his muzzle.

Numb blushed, nodding hesitantly.

"So, I still need to find you one more time...?"

"That's right," Cozy replied. "But this time, in the mansion. You stay there for twenty seconds, and I head inside to hide."

"You're not playing a trick on me, right?" Numb worried. "You'll hide inside, not outside?"

"You have my word!" Cozy assured.

"Alright... One... Two..."

The little filly hurried inside. She wasn't lying, she was just going to hide somewhere he would not find her.

The old maid's bedroom had become her favorite place to hang out lately. Her father had sealed the dumbwaiter in the room below, but she had left the window open, so she could come in and out, flying, as long as she made sure nobody ever saw her and the shutter was kept almost closed.

I didn't really realize it back then, but my way of seeing things had changed a lot, since my father had tried to... kill me. I wasn't trying to impress him anymore, nor to respect what he had told me. He would find a reason to beat me either way, so, for me, it had just become a game of play pretend. Lying had worked, appealing to what he wanted to see, but not in good faith, had better outcomes. And I had my little safe room.

The filly laid on the bed, giggling for herself, imagining that dumb commoner looking around the whole house to find her. Oh, how much she loved that feeling.

She grabbed a book about the adventures of some princess of love, and began to read. The game was meant to last at least twenty minutes, she had time before he would give up.

After a bit, she heard noises coming from the hallway. Small footsteps that halted in front of the door. For a moment, her heart stopped beating. No, that was impossible, he could not find her like that, couldn't he!? He could not know about this place!

And indeed, he couldn't. Instead, she heard him mutter something. Cozy carefully flew to the door, sticking her ear against it to listen. But he had stopped talking, instead now there was a noise of magic being used. What was he doing?

She heard a lock sound, but not coming from the door. No, it was coming from... the ceiling? She thought a bit and realized: there were folding stairs leading to the attic right there in the hallway. As she thought that, she heard the stairs being deployed. But they were magically sealed, how could Numb...? Or was it her father?

"What are you doing?" suddenly said a voice, coming from further away in the corridor.

Cozy heard Numb reply:

"I'm looking for Cozy, sir. We're playing hide and seek."

"She won't be in the attic," Cozy's father said, his voice getting closer. "She can't get there."

"She could fly up there," Numb argued. "From outside."

"I forbade her to fly on our property."

A little silence followed. Cozy couldn't see what was happening, but they didn't seem to move. Her father's voice became a little angrier. No. Rather, it gained back the only tone she ever knew him when talking about her.

"Did you see her fly?"

"I did, but I'd request you do not hold it against her," Numb solemnly said. "I managed to get her trust, I'd rather not lose it."

There was something in his voice that Cozy didn't like. He wasn't saying this to protect her. At all.

"The shutters are closed and the entrances to the attic are sealed," her father continued, returning to a way more regular tone. "How did you even open this one?"

"I undid your rune, sir."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, sir," Numb politely said.

Cozy smirked. Oh, the little foal wasn't getting out of this one unharmed. Breaking the rules? Undoing the spell? He was in for a good punishment.

"Impressive," Cozy's father replied. "You truly are gifted."

The filly's heart sank, her schadenfreude-born smile disappeared, leaving only wide opened eyes on her face. Yet, deep down, she should have known.

"Thank you, sir. I'm not sure I could put the rune back, though."

"It's fine, I'll show you how to do it. Honestly, it's not that complicated, I had hoped my own child would be able to do the same before its tenth birthday, but, alas..."

A little silence followed, during which Cozy slowly landed, haunted by the voice of her father, sounding so... gentle. Yet, she could not move her ear away.

"It's a good thing I'm here, then," Numb tried, a little smile clearly audible.

"It is," Cozy's father approved.

The filly was glad she had landed, her wings wouldn't have been able to keep up with her erratic heartbeat. She felt like she was about to throw up, but something prevented her from totally believing him.

I thought he was saying this just to dupe him. He constantly lied to outsiders, why would he stop with Numb? It was just basic manipulation, all of this was fake.

She heard her father closing in, pulling on the stairs to fold them back, when Numb suddenly asked:

"What is up there?"

The stairs stopped. Her father had stopped.

"Do you wish to see it? I think you'll find it... amusing, or at least interesting."

"I think I'd like to, sir."

The stairs were deployed again. Cozy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had never been invited to go there, she didn't know what it was, and she was her daughter! She had lived here for years, he had been there barely for a month!

But she couldn't join them. She knew they wouldn't let her. But she wanted to go there, to see what had lied above her head for so long.

She suddenly thought about something. The dumbwaiter, maybe it went up to the attic?

The steps of her father followed by Numb climbed up the stairs. She rushed to the shaft, flying up in it, only to be blocked by a metal plate barely one meter above. There was the support supposed to hold the food in the dumbwaiter, it was as far up as it was possible. She could lower it to free up the way, but that would probably make too much noise, her father would hear. And, on the other hand, she couldn't make out anything outside of barely audible muffled sounds, coming from the attic.

She went back to the bedroom, an angry pout on her face, listening at the door, waiting for them to come down, which took a few minutes. They were talking.

"Do you understand why I did this?" her father asked.

Numb seemed to think for a moment, before he answered:

"To preserve the purity of the family's blood?"

"Exactly," the stallion replied, the sound of stairs folding back being heard.

The conversation followed with the master of the house teaching Numb how to re-apply the rune. A rune whose sole purpose was to prevent Cozy from going up there. The filly carefully listened, as they went away, then rushed to the shaft, lowering the plate with the mechanism until it was below her floor. Up the dumbwaiter she flew, realizing that the shaft was opened on top, directly into the attic.

Cautiously, she approached the top, her small hooves grabbing the ledge, and she slowly lifted herself into that dark gloomy place. Her first peak in the attic. That large place which covered the whole mansion.

At first, she didn't see much. Because there wasn't much to see, even through the darkness. Shapes, here and there, stashes of boxes, of old clothes, of used tools, and the smell. The deep disgusting smell of rot, of mold, from a place that hadn't been aired in years.

And then, she saw it. In a corner, secluded near a blocked and small round window, barely letting in a single stream of light. She caught a glance of that forsaken silhouette.

She lifted herself up, mute and in shock. Without caution, only animated by a disbelieving curiosity, she walked up to it, coming to a halt right in front. She looked up, her eyes wide, a displeasing feeling in her guts, as she could only stare at it. And it stared back.

Cozy only reappeared at dinner. By this point, Numb had long stopped his search for her, and when she showed up, he could only apologize for not finding her and wonder where she had been. To which, she'd barely replied with "a place you'll have to find during our next game," with a distant gaze and absent-minded voice.

She didn't say much during dinner, no one ever forced her to say anything anyway. Her parents were very much happy having this young unicorn to chat with. At least, he could understand magic. She left the table with permission, heading for her room.

"Numb?" the master of the house called, as the young foal was looking at Cozy going away.

"Yes, sir?" he politely replied, turning to him.

"Tonight is your special training," the stallion said, standing up. "There was a breakthrough in my discoveries."

"What kind of breakthrough?" the foal wondered, standing up as well and following him outside the dining room.

"I've heard rumors about ponies becoming something more than unicorns. Becoming gods."

With Numb hooked and impressed by such a revelation, the two of them made their way to the cave, where the young unicorn would practice his magic, under his master's guidance.

"How is such a feat possible?" Numb asked, as they arrived in this dimly lit dungeon, surrounded by cold stones and floating magic torches.

"The princess. She transformed a pegasus into an alicorn a few years ago, and she did it again recently, this time on a unicorn. Equestria now has four princesses, instead of the one we had a few years ago."

The stallion faced his student, his face serious, as he followed:

"For years, I thought I could do that to my daughter. There was only a precedent with one pegasus, after all. But now, now that it is proven to be possible with unicorns, things may have changed, for the better in your case, Numb."

"You're not going to transform her anymore?" the foal asked, like he already knew about his plans.

"Turning a unicorn into an alicorn has always seemed easier, in my mind. Our bodies are already infused with magic, whereas my studies on pegasus have shown they quite lack this quality. Extracting a pegasus' essence and giving it to you appears to be a better solution, I had many more test subjects being pegasus than unicorns."

"But then," Numb said, frowning a bit. "There will still be a pegasus in your line, sir. She could birth another non-unicorn."

"There won't be a pegasus in the line," the stallion simply replied.

They both stared at each other in the eyes, coming to a silent understanding.

"Then who-" Numb began.

"My father was from a pure-blood unicorn family too. I'll seek someone from that side, for you to marry. For now, keep my daughter's trust, just in case I can't find a suitable replacement."

"I hope you will..." Numb winced. "She is a bit... dumb, if I may say, sir. And annoying."

"She is quite intelligent, actually," the great unicorn politely argued, before adding in a sigh. "For a pegasus, that is. Of course, she is limited by her kind, you must have seen the same with your own parents. I'm sure she would have been a genius amongst unicorns, but, alas... fate hasn't been kind to me on that end. For now, she still believes I'll turn her into a unicorn. Keep that dream alive for her, will you? You'll still need her, if you truly want to become of my blood."

"Yes sir."

Hidden behind the slightly opened door, Cozy's eyes were filled with tears. She had followed them to check, to be sure about it, to desperately know if there was any hope, after her discovery in the attic. And she had her answer.

I thought I didn't care anymore... But they both showed me that, up until this point, I actually did.

She ran away in silence, to cry in the attic. To go to the only thing she could trust now.

I was the tool. And a broken one at that.

The next day, early in the morning, she was at the front of the mansion, looking at the path leading out of the property and into the woods.

"There you are," Numb said, heading down the manor's steps and walking towards her. "What are you doing?"

Cozy waited for him to come next to her to answer, looking into the distance:

"I'm thinking about the Well of Shards."

"The what?"

"Father didn't tell you?" she said, turning to him with surprise. "Well, I should have guessed, he likes to keep that a secret to strangers. Maybe I shouldn't say anything."

"No, no," Numb invited, smiling with curiosity. "Please, tell me."

A grin appeared on Cozy's face, as she replied:

"You see, it's an ancient well, lost in the forest. There's no water inside, but thousands of small little shards made out of crystal, and it's said they enhance magical abilities. Father goes there once a year and picks them up for his experiments."

"Oh... I think I see what you're talking about," Numb realized. "The little needles he has in the cave? They increase magical abilities?"

"Only for the unicorn that picked them up from the well," Cozy explained. "But yes. Father brought me there once, hoping I could become a unicorn, but I wasn't able to pick any of them, and I almost died falling into the well."

Numb's face became thoughtful. Cozy saw into his eyes, he was considering the possibility, but she needed to really convince him. So, she added, innocently:

"But I doubt he'll show you. It's a family secret."

"Hmm, could you show me instead then?" Numb proposed, with an adorable false-naivety.

Cozy looked on the side, tilting her head away.

"Oh, I don't know. It can be a bit dangerous, out there. With the wolves and the snakes..."

Numb snorted with laughter, waiving a hoof.

"If it's only that, I can manage with my magic."

That confidence made Cozy's smile even brighter, happy.

"Great! Usually, I can't go there on my own," she said, standing up, ready to go.

"I'll protect you!" Numb said, putting his torso forward.

"I'm sure you will," Cozy added, coming by his side and leaning a bit against him.

Numb blushed in response, but that was short lived, as the filly began to walk.

"Quick, before Father sees us," she said, trotting her way out of the property.

The little unicorn followed in her steps. They couldn't see each other's faces, but both their smiles were filled with mischief.

It took a little while, maybe half an hour, for their walk in the forest to become interesting. The dense foliage, on their unmarked path, suddenly began to show signs of sparsity. The glorious and high trees left place to white dead trunks with no branches.

"Huuu... Are you sure this is the right way?" Numb asked with a bit of fear.

"Oh yes, the dead trees are a sign!" Cozy said with excitement, rising in the air with her little wings. "The well absorbs the nearby magic, it kills the trees. That's how the shards are formed."

"Oh..."

Never mind the large claw marks on the ground, Cozy made sure the path they were taking avoided them. That was the advantage of seeing the world from higher up.

As the living trees became an exception, the earth itself turning gray and bland, they approached a large cave. The little filly rejoiced:

"The well is inside!"

Numb looked at the opening in the rocks. A deep unsettling void, surrounded by dead stumps and a heavy white dust.

"I'm... not sure I want to go in there..." Numb slowly said.

"It's fine, I tell you," Cozy pushed, flying towards the cave. "No creature ever comes here."

The little foal looked at her with uncertainty. But, after all, she wouldn't lead him towards danger. She was there too, she would be in danger as well. And she wasn't a unicorn, he was, and a gifted one at that.

So, he went forward.

"Is it far into-" he began, setting hoof in the cave, suddenly interrupted by a loud roar coming from inside.

Numb took many steps back, scared, as loud and dry stomps came from the cave, quickly, two red spheres appearing in the darkness and rushing towards them.

Numb yelled in terror and immediately turned away, galloping his way out. Cozy was already flying away, with a bit of a head start.

"You said there were no creatures!" the little unicorn shouted, panicked.

"Oops?" Cozy shrugged with a giggle, turning mid-air to face him, flapping her wings backward.

She wasn't even trying to be subtle, and even Numb understood that. His face went from scared to angry. He was about to cast a spell at her, but the loud steps coming from behind made him turn his head instead. Rushing out of the cave, he saw the monster.

A tall creature, as big as a small house, made out of dry bones and dead branches, white and terrifying, with a face resembling that of a bear.

"A-A timberbear!" the little unicorn shouted in horror, as the creature was launching itself after him in a skeletal roar coming from beyond this realm.

"Oh, yeah, you should be careful!" Cozy shouted. "Its claws drain all the life force from whatever it touches!"

The little filly was getting away, but not as fast as she could. She was still looking back on the desperate little unicorn trying to run away from a beast fifty times its size.

"Come on, you're a unicorn, shoot a spell at it!" she said, giggling for herself with a mad pleasure.

Even if he knew she was mocking him, he still tried it. It was his only option, that thing was gaining upon him. One bolt of magic was cast, headed for its red glowing eye, but the timberbear turned its crane head to the side, deflecting the spell, only looking even more enraged afterwards.

"Why did you do this!?" Numb shouted, terrified and on the verge of tears, trying other non-effective spells. "What did I do to you, Cozy!?"

"Oh, not much," the filly said, flying higher to stay out of danger. "I just can't let my father have a unicorn for a son."

Numb turned his confused eyes to her, she returned a cruel glaze with a sadistic smirk.

"I heard you talk," she added. "You think I'd let myself be disposed of?"

"I wasn't gonna let him!" Numb begged. "I was waiting to be powerful enough to stop him, to protect you!"

"Yeah, as if," Cozy dismissed with an unimpressed eyebrow raised.

The timberbear leaped forward, about to pounce on the little unicorn. With all his heart, Numb begged:

"Please, Cozy! Help me!"

The giant claw swooped down on him, causing him to yell in terror and pain, but that didn't last. In an instant, his flesh melted, his fear disappeared, his cry became silent, and the only things remaining were his bones and blood, scattering into the distance, propelled by the impact.

Cozy stayed in the air, looking at the angry monster clawing the ground below itself, as if to make sure its victim was truly gone.

"Sorry, I can't do that," the filly said in a suddenly cold tone. "I'm too dumb. I'm a pegasus, remember?"

She hovered around the scene for a moment, staying out of reach and out of sight of the creature down below. The timberbear finally growled and went back to its cave.

Cozy moved down, finding something she had spotted flying off into a nearby tree. She took the crane in her hooves, staring at its empty orbits.

"How do you feel?" she asked with a little giggle. "Pretty numb, I'm sure."

She maniacally laughed herself off, going back to the mansion.

But she wasn't meeting with her father. No, she was packing stuff. She only added the crane as another thing in her small saddlebag, along with some food, water and a little photo of the only person she could ever count on moving forward: herself. She would not be a tool, not anymore. Others would be, to her.

She had to leave. She would look for a place to stay, a place to get out of here. Far from this valley. Everyone had lied to her, everyone had used her, because she was weak. Well, her lies would be her weapon as well, in a place where she would be able to tell them.

Noon came, and the small silhouette of a filly flew out of the mansion. Without a word for her parents, without looking back, fleeing the home of those who wanted her dead. She left, with words in mind. With the counsel of the only sensible person she had met in that place.

She left, because that's what the pegasus in the attic had told her to do.

Author's Note

This is the chapter where I went "OH SHIT I STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO CRAM IN SO FEW WORDS!"

Also I just realized there's a bunch of things you can see as symbolism, like Cozy's father saying it's "killing two birds with one stone" while pegasi have been compared to birds in the chapters before. I did not intended for that but it's really funny and I kinda like it. Serendipity kinda.

05 - Retribution

"And, after a few weeks of travel, here and there, I arrived at Ponyville. As the School of Friendship was opening."

Another silence followed in Starlight's office. Cozy had just related all those events in one go, leaving the headmare a bit uncertain and, to be frank, horrified. The young pegasus mare's eyes were fleeing, as she said:

"I know what you're thinking. I've killed people, I fully acknowledge that. It was wrong, but the place I was in was wrong too. My family, my surroundings, my education. All of it was... wrong."

"I... think I understand," Starlight said, seeing Cozy's regrets looking sincere. "And I understand why Twilight's lessons didn't reach you."

Cozy slowly nodded. Starlight turned her eyes to the stallion by her side, wondering:

"So, you went with her."

He replied by shaking his head, and Cozy added:

"I went back to the mansion, after I was freed from the statue... Because I had understood something."

It took me three years to come back. But I did it. And I knew what I needed to do, though I wasn't just guided by reason.

Cozy's father was an early bird, usually. So, it is much to his own surprise that, one day, he woke up while the sun was already high in the sky, judging by the light filtering through the windows.

Something wasn't right. He felt heavy. He tried to move around, but his hooves were all locked by chains. His horn was unresponsive. And this place wasn't his room.

His heart suddenly racing, thinking this was all a bad dream, he looked around. His wife was laying right next to him, in the same condition, on a bed that wasn't theirs but instead...

He knew this room, despite sealing it a long time ago. It was...

"Hi, Father," a voice suddenly said to his right, hidden in the back lighting.

His eyes were soon met with Cozy's widened irises, staring at him from up close, making him jump back as far as the chains allowed him to.

"C-Cozy!?" he stuttered with surprise. "I thought you were dead!"

"Cozy Dim Rook did die, a long time ago," she replied with a cold and distant yet entranced tone. "In the room right below us, where you left her for a day."

"W-What are you doing? H-How did you-"

"Isoflurane," Cozy calmly cut. "Just to make sure you and mom would stay asleep, while I break the wall and carry you here. Would have been easier if you hadn't sealed the door. And I got my hooves on magic inhibitors before coming here, I knew your precious magic would ruin everything."

"But wh-"

"I know who you are. I know what the lies in this house are."

Her father stopped trying to speak, instead looking at her with confusion. Before Cozy could follow, her mother began to move as well, waking up, muttering:

"What is the meaning of this...?"

"Hi, mother."

The unicorn jumped.

"C-Cozy!?" she shouted with surprise and fear, as if she was seeing a ghost.

"Yes, it's me. As I was about to say..." Cozy turned her eyes back to her father, calm and observant. "I went into the attic, the day before I left. I saw him. I saw your twin brother."

She saw her father's teeth clench, his eyes becoming uncertain, wary and angry.

"I went against your command, because you showed it to Numb too," Cozy followed, searching in her saddlebag with one wing, pulling out a small crane and laying it on her father. "Say hi to the son you never had."

"What are you doing!?" her mom shouted, moving around, trying to break free.

"Mom, be nice for once and SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Cozy's burst of anger shocked her mother, causing her to suddenly freeze. The teen's eyes were still cold, but for a brief moment, they had been inhabited by flames. She turned her attention back to her father.

"He told me, but I could have guessed from this room alone," she continued. "You're not Dim, aren't you? The last Dim was my grandmother. But she was sterile."

Silence fell. For the first time in her life, Cozy saw her father's eyes move away against his will, touched in his pride, unable to answer. And she also spotted her mother displaying a shocked frown at him.

"So mom doesn't know, huh? Not that it matters now."

She began to walk around the room, looking at the portraits on the wall. She stopped in front of the last maid of the house.

"That's my grandmother. The line had to keep on going, somehow. And, thankfully, a unicorn was born out of it. But, also, a pegasus."

Cozy pushed a slight sigh, lowering her eyes on the wall, in her own thoughts:

"So, your brother had to be hidden, put aside. You cut his throat so he would stay silent, up there. No one could know that the blood was impure, or even extinct... I'm sure you would have done the same with me if I had a unicorn twin."

She turned back, frowning, looking at her father with a sincere thought.

"But all those years..." she said. "I thought about it, but I never came up with a satisfying answer. So, now that I have you at hoof, I can ask you."

She walked up to his side, staring at him, unsure and dying to know.

"Why didn't you simply kill him? I have a hard time believing someone like you could have any remorse doing that, you even went out of your way to feed him through the dumbwaiter in the living room. I mean, you tried to kill me too. And it's not like you could transform him into a unicorn, and everything would be forgiven. Unless..."

As she was staring at him, as she saw the fleeing eyes of her father once more, the truth finally appeared in her mind, obvious and clear.

"You kept him... because you thought his wings would be easier to implant on yourself, since he's your twin..."

I understood... There was something beyond his obsession for purity. A regret, sprouted from his difference with his brother, that becoming an alicorn could fix. Pegasus were a lower form of life in his eyes, but with their wings, he could attain absolution, become... perfect, while including his brother in that twisted ideal of him. Erase that imperfection, in someone he saw as himself.

But that didn't matter

"Here we are... Here you are, father. At my mercy, at a pegasus' mercy. A young and wild child, a prodigy that almost ruled the world by twice, one that actually became an alicorn, if only for brief a period of time."

Cozy stopped, realizing, her voice becoming low as she said:

"I suppose some obsessions do run in the family, no matter how much I want to run away from them..."

There was that fascination again. Fascination for her own understanding of herself, but also for the fear, the terror she saw in their eyes.

"What are you going to do...?" her mother asked.

"A nicer version of everything you did to me," Cozy replied, looking at her. "Oh, sure, you didn't harm me that much, Mother. But you still watched, you still agreed, albeit silently. Never to my rescue, never to protect me, always despising what your womb had given to this world of yours."

"You wouldn't dare..." her father said between gritted teeth, his anger showing again.

"That's what Cozy Dim Rook thought, when you left her to die in that room..." Cozy slowly said, looking back at him. "Alone... She thought her father wouldn't dare. But he did, and never heard her pleading, as she was begging for her life. I'm here to give her some revenge. So, first..."

She leaned forward, picking up something on the floor. When she straightened back up, her parent's eyes widened with terror. She was holding large pliers in her now grown wings, smiling maniacally, as she said:

"Let's remove those silly horns you love some much, shall we? I want you to know how it feels to be without magic. I want you to despise your own weak bodies."

"No! No wait!" her father shouted, as she approached the pliers, holding them in her wings.

But she didn't care. Or worst...

Hearing him beg... just made me angrier, and happier to do it. I was going to free him from himself, and to free myself as well. Let Cozy Dim Rook rest in peace, in a hornless family.

Snip!

Her father yelled a sound she had never heard from him. A sound that went to her darkened heart and only filled it with even more twisted emotions and desire.

She let the horn fall on the bloodstained sheets, trotting around the bed to go to her mother.

"C-Cozy, please..." she begged, tears in her eyes.

The teen mare froze, staring at her, almost shocked. She slowly let her wings down, leaning above her sniffing mother. The unicorn looked confused and terrified, an undignified face for a noble mare such as herself. Face to face, Cozy whispered a terrible question:

"Did you plead for me to come back with the same desperation, from the day I went missing...?"

Her mother's head moved back a little, with an uncertain breath, her lower jaw shaking. Cozy looked back and forth between her parents, following:

"You're crying now, but did you even shed a tear for me? Did you ever woke up from a nightmare, panicked, wondering where I was?"

She stared at them. Their crying eyes, their terror, and the guilt. She knew the answer, they knew it too, it was no use trying to make her believe the opposite now. So, instead, facing their silence, Cozy replied in a short breath:

"I won't shed any tears for you either."

Snip!

Her mother yelled out in pain, writhing on the bed, as Cozy was throwing the pliers on the floor, unbothered.

"You were a mistake from the day you came into this world..." her father winced with all his rage. "You should have never been born... We've always hated you."

Finally, he had said it. After years of never outright admitting it. It almost felt relieving. Almost.

"You think I don't know?" Cozy replied, mocking him. "You think I didn't feel it every second I spent in this mansion?"

She went toward the huge hole she had carved in the wall, adding:

"You're lucky. I thought about beating you up until you'd lost all your teeth and your face was a bloody mess. But I feel like, in the spirit of things, I should just leave you two alone, in this room, to die. I can't put runes on the wall like you did... but I can still burn the whole place down."

"Wait!" her father said, angry and in pain.

But she didn't. She went into the hallway, hearing her name being yelled, yet only paid attention to the folded stairs. She was too tall to go by the dumbwaiter now, but the rune was still preventing her from pulling on the mechanism.

Instead, she went outside. Flying up to the roof, an ax in her hooves, she slammed the first shutter she could find, again and again, until the wood gave in, the windows behind it following right after.

As the debris settled, she pierced the shadows, the sun behind her lighting the large attic. She didn't have to search for long to find it, the sickly silhouette of that pegasus with a gray coat, a scar upon his throat, and weak yellow eyes, laying in bed.

"Cozy...?" he said, with a low and broken voice.

The teen flew up to him, suddenly looking worried yet relieved that he was still alive, abandoning her hate and fascination.

"Uncle Comfy," she sighed, flying straight at him for a hug.

The surprise didn't last long for the pegasus, and instead, he returned the embrace of his nieces, shuddering. Finally, a contact. Finally, someone to feel. To talk to.

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring you with me..." Cozy said with a quivering voice. "I'm sorry I took so much time to come back... To understand..."

"It's alright, Cozy..." Comfy whispered with his strained voice. "But why did you come back...? They're going to find you, you made so much noise..."

"They won't, don't worry," Cozy reassured. "And they won't chase us. But we have to get you out of here."

He had been right. He had been reassuring. All those years ago, when I found him, he had told me the truth, advised me to run away, while I could only stay wary of him, cautious. It had taken me years to realize that he was... more than someone weaker than me, that I could exploit. That he truly cared for me and that it... meant something to me. That we'd been both.... robbed of so many things by this family... By my father.

Cozy looked at her uncle, by her side, thoughtful. Comfy had wrapped a wing around her, holding her gently. He still looked weak, but was nonetheless faring better than in that dark attic.

"So, you burned the mansion down, with your parents in it, then you came back here...?" Starlight summed up, raising a concerned eyebrow.

"He made me swear to not kill anyone anymore," Cozy said, as if that was enough. "Not that I want to anyway..."

Starlight's eyes went to Comfy. The pegasus, slowly ruffled with his niece's mane with one wing, saying to the unicorn:

"She'll get better... We both have... A lot to catch on. In our lives in general."

Starlight's eyes went back to Cozy. She did look a lot different, at least in her way of speaking. And, now, all those bad things were behind her. Starlight wasn't just sure if she should report all of this, report her murders to Twilight, or just... let her be. Freeing her from this past.

"I'll see to assign you a house in Ponyville," she finally said. "Near Fluttershy's cottage. She'll be in charge of you, just to make sure you're not plotting anything."

"Thank you..." Cozy whispered, shivering with relief.

The young pegasus nervously rubbed one of her legs, leaning into her uncle's embrace. It still felt weird. It still felt unnatural. Yet, it was all she had always lacked.

A family.