The way up the tunnel into the castle was a complete blur. Cozy Glow couldn’t remember it, which meant she must’ve traveled between dreams. She had left the cavern behind, it now only existing as a memory. A memory to her.

Cozy Glow found the stone door to the castle at the top of the cold, narrow shaft. Sunlight peeked through the cracks; she’d be stepping out into daylight.

The stone door slid open with a dull grinding sound, taking ages to open against her weakened body, but eventually getting wide enough for her to slip out.

“Shit,” Cozy Glow uttered when she emerged from her prison. The entire front room of the castle was boarded up, the crevices between the planks on the windows and front door too small for her to squeeze through but just barely allowing sunlight to enter the space.

Cozy Glow was trapped in the castle. It was a sad, sad revelation to her, but nonetheless, she’d continue on and explore the castle—and hopefully not run into Cloud Shaper whilst doing so.

Suddenly, a scuffle echoed through the castle halls. It sounded as if someone slid something on stone.

Cozy Glow, with nothing else to do in the dreamscape besides wander around, investigated.

There was a staircase not too far from her prison door. It was crumbled and ruined, but it was where the sound came from. Cozy Glow thought, just maybe, there could be ponies contrived of her own dreams and thoughts within the castle that were also trapped against their will, or perceived to be. However, upon going up the stairs, she found nothing pleasing.
Down a very, very long corridor, she eyed Cloud Shaper dragging something down the hall, his back turned to her.

Even with his back turned, he could still sense Cozy Glow’s sudden presence.

Eerily, he turned, and stared Cozy down like a hawk.

“Ah, good evening, lady,” he said, before vanishing into thin air. He had teleported via magical means.

“Let me go!” Cozy Glow yelled, looking around the castle now. Suddenly, a hoof yanked her upwards, pulling her into the ceiling, or where she thought would’ve been ceiling since she kept going up.

“Didn’t like your fate? Well, none of the previous folk did either,” Cloud Shaper informed her. They continued spiraling upwards in a narrow castle tower. Finally, they reached a new hallway, and Cloud Shaper set Cozy Glow down.

“What—“ Cozy Glow screeched. She gazed around in shock at the frightening sight: the remains of ponies chained, tied, shackled, and hooked to the walls and ceiling.

“This is where bad ones go to perish, or who the lord deems bad,” Cloud Shaper told Cozy Glow. He then opened a door, and showed a horrifying sight: complete darkness, the only thing in it being the rotted corpse of a mangled filly… still breathing. The filly? Cozy Glow.

“WHAT IS THIS?” Cozy Glow yelped.

Cloud Shaper grabbed her and steadied her. “A possible fate, one the lord had conceived for ye, young lady.”

“But that’s not me! I’m me!” Cozy Glow argued.

“You’re just you, and I’m just me, and that thing is also you, just living its own designed hellscape,” Cloud Shaper explained, though it didn’t help much.

“I’m so lost…” Cozy Glow said, her voice trailing off.

“Of course ya are! You’re not in your own personal wonderland—shaped for you by fate itself!” Cloud Shaper exclaimed.

“Shut up!” Cozy Glow fought.

Cloud Shaper snickered, then started to whistle of all things as he closed the door to the void room where the rotted Cozy clone resided. Right then, Cozy Glow realized all the skeletons were ones of HER.

“This is too crazy… what is this place? Some kind of hellscape?” Cozy Glow asked.

“Yes and no. This is only the gateway to the hellscapes,” Cloud Shaper explained carefully. “Each Cozy Glow in existence dies here. There’s only one you, but there’s also other ideas of you that could’ve been.”

“Is this like a program? Each place of this castle allows a very possible fate I could’ve had?” Cozy Glow spoke.

“You’re catching on, pal-oh-buddy. This is the, the prison, that your fates reside. Only you had one, so all of the other ones concluded themselves once it was concealed,” Cloud Shaper finished.

“This is mad! I’m leaving right now!” Cozy Glow screamed.

“If you want to,” Cloud Shaper said. He shrugged. “I don’t care. You’ll have to come back anyways when it finds you.”

Cozy Glow sprinted down the hallway. The walls, covered in skeletal remains and doors to closed ends, all became a blur in her mad dash to find something or someplace to potentially allow her to escape. She wasn’t just going to walk back into the fate that chose her. She was going to fight until she could get a chance, even a slim one, to change it before she perishes in the real world, thanks no less by the one who trapped her within her own dreamscape of nightmare fueled concepts.

The filly turned corner after corner, flew up staircase after staircase with her newly regrown wings, and eventually came to something that made her heart pump faster than before: an open window.

In a crazed dash, she flew out of the window and immediately glided down to the ground, right at the front of the castle complex. She gazed up at it, thankful to have escaped.

She didn’t hesitate to leave. Cozy Glow pounced in the opposite direction, taking flight, ready to leave this place in the dust. However, Cloud Shaper wouldn’t allow that.

Cozy Glow slammed head first into an invisible wall. It was a magically crafted barrier, and was conjured by none other than Cloud Shaper to conceal Cozy Glow to the space for eternity.

“FUCK!” Cozy Glow yelled. She started rubbing her forehead. It throbbed in pain, but she recovered soon enough. The impact left a bruise right above her right eye.

“Poor thing,” a voice broke out. It was Cloud Shaper.

Cozy Glow turned to face him. He has so suddenly appeared. He likely teleported.

“You’re trapped here. Forever,” he went on. “All you want to do is leave… but you know that, deep down, you don’t deserve it.”

“I know that,” Cozy Glow rasped. “But I want to fix everything.”

“Why? Just so you don’t have to deal with snow forever?” Cloud Shaper taunted.

“No,” Cozy Glow answered immediately. She approached him. “If it means I get to undo all this madness and change my destiny to be trapped in a dimension of cold, then so be it. I’ll change everything. But I’m also doing it because I’ve had a change of heart. I feel guilty… and I realized that, in my fantasy, it was similar to the life I had before I destroyed the world.”

“Bravo Cozy Glow,” Cloud Shaper said modestly. He turned away. “But there’s one problem… you can’t change fate.”

“I can try,” she reckoned.

“I can’t allow you. Fate’s order, Cozy Glow.”

“Then I’ll make you, uh, let me,” Cozy Glow argued, attempting to find the right words.

“How exactly, lady? Ye just can’t!” He bellowed.

Cozy Glow leaped at him immediately. She grabbed his neck and started to strangle him from behind.

Cloud Shaper struggled against her. She held on tight, knowing the stakes of her situation. Cloud Shaper started to faint, but in a last ditch attempt to not, he teleported.

In a flash, he was gone. Cozy Glow fell to the ground, then got up and gazed around, ready to continue the fight. Then, out of nowhere, Cozy Glow felt a sharp pain in her back—as Cloud Shaper slammed his entire body into her spine.

Cozy Glow collapsed into the eroded ground below. Her hooves sprawled out, and she was left vulnerable. And then came the screaming, and came with that the showers of red.

Out of her mouth oozed blood. It poured over the ground, seeping into the dirt. Her screaming only quickened the bleeding.

The shock to the impact in her back has sent her in a state of, well, utter shock. She couldn’t move, only lie down as she felt Cloud Shaper get off her back. Instantly, another sharp pain came, only this time on her front ribs, though not nearly as bad.

He was dragging her, back towards the castle front. Cozy Glow cried at the agony inflicted on her. She felt as if she were… dying. For real. Could she die in the dream and live on in the ‘personal wonderland’?

Cozy Glow was set down at the front door. Cloud Shaper stopped and studied the door, realizing he had nailed it shut.

“No bother,” he finally spoke. “I’ll undo it in a jiffy and shove you back into your wonderland. You belong there, my friend.”

Cozy Glow slowly started to drift to sleep, almost as if in a trance from how tired she felt from one blow from Cloud Shaper. He was powerful. She knew she couldn’t just kill him, especially without any magic. She was merely a Pegasus filly, but a smart one nonetheless.

In her final moments, or so she was beginning to think, she heard him get the door unlocked, all the boards undone.

If only she could get rid of him…

Cozy Glow had a sudden thought. A stupid, dumb, and uncreative thought, but a thought nonetheless. Maybe—just maybe—she could subdue him.

She got up, her back not broken but hurt BAD. She coughed up the last bit of blood she had to before she could speak semi-properly. Then she began.

“Mr. Shaper, sir, how do you know what’s down in the hole where my destiny lies?” She asked.

He looked stunned by her answer. “Um,” he uttered. “I just know. That’s what I exist for: the guard your fate. I knew what each fate was and I know what fate you got. Kinda like Santa Claus.”

“Oh,” Cozy Glow said, following him into the castle. “You’ve never been down there?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t be able to get out, if so,” he said. “Not for a long time. My magic fails in other realms.”

Cozy Glow uttered a weak smile. “I know I can’t deny my fate. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”

“Indeed, lady. I’m glad you came around,” Cloud Shaper smiled.

He pulled open the stone door, the one to her fate. It was now or never for Cozy Glow.

“I thought you would’ve known as the keeper of my fate that I am a master-class manipulator,” she said.

“A what?” He said. His final words.

Cozy Glow lunged before he could turn around—and pushed him into the abyss. All the way down, he screamed, spiraling into an alternate reality. At last, his screams echoed into nothingness as he finally fell all the way into oblivion.

Cozy Glow pushed the stone door shut and sprinted out the front door, hoping that he hadn’t been lying about his magic failing. If he was truthful, this would mean she was free. Free from this area of the her nested nightmare and approaching the final frontier.

Cozy Glow slowly approached the spot where she almost got a concussion and, very carefully, moved forward. Her heart pounded. This was it. And…

Nothing stopped her. She was free. Free from her constraints. Now, she could continue her journey. Her final stop: Canterlot.

As if awakening from a long, long nightmare…

Only still very much asleep, of course, Cozy Glow found herself in the hallway of Canterlot—the one where she started this dream. It was as if nothing else existed, and when she traveled from plot-of-land to plot-of-land, she found herself just existing there, like having just woke up in the morning.

Her back didn’t hurt any longer. It reset during the weird loose-feeling phase of not existing, just like how her wings reset in the cave.

Anyways, this was it. The final barrier between her and regaining consciousness. If she could—-somehow—figure out how to escape from the dream, of course.

Cozy Glow approached the large door to the court room. She wondered if Twilight were in there, or anyone for that matter, and what they would do upon seeing her. She was sure for one thing, and that it wasn’t going to be pleasant… but she had gotten this far, so she must try to do something.

Finally, she found the courage to speedily yank open the door and go inside. What did she have to lose? Her life, for instance, but that was worth fighting for.

The room was nearly pitch black. The windows let in no light, and she could barely make out a thing in the overwhelming darkness. She closed the door and began to allow her eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting.

All the while, Cozy Glow kept her ears perked. She didn’t want to get attacked by anyone in the room, let alone get surprised by any unwanted guests. At last, her eyes adjusted, and she could make out the shapes of chairs and seating, as well as the silhouette of a mare at the podium. It was Twilight.

“Who’s there?” Twilight asked, unsure of who had entered. She sounded frantic, for whatever reason.

Cozy Glow remained silent. If she said it was her, she’d probably get vanquished (for lack of a better word) on the spot. She was supposed to be miles underground in an alternate realm of snow, but instead she escaped and came here. Not a good look, even if it was a dream—yet so far, everything in the dream was definitely going to give her intentional nightmares. Twilight no less.

Twilight remained at the podium, unmoving and not making a single sound. It was like she wasn’t even breathing.

“I know it’s you, Cozÿ Gľóŵ,” Twilight confirmed, her voice getting distorted. Something wasn’t right.

“Let me leave this nightmare,” Cozy Glow demanded. “I will fix everything I had broken.”

“Hōw çaň ÿøű fïx å ðêseřt wǎsťęľanď?” Twilight asked, her voice sounding like some kind of glitch. “Youř fäte ìş seț ǐň stòņe.”

“Stop trying to scare me, Twilight,” Cozy Glow said sternly. “That voice isn’t gonna make me piss myself.”

Twilight laughed. A crooked, yet weirdly… serene, of all things, chuckle. A natural, evolved laugh, yet definitely not one that would be alien. It was bizarre, hard to put into fitting words.

“Who said I was Twilight?” It said flatly now.

Cozy Glow’s heart dropped. She nearly choked, and she had stopped breathing. The being that confronted her—whilst taking the shape of Twilight—wasn’t the mare herself. Sure, it wasn’t Twilight at all to begin with; it was a figment of her nightmares. However, this was no figment of her nightmares… or so it seemed. Interpretation may vary on it.

“Who are you?” Cozy Glow yelled. She needed to know who—or what—it was.

“I go by many names,” they began. “Some ponies call me destiny. Some may refer to me as the grim reaper. But I’m only one, unchanging force… fate.”

The being was the embodiment of fate itself. It was the embodiment of personal hells and heavens, creating one for every being, each one fit for that specific soul. Cozy Glow’s fate had been—literally, if you choose to believe this ain’t just another creation of Cozy Glow’s brain—created by this entity. It was like a god, manipulating things against ponies’ will, deciding the outcome of every situation.

“Oh my…” Cozy Glow whispered. “You’re… oh, oh my.”

“I am fate itself,” it confided. “Every little outcome was an act of my own doing. I chose the desert wasteland to be your final physical resting place. I chose the consequences you suffered upon destroying the world. I chose when you were born, when you’ll die, and how you’ll die, all in an act of your own pre-recorded and chosen actions. However, this interaction isn’t scripted.”

Cozy Glow gulped as the being flew from the podium and down onto the center floor. They became much clearer now: they just looked and sounded like Twilight, only they weren’t even remotely similar in tone. Everything they said was flat and unenthusiastic. It was frightening.

“You will return to your fate now,” it said. “Allow me to take you.”

Then, it began to amalgamate. It shifted into a being almost unrecognizable to Twilight. It grew six limbs out of its back, and its head split apart to reveal a white, eerie glow. The skin of the being turned back, and then expanded as new flesh found its way into its new body.

A head grew out of the light, and the limbs finally finished themselves. They had claws at each end, and slammed down on the floor to allow a steady balance for the creature.

Long quills grew on the back of its head, all razor-sharp looking and unpleasant on the eyes. The whole entity was black, all except for some facial features.

The head—about five hooves-length tell and relatively wide—had gaping holes for eyes, though not empty as they had an accompanying white glow from somewhere within, making them appear as portals. As for its mouth, it actually was a portal; the giant, gaping hole for a mouth showed… none other than the snowy hellscape Cozy Glow had escaped from.

Cozy Glow shrank back against the door. She had nowhere to go, and the door had seemingly locked itself from the outside. Her fate was, well, up to Fate.

“Admiring the mouth?” It asked, its lips not moving. Ifs spider-like body moved around the room isn’t the darkness, slowly edging closer to Cozy Glow as it almost danced around.

Cozy Glow gulped. “Are you gonna… eat me?” Cozy Glow asked, frightened.

“Yes,” it replied. “Whatever gets you through the portal.”

“Please… don’t do this,” Cozy Glow pleaded. “I’ll change my fate! Just give me more time!”

“I can do anything I want. I can create realms out of thin air, destroy planets in a week, or even… eat you,” they replied hastily. Then, sharp, unpleasant teeth grew out of its gums.

“Get away!” Cozy Glow pleaded once more, backing up into the door. She was totally screwed if she couldn’t find a way out of the situation.

Out of nowhere, as if unforeseen by Fate itself, a figure emerged in the portal. They crawled right out, startling Fate.

“What the hell?” It yelled, as the figure—Cloud Shaper—landed on the floor, got up, and glared at Cozy Glow.

“You, ya lady. You trapped me in YOUR fate!” Cloud Shaper exclaimed.

Cozy Glow just stared, stunned by his sudden appearance.

“Pardon,” Fate broke in. “What the FUCK are you doing in her resting place? You guard it, not go in it!”

“She trapped me!” He argued.

“You… you’re done,” Fate said flatly. Then, in an instant, Fate’s mouth changed from showing a Winter scape to now… a throat. The literal mouth of Fate.

“Oh, no… don’t! I am sorry I failed you!” Cloud Shaper screamed. “It wasn’t my fault! I thought I weakened her! I didn’t know she was gonna push me in!”

Fate didn’t budge at his pleads. It moved closer, ready to swipe him up with one of their six legs and have him for a midnight snack. However, Cozy Glow felt urged to disallow this. He truly didn’t deserve to die… he was just serving his purpose: to conceal her fate further, even if that wasn’t in her best interests.

Cozy Glow whistled, having now moved to the corner of the room.

Fate drew their attention to her, now semi-disinterested in Cloud Shaper.

Cozy Glow had a chair, and she was ready to smash open a window and escape.

Just as she’d hoped, this pissed off Fate.

Fate stampeded across the room to her, ready to subdue her and throw her into their now changed back portal-mouth thing. This allowed Cloud Shaper a chance to run, which he did.

Cozy Glow flew to the podium, right before Fate slammed into the window. It shattered, but Fate used their magic to repair it in about ten seconds, all whilst they sprinted to Cozy Glow’s position at the podium.

Right before Fate slammed into her, she moved again, flying above it and towards the door. Fate followed, regaining their balance. They crawled out of the now destroyed podiums and made their way to Cozy Glow’s position.

Cloud Shaper stood off to the side, watching the whole mess.

Fate ran… and finally, they smacked into the door, right as Cozy Glow flew off to the side of the room. With that, the door splintered and fell apart completely. Just as Cozy Glow had hoped.

Fate moved again, but this time, before the door could rebuild due to Fate’s magical doing, Cloud Shaper slipped out. He was safe, saved from the wrath of Fate.

Now it was just Cozy Glow, and the very enraged Fate, now rapidly approaching her.

Cozy Glow flew to the broken podium once again, attempting to stall until she could figure out what to do.

Fate stomped closer, until finally reaching Cozy. However, something made Fate stop dead in their tracks, as if realizing something. Something big.

Fate stared at Cozy Glow for the longest time. They were unsure of what to make of what they had just realized. Finally, they broke the intense silence.

“You allowed your Keeper to escape me,” they began. “In turn, that slightly changed your fate.”

“What?” Cozy Glow asked, confused. She had somehow changed her fate? What did that mean?

“You’re no longer damned to the snow dimension… a new fate is forming, one fit a for a filly who has destroyed the world, but had a change of heart last minute,” Fate went on.

“Are you saying I’ve saved myself?” Cozy Glow asked.

“No,” they replied flatly. “Your fate will be slightly different. But you, somehow, shifted your fate. Allow me to open up a portal to your new found fate.”

Their mouth portal shifted from the snowy chasm to… a snowy chasm once more, only this one slightly different.

“The temperature has risen a bit in this one,” Fate explained. “You undid a sin.”

Cozy Glow stared, stunned at the minor change. However, this did prove something.

“So I can undo my fate?” Cozy Glow asked.

“I won’t allow it, but you could hypothetically do so,” Fate answered.

This was all Cozy Glow wanted to hear. She now knew that changing her fate was a hundred percent doable, assuming she could do it before she died.

“Let me leave! I have the proof I can change now!” Cozy Glow screamed.

“No,” Fate continued. “That’s not how things should end. You’re still damned to your designated fate.”

Fate swooped down, attempting to grab Cozy Glow, but failed as Cozy Glow leapt out of the way.

Cozy Glow flew to the door once more, thinking up a plan to somehow escape from the dream. For now, she needed to figure out how to subdue or even kill the flesh version of Fate attempting to slaughter her, or worse, shove her back into the snowy cavern.

“Let me see your wings!” They screamed. “They need to be torn off once more. And this time, when the one you know as the Tree of Harmony kills you, you won’t be able to get them back. You’ll be trapped forever!”

“No!” Cozy Glow bellowed. She wasn't going to let them hurt her. She was going to do anything to escape their wrath.

In a flash of anger, Cozy Glow yanked a chair from the ground, and slammed into the skull of Fate as they reached her.

Fate recoiled, stunned by Cozy Glow being able to actually hurt them in the body they presented. Cozy Glow then slammed the chair into their eye cavities, making them sputter out… black puss. A disgusting, dark goop poured out of their sockets. They reached their arms up to shield themselves, but those too were beaten ruthlessly by the chair Cozy Glow had equipped herself with.

Finally, Fate fought back. They yanked the chair from Cozy Glow and threw it across the room, it smashing against a wall. They grabbed Cozy Glow and aimed her towards her portal-mouth.

But Cozy Glow had other ideas.

Cozy Glow slammed her hooves into their face, punching Fate ruthlessly. Fate groaned in pain and began to start fumbling for Cozy Glow’s wings, ready to rip them off once more.

The grabbed one wing, and started to violently tug on it, hoping it would stun Cozy Glow long enough for her to be thrown into the portal.

Cozy Glow winced in pain, but kept fighting, even when she felt the final tug of her wing being completely ripped off. Again.

They grabbed the other one, but Cozy Glow decided to try one more thing to—hopefully—end the madness.

They gave them one, final punch, stunning them long enough the crawl up their face. Cozy Glow, her wing ripped off and severely injured, reached the sharp quills on their back—and plucked one off.

Fate’s scream erupted from wherever they had been talking from, revealing them to be stunned.

Cozy Glow got down, though not quite safely; she landed in a pile of chair, almost impaling her.

Quickly she picked up the quill and climbed over the sears and into the isle, trying to get away as fast a possible to allow herself to position.

She reached a corner of the room and, aiming the quill, watched as Fate stepped into the isle and made their way over to her in a mad dash.

Cozy Glow prayed her idea would work. If it didn’t, this was the end.

Quickly, Cozy Glow aimed the quill high in the air as Fate reached her space—and it stabbed fate right in the chest.

Fate uttered a loud, shuddering gasp as they took in what just happened.

“Beaten by a mere filly,” they choked out. Then, in a fabulous fashion, they fell back in a heap on the floor, right in the center of the isle.

Cozy Glow had narrowly done it: she defied Fate themself and even killed it, though Cozy Glow knew that their spirit was out there somewhere still, manipulating time… if this were legitimate.

She caught her breath and approached the being’s face. The light in their eyes had went out, signaling the lack of a soul remaining in the body. The teeth in its mouth shrunk back into their gums, allowing the portal to be seen much clearer: a portal to… a sandy desert. A giant, massive desert, and in it, a strange glow up front and center.

Cozy Glow nearly cried out in happiness when she realized that it was a portal back to reality. She had found a way to escape, and she found out that she really could defy Fate. Now the only question was… could she change her Fate for the better in a desert wasteland she created?

Cozy Glow entered the portal.

Author's Note

The final chapter comes soon. How will this whole nightmare end? And will she be able to change her fate for the better? Only time will tell.