Fanfic / Castling Cozy Glow

Castling Cozy Glow is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by Silvermyr that takes place shortly after "The Ending of the End, Part 2". With Princess Twilight Sparkle, now the sole ruling princess of Equestria, meeting with Rarity and Sweetie Belle to hear out something the latter wanted to discuss with her as a favor to her friend. Not expecting what young Sweetie Belle wants to discuss, is a matter that Twilight was content not to think too hard about up until this point. The matter of a certain villainous child that is currently serving a life sentence in stone...

And despite her reservations, Sweetie Belle’s pleas eventually sway her into at least trying to help Cozy Glow reform. Leading to her to reluctantly freeing the evil little filly and taking her in secret, hoping that she could teach her enemy friendship. Despite Cozy being... less than cooperative with her efforts.

It has two sequels:

The Once and the Future Princess, which continues where the last story left off. And The Cozy Anthology, an an anthology about Cozy Glow continuing off of the events of “The Once and the Future Princess”.

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Castling Cozy Glow contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Invoked. After Rumble hears Cozy Glow through Princess Twilight's door, Cozy tricks him into thinking she is Twilight's illegitimate daughter, "Sheltered Light", that she's keeping trapped and isolated in her personal quarters to hide her own shame. Rumble's pretty pissed when he finds out who he's really been talking too.
• Age Lift: Flurry Heart is given one for the sequel. Going from a baby to a school aged filly, so she can be a peer of Cozy Glow and Rumble. Despite the first story stating only a few months have passed since the final battle in season nine. Word of God says she's about the same age the Cutie Mark Crusaders were in season one.
• Affectionate Nickname: Rarity occasionally calls Cozy Glow "Little Miss Glow".
• Anger Born of Worry: The only time Sweetie Belle loses her temper with Cozy Glow was after the latter threatened to kill herself if Twilight tried to take her back.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • While arguing over releasing Cozy Glow, Sweetie Belle points out how much more lenient Twilight was with Starlight. Twilight counters that Starlight showed regret and she let her prove she deserved a second chance. But then Sweetie Belle asks this:
    Sweetie Belle: And when could Cozy have earned her second chance!? When she was caught, the first thing you did was haul her into the darkest prison there is! How do you expect a filly to earn a second chance there? She did bad things, but you never gave her a chance to be anything better afterward, did you?
    • Afterwards, Twilight tries to dig in her heels on the matter and end the discussion, but can offer no actual rebuttal beyond that she personally saw good in Starlight but not in Cozy.
  • Ironically, Twilight asks one in Cozy's defense later, when Rumble is explaining to her how Cozy pretended to be Twilight's abused daughter to get him to help her escape:
    Rumble: I really had no idea it was her. Or I would never have helped her. You have to believe that; I hate her as much as anypony.
    Twilight: You hate her? Why?
    Rumble: (blinks) Of course I do. Everypony does, don't they?
    Twilight: Not me.
  • Cozy Glow herself is on the receiving end of several of this while laid up in bed with her Ley-break at Rarity’s after her escape from Canterlot, such as from Sweetie Belle:
    Cozy Glow: You're really naïve then. I will never stop trying. Ever, until I'm a princess with so many friends nopony can deny my power. Then, like chess, I will have won. I will have so many pieces that nopony else can hope to win.
    Sweetie Belle: Is... that we are to you? Am I really just a chess piece? Rumble and Rarity too?
    Cozy Glow: (pause) No... not you three... Golly, there really is something wrong with me...
    • And Twilight:
      Twilight Sparkle: Do you really hate me so much that you would rather permanently give up your flight just to get out that door than let me help you make up with Sweetie Belle!?
      Cozy Glow: And why would I do that? Maybe I'd rather hide away and plot your agonizing downfall.
      Twilight Sparkle: But then why do you care about apologizing to Sweetie Belle? If you just plan to leave and never see her again?
• Ascended Fan Girl: Twilight arranges for Cozy Glow to play against the reigning chess grandmaster, Checked Square, as a gift for her new student.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Cozy considers returning to her stone prison, paramount to dying and being stuck in Twilight's custody any longer not much preferable. So after her escape, during her confrontation with Twilight, she threatens to poison herself rather than be taken back. She herself is not entirely sure if she was serious or if it was a bluff.
• Bookend: The first and last chapters (not counting the epilogue) of “Castling Cozy Glow” are both titled "Saved by the Bell(e)".
• Both Sides Have a Point: The fic leans towards this in regards to the handling of Cozy Glow; turning her to stone forever was wrong and Twilight and the others should have made an effort to actually try and help her, instead of writing her off as irredeemable, despite still being a child. At the same time, Cozy is a dangerous, untrustworthy, and (at least at the beginning of this story) unrepentant villain who needs to be held on a tight leash till she can be trusted. Even if her treatment in canon and at the beginning of this story was going too far.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • While visiting the orphanage Cozy Glow lived at before coming to her school, Twilight is given an oversized wooden rook resembling Cozy's cutie Mark to return to her. Which she does, believing it's just a curious, but harmless trinket of sentimental value to the filly. What she doesn't know, is that it's a homemade magical lamp powered by an enchanted gem. Which Cozy repurposes as a makeshift battery for her escape device.
  • Before Cozy leaves for her outing with Rumble and Sweetie Belle, Twilight enchants her ribbons with a tracking spell so she can't escape while away. When she gets home that evening, she immediately goes to her room to get away from Twilight and plan her actual escape that night. But since she was in such a rush to get away from Twilight and Twi doesn't want to disturb her, she never gets the chance to remove the tracking enchantment and Cozy's too preoccupied to think about this...
  • After obtaining a potion to help her sneak into the train to Ponyville, Cozy is warned by the seller that taking more than three drops in twenty four hours could kill her. When Twilight tracks her down to Carousel Boutique, Cozy threatens to use the potion as a makeshift poison and kill herself if Twilight tries to take her back.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Cozy mentions being a fan of the reigning chess champion named Checkered Square at one point in the story. After she officially becomes Twilight's student, Twilight arranges for Checkered Square to come over for a game as a gift for her.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Sweetie Belle was a major character in "Castling" who even kicked off the plot by confronting Twilight about Cozy Glow. But in the sequels, she takes a back seat. Likely because she still lives in Ponyville instead of Canterlot, and to make room for Flurry Heart and her relationship with Cozy.
  • Outside of Twilight, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle, most of the mane characters from the show get very little mention. Though it's justified, as most of the story takes place in Canterlot instead of Ponyville and Twilight decides to keep Cozy's release a secret from most ponies during the first story.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Cozy initially reacts this way when Rarity tries to comfort her while she's breaking down over the possibility of permanently losing her pegasus magic. But Rarity manages to ease Cozy into letting her guard down.
  Cozy Glow: I don't need your sympathy! I'M COZY GLOW! I WILL GET BACK AT ALL OF YOU FOR THIS!
• Doting Grandparent: Flurry Heart has deal with an almost smothering degree of affection from her grandparents, Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, while staying with them during her time at Canterlot. So much so, she struggles to get out of the house in time to make it to her aunt's lessons no matter how early she gets up and is so loaded down by things her grandmother insisted she take to stay well fed, warm, etc. that she can barley carry herself to the palace.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Cozy Glow doesn't entirely buy that Twilight, Rumble, or Rarity would be so invested in helping her, unless they had something to gain in the long run. While she mostly just writes off Sweetie Belle's desires to help her as her being thick and naive. And she also doesn't quite understand why their kindness is starting to affect her...
• Fatal Flaw: Cozy's lust for power, hatred of Twilight, and pride all repeatedly drive her to self destructive actions that nearly lead to her blowing her chance for redemption and winding up where she started, permanently losing her pegasus magic, and burning bridges with Sweetie Belle, the one pony to have fate in her from the start. Not to mention, her situation prior to the story. By chapter 20 she finally starts to realize this... only to slide back into old habits a chapter later.
• Friend in the Black Market: After Cozy Glow escapes the palace with Rumble's help, she reveals that she used to be involved in such circles and goes to meet a contact to barter for a potion to help her blend in with the shadows. To help get out of Canterlot. Word of God is the specific contact she meets is the same pony that sold Trixie The Alicorn Amulet.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Cozy Glow is revealed to have created a homemade magical lamp inside her oversized, red chess rook when she was just nine at the oldest and later, an improvised magical key out of a shard of a real magic key and components from her aforementioned lamp... which admittedly blows up in her hoof and leaves her with a serious and potentially permanent magical injury. But it does get the door open. It later turns out Cozy Glow's special talent was not (at least directly) manipulation or even chess, but working with "artifacts" (basically Magic Tec) and the reason her Cutie Mark is a rook is because the magical lamp she made to earn it was designed to look like a large, red chess rook.
• Gilded Cage: Cozy Glow finds herself in this situation after her release from stone; Twilight gives Cozy Princess Luna's old room for her personal quarters, complete with the princess' bed and telescope, as well as an assortment of books and other items Twilight provided for her to entertain herself. As well as Twilight making sure she's well fed with food ordered from the palace kitchen, offering to hear any of her own suggestions for ways to make her stay more comfortable, and giving her the run of her personal study and living area... but nowhere else. Cozy's locked in that little area of the palace at all times unless Twilight escorts her personally, she isn't allowed to see anypony but those Twilight specifically lets in to see her, most ponies don't even know she's there to begin with, and (at least at first) she has the constant fear that Twilight will reimprison her in stone if she steps out of line hanging over her. And even after Twilight goes back on her threat to do so and swears she'll never give up on her and that will never happen, Cozy herself still sees it as a real possibility. Twilight still insists that it's not a prison, but Cozy doesn't buy it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Cozy Glow in “The Once and the Future Princess”, starts out hating her new "study buddy" Flurry Heart on principle. Largely because she was born with all the power Cozy believes she deserves. And responds to Flurry's initial attempts to befriend her with open hostility.
• Heel–Face Turn: Cozy Glow finally starts to head towards this in chapter twenty... before promptly relapsing. But by the end the first story, she's officially on her way towards one. Even if she's not exactly there yet.
• Hidden Depths: We learn that, surprisingly, Cozy Glow didn't get her Cutie Mark directly from manipulating ponies or playing chess, despite liking and being good at both, but from making a homemade magical lamp in the shape of a rook. And her actual special talent is working with magical "artifacts", e.g. magical objects.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Flurry Heart expresses a degree of annoyance at ponies treating her as something special, just because she was born an alicorn princess.
• Ignored Epiphany: Cozy Glow seems to finally be coming around by chapter twenty... But then she learns the potentially only way to cure her Ley-break is for Twilight to let her use Grogar's Bell to absorb a small bit of pegasus magic... and Twilight is reluctantly, actually considering being the one to "donate" the bit of magic she needs as a show of trust. Giving Cozy the perfect temptation and opportunity to slide right back into villainy and steal Twilight's power. And despite everything that's happened and the progress she just started to make, she can barely contain her glee about doing just that. Until Rumble insists on donating some his magic alongside Twilight...
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Variation. When Twilight angrily refuses to even hear Sweetie Belle out on her proposal to try and reform Cozy Glow, Sweetie pulls out the honorary diploma Twilight gave her from The Friendship School and throws it back at her. This helps Twilight come to her senses and she decided to give Sweetie's idea a shot.
• Irony:
  • Lampshaded by Cozy Glow. When she prays to Princess Celestia for help out of habit... while knowing full well that given past events, Celestia probably wouldn't be interested in helping her even if she heard.
  • On a more serious note, Cozy Glow's Evil Plan in season eight involved her draining the world's magic and she and the other villain's plans in season nine involved using Grogar's Bell to drain magical power from ponies. So it can almost be seen as a bit of Laser-Guided Karma when during her breakout of the palace, Cozy Glow accidentally inflicts herself with a Ley-break, an injury that causes her natural magic seep out, potentially causing her to lose her flight and other pegasus abilities permanently.
• Jerkass Has a Point: After arriving in Canterlot for Twilight to treat her Ley-break and reveal her release to Equestria alongside Sweetie Belle and Rumble, Cozy Glow and the others are met by Chancellor Neighsay to escort them to the palace. Who completely dismisses the idea that Cozy has changed and writes off her friend's when they try to speak up for her. While Nieghsay is ultimately proven wrong, considering just how close Cozy did come to sliding back into villainy that night, it's hard to say his skepticism was unwarranted.
• Jerkass Realization: Twilight initially refuses to hear out Sweetie Belle's request to free Cozy Glow, simply writing off the filly's fate as what she brought upon herself and outright saying she has No Sympathy for her, and shoots down any criticisms regarding how much more forgiving she was towards one Starlight Glimmer for similarly serious crimes, despite Cozy being a child and Starlight being an adult. She's even about to just storm off angrily when Sweetie pressed on, until Rarity stepped in to serve as voice of reason and only gave in when Sweetie outright threw back the honorary Friendship School diploma Twilight gave her. And even after reluctantly agreeing to give reforming Cozy a serious shot and even putting a fair amount of effort into making dwelling as comfortable as possible, Twilight is rather blunt that this is Cozy's only second chance and she will turn her back to stone if she steps out of line. But when she catches Cozy trying to steal her key to escape and actually has to decide if she personally is going to go through with her threat to imprison a child in stone for eternity, Twilight realizes and admits to herself just how cruel a punishment that is to even threaten a child with. Even a child as dangerous and wicked as Cozy Glow. And promptly swears that the threat of turning her back to stone is off the table and promises Cozy that she'll never give up on trying to help her.
• Loss of Identity: After Rumble realizes the truth about Cozy and she loses both one of her few tools and one of her few sources of companionship, her pride and stubborn refusal to let Twilight help her, finally starts to wane. And she's left questioning if she is even Cozy Glow if she sucks up her pride and starts actually going along with Twilight's attempts to reform her. Though she bounces back after making up with Rumble... and other tools for her escape start falling into place. She still asks herself questions like this throughout the story.
• Love Triangle: “The Once and the Future Princess” has one form between, Cozy Glow, Rumble, and Flurry Heart. Partially out of Flurry’s illconcieved plan to get close to Cozy, by first getting close to Rumble.
• Mean Boss: Ramson, Rumble's cooking instructor, is a very harsh and demanding boss and teacher. Who yells at and threatens his charge at the slightest provocation. It's even mentioned that Ramson started with a dozen students, of which nearly half went home crying the first day and only Rumble remains by the time the story starts. Though he does finally start to lighten up and show that he does believe in Rumble as his student deep down, during the cooking competition in "The Cozy Chronicles".
• Mood-Swinger: Lampshaded by Rumble. Who after seeing Cozy Glow get so angry with him in Cloudsdale she almost outs herself to the nearby ponies, only to go back to her (fake) chipper personality on a dime, he's left unsure if she has terrible control of her emotions or great control of her emotions.
• Morality Pet:
  • Sweetie Belle, Rumble, and Rarity to a degree gradually become this to Cozy Glow. This comes to a head in chapter twenty-two, where Cozy is practically handed an opportunity to steal Twilight's magic and return to her old ambitions on a silver platter... but Rumble steps into the metaphorical line of fire to give her his support.
  • Cheerful Sun, the head of the orphanage Cozy stayed at before attending Twilight's school, seems to be the only pony Cozy Glow genuinely cared about, even a little before the events of this story. She even lists not being able to go see her in Cloudsdale as one of her major losses if she loses her pegasus magic permanently.
• Mysterious Past: Cozy Glow's past in the first story is alluded to and we are given some interesting details, but it's mostly kept vague. All Twilight finds out through her personal investigation, is Cozy showed up in an orphanage in Cloudsdale four years ago with nothing but a large wooden chess rook resembling her cutie mark and an unsigned note asking the orphanage to take care of her, informing them she's already officially completed all her primary schooling despite being just nine years old, and a sizable sum of money has been donated to the orphanage, in hopes they'll put it towards taking care of her. (Which Twilight later confirms was made through dozens of ponies coming in and transferring small suns of money to avoid the paper trail a single large transfer would leave). Before she ran away out of the blue to join Twilight's school with forged documents that Twilight doubts she would be able to forge herself. Later, after Cozy escapes the castle we learn that she's had dealings in the black market going back even further than her time at the orphanage.
• Never My Fault:
  • When asked why she refuses to even consider Twilight anything but an enemy, despite her genuine efforts to be kind and help her, Cozy Glow points to things like Twilight allowing her (admittedly very harsh) punishments to happen and taking away her "princess" and alicorn status. Without acknowledging her own wrong doings or that her "alicorn princess" status was something she only gained through stolen power to begin with.
  • After Cozy inflicts herself with a magical injury called a Ley-break while trying to escape that could cause her to permanently lose her flight, she still blames Twilight for holding her prisoner to begin with.
• Nice Guy:
  • Sweetie Belle and later Rumble after he gets over the initial shock of realizing who she is, are both very patient and friendly companions to Cozy Glow who go out of their way to help her. Despite her being, well, Cozy Glow.
  • Flurry Heart is also this in the sequel. Being friendly and humble around pretty much everypony she meets and still trying to befriend Cozy despite being met with open hostility.
• No Sympathy: Twilight initially has this view towards Cozy Glow's fate. Though she quickly starts changing her attitude on the matter, when she has to actually confront it.
• Once More, with Clarity: After Cozy Glow's fight with Sweetie Belle and following confrontation with Twilight in chapter nineteen, the text says Cozy said something to Twilight that shocked both of them, but the scene ends without revealing it and cuts to Sweetie Belle and Rarity's perspective. Just before Cozy and Twilight walk out and Cozy makes amends with Sweetie. The next chapter begins with the conversation between Cozy and Twilight continuing where it left off, before showing the scene of Cozy apologizing to Sweetie from her own perspective.
• Only Friend: Sweetie Belle is this to Cozy Glow at the beginning of the story, to the surprise of everypony including Cozy Glow. Who was unaware that anypony would still consider her a friend until Twilight tells her a friend of hers asked for her release. And she doesn’t even know Sweetie Belle is that “friend” of hers till the unicorn actually comes to visit her.
• Orphanage of Love: Surprisingly, when Twilight finds a lead on Cozy Glow's past that takes her to an orphanage in Cloudsdale Cozy lived at prior to attending her school, it turns out to be a humble, but still pretty well maintained and happy place, run by a loving care taker, instead the Orphanage of Fear one would expect a pony like Cozy to come from.
• Pals with Jesus: Rumble's relationship with Princess Twilight is something like this to him at least, as he's not used to being around an alicorn princess, who he's grown up thinking of as mysterious and divine. And doesn't have the preexisting relationship with her to think of her as just Twilight other characters have.
• Parental Substitute: Though Cozy Glow would never admit it, Twilight more or less becomes the closest thing she has to a mother.
• Properly Paranoid: Twilight not only keeps her personal chambers locked up while Cozy's there, but also enchants the windows so a forcefield pops up around them if somepony tried to break them, enchanted the keys so only she can use them, and even makes sure what few ponies also have permission to see Cozy, enter and leave through magical means just so the door doesn't have to be opened for them.
• Put on a Bus: It's mentioned that Spike was sent away to the Dragon Lands for an indeterminate amount of time for diplomatic reasons. Explaining why he isn't in the story, despite being Twilight's close assistant and advisor.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Rarity is supportive of Sweetie Belle's efforts to help Cozy Glow, but still treats the filly with a healthy degree of caution personally while still maintaining a pleasant disposition whenever they interact directly.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Cozy Glow is more or less this by the end of the first story. She has a handful of ponies she genuinely cares about, has agreed to be Twilight's apprentice, and resisted a golden opportunity to seize power... but only barley. And only because one of the aforementioned ponies she cares about got in the way. She still has her lust for power, though she's at least open to earning it legitimately if no better opportunity arises, and while she does agree to be Twilight's apprentice, she still stubbornly refuses to let go of her resentment towards her and Twilight has to dangle the possibility that she might make Cozy an alicorn princess like Celestia did her someday to get her to agree.
• Secret-Keeper: Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and later Rumble, and Cheerful Sun, the head of the orphanage Cozy used to live at, are the only ones privy to Twilight's efforts to reform Cozy Glow. Later, Nurse Red Heart is brought in on it by Rarity to help with Cozy's magical injury. And at the end of "Castling", Twilight officially announced her release to Equestria.
• Sequel Hook: Castling Cozy Glow ends with Cozy Glow reluctantly agreeing to become Twilight's friendship student, despite still harbouring a lot of resentment towards her. And in the epilogue, Princess Candace sends Twilight a letter asking her to take Flurry Heart in as a student too.
• Ship Tease: We get some between Cozy Glow and Rumble. Like when catches her while she's dealing with a strained wing during their flying session over whitetail woods. She blushes and thinks to herself about how that was the first time a colt "basically" hugged her. He's also the reason she didn't slip back into her villainous ways, when the chance to take everything she wanted came her way in the end...
• Skeleton Key: Cozy makes a makeshift magical variation out of a fragment of the key The Mane Six used to enter Tartarus in season eight she swiped and components from her rook shaped magic lamp. It succeeds in getting the door open... but also blows up in her hoof. Leaving her with a nasty magical injury that saps her pegasus magic, possibly permanently without proper treatment.
• Spanner in the Works: Owlowiscious twice thwarts Cozy's schemes to escape; first when she sneaks into Twilight's room to steal the key for the door and later, he causes her to blow the lid on her attempts to manipulate Rumble into helping "Sheltered Light" and reveal who she actually is.
• Squee: Cozy Glow has this reaction to seeing the reigning chess grandmaster, Checked Square waiting to play a game with her. Per Princess Twilight's request.
• Stunned Silence: Nurse Redheart has this reaction when she see the patient Rarity dragged her over to treat is Cozy Glow, who as far as pony society at large knew, was still imprisoned in stone for her crimes at that point. Though she's able to put that aside and get to work, upon realizing how serious the situation is.
• Sympathy for the Devil: It's mentioned a few times that Cozy's fellow pegasy have a particular grudge against her for disgracing their tribe's good name. But when Twilight officially reveals Cozy Glow to a large conference and announces that her current condition could lead to her permanently losing her ability to fly, it's noted that many of the pegasy present responded with a surprising twinge of sympathy for her plight.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Sweetie Belle concedes that Cozy Glow isn't wrong about friendship being a form of power per se, but tells her there's still a lot more to it she's not getting.
  • When questioned on her continued hostility and fear of Twilight, Cozy points out her past punishment as reasons not to assume the princess wouldn't do something horrible to her. Considering Princess Twilight was willing to leave her in her stone prison indefinitely until directly confronted about it and initially threatened to return Cozy to it if she stepped out of line, it's hard to argue with her on that point.
  • In "The Once and Future Princess" Cozy Glow tells Twilight that she can't force her and Flurry Heart to become friends if she doesn't want to. Twilight, while disappointed and annoyed by Cozy's attitude, admits that it is true that she can not force friendship with somepony on ponies that don't want to be friends with them.
• Villain Protagonist: Cozy Glow technically is still evil for most of the story. She still has her ambitions to seize power and still wants to get revenge on Twilight. But circumstances prevent her from doing any real villainy outside of trying to escape Twilight's custody and treating her with general hostility. Even after she starts to gain a circle of ponies she genuinely cares about, she doesn't abandon her ambitions or her hatred of Twilight. Though she does agree to become Twilight's student and becomes somewhat less hostile... after Twilight mentions the possibility that she could eventually make Cozy an alicorn princess like Celestia did her one day. If she earns it.
• When She Smiles: Princess Twilight finally manages to coax a genuine (not malicious) smile out of Cozy Glow, after taking her to the Wonderbolts Rally in Cloudsdale.

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