.
Dear Cozy Glow,
my name is Starswirl, the Bearded. It has come to my attention that you strayed from the right path, a lost soul in need of guidance.
“Nope!” Cozy Glow exclaimed, then shook her head. “I'm exactly on the right path! Not down here, but just wait until I get out, then I will have a new plan and Empress Cozy Glow will rule over you!” She cast her eyes back on the curvy lines that adorned the paper. “Now let me see what you have to say, Starswirl, the Beardo!” The smile on her face turned into a perky grin.
And I shall provide this guidance, as Princess Twilight Sparkle asked me to.
Cozy raised an eyebrow. She cocked her head. “How Princess Twilight Sparkle asked you to, hmm? Well, doesn't that sound familiar!” Sarcasm creeped into her voice again. “Gee, the principal must really think there is hope for me to fulfill her great friendship vision..... So bad I'll have to disappoint her.” Cozy poked her lower lip to the outside and let it quiver. Her face gave the perfect impression of a filly who was about to tear up any moment.
I already defended Equestria over a thousand years ago, when the princesses that rule it now were still young and unexperienced fillies.
“That old, huh? Golly, I really hope writing this didn't break your hooves! It would be so terrible if I wouldn't get another letter by you!”
And as such, I have seen many foes who tried to take Equestria by force. I and a group of ancient heroes, the Pillars of Equestria, defeated them all. Except for one...
Our strategist (or the brain of our group, as you will likely call it), a scholar named Stygian, listened to the whispers of an evil that is perhaps older than time itself. He invited it to take over his mind and body and when he returned to us, Stygian was all but gone and there was only The Shadow.
“How dumb.” Cozy smacked her lips. “What's the worth of getting power by someone else who will only control and abuse you for their own gain? That's so ridiculous. If you want power, you need to take it for yourself and get rid of those with more power than you!” Cozy sighed in disapproval.
But it was not Stygian's fault... it was ours. I and the other Pillars sent Stygian away. He had taken our six powerful artifacts and attempted to create duplicates of them. We all agreed that he had evil intent with this plan, so we cast him out. And we banished him and the monster that controlled him into another dimension, together with us, to keep Equestria and the world safe.
But we made a grave mistake. For all that Stygian wanted was to be like us, a hero, to fight alongside us as an equal. Equestria has seen a thousand years come and go before we learned the truth and could see our mistake. It was thanks to your teacher and your guidance counselor that we became aware of Stygian's true intentions.
Stygian was our friend, but we have assumed the worst of him. And we all have paid a great price for our distrust.
I vowed to not make this same mistake again and I shall not make it with you. Stygian has taught me an important lesson. And maybe you can teach me something, as well, young Cozy Glow.
Cozy pursed her lips and her pupils shrunk. Then she broke out in maniacal, amused giggling. It lasted for about a minute before she wiped some tears out of her eyes and continued reading.
I am aware that you are different than Stygian. Stygian sought power to fight the forces of evil in our world, but you sought power solely for your own benefits, to rule over Equestria and its citizens with an iron hoof, as their empress.
Cozy Glow frowned. “What do you know about my intentions, you freaky, old stallion?” she asked between clenched teeth.
But, regardless, I have faith that there was something more noble than this about your intentions.
Cozy squinted her eyes.
By Stygian's example, I learned to see things from the perspective of others even when their actions are ambigious. I shall not judge you before I know you better, young one.
I have to end this letter now, but more will follow. Know that I believe that there is some good in you, like it is in everyone.
Yours faithfully,
Starswirl, the Bearded
Cozy Glow folded the letter carefully and laid it on top of the other three letters in the corner of her cage. “So you want me to stop craving power. Let's see if you won't bite out your old teeth trying, Starswirl,” she spoke in a menacing voice.
If anyone has some good words on having to fight someone corrupted and evil, it's Starswil. Wouldn't be surprised if even Stygian would write a letter.
It's interesting to see how, as in a real-life situation, there are 'trigger words' that almost instantly make Cozy less inclined to care about wha t is being shared with her through the letters.
This is where you can bring a little psychology into play. If Twilight would have had foresight before starting this plan, she would have made sure that each letter never had a way to trace itself back to her in a way that implied, "There doing this for me.".
Cozy got close enough to Twilight to know that Ms. Sparkle doesn't like failure. So, in this letter, we are brought back to Cozy, more than likely, viewing the letter as an effort by Twilight to soothe herself over give a care about her.
So, at this point, I can see Cozy building more resentment towards these letters for how, to her, they are coming off more for Twilight's sake than for her. This could be triggering memories as to how she wound up at the School Of Friendship in the first place. Perhaps her parents insisted that this would be 'good for her' and sent her off? Maybe Cozy took notice of how her parents struggled with her and how other ponies treated her parents as a result of how 'different' she was?
On a positive note, I could see her looking back on Trixie and the CMC's letters to see how they, to her, were more genuine than the other letters. They could make her think there is at least some sense of honesty coupled with genuine care. By now she has learned quite a lot on how to read between the lines and, thus far, it appears only Trixie and the CMC have given her something that isn't, "I'm doing this to help twilight's ego.".
Now to think on how Twilight's endless quest for 'perfection' is her greatest Akiles' Heal. If Cozy did get out, she could easily turn these letters against Twilight by knowing precisely what buttons to push to make the princess go "Twilinanans" / begin "Twilighting". Pressing said buttons would throw Twilight into a panic that would strongly cripple the Mane 6 and, likely, make everything come down to Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, and the CMC. (Starlight only because she has a way of still acting through her emotions and isn't as much of a comfort-source for Twilight as she is still learning to accept herself and wouldn't be as distracted trying to reassemble a mentally-crippled Twilight)
9670934
I can already say as much that the fact Cozy is in the process of figuring out that all of this is a giant plan by Twilight, will not make this undertaking any easier and that it will prove to be a challenge.
I especially like the last sentence here. Twilight and her friends being incapacitated while Twilight is going through her own mental nightmare so that it falls to Starlight, Trixie, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to take care of Cozy and stop a new plan by her would be really nice to see. I would like to write this somehow.
Appeal to her selfishness.
An interesting approach to possibly reforming Cozy Glow. I hope you'll continue with this until the end.
9703794
Does it look like I have stopped writing it? I won't cancel or abandon it, I am just neckdeep in preparations for the launch of a Patreon account and I'd like to start it tomorrow. Which might have to get delayed by a few days now, because the redesign of my userpage took substantially longer than I thought it would. But this story won't get abandoned because of it, it's just in a small hiatus, and neither will any of my others.
Thanks for the favourite!
Oh dear. I.. I recall saying the exact same thing to my horse, the other day...
cringe as fuck. this is something my friend write at the height of his anime addiction.