When it all comes crashing down, thoughts tend to focus considerably. No matter how many plans there were, no matter what was thought before, and no matter how complicated the situation, in that moment the mind has a tendency to drop anything it deems unnecessary.
A single question rises to the surface.
Fight? Or flight?
Kick and scream, or get as far away as possible?
The mind does not allow any extra thought to be given to the subject. The question is asked and then answered in what is effectively a single instant. The mechanism behind the decision is unknown. If there’s no time to think, what are the reasons?
It might as well be random.
Cozy Glow’s mind was predisposed to choose flight. As she saw the six students who had ruined her plans lay their forward limbs on the glowing artifacts, she felt fear. They were protected by the roots of the Tree of Harmony that surrounded the room, they were not in any danger.
The pulsating orb of vibrant blue magic told Cozy that she was. It was going to explode and she needed to get out of there if she was going to escape with her life intact. She cared more for her safety than her plans.
But in this sequence of events, she chose the opposite of her disposition. The pendulum in her brain flicked to the side of fight as she let out a roar of thoughtless rage. She aimed at Sandbar – the only pony among the group – and charged. She flapped her wings as fast and as hard as she physically could, tapping into the aerial manipulations of pegasus magic for extra speed. She aimed for his stomach. She might have said she was doing this to trigger a gag reflex so he would let go of his artifact, but there was no way she could think that far ahead right now.
Sandbar pulled the artifact back before she got there, but she was already flying right at him. The glowing energy protected him from her attack.
It didn’t protect her.
Magic exploded, grabbing hold of the pegasus magic her wings were giving off. It yanked on her feathers, pulling her toward the center of the ritual. As the stolen magic dissipated across the world in a colorful explosion, a small section of it stayed with her, driving pain into her body through her feathery limbs.
Then, all at once, the pain stopped. She felt herself drift away…
~~~
Cozy Glow did not expect death to feel like falling into a bush.
So, naturally, she reasoned that she wasn’t actually dead. She took a moment to breathe, allowing her heart rate to slow before taking in any more information. The interior of a bush was a safe place – nopony could see her here, she could afford this moment.
The first thing she noticed was that she felt wrong. Her legs were too long, her wings felt too lumpy on her backside, and she couldn’t smell the bush she was in particularly well. She lifted up her front leg to examine it – discovering a long slender arm with a hand at the end.
Most ponies take a moment to have an initial freak-out or marvel at their new form when they become human, shocked and excited at the same time to uncover something new about themselves. Cozy Glow was not most ponies.
Oh. I’m on that Earth Twilight mentioned a few times.
It made sense. She had been trying to send the magic of Equestria to another realm, and this was likely the closest realm to Equestria, so if the draining was interrupted it wasn’t that unreasonable to assume she’d end up here.
Though the fact that she was transformed into a human was curious. She thought the transformation spell was part of the Mirror Portal. Admittedly, she hadn’t really been interested in the Mirror Portal during her time at the School of Friendship, she’d just kept its existence in the back of her mind as something to ‘befriend’ later, so she couldn’t really make a judgment about how it worked.
She sat up in the bush and spread her wings. The fact that she still had wings made her pause. Humans didn’t have wings, Cozy knew that. Unless this was yet another world…
Carefully peeking out from the branches in the bush, she examined the world outside. She was in a somewhat large bush on a long strip of freshly mowed grass smashed between a white picket fence and a sidewalk. She saw a street like those in Manehattan beyond that, though the road was significantly larger and had a lot more cars without hitches.
Humans of all colors walked along the sidewalks, not a single one with wings, horns, or large pony ears. Cozy tapped her head – yep, she had those ears.
This is going to be problematic, Cozy thought. Need to blend in…
She took off her shirt. This was an exceptionally difficult task considering she was dealing with two arm holes, two wing holes, and a head-hole all while trying not to reveal herself to anyone outside the bush. It took long enough that she was able to ask herself where the shirt came from and be unable to find a satisfactory answer. She was able to catalog her entire outfit – form-fitting jeans with a stylish belt under a translucent blue skirt paired with a sleeveless blue-green shirt decorated with a rook-shaped emblem at the base of the v-neck, giving the illusion of a necklace.
Eventually, the shirt was clear. She took off her belt – a piece of clothing she found unwieldy and useless after wrestling with it for about a minute – and bound her closed wings to her back as tightly as she could manage, accepting that she was just going to have to deal with some pain. The wings wouldn’t be able to move much, but they would still form a noticeable bulge. She would just have to deal with it.
She put the shirt back on – the holes in the back were still visible. However, she had a plan to deal with those and the ears at the same time. Her mane – er... hair – was unnaturally long. All she had to do was uncurl it and it could be easily styled to hide the ears and holes.
Cozy Glow smiled warmly. She was finally ready. She waited for a moment when there weren’t that many people walking past and she jumped out of the bush onto her legs. For a moment she instinctively wanted to bend to all fours, but she forced herself to remain upright.
I must move normally.
She took a moment to examine how other people were walking. She would have preferred hands in pockets, but she had a translucent skirt and removing it now to make her pockets easy to access would probably be a bad move. She noticed a girl walking with her hands behind her back and decided that would be her movement style. She stepped onto the sidewalk, a bright smile on her face as she moved through the city.
She moved, and she learned. She noticed how the humans held themselves, how their body language was only slightly different from that of ponies. Their expressions were surprisingly similar despite the lack of a muzzle, and it only took her a few minutes to begin seeing the emotional states people liked to keep hidden. A fake smile here, an awkward laugh there, nervous tapping of the fingers…
She wasn’t going to have a problem with these people.
Cozy didn’t just notice personal details – she also took in what she saw in the world around her. The sun was currently rising, so it was morning, likely before school of any sort started. The roads were clogged with traffic, so people were probably heading to work as well. It must be such a pain to have to drive instead of walk everywhere. I’m already feeling my legs get a bit tired. I need to get this form into shape. She marked that thought for later revisitation.
She was only mildly impressed by the technology on display. Equestria had screens, cars, and portable phones available through the powers of magic, and as a student at Twilight’s School of Friendship Cozy had gotten to see some more advanced examples of Equestrian ingenuity at work. Such things were simply rare in her world, not unheard of.
She noted that she would need a phone. She wondered if it was acceptable for people her apparent age to have them…
Looking around, she made a quick judgment. She was young looking. Not too young that she would get odd looks for walking in public alone, but only just barely. She would have to play it carefully. She suspected she was still cute, but she couldn’t be sure if human reactions were the same as pony ones in regard to that useful aspect of hers.
It was at this point she saw the human version of Rarity walking along the sidewalk in front of her, the fashionable girl’s face planted in her phone. Cozy found her fixation on the device not only fascinating, but also helpful. It allowed Cozy to stop in her tracks and wait for Rarity without being noticed.
She needed some information, and she needed to get it while seeming as normal as possible.
“Why, you’re Rarity aren’t you?”
Rarity looked up from her phone, surprised to see Cozy standing there. “Oh, hello there, uh… Uh…”
“I’m Cozy Glow!” Cozy said, careful to widen her smile just enough to make it noticeable, but not creepy. “I’m not surprised you don’t know me. But I know you!”
“Oh, well, that does seem to be a thing these days, doesn’t it?” Rarity said with a smile. She continued to walk the direction she had been prior and Cozy followed her. “Not that I’m complaining, someone with my dreams could use more publicity, especially if it involves splendid magical outfits!”
“What’s it like, the magic?” Cozy asked.
“Well it – wait, you know about the magic?”
Cover that up. “You just mentioned it. It can’t be that big of a secret.”
“I suppose…” Rarity shrugged. “Magic is like… well, it’s hard to describe. It’s like this warm fuzzy feeling inside, but it’s also terribly frightful when anything important is on the line. It’s beautiful either way.”
“Wow… I wish I had magic…” Cozy felt the presence of her folded up wings more now than ever before.
“Well, more and more magic seems to be showing up every day,” Rarity said. “Who knows, maybe you’ll get some next.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Rarity said, turning to her left. “Oh, looks like I was closer to school than I thought…”
“Don’t worry, this is where I go too!” Cozy said with a smile. Gambling on this one.
A look of guilt crossed Rarity’s face. “Ah, yes, sorry.”
Cozy shook her head. “Nothing to apologize for, people don’t always notice me.”
“That’s no excuse, darling.”
“Yes, it is. There’s a lot of kids in this school! You can’t recognize all of them.”
Rarity smiled. “You’re right. You remind me of my sister, actually…”
I hope Sweetie Belle is still locked in that closet cursing herself for being gullible. “Aw, thanks!”
Rarity leaned down so she was eye-level with Cozy. “You’re such a precious little thing.”
Cozy smiled. “It was nice meeting you, but we should get to class.” She forced herself to shiver slightly. “It’s warmer in there anyway…”
“Cold?”
“Yeah. Do you have a coat or something I could borrow?”
“Not on me, no… But I promise you, tomorrow I’ll have a coat ready for you! It’s the least I could do!”
“Aww, you’re too kind!” Normally, she would try to refuse the gift, but she didn’t want to gamble over the coat. She needed it if she was going to try to permanently hide her wings. Her current setup was just asking for disaster to strike.
Rarity glanced at her watch. “Meet me here before school, same time tomorrow. But you’re right, right now, we have to get to class. Bye Cozy, it was nice to meet you!”
Cozy waved, smiling brightly. “Bye!” Perfect. Already have a hoofhold… Or foothold. I’m going to have to train myself on that quickly.
She adjusted the rook on her shirt and walked into the school. She smiled and waved at the people she passed.
I need to find out what a normal class schedule is. Then find a place to live, start making friends…
~~~
“Hey, Pinkie?” Pinkie was the most dangerous of all ponies – people, Cozy corrected herself – to try and work over. Back in the School of Friendship Cozy had quickly learned the mare didn’t follow many discernable patterns and seemed to know things without being told. She avoided interacting with the Pink Menace as much as possible without being suspicious.
“Hi Cozy!” Pinkie said, grinning. Cozy had to focus intently not to panic about Pinkie knowing her name – that did not mean Pinkie knew anything else. She was acting too cheerful for that.
“How much party can you fit in that party cannon of yours?” Cozy asked.
“A whoooole lot of party!” Pinkie said, pulling the party cannon out of nowhere and slapping it with her hand. “This baby can shoot so much confetti.”
“How much?” Cozy asked. Pinkie may have been dangerous, but even she had some buttons that could be pressed.
“I… I’m not sure, actually,” Pinkie said, hand to her chin.
“Maybe you could experiment on it,” Cozy suggested. “I’m sure Twilight would be really interested in that!”
“Hmm… but last time we tried using science on magic Sunset burned herself!”
So she really does exist. “How can confetti burn things?”
Pinkie grabbed Cozy by the face, dangerously close to where Cozy’s human ears should have been. “You’d be surprised,” Pinkie said, not a hint of amusement in her voice.
Cozy smiled and gently removed Pinkie’s hands from her face. “Well, if you don’t want to science it, why not just show me?”
“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie said, arming the party cannon. “CONFETTI IN THE HOLE!”
“PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!” Vice-principal Luna shouted, running out of her office. “I said NEVER AGAIN!”
Pinkie blinked. “YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!” She pulled some confetti out of her pocket and threw it on the ground – causing it to explode.
Luna was not deterred by the smokescreen, running after Pinkie through the school halls.
Cozy kept her concerned façade up, but inwardly she was chuckling. You could never predict Pinkie, but you could count on her to do the most distracting thing. Now there was no one in the office. She ran in, checking to make sure her escape plan was ready. The window was already open, ready for her to jump out of at a moment’s notice.
She rushed to the file cabinets, pulling open the middle one, moving through student files. She glanced over class schedules and memorized them – a skill she had gained during her studies. She grinned, appreciating the irony of how well the School of Friendship had prepared her for this moment.
But she wasn’t just here for the class schedules – she was here for something else. Something nagging at the back of her mind. At last, she pulled out the file she was looking for.
“I knew it,” a voice said behind her.
Cozy chuckled. “Great minds think alike.” She turned around to look at the doorway to the office, not at all surprised to see herself standing there. “I thought a few people recognized me.”
The other Cozy closed the door behind her, glaring. “What are you doing here?”
Cozy flipped open the file she had grabbed – Cozy Glow – and started reading while talking. “I’ve been banished from my home. You can guess why.”
“You got caught.”
“You’re only a high school student,” Cozy pointed out, holding up the file. “You haven’t gotten high enough to get caught… yet.”
The other Cozy raised an eyebrow. “Already suggesting a team-up?”
“Why not?” Cozy suggested, putting the rather nondescript file back in the cabinet. “How stupid would it be to have myself as an enemy?”
The other Cozy thought about this for a moment – then smiled a menacing, real smile. “Golly, it’d be about the stupidest thing ever!”
“Gee, isn’t it good we aren’t like that!”
The two of them winked at each other. Then they jumped out the window at the same time, rolling out onto the lawn, ducking behind a large shrubbery.
“We can’t be seen together,” Cozy said. “Do you have classes you need to be at?”
“Not for ten minutes,” other Cozy answered. “Time limit. We can meet later at my treehouse. Enderstone Street, a block that direction, outside the red house with a crescent-shaped window on the leftmost side. The pony world?”
“Yes. I still have my wings and ears.” She pulled back her hair, revealing her pointed ear. “I know how to cast pegasus magic. I haven’t had the time to try it out here yet, had to bind my wings. Also, I’ve convinced Rarity to get me a coat and Pinkie to distract Luna.”
“I saw the second one. Where’s she giving you the coat?”
“Tomorrow morning, outside the school, just before classes start. Do you have any plans in motion?”
“I’m biding my time, waiting until I’m old enough to be taken seriously.”
“You don’t have to wait anymore. The time to start is now. We need something to call ourselves. Cozy-E for you, because Earth.”
“Your world has a name, right?”
“Equis, or Equestria. I can be Cozy-Q.”
Cozy-E nodded. “Good enough.” She grinned again. “They won’t suspect a thing…”
“Not unless the ponies find out I’m not dead,” Cozy-Q pointed out. “We have to be careful that they don’t see both of us, ever. But if we can do that… we’ll be able to use the magic of friendship to get power.”
“It does work like that.”
“I almost had it,” Cozy-Q said, smile vanishing. “But I miscalculated… I won’t do that again.”
“I’ll catch you. Two heads are better than one.”
“Great! See you at the treehouse.”
“I’ll leave first.” Cozy-E jumped out of the shrubbery and walked toward the school’s main doors, not giving Cozy-Q’s location a single glance.
Cozy-Q waited a full fifteen minutes – until everyone should have been in a class – before jumping out and beginning the search for the treehouse.
~~~
Sunset Shimmer, unicorn in a human body, read through the latest message Princess Twilight Sparkle had sent her from the world of ponies and magic. She had tried to get Twilight – either of them – to make the magic transfer directly from the journal to her cell phone, but neither of them had managed it yet. So she had to turn through the pages one at a time, reading the hoofwriting of a princess in another dimension.
Not that she minded books. She didn’t go as crazy over them as Twilight did, but they felt natural in her hands. She just couldn’t carry the giant book around with her everywhere and her phone would be much quicker in case of an emergency.
She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, focusing back on the reading. She used one hand to keep the book steady while the other fiddled around with her hair.
Princess Twilight had just dealt with a horrible pony named Cozy Glow who had tried to steal all the magic in Equestria… The Princess was rather distraught about it. She had considered Cozy a friend and great assistant, only to discover that all Cozy had wanted was power through friendship.
That was a new one, Sunset had to admit. They’d faced a lot of bad guys over the years, but none of them had used the power of friendship in any capacity. Even the Sirens had barely tolerated each other because they were sisters.
She briefly wondered where they were now. She should look into that at some point.
Sunset came to the edge of the entry, something nagging the back of her mind. As she wrote a response to Twilight to assure her that everything would be fine, that Cozy Glow wouldn’t hurt anyone again, she realized what the nagging was.
It made her cut her message short – she should have put in something comforting regarding Cozy’s possible death to alleviate Twilight’s implied guilt, but she dropped that off for the sake of time. She’d be sure to talk to her about it later.
Sunset stood up quickly, placing the magic journal back in her locker.
“Hey, Sunset!” Trixie called, waving her hand. “I’ve go-“
“No time, I have to look at a thing. I’ll catch up with you later, promise!”
Trixie folded her arms. “I’ll hold you to that!”
“Sure thing!” Sunset dashed around the corner into the student publications room, opening it with her key. She pulled last year’s yearbook off the shelf and flipped through it.
Cozy Glow. Freshman. “Golly, I just don’t know what to put here!”
Cute, Sunset thought. She exists… What else can I find…
She flipped through the book, finding an image of Cozy Glow occasionally. She was always smiling, laughing, or focusing on schoolwork – an image that went well with her preteen appearance. She was almost never in the foregro, and was never hanging around the same ponies.
Near the end of the book, Sunset found the chess club’s page. She was credited as the best player they had, surprising for a freshman. There were a few details about her. Grew up in the big city… Bit quiet, but friendly enough… One of those people who learned by watching…
Nothing suspicious. Nothing that cleared her name either.
I’m going to have to watch her, Sunset decided, closing the yearbook and putting it back on the shelf. Can’t be too careful.
She went back to her locker. With mild annoyance, she realized she’d forgotten to lock it. A quick once-over revealed nothing had been taken, so she chided herself on carelessness, locked it, and went to find Trixie.
A few hallways away, Cozy-E looked at a wonderful new set of images on her phone, containing the full message from Twilight Sparkle about Cozy-Q. She smiled innocently to herself, placing her phone in her pocket.
~~~
Cozy-E and Cozy-Q were almost of one mind. There was no question in their minds if they should try to take power – only uncertainty as to how.
The first few days, Cozy-Q stayed in the treehouse. Cozy-E had long ago figured out how to hide anything from her overworked mother, so this wasn’t an issue in the slightest. Cozy-E spent all her free time conversing with Cozy-Q, trying to figure out the best way to get what they wanted. Cozy-Q learned how to behave among humankind, including the little things she would never have guessed, like shaking hands or the meaning of clothing. Cozy-E learned about magic and how Cozy-Q’s last plan had gone.
Cozy-Q had quickly foregone the belt tying her wings to her back – that first day she had moved so much that she had rubbed some of the skin raw – and had instead opted to use the jacket Rarity had made. It was bulky enough to hide the wings, and all Cozy-Q needed was a loose fabric ring to keep her wings closed. She was able to style her hair back into the many loops she liked, though the ears still needed to be hidden.
Cozy-E made a point of matching Cozy-Q’s look – not just in the hairstyle, but also in the jacket. The two of them sewed a small pillow that Cozy-E could place in the back of her shirt to add just a little extra space so they would look truly identical.
Cozy-Q could still use the magic she had gained to drain Equestria. Without the artifacts it was only small scale, and it still required magic circles etched into the ground, but so long as her wings were with her, so was the magic. She also had regular pegasus bonuses, which included strength, cloud manipulation, and the ability to survive high-speed crashes.
“The first step is to make friends with everyone,” Cozy-Q said, smirking. “And I mean everyone. The popular, the losers, the teachers, the students, the heroes, all of their families too.”
“Offer to go to every event we possibly can. Careful not to double schedule, but we can afford to never sleep since there’s two of us.”
“Get perfect grades. Be willing to help everyone.”
“Gee, that’s not going to be easy… Even with two of us, perfect grades?”
Cozy-Q furrowed her brow. “A-student then, perfect is overachieving. This school isn’t run by Twilight, grades higher than that don’t help from what you tell me.”
“I’ve got the cover story ready. We’ve been quiet for so long because we weren’t sure if friendship was worth the risk. But now we’re ready to give it a shot, and it’s going great.”
“They don’t realize the power that comes with it…” Cozy-Q said, chuckling. “Even with this world’s lesser magic, do you see the things they can do with enough friends? Democracy is such a beautiful concept! All you have to do is get people to like you and they’ll give you all the power.”
“President? Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves, Q?”
Cozy-Q nodded. “A girl can dream.”
“A girl can make branching paths. We shouldn’t get too set on any one idea. The world is dynamic. Who knows what could fall into our laps?”
“We don’t! But we’ll be ready for whatever it is!”
The two of them high-fived.
“Why do humans do that?” Cozy-Q muttered, rubbing her hand.
Cozy-E shrugged. “We don’t have hooves.”
“That’s not a why.”
“That’s why it hurts.”
Cozy-Q let out a delighted laugh. “I need to start getting into classes so I can keep up my half of the schoolwork. I think I’ll need three days of that before we can start Operation Befriend.”
“No big tests those days, you should be good. Remember to watch Sunset.”
“Don’t let her touch me, I know. Always wear long sleeves and pants, keep the face back, hair over shoulders and neck. Watch for inconvenient Pinkie.”
“There we go! You grow up so fast.”
Cozy-Q put on her ‘overly cute’ look. “Golly, thanks!”
The two enjoyed a laugh together.
~~~
“That Cozy sure is somethin’,” Applejack said over two weeks later, looking at a brochure in her hand. “Already plannin’ a ‘Winter Wrap Up’ dance this February?”
“Ooooh, someone’s been listening to you and Twilight!” Pinkie said, nudging Sunset.
“Or maybe she was just here for the one you organized last year?” Rarity suggested, raising an eyebrow.
“Ooooh…” Pinkie said, placing a hand on her chin. “Hadn’t thought about that one!”
The others gave Pinkie mixed looks, most wondering if she was joking or being serious. She kept her lips sealed on the matter and giggled.
“I did tell you guys to watch her - Cozy,” Sunset said. “Remember?”
“And I remember that Filthy Rich is a nice guy in Equestria,” Fluttershy said. “While here…” she couldn’t let herself complete the thought.
“Not everyone is the same,” Twilight spoke up, adjusting her glasses. “I mean, just look at Fluttershy and me. I’m nothing like the Princess, and from what I’ve heard about their Fluttershy…”
“I don’t know how she does it… all the assertion…” Fluttershy said, a hand on her cheek.
“Don’t forget the sass. She’s got sass the likes of which you wouldn’t believe,” Rainbow said. When she realized everyone was looking at her oddly, she raised an eyebrow. “What? I visit Equestria every now and then during lunch break.”
“This is lunch break,” Applejack pointed out.
“Exactly. I popped out just before and got some freshly baked Spike cookies.”
“I am never letting Spike bake,” Twilight deadpanned.
“I’m not letting Spike be baked into cookies!” Pinkie blurted.
Trixie looked up from her tower of cards. “Spike being baked into cookies? What conversation did Trixie miss?”
Sunset chuckled. “The usual.”
“But I’m never around for the usual!”
“Look, Trix,” Rainbow said, leaning on Trixie’s shoulder. “If you’re going to be hanging around more, you gotta get your head out of the magic pyramid deck.”
“It’s not always that! The Great and Powerful Trixie has many tricks to focus on! …She just doesn’t always have them all with her. Unless they’re smoke bombs.”
Rarity shuddered. “Always with the smoke bombs...” She touched her hair with her hands as if that would somehow protect it from the noxious airborne chemicals.
“Hey, look!” Pinkie blurted, pointing at the doors to the cafeteria.
Cozy Glow walked in alone with the bright smile everyone in Canterlot High had come to know over the past week, the expression that had gotten her involved in so many projects by melting the hearts of all. It was a smile that never seemed to falter, no matter how much work she did for everyone else.
“Hey, Lyra, how’s Bon Bon?”
“Still sick…”
“Aw, hope she gets better soon! Bring her chocolate, I hear she likes coconut filled. Hey, Flash, did that song end up working out?”
“Yeah, great, thanks for your help!”
“I may not be a musician but I know how to give people ideas! Oh, Golly, Sweetie Belle, what happened to you?”
“Some bully locked me in a broom closet… I don’t know who.”
“I’ll find them and report them. Bullies just make me so mad – but I can’t let myself stay mad! Derpy, I see you’re still happy as ever!”
“Yep! Muffin?”
“Don’t mind if I do! Though I think Micro might need it more than me. Sandalwood, have you been working out?”
“Uh, no. I’ve been doing schoolwork.”
“Oh. …Well, you’re naturally getting more muscular, that’s great! Hey, Diamond Tiara, did you get that homework done?”
“Yeah. Thanks for your help!”
“It’s why I’m here!” Cozy Glow said, winking at the cafeteria.
Sunset realized Cozy was walking right toward them. She tensed up.
“Hello, Rainbooms!”
“We aren’t all Rainbooms!” Trixie blurted.
“Oh, gee, sorry Trixie, is there another name I can use to refer to all you heroes?”
“…No…” Trixie said, tapping her fingers together.
“You can just call us the Rainbooms, dear,” Rarity said. “Don’t worry about Trixie, she’s just uptight.”
“We’re workin’ on her,” Pinkie whispered.
Trixie narrowed her eyes. “Trixie is right here and can hear everything you say.”
Sunset cleared her throat. “What’s up, Cozy?”
Cozy’s smile faltered. “It’s just… You s- eight are my heroes. It’s because of you and all the great things you’ve done as friends that I decided to come out of my shell and make real friends! I think it’s been the best decision I ever made!”
Rarity put a hand to her heart, clearly overcome by Cozy’s adorableness.
“Yeah, we are pretty awesome,” Rainbow said. Applejack facepalmed.
“But… I’ve been trying to muster up the courage to come talk to you, and…” She took in a breath, clearly trying to hold back tears. “I get the impression you don’t like me. I see you looking at me strangely… Did I do something wrong?”
Sunset’s stern expression faltered. Did I hurt her?
“…Nevermind, I should just go, a-“
“No, no, stay,” Fluttershy said, getting up and putting an arm around Cozy. “You know about Equestria right?”
Cozy glow nodded, still struggling to keep her emotions under control.
“There was a pony there who was also named Cozy, and she did some really bad things,” Fluttershy explained, her expression calm and understanding. “Sunset’s been worried that you might do the same things.”
“Oh n-“
“No no no no, you’re not like her!” Rarity interrupted. “You’ve done so much over the last couple weeks.”
“But I am like her!” Cozy blurted. “I… it’s hard for me to feel what others are feeling, I didn’t understand other people well, and I…”
Sunset forced a smile. “You’re making an effort, Cozy, that’s all that matters. I’m sorry for being judgmental – I have no right to hold what someone else did against you. You are your own person. I promise that I’ll try to see that now.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Cozy smiled. “T-thanks. …Can I be sorry for what the other Cozy did?”
Rarity was once again overcome by the preciousness of Cozy Glow.
“Not exactly how it works,” Applejack said. “But you don’t have to worry about what she did.”
“Want to have lunch with us?” Twilight asked.
“Do I!” Cozy said, brightening up. “I’ll go get a tray! Don’t go anywhere!” She scrambled to the other side of the cafeteria to get food.
“…Guess I was just paranoid,” Sunset said, folding her arms.
“Ah wouldn’t say completely,” Applejack responded. “Ah don’t think she’s some mad power hungry villain, but somethin’ was off about her. Ah think she was ‘milkin’ it’ a little.”
“…Milking it?” Trixie said with a playful smirk. “Only you could say that and have it be literal in some way.”
“Ah’m just sayin’, it was a bit much.”
“Psh, you’re looking too much into it,” Rarity said. “She’s adorable, and she wants us to accept her. She’s having trouble understanding people and emotions, we should help her. We have the magic of friendship, we should use it!”
“Uh, how?” Rainbow asked.
“Holding hands and shooting a rainbow colored death ray,” Trixie answered.
“It’s more complicated than that.”
Cozy Glow returned with a tray of warm food. “I’m back! What are we talking about?”
“Rainbow colored death rays,” Twilight said. “A subject of which I have an immense amount of data for, though all of it somewhat corrupted by the timing of the situation. However, I do have some thoughts…” She pulled out her phone. “I mean, the energy isn’t completely Equestrian, there is a component of our world interlaced within the quantum beams and I for one…”
Most everyone there groaned, prompting Twilight to flush and stop talking. However, Cozy laughed. “Tell me more!”
Twilight had not been expecting this. “…You’re my new favorite.”
“Yay!”
~~~
The Cozy Glows walked along an alleyway in the middle of the night in one of the poorest districts of Canterlot City. The two of them walked in synch, arms folded behind their backs, hoods over their faces. There was no one to see them, which was exactly why they were doing this at night.
“That math test is going to be a pain…” Cozy-Q said.
“It’s just Algebra 2. Weren’t you in a ‘college’?”
“Yes, but we didn’t put as much focus on mathematics in the School of Friendship! It was lots of magic studies, lots of history, some science, psychology, literature, cultural studies, but not all that much math.”
“You’ve never seen a polynomial before have you?”
“Sh-shut up.”
Cozy-E laughed. “Just wait until you discover logarithms.”
“…Golly, that sounds horrifying.”
“It is. Everything else kinda makes sense. Every operation is just adding in different ways, simplified for your brain. But the logarithm doesn’t follow that pattern and has to be wrestled with every time it shows up.”
“You should be the one to take the math test.”
“Mathematics are important if we’re going to get up in the world, Q, you need to know some too.”
“You’re right, you’re right, as always.”
“I am you. Of course I’m right.”
The two shared a giggle.
They turned a corner into an alley that wasn’t even clean – trash littered the place, and they saw a rat scurry by. They noticed a dumpster with a lid that wasn’t closed all the way and knew they had arrived at their destination.
Cozy-Q walked up to the lid and hoisted it up with her pegasus strength, Cozy-E standing behind the dumpster to make sure the lid didn’t hit the wall hard enough to make an awakening crescendo. Within the dumpster were several black bags of trash, which was to be expected; and a blue teenage girl, which the Cozys had also expected.
What they hadn’t expected was to find her clutching a taco like it was her only friend.
“Oh… you look so sad,” Cozy-Q said, frowning.
Sonata Dusk opened her eyes blearily. “Go away. Let me sleep before arresting me.”
“I’m not here to arrest you. I’m Cozy Glow, and this is Cozy Glow. We’re here to help you!”
Sonata blinked, registering the fact that the two faces looking at her were identical. The two sets of eyes looked warm and inviting. “…For realsies?”
“Yes. For realsies.”
“Why?”
“Well, for one, you’re sleeping in trash and we can’t have that,” Cozy-E said.
“And for two, we hear you hate the Rainbooms. We don’t like them either.”
“They’re in our way.”
Sonata looked at her clothes – tatters that barely clung to her body that stunk like nothing else. She smiled, scowled, and then smiled again. “What if I don’t want to fight them again?”
“I think you will,” Cozy-E pointed out. “But we won’t force you. After all, you can’t have the magic of friendship without actually being friends.”
Cozy-Q nodded in confirmation. “Would you like to be friends, Sonata?”
Sonata looked at Cozy-Q, then at Cozy-E, and then at the moldy taco she had held in her hand. As she looked at the taco, her grip tightened enough to crack the shell. She started crying as she saw the metaphor for her life the taco had just become. “...Yeah. Yeah I do!” She leaped out of the dumpster and pulled the Cozys into a hug. “Let’s be friends and show those Rainbooms who’s boss!”
The Cozys grinned. Perfect.
~~~
“Hey, Sunset?”
Sunset looked away from her locker and down at Cozy Glow, raising an eyebrow. She instinctively felt suspicious – and then felt ashamed of the feeling. She really needed to work on that. “What’s up?”
“I, uh… have someone I’d like you to meet,” Cozy said, biting her lip nervously. “Do you… have time?”
“I always have time to meet new people,” Sunset said, closing – and locking – her locker. “Who is it?”
“It’s, uh… better if you just come see. Please don’t freak out.”
Please don’t freak out. That’s… ominous. “…Okay, I won’t freak out.”
Cozy nodded with an awkward smile and led her around the back of the school. She held out her hand, pointing at the brick wall where a very familiar blue girl stood.
“…SONATA!?” Sunset shouted, instantly entering a defensive stance.
“W-wait!” Cozy said, holding up a hand in panic. “Sonata has something she’d like to say!”
Sunset blinked, looking at cozy in confusion. Is there some evil plan here?
Sonata nervously stood up and rubbed one of her arms. “I… I’m sorry.”
Sunset looked at Sonata dubiously. “…Really?”
Sonata nodded slowly. “Yeah. I… don’t know what else to do.”
“Where are your sisters?”
“…I haven’t seen them in months,” Sonata said, looking to the side with a forlorn expression. “I’m tired of being alone.”
Sunset’s expression softened. “…Where did you find her, Cozy?”
“Dumpster,” Cozy answered. “She looked so tired and sad… you’ve forgiven so many, Sunset, surely you can forgive her and let her have a chance at friendship! She’s been so alone for so long! It’s what you do!”
Sunset nodded, a smile forming on her face. “That is what we do.” She extended her hand in friendship – and Sonata flinched away in fear.
Sunset took her hand back, realizing how difficult this must be for Sonata. Cozy had to convince the siren to come back here and talk to the very person who had defeated her and her sisters, forcing her to live on the streets without any magic. “Do you want to see the girls again?”
“I don’t know,” Sonata said.
“It’s Taco Tuesday,” Cozy pointed out.
Sonata’s frown vanished. “Taco Tuesday!? Today!? Why didn’t you say so! It’s been sooo looong since I’ve had a good taco! Scrounging for scraps is terrible, let me tell you. Can you get me in pleeease I’m begging you.” She grabbed Sunset’s collar, slumping to the ground like a beggar.
Sunset noticed Sonata was wearing gloves. She didn’t think this detail important.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to the girls again,” Sunset said. “You’re probably going to get some odd looks, but I know they’ll give you a chance.”
Sonata let out a sigh of relief, releasing Sunset’s collar and standing back up. Her smile became less crazed and more reserved, that of a person who was happy but expected to lose the feeling at any moment.
Sunset hoped Sonata’s fears were unfounded. “And Cozy?”
“Hmm?” Cozy said, looking up at her expectantly.
“You did good. It’s not easy to forgive someone. I’m proud of you.”
Cozy beamed. “YAY!”
Sunset led Sonata into the school with Cozy following along behind.
There were almost no students in the halls – most were in the cafeteria after all – but of those who were there, all of them who weren’t freshmen recognized Sonata when she walked in. They reacted at first with surprise, then with a mixture of confusion and contempt.
“It’s okay, she’s with me,” Sunset said. “Give her a chance.”
The students decided either to trust Sunset or to not bother arguing with her. They let her get to the cafeteria undisturbed.
When Sunset kicked the doors of the cafeteria open the conversation within died in an instant. All the eyes of the student body were on her, Cozy, and Sonata.
Sunset prepared to give a speech – but Cozy beat her to it. “Friends, I know Sonata hurt a lot of us in the Battle of the Bands, using dark magic to corrupt us and ruin our bonds. However, there are others among us who have done the same, and we have welcomed them not only as friends and companions, but also as heroes worthy to represent our very school. Sonata has come here looking to make amends – let’s not reject her, but accept her as one of us! Give her a chance! Please!”
There was silence for a few seconds.
“If she’s good enough for Cozy, she’s good enough for me!” Lyra said, lifting her fist into the air. Bon Bon smirked, raising her fist as well.
“Yeah!” Flash said, raising his fist as well. “Come on guys, let’s give her a warm welcome back.”
Expressions that had been hostile and aggressive just moments before shifted to welcoming faces and hands ready to shake hers. Sonata’s tentative smile was replaced with a genuine one in a matter of seconds.
Sunset smiled, looking down at Cozy. “You’re pretty good at that.”
“I learned from the best!” Cozy said, winking at Sunset.
“Hey, I’m not that good.”
“The student has surpassed the master!” Cozy joked.
“You do pick up on a lot of things just by watching, huh?”
“Guess it’s my special talent! After chess, of course.”
Sunset smiled warmly, turning away from Cozy. “Alright everyone, let’s let Sonata have lunch. She needs her tacos.”
“Oh, right, TACOS!” Sonata jumped out of the hoard of people and ran to the cafeteria counter. “Tacos.”
“How many Tacos?” the lunch lady asked.
“All of tacos.”
“All of them?”
Sonata grinned. “ALL OF THEM.”
Pinkie pushed the lunch lady out of the way. “Stand back! This requires a professional in confectionary delivery!” She cracked her knuckles and began stacking the tacos at record speeds, scrambling her arms faster than physically possible to create a tower of taco perfection that almost touched the ceiling.
She thrust it into Sonata’s arms, the tower rocking back and forth but never falling over. “There you go! All of them!”
“Oh, Sonata, do you mind if the others have some of your tacos?” Cozy asked. “I’m sure some people wanted seconds.”
“There’s no way I’m eating these all by myself!” Sonata said. “At least, not during lunch hour. If anyone wants any just take one, you don’t even need to ask!”
“TACOS FOR EVERYONE!” Pinkie shouted, shooting off her party cannon.
“PINKIE!” Luna shouted from across the room.
“Are you still mad about that!? Come on the moment NEEDED it!”
Luna stood up, eye twitching.
Pinkie leaned toward Sonata. “Welcome back. I may have to vanish from the grid for a while, move to France, change my name to Renee. You can contact me with the babel fish I hid in Gummy.”
“…What kind of name is Renee?” Cozy asked, cocking her head.
“The best one!” Sonata and Pinkie said at the same time, high-fiving. Then Pinkie ducked behind the counter and vanished before Luna could even get close.
“Vice-principal Luna?” Cozy called. “Do you really think you should be angry at Pinkie? The confetti isn’t even that big of a mess, and I’m sure the students will be willing to clean it up!”
Luna looked at her and smiled. “…Maybe you’re right. I’ll have to talk to my sister about what to do with her.”
“Oh, that’s more than enough! Thanks!” She nudged Sonata. “Let’s go sit down.”
Cozy sat her down next to the Rainbooms. They all gave her a warm welcome – save Applejack, who sat there in silence, and Trixie, wh-
“You were the one who told Trixie to lock them in the closet!”
Sonata looked down. “…I don’t think that was me. Was that me? I’m sorry, I don’t remember much… I definitely wouldn’t do that now!”
“Of course not, darling, Trixie’s just being Trixie,” Rarity said. “You’ll get used to her and her abrasiveness.”
“Or not,” Rainbow Dash said.
Trixie glared at Rainbow. “Hey! Is Trixie just chopped liver to you?”
Sunset put a hand on Trixie’s shoulder. “No, you’re an important part of this group.”
“Yeah, you just don’t have magic geodes or an amazing pony form!” Rainbow Dash blurted.
Fluttershy nudged her. “Rainbow, be nice.”
“Trixie’s going to be honest,” Trixie commented. “If Rainbow lost her edge your group dynamic would crash and burn.”
“Like one of your stage shows?” Rarity said with a smirk.
“Exact- HEY!”
Sonata chuckled. “You girls were always funny to watch.”
“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Rarity said. “At least I’m not Rarity the unicorn, apparently getting any of her friends interested in fashion is like predicting the weather.”
“They control the weather in Equestria,” Twilight pointed out.
“Oh. So they do.” Rarity blinked, realizing she wanted to change the topic. “So, Sonata, what’s life like now?”
Sonata’s expression darkened, falling silent.
“She’s been alone and homeless,” Cozy answered for her. “It’s been hard.”
“Oh…” Fluttershy said, a hand to her face. “I’m so sorry, we should have gone looking for you. We forgot, and that’s horrible.”
“Ah, psh, we were total blowhards, you didn’t need to care about us,” Sonata dismissed.
“Darling, that’s no excuse,” Rarity said. “You might have been brought back sooner. Maybe we could have even got your sisters to change their ways too.”
Sonata laughed.
“…What is it?”
“Sorry, just, the idea of Aria changing? That’s…” She put a hand to her face. “Just too funny.”
“…You need some work,” Applejack observed.
“Send her to Twilight’s School of Friendship?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Not you,” she told Twilight.
“I know,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes.
“Do you think that’d go well?” Cozy asked Sonata.
Sonata shook her head. “I… I don’t really want to be a siren again.”
Rarity blinked. “Really?”
“We’re… ugly. Menacing. Don’t have hands. Do you have any idea how amazing hands are? I love hands! Hands are the best! And you humans can do so much. All we sirens could do was sing with magic. I taste things better like this!” She held out her hands and marveled at the fingers. “I mean, just look at these fingers! So great!”
“Huh, that’s kind of the opposite of what I felt at first,” Sunset said.
“I’ve been here a lot longer than you,” Sonata pointed out.
“Remind me to ask you about the history you’ve experienced,” Twilight said. “You’ve had to have seen a lot of it.”
“Oh yeah! That’s right, I forget that people age sometimes!” Sonata giggled.
“So, question,” Rainbow said, holding up a finger. “Do you have any hobbies besides singing to make people fight?”
“Uh… Tacos… And I did teach myself to sing again, though it’s not magical.” Sonata looked down. “You probably wouldn’t want to hear it.”
“You’re safe,” Twilight said. “You don’t have any magic left in you to brainwash us – or whatever you did before I was here.”
“You can tell that?” Cozy asked, marveling.
Twilight nodded. “Yep, magic detector, right here!” She pulled out a disc-shaped device with a purple starburst on it. “I can point it at anyone and see if they have magic. The seven of us have a lot, Sonata has none. There’s no need to be afraid of her voice.”
“Can I see that?” Cozy asked. Twilight handed it over. “Can I use this to scan some things? I’ve been helping a lot of people out lately, and there’s been a few times I thought I saw weird things…”
“Keep it,” Twilight said, smiling. “I’ve got several. It’d help to have another set of eyes on the magic problem anyway.”
“Magic problem?” Sonata asked, cocking her head.
“There’s apparently human magic,” Sunset began to explain. “These geodes are part of it. Best we can tell, human magic has been mixing with Equestrian magic and creating a large amount of unusual manifestations.”
“We’ve become superheroes defending the world from magic!” Rainbow announced.
“The city,” Applejack corrected.
“Whatever.”
Everyone laughed. But while Cozy was laughing, she was examining the magic scanning device closely.
Another piece falls into place.
~~~
Cozy-E, Cozy-Q, and Sonata walked along one of the trails of the Everfree Forest, Cozy-E leading the way with the magic scanning device.
It had been difficult clearing an entire day in their self-packed schedule to voyage into the forest without anyone knowing about it, but since nobody questioned Cozy about virtually anything, it hadn’t taken all that much time. Nobody knew they were in the forest – they all thought Cozy was off visiting family in another city. They’d been careful not to say which city at any point.
“Hey, Q, you sure you know where we’re going?” Sonata asked.
“I’m Q, that’s E,” Cozy-Q said.
“Agh, why do you both have to look identical? It’s so hard to keep track!”
“We’re the same person!” Cozy-E said.
“But not really? You like video games and reality TV shows, while Q has magic and likes watching sports!”
“She has a point,” Cozy-Q admitted. “But if we look different, that’s a way to ruin the illusion. If anyone ever suspects there are two of us, we’re doomed.”
“Pff, you guys have been doing this for weeks! You’re the most popular kid in school and nobody suspects a thing!”
“Applejack’s sure there’s more to us than what we show,” Cozy-E reminded her. “She doesn’t think we’re evil, but a slight bit of distrust is all you need for someone to go poking her nose where she doesn’t belong…”
“She defers to Sunset, and we have her in our pocket,” Cozy-Q said. “She’s easier to butter up than I thought. One of the best friends we’ve got.”
“It’s weird, I kinda like them now…” Sonata said, hand to her chin.
“That’s friendship,” Cozy-E said. “You like them, they like you, it’s a two-way road.”
“And if everyone likes you…” Cozy-Q chuckled. “Well, they’ll be willing to do whatever you say.”
“Not everything,” Cozy-E pointed out.
“No, and that’s why we’re here today. To fix that.”
“And we won’t even have to hurt anyone!” Sonata said, grinning. “Isn’t that great!?”
“The power of friendship,” both Cozys said at once, grinning.
They followed Cozy-E off the trail as the magic scanner picked up something major. They moved through the forest, Cozy-Q taking the important job of remembering which direction they were going so they didn’t get lost.
“The real Everfree is better,” Sonata said.
“Yep,” Cozy-Q agreed. “More magic, more creatures… This is just a forest.”
“I want to see the real Everfree one day,” Cozy-E said. “There has to be something interesting in there for me…”
“After we’re done here we can go to Equestria,” Cozy-Q said. “We’ll have to plan our power moves carefully, wait until we have the nation on our side. We’d need an actual military to protect against their magic.”
“Two years you think?”
“Less, if we can get the parents on board. Twilight’s dad is a politician.”
Sonata grinned evilly and rubbed her hands together. “The world will bow to us…”
The three of them shared an ominous laugh.
“We’re close,” Cozy-E said suddenly, pointing slightly to their left. “It must be just through those trees.”
They picked up the pace and passed through the aforementioned trees, coming to a quarry-like area that led to a cave.
“Perfect,” Cozy-Q said, beaming. They ran into the cave, finding the interior to be lit by deep ruby-like crystals in the walls. At the back there was a pedestal made of stalagmites with seven holes in it. Despite the lack of crystals, the white stone flickered with power.
“Like the Tree of Harmony without its elements…” Cozy-Q said, smirking. She quickly removed her shirt and adjusted her undershirt to let her wings come out in all their glory. She flapped them, feeling the magic in the room react with her limbs. She floated into the air and took a deep breath.
She missed being able to do this. There wasn’t enough space inside the treehouse. Even though there was no breeze in the cave, she could still feel the air around her flowing through her feathers as she flapped.
“Earth to Q,” Sonata said, waving her hand.
“Oh, sorry, I got caught up in the moment!” Cozy-Q giggled. She landed in front of the pedestal and got to work. She pulled out a piece of chalk from her pocket and drew intricate magical circles around the pedestal, similar to the circles she had used to drain the magic from Equestria, though admittedly of much lesser power.
She drew two smaller circles about a meter away from the central circle, each just large enough for a person to stand in. She connected the two smaller circles to the central circle with three lines of chalk each. “E, left, Sonata, right.” Her two friends did as she said.
Cozy-Q took a deep breath – it was time to do the magic. Unlike unicorns, who could access magic simply by thinking about it in their horns, the other pony races had to make do with instinctual magic. Pegasi flew and moved clouds not because they thought about it, but because they just did. Earth ponies moved energy through their hooves to get stronger and to grow crops by nature. There were certainly a few mages who had learned more – for earth ponies, Mage Meadowbrook and Applebloom came to mind, both with an aptitude for infusing magic into potions.
Pegasi had to use their wings. Cozy had heard rumors of other pegasi who knew how to use magic effectively, but there were few who went beyond the casual tricks of Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. Cozy was possibly the only true pegasus mage alive.
She pressed the tips of her wings to the circles of chalk, pushing her inner magic into the rings. She felt wind brush past her feathers, a side effect of the enchantment. She carefully traced her feathers along every crease in the magic circles, slowly bringing a glowing energy to the ritual.
It was pure luck that my wings were permanent here. They may have been a problem up to now, but this would be completely impossible without them. If I hadn’t been consumed by the magic...
She soon completed the enchantment. She stood up tall, standing within the largest circle in front of the pedestal. She placed her hands on the holes where the geode crystals should have been.
The analog for the Tree of Harmony was certainly weaker without those gems in it, but she didn’t need that much magic. Just enough.
She spread her wings and activated the spell. The circles flashed with a red power for a split second before returning to their blue color. A ball of energy about the size of Cozy-Q’s eye floated up from her hands. This ball split into two, each half smashing into either Cozy-E and Sonata’s heads. Cozy-E had wings pop out of her shirt – though unlike Cozy-Q, her transformation had been natural and the magic accounted for her clothing. Sonata gained pony ears and siren fin-wings on her back in addition to a small ruby crystal that appeared around her neck.
The ritual ended as quickly as it began. Cozy-E’s transformation vanished, and Sonata lost her siren attributes shortly thereafter. She kept the crystal. She put her hands to the gemstone and smiled. “Oh, how I missed you.”
“Looks like we were right,” Cozy-E said, tapping her head. “Giving me magic wouldn’t make me like you – your other ritual changed you.”
“You should be able to pony-up if you do something relating to your special talent,” Cozy-Q pointed out. “Not exactly helpful, but I’m sure you can control it.”
Sonata started singing. While she had learned to sing again without her magic, it hadn’t had the allure it once did. Now she sang with a beautiful, melodious voice that made the Cozys stare at her, minds numb.
“Oh, sorry,” Sonata said, rubbing the back of her head. “I just wanted to try it out, y’know? It’s been so long.”
Cozy-E shook her head. “At least we know your singing works. Just make sure to direct who you use it on.”
“Tuck that crystal of yours under your shirt,” Cozy-Q ordered. “Can’t let anybody see it.”
Sonata nodded, but she was interrupted by a blur of rainbow colors moving near the speed of sound.
Rainbow Dash stopped in front of the magic pedestal. “And that’s four magic artifacts! Heh, it’s been ten minutes and I’m already half done! Pinkie, the bet is as good as won!”
Then she noticed Sonata, Cozy… and Cozy standing, staring at her.
Rainbow blinked. “Uh… What are you… wait, two?! What the heck is going on?”
Cozy-Q punched Rainbow in her face, her pegasus strength surprising the rainbow girl. Rainbow fell onto her back, not quite able to process what had just happened, giving Cozy-Q an opportunity to pin her to the ground and swipe Rainbow’s geode with her wing.
“I don’t need that to be fast!” Rainbow blurted, moving her legs rapidly to vibrate herself overtop of Cozy-Q, pinning her to the ground. “You really were evil, huh?”
Cozy-Q grinned. “Yes. And smarter than you.”
“Smarter th-“ Cozy-E hit Rainbow in the back of the head with the magic sensor, shattering the device. Rainbow, now dazed, flopped off of Cozy-Q.
“Trains… why is it always trains…”
“Sonata? Do the thing,” Cozy-E ordered.
“Oh, right.” Sonata cleared her throat.
“Wait,” Cozy-Q said, holding up a wing. “If we use the song normally, it will make Rainbow aggressive and violent. That’d give us away. Sonata, remember what we talked about?”
“…We talked about a lot of things.”
“What if you tried to sing not with your inner power, but with the power you get from us. Don’t try to push Rainbow away, try to befriend her with your song.” Cozy-Q grinned. “There’s a chance the siren song doesn’t have to bring violence.”
“Oh, I forgot about that! Silly me. I’ll try.” She cleared her throat and thought about the Cozys, what they’d done for her, and how they’d been working together the last few weeks. How they had shared so many moments in the school and out – plotting, doing schoolwork, or just having fun. She began to sing a tune that wasn’t ominous, but calming, almost like a lullaby.
Had she been with her sisters still, such a song would have been impossible.
But Cozy had taught her the power of friendship. And it was a very real power.
Rainbow Dash’s dazed expression shifted to anger for a moment as she tried to resist, but Sonata was using Harmony in her song, a power Rainbow had no resistance to. The anger gave way to complacency, and then to a content smile. “Wow, that’s awesome Sonata.”
Sonata giggled. “Thanks Rainbow!”
“You know you can’t tell anyone about this, right?” Cozy-Q asked.
“Why would I?” Rainbow asked, confused.
“Oh, you just have a tendency to tell secrets,” Cozy-E answered. “Just be extra careful not to spill this one, okay? We can’t bring everyone into the fold at once. You’re just lucky enough to be the fourth!”
“Sweet!”
“Go finish your bet with Pinkie,” Cozy-Q added. “You can do it, I know you can, even with this setback! Did you ever think about checking Equestria for magic artifacts?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t! Thanks Cozy, you’re the best!” She prepared to leave.
“Don’t forget this!” Cozy said, tossing Rainbow the geode crystal.
“Oh, right! Thanks again!” She zoomed away.
The Cozys and Sonata started laughing maniacally.
“We’ll rule this world…” Sonata said, curling her fingers into a fist of power. “And everyone will love us for it.”
“Empresses of friendship…” the Cozys echoed each other.
“We need to prepare for the dance,” Cozy-Q said, suddenly. “Get most of the other Rainbooms on our side. Applejack will have to be last since she can’t tell lies effectively even under coercion, and I don’t want to risk getting Sunset early. Princess Twilight might be able to detect something through the journals if the entire school isn’t on board.”
“Pinkie first, she’s the most dangerous.”
Sonata grinned. “Oh, it’ll be so nice to finally be able to talk to Pinkie! We’re gonna be besties!”
Cozy-E grinned menacingly. “True friends will accept you no matter what…”
~~~
The night of the ‘Winter Wrap Up’ dance came. Everyone in the school showed up – even the people who didn’t like dances, including Trixie, though she was putting on a show as part of the event.
Sunset found it a little odd, but not concerning.
The dance had been going on for hours already, and Sunset had inexplicably found herself being asked to dance with several people over the course of the night. She was getting a little tired, admittedly, but she was also having a great time.
She couldn’t believe she ever thought Cozy could have been a bad person. The girl was truly showing herself to put the school before everything, even herself.
Applejack wasn’t having as great a time as Sunset. “Hey, do you think our friends are actin’ a little weird?”
“How so?” Sunset asked, filling her cup with even more punch.
“Ah’m not sure. Ah think they’re just a little too excited.”
“Applejack, this is a dance. Of course they’ll be excited, it’s a party.”
“Ah think they’re a bit too excited for just a party. It’s like they’re waitin’ for somethin’ to happen.”
“Well the Queen of the Winter Dance is about to be announced,” Sunset pointed out. “Is that it?”
“Why would they care so much about that?”
“You could just ask them.”
“Ah asked Pinkie. She was vague about it.”
“That’s Pinkie for you,” Sunset said. “You could try Rainbow. Or Cozy, she might know.”
“Hmm…” Applejack said, scratching her chin. “Ah dunno, Ah just have a bad feelin’ about this. Watch yourself.”
“I always do. Don’t worry AJ, everything’s fine. It’s a party. Do I need to get Pinkie to teach you about ‘the mood’ again?”
“Hay no,” Applejack said with a chuckle. “Not doin’ that again.”
“Then loosen up, go dance, seems like everyone wants to dance tonight.”
“With you,” Applejack pointed out.
“Applejack, are you upse-“
“Oh, Ah’ve danced, and Ah don’t really care one way or another about that sort o’ thing, but Ah’m just sayin’ you’ve been in the spotlight today. Ah’d wonder why if Ah were you.”
Sunset looked at her hand. “I suppose I could find out… No, no, that’d be wrong. I’ll just ask.”
“Good luck.”
Sunset smiled. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” She walked through the partying crowd of people – turning down a few dances – and made her way to Twilight. “Hey, Twilight.”
“What’s up?” Twilight asked from her position in the sound booth. She was helping Vinyl Scratch keep all the technology organized, currently holding a spotlight on Trixie’s little magic show that appeared to be wrapping up.
“I’m just curious, it seems as if a lot of people are really excited about something, and I’ve been getting a lot of dance requests. Any idea what that’s about?”
“Oh, that’s a surprise!” Twilight said.
“So AJ wasn’t crazy?”
Twilight shook her head. “Nope. You’ll find out what’s going on soon enough, so just enjoy yourself until then. After Trixie’s little show I think Cozy’s going to come out.”
“Okay, thanks! …Should I tell AJ?”
“I mean, you could, but technically I wasn’t even supposed to tell you, so I’d just wait. …Actually, looks like you won’t have to.”
Trixie bowed after having created the illusion of an Ursa Minor with her smokescreen and vanished to backstage. A moment later Cozy Glow came out, an adorable smile on her face. She held up a microphone. “Golly, I really don’t want to stop the dancing, but we’ve got a King and Queen of the Winter Dance to announce! So I’m going to have to ask that we turn the music down and celebrate two of our students today! Is that okay?” Seeing everyone smiling at her, she winked. “Glad to hear it! Our King today is the suave man of green himself, Sandalwood! Come on up here and get your crown!”
The green-haired man looked surprised, but walked up and accepted his crown graciously. “Dude, I’m so honored!”
“As you should be! You’re a great testament to the community focus of this school and the work ethic of our nation! Go Sandalwood!”
Sandalwood lifted his hands and everyone cheered for him.
“Now, our Queen is going to be very special this year. I know she’s made a point of not running for Queens of any dances lately, but I think we can show her how much we appreciate all she’s done for this school. Sunset Shimmer, come on up, take a crown! You deserve it!”
Sunset put a hand to her chest, a little surprised – though she didn’t know why, everyone had been making a point of dancing with her. She hadn’t even been trying…
“Hey, what are you waiting for? Go up there!” Twilight said with a wink.
Sunset let out a joyous laugh and walked up to the stage, stooping down so Cozy could place the crown on her head. “You’ve come such a long way, Sunset. Almost everyone in this hall remembers what you were, but nobody can deny what you’ve become. You are a model to us all on how lives can change for the better! You deserve much more than this crown, but that’s all I have right now!”
Sunset smiled. “Thank you, Cozy. Thank you, everyone!” She waved at the crowd and beamed.
“And now the band will play a special song for our King and Queen,” Cozy said, stepping back. Sonata, Pinkie, and Rainbow came out. Vinyl started up a synthetic background track while Pinkie smashed the drums. Rainbow played her guitar in a calmer style than she usually did, in time with Sonata’s singing.
Sonata’s hypnotic lullaby of a song that wormed its way into everyone’s minds, asking them to be ‘friends.’ “Oh, let us forget the past and move to the future… For our new friendship is something to culture…”
Sunset was far too enthralled with the events to detect the magic, or even notice Sonata’s mischievous expression. She had fallen right into Cozy’s trap along with the rest of the school.
The exception was Applejack. She saw what was happening the moment Sonata opened her mouth. She knew one thing right then – she had to get out of there. She scrambled for the exit, finding it to be locked. She bashed it down with her strength.
She found Cozy Glow on the other side, with wings, standing in a magic circle.
Applejack glanced behind her – Cozy Glow was on the stage as well. “What in th-“
“Get back in there,” Cozy-Q demanded, activating the magic circle. A flash of magic tossed Applejack into the crowd, where Fluttershy was waiting to catch her. She couldn’t bring herself to use her full strength on Fluttershy.
And that was enough for the spell to get into her mind. She had almost no internal defenses to magic that was in tune with Harmony.
The school fell to the illusion of Cozy Glow.
As the song drew to an end, Cozy-Q walked up on stage to be with Sonata and Cozy-E. “Hello friends! I know you might be confused right now – two Cozy Glows, golly, what’s happening there? But do not be alarmed, I will answer all your questions soon enough! All you need to know is that I – we – are your friends! You believe that don’t you?”
Everyone – even Applejack and Sunset – nodded in agreement. No one seemed worried. Confused, yes, but at ease otherwise.
“Good! I’m Cozy-Q, from Equestria, and that’s Cozy-E, the Cozy who’s been going to this school for over a year. Those of you in the chess club would have known her, and not many others. We’ve been working together the last couple months to bring friendship to everyone here! Now, I know you were all good friends before, and I’m not here to diminish that. All of you can keep doing what you were doing together! You can all be happy! All we’re doing is letting you know that friendship isn’t just magic, it isn’t just happiness, friendship is also power. And we’ve brought that power to you! Through us, we will bring the power of friendship to everyone on this world, until everyone is friends with everyone else! Doesn’t that sound great?”
“YEAH!” everyone yelled.
“Now, classes will go on as normal tomorrow and I’ll hold a session in the cafeteria where I’ll answer all questions, but I don’t want to hold those things over us on this dance tonight. I’ve just got to know one more thing before I tell Vinyl to put the music back on. Can any of you think of anyone who isn’t here that might try to stop the spread of friendship?”
“Trixie’s not here,” Sunset pointed out.
“I locked the doors backstage so she wouldn’t be able to avoid the song,” Cozy said.
“Since when do locked doors stop Trixie?” Pinkie asked.
Cozy blinked. “…What are you talking about?”
“We’re pretty sure Trixie has some amount of real human magic in her,” Sunset said. “She got me out of a locked room once. It’s not perfect by any means, but I was on one side of the door, and then I was on the other, no problem.”
Cozy-E poked her head backstage. “…Trixie’s gone.”
Cozy-Q’s confident expression vanished. “Sunset, where do you think she’s headed?”
“The portal, probably.”
“Well don’t just stand there, let’s stop her! Go!”
The dance hall cleared out in a matter of seconds, everyone eager to do the bidding of their great friends Cozy Glow and Cozy Glow.
~~~
Trixie was not good at running.
That said, she knew her very will depended on her legs not giving out. Her body knew it had no choice, so it pushed her legs far beyond what she would normally force them to undergo, and since she wasn’t a good runner she was giving her lower limbs a beating with every painful step.
She could see the portal now. The white base that shimmered with a slight magic in the right light. Most people said it was just moonlight, but Trixie knew better. She just had to get in there and scream. Princess Twilight’s castle was on the other side, right? That should work. Wake her up if it was night. Surely she had security of some kind…
Rainbow Dash appeared in front of her. “Nope, not happening Trixie.”
Trixie threw a smoke bomb in Rainbow’s face, making her yell out in pain. It wasn’t as bad as pepper spray, but the effect was more or less the same. Rainbow held her face and crumpled to the ground. “AUGH! WHAT’S WITH ME AND FIGHTS LATELY!?”
Trixie gave her no response. She kept running, stealing a glance behind her as she jumped over Rainbow. She saw the entire school charging toward her with a winged Cozy Glow at the front of the group.
“Sassafras,” Trixie swore, returning her focus on the portal. She only needed a few more seconds… She threw a few smoke bombs behind herself blindly, but Cozy-Q was smart enough to dodge them and close her eyes while passing through the smoke itself. Her maneuvers slowed her down slightly, giving Trixie a few more seconds.
“PINKIE!” Cozy-E shouted to her left. “Do the appear-behind-an-object thing!”
“The what?” Pinkie said, cocking her head. “I don’t have any magic but making things explode!”
Cozy-E realized she didn’t have time to argue. “Twilight, magic?”
Twilight tried to fire off a beam of magic, but the shot went wild. She was not good at it yet. “Sorry!”
“…Fine,” Cozy-E spat. “Anyone? Nothing? GAH!”
Trixie reached her hand out, the magic of the portal calling to her.
Cozy-Q barreled into her, tackling the magician to the ground. But it was too late - both of them went flying through the portal, transforming into their pony counterparts.
Trixie tried to scramble away with her hooves, but she quickly found that she had no idea how to walk on four legs and promptly fell flat on her stomach.
Cozy-Q pressed her hoof against Trixie’s mouth to keep her from screaming. She flapped her wings, attempting to drag Trixie back through the portal.
Except she couldn’t. Someone else came out of the portal. Ponies of Pinkie, Sunset, and several other students poured out, blocking Cozy-Q’s escape.
“You fools!” Cozy-Q shouted. “Back through the portal! Back! We can’t stay here!”
Sonata was pushed through by the crowd, transforming into her scaly, fishy siren form. She was clearly distraught by this, turning around instantly and trying to go back through the mirror portal. Cozy-E saw the same problem, but she couldn’t use her hooves well either. It became a mess of humans in pony bodies trying to scramble back through the portal in a horrendous mess.
Then the portal was shut off.
“What in Celestia’s name is this about!?” Princess Twilight Sparkle shouted, glaring menacingly. Starlight stood to her left while Spike stood to the right, having just finished sending a letter to Canterlot.
Cozy-Q glanced to Sunset nodded ever-so-slightly.
Sunset cleared her throat. “You see, we’re having a little bit of a problem on Earth. Trixie has been infected with maddening magic and is trying to destroy everything! We had to stop her, as a school, even when she fled here. We’ll get her off your hooves soon a-“
“Why are there two Cozy Glows?”
Cozy-Q struggled to maintain her level expression. We aren’t dead yet, we aren’t dead yet…
Twilight teleported Trixie out of Cozy-Q’s grip and looked at her.
“SHE’S HYPNOTIZED THE WHOLE SCHOOL!”
“Right,” Princess Twilight said, taking in a deep breath. “Starlight?”
Starlight nodded, freezing all the ponies (and the siren) in a moment of stopped time. “That won’t hold for long.”
“Celestia should be here soon, and we can figure out what to do with them,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “…At least we know she’s alive.”
Trixie stared at the stopped ponies in fear.
“They’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Starlight said.
“You’ve been very brave and heroic, Trixie,” Twilight said. “I’ll be sure to get your friends back to you. Okay?”
“O-okay.”
~~~
A few days later, Trixie entered the Canterlot High cafeteria. The moment she did, Sunset placed a crown on her head and the entire school erupted in applause.
Trixie stared at all of them in disbelief. “…What.”
“You saved us all,” Sunset said. “It made us realize that we haven’t been appreciating you enough.”
“We’re sorry we’ve been dismissing you, darling,” Rarity said. “You deserve just as much recognition as any one of us.”
“Who cares if you saved the day because you didn’t have recognition?” Pinkie said, appearing out of nowhere. “It’s time for that to change! THREE CHEERS FOR THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!”
“TRIXIE! TRIXIE! TRIXIE!”
A small collection of tears welled up in Trixie’s face. “Heh…. Hahah!” She let the crowd lift her into the air. “Remember this day!” Trixie shouted, hands held high. “The Great and Powerful Trixie was the hero!”
“…This can’t be good for her ego,” Rainbow told Fluttershy.
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow with a raised eyebrow.
“Right. I should stop talking. Got it.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean…”
“Let’s focus on Trixie, hmm?” Applejack said. “She saved our rears. Let this be her day, aight?”
Rainbow and Fluttershy nodded, joining in the party for Trixie.
Trixie had never been so happy in her life.
Sunset put a hand on Trixie’s shoulder and smiled. “Now that you’re here… what do you think?”
“Trixie…” Trixie shook her head. “I… I’m not sure.” She looked at the crowd of teenagers around her, all cheering. “Part of me thinks I don’t really deserve this. All I really did was run at the right time.”
“Don’t let anyone tell you heroes can’t run,” Fluttershy said. “Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do.”
Pinkie gasped. “Fluttershy’s getting too serious! This must be fixed immediately!” She slapped a party blower in Fluttershy’s mouth and threw confetti all over her. The yellow girl spontaneously grew a rainbow afro wig.
“...Huh,” she said, looking up at the bright colors.
Trixie smirked. “You have to show me how you do that,” she asked Pinkie.
“Do what?”
“The… afro thing.”
“Oh. That. That’s funny.”
Trixie looked at her incredulously.
“Just stop while you can,” Twilight warned. “It only ends in pain.”
Trixie smirked. She had a new challenge.
~~~
Princess Luna carted Sonata and Cozy-Q away in separate cages. Cozy-E had been left for Sunset to deal with. Cozy-E was still a minor on Earth, and couldn’t be tried for her crimes, so she was being placed under heavy observation and forced to attend lots of therapy. Maybe she would be able to change, but as of yet there didn’t seem to be much hope for that.
Cozy-Q and Sonata were being carted to Tartarus. Cozy was looking at the floor of her cage despondently while Sonata was crying in her ‘hideous’ siren form.
Cozy let out a sigh. “Princess Luna?”
“What do you want?” Luna muttered, clearly having little patience for her.
“Sonata’s suffering.”
“You’re going to Tartarus, that’s kind of the point.”
Cozy ignored Luna’s answer. “You have enough magic to transform her. Please, she hates herself in her siren form. Let her live as a human. Show some mercy.”
Luna looked at Cozy with a hard, judgmental expression. But when she turned to Sonata, it melted. The siren hadn’t stopped crying since she’d been captured in her cage.
Luna bowed her head, enveloping the blue siren in magic until she became the human form she remembered and loved so much. When she noticed she no longer felt wet and scaly, she looked at her hands – and smiled through her tears. “Th-thank you, Princess.”
“It’s all you’re getting,” Luna said, looking ahead impassively. “Treasure it.”
Sonata looked over to Cozy, smiling. “You didn’t have to…”
Cozy shook her head. “I didn’t. …But what are friends for?” She stuck her hoof out of the cage and met Sonata’s hand. “I’m sorry for getting you into this.”
“We’re in this together,” Sonata said.
Luna dragged the two of them through the portal to Tartarus, dropping them next to each other. She turned away and left without another word.
Cozy looked up, realizing that they had been dropped right next to Lord Tirek, the being who had taught her the nuances of draining magic.
Something in her mind clicked. Her despondent expression was replaced with her usual smiling façade.
“Hey, neighbor. Wanna be our friend?”
