The 'Glow' of Friendship

Cozy Glow paced around in her room and stared hard at the letters she'd been getting from her pen pal. All she could do was think, was this really the right idea? She was worried about what could happen to her if she got found out by one of the princesses: They were smart, they’d obviously figure out something was wrong with her. And she really didn’t want to spend the rest of her life in Tartarus, it'd be super boring and terrifying. Her mind was made up in that instant, she knew what she had to do!

So a short time later, Cozy steadied herself as she stood outside the door to Starlight’s office. She’d only come by once before, to clear the Cutie Mark Crusaders when her attempts to get them admitted into the School of Friendship had backfired.

This was definitely going to be harder than that. For tucked out of sight in a small saddle bag, was something that would be incriminating to the filly if it got out. Something she’d gone to great lengths to hide.

But hiding it no longer seemed like a good option to her. It had given the filly many sleepless nights. She couldn’t take it any longer, she had to tell somepony. And in this case that somepony was the one pony she could trust not to rat her out, Counselor Starlight.

The filly fluttered up and rapped a hoof against the door, knocking three times. “Come in.” Starlight’s voice called in its innocent, unaware tone. Cozy obeyed even as she was deathly afraid of someone else entering right behind her. Never was she more relieved when she’d closed the door shut behind her.

Starlight blinked a little bit. “Cozy Glow? This is a surprise.” By all accounts, Cozy had been a model student since her admittance. Hardly anyone had ever complained and even then it was usually just a comment of how she was “too friendly”.

Cozy’s medium scarlet colored eyes darted all about. She seemed to be scanning the counselor’s office for any signs of traps or any sort of monitoring devices. To the pinkish gray coated pegasus’ relief there were none. “Counselor Starlight, I did a very bad thing.” She immediately confessed.

Starlight took a sip of empathy coco from her mug, nodding ever so slowly. “I’m listening.”

Cozy looked all around once more, before she further ellaborated. “I’ve been working for a very bad guy. A guy who wants to take over Equestria.”

“Cozy, what are you talking about? You haven’t done anything yet.” Starlight commented in surprise. A part of her suspected this might be some kind of prank, but Cozy didn’t strike her as the sort to do that. But maybe something else was up? Maybe Cozy had been secretly replaced by Chrysalis (the former queen was still at large.)?

But the filly just dug into her saddle bag and pulled out a letter. “This is from Tirek. We’ve been penpals for months now,” She shamefully explained. “I thought maybe he was just misunderstood. That what he needed was a friend, somepony who’d be willing to talk to him and listen.”

Starlight picked up the letter, reading it over. When she’d finished she nearly lost her magical grip on it from the shock of what was written! The letter read as follows:

Dear Cozy Glow,

I’m very grateful to have taken you on as my protege, not many ponies would even give me a second thought. They’d write me off as a traitor and that would be the end of it. But you clearly know better.

I only regret that since I remain imprisoned in Tartarus we haven’t met face to face.

The time draws near for you to put what I’ve taught you into practice. You must ensure that Princess Twilight and her friends remain unaware, they can’t know what we’re up to or everything will all be for naught.

If you follow my instructions however, Equestria will be at our mercy. You’ll be the Empress of Friendship, and I’ll have the power to ensure nopony ever gives you a hard time ever again. Provided you don’t plan to double cross me. If there’s one thing I can’t tolerate, it’s back stabbing traitors like Scorpan and Discord.

Don’t be like them. Remember who it is you owe everything to.

Sincerely,

Your friend and master,
Lord Tirek

“Cozy… is this true?!” Starlight gasped in surprise as she eyed the filly. Cozy shamefully nodded. “What were you thinking?! How could you go along with… whatever it is that Tirek had planned?!”

Cozy started to sob and sniffle. “I just wanted to make some friends. It seemed like nothing I did ever worked though. Nopony ever wanted to be my friend. And to ponies, friendship comes naturally. If I can’t make friends, what kind of pony am I?”

But Starlight immediately trotted over and pulled Cozy close. “Cozy, don’t you ever think that way! That’s exactly the kind of thinking that leads you down dark paths, like conspiring with known criminals.”

Cozy sniffled more, burying her head into Starlight’s chest. “Golly, that’s easy for you to say, Counselor Starlight. I bet you’ve never had any trouble making friends or being nice.”

But the unicorn shook her head. “Cozy, I’ve been down a path similar to yours. I’ve been in the same situation you say you’re in. Except I blamed cutie marks for my problems, I tried to impose my vision of a cutie markless society onto others. And you wanna know what I learned?”

“What?” Cozy questioned, unable to bring herself to look up at Starlight.

Starlight paused to collect her thoughts. Even now her past misdeeds still stung when she thought of them. “I learned that taking out my anger on others wouldn’t make me feel better. Revenge wouldn’t solve my problems or bring back the friend I thought I’d lost. All it did was make me a monster. A monster willing to hurt others and doom all of Equestria just to get what she wanted,” She paused again, this time in contemplation. “You know, when you told me what you did with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it kind of reminded me of my old self. Though I don’t know if my old self would’ve ever stuck her neck out for anypony else.”

Cozy slowly ceased her crying. “I… I’m sorry, Counselor Starlight. I really am. I’ll just pack my things and leave. I’m surely going to be expelled for this.

Starlight shook her head. “That’s not for me to decide, Cozy. That’s Twilight’s department. But I can imagine she won’t be pleased to hear about this.”

To say that Twilight wasn’t pleased to find out about Cozy’s secret would be an understatement. Not since she believed the CMC had sabotaged Cozy had she been this furious. And this time her anger wasn’t misdirected. “Cozy! What in the name of Starswirl’s beard made you think communicating with Tirek was ever a good idea?!”

“I just wanted to be able to make friends, to understand friendship. I thought if I could reach out to Triek of all creatures, everypony would want to be my friend,” Cozy explained. “It worked for you and your friends with Discord, and Counselor Starlight, and Fizz… er Miss. Tempest.”

Twilight sighed, putting a hoof to her forehead. “That was different, Cozy. In Discord’s case we were recruited by Princess Celestia to do it. And in the other cases it was when I sensed that fighting wasn’t the answer,” She struggled not to groan. “The whole point of this school was to help ponies and other creatures understand friendship. If you were having problems you should've come to me.”

“Or me,” Starlight interjected. “Or even the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Twilight made them official friendship tutors for a reason you know.”

“I just wanted to prove I could do it on my own, that I didn’t need somepony else to tell me how to make friends,” Cozy sighed and then frowned. “I’m going to be expelled for this, aren’t I?”

Twilight hesitated. “I… don’t know, Cozy. I’ll need time to think about that. For now though, I need to talk with the other princesses. Thanks to you we now know that Tirek is planning something, which means we need to be ready for him.”

“I guess that means I’m taking over as headmare of the school, again.” Starlight sighed as she sensed where Twilight’s conversation was going.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got Spike ready to cover your counselor duties,” Twilight reassured Starlight. “Just make sure to keep an eye on Cozy. And for now, it’s best if no other students know about this. No reason to cause a panic.”

Cozy blinked as she hesitantly answered. “So I’m not in trouble?”

Twilight’s response was vague and ominous. “We’ll see.” And it made Cozy gulp.

The rest of the day passed slowly for Cozy. Even though Twilight and Starlight agreed not to tell the other students about her secret, their friends nevertheless found out. And for Cozy it was really hard not to notice the looks her professors were giving her.

She couldn’t blame them. The pegasus had just revealed that she’d secretly been in cahoots with one of their sworn enemies. Who in their right mind wouldn’t be suspicious of that?

Night time was no better for the filly. It was hard for her to get to sleep. And when she finally did she tossed and turned, plagued by horrible nightmares.

One of them was so frightening and so horrid that caused the pegasus to wake with a start! Her natural pegasus instincts even made her shoot up from the bed and cling to the ceiling. When she came back down, something felt off. It felt like her bed sheets were wet.

Horrified and fearing the worst, Cozy pulled back the sheets! Her medium scarlet eyes quickly saw an unmistakable damp spot that could be seen even in the dark!

“How has this happened?! Why has this happened?!” The filly thought to herself. “I never wet the bed! Not even once! And I know I didn’t drink any liquids or forget to use the bathroom!” Yet there was the unmistakable proof of her shameful deed. Right there for everypony to notice.

And all she could do in that moment was cry.