The Social Rejects Squad: Loose Ends

Chapters

Prelude: A Filly Named Little Snack
Chapter 1-1: The Squad Forms
Chapter 1-2: Discordant Awakenings
Chapter 1-3: The Good Filly
Chapter 1-4: Doing the Right Thing
Chapter 2-1: A Changeling's Lament
Chapter 2-2: Cozy Interviews
Chapter 2-3: Let's Go Bowling!
Chapter 2-4: New Directions
Chapter 2-5: 8-Ball
Chapter 3-1: Double Back!
Chapter 3-2: Confrontation
Chapter 3-3: Helping Out
Chapter 3-4: Cozy Glow in Space!
Chapter 3-5: Reunion
Denouement
Prologue

Prelude: A Filly Named Little Snack

The orange earth filly trotted past the market square in Ponyville towards the outskirts of town to the East. As her long green pig tails swayed in the breeze along with the pink ribbons she wore, she looked to the distance with her sky-blue eyes and thought to herself, “Well, what should I say? “Uh, hi! Remember me from Canterlot? Little Snack?”” her brow scrunched as she dwelled on this and her puffy freckled cheeks rose in agitation. “No! That’s too complicated! Uh, maybe just start with, “Hello!” Um, yeah, maybe that’s the way to go?”

She ponders on this as she approaches the edge of the market district to the grove. She then thinks to herself, that she’s never had anypony to play with before! Wowie! This is sure to be fun! Uh, right? If only I can think of what to say!

She stops for a second and mutters to herself, “This is stupid! Introductions aren’t hard!” She sits on her haunches and faces the meadow before whispering more quietly to herself, “Hmm, well, maybe just not say anything? Maybe just hold out my hoof to shake? Yeah! That could work!”

She frowns for a moment before smiling to herself. “You know what? Why do I have these talks with myself? I mean, I know I’m just going to wing it! I always wing it!” she says to herself before giggling, returning to all fours, and trotting further into the meadow.

Little Snack starts to see a small cottage in the distance, and she begins to trot faster and whispering to herself, “Okay! Right! I just need to do this and get it over with! Once I’m in, everything will be fine again! Yeah!” and then begins gallop with her tongue out the right side of her mouth

She’s almost to the cottage when she hears the familiar voice of Cozy Glow scream, “AAAAAHHH!!!!”

She immediately slides to a stop and turns back to running the other way! She sees a tree just over to her left and circles back round to position herself behind it. She looks out from behind the tree and thinks to herself, “Holy crap! Uh, what was that?”

She continues to stare for a few more moments before softly whispering to herself, “Okay um, I don’t think she was screaming at me? I should probably uh, walk up there like I didn’t hear anything! Yes! Right! That’s a good plan!”

Little Snack slowly begins to trot out from behind the tree and walk cautiously to the cottage. She’s almost to the door when she hears Cozy again screaming. She can only make out the final word, “BOWS!”

Little Snack stops with a wide-eyed expression as her mouth grows small. She looks down and thinks to herself, “Wait! I wear bows! Uh, was she talking about me? Um, probably not? She also wears bows right? Oh, dang it! I’m so gonna ruin this!” She looks back up to the cottage, takes a deep breath, and trots forward before knocking on the door with her right forehoof.

Her ears perk to attention as faintly makes out Trixie on the other side saying, “You go take care of it Cozy! I’ll get the door!”

She then hears hoofsteps from behind it and the door then opens to reveal a blue unicorn. Trixie smiles and says, “Oh Little Snack! What a pleasant surprise!”

Her ears fall back to her sides as she smiles dimly and says, “Um yeah!” Little Snack paws at the dirt a little and looks down before saying, “You um, told me to come by, but you didn’t really tell me when you wanted me to do that? Uh, I kinda wanted to see Cozy again and so er…”

She trails off as Trixie smiles and says, “Yes of course Little Snack! Come on in!”

Little Snack widens her eyes and perks her ears up with a mixture of fear and hope in her heart as she says, “Well um, I hope it’s not a bad time?”

“Not at all Little Snack! Come right on in! Cozy is busy getting ready in her room right now…” Trixie says before she steps to the left for Little Snack to come in.

Little Snack gulps and says, “Uh, right! You want me to go in there!” before slowly trotting into Trixie’s living area.

The little earth filly’s head is alive as she thinks to herself, “Oh crap! This is gonna suck!”

Trixie says, “Go have a seat on the couch and I’ll let Cozy know you’re here!”

“Um, okay! Makes sense!” Little Snack says half to herself and half to Trixie as she trots over to the couch and sits down. She looks over at Trixie, now trotting to Cozy’s room and smiles dimly.

Trixie walks into Cozy’s room and shuts the door behind her.

Little Snack sits there thinking to herself, “Okay uh, what about after the introductions? Oh! Right! Remember the plan! Yes!” before curving her eyes upward as she tries to remember exactly what the plan was.

Then she hears muffled voices coming from Cozy’s room and so she moves her head to that direction and perks her ears to see what she can hear, but she can only make out two muffled voices from this distance. Then she brings her ears down as she thinks that maybe friends shouldn’t eavesdrop on each other? She squints her left eye when she realizes that that makes sense and she lowers her ears all the way. Instead, she waits while her mouth curves and gut wrenches in nervous apprehension.

Finally, the door to Cozy’s room opens to reveal a small pink Pegasus filly with bows, now arranged neatly in the bluish white curls of her hair. She looks at the earth filly and says, “Oh golly! Hiya Little Snack! It’s been a few days!”

Little Snack looks at Cozy and says, “Hi! I’m Little Snack and you’re Cozy Glow!” before widening her eyes, closing them, and whispering, “WHY?” to herself.

Cozy widens her eyes and says, “Um, right! You’re Little Snack and I’m Cozy Glow! You’re right!”

At this point, Little Snack opens her eyes, now confident that she couldn’t possibly mess this up any further and says, “So uh, friend! What would you like to do?” and then smiles at Cozy, hoping and praying to Twilight that she says something or has a plan.

“Golly! Y’know Little Snack, I hadn’t really thought about it? You know, I did just get out of bed!”

“Oh! Right! It’s still pretty early in the morning! Uh, 8:30 I think?” Little Snack stammers out as she trembles nervously in front of the Pegasus.

Cozy, mind now awake and knowing what the problem is, smiles as she says, “Well golly gee Little Snack! Haven’t you had your breakfast yet?”

Little Snack’s eyes wander up towards the top as she says, “Um, I don’t think so, no? I told myself that I was gonna come up here today and I really wanted to do that! Well, I didn’t! I mean!” she closes her eyes before opening them back up as she says, “I wanted to see you Cozy Glow! I uh, yeah!” and says almost robotically, “I wanted to see you because you’re my friend Cozy Glow… I love you…” and then scrunches her mouth and tries her best not to paw at the floor with her forehooves.

Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “This is hard for you, huh?”

Little Snack’s eyes widen as she says, “No! Well, I mean uh…” she smiles and relaxes her body as she says, “That obvious?”

Cozy softly giggles and says lower, “Yeah, kinda?”

Little Snack looks down and softly chuckles too as she says, “Yeah I really wanted to see you Cozy Glow, but I didn’t know when? So, I told myself, three days after I got back! Yeah! I told myself, I would come here, three days after I returned from Canterlot! And well uh, hi!” before looking up and smiling dimly at the small Pegasus.

Cozy tilts her head to the right and says, “Golly! You’d think you were the only pony to ever go somewhere new and meet somepony there?”

Little Snack starts as she says, “Well, I guess that’s not true, no? It’s just that well, I really like you and keep thinking I’m gonna mess this up!”

Cozy straightens her head and says, “You know, one thing I learned with Starshine was, the best way to get through that is to just do it. I mean, golly Little Snack! You’re already up here and we’re past that lousy introduction! You think you’re pretty much already in?”

Little Snack furrows her brow and scrunches her mouth as she ponders on this, before saying, “Well, that’s true! Um, so uh! Cozy Glow!” she looks at Cozy wide eyed, “Friend! What would you like to do now?” before smiling and hoping like Tartarus that Cozy will say something good or interesting.

“Uh, I kinda just told you I don’t know yet Little Snack?”

Little Snack looks off to the side and, “Oh! Right! That did happen didn’t it?” She curves her mouth before leveling it when she suddenly remembers the plan and says, “Well hey! We could walk back to my house. It’s just ten minutes that way and there’s a big field with all kinds of fun balls to play with in the back! How about it Cozy?” before smiling and hoping Cozy will take the bait.

Cozy raises her right eyebrow and says, “Um, sure Little Snack! You know, I never really played much ball back then, but I guess I could try playing with you? I hope you don’t mind if I’m not very good?”

Little Snack’s eyes widen as her plan worked and she says, “That’s okay Cozy! I can uh, go easy on you? Yeah! That would be good, right?”

Cozy snickers and thinks she’s had enough of this before shaking her head and saying, “Sure! That’ll be fine!”

“Well um, wanna go now?”

“Golly Little Snack! At least let me get some toast and juice first!”

“Oh uh, right! You haven’t eaten!”

“You know, you should probably eat something too Little Snack? How about toast?”

“Um…” Little Snack says as she starts and then says, “Okay Cozy! We’ll have toast together! Uh, you said juice too?”

Cozy turns around and squats before saying, “Yeah Little Snack! Go sit at the table and I’ll get everything ready!” before taking off with her wings and slowly flying towards the kitchen area of Trixie’s cottage.

“Right!” Little Snack says to nopony as she trots over to the dining region of the foyer.

Little Snack looks at the table before thinking to herself. After deciding that it probably doesn’t matter where she sits, she decides to sit at the head of the table.

Cozy soon floats in with two glasses of juice in her forehooves and sets them down neatly in front of the earth filly. She hovers over the table and says, “Okay Little Snack! I got the toast in the toaster and I got us some juice! Now you wait right here!” as she circles the table and then she gracefully flying back to the kitchen.

Little Snack scrunches her mouth and thinks, “Well, she’s serving me breakfast now! She wouldn’t be doing that if she didn’t like me, right? Uh, right!” and lowly nodding to herself.

Cozy then floats in with plate in her mouth and holding another in her forehooves. She glides over to one side of the table and sets the forehoof plate down there before drifting to section of table in front of Little Snack and setting the mouth plate down there. She circles the table again before landing, looking at her friend, smiling, and saying, “Here you go! I already put butter on it!” and trotting over to her side to take a seat in the chair next to Little Snack.

Little Snack sees the two pieces of toast, medium brown, each with a small square of butter in the center, arranged one diagonal over the over and says, “Wow! This looks good Cozy!” Little Snack says before grabbing a piece with her forehooves and taking a ravenous bite of it.

“Glad you like it!” Cozy says before grabbing her own piece with her forehooves and slowly munching on the end of it.

Little Snack finishes her toast in the space of a few moments and then she gets the glass with her forehooves and slurps it down her throat with her head back.

Cozy sees this, giggles, and starts to much faster to catch up.

Soon, Cozy is about halfway through her second piece as Little Snack asks, “So, when does school start for you Cozy?”

“Uh, 18 days, I think? So, you came here to see me? Um, why did you wait three days?”

Little Snack starts as she feels the jig is up and she says, “Well, I don’t know what you’re doing! I wasn’t sure when a good time would be and uh, well I just picked a random time in the future to do it! Yeah!” before smiling weakly at Cozy.

Cozy puts her forehoof onto Little Snack’s and she says, “Look Little Snack… I’m your friend! I don’t want you to be afraid of me!”

Little Snack looks down and she closes her eyes and says, “That’s not it Cozy!”

“Well golly Little Snack! What’s wrong?”

Little Snack stammers out, “I just wanted you to like me…”

Cozy smiles and says, “Didn’t I just tell you not to worry about that?”

Little Snack scrunches her mouth and says, “I think so?”

“Right! So, stop being afraid of me and just spend time with me! I am you’re friend, right?”

Little Snack’s eyes widen as she says, “Right! My friend! Yes!”

Cozy softly snickers and says, “Okay Little Snack! Now let me finish my toast and juice and we can go walk back to your house okay?”

“Right Cozy Glow!”

Cozy then quietly eats the rest of her toast and then grabs what’s left of her juice in her forehooves, before gulping it down. “Ah!” she says, before looking down and saying, “Okay hang on!”

She gets off the chair, squats, flitters her wings, and takes off straight up into the air before hovering over to the table and using her forehooves to gather the two plates in a stack and then putting both glasses on top of it before she buzzes around the table with her wings with her tongue out the left side of her mouth. She then floats lowly so she can grab the plate assembly with all her hooves and flies it out to sink in the kitchen, gently dropping it there.

She then flies back to the dining area, lands, looks up at Little Snack, and says, “Okay Little Snack! You ready to go?”

“You bet Cozy!” Little Snack says as she gets off the chair.

Both fillies trot outside and to the market square towards the West. Cozy looks to her friend on the right and says, “So Little Snack! You learned all sorts of things about me from your textbook huh? Uh, I don’t know much about you?”

Little Snack looks to her left as the market grows closer and says, “Well, originally I’m from Canterlot! Yeah, I know! Earth pony in Unicorn Central! Right! Well the truth was, I wasn’t very happy there and um, I guess my parents noticed? So, a couple of months ago we moved South to Ponyville! And well uh, hi!”

“Um, why weren’t you happy in Canterlot?”

Little Snack frowns and says, “Uh, do I have to tell you?”

“Well uh, golly no Little Snack! Not if you don’t want to…”

Little Snack stops trotting as Cozy does the same. The two fillies face each other, and Little Snack finally says, “I didn’t have any friends alright? I like to run and play and do things outside and well, I just didn’t get that in the city… And so, they moved here! Just for me!”

“Oh, gee Little Snack! And I guess you found ponies to run and play with here too huh?”

Little Snack’s mouth scrunches as her nose and face tighten and ears lower. She stares at Cozy for a moment before whispering something that the Pegasus can’t hear.

“Uh, I’m sorry! What was that?” Cozy says as she moves her head closer to hear her friend.

Little Snack says a bit higher this time and Cozy can make out. “Not exactly…”

“Well golly Little Snack! You act like you don’t have any friends?”

“Um, er, well…”

Cozy smiles as she slowly trots towards the nervous earth pony. She then softly says, “Little Snack… It’s okay…” and then embraces the earth filly in a hug.

“ACK!” Little Snack says in protest at first, but she soon finds her body relaxing as she embraces Cozy with her forehooves.

The two fillies get off each other and Cozy says, “You know, I didn’t really have any friends before Starshine? And now, you got both of us!”

Little Snack curves her mouth and says, “Well, yeah! That’s right! Um, do you like to play ball?”

“Well Little Snack, why don’t we try doing that for awhile and see if it’s something I enjoy? You know, it has been about 12 years for me, right?”

Little Snack looks down and says, “Um, right! That makes sense!”

“So why don’t we walk to your backyard now and try it out huh?” Cozy says as she starts to trot towards the cottage once more.

“Um, right!” Little Snack says and starts to trot towards the market again.

As the two fillies trot through the busy market square, Cozy and Little Snack both see all sorts of stalls set up on either side of the massive concrete platform. They silently trot as Cozy stays close to her friend.

Little Snack looks to Cozy and says, “You okay?”

Cozy whispers back, “Yeah! Being around other ponies sometimes makes me nervous, but I think I’ll be okay. Let’s just get through here!”

Little Snack smiles and whispers back, “Right!”

At that point, Little Snack starts to pick up her pace. Cozy notices this and starts to trot faster to keep up with her friend.

Cozy is huffing as they trot quickly and then turn to the left and begins to trot faster as Cozy can barely keep up.

Finally, Cozy yelps out, “Golly! Wait for me!”

Little Snack hears this and slows down for the Pegasus filly.

Cozy catches up right as Little Snack is approaching the edge. Little Snack begins to slow down to a brisk trot as a now huffing Cozy Glow finally catches up to her.

Little Snack looks back to her friend and says, “You act like you don’t do much trotting?”

“Well golly gee Little Snack! I do have wings you know?”

“Oh! Right! But I don’t have those!”

“Well no? Uh, how much further is it?” Cozy says as she looks to a small house in the distance.

Little Snack looks back over and says, “That’s my house right there on the right. Yeah, the backyard is behind the fence and it’s huge! Come on! Let’s go!” before quickening her pace once more and the Pegasus tries to keep up.

Little Snack reaches the house a moment before Cozy and she trots over to the left side of the tall privacy fence that’s on either side, away from Ponyville and says, “The gate is over here!”

Cozy finally reaches the fence near Little Snack as she’s huffing and says, “Okay Little Snack! Um, can we take a break first?”

“Sure Cozy! But I’ve always wanted to play tetherball with another pony before!”

“Oh wow! You have a tetherball poll?”

“Yeah, but until today, there was only one pony to play on it!”

“Oh, okay Little Snack! Just a sec! Let me catch my breath!”

“Oh uh, right! You’re a Pegasus and so you don’t trot much! You’re tired! Makes sense!”

“You talk to yourself a lot huh?”

“Well I’ve spent most of my time by myself. Uh, I guess I became my own best friend?”

Cozy looks up with her auburn eyes and says, “Um, yeah that makes sense! And so now, even when you’re around other fillies, you still do that huh?”

“I do? Um, probably!” Little Snack says before smiling dimly at Cozy.

Cozy looks at Little Snack, giggles and says, “I like you Little Snack?”

“Really? Um, okay cool! I like you too Cozy!”

“Yeah… Okay I’m ready now Little Snack!”

“Alright!” Little Snack says before trotting over to the fence and opening a gate that was hidden until she touched it. She says, “Yeah, the gates on this thing are not obvious. But I know where they are!” Before opening the gate all the way and Cozy can make out part of the expanse that is Little Snack’s backyard.

Cozy trots through the gate and looks around. She sees that the area around the house is kept mowed, but beyond that, the grass grows tall and while and there are sparse trees here in there across the meadow. She looks to her right and sees the tetherball poll there with a white rubber ball hanging on a rope down it. She trots in that direction.

Little Snack closes the gate and walks to the pole near her friend. She looks at Cozy and asks, “Do you know how to play tetherball?”

“Well, I did it a little bit back before my parents died and I went to North Everfree Elementary! Uh, I don’t think I was very good!”

Little Snack says, “Okay, well obviously, you can’t use your wings!”

“Well golly gee, that’s pretty obvious don’t you think? That would give me an unfair advantage! Only an idiot wouldn’t think so!”

Little Snack smiles and says, “Yes! Right!” Before trotting over to the other side of the pole from Cozy and saying, “Alright, first to five goals wins!” before squatting and jumping at the ball to deliver a powerful forehoof kick as her green pig tails and pink ribbons flowed with her body.

The ball bounces back and Cozy runs and jumps to strike the ball using her right forehoof with all her might. Her bluish white curls flow with her as well, although It doesn’t go nearly as far back as when Little Snack hit it, but she doesn’t care! She’s having fun with her friend!

The two fillies bat the ball back and forth like this for about an hour. Cozy isn’t nearly as good as Little Snack and the final score is 5-1 Little Snack!

A now sweating and panting Cozy smiles at Little Snack after the game and says, “Golly Little Snack! That sure was fun! Um, thanks for letting me score a point… I didn’t wanna think I was THAT bad!”

Little Snack looks at Cozy as she smiles and says, “Um, Cozy? I was giving it my all the whole time! You scored that point fair and square!”

Cozy starts and says, “Um, you really mean it Little Snack?”

“Well yeah Cozy! I never think it’s very sportspony like to not do your best! I mean, sure you’ll never be as good as me at ball, but you should see me in a flying competition! I suck!”

Cozy giggles with her friend as she says, “I guess everypony has their talents huh?”

“I guess so Cozy!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 1-1: The Squad Forms

The deep purple unicorn filly trotted past the Ponyville market square. She was thinking to herself, “Okay, I should go get Little Snack now and we can surprise Cozy later today! I’m sure she’d like a visit from her best friends!”

Her long white mane and tail swayed in the breeze as she walked, and her hot pink highlights were even more visible in the sunlight, which peaked out from behind two clouds. Her cutie mark of stars and planets moved with her legs as she kept trotting and thinking to herself.

Soon she saw Little Snack’s house coming up in the distance on the right and trotted a little bit faster. But as she approached, she heard ponies talking behind the privacy fence. She got closer to see what she could hear.

She overhears Cozy Glow saying, “No! You’re cuter because you have those long flowing ribbons that move with your pigtails and tail as you run and bounce across the field!”

And then Little Snack says, “No! You’re cute because you have freckles and dimples!”

“That doesn’t count Little Snack! You have freckles and dimples too!”

“Oh yeah! Well, you’re cute because uh… You got those adorable bluish white curls in your mane and tail!”

“No! You’re cuter because you of the hyperactive way you act and how easily excitable you are!”

“Oh yeah, well your cute because…”

Starshine had enough by this point and so she bursts through the hidden gate and says, “YOU’RE BOTH ADORABLE!”

Cozy and Little Snack are standing by the tetherball pole, Cozy on the left and Little Snack to the right. They’re both looking at Starshine the moment she came through for a moment before Cozy turns to look at Little Snack, and says, “You know what Little Snack? I think Starshine is cuter than both of us!”

Little Snack looks at the unicorn, scrunches her mouth, and says, “You know Cozy, I think you’re right! Starshine here is pretty adorable!”

Starshine starts and says, “Hey! Wait a minute!”

Cozy smiles and says, “So now YOU get to be CUTE Starshine!”

Starshine looks up and finally asks, “Um, why are we acting like being cute is something undesirable? I mean, isn’t being cute and adorable supposed to be a good thing?”

“You know, I never actually thought about it?” Cozy says as her mouth scrunches.

Little Snack looks over at Cozy and says, “Um, why can’t we just all be cute and be done with it? I mean, isn’t this kinda silly?”

Cozy closes her eyes and begins to softly giggle.

Starshine asks her, “What’s with you Cozy?”

Cozy opens her soft brown eyes to the unicorn and says, “Well, this whole time, you all were trying to convince me that I’m cute automatically! As in, I don’t really have to work at it and you know, that annoyed me at first… But I’m starting to think that maybe that was just silly of me? I mean, why is being cute a bad thing anyway? You can use it to get ponies to do what you want!”

Starshine looks at her sternly…

Cozy sees this, widens her eyes, and says, “Okay I know! No using other ponies!”

Starshine smiles as she trots towards the Pegasus and says, “Right Cozy! You’re reformed now!”

“Of course!” Cozy says as she trots up to meet her friend for a tight warm hug.

They break and Little Snack looks at Starshine and says, “Um, Starshine?”

“Hang on!” Starshine says as she smiles and trots to the earth filly…

Little Snack has a nervous expression on her face when Starshine suddenly hugs her tightly as well.

“Okay! Now, what’s up Little Snack?” Starshine asks the orange filly after she breaks her embrace to return to all fours.

“Um, I was about to ask you for a hug… Uh, never mind!” Little Snack says before smiling nervously at the unicorn.

Starshine smiles again and says, “Of course! I always hug my friends! Like I did yesterday!”

Cozy starts and looks over before saying, “Wait! You were here yesterday? Why didn’t you invite me to come along?”

Starshine looks over at Cozy and says, “Well, we thought you needed to rest up after your trip to Canterlot earlier. Well, that and I wanted some one-on-one time with Little Snack here! Um, I hope you’re not mad?”

Cozy looks at them as she gauges this… She says, “Golly Starshine! So, I guess you wanna know both of us huh?”

“Of course, Cozy! I didn’t forget about you! I just have more than one friend now!”

Little Snack chimes in, “Yeah! We didn’t know what to do with you and so I told myself three days! I’ll do it three days after we get back! Er, to give you time to relax after you get home!” she says before smiling dimly at the Pegasus.

Cozy smiles as she looks at Little Snack and trots towards her slowly. She calmly says, “Is that the REAL reason you didn’t see me sooner?”

Little Snack looks at Cozy like a deer looks at an oncoming train as she says, “Well, right! Yes! That!”

Cozy gets close to Little Snack and stops, tilts her head to the right, and says, “And that’s all? Nothing else about me is scary to you Little Snack?”

Little Snack gulps and starts pawing at the dirt.

Cozy straightens her neck, sighs, and says, “I already told you, I don’t want you to be afraid of me! You didn’t hate and fear me on the train! So, something must’ve changed, huh? What is it, Little Snack?”

Little Snack finally just closes her eyes and says, “You’re so smart and devious! I read about you again when I got back! And, and the more I think about it, the more nervous I get around you!”

Cozy looks down and chuckles before saying, “Somehow, I just knew this would come up”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “What do you mean Cozy?”

Cozy looks at the unicorn and says, “I mean, my past will still catch up to me, no matter what I do!”

Starshine smiles and says, “And like Trixie told you, it’s your job to rise above it!”

Cozy then looks at Little Snack and says, “Right!” then she smiles and says, “Okay Little Snack! Tell me, you were fine when we were hanging out in Canterlot earlier! You were fine in the restaurant and in the castle later when you, me, and Starshine were hanging out… But you’ve never been alone with me before have you?” she says before tilting her head to the right.

Little Snack looks at Cozy, gulps, and says, “Um, not until today no, I don’t think?” she says as her right eye squints.

“Right! But today, you finally trotted over to my house and got me to play!”

“Um, I did, didn’t I? I guess that means you’re not THAT scary or?”

“Well golly gee, I think it means you need to get to know me better! I mean, me and Starshine there have been hanging out on and off for about a month… But you’re new huh?”

“Well, right!” Little Snack says as she stares at the Cozy nervously.

Cozy looks up again and says, “I guess this means I need to hug you now?”

Little Snack starts and says, “Huh?”

Cozy trots to the earth filly and embraces her in her forehooves slowly and gently.

“EEP!” Little Snack says before slowly returning the hug with her own forehooves.

Cozy whispers in her ear, “I know I did a lot of amazing and scary things a long time ago Little Snack… But please believe me when I say, I am not that pony anymore!”

“Er, right! Uh, ten years can make a big difference?”

Cozy lets her out of her embrace to return to the ground on her hooves as she says, “Well, to be honest with you, I don’t think time really matters?”

Little Snack looks at Cozy and asks, “Huh?”

“Well, I was a baddie ten years ago right? I tried to take over Equestria and I did all sorts of nasty and evil things… I know this… But…” she closes her eyes as she continues, “It doesn’t matter how long ago it was Little Snack…” she opens her eyes and stares at the earth filly openly as she says, “The only thing that does matter, is that you work on it! If you don’t, you won’t get better you know?”

Little Snack looks up as she says, “Uh, right! That makes sense! I mean, I’ve gotten hurt kicking my ball around a lot and my mom did teach me that certain deep injuries won’t get better unless you treat them… I guess this is sorta the same thing?”

“Uh, right! We’ll go with that!” Cozy says before turning back to the unicorn and asking her, “So, did you have any plans for when you got to Little Snack’s?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Well, that’s the thing! I took a day to myself to recover after we all got back and I hung out with Little Snack yesterday. I was actually gonna get her before we both trotted over to your house! I thought you’d like a surprise visit from your two best friends! But uh, I guess that’s out now huh?”

Cozy smiles and says, “I don’t think so? I mean, we’re all together here, right? We all met anyway!”

“Yeah, I guess that’s right? I expected this to be at your house though! That’s the only thing…”

“Well golly gee Starshine! What is there to do at my house?”

“Oh uh, not much!” Starshine giggles before saying, “I guess we’d end up either here or at my place anyway, right?”

Cozy smiles and says, “Probably! So, I guess it all worked out huh? But now there’s three of us! What do you wanna do now?”

Starshine says, “Well, I always wanted to take a walk in the White Tail Woods Northwest of here? We could do that?”

Cozy looks over at Little Snack and asks her, “Feel like a hike Little Snack?”

Little Snack looks over at Cozy and says, “Sure Cozy!”

Later, the three fillies are trotting down the trail Westward into the White Tail Woods from Ponyville. Cozy finally says, “Golly! You know, I never really explored the White Tail Woods before?”

Starshine chimes in and says, “Yeah, me neither!” She looks at the earth filly behind them and asks, “Hey, Little Snack! You ever been here before?”

Little Snack says, “Um, not really? I mean, I know it’s not too far from the field where I normally play and kick my ball, but I never went up here because I didn’t think it looked that interesting… But now that I’m out here in nature with my friends, it seems kinda nice! I like the wooded scenery too!” before she starts to look around and take everything in.

Starshine says, “Yeah, but now I’m wondering if this trail circles back round or if we’re gonna end up trotting the other way through here?”

Little Snack says, “Well, let’s find out!”

Then, Cozy hears a familiar voice coming from her right. It simply says, “Hello Cozy Glow!”

Cozy turns to the voice and sees a familiar draconequus there and says, “YOU!”

Discord then floats past the trees to the trail in front of the fillies and says, “Yes, me! And you’re you! A selfish, power hungry, and maniacal little brat!”

Cozy fluffs her wings and shouts, “I understand that I was bad and needed to be punished… I know this… But you’re an asshole! Get away from me! I don’t ever want to talk to you ever again!”

Discord smiles as Cozy’s friends look at her in shock as she doesn’t normally curse and says, “Believe me, the feeling is mutual! However, I can’t let your recent “reformation” (he uses air quotes) go unnoticed and so there’s some things I need to do!”

Cozy starts and says, “You don’t need to do anything right now but leave me alone!”

Discord then disappears except for his eyes and mouth as he smiles once more and says, “We shall see…” before that too disappears…

Cozy is quivering as Starshine asks her, “Who was that?”

Cozy turns to face Starshine and says, “His name is Discord! He’s the draconequus who tricked me, Chrysalis, and Tirek into believing he was Grogar and that ended up getting me turned to stone for ten years!”

Starshine scrunches her mouth and says, “Okay, so that’s why you don’t want to deal with him?”

“Golly no! I don’t want to know him, I don’t want to see him, and I definitely don’t want to talk with him!”

Little Snack says, “Well um, he seemed to be interested in you?”

Cozy looks at Little Snack and says, “Yes, he did! And that’s one thing I don’t like about this! Listen! I need to fly back home now! Mom won’t be back until this evening, but um…” She looks down.

Starshine smiles and says, “I’ll swing by my house and trot down there and meet you Cozy!”

Little Snack says, “Yeah Cozy! We’re in this together now and I’m not leaving you alone with that crazy draconequus on the loose! I’ll trot back to my place, let my mom know you need me, and I’ll be right there!”

Cozy looks at them and says, “Golly! You really are my friends huh?”

Starshine says, “Always Cozy!”

Little Snack nods at the Pegasus determinately and says, “You got it Cozy! Discord isn’t messing with my friend!”

Cozy stares back to the East towards her house and says, “Okay! Here I go!” before starting to gallop that way and flapping her wings. She soon begins to leave the ground as she gets higher and higher and flapping her wings forcefully to gain more speed.

As she flies over the busy market square, she sees ponies there wandering the roads and shopping at stalls set up on the sides. She thinks, “Golly! What does he want with me? Why is he suddenly bothering me now?”

She flies past the market square and soon sees the familiar grove. She thinks, “Okay, there’s the grove! Almost there now!”

She sees Trixie’s cottage approaching and lands right in front of the door. She trots to it and opens it with her forehoof before going inside and shutting it. She walks to the beanbag couch in the center of the foyer and sits there on her haunches as she thinks, “Okay! I made it back! Shouldn’t be too much longer before the others arrive, but…” She looks around the room carefully for anything out of place. She finally says, “Okay, he’s probably not here? Of course, I really don’t have any way of knowing for sure huh?”

Soon, there’s a knock on the door. Cozy gets up and quickly trots to it to answer. She opens it and sees a unicorn filly and an earth filly standing on the other side and says, “Okay, now come inside! Quick!”

Starshine says, “You really don’t like this do you Cozy?” as she and Little Snack trot inside the cottage.

Cozy quickly shuts the door with her right forehoof and says, “Golly no! I don’t like this at all! I keep thinking of what he might be planning!”

Little Snack says, “Well, there’s literally no way you can prepare for everything, right? So maybe it would be best to just lay low for a bit? Hide out, you know?”

Cozy looks at Little Snack and says, “I just spent about a month hiding myself away and now I gotta do it again huh?”

Little Snack trots forward and pats Cozy’s shoulder with her left forehoof and says, “Unless you got a better idea? Well, hey! At least you got us now, right? What else are we gonna do?”

Cozy looks down as she softly giggles and says, “Golly yes! Here we are! The Social Rejects Squad huh?”

Starshine says, “Social Rejects Squad?”

Cozy looks to her and says, “Well, I’m a recovering villain, you’re a nerd, and Little Snack, well…” she looks to the earth filly who’s currently sniffing her right forehoof with a perplexed look on her face, “She’s Little Snack! We’re all here because there’s nothing else for us to do and nowhere else for us to go! But that’s not a bad thing is it? I mean, they told us at the school to find our people huh?”

Starshine looks up and says, “Yeah that’s right! I remember Professor Pinkie Pie going over “grooves” and “party people” with us in her celebration seminar!” She then smiles at Cozy and says, “Social Rejects? Like what you called us when we first met?”

Cozy giggles softly as she shakes her head lightly and says, “Yup! Why not?”

Little Snack speaks up, “So um, this is okay then? Us all being a “crew” or “squad” and hanging out together?”

“Well golly gee, it might sound sappy, but I don’t want to be anywhere but with my best friends right now!”

Starshine adds, “Well, it’s probably better that we all stick together until we at least know something about what Discord is planning?”

Little Snack says, “Yeah, and this sure beats kicking my ball by myself across the field!”

Cozy reaches her right forehoof towards the two other fillies and said, “So we’re a team now?”

Starshine puts her right forehoof over Cozy’s and says, “Let’s do this! Social Rejects Squad!”

Little Snack is standing to the left of Starshine, but to the right of Cozy Glow and she puts her right forehoof on top of the other two before she exclaims, “Yay! I got friends now!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 1-2: Discordant Awakenings

Cozy Glow felt the warm embrace of Starshine holding her from behind as she snuggled under the covers and sensed the comforting warmth of Little Snack in front of her. She felt so peaceful there, with her two best friends as she closed her auburn eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep that afternoon…

Cozy awoke on the mat inside her cage deep in Tartarus. She looked around. There was no sign of Tirek’s cage? Just a lonely cave somewhere deep within the earth.

Cozy got up off the mat to all fours and looked around as she called out, “Hello?”

She could see the door to the cage on her left, but there’s a brass padlock there!

Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “Okay! Just relax! This probably isn’t real? But the question is, why am I here?”

“You are here because you choose to be!” says a soft feminine voice from behind her.

Cozy turns to see the dark form of Princess Luna staring back at her from the other side of the bars. She then says loudly, “Look! I’m reformed! I did my time! Why am I still here?”

Princess Luna smiles and says, “Only you know the answer to that question Cozy!”

“Cozy! Wake up!” said the squeaky voice of Little Snack in Cozy’s head.

The pink filly stirs as she remembers she was being held by Starshine earlier and Little Snack was right in front of her. But now, she couldn’t feel anypony around her. Just soft blankets and cool silky pillows. She opens her eyes to see an orange earth filly with green pigtails staring at her from off to the side of the bed with a concerned look in her eyes. She also sees a white-haired unicorn filly standing to her right.

Little Snack finally says, “Uh, um, Cozy Glow, I er, uh…” She then looks over to her side and says, “Hey Starshine! Some help here?” before nervously pawing at the floor gently.

Starshine calmly closes her eyes and sighs before looking at Cozy with her striking green eyes as she says, “Cozy Glow, you have a unicorn horn…”

“AAAAAHHH!!!!!” Cozy exclaims as she starts to scream.

The cloven hooved and motley form of Discord materializes out of thin air floating behind the two fillies, points at the filly on the bed with the cow hoof on his right foreleg, and giggles as he says, “Oh you should see the look on your face Cozy!”

Cozy gets on all fours on the bed and yells, “Change me back!” at the draconequus as her two friends then turn to face Discord.

Discord smiles and says, “Oh, but I can’t do that! You see, this is your test!”

Cozy starts before Discord can say another word, “I don’t care about your test and I don’t care about you! Change me back right now and get out of here!”

Suddenly, a zipper appears over Cozy’s mouth and zips shut as Discord mimics the motion in the air.

Discord smiles and continues, “Now, where was I? Oh yes! Your test little Cozy Glow! You see, you wanted power. Well congratulations! I’m giving it to you! Now, you’re by no means a true Alicorn and you’re definitely not a match for Princess Twilight or even Flurry Heart, but you’re certainly mightier than any unicorn in Equestria! Now, let’s see what you do!” before disappearing slowly revealing only a snarly toothed mouth and eyes as he softly giggles as that soon, disappears as well.

Cozy’s mouth is suddenly free from the zipper as it disappears and she yells, “Jerk!” at the empty air and fluffs her wings.

“Oh crap! Oh gosh! This is bad! This is very bad!” Little Snack says as she starts to paw at the floor again.

Starshine looks over and says, “Relax Little Snack! No matter what happens, we’re not gonna make it better by freaking out!”

Little Snack stops and looks at the unicorn sternly as she says, “Um, okay! You got a point there! But uh, Cozy is freaking all powerful now! What do we do?”

Starshine giggles softly and says, “Well, we should probably start by seeing how she is?”

“Um, makes sense!” Little Snack says before cautiously staring back up on the bed. She sees Cozy there, now with a horn and sitting on her haunches on the bed, biting her forehooves, with her eyes darting all around the room. She finally says, “Um, Cozy? Are you okay?”

Cozy starts and looks down at the earth filly as she slowly smiles and says, “Of course Little Snack! I’m swell! I’m great! I’m the best filly there is! I’m good! I swear!”

“Um, Canterlot! We’re losing her!” Little Snack says as she mimics a space control center.

Starshine says, “Cozy, first off, avoid concentrating on anything for right now. Secondly, if something is the matter, you need to let us know right now. We’re both cleared to spend the night tonight since we both told our parents that you need us… We’re here for you Cozy! You’re gonna be okay!”

“Golly golly golly golly golly golly golly…” Cozy keeps repeating to herself.

Starshine looks at Little Snack and says, “Look! I don’t know what kinda time we have! You stay here and try to calmly talk to her! I’ll go get Trixie from the Friendship School! We need her here, now!”

“Hey! Wait!” Little Snack says as Starshine begins to quickly trot to the door.

Starshine opens it with her forehoof and says, “Little Snack! I know you can keep her calm! Just sit tight! I’ll be back as soon as I can!” before trotting out, closing it, and loud galloping hoofsteps can be heard growing faint behind the door.

Little Snack slowly looks at the frantic half-Alicorn. She says, “So uh, we sure had a lot of fun this morning?” and smiles dimly.

Cozy looks at Little Snack and stutters out, “Um, yeah… Golly, we sure did huh?” she starts to giggle nervously as she continues, “You know, I haven’t played tetherball in over twelve years?”

“Oh well, I guess you were about due then?”

Cozy smiles and chuckles softly and says, “Yeah…”

“Um, you holding up okay Cozy?”

“Oh, golly gee! You know, by now, you’d think I’d be used to my life being weird? You gotta admit, losing everything I hold dear, failing to take over Equestria twice, getting locked in Tartarus, getting turned to stone, learning friendship again, and then becoming super powerful sure doesn’t happen to most fillies?”

“Well uh, hey! It could be worse? You could be NORMAL! That would suck right?” Little Snack says as she tries her best to put on a happy grin for Cozy.

At this point, Cozy could only stare at the orange filly dumbfounded and in shock. She then starts to smile and giggle maniacally!

Little Snack then mumbles to herself, “Okay! Um, yeah! This is better! I think?” she looks up at Cozy and asks her, “Cozy! You okay over there?”

Cozy smiles and says, “Why wouldn’t I be okay? I got power! I got lots of power! And you know, I didn’t even want it! I still don’t want it! I’m swell! I’m just dandy!” before starting to giggle like a lunatic some more.

“Oh gosh! This probably isn’t good! Um, think Little Snack! Think! Um…” Little Snack then looks at Cozy who’s still out of her mind and giggling hysterically. She takes a deep breath and says to herself, “Okay! Here I go!” before trotting over to Cozy quickly and embracing her in a tight warm hug. She whispers to Cozy’s ear as she stutters, “It’s okay Cozy… You’re gonna be just fine… I promise…”

Cozy begins to pant as she calms down and then looks down before saying, “Th-thanks Little Snack… You really are my friend huh?”

Little Snack smiles while still holding Cozy as she says in a more composed tone, “You bet Cozy! Anytime!”

Suddenly, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie (in her magician’s hat and cape), and Starshine all teleport to the center of the room.

Starlight is on Cozy’s left and quickly sees Little Snack on the bed hugging the shaking Pegasus with a horn now on her head. She says, “Oh crap! She’s an Alicorn!”

“I’m not an Alicorn! I…” Cozy begins to scream out, “didn’t even want power!” as Little Snack starts and then holds the pink filly more firmly.

Trixie, standing between Starlight and Starshine, curves her mouth and says, “You gotta admit, it is the sort of twisted and weird thing Discord would do? But no, this is not okay!” she says before stamping her left forehoof down. “This is my foal! I adopted her because I love her! That jerk has gone too far!”

Starlight nods her head and says, “Agreed! You stay here and keep her calm! I’ll go get Rainbow Dash to fly word to Princess Twilight!” before teleporting out.

“How are you doing baby?” Trixie asks before tentatively taking a few paces towards the bed.

“You know, I still have no idea what all I can do? I can’t really focus on anything right now… Freaking out makes that kinda hard!” Cozy slowly says before softly giggling to herself once more. She then looks wide eyed at Trixie before saying, “I guess that’s a good thing, right?” and then giggling even more hysterically, when suddenly, a small bolt of lightning shoots out of her horn and passes over Trixie’s head to blacken the door behind her… The room stops as Cozy looks up at the fresh burn mark and says, “Golly! Guess I shouldn’t focus like that huh? Well, assuming I don’t want a small bolt of lightning!” and then, softly chuckling to nopony.

“Uh, right!” Trixie slowly and dramatically says as a slow grin forms on her face.

“Why are you so happy mom? Equestria is doomed now!”

Trixie scrunches her mouth and says, “Melodramatic much daughter?” as she tilts her head to the right, “I mean, you’re still a good pony, whether you have power or not you know?”

“Golly! You really think so mom? I mean, I always thought it wouldn’t matter much if I messed up you know? But now?” her eyes finally move to see the horn on her head as it suddenly starts to fizzle with magical energy around it. It suddenly shoots a white bolt of energy through the ceiling of Trixie’s cottage! “AAAAAHHH!!!!” she screams! “I HATE THIS!”

“Cozy! Get a hold of yourself! Now look at me… (Cozy begins to stare at the blue unicorn with wide brown eyes) You just need to learn focus okay? Look! There’s a big open field South of here! We can go there and practice okay?” Trixie says while motioning with her right forehoof towards the South.

“Um, open field? Nopony around huh? Uh, yeah! Yes mom! Let’s go there!” Cozy says while panting and shaking her head energetically.

“Right! Little Snack! Starshine! You two stay here and If Starlight returns, let her know we’re in the South field!” Trixie says as she tilts her head towards the earth filly.

“You got it Trixie!” Little Snack says before nodding her head.

“We won’t let you down!” chimes in Starshine.

Trixie looks back to Cozy and says, “Now Cozy! Focus on trotting and nothing else! Just walk to me, and we’ll carefully walk out to the South field so I can teach you focus!”

“Um, okay! Golly! I think I can do this! Golly!” Cozy says as she slowly gets off the bed for the first time in nearly two hours. Her left forehoof hits the ground before her right and then as she slowly moves her body forward by trotting, her left hind hoof touches the floor shortly before her right. She looks up to Trixie and slowly and cautiously trots to her while doing her best to focus on trotting and nothing else.

“See? That wasn’t so bad was it?” Trixie asks before smiling at the small pink filly who looks up and smiles back at her.

About ten minutes later, the duo of unicorn and pseudo-Alicorn walk out to the field near a knoll. Trixie looks at the knoll, “Okay! That knoll can take a lot Cozy! Focus on it and learn to control your magical blasts! Once you can control your destructive forces, you won’t be as dangerous and “randomly destructive!””

Cozy glances to Trixie on her left and says, “You don’t want me to accidentally blow stuff up huh? Makes sense!” before focusing on the knoll. She concentrates and soon, her horn begins to spark with electricity. She then focuses on the knoll more and finally sends a white magical burst towards the knoll! It blasts the hillside and creates a small crater there in the side. She says, “You gotta admit, that’s pretty powerful! I didn’t even focus or use that much!”

“That’s very good Cozy! Now focus some more! Let’s see what you can do!”

“Are you sure that’s okay mom?” Cozy says before nervously looking at Trixie.

“Sure! There’s nopony for miles! We’ll be fine!”

“Um, okay… “Cozy says before focusing more heavily on the knoll and then suddenly, her horn gives off a powerful white surge of energy that blasts an even bigger crater just to the right of the one she created earlier and blows most of the hillside to smithereens! She sees the big brown crater she just made in the landscape, smiles, and says, “Golly! That’s kinda neat! I like blowing stuff up!”

“See, it’s not so bad right?”

“Well, maybe not mom? But you know, I didn’t even want it?”

“Howdy there!” says a voice from behind.

This startles Cozy and she screams “AAH!” and suddenly shoots a bolt of white-hot energy into the sky! She then watches it form vapor trails in the upper horizon as she asks her mother, “That’s not gonna come back down is it?”

Trixie looks up and sees the small puffs of cloud in the distance from under her magician’s hat as the blast trails off, frowns, and says, “Um, I hope not?”

Cozy looks behind her to see the tan earth stallion in a bent and disheveled straw hat with a brown mustache standing there as he smiles and says, “Oh I’m sorry little filly! I didn’t mean to scare you! I was just admiring your handywork on that there knoll you were just blasting!”

“Well golly gee mister! You really shouldn’t startle ponies like that!”

He sheepishly says, “Oh um, sorry little one! Name’s Daniel and I herd sheep!”

Trixie frowns and says, “Well yes Daniel! My name is Trixie and we kinda need this area to ourselves for now.”

“Oh uh, sorry bout that Miss Trixie! I’ll just be on my way then! Uh, you keep practicing little pony! You’ll get it soon!” he says before softly whistling to himself and trotting back towards the East.

After he’s some distance away, Cozy looks at Trixie and says, “Uh, mom? I think I got the hang of energy blasting and I don’t think I’m gonna blow things up out of nowhere anymore? Can we go back now please?” before smiling faintly.

“Are you okay daughter?”

“Um, yeah I think so? Can we talk?”

“Sure Cozy!” Trixie says before turning to face Cozy and continuing, “What’s on your mind little filly?”

Cozy turns her body as well, “Well golly! I’ve been meeting with you almost everyday for about a month, we get back, I get a few days off, and now something else weird happens to me! I just…” she closes her eyes, “don’t know what went wrong?”

Trixie frowns and says, “Well, I can tell you exactly what went wrong Cozy! His name is Discord and he’s trouble!”

Cozy opens her eyes and starts at Trixie, “Golly! What do I do mom? I just don’t know anymore?” Trixie trots over and hugs the foal as she continues, “Even when I was trying to take over the School of Friendship, it seemed simpler than this? Doing the right thing is a lot harder huh?”

Trixie whispers in Cozy’s ear, “Doing the right thing is often hard, yes… Especially when Discord is involved!”

“Yeah… Um, thanks mom…”

“You’re gonna be okay little Cozy! Mommy’s here now and she’ll make sure of it!” as she firmly embraces the filly slightly tighter.

Cozy can’t help but notice the form of a larger purple Alicorn with a golden neck piece and crown upon her head trotting towards them from the wooded area to the North while she’s in Trixie’s embrace. She says to her mother, “Uh, mom! Twilight’s here!”

“Oh!” Trixie starts as she lets go of the filly to turn around and face Princess Twilight Sparkle standing behind her at the beginning of the clearing.

Twilight looks at the destroyed hillside, smiles, and says, “I see you’re teaching her how to control her destructive power! This is good!”

Trixie smiles and says, “Well, since she’s got it, she should know how to use it right?”

“You know, I’m right here!” Cozy says before stamping her left forehoof and fluffing her wings in irritation. “And another thing! I was actually under the impression that I was a horrible villain! Why in Equestria is me having “destructive power” a good thing?”

Twilight looks at Cozy, smiles, and says, “Well, you’re reformed now right?”

“Golly! I sure hope so!”

Twilight continues and says, “Exactly! So, what’s the problem?”

Cozy says, “Oh, now you sound exactly like my mother!” Trixie looks over and smirks as she continues in a cutsie mocking tone, “Oh, you’re still a good pony Cozy! You’ll be just fine Cozy!” What about what I wanted to do today?”

Trixie suppresses a giggle, frowns, and says, “Well, you were probably gonna hang out with your friends and we’re about to go do that anyway?”

Cozy starts and looks at her mother before saying, “Well um, okay that’s true huh?”

Twilight asks Cozy, “How do you feel?”

Cozy glances back to Twilight and says, “Well uh, golly! I feel really energized! Like, I have the power to take over Equestria now! Heh heh! Funny true story, I actually don’t wanna anymore! Kinda ironic huh?”

Twilight closes her eyes and says, “Very! You’re to stay with your mother until further notice! Trixie!” she says before looking at the blue unicorn.

“Yes Princess?” Trixie says while turning to look at Twilight attentively.

Twilight continues, “You are charged with keeping little Cozy Glow safe and making sure she knows how to use her powers now! I will go try to find Discord and get him to stop this!

Trixie smiles and says, “Well you know Twilight, I was gonna do that anyway?”

Twilight smiles back and says, “Of course you were! Good luck! I’ll go see about finding Discord!” before trotting over to Cozy, looking down at her, and saying, “I know having power is new to you Cozy and I understand that you’re scared… But believe me when I say, you’ll be okay no matter what… I left your mother in charge for a reason. Over the last ten years, she proved herself very capable as a counselor and when the idea of you becoming reformed came up, I decided therapy was necessary to get to the root of why you did what you did… Now that that’s done, we need to get you okay again! You’re gonna be just fine filly! Equestria is behind you!”

Cozy starts and says, “Well I know that! Of course, I’m gonna be okay! R-right mom?” before looking over at Trixie with a wide-eyed expression.

Trixie looks at the filly and says, “Right!”

“Okay Cozy! Be safe!” Twilight says before embracing Cozy in a hug.

“Oh, golly yes! Of course! The hugging!” Cozy says as she does her best to return the hug from the giant Alicorn with her little forelegs.

Twilight gets off Cozy and says, “You need to know that we’re all here for you Cozy!” before turning and trotting away five paces before disappearing in a bright magenta flash as Trixie starts and Cozy can only blink.

Trixie says, “I’m still not used to that, even after all this time!”

“Uh, mom?”

“Yes Cozy?”

“I wanna trot back home now… I don’t wanna blow up anything else…”

“Alright Cozy! Let’s go home!”

Trixie opens the door and trots in while saying, “Hello! We’re home! Uh, oh gosh!”

She looks beyond the foyer into the kitchen area to see Starshine there with her horn glowing as she’s flipping a toasty bran cake that’s now frying on the skillet in front of her with a metal spatula. Little Snack, standing beside her, looks over at the Trixie and Cozy before saying, “Hey Starshine! They’re back! We should probably tell them what we did?”

Starshine floats the spatula off to the left side of the stove, looks over at Trixie, and says, “I hope you don’t mind Miss Trixie, but I already started frying bran cakes for dinner?”

“And I helped!” Little Snack says before smiling.

Trixie smiles and says, “Team of adorable fillies!”

“Now with Ultra Pony!” Little Snack chimes in.

Cozy grimaces as Trixie says, “Go over to the table and sit-down Cozy! Let us take care of everything!”

Cozy trots over to table while muttering to herself, “Well golly! I sure am used to being told what to do and other ponies taking care of me by now!”

Little Snack sees this and walks towards the table while looking at Cozy and saying, “That’s the spirit!”

Cozy gets to her chair and begins to sit on it while mumbling something about sarcasm as Little Snack sits at the seat just to her right.

Little Snack looks at Cozy and smiles as she says, “How you holding up, champ?”

Cozy looks at the earth filly and says, “Well, I just learned to control my destructive forces, so I won’t randomly blow stuff up?”

Little Snack says, “Okay so that’s good right? No more Cozy Bursts!”

Cozy frowns as she says, “You already named it? I’ve only done it a few times!”

Little Snack just says, “Well it’s a burst and your Cozy? Wasn’t complicated!” before grinning widely.

Cozy giggles and says, “Yeah!” while Starshine trots in from the kitchen area and sits down across from Cozy on the other side of the table near the kitchen.

Starshine looks at the two other fillies and says, “Trixie said we did a great job Little Snack! She’ll be in with the food soon!”

Little Snack looks at Starshine and says, “Awesome!”

Cozy looks at Starshine and asks her, “So uh, how are you? You gotta admit, when we met all that time ago, you sure didn’t see this coming huh?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Look Cozy! I don’t know much about Discord, but I have heard stories. I do know a lot about you though…” She looks at Cozy with her bright green eyes once more and continues, “You’re the nicest and most considerate filly I’ve ever met… Power or no, I’m your friend now! And you’re not alone!”

Little Snack looks to her left at Cozy and chimes in, “Yeah! You got us now! You’re gonna be okay!”

“Well golly! I sure appreciate what you two are doing for me but um… Well, I just don’t know what to do!”

Starshine frowns as Trixie trots in while holding a big platter of four plates on it in her blue magic. As Trixie sets it down in the center of the table, she finally says, “Well uh, there’s not really a whole lot we can do until Twilight finds Discord? But we’ll be by here for you as much as we can! Right Little Snack?”

Little Snack looks up, “Oh yes! Of course! Friendship! You’re our friend and we’re uh, not gonna leave you alone right now! That is what you’re supposed to do right Cozy?”

“Golly yes! You’re supposed to support me AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Yes! I very much like that idea!” Cozy says while frantically nodding her head.

Trixie sits down to the left of Cozy before using her unicorn magic to get everypony their plates, following with Little Snack across the table to her left and moving clockwise until she finally serves herself. As she’s doing this, she snickers and says, “Wow Cozy! It’s almost like you need support from your friends and you’re getting it now?”

“You know, I’d think best case scenario is not needing any support at all mom?” Cozy says as she looks at Trixie on her right.

Trixie looks back at Cozy and says, “Well, that’s another thing! Life will never go perfect and you’ll need support sometimes! And that’s another good reason why you should have friends!”

“Oh yes! Lessons!” Cozy says as she grimaces.

Trixie continues, “Cozy, I’m trying to teach you…”

“Oh, I know that mom! I just wish things were simpler…”

“Well, you can blame Discord for that one!” Trixie says before frowning and finally magically lifting up her sizeable bran cake and floating it over to her mouth to take a hearty bite.

“Ugh!” Cozy says before she picks up her bran cake with her forehooves and starts eating it.

Starshine and Little Snack both look at each other on the other side before Starshine lifts her bran cake with her magic and floats it over to her muzzle to take a bite. Little Snack sees this and picks up hers in her forehooves before happily munching on it quickly.

Suddenly, a small energy burst flies from Cozy’s horn and zaps Cozy’s cake while she’s still holding it. She looks down at the browned cake and says, “Golly! Guess I’m eating mine extra crispy now!’ before munching on her cake some more while everypony else gives her a wide-eyed glare.

“Cozy? Are you okay?” Trixie asks the Cozy.

Cozy only giggles to herself as she munches more on her cake.

“Um…” Starshine says as she looks at the pink filly eating her cake.

Cozy is mostly done with her cake before looking at Starshine with a cold dead expression and asking her, “What?”

Starshine starts before saying, “Well, we’re just worried about you Cozy. You gotta admit, you have been acting very strange?”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 1-3: The Good Filly

Chapter 1-3: Lake Therapy

Cozy sat in the chair looked at Starshine across from her blankly through her, now straight bluish white locks as her long mane fell in front of her face and all around her head. All she could do was say, “I’m a good filly… I cleaned the house…”

Little Snack stares from the side as Starshine then says, “Yeah, but we were asleep! Where did you get the energy?”

Cozy looks at Starshine and starts as she says, “Well golly Starshine! I slept for two hours and couldn’t go back to sleep! So, I cleaned! That’s what a good filly would do! R-right?” before tilting her head to the left and slowly smiling at the unicorn filly.

Little Snack looks at Cozy intently before whispering to Starshine, “I’m not sure she’s still there, dude?”

Starshine looks to the earth filly at her side and whispers back, "I know! But she's our friend and she's been through a lot!"

Little Snack looks at Starshine and whispers back, "Well, right! We gotta get her better again!"

Cozy straightens her head suddenly and says with fire in her eyes, "You know, I can hear you, right?"

Starshine looks at Cozy and asks her, “Sorry Cozy! (Cozy crosses her forehooves and pouts) Uh, how did you learn to use your levitation magic so quickly anyway?”

Cozy starts and says, “Golly gee! I guess when everypony is asleep and you don’t have much to do, you start practicing? Heh heh. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want to wake anypony up because that’s not a very nice thing to do! So, I did it outside with rocks!”

“Oh yeah! Definitely gone!” Little Snack says before swishing her long green tail.

“Cozy! Do you need to talk about something? You don’t seem well?” Starshine says to Cozy with concern in her eyes.

“What do you mean Starshine?” Cozy asks before tilting her head to the right.

“Well, I mean, I don’t think cleaning the house all morning is really a normal healthy thing to do? You got up at 2 you say? And you haven’t been to sleep since then?” Starshine asks the pink filly.

“Nope! I guess I just don’t need as much sleep with all this power? Golly, it’s so weird now with the day being so long!”

Starshine nods and says, “Okay, but do you need to sleep now?”

Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “Golly no! Not really? I’m not even hungry! I haven’t eaten since I got up!”

Starshine looks at the wall clock and says, “Well, it’s about 9:15 now?”

“Good point!” Cozy says as she gets off her haunches from the chair. “I should make you two breakfast now! Because that’s what a good filly would do!”

Starshine starts as her eyes widen and she says, “No need Cozy! Trixie already fed me and Little Snack while you were cleaning out the closet earlier! We had pancakes and yours is still on the counter! You need to sit there now! And uh, don’t do anything!” She looks back at the earth filly and whispers, “Follow me to the other room!” Before trotting away to Cozy’s room.

Cozy looks at Starshine bewildered as she trots toward the bedroom, before getting back in the chair.

Little Snack looks over at Cozy before smiling as she says, “I’ll be back!” and then turning to trot towards the bedroom door.

Starshine opens the door to Cozy’s room and trots in with Little Snack behind her. She shuts the door with her forehoof before looking over at the earth filly and asking, “Okay, any idea what the hay has gotten into Cozy Glow?”

“Uh…” Little Snack looks down as she furrows her brow and then looks up and says, “No! I got nothing!”

“Well, I think we can both agree that we need to snap her out of this right?”

“Um, yeah probably?” Little Snack says as she scrunches her mouth.

“Okay! So, what are we gonna do about it?”

Little Snack looks up for a second, before back down, and saying, “I have no idea!”

“Hmm” Starshine says as she scrunches her mouth. “Well, I think the biggest problem is, she needs a change of scenery? I mean, she’s been couped up in this house for days now! And she obviously thinks she’s being watched, otherwise she wouldn’t be trying so hard to be a “good filly” …”

“Okay! We need to go somewhere! But uh, where?”

“Well, I think it has to be somewhere secluded? You know, there is a lake just South of here?”

“Okay uh, so you think we should take her to the lake then?”

“Unless you got a better idea?”

“Not really? Okay! Let’s go see if she wants to go to the lake!”

The two fillies trot out of the room to see Cozy sweeping up the floor with her forehooves as she floats above the living area.

Starshine looks at her and widens her eyes when she notices that Cozy is glowing now and barely flapping her wings. She finally says, “Cozy! You’ve swept the floor three times already…”

Cozy looks at her and says, “Yes I did! And now you wanna go to the lake huh?”

Starshine is shocked as she says, “H-how did you know?”

Cozy floats to the floor while setting the broom down before trotting over to Starshine and saying, “It’s not hard to figure out when you can read your friend’s minds. You’re concerned for me because I’ve been acting weird right?”

Starshine is dumbfounded as all she can say is, “Uh, I uh…”

Little Snack sees this and trots forward a few paces to Cozy, “Look! I don’t know about “Ultra Pony” and what all you can do now!” she says as she shakes her head and looks into Cozy’s eyes, “And I don’t understand why Discord has to test you… But I know this! You’re my first real friend Cozy… You’re my first real friend and I love you and care about you… Will you please come to the lake with me and Starshine now?”

“Golly yes! Of course, I will! That’s what a good filly would do!”

Starshine shakes her head and says, “Great! Let’s go!”

Cozy hops off the chair to her hooves as her long mane swishes forward and says, “Um, yes! Let’s go to the lake now!”

Starshine looks to the right and says, “Okay! I’ll just leave a note for Trixie in case she gets back from the market while we’re away!”

The three fillies walk towards the North side of the lake from the wooded area to the South. It’s a big open field with lush farmland and bales of hay as far as the eye can see. Cozy looks around but doesn’t see anypony else, it’s just them. She says, “I guess this time of morning on a weekday doesn’t have many ponies playing out here huh?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Nope! It’s just us three best friends, ready to have some fun on the water!”

While trotting forward with the other two, Little Snack says, “Okay! I’m done waiting!” before quickening her pace to a gallop towards the waterfront with her long tongue out the left side of her mouth.

Starshine says, “Hey! Wait for me!” and chases off as fast as she can go.

Cozy sees this, stops, and says, “Golly! Um, I have friends now! Right!” she shakes her head as she thinks about this morning and what she did… She thinks about how Discord was probably watching her and how she should do her level best to be good, no, better than any other filly in Equestria!

And then she looked at Little Snack, already splashing and playing in the pond below. She sees Starshine there giggling as she’s about to take a running jump into the water as Little Snack chanted, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Starshine giggles as she gallops towards the pond, leaps up in the air, and puts all her legs together to form a little “filly ball” in the air before she comes crashing down into the water.

Little Snack giggles as her pigtails, now drenched, fall behind her head and float in the water behind her with the pink ribbons she normally wears. She looks over at Cozy and says, “Hey Cozy! Aren’t you gonna come in?”

Starshine looks at the pink filly, still standing there at the base of the slope and starts shouting, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Little Snack starts chanting with her, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Cozy hears this as she smirks on the left side of her mouth from behind her disheveled mane in front of her face as she says, “Okay everypony! I hope you’re ready for this!” and then takes off to a strong gallop as fast as her little legs would carry her.

Her eyes scrunch as her mouth smirks to the other side with this plan of hers. She leaps out into the air and flaps her wings to gain altitude as she flies over the pond. She then focuses her telekinetic magic on her body and concentrates on lifting herself in the air so that she does a loop as her wings flap to stabilize her. She begins to lose balance near the top of the loop, although she knows that at this point that she just needs to straighten her wings at her side for extra steadiness and lower her telekinesis to let gravity do the work. As she flies towards the other end of the loop, she knows she’ll fall and then moves all her legs together to form her own, “Cozy ball” in mid-air before releasing herself and crashing into the pond with a powerful splash as her friends cheer on.

Cozy comes to the surface after a moment with a splash as Little Snack says, “Wowie! That was amazing Cozy!”

Starshine chimes in, “Yeah! That was really cool!”

Cozy looks at her friends as she smiles with her now wet long mane down around her head and says, “Golly! You really think so huh? You know, I always wanted to do something neat like that?”

Starshine, now resembling a “white mop with pink streaks” swims over to Cozy as she says, “See? It’s not so bad! We can still have fun!”

“Golly… I guess I was kinda losing it there huh?”

Starshine paddles just a bit closer to Cozy before scrunching her mouth and saying, “Yeah, you were going nuts, Cozy! I mean, power or no, you don’t need to clean the entire cottage three times!”

Cozy looks down and says, “Yeah… I just kept thinking about uh, “him” and that he’s probably watching me! I keep wondering when I’m gonna mess up and be bad again!”

Starshine giggles and says, “You know, only a good filly would be so concerned with being good right?”

Cozy looks up at the unicorn and smiles as she says, “You know, maybe this is kinda silly? I mean, golly! When am I just gonna accept that I’m a good filly?”

Starshine frowns before saying, “I’m not sure you really can actually?”

Little Snack looks at Starshine and asks her, “What do you mean?”

Starshine looks at both and says, “Well, what I mean is, Cozy can’t see herself right?”

“Well, golly no? I guess not?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Exactly! So, you’re never gonna know exactly how much good you’re doing unless somepony else tells you!”

Cozy smiles and says, “Hey! I guess that’s our friendship lesson for the day, huh? I mean, your friends are gonna do lots of good things, but they won’t really notice a lot of it unless you point it out to them!”

Little Snack says, “Hey! We’re not supposed to be learning! I’ll put a stop to this right now!” before swimming towards Starshine.

Starshine frowns at the grinning Little Snack paddling towards her as she says, “Uh, Little Snack! What are you doing?”

Little Snack stops paddling while saying, “Close enough!” and then splashing water at Starshine with her forehooves!

“Hey! Quit it!” Starshine bellows out while giggling and splashing back at Little Snack.

“Hey! Leave the astronomy nerd alone!” Cozy says before smiling as she paddles towards the two playing fillies.

Little Snack sees Cozy coming and starts splashing at her and Starshine back and forth while giggling and being splashed by Starshine.

Cozy stops and starts to splash at Little Snack!

Little Snack says, “Hey! No fair! There’s two of you now!”

Starshine says, “Oh yeah, well you started it!” while continuing to splash at the earth filly.

“Retreat!” shouts Little Snack before turning to stroke the other direction while smiling.

“Take the offensive!” shouts Cozy as she swims towards Little Snack.

“Attack!” joins in Starshine as she does the same.

Little Snack reaches the other side of the pond and stops because she can’t swim anymore. She looks behind her just in time to get sprayed as Cozy starts to splash at her and giggle. Little Snack splashes back at the pink filly before Starshine gets close enough to do some splashing of her own. The earth filly is now outnumbered, two to one as she puts her forehooves over her face and says, “Okay! Stop! I surrender!”

Cozy squeals out, “Take no prisoners!” as she scoots closer and splashes more with her forehooves!

“Prepare to be boarded!” Starshine yells as she swims closer to Little Snack and does a quick breaststroke a few strokes to hop out of the water and get on top of her, taking them both below the surface of the waves!

“Golly! I hope they’re okay?” Cozy says as she frowns at the small patch of bubbling water some distance from her.

And then, both fillies rise above the surface of the water while giggling at each other.

“Hey! Are you two alright over there?” Cozy asks nervously.

“Oh yeah! We’re just fine Cozy!” Starshine says while giggling and smiling at her earth pony friend.

“Yeah! You should know by now that it’s gonna take more than that to take me down Cozy!” Little Snack says while grinning.

“Is that so huh? Well, how about a Pegasus filly and a unicorn?” Cozy says before swimming towards Little Snack.

Little Snack sees this and sees Starshine on the other side as she gulps and says, “Uh, I give up?”

Cozy stops paddling before looking at Starshine and saying, “I don’t know Starshine? You think we should accept?”

“I’m not sure she’s had enough?” Says Starshine as a wicked grin forms on her face.

“Oh, come on! You both splashed me!” Little Snack frantically says.

Cozy smiles at Little Snack as she asks, “Okay! What are your terms?”

“Uh…” Little Snack says as she looks up and then down at Cozy before saying, “I don’t splash either of you and-and you don’t splash me! A truce! Yeah! Sound good?”

“I’m not sure Cozy? What do you think?” Starshine asks as she looks to the horned pink filly.

“Golly gee Starshine. She seems sincere. Then again, we do outnumber her?”

Starshine scrunches her mouth and says, “Well, I suppose that’s also true though?”

“But… I’m completely giving up and offering a cease fire! That’s gotta be good for something? Right?” Little Snack says while smiling nervously.

Starshine giggles and looks to the orange filly as she says, “Okay Little Snack! We’re not gonna splash you anymore!”

Cozy says, “Yeah, I guess that’s enough huh?”

“And no boarding!” Little Snack says as she points her left forehoof at Starshine.

“Yeah! No boarding either!” Starshine says as she giggles even more.

“Golly! That sure was a lot of fun guys! But uh…” She looks at her forehooves and says, “My hooves are getting shriveled and pruny? We should probably get out and head back now huh?”

Starshine looks and says to Cozy, “Yeah, I think we’re done here.” She turns to the earth filly and asks her, “You ready to head back now Little Snack?”

Little Snack looks at the unicorn and says, “Sure thing Starshine!”

The three fillies all swim towards the Northern edge of the pond towards Trixie’s cottage. Cozy reaches the shore first and trots up as soon as her hooves have purchase on the ground. She shakes herself off to dry while Starshine comes out of the water about 15 feet on her left.

Starshine shakes herself off to dry as Little Snack trots up onto the shore maybe 10 feet to her left.

Little Snack then shakes off herself and looks to her right before saying, “Well, I guess we’re heading back now?”

“Let’s go!” says Starshine.

The three fillies walk into the wooded area to the South of Trixie’s cottage. Finally, Cozy speaks up and says, “So uh, thanks for helping me… You guys are my best friends!”

Starshine looks at Cozy to her right while Little Snack trots up front and says, “No problem Cozy! You gotta admit, your sanity is gonna come into question when you clean the entire cottage before anypony else wakes up!”

“Well, you know how I keep thinking about things, whether I want to or not?”

Starshine frowns and says, “You were thinking he’s watching you and that you needed to be good… And I guess those thoughts eventually drove you nuts?”

“Golly right! I uh, you really know me now, don’t you?”

Starshine smiles and says, “Well I have gotten to know you pretty well over the last month… You’re the most caring and “best filly” I know Cozy! And if Discord doesn’t believe it, well, then he has me to answer to!”

“Yeah! No dopey Discord is gonna mess with my friend!” Little Snack chimes in from the front while still facing ahead as she trots.

“Golly! Um, thanks guys!”

“No problem Cozy!” Starshine exclaims to the pink filly.

Little Snack stops at the Northern edge of the woods and points ahead to Trixie’s cottage in the clearing about 50 feet away as she says, “Uh, guys! Trixie is waiting on us!”

(To be continues…)

Chapter 1-4: Doing the Right Thing

The blue unicorn in magician’s garb trots towards the three fillies as they approach the cottage. She shouts, “Cozy! Did you have fun at the lake with your friends? What did you do? Are you okay?”

“Oh, golly gee mom! You worry too much!” Cozy says while trotting towards the cottage and smiling, to the right of Starshine and behind Little Snack, as her wavy bluish white mane flows around her horn and behind her winged body and her long tail flows behind her.

Trixie trots to meet the fillies in her yard while saying, “Of course! Uh, I didn’t think it was possible, but my house seems cleaner now than it did when I left this morning! Cozy! Did you start cleaning again after I left?”

Cozy looks down as her cheeks redden and says, “Um, yeah mom… I wanted to be a “good pony” and so I cleaned some more…” Cozy looks up to Trixie as her brown eyes widen, “You know, I don’t think there’s anything else I can clean at this point?”

Starshine looks over at Cozy and says, “Well golly Cozy! You did go over everything three times! I think that’s pretty thorough?”

Cozy grimaces at Starshine while saying, “Okay! I was crazy! I get it!”

Starshine smiles and says, “Well, at least you got us now?”

Little Snack turns to face Cozy, while Cozy says to Starshine, “Yup! Nice inflection on the golly by the way! I love your pickup towards the end!” who soon grimaces at her.

Trixie continues as the three fillies look up at her, “Anyway, tell me Cozy! Did you learn anything new about your powers?”

Cozy nods, “Oh golly yes, mom! I can control myself a lot better when I’m flying now, when I use my telekinesis on myself!” She stops nodding and squints her right eye, “You know, I must not weigh that much because manipulating my body seems a lot easier than many objects I’ve lifted!”

Trixie smiles and giggles before saying, “Yes Cozy! You’re not that big! Go inside now sweetie! I’ll make lunch for everypony!”

“I’ll help!” chimes in Little Snack before she begins trotting forward.

“Me too!” says Starshine as she does the same from Cozy’s side.

“Yeah, I wanna help!” says Cozy before she begins to move towards the cottage.

As the ponies trot into the living area, Trixie turns to Cozy behind her, trotting in with her friends and says, “Cozy! You’ve done plenty today! Allow us to treat you!”

“Yeah Cozy! Ultra-Pony or no, we don’t want you to do EVERYTHING!” says Little Snack from the side.

Cozy looks back at her friends with wide eyes and says, “Golly! So even though I could easily make lunch for you, you wanna do it for me now huh?”

Trixie says, “Well Cozy, that’s another friendship lesson! It’s not fair for one pony to be doing everything for everypony else! And whether they can do so or not shouldn’t matter! Every little bit still helps though, just like before!”

Little Snack chuckles and says, “Around you ponies, I don’t need to go to the School of Friendship! I’ll learn ALL about it right here!”

Starshine looks over to the earth pony and says, “You know, as much as I enjoy learning, we should probably eat now! After all that swimming, I’m starving!”

“Well golly! Uh, what should I do while you’re making lunch?”

Trixie scrunches her mouth, “Uh, just sit at the table and wait for us baby! In fact, take a coloring book if you like! You’ve been so good today!”

Cozy starts at this comment and says, “Well golly gee! I just uh, did what I was supposed to do! I was a good filly and cleaned the house! Yes!” before leveling her face and beaming.

Trixie’s eyes widen as a disturbing thought suddenly occurs to her, “Uh, Cozy! Avoid doing uh, things unless I tell you it’s okay from here on out alright?” she straightens herself, “You wouldn’t want to do something you’re not supposed to yes?”

Cozy looks down for a moment before saying in a lower voice, “You don’t want me to get out of control, huh?”

“Well, uh er, it’s just that having all this power is new to you Cozy and I don’t want you to do anything bad with it alright?” Trixie says before she smiles and trots forward two paces, “We need to take this nice and slow… Like when I was learning a new trick!”

Cozy looks back up, “Well, that makes sense!” Her left eye squints, “You know, I might be loco, but I can still figure out what you’re thinking!”

“Well right! Crazy, or no, you’re still brilliant my child! Now go sit down!” Trixie says before looking to the other two fillies, “Come on little ones! We’ve got garlic bran patties to fry!”

Trixie and the other two fillies trot into the kitchen while Cozy trots over to sit down in the dining area. She soon sees the other three ponies working.

In the kitchen next door, she sees Trixie on the left saying say, “Alright! Little Snack! You’re kitchen gopher! (Little Snack nods her head) And Starshine! You work the skillet! (Starshine nods affirmatively and trots to the stove on the right.) And the Great and Powerful Trixie, shall work her magic with the spice rack!” before she looks over to her left and floats a three-tiered rack of spices over to herself in her blue magic.

Cozy then sees Trixie say, “Alright Little Snack! Go get the bran patties! They should be on the third shelf up in the cupboard!”

Little Snack says, “Right! Third shelf up! Got it!” before nodding her head and trotting out of Cozy’s view to the left.

Cozy then hears Little Snack struggling and grunting. Cozy starts and then gets off her seat and begins to trot towards the kitchen.

As Cozy walks in and stares to Little Snack on her left, she hears the box of bran patties landing on the floor before seeing the earth filly landing, after dropping her body from her forehooves on the third shelf up.

Trixie, standing next to Starshine near the stove on the other end, looks to Cozy and says, “What’s wrong honey?”

Cozy looks at the blue unicorn and says, “Um, is it okay if I stand here? I just uh…” she looks down at the wooden floor.

Little Snack looks to Cozy before heading towards the box on the floor at her right and heaving it on her snout. Then she trots over to Starshine as Trixie says to Cozy, “Well sure Cozy! Wherever you like to be is fine!”

Cozy looks up and widens her eyes and says, “Oh uh, okay! I just uh, don’t wanna be alone right now…” before looking down.

Trixie smiles and says, “Of course, darling! Whatever you feel you need is fine! We’re all here for you!”

Cozy smiles up at her mother as her face brightens, “Well, that’s just swell mom!”

Trixie then levels her eyes and looks to her right before using her blue magic to levitate the spice rack to her left side and trotting over to the stove with it in tow. She stares at it and selects two different spice jars from the top and one from the bottom by levitating them towards her and then opening them with the caps floated over to the counter on the stove’s left. She looks at the patties frying with Starshine and says, “Stand back fillies!”

She takes two paces towards the stove while Starshine takes a step back. She levitates two of the spice jars over the bran patties, frying in a black skillet on the front right burner, and sprinkles them over the top while muttering to herself about “sodium” and “balance.” She then levitates all four patties over the pan, turns them over, and sprinkles both spices over the patties once more before levitating the two jars back to the left of the stove with their caps, floating the other spice jar to her before saying, “And now, to make them Great and Powerful Garlic Bran Patties!” And then opening and lightly sprinkling the final spice over the frying patties with her magic.

Trixie levitates the four patties over to a plate to the right of the stove as she looks at it before turning to the stove and magically turning off the burner and floating the skillet to the burner behind the one where it had been sitting.

Cozy notices a small draconequus in her periphery on her left shoulder whisper, “You could easily make lunch for everypony, and yet you have them do it for you! Don’t let power go to your head Cozy!”

Cozy sneers at him and says, “Oh please! You think you can get in my head that easy?”

Discord giggles and disappears with a small pop.

Trixie looks to the Pseudo-Alicorn and says, “Who are you talking to Cozy?”

Cozy looks back to her and shakes her head as she says, “Nopony! Nopony at all! Gee, I sure am hungry!”

Trixie smiles and says, “Well, go sit down at the table baby! I’ll bring it to you. Go sit down everypony!”

“Yay!” Little Snack shouts as she hurriedly trots to the right side of the table. She yanks a chair out with her teeth and then scoots into it from the side.

Starshine sees this, shakes her head with a wry smile on her face, and quietly trots over to the other side and magically pulls a chair out for herself and solemnly sits down herself.

Cozy is watching this the whole time when Trixie looks over to her, “Well, aren’t you gonna go sit with your friends, sweetie?”

“Golly right!” Cozy starts and shakes her head before trotting over to the far end of the table. She begins to reach out with her neck before stopping, looking at her horn with her eyes, and then making it glow as her eyes strain and the chair soon magically scoots back for her with her own distinctive pinkish white glow. She smiles and sits at the table.

Trixie soon trots in with a platter in her magical grasp, sets it down at the center of the table before looking to the china cabinet on the other side of the dining room, magically floating out four plates and setting one down in front of each pony, plus one at the head of the table. Then she floats each bran patty off the large plate onto the smaller one in front of each pony, plus one for her at the head. She smiles and trots over to her seat, before pulling it out with her horn and sitting on it.

Trixie looks to the pink filly in front of her and says, “How are you holding up sweetie?”

Cozy looks to Trixie, “Golly mom! Having power is all kinda new to me and while I was nervous at first, learning to control it with you was a lot of fun and I liked swimming with my friends this morning!”

Trixie looks down and sighs, “Yes, but how do you feel Cozy?”

Cozy starts at this, “Golly, um…” she looks down, “I guess I’m doing okay?”

Little Snack looks to Cozy at her right and Trixie to her left, shrugs, and grabs her bran patty in her forehooves and starts to munch ravenously on it.

Starshine giggles at Little Snack from across the table before raising her bran patty in a greenish-blue glow to float it over to her mouth and begin taking timid bites of the morsel.

“Well, I do love you little Cozy Glow… You truly are something special you know that?” Trixie says before floating her patty to her mouth and eating it slowly.

“Aww, shucks!” Cozy says as her face reddens again, and she solemnly takes her own bran patty in her forehooves and commences to take a little bite.

Little Snack sees Cozy and says, “She is pretty cute when she blushes!”

Cozy starts at the earth filly, “What? I don’t blush!”

Starshine looks at Cozy, “Right?”

Cozy yells, “I don’t blush!” as her cheeks redden.

Trixie smiles at the pink filly, “You’re blushing right now!”

Cozy squints at Trixie, “No I don’t! Stop trying to get in my head!”

Starshine smiles, “Denial isn’t just a river in Equinypt you know?”

Cozy squints at Starshine as she growls, “GRR!”

Trixie looks at Cozy and says, “Yes, you’re cute and you blush! And you also growl sometimes! Everypony knows this! But is anything troubling you now little Cozy?”

“Um, nothing off the top of my head no?” Cozy says while squinting her left eye and curving her mouth. “I guess I should let you know if something comes up huh?”

“Absolutely!” Trixie says.

Little Snack says, “Yeah! I mean, we wouldn’t be able to help you if you don’t tell us something is wrong right?”

Cozy moves her head towards Little Snack, “Well, golly right! With uh, The Magic of Friendship, I can overcome anything huh?”

Suddenly, the picture of an elderly light blue unicorn magician with neatly cropped goatee behind Trixie begins to float from the pale green wall and float in front of it. Cozy sees this and says, “Knock it off Discord! I already know you’re here!” The picture quickly slaps back against the wall, causing Trixie to flinch and close her eyes quickly.

Trixie looks to Cozy with wide purple eyes, “Discord is here?” She looks behind her on her left, “Show yourself and release my child!”

At that point, a malevolent echoing voice from somewhere in the room says, “Oh please Trixie! We all know you’re just a failed second-rate magician who decided to play “mommy” by adopting this little monster!” as Trixie looks around her chair.

Cozy gets to her hooves on her chair and sneers, “Monster is a very relative term Discord… You know, I could call you a monster for feeling the need to test me, despite the fact that I have literally done everything in my power to be a better filly!”

“Everything in your power?” chimes the voice sardonically, “You’re obviously playing the long game Cozy! You may believe you have them fooled, but I know you!”

Cozy yells, “You don’t know anything about me Discord!”

“We shall see…” the voice finally says.

Trixie yells out to the front of her chair with an angry look in her eyes as her pupils dilate, “Take away Cozy’s horn this instant Discord!”

Cozy stands on her chair and looks around while the other three ponies sit wordlessly in their chairs. Finally, Cozy says to Trixie, “Um, I think he’s gone?”

Trixie looks to the pink filly, “Yeah, but he’ll be back later!”

“Golly! So, what do we do now mom?”

Trixie sighs and looks down, “Honestly, there’s not much we can do at this point? Just eat out bran patties and move on!”

“Oh golly! Um, alright mom!” Cozy says before picking her bran patty up in her forehooves and somberly munching on it some more. Suddenly, the bran patty in Cozy’s forehooves turns brown and a snarl toothed face stares back at her from it and says in Discord’s voice, “Don’t you think it’s uh, AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” the patty begins to scream as Cozy bites into it, before returning to its original color without the face.

Trixie looks to the pink filly across the table and says, “Good heavens! What in Equestria was that?”

Cozy swallows and looks to her mother, “Oh that was probably Discord! I just took a bite out of him!” before looking down to her bran patty and moving it back to her mouth for another bite.

Trixie’s mouth and pupils grows small and her eyes widen as she can only stare at this deranged pink child with her long flowing bluish white mane and tail, now happily eating her bran patty.

Cozy tries her best to rest between the two fillies. This time, Little Snack is holding her after she and Starshine agreed to take turns… Cozy stirs as her eyes are shut and her mouth scrunches with her mind racing with thoughts… She finally opens her mouth, before quietly scootching up out of Little Snack’s embrace to slowly get to her hooves on the far end of the bed.

She whispers to herself, “Golly! I’m just not tired!” before slowly trotting over to her bookshelf on the other side of the room and fetching book 4 of the Dragon-Corn series with her mouth and setting it in the floor. She grasps the book in her forehooves, reading by the sunlight from the window to her right, occasionally turning a page.

After some time passes, she hears something stirring on the bed. She looks up and sees Starshine awake and on her haunches on the bed. She squints as she notices that Starshine’s eyes are now glowing an eerie pale green color. She also sees Little Snack getting out of bed to the floor on the other end and sees the same pale green color glowing in her eyes.

Cozy scrunches her mouth and quietly mutters, “Oh golly!” to herself before looking to her friends, widening her eyes, and saying excitedly, “Hey guys! Sure, hope you slept well!”

There’s no response from the two fillies as they both get off the bed in unison and trot towards the door in a mechanical fashion. There’s no emotion or expression on their blank faces as Starshine trots to the door, opens it with her forehoof and walks out with Little Snack shortly behind her.

Cozy steps out shortly after them and looks out into the foyer to see where they’re heading.

Starshine and Little Snack both slowly walk to the door of the cottage. Starshine opens that with her forehoof and trots out, once again, with Little Snack following robotically behind her.

“Okay, this is weird!” Cozy says as she trots some distance behind them as they both trot West towards the Market Square, beyond Trixie’s grove.

Cozy sees many ponies in the area, but they’re all robotically walking the same direction as her friends. She scrunches her brow and thinks to herself, “Okay, more than likely, there’s some sort of evil spell on them… And they’re probably all heading to the same place! Wherever that is…” as her mouth scrunches and eyes look intently at her surroundings, she looks around the market.

Cozy tails them further west and sees that they are now heading to the Castle of Friendship to the North, as there’s nothing else of note in the area, aside from other shops in the Market District. She decides that the answer is probably there! But to verify, she carefully trots some distance away from the two fillies while watching them as they both slowly trot that way. She then looks to her right side and flexes her little wing while scrunching her mouth. “They’re not moving very fast. I probably have time for a quick flyover huh?” She squats down and hops while flapping her wings to take off!

She flies West and circles to the South and then East and finally heads back North to where she was so she can circle the area and get a better look around the Ponyville Market Square. She sees ponies with that same creepy pale green color in their eyes, all marching North towards the castle. She looks to her two friends, coming up on her left and still slowly walking that way before banking downward and circling back to her left and landing about 20 feet behind them, skidding to a stop on her little hooves. She slides forward a couple of feet before looking back behind her to the castle itself, which is now some distance beyond a block of stores and shops and sees many ponies are now entering it from the front door as she says to herself, “Bingo! Now the question is, how do I enter? Well, whoever this is obviously wants the infected ponies to go in that way and so that’s probably right out? Um, I didn’t see anything going on in the skies?” before scanning the area over the castle for threats.

Cozy squats and launches herself to the skies once more! This time, she soars over towards the Castle of Friendship. She sees towers and parapets on top of the stone structure and as she is flying that direction. She picks one on the right as she looks over to it and soars that direction. She soon lands at the top of the tower as she once again skids to a stop on her little hooves.

She looks around on top of the parapet to see that she’s now surrounded by a stone barrier with slits in the sides and notices a wooden trap door to her right. She trots over to the trap door and grabs the metal ring in her teeth and brings it up to open before looking down to a stone staircase, leading into a darkened area below.

Cozy gulps and walks slowly walks down the staircase. It curves along the tower and she starts to feel sick as the staircase all looks the same as she winds her way down the tower.

She stops for a second, closes her eyes, and breaths. “Golly, this tower sure is tall!” She mutters to herself before looking back up to where she had been before looking down and trotting that way further. Finally, she sees a stone landing down below with a whicker carpet there, maybe a foot and a half from the front of the staircase.

She gets down there and sees that she’s now in a long stone hallway with many heavy wooden doors in either direction. She scrunches her mouth and mumbles to herself, “Okay, if I were a baddie bent on taking over Ponyville, where would I be?” She looks up with an unsure glare. She straightens her head and widens her eyes, “Probably the throne room!” Then she looks to her right and takes off to fly further down the hallway where she remembers the throne room being.

She looks and sees zombified ponies, but none of them really bother her. She banks left to pass a tan earth stallion with a long light brown wavy mane and tail on her way down the hall as she says, “Scuse me!” The stallion just silently trots at a slow melodic pace the same direction Cozy is flying.

She turns to her right down the stone hallway, laden with wooden doors as she knows the throne room is that way and she sees a magenta unicorn with hot pink mane and tail coming up on her right and banks to pass her while saying, “Pardon me ma’am!”

She finally makes her way to the antechamber of the throne room and lands to another skidding stop on her hooves. She looks to the door on her right, gulps and says, “Golly! Last time I was here, I was talking to Twilight and Starlight about all I did… And now what?” before turning and trotting two paces to the door and opening it with her right forehoof.

Cozy sees a dark gray unicorn stallion standing to the right of the throne, roughly thirty feet in front her as she trots in towards him. He has a long black wavy mane and tail that he occasionally swishes as he stares out the window. He wears a dark cloak, and his glowing horn is an orangish red color. He stares back to the entrance on his right with jet black eyes and says, “Cozy Glow? What are you doing here?”

Cozy trots forward and widens her eyes, “Well golly gee Sombra! I could ask you the same question! Back to zombifying ponies I see!”

Sombra smiles as he turns completely and begins to trot towards Cozy a few paces, “Well, it’s an oldie, but a goodie!” His face straightens, “But you didn’t answer my question! What are you doing here? And why do you have a horn now?”

“I ran into some weird magic and gained unicorn powers! Well uh, they’re stronger than most unicorn powers, I think.” Cozy says as she squints her right eye before straightening her face, “Anyway, I too am now free Sombra!”

“Oh?” Sombra says with an inquisitive look in his eyes. “Well, since you’re here, we could work together and conquer even more of this wretched land! What say you child?”

Cozy smiles at Sombra, “Well golly Sombra! That sounds just swell!” She looks back down, “It sounds swell, but you see, all of my friends are here as is my mother, so I can’t let you do that!” before looking back up at him and smiling.

“Umm…”

Cozy doesn’t let Sombra finish the thought as she stares directly at him, “You know, I was gonna trick you!” Cozy starts, “Golly yeah, I was gonna pretend to be your friend and then overthrow you when you didn’t expect it! Then I was gonna return Ponyville back to normal after I took you out!”

Sombra frowns and asks, “Why are you telling me this?”

Cozy smiles brighter, “Because I don’t really need to be subtle when I can just buck you up!” Before her horn glows and she tilts her head, sending a powerful magic blast at the unicorn. Sombra hastily attempts to erect a pale blue magical forcefield, but it only gets shattered as the massive blast of white energy goes right through it and forces his body to slam against the wall behind him with a resounding thud as several cracks form in the stone behind him.

Sombra slowly gets up as his body quivers from the intense shock and blood now pours from a new cut on the side of his head as well as his mouth and nose. He looks to the pink filly and asks, “Why?”

Cozy fluffs her wings and says, “Golly! That was really therapeutic after the last couple of days!” She stares at Sombra, “Oh, why? Because my friends are here! And so’s my new mother! This is my home Sombra! And I will defend it!” Before sending another blast of magic to Sombra with her horn.

Sombra stumbles to the right just in time to dodge as the blast hits the wall, causing a small explosion and creating a small hole where the cracks used to be, and parts of the village can be seen from behind.

Sombra begins to chant an incantation as his horn glows with an ethereal black energy that he soon sends towards Cozy. Dark tendrils streak towards her from Sombra, but quickly bounce off a previously invisible light blue forcefield around Cozy only to dissipate in the air.

Cozy sneers and says, “Oh please! You didn’t think I was ready for that Sombra? You really are stupid you know that?” and then her horn glows and Sombra is suddenly encased in a light blue magical sphere that lifts him off the ground about 10 feet.

Cozy looks to Sombra intently and says, “Good! And now that you’re contained, I have questions! First off, where’s Princess Twilight?”

Sombra says, “She’s away in Canterlot! I knew I could subdue Starlight Glimmer by myself and…”

“Quiet!” Cozy doesn’t let him finish. She sighs and says, “I really don’t wanna do this…”She closes her eyes before looking at the black pony and saying, “But now I have to kill you…”

“Wait what?” Sombra says as his eyes now grow wide and tremble in fear.

“Well golly gee, yeah Sombra!” Cozy begins to trot around the sphere holding Sombra, “You know, I’ll admit that I was wrong about friendship… It isn’t power! It’s something much better! It’s spirit Sombra! It’s the very fabric that holds us all together!”

“Well, right! Go on Cozy!”

“Shut up!” Cozy says as she angrily glares up at the forcefield, “I know you’re just stalling!” Cozy sighs as she looks forward and continues, “That fabric gave meaning to my life Sombra… It made me see that I’m not alone and that I actually have somepony I can rely on now…” She looks back to Sombra as she trots, “And despite being banished to the frozen North three times already, you keep coming back!” She turns her body and steps towards Sombra, “So you gotta understand, killing you is the way to go here… Any last words?”

Frantically, Sombra says, “Stop Cozy! Killing is wrong!”

“So’s taking over Ponyville, but that didn’t stop you now did it?” Cozy says with a vicious smirk on her face.

“Cozy, stop!” Says a feminine voice from behind Cozy.

Cozy turns to see a magenta unicorn with purple hair and lavender streaks behind her. She says to Starlight with wide eyes, “What?”

“Cozy Glow, killing him won’t solve anything!” Starlight says as she trots forward a few paces.

Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “You sure about that? He has been a lot of trouble and this would instantly solve all of those problems!”

Starlight looks down and says, “Trust me Cozy. Don’t become a killer… Let the authorities deal with him.” before looking up at Sombra sternly.

“Well, okay Starlight…” Cozy nods and turns around to Sombra, “Okay, by order of the Guidance Counselor at the School of Friendship, I can’t kill you now! Guess it’s your lucky day huh?”

“Uh Cozy?” Starlight says before Cozy turns her head to the left. “I’m the principle now!”

“Ugh!” Cozy sighs as she rolls her eyes and turns back to face Sombra, “By order of the principle at the School of Friendship, I can’t kill you now!”

Suddenly, the room darkens and everypony in the room hears a familiar voice say, “That doesn’t count Cozy! You were all set and ready to do the wrong thing before Starlight here interrupted you!”

Cozy starts, “Not entirely true Discord! Yeah, I was gonna kill Sombra! But my heart was in the right place! I specifically said it was so that he would never threaten me, my friends, or my town ever again! That’s the only reason I was going to kill him!”

Starlight scrunches her mouth, “You gotta admit, she makes a point Discord! While her methods may have been questionable, she did actually want to make Equestria a better place!” She looks to the filly and smiles, “Something I myself can relate to!”

“Oh fine! I’m getting bored with her anyway! Cozy, I’m taking your magic away! See you later!”

Then, Cozy’s horn starts to glow as she looks at it with her brown eyes and it grows clear before disappearing off her forehood entirely. She fluffs her wings again and says, “I’d better not!” Then Cozy begins to stagger and sway as she says, “WHOA!” before the world fades to black for her and her body hits the floor on it’s left side and she passes out.

Cozy wakes up feeling something soft and cottony against her head. She can tell that it’s a pillow and she also feels blankets covering her small body as she opens her eyes.

She sees Nurse Redheart standing about 15 feet in front of the bed next to the door and scribbling something on a clipboard mounted onto the wall with the pen in her mouth. She spits it onto the table on her left and turns left to look at Cozy. “Cozy Glow! You’ve been asleep for 10 hours now! How are you feeling?”

Cozy’s eyes go to her forehead and she sighs in relief when she doesn’t see a horn there, “Kinda groggy and really thirsty Nurse Redheart!”

The nurse smiles, “Of course! I’ll get you some juice and let Trixie and your friends know that you’re awake.” Before trotting towards the door, opening it with her forehoof, and trotting out into the hallway before shutting it again and hoofsteps can be heard disappearing down the hall.

Cozy looks around the room and sees that it’s a very unassuming hospital room. She sees a small table and a chair in the other corner to her right, near the door and she also notices that she’s not alone in the bed. Mr. Bearington and Snorkel are both there with her, sitting over the covers on the other side!

Soon, a blue unicorn in magician’s attire trots into the hospital room, with a dark purple unicorn filly and an orange earth filly following closely behind her. They all stand in the room, opposite to the bed with Trixie front and center and Little Snack to her back right and Starshine to her back left.

“Golly! You’re all here for me?” Cozy says from behind the wavy blue curls of her mane before moving them out of the way with her left forehoof to show her bright wide auburn eyes.

Trixie smiles and says, “Yes Cozy! We brought you here and have been checking on you!”

“Wow!” Cozy says before smiling.

Trixie continues, “How do you feel Cozy?”

“Well, my head is a little woozy and I feel really thirsty!”

At that point, Nurse Redheart trots into the room with a glass of red liquid on her snout to Cozy’s bed. Cozy grabs the liquid with her forehooves and greedily drinks most of it down.

The nurse smiles and straightens herself out.

Cozy finishes the glass with one final mighty gulp, burps and says, “Excuse me!” She looks to the nurse, “Thanks Nurse Redheart!”

“No problem!” The nurse says before lowering her snout.

Cozy puts the glass on her muzzle and she quickly and quietly leaves the room.

“So!” Trixie says as she straightens her mouth, “You were going to kill King Sombra? Well, that’s what Starlight was telling me, but I wanted to know what happened from you?”

The two fillies both look to Cozy wide eyed and aghast as Cozy says, “Well, he’s been banished to the frozen North three times already and keeps coming back…” She looks down, “I wanted to keep everypony safe… He’s a bad pony after all…”

Trixie says, “Yes Cozy, I understand that you wanted to keep everypony safe… But you must understand that killing Sombra is not the answer!”

Cozy’s eyes widen, “Golly! I guess good intentions alone aren’t enough huh?”

Trixie smiles, “No Cozy. It’s also important to do the right thing and examine yourself. Tell me, do you really think killing him would be fair to Sombra?”

“Golly! Why should it matter what’s fair to him mom? He’s not a very nice pony!”

Trixie smiles and says, “Yes Cozy, but you’re better than that! And you can do better!”

“Well uh, okay mom! I’ll listen to you, Starlight, and the others from now on okay?” Cozy says before nodding at Trixie.

Trixie smiles at Cozy from underneath her wide brimmed magician’s hat, decorated with moons and stars, “Golly, that’d be just swell Cozy!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 2-1: A Changeling's Lament

Twilight Sparkle faced the statue of Queen Chrysalis frozen there with the panicked expression not far from the centaur lord and where Cozy Glow once was… She smiled as she cast the spell to unfreeze the changeling and her horn began to glow with potent purple magic as the changeling’s flesh turned from stone grey back to it’s original black color.

Chrysalis turns to the left to face Twilight 10 feet from her and takes a few panting breaths before saying, “Change me back!”

Twilight frowns and says, “What? What do you mean?”

Chrysalis raises her head and neck halfway, “Change me back! I don’t belong in this Equestria! I don’t want to be here!”

“You’ve been frozen for ten years Chrysalis!”

“So what?” Chrysalis raises her head completely and glares at Twilight sternly, “In fact, do me a favor when you freeze me again please… Smash the statue to dust! I don’t ever want to come back!”

“Well, don’t you think we should talk about this?”

She turns her body to the Alicorn, “What is there to discuss Twilight? Everything is gone now! My hive has betrayed me, my home is destroyed, and there is nothing for me anymore…” She closes her eyes, “I don’t want to do this again…”

“I’m sorry Chrysalis…” Twilight said before she leaned her head towards the changeling queen and her horn glowed. For the second time, she watches as the changeling’s flesh shifts from its normal black elasticity to hard stone.

As Chrysalis changes back to stone, she says, “Don’t be Twilight… We fought and you won… Now destroy me!” and stone overtakes her as she shouts to freeze her mouth into a demanding and open state.

Twilight turns around and sees the magenta unicorn standing some distance behind her. Starlight trots forward as her purple hair sways in the breeze, “What do you think the problem is?”

“I think she’s lost her way and hope Starlight… What do you think we should do?” Twilight says before facing the unicorn curiously.

“I think it’s because we’ve destroyed everything she’s ever known and held dear… We need to provide a replacement to make her want to live again! Hmm?” Starlight scrunches her mouth before a wry smile forms, “I think I have an idea!”

“My turn?” Cozy says as she sits on her haunches on the other end of the Oops board in the living room on a pillow.

Starshine magically floats the dice to the left side of the board near Cozy, while saying, “We agreed to go clockwise remember? And Little Snack already went!” before nodding to the orange earth filly to her right.

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door to Cozy’s left. She looks at her friends and says, “Golly! Who could that be?” Before slowly getting to her hooves and squatting to take off with her wings and fluttering over to the front door. She lands in front and reaches up with her left forehoof to open it… And screams, “AAAAAHHH!!!!”

Starshine and Little Snack both look over to see a purple haired magenta unicorn say, “Sweet Celestia! Calm down Cozy!” while standing next to a tall purple Alicorn to the left.

Cozy points out the door with her right forehoof, “Why did you bring HER here!?”

Starlight smiles with a glint in her blue eyes, “Because she needs to meet you!”

Twilight smiles and says, “Cozy, at this point, you’re literally living proof that there is life after reformation… Would you talk to her please?”

“Um… Could you give me five minutes please?” Cozy says while smiling dimly and then shutting the door before Starlight or the princess could respond.

She turns back to her friends and says, “Guys! Chrysalis is back!”

Little Snack gets to her hooves and widens her eyes before saying, “She’s the changeling queen who was with you when you tried to take over Equestria ten years ago!”

Starshine looks at Little Snack, “So that’s why she’s nervous about it!” She gets to her hooves and turns to Cozy, “Uh, what should we do?”

Little Snack looks to Cozy, “You think they could come back in a week? Or at least tomorrow?”

Cozy squints her eyes at the earth filly, “Well, they moved a huge statue here to talk with me! What do you think?”

“Oh gosh!” Little Snack says as she lightly paws at her pillow.

Cozy looks down and sighs, “I gotta do this now huh?”

Starshine frowns at the Pegasus, “What do you mean?”

Cozy looks to the unicorn and says gravely with wide eyes as Little Snack looks on, “Well, think about it! Ten years ago, I teamed up with that changeling and attempted to take over Equestria and do bad things! Talking to her again is something I need to do now…”

Starshine frowns and says, “I guess that makes sense… But you’re not doing it alone!”

Cozy smiles, “I never am huh?”

The Little Snack looks to the Pegasus and swishes her long green tail back and forth, “Not in this squad!”

Cozy chuckles and says, “Right! So, you fillies come with me when I talk to her! Uh, hang on!” before squatting and taking off to flitter to the door and opening it with her mouth before hovering backward and landing with it now open in front of her. She looks up to the Alicorn and says, “I’ll do it! But I have two stipulations!”

Starlight starts, “What?”

Twilight smirks at the unicorn at her side, “Well, we did kinda spring this up on her. Give her this much okay?”

Cozy smiles at the Alicorn and nods, “Thank you! One; we will unfreeze her after lunch at 1 o’clock this afternoon! You know, she’s been frozen for ten years! Is a couple of hours really gonna matter?”

Twilight looks down at the Pegasus and says, “Well, that sounds reasonable!”

Cozy smiles, nods, and says, “Good! And two; I want my two best friends, Starshine and Little Snack to be there with me…” She smiles brighter, “You know? Cause with the Magic of Friendship, I can overcome ANYTHING right?” as she stands there nervously in front of the Princess of Friendship.

Twilight giggles at the pink filly and says, “Okay, now you’re just laying it on thick little filly!” before trotting up to and looking down at her, “But yes Cozy… I understand that you might need some more time and yes, we will give you everything you need.” She looks up past Cozy into the room with the other two fillies, now staring out the door at her as she smiles and says, “Even your two friends…”

“Oh gosh!” Little Snack says before pawing at the ground with her left and then right forehooves.

“You got it Cozy!” Starshine shouts as she looks out the door.

Twilight smiles down at Cozy, “I’m so glad you found the Magic of Friendship in your life Cozy!”

“Well golly gee, that’s just swell Twilight! But um, did you really have to spring this up on me so suddenly? I mean, she’s been stone for a very long time now! Would a few days really make that big of a difference?”

Twilight smiles wider, “Well, would you have done it if I had asked?”

Cozy looks up at the alicorn with wide auburn eyes, “Okay! You got a point there, princess!” before Twilight softly snickers at her.

Twilight says, “When I was teaching Starlight, I quickly learned to stymie procrastination. So, I never told her what tomorrow’s lesson would be, so that she’d learn to adapt to new situations in friendship and in life!” as the unicorn on her left flank stares up at her.

Cozy says, “Okay, that makes sense, I guess? “

Twilight says, “Good Cozy! We’ll be back at 1 o’clock and unfreeze her for your conversation then. We’ll leave the statue here!”

“Well gee, that sounds just swell Twilight! Golly, I sure am hungry! (she rubs her belly with her left forehoof) I’ll see you later princess!” Cozy quickly says before shutting the door.

Starlight looks at Twilight to her left outside and says, “I think it went well!”

Twilight looks back over and downward at the unicorn, “She seemed in a hurry to get rid of us?”

Starlight frowns, “Well, you’re the Princess of Equestria now! It’s not like she can say no to you?”

“Point Starlight!”

Starlight smirks, “Of course!”

The three fillies finish eating at the table and they’re sitting in front of their now empty plates and partial glasses of purple grape juice. Cozy sees that it’s 12:42 on the wall clock behind Starshine on the right and Little Snack is sitting to the left, both across from her. She sighs and says, “Well, I got about 18 minutes before I talk to bug horse… Uh, what should I say?”

“Um…” Little Snack says as she stares down before looking up at Cozy and widens her eyes as she says, “Wing it!”

Cozy stares at the earth filly, “Uh, what?”

“Yeah! Whenever I’m really nervous about something, I always just wing it! Because I know that if I think too much about anything, I’ll only make it more complicated and mess things up. They want you to explain to Chrysalis why being reformed is better right? Then just do it!” Little Snack says while flattening her brows above her green eyes at the Pegasus as her ears fall to the sides of her head.

Cozy narrows her eyes, “You know Little Snack, that almost sounds like good advice?”

Little Snack frowns as her ears fall all the way, “Almost?”

“Well golly yeah Little Snack! Don’t you think I should have a plan or a step-by-step explanation or something like that?” Cozy says with an inquisitive look in her eyes.

Little Snack smiles, “Too complicated! You’re reformed now and you like being reformed right? Why not just speak from your heart? You know, your own experiences? I think that sounds like a better plan to me!” and then nods her head as her green pigtails bob back and forth.

“I could write down a list?” Starshine says while looking at Cozy seriously.

Cozy closes her eye, sighs, and then opens them again at the unicorn, “You know, I think Little Snack is right here?”

Both Starshine and Little Snack stare at Cozy with wide open mouths while saying, “Huh?”

Cozy giggles and stares at them, “Golly yeah! I mean, I’m reformed right? Am I happy like this, girls?”

Starshine says, “Absolutely!”

While Little Snack says, “I think so?”

Cozy smiles, “Exactly! I just need to tell her that it’s better being reformed!”

Starlight looks at the clock while turning to her left in her chair, behind her, “Uh, you got like, two minutes Cozy!”

Cozy grabs her half full cup of purple juice in her mouth, gulps it all down, and then sets it down with her neck before saying, “Alright! I’m ready!” wipes her mouth with her right forehoof, “Let’s golly well do this!”

Cozy stands outside her door with Starshine to her back left and Little Snack to her back right. She stares up at the statue of Chrysalis while Starlight is to her left and Twilight is standing just beyond her. She says, “Golly gee! Uh, there she is! Um, how do you want to do this?” before looking to the alicorn and scrunching her mouth.

Twilight stares to her right at the pegasus, “Well, I’ll unfreeze her whenever you’re ready?”

“Golly!” Cozy says before she gulps, closes her eyes, “Okay Twilight… “She opens her eyes and nods at the changeling, “I’m ready…”

Twilight turns to face the statue and makes her horn glow with a formidable purple glare and Cozy then beholds the former changeling queen slowly become animate once more as her stone-grey flesh becomes black.

Chrysalis stares down at Cozy and says, “YOU!”

Cozy smiles up at the changeling, “Yup! I’m me and you’re you! Hiya Chrissy!”

Chrysalis’s mouth grows small as her left eye twitches. “What is this?” She asks.

“Well golly gee! I’m Cozy Glow and over here (nods to the left) is my best friend Starshine the unicorn and over here (nods to the right) is my other best friend, Little Snack!”

“Gosh! Uh, hi! I’m Little Snack!” the earth filly says before pawing at the ground with her left and then right forehooves and staring up at Chrysalis.

Starshine smiles at Chrysalis, “And I’m Starshine!”

Chrysalis says, “Ugh! That’s not what I mean!” while bringing her right forehoof to her face, “I expected a Royal Guard contingent or maybe a princess greeting! But instead, I get…” She stares down at Cozy, who’s still smiling at her, while lowering her forehoof, “Three fillies! I get three fillies! And don’t ever call me Chrissy!

“Yeah, life sure is weird sometimes huh?” Cozy says as she looks up and smiles dimly at Chrysalis.

“Life! Ugh!” Chrysalis groans while closing her eyes.

“Yeah um, so have you thought about being reformed at all Chrysalis?” Cozy says with a wide expectant look in her eyes.

“I would sooner die!” Chrysalis angrily yells at Cozy with an outstretched neck and a severe look in her eyes before turning around and saying, “They fear my strength!”

“Um” Cozy says before trotting forward a few paces, “I don’t think your power is the problem Chrysalis? I mean, many changeling hives exist all across the world, but we don’t seek those out to destroy them, do we?”

Chrysalis looks back to her right and sneers, “What would you know of the changelings you weak foal?”

Cozy steps forward two more paces, “Well golly gee! Not a whole lot. But I do know when you threaten to take over Equestria, the ponies aren’t very happy about it!”

Chrysalis turns back to the pegasus, now a mere 5 feet from her and says, “Of course, I should’ve expected that you would crack and become reformed! You were always the weakest of us three!”

Cozy brings her head back and smirks, “Oh, please Chrissy! At least I had a better plan than “attack Canterlot with my changeling swarm!” And might I add, I did get a lot further than you in just one try!” Cozy says as the smile begins to widen on her face, “Face it, Chrissy! I’M SMARTER THAN YOU!”

“Oh, you arrogant little brat!” Chrysalis says as her body begins to glow with an eerie green light and Cozy’s friends both backstep two paces while Cozy stares at her beaming brightly as her bluish white curls sway from the immense power before her and auburn eyes gleam with madness.

Suddenly, she’s engulfed in a pale blue forcefield as Twilight starts and looks at her while saying, “That’s enough Chrysalis!” and the green glow around her body begins to fade and disappear.

Chrysalis soon flails wildly with all four of her legs inside the forcefield as it floats up about ten feet from the ground.

Cozy raises her left forehoof to her side, signaling Twilight to stand down as Chrysalis furiously screams, “You demonic little monster! I never should have trusted you or that centaur! I swear with every fiber of my being that you, Starlight Glimmer, Discord, and Twilight Sparkle will all pay very dearly for what you have all done!”

“Golly!” Cozy says as she chuckles lightly, “Are you done yet?”

Chrysalis pants and stares ominously at the Pegasus, who’s still just standing there and smiling up at her.

Cozy continues, “I’ll make a deal with you Chrysalis! Call it a wager if you like!”

Chrysalis pants and stares down at the Pegasus for a moment before muttering, “Go on?”

“Thank you! Okay Chrysalis!” Cozy says while smiling, “You try being reformed! Just try it out! I mean, golly! You still have the rest of your life to be evil if you don’t like it you know?”

Twilight looks to the Pegasus, “Cozy, I don’t know if that’s a very good idea?”

Cozy smiles at Twilight, “Well, I’m reformed and I like it! Being reformed is just swell after all Twilight! I’m sure she’ll love it!”

Twilight frowns at Cozy, “You know what? You really are a demonic little monster!”

Cozy sneers, “I play chess Twilight! Besides!” Cozy’ mouth straightens, “You know, this is probably the best deal you’re gonna get?”

Twilight straightens her face and says, “You uh, actually have a point there!”

Cozy smiles brighter, “Exactly!” She shifts her body to the Alicorn, “You know, I used to tell myself the same thing whenever I was trying to be reformed. I used to say to myself, “Well golly gee Cozy! You can always just be evil again if you don’t like it?” And uh, I guess it’s kind of a “transitional phase” for recovering villains?”

Starlight looks to the Pegasus as she flattens her brows, “I never told myself that?”

“Ugh!” Cozy sighs before facing the unicorn, “I meant REAL villains Starlight! You know at first, you just had a questionable ideology! But once you went back and looked at what made you that way, you saw that you were wrong! Me and Chrysalis here have both been more or less, bad from the start!

“Uh, that’s not entirely true Cozy Glow…” Chrysalis somberly says from her bubble.

Cozy turns her body to the changeling and looks up at her while squinting her right eye inquisitively, “What do you mean?”

“Ugh! I already told you that you know nothing of the changelings foal!” Chrysalis says before looking to her right at Twilight, “In the beginning, I was master of a changeling hive. We were a fierce tribe of warriors, not to be trifled with! But we needed love to maintain our power!”

Cozy says, “You know, the current changeling hive to the West doesn’t need to take in anymore love?”

Chrysalis looks back to Cozy and says, “Exactly you incredulous little twerp! I just didn’t know!” before closing her eyes.

Twilight looks at the changeling curiously, “About what Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis stares to Twilight, “When you’re stone, you have a lot of time to think… I eventually realized that since my former hive doesn’t need to take in additional love at this point, that I was probably wrong…”

“So, golly Chrysalis! Will you give it a shot?”

“After my hive betrayed me, revenge was all I had left. It was the only thing that drove me…” She looks to Starlight, “Getting even with you was all I had to do…”

Starlight looks to Chrysalis, “But you never did?”

“Oh, how I tried Starlight! You don’t know the entire story!”

Starlight scrunches her mouth, “Well look! One thing I learned when I reformed was, while it’s important to look at yourself and see what went wrong, you eventually need to put everything behind you…” She turns her body to face the changeling before taking a step to her, “I want to be your friend Chrysalis… I don’t want to fight you anymore…” before smiling dimly.

Chrysalis is silent for a moment before finally saying, “We’ll talk more about this later Starlight…”

Starlight nods her head, “Very well Chrysalis… Until next time…” and then takes a step back.

Chrysalis looks down at Cozy, “I’ll try being reformed! After all!” She says before smiling back down at the Pegasus, “I can always just go back to being evil if I don’t like it?”

Twilight looks to the changeling seriously, “Okay Chrysalis. I’m going to lower you down now and then turn you back to stone. I’ll unfreeze you at the castle later and then we’ll discuss this more now that you’ve talked to an ahem, recently reformed villain…” before raising her neck back all the way with ears perked her direction.

Chrysalis sighs, “I agree to your terms Twilight…”

Twilight smiles dimly as her horn is encased in a purple glow to lower the forcefield to the ground before it disappears and gives a resounding “pop” upon reaching the surface. The changeling drops a foot from the sky to her hooves on the ground causing her body to lower slightly before she corrects herself and stares at the Pegasus before her, “Eventually while encased in stone, I began to question a lot of things… I started to wonder about the things I had done and how I had gotten myself trapped there…”

“Golly gee Chrysalis! I did the same thing! Eventually, I started to wonder if there was something else I could be doing?”

“Yes Cozy! I started to wonder if there was something else I could’ve done… Thank you for talking with me Cozy… I never knew I wasn’t alone…”

“Oh golly, Chrissy er, Chrysalis! It was nothing!” Cozy says while smiling at the changeling and twisting her right forehoof on the ground.

Chrysalis turns her head to Twilight, “I’m ready!”

Twilight nods her head, and her horn is once again sheathed in a purple glow. The bottom of the changeling’s hooves soon begins to become encased in stone, which soon spreads higher on her body to her shoulders. She says, “See you soon Cozy!” as the stone overtakes her face, now stuck in a somber expression to the Pegasus.

Cozy looks to Twilight and says, “Uh, she wasn’t serious about that whole “see you soon” thing was she? I was actually kinda hoping never to see her again?” before tilting her head to the right with a disturbed look in her eyes.

Twilight smiles at the Pegasus filly, “Whenever you’re ready!”

The three fillies are all sitting at the table after Twilight and Starlight have departed with the statue. Cozy looks at her two friends sitting across from her, Little Snack on the left and Starshine to the right and says, “Golly, that was a strange afternoon!”

Starshine says with narrow eyes, “I know! Of all the things they could’ve done to reform Chrysalis, why did they want to talk with you?”

“I’m not sure Starshine? Uh, I hope they don’t expect me to be friends with her later? You know, I was paired with you, but afterwards, well…” She looks at Little Snack, “I kinda made my own friend as well!”

Little Snack smiles as she swishes her green tail in the chair, “Yup!”

Starshine looks to Cozy and asks, “So I guess you want snuggles now?”

Cozy looks to Starshine wide-eyed, “What do you mean?”

Starshine smiles and says, “You just had a harrowing adventure with Chrysalis and now you need comfort!”

Cozy scrunches her mouth, “I don’t think so?”

Little Snack looks to Starshine, “Hey, isn’t it your turn to hold her next?”

Starshine smiles, “That is correct!”

Cozy starts, “Hey, wait a minute!”

Starshine says to Cozy, “Cozy snuggle time nap now after lunch like usual!”

Cozy frowns, “Do I get a choice?”

Both Starshine and Little Snack say to Cozy in unison, “NO!”

(To be continued…)

Chapter 2-2: Cozy Interviews

“Um, golly! Okay, so what?” Cozy asked the magenta unicorn behind the desk.

“I’m going to be interviewing Chrysalis now and I want you to come by sometimes for your input and insight!” Starlight says, as a slow smile forms across her face.

“Oh uh, no! Look! I just got reformed now, and I’d like to live my life now okay Starlight? I’m sorry about locking you away all those years ago and I’m sorry about the later attack on the castle. But Twilight already declared me reformed! Pretty sure that’s good enough?”

Starlight giggles before saying, “Cozy, it never goes away you know?”

Cozy frowns, “What do you mean?”

“You’re always going to need to repent and be a better pony because of what you did earlier… It comes with being a former villain! Believe me, I know!”

Cozy smiles, “Well, that’s the thing isn’t it? I can easily recognize when guilt is causing me to do things!”

“But you still do them, don’t you?”

Cozy starts, “Okay um, that’s beside the point!”

Starlight chuckles while Cozy stares on with a sour look on her face, “So, will you help me do it?”

“Well gee, I guess so? I mean, if it doesn’t take too much from my life. Uh, are you sure this is necessary? Can’t you just reform her on your own, without me? Aren’t you also a reformed villain Starlight?”

“Yes, but you’re more recently reformed! You just went through where Chrysalis is going now, and your insight could be helpful! You do want to be helpful don’t you Cozy?”

Cozy widens her eyes, “You know, when you put it like that, I feel like maybe I shouldn’t help you?”

“But you’re still gonna do it aren’t you?”

“Again, that’s beside the point!” Starlight erupts in hysterical laughter while Cozy frowns and stammers, “This isn’t over!”

Starlight regains composure and looks down at the pegasus filly, “Cozy, I just think that you could help Chrysalis! Be her friend you know? She doesn’t have any right now?”

“Golly gee, what does that have to do with me?” Cozy asks, widening her eyes.

Starlight smiles, “You want to be helpful, don’t you?”

Cozy squints and says, “Okay, that’s getting annoying!” while the unicorn giggles some more.

“Cozy, it’ll be fine! We’ll take this nice and slow okay?”

“Uh er, golly okay!” Cozy finally gives a resigned sigh and says, “Fine Starlight! When should I be there?” before looking up at Starlight nervously.

Cozy steps outside the school and squats to take off before looking to her right, spotting Starshine.

The unicorn makes it to the landing and trots to Cozy, looking up from underneath her long mop of hair, “Hi Cozy! I need to take my yearly aptitude test today before they assign classes! Uh, what are you doing here?”

Cozy narrows her eyes to normal, “Starlight wanted to talk to me about Chrysalis…”

Starshine frowns, “What about Chrysalis? You already spoke with her! What more do they want?”

Cozy sighs and looks down before saying, “They’d like all three of us to come to Starlight’s office next week on Monday afternoon…” She looks to Starshine, “It’s Friday now, so we got three days!”

Starshine smiles, “This is true! I guess they’ll talk to me about this soon, but I don’t know if or when they’ll talk with Little Snack?”

Cozy smiles, “I’m sure they’re already working on that!”

“No doubt!” Starshine says while lightly swishing her white tail. “I should be done around 3?”

“Alright Starshine! I’ll meet you back at my place like normal?”

“I wouldn’t miss it!” Starshine says before slowly trotting to the curly haired pink filly and embracing her in a tight warm hug.

(Later, on Sunday night, the fillies are eating dinner together with Trixie at her cottage…)

Cozy says from her seat on the far corner of the table, “Well, what should I say to her? “Oh golly gee Chrysalis! Being reformed is just swell! I’m sure you’ll love it!” I mean, golly! I’m a little school-filly now! Not a reformer!”

Trixie frowns from Cozy’s right, “True, but you’re also a former villain. I guess they think your insight could be useful?”

Starshine uses her magic to sip her glass of red liquid and gently sets it down to the right of her empty plate before looking at Cozy across from her, “I guess they’re trying to get you to see that it’s not over?”

Cozy stares at Starshine, “By making me continue to do things for them so that I stay reformed!”

“Exactly!” Starshine says while Little Snack looks on.

Little Snack narrows her eyes and scrunches her mouth at the pegasus, “So, they wanna make sure you don’t re-lapse or whatever then?”

Cozy looks to the earth filly with wide eyes, “Yeah, I guess they’re worried I’ll go back to being evil?” She crunches her mouth.

Starshine says, “Or they just believe that you’re useful to the cause and want to exploit that?”

Cozy looks at Starshine and smiles, “Well, that’s also possible? But you know, the only thing that is important is that now we gotta deal with her!”

Starshine says, “Well, right! So uh, what are we gonna do?” before frowning.

The three fillies fall silent when Trixie finally speaks up to the pegasus, “Cozy, you’re very intelligent and now you have two fillies to help you. Don’t you think you’re worrying a little much here?”

Cozy smiles at Trixie, “All kinds of support huh?”

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. Trixie starts, “Who in Equestria could that be at this hour?” She trots to the front door and opens it with a blue magical glow, showing a tall and lanky tan unicorn stallion on the right and a slightly shorter orange unicorn mare on the left. The stallion has a short brown mane and a matching mid-length tail. The mare has two small green pigtails at the side of her head and a longer tail of matching color.

The mare smiles as freckled cheeks rise slightly on her face, “Hi! We’re Little Snack’s parents and we came to pick her up!

Trixie frowns and says, “You sure about that?”

Little Snack from her seat, smiles, and shouts, “Hiya mom and dad!”

The stallion smiles and says, “My name is Tasty! Tasty Snack and this is my wife, Delicious Snack! Yeah, we’re unicorns and our beloved Little Snack is an earth filly! I know! And we’re actually not sure how it happened, but we think it’s genetic?”

Cozy’s eyes widen at the earth filly, “Golly, that’s new!”

“Also!” continues Tasty, “We wanted to meet Cozy Glow! I mean, gosh! Our Little Snack has been seeing her now and we don’t know much about the filly who tried to take over Equestria!”

Cozy stares down and says, “This again?”

Trixie speaks up, “Sure! She’s right over here next to me on the other side from your daughter!”

The two ponies trot in from the outside and Tasty shuts the door with a green glow from his horn. They trot in towards the table on the Starshine/Little Snack side and stare at Cozy from there.

“She’s adorable!” Exclaims Tasty.

“Hard to believe she’d be evil with those cute bluish white locks of hair on her head?” Says Delicious from his left side.

Cozy stares at them from her side of the table wide-eyed, “Uh, are you two just gonna gawk and talk about me like I’m not here?”

Tasty composes himself, “Umm, sorry! It’s just that Little Snack has been seeing you and well, we know and trust Trixie (the blue unicorn smiles at them), but we wanted to see what all the fuss was about!” *

“Fuss?” Cozy says as she scrunches her mouth.

“Well, gosh yes Cozy! I mean, you almost took over Equestria and now you’re just a regular filly! And a cute one at that!”

Cozy frowns at the tan unicorn, “Okay, now you met me!” she looks to the orange earth filly across from her, “Uh, so long Little Snack!”

Little Snack smiles at the pegasus, “Not so fast!” before dismounting from her chair, walking around the table past Trixie, and hugging Cozy tightly while saying in her ear, “Don’t worry Cozy! We got you!”

Cozy closes her eyes and enjoys the close warm embrace, when suddenly, she feels new hooves going over her body from behind. “STARSHINEWHATAREYOUDOING?” Cozy exclaims as she’s suddenly embraced much tighter from the other direction while still hugging Little Snack!

Day 1:

Starshine looks to Cozy on her left, “You nervous?”

Cozy looks to the unicorn on her right, “Maybe a little?”

“Well, we were trying our best to play so you didn’t think about it too much this weekend… How’d we do?”

“Well golly Starshine, you know how my mind is!”

Little Snack then says robotically says to Cozy from the left, “An attempt was made!”

Starlight then addresses the three fillies in her office from behind her desk, “So, are you three ready?”

Cozy looks at Starlight with wide eyes, “Well golly! Uh, what exactly are we supposed to do now?”

“Talk to her about reformation and why it’s a better option! We need you to get her to see that it’s good for her! You do honestly believe that it’s a better way to go don’t you Cozy?”

Cozy squints her eyes at the magenta unicorn, “You just want to make sure I’m actually reformed, don’t you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t feel the need to drag me into this reformation project with Chrysalis.”

“Oh, that’s not entirely true Cozy… You lost a lot, just like she did… I think you two would have common ground!”

Cozy starts and says, “What in Equestria would make you believe that I want to be friends with her? I got my squad now! I’m good!” before ruffling her wings.

A devious smile comes over Starlight, “Well, why not just give it a try Cozy? I mean, golly! You still have the rest of your life to not be friends with Chrysalis you know?”

“Okay, new rule!” Cozy bellows, “No more twisting the words of the cute pegasus filly!” before shaking her wings slightly in front of a snickering Starlight.

“Oh, you’ll do fine Cozy! Right now, we need to find out what happened to her and why she’s evil. Like Trixie did with you once upon a time!”

“Golly!” Cozy frowns, “Okay well, that makes sense… Um, let’s do this!” and shakes her head.

Starlight smiles, “Guards! Bring her in!”

The doorknob glows bright orange and the door sways open to reveal two white unicorns in golden armor and a larger black changeling behind them.

Chrysalis walks in from between them and the doorknob and the right guard’s horn both glow bright orange to quietly shut the door. She takes a few paces towards the fillies and says, “You again!”

Cozy turns to her right and stares up at her with her bright eyes while her two friends get out of their chairs and back away from her slowly, “Yup! Me again! Hiya Chrysalis!”

“Ugh!” Chrysalis lowers her head as she trots towards the fillies before looking to Starlight after stopping three paces, “Why do you insist that I talk with these foals?”

Starlight says, “Well, foal or not, Cozy is recently reformed!”

“Golly Chrissy er, Chrysalis! You know, I was about to ask you how the whole reforming thing was coming along? How was your weekend bug queen?”

Chrysalis scowls at the pegasus, “My weekend was fine! There’s not much to do in the castle, but I manage!”

Cozy gets out of her chair and takes a step towards Chrysalis while her friends look on, “Well that’s just swell Chrysalis! Hey! You’re not doing anything evil are you?”

Chrysalis frowns and rolls her eyes, “When would I have gotten the chance?”

“Well golly! That’s good Chrysalis! Uh…” she looks behind her to Starlight, “She’s reformed because she can’t do bad things now! Mission accomplished! Can we go now?”

Starlight frowns, “Cozy, we want her to be good because she wants to be good! Not because we’re making her!”

Cozy frowns and turns to Chrysalis, “Well, it was worth a shot!” before fluffing her wings.

Chrysalis smiles, “You don’t want to do this do you?”

Cozy’s right eyebrow raises, “Not exactly! But apparently the princess says you need to be reformed now and they managed to talk me into it!”

Chrysalis snickers, “Typical! They make you do things you don’t wish to do and drag you along on silly projects! Like reforming me!”

Cozy smiles and takes a pace forward, “Well I do wanna be better you know? Have you thought about what I said?”

“Yes, I did and it’s ridiculous! Why would I even “try” being reformed anyway?”

Cozy continues while staring on with her brown eyes, “Well golly gee Chrysalis! You know, being evil just got ponies to hate and fear you and they eventually trapped you in stone. Maybe it’s time to try something else?”

Chrysalis frowns as she looks down at the pegasus filly, “What exactly are you suggesting foal?”

“Be friendly! You know, nice?”

“And precisely how would you suggest that I live Cozy? I was raised to be a changeling queen!”

“Golly um, okay about that!” Cozy says while squinting her right eye, “Maybe we should start from the beginning?”

Chrysalis frowns, “What do you mean Cozy?”

Cozy’s eyes pop as her body vibrates, “I mean the beginning! Tell us about yourself! Why are you a love sucking, shapeshifting horror?” Her head tilts to the left.

“Ugh!” Chrysalis sighs while closing her eyes. She opens them and stares down to Cozy, “I guess I’ll have to tell you about the changelings? I originally came from a hive far to the West, outside of Equestria. Most changelings are born as drones. They are not important and only do menial tasks around the hive. I was born as a queen and raised to be as such!”

Cozy frowns and widens her eyes, “So, you were specifically raised to be evil and gather love for your hive? You didn’t know any better huh?”

Chrysalis snaps and glares angrily, “Fool! There is no better way! And Equestria has more love than any other land I had ever seen!”

Cozy smiles, “But the hive to the West of here doesn’t need to take in any new love? And they do just fine!”

Chrysalis squints her eyes, “They will pay for their treachery!”

“How Chrysalis?”

“What?”

“Exactly how are you gonna get revenge on the hive that betrayed you again? You don’t seem to be in any sort of revenging position you know?”

“I…I’ll think of something!”

“Uh, right Chrysalis! Golly yes! Of course! Something!” Cozy looks down and then back up at the changeling, “What do you do Chrysalis?”

“What?”

“Tell me about your day Chrysalis! How do you keep yourself occupied in the castle?”

Chrysalis observes the pegasus filly carefully. She’s still standing there, staring up at her with wide-open auburn eyes and smiling. She finally speaks, “Well, the forcefield around the castle keeps changelings from going in or out. But I usually just shapeshift into a pony of some kind or another and talk to the ponies in the castle.” **

“Golly! You don’t think they’d like the real you huh?”

“Would you?” Chrysalis asks with a stern look in her eyes.

“Well, I don’t know? I mean, sure we worked together ten years ago. But I don’t know if we ever really talked before.? You know, just you and me?”

Chrysalis grimaces, “What are you insinuating foal?”

Cozy smiles, “I’m saying that if ponies got to know you, they might not be afraid of you?”

“Ponies should fear me you incredulous brat!”

Cozy sighs, “You know, the point of being reformed was so you’d fit into society? Not necessarily pony society! I mean, there are other changeling hives out there right?”

Chrysalis groans, “I would sooner die than join another hive!”

“Well, how about just Ponyville then? I mean, there’s lots of creatures coming in and out with the school here now. Surely you can find a place?”

“I still can’t believe I’m actually talking to you about this!”

“Yeah, me neither!” Cozy says before she fluffs her wings and looks aloofly to the side.

Starlight finally speaks up from back behind her desk, “I want to try an exercise now!”

Chrysalis glares menacingly at the magenta unicorn behind the desk, “I don’t wish to do anything with you!”

Starlight smiles, “Oh, it’ll be fun! Okay, tell me Chrysalis! Why do you believe you don’t belong in this Equestria?”

Chrysalis turns her body to the unicorn, “Why do you think Starlight? My hive is gone, I can’t get revenge anymore, and I’m trapped in this nightmare amidst you ponies!”

“Okay, so you don’t really have anything left then. Follow-up question Chrysalis, what would you like to do?”

Chrysalis frowns, “What do you mean?”

Starlight calmly rephrases the question, “What would you like to do in life?” Starlight shakes her head, “What I mean is, let’s just say you couldn’t take over Equestria or get revenge! Let’s just say that hypothetically, neither of those two things were choices in activities… What would you do?”

Chrysalis frowns at Starlight as she hadn’t considered that. She finally speaks up, “I…I don’t know!”

“Well, don’t you think we should find out Chrysalis? I mean, a big part of reforming you into society is finding where you fit in!”

Chrysalis narrows her eyes, “I already told you that I don’t wish to be reformed! I wish to be destroyed!”

“Ugh!” Starlight rolls her eyes, “Okay, let’s just say, for the sake of argument that destroying you is also not an option! What do you want to do with your life Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis can only stand there deep in contemplation as she stares down at the smiling unicorn at her desk. She finally speaks up, “I don’t know!”

Little Snack looks at the changeling, “Well gosh! Don’t you think you should find out? Sounds kinda freaking important?”

Chrysalis snaps at the earth filly, “You don’t know anything about me! I am a powerful warrior and a queen! That is who I truly am!”

Cozy says, “You know, you haven’t really been “queen” of anything in quite some time, right? Also, for a “powerful warrior”, you sure get your flanks kicked a lot!”

“I… I’ll show you what a true warrior is brat!” Chrysalis says as her body begins to glow green. Suddenly, sparks begin to radiate from her bent and curved horn as her magic fizzles out.

Starlight speaks up, “Forget Zecora created a zebra fetish of you that’s bound Chrysalis? Please! We need to reform you!”

“You’ll pay for this! I swear! All of you!”

“That’s enough Chrysalis!” Starlight says, “Guard!”

The doorknob once again glows orange and it swings open to reveal two white unicorn guards in their golden armor, standing side by side.

“Take Chrysalis back to her room at the castle please! We’re done for now!”

The guard on the left says, “Yes Miss Starlight Glimmer!”

Chrysalis angrily walks towards the door while glaring at Cozy, who only smiles back at her while staring up with bright gingerly eyes.

She reaches the threshold as Starlight says to her, “We’ll try this again tomorrow Chrysalis!”

“I don’t know why you bother!” The changeling replies as she’s standing on the other side of the doorway right before it quickly and quietly shuts with the same orange magic.

Cozy looks back to her friends.

Starshine says, “I think the biggest problem is that she really doesn’t want to be reformed? If we could convince her otherwise, this should move a lot smoother!”

“Oh gee! You think?” Cozy says to the unicorn filly while glaring at her with her big brown eyes, “Um, sorry Starshine…” Cozy closes her eyes, “Golly, I just don’t know what to say to her?”

Little Snack looks to the pegasus, “Ugh…” she then paws her right forehoof and then left against the ground while looking down and then back up at Cozy with her big green eyes, “I got nothing!”

Starlight speaks up from behind them at her desk, “What we need is a change of scenery…” Another slow smile forms on her face, “Cozy, how do you feel about bowling?”

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*I often hate being an “oddity” because I’m trans and if people discover me, this is sometimes the result. In my experience, it’s best to just continue living your life because there’s no appropriate response to this.

**Welcome to being trans! I have fooled them all!

Chapter 2-3: Let's Go Bowling!

Cozy saw the statue of Queen Chrysalis in the middle of the courtyard. She saw a burly grey unicorn, whose brown mane swept out the back of his ballcap, use his magic to lift the heavy black sledgehammer in its glow. The hammer swings back in mid-air and then forward again to smash Chrysalis’s right foreleg. Cozy then sees her own right foreleg begin to disappear, the same as the smashed stone of the statue before waking up with a cold sweat on her brow.

She clutches her beloved giant teddy bear while laying on her right side. “Oh golly! What in Equestria could that mean?” she whispers, half to herself, and half to Mr. Bearington.

********* ********

Cozy Glow watched from the other side of the metal railing 10 feet away as a blue earth stallion held it in his right forehoof and danced forward on his hind legs to throw the heavy bowling ball ahead into the lane and knock over 8 pins for the dreaded seven-ten split. She looked over to Starlight on her right and says, “So you wanted an activity that creatures of all ages could enjoy… And you picked bowling?”

Starlight smiles at the pink filly, “Yup!”

Cozy eyes Starlight sternly from the bench, “Um, don’t you think the ponies in this alley are gonna freak out when they see a big black changeling marching through here escorted by Royal Guards?”

Starlight looks beyond Cozy and says, “I dunno Chrysalis? You see any ponies freaking out over your presence here?”

Cozy turns to her left and finally notices the pink earth mare with a flowing blond mane and a tale of the same color wrapped in a red bow silently sitting there on the bench next to her. She looks down at Cozy with her glimmering blue eyes and says, “I’m doing just fine!” in a monotone vocoder voice.

“Oh golly! That sure is a swell disguise Chrysalis!”

Chrysalis sneers, “I manage!”

Little Snack speaks up from the other side of Starlight, where she’s standing to the right of Starshine and across from Cozy, “So um, are we gonna get to it or what?”

Starlight smiles at the group, “Very well! Each go collect your balls and meet me at lane four!”

“Ugh! Remind me again why I’m actually going through with this nonsense?” Chrysalis says before she gets to her hooves from the bench and trots behind Little Snack and Starshine to get her ball. Cozy quickly notices and trots to get behind Chrysalis

The 3 ponies and disguised changeling make it to the ball pit and Cozy trots down and gets on her haunches to grab a black ball from the metal rail with her forehooves. She strains to pick it up before setting it back down and then looking to the left of it and trying the blue one there by picking it up. She doesn’t have as much of a problem lifting it and so she grabs it with her mouth in the holes and goes back to all fours before turning to face the pink earth mare staring at the balls.

Little Snack sees this and shrugs before collecting the black ball with her mouth while Starshine magically snags a red ball on the other side.

Starlight holds a bright blue bowling ball to her right and stares at Chrysalis, “Aren’t you going to get a ball?”

“Why?” the changeling snaps at her.

“Well, we were going to go bowling as part of your reformation remember?”

“But I don’t wish to be reformed…” Chrysalis says while smiling at the unicorn.

Cozy puts the ball down with her mouth, sighs, and looks at the pink mare, “Chrysalis, remember when we worked together to get the Bewitching Bell all that time ago?”

Chrysalis looks at Cozy to her left, “Yes foal! What of it?”

Cozy frowns while looking up at her with bright eyes, “Well, during that time, you and Tirek trusted me to get you across the bridge. Remember when I flew it back over to you?”

Chrysalis frowns and says, “So?”

“So, what I mean is, do you trust me now?”

“What are you asking?” Chrysalis inquires with a grim look in her eyes.

Cozy smiles, “Do you trust me now to help you over this chasm, just like I did back then?”

Chrysalis frowns, “This isn’t a chasm you twit! They’re talking about reforming me and making me… Ugh! Nice!”

“You know, it’s really not so bad Chrysalis?” Cozy says before looking off to the side and lightly fluffing her wings.

“Maybe for a weakling like you!”

Cozy looks at Chrysalis seriously, “Are we really gonna do this again? Here?”

“No, we will not! I will return to the school right now, you will turn me back to stone, and then you will leave me alone, forever!”

“Uh, hey Chrysalis?” Starshine says as she stares at the changeling from her right.

Chrysalis turns and snaps, “What do you want filly?”

Starshine flinches as her long mane sways back and she shuts her eyes. She then stares back at Chrysalis with her blue eyes as her white mane moves forward again and she nervously asks, “Have you ever been bowling?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Chrysalis demands.

Starshine gulps, “Have you ever been bowling before Chrysalis? Yes or no?”

Chrysalis squints down at the deep purple filly, “Well, no… If you must know, I’ve never been bowling before…”

“Well, who knows Chrysalis? You might have fun?” Starshine says in her squeaky feminine voice while tilting her head to the right. She straightens herself, “Besides, it’s not like you have anything better to do!”

“Oh, but I have revenge and taking over Equestria!”

Cozy yelps, “Well maybe? But first, you gotta throw a heavy ball at some pins!” before smiling. “Come on bug horse! Let’s go!” She says, picking up her ball and turning to face lane 4.

Chrysalis watches this incredulous little brat cross the aisle to the other side, where she sets her ball down with her mouth, stairing back at Chrysalis. She smiles and says, “Come on! Let’s bowl!” as her body lightly vibrates with each word.

Chrysalis squints her eyes before using her mouth to lift a yellow bowling ball from the metal rack and then trots slowly towards lane 4 as Starshine cautiously backs up to give her space.

Cozy smiles and stares out to lane 4. She gets to her haunches and reaches down with her right forehoof to secure the ball with the holes. She drops it to her side before using her hind hooves to dance across the wood, veering to the left sloppily and throwing her ball shoddily to lane 4 on her right where it promptly goes into the gutter and slowly slides to the end of the lane and drops out of sight beyond that.

Chrysalis sets the ball down with her teeth on the left side of Cozy with the other two fillies, starts, and says, “What was that?”

Starshine frowns, “Uh, I think it was an attempt at bowling?”

“That was terrible!” Little Snack yelps as her body shakes.

Cozy turns to face the trio, “Golly! That bad huh?”

“Well!” Little Snack says as she takes two paces forward, “Your legwork is your main problem Cozy. If you can get control of your hind hooves, you should have an easier time throwing the ball straight. Now here comes your ball! Let’s see what you can do for the spare!”

“And hold your right forehoof straight as you release the ball to keep it’s direction true!” Chrysalis adds while Cozy stares at pink earth mare visage.

Cozy turns and picks up her blue ball with her teeth as it slides in through the metal railing and then goes across the aisle to get in front of lane 4 once more. She gets on her haunches and grabs her ball with her forehooves from her mouth to put her right forehoof in the holes before lowering it to her right side once more. She takes a deep breath, in and then out, before beginning to lurch forward on her hind hooves, right, left, right, and then left again quickly before releasing her ball and doing her level best to keep her body straight as she does. The ball flies out of her right forehoof and lands on the lane before smashing over the 3 pins on the right side.

Starshine uses her magic at the desk by the bench to jot down notes on a scorecard.

Chrysalis says, “Well, if I must bowl with you foals, I shall take my turn now!” before getting her yellow ball with her mouth using the holes and trotting to the front of lane 4 while Cozy moves to her right to get out of her way. She puts it down in front of lane 4 before getting to her haunches and carefully grasping the holes with her right forehoof and then using her left to raise the ball to her face. She takes a deep breath and begins to move forward on her hind hooves as she brings the ball back with her right foreleg and throws it forward. The ball slams into the wood of the lane and careens towards the right side of the pin and then near the end of the run, it curves to left to strike down 8 pins. Chrysalis only missed the 9 and 10 pins on the far-right side.

Cozy widens her eyes, “Golly! See if you can pick up the spare Chrysalis!”

“Ugh!” Chrysalis says as she gets back to her hooves, turns, and trots over to the ball reclamation table. Her yellow ball soon appears in the hole and slides up the metal railing so Chrysalis can pick it up with her teeth and trot back to lane 4. She sets it down in front of her and gets to her haunches before using the holes to grasp the ball and looks ahead. She thinks for a second before taking a step forward and then dancing towards the pins on her hind legs and bringing her right forehoof with the ball back and swinging it forward to release the ball. The ball slams into the polished wood and eventually into the far right 2 pins.

Little Snack exclaims, “Okay! Eight pins on the first, plus the last two more on the spare! That’s ten points!”

Chrysalis turns around and stares at Little Snack with the blue eyes she gave her character and says, “Is that good?” while scrunching her mouth.

Little Snack says, “Yeah Chrissy er, Chrysalis! That’s a very good! Especially for your first turn ever in the history of anything!”

Starshine says from the desk at Little Snack’s right, “Uh, yeah Chrysalis! You might have a talent here that you never knew about?” before looking back to her right and causing the pen to glow blue once more as it writes some more numbers on the scorecard.

Chrysalis squints at Starshine as she trots back forward and Starshine looks to her right at the ball pit and magically lifts her red bowling ball with a blue glow to float it to her in front of the lane. Chrysalis shakes her head and trots back to the bench next to Cozy.

Little Snack is standing behind Starshine as the filly magically sets the ball down in front of her and she gets up to her haunches and grabs the holes of the ball with her left forehoof and raises it to her chin with her right.

She dances forward on her hind hooves and swings the ball back behind her before throwing it forward while swinging her forehoof and throws the ball just to the left of the center pin and she knocks over 7 pins, leaving the 7 pin on the left and the 9 and 10 pins to the right. She smiles and says, “Okay! Now about that spare!” before looking at the ball pit to her right and waiting on her ball to come up on the metal track.

Her ball soon appears and her horn and it both shine blue before the ball levitates back to the floor in front of Starshine before it stops glowing. She gets to her haunches before planting her left forehoof into the holes once more and bringing the ball to her chin. She begins to move forward on her hind hooves and swings it back to throw it forward. It appears to be heading straight at the 2 pins on the right before veering off to the right completely into the gutter and missing everything. “Rats!” Starshine curses under her breath.

“My turn!” Little Snack says before she goes to the ball pit to collect her black bowling ball. She briskly trots back to lane 4 across the alley and puts her ball in front of her as she stares forward. She briefly stares up with her green eyes before grunting cutely as she gets to her haunches. She then places her right forehoof into the holes of the ball and stares down the lane at the pins. She says, “Okay! Time to knock over some pins!” before taking a right and then a left step and repeats before throwing her ball to the wood. It flies down the aisle much faster than the other three towards the right side of the pins and then curves to the left quickly to strike the center pin causing all the other pins to collapse as the ball flies to the back towards the left and down out of sight!

Little Snack watches from all four hooves with her green eyes and screams, “Yay! I got a strike!” as her little orange body bounces up and down. She trots to the ball reclamation lane to her right and arrives just as her black ball appears out of the hole. She gets to her haunches to collect it with her teeth and trots back to lane 4.

She sets the ball down with her mouth as she looks down the lane before standing up to her haunches and grabbing the ball in the holes with her right forehoof and using her left to help bring it to her chin. She takes a deep breath before trotting forward on her hind hooves once more, right, left, and then right before swinging her right forehoof back and to throw her ball forward towards the pins while taking a final left step forward.

The ball crashes into the wood and glides towards the right and ends up knocking down all but the 3 far left pins.

“Okay! That’s seventeen!” Little Snack exclaims as she jitters on her four hooves. She trots back to the bench and takes a seat next to Cozy. Chrysalis is on the other side of Cozy and Starshine is on the other side of Chrysalis.

Starlight gets up from Little Snack’s left and begins to trot to the lane as she says, “Well, everypony and changeling went! I guess it’s my turn now!” before looking to her right and levitating a pink bowling ball in her magenta magic to the floor in front of her as she stands before lane 4.

Cozy glances to the disguised changeling on her right and asks, “Whatcha thinkin about?” before smiling.

Chrysalis says, “Oh uh, nothing…”

“You know, your eyes are disguised, but I still know that look. You’re thinking of doing something naughty huh?”

Chrysalis flinches to Cozy on her left and says in a much lower tone, “Well, if you must know, I was thinking I could just attack Starlight as she’s taking her turn…” as the magenta unicorn begins to hind hoof trot towards lane 4 with the ball in her forehoof.

Cozy smiles bigger, “But you’re not going to, are you? Otherwise, you never would’ve told me this!”

Chrysalis anxiously whispers, “Well, she’s not alone!”

“Oh, please Chrysalis! None of us could stop you! You can just take her down right now and trot out! Head South to the badlands or maybe North to the Everfree forest? But you’re not going to, are you?”

Chrysalis stares out at the empty bowling alley. “I guess this place isn’t that busy during a Tuesday afternoon?”

“You won’t escape or take revenge or anything of the sort will you Chrysalis? This can only mean that you’ve been thinking about things and stuff… Wanna talk about it?”

“I have nothing to discuss with you brat!” Chrysalis snaps at the pegasus.

“Chrysalis, I haven’t known you for very long… But you know, I can’t help but wonder if maybe you just got some bad advice?”

“And just what are you insinuating?”

Cozy smiles again, “Well, like I already said, the changeling hive to the West does okay without needing to take in extra love… Why not you Chrysalis?”

“What?”

“Why can’t you also do better?”

“Now you look!” Chrysalis says before getting to her hooves in front of the bench, “Because of that unicorn up there, my hive betrayed me! I lost everything I had ever known! And now… now…” Chrysalis looks down.

“What Chrysalis?” Cozy asks as her brown eyes grow concerned.

Chrysalis looks back up with tears in her eyes, “I have nothing… And there’s nothing left… Why can’t any of you ponies see that? I don’t want to be reformed. I just want to be destroyed!”

“Well golly Chrysalis! You know, you got me?”

“What?” Chrysalis asks before sniffling and scanning the two fillies and the unicorn in front of the lane to verify that nopony heard them.

“I’m saying I’m your friend Chrysalis… “Cozy says before smiling.

Chrysalis stares back to the pegasus and says, “Why would you want to be my friend?” before wiping her face off with her right forehoof and looking down as her blue eyes shimmer a distinctive pale green color.

“Because friendship is power!” Cozy says with a wide evil grin on her face.

Chrysalis starts, “Wait what?”

“Just kidding!” Cozy says before softly giggling to herself and saying, “But seriously Chrysalis, teaming up with you and working together all that time ago was kinda fun huh?” while looking up at Chrysalis with her brown eyes.

Chrysalis normalizes her mouth, “Well yeah…”

“See! We already have a history together!” Cozy says before lightly fluffing her wings.

“And just what exactly do you propose we do together as “friends” Cozy Glow?”

“Hmm?” Cozy ponders as her mouth scrunches, “Well, how about bowling? We’re already here, right? And you’re not awful at it!”

Starlight trots through the gate from the other side of the railing, “Whew! I rolled a nine!”

“Golly, that’s just swell Starlight! Um, I guess it’s my turn now huh?” Cozy says while looking at the unicorn.

“Sure thing Cozy! I’ll stay here with Chrysalis and your friends are already up there waiting on you!” Starlight says while smiling at the pegasus filly.

Cozy gets to her hooves and says, “Golly, that sounds like fun!” before trotting past the desk towards lane 4.

Starlight smiles at the pegasus filly as she trots back to her left and sits next to the pink earth mare disguised changeling. She stares at Chrysalis from the left and smiles, “So, it sure has been a long time!”

Chrysalis softly giggles to herself, “I was actually hoping you’d be dead by the time they unfroze me!”

“Guess that idea also went down the crapper?” Starlight says while scrunching her mouth. She adjusts it and breaths out, “I think we need to make amends!”

Chrysalis frowns at the unicorn, “I presume you heard what I said to the brat earlier?”

Starlight frowns, “I heard enough… Look! I already told you, a big part of your reformation is going to be getting over your past. And that includes making amends with me… If I’m to reform you, there can’t be any bad blood between us!”

“While that does indeed make sense Starlight, you’re still missing the point… I don’t wish to be reformed!” Chrysalis says at Starlight while snapping.

Starlight frowns and eyes the changeling grimly, “You keep saying that, but I gotta admit, your actions are telling a different story.”

Chrysalis frowns, “What do you mean pony?”

Starlight smiles again, “Well, you came here fairly willingly. And you even tried to help Cozy with her awful bowling.”

“So?”

“So, I think it’s time you get ready to admit something to yourself… That maybe you are willing to give it a shot?”

Chrysalis stares at Starlight fiercely as her blue eyes turn a translucent green color on and off, “I will do no such thing! You got my hive to betray me! You destroyed my life! And now, I must destroy you!” as her equine body shakes intensely.

Starlight smiles and gets to her hooves to trot to the front of the bench and the disguised changeling. She turns her body and faces her with a smile on her face.

“What are you doing?”

“Chrysalis, I don’t hate you! In fact, I want to help you!”

“I don’t want your help!”

“Then what do you want Chrysalis?” Starlight asks quizzically.

“I keep telling you to destroy me!”

Starlight frowns, “You and I both know I can’t do that Chrysalis…”

“Then it appears we are at an impasse…” Chrysalis somberly says.

Cozy excitedly hops while standing near the bench and looking to the changeling to her right, “Did you see? Did you see? I got five pins that time!” and smiles and beams. *

Starlight looks to Cozy and says, “That’s great Cozy!” while smiling.

“Ugh!” Chrysalis exclaims before rolling her eyes. “I suppose it’s my turn once more?” She then trots over to the ball pit to the right of the waiting area and collects her yellow ball from the metal rack with her teeth while standing on her haunches to reach into the rack. Then she trots back to the waiting area and turns right to trot to lane 4. She arrives and stares down the lane before setting her ball down and getting to her haunches. She collects the ball with her right forehoof and brings it to her chin with her left. “Okay… Time to bowl!” she whispers to herself before looking forward as her blond mane swings back lightly. She takes a breath before trotting forward on her hind hooves a few paces and swings the ball back behind her to throw it forward. It slams into the polished wood of the lane and flies forward with some velocity to strike the 3 pin, just to the right of the center pin and the pins begin to collapse as the ball flies to the unseen part of the lane and everypony sees the only remaining pin is the 7 pin on the far left side.

“Excellent!” Chrysalis says to herself. Then she looks down and turns to trot to the ball reclamation area to the railing there.

“Having fun Chrysalis?” Cozy asks from behind her.

“Ugh! What do you want?” Chrysalis says as she gets to her haunches at the ball reclamation rack and her yellow ball soon appears in the hole.

“Just making friendly conversation!” Cozy says while smiling.

“Well, if you must know, while I still find this whole outing preposterous, knocking over pins is at least somewhat amusing…”

“Do you know what I thought about most when I was in stone Chrysalis?”

“What?” Chrysalis says with curious eyes and a scrunched mouth.

“I thought about living again… I thought about all the things I used to do and how I used to have a life… I thought about the people I used to see and the things we’d do together…” **

“Oh?”

“I also thought about you Chrysalis… I thought about how you, I, and Tirek all worked as a team and I couldn’t help but wonder what we’d be doing together if we weren’t trying to take over Equestria.”

Chrysalis gets back to her hooves and looks back to the pegasus sternly, “I don’t think we would be friends honestly? Taking over Equestria was the only reason we all got together…”

“Are you sure about that Chrysalis?” Cozy asks while scrunching her mouth.

“What do you mean Cozy?”

“What I mean is, how do you know that? I’ve never met you!”

“You stupid foal! I’ve met you plenty of times!”

“Ugh!” Cozy sighs before looking down and shaking her head side to side. She looks back up and widens her eyes, “What I mean is, we’ve never been together in any situation that didn’t involve trying to take over Equestria. Remember how it was Chrysalis? We all pretty much stuck to ourselves at the hideout and the only the only time we really got together or talked about things when we had planning to do… You don’t know me Chrysalis!”

“Nor would I want to brat!”

“Oh, come on Chrysalis! It’ll be fun!”

“No!”

Little Snack looks up from her right and says, “I’ll be your friend Chrysalis?”

Starshine suddenly appears from the other side closer to the lane, “I rolled 7 pins that time! And uh, what are we talking about?”

Cozy looks to Starshine on her right, smiles, and says, “Oh, Chrysalis here says she doesn’t want us as friends!”

Starshine frowns, “Oh golly! That’s just silly! I like Chrysalis!”

Little Snack speaks up from the other side, “Yeah! I wanted to have fun with her some more!”

“W-what?” Chrysalis starts, “You three fillies were actually having fun with me?”

“Yup!” Says Cozy as she beams brightly. “Uh, were you having fun Chrysalis?” she asks with an inquisitive look in her eyes while scrunching her mouth in nervous apprehension.

“Well, at first, I didn’t really expect to enjoy myself…” Chrysalis sighs as she looks down. Then she stares back at Cozy, “But, yes foal. If you must know, I do enjoy bowling with you…”

“Hey man!” Says a mellow masculine voice from the back that nopony recognizes.

Chrysalis turns to her left to face the voice while Cozy and Little Snack turn to the right. The unicorn filly glances far to the right of the desk to see the tan earth stallion standing there with brown hair parted in the center and a matching goatee wearing a slightly darker tan jacket over a white shirt.

He says, “Yeah I don’t know if anypony noticed me, but I was just at the bar slamming down a white Stalliongrad while waiting on my two friends. I heard you talking about taking revenge and taking over Equestria man, but have you ever thought about just living in the moment instead?”

Chrysalis frowns at this upstart, “What do you mean?”

“Well think about it man! Are you currently getting revenge or taking over Equestria right now?”

“No! I’m tied up here and bowling with these fillies!”

“Exactly man! Live in the moment! There will be time for other stuff later. Just try to have a good time and don’t worry about the other stuff right now man!”

Cozy stares at this strange stallion and frowns with a confused look in her eyes, “Man?”

Chrysalis raises her voice, “You’re saying that since I’m here anyway, I might as well try to have a good time?”

“Exactly! The here and now is all we get man! So just learn to have a good time, no matter what you’re doing, and life goes by easier…”

Chrysalis scrunches her mouth at this absurd suggestion and the stallion soon trots back down the alley towards lane 10 on the other side.

Cozy stares to Chrysalis, “So uh, how about it Chrysalis? Wanna live in the moment with us and just bowl?”

Chrysalis giggles and rolls her eyes before smiling at Cozy, “Uh, sure! Let’s bowl!”

Chrysalis ponders this thought in her mind. Well, Cozy already clearly stated that even if I did intend to get revenge, I certainly can’t do it right now? And while she’s probably right, I must confess that knocking over pins is fun? Chrysalis makes her decision and then goes to collect her ball for the spare before trotting up before lane 4. She deposits the ball on the wood in front of her and gets to her haunches before collecting the ball with her right forehoof and uses her left to bring it to her chin. She takes a deep breath and begins to hind-hoof trot forward, right, left, right, left, before bringing the ball back with her right forehoof at her side and throwing it forward. It slams into the wood right towards the 7 pin and knocks it down on it’s way to the unseen region of the lane. Chrysalis smiles.

And after she picked up the spare, the changeling, unicorn, and all three fillies bowled for the rest of the time and gave each other occasional banter. The final score was Little Snack 112, Chrysalis 91, Starshine 89, Starlight 82, and Cozy Glow 54.

******** ********

Later, in front of the bowling alley, Cozy is standing next to Starshine on the right while Chrysalis and two Royal Guards, both white unicorns in golden helms and greaves stood behind her stand on the other side. The glass entryway did not look especially busy or crowded and Cozy’s other two friends are behind her, Little Snack closer to the alley while Starshine is standing on the outside.

“Golly, that sure was a lot of fun! How you doin Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis frowns at the pegasus, “I thought it was a stupid idea to go bowling, but I gotta admit, I did have a good time bowling with you…”

Cozy smiles, “So how bout it? You don’t bug us too much and bowling with you seems like a fun thing to do? We can do other stuff later too if you like, friend?”

“F-friend? You consider me a friend now, even though I literally have nothing to offer you?”

“Um, golly Chrysalis? You have your company and companionship? And it’s fun playing with you!”

“Yeah! I want more bug horse!” chimes in Little Snack from the side as her body shakes.

“W-what? Idiots!” Chrysalis starts at the three fillies.

Cozy scrunches her mouth, “Yeah, maybe? Wanna go bowling again next week Chrysalis?”

“I-I’ll…” Chrysalis scrunches her currently equine mouth as she ponders once more. Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do. And it would get me out of that damnable castle. Baa! This is nonsense! Still… Chrysalis looks down at the smiling pegasus with her bluish white curls and friendly brown eyes. “I’ll…think about it!”

“Sure thing Chrysalis! Let me know!” Cozy says while smiling.

******** ********

Cozy lays her head down on her pillow. Her bear is to her right and her dolphin to her left as she stares up at the ceiling in the darkened room while deep in thought. She thinks, Oddly enough, I think the bowling helped make her see that it’s not all bad? If Starlight truly wishes to reform her though, there will need to be more than that…

She then hears a familiar voice coming from the wall in front of her bed, “Hello again Cozy Glow!”

Cozy raises her head to see the motley form of a familiar draconequus in the darkness, “Oh golly dammit! Not you again!”

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

Footnotes:

*These freaking ponies and their relentless positivity! She’s bowling like shit and still having a blast! Why can’t you do awful, hate yourself, and quit forever like a normal person?

**This is really me lamenting about when I lived… I was once married, and had a job, a house, a car, and a dog… I lost all that that later in my life…

Chapter 2-4: New Directions

“Just what in the hay do you want, jerk?” Cozy says as she lays in her bed on her back with the covers over her and glares at the motley form before her floating in the darkness of her room illuminated by the pale moonlight from her window.

Discord smiles to make the large tooth on the right side of his mouth go out further and bends downward, “Oh, but Cozy! We were developing such a history together!”

The draconequus sternly says, “It isn’t about you this time. I’m cleaning up the mess I made earlier when I turned you, Chrysalis, and Tirek to stone. You’ve already passed my test, and so the question remains, what to do with our bug queen?” before bringing his eagle claw to his chin in concentration.

“Shut up Discord! You and I both know that I really just want you to go away. So, I gotta ask, why are you bothering me?” Cozy asks sharply with a severe look in her eyes.

“You leave Chrysalis alone!” Cozy shouts as she gets to all fours on the bed. “I took out Sombra and your work is done! Now leave!”

“Oh no Cozy, you see, I understand now that I have loose ends to tie up and I’m taking responsibility for my actions!”

“Oh golly!” Cozy eyes down and then up at the draconequus, “Um, you’re absolved from your responsibilities! Now get out of here!”

“Not yet! Mwahahahaa!”

Cozy scowls harshly up at Discord, “I hate you!”

“I’m not especially fond of you either Cozy, but you should be thanking me! After all, I made you a hero!” Discord says while smiling and flippantly flicking his lion paw out into the air.

“I don’t want to be a hero! I want you to fuck off now and never come back!” Cozy shouts before fluffing her wings.

“If it were so easy…” Discord says before disappearing.

A few seconds later, the door opens to reveal a blue unicorn in a pink silk bathrobe. Trixie turns on the lights with her magic to the left of the door and looks to the bed with wide purple eyes, “Cozy! Why are you screaming?”

Cozy looks to Trixie to her right, “Discord is back!”

“Did he show up here? Where is he?” Trixie asks while trotting in and looking around to her right and then her left.

“Oh, he’s probably still listening…” Cozy says while looking up and then around the room, unsure of where Discord is.

“Right you are Cozy!” says a malevolent voice from nowhere.

Trixie starts and stares at the wall defiantly, “You leave my child alone Discord!”

“Oh, but it’s not your, quote unquote, “child” we’re talking about here is it? I’m interested in what she’s doing with Chrysalis!”

Trixie sternly says, “Discord, for the last time, this doesn’t concern you!”

The voice snidely says, “Trixie, I don’t think you’re seeing the big picture here… Chrysalis’s incarceration in stone was my fault and so reforming her is now my responsibility!”

Trixie frowns, “So you’re taking responsibility for your actions now. What does that have to do with my child?”

“Starlight wanted Cozy and her friends to help Chrysalis see that being reformed is the way to go! And so, my intervention may be necessary!”

Trixie grimaces, “It’s not Discord! It’s really not!”

“We shall see…”

Trixie and Cozy are both silent as they glance around the room for a moment. Finally, Trixie says, “Discord? Discord? Are you still here?” Both ponies wait in silence before she looks down to Cozy, “Okay little Cozy. I don’t think he’s going to be back tonight. Would you like to sleep with mommy, so you feel safe and comfortable?”

Cozy is once again, enveloped in pillows, blankets, and the warm embrace of a blue unicorn. She slumbers there and begins to stir as she pulls her precious teddy bear close to her chest with her forehooves and brings her wings forward with a loving embrace... The pegasus begins to dream…

As Cozy emerges in the fog, she trots forward on the soft cool dirt with her hooves and glances around to see a forest beginning behind her and that she’s standing in a wide open plain. She sees a wooden fence to her right 20 feet that she quickly recognizes as the one from her old home. But when she trots forward, she doesn’t see the burnt out remains of her old cottage anymore, but an empty open field with a fence around it instead! This perplexes the filly as she frowns, "Oh golly! The perfect trifecta of irritations for me tonight! First, Chrysalis! Then, Discord! And now, lemme guess! Princess Luna?"

“Cozy, I needed to speak with you!” says a soft feminine voice from behind the pegasus.

Cozy turns to see a dark blue alicorn there smiling back at her with chartreuse eyes that appear to stare into her soul, albeit warmly, “Oh golly yes! Of course, you do! And lemme guess! It’s about Chrysalis, right?”

Luna frowns, “Well yes, it is actually!”

“Look!” Cozy says as she starts forward towards the alicorn and raises her wings, “I keep hearing things about this from Starlight, then from Discord, and now from you. You ever think that maybe you should just give me a chance to properly reform her BEFORE all of you start interfering?”

“It’s not that simple anymore Cozy…”

“Why not? I mean golly! She said she wants to be destroyed right? Why not just do as she asks? Turn her back into a statue and smash it to dust?”

“We don’t kill Cozy!”

“Oh yes! Of course!” Cozy says before rolling her eyes. “We gotta be good and good ponies don’t kill right?” Cozy says before grinning nervously at the princess.

“No! We should never take the life of another! Not if it can at all be avoided!”

“Even if she really wanted it?” Asks Cozy while crunching her mouth with an inquisitive look in her brown eyes.

“No!” *

Cozy frowns, looks down, and says “Okay, I see… Well golly! Given how “morally questionable” I’ve been in the past, it’s probably for the best that I trust you huh?” before looking back to the princess and squinting her right eye in concentration.

“Look Cozy!” Princess Luna starts trotting forward, “I don’t expect you to understand, but it’s important that you reform Chrysalis!”

Luna stops trotting about 5 feet in front of Cozy as the filly looks to her, “Ugh! You know, I already agreed to do this right? I don’t need to be convinced anymore!” before ruffling her wings in annoyance as she glances to the left.

Luna looks at the filly sternly, “After your visit from Discord, I thought you might need to call on me…”

Cozy looks seriously at the princess, “You know, he could’ve just intervened whenever he golly well felt like it. He had no reason to warn me…”

Luna raises her left eyebrow, “That’s true!”

“Which means!” Cozy continues while frowning, “That he must have some other reason for telling me he’s around?”

“That’s a very astute point Cozy!”

“Yes but…” Cozy sighs before looking up to Luna fiercely, “Can we just golly well get to the point already? Discord said he might intervene, which means he probably will… And now, you wanna help me?” As a thought suddenly crosses her mind, Cozy can only help but giggle maniacally.

Luna frowns at the hysterical child, “Why are you laughing Cozy?”

Cozy looks to Luna with her bright auburn eyes and says unsteadily, “You all want the exact same thing! You, Twilight, Starlight, and Discord! You all want me to reform Chrysalis! I still don’t know what the problem is?” before closing her eyes and bringing her head back to guffaw hysterically.

“I need you to understand how important this is Cozy!”

Cozy straightens herself, “Oh yes! Golly well important right?” Cozy sighs as she relaxes her body and moves her left forehoof up as she looks down and the moves her hoof down while glancing up at the princess with her bright eyes, “Anything else?”

“Yes, you need to know that if Discord intervenes, you need only call me!”

“So, you think divine intervention is necessary?”

“It may get that way if Discord becomes involved yes…”

“Which, he probably will, like I already said…” Cozy looks down and sighs. She finally glances back up at the empty lot where her home used to be. She turns her body to the direction of where it once stood and asks in a lower voice, “Why isn’t my old cottage here?”

Luna glances the same direction as Cozy, “Because it’s no longer part of you Cozy…”

Cozy turns her head to Princess Luna inquisitively, “What do you mean?”

Luna turns her head down to the filly, “You’ve reached a point now where you need not be horrified child…”

“Yeah…” Cozy says as she looks over the now barren landscape with her mouth straight and eyes forward, “It’s all gone now huh?” Cozy ruffles her wings.

As the bowling ball struck all the pins for a strike in lane 2, not far from the station where they’re standing, Cozy stands on her hooves in near the ball pit, stares up at Starlight, 10 feet in front and says, “It’s been two days!”

Starlight frowns, “So?”

“So, the agreement was for me and my friends to go bowling with Chrysalis next week! Why are we doing this only two days later?” Cozy says before raising her left eyebrow in curiosity.

“Well, interacting with you seemed to do Chrysalis a world of good! You should hear the things she says about you!”

“Wait what?” Cozy says while scrunching her mouth and looking onward. She stares back to Starlight “What is she saying about me?”

Starlight smiles, “Just that even though you’re really small (Cozy frowns), she liked bowling with you and was actually looking forward to doing it again!”

Cozy widens her eyes to Starlight, “Okay, so bug horse is also obviously insane!”

Starlight raises her left eyebrow, takes a step forward with her left hoof, and frowns, “Why do you say that Cozy?”

“Because I’m a villain, right? A bad pony? Why would anypony want to hang out with me?”

“Your friends seem to love you?”

“Yeah, but they have no other options…” Cozy sighs, “Just once, I would like for a pony to like me for me and not be forced you know?”

Starlight smiles, “Well, Starshine and Little Snack don’t have to hang around you, you know? They could just go back to their boring lives and never talk to you again? Or even hang out together from here on out and exclude you? But they always swing by your cottage to come get you right?”

“Well um, I guess that’s also true? Still, I’m definitely Chrysalis’s only option!” Cozy says before lowering her ears and wings.

Starlight sighs and raises her voice slightly, “That doesn’t matter Cozy! The only thing that is important is that you’ve been helping her! You think maybe you’re not as bad as you might think?”

Cozy looks back up and perks her ears to the unicorn, “Well golly! My friends don’t seem to think I’m a bad pony. And I’m guessing you don’t either, right Starlight?” She says while opening her bright eyes in curiosity.

“Not at all Cozy!”

“So maybe I need to stop thinking of myself like that huh?” Cozy says while moving her neck back, narrowing her eyes, and scrunching her mouth in concentration.

Starlight giggles softly, “Might not be a bad idea little filly?”

Then, Cozy hears a squeaky flighty voice from behind her say, “Hey Cozy! I brought Starshine with me, but uh, where’s Chrysalis?”

Cozy turns to see the familiar green piggy-tails over the freckled orange face of Little Snack and notices Starshine’s white mop of hair and dark purple face behind her. “Okay! We’re all here! But where is Chrysalis?”

“You mean to tell me that you never noticed me standing here?” Says a pink earth mare with blond hair standing at the table behind the lanes.

Cozy turns her neck to the left to see Chrysalis, in her disguised form once more, standing behind the wooden table with scorecards on it, “Golly Chrysalis! That’s such a good disguise that I didn’t even see you there!”

The pink mare smiles as she trots up to the lane and says, “Thank you Cozy!”

“You know, I like how pretty this form is on you Chrysalis!”

The mare smiles a mere 5 feet from Cozy on the other side of the lane, “That compliment means nothing on the other hand…”

“Oh golly!” Cozy says as she takes two paces forward, “That’s because it’s not your real form huh?” and then widens her eyes in curiosity.

Chrysalis frowns down at the filly, “Can we just get to bowling please?” before frowning at the filly.

Cozy pulls her neck back, “Well um, okay!” She moves her neck forward and widens her eyes, “Ready to bowl everypony?”

Little Snack says, “You got it!”

Starshine chimes in, “Yes Cozy!”

The ponies and changeling all go to the ball claim area where they stare at the rack. Cozy selects a yellow ball with the “2” on it with her mouth and gets back to all fours and starts trotting towards lane 3.

Starshine selects a red ball with a “4” on it, using her magic, while Little Snack grabs a green ball with a “6” on it with her teeth while her little orange body is over the railing to reach…

Starlight sees the disguised changeling standing there watching the ponies, “Aren’t you going to get a ball Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis stares at Starlight insolently when her disguised blue eyes shimmer a green color, “I still don’t understand what playing these foal games has to do with reforming me?”

Starlight smiles, “Well, what else are we going to do Chrysalis? You need to understand something that was once taught to me… There’s another way…”

Chrysalis raises her left eyebrow perplexed, “Is this that whole “Magic of Friendship” thing you ponies are always talking about?”

Starlight has a dazed look in her eyes, much like a deer might look at an oncoming train before giggling slightly as she says, “Well basically, yeah! I’m teaching you how to have healthy bonding experiences with Cozy Glow, since you two already have a history together! I picked bowling because I happened to be passing by the alley on my way home one day…” she giggles, “I live on the West side of town after all!” **

Chrysalis frowns, “You mean to tell me that this whole idea was literally planned at the spur of the moment?”

“Yup!” Starlight says while smiling.

“Did I ever mention how irritating I find you ponies Starlight?”

“Uh, maybe once or twice?” Starlight says while looking up and scrunching her mouth, “Look! You already said you enjoyed doing it right? And it sure beats wandering the castle halls in disguise and just hoping you find somepony bored and interesting enough to talk to!”

Chrysalis stares at Starlight, “Or you could just destroy me and be done with all of this nonsense?”

Cozy Glow appears from the side and says, “Golly gee! I only got 4 pins that time! Uh…” she looks to Chrysalis, “Aren’t you gonna get a ball?”

“Ugh! Fine!” Chrysalis exclaims before finally turning to her right, reaching up on her haunches over the railing, and fetching a magenta ball. She sighs and says, “Well, here we go once more!” through her teeth before trotting to lane 3.

She sets the ball down in front of the lane and stares forward at the pins before getting to her hind hooves and securing the ball to her right forehoof with the holes and then she brings it up to her chin with her left.

She takes a final breath before beginning to dance towards the pins, bringing her right forehoof back, and throwing her ball forward to slam into the wood.

The ball glides towards the ten pins and then inexplicably bounces over them to go into the darkened area behind without hitting a single pin!

Cozy widens her auburn eyes from the bench in the waiting area and whispers, “Oh golly!” before shouting, “Princess Luna!”

And the room suddenly grows dark.

Cozy suddenly hears a sly voice behind her say, “Oh Cozy! Did you really think you could just call on Princess Luna like that? After all, she doesn’t even know where you are!”

The room lights up again and Cozy finds herself sitting on a chair in the back of a wooden room. She sees the polished and shaped slats of the walls here decorated with banners, pennants, old road signs, and various bits of paraphernalia. She looks around and it’s about 10 yards by 10 yards square. She also sees four empty pool tables all neatly arranged symmetrically within the room and she sees a bar in the back with various liquor bottles on three wooden shelves behind it.

She also glances to her right and sees a large black changeling sitting there in the chair next to her that she quickly recognizes as the undisguised Chrysalis!

She finally turns to her front to see the serpentine form of a familiar draconequus in the air, wearing a yellow jersey with a “24” on it and purple highlights on it. He smiles with his misshapen teeth, “Welcome to your true redemption Cozy Glow!”***

(To be continued…)

Author's Note

*Me talking to myself about suicide indirectly for the umpteenth time. “Even if I really wanted to die? I mean, it’s my life right? Why should I stick around just for you?”

**Note that in canon, this is not so. But we are ten years in the future after all! Starlight is gonna leave Twilight’s castle one of these days…

***I don’t even like basketball, but I looked up some information on Kobe Bryant because that’s the jersey I wanted Discord to have.

Chapter 2-5: 8-Ball