I'm With You

by TheRedFox

Rating: everyone
Tags: Cozy Glow, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Flurry Heart, Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 1465

Cozy Glow hates this stupid coffee shop, and she absolutely hates the mare who got her there. She's reasonably sure of that.

Cozy Glow hates working in this stupid coffee shop, but she hates one particular recurring customer just as much. Even if that mare is the one who got her this job in the first place.

A comission for the one and only Shaslan! Want a comm? Please read this!

Art was done by the very lovely Cereal!

Published 2023-01-12 23:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-01-12 23:50:00 UTC

I'm With You

If Cozy Glow had to smile any longer, she swore that her mouth would fall off.

Ponies were born to do certain things in this world, she was certain of that. It would stand to reason then that smiling was not one of the things that she was born to do. Those were just facts! Unfortunately, the world and her manager didn’t seem to see things that way.

“Order for Citrine!” she shouted, her voice nasally and tinny over the faint din of poppy holiday music. “Citrine Spark?”

A yellow unicorn wrapped in a thick winter coat waddled to the counter, and Cozy forced a wide, unnatural smile that was certain to unnerve anypony onto her face. “Hiya! Here’s your drink, one mocha latte!”

The unicorn accepted the drink and plopped some coins into the tip jar.

“Golly, thanks! Have a nice day!”

“Happy holidays!”

As soon as the customer left the store, Cozy let the smile slide off her face. She grunted and threw herself into her chair, fishing her phone from the pocket of her apron. Allowing herself to slip into her signature scowl, Cozy absently scrolled through her social media apps, searching for any comment chains to forcibly insert herself into.

Trolling losers online made for a great way to pass the time!

And with this job, boy was there always time to kill. Sure, the cafe was a part of a popular chain, and located on a premier location, but Cozy had made sure to land herself the shift with the least amount of customers. This allowed her to do the least amount of work possible, often by herself, with little overall supervision.

While a good plan, it also meant that there was a lot of boredom involved. But that was fine. Cozy could deal with boredom.

But once again, the universe didn’t seem able to accept this fact as the door chime rang merrily.

“Hi, welcome to Starbits,” Cozy said automatically, shoving her phone back into her pocket. “Oh. It’s you.”

“It’s me!” chirped the voice from the door (Cozy hated chirping). “How’s my favorite Barista?”

Cozy groaned, rolling her eyes and huffing. “What do you want, Flurry?”

Flurry strolled across the room (Cozy hated strolling) and went up to lean against the counter, waggling her eyebrows at Cozy.

Cozy remained stony-faced and unamused.

“I dunno, Cozy, what’ve you got?”

“Get your hooves off the counter, I Just cleaned it,” Cozy snapped. “And you’ve been here enough times to have memorized our menu by now. Like you probably memorized the entire Equestrian Law Book or something.”

“All volumes and amendments,” Flurry beamed. “But what if you changed something?”

“You think I care enough to change the menu?” Cozy laughed. “As if!”

Flurry traced a small circle on the counter, gazing at Cozy with a half-lidded look (she HATED that look). “Well… Why don’t you just surprise me then?”

With an incredulous (Cozy hated that word) look, Cozy scoffed and began preparing a drink that required minimal effort.

“For-here, please,” Flurry sang.

Cozy scoffed. “Charging you extra. For gratuity.”

“Of course! You are truly the most gratuitous pony in all of Canterlot,” Flurry said, batting her eyelashes at her.

“Keep talking, the fee goes up with every word you say,” Cozy muttered, pouring some coffee into a mug.

Flurry tittered (tittered! Who even titters?), dropping some coins into the tip jar. “Can I add something to the order?”

“No, it’s forbidden by company policy,” Cozy shot back.

“Make something for yourself and put it on my tab.”

Cozy paused, shooting Flurry a strange glare. “Um… Fine?”

Flurry blew a kiss at her. Cozy scowled and absolutely didn’t blush as she continued fixing the drinks (but not in an awful way: spitting in a customer’s drink was a crime, after all, no matter how much Flurry deserved it. Besides, she’d probably like it, that freak).

Cozy placed the drinks on a small tray, leading the way to one of the many vacant tables. Flurry followed, making sure to pull out a seat first and gesturing for Cozy to sit. “After you, madame.”

“Whatever. You’re so tacky.”

Flurry giggled, plopping down and levitating her drink over. She placed it squarely in front of her before leaning forwards to rest her chin on her hooves. “Sooo, whatcha been up to?”

Cozy raised an eyebrow. “Killing ponies. Robbing banks. The usual. Why?”

“What, can’t a friend ask how you’re doing?”

A friend. Cozy supposed that Flurry had a very loose definition of the word. After all, Cozy had done nearly everything in her power to make this goody two-shoes hate her guts. She had really pulled out all the stops!

But no. No! Flurry had somehow laughed all of that off, insisted that there was still some good in her and even helped her land this job.

It was insane. She was insane.

“No,” Cozy said, turning up her nose.

Flurry smiled. “So you’re doing well then!”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You didn’t have to, I can read you like a book,” Flurry said as she sipped from her drink. “Mmm, my favorite, how did you know?”

Cozy opened her mouth to fire a retort, but quickly realized that somehow she had actually made Flurry the drink she ordered all the time. “I… Uh.”

“Gosh you’re so cute when you’re flustered,” Flurry laughed.

Cozy snarled, squeezing her cup so hard that it might have exploded.

“So! Kettle Black told me that you’re not interested in renewing your contract,” Flurry said, her tone shifting to a more serious, still free of judgment one. “...Why’s that?”

“Because I’m getting out of this place as soon as it’s over,” Cozy replied.

Flurry froze as that and the silence was deafening. “...Leaving?”

Something about her tone made Cozy uncomfortable. “Y-Yeah.”

For once, Flurry looked like she didn’t know how to react. Her face flashed through several different emotions: confusion, annoyance, even anger?

This was completely untravelled territory, and Cozy herself was a bit miffed that this was how she finally got under Flurry’s skin. “But… why?”

“Because I…” She found herself choking on her words. “Because I gotta get the hell out of this stupid town.” The words flooded out and Cozy quickly filled her mouth with coffee, although it burned and scalded her tongue.

Flurry deflated. “Oh. I see. What, uh…” She paused to fiddle with her cup. “What did I do wrong?”

“...Huh?! Who said this had anything to do with you?”

“Well I mean, I’ve done everything I can to try and make you happy here!” Flurry said. “And you’re just. Not, so I mean… What did I do wrong?”

Cozy’s mind sputtered to a halt. “You… I… What?!”

But the more she thought about the more it made sense. Flurry had covered for her, fought for others to forgive her, landed her some jobs to keep her up… And here Cozy was, ready to throw it all away simply because she didn’t know how to appreciate anything.

Great.

Flurry just stared at her, boring a hole straight through her chest. “So… Where are you gonna go?”

“I dunno. Out of here.” The response was lame, but truthfully Cozy didn’t have an answer. Her plan stopped exactly at “get the hell away” and failed to extend beyond that.

“O-Oh. Um. If you’re sure…”

The two broke eye contact. “I’m not!” Cozy blurted. “I’m… I’m not sure of anything, okay?!”

Flurry was startled by the outburst, but Cozy kept going.

“Look, all my life I… I’m just filled with so much hate. And… And I need to get it out.” Cozy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will herself to shut up. “I… I don’t know what I want anymore. I don’t want to be angry anymore.”

Something wrapped around her hoof. She opened her eyes to see that Flurry had reached across the table to grab it. She was blushing slightly, but smiled. “I… Cozy, if you want, maybe… maybe you can stay? I can… I can try to help you. But there’s a life for you here. I know there is.”

Cozy shuddered, squeezing Flurry’s hoof. “Are you… saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Uh, that I want to date you? You’re only just now realizing that?”

“I dunno! I thought you were just… Being freakishly nice!”

Flurry laughed, and Cozy had to admit the sound was pleasant. “Well, yes. I would like to date you… If you’d, uh, want of course.”

“Um. Wow. I…” She sucked in a deep breath, feeling something other than hate in her heart for once. “Y-Yeah. I’d like that.”

“YES! Does this mean I also get free coffee?”

Cozy laughed and it felt warm. “Shut up before I change my mind.”

“If you say so!”