After me and Chrysalis had our last dance, we stopped for a moment and looked around. Cadance and Shining Armor were dancing together, were. They both stopped once the changelings stopped playing their music. Some changelings were dancing together, Ocellus was dancing with another changeling around her age. Blaze was laying on top of Murk, and Thorax and Pharynx, and several other changelings were totally, and discreetly, watching me and Chrysalis.

The girls were dancing too, Fluttershy and Dash were dancing together, Pinkie was waltzing with Apple Jack, and Twilight was dancing with Starlight for fun. Rarity was staring agape at us.

“That,” I whispered to Chrysalis. “Was wonderful.”

“It was,” Chrysalis reverted herself to her usual height. “However, what will make this magnificent, however…” She grabbed my cheeks before planting a kiss on my lips. My brain shuttered and broke for a moment, before it kicked back on and told my face to kiss back. We slowly pulled apart after a good minute. “Now, however, it is truly a wondrous moment.” She laid down on her stomach and I followed suit, snuggling up into her side. “It is good to see you enjoying moments like this; I was scared that you were emotionally too far gone.”

“Mmm,” I smiled. “I’ve got you to look forward to, and I’ve got Blaze, Murk, and their future pups to look forward to every morning. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have my own kids to look forward to; I could actually be there for them.”

Chrysalis tilted her head. “What are you implying?”

“Well, if we get married, we’re going to have to have kids, aren’t we?” I asked.

“...You want us to get married?” She asked.

“I’m hoping we do; I’m starting to be surrounded by people I can call family, and I hope we can make it official when we reach the Crystal Empire. By then we both should know if that’s what we truly want.”

“Hmm,” Chrysalis nodded. “By the time we reach the Crystal Empire…” She hummed. “I believe that’s a fair timeframe; we’ll be there possibly by the end of the year, or Hearth’s Warming for ponies.”

“Oh my days…” Rarity said, interrupting our moment. She said it rather loudly. “You two…” She started walking up to us. “Bald Ostrich, do forgive me, but I don’t think I’ve seen you so… at peace, ever. Not when you were with Luna, not when you were sitting in the river like a mustang, no, at that moment you looked so…”

“Happy?” Pinkie asked. “I keep telling everypony, just let Ostri spend some time with those who love him, and who he loves, and he’ll be better before we’ll know it!”

“But…” Rarity took a deep breath. “Okay, even I cannot be this blind…” She lifted the newspaper, where Luna almost punched me in the face because I was meeting her with indifference. “Nopony should try to attack somepony they claim to love.” She stared down at it for a moment. “You’re the same stallion that literally fought armies for her, and she treats you like this because you stopped loving her?”

“She dumped me because she felt I wasn’t needed anymore.” I shrugged. “Meh, don’t matter now,” I grabbed Chrysalis, gently got her to lay on the ground, before flopping into her side, and resting my head on her neck. Oh, she is very, very weirdly soft for a creature with an exoskeleton. “I got my Chrysalis, and I love her dearly.” I nuzzled into her neck and she planted a kiss on my cheek… before I grabbed her cheeks and kissed her on the nose. “I’ve moved on, or at least, I’m trying to. And with everything I’ve got going for me, things are actually starting to look good again.”

Rarity nodded. “While I do not agree with you not dating a princess…”

“Pfft,” Chrysalis and Cadance said at the same time. “How can a princess compare to a queen?” They both blinked. “What the buck, get out of my head, you stupid mare-”

“You two share a braincell now,” I said. Then me and Shining Armor shared a look.

“We’re fucked,” he mouthed to me.

“I know…” I mouthed back.

“Are you two talking without speaking?” Cadance asked.

…

“Please don’t get mad at us. You share a brain,” I said in my defense.

Rarity giggled. “Oh my, that line sounds so cheesy, no offense, Chrysalis-”

“Ostri used that on me on our first date. I stole it from him.” She giggled. “It worked in capturing my hearts.” She sighed. “This is lovely. If we were not on a roadtrip to get as far from Equestria as we could, I would not mind staying in the Hive again, even if I wouldn't be in a position of power.” Chryssy closed her eyes and started grooming my mane, between the ears, behind the ears, my neck. Whatever she could get her fangs and tongue on, got groomed. We laid like that for a few hours.

A few hours later, I was sitting alone, just outside the Hive. Not far enough to be in immediate danger, but far enough to actually be alone. It was another one of those days, where being alone seemed lovely right now. Shining Armor explained the feeling to the girls, so they let me be. At least, that’s what I thought. Rarity came trotting out of the Hive to see me cleaning out my back hooves with my knife. I was a horse, a small one, that’s yellow. So I was really in no danger of hurting myself, no matter how close that sharp object was to my equipment; I know how to use a knife better than that.

“Sup,” I greeted as I moved to my front hooves. That was done in half a second. Now all the dirt, mud, whatever the fuck was on my hooves were gone. “Can I help you, Rarity?” I asked.

“I… stopped by to apologize for how… rude I’ve been to you since we found you again, Ostri. It’s… my judgment was clouded by the idea of fantastical relationships that could flower from you dating a princess. You seem… rather sincere in how you deal with things. And… while you may not show it, you do care about Luna in some capacity; you seem adamant about not striking back at her in any way, shape, or form… That’s better than what she’s been doing to you, from what Cadance has told me.”

“Eh,” I shrugged. “Luna and Celestia may never find a way to actually occupy my brain, but…” I shrugged. “I still wish them well; they were once friends of mine. I don’t stab old friends in the back regardless of how much they’ve stabbed me in the chest with a loaded shotgun. That’s just not how I’m gonna roll. Since trying to fight back again those two is like trying to fight a bear, as a human, with my bare hands. It usually doesn’t end well, and I will probably die. ‘Sides, I’ve got reasons to live for now, so why dwell on the past?”

I slowly drifted to my butt tattoo… The clock thing, I guess. “Oh.” Where’d that go? My cutie mark is just fucking gone. What the hell? Aren’t those more permanent than an actual tattoo? “What the heck?”

“Your… cutie mark is gone,” Rarity noted. “How…”

“Yoho!” Discord popped out of nowhere. Oh fuck, I missed this dude. We shared a brohoof/claw/whatever the fuck. He then pulled me onto his lap and started rubbing my ears, and I won’t lie, this felt good so I let it happen. “Hello, my dear friend Ostri, one of the few ponies alive that truly appreciates a chaotic magic show! So as you have noticed, your cutie mark up and banished! And I may, or may not have had a claw in that.”

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Well, I suppose you can have another one. It just won’t be the same as this one; your old cutie mark never really meant anything or did anything for you. It just showed how good you were at readjusting, no matter the time, space, or universe you’re in, you found a way to keep trucking. That’s how I interpreted it, at least. On this grand adventure, you will find out who you are, and maybe become something more? Hmm?” I tilted my head. “What, is this a lot to take in?”

“No, you stopped petting me, and I like the feeling.”

“Oh, you’re just like Fluttershy! You both sure do love being pampered!” Discord chuckled. “Are you going to take my advice seriously?”

“Mmm, I lived once before without finding out who I was, or what I was good at. I don’t particularly give two damns if I find something I truly can be, what I’ll be, or can be. Right now, I am in contempt. Right now, I’m not worried about anything, or the future. I’m just happy to live in the present, day by day, enjoying life. Obviously, I have a few things to look forward to, but besides those… Why look to the past, or to the future, to find happiness? I can find it right here, right now, in the present.”

“...Dang, you just ruined the point of me taking your cutie mark! Most ponies would be distraught about that, but I suppose you really aren’t like most ponies. Well, I suppose you’ll find yourself eventually, or not. You probably already did; I hated cutie marks anyways. Such a narrow minded way of defining who or what you are, with a symbol that hardly means anything that can be interpreted in any way, shape or form and be taken the wrong way.” Discord shrugged and set me down. “Now, come along, Rarity, our boy needs to sit and relax on his own.” He snapped his fingers and I was sitting on a cushion, wondering what the fuck just happened. He grabbed Rarity like she was a stuffed toy, and teleported off, presumably, into the Hive.

I put my knife away and started watching the sun as it settled in the distance.

“Good evening,” I blinked out of my stupor a few hours later to find… Murk sitting next to me. “Blaze is asleep right now, before you ask. It’s getting dark and it’ll get dangerous, come inside, Ostri.” I hummed, before allowing the Kumiho to grab me by the scruff of my neck, and promptly got carried into the Hive. “You really are just a giant puppy, you know that, Ostri?” He set me down right by the main entrance, where our wagons were. It’s where Blaze was sleeping. “So I believe this will help you go to sleep?” He started grooming me after he wrapped his tails around my whole body. It did, in fact, help me go to sleep.

I woke up the next day to a bunch of changelings buzzing to and fro, in and out of the Hive as they went about their daily business. Scouting squads waved to me as they stepped out. Murk and Blaze just woke up, as we were sharing a dream once again, thanks to the kumiho. Pharynx came rushing by, into the Hive, looking somewhat concerned. I stepped out of the Hive shortly afterwards to see… A filly walking towards us. A pink little filly with a curly mane and tail that were both light blue in color and tied into place with little bows. She was kinda adorable, and also sweating profusely and looked dehydrated.

Why the buck is a kid this young out here? It’s not as hot as it once was, according to Chrysalis when the badlands were a desert. It was still hot as balls out here, though. I was, understandably, concerned… if the changelings noticed this kid out in the… savannah for a lack of a better term, why weren’t they helping her? I flew into the Hive, quickly grabbed my canteen, filled it with the water container in my wagon, and flew right back out of the Hive as quickly as I could. I even sent off a sonic rainboom when I did that. I skidded to a stop just next to the filly as she was about to collapse.

I caught the poor girl in my arms. “You good?” I asked, holding the canteen to her mouth. “You’re kinda… sweating and look awful.”

The filly didn’t even respond, she grabbed the canteen and started emptying it. While she was doing that, I carried her into the Hive and brought her into the hive, gently. I walked back towards where my wagon was, hopped up into my wagon, changelings were watching me as I refilled the canteen and gave it back to the filly who kept drinking until she couldn’t drink anymore. The filly had freckles, red eyes. She had a cutie mark, which was apparently not very common for a kid at this age, but I could be wrong. It was a red rook.

The poor kid started panting after she had her last canteen full of water. “Oh, thank you!” She said in between her catching her breath. “I don’t know how long I was going to last out there if you hadn’t done that!” She took a deep, long breath, before pushing the canteen aside. “Golly, you sure did save my flanks, sir.” She nuzzled into my arms. “Thank you!” She hugged my neck as well.

“Kid, what kinda man would I be if I left you out in that heat, when you clearly needed some help?” I asked.

“I…” The kid tilted her head. “You aren’t helping me just to help me?”

“I’m wondering who the fuck your parents are; why the hell would they let their daughter out into… this place? You coulda gotten eaten by something!” I shouted, bringing a hoof into the mattress that made up the majority of the floor in the wagon. The kid ‘eeped’ at my voice suddenly rising. “Sorry kid, what’s your name? You look like you could use some help.”

“I’m… Cozy Glow,” she whispered. “You won’t make me go back out into the badlands on my own, will you?” She asked.

“I won’t-”

“Hey, What’s going on here?” Starlight Glimmer popped her head into the wagon. “Where did you get that filly?” She asked.

“Saw her wandering through the Badlands towards the Hive. I picked her up, gave her water,” I gestured towards a can of apples I just opened. “I’m giving her food, too.” I patted Cozy Glow on the head and held the can of apples down to her. “If you need anything else to eat, just let me know; I’ll get you somethin’, though I can’t promise that it’ll be something other than canned stuff.” I patted her back and let her rest against my side while she ate to her little heart’s content. I couldn’t help but smile a little. “So, where’s your parents, kid?”

“...I ran away from home; I lived in Canterlot and my parents were hoping for a unicorn filly. They didn’t get that so they neglected me and-”

“And say no more! You’re staying with me, for the time being, or until we find you a proper home, aight?” I asked. I’ll be frank, kid’s alone, kid deserves a home. Or at least food and water. I can give her that until… Well, I won't leave her in Equestria; that sounds like it would be awful.

Thorax popped his head into the wagon as well, his eyes widened. “So that’s what Pharynx was talking to me about? He said there was a filly out and about in the Badlands and that she needed provisions stat. I see you got that covered already-

“...Wait a second, Cozy Glow? What are you doing here so far from the School of Friendship?” Starlight asked. It seems she knows this kid.

“I saw you and everypony leaving Ponyville, so I started following you guys. I got lost somewhere and-”

“Well,” I patted her on the head. “You’re fucking nuts,” I chuckled. “I couldn’t imagine following two wagons for… how long? About a hundred and a half miles and being fine.” Cozy Glow flopped into my side and my wing instantly laid itself over the pink little filly. Cozy blinked a few times, before smiling and genuinely laying there… Until Blaze moved us both out of the wagon, and into the open of the Hive’s ‘lobby’ room. “Hey Blaze, how’s it going?” Blaze started intently watching Cozy with a focus I’ve never seen on my kitsune before.

“Ostri, when did you say you were going to randomly get a filly?” She asked.

“Uh, never. Cozy just sorta… showed up, somehow. Apparently she followed us all the way from Ponyville.” I answered.

“Well, she is my filly now,” Blaze said as she moved to yoink Cozy out of my grasps, only for the poor kid to yelp and duck behind me.

“Ostri, what is that thing?” Cozy asked… I never told her my name. Nopony’s said my name until now too. That’s odd.

“It’s a kitsune, she’s my best friend; she also loves playing with kids. Just be mindful of her tails, and we’ll be good, aight?’

“Golly, you sure do have tastes in pets. What if she eats you while you sleep?” Cozy asked.

“That’d basically be suicide; we’re soulbound and are together. If one of us dies, so does the other. Basically Blaze wouldn’t hurt me, and she won’t hurt me. Like she’d want to do that to begin with,” I chuckled. “Still not buying that Blaze won’t hurt you?” I asked. The kid nodded. “What this, then,” I stood up, walked up to Blaze. “Open your mouth please,” I requested.

“Ostri, you are not sticking your head in my mouth!” Blaze giggled. “I know you won’t push me over, because you’re being careful about the pups I’m carrying… Here, I shall aid in my cause of seeming like not a threat to you.”

I got sat on by Blaze.

Author's Note

So, seeing as this story takes place basically right after the events of the MLP movie, which happened way before Cozy turned out to be evil in School Raze, I decided to put her in here. She'll be the Cozy we all know and love, who will steal your heart, and then probably carve it out of your chest with a broken beer bottle.

also sorry about how long it took to get this out; I was facing a severe writing block when it came to this story. however, i did at least get this out. next chapter everypony else will meet Cozy and get something spicy between Blaze and Cozy.