I'll just stay at the school...
It wasn’t the first time I’d wished for a Unicorn horn, and I was pretty certain it wouldn’t be the last.
There are a lot of things magic could help me with, if I had it. I could make my bed without having to bite down on my sheets. I could write letters without having to bite down on my quill pen. I could help clean up the school (one of my many jobs as Headmare Twilight’s assistant) without having to bite down on other ponies’ trash to throw it away. Bleugh.
Really, I was just tired of biting down on stuff all the time. I heard once that the reason Unicorns don’t get sick as often as Pegasi and Earth ponies is because they have magic to help them fight off illnesses. Yeah, right. I think it’s just because Unicorns don’t need to put everything in their mouths in order to do everyday tasks.
Unfortunately, Pegasi do.
At the moment, I was trying to open an envelope I’d just gotten from my pen pal in Tartarus, Tirek. It was not going well so far. Have you ever gotten a paper cut on your tongue? I don’t recommend it. This definitely would’ve been easier if I had magic.
I bit down on the envelope again and tried to open it. I could tell I was making some progress (not much, but some) when suddenly my bedroom door swung open and my roommate, a yellow Unicorn named Citrine Spark, walked in.
I hadn’t realized when I’d first enrolled at the School of Friendship that we would end up having roommates. I should’ve thought it through, but I hadn’t. I’d protested passionately when Headmare Twilight had given me my room assignment.
“Please, Headmare Twilight, don’t make anypony sleep in the same room as me,” I’d said, willing tears to form in my crimson red eyes. “I snore horribly. I’d keep my roommate up the whole night.” That wasn’t really the reason, of course. I just wanted some privacy to hatch my schemes. But of course I couldn’t tell that to Twilight.
Twilight had simply chuckled and patted my curls (which I hate; I’m a pony, not a pet). “Oh, Cozy, what kind of Friendship School would we be if we didn’t have you share a room with somepony? Having a roommate is such a special opportunity to make a friend. By the end of the year, you’ll be glad we assigned you to a room with Citrine Spark.”
Mm-hm. I’ll bet the real reason is that your tiny school is just too dang small to give everypony their own rooms. But of course you say it’s because you want to encourage ponies to form friendships with each other. Ugh. Gag me.
As far as roommates go, though, Citrine wasn’t too bad. At least she left my stuff alone. So as long as I was careful to leave my letters from Tirek and my diagrams of how to drain Equestria’s magic in my saddlebag and not on my bed, she wouldn’t see them. Thank goodness for small favors.
“Hiya, Cozy,” Citrine chirped, flashing me the big smile we’d practiced in Professor Pinkie Pie’s laughter class.
I took a deep breath and plastered my “cute filly” smile on my face. The one I used when I was trying to get something I wanted. (I hadn’t learned that one from Professor Pinkie Pie’s laughter class. I’d taught it to myself when I was still a foal.)
“Well, golly, hi there, Citrine,” I said, holding up the envelope I’d gotten. I was careful not to show her the side of the envelope with the incriminating return address on it. “Could you please help me out with something? I just got a letter from home, but I’m afraid I can’t open it.” I stuck out my lower lip and looked sadly at my roommate. I considered crying a little, too, but decided that might be overkill. “Could you help me open it? Pretty please?”
“Sure thing, Cozy,” Citrine said. She took the envelope from me and expertly used a nearby letter opener to rip it open. Using her magic, of course. What a loser. “There you go.”
“Thanks so much!” I cried as she used her magic to give the letter back to me. I then shifted into a position such that I would be able to read the letter without her seeing it herself.
In this letter, Tirek told me that if I was going to attempt to drain magic from Equestria, I probably needed some sort of vortex that I could suck all the magic into. And if I needed that, I needed a place where I could make one.
Sure. That sounded great. How about I just whip one up in my dorm room? Oh, right. I shared my dorm room. Sighing, I shoved my letter into my saddlebag, silently promising it that I would come back to it later. But for now, I had class with Professor Pinkie Pie, and I didn’t want to be late for that. (She made us cupcakes for class sometimes.)
I didn’t give Tirek’s letter much thought over the next couple of weeks. Hearth’s Warming break was coming up shortly, and I was spending a lot of time preparing for my midterm. Even though I wasn’t planning on staying at the School of Friendship for too long after I accomplished my mission of draining Equestria’s magic, I still wanted to do well on my tests while I was here. After all, it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go if I flunked out of the Friendship School. After I drained the magic from Equestria, though, and became the most powerful being known to ponykind, I was sure somepony would build me a castle or something. I hoped the walls would be painted purple. That’s my favorite color.
Fortunately, I had my friends Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo to help me study for my midterm. I ended up passing it with flying colors.
“Look, guys!” I cried the day we got our tests back. “I passed my midterm!” I pulled my test paper out of my saddlebag and showed off my crisp red A. I was proud of that A. Even though friendship school was a lot of syrupy nonsense most of the time, I had to admit that I’d seen (or, rather, heard about, mostly in history class) a lot of the amazing things our professors had been able to do with friendship. It was a magic that you didn’t even need to be a Unicorn in order to utilize. It sounded like friendship could be awfully powerful. And like maybe understanding friendship could make a pony awfully powerful, too.
“That’s amazing, Cozy Glow!” Sweetie Belle said, glancing at my A. I wasn’t sure how much she meant it. Friendship seemed to come pretty naturally to Sweetie Belle. I doubted she was as proud of me for getting my A as I was for getting it.
“I am so glad midterms are over,” Scootaloo said, shaking her head. “Now it’s just one more day until Hearth’s Warming break.”
“Are you looking forward to Hearth’s Warming break, Cozy?” Apple Bloom asked me.
“Why, golly, yes I am,” I replied. (I wasn’t, especially, but I was looking forward to two whole weeks with no classes.) “I can’t wait to see what it’s like to celebrate Hearth’s Warming at Twilight’s school.”
The three Cutie Mark Crusaders exchanged a weird look.
“Aren’t you going home for Hearth’s Warming, Cozy?” Scootaloo asked.
“That’s what most of the colts and fillies at your school will be doing,” Apple Bloom added.
I felt my face heat up and tried to use enthusiasm to make up for the mistake I’d just made. “Golly, I didn’t know we got to go home during the break! I just thought we were staying at the school the whole time. That’s amazing! I can’t wait to go home and see my parents again!”
With that, my friends looked more at ease.
The truth, though? I didn’t have a home to go back to during the break. I’d never been to a boarding school before; I’d just assumed break meant no classes for two weeks. I hadn’t known it would mean I would have to go home to a home I didn’t have.
And as for seeing my parents? Forget it. I hadn’t seen them since before I was old enough to remember them. I didn’t know if they were dead or they just got bored of me or what. And quite frankly, I didn’t care.
It was fine, though. I’d always managed to provide for myself just fine before. And I would do the same this time. I would simply stay at the school during my break. Twilight didn’t even have to know. I was already cooking up a plot in my head for how I could stay there the whole break without Twilight guessing once that I was there.
See? I told myself. You have yourself, and that’s enough. You’re going to be fine.
All of the students at the School of Friendship were gathered together, getting ready to leave for Hearth’s Warming break. Some students were exchanging gifts.
Nopony had a gift for me. I guess it was okay. I didn’t have a gift for anypony either.
The room was completely wild. Sandbar was singing, for crying out loud. I hated the chaos. It makes me feel anxious when I can’t control what’s going on around me. That’s just one of the reasons that I like to be the one in charge. But fortunately, I knew it wasn’t too long before everycreature left the school and I was in control for a whole two weeks.
After some sort of speech about “putting aside differences to come together,” Headmare Twilight dismissed all of us to go home, and everycreature excitedly raced out the door, talking a mile a minute. I fluttered out the door with everyone else, but instead of going home, I headed for the school library.
I entered the room through the window. Twilight trusted me (as her assistant) with the responsibility of locking up all the windows in the evening. All I’d had to do was very cleverly leave this one unlocked. (Thanks, I thought that was pretty brilliant myself.)
I was sure I could make do in the library for two weeks. I needed to find a hiding spot, of course, so I could hide when Headmare Twilight inevitably came around to check the rest of the school before finally closing up for the break, but I knew I had some time to find one. I’d bought myself some by talking to Gallus earlier today. I’d noticed him looking bummed out while all his friends talked about how excited they were to go home for the holidays, so I’d asked him what was wrong. Two cute filly faces later, he was telling me everything. So I’d offered a solution for how to help him. I’d even offered to lend him a can of goo powder that I had lying around but didn’t really have any use for.
If he’d taken my advice, then I definitely had Twilight out of my mane long enough for me to find a hiding spot.
Now that I was inside, I closed the window, locked it, and looked around the dark, slightly eerie library for a spot to hide. I frowned. It was the same library I’d entered a million times before in order to look up magic and how to drain it, but somehow, it was creepier now that it was dark. Or maybe it was just that it was creepier now that it was empty. Either way, it sent a shiver down my spine.
I suddenly felt an aching in my heart for a more familiar place to spend my break. Sure, I’d be able to make do at the library, but it definitely wasn’t my first choice. A real home, or at least my dorm room, would have been better.
My tiny wings all of a sudden felt like lead. I slowly lowered myself to the ground and began to cry. Just a little.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it would be nice to have a home to spend Hearth’s Warming at. Or really, some ponies to spend Hearth’s Warming with. They didn’t have to be my family. I wasn’t picky. I would spend the holiday with Citrine Spark if that was what it took to keep me from spending it alone.
My chest ached from the sheer emptiness of knowing I would never have a home and a family to go home to on Hearth’s Warming. I’m supposed to have those things. I’m a kid. Every filly deserves the security of having a place—of having ponies—that they belong to. Right?
Ugh. While all my classmates were probably getting ready to throw Hearth’s Warming parties, here I was, throwing myself a pity party. Get it together, Cozy Glow, I told myself. You aren’t just any ordinary filly anyhow. Maybe other fillies need a home and a family and other mushy sentimental stuff, but not the filly who’s going to rule Equestria someday. You’re stronger than those other ponies. You don’t need to go running to your parents when you’re upset.
You have yourself, and that’s enough.
With a renewed sense of determination, I stood up taller and began searching around for a spot to hide.
I have a gift for noticing small details. While looking for a simple hiding spot, I found a small metal rectangle in the library floor. Kind of like a heating vent, but with much more intricate designs. From under the vent I could see a pale glow. Like my name. Only, I wouldn’t have called it a cozy glow, per se. It was almost hostile.
Curiously, I lifted up the metal rectangle with my hoof.
Underneath was a room, though my view of it was obscured by a random arrangement of long, crystally objects that looked almost like tree roots or branches or something. Hesitantly, I touched one with my hoof. It didn’t kill me, so I fluttered down into the room.
It was completely empty.
I pulled my last letter from Tirek out of my saddlebag. You’ll need a place to create the magic vortex you’ll be sucking all the magic into. Well, this place looked perfect. And as far as I knew, I was the first one to discover it. Headmare Twilight certainly hadn’t mentioned it to me during the library tour she’d given me after I first transferred here. (And that library tour had been very thorough. Headmare Twilight really likes books.)
That would have meant that I was the only creature who knew about this place.
I felt my mouth twist into a self-satisfied grin in spite of myself. This plan was going to work. If I got enough information, I would be able to build a vortex here. A vortex to drain as much magic as I could from Equestria.
And hey, the room worked as a hiding spot, too.
Author's Note
"Staying in Line" seemed to be received pretty well, so I decided to write a sequel! I hope y'all like it. As always, constructive criticism is welcome, but please be kind. 
For anyone who was curious, Citrine Spark is not one of my OCs; she's an actual student at the School of Friendship. I don't think she's ever called by name in the show, but the wiki calls her Citrine Spark, so that was what I went with.
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