Crafty Cozy Glow

by Silvermyr

Afternoon lesson

"COZY!?"

Said filly nearly jumped out of her skin and very much jumped from the floor and flew a small bit over the floor, looking around this way and that. Surely she was not in trouble? She had been careful so far; nopony could suspect somepony so cute and lovable as her, right?

Starlight Glimmer galloped down the hallway and skidded to a halt just in front of where Cozy was flying, huffing and puffing. "Cozy… I need… to talk… just a moment… I need to catch my breath."

"Good golly, Headmare, you really shouldn't run like that," Cozy slowed her wings and landed in front of Starlight. "Can I get you some water? Apple juice maybe?"

Starlight took a deep breath and swallowed. "No, thank you. I just heard what happened in the laughter class. Was anycreature hurt? Were you?"

Cozy shook her head. "No headmare. Everyone is fine. Poor teacher got a little singed, but she didn't seem too bothered… but I dunno how she came out so unscathed. It actually looked a bit…" Cozy gestured broadly with her hoof "…annihilating?"

"I have talked to Derpy just now; she came by after class and offered to help me clean up," Starlight said. "She looked just fine then. Oh, and don't worry," she made a placating gesture. "I sent her home just now. I'd rather clean up myself. Feels safer that way."

"I can help!" Cozy quickly volunteered. "It could even be a good lesson, right?"

Starlight smiled at her. "Thank you, Cozy, but just attend your ordinary lessons. You are a student; I am not going to take away your opportunities to go to your classes by having you do chores for me. But it's really kind of you to offer. It really is."

Cozy smiled back. It was easy to smile now. Cozy had just scored a few extra points with her mark. Oh, it was just too easy at this point. "Okay… I guess I'm supposed to have a loyalty class with Spitfire anyway soon."

"Then I won't keep you any longer. I just wanted to know if everypony was alright," Starlight said and turned to leave.

"Well, you should probably talk a little with some other students though, just to show you hear their concerns," Cozy pointed out. "After all, I'm sure they may want to have the guidance counselor right about now!"

Starlight stopped mid step. "I… guess that makes sense," she nodded. "Thank you, Cozy. Just because I'm the acting headmare it doesn't mean I should stop being the guidance counselor."

"My thought exactly," Cozy chirped and stepped aside from the cafeteria door. "See you soon!"

Cozy started down the hallway Starlight had come from. Spitfire's class was in the school gymnasium, outside behind the school building, and as a responsible student she should make sure to be there early. Now to hope her "improved" lesson plan was going to perform as expected.

---

Some fifteen minutes later, the last stragglers filtered into the bleachers, quickly as Spitfire fixed them with a scorching stare. "Okay let's get down to business. Today you are going to run an obstacle course relay as a way to build loyalty between one another." She pointed with her wing towards the grass field behind her where a series of obstacles had been set up, including a high wooden wall, a series of rings made from clouds, and a wooden beam for balancing. Good, good… exactly like Cozy had envisioned it. Now she just had to hope that Spitfire stuck to the rest of "Twilight's" instructions.

"Also I'd like to point out that this so-called obstacle course is a joke that I can't even laugh at, and anyone who fails to get through it will be awarded an instant F on the course!"

Cozy was about to raise her hoof to protest, but somehow Spitfire directed her smoldering gaze square at her and Cozy thought better of it. Better not poke the dragon, and all that. And she, herself, should be able to make it through this… hopefully.

"I have the teams for the relay here," Spitfire said. "But before that, we'll start with a warmup. Get down here and give me five laps back and forth to that flagpole." She pointed towards a small flagpole quite a bit away. "NOW!"

Cozy, along with every student in class, jolted at their teacher's sudden outburst and scampered from the bleachers. This wasn't something Cozy had anticipated; she hadn't included a warmup in her lesson plan. She and the rest of the class moved down to the starting point and stood up on a line.

Really, looking at it from here… that flagpole was actually quite a bit away, and Cozy had never been the most athletic filly. Really, in the best of worlds, her slaves bootlickers friends should be doing all the heavy lifting for her.

With just one powerful wingbeat, Spitfire landed in front of the class. Somehow, despite wearing sunglasses, Cozy could feel her baleful stare.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR; A BETTER STOCK MARKET!?"

If Spitfire's gaze had been searing, her roar made Cozy feel like somepony had set her tail on fire. She, and every other creature in class, startled and ran towards the flagpole. "AND YOU HAD ALL BETTER GIVE ME TEN LAPS!"

Yona and Gallus quickly took the lead, followed by some of the earth ponies. Cozy though found herself almost being stepped on. In the beginning, anyway, as most creatures left her behind soon after.

This wasn't fair! She couldn't run that fast! She was small, and she was not even supposed to do this warmup! Why didn't Spitfire just start the actual lesson, call the teams, and let Cozy's plan work its wonders? Was that so hard!?

Was it really so hard?!

"IS IT!? IS IT REALLY SO HARD TO JUST FOLLOW SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, YOU OVERGROWN TURKEY ROAST!?"

Several creatures around her startled yet again, slowed down and turned to look at her until the entire class stood frozen in dumb-funded silence.

Only then did Cozy realize that she had, in fact, shouted that bit out loud. She quickly rearranged her face from a murderous sneer into the cute, innocent mask she normally wore. "Come on, everypony! Just a hop, skip and a jump to the flagpole!" She smiled.

Silverstream carefully came up to Cozy. From the expression, she seemed to worry Cozy might try to bite her "Are… you alright? That… scream, sounded a little different from how you normally talk, you know?"

"Good golly, I'm just peachy!" Cozy lied. "But thanks for asking! It's nice that you care about me. And I definitely didn't shout. It must have been an optical illusion you heard."

"I guess that's a logical explanation," Silverstream nodded.

"Charming, really."

Cozy felt a shiver run down her spine at the drill-sergeant's voice coming from right behind her.

"Indeed. Interesting and educational. But I've still got one question."

A deathly silence fell over equestria. Not even the birds in the sky or the wind in the trees dared to make a sound.

"My question is… who let you take a break?"

There were some situations where there really was no right answer.

This situation was one such situation. There was no action she could take that didn't include at the very least the possibility of crushing psychological scars, or very physical bruises.

But Cozy was a filly at heart, so she did what any filly would do when faced with a threat: she turned and bolted as fast as she possibly could. That way she could hopefully put as many bodies as possible between herself and Spitfire. As with any chess game, you can't be afraid to sacrifice some pawns to save your skin.

---

It was a tired class that stumbled over the finish line after having been hounded from the air by Spitfire's progressively more acrid encouragement and/or verbal abuse. In the end, even the most fit creatures like Gallus or Yona could take this level of sadism. Nor could Cozy for that matter. She had languished in the back of the class as they ran, only keeping up due to a primal fear of what would happen if she fell too far behind.

For this being a warmup, she actually felt quite ready to give the scheming a rest for today and just curl up in her bed.

"Okay slackers, that was pathetic," Spitfire addressed them, looking just as tired and defeated as Cozy felt. "Truly pitiful. I mean utterly worthless. Nothing short of depressing. Still, it's nothing that a good workout won't take care of." She nodded to the obstacle course. "You will be in three teams of six and you will compete against another team to get through the obstacle course as quickly as you can."

Spitfire picked out a list and held it with one win. "Team one is Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Silverstream, Yona and Ocellus. Team two is…"

Perfect, all six non-ponies in one team, just like Cozy had written in her lesson plan. That was really all she cared about. That, and maybe some water for her dry throat.

"If two teams compete on the obstacle course at the same time, that leaves one team out," Smolder pointed out. ”What are they doing in the meantime? Resting?"

Spitfire grinned. Somehow Cozy came to think of a wolf when she saw her. "That's the best part. Princess Twilight didn't write anything in the lesson plan about what the rest of you should do in the meantime."

Cozy felt her heart drop like a stone. "So that means that while twelve of you slack on the obstacle course, the rest of you will be doing some real training with me. We'll start with pushups, then another lap to the flagpole and back, then lunges, then jump ups, then another lap. Repeat until you want to die, because that's how you become the best. THROUGH PAIN!"

"And… what about the obstacle course?" Somepony asked, their voice resounding with hopelessness.

"There are six obstacles. Three for the whole team, then one that is supposed to be done alone by one creature on each team: The team exercises are scaling the wall…" Spitfire gestured towards a tall wall of wood.

Good. With Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus and Smoulder all being able to fly, and Ocellus able to shape-shift too, that should be an easy win.

"…Move that wooden crate between those two markers…"

Yona and Sandbar were both strong enough to do that on their own. Between the two of them they should have enough of an advantage to win that too.

"…and finally one of you will wear a blindfold while the other two have to guide them past another set of walls."

No special advantage for those six on that, but that shouldn't be needed at that point. Besides, it shouldn't be obvious that those six losers were being favored, since that's nothing Twilight would do. This way they would be favored, but it would look like it was just an oversight on Twilight's lesson. No one would suspect Cozy had actually written it herself!

Still gasping for air and nursing her tired hooves, Cozy was able to devote about one tenth of her mind to acknowledge that her plans seemed to at least be good to go still.

Why did her lungs feel like empty balloons? No matter how she huffed and wheezed she didn't seem to get any air down.

"As for the individual tasks, each team will have to choose who will be doing each task. The first task is flying through the rings…"

Well, with no less than four flyers, that should be simple.

"…Throw a ball up in the air and keep it from touching the ground for at least two minutes…"

Shouldn't be too difficult either. Smolder for sure was dexterous with sideways movements, and her claws let her control the ball much better than a pony could.

"…And finally the team needs to do a total of a hundred situps, jump ups, lunges, or push ups together."

Again, nothing that those numbskulls should have an advantage in, but with no less than four events where they should have some sort of advantage, they were still slated to win easily.

Just like Cozy wanted. They were the enemy, at once weak and strong. Weak, inferior and worse than ponies in every way, but still somehow strong enough to be a threat and to be able to win unfairly.

She managed a threadbare grin. Now everypony would see them win and nopony else stood a chance. A little bit of rumor mongering later, and those six would make for the perfect opposite to everything Cozy stood for. She was small, cute and familiar; every bit a pony, whereas they were big, ugly and odd, every bit un-pony.

"Now LET'S GET A MOVE ON!" Spitfire roared.

Already feeling like she had been struck by lightning, Cozy managed to stand. Oh she was going to get back at Spitfire for this one day…

One day soon…