//------------------------------// // Confrontation // Story: Innocent Until Proven Cozy // by Casketbase77 //------------------------------// “Oh hey, Sunset.” Sweetie Belle called when she saw the former closing in. “You... um… dressing casual today?” Scootaloo looked the approaching older girl up, then down, then up again. “Wow,” she commented bluntly. “You look and smell like gym class.” Sunset halted her advance several feet away, hands balled into fists at the realization of how badly the hour-long wait session in the car had worn on her. She felt her hair plastered to her forehead and tasted the dryness of her own mouth. She saw the indents on her forearms where she’d leaned on them for too long. Most of all, she yearned for her discarded jacket like a filly would an absent security blanket. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were still expecting her to say something, each wearing their own look of concern. Cozy Glow, still kneeling in the sandbox, stared up at Sunset with an unreadable expression on her still flushed face.  Dominant posture and disarming smile, Sunset reminded herself. You’re in control here. Drawing herself up and swiping some stray hair out of her sweaty face, Sunset picked the coolest tone of voice she had that still had some pep to it. “Hey girls, where’s Applebloom? You three are usually joined at the hip.” “Home,” Scootaloo said gesturing with her skateboard in the general direction of Sweet Apple Acres. “Something about early autumn being harvest season prep time. Were you jogging just now? If you were, you don’t look dressed for it.” “This,” Sweetie Belle interjected, trying politely as she could to keep the topic of conversation off Sunset’s disheveled state, “is Cozy Glow. We just met.” Sunset looked directly at Cozy for what was, as far as anyone other than Sunset knew, the first time. “Mm-hm.” She said evenly. “You look like you’ve been crying. You alright?” “Golly,” Cozy said in a bubbly, transatlantic accent that caught Sunset off guard. “I just got bit by a fire ant that was lurking in this here sand is all. Stings somethin’ awful, but here I’m seeing new friends coming from all directions to check if I’m alright.” The sandbox did indeed have a noticeable number of the red insects scurrying about. None near where Cozy was currently kneeling, but plenty around her half-buried magnifying glass in the opposite corner. Scootaloo was wrinkling her nose at the sight. “I’d step on every one of those things if I wasn’t wearing my good court shoes.” She declared.  “Oh, don’t say that,” Cozy begged. “Can’t blame a little creature for doing what comes naturally.” Sunset gave a sniff of dismissal. “If what comes naturally is hurting people, I think some blame is justified.” She stared daggers at Cozy Glow, trying to discern whether the strategically placed quip touched a nerve. Had Cozy actually flinched at that remark, or did Sunset’s tired brain just imagine it? An awkward silence was yawning between the four present, accented only by Scootaloo giving a throat-clearing grunt when she shifted the skateboard from under one arm to the other. Sweetie Belle came to the rescue again. “Scoots was going to do some skate tricks off the slides and swings while I filmed it. Gonna get a ton of hits. Hopefully.” “Online or on your head? Because I don’t see you wearing a helmet.” Sunset’s query was directed at Scootaloo, who rolled her eyes before responding.  “Headgear makes it hard for the camera to catch your face. If this video really does make it big, everyone who watches it needs to know it was me in it. C’mon, Sunset don’t be uncool.” “You watch your tone when you’re talking to me!” Sunset’s exclamation was probably more forceful than was needed, but this was her chance to scare the girls off the playground and therefore away from Cozy Glow. “What do you think Rainbow Dash would say if I called and told her you were endangering yourself like that?” Sunset raised her dead phone threateningly, making Scootaloo blink in surprise. Sweetie Belle was trying to say something to diffuse the sudden tension, and as much as it pained Sunset to cut her off, she had to. “And as for you. How would Rarity react when she learned her little sister was standing by as an enabler?”  Seeing Sweetie bite her lip and draw up her shoulders defensively was almost enough to make Sunset break character, so she brought her affected outrage down a notch. “I don’t want to see anypo- anybody get hurt or in trouble.” (That was at least truthful). “Sorry to step on your enthusiasm Scoots, but you’re not doing any unprotected stunts as long as I’m here.”  By Celestia, that was a weak and rushed declaration. Sunset had no idea what to do if the others challenged her. This empty show of bluster, poorly executed as it was, needed to work or she’d just made an ass of herself for no reason. Scootaloo was staring at the ground dejectedly and when she spoke again it was barely more than a mumble. “You’d really rat us out?”  “Yes,” Sunset insisted. “Though even if I didn’t, the video would on its own when you posted it. Either go get proper protection before coming back here, or don’t come back at all.” Scootaloo gave a sigh of defeat and looked to her friend for condolence. Sweetie Belle, who still hadn’t quite recovered from being barked at earlier, managed to put on a brave face. “Okay, Sunset. You’re probably in the right, as usual. Thanks for looking out for us.” Sunset simply nodded, a lump in her throat preventing her from saying anything else. “C’mon, Scootaloo, let’s go.” To say Sunset felt awful watching them leave was an understatement. She knew they’d skip retrieving Scootaloo’s pads and just find a different, equally horseplay-friendly spot for the tomboy to endanger herself, but that was out of her hands. Sunset couldn’t guard her peers against everything, only the dangers that she was prepared for. Dangers like Cozy Glow. “Pretty good performance, Miss.” Cozy’s cherubic accent had disappeared, and a hard edge beyond her years crispened her diction. “Sent them packing just as easily as I reeled them in.” She flashed a predatory grin and stepped onto the elevated frame that surrounded the sandbox so her eye level was equal to Sunset’s. “The dykey one was right though, you do smell like you just ran a mile. Or maybe you were doing a naughtier kind of workout. Got a guy in your car back there? An hour is an awfully long time to have been going at it in a public spot. You do know children come here to play, right?” “That’s enough, you smug... that’s enough.” Sunset shouldn’t have let the little turd seize initiative like that. Time to shift from defense to offense. “Your cutie patootie schtick wasn’t convincing, and neither is your smarmy lolita one. Unless, and I gag at the thought, what I’m seeing is the real you.” Cozy’s natural blush was replaced with a pale mortified grimace in an instant. “This is not the real me!” She squawked with sudden fury. “I’m cute and lovable!” Another nerve touched. Sunset decided later was when she would feel guilt over how effortlessly she could affect her old, manipulative self. Now was the time she’d press the advantage she’d gotten from Twilight’s letters, and press it hard. “You’re a snake in the grass, Cozy Glow. You memorized where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were going to be today and sauntered out here to meet them. Even brought a magnifying glass from daddy’s desk drawer so you could pass your wait time by burning ants like you’re some Saturday morning cartoon villain. Then when they finally show up, you get their attention with a boo-hoo gambit that’s more outdated than your fake accent. Have I got everything right so far?” “I… I… who the hell even are you?” Cozy Glow’s breathing had gotten loud, and her red eyes were darting around nervously. “And after you got your hooks in,” Sunset continued, taking an intimidating step closer. “After that…” Unfortunately, Sunset didn’t have an ending for the sentence. Her tirade had been a display of gunfire, and she’d fired off all her shots at once like a reckless amateur. Sure, Twilight’s letter had recounted what steps Equestrian Cozy took after endearing herself to the CMC, (solve a misunderstanding she herself engineered, accumulate authority and privilege at the school, obtain the keys to the sub basement, set up some sort of doomsday artifact array on the Tree of Harmony’s leylines to short circuit the entire planet), but none of that translated to anything that a Cozy Glow on Earth could do. Sunset had spent the last hour eyeing Cozy from afar, but now was the first time she really was looking at the angry but bewildered girl up close. The understanding that this Cozy was a human tween in a human world was forming a pit of ice in Sunset’s stomach. How could someone like that, living in the circumstances she was, possibly be a menace? Conniving and attention-hungry sure, but an honest-to-Faust menace? There wasn’t any magic in this world to drain, let alone artifacts with which to do it. Even Cozy’s ‘piercing red eyes’ that Sunset wanted so much to reflect some inner depravity were of course meaningless. Rainbow Dash, boisterous, outgoing, noogie-dispensing Rainbow Dash had reddish eyes. None of the Equestrian logic applied. None of it at all.  Sunset had nothing left. She’d wasted her entire misery-filled afternoon waiting around so she could bully a random kid. Stupid idea. That was the only phrase in Sunset’s head that had any weight anymore. Stupid, stupid idea. Cozy Glow, unaware of her antagonist’s private mental breakdown, was still regarding the stupefied Sunset with caution. Then, Cozy gave a slow sigh full of knowing resignation. There was only one explanation for a person she’d never seen before walking up and reciting all her sins. In a rehearsed and deliberate ritual for the benefit of no one but herself, Cozy shut her eyes tight and tensed her entire body. She knew her teeth had started grinding and that her right index finger was habitually winding that loose thread in the hem of her skirt around itself. Neither of those things mattered right now. What mattered was making the hallucination go away. “You’re not real.” Cozy’s voice sounded small and pitiful, even more than it had when she was affecting her ‘patootie’ persona. But the words she had been taught years ago by her first therapist, the ones she slowly repeated, were filled with conviction and strength. “You’re. Not. Real.” “Huh?” Sunset still felt like she’d been ideologically emptied, which meant Cozy’s bizarre accusation reverberated inside her like an echo in a canyon.  “You’re not real and you’re not here.” Sunset didn’t know how to react. If this was another attempt at a trick, it sure didn’t sound like one. Sunset was good at picking up deceitfulness in others, and there wasn’t an ounce of it here. Cozy believed what she was saying. “I’m seeing you because I only took a half dose this morning. I thought a half dose would give me courage, but all it did was make you appear. I saw you following me. Watching. Like the others used to, you show up and shout me down and tell me I should hurt people. I burned all those ants, didn’t I? I burned as many as I could before you even came up and told me to, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to make you go away.” “Cozy Glow, you’re shaking.” “You’re not here.” “That’s ridiculous. I was chatting with Sweetie Belle and Scootal-“ “You’re not here and you’re not talking and trying to confuse me.” “Hey, open your eyes and look at m-“ “NO!” Cozy’s shriek had been so sudden and ear splitting that for a moment all Sunset could hear was a high-pitched ringing noise. Cozy Glow clamped her hands over her ears and began babbling. “Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. Oh how I wish he’d go away.” “Cozy, calm the hell down!” “YESTERDAY UPON THE STAIR I MET A MAN WHO WASN’T THERE. HE WASN’T THERE AGAIN TODAY. OH HOW I WISH HE’D GO AWAY.” Getting desperate, Sunset grabbed each of Cozy’s arms and tried to pry them away from her ears. Cozy strained against her and fumbled over the demented nursery rhyme. But she didn’t stop chanting nor did she open her eyes. She kept going like the world would end if she stopped.  “YESTERDAY HE WASN’T THERE. HE WASN’T - MET - TODAY. HE WASN’T - WISH HE’D GO AWAY. OH HOW I WISH HE’D GO AWAY. OH HOW I WISH HE’D GO AWAY…” Leaning in to pry at Cozy’s arms had put Sunset so close that the shrill shouts were downright deafening. She let go and stepped back just to think straight. This wasn’t how the confrontation was supposed to go at all. Completely dumbfounded, she stood helpless as Cozy Glow’s voice wore itself out and the frenzied rhyming slowly deflated into an inaudible murmur. It took eons for Cozy to achieve some sort of calm, but eventually her posture relaxed and her arms dropped limply to her sides. After a few deep huffs and puffs to psych herself up, Cozy reopened her eyes. Sunset had not disappeared. Cozy Glow let loose a wail like a wounded animal and sank to her hands and knees. She wailed again, this time even louder. Then she curled up on her side and started crying. Not delicate sniffles like during her fire ant gambit, but bellowing, undignified sobs that no one could possibly fake. Snot bubbled out of her button nose and pooled in the mulch next to her blotchy, crimson face. With a feeble fist she pounded the ground, sending wood shavings bouncing up then back down where they settled until they were as unmoving and helpless as she was. With that, the fight was completely gone from her. Cozy lay ravaged by imagined demons, and there she remained until Sunset Shimmer bent down and laid a tentative hand on a shivering shoulder. Cozy Glow’s small, shaking fingers laced with Sunset’s and the realness of the older girl became the anchor keeping one sorry soul safe from stormwinds howling through an addled mind.