//------------------------------// // Flight to Cloudsdale // Story: Cozy // by ferret //------------------------------// Starlight Glimmer sat in her office, confronted by her new hire: A red-headed Dr. Paradise who, by the spread of her wings and her ears flat back, was pretty hopping mad. The pegasus burst in the door, and started saying the most absolutely unbelievable things. “Cozy Glow is a perfectly normal filly who simply made a mistake, which she sincerely regrets,” Paradise seethed, “She’s more well adjusted than most of the ponies I’ve ever seen, and a good deal more well adjusted than you and your cronies! What exactly do you think you’re doing, imprisoning innocent foals and claiming they are dangerous criminals?” “Well—” Starlight said, as Paradise angrily shouted, “Do you really clip her wings??” She fell silent then, as though noticing she had only let Starlight get one word in, edgewise. “Not... as such,” Starlight Glimmer said tactfully, closing the folder she was looking at, and filing it in the cabinet behind her as she spoke eye to eye with the mare. “We had to clip her wings once, as a condition of allowing her to leave Tartarus.” “That filly did not come from Tartarus!” Paradise responded with an angry hoof even scraping the floor. Starlight had to defuse this quick, or she might lose her! “What made you think Cozy Glow doesn’t need to be kept here?” Starlight asked her, folding her forelegs, as she considered making cocoa to try to calm things down more. The kettle was right across the room, but... “It doesn’t take a trained mental health professional to tell that she’s just an ordinary little filly who you’ve convinced everypony she is a danger to society!” Paradise protested, “And you habitually drug your patients into submission?” “No!” Starlight protested, discretely getting out a few mugs that she spooned some dark cocoa powder into. “Well, except for Intern. But we only sedate ponies when it’s absolutely necessary, for their own safety!” “That’s not what it sounded like,” Paradise grumbled, while Starlight poured the steaming hot water out behind her into the two mugs. “Does a pink haired, cream coated stallion with only one wing sound familiar to you?” “Crackpot?” Starlight remarked bemusedly. “How many days has he spent sedated?” Paradise seethed, “Do you even let him out of his cell? He and his friend—” “Those two are both wildly psychotic,” Starlight said frankly, “For very different reasons, but the outcome is the same. They’ll seem like they’re sort of lucid, and then go do something that could get them killed. Do you know how many times I have had to teach Crackpot that soap is not a kind of candy? And don’t even get me started on Screwball!” “That’s no excuse to keep them sedated all the time,” Paradise said with an accusing green-eyed glare. “It sounds like you’re not capable of taking care of them.” “All the time?” Starlight asked, honestly confused, “We don’t sedate those two enough! Once it was to keep them from attempting to climb the building, and once it was... something involving tapioca pudding. I think those two have gotten sedated maybe three times each, at most!” “That’s not what Cozy Glow was saying!” Paradise retorted. Starlight’s face fell in horror. A moment of shocked silence, and Paradise unsurely continued, “So you can’t just expect not to be held accountable for what amounts to a prison for innocent ponies.” “How many uh—times have you spoken with Cozy Glow?” Starlight asked with a rising feeling of dread. “Just the intake interview, but it was enough to learn some very disturbing things about your asylum,” Paradise said in sulky disapprovement. “Just the intake?!” Starlight blurted out in astonishment. The awkward silence this time was broken by the tinkling of a metal spoon stirring within a mug of hot liquid across the room. “Are...” Paradise looked back over her shoulder, “Are you making cocoa?” “I uh... thought we could take a moment and relax,” Starlight said nervously, “And talk about what’s really going on. I think you’re... kind of going to need some cocoa after this.” With Paradise watching in speechless indignity, Starlight quickly dropped a few big marshmallows into the cocoa, then floated the two mugs over, one to the table beside the angry therapy pony, and one over to Starlight’s side of the desk. “I knew this was going to happen,” Starlight groused wearily. “I don’t know if it’s part of the healing process or not, but I guess Cozy Glow has started lying again.” “What do you mean again?” Paradise asked, seeking Starlight’s eyes for an answer, “The filly wasn’t lying to me. She made some very coherent arguments for a foal her age. I can see the truth for myself, so you can’t hide behind—” “Do you remember that disaster we had last year?” Starlight asked, “All throughout Equestria, magic failing?” “Remember it?” Paradise said furiously, “My friend almost died because of it! If I hadn’t caught her when her bubble popped, it would have been a disaster!” “Well, Cozy Glow caused it,” Starlight said evenly, “She deliberately tried to destroy all the magic in Equestria, and she almost succeeded.” “She can’t have caused that,” Paradise said with a disbelieving laugh, “Every unicorn lost their magic! If she was that powerful, how would you even keep her locked up?” “Cozy Glow discretely gathered a set of six artifacts, each an important step in a ritual that basically sucked Equestria’s magic down the drain,” Starlight explained, “Anypony of any age could have done it, but Cozy was the only one who figured out how, and the only one who did. And while she did it, we all thought she was the sweetest, most helpful, most well adjusted little filly in Equestria.” “How do you know she was the pony who did that?” Paradise asked cautiously. Starlight paused. Was this really a good idea? She knew that she wasn’t the right pony to help Cozy though, and Paradise had seemed so... thoughtful! Starlight was confident Paradise could come around. She just needed to understand some things about the filly, which may have been deemed state secrets. “Okay, I want to remind you that you swore not to reveal any state secrets,” Starlight Glimmer said testily, “The details of Cozy’s... actions could make her situation here even more precarious. It’s already been leaked that she was the one who almost destroyed the magic. I do not want what I’m going to tell you to get to the press. Cozy... is a... severely troubled pony, and I don’t think most of Equestria would understand that her actions are... confused and misdirected, but not evil. ” “I’m well aware of that sort of confidentiality,” Paradise said frankly, “But she is not as disturbed as you say, because if she was, she wouldn’t be able to fool a trained professional. She’s just a filly! Even adult ponies like that are out of control, and nonfunctional, and often times it’s hard to get a coherent sentence out of them. Nopony just... hides their nature like that.” Starlight sighed, remarking, “Sometimes I think everypony who does just never gets caught at it.” “What do you mean?” Paradise asked uneasily. “It happened when I was the temporary headmare at the time, at Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship,” Starlight said, gazing off at the memory, “I almost thought Twilight would give the role to Cozy Glow, because Cozy was the princess’s assistant at the time, and worked really hard to keep the whole school running smoothly. It was... amazing in hindsight, though the filly was so modest you barely even noticed how much she was doing to help. There was hardly a pony or creature in the school who didn’t have her to thank for something. Cozy was everypony’s friend, always there to listen, and very compassionate.” “This isn’t exactly painting the portrait of a dastardly villain,” Paradise said critically. “Well,” Starlight said thoughtfully, trying to figure out how to put this, “When the magic started failing, Cozy Glow convinced Twilight and her friends to check on Tirek, sabatoging the magical key she gave them, to trap them inside Tartarus. And none of us knew they were in trouble.” “Oh, that’s um...” Paradise said a little less sympathetically. She probably was having a hard time even imagining what it would be like trapped in Tartarus. “As soon as Twilight was trapped,” Starlight continued, “Cozy Glow came to the temporary headmare—me—saying something terrible was happening in the basement. I knew the school didn’t have a basement, so that was pretty alarming in of itself. She let me to a crystal cave that had somehow formed beneath our very hooves, where at the center I saw those six artifacts, all activated, gathering Equestria’s magic into a giant glowing ball. I could tell right away it was a very dangerous situation, and I approached it cautiously, to try and disable it without touching it.” Waving a hoof in vague description, Starlight uneasily concluded, “Then, Cozy Glow pushed me into it.” At Paradise’s horror, Starlight declared, “It dragged me into the magical vortex, thankfully not killing me, but easily overwhelming my own magic, and I couldn’t get out! I didn’t believe she did it, so I called for her help, and you know what she did?” “What?” Paradise asked, clutching her mug of cocoa in her forelegs. “She apologized,” Starlight said with a bleak smile, “She said she was sorry it had to come to this, but that I had done this to myself, because in becoming headmare I had gotten in the way of her plans. She said that I almost ruined everything but in the end I was just another stupid pony, who would believe just about anything she said.” Starlight sipped at her cocoa, continuing, “She came back, over the course of the day. Cozy had been lying to us for months. I’d never seen her so angry before, or angry at all in fact. She could be honest with me now though, since I was good as dead, and I guess she needed somepony to talk to. She told me ponies didn’t understand that friendship is nothing but power, and by being friends with the most ponies, she was going to be the most powerful of them all. Then she put on a cardboard crown she’d fashioned and started calling herself the Empress of Friendship.” Paradise almost even accidentally the whole thing. “Her face was... a mask of evil,” Starlight intoned, “The most terrifying, hateful, barely controlled monster that I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Tirek. She was all smiles and giggles before, but now she was just... beside herself with rage. Then... well... some exchange students ritually sacrificed themselves, Harmony itself got involved, and Cozy Glow was defeated. My horn had eh... cracked by then, so I was in bad shape, but I remember seeing her, and it was so strange how Cozy was just a filly again. Just an angry little filly trying to get out of trouble, until the guards caught her, and locked her in a cage. Then they took her straight to Tartarus.” “That... she can’t be... what?” Paradise declared faintly, having forgotten about her cocoa entirely at this point, “You’re lying!” “I swear it’s true, and everything I’ve told you, I witnessed myself. Cozy Glow is the most deviously manipulative pony I have ever met,” Starlight said in an excited fervor, “I’d say she was a genius, if she wasn’t so... broken inside. She’s helped patients here more than I have, just because she’s thinking that if she fixes them, then they can be her own personal army, to bust out of here.” “What are you saying?” Paradise asked worriedly, “That she was lying about the drugging and mistreatment?” “I’m saying that everything she told you was a lie,” Starlight said, “Cozy’s capable of it, and I’m sorry to say she’s doing it again. She made her lies seem like the truth, by using truths she knew would manipulate you. She... told you about her clipped wings, right?” “Y-yes, and—” Paradise started, but Starlight went on saying, “She did that because you’re a pegasus, and she knew it would throw you off balance. That’s how she’s been treating orderlies, more and more lately. She’s trying to... get better, and the only way she knows how is to pretend to be better, to fool us into thinking she’s reformed.” “But why?” Paradise asked, “Why would she... tell me all those lies? Why would a... a psychiatric patient manipulate her new therapist to go to the director? Is she just compulsively lying?” “Well, I can only speculate, but...” Starlight said thoughtfully, “That was the intake interview, wasn’t it?” “Y-yes,” Paradise admitted, “I wasn’t going to just wait around, after hearing what she said.” “What did Cozy tell you about herself?” Starlight queried, pleasantly, “Where she came from, what’s troubling her, what she values, you know... the things you ask about in an intake interview?” “W-well,” Paradise said, sipping at her cocoa, “She said she was genuinely sorry for what she did, and that it was a mistake she sincerely regretted.” Burying her muzzle in her forehooves, Starlight mumbled, “I think teaching her that was a mistake. But go on.” “And that you clipped her wings—” Paradise started, but Starlight interrupted, “Not about me. About her. How did she feel about having her wings clipped? How long has she been grounded? Did she tell you her pinions have molted, and she’s actually flying again, more and more each day?” “But... how do you keep her in the asylum then?” Paradise asked in confusion. “By making it abundantly clear that she’s safe here and nowhere else,” Starlight said flatly, “She knows she’ll always have a good meal, and a warm bed here, and that if she runs away it’s right back to Tartarus for her. She stays here because she knows I... I’m fond of her, and she thinks she can use that to bend me to her will, and fool Equestria into trusting her again. And you spent the entire intake interview not talking about her, so I’m not entirely sure she’s wrong.” “How am I supposed to psychoanalyze a pony like that?!” Paradise demanded. “Very carefully,” Starlight said, ruminating over the latest turn of events in that filly’s terrible foalhood... “I’m not sure what I should do about colts,” Cozy Glow told her skull, as in the moonlit security room, Starlight listened over the monitor, “I think they might be making me feel funny. I feel so strange thinking about that place between their legs. Is it my fillyhood, trying to get me to become a mommy? I’d never put a colt’s thingy in there, but... am I gonna start wanting to? “I wonder if I could get a colt on a leash,” Cozy purred to the skull she was stroking, “Then I wouldn’t have to worry about him doing anything I didn’t want. It would be so easy to know what colts are like under their tails. I could touch him anywhere I wanted...” Starlight Glimmer couldn’t understand what was happening to Cozy. Why were her night time conversations with her mother getting so racy? With all the piles of fallen leaves outside, it was about as far away from the season as it could be, so why was the filly... talking about this stuff so much? Cozy Glow was the perfect picture of innocence during the day, never even alluding to feeling funny, and the worst part about it is Starlight couldn’t talk to her about it at all. Starlight had to keep totally silent on it to anypony at all, or Cozy might find out and feel betrayed. Even if Starlight could have talked to her directly... every time Cozy Glow caught Starlight’s eyes in her soft pink innocence, the lavender unicorn couldn’t get out of her head what that filly was considering doing. It wasn’t just the insecurity of an apprentice level filly, struggling to get herself to even learn about how ponies make babies. It was Cozy’s strangely comprehensive knowledge about certain things. Not knowledge, but... asking the right questions. The ones that made Starlight second guess herself, and wondering where the filly learned about stuff like that. The calm with which Cozy spoke about her belly—no, her womb growing larger because of what she did with a boy, it was uncanny. And Starlight couldn’t stop listening! When did Cozy’s conversations stop being about her past, and what was troubling her, and start being about... what Cozy’s body was capable of containing? It made Starlight blush every time, and... she was getting to where she wanted to do more than blush. Thinking about that brilliantly devious filly losing herself in her instincts, Starlight felt so... dirty about it. It was a natural stage in a filly’s growth to think about those things, but Starlight wasn’t supposed to be listening to it. It wasn’t what she wanted to listen to, at least not at first. Then Starlight Glimmer would see the filly fluttering around in the exercise yard, sparing Starlight a warmly affectionate glance that was just more of the filly’s facade cropping up. Cozy wasn’t even close to what you’d call a young mare, and Starlight Glimmer... remembered her friendship with Sunburst as a foal. She remembered what that friendship had made her think of, and what it had led to in dark hours of the night. And Cozy Glow was... feeling that way? What was Starlight supposed to do about that, that wouldn’t lead to another filly crying herself to sleep because she thinks no colt will ever love her again? Cozy Glow was having so much fun screwing with Starlight Glimmer. She couldn’t believe Starlight hadn’t realized that Cozy figured out she was spying on her! Cozy Glow didn’t want to admit it, but that unicorn mare was probably the smartest pony Cozy had ever met, so Cozy felt a real sense of accomplishment when she managed to get one over on Starlight. There was just... something so fun about messing with her. Cozy Glow could never figure out just what was going on in Starlight’s head, unlike just about every other pony in Equestria, and that made it exciting, and thrilling to try. It made Cozy’s heart race just thinking about toying with Starlight, so invulnerable yet so vulnerable somehow. When Starlight got embarassed and flustered, it was just so adorable, so Cozy loved teasing Starlight with the very adult urges and desires the older mare had to feel. Cozy was just glad she wasn’t old enough to have any of those feelings yet. Cozy Glow’s brilliant idea of screwing with Starlight like that came from a very unexpected source of inspiration. Trotting down the hall, her limbs awash with the excitement of moving freely, Cozy found her worries weren’t all that bad when there was play time to be had out in the courtyard. All this being cooped up inside had definitely taught Cozy the value of going out and cutting loose. She was hardly thinking about what could be turned to her benefit, when Cozy Glow entered the fenced in exercise yard, and right away spotted that green filly, sulking off in the shade of an otherwise sunny day. Pointing at the green filly with the volumuous black mane, Cozy Glow asked Nurse Coldheart excitedly, “Can I go play with her?” as the nurse accompanied Cozy out into the courtyard, “I haven’t seen her out to exercise at the same time as me before, but I met her in our group therapy. So we’re practically friends already!” Looking like she was anticipating severely regretting this decision, the yellow and blue nurse pony eyed Cozy warily and said, “Yeah, okay. Just play... “...nice.” the nurse trailed off at the end of her sentence, saying it to the diminishing rear of Cozy Glow, who was already galloping over to the filly. “Good morning, Fuck You!” Cozy said brightly, slowing to a cheery canter as the raven haired filly looked up to notice her approaching, “What are you getting up to?” “Oh shit, it’s Crazy Glue,” the filly said with a roll of her also green eyes. “What do you think I’m up to? Being a—” The filly stopped to think. Then she shouted angrily at Cozy Glow, “My name is not Fuck You!” “Oh, well then,” Cozy said, fidgeting slyly on her hooves, “What is your name?” The filly kind of fishmouthed at her, as if trying to come up with a retort to that, at last glancing down and saying, “It’s... why do you care?” “Well, I need to know what to call you,” Cozy said, spelling it out for the dumber filly, “That’s a strange name though, miss Why Do You Care.” “Ugh,” the filly groaned tossing her head back in disgust. “Just call me Green...” she looked down at her fur, as if trying to come up with a name on the spot, which obviously she was, “...Arrow.” “Green Arrow?” Cozy asked thoughtfully. “Yeah, Green Arrow,” the filly said more confidently, straightening up and meeting Cozy’s eyes. “I don’t know,” Cozy said uncertainly, “I think Fuck You is a way better name.” “Fuck you,” the filly said, turning away in disgust. Cozy had to hold back a giggle at that. Maybe this filly wasn’t so dumb after all. “So, how old are you?” Cozy asked hopefully, “Eleven? Twelve?” Not turning her gaze back to Cozy Glow, Green Arrow said, “I’m thirty-nine.” Cozy blanked at that. That was not what she expected at all. Was that a bad attempt at a joke? “No you’re not,” Cozy said teasingly, refusing to play along for now, “You’re just a filly!” “I was 39,” Green Arrow stated grumpily, looking at Cozy Glow without a hint of amusement in her expression, “Not anymore though, thanks to Purple Smart.” “Purple Smart?” Cozy asked in honest confusion. Was that a pony’s name? “You know, midget princess,” the filly chirped irritably, “Lives in a fucking stupid crystal castle, drags people out of their world with her OP magic, then pretends like it’s not her fault?” “Princess Twilight?” Cozy Glow asked, “When did she... drag people... out of their world?” growing considerably uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. “I dunno, a month ago?” Green Arrow said a little self consciously, “I fucking saw her in the fucking window, and I don’t know what happened. Just coming out of it in fucking Ponyville, a fucking little girl without any fucking hands, and everyone’s like “Oh, do you need any help, little filly?” Then when I made it to her stupid castle, it was pinned up all over her walls in that room she was in, shit like in-between places and the realms and the nameless void and all that drag you out of your world bullsh—” “The Realm of Darkness?” Cozy asked her urgently, “Did it say anything about the Realm of Darkness?” “I don’t know!” Green Arrow retorted, taking a step back uncertainly, “I didn’t stop to read it! I just started yelling at her to send me back, and you know what she did? She sent me to fucking foal services! They put me in a foster home like some stupid kid! What’s so important about the Realm of Darkness, anyway?” “It—she couldn’t possibly—i-it’s just this... thing I heard about in a story once,” Cozy said in desperate calm, “A-and it was really scary. I just... didn’t know, you know, if Twilight was gonna try to s-summon it or anything, heh heh...” blushing, she added, “Sorry I just get scared so easily, those stories can really fluster me sometimes!” “Uh huh,” the filly said unsympathetically, “So why are you talking to me about it?” “You were the one who was talking about it with me!” Cozy protested irritably, “With your dragging from another world, and Twilight and realms and bull... bullshit. And... are you really thirty-nine?” “Yeah? Last I checked,” the filly said giving Cozy a wary look, “I don’t know why I’m a fucking little girl pony now, but I don’t fucking give a fucking...” Green Arrow’s ears went down at that as she turned away, and it didn’t take a genius to see that she did fucking give a fucking something about it. Cozy really couldn’t care less, but she was uninclined to talk about realms and darkness not one bit more, so she asked, “Are you married? Do you have any foals back in your world?” Blushing, Green Arrow looked back at Cozy, asking in surprise, “W-why the hell would you want to know that?” “Oh golly, it’s just if you really are thirty-nine whole years old,” Cozy postulated innocently, “Then maybe you have foals. So maybe you know how to make a foal!” The other filly giggled in amusement at that, then frowned a moment at her cheerful sound and glared at her own snout. “Yeah I know how,” she said proudly to Cozy Glow, the other filly standing up to strike a pose, “And it feels fucking awesome. But do you wanna know what it’s like to do it as an adult human male, or do you wanna know what it’s like to do it as a filly?” Cozy blushed heavily at that, saying, “Fillies can’t because they haven’t done estrus yet.” “Well y’ know, you don’t need estrus to do it,” Green Arrow said wryly, giving Cozy a sultry look.. “Y-yes you do,” Cozy said a little less than confidently. She hadn’t exactly researched it or anything, but it was obvious, right? “O really?” Green Arrow asked, smugly, “You know how I got here? The foals at that school were real curious about where babies come from...” One explanation later and Cozy Glow was beside herself with mirthful amazement, asking, “And that’s why they put you here?” “That’s what I figure!” Green Arrow crowed in amusement “But yeah, they were all oh you can’t possibly be an adult human male. You were just buttraped as a super duper young filly so you have a distorted whatever whatever. So clearly I need therapy, and they’re totally not holding me here to keep me away from the other foals at all.” “Well they’re not keeping you away from me,” Cozy pointed out. She really hoped that would continue. This filly was amazing. “You’re like an evil child though, so maybe they think we deserve each other,” Green Arrow said wryly. “Hey, I didn’t do anything like you did,” Cozy griped in amusement, “Did you really do it in front of the entire class?” “Yeah, I had charts and graphs and everything!” she said with a devilish giggle, “So now I know pretty much everything about pony fucking reproduction.” “And all because you...” Cozy trailed off in confusion, unsure of how to complete that sentence. The other filly tilted her head, as Cozy rubbed her chin, saying, “Wait a minute. Why did you do that? What were you trying to get out of it?” “Ehunno,” the filly said with a shrug, “Seems kind of stupid now. Sure was funny at the time though.” “Well,” Cozy said a little self-consciously, “What I did was bad, but... it wasn’t stupid. I just made a few... mistakes, that ended up ruining everything and getting me caught for... um... “...draining all the magic out of Equestria.” “All the magic?” Green Arrow asked skeptically, “Is there anything about this place that isn’t magic?” “It was supposed to be just unicorn magic,” Cozy said disagreeably, “And the magic of magical artifacts, but they keep acting like it was all the magic ever or something.” “Why did you do it?” the filly asked. Cozy blanched at that, hesitating, but looking at the hornless earth pony, she admitted, “Because... unicorn magic is... dangerous, and they shouldn’t have it. And if it worked, I could... y-y’know it’s not really important. It didn’t work, so I’m here. And... I was in Tartarus for a while before that.” “They sent you to Pony Hell?!” Green Arrow asked in disbelief. “It wasn’t that bad!” Cozy protested, “It was... okay fine, yes it was that bad. But Starlight got me out of there, so now I’m here. You know Starlight, right?” “You mean Glimglam, leader of the crazy house,” Green Arrow suggested, “She pulled you out of fucking Tartarus?” “She... went through a lot of trouble, actually,” Cozy said, thinking on it belately, “And I don’t really know why. She thinks I can be reformed.” “Can you?” Green Arrow asked. “Oh, of course!” Cozy said with a magnanimous smile, “Pretty soon I’ll be saving Equestria just like Starlight, and they’ll give me a medal and everything!” “...not buying it,” Green Arrow said flatly, unconsciously scraping at the ground. “Fair enough,” Cozy said, impressed, “So I guess if you showed your whole class, then we might not be the only foals who know how to do that adult stuff about making babies, then.” “Do you wanna do that adult stuff?” Green Arrow asked with a sly smile. “N-no, I just was thinking—” Cozy said unsurely. “C’mon, it’d be fun,” the forest green filly said, stalking towards Cozy there on the exercise field, “Haven’t you ever wanted to try it? Ever wondered what’s so great about it?” “Ye— no, I...” Cozy said taking a step back. “You don’t even have to worry about babies,” Green Arrow murmured silkily, close enough to touch Cozy nose to nose, “If it’s just between us... fillies.” Cozy Glow’s speechless full-on blush continued facing the green furred filly because she couldn’t think of any way out of this. Did she even want to get out of it? She never got to see what the lesbian mares did. She could guess though... Smirking, Green Arrow turned away, saying in a loudly amused tone, “I’m just fucking with you,” and strutted right past Cozy Glow. “H-h-hey!” Cozy found her words, protesting, turning to trot after the filly, “What’s that supposed to mean?!” “It means I’m just fucking with you!” Green Arrow said with a nervous flick of her tail, “Not like ... I don’t even know why you brought it up.” “I only brought it up, because we both have so much in common,” Cozy Glow said furiously, “I was just trying to play with you!” “What?” the filly asked, looking back, her anger dropping to confusion. “I was wondering if you wanted to go play something, like sky kick. Or something,” Cozy said uncertainly, “And... you said you were thirty-nine, so...” So she changed the subject, to avoid talking about her past, but Cozy couldn’t say that out loud, “So I just asked you about it, s-so you would play with me.” “What’s sky kick?” Green Arrow asked, looking at Cozy’s folded wings, “You know I’m a filthy mud pony, right?” A laugh burst out of Cozy despite herself. “You’re a what?” she asked in amused disbelief. “And you’re a pegasus with your OP wings,” Green Arrow continued resentfully, heedlessly, “So what am I supposed to do?” “Oh!” Cozy realized, “No it’s an earth/pegasus game I learned. I have to throw the ball down to you, and you have to kick the ball back up before it hits the ground, so I can catch it again.” A pause, and she added, “Apple Bloom said one bounce was okay.” Her ears twitching slightly downwards, Green Arrow sat on her haunches and looked away waving a foreleg and saying dismissively, “I’m not a little kid. I don’t play stupid games like that anymore.” Looking at Cozy resentfully, she emphasized, “I’m a grown fucking man!” Cozy Glow wasn’t so sure of that. Turning aside, the tears started welling up in her eyes as Cozy declared sorrowfully, “Oh golly, it’s okay I understand if you don’t want to play with me. I was just so lonely from having no other foals to ever play with,” and she was going to finish with, “But I suppose that doesn’t matter to you,” when Green Arrow interrupted, struggling to her hooves, looking at her in alarm saying, “Shit, are you crying? I didn’t mean... look I’ll play with you. I just won’t like it. I’m not a real kid, after all!” Wiping away her tears, Cozy said glumly, “O-okay, I don’t mind if you just... put up with me... for now.” “I didn’t mean—” the filly started as Cozy gayly trotted off to go find a ball, because she smiled to herself at a strong suspicion about Green Arrow, and it turns out she was right. With Cozy Glow zipping to and fro in the air to catch the ball and throw it back, and Green Arrow scampering around to kick the ball upward before it bounced, the other filly was sweating, and smiling and giggling excitedly, entirely forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to be having fun. Thirty-nine years indeed, Cozy thought as she didn’t even try not to laugh at the joy of being able to just fly around and play. Cozy Glow was gonna have to teach that other filly how to lie more convincingly. Paradise stood atop the asylum, staring pensively to the horizon, feeling the wind blowing in her crimson mane. They had put her working with four ponies, and of the four she had to say Screwloose was probably the easiest to deal with. It just took a sturdy leash, a chewbone, and the willingness to accept a fellow pony was for all intents and purposes, a dog. Paradise wasn’t concerned with that bitch’s antics though, but instead for the patient she was most worried about: a little pink filly named Cozy Glow. Somepony was seriously messing with Paradise, when it came to the case of Cozy, and Paradise wasn’t sure it was Cozy herself. The asylum director had some... odd notions about Cozy, never seeming to say everything that she was thinking about the filly. Every time Paradise left Starlight’s office, she felt like there were a thousand questions she felt like she had wanted to ask, but never got the chance to. Where did Cozy Glow come from? Why were her parents not available? Why must so few ponies know about Cozy’s crimes? What was her history, and how did she come to become the great Enemy of State that she was today? Had she received any previous therapy? Had she ever made an attempt on her own life? Paradise at least got a “probably not” out of that one, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to ask Cozy that question directly. Was it the filly who could muddy the waters so effectively? Because there was also an older, more experienced mare Paradise was dealing with, a mare who once was also a villain, then supposedly got better without any counseling at all. Paradise closed her eyes, feeling her crimson red mane gently blowing in the high breeze. All she could think to do was ask Cozy Glow the more... innocent questions, that Cozy seemed to be infuriatingly good at refusing to answer... “Gee whiz Dr. Paradise, how do you expect me to answer that, when you haven’t told me anything about your parents?” Cozy had said from where she lounged on the beanbag, blinking innocently up at Paradise. “I’m not here to talk about my parents,” Paradise said testily, rubbing a hoof into her forehead, “I’m here to talk about you.” “Well I’m not here to talk about my parents either,” Cozy insisted, nodding her head practically, “So I guess we’re just here for no reason at all.” Paradise started to concede, “If you’re not ready to talk about them, that’s okay but—” “Okay then I’m not ready,” Cozy interrupted, before Paradise could even finish her sentence. “Did they hurt you in some way that makes them hard to talk about?” Paradise asked desperately. “Golly, I don’t think so,” Cozy said in a concerned voice, rolling her eyes up in thought, “Hmm... no.” She grinned cheekily at Paradise, saying, “I just don’t want to.” “Why not?” Paradise asked in frustration. “I don’t want to talk about that either,” Cozy said, nosing idly at a wing, as if she was bored of being here. What was Paradise doing wrong?? “What do you want to talk about?” Paradise tried, with a hopeful grimace. “Were your parents both pegasi?” Cozy asked, peering at Paradise curiously, “I’m just curious because your colors are kind of unusual for a pegasus.” “I don’t want to talk about my—!” “You have to play along with her,” Starlight had told Paradise urgently, “When she says something, you say something trickier. She’s the kind of pony you have to outmaneuver before she’ll respect you.” “I don’t want her to respect me,” Paradise said in aggravation, “I want her to trust me!” Starlight’s silence was telling, and her answer even more so. “I don’t know if I can help you, Paradise,” Starlight said regretfully, “Cozy Glow has never trusted me at all. I can tell you some things about her, but I can’t tell you how to get her on your side. I’m not sure she can think of anypony else as anything but her enemy.” Opening her eyes, Paradise lightly leapt off the top of the four story building. Her soft white feathers slipped comfortably through the air currents as she flew. Starlight was right about one thing. This was Paradise’s specialty, and there might have been nopony else more qualified to help the filly. Paradise was a darn good therapist and she knew it, but applying it to a filly who just wouldn’t let you ask anything of her, ready to twist your words as soon as you said anything to her, Paradise wasn’t sure if it was even possible. Coasting down, Paradise’s hooves gave a satisfying thump, regaining her weight just as she touched down. She smoothly segued into a trot as her sleek frame settled solidly to the ground, heading into the asylum again. It was time for Cozy Glow’s morning session, and Paradise hoped that it might somehow go right, but she really didn’t feel like she was smart enough to play the little filly’s game. One infuriating round of questions later, and Paradise had about had it. “I’m not trying to talk about oatmeal,” Paradise said, flat-eared and not even caring that she was. “Then why do you keep bringing it up, Dr. Paradise?” Cozy Glow asked so sweetly. Testily, Paradise retorted, “I swear, I am just trying to ask you about—” Paradise gave a snort of frustration, pacing angrily around her desk to confront the filly who didn’t look nearly alarmed enough at the older pony’s approach. “I am done,” Paradise said furiously to Cozy Glow. “Oh, no! Are you getting frustrated?” the filly asked in barely concealed amusement, fluttering her eyelashes at Paradise, though a strange fear glimmered in the back of her eyes. “Yes,” Paradise said, “Yes and I’m not going to deny it. You are trying to control me, to keep me from helping you, and I don’t like it one bit. Don’t think that I don’t realize it, just because I’m not smart enough to fool you too. I don’t care what we do, and I don’t care what we talk about, but I’m not going to respond to your needling.” “Can we leave the asylum?” Cozy asked innocently. “Yes!” Paradise declared, turning her back to the filly to face the door. Looking back she said, “You can fly now, can’t you? Let’s go somewhere. Anywhere. You pick.” Well that left Cozy momentarily speechless. Paradise tried not to delight in that, as Cozy recovered her wits, saying, “I uh... I mean gee whiz Dr. Paradise, is it safe to ask me? What if I tell you to go somewhere dangerous?” “Then we will, and it’ll be your fault,” Paradise said snippily, “Come on let’s go. Let’s just go.” “Well, okay, but...” the filly said, starting to step off the bean bag and pausing in conflicted thought, “Where are we going?” “Anywhere that doesn’t involve me having to sneak past guards,” Paradise replied earnestly, “You want to go to Canterlot? Cloudsdale? Come on, you want to go somewhere, don’t you? Or would you rather just go back to your room—” “No!” Cozy retorted in an nervous sort of fashion, “Can we go to uh–uhm... Hollow Shades?” “Where’s that?” Paradise asked, blinking in surprise. “I... I don’t know,” Cozy replied anxiously, “All I know it it’s a place. We could just ask somepony... who might...” “What’s wrong?” Paradise asked the distraught filly, as Cozy Glow retorted in bitter frustration, “I can’t ask anypony anything because everypony in Equestria hates me now! I didn’t think you were going to let me—we could try the library—but that’s Twilight Sparkle’s castle! Ohh... I-I’m...” Then she looked at Paradise in a desperate fear, but her voice was sweet and calm as Cozy Glow said, “Golly Miss Paradise, you know, if I don’t miss my guess, you’re just saying this just to make me all flustered and upset. Aren’t you?” “I’m not going to try to do that to you anymore, or ever,” Paradise said, a little too uneasy at the filly’s state to be irritated, “If it’s making you upset to decide, then I’ll just... take you somewhere, okay? You’ve been here too long. I think you might be... getting too used to being imprisoned. Lots of ponies here can leave to visit friends and family, but you can’t because...” “Because I’m a criminal,” Cozy said, with a teary eyed pout and... now that Paradise paid attention, it was obvious that Cozy Glow wasn’t even trying to seem genuinely sorry. “Bad ponies have to stay in prison. It’s the law,” the foal said, ‘sincerely.’ “I know it’s... technically the law,” Paradise admitted warily, “But I won’t tell if you won’t tell. Let’s just... let’s go to Cloudsdale. I just moved from there, so I could show you around my old neighborhood a bit.” “You’re... willing to break the law, just to try and get me to trust you?” Cozy asked less insincerely, giving her therapist a very sideways glance. “No,” Paradise said in frustration, “Yes. I just don’t want to keep running in circles with you like this. If I’m trying to get you to trust me, then I’ll tell you. And yes, I’m trying to get you to trust me. I won’t pretend like I’m not. I can’t fool you, so I’m not going to.” “That’s exactly what somepony would say who is trying to fool me,” Cozy cut back unimpressed, “You’re not special just because you wanna be one of the cool fillies the rest of us look up to. You’re just pretending, and I’m not going to fall for it, either. So sorry about that, Dr. Paradise.” Paradise couldn’t stop from blushing hotly at that, but she couldn’t play that filly’s game, no matter how much she wanted to. Instead, Paradise replied tensely, “Starlight’s been having private meetings with me about how to counsel you.” Cozy’s ears noticeably perked at the confession, so Paradise continued, “And I shouldn’t tell you that, but I am. I’m supposed to be figuring out what’s bothering you without asking you about it, and that’s just not working for you. So let’s just forget about your treatment for now, and go to Cloudsdale. There’s a cute little odds and ends shop down the street from my old apartment. You’d love it!” Cozy just blinked at her blankly. “Or,” Paradise said unsurely, “I could take you to your room, and we could forget about this whole idea—” “No! No,” Cozy blurted out, wings snapping open. After a frozen moment, she composed herself with a humorless giggle, smiling shyly and saying, “That sounds like it’d be ever so fun, Dr. Paradise. Let’s go to Cloudsdale!” Paradise tried not to shudder externally and led the filly out of the building. Cozy Glow tired quickly of flying across Equestria, because she probably hadn’t ever flown this much in her entire whole life! Her recent wing clipping hadn’t done her fitness any favors, so she thoughtlessly griped, “How much further is it? My wings hurt!” “Not much further,” her red-headed escort said, scanning the skies as she glided alongside the filly, “We’ve already taken two rest stops, so just hold tight.” They had entered a bank of clouds not long past, the ground fading in and out of a fluffy opaque whiteness as they flew up and over, down and around, cruising past the wispy streams of mist on this mostly cloudy day. They both had on thick scarves, but Cozy was kind of wishing for a sweater at this point. It was just really chilly this time of year. Cozy remembered the last one, and wondered when all the ponies were going to come and dump all that powdery white stuff all over the place. “Can we maybe land? On the ground?” Cozy asked crabbily, “And walk the rest of the way?” Paradise laughed out loud at that, saying, “Oh Cozy, you didn’t tell me you were a jokester.” “Starlight’s the ‘joke’ster,” Cozy said, air quoting the word “joke” with her forelegs, “I’m being serious. Where is this city anyway?” “We should be able to see it right past this cumulus,” Paradise replied as they approached the lumpy mountain of clouds accumulating in the sky. She didn’t descend though, so Cozy asked, “Are we going to fly through it?” “No, we’re going to fly over it!” Paradise said, looking up at the tippy top of the darn thing. “My wings hurt!” Cozy protested, “I don’t wanna fly up there. What if I get a wing cramp?” “We can rest at the top, alright?” Paradise asked, with very little consideration that Cozy felt she was due. “Why aren’t we flying under it?” Cozy whined, “I thought we were close to the city!” “We... we are close to it?” Paradise said, looking back to the filly in confusion. Shaking her head to clear it, the older mare said, “Just come on. Let’s get to the top of this, and then we can get our bearings.” Paradise beat her large, powerful, adult wings then, rising up the clifflike side of the cloud face. Cozy hovered a moment, looking upward, before groaning, and fluttering her tiny wings mightily to start rising up slowly and full of frustration. Paradise didn’t even care if Cozy died probably. She would just let Cozy Glow get a wing cramp and fall to her death. Paradise probably had her best friend die in the cloud walking accident, and so she’d just stand there laughing at Cozy for trusting her. Cozy didn’t fall though. She stubbornly rose up to the top of the cloud mountain, where Paradise was sitting on the fluffy peak. “Come on, Cozy, the view from up here is fantastic!” she called back to the filly. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” Cozy griped, “How are we even supposed to see a city from all the way up here?” Paradise didn’t answer, as Cozy ascended the peak and rainbows caught the filly’s eye. Cozy Glow landed next to the older pegasus with a flump in the cloud, looked up from her hooves, and was... confused at what she saw before her. Multiple rainbows? Why were they pouring down? She could see colorful dots flitting two and fro, giving an idea of the scale for how large this cloud was that they were facing, by how tiny everypony was in the distance. It wasn’t a regular storm though, at least not like any Cozy Glow had seen before. Bright fluffy white, and almost looking like it was smooth in places to the point of being sculpted, with tall columns and some sort of a... a giant funnel shape over there? What the trog kind of cloud was that? “Well, what do you think?” the redheaded therapist asked with a pleased smile, gazing out towards the weird storm, “I think it always looks better from above. You still regretting flying all the way up here?” Utterly confounded, Cozy pointed a forehoof at the giant cloud...thing, looking up at Paradise and asking, “What is that? ” Blinking down at her, Paradise too seemed confounded, as she replied uncertainly, “...Cloudsdale?” Cozy lowered her forehoof, then looked forward. Then she looked back at Paradise. Then she looked forward, then back to Paradise. Then Cozy Glow stared forward and blurted out in shock, “You built a city out of clouds?!” Far, far above the earth, but not all that far above Cloudsdale, Cozy Glow sat with Paradise on a tall cumulus cloud, overlooking the city from a distance. Cozy had never seen anything like it in her life. She didn’t even think it was possible! Could you really make an entire city out of clouds? It was obvious now. This giant cloud—no—infrastructure of clouds was connected with spiraling roadways, buildings made out of the cloud itself embedded in it, supported with pillars that were also made out of clouds. The whole city splayed forth as far as she could see, cascading rainbow waterfalls glowing in the sparkling sunlight. It was the most beautiful thing Cozy Glow had ever seen. Ponies made this? It was like a dream! “Cozy, have you never seen Cloudsdale before? ” Paradise asked the filly in anguished concern and astonishment. “What? N-no, of course I have,” Cozy said, looking nervously up at the mare even as she smiled confidently, “Seen one cloud city, you’ve seen ‘em all, right?” “Don’t lie to me,” Paradise warned her. “Why would I lie about a silly little thing like that?” Cozy asked innocently. “I said don’t lie,” Paradise said dangerously, “Have you never seen Cloudsdale before?” Cozy... couldn’t say anything now, that would make the mare think that she had seen Cloudsdale before. Paradise had already made her decision. Cozy Glow had already gone and shouted about it like an idiot, and now Paradise knew Cozy... didn’t belong here. What could she say though? How could she get this mare off her back? “Well, let’s hurry up before we—” Cozy said, leaping aloft to flee into the city. Paradise bit Cozy’s tail, yanking her back to the cloud, then stepped on it so Cozy couldn’t fly off, saying, “No. Have you never seen Cloudsdale before?” “I have, I–I mean I...” Cozy said in total panic, and why couldn’t she think of words right now?! What else could she say? “I don’t want... to tell you,” Cozy whimpered miserably, wondering if... if dead silence would work. Paradise pursed her lips at that, then let Cozy’s tail go. “At least you’re being honest about that,” Paradise called after her as Cozy swooped up in front of Paradise, hopefully out of reach. “Starlight already told me you didn’t like to talk about your past,” Paradise assured her, “And you don’t have to. Just... please don’t play games with me.” “I... I wasn’t...” Cozy stammered, trying to stop from blushing hard. “Please?” Paradise asked in sorrowful exasperation. “I...I’ll... think... about it,” Cozy said at last, not quite meeting the mare’s eyes. “I’ll think about it, okay?” Paradise’s bright green eyes softened as the filly cautiously settled back down to the cloud beside her and just stared at the city in something between calculation and wonder. Paradise smiled at Cozy sheepishly and said, “Well I guess the cat’s out of the bag. You don’t have to tell me why you don’t know, but how does it make you feel, that I know something you didn’t want me to know?” Cozy... “Fine?” she said cautiously, looking up at Paradise, “What are you—” “Good? Bad?” Paradise insisted. “B-bad,” Cozy admitted, staring at Paradise’s creamy white forelegs. “If it’s any consolation,” Paradise said sounding very apologetic, in a way that wasn’t really apologetic, “Now that you know that I know, it won’t make things any worse to tell me what you think of Cloudsdale. I’m curious. How’s it feel to see Cloudsdale for the very first time?” Cozy Glow gazed out over the gorgeous cityscape spreading before her, so high above the ground. “Good,” she admitted, still feeling a little monosyllabic at... her troubling state of mind. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Paradise said wistfully, staring along with her. “It’s the most beautiful—” Cozy Glow said, starting to choke up. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tore her eyes away, scrunching them shut and shaking her head as hard as she could. It wasn’t disorienting enough, as Paradise asked, “Cozy, what are you—” so Cozy interrupted, eyes still squeezed shut, saying, “What did the... cloud say to... the ground?” “What?” Paradise asked, lost. And now Cozy had to think of a punchline! Why did she think this was a good idea?! Cozy thought over the relationship with clouds and the ground, and how they floated over it, except for fog, and how one could possibly make a pun off of ground, rain, or fall. She didn’t think dirt would work, but maybe soil, or earth, or rock, or solid. “What did the cloud say to the ground?” Cozy asked stubbornly, trying to think of places where she heard any of those words out of context. Why would a cloud even talk to the ground? Just to say hello? Wait, rock, doc. just like that one character from those old dailies Headmare Twilight liked to read to amuse herself. Would that work?? Cozy didn’t even know if Paradise read those things! “I don’t know, what did the cloud say to the ground?” Paradise asked. Moment of truth. “What’s up, rock?” Cozy Glow peeked her eyes open, and looked up at Paradise with a grimace that might’ve come across as a smile. Paradise’s look of surprise dawned in realization, as a snort of laughter escaped her, and the mare said, “Oh you mean those old...” “Iiiit’s a bad joke,” Cozy said with an apologetic wince, “They don’t have to be good though. Just distracting.” “Why do they need to be distracting?” Paradise asked curiously, and Cozy raised an eyebrow at that. Starlight had told her, hadn’t she? “You know I can’t cry, right?” Cozy asked Paradise skeptically. But the mare just blinked innocently, asking, “Why not?” “Because I’d never stop.”