“And just through here is my favourite one. It has the most unbelievable blue blossoms.” Rose Bloom’s voice was sweet and lilting, almost musical in its quality. It was a voice that hinted at the wonderful singing voice of its owner, one that could charm the birds down from the trees.
It hurt Cozy Glow’s ears.
The yellow-and-fawn shape ahead of Cozy Glow stumbled but didn’t fall, a slight trace of clumsiness that many ponies might have found endearing. A better pony might have offered Rose Bloom a hoof to help her navigate the treacherous surface of tangled roots. Cozy Glow just found herself wishing that Rose would trip or faint or something, and put them both out of their misery.
This clumsy little mock-draconequus was kinder than Prince Patrician, it was true. Mama had asked for a ‘non-bigoted’ pony, and Rose Bloom was certainly that. She didn’t have a bigoted bone in her body. The trouble was, as far as Cozy Glow could tell, Rose Bloom didn’t have any kind of bone in her body. And it wasn’t just that her long, sinuous form — almost noodley, Cozy Glow thought, though she knew it was unkind — could wend its way easily through the tightest of woodland paths. It was that anything Cozy Glow had said or suggested, Rose Bloom had at once quietly, gently assented to. The girl seemed to have no backbone, no opinion of her own on which she was willing to argue a point. It made Cozy Glow want to scream.
Celestia had come to Mama Rarity in high excitement, promising a match with great social clout, links to Equestrian and non-Equestrian royalty, a kind and loving family ready to welcome Cozy Glow in with open arms, and huge swathes of magical power. Best of all, not a Canterlot unicorn in sight. Mama had opted not to reveal to Cozy Glow who exactly she was on her way to meet, and the presence of Rose Bloom at the Ponyville train station had been an unwelcome surprise.
Rose Bloom might possess a kind and loving family — but Cozy Glow already had ample access to the kindness and loving nature of Auntie Fluttershy; everycreature this side of the Lunaran Sea had that. And she’d be damned if she wanted to be welcomed with open paws by that idiotic chaos donkey that called himself Auntie Fluttershy’s husband. If his was the vast reservoir of promised magical strength, he could keep it.
Rose Bloom at least did not resemble her father in personality. The first five minutes of talking with her, during which she had failed to conjure any chocolate rain or transform any objects into dancing teapots or something equally trite, had been enough to show that. But a little more discussion with Rose Bloom had shown that she did not possess any magic whatsoever.
“I’m basically a normal pegasus,” she had confided, her voice soft and sweet. “But just…not quite on the outside.”
Cozy Glow had to agree there — Rose Bloom’s long swanlike neck, lion’s forepaws and deer hooves did not help her with any form of resemblance to a ‘normal’ pony, but she was still oddly pretty. In a strange sort of way. Cozy Glow didn’t much care for appearances; in fact, Rose Bloom’s slightly monstrous looks would have attracted rather than repelled her, if not for that one fatal hurdle. Rose Bloom’s wet blanket of a personality.
As Rose Bloom explained the life cycle of yet another flower and the tender care she provided for it year-round, Cozy Glow wondered what on earth had possessed Celestia to make this match. Rose Bloom was fine — a lovely person, in fact — but that was precisely what Cozy didn’t want. She wanted fire, she wanted spark, intelligence and wit; but all Rose Bloom could offer was a loving heart and a great talent for gardening. She was a good pony, Cozy Glow supposed, but not at all the sort of creature that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Plus, looking at Rose Bloom’s gleaming red eyes and draconequus form was an unpleasant reminder of some things Cozy Glow would have preferred not to remember. That heady summer in her youth, where she had been flanked everywhere she went by the queen of the changelings and an ancient, malevolent centaur. When the oldest and most powerful creatures in Equestria had done her bidding. Chrysalis and Tirek, her oldest…companions. Not friends. Not then. Not even now. After their release and ‘reformation’, both Chrysalis and Tirek had retreated into the wilds far beyond Equestrian borders. They knew when they were beaten. Only Cozy Glow had returned to pony society, again and again, to dash herself on the sharp rocks of its laws and its cruelty.
But she had weathered those storms, she had come through the other side stronger and harder, with all her anger locked tightly away inside her, where it wouldn’t hurt Mama or anypony else. And now she was thriving, living her best life, as Mama would say. Yes, she had done the right thing. Made the right choices. She was…happy in her life.
But that didn’t mean that looking into Discord’s red eyes every day was something she wanted to do.
“And this tree is home to the loveliest climbing wisteria,” Rose Bloom said, her soft voice cutting into Cozy’s private thoughts like a butter knife, no real force behind it at all. “It’s not the right season for it at the moment, but when it blooms it’s one of the most beautiful things in the world.” She smiled down at Cozy Glow, and though her face was calm and gentle, seeing that long muzzle split to reveal sharp fangs made Cozy Glow’s whole body thrill with the memory of her stolen magic. What it had felt like, to know she could crush the word with a thought, split the earth beneath her hooves, obliterate any who opposed her—
No. Stop that right there. Cozy Glow sighed and shook her head, hard. Doctor Healing Word had made it quite clear that destructive thoughts led to destructive behaviours, and Cozy could ill afford either. Mama depended on her.
“Look, Rose Bloom,” she said, the harshness of her voice grating to her ears after so long listening to Rose Bloom’s lilting tones. “I’m very sorry, and I’m not trying to be rude, but I just don’t think this will be a good fit.”
“Oh!” Rose Bloom’s eyes widened with shock and hurt. Her expression was so like Auntie Fluttershy’s that Cozy Glow’s heart contracted with a pang of guilt.
Rose Bloom leaned closer, her expression contrite and concerned. “Have I said something to upset you? I’m sorry if I talked too long about my flowers. I know they don’t hold the same fascination for everypony else as they do for me.” She gestured apologetically at her cutie mark; a single red rose, the exact shade of her eyes.
Cozy Glow backed away from that all-too familiar face and the flower fragrance that was ever-so-slightly laced with the tang of chaos. “No, no! Nothing you did. It’s all me. Honestly.” She scrambled backwards and spread her wings. “I’m sorry, Rose Bloom, I really am. But I really do have to go now.”
Rose Bloom held out a paw to her and said something else, but Cozy Glow didn’t hear what it was. All she could hear was Discord’s gasping exhalation as she sucked his magic out of him and drank it down, the wondrous exhilaration of it flooding through her, its strange and incomprehensible power, the way she had fought with it, grappled with it, tried to force it to her will —
And then she was tearing herself away from those dangerous memories, and winging her way north, towards the distant friendly shape of Canterlot, hugging the mountain close as it always did.