The pink-coated pegasus filly was flying slightly above the ground surface. Her hooves were holding a bag full of food and other supplies from the grocery store; since she wasn’t flying too high, the bag was being dragged around in the dirt.
A few steps ahead, a green earth pony was also carrying a few items in a saddlebag. This other pony wasn’t nearly as tired as her young companion, as she walked back to their home with a more serene attitude.
“Wallflower, I’m tired,” the pink filly moaned in exhaustion, “my wings hurt!”
The earth pony, without stopping, looked back at the filly.
“Just walk instead, Cozy.”
Cozy Glow sighed and descended to ground level. Grabbing the bag with her mouth instead, she trotted forward, catching up with Wallflower.
“You do know that’s a saddlebag, right?”
Despite having heard Wallflower clearly, Cozy paid no attention and kept walking forwards, and eventually, tripped.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!” Cozy snapped, getting back on her hooves, carrying the saddlebag properly this time.
“Alright, alright, no need to yell, I was just asking.”
“Argh! My back hurts! And while we have to carry these things on our back, that guy’s just making them float effortlessly!”
Cozy pointed at a unicorn who was passing by, who was indeed making stuff float around him. After looking towards Cozy, the stallion frowned and turned away with a humph.
“Come back here, you coward! I’ll show you what the Empress of Friendship can do!”
Wallflower placed a hoof on top of Cozy’s saddlebag before things got out of control.
“Are you done?”
“No! I need to give that unicorn a piece of my mind!”
Cozy tried to charge forwards, but Wallflower held her in place and let out a sigh.
“I liked it better when I did this alone...”
Cozy stopped her tantrum and looked back at Wallflower, with a cute -but fake- puppy smile on her face.
“Oh golly, do you mean it? Because if so, I could just leave right now and you’ll never have to see me again. Win-win!” Cozy raised her hooves in the air during that last statement.
Wallflower rolled her eyes.
“I was just talking about walking back home. Besides, Princess Twilight is counting on me to keep an eye on you. I can’t disappoint her”
Cozy groaned.
After a couple of hours, both mares approached a cottage on the outskirts of a ghost town. Said town wasn’t in a particularly bad state, it was just that nobody lived there.
As for the cottage, it was nothing impressive, but it did have a really big garden. The garden had a wide variety of plants, mainly flowers, but it also had some trees, crops, and other plants that don’t quite qualify as flowers. There were also some mushrooms in some spots of the yard.
“That took us over five hours, round-trip! Not accounting for the time we spent in the market. I mean, did you seriously have to live so far away from society!?” Cozy Glow grumbled.
“There used to be ponies living here, you know that. You lived here.”
“And we all left; why didn’t you?”
“It would take way too much effort to move all my plants,” she replied dismissively.
Cozy rolled her eyes. Looking away, she peered into the forest that was practically next to them. She noticed something glowing from deep within; something magical. In fact, it looked similar to the glow the bewitching bell emitted.
Cozy stood still, watching the forest. Something about the idea of having some sort of magic made her smile... mischievously. Wallflower noticed.
“What are you looking at?”
“Wally! I’ve got the best idea ever! Let’s go camp there. It’ll be super fun and a great bonding activity~”
“Absolutely not! That’s a really dangerous forest. Also, don’t call me Wally.”
“Pff, puh-lease. I’ve been into the Everfree Forest before, this will be a breeze. And surely you know how to handle things around there, Wally,” Cozy teased.
“Stop that. I don’t know how dangerous the Everfree Forest really is, but if somepony actually lives there, then it must be a joke. Nopony could survive three hours in this forest.”
Cozy whined.
“Couldn’t we at least take a quick look?” Cozy begged with a puppy face.
“Sorry, but no. Better not tempt our luck.”
“Fine,” Cozy grumbled.
Later that night, Cozy glided downstairs and landed as quietly as she could. When she did, the wood planks that served as a floor made a slight creak. Cozy looked back quickly at where Wallflower was sleeping, who didn’t seem to have heard her.
After closing the door slowly, Cozy sighed and started to flap her wings, heading towards the forest.
Cozy made it to what looked like a path into the forest. As she came closer, she noticed the warning signs were gradually becoming more abundant, and with more... threatening, hoofwriting.
Still, Cozy didn’t back away and made it inside the forest. She kept following the path, but after a couple of minutes, it abruptly disappeared.
Cozy looked around, trying to find another path continuing somewhere ahead. She didn’t find any. But she did notice a slight, similar glow to the one she had seen earlier.
The fact that she did not have a path to follow, along with Wallflower’s warnings and the massive amount of posted warning signs made her want to turn back. But after staring into the glow, she gulped and dived into the bushes.
Once she was in the deeper part of the forest, Cozy’s whole body was extremely tense and all of her senses were on high alert. She looked around, back and forth, scouting from anything that could jump out at her. But all she could see were eyes staring at her, from creatures hiding in the bushes and the plants next to her.
The trees surrounding her had trunks with designs that looked like eyeballs. Furthermore, they glowed in spooky colors like red or purple. Additionally, she had already encountered several trees with fruits that had actual faces. Said heads were just staring at her, blinking occasionally.
Cozy then heard a sound from one of the trees; there was something on one of its branches. When she focused her vision on the thing, she noticed it was just a koala.
“Oh, phew, just a koala. I thought they were smaller though.”
The koala was slightly shorter than an orthros, or about the same size as a grown pony. It stared into Cozy’s eyes for a while before frowning and growling, revealing its sharp fangs.
“Way smaller,” Cozy swallowed.
Without a second warning, the marsupial leaped from the branch it was standing on towards Cozy, who frantically rushed away with a scream.
As the frightened filly flew hastily away, not paying attention to where she was headed, she ran into all other types of creatures. She found herself right in front of more sentient fruits, evading the bites of small, yellow flowers and dodging the sharp claws of other oversized koalas.
Once she found an open space which looked safe enough to catch her breath, she landed and started to hyperventilate and walk in circles, her senses still alert.
“Ow~ what kind of forest is this!? I should have listened to Wally and stayed in my bed!” Cozy cried.
Not long after, she noticed the glow she was looking for was quite close.
“I... should go home, oh but I’m already here, and it’s... just right there...”
Cozy contemplated her options and ultimately built enough courage to stay just a few more minutes.
“Grab the artifact, and leave,” Cozy told herself, - repeatedly - before venturing deeper into the forest.
In a state of drowsiness, Wallflower walked upstairs and into the room Cozy had been sleeping in ever since she arrived. Opening the door, she stared absentmindedly at the empty bed.
“Cozy’s not-” she stopped to yawn, “- here, oh well. I’ll go back to-“ then she realized what she had just said.
“Cozy’s not here! Oh no, I knew I should’ve stayed awake tonight... where could she be!?”
After walking in circles, Wallflower looked outside the room window, into the forest, staring directly at a faint amount of light emanating from deep inside.
“Oh no…”
Wallflower grabbed a potted plant and placed it inside a saddlebag, and with no time to lose, she hurried outside her cottage and towards the forest path, dashing by the warning signs and into the bushes.
Without having run into further surprises, Cozy made it into another clearing, where she spotted the source of the light she’d been following. It was a cloak, which was resting on a white - also glowing - bush.
Cozy smirked in triumph.
She approached the cloak, placed her hooves on top, and pulled it. But alongside the cloak, she also pulled the glowing bush, which, as it turned out, wasn’t a bush.
Backing out, Cozy stared at the white, deer-like creature in front of her. It had a long, glowing mane and was wearing the cloak on its back, and around its neck. The creature turned to face Cozy, who gulped for the third time tonight.
The creature stared at the terrorized filly and frowned. Its eyes started glowing and despite having no horn or antlers, it cast a spell on Cozy, making her levitate.
“Th-this is, just a misunderstanding, I-I wasn’t trying to steal your cloak. I was just... picking it up,” Cozy made up the best smile she could, but her time in the forest couldn’t allow her to fake a good one.
The creature blasted Cozy towards a tree. After crashing against the tree, the spell dissipated and Cozy spread her wings and tried to fly away. But the creature cast another spell and dragged her down.
Even after the path ceased, Wallflower continued following Cozy’s hoofprints, but eventually, they disappeared as well and she started to panic.
“Oh no, what if something happened to her? What if a drop bear attacked her? What if the strangleweed caught her!?” she exclaimed, placing her hooves around her head.
“No, no,” she said, calming herself down, “if that was the case, the strangleweed would be here. She must’ve used her wings... oh how am I going to find her now?”
After walking around, hoping to spot more hoofprints, or Cozy herself, Wallflower heard something; someone.
“Heeeelp!”
“Cozy!”
Wallflower headed towards the source of the sound. Not long after, she arrived at a clearing. She saw Cozy, and the glowing creature, who was using its magic to encase Cozy in a cube.
The creature then rolled the cage like a dice, leaving Cozy way too dizzy to dodge the beam the creature just started to charge.
“Stop!” Wallflower cried desperately. “Leave her alone,” she added in a more threatening voice and with her saddlebag in her hooves.
Without a change of expression, the creature switched targets and aimed at Wallflower instead, who had had enough of this nonsense.
She took out the potted plant she had grabbed just before leaving the cottage pulled its stem out of the potting soil. The little plant revealed a quite large set of roots, which - oh surprise - had a mouth.
Still, the creature attempted to shoot its beam towards Wallflower, but it dissipated alongside the - somehow visible - vibrations in the air coming from the screaming plant.
Wallflower charged towards the creature and took its cloak, compacted it into a misshapen ball, and hurled it into some bushes. Then, she buried the plant back in the pot and it immediately went silent.
The creature lazily tried to cast a spell, but it didn’t do anything, so it rushed towards the bushes in search of its cloak.
Wallflower also rushed, but towards Cozy Glow.
“Come on Cozy, we have to get out of here, quick!” Wallflower exclaimed in an agitated voice.
Cozy nodded, absentmindedly, before collapsing into the ground.
Cozy slowly opened her eyes and noticed she was in bed back at the cottage. It was daytime. She groaned as she got a short headache, and remembered what happened last night. She groggily got up and out of the bed.
Heading downstairs, she couldn’t spot Wallflower anywhere; but when she looked towards the garden, she saw Wallflower watering some plants.
When she opened the backdoor leading to the garden, Wallflower heard her and turned around quickly. Next thing she knew, the earth pony was hugging her tightly. Cozy returned the hug.
Once the hug ended, Wallflower started asking the obvious questions.
“I told you that forest was dangerous! What were you thinking!?”
“I-I’m sorry. I saw a source of magic; what was I supposed to do!? Leave it there and allow something else to take it!?”
“Yes! Cozy, you could’ve gotten seriously hurt! you could’ve died!”
“But I didn’t! That thing didn’t stand a chance against me,” Cozy said, while waving a hoof dismissively.
“You’re lucky you only ran into a Samodiva,” Wallflower replied harshly.
“A diva-what?”
“Not the point!” Wallflower scowled.
There was a short silence, in which Wallflower breathed in and out for a while. And after calming herself, she continued.
“What would you need that magic source for anyway? I thought you were past that.”
“That cloak would’ve fixed all my problems!”
“The only thing that cloak would’ve done is make your mane glow!”
“No, it- oh...”
“What’s wrong Cozy? Why do you want magic so badly? And why do you despise those who have it?”
“I don’t despise them, I despise them using it.”
“Why?”
“Because they use it for everything! They can do anything with magic, while we have to use our own hooves and try to do it ourselves!” Cozy shouted, “That stallion at the market could’ve used a saddlebag like everypony else, but he just had to gloat and show off!”
Wallflower didn’t say anything; for the time being, she was just listening.
“They can do everything and I can’t! I can’t do anything!” Cozy’s head dropped and a small tear fell from her cheek. She regained her composure and frowned, “Because I can’t shoot a laser. Because I can’t teleport in the blink of an eye! Because I can’t turn myself invisible!” Cozy’s voice began to break, “Because of that, I couldn’t live up to others’ expectations. Because I don’t. Have. Magic!”
Cozy’s face was scowling, covered in tears. Tears of sadness, anger, and frustration.
“But... you’re a pegasus. Why would the lack of magic make somepony look down on you?”
Wiping some of her tears, Cozy sat down, and without looking at Wallflower, she shrugged.
“It’s just the way it has always been.”
Wallflower made a determined face and sat beside Cozy.
“But not the way it’s going to be,” she said. “Maybe you don’t have magic, but there are plenty of other things you’re great at, Cozy.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Uh-huh. You’re smart, determined, fast, agile. And when you want to, you can be really helpful, supportive, attentive, and kind. You can also be a good leader when you set your mind to it”
Cozy looked up to face Wallflower, with a slight smile on her face.
“Not to mention cute and adorable!”
Wallflower placed her hoof on Cozy’s hair, moving it around with slight pressure, and leaving her mane messy.
“Stop that!” Cozy said in a cheerier tone.
“And a great companion,” Wallflower finished, pulling Cozy into a hug, which she returned.
And for the first time in years, Cozy smiled, happily and truthfully.