Cozy Glow didn’t have to wait long for Jay to come back with some food. She stood at the edge of the cave and watched him approach with anticipation. The closer he got, however, the more she noticed that something was off about the way he was walking. No, walking wasn’t the right word, it was more like he was marching. His footsteps were heavy and his facial expression was anything but happy. Cozy took a few steps back when Jay entered the cave and threw a newspaper onto the floor. Her ears fell back when she saw the name written on the front page, she was busted.
“What the hell is this!?” Jay yelled.
“Uh… I can explain,” Cozy said slowly.
“Well go on then, explain.”
“Uh, those… those are lies!" Cozy blurted. "It’s all propaganda!”
“Propaganda?”
“Yeah! The Princesses make it so they can turn their subjects against anyone who escapes from them!”
Jay shook his head. “Oh, you’re so full of it. It's just my luck that I end up helping an actual villain! Can life not give me a break for once? I mean, seriously? How is it that you’re the first pony I run into in this stupid country? Have I not been punished enough?”
While Jay ranted, Cozy's innocent mask gradually faded until her true self crawled to the surface. When Jay went quiet, she fixed him with a deadpan stare. "So what now? You gonna turn me in?”
Jay didn’t seem to get startled by Cozy’s sudden change in mannerism, instead, he appeared more annoyed than anything. “No, that's off the table.”
That was not the answer Cozy was expecting. She knew most ponies would be more than happy to appease their precious Princesses, but once again she was reminded that she wasn't dealing with a pony. Still, he had to have some sort of angle here, so she narrowed her eyes. “And why is that?”
“Well, for one thing, I’m not really a fan of law enforcement,” Jay revealed. “I’d rather stay away from the capital city if I can. And two, I knocked out those guards, remember? That essentially makes me your accomplice.”
“Yeah that’s true, isn’t it?” Cozy agreed with a smirk. "Guess we’re both screwed, huh?"
Jay grunted. “So that leaves me with only one option. I need to get out of this country, but there's no way I'm gonna leave a kid alone in the middle of a massive forest."
Cozy had to stop herself from bursting into a fit of laughter. Because of her, Jay had been backed into a corner, and now she had a free ticket out of Equestria. The only problem was how exactly he planned on leaving. She dropped her smirk to appear more serious. "So you want me to come with you. Do you have a plan?"
"Yeah I do actually," Jay answered. “I traveled here to find an old friend of mine. He has connections and can smuggle both of us out of the country."
"How do you know someone like that?"
"Don't worry about it. He's reliable and can get it done quickly."
Once again, a small grin crept its way onto Cozy's face. There was more to this diamond dog than she initially thought, and she planned to utilize his connections and abilities to the fullest. “Alright then… you can count me in! I have nothing else to lose anyway! And now that we’re partners in crime, we have a whole road trip to get to know each other!”
“I’m not going on a road trip with you,” Jay retorted. “I’m going to sneak you onto a train, find my friend, and be done with this by the end of the night. Then we never see each other again, which is my favorite part of this plan.” He pulled something green out of his pockets. “Here, I got you some food, eat it quickly, and let's go.”
He half haphazardly tossed the food at Cozy, who caught it with her hoof. Her friendly smile dropped when she saw what he had picked out for her. With a straight face, she looked up at him. “Asparagus, really?”
Jay shrugged. “What? Kids need their vegetables, right? That’s as healthy as you can get.”
“I hate asparagus.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that?”
“Have you ever met a kid before?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“No kid wants to eat asparagus for lunch!” Cozy explained angrily. “Seriously, you must have had like a hundred options to choose from, and you went with the worst one.”
Jay crossed his arms in annoyance. “Well, aren’t you a spoiled little brat.”
Cozy flung the green vegetables at the wall. “Get me something else!"
“Yeah, you wish,” Jay laughed. “Eat up Cozy, it's all you’ll have until we reach our destination.”
Cozy grit her teeth and growled at Jay as he walked out of the cave.
***
After forcing herself to eat her least favorite food, Cozy followed Jay around the border of the small village. Jay’s friend lived in a port town near Horseshoe Bay, and the train could take them there in a few hours. In order to stay hidden from the royal guards, Cozy was forced to hide in Jay’s backpack. He kept it unzipped so she could breathe but she had to lie under a sweater in case anyone peaked inside. It felt degrading to be carried around like a little dog, but it was the only way they could board the train.
The station itself was nothing special, just a big empty space with grey tracks in front of a small building designed as a brick house. Jay casually walked up to the train, paid for his ticket, and got on board. He made sure to pick an empty coach before speaking to his hidden companion. “Okay, the coast is clear.”
“Finally!” Cozy jumped out of the bag so she could stretch her limbs. “I don’t ever want to do that again.”
“Well, you’ll probably have to,” Jay stated. “Your name is literally written on every single newspaper in the country."
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Cozy took a seat by the window. She expected Jay to sit across from her, but instead, he moved to the very back. When he took his seat, Cozy turned herself around and chuckled at him. “You’re a real loner, aren’t you?”
Jay leaned back and closed his eyes. “The coach is empty, I don’t need to sit with you.”
As the train began to move, Cozy rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I don’t need -” she cut herself off when she heard voices. They were muffled and appeared to be coming from the other coach. It was probably just passengers chatting about nothing important but Cozy could have sworn that one of them mentioned her by name. Deciding to find out for herself, she stood up and crept over to the far door. She peaked through its window and saw three ponies dressed in blue vests speaking to a group of commuters. “Relax folks, this is just our hourly check for the wanted fugitive known as Cozy Glow.”
“Are you saying that foul child could be on this train?” a posh-sounding mare asked.
“Not likely, ma’am,” the pony replied. “but by royal orders, all transportation must be checked every hour until she is found.”
Cozy backed away from the door. “Oh, this is bad.” She ran up to Jay and shook his arm. “Jay, wake up, we have a problem!”
Jay opened his eyes and frowned. “You know, this is the third time you’ve woken me up today. Can you take a chill pill for two seconds and let me relax?”
“There are security guards on the train looking for me!”
Jay shot out of his seat. “What?”
“They're in the other coach!”
After a short pause, Jay nodded. "Okay, wait here for a second.”
Very slowly, he tiptoed over to the green door and put his face up to the window. He saw the ponies all look at each other with worried expressions. "Are you going to stop the train?" one of them asked.
"No, this doesn't take long," the security guard replied.
“We gotta hide!” Cozy whispered loudly.
The guards made the passengers stand up so they could check under their seats and search their belongings. Jay backed away, having seen enough. “No, they're checking everywhere, we gotta get off this train!”
“But it’s moving!”
“Doesn't matter.” Jay raced past Cozy to get to the other door. He pulled on its handle but it refused to budge. “You gotta be kidding me, it’s locked!”
“What!”
“Why would they lock this? The other one wasn't locked. What purpose could they possibly have for having one door locked and the other one unlocked?”
“I don't know, but we need to think of something!”
Jay went up to one of the side windows and pushed his face against the glass. The train zoomed past fields and trees, but something up ahead caught his eye. “We’re coming up to a bridge with a river under it. If we jump off there, we’ll survive.”
“But we’re still trapped!” Cozy reminded him.
“I’m going to break the window.” Jay took a step back and pulled his jacket off. Cozy watched intently as he wrapped it around his fist. After taking a deep breath, he punched the glass as hard as he could. It didn’t break, and Jay cried out in pain. “Ow, that really hurt!”
“Try it again!” Cozy insisted.
“No, I’m good,” Jay wheezed, holding onto his throbbing hand “That was not fun. I’m really not having fun right now.”
Cozy growled angrily and flew over to his backpack. She opened the zipper and rummaged through it, tossing clothing and other items all over the floor. “There’s gotta be something in here we can use!”
She found a small hatchet at the bottom of the bag, it looked old and worn out, but Cozy was out of options. She grabbed it with both hooves and flew into the air. Holding the hachet over her head, she hurled it at the window. She missed the mark, and the top of it bounced off the bottom frame. It spun through the air back towards her, but she ducked down to avoid the flying blade. Jay didn’t notice, and the wooden handle hit him right in the face. He covered the spot it hit and grunted painfully. “Ow, what the hell, Cozy! Are you trying to kill me!”
Cozy smiled sheepishly at him. “Sorry about that.”
Jay picked up the small ax and marched past her. “Get out of my way.” With both hands firmly grasping the handle, he hit the window with all his force. The blade cut through, creating several cracks. He pulled it out and swung again, creating more cracks. “Third time's the charm.” With all the strength he could muster, he swung the hatchet one final time. The window finally broke under the pressure and shattered into a hundred pieces.
Cozy glanced towards the far door, knowing that any second the guards would come bursting through. Jay, meanwhile, stuck his head out the window to see how close to the bridge they were. “It’s coming up, we gotta jump now!”
Cozy gulped. The train was moving really fast, and she knew the winds were too high to give her proper flight, but it was her only option. She could either jump and pray that she didn't flatten like a pancake next to the river, or spend the remainder of her days locked in a cage deep within Tartarus. It wasn't a hard decision to make, and the next thing she knew, she was standing next to Jay, mentally preparing herself to jump out of a moving train.
With the river fast approaching, Jay pushed the remaining glass shards off the bottom of the frame and stuck his leg through. With one hand holding the top of the frame, he sat on the ledge and reached his other out towards Cozy. "Okay, take my hand now!" Cozy did just that, and Jay helped her through the window. They heard the door burst open and someone yell, “What’s going on here!”
The guards were too late, the river came into view and the dog and filly jumped for their dear lives. Cozy screamed as she fell through the air. The second she hit the water, her whole body was submerged by the rushing current. She tried to fight against it but was dragged further down by the powerful force of the river. Panic began to set in as the cold water threatened to enter her lungs. She thrashed and squirmed with all her might, desperately trying to claw her way to the surface, but she wasn’t strong enough. Luckily, a hand reached into the water just in time and pulled her out. Jay dropped Cozy safety onto the ground and the two took in some much-needed air.
Still breathing hard, Jay rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, so that was probably not the best idea, was it?”
Despite the pain in her lungs, Cozy looked up at him and grinned. “Forcing a child to jump out of a moving train into a dangerous river? Nah, not terrible at all!” She may have not liked his attitude, but Cozy had to admit, Jay was a quick thinker and he got things done. All the more reason to keep him around until his usefulness ran out.
Jay smiled back. "You're a tough kid. Now come on, those security guards saw us. We gotta get the hell out of here."
With the train out of sight, the two began their trek to find Jay’s friend.