//------------------------------//
// Judgy 
// Story: Dawn Adopted 
// by Idyll 
//------------------------------//

A golden bell chimed the arrival of a frantic filly, who popped past the glass door and ditched her mother to explore the tens of thousands of books that adorned a maze of shelves.
 
The night a month ago, Luster stared at the ceiling and wondered, “What lies outside these walls?” She must’ve wondered aloud because Georgia answered: “From what I heard, lots of papers: logs, records, scrolls, texts—all outsiders ever do is write about stuff—different types of grass, their own thoughts, whenever somecreature buys something. Doesn’t that sound weird?”
 
Luster agreed, a lie, because that conversation occupied her mind when she planned her escape, and now she was here, in the ‘book store.’ Her head felt as if it were about to explode.
 
The room was as warm as the lights that showcased each genre’s best sellers. Outside, rain poured against the glass of the street side displays. Luster was another one of its victims. Earlier, she ran outside the range of Suri’s umbrella spell once Cozy pointed to the store. The filly’s hooves now clanked as she galloped on hardwood, dripping a wet trail destined to paint the floor a darker shade.
 
A system had to be implemented to help readers navigate. It assigned a number in the hundredth’s place for categories, and one in between for sub-categories. Number seven hundred to seven hundred and ninety-nine point ninety-nine: Magic. Upstairs, take two right turns, then a left. Off she went.
 
“You’ve raised a mini-Twilight,” remarked Suri Polomare, Cozy’s fashionista. Today she sold a new jacket to an old client she assumed was six hooves under. Surprise! The client was alive and dandy, a bit happier than usual, had an extra wardrobe they needed to fill, and arranged to later that week discuss the details of an order for a replacement cloak. It was a good day for business. 
 
So good, Suri considered thanking Rarity for those libelous pages against her in Princess Twilight’s Journal of Friendship. It never mentioned her by name but was specific enough for Cozy and Hope to research archives, match dates, perform interviews, and discover: ‘Suri Polomare.’
 
Wonderful clients they were! Hope thought she could’ve been a potentially useful asset in infiltrating the Crystal Empire before Cozy revealed her ‘personal guard’ plan and winged it. All the latter wanted was a fashion designer who hadn’t shown up for her petrification.
 
She made an odd request: costumes themed after chess pieces. Cozy had memorized thirty-two measurements, and for each one whether to add a slot for a horn, two for wings, or none.
 
For five pieces: both; she wanted three slots. Suri asked why.
 
Cozy responded, “Just a bit unsure, is all.” 
 
“But you provided five sizes? And they aren’t really—you know—pony sized?”
 
 “Jeez, aren’t you judgmental!” 
 
Suri completed the set, omitted her usual embroidered signature, and received the second half of her handsome payment, plus a bonus by Cozy’s suggestion. It would’ve been her favorite commission, had it not kept her awake at night. Under a blanket, she’d stare at her door, mostly on her bed, a few times on her couch. 
 
She couldn’t clear her mind or focus on anything other than the likelihood that Canterlonian agents would show up at her doorstep and arrest her for complicity in whatever Cozy had planned. At least the deadline was loose; she could sleep in. Though it didn’t get better when news broke of her coup, her disappearance eased her a bit. 
 
Other than that, wonderful clients! Until her third defeat, every three days, an hour after sunset, Cozy would call to ask about the progress of the order, and how her health fared personally, speaking as if Twilight’s rule was Tartarus. Those calls continued after completion. 
 
Meanwhile, Hope only ever asked her to patch a few tears on the kitchen rag she called a cloak, and complained about her rates. Quality had a price! At least she wasn’t slave labor, which is partially why Cozy chose her to design Luster’s wardrobe. Where did Suri’s fabrics come from? Until Luster asks that question, it will remain a mystery. 
 
Cozy flew up to the indoor balcony of the second floor, and found her filly with twelve—now thirteen—stacked books in her aura. 
 
She held her hoof like a stop sign. “Now Lustie, I didn’t bring my bag and Hope only had a hundred bits. We’ll only be able to afford around three books.”
 
“Only three?!” Luster whined.
 
“Only three.” Cozy confiscated the pile and held it in case Luster wanted to single out a book she chose, but the filly decided to start fresh. 
 
Along the sides of the shelves were posters that depicted Equestria’s most prominent wizards and brewers. In front of the one that had a lanky old stallion who forgot to shave, Luster paused and turned to the wall. A framed photo half the wall’s height showed an Alicorn, purple, Princess, whose mane had a streak of indigo and magenta. It showed her outside the entrance, cutting a ribbon with a comically-large pair of scissors. 
 
“Princess Twilight,” Cozy said and sighed. “Equestria’s chosen Princess and Savior I-don’t-how-many times.” 
 
“Is that what she looks like?” Luster had never seen a pony so big. She looked as tall as Chrysalis.  
 
“Yep.” Cozy whispered, “She can’t lay off the Hayburgers.”
 
Luster gazed in silence for a moment, before she resumed her search for three books to take home. 
 
The utmost consideration had to be given to various factors, such as the quality of information, how similar the spells were to other books, and the number of spells covered. Luster leaned her neck to squint at the title of one book that piqued her interest.
 
“The Mage’s Foundational Textbook for Intermediate Transfiguration for Equines Vol. 7,” Cozy read aloud from behind, a smirk on her face. “You sure you want to start at that level?”
 
Luster lowered her head but sprang out and declared, “Yeah! I’ve cast many spells.” She teleported up to Cozy’s height, knew her mother could catch her, and poked the other’s muzzle while saying, “What do you know! You’ve never cast a spell—well, I mean—”
 
Cozy shushed her. “Alright, alright, I get it. Wasn’t trying to be judgmental. You’re the mage, not me.” She placed Luster on the floor. “But that costs more than a hundred bits anyways, so tough luck.” Cozy stuck her tongue out.
 
“I can lend you some bits,” said Suri who appeared to the delight of Luster’s smirk.
 
“With what? Interest?” Cozy asked, who hovered so she could cross her forelegs.
 
“What?! No! But I mean like, it’s not as if you’re broke, right?” Suri said. “How much do you have, anyways? Hundreds of thousands of bits?”
 
Cozy giggled. 
 
“Shut up! No, you’re kidding!”
 
“I have enough to raise a family, but,” Cozy whispered, “I’m not retiring yet.” She continued, “You aren’t only pretending to be my friends for bits, right?” 
 
“What? Nooo0…” Suri held the syllable as her pupils drew one-quarter of a circle: left, along the arc, and ended at the apex towards Cozy, whose shadow engulfed her. 
 
“Good,” Cozy replied. “Because I can read liars.” She flew down, inches away from Suri’s face. “And I’ve also happened to have read quite a few interesting things about your customers, Suri Polomare.”  
 
“Hey now…”
 
“Did you know that the Crystal Empire and Canterlot share most of their internal records? It’s an interesting tidbit.” Cozy looked around. “Y’know, to be fair to Twilight, I doubt she has the time to look through all of it. We wouldn’t want to waste her valuable time now, would we?”
 
Suri shook her head. “Nope! No way.”
 
“Mom, Mom.” Luster tugged on Cozy’s dangling hind leg. “Look, it’s, y’know.” As Luster showed her the book she found, Suri walked off. 
 
The most recently published edition of a book that told Equestria’s magical history had a cover that depicted the Alicorns. Twilight made up the center, faced forwards. On Cozy’s left were the Sisters, with Celestia atop. On the other side, the two Crystal Princesses (Flurry below), who weren’t even crystal ponies. Hope got robbed big time! Cozy thought.
 
But that wasn’t why Luster wanted to show it to her. On the bottom of the cover was a mass of shadow, part of Sombra, and of all the villains depicted, there was one that stood out: a red-eyed filly (though they all had red eyes here) with a horn and wide wingspan. 
 
The publisher or artist neglected to add Starlight, but at least they included Discord. Cozy flipped through the pages until she found her own.
 
“Precocious young filly… blah, blah, blah, shallow plan, wouldn’t have worked, ‘squandered her second chance?’ I must’ve forgotten that. More like, ‘got punished for answering Twilight’s question truthfully.’” The quote, ‘Friendship is Power,’ had a box on the bottom of the page, printed in a large serif font. “We’re not buying this, Lustie.” Cozy snatched the book.
 
“I didn’t want to buy it,” Luster groaned and stomped her hoof. “I only wanted to show it to you. Why are you so judgy today?” She turned the other cheek and hmphed. 
 
Cozy fell on Luster and grabbed her by the neck. “I’m sorry!” she cried, a wing on the ground to support her because she didn’t want to crush her filly, though pegasi were the lightest tribe on average. Luster’s legs were still at their limits, but she refused to show it; she kept her mouth closed and breathed heavily through her nostrils. 
 
Cozy’s forehead touched Luster’s temple, her muzzle against the filly’s cheek. She said, “I wasn’t trying to be a wet blanket! Speaking of which—you’re still soaked…”
 
Luster turned to the opposite side, slapping her mother with her half-wet mane. Her legs started to fail, so out of instinct, she lifted Cozy's body with magic—for the first time. 
 
“Woah!” Covered tail to bow in her daughter’s amber aura, she floated an inch above the filly’s mane. “Lustie, if you’re trying to make me borrow money from Suri—”
 
“I’m not!” Luster faced her mother, and on the dawn of realization, she dropped her. “Sorry…”
 
Cozy descended. She didn’t show it, but Luster’s magic trick worried her a bit. Of course, it was absolutely one hundred and ten percent impossible that the Cozy Glow could one day fail to control her own filly, but she crossed her feathers that Luster didn’t get any ideas. 
 
Luster cleared her throat. “I think I’ve made my choice. But don’t be judgy!” Her horn flared. 
 
Cozy held out her wings. “Alright, alright.”
 
Her daughter showed her first book, and Cozy read aloud: “‘My first twenty spells.’ I think it’s a fair judgment for me to say you’ve made an amazing choice!” She nearly joked that it was too basic, but realized she didn’t have her purse to pay for property damage or funeral fees.
 
Second choice: “‘Dummies Guide to Teleportation.’ Lustie, I didn’t kill your confidence, did I? You’re not a dummy.” 
 
Luster couldn’t lash out when her mother did her soft voice. “I know, Mom, but it’s just the name of the book. And it has pictures.”
 
“But I don’t want my daughter to engage in this sort of ‘self-deprecating humor.’ Never!”
 
“Not even as a joke?”
 
Cozy shook her head.
 
“Then what do you find funny?”
 
“I…” Cozy mentally flipped through thoughts. Don’t say that time with the fake rescue. Don’t say that time with the stage. Oh jeez, definitely don’t say that time with the two horns. I wonder if Flurry has gotten over that yet? “Okay, fine. I’ll buy it for you, but don’t you ever put yourself down, ever!” 
 
With a playful but serious tone, Cozy added, “Or I’ll put you down!” She held the harder side of her right wing’s tip against Luster’s neck, who didn’t know what that expression meant, but knew it must’ve been a threat. “So, what’s the last one?”
 
Luster presented to her mother her final selection: “‘Pyromancy—for Kirin?’”
 
“It’s for a friend.”
 
“Right. I wonder who?” Cozy already added the price tags up and found they had enough change for another book, so she made her own selection: ‘The Basics of Cryomancy,’ for the sake of the forest, and glided down to pay.
 
Luster only teleported when the moments were tense, so she galloped down the stairs to catch up but halted as she overheard Suri’s conversation with her magical silver walkie-talkie thing. 
 
“You have to fix it, now!” yelled a mare through the device, loud enough for most of her voice to distort into bass, and for Luster to hear. “I need it in like, an hour max! It’s only a small rip!”
 
“If it’s small then—look, fine! Where are you now?”
 
“I’ve just passed Canterlot, so a minute away. You’re at your store, right?”
 
“My boutique? No! I’m at the bookstore with—actually, you won’t believe who’s still alive.”
 
“Is this really that important?”
 
“It’s CG,” Suri whispered into her phone.
 
Silence.
 
“Oh, come on! That mare with like—you know—she threw a pie at somepony’s face? Nearly fainted from laughter? On my end, she went to… SA’s ‘room’, and told her about it for the fourth—”
 
“Her?!” shouted Lightning Dust behind her.
 
Suri yelped in high pitch, tossing her device into the air. Lightning used her crumpled-up uniform like a pillow to catch it, presented the pedestal to Suri, and said, “I woulda thought she’d be six hooves under by now.”
 
“Yeah well, at least she’s—mostly—friendly. She pays me better than you do!”
 
“I pay you partly in exposure.”
 
“Ha, ha,” Suri said robotically. “But seriously, it’s weird. She has a foal following her around now.” She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows to point at Luster, poorly hidden behind a corner. “I’m not even completely sure she’s worth a renovated kitchen and a weekend in Las Pegasus, but what choice do I have?”
 
Luster and Lightning saw each other, the former seemed to scan the other’s body by the way she nodded her head. “How are you not wet?” the filly asked.
 
Lightning smirked. “Guess I’m just too fast for the rain, kid!” 
 
“Also, it stopped raining,” added Suri.
 
“It was raining on my way here!” Lightning defended. Her eyes shifted to a pair above the filly’s.
 
“Jeez, how are you not dead?” asked Cozy, her left wing raised upwards, similar to a shrug, to hold a plastic bag of books. “At least I had Hope to patch my scars.”
 
“Heh! All you gotta do is avoid making mistakes,” Lightning said.
 
Cozy nodded. “Yeah… Well, I’ll see you all around! I’ll be back later in a few days with my cloak, Suri.”
 
The three mares waved at each other as Cozy headed to the door. Hovering, Lightning tilted her body, noticed the time on a clock, and bolted to the door before Cozy could reach for it, dragging along Suri. They left like a shot; disturbed dust from outside took a second to catch up.
 
“Woah! Can you fly that fast, Mom?” Luster asked. 
 
“Uhm, not right now…” Cozy answered as she flew at a pace that was quicker than a car, but not as quick as Lightning. It wasn’t as if Luster could handle half her top speed anyway.
 
Cozy slid between skyscrapers. They might’ve been leaving, but that didn’t mean Cozy wouldn’t give her daughter a proper pegasus-eye view of the sights Manehattan offered.
 
In lieu of mist or fog, Manehattan had smog and haze. Instead of birds chirping, they had the honks of rush-hour commuters. In central Equestria, shy creatures would worry that strangers would try to strike up a conversation on the bus. In Manehattan, Cozy could undo her disguise, walk into the Relics’ Exhibit without a ticket, and no creature would stop her. Many would take photos of her, and a few creatures might ask for a selfie—and she’d give them a proper Cozy Glow smile—but unless Canterlot called or the policemares got bored, she’d be able to pay a week’s worth of average labor for a hotel and sleep soundly.
 
Yet, despite her preference for indifference over vitriol, unless it fitted into a scheme, Cozy would never live here. She preferred quiet places.
 
When her plans for conquest inevitably succeeded—when admiration for her was constitutional, mandated, and ideologically ingrained into common culture—she planned to retire to someplace quiet: a log cabin in the woods, a bit more remote than the one she had now.
 
Even at an old age, a trip to a nearby city shouldn’t take a pegasus of her physique longer than an hour. Seclusion meant a view of the stars unlike any other. The cozy glow of the fireplace, a blanket, and cocoa would keep her hoofsies warm whilst outside a storm piled layers of snow. Nothing could beat that vision—unless a grown-up Luster Dawn decided to visit. And Chrysalis. Tirek too.
 
One day, she imagined she’d be discovered by a group of adventurous foals. She’d invite them inside for tea (or soda), and she’d tell them the story of how an orphan rose to rule Equestria; how she overcame trials and tribulations and won everycreatures' heart, affection, and love—in her grip, as Flurry Heart had. She’ll never let go.
 
But that would be years from now. Ten years, at least. For now, she has to focus on raising Luster. She turns her back for one second and somehow the filly finds herself stuck between ten fireproof baddies, five of whom would turn out to be one of Cozy’s friends.
 
“Sorry for the smog, Lustie,” Cozy said. “But hey! At least it makes the city a bit warmer?”
 
“Must be that thing’s fault!” Luster shone her horn towards a train’s pipe, chugging out steam as it approached the station. 
 
“That’s only steam, Lustie,” Cozy explained. “It’s the gaseous state of water, so basically clouds.”
 
Luster hid her chuckle with a question. “If clouds are made of water, does that mean you can walk on water? Because you can walk on clouds.”
 
“No, but I can hold my breath for a really long time! Deep lungs come in hoofdy when dealing with wet weather.”
 
Lightning flashed. 
 
“Maybe there’s a water-walking spell in one of the—”
 
Thunder sounded. The showers weren’t over.
 
“Oh golly,” said Cozy. “Forgetful me forgot to check the forecast today. They’re probably emptying the clouds in storage before snow arrives.”
 
“Can’t we just fly above it?” Luster asked.
 
Cozy pitched her wings back. They came to a stop. The act hurled Luster off her mother’s back, forwards, to be caught by Cozy, who twisted her around, so they’d face each other. Luster sniffled, her muzzle runny from the cold. The filly smeared a mustache of snot across the coat of her leg and face.
 
“Yeah, no,” Cozy said.
 
It happened between nineteen to twenty years ago, but dialogues between parents and foals that sat on the bench (Discord) placed next to her petrified body served as Cozy’s basis of a good parent—or at least an average one (she hated those parkgoers). During the cold months, if the foal caught a runny muzzle, one of the parents would reveal they’d packed a hoofkerchief or tissue pack. 
 
Foals would complain about how heat-trapping clothes restricted their movements—Cozy felt so sorry for them—but the parents forced them to keep each layer on. Cozy looked around; most foals had a scarf at least, and all she had for snot was a receipt, hardly suitable for wiping.
 
“You okay, Mom?” Luster asked.
 
“Hm? Oh, I’m fine.” Cozy’s eyes locked on the train station. “Why don’t we take the railway home? That should be fun! It’ll be your first time.”
 
She squished her daughter to her chest and flew towards the station, Luster’s face turned to one side as her mother’s forelegs buckled behind her back. The filly watched the building shrink shorter as they descended.
 
“But we don’t have any bits,” Luster reminded.
 
Cozy landed on the floor and swiped her hoof. She noticed a used ticket on the ground, stained by dirt from steps. “Phff! I’ll talk us into a free ride.”
 
As she scraped off dirt and walked, Luster's attention was stolen by the colorful displays of different stores. Some were dedicated to selling items the filly hadn’t even heard of, such as ‘video games’ or memorabilia in the form of jarred pollution.
 
She failed to notice her mother’s head was turned back as they went because hers was glued to the side. Cozy noticed those dilated pupils: signs of a filly deep in thought. Luckily, Equestria hadn’t reached the stage where they’d placed Hearth’s Warming decoration at the start of autumn. 
 
The ticket booth stood between the rows of mechanical gates that led to the platform. She dragged her little zombie in line, only two pairs behind the counter. 
 
Even on a weekday, gloomy weather between the lunch bracket usually meant a longer queue. Maybe other creatures planned their days out better? Better than her? Cozy wanted to know. Psychological profiles made up the basis of her ability to predict, so she’d know what tone would shift a conversation towards her desired outcome.
 
“You sold me a used ticket!” Cozy slammed her hoof on the counter. 
 
The storm clerk, an elderly long-necked dragon triple that of Cozy’s height, squinted whilst he adjusted a pair of round wireframe glasses. “I don’t think I recognize you…”
 
Cozy’s brow furrowed, her mouth gaped, she hovered to the plane of the dragon’s height, and tapped the glass divider. “Excuse me?” 
 
“Look, ma’am, these gates are automatic for ponies now,” the ticket clerk said.
 
The new gates were longer, and a screen protruded above where a creature would slot their ticket, one made of a slab of translucent crystal. A pony served as an example. Once her flank reached the sensors, the turnstiles dropped; she entered without a ticket—and that gate’s screen displayed her cutie mark.
 
 “Who installed those?” she asked, her head yet to return.
 
 “A few ponies from the Crystal Empire under Canterlot. I couldn’t ever forget it! Princess Flurry Heart herself was the first creature to pass through!”
 
Cozy knew she recognized those sensors and that type of magical technology; she knew roughly how it worked, as well as how her bow disguise worked. She can’t go through.
 
“Of course… Well, I refuse to take it. It seems a bit inconsiderate to all those non-pony creatures without cutie marks: they’ll end up arriving later to their jobs or homes than non-ponies!”
 
“Well, the lines are shorter—”
 
“And what about you? Once they find a way to spy on everycreature, your job’s donezo!”
 
“Okay, okay! I’ll check for your name right now, Ms…”
 
“Butter Skies, and please be quick about it. My filly’s about to freeze to death!” Cozy plopped Luster onto the counter and forced her head upwards, so the clerk could see.
 
The clerk typed out her name, clicked, scrolled, and said, “Sorry ma’am, but I don’t see your name in the system. No records.”
 
“Well, you must’ve made a mistake, or the technomancers spoilt your system. Either way, I refuse to use those gates. I’m appalled by this gross overreach of authority and the city’s favoritism towards ponies,” Cozy complained to the dragon. “What’s your name?”
 
“I don’t see how that’s—hey!” The clerk covered his nametag as Cozy flew to look, angling her head upwards and downwards to peek. “Look, fine. If it’s about the health of a foal, I’ll print you a new ticket.”
 
“I’m not taking those gates,” Cozy said. 
 
The clerk sighed, and opened the door into his booth for Cozy and Luster to pass through. 
 
“Thank you.” Cozy smiled. “Come on Lustie. Let’s go!” 
 
As Luster hurdled over the clerk’s tail, she muttered, “Sorry…”
 
The dragon held out a claw and returned a casual wave. 
 
“Come on, Lustie! The train’s about to leave!” Cozy clamped a foreleg around her daughter’s back and rushed towards the beeping doors. 
 
“You didn’t have to be so mean,” Lustered said to her mother.
 
“He doesn’t own the train station, dear. He’ll get paid all the same and he probably doesn’t even care about his job. Besides, Flurry’s sneezes used to cost as much as my scholarship. The city will be fine.”
 
Money wasn’t the point, but Luster didn’t press on.
 
The Friendship Express’s whistle indicated her due departure. Though made of metal, her exterior bore a resemblance to frosting-covered gingerbread: brown with an occasional pink carriage below roofs whose hues were picked from a triadic selection of yellow, pink, and light blue.
 
Cozy pulled her daughter’s hoof across the platform. The doors were a second too slow to catch her tail. Light from the ceiling blended with what penetrated a dark mountain range of clouds. Heaters provided warmth, to Luster’s rescue (not that the cold bothered her, or anything). Hopefully, the comfy temperatures didn’t kill her chances for snuggles. She deserved it after all that ticket booth drama. 
 
Most of the seats were occupied. Most of them were taken by creatures, but a few were taken by bags and hind hooves. A few specimens lay asleep across a row. Cozy scoffed. They might’ve been homeless; Cozy didn’t care. She didn’t bother to cause a fuss, because her daughter wasn’t about to sit next to a slob.
 
Looks mattered; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been here. If she didn’t look innocent when she was a filly, her letters to Tartarus would’ve aroused more suspicion. They thought she was due to be a victim of her own innocence. If they had caught onto the truth sooner, who knows how events would’ve played out.
 
Would she have been sent to Tartarus a few weeks earlier, as a less-accomplished filly? Would Twilight have tried at least once to reform her, if she never saw the extent of her will to achieve her life’s goals? Would she have even been an orphan? Maybe her looks played a role in her abandonment? Who knows? But what would have happened to Luster? Starlight made a lot of jokes about time travel…
 
A passenger asked Cozy to move. 
 
She did, and afterwards called out, “Lustie?”
 
“Mom!” Luster shouted. “I’ve found us a seat!”
 
‘A’ seat? Not a few? Oh golly, thought Cozy. Feathers crossed she picked a couple of friendly creatures…
 
Luster waved a hoof above the commuters who sat mirrored. Cozy walked towards her. The filly’s seat stood further up front, next to the end of the carriage, close to the next door. They wouldn’t need to surf tides of creatures to depart, but Cozy could’ve always flown out of a window or through the open gateway connections.
 
A drizzle textured the windows, a sign of what was to come. Cozy couldn’t wait! To be cradled under warm lights, next to her filly eager to explore a brand-new book—what could be better suited than the slumberous contrast of a dark, rainy landscape? Maybe they’d even get train service? Luster devoured that carrot dog she bought her prior to going to the bookstore. Hardly substantial for lunch.
 
“I’m here!” Luster called again. Her upper body stood towered above the heads of the seats. The filly’s smile shone as bright as her mother’s, but they went out of sync.
 
Cozy pace slugged. Luster was oblivious. 
 
Unless her daughter also mastered self-levitation, and judging by the lack of an encompassing aura, she must’ve been held up by the creature sitting next to her. 
 
Claws.
 
Gallus—now ‘Captain Gallus’ though she refused to call him that—always held a breath of suspicion over Cozy. Even back when they were classmates, when accusations of her cussing seemed outlandish, he sensed an air of fakeness around her. Cozy hated to admit it, but that made Gallus smarter than most. It also made Cozy’s second deception all the more satisfying. 
 
As Flurry’s favorite guard, she had diplomatic immunity outside the Crystal Empire. When they visited Canterlot, Princess Flurry would demand privacy for one or two hours a day. During that time, Cozy never had a nap or went to the bathroom; instead, she followed that griffon everywhere he went like a guardian angel, one that existed only to tease him on paw timing. 
 
At least Cozy knew she was a glorified foalsitter. Gallus and the other guards only served to provide a reference for this Tuesday's supervillain’s power—or tourism.
 
Cozy wished it was Gallus on that train, not his friends. 
 
Silverstream and Smolder: Cozy nearly forgot they existed. At least Sandbar and Yona—who weren’t on the train—were memorably boring, and if Cozy was held at hornpoint, she could perhaps spit out a few words of respect for that griffon. The same could not be said for those four. 
 
Luster’s hind legs stood on the palms of Silverstream’s claws, who sat opposite Smolder. They’ve aged a decade too far. 
 
Ponies of Cozy’s mental makeup were rare, but not one-in-Equestria rare. None ever graced her heights; they got put in normal prisons for petty crimes. Cozy was the result of many factors: her precocity, cutie mark, orphanhood, etc., and it lent her a personality that uniquely refracted emotion. The subtleties were lost to most, but to those who knew her personally, she wasn’t impossible to suss out, even with a new disguise. 
 
An amber light formed around Cozy’s tail and tugged her to the reserved seat. Luster forgot the strength of her own magic. She nearly squished herself through her own mother, but Silverstream caught her, effortlessly able to support the pegasus’ weight.
 
It would’ve been suspicious to leave at this point; Cozy sat down. Her daughter sat between her hind legs and rested her back on her stomach. 
 
The storm had fully set in. Rain now had its intended meaning: not one of relaxation, but of despair, like an abandoned foal without purpose, wandering through alleyways under a cardboard umbrella.
 
Compound eyes stared at her; a poker face she wore, but Cozy could read past those plates. 
 
Between the Princesses, Mane Six, Pillars, the Students, Cutie Mark Crusaders, and all their honorary members, there was no creature Cozy dreaded more to sit opposite to—than Ocellus.