//------------------------------// // A Cozy Afternoon // Story: An Unexpected Ally // by Kind of Brony //------------------------------// "A little to the left... No, my left, that's it. A little more... Perfect! Thank you, Silver," Cozy Glow says sweetly as the burly pegasus guard finishes setting up her large, queen-sized canopy bed. She turns to the unicorn who's applying a lacy, white wallpaper trim around the upper edge of the pink-painted walls and says, "You're doing great, Spellweave! Do you think when you're done with that, you could help me make the bed? It'd be so much easier with magic." The guard grunts, not removing his focus from his task, but nods, getting Cozy to beam smile #3 to show extreme appreciation and joy for the help. "You know, maybe if you're not be able to make your own bed without help, you should have gotten something smaller. I don't think the guards will appreciate bed making being thrown on top of their duties." Cozy's smile drops and she turns to see Green leaning against the door frame, eating an apple as she looks around the room. "You and Twilight are the ones who said to order anything I want, and now you're criticizing my choices?" Cozy says accusingly. "Golly, I just figured since, you know, this is going to be my prison forever, that I should at least be comfortable here." Green shrugs. "Hey, if this is how you want your room setup, don't let me stop you. I'm just curious whether or not you actually wanted all this, or if you just chose all the most expensive stuff out of spite because Twilight was footing the bill," she says, gesturing with the half-eaten fruit. "After all, you didn't exactly leave yourself much space here." Cozy turns to look over her new room, and has to admit that she might have gone a little bit overboard. The giant bed takes up most of the space, and what's left is occupied by a large mahogany desk, a seat more akin to a throne in front of it which, when pulled out enough to sit in will be pressing against the bed, and another wall covered by a large, mostly empty wardrobe, vanity mirror, and bookshelf. It's rather cramped, and as a pegasus, it clashes greatly with her innate love of open spaces. Still, while she can admit it to herself, she'll never admit to Green that she made a mistake, and so says, "It's perfect." "If you say so, but I'm not pushing apart the twin beds in my room now that I've got you out of there, so don't come crying to me when you can't fall asleep in here." "Like you'd ever catch me crying," Cozy grumbles. "If you have the linen and comforter ready, I can help you now," Spellweaver says, finished with the wallpaper trim. Cozy quickly pastes on another smile, saying as she points, "Thank you so much, Spelly! All the bed stuff is in the wardrobe over there!" "Spellweaver, if you please," the unicorn responds blandly, though does use his magic to retrieve the bedding. Once they're done, the two guards leave and head to the cloud lookout above, the pegasus carrying his companion who primes a cloud walking spell during their ascent, leaving the two fillies alone once again. They both wave goodbye, Cozy more enthusiastically so until they're completely out of sight. Once they are, she drops her cheery facade and hoof with a sigh. "Well, guess I'm stuck with only you for company again," she grumbles, plopping down onto the step leading up to the door. "If I'd known being unpetrified would be this boring, I might have just stayed a statue." "It's not that bad," Green counters, finally finishing her apple and looking around for a place to toss the core. "We've got books and board games." Cozy watches with a grimace as the other filly shrugs before sticking the core directly into her mouth and chewing loudly. "You're such a weirdo," she mumbles before speaking louder, "I've already read most of those books already. Seriously, I don't get why Twilight thought we'd be interested in books for little foals." Nearly taking over Equestria should be enough of a hint that she's far beyond her peers, and even Green is smarter than the average filly by a tiny bit. She adds absently, "And you're the worst pony to play games with, too." "Yeah? Why's that?" Green asks around her mouthful of apple core, a seed flying from her lips to nearly hit Cozy's hoof before she jerks it away. "Because you never care when I beat you. Seriously, what kind of pony gets decimated in Oligopoly and just shrugs it off? It's no fun if the loser doesn't flip the board and make a fool of themselves." "Sorry for being a good sport, I guess," Green says once she's done swallowing. "You want me to start throwing tantrums when I lose?" "It wouldn't be the same. What's the point of crushing your enemies if they don't actually care?" "Suit yourself, though you should probably find something to occupy your time. Only a week in is too soon to be going stir crazy." "Yeah, like what?" "A hobby? Don't tell Twilight, but I slipped an order for a ship in a bottle kit into the list of purchases for your room." Cozy can't help but look skeptical as she asks, "Why the flying feather would you want that?" Green actually looks away, a rare sign of embarrassment from the passive filly. "I mean, it's no secret that I'm a bit uncoordinated, so I figured maybe building a ship in a bottle will help me work on that." "Or get you so frustrated that you smash the whole thing on the floor after messing it up a million times," Cozy says gleefully, imagining Green finally getting angry. "Golly, I hope I'm there to see it." "Gee, your faith in me is so inspiring," Green deadpans, causing Cozy to giggle. "I'm sure I can succeed with your cheering me on." "What are friends for?" Cozy says cheerily. Green merely rolls her eyes and flops down next to her. Cozy's good mood only lasts a moment before boredom sets in again, the two left sitting at the door, staring out towards the forest. Cozy hasn't even made an attempt at escape beyond taking a short walk pass the treeline to confirm that the necklace indeed started to grow heavier with each step. For all of her brilliance, the filly has yet to come up with a way to get the cursed thing off of her yet. Arcanum is harder than steel, so standard bolt cutters wouldn't put a scratch in them, and the mystical metal is famous for being able to hold enchantments for centuries without maintenance. In just about any other scenario, the necklace would have been something she coveted, its monetary value being nearly as great as the uses she could come up for such a precious material, if only it weren't stuck around her neck. There's a certain irony in that, she supposes, and she vows that when she gets it off, she's going to stick it around Twilight Sparkle's neck and see how she likes it. The fact that it will be a couple of sizes too small for a grown mare just makes the thought more appealing. She lays her head down on her crossed forelegs and exhales through her nostrils, feeling both bored and angry now. "Hey, I think I know something we can do for a bit of fun," Green suddenly says. "I'm pretty sure there's a ball in house somewhere, courtesy of Pinkie Pie." "A ball?" Cozy repeats with a snort. "What? You want to play catch like a couple of dumb foals?" "Yeah, it sounds like fun, doesn't it?" Cozy tilts her head to glare at the stupidly smiling green filly, who only smiles wider and adds, "Or do you have a better idea other than staring at trees all day?" Cozy opens her mouth to retort, but can't come up with anything, so just continues to glare instead. "I thought so," Green says smugly, standing to head inside. "I'll go find that ball." "Go ahead," Cozy mumbles petulantly. "Waste your time, because I'm not going to play ball like some stupid foal. Not in a hundred years." Resolve set, Cozy trains her eyes forward and continues to stare at the trees. That is, until a kickball suddenly bounces off her head and rolls into the yard. "Hey!" yells the pink filly, sitting up and bringing her hooves to her mane to fix her ribbon. "What's the big idea?!" "Sorry, ball slipped." "You did that on purpose!" "It was a complete accident." "Liar!" "Nope. You know how clumsy I can be." "Oh yeah? Well let's see how you like it when I accidentally throw that ball into your face!" "You can try, but be warned, I might just catch it and accidentally throw it at your head again." "Golly, I don't think a klutz like you could pull that off." "Only one way to find out. Come on, Dimples, show me what you've got, or are you helpless without a couple of real villains around to do all the work?" "That's it! I'm going to destroy you!" Silver Storm and Spellweave are sitting at the edge of the lookout, staring over the side when their replacements arrive for the afternoon watch. The second pair of guards, two pegasi this time, come to land behind them and one calls out, "What news do you have? Are the prisoner and her warden doing well?" "Look for yourself," Silver says with a chuckle. "They're in the yard." The second pair share a confused look before being startled by a loud, violent, yet distinctly familiar sound. PRANG! Moving quickly to stand at the edge with the others, they see Green Hornet stumbling back, having just barely deflected a kickball upwards with her hooves before it could impact her face, and was now trying to catch it as it came down. She fails, the red ball slipping between her outstretched forelegs, but she grabs it as it bounces off of the ground and quickly reels back to toss it at her opponent. Cozy merely hovers in the air, watching with her forehooves crossed over her chest, looking completely unworried. The reason why becomes clear as Green's throw goes wide, missing her by meters. Cozy smirks at her companion's abysmal aim before flying after the ball, having to push herself a little to reach it before it hit the ground. Grabbing the kickball and spinning, she launches it back at Green in one smooth motion, who dives towards the ball this time, managing to catch it a second after it hits her chest with another loud PRANG! Wincing, Green rolls mane over tail, but manages to spread her wings to right herself and start to rise. "She's trying to close the distance to compensate for her aim," Spell notes. "Means she'll have less time to react to return fire though," Silver adds with a wince. "Not sure it's worth the risk. I remember those balls stinging quite a lot when they hit." "To land a single blow on a more skilled opponent might be worth it, if only for pride's sake," says Spell with a nod. "Green Hornet truly has a warrior's heart." "Shame she doesn't have a warrior's coordination. I'm starting to wonder just how she managed to give the Princess that black eye." "The element of surprise is not to be underestimated." "I suppose you're right." "Excuse me, but how long have they been at it?" one of the new guards ask as they watch the fillies play. Prang! They all wince at the sound, but Spell answers, "Nearly an hour, now." "You two will have a quiet shift, I imagine. They're going to be tuckered out after this," says Silver, looking over at them. "Did you bring their dinner?" The other guard holds up a couple of bags of takeout in answer. While there's food in the house, no one expects a couple of foals to be able to cook themselves proper meals, and so when the changing of the guard happens, they've been ordered to bring breakfast and dinner from various restaurants, depending on what Cozy and Green asked for. "They're certainly working up an appetite," says Spell as he shakes his head in amusement and turns his full attention to their replacements. Upon seeing the scroll clasped to one's armor, his expression sobers and he asks, "New orders?" "Hmm?" The guard turns his attention away from the game below to the scroll, a look of realization coming to his face. "No, not this. It's a letter from the Princess for Green." "Really? May I know what it says, if it's not confidential?" "It's not," the guard assures as he unclasps the scroll. "Apparently the Princess has finally managed to find a foal psychologist willing to be Cozy's therapist." "No joke?" Silver asks, turning a speculative eye towards the scroll. "What kind of pony would be willing to take that job?" "Her information is in here for Green to look over. Apparently the Princess wants Green's input on the matter before the mare is brought in." The other guard snorts. "Giving that filly a lot of say in the matter, isn't she? Feels strange knowing she's got so much rein over the situation. Makes you wonder what's going through Princess Twilight's head." "Best watch your tongue there, it's not our job to question the Princess' decisions," reprimands Spellweaver. "And besides, the more I watch Green's interactions with the prisoner, the more I begin to agree with the Princess' rational." He looks back down at the fillies playing, even hearing Cozy laugh, and he smiles gently. "If any pony is going to help Cozy Glow get better, it will be her." Silver nods in agreement, and the two leave the other guards to start their shift. They decide to wait a bit before dropping off dinner, the bags enchanted by Twilight herself to keep the food inside hot and fresh. No need to interfere with their playing until they're finished. Besides, It's pretty entertaining to watch, and they don't get much of that on this job.