Cozy woke up in her own bed, in her own private bedroom. The days when she and Luster shared rooms were long over, unless the hotel they were staying in only had one bed. If her daughter had a nightmare, she preferred to deal with it alone nowadays.
It had been years since Discord and Flurry crashed Luster’s cutie mark party but (thankfully) none of them ever returned to cuff the Supervillain away.
Before, Luster was younger than Cozy was when she enrolled in the School of Friendship. Now, Luster was roughly entering her teenage years, according to Hope’s estimates; and if she had told her that today, Cozy would’ve mocked her for saying the most obvious fact in all of Equestria.
The hour hand of the round analog clock that sat on Cozy’s bedside table was only a right angle away from the twelve at the top. It was 9 AM now, three-and-a-half hours later than when she usually woke up. The ‘early bird’ stretched her shoulders and wings, and after tying her bow over her bed-headed mane, she went to open the curtains.
She had installed a security system for her house which had privacy features that not only hid her true appearance from the outside world, but also kept her voice contained indoors.
Inches of snow covered the yard. A bird bath installed on one of her neighbor’s patios had frozen over. Icicles that had formed on her roof’s drain refracted a constellation of light rays across her coat. The biting temperatures outside made Cozy glad she was a pegasus pony, and the fact that her daughter hadn’t shoveled (or flamethrower-ed) the yard, as she was supposed to, elicited a roll of the eyes from the mare, who flew downstairs.
She didn’t bother checking the bins or the sink, but her eyes caught an accidental glance at the drier; her sharpness was a curse.
“Lustie, you were supposed to take your own clothes out of the dryer!” Cozy swiped a basket towards the front of the machine’s door and its unloaded contents, taking a risky whiff of a dress to make sure no mold had formed overnight. “How could you make your hornless, overworked, old (mid-twenties) single mother do your chores?” she cried. No response. And I’m evil…
Nothing ever got done around here unless Cozy forced it, because, apparently, flicking her horn and willing a spell was too much work for the poor filly, who always brought up the fact that her mother wasn’t a unicorn—so what would she know? There was a brief moment during this era of Luster where she did her chores and get rewarded in real bits, determined by the quality of the job, and it all worked very well until she heard what River’s cousin was getting paid. That caused an upheaval. Luster wanted to be at least paid five bits for just vacuuming the floor, and after some deliberation, Cozy gave in. The next week, she wanted twenty bits. “Ridiculous!” Cozy had said, and that brings us to today.
The mother flew to the living room to find none other than her demon daughter lying on a pillow propped against the far end arm of the couch under a gray blanket. The TV was running and the curtains were closed, and while the filly did look cozy: asleep with her legs curled up in a wooly nest, that was no excuse to not be awake by now!
“Oh my golly, dear, you’re still on the sofa? Couldn’t have at least teleported up to your room? Maybe do what you’re supposed to do on a FRIDAY 9 AM!” Cozy pressed the top-most red button on the remote to turn off the TV. “Y’know, when I was younger than your age, I had to wake up at—”
The TV turned back, all whilst Luster kept her eyes closed. But Cozy knew what was happening.
“Dear, I saw your horn flash. And that couldn’t have been the Sun because there’s NO LIGHT IN HERE! And they call drones emotional vampires! If you’re not watching TV, you’re wasting my bits,” Cozy lectured as she turned off the TV again, only for it to ‘mysteriously’ turn back on again. Cozy groaned. “Lustie, seriously. I’m already upset your chores weren’t done, and don’t you dare lie and say you went to bed before me, even for last night. You were probably listening to the drier’s alarm go off but couldn’t be bothered to get up.”
Luster opened her eyes, but she wasn’t looking towards her hovering mother; instead, she was watching whatever was on television so the electricity used wouldn’t be a complete waste.
“Ahem? My eyes are up here,” Cozy said, forelegs crossed. On the third attempt to turn off the TV, nothing happened. She pressed the red circle, but the TV kept running. “Dear, did you do something to the remote?”
Luster smirked.
“Turn it off now!” Cozy demanded.
The filly didn’t comply.
Cozy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She placed the laundry basket on the living room table, dragged a chair from the dining area, placed it backwards in front of her daughter, and sat down, blocking the view. Luster’s face fell.
“Lustie,” Cozy said, “you know I had to look far and wide for a foalsitter on such short notice after Hope bailed on us last second to attend—some concert or whatever with Suri, and after a couple of calls I started to wonder whether maybe you could handle a few days by yourself, and also whether there was no concert at all and my friends were pulling a bluff because they're scared of you, but—hey, are you even listening?! Why are your eyes and horn glowing?”
Luster gave no response, but Cozy knew what she was doing. It happened before, when her daughter used an X-ray spell to watch TV during a heart-to-heart lecture. Therefore, Cozy would skip gradual escalation and go straight to what got her to listen last time.
She flew off her seat, grabbed her chair—and smashed its legs into the TV. She struck multiple times, destroying the screen, chassis, and even the speakers, raging as she did. And once she was done, she collected her composure, tossed her weapon to the side, and said, “There, are you—”
Luster had her phone out: a flip phone with a keypad. It was levitating above her head, and based on her perpetual presses on the buttons, Cozy inferred she was texting River and doing it out of spite. Perhaps she was a traditionalist or old, but texting felt so dull to Cozy, especially compared to the flow of ink over a fresh piece of paper through an Alicorn-feather quill, all sent by the vivid ignition of portable dragon fire.
“I seem to have recalled somepony promising that they’d do whatever they were told if their mommy got them a certain electronic for Hearth’s Warming,” Cozy said. “All the drones looked with envy because it’s super hard to get one of those at that time of year… Somepony had to fly through a bunch of hoops… They’re really starting to regret it now… Might not be so nice when that foal’s birthday/adoption day comes around…”
Luster ignored her mother and kept texting.
Cozy opened the curtain blocking the sliding doors, causing Luster to squint, cover her eyes, and hiss. The base of the glass was covered in a sea of white, and though frost collected on the far-off trees, now, the Sun’s rays of warmth could pass through.
“Those two reformed drones of yours aren’t even that much older than you, and they’re running a perfectly okayish bakery selling cakes to Princesses,” Cozy said.
Atty and Prety became apprentices to an old couple, both bakers, once the only two working bakers in town, and learned by them how to bake, occasionally by Cozy via correction. Neither of them particularly enjoyed being watched over their shoulders, but to be awarded an ‘okayish’ from Cozy was an honor. She calls those two ‘the better half of the business’, berating the owners as ‘pathetically incompetent.
One day, while she was reaching for milk at the store, Discord’s face appeared inside the refrigerator.
“Ah, Butters!” he had said, wearing a face that was smugger than she remembered. “I’ve scoured all across Equestria to rediscover your secret—the drone that baked your cake, or should I say drones.”
Discord had then teleported her to the inside of the bakery, leaving Luster at the store. “These two made your Luster’s cutie-mark cake, am I right?”
“Those two?!” Cozy blurted. “Absolutely—”
“Flurry couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Discord said. “She told all the Princesses, and they’re all very curious. Perhaps I should ‘invite’ you to a royal tea party, and we’ll all try our best to ‘persuade’ you if it’s not them?”
Cozy looked at Atty and Prety, whose expressions were eagerly awaiting her response, acting as if Discord being there was a daily occurrence. She bit her lips hard and forced herself to utter, “Yep.”
Not a week later she heard from Autumn, who heard from the news, that Discord shared those samples with Flurry, who shared her samples with her mother, Twilight and the Sisters. When she passed by the store that same day, she noticed a golden plaque hung under the ‘open’ sign on the glass door reading ‘Royal Recommendation’ followed by five crowns alluding to stars. That night she dipped her quill in red ink and wrote each Princess an angry letter, only to not send a word.
Ending that recollection, Cozy said, “You’re super lucky you ever have me, Lustie!”
Texting.
Cozy groaned and flew to the ceiling, pointing as she said, “Luster Dawn! Get your flank off the couch right now, wash your face, and go hang your clothes! Your foalsitter will be here soon.”
The Supervillain’s unrivaled assertion was no match for the filly’s indifference.
“Are you having a silent stroke, or will I have to confiscate your gadgets until I get back from my—” Cozy had reached out for Luster’s phone, but her hoof slid over a round barrier, now made visible by amber ripples. The mother gasped. “How dare you!”
But Luster still pretended to be deaf.
“Luster, I’m not foaling around. Undo that bubble right now or else!”
Cozy noticed that Luster’s blanket wasn’t completely encapsulated inside her bubble. Her dome measured the length of a back couch cushion, but her blanket nearly stretched arm-to-arm. So, she bit the blanket and pulled, aiming to deprive Luster of her debilitating warmth. Cozy wedged her legs on the side of the sofa, straightened her back, and flapped her wings like a fettered bird, but Luster’s bubble held the blanket tighter than a weld. Try as she might, Cozy couldn’t un-cozy her daughter. But during her workout, she found another target: Luster’s tail peeking under the blanket, outside of her bubble.
Cozy ominously encroached into grabbing distance, only for one of Luster’s hind legs to pass through her barrier and lightly push her away mother by the joint of her jaw.
Cozy gasped. “You kicked me!” She landed on top of Luster’s bubble. “How could you do that to your own mother? That really hurt…” she lied. “Is that how you say goodbye when Mommy’s going away on an important trip? You don’t say good morning to me anymore.”
The filly’s eyes shifted up towards her mother. For a second Cozy thought she had finally gotten through to her.
Luster farted. She looked back at her phone while flickering her tail under her blanket.
Cozy groaned. “You foul foal… Fine!” She grabbed the laundry basket and plopped it upside down on Luster’s bubble. “We’ll have a chat about your behavior when I get back. Just don’t act like this when your foalsitter here, or they’ll call me asking why a Princess replaced my daughter.”
She stormed out of the room, legs dangling, only to peek her head back out. “And since you're soooo grown-up and cool, you can sort your own breakfast out. Hmph!”
She re-entered the hallway only to fly back out. “All I’ll have you know, there’s plenty of food here, so don’t call Foal Protective Services on me. Either way, you're almost as heavy as I am.”
Luster retorted, “You’re just short.”
“…Smarthind.”
Cozy wouldn’t shorten her lifespan further by continuing the conversation. She flew to the kitchen to turn on the kettle and took out a plastic container from the fridge. If her daughter wasn’t showing attitude, she would’ve brewed her a coffee, but noooo—Luster’s a big filly, she doesn’t want Mom’s help. So, Cozy only made hot water—and ate one of the two last slices of banana bread from the cold container.
“Heyyyy!” Luster whined, still inside her bubble, “You promised I could have those!”
Cozy continued chewing. “I never promised, I only said it casually.”
“Same thing!”
The mare ignored her—fire versus fire—and flew to the upstairs bathroom while hastily finishing the bread.
Once inside, she had a shower—using shampoo, soap, and featherwash—blow-dried and combed her mane, brushed her teeth, flossed, powdered her cheeks, and gargled a shot of peppermint mouthwash which she despised; Luster bought it for two whole bits only to use once, and for some reason Cozy now cared about not wasting money, even though she had more than she could possibly ever spend. An extravagant lifestyle would not only arouse suspicion, but worse than Flurry knocking on her door again, Luster would be even more spoiled.
“Luster’s going through a phase”, Cozy repeated to herself. “I’m not a suck-up. This is part of every pony’s foalhood. It’s not my fault.”
“Totally Mom!” Luster shouted.
“Luster Dawn, when I taught you that eavesdropping spell, didn’t I specifically tell you not to use it on—”
The doorbell rang.
“…me. Finally!” Cozy said. She flew downstairs, saying, “Y’know Luster, I might not even come back after this. Maybe I’ll get an apartment and you can have this place for yourself. I’m sure there are places here that’ll hire foals. You can pay your taxes—ask some stranger on the internet how.”
“The internet is as reliable, if not more than, a library, Mom,” Luster said. “Creatures are critical, and they’ll point out whether something’s wrong and they’ll get called out for it. Also, technically, most of the questions have already been asked by some other creature so—”
“Yeah, yeah, those experts, huh? The ones that share all their knowledge for free?”
“As long as you check multiple sources and aren’t stupid, I’d trust them more than some random book!”
Cozy rolled her eyes. Before she opened the door, she activated her disguise; her bow has gathered a few extra enchantments over the years. It no longer required a swipe, and instead could be turned on and off hoof-free, but more notable was that changing in and out of Butter Skies no longer left her feeling as if she had been pushed into a pool of grounded peppers with chapped skin. Hope told her that the bow’s old painful side effects were completely unrelated to the transformation bit and were placed there on purpose, but how could that make any sense? Chrysalis applied that enchantment herself, and there was no way she could’ve messed that up!
Cozy greeted the foalsitter. “Golly! You’re late!”
Lightning Dust had a scarf and soft boots. Both she and Cozy could tolerate this level of cold, but considering the skies bore even lower temperatures and windy conditions weren’t uncommon, especially in a valley, going out au naturel wasn’t the most comfortable. Even Lightning knew wearing nothing made you look more forgetful than it did resilient. So, Cozy grabbed her satchel and cloak from the pegs on the wall whilst the other pegasus gave their excuse for not showing up two hours ago.
“Oh, well, you get how it is… a lot of air traffic these days under Flurry’s rule, heh…”
“Flurry rules over West Equestrian airspace?” Cozy asked, knowing full well that Lighting had performed for the Crystal Empire less than a week before Hearth's Warming last year; Luster showed her many photos from the internet that suggested she was less than critical of the Crystal Royal Family.
“…So, heard a bit of a ruckus in here,” Lightning said. “What’s all that about?”
“That’s your demon to deal with now,” Cozy answered.
Her cloak started to glow changeling-green and transformed into a formal blouse and dress, white above, navy below, and her satchel went under an illusion that would hide her embroidered rook when in use. Those threads were both crucial for the bag’s extra-dimensional enchantment to circulate, but they also once served as a symbol she would flout when she served as a high-ranking official of the Sombra’s Empire. Also hers. It was a complicated rulership structure. But otherwise, her bag was hardly distinguishable by itself.
Her new cloak was as good as the one she wore as an official. There was a deep-pink and heart-shaped jewel that clipped the bottom ends of the hood together, housing most of the magic that allowed it to change its shape and appearance. Best of all: it had slots for her wings. In many ways, it was better than what she wore as an official of the usurped Crystal Empire, especially after a series of events ruined that cloak’s magical enchantments. Afterwards, she only kept it for sentimental value. Then, less-badly-behaved Luster stole it and jumped out of her window. Now it rests in a box in Cozy’s closet.
“Come in,” Cozy said as they swapped places. “You can keep your boots on. Somepony turned my lovely house into a pigsty!”
“Mom, it’s Twilight’s Equestria,” Luster said. “She says you can’t say that anymore.”
“Twilight never said that! And they’re pigs! You’re trying to get me to spit out my feathers on purpose, aren’t you? You find it funny when I get mad?” Cozy shouted, before turning to Lightning who was trying to conceal her own giggles.
The mother landed on the ground to ‘level’ with the foalsitter. One of them was several inches shorter than the other.
Cozy whispered, “Look Lightning, I don’t care whether you have to yell or take her stuff or banish her to the timeout chair at her age, because chances are you can’t. I had to pause the spell-casting portion of her homeschooling curriculum because I’m too good of a teacher! I don’t know how that’s possible, but then again, Sunburst is Flurry’s Crystaller… Either way, I can’t bridle her magic anymore!”
“...So she’s like younger you?” Lightning asked.
Still whispering, Cozy said, “What?! No. I was an active, determined, ambitious filly! Maybe I was a bit moody after all those years of torment, but I was never this sassy to Chrysalis—plus look at this place! And you should see her room—it’s disgusting!”
“But isn’t this your house?” Lightning asked, bluntly.
Luster laughed.
“Luster, you’re not using that eavesdropping spell again, are you?” Cozy shouted.
“What? Noooo, definitely not,” Luster replied. “Just like how you totally don’t go inside my room, because, you know, I have a sign that says you're supposed to ask for permission!”
Cozy looked (up) at Lightning. “See what I mean?!” She grabbed the other’s hoof. “But… do keep her safe.
“Phff! No problem!” Lightning replied. “Safety’s my middle name!” She attempted to pull her hoof back, but Cozy kept hold.
“I care about safety, Lightning.”
“Uhh… yeah, a lot of ponies do…”
After staring deeply into the other’s eyes, Cozy let go, switching to a happy state. “Welp, I best be off!” She skipped her way to the snowy outside and got ready to dash, bending her hind legs, extending her wings, and tilting her spine. “Oh and by the way, Lustie broke the TV. She hides her bits under the floorboard of her closet, you can use that to buy another one.”
Upon hearing such an absurd suggestion, Luster teleported to the front of the house, alone with her blanket—and the bucket of laundry; it fell on her head and caused her to stumble over the layer of snow. “Hey!” she shouted, but Cozy had already flown off.
Luster magically lifted the basket off her head, gathered each article of clothing that had been dumped onto the snow, and teleported all of it to her room. Her body had gotten used to the cold over the years, but that didn’t make her any less of a unicorn, a tribe that lacked the feathers and fluff of a pegasus, and the physical resilience of an earth pony. What she did have, however, was the ability to cast an ensemble of spells. But she was lazy, so she just walked inside, closing the door behind her.
Lightning had taken off her boots, despite Cozy’s half-serious suggestion, and wrapped her scarf over the stair’s railings.
As Luster walked past, she spotted her foalsitter. Her eyes widened at what her foalsitter was doing.
Luster grabbed Lightning with her horn and lifted her above the ground. “Those are mine,” Luster said, voice dropping.
Lightning read the labels on the can of soda that she held in her wing and swallowed. “Well, you didn’t put your name on it so…”
Luster dropped Lightning, who flapped once to land smoothly on the ground. The filly said, “That’s only because Cozy doesn’t really like soft drinks. She says they’re ‘too sugary,’ but she eats all sorts of cookies and cupcakes!”
“She sure does make good donuts…” Lightning said. “So, you two seem to get along well.”
“Phff! I hardly ever bother her,” Luster said. “She’s the one that rushes me to do stuff so quickly. It’s tiring living with a Supervillain! All I want is a bit of space.”
“Fair enough.” Lightning threw her empty soda can into an overflowing bin. “Soooo—what do you want to do about lunch? Or brunch? I haven’t really eaten breakfast yet.” She whispered, even though they were the two creatures inside, “I only woke up ten minutes ago.”
“Me too,” Luster whispered back. “Cozy ate my breakfast.”
“Should we go somewhere outside then?”
“Yeah.”
Lightning spoke normally. “Great! Let’s go!”
Luster watched as her foalsitter re-wore her scarf and went towards her boots. “You mean now?”
“Well, duh,” Lightning replied. “How long do you want to wait? I mean, unless you want to stand in line by yourself because it’s nearly lunch hour and lines aren’t my thing.”
Luster rubbed her chin and thought deeply about what her foalsitter said. “Okay, you’re right. But let me go grab my stuff first.”
Lightning leaned against the wall in front of the stairs. “Go ahead.”
The filly nodded her head and teleported.
Lightning could hear her reappear in the room upstairs to the left. She waited for a whole thirty seconds, sat on the steps, waited a while longer. Two minutes had passed, and Luster had yet to return.
“Are you okay up there?” Lightning called. She got no response.
Sighing to herself, the foalsitter hovered off the ground and went towards the room that was obviously Luster’s. Leftover residue from tape marked the body of the door and a paper plastered on—that wasn’t written in Cozy’s cursive, but instead in print with red markers—read: “PLEASE knock before entering!” So, Lightning knocked twice and entered before Luster could say ‘don’t’.
“You done, squirt?” Lightning asked.
Luster’s room was a mess. She had an unmade single bed, her curtains were closed, and the clothes Cozy passed her had teleported to the floor of her ajar closet. The only reason the floor itself wasn’t littered with junk was because she swept everything to a corner of her room.
“Please knock next time,” Luster said, only a bit annoyed. Thirty items orbited around her, from books to old birthday cards to air fresheners and candles, dumbbells; a boxy monitor, desktop, and keyboard; and her mother’s—or Seraph’s—old diplomatic passport. There was an illustration of the Royal Family in front of the Crystal Heart on the page it was ccurently opened. The cover of the passport itself was made of a pink-colored crystal, and the motif of the Crystal Heart Appeared again at the back in the form of Cadance's cutie mark. Surely Cozy would’ve kept that in her own room for sentimental value?
Feeling pressured by Lightning waiting behind her, Luster forced her mind to focus on performing an object-finding spell.
A light flashed from under her bed. Between a few pens and papers that fell behind the wall side of the mattress, and boxes that were empty but she kept for future usage, Luster saw her target. She pulled from the darkness of her bed: a leather jacket; design: black all over. It was a size larger than ideal for the filly, nearly touching her tail, but it fits her well enough to wear outside.
“Just hang on for a sec,” Luster said as she turned around and levitated a punch of spikes out of her bedside drawer. A concentrated beam flowed out of her horn continuously as she welded the spikes onto her collars.
Lightning would’ve been taken aback by Luster’s lack of tidiness if her room wasn’t in the exact same state.
The only real shocker was how Cozy allowed it. She used to go on long-winded tirades over Flurry’s room being a mess. The Princess wouldn’t let just any officially appointed member of the staff barge into her room and rummage through whatever they pleased. There had to be a degree of trust first, and you could probably guess one of the few creatures she trusted. Although after a while, Flurry started to care too much about Seraph’s opinions to let her continue room-cleaning duties, that didn’t erase the images of filth from Cozy’s mind.
“Nice jacket,” Lightning said.
“Thanks!” Luster replied, a smile showing on her face. “Cozy made me take off the spikes because she thought it would’ve been bad for Butters’ reputation. But at the worst, most creatures would probably only feel bad for her if they saw me wearing this—uhm, maybe not that depressing, but I meant only at the worst! Many well-behaved foals wear these sorts of clothes. My mom just doesn’t understand that most creatures nowadays don’t care about those sorts of things, right? And I mean, she’s Cozy Glow!”
“Totally,” Lightning replied. “But it’s a bit thin, no? Aren’t unicorns a bit sensitive to the cold, even though they all live in the mountains?”
“I know a warmth spell,” Luster said. “It’s pretty cool—or, warm. Haha.”
Lightning nodded. “Alright then. Now all that’s left is... how are we gonna get to wherever we’re going? Should I carry you?” the foalsitter chuckled.
“Uh… I can self-levitate.”
“Woah, really? So, we can race?” Lightning smirked.
“Well, it’s probably not really as fast as you…” Luster admitted.
Lightning walked up closer. “But you’re faster than your mom, right?” she teased.
Luster looked away. “It sorta depends on your definition of fast and stuff, relativity and all that…”
“Of course,” Lightning said. “You can tell me about it when we get to the place. You teleported a bunch of times since I got here. How far can you jump?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I could probably make it to Vanhoover,” Luster said, trying hard to sound humble though, really, she wanted to brag to her foalsitter.
“Aww, dang!” Lightning punched air across her chest.
“What?”
“Oh nothing… It’s just that I was really meaning to try out this one restaurant in Canterlot but—if you only make it to Vanhoover, and don’t want to be carried there, then I’m totally fine with that.”
Lightning was only playing around by ignoring how impressive Luster’s current abilities were, not that she would really get it being a pegasus stuntmare. But Luster took it a bit more personally than she expected.
“I can totally make it to Canterlot!”
“Heh, listen, you don't even know what place I'm talking about and I’m—”
Luster took out her phone. “You send me a message and we’ll find each other when we get there!”
“Yeah, but your mom—”
Luster vanished in a flash of light.
Lightning stared at where the filly once stood, face yet to react. “…Aw buck.”
“Now my friend Silverstream will show you all to the dorms,” Ocellus said to a group of young creatures. “All of you, please follow her.”
“This way!” Silverstream said, waving her waving away her claw.
The School of Friendship was conducting their annual tours of the campus for those aspiring to one day study there, and because of that, and the upcoming exams, all the current students had a week without classes to study by themselves, or preferably in their own groups, for the theory portions. As such, Ocellus was knackered. She led the outside tours of today’s first group, and like all the other days since last Saturday, there were two other tours left until she could finally relax.
At least she had an hour-long break until the debrief. She was certainly not going to waste it this time by doing anything productive, so she headed upstairs towards her favorite teacher’s lounge. Smolder would’ve passed off her group to Trixie by now, so she was expecting to meet the dragon there, though they made no plans and she wouldn’t be mad if she didn’t. Maybe she could use an hour by herself. There’d probably be other teachers in the room, but they’d only be close friends, not one of her five best friends.
She was about to pass by Starlight’s office when she noticed a light-pink mare with a mane and tail split into six colors: purple, cerise, orange, yellow, turquoise, and blue, and a cutie mark of a notepad. The mare was shaking whilst memorizing a piece of paper filled with common interview questions and tips for impressive answers.
“Nervous?” Ocellus asked.
“…Yeah,” the mare responded, “a bit nervous. The creature before me was so confident and talky. If that’s who I have to compete with—” She forced out a chuckle.
Ocellus smiled. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Starlight has multiple positions she wants to fill before she ‘steps down’,” she said with big quotation marks around the last two words.
“True…” the mare said. “Maybe that creature was just particularly outgoing. She acted almost as if we went to the same school together, but I don’t remember seeing her before, and I feel like I’d remember knowing a pony who’s ten years younger than me, though maybe my memories are just a bit hazy. I remembered seeing you though! We both used to be students at this school, but I was in a class of mostly other foals.”
“I thought you looked familiar,” Ocellus said. Noticing that the mare was still overly anxious, she added, “Instead of worrying, try wondering how it would be to work with a creature who, you said, was very friendly.”
“Yeah…” the mare replied.
“Rest assured,” Ocellus said, “Starlight isn't exactly a judgmental pony. You shouldn’t let stress get to you on a Friday—” She turned her head—and saw another’s popping between the Headmare’s doors: lemon-coated, bow-wearing—and lacking the noisome scent that followed her the last time they met. "—morning…"
The changeling’s mouth froze agape. She took a few steps back.
Butter Skies smiled. “Gosh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it, Celly?”