Chapter 1: Was I Supposed To Be Here?
Today was another day of learning and friendship for Twilight's history class. On the board was a chalk diagram of the legendary Tree of Harmony itself. Something that apparently helped the Main 6 during their most difficult villain encounters.
However, as Cozy Glow listened in on the lesson and stared at this impressive sketch made by the alicorn professor herself she couldn't help but think of one thing. A nuisance. That tree had been nothing more but an obstacle that got in her way! It infuriated her. Yet despite her anger towards the magical living tree, the young pink pegasus continued to sit there looking cute and taking notes. Gotta become Twilight's right hoof pony someday somehow, right? So she stayed her innocent and attentive little self with her attention also on the creatures sitting nearby. They all seemed frustrated and annoyed, especially that griffin named Gallus. Maybe she could work with this..?
The princess and headmare of the school paced in front of the chalkboard as she went on with her lesson, "The Tree of Harmony remains one of the most powerful sources of magic known to pony(dom), and though it has been at the root of magic and friendship from the moment it was planted, it's ways are mysterious. Almost as if it has a mind of it's own~!" Twilight turned to her students and waved her hooves in a mystifying manner in order to emphasize her point.
Smolder's unconvinced voice cut in, "Mind? Pft. It's. A tree." The orange dragon leaned back, raising a brow.
"A tree that grew a castle!" Twilight refuted, gesturing to the window behind her class.
Several gasps and quiet comments of disbelief rippled through the room as they all looked through the wide window that gave them the perfect view of the magical crystal castle in the distance. If one looked closely enough they'll see the branches of the tree itself growing along the walls of the shining palace, perfectly carrying the rest of the structure up to form the beautiful sight.
"Was that before or after Discord made chocolate rain..?" Silverstream looked through her notes in confusion, her ears drooping and her brows furrowed in thought as she struggled to figure out the timeline of Equestrian history.
Cozy Glow kept herself from rolling her eyes and instead leaned forward by the hippogriff's ear, "After." It didn't hurt to assist once in a while. She was a helpful pony friend after all~!
"I'm never going to learn pony history!" Gallus shouted into the sky, clutching his notes firmly in his talons.
Then just like that, the bell rang.
"You can all show me what you've learned on tomorrow's test," Twilight announced to the dismay of her students, "Friendship's effect on the course of equestrian history!"
"Awww..." Everyone let out a loud groan throughout the classroom. Cozy Glow however? She happily clapped her hooves together. She wasn't too worried about the test. No, she had that completely covered! The young filly knew more than enough to pass that kind of thing! That wasn't the only reason she was so happy however. The three creatures who were clearly struggling through their history lessons had given her a wonderfully brilliant idea!
"Remember! Study groups are both fun and effective!" The professor chirped as the students began to leave.
Oh yes Headmare Sparkle... they'll be effective alright. Effective for Cozy Glow's upcoming plans, that is! And Twilight was going to help her get there. The bubbly filly happily walked up to Professor Twilight with a grin as the classroom cleared out, "Excuse me professor... I was wondering if maybe you'd like any help with the library today?"
The young group of six currently mingled in the school's library. Silverstream was perusing the books with interest while Sandbar and Ocellus sat at a table with Gallus and Smolder who were both struggling to understand the previous history lessons Twilight had taught them. In response to their struggles, Sandbar and Ocellus figured they could help by gathering their own notes and some pictures that were key images of historical pony events. Sandbar plucked up a picture of the Tree of Harmony itself with his mouth and showed it off to the others while the colorful changeling next to him gestured to it with a grin, hoping the other two creatures would be able to explain the past of the tree correctly.
Smolder gave a skeptic shrug, "The elements of harmony grew the tree?"
Sandbar and Ocellus let out a sigh, "No... The Pillars grew the tree." Ocellus explained with a reassuring smile, wanting them to know there was no harm in not knowing the answer.
"The tree grew the elements," Sandbar continued with a raised hoof, "And then the box with six locks."
"But our professors found the six keys and unlocked the box!" Ocellus finished.
Gallus and Smolder blankly stared at their tutors before glancing at one another. "... I'm so going to fail." The griffin grumbled while facepalming at his own shame. Smolder quietly agreed as she rubbed her arms with uncertainty.
"You guys!!" Silverstream jumped up in front of the others at the study table with unrestrained excitement, "Check this out!" The hippogriff opened a book with some drawings of pipes and sinks scrawled onto the papers, showing them off to the group with a glowing twinkle in her eyes.
The group curiously stared at the papers with puzzled expressions. Their eyes went from the pictures to their cheerfully delighted friend. After giving the pages one look Gallus decided to speak up on behalf of the group's bewildered stares, "That's a plumbing diagram on how to fix a sink."
Silverstream giggled and nodded enthusiastically as she held the book up to her chest, hugging it close.
"What does that have to do with equestrian history?" Sandbar asked, looking perplexed.
"Nothing!" Silverstream beamed, "I just can't believe that's how sinks work!" She happily tossed the book to the side, disregarding it completely.
Once the book landed somewhere behind a shelf, Cozy Glow quietly picked it up off the ground, dusted it with a wing, and intently listened in on the other's conversation as she went to place the thrown out book back in its place.
"Where's Yona?" The hippogriff chirped, curiously glancing around and forgetting sinks entirely.
Gallus looked over to a large beanbag where his yak friend currently sat "studying" with a book over her face. He made his way on over and plucked up the blue book to reveal Yona sleeping instead of reading a thing in this boring old history novel. A loud snore erupted from her to show she was living it up in dreamland with Luna.
"Hahah apparently... Yaks no love study groups!" Smolder chimed in, mimicking Yona in a more comedic and stereotypical yak fashion.
Gallus hushed Smolder and smirked. He chuckled as he flapped his wings and hovered up to Yona's side, raising a talon as he carefully inched closer to her. Then, he tapped his claws against her forehead, purposefully making it so it would feel like a little critter making its way across her muzzle. From there all he had to do was sit back and watch.
Yona grunted and pawed at her face with a hoof while her expression scrunched up with tired confusion. Then suddenly, her green eyes snapped open and she jumped right out of her seat, "SPIDER!! Oh no!" The yak cried out, flailing and freaking out as she tried to wipe the imaginary spider off her face before landing back on her beanbag. She covered her face, ready to protect herself in case those scary arachnids came back. When nothing happened she opened an eye and looked up to see her friends. The yak blinked, shocked, and then the group exploded with laughter. Yona was still shaken but she felt relieved knowing it was just her friends messing around and not an actual spider! She could only picture what her reaction must've looked like to the others!
The laughter came to a halt however as another giggle rippled through the library. They all looked up to see Cozy Glow standing on a ladder in order to get to the top of a shelf a bit away from them. It seems she was watching from a distance.
"Hey Cozy," Sandbar came up to the filly, greeting her with a warm smile, "What're you doing here?" She didn't seem like she needed help when it came to Twilight's history lessons before. He couldn't see her coming here to study.
"I volunteered to help Professor Sparkle organize these books," The little filly pointed at the shelf of books with her hoof, "So... Experts on friendship history yet?" The pegasus jumped down, using her wings to glide onto a stack of books on the floor.
"Think I'd be better off studying the plumbing book..." Gallus huffed, "This stuff is impossible..!"
Suddenly, Ocellus abruptly transformed into Twilight Sparkle, "Oh come on Gallus," She went to say, mimicking the professor's voice perfectly, "With good friends and solid study habits, anything is possible!" She hopped up onto a small table nearby as she addressed the others. This gave Gallus a good chuckle.
"How about you just tell us what's on tomorrow's test professor?" Smolder playfully asked, gaining a lively response from the others who began to ask the fake Twilight for answers. Cozy Glow however didn't join them in on their fun.
As the group bombarded the fake Twilight, Ocellus turned herself instead into Applejack. The element of honesty, "Now hold on a sec," A perfect imitation of Applejack's voice rung out with accent and all, "I can't give ya'll a sneak peek. That there wouldn't be honest!" She pointed to the sky to emphasize the point before looking at the others joyfully.
Everyone in the group clutched their stomachs as they laughed, finding the copies to be hilarious! Cozy Glow meanwhile gave the group a frown and made her way up over to the table in front of them. She gently bumped into Ocellus who was currently Applejack and moved the changeling aside in order to stand in her place instead.
The young pink filly cleared her throat, getting the others attention, "Golly! It's so inspiring how relaxed you all are about studying friendship... Considering your disadvantage." She lowered her head, looking between the others with a concerned expression.
"What cute pony mean?" Yona questioned.
"Just consider where you all came from!" Cozy Glow pointed at the group of creatures, "If Sandbar hadn't sacrificed so much of his time to get you up to speed, who knows how behind you'd be?" She jumped off the table, flapping her wings behind her.
Sandbar, baffled, slowly turned to his friends, "That's not what-"
"I mean," Cozy Glow continued as she flew up next to Ocellus, "Growing up as a love-starved changeling?" She asked, placing a hoof under the other's chin.
"Or hiding underwater from an evil king all those years??" The little pegasus abruptly made her way up to Silverstream, cowering under her hooves as she spoke, "Trusting any creature must be so hard for you!"
"And griffins?" She hovered over to Gallus, pressing a hoof against his chest, "They never want to be around any creature! Even other griffins." Cozy shrugged matter-of-factly before zipping on over to Smolder.
"And dragons are so fierce compared to us! There must be days you can't wait to get away from all us cute ponies..." Her wide eyes repeatedly blinked as she adorably batted her lashes towards the dragon.
She then appeared in front of Yona, "Everypony knows that "Yaks thinks yaks are best!" Cozy placed her hooves by her head as yak horns and mimicked Yona's way of talking, "Making friends with any other creature must seem like a step down..." She turned away, fluttering back over to the small table from before.
Yona responded with a long frown, unable to say anything as the words she had caught in her throat. Why was little pony saying all this..?
"It's just so impressive how you keep trying to understand friendship! Even though it isn't in your nature... " The young pegausus said smugly to the group of six as they gave each other an uncertain glance before dejectedly turning their attention to the ground instead, "Oh! I'll let you borrow my notes! It's what friends do. I'll be right back!" Cozy Glow promised before making her way off the table to prance off elsewhere.
The group of creatures stood there for a moment, looking uncomfortable and unsure. The only one to break that tense silence was Silverstream who had finally decided to speak up, "We..." She began, everyone turning their attention to her, "... Should get back to studying."
The group hesitated before heading back to their original table to pluck up books and notes to begin preparations for the test coming up tomorrow.
Cozy Glow stopped at the library's door and gave the other's a glance. She smirked at them and at the general direction of the grate in the far corner. From that grate was a blue glowing root that poked its way out through the golden bars. Just one more step and then it'll be smooth sailings from there... For her of course. She silently giggled into her hoof before fluttering away, off to gather her notes.
The library was quiet. Well, more quiet than usual. There was a tense atmosphere, especially around the six diverse friends as they all sat at a table with their books. They were all intently reading through equestrian's history with painstakingly numb concentration as they tried to cram every little detail into their head. Gallus especially was doing just that. He read and re-read and yet some things here and there just didn't make sense to him... or were too boring for him to care. What was really starting to bug Gallus however was the tapping. Silverstream didn't like to sit still too long he's come to noticed. She needed sound and movement but right now there was none of that. She tapped and tapped away at the table with her talon, not noticing how every time she did Gallus was on the brink of losing it.
Finally, it came to a point he could no longer stand it, "Would you stop that clicking? I'm trying to focus!" He fumed with his wings raised behind him.
"Dude..." Sandbar glared at the griffin after they exploded on Silverstream.
"What? We have a test!" Gallus argued, "I don't know every detail about every adventure that the professors went on like you do."
"That's why we're studying together..." Ocellus interjected.
Smolder would scoff, "Right, to help us "disadvantaged" creatures." The dragon grumbled, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Yona confused." The yak piped in with a troubled look, "Why we all upset?"
"Is this friendship thing putting a strain on all of you creatures?" Cozy Glow innocently asked as she made her way back into the library with a pile of notes in her hooves, "I get it, sometimes it's not easy... but I think together we could all figure this out!"
"What should we figure out first?" Smolder growled, "Equestrian history or the fact our friendship isn't natural?"
"This is a lot to put on us for one night..." Silverstream sighed, looking back down at her book, "But we shouldn't be snapping at each other because of all this..."
Sandbar nodded, "I agree with Silverstream, we could do better together instead of getting all worked up about all of this."
"Easy for you to say," Gallus murmured, "You're a pony."
The earth pony blinked in surprise, "And- And what's that supposed to mean??"
"Okay okay, every creature calm down..." Cozy Glow jumped in, hovering above the middle of the table, "Listen, maybe it would be better if we did a quick friendship-building exercise..? Maybe that could help put all of you at ease and then we can get straight back to studying afterwards! If it helps with your little dilemmas of course..."
Smolder raised a brow at the little pegasus as Ocellus considered the suggestion, "A friendship-building exercise? Like what?"
"Oh! Yona have idea!" Yona bellowed as she stood, "Yona go climb tall book shelf! Then, Yona close eyes and fall back. You catch Yona! Just like Professor Dash's trust exercise!"
"Exactly like it." Gallus blankly stated, "But I don't think what we're looking for here is trust. I already trust you all enough..."
"Aww!" Silverstream cooed, resting her talons over her heart.
"I think what we're looking for is certainty." Smolder grumpily put in with her eyes glaring at nothing.
"Well, I have an idea!" Cozy Glow chimed in, "I did find something earlier and I was hoping that I could get some help figuring out what it is. Maybe if we all figure it out together and explored a bit we could better fix your friendship!"
The group looked at one another, blinking. Some did contemplate the idea, though.
"Okay, what's this thing you're talking about?" Sandbar asked as he stood ready to follow after the filly.
"Oh it's just this way in this library! Hehe, follow me!" The pink pegasus giggled as she made her way to the back of the library.
One by one each friend got up and trailed after the filly, curious to see what exactly she found... and hoping that this "exercise" could help distract them from their concerning thoughts. Smolder however was the last to follow. Something didn't sit right with her when it came to Cozy Glow and it was really starting to bother her. Despite these worries though, the dragon found herself hurrying after her friends as well. She could really go for a distraction too.
The young filly lead the group all to a grate of some sort in one dark corner. She propped it more open, looked to the others, and gestured to the glowing root that made its way out from the darkness below, "What do you all suppose that is?"
Silverstream crept closer to the grate to inspect the blue glow, "I only glanced at that plumbing book but I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be here."
Smolder then made her way over to the grate and poked her head through it, curiously examining the peculiar caverns underneath.
"What're you doing?" Ocellus gave Smolder an uneasy stare, not wanting her friend to get hurt from the strange limb protruding from the ground.
Smolder looked at the changeling like it should've been obvious, "Dragon. Strange magical cave. What do you think I'm doing?" Then before anyone could protest their scaly friend had jumped down into the unknown below.
The group looked at one another in silent consideration before Silverstream trotted forward, hopping down along with Smolder. Yona was the next to follow, hopping in hindlegs first before getting herself stuck. She struggled to nudge herself down before Ocellus came up and helped her into the caves with a good push. Once Yona was through the changeling easily followed behind.
Now all that was left up above was Gallus, Sandbar, and Cozy Glow. The griffin and earth pony were about to make their way in, Gallus planning to just dive bomb for it, but then paused noticing Cozy Glow had taken a couple steps back away from the grate. They looked up, confused, and saw an anxious expression on the little filly's face.
"Um... Golly, you all go without me. I'm sorry I'm just not as brave as all of you are. I don't know what's down there." The little pegasus whimpered, bowing her head in defeat.
"Well, neither do we." Gallus added, "You sure you just want to stay up here by yourself though?"
The pegasus gave a nod. "I'm sorry, it's a little... scary."
"We understand," Sandbar gave a reassuring smile, "We'll just tell you what's down there later so just wait here and-"
Suddenly, Gallus let out a surprised shout as the root by his feet moved. Like as if it had a mind of its own! The root seemed to scan the area, "looking" at both Gallus and Sandbar before its "gaze" landed on Cozy. The root gave off a beaming blue glow that surrounded itself and soon, surrounded the little filly.
"Wha- What's happening???" Cozy yelped, flailing her wings and her hooves as she was plucked up off the ground. The poor filly was now hovering, unable to get back down, "Help me! It's doing something!!"
"Cozy! Don't worry we'll-" Sandbar was barely able to finish that sentence when the young filly was suddenly tossed into the hole as well, landing somewhere in the caverns below, "Oh no, is she okay??" Sandbar yelled as he hurried into the grate along with Gallus who got by him first to swiftly check on the state of the little pegasus.
"Little pony seems fine!" Yona called as Sandbar clambered his way in from some strange crystallized root that went all the way down from the grate to the cave floor.
"Ow... Easy for you to say..!" Cozy Glow groaned as she pushed herself up, rubbing the wing she had landed on. "My wing hurts... It's not broken is it??? And wh-where are we?"
Ocellus came up to the little filly, checking over the other's hurt wing, "I'm not sure..."
"Did they know this was down here?" Silverstream asked as she examined the shiny caverns.
"I don't think anypony knows that this is down here..." Sandbar walked by a pillar of crystals of some sort before turning his attention to Ocellus, Cozy Glow, and Yona. Just as he was about to walk over to them however, the sound of hoofsteps could be heard. He paused, ears pricking as he turned his head to the source.
Everyone from the group silently watched as a figure entered the cave they were in. This figure was sparkly... shiny... and looked dauntingly familiar. In fact it looked exactly like their professor, Twilight Sparkle.
The strange magical copy of their headmare came to a stop, the echoes of their hoofsteps going quiet as they opened their eyes and stared with a blank unpony-like stare. The image smiled, and spoke with an eerily robotic voice...
"Welcome."
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I'm guessing cozy's greatest fear will be either her plan to take over equestria failing then the young six will find out and stop her, or it will be something to do with her past.
9847010
If I knew more about Cozy's past I'd probably do that, but I did something a bit different instead. I got the next chapter up now actually that shows what I think her fear and test could be!
I think you meant glanced.
9976090
Alrighty I'll edit that