Glow in the Dark

by Shadow Spector

Excerpt 1

Excerpt 1:

“Is it ready yet?” Cozy asked.

“It’s almost done,” her mother said. “Be patient. Patience is the key to success.”

Cozy twiddled her hooves in circles while waiting for her hair to be fully styled. She wanted to make a good first impression at her new school, especially since it was apparently some important day there today.

“And we are done,” her mother said. “Have a look.”

Cozy kept her hooves in front of her eyes until she heard the mirror become angled towards her. Finally, she uncovered her sight to see the work her mother had done for her. Through the mirror, she saw the beautifully designed blue curls that her mother spent the last 15 minutes doing, all neatly tied with a white bow. Cozy’s tail was also in the same curls, tied in the same manner.

Cozy’s mother handed Cozy a picture. “In case you want a comparison.”

Cozy held the picture of the young, golden earth pony up to her reflection in the mirror. She looked just like her favorite celebrity, Shirley Temple. She had always been a fan of her because the actress was just a little girl but was able to have so much influence on others. For some reason, Cozy really admired that.

“Golly, mom,” Cozy said, absolutely impressed. “How are you able to do this so well?”

“Well, it’s my job to do this,” she replied, gesturing to her cutiemark of scissors and fur. “But the secret is that I’m able to manipulate the hair to work for me. You’d be surprised how much easier things get when you can learn to do that.”

“Like dad?” Cozy asked.

“Well, sort of. Your father’s special talent is to negotiate with others and get them to buy things. He’s pretty good at getting ponies to do what he wants.”

“When am I going to find my special talent?”

“You will soon, Cozy. One day you’ll find something that you can do better than anypony, and I guarantee it will be amazing.” Cozy’s mom looked at the time. “But it probably won’t be time management. Come on, you don’t want to be late on your first day of school.”

“Oh, right,” Cozy smiled.

“Remember, if you’re going to interact with anypony, recall the three rules I’ve taught you,” Cozy’s mother said. “Repeat them back to me so I know you know.”

“Rule number one: always be polite at first,” Cozy answered.

“Right.”

“Rule number two: stand up for yourself.”

“And the last rule?”

“If you’re ever threatened, put your own safety first.”

“With this, you can more than handle yourself, darling.”

Cozy beamed at her mother’s words before trotting up to the door with her school bag slung around her. When she waved her mother goodbye, she was stopped.

“Don’t forget the sandwiches,” her mother said. “I marked it with your name just in case. It’s your favorite, two haysandwiches with extra mustard.”

Cozy gave an excited smile as she opened up her bag to let her mother place the food in.

“Thank you,” Cozy smiled.

She gave her mother a tight hug, receiving a tender kiss on the cheek before Cozy let go, causing a genuine giggle from her.

“Go and knock ‘em dead, Shirley,” Cozy’s mother said.

“Bye, mommy,” Cozy said as she departed.

She exited the house, smiling in excitement. The snow was just glistening from the front lawn as she left. It was cold out, and she began to wonder if she should be walking to school, but soon enough, it got slightly warmer as she traveled.

Cozy finally made it to the schoolhouse. It looked nearly perfect except for the fact that there was a broken out window. She didn’t dwell too much on that though. She wasn’t going to waste another minute, taking a deep breath before entering.

When she entered, she took a glance around. It looked just like any other one-room schoolhouse so she found the nearest empty seat to sit in, thinking that she just might like it here.

“Psst! Hey,” a voice called over.

Cozy glanced over to the source of the sound. Across the room was a silver earth pony with glasses looking intently in her direction. The pony was alone for the time being so Cozy decided to trot over to see what she wanted.

“Um, hello,” Cozy said respectfully. “My name is Cozy Glow.”

“Hello, Cozy Glow,” the pony repeated. “It’s good to see new faces. I really just need to warn you though. My friend doesn’t take too lightly to ponies who don’t have their cutiemarks.”

“Why?” Cozy asked sincerely. “Whatever could be wrong with that?”

“I don’t know. She never says. Just don’t take it too personally. She does it to all the blank flanks she sees.”

“Silver Spoon!” a voice called from behind Cozy. “What are you doing talking to a blank flank?”

“Um, just calling her a blank flank is all, Diamond.”

“Don’t do that when I’m not here. In fact, don’t talk to anypony when I’m not here.” The pink earth pony turned to Cozy. “Don’t think for a second that you are good enough to talk to anyone here other than the other losers who don’t have a cutiemark yet. You don’t even have a voice.”

“Oh, golly, I’m sorry,” Cozy apologized. “I didn’t realize-.”

“Well, now you know. End of story,” the pink mare interrupted. “Come on, Silver Spoon. The air is already feeling polluted by this low life.”

The two earth ponies huffed their cheeks away from Cozy to go off to a better location as Cozy frowned and returned to her seat.

Stand up for yourself, Cozy thought. I guess I still need to work on that.

She rested her hooves in her cheeks. What could be so wrong with her not having a cutiemark yet? She couldn’t avoid the feeling of helplessness at the situation she had just encountered. She was still lost in deep thought by the time a purple adult earth pony stood up in front of the classroom.

“Good morning, class,” the earth pony said in a cheerful tone. “Before we begin, has anypony seen Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo?”

Soft talking sprung out among the school ponies until one small earth pony with brown spots spoke up.

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” he said. “They might come if we wait for them.”

The pink bully immediately replied. “Ugh, they’re probably skipping because they’re too embarrassed to show their faces here.”

“That’s enough, Diamond Tiara,” the adult pony said. “Anyway, as some of you may have noticed, we have a new student in class. Everypony, please welcome Cozy Glow, from Trottingham.”

“Ugh, a transplant?” the earth pony known as Diamond Tiara complained.

Cozy widened her eyes uncomfortably as half of the school ponies began lightly clapping their hooves for her.

“Ugh, stop acting like she’s something special!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed.

The slight clapping died down as the adult earth pony continued talking. “Okay, today is the big day. The run for Student Pony President will conclude. The last calls for signing up to run ends in about an hour. Students are allowed to vote during any portion of that time though.”

“Why does anypony even bother signing up?” Diamond Tiara asked. “It’s obvious that I’m going to be the one to win. You should just declare me the president right now, Cheerilee. Save us all some time.”

The adult pony, named Cheerilee, rolled her eyes. “Alright, my little ponies, the candidates will do their last-minute campaigning and before the voting ends, all of us will get a chance to listen in on what they have to say. Finals calls are almost over with, Pipsqueak. Are you going to be involved this time?”

The brown spotted pony shifted uncomfortably. “Well . . .”

“Of course he won’t,” Diamond answered. “He’s not strong enough to become a leader. He doesn’t even have any campaign managers. Honestly, stuff like this should just be left to me and Silver Spoon.”

Diamond Tiara turned to Silver Spoon and hoof bumped her companion. Pip looked down sadly, but Cheerilee just sighed in disappointment.

“Alright, fillies,” Cheerilee began. “Get to it.”

Cozy removed her lunch bag and sat at her desk in secluded confusion until Cheerilee trotted over to her.

“Hey, Cozy,” Cheerilee whispered. “I know new schools can be tough, but I think I know how you could make a good first impression among your peers.”

Cozy looked up to her teacher in curiosity. “Gee, what would that be?”

“I believe you should sign up to be a candidate for Student Pony President.”

Cozy widened her eyes in astonishment. “What? Me? No, I couldn’t do that.”

“Oh, come on. It’s easy. It doesn’t last for very long and laborious things aren’t required as much as you might think. And you get to be a leader of your school.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been one for leadership positions.”

“You won’t know until you’ve tried it.”

“Um, well, maybe.”

“You have an hour before the deadline. I’ll put your name in the polls just in case so ponies have an opportunity to vote for you.”

Before Cozy could protest, Cheerilee left for the outdoor booths.

Oh no, what is happening? Cozy thought to herself. I can’t be a part of this. I can’t go up against that bully.

The more Cozy thought, the more fearful she became. She began to consider telling Cheerilee to remove her name from the polls, but the thought of Diamond Tiara using that as another arrow to shoot at her was even scarier.

With luck, maybe they won’t vote for me and this whole thing will just be forgotten, Cozy thought. She took a deep breath before going outside to see how the voting was going.

The sun appeared to be the highest in the sky as Cozy went back into the light. She looked around to see how things were going but for some reason, all the election booths looked empty. Instead, all her classmates were gathered around, listening to the apparent three candidates: a brown earth pony colt with a two-tone orange mane, a red-maned earth pony with a tan coat and a cutiemark of two candy canes forming a heart, and the class bully, Diamond Tiara, all elevated above everypony else on top of stands.

“If you vote for me, I’ll make video games a class,” the brown colt said.

“Bo-o-oring,” Diamond criticized. “Just vote me in again. We all know how good of a president I’ve been in the recent elections.”

“Yeah!” Silverspoon cheered from behind Diamond. “You tell them! Vote for Diamond Tiara!”

“Well,” the tan earth pony began. “If I’m voted in, I’ll help repair the window that was broken from Discord.”

Diamond chuckled and smirked at the pony. “And how will this window look, Twist?”

“Well, like the regular ones, of course Why is there any need to make it look different.”

“Wow, your proposal is almost as boring as Button’s. We finally have a chance to make something a little more exciting around here and you just want to throw that all away to go back to the same things we’ve been doing?” Diamond directed her words to the audience of ponies below her. “Does this sound like somepony we really want to be voting for?”

“But-,” the pony tried to interject.

“Give it up, Twist,” Diamond continued. “Your idea is so lame. But if I’m elected again, I can make that window look amazing!”

Cozy watched in sympathy before sighing. “It’s already too late for ponies to vote for me.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Cozy,” an unknown voice beside her reassured. “We all usually do our voting towards the final moments of the voting time period. Most of us are usually indecisive because we don’t want Diamond Tiara to be president again, but she knows how to play with our minds to get us to vote for her, and because of this, she’s never lost.”

Cozy frowned before putting on a relieved expression. If Diamond never loses then there is no way for me to somehow be elected. Cozy sighed at the reassurance before she heard the candidates take the arguments to the extremes.

“Well, I think that video games at school is a fun thing to relieve stress,” the orange colt said.

“Well, nopony cares what you think,” Diamond responded. “You’re just a blank flank and your opinions don’t matter to anyone.”

Cozy pouted in sympathy for the poor colt, but Diamond Tiara continued.

“Don’t ever think that you could sustain a position of power. Nopony would ever vote for a blank flank.”

“Hey!” Cozy intervened from the crowd, feeling personally attacked.

Stand up for yourself, Cozy remembered.

“Anyone here has just as much of a chance at winning as you!”

Diamond Tiara laughed at the outburst. “What does Newbie Loser want? Are you here to vote for me?”

“Actually, the opposite. Diamond Tiara does not have to be president again. If none of you want to vote for her, then don’t. Vote for someone else who deserves the position more.”

Diamond scoffed. “In case you haven’t noticed, Blankie, none of my opponents have anything useful to offer.”

“Well none of you have heard from me yet.”

Diamond’s eyes widened in anger. “What? No, you’re not running.”

“Check the polls, princess,” Cozy fired back.

Diamond rushed to look at one of the ballots, leaving behind an apprehensive Silverspoon. With the pink earth pony currently absent, Cozy took the opportunity to explain things unopposed.

“Everypony, listen up! I might be brand new here, but I’ve seen more than enough to know that this place can’t go on if it’s being led by somepony like that. It won’t be good for anyone if she’s re-elected, but if you all vote for me to be Student Pony President, I can promise that better stuff will happen. I will listen to anypony and make changes accordingly. That way, if there is ever a problem, it can be addressed immediately.” Cozy stepped down from her elevated surfaced to the level of her classmates before turning to a filly beside her. “What would you like done around here?”

“Um, well, I don’t know. Maybe less homework?” The filly answered indecisively.

“Consider it done. How about you?” Cozy said, turning to a colt.

“More time studying before tests,” he suggested.

“I’m already thinking about ways to improve it. How about you, little guy?” Cozy asked, smiling at Pip.

“Well, this playground does need some maintenance after what happened last month,” he informed.

“It’ll all happen if I get your vote.”

“Everypony, stop!” Diamond yelled as she ran back to the crowd. “You can’t vote for her! She’s too new here and doesn’t have any experience! How can you trust a pony to know how to lead a class when she doesn’t even know what to do with her own life??”

“Well, obviously, given how you’ve been doing things around here, I’m the better choice.”

“You’re the wrong choice!” Diamond snapped. “Everypony, with all the time I’ve been here, how many times have I set the school ablaze? Zero! You don’t know what will happen with a new president.”

“Well that’s the best part,” Cozy smiled. “Everypony has been so used to a corrupt leadership that they don’t know how it would be if someone actually good was in power. And if you don’t want someone like Diamond Tiara to be ruling this class again, you know who to vote for.”

“Vote for me or you’ll be sorry!”

“Vote for me if you want Diamond Tiara to shut her mouth for a change.”

Diamond opened her mouth in protest but whatever she was going to say was drowned out by the crowd of ponies cheering Cozy’s name. Not a sound was heard from the bully, but Cozy could tell exactly what she was trying to say by her angered expression and screaming face.

Cozy began to shout over the ponies, quieting them down. “So what are you all waiting for? Go to the polls and put a check by me!”

The crowd cheered again and proceeded to rush to the polls. Diamond yelled in anguish and rushed to block the path of the stampeding ponies, but nothing was going to stop the excited voters, leaving Diamond to be lightly trampled in the dust.

The crowd of ponies continued chanting Cozy’s name as they individually went into the polls, only taking seconds to vote.

The feeling of popularity hit Cozy like a bus. She never in a thousand moons thought she’d do something like this, but now that she had the support of basically her entire class, she felt a feeling she’d never felt before. A sense of superiority that she knew she just couldn’t live without. Her face lit up with a smirk. She knew she was going to be the leader of her class.

“Hey,” a voice said from behind her.

Cozy was interrupted from her thought to find the same silver pony that she first met. She braced herself, ready for more derision, but it never came.

“That was really impressive,” Silverspoon continued. “You turned the tides of this election so fast. How did you know what to do?”

Cozy was surprised before she gave a light smile. “I just gave them what they wanted. They seemed happy to know that they could get a leader who actually cared.”

“I’ll take note of that,” Silverspoon said before giving Cozy a friendly smile.

“Hey, Silverspoon!” a voice called from behind.

Both Cozy and Silverspoon turned to the source of the sound to find Diamond Tiara holding Cozy’s lunch bag.

“Lunchtime,” Diamond smirked angrily.

Cozy gasped. “What are you doing! That’s my food!”

“And this was my election. But you took it from me so now I’m going to take something from you.”

Silverspoon widened her eyes at the situation until a pink adult pony entered the scene.

“Diamond Tiara!” the mare yelled.

The pink filly put on a panicked expression before she slung Cozy’s bag over her. She stuck her tongue out at Cozy before trotting over to the mare.

Cozy frowned at the sight of Diamond Tiara running away with her bag, so she decided to sneak over and hear what was being said, hiding in the bushes to where nopony could see her.

“So tell me,” the older pony began. “How big was the landslide?”

“Well . . .,” Diamond Tiara began.

Before she could finish, the sound of Cheerilee’s heavy voice sounded from the booths. “And the winner is: Cozy Glow!”

Diamond Tiara clenched her eyes in shame as the adult widened them in disappointment.

“What?!” She began. “Are you telling me that my own daughter is a failure?”

Diamond Tiara stared at the ground. “Sorry, mother.”

“Unbelievable. Diamonds aren’t supposed to break, dear. Who even beat you?”

“This new student from . . . Trottingham?”

“What? A transplant beat you? Tell me, are you even related to your father and I? You’re not even deserving to call yourself my daughter.”

The two were silent for a moment until Diamond Tiara’s mother continued.

“Was this pony a blank flank? Tell me you didn’t lose to a blank flank.”

From her hiding place, Cozy glared, but to her surprise, Diamond Tiara gave a different answer than what was expected.

“Um, no. No, she wasn’t a blank flank. She had a cutiemark that had to do with . . . strategy.” Diamond Tiara clenched her eyes closed in fear, but her mother nodded in approval.

“Good,” she said. “Always remember to hold your social standings higher than others, especially those lowlifes. Now come along; it’s time to go home. And next time, if you need to, don’t be afraid to blackmail anypony.”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “Yes, mother.”

Cozy watched as the pair walked off. Wow, what a horrible upbringing, Cozy thought to herself. She couldn’t help but feel bad for her bully even though she took off with her food, but her sympathy soon turned into appreciation for her condition with her own mother.

“Where is Cozy Glow?” a voice from the booths said.

Cozy popped out from the bushes with a twig in her mane. “I’m here,” she said, running up to Cheerilee with a big smile on her face.

“I knew you could do it, Cozy,” Cheerilee congratulated. “You won a 7:3 ratio of the class votes.”

Cozy’s eyes lit up. “So does that mean I’m Student Pony President now?”

“Not exactly right now,” Cheerilee answered. “You have to be here tomorrow to make it official.”

“Awesome! I’ll be here.”

“Make sure you do. Because if you aren’t, the position goes to the runner-up Diamond Tiara.”

Cozy glanced away in slight sorrow.

“Go home and celebrate, Cozy,” Cheerilee finally said. “You’ve got an important day tomorrow.”

Cozy smiled and nodded as she turned to leave. Before she could get out of hearing distance, she heard the sound of Pipsqueak’s voice.

“You were right, Cheerilee. I think I would’ve liked being a candidate here.”

“Don’t worry, Pip. We’ll do another election soon. Maybe you can be a candidate then.”

Cozy smiled to herself as she left. Her first day of school was a win in her book, and she was excited to see what things she could do as a leader. Throughout her entire trot home, she was thinking of ways to improve the school, despite the colder weather conditions as she got closer to her domain.

She arrived at her house by the time the sun was going down. It was a cold day and the snow was just coming down again, causing it to be almost as deep as the base of her hooves. She trotted through it quickly, trying her best to avoid the freezing temperature.

When she got inside, the first action she took was to call out to her parents about her presence and achievements. “Mom! Dad! I’m home!”

She waited for a response but there was none, so she continued. “Today was great! At first it wasn’t so good because there was somepony there who was angry at me for my lack of a cutiemark. But it was okay because I showed her that not having a cutiemark wasn’t a disadvantage.”

Cozy peeked into her parents’ room but still no sign of them. She continued to talk to no one. “She told me ‘you don’t even have a voice.’ But I was able to get my points across better than her, and I think my class adores me now.”

Finally, Cozy got tired of talking and not getting a response. She turned and peeked out the window and noticed two sets of hoofprints going out away from her house into the forest.

Oh, there they must’ve went, Cozy thought to herself.

Cozy marched outside into the snow to follow her parents hoofprints. They were the first ponies that she wanted to see after she got home from school.

She continued following the hoofprints, leading into a forest. Fear settled within her but she persisted forward, feeling certain that she recognized those hoofprints, but the more she stared at the tracks, the more she thought she saw a third pair in the snow.

The sounds of owls and wildlife quickly got her attention away from her observation. When Cozy turned to look around, she took a moment to realize just how alone she felt.

“Should I go back and wait for them?” Cozy asked herself.

She pondered the thought for a moment before she persisted forward. The lateness of the day caused her to feel as though something more were ahoof.

Finally, the trail of hoofprints seemed to come to an end, and a leveled figure in the distance appeared where the hoofprints finished.

“Mom?” Cozy called out. “Dad? Are you there?”

Cozy continued on to the silhouettes. It didn’t look like just figures because there appeared to be a puddle of some sort that the figures were resting in.

Maybe a broken down apple juice wagon, Cozy thought. But it couldn’t be. She would’ve seen the wheel tracks in the snow.

Cozy finally got close enough to find a few details familiar. Was that . . . a hoof? Was that a muzzle? Were those . . . her parents?

Cozy gasped and galloped as quickly as she could over to them.

“Oh, Celesia! What happened?” Cozy planted herself right between the dying bodies of her mom and dad.

From below, Cozy’s mother’s eyes barely opened. “C-Cozy?”

Cozy turned to her mother who was completely laid out flat in a pool of blood. “Mommy, what’s wrong? Who did this?”

“Y-you don’t need us anymore.” Cozy’s mother managed a light, teary-eyed smile at the last thing she ever wanted to see before finally closing her eyes and going limp.

“Mom? Mommy, no.” Cozy put her hooves over her mother’s body. “Mommy, please wake up.” Cozy began crying as she went over to her mother’s head, cradling it in between her hooves. “Mommy, please don’t leave me.”

Cozy continue sobbing in the pool of blood between her parents’ lifeless bodies. She closed her eyes to wipe away a tear, but when she opened them again, she noticed that the ground she was kneeling in became a whole lot darker than it was just a few seconds ago.

She immediately recognized it as a shadow.

Wait, shadow? She thought to herself.

Cozy looked up ahead of her. The shadow extended in front of her, taking on a similar shape to that of a full-grown unicorn.

“Hello, little pegasus,” a shady voice said from behind her.

Cozy’s breathing grew shallow and quiet. She wasn’t alone. She sat there for three full seconds, but it felt like hours. Finally, she turned back to view the source of the shadow.

Before her stood a gray unicorn, a similar age to her parents, covered head to hoof in a black robe with a backpack slung around him. The stallion’s head stared down at Cozy with the last of the sunset behind him. His sinister grin keyed to Cozy that he was up to no good.

Cozy remembered what her parents told her about strangers, and she especially knew not to trust a pony who’s appeared after the horrible sight she just witnessed, but she had to be smart about this. She finally managed a simple word.

“H-hello,” Cozy said with suppressed fear.

The unicorn spoke nothing more. Instead, his horn began to glow. The stallion’s backpack emanated with the same aura as his horn and began to open. A bag about Cozy’s size came out and opened up wide, ready to swallow a victim.

It just took one look at the bag to set Cozy in a blind panic. She got up with all her might and ran away as fast as she could, completely forgetting how to fly.

Soon after she began her escape, Cozy’s legs became engulfed with the same aura that the stranger’s backpack was covered in, causing Cozy to stop running altogether and begin getting pulled back towards her captor. She was being dragged through the snow, almost to the unicorn until Cozy found a nearby branch in the ground. As Cozy was being lifted through the air, with one last-ditch effort, she reached for the branch and turned to swipe it at her captor, to which the captor directed his attention to stopping the branch, releasing Cozy’s legs from his magical grasp in the process.

She landed in the snow and turned to look at the unicorn standing over her with all of his attention now. Cozy closed her eyes and put up her hooves in pointless protection, expecting to meet the same fate her parents did. She waited there for 5 seconds, eyes still clenched but nothing happened. Did the stranger have a change of heart? Cozy began filling with hope that she was okay, but before she could open her eyes, she felt the grip of the stranger’s magic grab her again and force her inside the bag. She screamed as he carried her away.

Comments

[Latecomer]

Well that's certainly... a start.

Seriously, this chapter has a few distinct parts to it. First we have the opening, which starts off with a lot of promise - the three rules, for instance, seem to have had a profound effect on shaping Cozy's future behaviour. I was a bit leery about the middle - really? Retrofitting Cozy into Ponyville to avoid making OCs? - but i figured she'd manage to get kicked out within the day or something. Instead we got that ending, which is certainly enough to make me read the next chapter!

A couple of points - given you have Cozy as being from the same place as Pipsqueak, I'm surprised they don't really interact. And I'd like to congratulate you on the winter setting - so few authors use this time of year, probably following in the hoofsteps of the show.

[Orrm]

Mess of odd ideas

[the dobermans]

A strong start - kept me reading the whole time.

[Shadow Spector]

10164991
Thank you. I'm really glad you liked the beginning.