The Social Rejects Squad: Loose Ends

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 3-1: Double Back!

”Oh golly! There I was in the living room, sipping some juice on the chair like normal right? And then, I heard a knock at the door! I think to myself, 'Oh golly! Who could that be?'" And well, I looked out and I saw the big shadow of Twilight Sparkle!” Says the bluish white maned pegasus filly.

Starshine, sitting on the pillow on the floor, across from Cozy as she recanted her tale, scrunches her mouth and says, “So, you came here then! Why don’t you want to talk with Princess Twilight?”

“Because!” Cozy stammers out before leaning forward wide-eyed, “She probably wants me to reform Tirek and um…” Cozy looks down while her long bluish white locks fall on her shoulders, “I’d rather not do that…”

Starshine frowns, “So, how long do you think you need to hide out here, anyway?”

Cozy looks back up at Starshine. “Um, I’m not absolutely sure?” She says while looking up with her auburn eyes with her mouth open. She looks down to the unicorn, “Probably a couple of days? I mean, she can’t stay away from Canterlot too long, right?”

Starshine shakes her head, “Probably not, I wouldn’t think?” Starshine looks to the pegasus with her blue eyes, “Um, why don’t you just tell her no?”

“What?” Cozy says with wide eyes and and her mouth agape. “She’s the ruler of Equestria! Um, could I do that?”

“Well, I mean, she’s not a tyrant, right?” Starshine says while frowning and looking up to the left side with her blue eyes. She stares at Cozy, “I would think that if you just logically explain to her your reasoning on why you don’t wanna reform Tirek, she’ll understand!” she finishes before smiling at the pegasus.

Cozy smiles, “Golly Starshine! I’m so glad I have you now!”

Suddenly, there’s a purple flash of swirling magical colors across the room near the window, opposite to the door and roughly 10 feet away from the fillies! This startles Cozy, causing her to scream that direction, “AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!”

The tall purple alicorn before the filly, now shielding her face with her left forehoof, winces with her eyes shut and head down to the right. She looks back down at the pegasus filly and says, “Calm down Cozy! It’s only me! Princess Twilight!”

“I know who you are!” Cozy says while leaning forward and staring wide-eyed, “I just uh, didn’t expect to see you here!” She shakes her head and corrects her face before saying, “Um, to what do we owe the honor Your Majesty?” before forcing a wide smile and training her eyes to the princess with her ears perked up and receptive.

Twilight frowns, “Well, I came to your house to check on your progress and see how you were doing, but when Trixie went to your room to get you, she came back saying you weren’t there! So, I asked her where you might be and she mentioned this place…” she sighs, “Cozy I haven't seen you in over a week now... Are you trying to avoid me?”

“Um, no not really?” Cozy says while shaking her head. She corrects herself, “I’ve just been really busy with all of my wonderful new friendships!” she says before smiling widely at the princess once more.

Twilight smiles as she takes two paces to the filly while staring down at her, “And you’re absolutely sure you weren’t avoiding me Cozy? I did write you two letters and never got a reply!”

Cozy winces, “Well, uh, that is to say…” She corrects herself again and stares up at the princess, “I don’t want to reform Tirek…” before looking down.

Twilight widens her purple eyes to the filly, “Cozy! Nopony was gonna ask you to do that!”

“Really?” Cozy says while looking up at the princess and squinting her left eye, “I mean, you already had me do Chrysalis!” She opens her eyes, “Tirek would be the next logical step!”

“Cozy!” Twilight calmly says while taking 2 more paces to the filly and staring down at her from above, “I understand your history with Tirek, and I know that you want to leave that part of yourself behind…” She smiles, “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to!”

“Oh?” Cozy says before a soft warm smile begins to form on her face, “So that’s it huh? I can just leave it all behind?”

Twilight smiles warmly at the little pegasus, “Absolutely little Cozy Glow! You’re your own filly now!”

“Oh golly!” Cozy exclaims.

The rest of the night is fairly uneventful. Twilight teleports with Cozy and Starshine to Cozy’s house where they eat dinner and discuss Cozy’s progress. Cozy Glow blushes several as they praise her good work, and she smiles and is very content. Later that night, Twilight teleports back to Canterlot while Starshine begins to trot home and Cozy sleeps soundly in her bed, peacefully dreaming with her two beloved plush toys, Mr. Bearington and Snorkel…

<*****>

The next morning after breakfast, Cozy stands outside on her hooves and stares west beyond the clearing where she lives with her mother. She breaths in deep through her nose, closes her eyes, and squats to fly...

She glides to the northwest, towards the School of Friendship. Past the meadow, she sees several Ponyville blocks pass by with many ponies trotting here and there below. She sees the shops opening for business and clerks setting out their signs. She breaths in deep, in and out through her mouth.

She finally sees the school and banks downward towards the courtyard as it gets bigger. She flies past the entryway into the school, and she sees the courtyard coming up on the roof below. She begins to flap her wings away from her so that her body begins to slow down in the air and brings her hind legs towards the front so her body contorts in the air and she glides downward easily and gently lands on all four hooves in front of the cement platform that once had her statue and the statue of the changeling queen.

She trots forward 2 paces and looks up at the lone statue remaining and sees the elderly centaur there with a scraggly beard and the panicked expression that was on his face when stone overtook him all that time ago. She stares with a solemn expression in her brown eyes, “Golly! Sure has been a while huh? Yeah…” She looks down and then back up at Tirek, “You know, I always wondered what I’d say to you if I ever got the chance to speak again. I always wondered what I would want to tell you if I could just talk to you once more…” Cozy’s eyes widen, “I really never thought that day would ever come… And yet, here we are!”

She turns her body and looks up at the statue as a fire overtakes her freckled face and brow furrows as she gazes harshly with her auburn eyes to the centaur, “Heh! Like I already said, I did everything you told me to do… I tried to get all of the power…” She flinches and closes her eyes with her head down, “I really wanted to finally be important! To finally matter!” She gazes back to Tirek bitterly, “But they didn’t like that too much did they?” She tilts her head to the right, “Was it selfish of me?” She corrects herself, “I guess so, because I’m taking everything for myself and not leaving anything for anypony else?” She gazes upward before shutting her eyes, “I just… I really wanted to matter! I really wanted to be important finally! I wanted them to care about me!” She stares up at the centaur, “I think…. I think now that I know what I know, that your way isn’t a very good idea… I think that now that I’m past that point, I don’t really need you… I don’t ever want to see you again Tirek! I know you’re stone and not actually deceased, but from this point forward, you’re dead to me!”

Cozy turns around and looks downward while breathing deeply from her mouth, in and out as her nerves flitter and tighten before finally relaxing… She looks up to the sky and sees that it’s partly cloudy with the sun peaking from the east on her right.

“Oh, surely you don’t think it’s that simple, do you little Cozy?” says a familiar smarmy voice behind the filly.

“Son of a!” Cozy exclaims while closing her eyes in defeat. She opens them again and doesn’t look back before squatting and then launching herself with all her little might into the air and flapping her wings vigorously to take off to the east, towards the rising sun.

She flies back over the school from the courtyard as fast as she can go over Ponyville city streets and blocks. As ponies go about their daily lives underneath in the cityscape, Cozy sees Discord riding a metal contraption behind her. This machine has two wheels on it, one in front attached to a prop with bars at the top that Discord hangs onto with his lion paw and eagle talon while the other wheel is underneath where he is sitting on a little stool. She also sees a glass cylinder behind him flashing red lights as Cozy tries to get away. She suddenly hears the sirens as the loudspeaker on Discord’s bike says with his voice, “You are flying too fast! Pull over immediately!”

Cozy looks back to see Discord there, his horns now underneath a metal hat he’s wearing with shades over his eyes and a serious expression on his snarl toothed face. She says, “Oh, no we’re not! You’ll have to catch me first!” before banking downward to the right and using the momentum to slingshot herself so that now she’s heading northwest, towards the White Tail Woods.

She dares to look back to her left while flying away and doesn’t see him there! She turns back and quietly whispers to herself, “Well, knowing Discord, that won’t be the end of it… I’ll just head to the woods and double back to Little Snack’s!”

She soon sees the forestry of the White Tail Woods beneath her as she flaps her wings energetically to go as fast as she can. She also can’t help but notice a familiar serpentine form coming up on the ground to her left as she passes. She looks down to see Discord wearing a round-billed campaign hat with a tan button-up shirt and a red kerchief over his neck and shades over his eyes. He blows a whistle at Cozy, which she promptly ignores as she turns forward with fierce determination in her russet eyes and vigor reignited within her soul. “I won’t do it! I don’t have to! Twilight already said! I don’t need to face Tirek!”

She turns left to head south once she’s flying over the thicker areas of the woods and she doesn’t see anything but trees underneath her before seeing the line ahead of her as she flaps her wings with as much force as her little body can muster.

Once past the tree-line, she’s now over open plains and grasslands. On the surface to her right as she passes, she sees a recognizable brown snake body riding a confused looking red haired white stallion with a dark brown leather saddle and wearing a cowpony hat!

“Oh golly!” She says to herself between her clenched teeth while she looks ahead and continues to flap with all the strength she can offer.

She soon sees the sparsely populated Southern Residential District of Ponyville coming up on her left as she flies rapidly past and she looks forward with renewed resolve as she silently whispers to herself, “Okay! Little Snack isn’t too much further!”

She soon sees the familiar wooden shack of her friend’s house coming up on her left near the southern edge of town as she flaps as fast as she can go. She sees the tetherball poll coming up as she lands in Little Snack’s backyard and skids to a stop before squatting down prone and breathing heavily in and out of her mouth once more. “Golly! That guy just doesn’t give up!” She says before lifting herself up and looking back to her right to see Discord standing there, opposite to the shack and this time with long green pigtails like Little Snack and a strange orange color to his body.

Cozy turns her body to face the draconequus and shouts, “Okay, stop it Discord! Twilight said I don’t ever have to face Tirek again and that’s good enough! I don’t need to do anything else about my past anymore, so leave me alone!” before fluffing her wings in irritation at her sides.

Suddenly, an orange earth filly with green hair appears at the backdoor of the shack as it opens. Little Snack shouts, “Hey, what’s going on out here?” She looks around to see Cozy before her facing a strange draconequus. She looks up with her bright green eyes and says, “Oh, hi Discord! Cool hair!”

Discord glances up briefly to Little Snack and then looks back down to Cozy, “Well little Cozy, you’ll be happy to know that I had no intention of asking you to reform Tirek…”

Cozy’s eyes widen, “Really? So, what were you talking about back there with the statue?” she says as her head tilts to the right and left half of her mouth scrunches in confusion.

“Oh that?” Discord says while playfully flicking his lion paw into the air, “I just mean you’ll face Tirek once more! That delay spell I set to unfreeze Tirek should go off at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon! I wanted to tell you so that you’ll be there to greet him!”

“Bastard!” Cozy screams before starting with a wide-eyed expression, “Oh, golly! I need to warn Princess Twilight!” she says before turning around and squatting to take off. She launches herself and finds that she can’t fly but two feet up and looks down to see that green slime is now sticking her hind hooves to the ground! It slams her back down to her hooves as she lets out a resounding, "Ugh!" and she stands in place. She looks back to her left around her shoulder to Discord while breathing through her mouth.

“There’s no need Cozy! I already sent her a letter and her schedule should be clear! Just make sure you’re there!” Discord says before smiling and then disappearing in a purple kaleidoscope flash as the slime underneath Cozy’s hooves disappears with golden sparkles.

Cozy looks over to her right to see the orange form of her friend Little Snack standing on her back porch of the little dark wooden shack. Little Snack looks at Cozy with wide green eyes and says, “We’re gonna have another strategy dinner, aren’t we?”

Cozy nods, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea? My place?”

Little Snack nods, smiles, and says, “You just fly home Cozy! I’ll let Starshine know what’s up and we’ll be there tonight!”

<*****>

Starshine frowns from across the table in front of her now empty plate, “Well, he obviously didn’t want to give you a choice, otherwise he wouldn’t have set it up like this?”

Cozy frowns, “Obviously!”

Starshine looks up and says, “Why don’t you just tell Twilight that it’s all a big misunderstanding and she should simply freeze Tirek again and that’ll be the end of it?”

Cozy sighs and blinks, “I wish it was that easy, but I don’t think Discord is that stupid?”

Starshine looks down, “Meaning, he probably made it impossible to refreeze Tirek then?” She looks back up to Cozy, “Well, we’re always here for you Cozy!”

Suddenly, there’s a bright purple flash in the foyer on the opposite side to the dining area where all the fillies are seated.

Cozy starts from the other side of Starshine and screams, “OH GOLLY!”

Starshine flinches the opposite way and says, “WHOA!”

Little Snack is sitting on the other side of the table from Starshine. She calmly looks over at the flash with her big green eyes and says, “Oh, hi Princess Twilight!”

The tall regal alicorn looks down from beneath her golden crown at Cozy and her friends at the table, “Okay, I understand you wish to reform Tirek, but why in Equestria did you ask Discord to unfreeze him and not me?” she indignantly asks.

Cozy corrects herself and looks to the princess, “I didn’t! This was all Discord’s idea!”

Twilight frowns, “Figures!”

Cozy says calmly to the princess, “Well, look! It doesn’t really matter what we do now. The only thing that does matter is that Tirek will be unfrozen tomorrow at one…” She looks at the princess, “And I’m guessing you want me to greet him?”

“Not if you don’t want to Cozy…” Twilight says seriously.

“Um…” Cozy looks down and thinks for a moment. She looks back up and says, “No, I think I need to do this?”

Starshine starts and points her blue eyes at Cozy, “Are you sure about that?”

Little Snack looks at Cozy from across the table, “Yeah, I mean, Chrysalis was one thing, but you have a complicated past with this guy!”

Cozy stares at Little, “What if Discord is right?”

“Huh?” the other two fillies ask Cozy, almost in unison.

Cozy corrects herself, “What if, in order to overcome my past, I need to face these things? Well, Tirek is the final one I think?” she says before squinting her left eye.

Twilight Sparkle takes 2 more paces towards the pegasus while looking down sweetly at her, “Are you sure about this Cozy? Please remember that you’re free now! You don’t need to face him if you don’t want to… You can just stay home tomorrow, and I’ll deal with him once he is free…”

Cozy looks back far to the right at the princess, “I’m sure Princess Twilight… I think I still need to talk to him…”

<*****>

Princess Twilight’s tall purple figure stood aside to the left on the grass as the three fillies stared up at the statue in the midday sun from the pavement. Little Snack was on the back left, Starshine to the back right, and Cozy was front and center as she looked up at the tall gray centaur with the frightened expression on his face, on the cement platform in front of the school and gulped. She thought about him and who he was. What he had her do and how she hated him for it. She thought about how she had almost once made a bond with him when they worked together with the changeling queen and how all of that eventually got her trapped in stone. When she really dwelled on it, she couldn’t blame the ponies for turning her to stone. But at the same time, she knew that he was the one who led her down this path and hatred burned deep in her brown eyes as she stared onward.

Little Snack looks at Twilight, “Uh, what time is it now princess?”

Twilight looks down to the earth filly, “The clocktower says 12:56. Not much longer now…”

Starshine turns her head to Cozy, “You sure you wanna do this Cozy? Please remember that you don’t have to!”

Cozy turns back and cranes her head to the unicorn while smiling, “Yes… I know I need to talk with him and get all of these things behind me… I need closure Starshine…”

Starshine nods, “Alright Cozy! We’re right behind you!”

Cozy turns her neck back to the statue and waits patiently there on her hooves in the bright midday sun with her wings to her side and mane arranged in neat curls on her head with her one lone curl done into her tail off to the right side. She sighs as her ears droop.

Soon, a purple miasma of chaos magic begins to form near the top of the centaur statue and begins to swirl all around it. The stone turns to flesh in a blinding flash of light as Cozy shields her face with her right forehoof. She slowly brings it back to the pavement to behold an elderly centaur with her auburn eyes…

Tirek breaths in and out of his mouth for a moment before looking at the tall purple alicorn to his right with his black eyes. He turns his body to face her and says while waving his right claw in the air, “Ah, Princess Twilight! I expected to meet you here whenever you ponies did finally get around to unfreezing me, I uh…” His eyes go back down to the left gradually to the smiling pegasus filly and her two friends. He turns to face them as his arm lowers to his body. “Uh, no… Not you! Anything but you!”

Cozy beams wider, “Hiya daddy! We need to talk!”

(To be continued…)