The Social Rejects Squad: Loose Ends

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 1-3: The Good Filly

Cozy sat in the chair looked at Starshine across from her, blankly through her straight bluish white locks as her long mane fell in front of her face and all around her head. All she could do was say, “I’m a good filly… I cleaned the house…”

Little Snack stares from the right side as Starshine asks, “Yeah, but we were asleep! Where did you get the energy?”

Cozy looks at Starshine and starts as she says, “Well golly Starshine! I slept for two hours and couldn’t go back to sleep! So, I cleaned! That’s what a good filly would do! R-right?” before tilting her head to the left and slowly smiling at the unicorn filly.

Little Snack looks at Cozy intently before whispering to Starshine, “I’m not sure she’s still there, dude?”

Starshine looks to the earth filly at her side and whispers back, "I know! But she's our friend and she's been through a lot!"

Little Snack looks at Starshine and whispers, "Well, right! We gotta get her better again!"

Cozy straightens her head suddenly and says with fire in her eyes, "You know, I can hear you, right?"

Starshine looks at Cozy and asks her, “Sorry Cozy! (Cozy crosses her forehooves and pouts) Uh, how did you learn to use your levitation magic so quickly, anyway?”

Cozy starts and says, “Golly gee! I guess when everypony is asleep and you don’t have much to do, you start practicing? Heh heh. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t want to wake anypony up because that’s not a very nice thing to do! So, I did it outside with rocks!”

“Oh yeah! Definitely gone!” Little Snack says before swishing her long green tail.

“Cozy! Do you need to talk about something? You don’t seem well?” Starshine says to Cozy with concern in her big blue eyes.

“What do you mean Starshine?” Cozy asks before tilting her head to the right.

“Well, I mean, I don’t think cleaning the house all morning is really a normal healthy thing to do? You got up at 2 you say? And you haven’t been to sleep since then?” Starshine asks the pink filly.

“Nope! I guess I just don’t need as much sleep with all this power? Golly, it’s so weird now with the day being so long!”

Starshine nods and says, “Okay, but do you need to sleep now?”

Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “Golly no! Not really? I’m not even hungry! I haven’t eaten since I got up!”

Starshine looks at the wall clock to her left and says, “Well, it’s about 9:15 now?”

“Good point!” Cozy says as she gets off her haunches from the chair. “I should make you two breakfast now! Because that’s what a good filly would do!”

Starshine starts as her eyes widen and she says, “No need Cozy! Trixie already fed me and Little Snack while you were cleaning out the closet earlier! We had pancakes and yours is still on the counter! You need to sit there now! And uh, don’t do anything!” She looks back at the earth filly and whispers, “Follow me to the other room!” Before smiling at the pink filly and then casually trotting back to Cozy’s room at the back left.

Cozy looks at Starshine bewildered as she trots toward the bedroom, before getting back in the chair.

Little Snack looks over at Cozy before smiling as she says, “I’ll be back!” and then turning to trot towards the bedroom door with her pigtails and ponytail swishing behind her.

Starshine opens the door to Cozy’s room and trots in with Little Snack behind her. She shuts the door with her right forehoof before turning her body to the earth filly at her right and asking, “Okay, any idea what the hay has gotten into Cozy Glow?”

“Uh…” Little Snack looks down as she furrows her brow and back up before saying, “No! I got nothing!”

“Well, I think we can both agree that we need to snap her out of this right?”

“Um, yeah probably?” Little says as looks up with her eyes and scrunches her mouth.

“Okay!" Starshine nods, "So, what are we gonna do about it?”

Little Snack looks up for a second, before back down, and saying, “I have no idea!”

“Hmm” Starshine says as she scrunches her mouth. “Well, I think the biggest problem is, she needs a change of scenery? I mean, she’s been cooped up in this house for days now! And she obviously thinks she’s being watched, otherwise she wouldn’t be trying so hard to be a 'good filly' …”

“Okay! We need to go somewhere! But uh, where?” Little says before switching her long green tail.

“Well, I think it has to be somewhere secluded? You know, there is a lake just South of here?” Starshine says while frowning.

“Okay uh, so you think we should take her to the lake then?”

“Unless you got a better idea?”

“Not really?" Little shakes her head before looking back, "Okay! Let’s go see if she wants to go to the lake!”

The two fillies trot out of the room to see Cozy sweeping up the floor with her forehooves as she floats above the living area with an eerie white glow of magic.

Starshine looks at her and widens her eyes when she notices that Cozy's glowing now and also can't help but see that she's barely flapping her wings. She finally says, “Cozy! You’ve swept the floor three times already…”

Cozy looks at her and says, “Yes I did! And now you wanna go to the lake huh?”

Starshine is shocked as she says, “H-how did you know?”

Cozy floats to the floor while setting the broom down before trotting over to Starshine and saying, “It’s not hard to figure out when you can read your friend’s minds. You’re concerned for me because I’ve been acting weird right?” and then tilting her head to the right with a big blank expression on her face.

Starshine is dumbfounded as all she can say is, “Uh, I uh…”

Little Snack sees this and trots forward a few paces to Cozy, “Look! I don’t know about 'Ultra Pony' and what all you can do now!” she says as she shakes her head and looks into Cozy’s eyes, “And I don’t understand why Discord has to test you… But I know this! You’re my first real friend Cozy… You’re my first real friend and I love you and care about you… Will you please come to the lake with me and Starshine now?”

“Golly yes! Of course, I will! That’s what a good filly would do!” Cozy says with a start.

Little smiles victoriously as Starshine shakes her head before looking at the pink filly and saying, “Great! Let’s go!”

Cozy hops off the chair to her hooves as her long mane swishes forward and says, “Um, yes! Let’s go to the lake now!”

Starshine looks to the right and says, “Okay! I’ll just leave a note for Trixie in case she gets back from the market while we’re away!”

<*****>

The three fillies walk towards the North Side of the lake from the wooded area to the south. It’s a big open field with lush farmland and bales of hay as far as the eye can see. Cozy looks around but doesn’t see anypony else, it’s just them. She says, “I guess this time of morning on a weekday doesn’t have many ponies playing out here, huh?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Nope! It’s just us three best friends, ready to have some fun on the water!”

While trotting forward with the other two, Little Snack says, “Okay! I’m done waiting!” before quickening her pace to a gallop towards the waterfront with her long tongue out the left side of her mouth.

Starshine says, “Hey! Wait for me!” and chases off as fast as she can go.

Cozy sees this, stops, and says, “Golly! Um, I have friends now! Right!” she shakes her head as she thinks about this morning and what she did… She thinks about how Discord was probably watching her and how she should do her level best to be good, no, better than any other filly in Equestria! And then, she furrows her brow as she stares at Little Snack, happily splashing and playing in the pond below. She sees Starshine there giggling as she’s about to take a running jump into the water as Little chants, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Starshine giggles as she gallops towards the pond, leaps up in the air, and puts all her legs together to form a little filly ball in the air before she comes crashing down into the water.

Little giggles as her pigtails, now drenched, fall behind her head and float in the water behind her with the pink ribbons she normally wears. She looks over at Cozy and says, “Hey Cozy! Aren’t you gonna come in?”

Starshine looks at the pink filly, still standing there at the base of the slope and starts shouting, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Little starts chanting with her, “Cannon ball! Cannon ball!”

Cozy hears this as she smirks on the left side of her mouth from behind her disheveled mane in front of her face as she says, “Okay everypony! I hope you’re ready for this!” before taking off to a strong gallop as fast as her little legs would carry her!

Her eyes scrunch as her mouth smirks to the other side with this plan of hers. She leaps out into the air and flaps her wings to gain altitude as she flies over the pond. She then focuses her telekinetic magic on her body and concentrates on lifting herself in the air so that she does a loop as her wings flap to stabilize her. She begins to lose balance near the top of the loop, although she knows that at this point that she just needs to straighten her wings at her side for extra steadiness and lower her telekinesis to let gravity do the work. But, as she flies towards the other end of the loop, she also knows she’ll fall and then moves all her legs together to form her own, Cozy ball of her own, in mid-air before releasing herself and crashing into the pond with a powerful splash as her friends cheer on.

Cozy comes to the surface after a moment with a splash as Little Snack says, “Wowie! That was amazing Cozy!”

Starshine chimes in from the left, “Yeah! That was really cool!”

Cozy looks at her friends as she smiles with her now wet long mane down around her head and says, “Golly! You really think so huh? You know, I always wanted to do something neat like that?”

Starshine, now resembling a white mop with pink streaks swims over to Cozy as she says, “See? It’s not so bad! We can still have fun!”

“Golly…" Cozy says while giggling nervously, "I guess I was kinda losing it there huh?”

Little asks, "Kinda?"

Starshine paddles just a bit closer to Cozy while scrunching her mouth and saying, “Yeah, you were going nuts, Cozy! I mean, power or no, you don’t need to clean the entire cottage three times!”

Cozy looks down and says, “Yeah… I just kept thinking about uh, 'him' and that he’s probably watching me! I keep wondering when I’m gonna mess up and be bad again!”

Starshine stops paddling about two feet from Cozy, giggles, and says, “You know, only a good filly would be so concerned with being good right?”

Cozy looks up at the unicorn and smiles as she says, “You know, maybe this is kinda silly? I mean, golly! When am I just gonna accept that I’m a good filly?”

Starshine frowns before saying, “I’m not sure you really can actually?”

Little looks at Starshine and asks her, “What do you mean?”

Starshine looks back at Little and says, “Well, what I mean is, Cozy can’t see herself right?”

“Well, golly no? I guess not?” Cozy says from behind her.

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Exactly! So, you’re never gonna know exactly how much good you’re doing unless somepony else tells you!”

Cozy smiles and says, “Hey! I guess that’s our friendship lesson for the day, huh? I mean, your friends are gonna do lots of good things, but they won’t really notice a lot of it unless you point it out to them!”

Little Snack says, “Hey! We’re not supposed to be learning! I’ll put a stop to this right now!” before swimming towards Starshine.

Starshine frowns at the grinning Little Snack paddling towards her as she says, “Uh, Little Snack! What are you doing?”

Little stops paddling while saying, “Close enough!” and then splashing water at Starshine with her forehooves!

“Hey! Quit it!” Starshine bellows out while giggling and splashing back at the earth filly!

“Hey! Leave the astronomy nerd alone!” Cozy says before smiling as she paddles towards the two playing fillies.

Little sees Cozy coming in to the right of Starshine and starts splashing both, the pegasus and the unicorn, back and forth while giggling and being splashed by Starshine.

Cozy stops and starts to splash at Little Snack!

Little Snack says, “Hey! No fair! There’s two of you now!” as she struggles to keep her part of the battle going!

Starshine says, “Oh yeah, well you started it!” while continuing to splash at the earth filly.

“Retreat!” shouts Little before turning stroke away from the other two fillies while smiling.

“Take the offensive!” shouts Cozy as she swims towards Little Snack.

“Attack!” joins in Starshine as she does the same and her white mop jitters.

Little Snack reaches the other side of the pond and stops because she can’t swim anymore. She looks behind her just in time to get sprayed as Cozy starts to splash at her and giggle. Little splashes back at the pink filly before Starshine gets close enough to do some splashing of her own. The earth filly is now outnumbered, two to one as she puts her forehooves over her face and says, “Okay! Stop! I surrender!”

Cozy squeals out, “Take no prisoners!” as she scoots closer and splashes more with her forehooves!

“Prepare to be boarded!” Starshine yells as she swims closer to Little and does a quick breaststroke a few strokes to hop out of the water and get on top of her, taking them both below the surface of the waves!

“Golly! I hope they’re okay?” Cozy says as she frowns at the small patch of bubbling water some distance from her.

And then, both fillies rise above the surface of the water while giggling at each other.

“Hey! Are you two alright over there?” Cozy asks nervously.

“Oh yeah! We’re just fine Cozy!” Starshine says as they come back down while giggling and smiling at each other.

They both begin to wade as Starshine sits to the left of Little in Cozy's view.

“Yeah! You should know by now that it’s gonna take more than that to take me down Cozy!” Little Snack says while grinning.

“Is that so huh? Well, how about a pegasus filly and a unicorn?” Cozy says before swimming towards Little Snack.

Little Snack sees this and sees Starshine on the other side as she gulps and says, “Uh, I give up?”

Cozy stops paddling before looking at Starshine to her right and saying, “I don’t know Starshine? You think we should accept?”

“I’m not sure she’s had enough?” Says Starshine as a wicked grin forms on her face.

“Oh, come on! You both splashed me!” Little Snack frantically says.

Cozy smiles at Little as she asks, “Okay! What are your terms?”

“Uh…” Little Snack says as she looks up and then down at Cozy before saying, “I don’t splash either of you and-and you don’t splash me! A truce! Yeah! Sound good?” before leaning forward slightly with a hopeful grin on her wide-eyed face.

“I’m not sure Cozy? What do you think?” Starshine asks as she looks to the horned pink filly.

“Golly gee Starshine. She seems sincere. Then again, we do outnumber her?”

Starshine scrunches her mouth and says, “Well, I suppose that’s also true though?”

“But… I’m completely giving up and offering a cease fire! That’s gotta be good for something? R-right?” Little says while smiling nervously at the unicorn and then the horned pegasus.

Starshine giggles and looks to the orange filly as she says, “Okay Little Snack! We’re not gonna splash you anymore!”

Cozy frowns and says, “Yeah, I guess that’s enough huh?”

“And no boarding!” Little says as she points her left forehoof at Starshine.

“Yeah! No boarding either!” Starshine says as she giggles even more.

“Golly! That sure was a lot of fun guys! But uh…” She looks at her forehooves and says, “My hooves are getting shriveled and pruny? We should probably get out and head back now, huh?”

Starshine looks at Cozy and says, “Yeah, I think we’re done here.” She turns to the earth filly and asks her, “You ready to head back now Little Snack?”

Little looks at the unicorn and says, “Sure thing Starshine!”

The three fillies all swim towards the Northern edge of the pond towards Trixie’s cottage. Cozy reaches the shore first and trots up as soon as her hooves have purchase on the ground. She shakes herself off to dry while Starshine comes out of the water about 15 feet on her left.

Starshine shakes herself off to dry as Little Snack trots up onto the shore maybe 10 feet to her left.

Little Snack shakes off herself and looks to her right before saying, “Well, I guess we’re heading back now?”

“Let’s go!” says Starshine before looking forward.

The three fillies walk into the wooded area to the south of Trixie’s cottage. Finally, Cozy speaks up and says, “So uh, thanks for helping me… You guys are my best friends!”

Starshine looks at Cozy to her right while Little Snack trots up front and says, “No problem Cozy! You gotta admit, your sanity is gonna come into question when you clean the entire cottage before anypony else wakes up!”

Cozy looks to the unicorn on her left, “Well, you know how I keep thinking about things, whether I want to or not?”

Starshine frowns and says, “You were thinking he’s watching you and that you needed to be good… And I guess those thoughts eventually drove you nuts?”

“Golly right!" Cozy nods, "I uh, you really know me now, don’t you?”

Starshine smiles and says, “Well I have gotten to know you pretty well over the last month… You’re the most caring and 'best filly' I know Cozy! And if Discord doesn’t believe it, well, then he has me to answer to!”

“Yeah! No dopey Discord is gonna mess with my friend!” Little Snack chimes in from the front while still facing ahead as she trots.

“Golly! Um, thanks guys!”

“No problem Cozy!” Starshine exclaims to the pink filly.

Little stops at the northern edge of the woods and points ahead to Trixie’s cottage in the clearing about 50 feet away as she says, “Uh, guys! Trixie is waiting on us!”

(To be continues…)