The Social Rejects Squad: Loose Ends

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 2-2: Cozy Interviews

“Oh golly! Okay, so what?” Cozy asked the magenta unicorn behind the desk.

“I’m going to be interviewing Chrysalis now and I want you to come by sometimes for your input and insight!” Starlight says, as a slow smile forms across her face.

“Oh uh, no! Look! I just got reformed now, and I’d like to live my life now, okay Starlight? I’m sorry about locking you away all those years ago, I'm really sorry about feeding you dog food, and I’m sorry about the later attack on the castle. But Twilight already declared me reformed! Pretty sure that’s good enough?”

Starlight giggles with a grin on her face before saying, “Cozy, it never goes away you know?”

Cozy frowns, “What do you mean?”

“You’re always going to need to repent and be a better pony because of what you did earlier… It comes with being a former villain! Believe me, I know!”

Cozy smiles, “Well, that’s the thing isn’t it? I can easily recognize when guilt is causing me to do things!”

“But you still do them, don’t you?”

Cozy starts, “Okay um, that’s beside the point!”

Starlight chuckles while Cozy stares on with a sour look on her face, “So, will you help me do it?”

Cozy nervously starts, “Well gee, I guess so? I mean, if it doesn’t take too much from my life. Uh, are you sure this is necessary? Can’t you just reform her on your own, without me? Aren’t you also a reformed villain Starlight?”

Starlight simply smiles with her face perched on her forehooves, “Yes, but you’re more recently reformed! You just went through where Chrysalis is going now, and your insight could be helpful! You do want to be helpful don’t you Cozy?”

Cozy widens her eyes, “You know, when you put it like that, I feel like maybe I shouldn’t help you?”

“But you’re still gonna do it aren’t you?”

“Again, that’s beside the point!” Cozy yelps out before Starlight erupts in hysterical laughter. Cozy soon frowns and stammers, “This isn’t over!”

Starlight regains composure by shaking her head and looks down at the pegasus filly, “Cozy, I just think that you could help Chrysalis! Be her friend you know? She doesn’t have any right now?”

“Golly gee, what does that have to do with me?” Cozy asks, widening her eyes and leaning forward slightly.

Starlight smiles, “You want to be helpful, don’t you?”

Cozy squints and says, “Okay, that’s getting annoying!” while the unicorn giggles some more.

“Cozy, it’ll be fine! We’ll take this nice and slow okay?”

“Uh er, golly okay!” Cozy finally gives a resigned sigh while looking down. She looks back up to Starlight nervously and says, “Fine Starlight! When should I be there?”

<*****>

Cozy steps outside the school and squats to take off before looking to her right, spotting Starshine. She lifts her body back up as the unicorn makes it to the landing and trots to Cozy.

While looking up from underneath her long mop of hair Starshine asks, “Hi Cozy! I need to take my yearly aptitude test today before they assign classes! Uh, what are you doing here?”

Cozy narrows her eyes, “Starlight wanted to talk to me about Chrysalis…”

Starshine frowns, “What about Chrysalis? You already spoke with her! What more do they want?”

Cozy sighs and looks down before saying, “They’d like all three of us to come to Starlight’s office next week on Monday afternoon…” She looks back up, “It’s Friday now, so we got three days!”

Starshine smiles, “This is true! I guess they’ll talk to me about this soon, but I don’t know if or when they’ll talk with Little Snack?”

Cozy smiles, “I’m sure they’re already working on that!”

“No doubt!” Starshine says while lightly swishing her white tail. “I should be done around 3?”

“Alright Starshine! I’ll meet you back at my place like normal?”

“I wouldn’t miss it!” Starshine says before slowly trotting to the curly haired pink filly and embracing her in a tight warm hug.

<*****>

(Later, on Sunday night, the fillies are eating dinner together with Trixie at her cottage…)

Cozy says from her seat on the far corner of the table, “Well, what should I say to her? 'Oh golly gee Chrysalis! Being reformed is just swell! I’m sure you’ll love it!' I mean, golly! I’m a little school-filly now! Not a reformer!”

Trixie frowns from Cozy’s right, “True, but you’re also a former villain. I guess they think your insight could be useful?”

Starshine uses her magic to sip her clear glass of red liquid and gently sets it down to the right of her empty plate before looking at Cozy across from her, “I guess they’re trying to get you to see that it’s not over?”

Cozy stares at Starshine, “By making me continue to do things for them so that I stay reformed!”

“Exactly!” Starshine says while Little Snack looks on.

Little Snack narrows her eyes and scrunches her mouth at the pegasus, “So, they wanna make sure you don’t RElapse or whatever then?”

Cozy looks at the earth filly with wide eyes, “Yeah, I guess they’re worried I’ll go back to being evil?” She crunches her mouth.

Starshine says, “Or they just believe that you’re useful to the cause and want to exploit that?”

Cozy looks at Starshine and smiles, “Well, that’s also possible? But you know, the only thing that is important is that now we gotta deal with her!”

Starshine says, “Well, right! So uh, what are we gonna do?” before frowning.

The three fillies fall silent when Trixie finally speaks up to Cozy from her right, “Cozy, you’re very intelligent and now you have two fillies to help you. Don’t you think you’re worrying a little much here?”

Cozy smiles at Trixie, “All kinds of support huh?”

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. Trixie starts, “Who in Equestria could that be at this hour?” She trots to the front door and opens it with a blue magical glow, showing a tall and lanky tan unicorn stallion on the right and a slightly shorter orange unicorn mare on the left. The stallion has a short brown mane and a matching mid-length tail. The mare has two small green pigtails at the side of her head and a longer tail of matching color.

The mare smiles as freckled cheeks rise slightly on her face, “Hi! We’re Little Snack’s parents and we came to pick her up!

Trixie frowns and says, “You sure about that?”

Little Snack from her seat, smiles, and shouts, “Hiya mom and dad!”

The stallion smiles and says, “My name is Tasty! Tasty Snack and this is my wife, Delicious Snack! Yeah, we’re unicorns and our beloved Little Snack is an earth filly! I know! And we’re actually not sure how it happened, but we think it’s genetic?”

Cozy’s eyes widen at the earth filly, “Golly, that’s new!”

“Also!” continues Tasty, “We wanted to meet Cozy Glow! I mean, gosh! Our Little Snack has been seeing her now and we don’t know much about the filly who tried to take over Equestria!”

Cozy stares down and says, “This again?”

Trixie speaks up, “Sure! She’s right over here on the other side from your daughter!”

The two ponies trot in from the outside and Tasty shuts the door with a green glow from his horn. They trot in towards the table on the Starshine/Little Snack side and stare at Cozy from there.

“She’s adorable!” Exclaims Tasty.

“Hard to believe she’d be evil with those cute bluish white locks of hair on her head.” Says Delicious from his left side.

Cozy stares at them from her side of the table wide-eyed, “Golly! Are you two just gonna gawk and talk about me like I’m not here, or?”

Tasty composes himself, “Umm, sorry! It’s just that Little Snack has been seeing you and well, we know and trust Trixie (the blue unicorn smiles at them), but we wanted to see what all the fuss was about!” *

“Fuss?” Cozy says as she scrunches her mouth.

Delicious lightly vibrates as she exclaims, “Well, gosh yes Cozy! I mean, you almost took over Equestria and now you’re just a regular filly! And a cute one at that!”

Cozy frowns at the unicorns, “Okay, now you met me!” She looks at the orange earth filly across from her, “Uh, so long Little Snack!”

Little Snack smiles at the pegasus, “Not so fast!” before dismounting from her chair, walking around the table on Cozy's side, and hugging Cozy tightly while saying in her ear, “Don’t worry Cozy! We got you!”

Cozy closes her eyes and enjoys the close warm embrace as she returns it with her forehooves, when suddenly, she feels new hooves going over her body from behind. “STARSHINEWHATAREYOUDOING?” Cozy exclaims as she’s suddenly embraced much tighter from the other direction while still hugging Little Snack! At this point, poor little Cozy can only exclaim, "EEP!"

<*****>

Day 1:

Starshine looks at Cozy on her left, “You nervous?”

Cozy looks at the unicorn, “Maybe a little?”

“Well, we were trying our best to play so you didn’t think about it too much this weekend… How’d we do?”

“Well golly Starshine, you know how my mind is!”

Little Snack then says robotically says to Cozy from the left, “An attempt was made!”

Starlight then addresses the three fillies in her office from behind her desk, “So, are you three ready?”

Cozy looks at Starlight with wide eyes, “Well golly! Uh, what exactly are we supposed to do now?”

“Talk to her about reformation and why it’s a better option! We need you to get her to see that it’s good for her! You do honestly believe that it’s a better way to go, don’t you Cozy?”

Cozy squints her eyes at the magenta unicorn, “You just want to make sure I’m actually reformed, huh? Otherwise, you wouldn’t feel the need to drag me into this reformation project with Chrysalis.”

“Oh, that’s not entirely true Cozy… You lost a lot, just like she did… I think you two would have common ground!”

Cozy starts and says, “What in Equestria would make you believe that I want to be friends with her? I got my squad now! I’m good!” before ruffling her wings.

A devious smile comes over Starlight, “Well, why not just give it a try Cozy? I mean, golly! You still have the rest of your life to not be friends with Chrysalis you know?”

“Okay, new rule!” Cozy bellows, “No more twisting the words of the curly haired pegasus filly!” before shaking her wings slightly in front of a snickering Starlight.

“Oh, you’ll do fine Cozy! Right now, we need to find out what happened to her and why she’s evil. Like Trixie did with you once upon a time!”

“Golly!” Cozy frowns, “Okay well, that makes sense… Um, let’s do this!” and shakes her head.

Starlight smiles, “Guards! Bring her in!”

The doorknob glows bright orange and the door sways open to reveal two white unicorns in golden armor and a larger black changeling behind them.

Chrysalis walks in from between them and the doorknob and the right guard’s horn both glow bright orange to quietly shut the door. She takes a few paces towards the fillies and says, “You again!”

Cozy turns to her right and stares up at her with her bright eyes while her two friends get out of their chairs and back away from her slowly, “Yup! Me again! Hiya Chrysalis! How's it going?”

“Ugh!” Chrysalis lowers her head as she trots towards the fillies three paces before looking at Starlight, "Why do you insist that I talk with these foals?”

Starlight says, “Well, foal or not, Cozy is recently reformed!”

“Golly Chrissy er, Chrysalis! You know, I was about to ask you how the whole reforming thing was coming along? How was your weekend, bug queen?”

Chrysalis scowls at the pegasus, “My weekend was fine! There’s not much to do in the castle, but I manage!”

Cozy gets out of her chair and takes a step towards Chrysalis while her friends look on, “Well that’s just swell Chrysalis! Hey! You’re not doing anything evil are you?”

Chrysalis frowns and rolls her eyes, “When would I have gotten the chance?”

Cozy's expression brightens, “Well golly! That’s good Chrysalis! Uh…” She looks behind her at Starlight, “She’s reformed because she can’t do bad things now! Mission accomplished! Can we go now?” before motioning back to the door at her slight right with her head.

Starlight frowns, “Cozy, we want her to be good because she wants to be good! Not because we’re making her!”

Cozy frowns and turns to Chrysalis, “Well, it was worth a shot!” before fluffing her wings.

Chrysalis smiles, “You don’t want to do this, do you?”

Cozy’s right eyebrow raises, “Not exactly! But apparently the princess says you need to be reformed now and they managed to talk me into it!”

Chrysalis snickers, “Typical! They make you do things you don’t wish to do and drag you along on silly projects!" She leans forward and says louder, "Like reforming me!”

Cozy smiles and takes a pace forward, “Well I do wanna be better you know? Have you thought about what I said?”

“Yes, I did and it’s ridiculous! Why would I even try being reformed anyway?”

Cozy continues while staring on with big brown eyes, “Well golly gee Chrysalis! You know, being evil just got ponies to hate and fear you and they eventually trapped you in stone. Maybe it’s time to try something else?”

Chrysalis frowns as she looks down at the pegasus filly, “What exactly are you suggesting foal?”

Cozy starts and leans forward, “Be friendly!" She tilts her head to the right, "You know, nice?”

Chrysalis starts and says, “And precisely how would you suggest that I live Cozy? I was raised to be a changeling queen!” before the chittering of her insect wings can be heard as she flaps in irritation.

Cozy corrects her head and squints her right eye, “Golly um, okay about that! Maybe we should start from the beginning?”

Chrysalis narrows her eyes and frowns, “What do you mean Cozy?”

Cozy’s eyes pop as her body vibrates, “I mean the beginning! Tell us about yourself! Why are you a love sucking, shapeshifting horror?” Her head tilts to the left.

“Ugh!” Chrysalis sighs while closing her eyes. She opens them and stares down at Cozy. “I guess I’ll have to tell you about the changelings? I originally came from a hive far to the west, outside of Equestria. Most changelings are born as drones. They are not important and only do menial tasks around the hive. I was born as a queen and raised to be as such!” She says before nodding her head.

Cozy frowns and widens her eyes, “So, you were specifically raised to be evil and gather love for your hive? You didn’t know any better, huh?”

Chrysalis snaps and glares angrily, “Fool! There is no better way! And Equestria has more love than any other land I had ever seen!”

Cozy smiles, “But the changeling kingdom to the west of here doesn’t need to take in any new love? And they do just fine!”

Chrysalis squints her eyes, “They will pay for their treachery!”

“How Chrysalis?”

“What?”

“Exactly how are you gonna get revenge on the hive that betrayed you again? You don’t seem to be in any sort of revenging position you know?”

Chrysalis starts with wide green eyes, “I…I’ll think of something!”

“Uh, right Chrysalis! Golly yes!" Cozy nods, "Of course! Something!” She looks down and then back up at the changeling, “What do you do Chrysalis?”

“What?”

“Well, tell me about your day Chrysalis! How do you keep yourself occupied in the castle?” Cozy asks interestedly.

Chrysalis observes the pegasus filly carefully. She’s still standing there, staring up at her with wide-open auburn eyes and smiling. She finally speaks, “Well, the forcefield around the castle keeps changelings from going in or out. But I usually just shapeshift into a pony of some kind or another and talk to the ponies in the castle.” **

Cozy leans forward inquisitively, “Golly! You don’t think they’d like the real you huh?”

Chrysalis looks at Cozy with squinted serious eyes, “Would you?”

“Well, I don’t know? I mean, sure we worked together ten years ago. But I don’t know if we ever really talked before? You know, just you and me?”

Chrysalis grimaces, “What are you insinuating foal?”

Cozy smiles, “I’m saying that if ponies got to know you, they might not be afraid of you?”

Chrysalis raises her voice as her eyes widen, “Ponies should fear me, you incredulous brat!”

Cozy sighs, “You know, the point of being reformed was so you’d fit into society? Not necessarily pony society! I mean, there are other changeling hives out there, right?”

Chrysalis groans, “I would sooner die than join another hive!”

“Well, how about just Ponyville then? I mean, there’s lots of creatures coming in and out with the school here now. Surely you can find a place?”

Chrysalis looks wistfully to the left, “I still can’t believe I’m actually talking to you about this!”

“Yeah, me neither!” Cozy says before she fluffs her wings and looks aloofly to the right.

Starlight finally speaks up from back behind her desk, “I want to try an exercise now!”

Chrysalis glares menacingly at the magenta unicorn behind the desk, “I don’t wish to do anything with you!”

Starlight smiles, “Oh, it’ll be fun! Okay, tell me Chrysalis! Why do you believe you don’t belong in this Equestria?”

Chrysalis turns her body to the unicorn, “Why do you think Starlight? My hive is gone, I can’t get revenge anymore, and I’m trapped in this nightmare amidst you ponies!”

“Okay, so you don’t really have anything left then. Follow-up question then Chrysalis, what would you like to do?”

Chrysalis frowns, “What do you mean?”

Starlight calmly rephrases the question, “What would you like to do in life?” Starlight shakes her head, “What I mean is, let’s just say you couldn’t take over Equestria or get revenge! Let’s just say that hypothetically, neither of those two things were choices in activities… What would you do?”

Chrysalis frowns at Starlight as she hadn’t considered that. She finally speaks up, “I…I don’t know!”

“Well, don’t you think we should find out Chrysalis? I mean, a big part of reforming you into society is finding where you fit in!”

Chrysalis narrows her eyes, “I already told you that I don’t wish to be reformed! I wish to be destroyed!”

“Ugh!” Starlight rolls her eyes, “Okay, let’s just say, for the sake of argument that destroying you is also not an option! What do you want to do with your life Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis can only stand there deep in contemplation as she stares at the smiling unicorn across from her as the desk. She finally speaks up, “I don’t know!”

Little Snack looks at the changeling, “Well gosh! Don’t you think you should find out? Sounds kinda freaking important?”

Chrysalis snaps at the earth filly, “You don’t know anything about me! I am a powerful warrior and a queen! That is who I truly am!”

Cozy says, “You know, you haven’t really been queen of anything in quite some time, right? Also, for a powerful warrior, you sure get your flanks kicked a lot!”

“I… I’ll show you what a true warrior is brat!” Chrysalis says as her body begins to glow green. Suddenly, sparks begin to radiate from her bent and curved horn as her magic fizzles out.

Starlight speaks up, “Forget Zecora created a zebra fetish of you that’s bound Chrysalis? Please! We need to reform you!”

Chrysalis screams at Starlight, “You’ll pay for this! I swear! All of you!”

“That’s enough Chrysalis!” Starlight says, “Guard!”

The doorknob once again glows orange and it swings open to reveal two white unicorn guards in their golden armor, standing side by side.

“Take Chrysalis back to her room at the castle please! We’re done for now!”

The guard on the left says, “Yes Miss Starlight Glimmer!” and nods his head.

Chrysalis angrily walks towards the door while glaring at Cozy, who only smiles back at her while staring up with bright gingerly eyes.

She reaches the threshold as Starlight says to her, “We’ll try this again tomorrow Chrysalis!”

“I don’t know why you bother!” The changeling replies as she’s standing on the other side of the doorway before it quickly and quietly shuts with the same orange magic.

Cozy looks back at her friends.

Starshine says, “I think the biggest problem is that she really doesn’t want to be reformed? If we could convince her otherwise, this should move a lot smoother!”

“Oh gee! You think?” Cozy says to the unicorn filly while jittering as she glares with her big brown eyes. She shakes her head, “Um, sorry Starshine…” Cozy closes her eyes, “Golly, I just don’t know what to say to her?”

Little Snack looks at the pegasus, “Um…” she then paws her right forehoof and then left against the ground while looking down and then back up at Cozy, “I got nothing!”

Starlight speaks up from behind them at her desk, “What we need is a change of scenery…” Another slow smile forms on her face, “Cozy, how do you feel about bowling?”

Cozy looks up at Starlight from the other side of the desk, "Um, what now?"

(To be continued…)

Author's Note:

*I often hate being an “oddity” because I’m trans and if people discover me, this is sometimes the result. In my experience, it’s best to just continue living your life because there’s no appropriate response to this.

**Welcome to being trans! I have fooled them all!