Chronicles of the Reformed

by The_Darker_Fonts

Chapter 6: Meet and Greet

To say that Cozy was skeptical was putting her suspicions very lightly. She watched as Star Scout’s tail swished back and forth happily, as if he was some sort of excited puppy. He moved about the forest floor naturally, as if able to see a road in all of the fallen branches and upturned roots. Thanks to being behind him, she was able to finally pick out his Cutie Mark, a six point star on a blank map. How poignant, she mused as she barely kept herself from tripping over another overturned root. Hissing in frustration, she noted how he had slowed down enough for her to keep up.

He did it without looking, which only made her more suspicious. It was only natural that he would be listening back for her, but this consistent pausing for her to catch up without a word felt fishy. Was he simply avoiding saying something incriminating or that demeaned her? Did he think that if he spoke, she would get too jumpy and run off? Why did he care? The colt couldn’t be a year or two older than her, though thanks to her size, he probably thought she was still a filly. What would any reasonable colt want with a little filly? Nothing. So what was in it for him?

As they suddenly came across an open road in the forest, he finally called back, “It’s about half a mile to my house, though I think calling it a house is a bit humbling. We live in the hotel my parents own. It’s not that big, but that’s because there aren’t many ponies that travel through this part of the forests, or if they do, they usually just camp.”

“Seems pointless to have a hotel, then,” Cozy grumbled, unamused.

“Well, it would seem so, but then again, we still make enough money to keep it running and visit Seaquestria in the summers,” Star replied, ever bright. Looking up at the sky, he reverently began, “I mean, I love living out here in the woods. It’s how I earned my Cutie Mark! One day, when I was seven, I decided to take a little walk in the woods and got way lost. Then, I looked up at the stars through the leaves of the forest, and I swear I saw them lighting the way back home. I was able to move through the forest without the light of my horn to see where I was going, and before I knew it, I was back in front of the hotel, my flank glowing as I got my star!”

“Charming,” Cozy muttered, though she couldn’t help but smile a little at the colt. He had a strange naivety to him that was amusing, like watching a griffon chick going after its own tail. Funny in the stupid way.

“Anyways, I won’t bore you to death, and I know that hoof has got to be uncomfortable with so much crusty mud on it,” Star continued, undeterred. He began trotting down a firm dirt road, flat and devoid of rocks as he enthusiastically called over his shoulder, “We have a natural hot spring as well that we can run through the taps to get you a naturally warm bath! Whoop, there I go spouting one of our slogans!”

Rolling her eyes, killing her smile not to give away her amusement, she hurried to follow after him. A warm bath certainly did sound nice. All of this flying, running, and stumbling left her bruised and her muscles were feeling thin from overuse. They hadn’t been given time to redevelop since she was unsolidified, and while this was probably good for getting back on track physically, it hurt. A lot.

She was able to ignore it mostly while her adrenaline had been pumping and her mind scheming, but now that the day was winding down and she was feeling exhausted, the pain was front and center. Keeping her lips in a thin line, she took each step carefully and quickly to stay close to Star’s light. Focusing on the strange little tune he was unabashedly humming, she was able to only feel the pain and not be deterred by it. Golly, that warm bath would be nice, she mused to herself after a particularly firm step. Still, she would not be weak in front of this strange colt, of all ponies.

Suddenly, the road began to turn, slowly revealing a glowing building that seemed to just barely stick out of the surrounding forest. It was four stories tall, still smaller than all of the trees around it but big enough to look a little protective. Its windows all glowed with warm light and one chimney had a slow trickle of smoke coming out. It looked made completely from logs, like somepony took a log cabin and turned it into a hotel. While tall, it wasn’t very wide, maybe four rooms wide all around. As Star had described, it would be humbling to call it a house, but was still not really a standard hotel.

“Tada,” Star exclaimed, gesturing proudly at the hotel. “Home sweet home! Welcome to the Aspen and Oak Hotel!”

“It’s certainly not what I expected,” she admitted honestly, staring at the hotel. Maybe it was her imagination, or maybe because she was simply very keen of her senses now, but she swore she could smell the promised meal.

Hearing Cozy’s stomach growl, Star turned back and grinned, declaring, “If we run, we’ll get there quicker and get to eat that much sooner!”

“Yeah, I’m aware of how time works,” Cozy mumbled, too disheartened by her troubles to make it spiteful. Star seemed to pick up on her exhaustion as he turned all the way to face her, looking concerned.

“Hey, you gonna make it,” he questioned, stepping towards her. She took a look at his hoof, considering seriously for a minute if she was going to pass out if she didn’t take his hoof.

Finally, she forced herself to take a step forward, shaking her head no. “I’m fine, just a little tired from running so much today.”

“Okay, if you’re okay,” he replied, still looking unsure. Shrugging, he turned back to the hotel and began walking again, Cozy following closely behind. Soon they were close enough that he extinguished his horn, the light seeping from the hotel warm and expansive. She could almost feel the warmth of it counteracting the harsh cold that was descending on the forest. Star pulled open the big front door with his magic, smiling and politely gesturing for her to enter before him. She hesitated instinctively for a moment, wondering if this was when the whole facade would come crashing down and she would be thrust back into Starlight’s clutches. Glancing at Star’s completely innocent, welcoming grin, though she sighed.

“Cursed megalomaniacal thinking,” she growled to herself, stepping through the open door and into the warm light.

“What was that,” Star asked after her as he shut the door.

Before she could come up with an excuse, though, a light female voice called, “Star, sweetie, is that you?”

“Hi mom, I’m back,” he replied.

“Welcome back, kiddo,” another voice, his dad’s most likely, responded. “Dinner’s all done and ready in the main kitchen. It might be a little cold now, so set it in the oven for a few minutes. What got you sidetracked today?”

“I made a new friend,” Star exclaimed, beginning to walk through the lobby of the hotel. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought her for dinner.”

Cozy followed him, her eyes darting all around the large lobby space. It was all wooden, with a small front desk in one wall next to a hall that probably led to more rooms. Opposite of the main doors was a pair of glass doors leading to a steaming room where the hot spring must be. The right wing of the building had a storage closet and another hallway clearly leading to a bunch of unoccupied rooms. There was also an empty fireplace with a limestone hearth, devoid of fire, wood, or even ashes. Frowning slightly at how empty the hotel was, she followed Star closely. He turned down the left hallway, which actually led to the next largest room to the lobby, a space with about ten oak tables, one of them inhabited.

The door to the room had been left propped open, allowing Cozy to see the mare and stallion that sat side by side at the frontmost table. They were both watching with smiles as the two younger ponies entered the room, Cozy feeling very awkward and paranoid. Did they recognize her? They were both adults that probably were much more aware of the world than their son. Would they be able to see right through her lies and throw her out or worse? Would they call for her to be given back to Starlight to be turned to stone again? Cozy felt her wings begin to shudder involuntarily at the thought of becoming stone again.

“Oh, of course not,” the mother said cheerfully. She had the same wide grin as her son, also sharing the same tan coat as Star Scout. Her mane was a pure white, giving her the look of a birch tree with the color of its leaves and trunk switched. A horn poked through the free-flowing mane, glowing slightly as two chairs were pulled out opposite of the couple for the kids to sit in. “Hello, and welcome to our home! So nice to have a friend to visit! What’s your name dear?”

“Red Rook,” Cozy replied hesitantly, slowly taking a seat across from the mare. Star plopped into his seat beside her, immediately diving into his food.

“My name's Oak Bush, and this is my wife Aspen Hearth,” the stallion introduced, reaching a dark brown hoof across the table. She took it after a brief moment to look him up and down, deciding the move was genuinely a polite and inviting maneuver. He had a dark brown hoof with a dark green mane with lighter green highlights, making him look very much like the tree he was named after. He was also a unicorn, which made Star one of the rare full-blooded unicorns she had ever met. “Pleasure to meet you, dear! What brought you to our little hotel today?”

“Good food, obviously,” Star declared with a mouthful of said food. She gave him a confused side eye, to which he simply smiled, gesturing towards her with a fork. “Is there any extra dinner for Rook?”

“Of course, there’s some I just put away,” Aspen replied with a wide smile. Star probably got his smile from her. “Star, you know where the food will be. Please get our friend some while we get to know her!”

“Absolutely,” Star exclaimed, shooting out of his seat to grab Cozy’s food. The young pegasus watched the proceedings with a strange, disgusted fascination. She had lived among ponies her entire life and had seen how they interacted, the sweetness and general kindness presented at all times. But most of the time this was simply the mellow way of pony life. There was something about the amount of charming sweetness that was distinctly sickening, like four too many sugar cubes in a cup of tea. Of course, Cozy instantly credited it to being some sort of dark underlying secret that forced the family to act this way, but more than likely it was just for show for her.

“So, Rook, what really brings you out here,” Oak asked with a soft smile, bringing her attention away from where Star was running off to. “Did you move into Sire’s Hollow or are you just passing through?”

“Well,” Cozy began hesitantly, “I’m not going to be here very long, I don’t think. I’m not certain about how long I’ll be in town, because I didn’t know I’d be ‘in town’. There was a bit of a mix up with how the day was supposed to go and how it ended up going, y’know?”

Both adults laughed at that, Cozy allowing herself to chuckle with slight amusement. Indeed, she hadn’t expected there to be all of the rabble with other ponies already, especially not in this way. She was just incredibly lucky that the two older ponies were just as ignorant of the outside world as their son. If not, this could have been a major disaster. Unfortunately, hunger, cold, and tiredness had left her leaving her fate to luck, a terrible strategy for getting her way. Still, she couldn’t deny luck was on her side tonight. She glanced over to the door where Star had left from, idly wondering what the hotel looked like.

“Oh don’t worry, dear, he’ll be back soon,” Aspen assured Cozy. “The kitchen isn’t too far from here. Heating up the food is probably what’ll take him the longest.”

“Where are the guests,” Cozy prodded, turning to look at the cafeteria area she was sitting in. For all of the tables and potential space for ponies to eat, there were none tonight.

“Oh, it’s the week of school starting after fall break, so there’ll be no guests right now,” Oak replied smiling. Cozy resisted the urge to frown, simply nodding as she gauged the two ponies’ reactions. They were both just as cheerful as their sun, though with a milder look that was probably a result of adulthood. Unoffended by anything she said or asked which could be taken as a potential jab. “It’s actually perfect timing for you to drop by. It means you can have any room in the hotel you want!”

“Wait, what do you mean stay,” Cozy questioned, her suspicions revived at the sudden penetrating welcome.

“Well, it’s pretty late at night to come over just for dinner, especially since most of the town is a half hour walk away,” Aspen shrugged. “Besides, Star hasn’t ever brought anypony that hasn’t stayed the night before, thanks to where we are. It’d be our honor to have you for the night.”

“But I don’t have any bits,” Cozy protested, feeling a blush in her cheeks. It was a bit stupid to bring it up, because more than likely they hadn’t even thought that far ahead yet, but better now than when they came knocking for their due.

“No problem at all,” Oak reassured her, giving his wife a smile. “We’ve called upon our fair share of favors from strangers. We’re happy to reciprocate to a friend.”

Cozy resisted gagging at the overdose of kindness, forcing a smile as usual and puffing one of her curls with a hoof to cover up her discomfort. They were all way too cheerful around here, even by School of Friendship standards, which made her question how truthful all of this was. Before she could get too worried though, Star returned with a plate of slightly steaming food.

“Here ya go Rook,” he presented, setting the plate in front of her. She stared at the crispy brown fritters flecked with sesame seeds and little bits of other spices. Starlight had given her plenty of good food, enough that Cozy couldn’t deny how much effort the mare had probably put into feeding her, but even that wasn’t nearly as intricate as this. There was also salad to the side and a cup of water that Star settled in front of her with a smile. Nodding thankfully, her stomach groaning at how slow she was to devour the food, she hesitantly picked up one of the fritters and bit into it.

Perhaps it was because her senses were still very sensitive, but she almost squealed at the warm, crisp flavor to it, the spices and sesame all exploding in her mouth. She felt her eyes widen as she chewed her first bite very slowly, letting the crunchy, sharp definitions of the food further be explored. As soon as she was finished chewing, she took another, much larger bite, her hunger inflamed by her first taste of food all day. She scarfed down the first fritter in under a minute, much to Aspen’s joy, the mare giggling as she watched. Star sat down beside her to take up his own meal.

“You certainly were hungry weren’t you,” the unicorn mare questioned with a smile.

“Do you cook like this every day,” Cozy questioned in disbelief before taking a bite out of her second fritter.

“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but this was just something I pieced together real quick since I was otherwise occupied today,” Aspen replied with a giggle. “Why, is it really that good?”

“Yes,” she exclaimed in slight wonder. How did a normal old unicorn mare cook something like this? “I’ve never eaten something that was… well, I don’t know how to describe it really, but you took something pretty plain and made it delicious.”

“Aspen has a knack for making normal things extraordinary,” Oak grinned, pulling his wife in close. “Why, this hotel would not be running as well as it is without her coming along and making a few comments. The mare’s a genius!”

“Oak,” the mare protested with a grin, snuggling against her husband. Cozy blinked at the pair, genuinely shocked by how softly they held each other, the warm smiles that she could feel even in her evil heart. It caused a lump to form in her throat, one that made her almost choke on her food not from disgust, but from the reality of their love. Forcing herself to smile, stunned, she took another bite, quickly finishing off her second fritter. Something about this all made her confused, morbidly disturbed by the affection of the family. It seemed all too pure and innocent for her, proving to do nothing but astound her senses profoundly.

“Rook ran away from home,” Star mentioned casually between bites, causing Cozy to choke on the bite of her third fritter. “How long can she stay here, at the hotel?”

Before Cozy could try to cover up the colt’s blurt, his father was already scratching his chin and deducting, “Well, I’d say for the week.”

“Really,” Cozy questioned, accidentally yelling, her eyes wide in shock. All of this was much too quick for her to calculate, predict, or manipulate, the moments and expressions remaining positive even as the carpet was pulled out from under her. She was still locked on the strange genuinity of all the kindness she had seen from the family, unconditional and endless, the complete antithesis of what she’d seen from Starlight. What she thought she’d seen from Starlight.

“Well, what kind of ponies would be to let a little pegasus filly like yourself out and alone in the world,” Aspen asked with a slight laugh. “It’s excellent to have you as a guest, and we trust that you have a good motivation for running away. Just so long as you promise to go back when you’re ready or when your parents come from you.”

“I don’t have any parents,” Cozy mumbled, glancing away.

“Oh, you poor dear,” Aspen whispered, reaching across the table and touching her hoof for just a moment. Cozy flinched away on instinct. Not again.

“It’s been a long enough time now,” Cozy reassured the three ponies at the table, noting how Star’s head was dipped down slightly. Something about how she had sapped the wholesome joy out of the table made her stomach drop with guilt. She’d caused terror and removed the magic from ponies, but they had all been liars and fakes. These ponies were some of the first she’d met in this world that were actually, genuinely, completely kindhearted. Ruining that made her stand up from the table, not even excusing herself. Grabbing the glass and a fourth fritter, she turned and walked out the way she had come.

She didn’t know where she was going, she didn’t even know what the ground floor was supposed to look like, but she simply turned through the lobby and began climbing the stairs she found. Below her, she heard a chair scrape against the ground and the sounds of hooves clopping against the wooden floor. Picking her pace, she didn’t mind the water splashing out of her cup as she passed the second floor and got to the third, then fourth. All the while, the sounds of her pursuit quickened and got closer, until finally, halfway down the short hall of the fourth floor, she slowed down.

“Hey, Rook, you need a key to get into any of these rooms,” Star meekly called between pants. Letting her head drop slightly, also panting from the run, she turned to face the colt. He wasn’t too far from her, maybe just a room behind her, but he didn’t try to get closer. He held said key aloft in his magical grasp, hovering it closer for her to take. Hesitantly, she reached out and took it.

“Four-twelve,” Cozy read aloud, a question for the unicorn who had given her it.

“I figured you’d want the most secluded room in the hotel,” Star mumbled with a shrug, glancing to the side. “After all, it must be very important to keep the secret that Cozy Glow has returned.”

Author's Note:

Predicaments predicaments. For as smart as Cozy is, there's no way ponies wouldn't notice you left and right!

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

Nice chapter. Cozy's apprehension at all the kindness was interesting. It must have something to do with her background.

The colt couldn’t be a year or two older than her, though thanks to her size, he probably thought she was still a filly.

So she's a teenager?

“After all, it must be very important to keep the secret that Cozy Glow has returned.”

Ah, so he knew. Guess that was to be expected after the Glowy line last chapter.

[Prol]

I hope that Cozy will not regret that she decided to trust these unicorns

[The_Darker_Fonts]

11579938
Oh yeah. Glad so many caught it.

[The_Darker_Fonts]

11579986
I hope these unicorns don't come to regret trusting her.

[Ryebuck Coppercap]

Well, I was way off with my guess last chapter lol

Wonder how Cozy will react to Star and his family playing blind, though 🤔

And big oof with her distrust of kindness, that probably means she had hell for her foalhood

[Wild Stallion]

There was a nice "do they don't they?" dynamic that plays out well in this chapter. I'm interested in finding out who knows what, and what the character's plans are moving forward.