Lost In the Woods

by Apple Bottoms

Life Lessons

Cozy Glow dragged out her oatmeal as long as she could, but eventually she found herself in the forest, plodding along behind Twilight Velvet.

Cozy could admit that the forest was objectively beautiful. Dense, old growth trees surrounded the little cabin, with their thick trunks, the mossy bark, the little saplings springing up underhoof. The dappled sunlight cut through the canopy in glowing shafts, and they were surrounded by birds calling and the smell of fresh sod and green things growing.

It annoyed her that her prison was so beautiful.

It was only a few minutes of walking before their view of the cabin vanished, and she was forced to stay close to Twilight Velvet for safety. It didn’t even matter if she flew away; she’d have to go miles and miles until she saw somepony else, as Twilight Velvet had told her the first day. And who would be looking for her, anyway? Certainly nopony with good intentions.

No, it looked like Cozy Glow was stuck in a stupid forest, with stupid Twilight Velvet, for as long as Twilight Velvet wanted. Just like every other dumb-dumb adult in her life, Twilight Velvet had her own unknowable purposes for Cozy’s life, and Cozy just had to dance along like a stupid little puppet until Twilight Senior got tired of her.

Even though she was just thinking about calling Twilight Velvet dumb and stupid, it still made Cozy Glow’s stomach tie in knots. That must have been the power of her mind magic; it made her remember how Twilight Velvet had looked so sad when she talked about how it hurt her feelings to be called a dumb-dumb. That was the only thing that made sense, it being magic. Maybe it was also the magic that made her heart do that jumpy thing in her chest when she remembered the part about turning to stone, which it was kind of doing just then, remembering it again, but she hadn’t even meant to think about -

“Cozy?”

Cozy Glow flinched before she could stop it. “Huh?”

“I said, if you see any nice twigs as we walk, you can stop and grab them.” Twilight Velvet paused to look back at her. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course everything’s okay, I’m just falling asleep with how boring this forest is,” Cozy Glow snapped, and the lying felt familiar at least.

Twilight Velvet frowned at her for a moment, then turned away to continue walking down the path. “Well, I hope you’ll give it a chance. Walking in nature helps a lot of ponies feel good. It can help you relax, or give you time to think.”

“Okay,” Cozy Glow muttered obediently, even as her stomach gave a lurch. It was probably the mind magic again, she reasoned, making her stomach hurt when she made Twilight Velvet feel bad. Twilight Velvet was her foalnapper! Even if she made her waffles, and asked her how she was feeling, and kissed her forehead, and told her she would keep her safe. The foalnapping outweighed those things, she reminded herself firmly.

“That’s a good twig, I think we should put that into your bag. What do you think?” Twilight Velvet spoke after a few minutes of walking, crouching down to look at a twig beside the little trail they were following.

“I don’t know. If you want to.”

“To be good for a fire, you have to pick tinder - that’s wood - that’s dry and brown. So that means you take the branch, and you give it a little bend,” and Twilight Velvet demonstrated, “and make sure it’s not green inside. Green wood makes smoke, and we don’t want smoke.”

“Okay.”

The gaze Twilight Velvet fixed on Cozy Glow was a little longer that time, but she didn’t press the issue. “This area has a lot of branches, so I think we can find a lot of tinder for the fire. Just pull off any leaves and make sure it’s not green, okay?”

Cozy Glow sighed. “Okay.” Oh goody, chores.

Cozy Glow didn’t like chores at the best of times. But she also didn’t like being alone with her own thoughts as of late, so she tried to focus on the chore. Magical fairy princess nonsense didn’t make any sense to her, but occasionally she found a weird bug to examine, and she enjoyed the way that the leaves crunched under her hooves. She took pleasure in stripping a branch of leaves and crunching them underhoof with a little jump. Gathering branches took time, though, and eventually she had to ask the question that seemed foolishly simple.

“Why don’t you just cut down a tree? Wouldn’t that be way faster? You could do it with your magic in like, thirty seconds.”

Twilight Velvet’s bag was already half-full; Cozy’s wasn’t even close to that. “That’s true. When my dad brought us here, he had us chop wood. But if we keep chopping down trees, eventually we’ll run out of forest, right? So we have to think about the future.”

Cozy could only stare at her. “... you do know where you’re standing, right? There’s like, five gazillion trees around us.”

Twilight Velvet chuckled and tossed another branch into her bag. “That’s true. But if every pony who came here cut down a tree every time they needed a fire -”

“Please tell me you didn’t foalnap me to teach me an ecology lesson.”

Twilight Velvet laughed outright at that. “I didn’t foalnap you, I rescued you. And no, it’s not about ecology. I’m hoping we won’t have to stay here long enough to need a whole tree’s worth of firewood.”

Cozy Glow paused, mid-bend. “Wait, you’re taking us back? Soon?”

“Yes, of course. We can’t just live in the forest forever, can we?” Twilight Velvet lifted her brows. “I mean, do you want that? If you want that -”

“No!” Cozy Glow yelled so sharply that it made Twilight Velvet chuckle, despite herself. “I want to go back and show that Twilight Sparkle what a mistake she made, trying to -”

“We can’t go back for you to attack Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight Velvet frowned, interrupting her.

“Why not? Because she’s your dumb kid?” Cozy Glow snarled, pulverizing a branch in her hooves.

“No, because violence isn’t the answer.”

“Violence is always an answer, if you’re brave enough to use it,” Cozy Glow snapped, scowling at Twilight Velvet.

“Is it? You’re talking about this as if you’re a grizzled axe-yak from the northern lands; you’re only a little filly, Cozy Glow. What do you need to know about solving problems with violence?”

“I may be a filly, but I have plans, Twilight Velvet. Plans about taking over Equestria and fixing all of the problems that magic has caused!”

“What kind of problems has magic caused for you?”

“All kinds of problems! Problems where ponies think that if you don’t have magic, you don’t get to have opinions, for starters! Namby-pamby princesses who think that problems can be solved with friendship, but when that inevitably fails, they blast anything that moves with their horns!”

“I don’t think that’s -”

“You had to save me from your brat turning me to stone, didn’t you?!”

Twilight Velvet went very still.

“Don’t have a smart comeback to that one, do you Velvet?” Cozy Glow spat, enraged. Her wings hummed as she took off, then hovered in place a few feet above the ground. She couldn’t fly away; she didn’t know where to go. And if she lost sight of Twilight Velvet, she’d never find her way back to the cabin. But she was angry! She couldn’t just stand there!

Cozy Glow whinnied out an enraged, wordless howl.

“I see you’re angry, Cozy Glow.”

“Don’t you cast your mind-magic on me, you - you - meddling unicorn!” Cozy Glow snarled.

“No magic, I promise. See?” Twilight Velvet pointed to her horn which wasn’t glowing, Cozy Glow noted with great annoyance. But she was using the same voice she used before, which made Cozy Glow instantly angrier. It was so darn calming, and so gentle, like a know it all! “I won’t cast magic on you, Cozy Glow.”

“I don’t trust you!”

“I know you don’t. And that’s okay,” Twilight Velvet spoke softly, and slid her bag of branches off of her shoulders. “It’s okay to be angry. I get angry too sometimes. Do you think you might feel better if you used the angry energy to buck a tree?”

Cozy Glow considered her warily. A trap?

“I think this tree is a good one to buck. I don’t see any birds in it, or any animals.” Twilight Velvet had circled one of the trees near them, looking it up and down. “I think it might make you feel good to get some of those angry feelings out.”

Cozy Glow fluttered over to the tree and made her own examination. No beehives, which was her immediate fear, and also no fire ants, angry owls, or smelly skunks hiding in the trunk. It didn’t look like a trap, but maybe it was just intended to make her look stupid. Still, to satisfy her own curiosity, she turned her back to it, and gave it a solid kick with her back hooves.

The first resounding thunk was almost magical. She planted her front hooves more firmly, and gave it a second kick, expecting some kind of trap to spring forth. But when nothing came, she gave it a third kick, then a fourth. Just testing it to be sure. But by the one hundred and twelfth kick when she finally dropped to her knees with exhaustion, she realized she didn’t feel the same way as when she began. She was still angry, but it felt … different. She felt less like Chrysalis, all screaming and thrashing rage, and more like Grogar’s cool anger.

Grogar had betrayed them. The rage spiked, briefly, but she was too exhausted to do much more than make note of it.

“How do you feel now?”

Cozy Glow was reminded with some annoyance that Twilight Velvet was still there.

“Tired,” Cozy responded instead of the snappish, annoyed answer she wanted to give. And it was true; she wanted to say something crueler, but she was just too worn out.

“You did a lot of kicking. If you had an apple tree, I bet you would have bucked all the apples down,” Twilight Velvet said in that annoying soothing voice again. “I finished gathering the kindling. How about we go home for today?”

“Okay,” Cozy Glow agreed, but when she tried to get up, her legs buckled. She managed to get upright, pointedly ignoring Twilight Velvet’s concerned glance, and picked up her bag of twigs before taking off down the path. “This way, right?”

“That’s right,” Twilight Velvet agreed, and fell into step beside her.

But Cozy Glow’s hubris couldn’t keep her going for long. The screaming pain in her legs became too much to bear, and her pace quickly slowed, then stopped, shaking even with the effort of standing.

“Cozy Glow?”

“I’m fine,” Cozy Glow snapped, her ears flat to her curly mane, her eyes locked on the ground.

“That’s good,” Twilight Velvet said agreeably, and stood beside her for a moment. “Should I keep walking, then?”

“Probably. I’ll catch up when I feel like it,” Cozy huffed.

“Okay, sounds good,” and off went Twilight Velvet, walking away.

Cozy Glow watched her leave, a little dumbfounded. She was just - gone! Like that! Abandoning her in the forest, all alone! Still, once she was gone, Cozy Glow felt safe in collapsing to the ground, revealing her weakness. Dumb Twilight Velvet! This was probably her plan all along, tricking her into bucking that tree until her legs gave out, then leaving her out in the middle of the forest! Well, that was fine with Cozy Glow! She liked being alone, anyway. She didn’t want any stupid adults hovering over her, telling her she was too dumb to handle things on her own, talking down to her like she was some sort of -

What was that?

Cozy Glow twisted sharply where she sat in the middle of the path, waiting for it to come again. There! That rustling! That was something big, in the bushes, coming closer!

“Twilight Velvet?” Cozy Glow called, her voice shaking, and she was too frightened to scold herself for revealing her true feelings.

The bear that emerged from the brush was only a few yards away, and when Cozy Glow gasped, it turned to look at her in interest. It considered her for a beat, then took a few slow steps forward.

Cozy Glow scrambled backwards as her weak legs gave out from under her. She wanted to yell at it, to scream ‘go away!’ in her biggest, meanest voice, but all that came out was a panicked sort of whimper. Her heart was beating into her throat, and all she could think about was how much bigger a bear looked when it stood on the path instead of in her picturebook. Bears in books always looked soft and cuddly, but this one had dark eyes, a pit without a bottom, and it felt like it was looking right through her as it advanced.

“Hey, bear,” came a shout, and Cozy Glow twisted to look upright as a pair of silver legs abruptly appeared in front of her. It was hard to see Twilight Velvet as she stepped over her, shielding her with her body, but she would recognize that annoying voice anywhere. Right then, it sounded like the voice of an angel. “Let’s go, bear. Time to go home.”

The bear paused in its advance, and considered Twilight Velvet.

“Hey, bear. Heyyy bear,” Twilight Velvet repeated, and waved her forelegs at it. Not quickly, not threatening; almost like a lazy windmill. If she was threatening it, she wasn’t doing it right! But Cozy Glow couldn’t quite seem to gather the breath necessary to point that out. “Move along, buddy.”

The bear considered Twilight Velvet for a beat longer, then took a step forwards as its eyes shifted back to Cozy Glow.

“Twilight!” Cozy Glow gasped, her heart pounding.

“HEY, BEAR,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was steel now, loud and commanding, and she lowered her hooves and her head, pointing her horn at the advancing ursine. With a noisy crackle, fireworks exploded from her horn, fizzing and snarling with bright, angry flashes of light. “TIME TO GO, BEAR.”

The bear staggered backwards a step, surprised, and grunted out a noise of displeasure. It turned to look at something over Twilight Velvet’s shoulder, and took another step forward.

“Twilight Velvet, run!” Cozy Glow had taken off at a gallop, her legs suddenly filled with a renewed energy.

“Cozy Glow, no!”

Cozy Glow felt something move the air behind her. She turned to look and immediately wished she hadn’t. The arc of the bear’s paw was recoiling as she caught sight of it, but it didn’t matter, because the bear was almost upon her. It ran so much faster than she ever could have imagined! She didn’t even have time to cry for help as the next paw swiped for her, and she knew that within moments she would be grabbed up. Unable even to scream, she watched as the bear’s mouth opened in anticipation of catching a tasty bite -

But Cozy Glow was gone, suddenly enveloped in the glow of Twilight Velvet’s magic as she launched into the air, thrown haphazardly into a nearby tree. She landed on a heavy branch and scrabbled over to the trunk, shaking as she tried to catch sight of the bear again.

The bear’s roar was loud, so much louder than she would have ever imagined from reading about it in books, and it was angry. Her eyes found the bear first, massive where it stood on the path, and then Twilight Velvet when a bolt of magic hit it solidly in the shoulder.

“ALRIGHT, BEAR. GO HOME, BEAR,” she was still calling out to it, loud and firm, and when it rose onto two feet, she hit it with multiple blasts of her magic. It was strong enough to knock it over onto its side, and the next roar was partially a groan, Cozy Glow thought.

The bear looked up at her, up in the tree, and considered its next move. It rolled onto all fours, and began trotting towards the tree. Cozy Glow’s blood froze in her veins.

“Twilight Velvet!” Cozy Glow tried to call out like she had, loud and firm; what came out instead was a panicked scream.

“BEAR!” Twilight Velvet’s call this time wasn’t calm at all; it was angry. When the magic lanced towards the bear this time, an arc of blood splattered the trunk of the tree, and the bear whipped around to look at the unicorn. “I told you to go home.”

Cozy Glow had been very afraid of the bear; she wondered now if she should have been more afraid of Twilight Velvet instead.

The bear roared out its displeasure at Twilight Velvet and ran towards her; Cozy Glow didn’t even have time to scream out a warning. But Twilight Velvet had braced herself with all four hooves, and shot out three more blasts from her horn. Three more arcs of blood landed on the path, and with a groan of rage and pain, the bear came to a halt, rearing onto its hind legs again. But Twilight Velvet was prepared, and a massive blast from her horn sent the bear sprawling again, this time landing flat on its back. With a groan, the bear rolled onto its side and loped off into the woods, disappearing from sight almost immediately.

The forest was quiet for a few moments, and then Cozy Glow heard a bird call. She hadn’t realized until then how silent the forest had become when the bear arrived.

“Twilight Velvet?” Cozy Glow called cautiously when the unicorn didn’t immediately come towards her.

Twilight Velvet kept her eyes locked on the place the bear had vanished into the undergrowth for a few more minutes, then walked over to the tree. “You okay up there, Cozy Glow?”

“Is the bear gone?”

“Yes, I think so,” Twilight Velvet smiled, but it was wan and her face was pale. “But I think we should go home. You can come down now.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Cozy Glow admitted, her forelegs shaking where she held onto the trunk. “I’m up really high.”

“What about your wings?”

Her wings! Cozy Glow had almost forgotten about those, she should have flown away from the bear! Why didn’t she think of that? She found herself looking at them, as if they might have vanished in fear. They fluttered at her request, just like usual, and with only a slight bobble she was able to flutter down to land beside Twilight Velvet. Not her most graceful landing, but her heart was still racing from the bear. Plus, now that some of the panic was wearing off, her legs felt even more rubbery than they had before.

“I don’t know if I can fly all the way home,” Cozy Glow admitted, gazing up uncertainly at Twilight Velvet. “Are we going to have to stay the night here? With - with the bear?”

“Absolutely not, don’t you worry about that,” Twilight Velvet soothed her, and before Cozy Glow could protest that she was far too mature for it, she bundled up Cozy Glow into her forelegs and placed her on her back. “Here’s your bag, hold onto that, and off we go.”

Cozy Glow had never ridden on another pony’s back before like this, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She was very stiff for the first few moments, bouncing and jostling on Twilight Velvet’s back. She soon figured out that if she leaned forward a bit, she could lay her cheek on her mane and hold onto her neck for stability. It was hard to think about how it felt with the recent memory of the bear keeping her eyes locked on the forest as it went by, but it wasn’t unpleasant at least.

Cozy Glow had nearly melted into Twilight Velvet’s coat by the time they made it back to the cabin. The trip wasn’t very long at all, considering the fact that Twilight Velvet kept up a canter the whole way home. Cozy Glow expected a lecture, or another lesson. Instead, Cozy Glow was placed unceremoniously onto the floor so that Twilight Velvet could trot around the cabin at a rapid pace checking the locks on every door and window. Finally, Twilight Velvet returned to where she’d left Cozy Glow at the front door. Now, at last, came the lecture.

Instead, Twilight Velvet pressed her back against the cabin door, slid to the floor, and pulled Cozy Glow into a tight, tight hug. “Thank the stars.”

Cozy Glow expected to be released after a moment, but Twilight Velvet held onto her for a long time. She brushed her hoof over Cozy Glow’s curls, and let out a long, shaky breath.

“What’s wrong?” Cozy Glow asked finally, waiting for a lecture that never came. She pushed away from Twilight Velvet’s grip so that she could direct her confused frown at the unicorn’s face. She was startled to realize that the familiar know-it-all expression had dropped from Twilight Velvet’s expression, and instead she looked shaky.

“I was so scared, Cozy Glow. Super scared. You were scared too, weren’t you?”

“Of course I was scared! But you’re the grown up, so why were you scared?” Cozy Glow’s frown deepened.

“Grown ups can get scared too, Cozy. We get scared all the time,” Twilight Velvet released some of her nerves in a little laugh, and rubbed one eye with the edge of her hoof. “I think any adult would be scared of a bear, especially up close like that.”

Cozy Glow shivered and pressed back against Twilight Velvet’s chest, despite her ego. Twilight Velvet obliged her by wrapping her up in her forelegs again. “I should have remembered to fly away. I don’t know why I didn’t.”

“It’s hard to remember what to do when you’re scared,” Twilight Velvet comforted her, and stroked her mane again.

“But you remembered what to do! Even though you left me all alone on the path in the first place,” Cozy Glow accused, but softly. She wasn’t in a hurry to annoy her rescuer just yet.

“I wasn’t far. I was watching you through the trees,” Twilight Velvet admitted with a little smile, but Cozy Glow could hear how shaky it was in her words. “I figured you wanted a moment alone before you asked for my help getting home.”

Cozy Glow huffed, but it was a quiet huff. She didn’t need any help getting home! … probably.

“I’ve never seen bears out here before. That’s my fault, I should have taught you about bear safety. The biggest rule is that you never, ever run away from a bear,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was soft as she stroked her mane. “Bears can run much faster than any pony, and running will only make them chase you. You make noise when you walk in the forest, and warn them away with your voice. You make yourself look big and scary if you run across one, and make noise. Most bears will stay away because they’re scared of ponies. I think we surprised him.”

“He was no match for your magic,” Cozy Glow pointed out, and considered that for a moment. Magic was bad, obviously, and usually it seemed like magic was only ever used against her… but this time, she was grateful to have it on her side.

“I said I’d keep you safe, and I meant it. No matter what.” Twilight Velvet agreed softly, and tucked Cozy Glow under her chin, rubbing her back gently. It seemed like Twilight Velvet was calming herself down as much as she was calming Cozy Glow at that moment. “I would have kicked him in the head if I had to, but I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“I thought violence was never the answer,” Cozy Glow reminded her cheekily.

Twilight Velvet sighed, and Cozy Glow felt it ruffle her mane. “It shouldn’t be. But if it is, it won’t be a decision you’ll have to make until you’re a grownup. It’s the grownup’s job to make the hard decisions. Okay, Cozy Glow?”

Cozy Glow frowned, but she gave an obliging little nod. “I don’t think most grownups are like you, Twilight Velvet.”

Twilight Velvet smiled into Cozy Glow’s mane. “Maybe you just need to give the other grownups a chance.”

Cozy Glow scowled, and buried her face in Twilight Velvet’s neck. “I’m done giving them chances.”

Twilight Velvet didn’t have an answer ready for that, and so she simply held her close, and stroked her back until they both felt safe again.

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

With how all bears in the show are in Fluttershy's care, its easy to forget just how dangerous they could be.

[cozystar]

woah, my heart. the bear

Twilight Velvet is very good with psychology and children. That makes me happy and gives me more information about potential ways to react in different situations