An Exception To The Rule
Cozy Glow woke up far earlier than she was supposed to. She knew this because when she woke up, the world was dark.
She stretched her forelegs above her head and rolled over. Something kept niggling in the back of her mind, and she eventually clambered out of her bed.
Twilight Velvet’s bed was empty.
Cozy Glow raced into the main room and ran through the kitchen. It was a tiny space, but she still somehow hoped that Twilight Velvet was hiding somewhere in it. She ran to the window, but all she could see was the dark forest surrounding the cabin.
When Twilight Velvet finally appeared, pushing the front door open with her hip, it felt like Cozy Glow had been waiting hours, not minutes.
“Cozy! What are you doing up?”
“Where did you go?” Cozy Glow demanded, but instead of sounding angry, her voice cracked.
“Oh, Cozy - Cozy, it’s alright, come here,” Twilight Velvet soothed her, and set her bags aside so that she could gather Cozy Glow into a hug. Despite every instinct screaming to stop, Cozy Glow wound herself tightly into Twilight Velvet’s forelegs, shaking. “I didn’t go away, I was right out front. Bubbles brought us more supplies.”
“Who’s Bubbles?” Cozy Glow sniffled, her face in Twilight Velvet’s shoulder.
“She’s a mailmare from Ponyville. She and I became very familiar when I was writing letters to Twilight in Ponyville.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Cozy Glow noted that Twilight Velvet didn’t come from Ponyville.
“I have to get the last bag so Bubbles can go home. Can you wait here for a moment? I’ll just be right out there, you can watch me from the door. Then we can put the food away together.” Twilight Velvet leaned back, and when Cozy Glow pulled away to look up at her, Twilight Velvet brushed away her sleep-mussed curls from her face. “And then we can go back to sleep.”
“Okay,” Cozy Glow whispered, and when Twilight Velvet pulled away to open the door, she gave her nose a surreptitious wipe with her hoof.
When Twilight Velvet opened the door, it wasn’t the mailmare who greeted her. “Hello, Mom.”
The world seemed to slow down as Cozy Glow recognized Twilight Sparkle standing in front of her mother.
“Once I figured out that you’d have to be getting supplies from somewhere, it didn’t take very long to track down your magical signature, Mom.” Twilight Sparkle’s voice was thick with accusation. She took a step forward as if to push into the cabin, but Twilight Velvet’s foreleg darted out to block her.
“That’s as far as you go, sweetheart,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was calm, but firm, and Cozy Glow thought it sounded kind of like when she talked to the bear.
“You have to be joking,” Twilight Sparkle hissed, and her ears flattened in unmasked anger. “You’ve been locked up with her for a week, Mom! You have to know by now how dangerous she is! I’m here to save you!”
“And I appreciate your concern, Twi, but I don’t need to be rescued. She’s only a filly, Twilight, she’s -”
“She’s not a regular filly, Mom! She’s far more dangerous! She almost destroyed the School of Friendship, she tried to take over Ponyville -”
“She succeeded at neither of those things, and you still tried to turn her to stone.”
Twilight Sparkle’s gaze narrowed as she looked at Twilight Velvet more closely. “Has she corrupted your mind, Mom?”
“Corrupted - listen to yourself! She’s a filly. She’s no older than those, what, the Cutie Mark Crusaders you told me about?”
“Cozy Glow is not a charming country bumpkin figuring out what her Cutie Mark will be, she is a dangerous maniac who -”
“ - who isn’t even old enough to go grocery shopping, are you listening to yourself? If she is dangerous, it is only due to the adults around her who have shirked their duties to teach her otherwise!”
“Are you implying that my School of Friendship has created Cozy Glow?”
“I’m saying that you did nothing to prevent those things from happening, then blamed it on the pony who had the least power in the situation!”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyelid twitched, and she took in a very deep, slow breath, purposefully trying to calm herself as she glared at her mother. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“I’d be happy to repeat myself.”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyelid twitched a little harder. “Mom, she is a dangerous criminal, and at the very least she needs to be held accountable for what she did. Running away with her was - it was bad, Mom, but I told everyone that you just got caught up in the moment because you’re such a loving parent. You simply didn’t realize how bad everything she did was, because she tricked you. So we can go back to Canterlot, put her in the dungeon, figure everything out. Maybe she doesn’t have to be turned to stone, but there has to be some kind of, of, I don’t know. Punishment, Mom.”
“Is the point of the punishment to rehabilitate her, Twi? Or is it to make you feel better that the ‘bad guy’ has been made to suffer? Because I don’t think I agree with the latter, and I think if you thought about it, you wouldn’t either.” Twilight Velvet’s voice softened near the end, and she reached out to touch Twilight Sparkle’s shoulder. “You’re under so much pressure, Twi. You don’t have to be the horn of justice all the time. Sometimes, ponies just need a second chance.”
Twilight Sparkle’s expression softened, although her eyelid still twitched. “I don’t think so, Mom. She’s -”
But Twilight Velvet would never know what Cozy was, because it was at that moment that Cozy Glow beaned Twilight Sparkle from behind with a two-by-four.
“COZY!” Twilight Velvet gasped.
“I know you said that violence is never the answer, but I think we can agree that this was an exception to that rule, right?” Cozy Glow tossed the board aside.
“It most certainly was not!” Twilight Velvet barked, then knelt down to tend to Twilight Sparkle. Sparkle groaned, and her eyelids fluttered. “Twi, sweetie, are you alright?”
“I’m going to turn her to stone, then use her as gravel to pave my garden,” Twilight Sparkle growled, her voice thin and reedy. “Just point me at her.”
Twilight Velvet frowned down at Twilight Sparkle, then frowned up at Cozy Glow, who shrugged. “Cozy Glow, you are grounded.”
“What!”
“Twi, I’m sorry darling. But I can’t let you take us anywhere.” With a swish of her horn and a grunt of effort, a portal opened up in the center of the room; on the other side stood a confused Nurse Redheart and her clinic. “Nurse, we have a patient for you, sorry for the trouble.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Twilight Sparkle growled even as Twilight Velvet lifted her with her magic and gently deposited her into a waiting hospital bed on the other side of the portal.
“I’m sorry, Twi. I hope you’ll forgive me,” and as Twilight Sparkle began yelling, Twilight Velvet abruptly closed the portal.
The room was quiet for a moment. Cozy Glow felt pressed to break the silence.
“Well, uh, at least being grounded in a log cabin won’t be a big cha-”
“You have five minutes to gather anything you want to bring with you.” Twilight Velvet was already moving through the kitchen, throwing items into a bag.
“What? But we just took care of Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight Velvet fixed her with a long look.
Cozy Glow sighed. “I don’t suppose you have any other heavily isolated family cabins to retreat to, huh?”
“No, but I have a few ideas. Go pack. I’ll pick one by the time you’re done.”
For the next five minutes, the cabin was a glowing dot of light in the forest as the two ponies within hurriedly packed up whatever they could carry. It glowed a little brighter, lit from within by powerful unicorn magic, and then suddenly blinked out entirely.
Twilight Velvet and Cozy Glow were on the run again.
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That was a good story. I wonder were they're going next.
11373062
I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
It's a mystery!
Fun, though, I'm confused why you "completed" the story a second time when it's yet to actually come to a satisfying conclusion.
If anything, if you ever intend to continue the story, then breaking it up into oneshots just causes the law of diminishing returns to kick in and fewer and fewer people will come back to read the next installment.
Next stop: Kludgetown? The Undiscovered West? Bugbear territory?
11373202
I think if it happened in the show, it would be neatly resolved in 23 minutes with commercials. But in real life progress is rarely linear. So Cozy Glow regressed a little bit, and what small progress they made seems to have vanished. But 'regression' does not mean 'forgotten'! Time will tell for these two!
Aw, yay! I'm glad you got to see it!
11373254
Maybe so! It seems to be doing alright so far, so I'm very pleased that people are enjoying it!
11373264
So true! I hope I was able to illustrate how scary they would be, especially to a pair of small ponies!
11373464
I suspect that if she had tried to make Cozy Glow more of a mustache-twirling villain, she'd be way more over the top, like Trixie! 
But childhood neglect is wild, and it can really mess with the development of an otherwise-normal filly. I figured Cozy Glow had to learn to manipulate to get what she wanted, so she never developed the normal attachments that any other filly would.
That would be an exciting twist!
11373476
Where will they end up?!
Oooh, all good locations!!
Great story overall. I quite enjoyed it! I feel like both Cozy and Velvet here were better then in the prequel. If you end up writing another sequel someday, I'll gladly be awaiting it.
Punish Starlight and Discord first, Twilight.
Our hero, everyone.
Putting a portal all the way to Ponyville hospital? Velvet is one powerful mage.
I think twilight is a little over reactive when it comes to her hate of cozy.
I do hope that eventually we see a continuation of their run from twilight sparkle
11373829
I think she was coming around a little bit, her mom was convincing her ... until the 2x4.
11373662
I think Twilight Sparkle wouldn't have been so powerful if she didn't have some really good magical genes to work with, so I expect that Twilight Velvet is pretty powerful too! 
Thank you for reading!
Wow, high praise indeed, thank you very much! I was so afraid it might fall flat compared to the first!
I like the writing and the story, but it feels a bit jarring labeling it "Complete" at this point.
However, I do look forward to seeing more of this story in the future.
She's fine 😁.
Velvet has a point here. Twilight is just refusing to accept that her mom is smarter than her.
11374357
That's a good point about the tag! I'm trying to think of it like a trilogy; the story stands alone, but it's clear there's more to tell, and our heroes aren't quite done with their quest. But I feel (personally) like Cozy Glow would take more than just one story to rehabilitate, so she's gotta go through some life stuff before she reaches her happy ending! Thank you for the kind words!
11374575
Especially when they're right! And I imagine it's especially galling when your title is Princess of Friendship to be told that you could use a little more friendship in this situation. 
It's hard for anyone to hear the harsh truth from their mom!
Really Good Story!!!
Im excited to see where it goes next
Good job, Cozy, she deserved that bonk with a two-by-four. You have my permission to do it again.
I really hope you aren't planning on waiting for the next cozy glow contest to continue this. You have something special here, and I'm excited for it's continuation!
11375613
Too bad the old cluebyfour didn't seem to have an immediate effect. perhaps repeated use will have the desired outcome?
11376420
Two by six should be more effective.
I think many ponies and many people could really grow and improve from the experience of getting smacked upside the head with a two-by-four. Perhaps doctors and therapists should begin prescribing those instead of medication. That'd sure be an interesting conversation.
In any case, a delightful narrative. I'm always one for Cozy Glow redemption stories, because we see nothing of her backstory or motivations ever in the show. On the one hoof, this makes for a very shallow and rather cheap villain, but on the other hoof, it also allows us fanfic authors to fill in the blanks.
And what blanks you've filled in! Cozy's previous situation is tragic indeed, and explains much. Still, we haven't been given the full story, and I pray that you do not cease working on this third book. I'm intensely interested and invested, and thus will await this grand finale with bated breath.
I'm hooked.
My only complaint about this story is that these chapters ended quickly.
It deserves a sequel. The author is well done!
Argh, rereading this and it's still so good! What a ride.
AH a second segment complete. I can’t write for more (I hope you write more I’d love to read it)
Progress isn’t linear!! Dang it about Twilight they were so cozy in the woods. Well, besides the bear. Suppose those woods weren’t as safe as expected
Excited to see where they go next!
11593387
Thank you!! I have been brainstorming, I have a few ideas working! I feel bad making everyone wait so long, but real life can be a real bear (ha ha) sometimes! I'm glad you liked the story! :)
I hope you do continue you this in some form someday. Because it left off on a pretty interesting note. With the two going on the run. And their budding relationship is surprisingly wholesome.
It's a bit of a shame how things ended with Twilight Sparkle here. Though I'm sure she'll come around.
I liked the first story but this one just kind of makes Twilight into a giant ooc bitch. She doesn't even give her mother a chance to explain herself..
I know Twilight thinks Cozy has done something to her nothing, but she is ridiculously out of character here. She basically threatened to kill her come on now.. Doesn't help that Cozy is giving her literally zero reason to trust her whatsoever.