Splash of Friendship

by Aether Nexus

Prologue - A new crusade

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

Deep within the halls of Princess Sparkle’s School of Friendship…

Four weeks before the new academic year.

Headmare Gozy Glow examined four folders upon her desk. She moved her hoof over the first, pausing a moment to inspect the chips in her hoof, after all these years they remain visible if somepony looked close enough, a reminder of darker times. She returned her attention to the forms, four new members to the School of Friendship but more troubling, four new members into the Crusader Dorms.

With a sigh, she examined the files infront of her. A Colt and three Fillies were to be admitted into the cursed dorm and already images of the disaster and carnage that would inevitably follow were playing through her mind, along with strategies to prevent them. Brushing the pale blue curls of her fringe away from her eyes she stamped the last of the paperwork, officially marking the young ponies as her new students.

“Well, the pieces have been set. Show me your worst, Crusaders. This is my castle, and you will all graduate and I will prevent you from destroying my school,” She said to herself, “even if no headmare has managed it.”

No one could quite explain the phenomenon about this one specific dorm. The school contained 33 dorms, each containing a social area with a basic kitchen and three double bedrooms where for three years six students would call the dorm home. However, one dorm had never once maintained occupation for the full three years, the cursed Crusader dorm.

Of course who could blame the one Yak stampede for destroying load bearing walls and subsequently causing the dorm to collapse. Or the changeling ladybug incident, or when an ill fated hedge of miniature Dragon Sneeze Trees caused a dragon crusader to send their room, the contents of the next room along with its two residents, and the hedge to the dragonlands. The school partially burning down was almost a footnote compared to the fallout caused by Friendship Ambassador Spike introducing Dragon Sneeze Trees to the Dragon Court. Then there was the period with reports completely redacted or covered in red tape that only S.M.I.L.E and an Alicorn or two could have been responsible for covering up.

Cozy Glow let out a sigh, and looked over to the portrait of the Third Headmare of the School of Friendship. “I have no right to ask this, but please give me the strength to do this right, Sweetie Belle.” The mare let out another sigh, meeting her predecessor's red eyes.

“Sweetie Belle didn’t have red eyes!” The mare exclaimed.

“Maybe I'm just wearing contacts, green was so five centuries ago you know,” exclaimed the painting, now animated and leaning out of the portrait.

“Gaaah, that’s really not funny ……. Discord?”

Out of the painting slithered a creature that had not been seen in Equestria for a very long time, with mismatched antlers, one lion's paw paired with a gryphon’s talon, and a head of a goat hosting red and yellow eyes.

From what Cozy Glow had managed to learn from history books and conversations with Flurry Heart, Discord himself disappeared over 400 years ago, before a period of time Cozy Glow had coined ‘10 years of why Princess Sparkle needs friends’. Some time later, the area around the Everfree and White Tail woods was bequeathed to a new Draconequus, Fluttercord, the spirit of Chaotic Nature. Over the course of several tea parties she’d learnt that Discord had feared the death of Fluttershy, and had offered to share a life with her. Apparently for a Draconequus a life together didn’t mean marriage was much more literal since they had become a single creature. Apparently all Draconequuses do it, whatever else could have been divulged from this topic was not something that needed to be discovered, so Cozy Glow made sure to never broach the topic again. However Discord, the Spirit of Chaotic Harmony himself and by himself, now stood in front of the headmare.

“Hello again my dear Cozy Glow, it is indeed I, Discord in the flesh. I’m not completely happy to be here on my own, but Chaos to sow and all that. Besides, I hear that we had a new group of Crusaders who have some deliciously chaotic promise.”

The headmare sank into her seat, unfurling a wing to massage her head. “Yes, Discord, we have four new residents entering those dorms. I'd have preferred to keep it closed but the Princess was quite adamant that it be opened for the new cohort and personally assigned two mares as roommates. At least there's only four residents.”

“Would that include a certain little filly who is so often seen with her nose in a book at the Canterlot Royal Archive? Oh, what was her name? I do believe it was on the tip of my tongue…”

Cozy Glow looked at Discord, who was currently holding his tongue in a talon, inspecting it through a magnifying glass he was holding with a scaled pink tail.

The mare grinned. “That would be Jade Star, yes. Dream Catcher has also been enrolled. When did you decide your tail should be pink? I know it usually is these days but since no one has seen this side of “you” for centuries, is everything alright with you and Fluttershy?”.

The Draconequees paused, and looked towards the mare with confusion, an eye looking at his tail. For the first time since she’d known the Spirit, it would seem he had been rendered speechless.

“Yes,'' The Draconequus replied slowly, “Just need some time to organise a few things and scheme for the future. Oh. but never mind me, it's been ages since we were together. Have you heard from the others? How has Chryssie’s parole been?”

“Badly, turns out attempting a coup against somepony you hate when most of said pony’s guard are changelings is a bad idea. Her statue is currently in Tartarus.”

An eerie silence passed between the two, Discord tried to say something, but no words came. On his third try he finally managed to speak.

“I’m sorry, I had heard you were an advocate of giving her another chance, Headmare Glow, and I hope Chrysalis didn’t cause any lingering problems for you and Flurry. You’ve been far more loyal to her than I was to Twilight after I changed my ways.” He turned to walk away, paused, and walked back towards the Headmaster's Desk. With a snap of his talons two new folders dropped in front of the mare.

“I thought I’d save everyone some time and bring you some more student applications. Twilight's getting a few things in order and is rather distracted, so asked for a favour during our last tea party. I’d have preferred to come with Fluttershy, but Twilight needs her, and we’re trying to do things …. separate for awhile.”

The pause caused the Headmare to almost forget about the folders. Something had happened important enough to split the Spirit of Natural Chaos, but if they planned to stay separate for the first time in centuries, something was either very wrong, or was soon about to be.

“I’m sorry, Discord, but there's no space left in the dorms. To get any more students we’d have to build another dorm and that can’t be done before the new term starts.”

“Oh? But you said there's only four ponies in the crusaders dorm, just enough room for another colt and filly right?”

The Headmare took the files and paled. While the first file, a pegasus colt with a tri coloured mane, seemed normal enough, her attention had focused onto the second file, an application for an Earth Pony filly, with an unforgettable smile.

“This has to be a joke, Discord! You can’t be serious! You know exactly who that is and she surely doesn’t need to atten-”

The headmare was cut off by a talon to her muzzle.

“Oh, my dear Cozy Glow, I’m never serious, but these applications came from Twilight herself, and I just know, we’ll be in for lots…

“...of…

…“laughter!”

With a snap and a flash, the Spirit of Chaos disappeared from the office. Leaving Cozy Glow with six applications for the Crusader Dorm, her plan to manage the dorm was completely torn to pieces by the new applicants.

Jade Star, unicorn and daughter of the one and only Darning Weave, Twilight's previous “lady in waiting”. While no one in Canterlot’s upper crust had enough brain cells to realise the fillies parentage, there was only ever one candidate in Cozy’s eyes and since no pony had been exiled and imprisoned to the place they were exiled to by an enraged Alicorn, it was a good indication that she was correct. Controllable, but potential for neurotic breakdowns and high magic potential. D1 Queen.

Dream Catcher, kirin, apparently the daughter to the Guard Captain of the Royal Guard, not that she’d been aware the mare had a child, though been admitted by Princess Twilight. Perhaps she would need to keep an eye on her. A1 Castle.

Silent Knight, unicorn, with aspirations of joining the Royal Guard after school according to his application. Cozy felt a pang of guilt and hoped that the future guard was up to the task of protecting the school from the others. B1 Knight.

Chenin Grape, Pegasus, the overseas student probably deserved better than to be placed in the crusader dorms, but between her application and the simple fact that Dream Catcher and Jade Star should make excellent friends for the Prench filly. F1 Bishop.

Then came the two new applications.

Easel Splash, Earth pony. While seemingly unassuming, the colt was apparently the ward of Darning Weave, though all contact details were directed to an orphanage in Manehattan. While strange, Cozy needed more information before determining how best to manage the colt. Unknown piece.

Liquorice Toastie, Earth Pony. Except for a photo, no information was provided. E1 King or White player.

Celestia preserve her, the element of laughter had returned to Equestria and was going to be her student, Headmare Cozy Glow was doomed.

Author's Note:

Into to my first fic,

If you've gotten this far I hope you enjoyed and look forward to the rest. Please let me know your thoughts.

Notes on some inspiration,
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/456700/actions-have-consequences - For Cozy Glow

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/451535/memorial - the concept for keeping Fluttershy around even after 500 years.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/477761/be-yourself - For reasons

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

Surprised I did not notice this story before. Very interesting premise. The idea of Cozy as the headmare is very intriguing. I'm very curious as to where you will take this as I like the way you wrote Cozy and the setup so far. When was Cozy released and under what circumstances? What about Tirek? Either way, I'm eager for the next chapter!

“Badly, turns out attempting a coup against somepony you hate when most of said pony’s guard are changelings is a bad idea. Her statue is currently in Tartarus.”

That is incredibly sad.

[Aether Nexus]

11537308
For this continuity, over the years various creatures had attempted to reform the various past villans, as for Cozy Glow, it was Flurry Heart who suceeded in reforming her, eventuraly.

I honestly don't think anyone would dare with Tirek at this point, out of all the villans, Tirek had the most capacity to cause lasting harm with his drain magic.