Prologue: The Greatest Mistake

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Sleepless nights and hours of research were visible on both mares’ face, the room solemnly silent. There was a mutual understanding between the two as to why they both looked so terrible, but it was left unsaid. Starlight bit her lip nervously, looking around the library of the Canterlot Castle, seeing all of the unorganized piles of scrolls and books, many with added in notations. She grimaced as she saw the multiple depictions and introspective details of multiple less than pleasant rituals. Still, she knew she had to do it. She had come here for a specific reason, and she wouldn’t leave until she had fulfilled it.

Taking a deep breath, she stared at her friend and Princess. To think that once upon a time they had been enemies only rubbed salt in her mental and ideological wound. She hadn’t been deserving of a second chance, but she had received it anyways. She had done something wrong, something seemingly unforgivable, but she had been forgiven for it just because she was another pony, somepony who needed to be enlightened.

So why didn’t others get the same? More specifically, why did a nine year old filly who had misinterpreted the teachings of Twilight’s own friends and school deserve time in Tartarus? It was no wonder why she had become worse, having spent time in the worst place known to ponykind, and terribly enough, she hadn’t received her second chance. Was it because she’d willingly communicated with another villain, one who would never be reformed with any amount of friendship? Or was it because in the rush of the moment, and lateness of the action, the desperation of the hour, that the poor filly was cast down with the worst beings in history?

Even more awful, though, was that when she reactively returned to her villainous ways, cast out by everypony, including Starlight, she was turned to stone. Sure, she may have been deserving of it like Tirek and Chrysalis, but she was younger than them, her mind influenced by their evil ways. They had refused to reform, had turned away from ponykind, even if only out of spite. Especially so. But what if this was why the little filly had become so seemingly irredeemable. Had the greatest threats to harmony in a thousand years influenced the mind of a child to disregard everything she had learned, and twisted whatever remained against her own kind?

It was painful to think about, especially considering the fact that not so long ago, Starlight had done the same to full grown mares and stallions. Was it really so deserving that she, a grown mare herself, was able to get away with potentially dooming the entirety of Equestria, when a child had done only the same, encouraged and influenced by those around her?

It was clear that the three had never gotten along with one another, but it was also just as clear that Cozy Glow had tried to prove herself to them. Starlight could relate. The want to be noticed, to not be completely forgotten from all of the history books and ponies she knew. Looking back, she was glad that she wouldn’t be remembered as the villainess that had removed Element’s cutie marks, but as proof that anypony could be reformed. Or so it had seemed.

The whole incident with Cozy Glow had been weighing heavily on her mind for the past few months, and with the revelation of what was to come soon, she wanted to relieve the weight on her shoulders. Cozy Glow had been her student, her charge, and she had failed her. As much as she hated to admit it, half of the reason for this was the guilt that was causing her stomach to sink, and the other half for knowing that nopony her age deserved the sentence she had received. Still, it was the right thing to do no matter what they, the ponies, dragons, yaks, hippogriffs, changelings, griffons, and whoever else lived in Equestria, thought.

So, it was with this determination she meekly started, “Twilight, I think you know why I’m here.”

Twilight nodded her head tiredly, slumping into a chair since all formality was dropped, rubbing her face with a hoof. “Yeah, I know why,” she muttered. Her hoof wrapped through her already disheveled mane before she continued. “I don’t feel right about Cozy Glow either. It’s… it wasn’t… it’s not something that we should have done, was it? I mean, I know it’s something wrong to do to somepony so young, but, then again, she was threatening to destroy Equestria.”

“Twilight, I threatened to destroy Equestria, but I’m not eternally encased in stone.”

“Exactly,” she responded, sounding annoyed. “We did something wrong here, or well, back then. And now we need to fix it. I’ve been researching, well, with every bit of non-existent spare minute I’ve had to try to figure it all out.”

“I can see that,” Starlight noted mirthlessly. “So have I.”

Twilight nodded again, looking around the hectic library with discontentment, before refocusing on the subject. “The main thing, or problem with the whole situation, is that there was no specific way to free Cozy from the stone while keeping the other two imprisoned. As much as we love them, I don’t think they quite feel the sentiment.” Twilight pitifully chuckled at her own little halfhearted joke, before returning to her more scientific and analytical self.

“You see, the only other creatures to be trapped in stone are those who made eye contact with cockatrices, and Discord. Who, as you know, was the one who came up with the punishment for those three. The thing is, neither the Elements nor the usual cure for a cockatrice trance will work on this. The cockatrice cure is more or less a sort of -how do I put this- unimprisonment spell, reversing the original effects of the cockatrice. Since the cockatrice’s magic is a weaker orientation, it is easy to reverse, and the spell created only reverses the cockatrice’s magic.

“The Elements could, in technicality release her, but in doing so, they’d release the other two. As much as I hate to say it, they can’t be changed. They’ve proven that, even when all hope is lost for them, they won’t just accept the facts and turn to friendship. We were wrong about them, and they just… can’t accept when they’re wrong about themselves.”

Twilight paused, grabbing a glass of water from somewhere from behind the books and notes, taking a quick sip, before explaining, “Or at least, that's what I thought before. The thing is, the Elements can’t destroy, they just manipulate the truest desires of the heart. Discord was turned to stone because of his stone cold heart, Nightmare Moon defeated because a piece of Luna wanted redemption, and the same with Stygian. The only way to change Cozy back is if there is some part of her that does want redemption, or at least, another chance to be better. It’s sort of like the true test to see which of them can be redeemed. Whoever’s heart isn’t still stone cold.”

Starlight remained silent for a second, before asking plaintively, “There’s a but, isn’t there?”

Twilight nodded sadly. Rubbing her hoof over her face again, she muttered, “But I don’t know if this is the right thing for Equestria.” Starlight opened her mouth to argue, but realized that her friend may actually be correct. “I mean, I know that freeing Cozy Glow and giving her another shot is the right thing, but it may not be the best thing for Equestria,” Twilight explained uncomfortably. “I mean, we’re already introducing a whole new species to our planet, let alone introducing this continent to it’s first real war in fifteen hundred years. Reintroducing a villainess to society just doesn’t seem like it’d make a stable concoction with the rest of the mix.”

“I could take her in,” Starlight instantly offered, causing Twilight’s head to snap up from one of the scrolls of notes she was staring at dejectedly. Thinking quickly, she added, “I could adopt her, or maybe put her in my apprenticeship. Make her my responsibility and teach her. I mean, I’m the most qualified pony, seeing my history with the whole evil ordeal, right?”

“Starlight, I can’t put this on you,” Twilight insisted, standing up and walking over to her friend. Putting a hoof on her shoulder, she murmured softly, “You have so many things going on already, and every creature at the School needs you.”

“Twilight,” Starlight insisted. Taking a deep breath and setting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, she continued. “For these past few months, I’ve been trying to see where I went wrong, why I couldn’t see what was going on with Cozy, and how I could’ve done better. I’m sure you can tell that I’ve been losing sleep over it nightly, and it’s not going away any time soon, unless we fix the problem. What happened to Cozy Glow is the greatest mistake in my life, worse than everything I did. Because of my ignorance, a little filly is now suffering a villain’s fate. I can’t live with that, and I know you can’t.” With a meek but earnest smile, she added, “Besides, I turned out fine, right?”

Chuckling lightly, Twilight closed the hug, muttering, “Yeah, you did.”

Chapter 1: No Longer Dead

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The first thing that Cozy Glow noticed was different was that everything was alive. Of course, she knew that nothing around her had actually been dead, and that she had just been seeing it as dead thanks to her stone encasement, but these past few… times had left her without a stable basis to form any real views on. Everything she saw was blurred and gray, everything she heard muffled and expressionless. It was haunting, and scared her, but at the same time, she knew that there was no way she could be harmed by any of the things she couldn’t see. She was solid stone, after all.

Of course she had seen the two mares approaching, had even vaguely recognized them, but they hadn’t registered in her mind. She had lost any sense of time, so she didn’t even register the time it took for them to get to her, or even that they had stopped at all. It wasn’t until just now, when the color was returning and she was gasping for air through her painfully dry throat that it registered to her that there was something different about this visit.

For a long time, she lay on the grass, too exhausted to do anything but cough and shake. She focused on breathing through the coughing, inhaling and exhaling deeply, trying to find some sort of balance amongst the two to control her shaking. She didn’t know how long she lay there, her eyes blinded by the light that had so previously been a lighter shading of gray. Or maybe she had her eyes closed. She found that the only thing about her she could control was her breathing, and bitterly she felt almost nothing, save it be the grass below her and the tears streaming down her face.

She didn’t know why she was crying through her increasingly more controlled gasping, but strangely enough, it felt good. She couldn’t prevent it, so she simply endorsed it, letting it run its course through her. She trembled pitifully against the ground, feeling grass all around her. Was she rolling around in it? She couldn’t tell. Her ears wouldn’t pick up any sound, so she was unable to tell what was going on around her, only that she was gaining control over her breathing and crying. For several long periods of time, she was able to slowly begin to see, hear, and smell.

It’d been so long since she’d smelled anything, even worse than her seeing and hearing. She could smell the freshness of the grass below her, the greenery itself having a new and fibery smell that lingered on her coat. She could smell the dirt beneath it too, the grainy, rough smell being the next best thing she’d ever smelled in her life. She unconsciously pushed her muzzle into the ground, pursuing the scent. Among other things though, she could smell the scent of fur that wasn’t her own.

As her consciousness began to better itself, she was able to recognize that the grass that was pressed against her head and breast was not grass, but softer. Fur, her addled mind thought. Wait, thought? She hadn’t done that in a while, and neither had she felt in a while. Or felt this, at least. Even before the stone and the cold and gray, she hadn’t felt this in a long, long time, since she was a foal, maybe. And as she thought of the rarity of such a feeling, the feeling of fur on her, she pursued it, pushing herself weakly against it.

She was able to hear something, hear something more than the dull fuzz of everything coming to her in stone. She heard the lightest ruffling of the grass that she half lay, half sat on, the wind blowing through her hair, and the noise of her heart beating. She could feel the throbbing of her heart against her ribcage for the first time in so long, the steady, strong beat of the organ throughout her entire body. It seemed to be the only thing about her that was strong right now. However, there was another noise beside him, the quicker, stronger beating right beside her head. Dizzily, she tried to look up, to no avail.

As she did so, Cozy was able to recognize that she did, in fact, have her eyes closed. She tried to open them, but found that they were stuck close by something she couldn’t control. She put all of her might into opening her eyes, trying to see where she was, what was around her, and even if she was still there. She hadn't thrown away the possibility that this was all some sort of delusion, that she was still trapped in stone, but there was always the possibility that she wasn’t, for some reason or another. Slowly, she willed her eyes open, forcing the eyelids to come apart. It really didn’t help her situation at all, seeing as how everything was still so blurred she couldn’t even make out herself from the grass, but it was well enough for seeing the colors.

Oh the colors. How she had come to miss seeing those. There had only been gray for so long, and now she could see it all so clearly, and it was beautiful. She felt herself begin to smile at the sight of green beneath her, the brightest, cleanest green she had ever seen. She couldn’t even remember what the color had looked like until now, when she was staring at it. In the corner of her eye, she also saw the tinge of her own pink coat for the first time. She giggled as she saw the color. She didn’t know why, but she went along with it. Giggling and smiling for no reason other than there was no reason not to, she looked around as fast as she could, dizzying herself.

The colors blurred around her, splotches of purple and pink and green and blue and yellow and gray, all mixing around each other and swirling together. She stopped, however, eyes locking on the gray smudge in her vision, staring intently at the dull blur. Her eyes focused slowly, gaining some of the details of the blurry structure. The curves and sharp juts, the weird geometry of the entire structure meshed into a hodgepodge of different undefined figures. However, there was plenty of time for those undefined details to become refined and take the recognizable form of Chrysalis and Tirek, both encased completely in stone. Steadily, she looked down at her hooves.

They were there, completely unmarred and perfectly pink. She turned them over, taking in the dimensions of her hooves, the short, fluffy fur and smooth, almost shiny keratin. They were more beautiful than she remembered them being. However, as she looked back up at the figures of her frozen allies from before, she gulped. There was only one reason she could be back from the stone, completely unfrozen and back alive. Her breathing became shaky as her ears finally picked up the sounds of somepony feminine shushing her gently. She could feel their hooves wrapped carefully around her in a full embrace, her breathing close enough to hear.

Cozy Glow was unable to turn her head all the way to whoever held her before it was pressed almost fully into soft, warm fur. She accepted the embrace, momentarily not caring that whatever held her may not be her friend, if anything was. If the ponies and beings that had let her out had wanted to hurt her, they would’ve done so already, she reasoned. Besides, she’d been trapped in stone for months now. She deserved a good hug, for Celestia’s sake.

She tried to ask who was embracing her, but her throat was so dry and she hadn’t used her voice in so long, that it came out as a scratchy whisper. Instantly reminded of its dryness, she began coughing furiously, feeling herself be grasped tightly by the pony behind her.

“It’s okay, Cozy Glow,” a faint but familiar voice reassured her. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Cozy felt her face scrunch up as everything began to flood back to her. She had known about the “before”, or at least, had remembered the fear and anger from it, but she now remembered it all. Tears welled up in her barely seeing eyes and rushed out as the suppressed feelings finally were given the limelight. The hoof of the pony behind her rubbed her back gently as she continued to cry, the shushing doubled as she felt another pony hug her. She saw purple in the corner of her eye, and ashamed of her weak actions, shut her eyes and tucked hre head against the original pony accidentally..

Cozy didn’t really know why she was crying. She wasn’t nearly sad enough for it, moreso enraged by the injustice placed on her, the actions of everypony around her. She hadn’t failed because of herself, but because of them, all of them. Of course, she didn’t know exactly how specific she was getting with them, but she knew that it was a culmination of the Elements, those creatures at the School, Chrysalis and Tirek, and basically the rest of Equestria. So by default, she should hate the ponies hugging her, but in her weakened, barely conscious state, she didn’t, for some reason.

It was frustrating and confusing, but that had been her life so far, so why would it change after her being unfrozen? Being frozen in stone wasn’t some fantastic miracle. It was a punishment, and the stress of it all was hitting her all over again. She saw black in the corner of her eyes as they began to flutter. She heard the panicked sounds of the two mares caring for her, but couldn’t resist the harsh pull of the dark rushing up to her.

She slumped forward, her face meeting the soft grass even softer as she lost all consciousness.

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Starlight quickly lifted the little pink pegasus filly from off the grass. Sighing from the emotional exertion she’d just gone through over the past fifteen or so minutes, she turned Cozy over in her hooves. Gently brushing the ever perfect pink curls from her dimpled, resting face, she hugged her closely, keenly aware that she was hugging one of the most despised villains in history. And why not? Didn’t Twilight and the others do so every day?

Laying the filly softly in a cushion of magic and summoned pillows, Starlight wiped the tears from her face, smiling at Cozy. She would need the sleep for her body to adjust to being back in use again. Starlight had been worried that Cozy’s body wouldn’t remember how to function normally and she’d start suffocating from her body’s inability to remember how to breathe. Thankfully, Cozy seemed to be handling the transition relatively well, at least in physical terms. Along with that, she seemed to be relaxing, even with the stress of why she was currently resting.

Twilight laid a hoof on her shoulder, giving Starlight a questioning eyebrow raise. Taking a shaky breath, she managed, “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just… tough to swallow.”

“I know,” her friend answered, giving her a short, tight hug. After a few seconds, she awkwardly asked, “Um, do you need anything, or… uh, help taking Cozy to… Hey, where are you taking Cozy?”

“My grandmother’s house. It’s a larger cabin in the woods right outside of Sire’s Hollow. Just far enough away that nopony will come poking around, and just near enough for short store trips or anything like that.” Starlight took a pause to consider, then quickly summoned up a map she’d left on her desk from two nights ago. Unraveling it, she pulled a quill to her from the ink jar she’d left it in from last night, when she’d finished sketching out a preparatory plan for what she was going to have to do to keep the filly slightly in line. From personal experience, Starlight could say that, even with the most transformative experiences, there were still certain… urges to do something bad. She’d just have to try and limit it to stealing an extra cookie or sneaking out of bed.

Sweet Celestia, this was going to be hard. And strange. And she’d sidetracked again.

Looking down at the map, she was thankful she had subconsciously marked down the spot near her hometown where Cozy and her would reside. At least a small part of her brain knew how to not act like a complete idiot. Only a partial fool.

Snapping the quill away before any excess ink could drip onto the map, she gave the map to Twilight. Pointing out the obvious black mark, she stated, “That’s where the cabin is. I don’t know how well you can find it. Grandma didn’t really have the strength to clean it up, and, well, I haven’t, or didn’t, because of everything, and… yeah…” she ended awkwardly, rubbing a hoof along the top of her head shamefully. Why’d she have to be so awkward about her past. She’d been a villain, but now she wasn’t. Why couldn’t she just laugh it off?

Shaking away the thoughts, she returned her focus to the unconscious form of Cozy Glow on the magically summoned pillows. Giving Twilight a quick, tight smile, she said, “I think I’m going to take Cozy now.” How did you say that you were going to take the unconscious body of the evilest filly in Equestria to a cabin in the woods and try to reform them, on your own, so good day? “Um, gotta go, and, uh, thanks for this opportunity. It means a lot, really. I hope nothing goes terribly wrong while I’m occupied with all of this.”

“See you later, Starlight,” Twilight dismissed, before sharply adding, “I swear though, if she causes some sort of cataclysmic disaster that melts half of Equestria, I think I might just have to take care of her myself.”

“On top of planning and executing a plan to save Equestria from a murderous horde of monsters, keeping it secret, and whatever's going on in Whinnyapolis and Baltimare right now,” Starlight asked blandly, receiving a tired sigh from her overworked monarch and friend. Poor mare needed some sort of break from the madness that was her rule, but Celestia knew she couldn’t. The burden of being the ruler of Equestria fell squarely on Twilight’s shoulders, and somehow, she held it. Giving her a soft smile as she muttered, “Thanks for this. Really, Twilight. But this is something I need to know I can do. If I can’t, I’ll be a complete failure to what I stand for.”

With a gentle nod of agreement, the two parted ways as Twilight began to trot back to the palace. Starlight kept her smile strong as she looked back down at the little pink filly that she now held custody over. She seemed to have gone from unconscious to sleeping, her little mouth slightly open as she silently breathed in and out. From this view, it was hard to remember who Cozy really was, so Starlight gladly let herself forget. For now, she was just another filly who was slightly lower on the height spectrum, curled up comfortably on a small stack of pillows.

A motherly twinge in her heart caused Starlight to bend down and rub Cozy’s back, right between her miniscule wings. She earned a short little hum as she moved into a more fitting position for the tender actions. Looking up to the setting sun, she couldn’t help but melt some. This wasn’t going to be so bad. She could handle this. This filly was not only redeemable, but could be taught as well. And Starlight was ready to help her learn the truth of friendship.

Chapter 2: Guardian Devil

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Cozy Gow woke up warm. The only reason she recognized that she was awake was this profound warmth, something that had never existed in the stone of a statue. There was something strange about having all of her back as one. Though, that was probably to be expected, seeing as being a statue for even a short amount of time was life altering in a new way. She felt that she could actually relate to Discord somewhat on the matter. Maybe even build a profitable companionship?

“Bah, blasted megalomaniacal thinking,” she said angrily. Cozy stopped, her heartbeat shooting up quickly. Said? She’d… spoken?

An energetic, almost manic giggle escaped her. She heard that too, the wonderful sound of herself laughing into the air. She pursued it, giggling uncontrollably. How could she not? It was the very thought that she was able to hear herself, to hear her beautiful voice through her very ears was a miracle. She hadn’t even opened her eyes, and she was already feeling so much more alive than when she was encased in stone, with her half senses. She could speak and hear, and though it might not have been ideal, she was fine if that was the only thing she could do.

However, there was no harm in the use of her eyes, so she opened them abruptly. Instantly she was blinded by the impossible brightness of the room surrounding her. Or at least, she assumed those slightly darker, broader shadows had been the walls of some sort of confinement. Whatever they were, they were meant to be some sort of border to contain her, so it was indeed most likely a room. No matter, right now she had to deal with the bright red and blue seared into her closed eyes.

Of course, she should’ve expected nothing less. She hadn’t properly used her eyes in what felt like eons, even though it had only been… Had it been eons? She didn’t feel any older, but seriously felt as if time had passed too quickly. Maybe she was simply too disheveled from the whole experience to properly understand everything. If that was the case, why was everything she was thinking so clear? Then again, it wasn’t all that clear to her at all. This whole thought process was only serving to confuse her more and more, and she couldn’t seem to stop it now that it’d started.

Groaning in frustration, another sound joined her. A sharp, clear grumble came from her stomach, reminding that for however long she’d been encased in stone, she hadn’t eaten. Interestingly, she didn’t feel thirsty, and her mouth was surprisingly moist.

Though she didn’t dare reopen her eyes, she tried to push herself up from wherever she lay, only succeeding to discover the weakness of her hooves. She was barely able to even move them, and trying to push off of where she lay was like trying to push a mountain. Her hooves buckled without having lifted her the slightest, and frustratingly, the action seemed to take the little energy she had left in her miniscule body. Grumpily, she moaned at her helplessness, unable to even lift herself the slightest bit. She hadn’t felt this weak since… well, she supposed from the moment that she lost Discord’s powers, she’d felt perpetually weakened.

Right, she’d stolen Discord’s chaotic powers. She’d forgotten that. And wasn’t he the one that had suggested encasing her in stone. Perhaps a union between the two was less likely than she had previously presumed. The thoughts also brought up a dangerous fact and concern for her. She couldn’t remember a majority of things. She couldn’t remember who the Princesses were, only Twilight. Though, it seemed that once she thought of Twilight’s name, the names of the others reentered her head.

Cadance, Celestia, and Luna. And the little twerp that was Cadance’s child. Cozy Glow? Wait, no, that was her. She was someone else’s daughter. With the word daughter popping into her head, the name resurfaced. The little alicorn baby was Flurry Heart.

Interesting. It seemed that until Cozy thought of a trigger word related to the subject she was thinking of, she would have no memory of the details. At least she would be able to recollect her memories, even if it took a specific keyword to remember exactly what. Though, then that brought into question the effectiveness of the process, and if it had one hundred percent accuracy. Actually, she wouldn’t exactly know, considering if she didn’t remember the subject, she wouldn’t know if the test was a failure or not.

Ugh, all of this thinking was exhausting her already. She just wanted some food and to be able to open her eyes without going blind, but that would require another pony to assist her, and she didn’t want to talk to anypony yet.

After a brief pause, she realized that she didn’t know whether or not the ponies who had released her from her imprisonment were friendly or not. They could be some ragabond group that wanted to take personal vengeance on her for her actions, or maybe they wanted to exploit her for their own plan of domination. Or they were the same ponies that had encased her, wanting to make things better for her, or even themselves. The most possible conclusion, though, was that one of the others had managed to free themselves from the imprisonment, and had accidentally freed her as a byproduct of their escape. All of the options presented left her behind enemy lines, possibly captured.

The thought left Cozy uncomfortable as she lay on the warm, soft surface. She finally put it to herself that she was indeed laying on a bed, with blankets on her, and quite possibly something wrapped around her back hooves, but she wasn’t able to properly identify what or why. She was barely able to recognize her bottom half, as it felt numb, and her wings were stiff, yet folded, as if the muscles had turned to steel. It was uncomfortable, and made her squirm slightly.

The squirm allowed her to discover that she was, in fact, able to move, if ever so slightly. The movement, however, proved to be an awakening in more parts of her. She felt her stomach growl once again as her legs began to ache uncontrollably, and quite painfully. Her head felt as if it were splitting in two as she grimaced at all the new and painful sensations. To top it all off, she felt the very urgent need to go to the restroom.

Great, she was going to piss herself whilst dying from a migraine. The optimal way for any great pony to die.

She involuntarily groaned loudly as she continued to force herself to stay still. She had a feeling that if she moved herself anymore, her body would completely wake up, and shatter her with the aching of every muscle and bone. It thoroughly felt as if her body was reconstructing itself after being completely destroyed. Maybe that was what was happening. Perhaps when she had been turned to stone, her body had been completely disintegrated and replaced with the rock, leaving her mind trapped, and now that her mind was reconnected fully with her body, it was reveling in the pain it hadn’t yet felt from the experience.

It made sense, and at the same time caused her even more pain. Could this go on for as long as she had been encased? Was this the second half of her punishment, this nearly unbearable pain and the inescapable room? Was this why Discord suggested this, knowing that when she was reawakened, she would suffer worse than she’d caused. She hated him! Why did the stupid draconequus open his mouth? Why did he have to know such pain, and how to cause it? It was all his fault!

Cozy began to cry uncontrollably from rage and pain, the two boiling together in a potent combination that she was unable to control. It burned her mind, body, and soul, burned it as she began groan louder and louder, pain radiating from every part of her. She wanted free from it, from all of it. She craved release, to the point of wishing she were back in the stone, hidden from the pain of it all, sealed forever from the world.

“Please,” she raspily called. “Please…”

A sudden sound pierced through her painful writhing, a sound unrecognizable, yet comforting at the same time. Anything besides this pain and hate. Anything besides it.

Almost instantaneously, the pain abruptly stopped, relieving her from it so suddenly that she felt a moment of pure, intangible joy, before reality crashed back. She still hurt, but dully, like a distant memory of the suffering she had been experiencing. Her legs and tail were curled up like that of a dead spider’s, and she had no doubt that if she were to see herself like this, she’d be disappointed, but after the pain she’d been through, she felt the weakness was justifiable.

There was a familiar warmth wrapped around her completely now, and she felt as if she was being moved, her limp body being lifted from the bed. Fur. It was unmistakable the fur of another pony, and she could recognize the scent of it as well, the faint berry tinge to whatever shampoo her savior used.

There was noise too, one that felt equally soothing and nostalgic. It was the light, feminine hushing she recognized from before, the sound that had drawn her to sleep. It was so comforting that Cozy simply succumbed to it, not giving any care to if this was what had brought her to harm. Whoever this was had brought her to life again, away from that pain. She only wanted to remain embraced like this, but unfortunately, her stomach interrupted with a particularly loud grumble.

The mare who held her spoke words that her addled mind couldn’t quite understand, but she knew they were subjected to her hunger. It also meant that the mare that held her was gently laying her back down, continuing to soothingly stroke her mane and cheek. How long had she been doing that? It didn’t matter. It felt too good to question. If she were to die like this, it was fine with her. At least this was a peaceful, near painless passing. There wasn’t much left to live for anyway. Maybe this comfort was all…

An insistent calling forced her to recognize that she wasn’t alone yet, but in fact, still in the presence of the mare. She was tapping her chin with something, and Cozy recognized the scent of fruit and oats. Without question, she raised her head and snatched the food off of the spoon presented before her. Her mouth exploded with flavor as she hungrily chewed the food provided to her. It was all too good, too tasteful for it to be real, yet graciously it was. Happily, she took another bite, then another, and another. Unable to stop herself, she continued eating until the mare presented no more food.

She whined for more, begging pitifully for more of the delicious fruit and oat combination. The flavor remained on her tongue, blessedly, and allowed her to remember the exquisite taste of sweet and solid foods. Her stomach felt like an endless pit, having had food thrown into it, but still requiring more. The voice chastised her for her gluttony, but Cozy heedlessly whined for more. Eventually, the spoon was replaced with another, also smelling of fruit, most likely cherry.

She greedily swallowed it down, and it was only after the fact that she tasted the horrendous artificial flavor of medicine that she’d willingly consumed. Gagging as it burned it’s way down her throat, she turned slightly towards the provider of the terrible food and gave her a close-eyed glare. This only made the mare chuckle, which frustrated Cozy beyond belief, and snapped her out of her reverie.

She wasn’t some stupid foal, begging for candy on Nightmare Night. She was Cozy Glow, the Empress of Friendship and scourge of the Elements. She wasn’t going to be toyed around with like this, and she wasn’t going to let herself be pulled around like a marionette. She turned away from the mare, but pitifully, she overestimated her strength and underestimated her control, ending up laying face down on the bed. Unable to push herself up, she cried desperately for help, which she received.

“You really are just going to hurt yourself, you know,” the mare said, her voice finally registering through her muddled and disoriented head. “You’re not half as tough as you think you are. You can’t even open your eyes, so please, make it easier for the both of us and let me help you. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Cozy Glow grumbled a response that even she couldn’t quite make out, but it seemed to satisfy the overbearing mare. As much as Cozy hated to agree with her captor, she was as helpless as a newborn rabbit, and the only pony around here seemed to be her. If she rejected the help provided by the mare, she wouldn’t ever be able to regain the strength she had before, the absolute power that she’d once wielded. So, for now, she’d have to accept this mare’s help and use it as a stepping stone in her progress.

Fortunately, the mare seemed the opposite of what Cozy was expecting. She was kind and caring, even if controlling in the few minutes that they’d known each other. Except, it was most likely somepony Cozy knew, but didn’t remember. Probably one of the ponies who’d done this to her, so she’d take this presented kindness with a grain of salt. If things turned sour between the two of them once Cozy regained her strength, she would like more to fight somepony she hated than one she’d come to hate.

The mare slowly pressed Cozy into the soft mattress, laying a warm, wet something over her eyes. Cozy scrunched her brows in confusion, until the mare gently instructed, “Open your eyes slowly. You’ve been out for a while, and I don’t think your eyes are quite ready for just how bright the real world is.”

Well it was too late for that warning, Cozy griped. Begrudgingly, she put her trust in the mare’s words and actions, opening her eyes at a snail’s pace. The wet, warm covering proved to be the perfect block, as it allowed barely enough light in for her eyes to accommodate sight, while also not burning them. Blinking several times, she attempted to squint through the cloth covering, but the threading was too tight, and she only ended up staring at a light yellow mass.

“Cozy Glow, can you talk,” the mare asked. Bother, she was hoping for some sort of information or knowledge. “I need you to tell me that you can talk.”

“I can talk,” she mumbled aggressively, "but I’m not telling you anything.”

“That’s not what I meant,” the mare objected with a sigh. “I was checking to see how harmed your brain might’ve been from being stuck in stone for nearly five months. There’s no telling what all it had done to you, but I’m glad to see that at least you can speak. I… don’t think any of us would feel too good about you being permanently mute after we released you from stone. How’s your body?”

“Fine,” she curtly lied. “I was hungry, that was all.”

“Alright,” the mare agreed. “In that case, if you're up for it, could you please sit up?”

“No.”

“Cozy, we need to make sure nothing has been irreplaceably damaged.”

“Nothing has,” she sharply stated.

“Being difficult will only make this hard for you.”

“That’s a lie,” Cozy chortled. “If it would only make it hard on me, you wouldn’t be so adamant about this whole check up. You want this to be quick and clean, that way you can get back to whatever you were doing before I was dropped into your clinic.”

“This isn’t a clinic, and I’m not a nurse.”

“Then why are you giving me a medical examination?”

“I thought you’d be smart enough to know that you don’t have to be a professional to know the profession.” The statement was passive-aggressive, and as much as she hated the truth to it, she had to admit that it garnered some sort of respect for her. “Anyways, I need you to be less difficult so we can get on to more important things, such as an actual meal.”

Despite knowing the words were deliberately put to hit her in her weak stomach, she caved in to the blatant bribery.

“Fine, but no funny business.”

There was a brief silence after the statement before the mare asked, “What do you mean? I won’t do any magic mind probing, if that’s what you mean.”

So the mare was a unicorn, Cozy concluded. It also seemed that she knew the age old fear of non-magic creatures. Was she some sort of professor?

Gulping slightly, Cozy began to push herself up into a sitting position. The progress was slow, and Cozy’s hooves shook and felt as if she were going to fall over at any given moment, but after an eternity, she was sitting in an upright position, panting heavily.

As she settled into the position, she felt the covering over her eyes begin to slip off ever so slightly. Unable to react to the cloth falling from her face, she clenched her eyes closed when it slipped off completely. Grimacing as the bright light partially went through her eyelids, she slid back until she felt her wings brush a surface behind her. She leaned against it gratefully, glad she wouldn’t have to support herself for so long as she would’ve suspected.

During the whole process, the mare had been gently guiding her to ensure she wasn’t harming herself, which made Cozy angry. She wasn’t a foal anymore. She could take care of herself, and she didn’t need this overbearing woman hovering over her every second of the day. Of course, if she had been hovering over her the entire time, why would she have let Cozy suffer that pain for so long, a small part of her asked. That caught her off guard, but the truth couldn’t be ignored. This mare was indeed a good one, and apparently somepony who cared more about her than what she’d done, at least to some extent.

Leaning against the wall, she felt the mare’s hoove gently caress her shoulders, relaxing tensed up shoulders she didn’t realize she had. She almost smiled at the feeling, but kept her expression sour, though she couldn’t quite tell exactly. Whatever face he’ made was enough to make the mare comment, “You don’t need to be so grumpy. You were encased completely in stone only yesterday. The fact that you’re moving and talking and thinking right means you’re one strong filly.”

“I’m not a filly,” Cozy contradicted vindictively. “And if I’m so strong, then I shouldn’t need your help.”

“Well, an earth pony can be strong, but they won’t be able to lift a boulder without the help of others,” the mare lightly retorted. “You’re strong, not invincible. Just let me help you regain the strength you don’t have left.”

“Fine.”

The mare finished her massage, which Cozy realized was a cleverly hidden way to check her pulse and rub an almost unfeelable lotion over them. The mare was crafty, Cozy had to admit. There wasn’t much said as the mare silently checked Cozy’s hooves and hind legs surgically. Cozy didn’t resist, and merely leaned back, concentrating on the feeling of the lotion on her shoulders.

The substance was unnaturally cool, yet not uncomfortably so. It felt more like rain on a hot summer day, alleviating and a kind gesture that relaxed her body and mind. Making a quick decision, she opened her eyes.

Though not as sudden as before, the light still burned and ignited a sharp pain in her head, but not nearly as bad as before. Whatever medicine the mare had given her was kicking in, and was causing that lingering dull ache to reside, which all but finished Cozy’s relaxation. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the light as a figure in front of her abruptly jerked away from her lower legs.

“Ah, so you can open your eyes,” the mare commented. “How are they?”

“Terrible,” she answered truthfully. Though the pain of the light was gone, it was replaced by confusion as she was only barely able to distinguish where pony and light bordered each other. Squinting hard and forcing herself to lean forward, she was barely able to tell that the mare’s coat was of a purplish tint, with a horn protruding from her head. So she was, in fact, a unicorn. “All I can see is that you have a horn and are purple.”

“Ah, yes, okay,” the mare mumbled, as if noting down what she’d told her. This set off alarms in Cozy’s head. Her own description of the mare fit only one pony she knew. This mare was acting, and looking, like Twilight Sparkle, the cursed Princess that had managed to somehow defeat her. She was one of the main reasons that she was even in this position!

“Hey, Cozy, can you hear me?” The mare’s voice cut through her thoughts like a hot knife through butter and reminded Cozy of a key detail. This mare didn’t sound like Twilight at all, so there was no way she could be the Princess.

“Yeah yeah,” she said, “I can hear you. I was just trying to determine who you are.”

“Oh, well, let’s do that later,” she transitioned hastily. “I was asking if your eyes hurt from how bright the room is.”

“No, they don’t,” Cozy answered distractedly. The mare was uncomfortable about being recognized, huh? Well then, it seemed Cozy needed to recognize her.

Without a second thought, she launched herself onto the mare, landing on her chest. The mare cried out in surprise, lifting Cozy with her magic, but the damage had been done. Cozy was close enough to see the face of her guardian angel. It was one that she would recognize just as easily as any other student of the School of Friendship. The mare that had been so kind to her, that had given her food, medicine, and help, was none other than the mare who had initiated this misery, Starlight Glimmer.

With a growl, Cozy Glow fell sideways, her vision fading to black.

Chapter 3: A New Prison

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Cozy Glow slowly opened her eyes, wary of what might be waiting when she did. Either the face of an enemy or being blinded by the lights of whatever room she was in, she was cautious. The room was still bright, but not blindingly so, allowing her to take in more of the room she currently inhabited.

It was a nice room, at the very least, with a very spacious feel to it without looking or being empty, and almost felt as if it were intended for pegasi, based on closets in places that the normal pony couldn’t reach without a ladder or magic of some sort. With a small grunt of effort, she pushed herself into a sitting position, continuing to look around. Her body still felt so incredibly weak, but at least now she was able to move around without exhausting herself. There was satisfaction in knowing that she was no longer completely reliant on others’ help.

Cozy saw that she was situated on a luxurious bed, red and black patterned stripes lining the sheets and blankets like some sort of sketchboard. After a brief moment, she checked under the sheets, attempting to see exactly what kind of mattress she was lying on, but red covers blocked her from telling exactly. With another grunt, she leaned forward and fell onto her front legs, pulling herself out of the tightly tucked in blankets that had held her hostage as much as they had kept her comfortable. Shaking herself out, she flexed her sore wings out, feeling every muscle taught and painful, almost like she’d flown without rest across the world.

Grimacing, she knew that they would be too weak to fly for at least a week. So the escape was to be on hoof then. Fine, she could be handy with those cumbersome limbs, as long as they could support her weight while moving. Speaking of which…

Without a second thought, she lept from her bed, landing on the carpeted floor beneath. Her weight crushed onto her legs, which were still too weak to support the sudden transition, and collapsed beneath her like paper. She fell flat to the floor, her face pushing disgracefully into the red carpet that covered the entirety of the room’s floor. With a disgruntled growl, and a great deal of effort, she pushed herself into standing position, and nearly fell back down from the dizziness she was experiencing.

Stumbling back a few steps until she was able to balance herself against the bedpost, she watched her vision spin all around her. She forced her eyes back shut regretfully. Apparently she had overestimated her strength, as she now barely was able to keep herself stable against the bed. Even with her eyes closed, or maybe especially because of it, she felt completely off balance, swaying against her support. She wondered briefly if she was about to pass out, but the dizziness began to subside as she sat down on the carpet floor. Huffing frustratedly, she hit the ground, only jarring her hoof in the process. Right, along with this fatigued weakness, pegasi bodies were already the weakest, which didn’t help at all.

Reopening her eyes, she scouted out the room better, despite being sat on the floor now. The door out was just to the right and in front of her, situated by a pair of what looked like sliding doors, presumably a closet. The majority of the light didn't come from light bulbs or lanterns. But instead from large windows with closed curtains over them. Whether they were to block her view of the outside or the light from coming in, she was uncertain. Either way, that was probably the main reason why she could look around without being completely blinded. Underneath the windows were some empty bookcases, though they actually looked quite clean for being unoccupied.

With a grimace, she forced herself to stand up and walk slowly in the direction of the windows, her head continuing to spin, though at a lesser degree than before. Taking her time with each step, she slowly approached the covered windows, glimpsing the light that filtered through the satin. Raising a hoof, she cautiously pushed it aside, squinting against the flood of sunlight, wincing as the back of her head stung dully. The pain was lesser however, almost just reactionary memory, to the light, but it was otherwise… normal. With a slight laugh of satisfaction at her rapidly regaining strength, she looked out of the window.

Surprisingly, there weren’t bars, or even real locks to prevent her from trying to escape and fly away. The only thing keeping her in the room was a piece of glass she could simply slide to the side and fly out of. She was half tempted to try right then and there, but her previous physical performance discouraged her from trying it. Besides, hadn’t she just told herself a week before her wings could actually handle the test of flight? Foolish, she scorned herself. She needed to be careful not to be so hasty and brash about everything while she was in the enemy’s territory. Speaking of which…

Actually looking out of the window, she could see distinctly that wherever she was, it was most definitely not Canterlot or Ponyville, the two places she expected she'd end up. Instead, she was firmly planted in the middle of a large forest, the evergreen trees just barely beneath the windowsill allowing her to see trees extending for miles around, until they climbed the gentle slopes of a nearby mountain range, too small to be the one that Canterlot sat on.

Where was she, and more importantly, why was she here, and who was actually in charge of watching over her. It couldn’t have been the School of Friendship’s former counselor, right? She was too busy to deal with her right now, and besides, she’d be in the room, leering over her, taking notes and making nerdy calculations. Perhaps when she’d seen “Starlight”, it had merely been some sort of illusion from the fear that the mare was the one taking care of her. Most likely, it was indeed a mare that looked like Starlight, but wasn’t, and in her delusional state she simply panicked and had seen the mare wrong. Or worse, she hadn’t even woken up and that all had been a nightmare of some sort.

No, she knew she had to have woken up, seeing as she could still faintly taste the fruity grain stuff she’d been fed, and the fact that she wasn’t hungry. There was somepony who had come in to help her with that incredible pain, and there was somepony who had been there to feed her, and somepony had definitely tucker her in after she’d initially awoken. But where that pony was, she didn't know, and whether Cozy actually wanted to escape from them was all still uncertain, much like the rest of her situation.

After shrinking for a brief second, she pressed her face against the warm glass of the window, looking out on either side to measure up the dimensions to which the building she was currently residing in extended. She was able to see that she was on the third floor of wherever she was, this floor extending another four windows before dropping to the roof of the second floor, and ended a bit later. From her guess, she had to think that she was in somepony’s private mansion, probably some rich snob from Canterlot who’d lended it over. Briefly, she considered the possible insinuations for her being in a rich pony’s manor, but she ruled out intimate relations near instantly. Unless that pig boy Blueblood had some very interesting kinks, she couldn’t name a single noble that would stoop so low, and especially for somepony so young.

Grunting, she pushed herself away from the window, glancing over to the bed. She could lay down and wait for somepony to come and check in on her, or she could do it her own way and wander around, and possibly out, of the mansion. Even as she considered the option, however, she realized that her legs were shaking from exertion already. With a disappointed sigh, she opted to walk over to the bed and climb back into the bed, tucking herself in neatly. Despite the warmth of the sunlight now streaming in, she still felt stone cold to her very bones. Ironic, she bitterly thought, rolling over on her side and wrapping the blankets around her wings, which she’d wrapped around herself. Oh boy was this pathetic, having to wait for somepony to come and see how she was doing.

Huffing once again in anger and annoyance, she tucked in, attempting to dispel the inner cold. Now that she wasn’t hurting or having trouble seeing anything, and since her belly was full, her body seemed to realize that it was frigid, shivering even under ten pounds of blankets. Shifting slightly, Cozy felt herself sink a little deeper into the mattress, and finally, felt the warmth on her skin. With a comfortable smile, she nestled in against herself and took a deep breath, a yawn escaping her as she let it out. Maybe a little more sleep would do alright for her. After all, who knew how long until the pony came to check in on her…

The creaking of the door instantly caused her to tense up, and she resisted the urge to instantly turn around and check to see who was there. She mentally cursed herself for leaving the windows open, letting whoever came in that she had been awake and moving around.

“Huh, guess she got up then,” the pony noted, obviously seeing the curtains drawn open. The pony was indeed a female, and she could already tell that her voice was uncomfortably recognizable. The carpet kept her from telling how close the mare was getting based on her hoofsteps, but she could very faintly hear the swish of her tail getting nearer. With a slow, light knocking on her bedpost, the pony called softly, “Cozy Glow, are you awake?”

After hesitating for a second on whether to respond or not, she muttered sharply, “Yeah.”

“Oh, good,” the mare responded with a sickeningly cheerful tone. “Well, I brought you some fruit and nuts in case you were hungry, and more of that medicine if you were hurting anymore. Do you want any?”

“No,” she bitterly answered, refusing to let her sudden hunger show its face. Why was she so hungry now? Hadn’t she just felt so full? Probably something to do with the fact that her body hasn’t needed food for Celestia knows how long, she logically told herself.

“Well, I’ll leave the bowl next to your bed if you change your mind,” the mare informed her, followed by the light tap of her setting the bowl down. There was a brief silence between them before she heard the mare sigh. “Look, Cozy, I’m-”

“Don’t call me Cozy,” she commanded her sharply without looking at the mare. She was too scared to confirm the truth to see if it was even possible.

“Okay, Cozy Glow, I’m sorry about what happened to you,” the mare behind her apologized, sounding at least a little genuine. “We… we never wanted you specifically to be encased as well as the others, but there was almost no other way in the moment than to catch all three of you.” Well, identity confirmed then. “We tried though, we tried so hard to tell the three of you that there was another way than the evil you chose, but you didn’t listen! I never wanted to hurt anypony like that, and it hurt me to see you in the stone, but what could I do?”

“Well, something, apparently,” Cozy stated obviously with a venomous tinge. “Just took you so long.”

“It did,” Starlight agreed mournfully. “But it did work. Please, let me try to help you recover at the very least. From there, we can do whatever you legally want to get you back to normal, everyday life!”

“So no taking over Equestria,” she tested.

“That’s not legal, unless it’s by election, but considering that most ponies do actually see you as nothing but evil in a filly’s body, I doubt you wouldn’t be a very popular candidate,” Starlight answered. “Besides, only Twilight and I know that you’ve been released from your imprisonment, and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible. Not many ponies would take too kindly to the filly that nearly destroyed Equestria being shown mercy, let alone living among them.”

“Go figures,” she said grumpily. “Wonders what they’ll think when they find out I’m living with you.” After another moment of silence, she asked, “So, you trying to get all mushy with me so you can get me to open up about my sad and troubled life that led me to becoming the embodiment of child evilness?”

“If it would work, then yes,” Starlight responded truthfully. There was movement on the bed as she felt the mare try to sit on the bed. After a failed attempt, she remained standing and said, “Would you at least like some water or something. Your body isn’t completely used to itself yet, and while it might not sound like it to you, your voice is scratchier than an old stallion’s. Besides, before today you hadn’t drunk anything for four months, which certainly can’t be healthy for you.”

“Fine, I’ll have some water,” Cozy begrudgingly replied. In truth, she hadn’t noticed that her throat and voice were scratchy, and still didn’t quite recognize it as such. “Don’t try to trick me into drinking some sort of happy juice, though! I prefer to enjoy this ‘angry at everything’ for as long as possible before you make me into the perfect example of a bad filly gone good.”

“I won’t force you to do anything besides the rules of this house, and none of them require you to become a goody two-shoes,” Starlight assured her. “My job right now is to take care of you and help you recover, and depending on how you act, try and make sure you don’t go ‘Empress of Friendship’ on us again. Anything beyond that is beyond my jurisdiction, and you can feel free to call me out on it if you ever feel repressed or subjugated.”

“You sound like you’re reading me a law,” Cozy grumbled.

“Well, I’m telling you the unspoken law Twilight made me,” Starlight explained. After a second, she questioningly began, “So, about that water…”

“Yeah yeah,” the pegasus muttered in compliance, rolling over without thought. Immediately, she wanted to roll back away from Starlight, but it was too late. Refusing to show her shock in seeing her, in spite of knowing she had been there all along, Cozy let the unicorn mare know how disgusted she was with her by snatching the water with a scowl. The stupid mare only smiled at her, watching her drink the water gratefully. Once Cozy had started, however, she couldn’t stop. The water was cool and tasted better than the food that she’d been provided earlier, and she downed the entire glass in one long gulp.

“See, you did need that water,” Starlight gloated lightly, to which Cozy increased her scowl and turned back over. “Oh come now, don’t be like that. You aren’t a foal, despite your appearance.”

How did she-

“I mean, you clearly have a whole lot of life ahead of you, and are very young, but you seem to know what you’re doing,” Starlight glamoured her. With a cheerful half laugh, she told her, “You’re probably better off than I was when I had to accept that I was wrong with what I was doing.”

“Yeah? Well, you weren’t turned to stone with the entire world hating you for trying to use what you were taught,” Cozy bitterly spat.

She could practically hear the wince in Starlight’s voice as she responded, “Yes, well, the process you took to being controlled was a lot more difficult than mine, to be sure, but you’re still young. You have plenty of time to gradually realize where you went wrong and why what you did was bad, as well as how to fix it. You’re not even half of my age!”

“Yeah, plenty of time to be brainwashed of my individuality,” Cozy sharply retorted. “Sound familiar?”

There was a distinct silence after that remark as Cozy let the satisfaction of the blow sink into Starlight. Suddenly, she felt a weight on the bed, before it transferred over her. Starlight laid down right beside her, her face only a few inches away from her glaring eyes. Starlight’s eyes, however, looked genuinely hurt, but also understanding.

“I know that you're bitter about this, but also that you’re hurt by this all too, and more than physically,” Starlight told her, completely ignoring the verbal jab. “I can understand why you’re taking it out on me, and if that’s how you need to cope, then fine, I can be your verbal punching bag. I don’t really mind. What I do need you to realize is that, even though we were the ones who put you in that terrible place, but realize that at the moment we were focused on helping the many. Now that they’ve been helped, we can focus on helping you. So please, now that you are the priority, let me help you.”

The request sounded genuine, and so sweet, but poison is best hidden by sugar. Still, sometimes sugar was just sugar. With a begrudging sigh, she looked away from the mare’s eyes and mumbled, “I guess I don’t have much of a choice, then.”

“Of course you do,” Starlight informed her. “You just might not have the one you would prefer.”

Cozy snorted and rolled over, facing the open side of the bed. There was a desk right beside her bed that she hadn’t noticed before, where the food Starlight had brought in was placed. With a resigned sigh, she let go of her pride for a moment and reached out to the bowl, pushing her muzzle into it and chewing on some of the strawberries within. Sweet Celestia, it tasted so… beyond good.

Cozy Glow moaned at the delicious flavor, not caring for what the mare behind her might think. It was too good not to verbally appreciate in some way. Even before her banishment, delicious foodstuffs like fruit were a very rare commodity among the Legion of Doom, or at least her and Tirek, and they would often fight over it. Given his dominant size and magic, he would always win and greedily hoard a whole bushel of the fruits for himself ,taunting her as he ate them. The memory of the injustice made Cozy bristle angrily and enjoy these strawberries that much more. Stupid goat was still stuck in stone, she thought with satisfaction, while she was here gorging herself on strawberries, and very soon, sunflower seeds.

She giggled maniacally to herself at the thought, and she felt Starlight shift uncomfortably behind her before completely getting off of the bed completely. Which only made her giggle become full one laughter. Slowly, her laughter trickled off into a cough as her dry throat resisted so much movement. Once again, she found Starlight in front of her, holding out a hoof.

When Cozy’s coughing had subsided some, she told her, “There isn’t any water left, but we can head down to the kitchen together to get some, if you want.”

Eyes watering slightly, Cozy asked skeptically, “Wait, you’d let me out of the room so soon? Aren’t I your prisoner?”

“What, no, of course you aren’t a prisoner,” Starlight exclaimed in authentic surprise. “I mean, you aren’t really allowed to leave the house without me there, but otherwise almost every room in this mansion is open to you.”

“Almost,” Cozy questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Why almost.”

“Well, my room is off limits for obvious reasons,” Starlight droned, “And I’m gonna say that the basement that connects to the kitchen is also off limits because it was never finished being built, so there’s a lot of dangerous equipment and stuff lying around that I don’t want you to get hurt by.”

“Oh, well, guess that makes sense,” Cozy dully gave, shooting the hoof a suspicious glance. Starlight continued to hold it out, however, and after a second thought, and a sore twinge in her throat, she set down the bowl of food and she took it, pulling herself out of bed. Even with the support, she nearly stumbled, instead leaning into Starlight for support.

She was caught by surprise when the mare pushed into and wrapped a hoof around her, securing her in a standing position. The warmth of her body felt strangely familiar, and she had an instinctual feeling to stay leaned against her. However, the comfort was both strange and uncomfortable, and she wasn’t able to handle the strange mixture of comfort, discomfort, and warmth. She pulled away quickly, looking away from the mare, hating the comforting, warm feeling she found herself missing. It was disturbingly haunting, and she knew internally why she was so perturbed by the situation. Shuddering, she took a few steps forward, feeling too awkward to wait for Starlight to guide her out of the room, all the while feeling her keeper’s warm smile on the back of her head.

“The stairs are to the right of this door,” she informed Cozy. “They’ll take you right down to the foyer, and from there it’s down the left hall to get into the dining area, which feeds right on into the kitchen. I think you’ll find the house to be very open in its design. It was my grandmother’s and she was a pegasus too. Left it to my father, who gave it to me after he became the mayor of our hometown, Sire’s Hollow. I haven’t used it since then, but I figured it’d be the perfect place for us to live while we got you used to being back in everyday life.”

“Hm, well, it seems nice enough,” Cozy admitted. “Though it does look like some sort of fancy prison still. I mean, it is painted gray on the outside.”

“Ah, yes, well, that’s in remembrance of my grandfather. He died when my dad was only twelve or so, and to remember how good of a stallion he was, she painted the mansion the same color of his mane. I think that, despite its rather dreary look, it’s a sweet sentiment,” Starlight elaborated in an almost philosophical tone. So she still was a professor at heart.

“Hey… Why are you here trying to brainwash me and not somepony else? Shouldn’t you be principal of Twilight’s goody-goody School of Friendship and whatnot?”

“Well, I actually handed off the whole principal spiel to Sunburst, because, with Flurry growing older, he can begin to take her around with him, and he’s been dying to move to Ponyville ever since his first real winter in the Crystal Empire,” Starlight explained. Then, with a quick, airy laugh, she joked, “They may have a magical barrier, but that doesn’t stop good old Mother Nature from freezing everypony’s tails stiff!”

“Uh-huh,” Cozy agreed, unamused. By now they were descending the stairwell, which had been put in the exact center of the third story. From the way the hallway looked, the story mirrored itself, with the stairwell serving as the imaginary mirror. The entire inside of the house was decorated with deep red rugs and black with cream colored wallpaper. The two had a strange, contrasting style to it, reminding her slightly of a velvet chocolate cake. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t finished the nuts and fruit, and that it was still very empty, in spite of the snacking and meal from before.

“Guess we’ll have to grab some food while we’re in the kitchen too, huh,” Starlight lightly teased, to which Cozy shot her an unimpressed look. “Or I guess we won’t,” she suggested. Another growl of Cozy’s stomach gave her away, and she swore she heard the mare behind her chuckle before she commented, “I stand corrected.”

Cozy was going to die here, she swore. If she didn’t find a way to escape from this place, either the sickening sweetness of Starlight or the sheer pressure of the mare trying to reform her was going to suffocate her. With a frustrated huff, she hopped the last two steps and turned left, where the kitchen lay, as Starlight had said. She needed to escape here before the week was out, or Celestia help her, there was going to be blood.

Chapter 4: Going Mad

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Cozy Glow was in a mood. She wasn’t sure if it was a good mood or a bad mood, and if something happened, it would probably tip the scales. But for the moment, she was stuck in this limbo between anger and positivity.

On the one hoof, this past week hadn’t been as insufferable as she’d suspected, and for the most part, when she and Starlight interacted, it wasn’t in a negative manner. On the other hoof, she was still stuck here. Her wings hadn’t healed yet, and were still stiff, constricting painfully whenever she attempted to flap them. The windows were still unlocked, and even if they weren't, she could have easily broken through. Although, with her wings as weak as they were, she couldn’t fully trust the strength she felt in her hooves either. Even though she could, even run on occasion, she hadn’t used her hooves for brute force… ever.

She wasn’t sure exactly how she was supposed to react to her whole situation. She was incredibly relieved that it wasn’t her fate to be trapped in stone for millenia, but at the same time, was it worth it to be surrounded by the same ponies who made her go mad in the first place? And besides, stone wasn’t that bad, although the effects of being released from it were quite horrendous. Despite suffering through three or so months within her “time-out”, she was still quite keenly evil, at least in some way, and surely Twilight and Starlight had already seen that coming. That was actually the reason she was stuck here, she guessed, and not in Ponyville with the other Elements “teaching” her.

On the other hoof, she was still helpless, still ever reliant on the care forced down her throat from Starlight. She was always one to take care of herself, and ever since she’d been released from her stone imprisonment, she’d felt humiliated by the constant weakness that came with freedom. It kept getting on her nerves how she would wake up to the smell of breakfast cooking, hating that somehow Starlight had awoken earlier than she to ensure she was fed. She could do it herself, dang it, but for some reason Starlight couldn’t get that through her goodie-two-shoes head. No matter what she said or did, her overprotective keeper was always watching out for her, when she could most obviously do it herself.

All of this, of course, came out of the “goodness of her heart”, but as the days turned into the first week, she wasn’t exactly sure whether those quotation marks were validated or not. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell if how Starlight was acting was the actual image, or just an act to win Cozy over. And even if it was an act, was what she was attempting to hide even sinister in the slightest? The more she contemplated it, the more she found that Starlight was technically the one in the right in their conversations, and not herself. And the more she realized that, the more she began to wonder if indeed she had truly been the villainess that ponies told her.

She often revelled in evil as a word to describe her greatness, the only word that could comparably come close to describing her immense power and superiority, but now, she was wondering if the technical definition was the true word to describe her. After all, Tirek had been evil, quite naturally, and literally so as well, but he had also been the only being as powerful as an alicorn, and those were most obviously the ones in the wrong half of the time. Tirek was in the wrong, and had proudly adopted the term “evil” as a badge of pride, perhaps even as a show of power.

Chrysalis had done the same as well, happily taking on the mantle of being the most evil ruler in all of Equestria, which was why when she was described as evil, she had accepted the word as a term for her immense power. After all, Chrysalis and Tirek had been powerful, so surely if ponies had begun calling her “evil”, she must be viewed as powerful as well. Right? Oh pony feathers, maybe she had just been, like Starlight had insensitively suggested, following after the lead of her older peers to fit in. So, as it was, she was simply following after the hoofsteps of those who she familiarized herself with.

Cozy grumbled, hopelessly rolling over in her bed as she tried to force these thoughts out of her head. It was all of these terrible insecurities that were clashing with the cheerfulness of her situation that were causing her such distress, and it was becoming more and more obvious to Cozy that if they didn’t resolve themselves soon, she would permanently be stuck in uncertainty. She hadn’t been sleeping or eating much because of these thoughts, which were becoming more prevalent as her body healed. Some days she wished that she didn’t wake up from dreamless sleep, because it meant facing another day of overexaggerated cheerfulness to clash with her natural want to be grumpy.

She almost laughed as she realized that the more she wanted to be grumpy to combat the brightness around her, the more confused she became, and thus more truthfully grumpy. Then, in turn, when she was actually grumpy, she couldn’t be grumpy about the things that Starlight was kindly doing for her, simply accepting it quietly and moving on. This whole situation was beating her down mentally, and whether she meant to or not, Starlight was making her want to leave simply to know how she felt rather than finding out who she actually was. After all, she couldn’t tell if she couldn’t get a wrap on what emotions were truly hers and what were simply thoughts from an older life.

Rolling her face into the pillow she lay on, she screamed as loud as she could into the soft bedding, losing her breath after about twenty seconds. That was longer than before, she noted dully as she rolled back around to face the ceiling. Her lung capacity was strengthening, as was the rest of her body, but they weren’t anywhere near as strong as they were before the encasement. For Celestia’s sake, she’d been able to carry a tango with two tone deaf costars at one point, but now she could barely say three or four sentences in one sitting before beginning to pant softly.

Growling, she slammed her face back down into the pillow and grumbled words that came to her head. The pillow muffled them well, which immediately became a blessing as she heard the doors to her room open. If Starlight had walked in on that line of thought, with that many questionable words… Cozy giggled at the thought, which became her undoing, as Starlight called softly, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

Knowing she’d been caught, and seeing no point in resisting, Cozy muttered, “Yeah, I don’t find it too comfortable to sleep in a mansion in the middle of the forest with a sworn enemy.”

Starlight sighed as she asked, “Why can’t you stop that? I’m not your enemy anymore, and I never wanted to be enemies in the first place. Can’t we please just forgive and forget? I mean, I know it can’t be easy to forgive a pony after they’ve done something terrible to you, but please, I’ve been trying to show you my trust for you. And for some reason, you’ve proven yourself trustworthy, despite everything I was led to believe, just like I’d hoped you would.”

“What do you mean,” Cozy questioned, sitting up and staring at Starlight, who’d gotten uncomfortably close to the bed.

“Well, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the windows and doors have been unlocked ever since you arrived, and never once have you gone outside,” Starlight told her. “I was trying to see if you truly were what we thought you were, and whether or not you had actually changed, or were simply attempting to earn my trust to turn it against me.”

“Well I never,” Cozy spat sardonically, glaring at Starlight, but sensing where this was going very quickly.

“That’s right, you don’t ever, not even when the front door is left open,” Starlight agreed, her voice soft but firm. “You never take the opportunities I give you to escape, even though you obviously still hate me and wish to be anywhere but here.”

“Well, I don’t hate you, more strongly dislike,” Cozy corrected thoughtfully. “And I can name five places that are worse than here. Shall I name them?”

“Thank you, but no, you don’t have to,” Starlight stoically continued, her voice still soft. “You see, Cozy, the whole reason you’re here is because you still have something in you, some vestige of your being, that wants to be good, in spite of every other piece of you attempting to be evil.”

“Hey, I can name several parts of me that are still good,” Cozy suggestively commented. The jab was a direct hit, and Starlight’s face instantly lit up bright red at the indecent comment, looking away from the filly in embarrassment. See if you think I’m all sweet and innocent after that, she thought to herself. She sometimes forgot that she was older than she was, and other times forgot that she was supposed to act younger than she was, but in a situation such as this, it was better to be younger. After all, no little filly would ever make such a risque comment, and indeed, one wasn’t making one.

“The point is,” Starlight hurriedly moved on, “that the only reason you are here instead of encased completely in stone is because there is still good in you. Perhaps it was only just developed, like with Nightmare Moon, or maybe it has always been there, merely being hidden by the evil surrounding you, but there is good in you. I want to capitalize on that as much as you’ll allow me to. I want you to still be able to live your life out, because otherwise we as a nation have failed you, and I don’t like the prospect of that being on anypony’s shoulders.”

Cozy clenched her teeth and looked away from the mare, feeling her mood tip quite easily away from positivity, and beyond that of anger. She felt the inevitable rage building up inside her, and with it came a storm of words she’d kept within her, attempting to at least give the mare a chance. Now, as Starlight began trying to force feed these new concepts and theories down her throat, she felt those words begin to ripple up her whole throat, pressing against her tongue. Puffing her cheeks out like she always did when she was frustrated, she glared at the pillow by her head, refusing to make eye contact with Starlight.

“Look, I know you don’t want to accept this, and I know personally how hard it is to be wrong, but please listen,” she insisted. “Nopony wants another grand battle, or even an argument. Everypony just wants to live their lives the way they want to, and I’m sure that includes you, but that can’t happen in a world that’s constantly on edge for another menace. Please, just promise me right now that you won’t become that menace that makes everypony afraid again. Whether or not you stay, I want you to know that I do care about you. You remind me of all those mistakes I made after I became bitter with those around me, and I don’t want to watch somepony else go down that path as well.”

“Then why don’t you act real around me,” Cozy exploded, turning her head sharply to glare right into Starlight’s lavender eyes. “You always act like you were once me, but how come you never act like you know what I’m going through, huh? You say that you saw the mistakes you made come back to life in me, but you do nothing to actually try and change me, just kindness kindness kindness! What did you want when you felt like nopony cared, like everypony else in the entire world hated you? You wanted them to be authentic, to act like actual ponies, and not some sort of perfect, kindly, two-face Princess! But that’s how you’re acting now, right? Don’t actually try to deny it, because I can see your face, and you know that it’s true!”

Cozy paused to catch her breath, and in a moment of clarity, she saw that she was standing on the top of her bed, staring down at a sitting, terrified Starlight. Her pupils had shrunken in fear, and Cozy almost felt bad, but immediately, she continued her rant.

“You said that you’ve cared about me, that you didn’t want it to come to me being imprisoned, but quite frankly, I wouldn’t care much if I were put back. It was better to be trapped within stone than to be tortured by this suffocating, artificial kindness that makes my head spin and my legs wobble. There is no way in the wide world of Equestria that anything you're doing here is for me explicitly, because, as you’ve said yourself, you were simply trying to clear your conscience. Well I’m done being a guilt trip, thank you very much. If you want what’s best for me, shut up and forget about me, because I’m leaving!”

Without another word or thought, she jumped off of the bed and walked over to the window. Not wanting to waste the time to open it, she slammed her hoof into the pane, which popped out of its place and fell to the forest floor below. Turning back around to gauge Starlight’s reaction, she was surprised to see that, while indeed she had stood up, she was only staring at her sadly, not moving a muscle. Cozy’s resolve softened slightly as she asked harshly, “You gonna stop me?”

“I promised I wouldn’t,” Starlight quietly reminded her, her voice as sorry as she looked. “Just promise that, even if you still hate me, you’ll be back before the sun’s down all the way,” she instructed.

“No,” Cozy denied sharply, adding a glare as she turned back around and lept out of the window. She spread her wings and caught a slight updraft, allowing her to glide between the trees. She began flapping her wings, giving herself altitude, wincing as a slight ache in her wings intensified. Without looking back, she flew away in the open morning air.

Chapter 5: Into the Woods

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Cozy was sore from how hard she had flown, and hitting that stupid tree branch only amplified her pain. After months of encasement in stone, pain not inflicted from soreness stung like a million needles. Her senses felt overstimulated, flooded by her surroundings. She could smell the wet dirt and grass to a point of tasting it. She heard every twitching branch and scuttering bug. Her eyes were finally adjusted to the light, just in time for night to begin falling. All in all, she was in a pretty strange predicament.

Each breath brought a flood of wonderful, familiar sensations that were alienated by how long it had been since she enjoyed them last. Every second outside whatever that weird mansion brought a hundred different thoughts, her lazy mind finally waking up in time utilize its incredible prowess to plan and scheme. That mare was a fool for letting her out so soon and letting her go so quickly. Well, she would have time to regret that strange decision later. Yes, when she was left trapped beneath Cozy’s throne, she would think of all the ways she could have prevented the future, foolishly thinking it was still in her hooves to choose the future. It was all of their mistakes for-

“Horseradish,” Cozy squeaked as her hoof plunged through a small pile of leaves and into a frigid puddle of mud. The chill that went through her caused even her mane to stand on end, a sharp sting of ice in her nerves. Shuddering as she stepped back, she flicked her hoof in an attempt to get some of the mud off. It did little to remove the filth, and for the first time, Cozy glanced back at where she had come from.

She hadn’t flown that long, her wings beginning to cramp mid flap and threatening to send her into a death spiral back to good ol’ mother earth. Even when she had tried to land, a stupid twig sticking a bit too far out had given her a whip in the snout. Both her wings and snout still hurt a little, but she pressed on as she had all day. Thankfully she had known basically the moment she’d looked out the window that this wasn’t the Everfree forest. While flying, she had distantly picked out the Canterlot Twins, the mountains that Canterlot was built on, telling her she was in the quiet woods that were scattered throughout the east.

Growling at the sticky mud on her hoof, she tried rubbing it off on some dead leaves, only managing to get a few more leaves stuck in the mud. Sighing in defeat, she began to walk again, hoping to find someplace to hide and stay warmish through the chilly spring night. It still surprised her that light was falling, considering she had left in the morning. Had Starlight really not thought about if Cozy just kept on running and running? Stupid mare.

Still, that stupid mare did have a warm bed, with some warm food and warm air… No, no. She had slept through colder nights in worse places before. She would not let Starlight’s overbearing attentiveness spoil her resourcefulness. Cozy was stronger than needing Starlight, especially after a week of being cooped up with her.

The little pegasus yelped as she tripped over a branch she hadn’t seen, the fading light concealing the roots and fallen sticks that covered the forest floor. Okay, it really was time to focus on finding somewhere with a little cover to sleep in. A hollow, fallen trunk maybe? A craggy between rocks, perhaps? There were no big rocks to hide between that she could see. The forest wasn’t dense, but it was flat, meaning there were no little dips she could cover herself in. Pressing her lips together, Cozy resigned herself to her fate. It was going to be a cold, very uncomfortable night.

Sighing, she glanced around her immediate surroundings, scanning the area for anything she could potentially use to better the situation. With the little amount of daylight she had left, she might be able to gather some larger sticks and bark to lean against a tree. A sharp, powerful gust of wind that ruffled her fur and feathers immediately ended that train of thought. As humiliating as it was that she had to sleep outside, it wouldn’t be half as embarrassing if her body was found crushed underneath a makeshift lean-to. She had no delusions about her size, and given the size of branches she probably would have had to use, a good collapse would hurt at the very least.

Well, maybe she could-

A branch snapped and Cozy yelped again, probably giving away her position to whatever horrible creature was creeping about this late at night. She flexed her wings in preparation to take flight, but immediately let out a cry of pain as both wings jolted with pain like they had been broken. Collapsing to her knees, she looked around fearfully. No way. This wasn’t how the mighty Cozy Glow was supposed to meet her end, surrounded by unnamed forest and covered in mud and grime! This was-

“Sweet Celestia, I’m so sorry,” a kindly, sweet voice suddenly declared, a silhouette appearing right in front of her to accompany the voice. She let out a shriek and scurried away from the sudden silhouette, only managing to hit her head on a low-hanging branch.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” the voice exclaimed before the woods were suddenly lit up, the unicorn revealing himself as he ignited his horn. Cozy squinted against the sudden light, reaching up a hoof to rub the sore spot on the back of her head. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. That’s why I didn’t have my horn lit yet!”

“Why didn’t you have it lit before then,” Cozy grumbled, getting a good look at who she was talking to. The colt had a blonde coat and blue mane, both of which looked a little roughed up and dingy. He kept his mane back, but it wasn’t short, just long enough to not be so. In fact, most things about him looked barely not short. He was taller than her, but only by a head, still small enough to be considered a colt by adults and an adult by foals. For her though, he was a weird in-between, not quite a colt, but not nearly a stallion.

“Well, because I don’t really have a problem with the dark,” he said with earnest pride. He looked her up and down, frowning as he stated, “Unfortunately, it seems you do. Here, let me help.”

“What,” Cozy questioned, affronted as the colt reached out a hoof with a kind smile.

“I said let me help,” he repeated with a grin.

She squinted at him, studying his face for a long moment before shaking her head with a scoff. “You run into a filly in the middle of the woods right before it gets dark and you don’t even ask any questions. What game are you playing at? I don’t even know your name yet.”

“Star Scout,” the colt introduced, pressing his hoof just a little bit more forward, undaunted by Cozy’s coldness. “My name’s Star Scout, and I’m guessing yours is Red Rook?”

“What,” she questioned again, before noting that his gaze was to her behind. She almost slapped the colt’s hoof away at the notion, but the more sensible side of her remembered her Cutie Mark. Rolling her eyes at herself, she grumbled, “No, it’s-”

She stopped herself dead as she realized she had almost introduced herself to this colt as Cozy Glow, the infamous Empress of Friendship. Eyes going wide at her almost idiotic downfall, she gave the colt another side-eye, his disarming manner suddenly very suspicious. “Yeah, yeah Red Rook is right. Most ponies guess something along the lines of ‘Scarlet Piece’.”

“Huh, that’s weird,” he said with a confused quirk of the head. “It seems so obvious to me!”

“You must be one of the smart ones, congrats,” Cozy sardonically complimented. “What’s your game, Star Scout?”

“Well, my game is that I’m trying to spend a few more minutes out in my piece of the woods before dinner when I suddenly find a filly out here,” he answered with such sincerity that Cozy was actually confused by his honesty. “What’s yours?”

“Getting found wandering in your part of the woods right before you go inside for dinner,” the pegasus deflected. There was something so strange about how honest and bubbly this colt was. Even in the School of Friendship, most colts were dumb, loud, and hiding a few truths behind compliments and insults. This one, though, just flung them at her like they had been best friends for years. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to-”

“Come home with me for dinner,” Star finished brightly. Cozy paused instantly, giving the colt a stare. He had said it so frankly and honestly, but not forcefully at all. It was like she was kindly being told to watch her head on the way out. Or in, in this case.

“Pardon you,” she inquired, before trying to turn away again.

“Oh, c’mon Glowy, you can’t be serious about going out into the woods at this hour of the night. You’ll freeze,” he pointed out vigorously. Once again, she turned to face him, confused. Noting it, he continued, “Look, while it’s none of my business on why you’re out in my little piece of the woods, but it can’t be any good business. You obviously aren’t from around here, you’re completely disheveled, and you have to be running towards or away from something. Nopony travels perfectly straight unless they’re trying to get away from something. Besides, you’re already shivering. Maybe you will survive the night, but knowing you’re out here and freezing while I’m sleeping comfortably in my house just isn’t right. At least let me help you get a warm meal and bedroll.”

“O-o-okay,” Cozy stammered, befuddled by how quickly she’d been picked apart. “Ya got me. I’m running away from home.”

“Why,” Star asked, his brow furrowing in concern. “They weren’t mean to you or anything, were they? My parents could help if they were!”

“No, no, I don’t have any parents,” Cozy muttered, dealing him some truthfulness with a taste of a bashful glance away.

“Oh, I’m so terribly sorry” Star nodded somberly, reaching out a hoof.

Cozy flinched away as it tapped her shoulder, goosebumps rolling through her skin. Star retracted the hoof, though he didn’t look ashamed or disappointed, just… considerate. What was it with this strange colt? Her suspicions mounted too high, she dared to ask, “Are you working with Starlight?”

“Um, who,” he inquired, his face scrunching up in confusion.

“Starlight Glimmer,” Cozy clarified, trying not to laugh at his weird little expressions. “Y’know, one of the Headmares at the School of Friendship?”

“Oh, gosh, I don’t know much about that sort of stuff,” he admitted sheepishly, rubbing a hoof on the back of his head. “I know the Princesses of course, and I think one of the Elements is… Rarity, the fashion mare, but I couldn’t name anypony else for the life of me.”

“Husband of Princess Cadence,” she questioned.

“Oh, wait, I know that one,” he exclaimed excitedly. “Prince Shining Armor. And their kid is Flurry Heart! Cuz of the blizzard she was born in… or something like that…”

“Close enough,” Cozy figured, giving the colt a calculating stare. “King of the changelings?”

“Uh… Thorax,” he guessed.

“Correct,” Cozy Glow confirmed. What is this colt’s game? Was he really playing a fool, or just being strangely innocent to lead her on. There was no way anypony was this innocently honest, right?

“Haha, I knew it from the start,” Star laughed. “C’mon, gimme another one!”

“The three tyrants locked in stone for time and all eternity after threatening Equestria.”

“Shoot,” Star spat, slumping slightly in defeat. “Uh, golly, Chrysalis, T-rex, and… and… dangit, I can’t remember the last one! Everypony forgets about them anyways, so cut me a little slack.”

“Uh-huh,” Cozy grumbled flatly, her pride more than stung.

“Hey, don’t blame me,” Star pled. “We out here in the middle of the Cheshire Groves don’t really pay attention much to the news. I mean, the only one that really affected us at all was Tirek’s attack on magic. Ooh-ooh-ooh, that was the third one! Chrysalis, T-rex, and Tirek. No, wait…”

“T-rex and Tirek are the same one,” Cozy mumbled.

“Well, then who’s the third one,” Star questioned eagerly.

“Um, I don’t remember,” she bluffed. “Everypony forgets the third one.”

“Yeah, that’s a real shame,” the colt nodded. “I mean, we trapped them in stone and everything, and nopony even remembers who they are. Kinda sad.”

“Very,” Cozy agreed, staring at the colt. Star was staring distantly at nothing in particular. Weirdly, she wasn’t too off-put by his friendly, naive nature. Just… wary.

“C’mon, it’s for sure dinner time by now, and we do not want it going cold,” Star insisted with a smile. “Trust me, we’re having fritters on sesame!”

He didn't look behind him as he began walking away, laughing slightly as if he’d said some sort of joke. Cozy Glow hesitated for a moment, on the verge of turning and running while the colt wasn’t looking. She raised a hoof, preparing to sprint in the opposite direction, but then, without command, she took a step forward. And as soon as she’d taken one step, another followed, and then another and another. Pretty soon, she was walking right beside him on a lightly beaten trail, his glowing horn illuminating his friendly smile.

Chapter 6: Meet and Greet

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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.”

Chapter 7: Who You Are

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There was a long, harsh moment of silence as Cozy stared in horror at Star Scout, her jaw agape. He had found her out! She was going to be turned in, kept here for the night only to be shipped back to the Canterlot Gardens. He would tell his parents who would call for the Princesses and then she’d be back encased in stone for all eternity! Her heartbeat spiked at the thought, her breaths becoming short and quick as panic overwhelmed her. Without thinking, she turned and raced towards the window.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Star exclaimed, catching Cozy by the tail right as she was about to leap out the window. She glanced behind her, yelping in pain as the much stronger tugged her by the tail in his mouth. Looking her in the eyes, he managed to grunt around her tail, “Can’t we please talk about this?”

“What’s there to talk about,” she shrilly protested, unable to keep her voice down. “You wanna ask what it’s like to be stone?”

Unfortunately, she realized too late that he had asked the question to get her to stop struggling. Another yelp escaped her as she was suddenly pulled into the nearby room, the door shutting as Star used one hoof to tug her in. With the door shut, he let her go and turned to look at her again, panting a little from dragging her around. Plucking a strand of hair from his mouth, frowning at it, he asked the frightened filly, “Can we please talk now? I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you already did,” Cozy noted sourly, rubbing the sore spot where her tail met her rear. Her eyes darted instantly to the window in the room, wondering if she would be able to make another wild dash to break out.

Star noted where her gaze went, sighing with disappointment as he moved between it and her, keeping an even space between the door and window. Cozy took a step back, bumping into a bed, as she was cornered by the colt. However, now that they were alone and he wasn’t shouting for his parents or something like that, she wondered if she could take him. He was bigger and had just roughly overpowered her, but maybe if she got the jump on him now, she would be able to escape him. Her ears perked up as Star mumbled something to himself, looking away from her for just a second.

“Look, Cozy, I’m not gonna do anything to you,” he tried assuring her again, sitting down. “I’m just very curious. I mean, I’ve heard a lot about you and everything, but so much of what ponies hear and say is misinterpreted and exaggerated that I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be friends with Cozy Glow herself! You’re a villain certainly, but at the same time, you’re back, so Princess Twilight must trust you enough to not be afraid to have you running willy nilly!”

“Hold on, you wanna be my friend,” she asked, concerned.

“I mean, who else to be friends with other than the Empress of Friendship,” he said with a wink.

Cozy was taken aback by the joke, something way too personal and equally jocular for such a situation. He had just met her, as well as that, he had revealed he knew she was the Cozy Glow, a feared, powerful filly that had almost conquered Equestria twice. How could he be so frank and calm with her even after telling her he knew her secret? After throwing her around like a sack of hay and imprisoning her in his home? Then, a very random, disturbing thought crossed her mind.

“This isn’t your room, is it,” she questioned accusatively.

“What in the hay, no,” he exclaimed, his brown fur going beet red in an instant as he looked away flustered. “Why in Equestria would you even think that? You’re just a filly!”

“Actually, I- ,” she began, before catching herself. “I’ve heard that far more times than you can guess. Quirks of being a villainess, I guess.”

“No no no,” Star declared, his eyes sharply returning to her. Instead of being flustered still, he had a curious spark to his eyes as he scanned her face for a moment. Unexpectedly, a smile broke out on his face. “You’re lying about that too, I can tell. That little stutter there, you were trying to cover up, weren’t ya? You’re not a filly, though Celestia knows you're not a mare at all. Your voice is way too shrill to be an adult’s but far too mature to actually be a filly’s. You're in between fillyhood and adulthood, so probably around my age, right? Makes sense why you’re so smart but letting independence cloud your judgment. I mean, honestly how could you expect nopony to know who you were with one look! You’re real lucky my parents don’t really pay attention to anything that happens outside the forest, otherwise you’d be in a lot of trouble.”

“How could you just figure all that,” Cozy challenged nervously. This colt was astoundingly astute, picking her apart in front of her very eyes like she was just a simple children’s puzzle.

“Oh, I’m just… y’know… I see things…” he answered uncertainly, glancing away again.

Frowning at his sudden lack of confidence, she grumbled, “You’re one weird colt.”

“Yeah, everypony says the same thing,” he sighed, rolling his eyes. “They always say I’m too smart for my own good or that my kindness is too unconditional. Everypony at school is… well, they certainly know how to be cruel…”

Cozy felt a jab of pity staring at the colt, whose ears had flattened against his head in shame. Some ponies really were the worst creatures in Equestria, rude, obnoxious, and cold. For once in her life, she had met somepony who didn’t have at least one of these traits, and seeing him distraught, in spite of what he had done, made her blood boil. “There’s no reason you should be listening to whatever idiots are being mean to you. You’re frankly better than any colt I’ve ever met before, and trust me, there have been quite a few. Idiocy seems to be a common trait you managed to avoid.”

“I knew there was good in you,” Star replied simply, looking at her with a small smile. “Ponies just haven’t given you a good chance.”

Cozy inhaled sharply at his words, her chest tightening as he said exactly what she had felt all her life. His knowing eyes, kind smile, and peaceful stance left her without anything to fear from him. Looking at her, he had known exactly what she was, but instead of running or leaving her, he had decided to help her. Why? Why, when everypony else had dismissed her as some filly or a completely corrupted pony, had this colt seen through her? It was unfair. It should have been the Princess of Friendship, or one of the Elements, or even one of the other students at the School of Friendship that saw the truth. Not some random colt who had found her in the middle of the forest, disgraced, exhausted, and weak!

As she stared at the colt, their eyes met, and it was only then that the last of Cozy’s fear melted away, removed as her heart trembled. Her breath left her completely, a blush rising to her cheeks as she realized that, undoubtedly, she had met somepony important. Before she could let her emotions fly off the handles, though, she forced a scowl on her face, trying desperately to focus on the anger behind his statement.

“You’re right, nopony’s ever given poor little Cozy Glow a chance,” she snarled, tearing her eyes off of him. Plopping herself on the bed, she grumbled, “Your parents will probably be suspicious with you being here so long. Even though you’re a ditzy, naive colt, your parent’s oughta be a little worried about why you brought home a filly.”

“I thought we already determined you’re not a filly,” Star protested. “What are you, fourteen, fifteen?”

“You were right the first time,” she sighed, not wanting to lie. He had picked apart enough of her lies anyways. Maybe if she told enough of the truth, he would never question the one big lie… “And you?

“Fifteen,” he replied, shrugging. “Most ponies say I look eighteen and act eight.”

“Most ponies are wrong,” she stated matter-of-factly. Glancing at him again, she added, “About the acting eight part. You do look… meh. You could be anywhere in your teens. Impossible to tell.”

“Yeah, says the girl who looks ten,” he joked with a wry grin. Sobering, he asked, “That’s not because of a… uh, problem… or- or past trauma or anything, right? I’m not being insensitive.”

“Yep,” Cozy answered tightly, her heart aching painfully as his unknowing comments struck home. “Nothing at all. I’m a normal midget!”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” he muttered to himself, his brow furrowed. He blushed as he realized she had heard him, the room too quiet for whispering to oneself. “Y-y-y-you’re right, though. Mom and dad will be a bit weary of me being, y’know… um, I’m going. Goodnight? Unless, I don’t know, you wanna still talk or something…”

“I’m tired, Star,” she replied. “Tired and dirty. So, unless you wanna talk while I’m in the bath…”

She smiled as he turned red and stood up, practically rushing out the door. Halfway out, however, he turned and poked his head back in, and even with his face terribly red, he asked, “You won’t leave, though, right? We won’t wake up and find you… not here? At least say goodbye if you’ve gotta leave…”

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” she agreed halfheartedly. Star tensed up as she approached, smiling like a vulture as she stopped a hair away from him. He gulped nervously, fear in his eyes as he stared down at her, obviously unsure of what the villainess was about to do. Narrowing her eyes at him as she grabbed the door handle, she softly asked, “Is this the door to the bathroom?”

“Oh, yeah,” he replied with a very obvious sigh of relief. “There’ll be any toiletries you need in there already. G’night!”

Cozy smiled as soon as the door was shut. It was sort of funny that she could intimidate the colt still, even though he knew the truth about who she was. That thought gave her pause as she entered the bathroom. He was intimidated by her being flirtatious and complimenting him, but not by actually being in the presence of the infamous, evil Cozy Glow? She saw her face scrunch up in the mirror at her confusion. She blinked, watching herself, taking herself in, realizing only as she stared at the filly in the mirror that this was the first time since her stone imprisonment that she was seeing herself.

She was an absolute mess. Her curls were almost completely undone, she was dirty with her one muddy hoof, and the bags under her eyes rivaled those Twilight Sparkle’s. She chuckled at the thought, relishing in how distraught and exhausted the Princess had looked from time to time while heading the School of Friendship. Sighing, she had to admit it wasn’t even a cute-ish look on her, just straight pathetic. It was no wonder Star and his family had taken her in so willingly. She looked halfway dead, and now that she wasn’t panicking about being sent away or turned in, she felt the part too. She felt a bit indignant at the appearance and quickly prepared her shower. The sooner she stopped looking like a pathetic, halfway wild pony, the sooner she would feel more herself again.

Her mind flitted back to what she’d been thinking before as she began washing herself. Star Scout was certainly a… kindhearted pony, one that she genuinely didn’t want to take advantage of she didn’t need to. He gave her so many opportunities, though, especially with how trusting he was. It was probably still in his mind that, in spite of Cozy Glow being older than she let on initially, she was still at least partially innocent. It was a dangerously powerful delusion for him to maintain if that was the case. Powerful for her, of course. He was also incredibly skilled with his apparently vast knowledge of the Equestrian woodlands with how easily he navigated them. Pursing her lips as she struggled to get a mat out of her hair, her mind wildly came up with an absurd plan.

Given she still probably needed to be on the run, she would have to leave sometime soon, though with the comfort of hot water easing her aching muscles, she didn’t have the willpower to set a date. When her mind was clearer, she would decide whether or not to leave tomorrow or the day after. For now, she relished the comforts of modernity after a whole day stumbling through the untamed woods. However, if she were to somehow be able to convince him to run away with her to at least guide her through the forest, it would be much easier than today was. In fact, she liked the idea more than she would admit. She’d never had a henchpony of any sort, as Tirek and Chrysalis were strangely her equals when it came to the plans and attacks. Besides, Starlight would certainly be horrified by the prospect of her young charge running off with some colt into the woods for a few days.

She grinned wryly as she finished up washing, for the first time really feeling like herself again. It was strange with her hair uncurled and somepony knowing half of the truth, but she almost wanted to thank Star for listening and being himself. Why, she hadn’t realized until now how utterly exhausting her time with Starlight had been, struggling to save face while recovering. Hiding the truth from her and perpetuating every lie she had lived by before being turned to stone. Now that she no longer had to worry about hiding some of the truth from Star, she felt relaxed, able to sleep comfortably. Yawning, she carefully got into bed, tucking her wings around her as she pulled up the blanket. She was asleep before anything else came to mind.

Chapter 8: Help!

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The clock chimed two in the morning, the final straw for Starlight as she paced restlessly in Cozy Glow’s room. Her heart pounded as she desperately glanced out the window one last time, hoping that she would spot the little pink filly emerge from between the trees at any moment. The darkness of the night, however, didn’t release any little fillies and the seconds ticked by quickly. Panting, knowing she was having a panic attack, her brain raced. She needed to tell somepony she had really messed up, but if Twilight knew she had willingly let Cozy go, it would be game over for both of them.

Running a hoof through her mane, her thoughts dashed to the only other pony she could trust entirely to be there for her and help her without judging. Summoning her magic, she carefully envisioned her room in the School of Friendship and flashed herself to that spot. Blinking at her dark surroundings, feeling herself hyperventilating, she glanced over to what had been her bed a few weeks ago. There, Sunburst lay sleeping deeply. Having taken over the role of principal for her during the summer and fall while she was trying to help Cozy Glow, this was technically his room now, though nothing had really changed.

“Sunburst, Sunburst, wake up, I need your help,” she cried, shaking him through the blankets.

“Gah, what the hay,” he exclaimed, shooting upright and hitting his snout on hers. Both of them yelped in pain, Starlight jumping backwards to rub her stinging nose. Squinting through the dark, levitating his glasses to his face, Sunburst’s eyes went wide as he exclaimed, “Starlight, you’re here!”

Without warning, he lurched forward and gave her a hug, almost falling out of the bed to reach her. She gasped in surprise before smiling a little, returning the hug. He was the first pony other than Cozy she’d seen all week, and after how draining dealing with the chafing remarks and indifference of the filly had been, being greeted with a hug was nice. Her heartbeat slowed, and for a moment she didn’t think about her worries, just grateful that this was how she was welcomed by Sunburst, no matter the hour. Unfortunately, as he pulled away and looked her up and down with a sideways smile, she realized just how strange the situation looked.

She had broken into his room in the middle of the night looking like a colorful stack of hay and had shook him awake. While it would’ve been weirder if she had kept him asleep, the position was nonetheless suspicious and rightly questionable. With a blush, she also realized probably the only reason she was even having thoughts about it being something different were all those buried, unspoken things. Feeling a heat between her legs, she flushed and took a step back, smiling awkwardly as she Sunburst grinned.

“It’s great to see you again, Starlight,” he said, adjusting his glasses slightly, “but it’s the middle of the night. What’re you doing here?”

“I need your help with a problem,” she quickly explained before mentally slapping her face with a hoof at how that sounded.

“It’s the middle of the night,” the stallion repeated, frowning. “Is Twilight having you do some more special research or something on a tight deadline that’s keeping you up?”

“No, not really, but at the same time, kinda,” Starlight tried with a sigh. “Look, I’m about to tell you a whole lot and you’re just gonna need to follow along and listen before asking questions. And if there’s anything particularly shocking, try not to shout about it. We don’t need the School of Friendship to know about… well, this.”

She gestured at him and her while she said it, before once again realizing how terribly insinuating it was. Physically smacking a hoof against her forehead as Sunburst blushed, she quickly amended, “I mean about what I’m gonna tell you, not me being in your room in the middle of the night to tell you it. Sweet Celestia, why am I so bad at talking?”

“You’re not bad at talking, just unclear,” Sunburst offered with a geeky smile. “Please, what’s troubling you, Starlight?”

“Well,” Starlight began, sitting down and trying to ignore the lingering redness in her cheeks, “it started a couple months back, whe Twilight and I were reflecting on what happened to Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow. We knew that what we had done in unifying all of Equestria against them and ensuring their defeat was right, and that the three deserved punishment, but the manner in which the three were contained we disagreed with. Actually, we mostly disagreed with Cozy Glow being trapped in stone for the rest of eternity. Now given, she was an evil little filly who has almost conquered Equestria twice, but the key word there is filly.

“You see, we don’t know anything about Cozy Glow except that she was a villain who misconstrued Twilight’s teaching to mean she could use friendship for control. Before that, though, she had to be a normal filly, a filly who lived somewhere in Equestria and had a mother and father. Now we never expected the parents to willingly give their identities away, because Celestia forbid my daughter ever attempts to take over Equestria, I wouldn't want ponies to judge me either. However, they had to be out there somewhere, and Cozy Glow is far too young to be encased in stone for eternity. While her mistakes are big, the punishment was much too severe. So, using the Elements, we brought her back and now I’m taking care of her, or was.”

“Hold up, you plan on having a daughter,” Sunburst questioned, rubbing his head with a hoof.

“I just told you that Twilight, the Elements, and I brought back Cozy Glow and you’re hung up about me saying I want a daughter,” Starlight deadpanned. When the stallion nodded sheepishly, she exclaimed, “Yes, I want a daughter, but that’s not the point! The point is that I had Cozy Glow in my care and I let her run off never to be seen again!”

“You what,” Sunburst shouted, startling Starlight.

“Yeah, that’s the appropriate response,” she grimaced, bowing her head in embarrassment. “I thought I was doing the right thing, showing her that I was willing to trust her and that she wasn’t a prisoner. She left, but I thought for certain she would return!”

“Why would you think that, Starlight,” Sunburst loudly asked, his eyes wide. “She’s Cozy Glow for Celestia’s sake! I’m not even sure if I really agree with you letting her out in the first place, let alone you being the one to take care of her. Why would you believe she would just return of her own accord?”

“Because it’s what I did, back when Twilight was trying to reform me,” she answered with a shrug.

“Thanks Celestia, but Cozy Glow isn’t you, and you aren’t Cozy Glow,” the stallion pointed out, calming down slightly. “Look, I think I understand where you’re coming from though with her returning, it’s just way too early to give her that amount of freedom this early on. She’s probably gonna go run off now and begin scheming a way to get back at Equestria for trapping her in the first place. Sweet Celestia, this really is panic-worthy…”

“Unless you help me find her,” Starlight suggested sheepishly, feeling bad for pulling him into this mess. “I… I know it’s not really my place to ask you with help for my mistake-”

“No, I’ll help you for certain,” Sunburst quickly told her with a smile. His grin dropped as he became more studious, tapping a hoof on his chin as stared at the ground. “It’s catching the filly that we really have to be worried about. I mean, she’s a pegasus, so that’ll mean she’s probably already miles away from wherever you had her. If we’re lucky, she’ll have stopped for the night at some point, giving us a little time to figure this out. Now, where were you keeping Cozy? We may just be able to stop her before she comes across anypony.”

“Wait, you’re helping me, just like that,” Starlight asked, stunned temporarily. “No explanations, no begging, no toeing the line?”

“Well, I am pretty uncertain of what I’m getting myself into, but what the hay,” Sunburst shrugged. “We’ve got one of Equestria’s most dangerous threats on the loose. You can explain everything to me once we have her contained again. Besides, it’s been more than a year since anything exciting’s happened. Might as well get back into the swing of things with a wild filly chase without Princess Twilight’s knowledge!”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she exclaimed, pulling him into a tight hug. “You’re the best, Sunburst!”

“Th-thank you,” he chuckled nervously before escaping her grasp. “Though flattery won’t get us anywhere. So where did you keep Cozy Glow before she got away from you?”

“At my grandmother’s old mansion outside of Sire’s Hollow,” Starlight winced, rubbing her shoulder with a hoof in mild embarrassment. “It was the most out-of-the-way, large space I knew where nopony would bother us while trying to work things out. It also just so happens to be on the crossroads of Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Canterlot.”

“Ah, so it’s imperative we move with haste then,” Sunburst muttered, looking a little down from the news. “At least nopony around Sire’s Hollow itself will know what she looks like… except for my mom. Maybe, even if she is spotted, it won’t incite a riot.”

“That’s probably asking too much of our luck,” Starlight replied with a sigh. “We’ll be lucky if she hasn’t been spotted, let alone hopped a train to somewhere she could easily be recognized. Ooooh, Twilight’s never gonna trust me again after this mess.”

“If you told her what’s going on, maybe she’d be more lenient and we’d be able to find Cozy quicker,” Sunburst gently suggested.

“I know, it’s just that this… problem,” Starlight began, before finding she didn’t have the words to describe what she was feeling. After several more seconds of stammering, she blushed and looked away, grumbling, “Nevermind, it’s stupid.”

“No it’s not,” the unicorn replied with a knowing smile. “I think I understand, and when this is all over, we’re gonna need to have a real talk about your self-confidence.”

“You’re one to talk,” Starlight giggled, giving him a playful punch.

“Hey, you know it’s much easier to help with other pony’s problems than face your own,” he replied defensively, grinning as the two laughed softly. After a moment, his smile faded slightly as he stared at her. It returned suddenly, as her’s began to fade in concern. Before she could ask what was going on, he told her, “You’ve got a pretty smile. I didn’t notice that before.”

“M-m-must be the moonlight,” she tightly mumbled, glancing away as she blushed.

“Well, I may be socially awkward, but I’m smart enough not to rescind a compliment to a mare,” Sunburst shrugged, turning over his shoulder. “I’lll pack a few things we might need for hunting down this escaped filly of ours. You just sit tight.”

“Yeah,” Starlight agreed absently, watching the stallion move to get his satchel and levitating a few books. Unable to deny the fluttering of her heart and the heat between her legs, she grumbled to herself, “Sweet Celestia, I’m down bad…”

Chapter 9: Defeat

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When she finally woke up in the morning, Cozy was surprised at how well she had slept. For reasons she still couldn’t quite come to terms with, she didn’t feel threatened by her surroundings, or at least, not immediately. Scout’s assurance to her that her identity was safe with him was… unexpectedly pleasant. Not having to lie awake, afraid of being turned in at the drop of a hat was a privilege she didn’t expect to have on this venture. Nevertheless, as soon as she was awake, she quickly checked the room to see if there was anything off.

Instead of anything that could mean somepony had snooped around while she was asleep, all she found was a plate with two pieces of toast and jam, fresh salads, and eggs. Frowning slightly, she poked at the food and realized it was somewhat cold. Raising a brow, she looked around for a clock but found none. Glancing out the window, though, she gasped as she saw the sun was almost halfway across the sky. Had she really almost slept till noon?

She was about to rush out of the hotel room when she suddenly realized how messy her hair was. Hesitating just a moment by the door, she let out a defeated sigh and trudged into the bathroom to get her hair under control. After several long, painful minutes, her cadet blue mane was in a presentable enough state that if she were caught today, the mugshot wouldn’t be too bad. Without wasting another second, she went racing out of the hotel room listening carefully for the sounds of anypony else. However, as she ran down the empty hall and made it to the staircase, she came to the realization that there was probably nopony else around.

Pausing at the wooden staircase, she finally stopped to think about what exactly she was doing. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed to stay at the hotel at least one more night in order to get some sort of direction as to where she was and where she could go. Though she would like to have simply pressed on, exploiting the strangers’ kindness and passing through before they could come to regret it, she was dangerously unfamiliar with most of Equestria. If the hotel had a library, perhaps she could nab a map. Either way, there was no benefit to leaving today. So what was the hurry?

Feeling redness in her cheeks, Cozy glanced around at the empty floor once again. There really wasn’t anypony else in the hotel, or at least, nopony else that hadn’t been there when she’d gone to sleep. Licking her lips, she turned her gaze down the wooden spiral stairs, wondering what awaited her down there. This hotel was the family’s business, so unless they were on an impromptu trip to the closest town leaving her alone in their home and establishment, she would find the family of three down there. What would they want from her, though? She was a filly who had randomly shown up with their son, and there was no doubt they at least knew Scut had gone to talk to her last night.

Suddenly, she remembered the feeling of him tugging on her tail, pulling her hard enough that she was forced back, but not so hard it hurt. Glancing over her shoulder, she flicked her tail towards herself, perplexed at how she could almost feel it in memory. Shivering slightly, weirded out by herself, she thought about how he had acted regardless. He had been looking for her, for Cozy Glow, last night when he had dragged her into the room. It was for her sake that they had privacy, not his. And from what he talked about, the way he presented himself, it seemed purely out of good intentions and curiosity.

It was the second trait, however, that threw her for a loop. Curiosity is what had caused her to be trapped in stone, the aspiration to see if she could really become Empress of Friendship. A flicker of warm pride resurfaced at the memory of having both wings and a horn, the power of being a true empress. A soft, devious giggle escaped her as she wondered what plots to regain that power she could come up with once she had truly escaped Starlight Glimmer’s watch. Before her mind could carry her too far, her memory reminded her of the ultimate fate becoming an alicorn had led to.

Cold isolation and terrible pain when she had returned.

All of the glee of remembering her past glories died in an instant, her slight smirk dropping into a flat line. Cozy Glow had learned very early on in Equestria that if she wanted to be stronger than everypony else, to truly control whatever situation she was in, she had to acknowledge her weaknesses. As painful as it was, she had to admit that she was traumatized. The very thought of being turned to stone again… she felt a primal fear when she remembered the imprisonment alone, but a repetition of it, the threat of being encased again, made her stop in her tracks. Her only weakness right now, it seemed, was the threat of being trapped in stone again, and it was enough to make her change course completely.

Cozy laughed coldly at the thought.

All it took to cull any thought of taking back her power was the looming threat of becoming living stone again. At least she could take some twisted pride in knowing that, even as a filly, she had incurred enough fear in ponies that being turned to stone was their protection against her. She had been more powerful than any pony had ever been, maybe even more powerful than Celestia herself. That level of power was obviously beyond her now, and any attempt to replicate it would result in permanent isolation. The future was grim, and now that she was free, Cozy could only now realize how few options she had.

“Are you gonna stand on the stairs all day, looking halfway to tears, or do you want some lunch and fresh air,” Star Scout suddenly questioned, startling Cozy out of her thoughts with a squeak.

“What are you talking about,” she asked defensively, holding back a sniffle. She really was about to cry, wasn’t she? “I’m not crying!”

“No, but you look like you're about to,” Scout noted kindly, looking up at her from several stairs down. Lowering his voice, he softly inquired, “Wanna talk about it?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she replied sharply, beginning to descend the stairs. Frowning slightly, Scout nodded and began to walk down the stairs as well, though he waited so they would be side by side going down. Cozy was tempted to give the colt a glare to try and ward him off, but she figured it was probably better not to aggravate him. Besides, it wasn’t like he was doing anything fundamentally wrong by escorting her. Him seeing her weaker than she would like just had her on more of an edge than usual.

As soon as she stepped hoof on the bottom floor, her stomach let out an embarrassingly loud growl. Her eyes darted to Scout as a blush crept across her face at the involuntary beg for food. He chuckled softly, nudging her as he told her, “Don’t worry about it! I’m starving too!”

“Um, didn’t you eat breakfast though,” Cozy asked, trying to get both their minds off her hunger. “I mean, how long have you been awake?”

“Oh, about four hours,” Scout answered dismissively. “I was gonna eat some breakfast, but I decided to wait for you, and then I got distracted waiting for you and one thing led to another and now I’m hungrier than ever!”

“Why were you waiting for me,” Cozy inquired, walking so that there was a little more space between them. “Didn’t you have anything better to do?”

“Wow, show yourself a little more appreciation,” Scout sheerfully jabbed. He glanced around the lobby before suddenly leaning in and whispering, “I mean, you’re the Cozy Glow! How could I not be intrigued enough to wait for you!”

“Um, not really sure how to take that,” Cozy grumbled uncomfortably. The colt’s bright eyes and ever friendly smile in spite of him blatantly laying out that he knew she was one of Equestria’s greatest threats was more unnerving than Tirek’s rants about consuming everypony’s magic.

“As a compliment, trust me,” Scout assured her with a nod. “I’m just a bit astounded by the fact that-” he paused again to make sure there was nopony around “-I’m walking and talking to you!”

“Yeah yeah, you’ve said so before,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “What is it with your weird obsession with me anyways?”

“It’s not an obsession, that would be weird,” Scout corrected. “Consider me an intrigued scholar! You see, I’ve heard all sorts of things about the type of pony Cozy Glow was before she got turned to stone. How she was deceptively innocent and cheerful, manipulating every situation to her advantage! The way in which she outsmarted the ponies around her even though she was younger, smaller, and less powerful than them. It’s fascinating and terrifying of course.”

“I am a bit of a megalomaniacal genius,” Cozy couldn’t help but gloat. “But your point?”

“My point is that I haven’t really seen that filly,” Scout shrugged.

“How dare you,” Cozy instantly shouted, appalled. “I’m just as smart, manipulative, dangerous, and evil as I was before I was turned to stone, and don’t you doubt that!”

“I mean, you kinda just proved my point,” Scout pointed out, though he had backed away slightly. However, when Cozy glared at him, she realized it wasn’t out of fear. He was just… giving her space.

“What do you mean,” she growled angrily, sitting down.

“Well, that whole outburst was very un-Cozy Glow of you,” he began. “You exploded without control over your emotions, just kinda shouting. You’re definitely more insecure and afraid than you ever were before you got turned to stone. And, of course, you haven’t really been the most cheerful or innocent filly in the short time I’ve known you. Not to mention you’ve done nothing in the way of manipulation.”

“I was able to stay in your hotel, wasn’t I,” Cozy countered, before instantly realizing her mistake.

“If I remember correctly, I had to convince you to come to the hotel so you wouldn’t freeze your tail off,” Scout teased victoriously. “You aren’t really on your A game right now, are you?”

“Getting turned to stone will do that to you,” the filly grumbled, glancing to the side in defeat. “So what is it to you, then, a game?”

“Sweet Celestia, no, I think this is a very good sign,” Scout exclaimed excitedly.

“A… good sign,” Cozy repeated, confused.

“I think it means you’re that much more open to becoming a good pony, reformed, if you will,” he told her with a smile.

“Oh, okay, for a second I thought you were smart, but now I see you’re absolutely crazy,” Cozy scoffed. “Why would I ever want to be good?”

“Um, because it’s a lot easier than being bad, and way more fun as well,” Scout replied. Cozy hesitated to answer. All of the other times she’d asked the question, she’d received some stupid, long-winded speech that left her eyes droopy. Having Scout answer it so simply was both refreshing and confusing. Seeing her hesitation, Scout continued, “I mean, c’mon, you’re a smart filly. You’ve tried being evil tiwice already. The first time got you thrown into Tartarus, and the second time turned to stone, and I’d bet my lucky stars on neither of those being any fun.”

“Okay, wise guy, you got me there,” Cozy admitted, before smiling vilely. “But what if I already have a fool-proof plan to conquer Equestria so that no matter what, it won’t matter if I’m good or bad? Everypony will love me regardless!”

“You don’t,” Scout replied flatly. “Otherwise, you’d be long gone and I’d be kicking myself for not being able to turn you in quick enough!”

“Wait, you’re turning me in,” Cozy asked, panic suddenly overtaking her as she stood up, eyes darting around.

“No no no, I’m not turning you in, Cozy, trust me,” Scout assured her, standing up as well. “I don’t know what you’re running from exactly, or who, but when I saw you in the woods, I knew you were just a scared filly who was trying her best to push through her troubles. I knew who you were, but for the life of me, I couldn’t just leave you to suffer in the forest. So, I decided to take a risk and invite you to my home, to eat dinner with me and my parents. I was scared… until I realized that you’re different from the stories. Until we talked in your room, I didn’t really know how. But I know now. You’re not good or bad. You’re just lost, lost and scared and with nopony to help you. I know I might be making a mistake in saying this, but I want to help you, so at the very least you don’t end up lost and scared again.”

“But why,” Cozy asked, slowly sitting back down. “I’m Cozy Glow, Empress of Friendship and one of the bad guys. You’re just some colt who could be living life without having to deal with me.”

“Well, when you say it like that, it makes me wanna help you more,” Scout winked. Slowly, though, his smile faded and he looked down at the ground. For a moment, Cozy wasn’t sure if he was going to say anything at all, but then at last, he muttered, “I wanna help because I’m still trying to be a good guy.”

Blinking in confusion, Cozy stated, “I think you’re a bit confused on the premise of good guys and bad guys. After everything you just said, you doubt that your a good pony?”

“Well, if I had left you in the woods, that would’ve made me a bad guy,” Scout said. “And if I had let you run off in the night and escape then I would’ve been a bad guy, and if I had let you escape in the morning before I could talk to you, I would be a bad guy. Now, I’m trying to be a good guy by helping you be a good guy too.”

“How righteous,” Cozy grumbled, quickly unenthused by the sentiment. “Look, as far as I can tell, you're the nicest pony in Equestria. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not, nor do I care to be.”

“Honestly, it’s kinda funny how bad you are at lying, even to yourself,” Scout smirked. Cozy opened her mouth to retort, but he quickly continued, “You keep talking as if you’ve got nothing to live for now. Your tone is sardonic and cold, you only respond defensively, and you haven’t smiled honestly once all morning. You’re at your lowest Cozy, and whether you like it or not, you need somepony’s help. I’m not going to force it to be me, but I’ve got a strong feeling you ran away from the last pony who tried to help. If you keep running, your gonna run out of ponies who want to help. So what will it be?”

“Sweet Celestia, you’re worse than Starlight,” she mumbled under her breath, eyeing the colt up. However, when she stared at him, she was forced to admit that he was right. She had been lucky to run into somepony like Scout, a colt so naively good that he’d take his chance with her. Most everypony else would have sent her to Twilight and it’d be game over from there. With a defeated sigh, she finally mumbled, “Okay, fine, you win. What’re you gonna do to me?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Scout replied with a beaming smile. Suddenly, a loud gurgling escaped from his stomach, causing him to glance down at his blonde stomach and chuckle. “Though I would suggest a little food. Lunch is mac n’ cheese!”

Chapter 10: Q&A

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The food was delicious, but Cozy Glow chewed on it slowly and silently nonetheless, not staring at any particular spot nor thinking of any particular thing. Her hunger was abating quickly thanks to the meal Scout had prepared for them. The colt was, of course, smiling at her while he chowed down on his mac n’ cheese even while she kept her expression unreadable. It wasn’t that she was really trying to be emotionally callous or deceitful at the moment. The conversation they had just had, however, left her… disarmed.

She had been so soundly and swiftly rebuked, corrected, and outsmarted she was left with intellectual whiplash. Scout’s blunt, yet characteristically positive responses hadn’t felt like judgment or disdain but soft corrections, like advice passed between friends. Now he just sat across from her, eating his food as if he hadn’t just disjointed her entire personality in a matter of minutes. She would have been humored by the irony of it if her emotions were completely void at the moment, unable to solidly identify whether she was upset, impressed, or disappointed by the defeat. For the moment, however, she remained stunned and barely focused on what was going on in the real world.

Cozy Glow had always been the smartest pony in the room, no matter the circumstances. With Tirek and Chrysalis, they had both relied on their sheer strength, physical and magical, to achieve anything. In reality, they were both bumbling idiots who had chanced upon perfect opportunities and fumbled in exploiting them. Cozy had almost led them to victory, but then they had decided that their naive pride went before a sound victory, even if it meant they were led by a filly. When it came to the School of Friendship, she had always known exactly what each teacher was going to say next and how to weasel ponies into her plans without them even realizing it. Even the alicorns hadn’t known what they were getting into when they trapped her, nor did they know what she did about the very world they all lived in!

Being the dumbest in the room felt… scary, almost. Of course, she wasn’t afraid of anything Scout could do himself as it was obvious every minute she spent with him that he wouldn’t even consider hurting a fly. It was more of what he would be able to do with that insurmountable intellect of his whenever they talked. She probably wouldn’t be able to lie to or manipulate him very effectively even with her best effort and acting. He had proven so much with his previous conduct. The maturity with which he carried himself around even through how cheerful and innocent he was also hinted that he knew something she didn’t, something possibly vital to know. Cozy hated not knowing what it was, not even having a hint at what it could be, but maybe with time she would be able to put the clues together with him before he put the clues together with her.

The quiet didn’t seem discomforting to Scout, whose smile never wavered throughout the meal. As soon as Cozy set down her fork, plate empty, the colt swept it off the table while softly humming, stepping into another room where she assumed the sink would be. Even with his momentary absence, she didn’t feel any less stressed and defeated than before. She had wanted to leave today, but now there was almost certainly no point to it. Scout had offered her everything she needed from a technical standpoint, and thus there was no benefit to running. He wouldn’t even call the alarm on her.

With a sigh, she sat back in the chair, slouching down, contenting herself to be stuck. He had trapped her perfectly with his negotiating skills and promises, placing her in a situation where even if she couldn’t get what she wanted, she had what she needed. Cozy didn’t have the strength- emotionally, mentally, or physically- to try to push through and escape this forest, maybe getting a town or two over before inevitably being caught. It just wasn’t worth it anymore. Her pride couldn’t take another hit and she wouldn’t be able to handle somepony questioning her intelligence again.

Growling angrily, she composed herself in time for Star Scout to return empty hooved. She eyed him slightly as he moved to sit down across from her, weary of just what kind of conversation he might initiate next. He was smart enough to know that the ball was completely in his court and the game in the bag for him, she just wasn’t sure what he’d do with that information. Pry something out of her she didn’t want to reveal like that she was running from Starlight Glimmer herself or worse? Make her admit everything she’d done was bad and kindly berate her for it until she felt guilty enough to turn herself in? She didn’t doubt that he could, she was just unsure of if she would.

“So, what next,” Cozy asked directly. If he was trying to play a game with her, the best way to escape would be to be blunt.

“Oh, well, I was gonna ask you what you wanted to do,” Scout replied with a smile. “Though I was thinking we should probably get to know each other better considering you’ll be staying with my family for the time being.”

“And how do you plan to do that,” the filly questioned with a raised brow.

“Just some real easy questions,” he replied with a smile. “Like meet and greet on the first day of school!”

“Doesn’t sound that bad,” she relented, slightly suspicious. Looking the colt up and down, noting how his hoof was anxiously tapping while he sat.

“Maybe while on a walk through the woods,” he added hopefully when she saw his restlessness.

In spite of how pensive she was feeling, she smiled at the distinctly childish nature of his request. “Fine, but you better not pull anything off.”

“Of course not,” he replied with another beaming smile, reaching out a hoof. She eyed it for a second, before finally extending her own and shaking it. Scout glanced down for a second, expression unreadable, before bursting out into laughter.

“What,” Cozy questioned, confused by his sudden giggle fight.

“I mean, I was just offering to help you up, but if you wanna shake…” Scout managed to explain, before cracking up again.

Realizing her mistake, she rolled her eyes and swatted the colt’s hoof away, standing up on her own and beginning to walk past him. As she did, she flicked her tail at him, snapping him on the muzzle to get him to finally stop laughing. He yelped in surprise before a few more soft chuckles escaped him, but he did eventually shut up. Cozy paused for a moment to let him take the lead since she didn’t quite know where they were going or even what exactly a walk through the woods entailed. Scout did so, still smiling as he led her to the back end of the hotel, where a small, windowless wood door was.

Pushing open the door, he let a warm burst of air in, the afternoon pleasant and still retaining something of the summery warmth before turning quickly to winter. Stepping outside while Scout held the door, Cozy glanced around at the forest surrounding the back of the hotel. There was a small area cleared with a few wooden tables put out for visitors for picnicking and relaxing in nature. However, only a small distance from the door, the forest took control again, tall, thick trees with high branches. The ground went from flat to more bumpy with mossy rocks and a slow turn to downhill hinted to the stream that gurgled in the distance.

“Wow, it’s a really nice day for a hike,” Scout muttered, almost to himself, staring up at the sunlight filtered through the trees. Turning to look at Cozy, he explained with an eager smile, “The wind’s light, there aren’t many clouds, and it’s the perfect temperature for a little walking through the woods. I mean, even the creek is singing!”

“That was pretty poetic,” she complimented tightly, giving him a side-eye.

“Eh, I’m in love with nature,” he replied, ever cheerful. Waving a hoof for her to follow him, he insisted, “Come on, the creek looks spectacular in the fall.”

“If you say so,” the filly replied, hesitant but curious nonetheless. She had been crammed inside ever since her release save for her mad dash from Starlight’s prison mansion, but even with hours of stumbling through the woods, it was just that. Hours upon hours of careening through bushes, tripping over roots and fallen branches, and splashing through sudden puddles of mud. She didn’t have any time to really notice the forest as anything more than a very large obstacle in her escape. Let alone the fact she didn’t know how dangerous it would be, her mind had been elsewhere the entire time.

Following Scout down the silent hillside, the creek quickly came into sight, and just as the colt had told her, it did look spectacular. The filtered sunlight flickered on the roiling creek, about as wide as she was long from tail to head. Rounded stones lay in the bottom of the perfectly clear water, little fish flitting about in a lively manner. The sight made her smile, though she didn’t quite understand why.

“Amazing, isn’t it,” Scout asked in a hushed voice, crouching down to approach the water more carefully. His face was almost against it, yet his careful movements hadn’t startled the fish away. Moving slowly yet fluidly, he slid his hoof into the water without so much as a ripple. In a matter of seconds, the little fish, no longer than the fur of her coat, were curiously swarming it, nibbling on the edges of his brown hoof. “All these little creatures have lives of their own, but they don’t know a lot. All they know is this little creek, only a dozen miles long from source to end. I think we ponies are like them in that manner. We just have a bigger creek.”

“We have no idea,” Cozy found herself saying. Scout looked up from the fish at her, clearly surprised she had spoken, let alone something not rude. Blushing at his thankful smile, she hastily asked, “So, what’s your first question?”

“Well, I should probably set some ground rules first,” he replied, slipping his hoof out of the water and standing up. “Just so it doesn’t go anywhere you don’t want it to go, right?”

“Right,” Cozy hesitantly confirmed. She didn’t know why, but the fact that he was trying to protect her from his own questioning felt… off. Not wrong, but like an unexpected blanket that while not unwelcome, still startled her.

“Alright, I’ll ask you a question, then you can ask me a question, and we’ll keep on going until we don’t want to,” he began while sitting down on a nearby mossy stone. “I’ll try not to ask you any… uncomfortable questions, but if I do and you don’t want to answer, just stay quiet. I’ll understand. Just… please don’t lie, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed, sitting down across from him.

“Alright, first question,” Scout began cheerfully, an eager smile on his face. “When’s your birthday?”

Cozy felt her heart go cold at the simple question, her breath becoming shallow as she knew that whatever answer she gave him would be a lie, even with the best intentions. Her mouth felt dry, her eyes flitting to the side as she truthfully answered, “I don’t know.”

The filly cringed as she ruined perhaps her first chance of actually getting to know and understand the strange colt in front of her. Of all the questions he could have asked, he asked one of the simplest ones for anypony but her! Why did he have to be so naive, so innocent? Couldn’t he have just asked what being in stone was like instead? After a long moment of silence, the colt finally spoke, Cozy tensing up at the sound of his voice.

“I’m so sorry, Cozy Glow,” he whispered, his voice just as sad and concerned as she felt. Her head jerked back to him so fast she saw stars for a second, but when they cleared, she saw the mournful look in his eyes as he stared at her. “I understand.”

“You… do?”

“I don’t know my birthday either,” he admitted freely, and this time it was his eyes looking away, towards the stream. “I know the week I was born in… but not the exact day. We usually just celebrate it on the fifth of August. It’s the first day of the week I was born in…”

“But your parents know your real birthday, right,” Cozy pressed, confused.

“Well, in truth, those ponies aren’t my parents, at least, not biologically,” Scout admitted, causing Cozy to gasp. He looked up to her with a sad smile. “My biological parents either died or left me right after my birth, but nopony knows. They’re still missing to this day. The only missing ponies in all of Equestria. Nopony knows that because my real parents didn’t want that to get out and ruin any chance at a ‘normal’ life I might have.”

Cozy stared at the colt as he talked openly about perhaps the greatest struggle in his life to her, Cozy Glow. She couldn’t understand what drove him to do so, but for once, she wasn’t skeptical of his story. Staring into his emerald eyes, she saw, reflected in them, her own pain, loneliness, and uncertainty, not having any roots and being caught in the tempest. She had never expected to hear a similar story to hers, not in all of Equestria. Such things weren’t supposed to happen, and yet… here they were.

“I’m… sorry, Scout,” Cozy stammered, a tear sliding down her cheek. She hadn’t felt it coming, but once the first one had fallen, more demanded to be released.

“It’s not your fault Cozy,” Scout replied with a calm smile, even though there were tears in his eyes as well. “In a world where anything can happen, sometimes bad things do occur. Honestly, I’m glad it happened to me, because I had my uncle and aunt to take me in and become my mom and dad. And they're great.”

“No, Scout, I’m sorry for being… mean,” Cozy apologized, feeling worse than ever before. She had treated this colt like some empty-headed ditz just because he was showing unconditional kindness to her. Of all the ponies she’d met so far, he was the one who was the best example of what an Equestrian should be, but she’d been too angry and selfish to see that she was actively being proven wrong. That stung just as badly as bringing somepony who had suffered like her down.

Suddenly, she felt Scout wrap her in a tight hug, her breath hitching at the unfamiliar, but incredibly wanted embrace. It had been years since she had been hugged like this, years since she had been hugged at all. It made her throat tighten and more tears roll down her cheek. After everything she had done, the crimes she had committed and didn’t care to apologize for, she thought there would never be a time in the rest of her life she would be embraced. She felt a heaving sob escape her, causing Scout’s grip to tighten that much more.

“Thanks for that,” he whispered, patting her on the back. “I knew you weren’t a bad filly.”

“What,” she asked, pulling away in confusion, looking him in his kind eyes.

“I said I knew you weren’t bad,” he repeated, smiling. “You just have some problems nopony’s been able to solve yet. We’ll work on that later though. For now, what’s your favorite fruit?”

“Wait, what, just like that you’re moving on,” Cozy questioned, baffled yet again by the colt’s actions. “You just told me what might be your biggest secret and then you’re moving on?”

“Well, it wasn’t meant to be a secret,” Scout shrugged. “But… ponies aren’t always as understanding as you are. Honestly, and don’t take this the wrong way, please, but I really don’t think you’re Cozy Glow. Or rather, I don’t think Cozy Glow was you when everything went down.”

“I think you’re right,” Cozy agreed, surprised by herself. Without thinking about it, she had found herself agreeing to him, and taking a second to think about it, to think about those long lost days from before it all, she saw something. She hadn’t always been this way, scoffing in the face of everypony, whether they were attempting to help or harm her. Through all of the bitterness, she was finally beginning to see, all thanks to a colt who was stoutly showing her kindness. Blinking at him, she muttered, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Scout replied cheerfully. “Now, favorite fruit?”

“Strawberries by a long shot,” Cozy answered. “Yours?”

“Raspberries,” Scout said shortly, before standing up with an excited gleam to his eye. Reaching out a hoof, he exclaimed, “C’mon, I know where some wild strawberries are growing around here. Maybe there’s still some good ones left!”

“You bet,” Cozy replied, taking his hoof.

Chapter 11: On The Hunt

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As much as Starlight hated to admit it, she was panicking. She and Sunburst had started searching in a mile wide radius around her grandmother’s mansion by teleporting at different intervals, split to cover more ground quicker. However, by sunrise they had expanded that by another mile, and now that it was well past noon, her hopes were beginning to fade as her patience was strained. She had finished her portion of the radius only a few minutes ago and was now awaiting Sunburst’s return to inform him she had nothing.

She knew Sunburst was doing his best to make sure he didn’t miss anywhere Cozy could be hiding, she was nonetheless impatient while she waited. After several extremely long minutes, Sunburst suddenly flashed into the front room of the mansion. There were already bags under his eyes, but she saw right away some excitement through the tiredness. Pushing aside her worry and impatience for a moment, she rushed to him, putting a hoof on his shoulder and desperately asking, “What is it, Sunburst?”

“A hotel, not quite a mile and a half away from here,” he began to explain. “I almost missed it since its made of logs and pretty small, but it’s the first sign of anypony else until Sire’s Hollow. I don’t know if Cozy was actually there or not, since I didn’t check the hotel itself. I figured if she were there, it’d be better to have you there as well, just in case.”

“Sweet Celestia, I hope I won’t be needing any magic, especially if there are other ponies around,” Starlight sighed, bowing her head at the thought of having to fight Cozy.

“Hey, I’m sure it won’t come down to it,” Sunburst replied, grabbing the hoof on his shoulder and holding it tightly. Looking up at the stallion, he continued, “Besides, this time she has no magic, no disguise, and is dealing with one of the best mages in the world!”

“Two of the best mages in the world,” Starlight corrected, giving him a small nudge. “All right then, take us to the hotel.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied before closing his eyes to concentrate.

Starlight watched as he tensed up, his horn beginning to glow brightly before a crisp whiteness surrounded them. Blinking the light from her eyes, she felt the ground beneath her hooves become rugged and loose, dirt instead of tile. Looking around quickly, she found the mentioned hotel, which honestly looked quite cozy nestled between the trees of the surrounding forest, just barely off the beaten path. It was small, as Sunburst had said, probably only half the size of the mansion, and completely made of logs. In spite of her urgency, Starlight gave the hotel a little nod of appreciation.

“Well, this is it,” Sunburst muttered, beginning to walk towards it. His eyes were darting from closed window to closed window, as if suspecting Cozy was watching them. “It’s only a mile from Sire’s Hollow. If we don’t find her here, we should just move on to there.”

“She could still be lost in the forest, though,” Starlight pointed out, tearing her eyes from the hotel windows to look around at the surrounding forest. “Maybe she’s not in the hotel though. Check the perimeter first, then we’ll check inside. I doubt she’d risk revealing herself to any patrons. If anything, she might have skipped past the hotel completely in order to find… something less populated.”

“Still, it’s the first place that isn’t open woodlands,” Sunburst sighed with a shrug. “Let’s hope it has at least some clues to her being here.”

“Alright then, I’ll loop around the left side of the hotel and you loop around the right,” Starlight said, pointing out the paths with a hoof. “When we meet up at the back we’ll go to the front entrance and ask about anything fishy going on around here.”

“I uh, think it might be better to go… together,” the unicorn suggested with a slight squeak. Glancing back at her orange companion, watching as he cringed slightly at his awkward proposal, the mare blushed slightly.

Shrugging, she stammered, “Why not. Best not to split up now that we might actually find Cozy Glow.”

“For whatever that means,” he added reassuringly, nodding at her. With a deep breath, Starlight tore her eyes away from the stallion and began making her way around the left side of the hotel. In truth, sneaking around like this was almost second nature to her. Even though it had been almost five years since her venture as the overlord of that hapless town, she still retained her skills in snooping around without being noticed. Of course, that would only be if Cozy was here and didn’t know of her and Sunburst’s presence.

Giving the hotel a wide berth just in case, staying just past the edge of the forest, she led the stallion around the rather thin hotel. It was four stories tall, but very thin, like a giant slat of wood that had been stuck in the ground on its side. There was a back part to it, a little area with a few benches and wood tables. A set of stone stairs led down a slope and towards what sounded a little like running water. However, there was nopony around that part, or even outside at all. The hotel seemed to just sit in content silence, surrounded by the forest. Frowning slightly, she glanced back at Sunburst and hushly asked him, “Do you think it might be abandoned?”

“I don’t think so,” he shrugged honestly. “Otherwise there would be way more forest around it.”

“Fair point,” Starlight agreed before pressing on. The slope that had appeared behind the hotel would certainly cause them some issues seeing as how the area behind the hotel was cleared of any forest cover. Seeing as they wanted to remain unnoticed, they would have to go downhill with the cover of the forest before finishing circling the little hotel. The underbrush wasn’t dense and the slope was gentle, but it still required Starlight to focus more on it than her surroundings. She was maybe halfway down the slope when she suddenly heard Sunburst hiss, “Starlight, stop!”

Freezing, her eyes darted around for what might have caused the stallion to stop her. However, she couldn’t see much thanks to the preponderance of trees and healthy bushes scattered along the hillside. It didn’t take longer for her to hear what had given Sunburst pause, though. Over the sounds of the lively forest and running water, she could pick out indistinct voices not too far away from them. Her eyes widening, she glanced back and Sunburst, who bit his lip nervously but nodded. The voices were loud, not afraid of being heard, but maybe there was a chance…

Carefully watching where her hooves stepped, Starlight continued down the hill without Sunburst. Every rustling leaf and little stick crackling made Starlight’s fur stick up that much more, but the voices became clearer as she made her way downhill. Taking a deep breath, she made it to the bottom of the slope, barely avoiding falling into the little creek that ran along the shallow divet. The creek bent around the side of the hill, leading towards the pair of voices she could hear. Swallowing hard, she moved ever so slightly to try and peek past the hill. The voices were young, giving her both some hope and a rapid pulse. It would be a miracle to find Cozy Glow so close to the mansion after all of the time they had spent searching, but also be just as bad if she had been seen by too many ponies.

Finally, Starlight was able to peer just past the brush of the hillside and see a clearing around the creek. With a shaky breath, she immediately recognized Cozy as one of the two young ponies that sat talking by the creek. Starlight immediately tucked herself back behind the hillside even though they hadn’t been looking towards her, placing a hoof on her chest as she tried to gain control of her breathing. It was almost too good to be true, yet at the same time she couldn’t even begin to understand why the other pony was sticking around. Finding Cozy had been her priority, but now Starlight had to face the fact that there might be a mess to clean up now as well.

Gathering her senses, she peeked around the side of the hill again to get a better look. Cozy for her part seemed to be putting on a very innocent act, not too unlike the one she had put up at the School of Friendship. Biting her lip, Starlight focused on the other pony, trying to figure out who they were and why in the world they weren’t panicking in the face of one of Equestria’s greatest threats. The other pony was a colt probably five or so years older than Cozy, a unicorn who seemed to be wholly engaged in whatever conversation they were having with a bright smile. Furrowing her brows at this, the unicorn strained to hear what they were talking about better.

“I swear, swimming in the ocean has got pools beat eight times over,” the colt was saying. “I mean, there’s so many fish and turtles and little squid that are just as interested in you as you are of them! Seaquestria has gotta be one of the best places to just relax and explore on your own.”

“Maybe, but there hasn’t been much opportunity for me to visit,” Cozy chuckled in reply. “I mean, unless Twilight decided to take us to show off to Queen Novo, I’ve never been.”

Starlight’s jaw dropped as she continued listening in. Cozy was just openly talking about her imprisonment in stone with an older colt she couldn’t have met more than a day ago. As if it were normal conversation material instead of incredibly incriminating evidence of her wrongdoings against Equestria! Ducking behind her cover, Starlight found herself questioning the very nature of Cozy as it were. She was a secretive little filly who hadn’t given up anything to Starlight during the week that she had been recovering in the mansion, yet now she was talking about her imprisonment, an event so traumatizing Starlight only had to mention for the little filly to clamp up.

“Well, one of these summers you could join me and my parents,” the colt replied brightly, causing Starlight’s attention to be drawn to him again. Was he flirting with Cozy Glow? With a careful glance, she began watching the two again, focusing on the unnamed colt this time. He was sitting there with a smile on his face akin to a dog simply enjoying life, determinedly not trying to flirt with a filly much too young for him. In spite of her tension, Starlight was able to recognize the genuine friendliness in the kid and found herself smiling at it. Maybe that was why Cozy has stuck around…

“Would your parents be okay with that,” the little filly asked with sassy disbelief. “I mean, I just randomly showed up at their hotel one night. They’re great and all, but I bet they’re at least a little suspicious about me.”

Frowning, Starlight withdrew behind the cover of the forest to think. This colt seemed to have Cozy’s attention occupied completely, and hopefully for long enough for Starlight to investigate the colt’s parents. It seemed like his parents were around here somewhere, almost certainly inside the hotel somewhere. Whether they knew about Cozy or not was just as vital now, as preventing more ponies from seeing her and letting news of her “escape” spread could mean preventing a panic. Slowly, she withdrew from the side of the hill and began ascending the hill once again, quickly returning to Sunburst.

“She’s here and talking with a colt,” she quickly told the nervous stallion. The unicorn’s eyes went wide at the information but Starlight put a hoof on his muzzle before he could interrupt her. “I don’t know how long he’ll have her distracted, but everything seems- genuinely- friendly, so hopefully long enough for us to see how many other ponies have seen her. The colt mentioned his parents, and I’m pretty sure Cozy has at least met them, so we need to find them first.”

“Gotcha,” Sunburst replied, his eyes darting in the direction of the young ponies. He had a more thoughtful look now, less concerned and more curious. Wordlessly, he turned and began moving back up the hillside, Starlight following after as she glanced at the hotel. Given the lack of other ponies outside, she guessed they were in the hotel. Even though she didn’t quite have a plan for how to contain information of Cozy Glow’s freedom, she knew she had to at least stop it from spreading.

Finally cresting the hill, she made a beeline for the double door entrance of the hotel. There was still nopony around, making Starlight seriously consider whether or not this was really an active hotel or just some place teenagers hung about as a cool, abandoned spot in the forest. However, weighing her options, there was nothing to lose by checking regardless, so with a measured breath and a glance back at Sunburst, she continued on.

Pushing through the doors, a bell rang somewhere to her left, and when she had stepped fully into the hotel she saw it came from behind a small front desk. Pausing and listening for the sounds of anypony else in the hotel, Starlight could see quite clearly that even though the hotel was empty, it was not abandoned. The well-maintained interior had a lovely warm feel to it, like a blanket was wrapped around her and the smell of wood was relaxing. Smiling in spite of herself, she heard the sounds of hooves on wood from another room downstairs, followed by a female voice calling, “I’m coming right away, hold on a minute please!”

There was a frantic patter of hooves and suddenly a middle-aged mare appeared out from a door to the pair’s left. She was a unicorn with white hair and a lovely tan coat, and even though she was older than Starlight, it couldn’t be by more than five years. Her face was flushed as she used her magic to pull out a binder and pen from under the front desk.

“I’m so sorry for the wait, we aren’t used to visitors at noon,” she apologized, flipping open the binder. “How can we help you today?”

“My name’s Starlight Glimmer, and if you have a minute to talk, I have some… unfortunate news,” Starlight began, eyeing the mare. In spite of her unpreparedness, she didn’t seem panicked like she should be if she knew who was roaming her hotel’s grounds.

“You’re here for that little filly, aren’t you,” the mare guessed mournfully, startling Starlight. “I figured it wouldn’t take too long for somepony to come looking for little Red Rook. Don’t worry, our son Scout managed to find her and bring her inside before nightfall.”

“Red Rook,” Sunburst began to question before Starlight jumped in, immediately catching on.

“Yes, Red Rook, she spent the night here,” she repeated, getting an affirmative nod from the mare.

The unicorn’s welcoming smile vanished as she glanced at the room she had left and stated, “Before we continue, I’d like to grab my husband. Considering we’re talking about a runaway filly, I think it would be smart to have all adults involved be in the room.”

“Of course,” Starlight nodded, watching as the mare quickly stepped around the counter and exited the room. Turning to Sunburst, she shared a silent look with him. At the very least, these two ponies had seen Cozy Glow, however, they didn’t act like they knew she was one of Equestria’s biggest threats. Instead, the mare had talked about her like a runaway filly, prompting Starlight to wonder what sort of story Cozy had woven to cover her sudden appearance from the middle of the forest. If the crafty filly had already gotten these ponies on her side, it would be incredibly difficult to convince them of the nature of the filly who had spent the night with them.

The stallion nodded slowly, his lips pressed thin as he had the very same thoughts as her. She could see it in his eyes that in spite of his willingness to help, this was far outside his comfort zone. Unfortunately for them, the longer they spent standing in the hotel’s lobby, the less confident she felt. In spite of the calming environment the hotel produced, the emptiness and silence was getting to her even though there was nothing else to make her uneasy. Finally, however, the mare returned with her husband, a large, dark brown unicorn with a mane that looked like leaves from a tree.

“This is my husband, Oak Bush, and my name is Aspen Hearth,” the mare politely introduced. Nodding to the room she had just emerged from, she added, “If you would, please join us in the dining room so we can sit while we discuss Red.”

“Of course,” Starlight repeated, unintentionally eyeing Oak as he turned and followed his wife into the room. In spite of herself, the thought entered her mind that he would be a difficult opponent if it came down to it. Her stomach churned as she entered the dining area, a bit smaller than the main lobby but large enough for a few tables and accompanying chairs. The married couple took the far end of one of the tables while she and Sunburst sat down at the chairs nearest to the door. The twisting in her stomach burned, hating how this whole ordeal was making her think like this.

“So, Red Rook…” Oak began, the large stallion’s face looking passively uncertain… yet also concerned. Pushing aside the thoughts brought on by chasing Cozy Glow and inevitably having to confront her, Starlight recognized that the couple was harmless. It only took a quick assessment of their expressions to see that they were concerned for the filly, most likely pondering what to do themselves.

“Our Scout brought her in last night when he was late for dinner and we didn’t question it at first,” Aspen continued. “Our son has always been quick, smart, and a natural pathfinder… but he doesn’t have any friends to show for it. Being out of school and away from the town, and with his interest more in trees and bushes than friends, that is. We were excited because everypony needs a friend, and if he found one wandering around in the woods, maybe they have the same interests. Even if Rook looked five years younger than our son, we know him as the type of colt to not care if she’s a bit childish.”

“Uh huh,” Sunburst skeptically muttered, earning a glare from Starlight. It wouldn’t help them if he aggravated the couple.

The parents, however, looked at least understanding, Oak nodding as he clarified, “I know how that sounds, but Scout genuinely doesn’t care how old or young somepony is, he just wants to be friends with everypony. Strange, true, since he rarely talks to anypony these days. That’s a different conversation, though.”

“We assume you’re the parents of Rook, given she told us somepony would come looking for her,” Aspen continued. “If I may, you are a very good couple. Why would she run away?”

Pushing through a blush, shifting slightly in her seat, Starlight hesitantly explained, “Well, that’s not quite the case. What do you know about Cozy Glow?”

“Cozy Glow,” Oak repeated, clearly confused. “You mean one of the three villains that was turned to stone about five months back after trying to tear apart Equestria? What’s her role in this?”

Starlight opened her mouth to break the news, but seeing the confused and terrified look in the couple’s eyes made her choke on her words. Sunburst had clamped up completely and with the uncomfortable silence spreading, he began staring at the floor. Cozy, it appeared, had already earned their sympathy, and now… Starlight and him were forever ruining their ability to trust anypony again.

“You don’t mean to say…” Aspen began in disbelief, reaching over and grabbing her husband’s hoof. The unspoken truth visibly resonated across Oak’s face, his jaw beginning to drop slightly in shock.

“How is that possible,” the mare questioned hushly. “How did she escape? The Princesses turned her to stone!”

“The Princesses exacted their justice, but the Elements of Harmony released Cozy when they exacted theirs,” Starlight answered vaguely.

“So… she’s not dangerous,” Oak guessed hopefully. After a second he shook his head and muttered, “No, no, otherwise you wouldn’t be here looking for her…”

“Wait a minute, you’re Starlight Glimmer, like Dean of the School of Friendship,” Aspen suddenly questioned, her eyes going wide as she realized who she was talking to.

“Yes…” the unicorn hesitantly confirmed.

“So she’s that dangerous,” Oak exclaimed, standing up instantly. “She’s out there with our son right now! We have to save him!”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Starlight yelped as she stood up, moving to the doorway to block the panicking father. “Genuinely, I don’t think he’s in danger. For one reason or another, I think Cozy wants him to think they’re friends.”

“How does that make the situation any better,” Aspen asked, standing up as well and joining her husband. “She tricked us so easily, imagine what she could convince him to do! He’s more trusting than anypony I've ever known, let alone the fact he hardly pays attention to anything that doesn’t go on in the forest! He’ll have no idea what kind of dangerous things she could convince him to do.”

“That’s something we’re afraid of having happen, but we can’t just storm out there and seize Cozy,” Starlight explained slowly, sitting on the floor where he stood. “Firstly, she stuck around, which means either her plan is centered around here or she doesn’t even have a plan. Personally, I think the latter is more likely, given she doesn’t know where she is and apparently is trying to get away. Secondly, it would be wrong of us to just take her into custody like she’s done something wrong, when she clearly hasn’t yet. Finally… it’s my fault she escaped. I told her the doors are windows were unlocked at the mansion she was recovering at, and she took the opportunity I told she had and left. Did I think she would return before dark? Foolishly, yes.”

“So… she’s… not quite evil right now,” Oak attempted to understand.

“That’s a good way to put it,” Sunburst surmised, still sitting awkwardly in a chair at the table. “We want to make sure what she’s doing isn’t evil, and more importantly that she isn’t seen by anypony. Since she has been- obviously- we need to contain that news.”

“And that’s where we and our son fit into the picture,” Aspen realized. Sitting down as well in thought, she quickly stated, “There hasn’t been anypony but us and you around here.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Starlight sighed with relief. At least the situation was containable, easily so, even.

“Okay… so, what’s the plan,” Oak questioned, sitting down, his brow creased with concern still.

“I don’t know,” Starlight replied, “but with your help I think we can peacefully get Cozy Glow to come with us without causing any other problems. I hope…”

Finally standing up, Sunburst quickly proposed, “It’s almost dinner time, or at least, my dinner time. Do you think that Cozy will return for dinner?”

“Probably,” Aspen answered thoughtfully. “She wouldn’t leave now that it’s getting so late in the day, and if she doesn’t suspect anything, she probably will keep acting the way she has.”

“Then we can assess from there how dangerous Cozy might be, if she is at all,” Sunburst finalized. “We can reveal ourselves to her and try to have a conversation. Maybe if she’s around Scout, she won’t overreact, if she really is trying to be his friend. From there it will figure itself out. Too many variables involved to really have a plan.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Starlight agreed with a warm smile, earning a little grin from Sunburst.

Across from them, Aspen asked, “Are you really not a couple?”

Chapter 12: Confrontation

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Talking with Star Scout had left Cozy absolutely buzzing with excitement. The colt was smart, almost as smart as herself, maybe more so if she was being honest. It was a miracle that of all the ponies in the wide world of Equestria she could have run into, it would be him. It had been hours since lunch and all they had done was talk and talk and talk on the bank of the little stream. She hadn’t wanted to stop, the intriguing colt constantly bringing a new and exciting topic to the table to discuss, carrying them both into excitable conversation after excitable conversation.

The best part, of course, was that he hadn’t even once attempted to delve into her past or her crimes. He had been far more interested in normal things like school, nature, and cities he wanted to visit between long hikes. Whenever he asked her a question, it wasn’t to try to reveal more about herself he wanted to know, but rather her opinions on things. He genuinely listened to and cared about what she had to say concerning anything from travel destinations to math curriculums. The entire time, he was wholeheartedly engaged in conversation, somehow being naturally gregarious on top of all of his other traits. Cozy slowly found herself familiarizing with the completely different colt, envious of just how happy and good he was.

He had even shown her a few tricks about the woods while they talked. When she had grown thirsty after talking for a while, Star had picked some leaves from launa fern and made a weird straw out of them. After demonstrating how to build it in only a few minutes, they took turns drinking out of the cool stream with it. The leaves made it taste sweet as sugar cane while also preventing any dirt or bacteria from passing through. Genuinely impressed, Cozy couldn’t help but try to replicate the straw over and over, the new trick equally important for hiking and entertaining to try.

Now, however, as the sun was setting, Star had insisted that they needed to get back to the hotel, since he had promised they wouldn’t be late for dinner this time. Stomach growling from the energy she had burnt excitedly talking with the colt for so long, she reluctantly agreed. Standing up and taking his proffered hoof to help her up the slope of the hill, they made their way back to the hotel. She didn’t know why she was smiling with him as they silently made their way up the hill, giggling at each other as they did so.

Panting as she reached the top, she noticed a strange look on Star’s face as he looked down at the stream. The light of sunset gave a weird solemness to the forest, contrasting with how playful she had just been feeling. Frowning at the sudden change in mood, she stepped a little closer to him and softly asked, “Hey, what’s the matter Star?”

“Well… I don’t mean to be a downer,” the colt began reluctantly, glancing between her and the hotel. There was another moment of silence, and for a second Cozy was worried he wouldn’t speak his mind. However, with a short sigh, he looked her in the eye and asked, “Cozy, how long do you plan to be here?”

“What… do you mean,” she inquired fearfully. Was he afraid of her staying too long? Did something she say or do scare him? Was he-

“I’d really like it if you stayed a bit longer,” he admitted with a small smile that vanished after only a few seconds. “To be honest, it’s kinda lonely around here. I don’t have any friends, so it’s just me, my parents, and the forest out here. It’s not a bad life by any means… but having somepony else around is nice.”

“Aw, thanks,” Cozy replied shyly, eyes darting to the hotel. Did they really have to go yet? She still wanted to talk, and, hoping to delay the inevitable time that he would make them go inside, she asked him, “Well, why don’t you have many friends. I know the town’s a little ways up the road, but for somepony like you that wouldn’t stop you?”

“I’d… um… I’d rather not say,” Star mumbled, looking away from Cozy shamefully. Her gut wrenched at the sight of the kindly colt, usually cheerful and affable, frowning in sadness and shame. She wanted to push the point but let it go. After all, who was she to demand to know everything about him when he had so kindly let her keep her secrets to herself.

“Then again, it’s not much of a secret anyway, just a personal problem,” the colt suddenly added, startling Cozy and making her perk up.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she assured him, still hoping he would share. “Trust me, I understand perfectly.”

“Which is why I hope this might help you a little,” Star stated, voice suddenly determined. Pausing, he looked down at his shoulder, and following his gaze, Cozy was surprised to find her own hoof resting there. For a moment, she just stared as her cheeks flushed. She hadn’t done that consciously! In a panic, she looked back up into Star’s eyes as her own shrank in strange fear. Why was she afraid? He was harmless, but when his eyes met hers, it made her heart pound more than the thought of returning to stone. Before she could remove her hoof, he took it himself, holding onto it after he moved it down.

“Ponies… aren’t perfect,” he sighed, shrugging his shoulders sadly while staring at her hoof. Looking back up at her, he chuckled sadly and said, “But I guess you know that pretty well too.”

“What’d they do to you,” she asked breathlessly, inching slightly closer.

“Well… I try to do my best to be kind to everypony and never let anypony feel bad about themselves, but for one reason or another, some ponies aren’t so receptive to kindness,” Star sadly explained. “For years, I was made fun of and bullied in school for trying to be the best pony I could. I didn’t change a thing because I hoped that, when we all got older, they would understand I wasn’t trying to be condescending or manipulative. I just like helping ponies. One of the main reasons I wanted to graduate school early was to get away from them. After so many years of trying and failing, I knew I had to move on. Maybe when we’re all adults they’ll recognize I was just trying to be nice to them, but until then, I’m trying my best to stay away. Less harmful for the both of us.”

“So you used to fight back,” Cozy questioned in disbelief.

“No, of course not,” Star declared. “I wouldn’t lay a hoof on them no matter what. That doesn’t really track in some ponies’ minds though, and they would hit me from time to time. I got pretty good at dodging it or just tanking the hit. Either way, it’s better now that I’m not around them. I really hope they didn’t just move onto another pony to bully, though. I’d feel bad if me running away put somepony else in a bad position.”

“Wow, you’re kinda dense when you’re being selfless,” Cozy noted, anger bubbling in her stomach. With a growl, she exclaimed, “That right there is the problem with ponies, though! They present themselves as some righteous and noble species above intolerance and such, when in actuality they’re just as uppity and selfish as any dragon or griffin. They just have the arrogance to hide it behind a smile.”

“Well, ponies aren’t that bad, Cozy,” Star instantly stated, surprising her with how determined his voice was. In spite of what he had just relayed to her, he looked confident in what he said next. “Ponies aren’t bad just because they aren’t perfect, Cozy. You should know this as well as anypony else, because at the end of the day, there will always be that one moment in our life that we’re ashamed of. I think what makes Equestria a place of good and kind ponies isn’t the fact that they’ve never been bullies, but the fact that they are always encouraged to grow out of it. I believe that if we keep teaching ponies that friendship and kindness are the path to a happier life, then less and less foals will have to grow out of being bullies. It’s just hard with so much chaos in life, y’know?”

“And what’s your moment you’re ashamed of,” Cozy challenged, sitting down crossly. She wasn’t mad at him, but at the blatant lies he seemed to believe. She had seen exactly what friendship gave a pony, and it wasn’t a happy life like he was saying.

“Well, I don’t think I’ve had that moment yet,” he shrugged factually. Coming from anypony else, Cozy would’ve found it proud or conceited, yet from him it was probably the truth considering how much of an innocent colt he was. “Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think that someday I’ll have my bad moment, but I don’t think it’s happened yet. There’s nothing I’m ashamed of or that I wish had never happened. I’m content with my past. I’m guessing that sometime between now and my twentieth birthday, I’ll have a big ol’ slip up and have to clean up whatever mess I make. Honestly though, I’m looking forward to it.”

“What, why would you look forward to trouble,” Cozy questioned, a disbelieving smile escaping her. He chuckled at it, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof as he glanced away for a brief moment.

“Think of it like this: when you’re on a hike deep in the forest and you’re trying to get to a really cool spot like a hidden pool or hollowed tree, you know what you’re looking for, but you don’t know what’s on the way there,” he explained slowly. “Most of the time, you’re just stumbling your way to that incredible little spot in the woods, unfamiliar with your surroundings or what could be on your path. Suddenly, you trip over something and crush a little flower. It’s sad that the flower got crushed by your stumbling, but since you didn’t outright see it and decide to step on it, this whole situation was just an accident. Now you know to look out for those little flowers and be careful of roots and logs. From time to time, you might make similar mistakes, but that’s okay. You’re a trailblazer in the great woods, and no matter how much you like it, the woods aren’t so kind to you. It’s just how nature works. In my eyes, that’s life. A treasure hunt in the woods!”

“Bit of an optimistic way of looking at it,” Cozy grumbled, reflecting on her own misdeeds. If a normal pony’s mistake would be accidentally smashing a little flower, hers would be like burning down the entire forest.

Reading the filly’s dour expression, he gave her a cheerful smile and nudged her, stating, “I think I’m a little jealous of you, actually. No offense, but you’ve gotten that bad moment out of you already and you have so much time to learn from it! I mean, most ponies have to go through thinking what they know life’s like and then have their bad moment to really learn them. For you, though, you have the opportunity to be smarter than all of us when it comes to life! You get a lot of time to learn and grow while the rest of us fumble around for a bit first.”

“Heh, lucky,” Cozy scoffed quietly, shaking her head. “Lucky that I’ll forever be remembered as one of Equestria’s greatest threats?”

“Lucky because you get to change that narrative, Cozy,” Star exclaimed encouragingly. “Think! Chrysalis and Tirek will always be the villains that attempted to destroy Equestria, and you’ll be the one who decided to do something different once it was all over. You chose to learn and show everypony both how good you could be and how good they should be too!”

“So... redemption for an ‘I told you so’,” the filly frowned, raising a brow at the enthusiastic colt.

“Yeah, but not quite,” he backtracked, his confidence fading as he began stumbling over his own words. “I meant more showing than saying. Helping them get the point, y’know?”

“It won’t matter,” Cozy sighed, sitting back on her haunches in defeat. “Nopony’d ever see me as anything more than that filly villain. I don’t even know if I really want to change. After all, I’m not really a good filly.”

“Coulda convinced me,” Star mumbled softly, staring her dead in the eye. As always, he was telling the truth. Cozy could see it in the way his eyes were hopeful that she would recognize what he saw in her, and sad that she hadn’t yet. A lump formed in her throat immediately, knowing he did, in fact, believe she wasn’t a bad pony. Feeling a few tears beginning to form, she threw her hooves around his neck without warning, eliciting a short yelp from him.

“You’re the best pony ever,” she declared, holding onto him tightly. He let out a hesitant chuckle as he proceeded to wrap his hooves around her as well, returning the tight embrace.

“Thanks, but I don’t think that’s quite true,” he protested softly, sounding embarrassed.

“Oh, don’t kid yourself, Star,” she demanded, still holding tightly to him. “Even Twilight doesn’t have hay on you and she’s the flippin’ Princess of Friendship. Nopony’s ever been as kind, welcoming, or forgiving as you. Not in all of Equestria. I don’t know what made me run into you here, but I’m really glad I did because I’ve never had anypony like you in my life. In all of Equestria, I haven’t made a friend until I stumbled into you.”

“Aw, that’s the sweetest thing anypony’s ever told me,” Star gushed warmly, his own hug tightening confidently as he tucked his head against the back of her head. “I’m glad I could be your friend too, Cozy. You really are a wonderful filly.”

Hearing Star say that gave her a warm feeling in her entire body, like she had just stepped into the summer sun. Smiling brightly, eyes squeezed shut as she focused on just enjoying the hug she needed all too badly, they held the moment. The young pegasus felt like she could have remained there forever without a problem, but after what felt like only a few seconds, she felt Star suddenly stir slightly.

“Horsefeathers,” he exclaimed, suddenly tearing away just enough for him to look her in the eye. “It’s dark out now and I promised we’d be in before supper! They’re gonna be worried we aren’t back yet!”

“We can just tell them we got carried away,” she suggested with a shrug. “I mean, we did!”

“They may, uh… take that the wrong way…” Star pointed out with a cute blush.

Rolling her eyes, Cozy reminded him, “They think I’m, like, ten or something still. Unless you’re secretly a creep around your parents, they won’t have anything to take the wrong way. Hay, we could blame my ‘young’ age on a little misadventure or something.”

“Nah, it’ll be okay, we don’t have to lie,” Star quickly said, standing up and reaching out a hoof for her.

Smiling gratefully at him, she took it and let him gently pull her up. Though it was clear he was still worried about how late they had now stayed out talking, he was doing his best to hide it. Years of hiding her intentions and discovering other ponies’ had taught her it was probably to make sure she didn’t feel responsible if he got in trouble. Smiling even harder at the thought, she decidedly stood by what she had said earlier. He really was the best pony ever, not a single mistake or flaw in sight.

He really was what Equestria stood for, a perfectly accepting, kind, and flawless pony who strove for others’ happiness because it made him happy. How somepony like him could exist in such a hypocritical and disappointing world was beyond her. The way she had it figured, though, is that in a universe of so many possibilities, there was the possibility that Star was the one-in-a-billion pony that was perfect. It made her giddy for some reason, excited to not only be friends with him, but to do better. She wanted to be like him, carelessly happy and always eager to help. He had proven the Equestrian promise could be fulfilled. Maybe even someone like her could achieve it.

The task felt nigh on impossible, considering her past, but as soon as she began to doubt herself, Star’s kind words came to mind. She could change the narrative, and not through force like she thought she would have to before. Just a few months ago, the only way she thought she would ever be able to achieve even half the amount of kindness Star had shown her was through dominance. Friendship was power, after all. Nothing had changed her mind on that, but her ideas on power were beginning to change. She could feel it.

She had been powerful before, unstoppable by any creature in Equestria, even the Princesses, Chrysalis, and Tirek. But then they had all teamed up and stopped the three of them and removed their “power”. That had only again proven that friendship was power, but she was naive to think it could be conquered or controlled like a country. No, an Empress of Friendship was impossible when friendship was a choice ponies made. Until now, though, she hadn’t thought to use any other way to utilize it than force and manipulation, the tools that had built Equestria itself.

And maybe that was why Equestria was flawed in its promise.

It wasn’t a nation built by unity and friendship, but through a much more hidden and dark history. War had unified Equestria under Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, not friendship and magic. The threat Sombra presented to ponykind was enough to force it together, and after that threat was dealt with through blood, conquest, and power, it left a nation torn apart. How it remained together and became the relatively peaceful Equestria with docile and dim ponies was still beyond her, but the nation had not begun purely through kind words and eager promises. One day she would find out what had happened, and maybe with that information she could make the Equestria she envisioned, the one she had once…

The sudden gust of warm air from inside the hotel blowing across her face as Star opened the door for her interrupted her thoughts. She hadn’t realized how cold she was getting, her relatively thin coat unprepared for the oncoming winter. Being frozen in stone had done that to her, stopping her coat from naturally thickening and growing out like it should have at least a month back. Shaking herself out once she had stepped through the door to compose herself a little better, she glanced back at Star with a thankful smile. He was such a gentlecolt. How could anypony have ever bullied him for being kind?

“Sorry we’re home late, Mom,” Star shouted towards the front of the small hotel. The doorless entry to the kitchen was empty, and there wasn’t a response immediately, which left the colt giving Cozy a look of confusion.

“Maybe they… didn’t hear,” she suggested hesitantly.

“We’re in the kitchen, dear,” Aspen suddenly called back, immediately disproving Cozy.

“Or not,” she shrugged, smirking at herself. Watching Star’s worried expression dissipate at his mother’s voice, she felt a tug on her heartstrings. In spite of how affable the colt was, he had a hidden anxiety in him from losing his biological parents. She could see clear as day that, had his mother not responded, his calm demeanor wouldn’t have remained intact long. Shaking away the negative thoughts, both for herself and him, she nudged him and asked, “Shall we?”

“After you,” he insisted with a small smile. Returning the grin, she made the short walk to the kitchen with Star following closely behind. Maybe it was because she had forgotten, maybe it was because she was comfortable around Star, or maybe it was because she just didn’t pay attention like she should, but without a moment to look or listen, she stepped into the kitchen.

There were three things she noticed right away as she halted just inside the small dining area, Star softly bumping into her. Firstly was the nervous, almost fearful, expressions on the faces of Aspen and Oak as Cozy entered with their son. The way their eyes were merely pinpricks sent a cold shock through her. The last time she had seen eyes like that were when she had been an alicorn, falsified by chaos magic and power. Ponies would look up at her as if she were about to crush them with her little hooves.

The second thing she noticed was the pair of unicorns near the back of the dining area, where the kitchen truly started. Her eyes narrowed as she immediately recognized the purple, ponytailed Starlight Glimmer seemingly caught off-guard. Her presence shattered every positive emotion she had been feeling, leaving her tense, angry, and ready for a fight. She would not let that mare tear her away from happiness again. The other unicorn was an orange and yellow unicorn with glasses and a cape that practically screamed geek, and had it not been for the third thing she noticed, she wouldn’t have given him a second thought.

His horn glowed a bright golden light as he charged up a spell of some kind, and the way he was staring determinedly at them as they entered the dining area, there was no doubt it was for her. She had no time to think, no time to prepare, she just bolted into action.

“Oh, we have guests,” Star noted with a chipper smile as suddenly chaos broke out.

“No magic,” Starlight shouted, diving into the unicorn to try and stop his spell. He let out a cry of surprise as his spell suddenly shot from his horn, arching through the air toward the two younger ponies.

“Don’t hurt him,” Cozy screamed, leaping in front of Star as he yelped in surprise. The golden spell hit her head on, making her flinch back even though she didn’t feel anything. She blinked as she realized she felt no different, and glancing back at everypony else in the room, they weren’t any different either.

“I thought you said we were going to peacefully approach her,” Oak shouted as he held onto his wife, both of which had backed into a wall.

“You almost hit our son,” Aspen added, her voice shaking in fear.

“But you did hit her,” Star suddenly growled, his voice harder and angrier than she’d ever thought possible from the colt. He suddenly pulled her back behind him, making her yelp quietly as he stepped in front of her defensively. He was shorter than everypony but her, yet as soon as he blocked her from them, he seemed to loom over them all.

“What did you do that for,” he demanded, practically shouting. “She didn’t do anything to you!”

“It was a disarming spell, it wasn’t meant to hurt her,” the unicorn quickly explained. He sounded just as geeky as he looked, his voice shaking either in nervousness or shame, she couldn’t tell. “All it’ll do is stop her from flying away.”

Checking his claim, Cozy found that, as a matter of fact, she couldn’t move her wings at all. They simply rested against her back comfortably, as if nothing had happened to them at all. Rolling her eyes, she frowned. It was a little problematic, but it wasn’t like she was going to run anyways. She needed to face Starlight, even if she hated the mare. After all, if there was any chance of getting to stay with Star after this, it would be her call. For now, she needed to play nice with the mare.

“Hey, you okay,” Star softly asked, turning to face her. The worried look on his face made her little heart quiver like nothing else, knowing he was absolutely invested in her wellbeing.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she assured him just as quietly, giving him her best encouraging smile. Seeing she was alright, he gave her a quick smile in return before facing the adults again, and even though she couldn’t see it, she felt the glare he was giving them.

“That was uncalled for,” he told them firmly, causing Starlight’s brows to rise in surprise. Cozy suppressed a chuckle at the sight, overjoyed with how the mare looked when her confidence was broken, and by Star of all ponies! It just felt the right way to know that her uptight, snobbishness could be halted by somepony as kind and harmless as Star.

“I agree, it was,” Starlight suddenly stated. This time, it was Cozy’s turn to be surprised by the mare’s admission, her jaw dropping a little. Recovering from the mare’s unprecedented confession, the filly glared at the two unicorns from behind the protection Star provided her. Glancing at Cozy, Starlight added, “Unfortunately, we’re rather jumpy. We don’t know exactly what to expect from you, Cozy, so we wrongly anticipated having to fight you. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, that’s not really gonna cut it, lady,” she spat, beginning to step out from behind Star. As much as she appreciated the gesture, she didn’t like the idea that she needed his protection. She could face the two herself. “You told me I could leave, so I left! There weren’t any stipulations about me not returning.”

“There were if you were seen by anypony though, and you were most certainly seen by somepony,” Starlight replied, keeping her voice steady even under Cozy’s harsh glare. Cursing her stinted growth, she remained absolute in her hatred in the mare even as she tried to explain, “We didn’t want to chase you down to capture you again, Cozy, but to prevent a panic across Equestria.”

“Real convincing when your first reaction was to shoot me with magic,” Cozy snapped. Everything about Starlight enraged her, and it took the most restraint to not just storm out of the room at her self-righteous demeanor. “Even if- and I doubt this- you didn’t intend to just take me prisoner again, you guys have no trust for me. I mean, what did you do, scout the place out and decide the best time to ambush us would be when we were hungry and tired? Why not just confront us straight up, huh? I know why. It’s because you’re still scared of me, even after telling me over and over again that ‘I’m not what you thought I was’. All this time you were afraid of me lying to you, when instead it was you lying to me over and over again. You don’t trust me, and you don’t think I was any different from before I was turned to stone.”

“Well, we didn’t want to confront you like this, Cozy, please understand that,” the unicorn stallion tried to assure her. “If we knew what your reaction to seeing us would be, then all of this could have been avoided.”

“But she isn’t the same filly who went into the stone,” Star claimed with frustration. He stepped closer to Starlight and the stallion as he continued, “She’s kind and funny, but also lost and sad. She doesn’t need to continue being hounded for her mistakes but allowed to move past them and become better. She already has begun down that path, and ever since I first met her, I don’t think I’ve met a kinder, more intelligent filly her age.”

“Sweet as that is,” Starlight said, smiling sadly, “that’s exactly how she fooled everypony last time.”

“And if she’s pulling the same trick on me, then that’ll hurt… a lot,” the colt stated, undeterred. Looking back at Cozy again, this time he smiled at her as he declared, “But I know that isn’t what’s going to happen, because I know Cozy Glow isn’t lying to me about anything. She’s not telling me everything, but that’s her right. I know she trusts me, and I trust her.”

“Thanks,” she bashfully whispered to him, feeling her cheeks flush slightly as once again Star came to her defense.

“So, if I’ve made my point, then I think Cozy deserves an apology,” Star asserted. With a pointed look to his parents, he added, “From everypony.”

“Star, she could’ve done something to harm us,” Aspen tried to gently explain.

“But she hadn’t and hasn’t,” he replied, firm as ever. “And more importantly, she didn’t even try.”

“If I’m being honest,” Cozy spoke up, stepping forward to be beside Star, “it was less of me trying to manipulate Star into doing what I wanted and more of him tricking me into telling him everything he could ever need to know about me. Admittedly rather embarrassing… but ultimately pretty smart of him.”

This time it was Star who gave her a slightly shocked look at the double meaning of what she had said. Certainly, she had been surprised that the colt had unraveled so much of what she had kept secret from everypony else in a matter of days, but she wasn’t mad about it. Shocked, disheartened, and a little scared, but impressed more than anything. After all, she didn’t have any right to be mad that he had outplayed her in her own game. Slowly, the colt seemed to come to the realization of how Cozy felt, and nodded slowly, his fear of having hurt her visibly vanishing.

Behind him, the adults shared a couple of very thoughtful- and concerned- looks before Starlight suddenly said, “Cozy, could you please speak with Aspen, Oak, and I in the other room?”

“Without Star,” she asked, her heart dropping. She wanted to refuse altogether, but if there was any chance of her being able to stick around her new friend, it would only come through careful negotiation with his parents and the bucking unicorn that had started this whole mess.

“Yes, this is a discussion I don’t think will be healthy for Star to overhear,” the mare confirmed softly, glancing between the apprehensive filly and firm colt.

“Only if I can say goodbye to Star once it’s over, in case… I don’t get to see him later,” Cozy negotiated, choosing her words carefully. To be frank with herself, she had no real negotiating power beyond what Starlight’s morale compass dictated as “free will” for her. The worst part was that the pegasus could almost understand where she was coming from, having to deal with the delicate issue Cozy presented, trying to play both for Cozy’s side and Equestria’s. That was part of why the mare was so enraging, trying to be the good guy on both sides when she clearly couldn’t be.

“Deal,” Starlight immediately accepted, before glancing at the other couple and hesitantly adding, “though hopefully there’s a way we can work this that won’t be ‘goodbye’.”

Cozy perked up at that, and even though it felt as if she were following an Ursa into its den, the tempting offer presented by the mare was enough to make the filly leave Star’s side to follow the adults into the kitchen.

As she began walking towards the room, she suddenly felt a tug on her tail, and turned to see Star’s horn glowing. He pulled her back slightly and whispered, “I just undid that unicorn’s spell. If they try to hurt you in any way, get out of here.”

He carefully pushed her towards the kitchen before she could reply. None of the adults seemed to have noticed, Starlight and the unicorn stallion whispering briefly while Aspen and Oak entered the kitchen, only now turning back to see Cozy approaching. She was slightly surprised they didn’t flinch at her approach, though both had a new air of weariness with her. She guessed it was only fair for them, though it didn’t make her any less frustrated. Those two genuinely seemed to be just as perfect as the son they raised, though they now had the same judgment she had feared from Star initially.

Glancing over her shoulder as she entered the small room, she caught the colt’s eye for the briefest moment, but before anything could be said, Starlight quietly shut the door behind her, leaving him with the unicorn stallion and her with the rest. Biting the inside of her cheek, Cozy swore to herself that wouldn’t be the last time she saw her friend.

Chapter 13: Negotiations

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The moment of silence after the door clicked shut left Cozy uneasy, but as always, she refused to let it show. She was outnumbered here, three full grown ponies against her, though she had a sneaking suspicion that she could get at least Aspen on her side. The mare was kindly and soft spoken, though incredibly confident in carrying herself unlike other quiet, kind mares. Cozy wasn’t quite sure about Oak, the unicorn stallion a bit tougher physically than his wife, and while he had never been gruff or even dismissive, she couldn’t quite get a read on him.

Starlight, of course, already had the advantage. She had clearly been able to talk to and plan with the parents, though from how they had reacted to everything, it hadn’t gone according to plan. Eyeing the hated unicorn mare, she kept near the door, subliminally flexing her wings just in case she did have to flee. There was a small window above the kitchen sink, but given the kitchen was so tight and cramped and Starlight was right there, there was no chance of escaping through it. Unfortunately, Star’s kindness was for naught, giving her at best a chance to fly away if she escaped the kitchen.

“Cozy, I want to make something clear,” Starlight began, rubbing a hoof on the back of her head. “You’re right that you did nothing by leaving or staying gone. In fact, I expressly told you that you could and gave you no rules or limitations. You took advantage of that and we had no justification for treating you like you broke any rules.”

“Well duh,” the filly exclaimed, throwing up a hoof in exasperation.

“However, you hadn’t really proven yourself a reliable or changed filly yet, so you still presented a hazard to Equestria,” Starlight added patiently. “While I trust that you have good in you and that the Elements were correct in releasing you. You’ve only been free for less than two weeks, so it’s unfair to judge as unprepared or unchanged, especially considering I haven’t really begun trying to help you and you’ve still been aloof to the idea. We couldn’t have you out in the world again without warning and sending Equestria into a panic.”

“Yeah, bad PR’s gonna bring the whole place down,” Cozy exaggerated, rolling her eyes.

“And a bout of good news could lift it up,” Starlight rebutted, sitting down. “All I’m saying is that you’re lucky that you ran into this wonderful family instead of anypony else who might not have been so kind.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I am lucky to have met Star, because the way had it going in that dinky old mansion, I woulda been lonely and bored forever,” Cozy exploded. “Star’s been the only pony in all of Equestria that lives up to what your twisted School of Friendship preached would make its students into. He’s been the only one to not label me as a ‘villain’ and treat me like an actual filly! Thanks to him, I was able to stay here and have a warm place to stay. Thanks to him, I think he has the best parents in Equestria. Thanks to him, I started to believe what you said was true!”

Starlight’s eyes widened, but this time she managed to keep her jaw shut at Cozy’s outburst. Slowly nodding her head, her eyes flitted to the couple who had remained thus far silent. They shared a look with her as well, and in a silent moment of understanding, they took over the conversation.

“We know that you’ve already befriended our son, and we also believe it’s genuine,” Aspen delicately started. “In fact, we can say with full confidence that he considers you a friend. Never in his life has he raised his voice or shouted at anypony, but as soon as he thought you were in danger he didn’t even hesitate. He was defending you because- even though he knew you were Cozy Glow- he believed no harm should befall you, no matter what.”

“More importantly, we saw how you defended him,” Oak added, holding his wife’s hoof. “You jumped right in front of him even though you didn’t know what type of spell was flying at him. I’ve never seen anything so brave in my life, and we’ve only known you for two days, if you’re being generous. In our eyes, you are somepony good, no matter your past. If you were that Cozy Glow that once terrorized Equestria, there’s no reason you would’ve taken that risk, right?”

Stunned, lips pursed as she realized she had accidentally won the couple’s favor, she simply muttered, “I guess. It wasn’t really that smart in hindsight.”

“But it was selfless,” Starlight concluded, instantly souring Cozy’s mood. Giving the unicorn a narrowed stare, she bit back her tongue and let her continue. “It only goes to prove that, as a matter of fact, there is more than an inkling of good inside you. While it was wrong of us to attack you like we did, it did accidentally prove us wrong of mistrusting you. We formed our biases on who you were, which is a very Equestrian thing for us to do. While I can’t speak for Sunburst, I’d ask you to forgive me for doubting you.”

“Hmmm, while I would like your forgiveness, it’ll just get me sent back to your mansion,” Cozy pointed out. “You’ll say that you’ve learned a lesson in teaching me and will take a different approach from now on. You’ll propose some tempting-sounding offer that I’ll either have to take or go back unhappy. You’ll win and I’ll lose the first friend- no, friends- I’ve ever made in Equestria. That doesn’t sound too good for trying to teach me about the ‘magic of friendship’, now does it?”

“Well, what do you propose then,” Starlight questioned, looking slightly dismayed. At least she was being compliant.

“If it’s alright with Oak and Aspen,” Cozy slowly stated, giving the pair a humble glance, “I’d like to stay at the hotel with them and Star. I’ll stay out of sight and learn more about friendship and whatnot firsthoof. It’s a win-win. You get to return to your little School of Friendship without having to worry about me and I get to stay in a nice little place away from anypony who shouldn’t happen across me.”

“Cozy…” Starlight skeptically began to softly protest.

Before she could get any further, Aspen quickly stated, “We usually have open rooms on the fourth floor, out of sight of the normal guests, and Star can entertain her in the forests when there’s many around like during the holidays.”

Oak gave his wife an incredulous look at his wife’s sudden proposal, to which she defensively declared, “We’ve always wanted a daughter anyways, and Star’s always wanted a little sister. This is the opportunity to complete our family and help Cozy become a better filly. We need to play our part in helping her out, and if it’s a room and hot food, then who better than us?”

“You’re right,” Oak realized with a slight smile, before looking over to Starlight. “We can handle her, if she really wants to stay!”

This time, Starlight couldn’t keep her jaw from dropping, and Cozy was almost there with her. She hadn’t expected the couple to be so open to letting her stay, especially after she had blatantly hidden the truth from them. While they had seemed like parents that matched Star’s generosity and kindness, it was only now that they demonstrated how they had raised the colt to act. Smiling gratefully at the pair, unable to hide her excitement of getting to stay with them and Star while avoiding the shocked unicorn staring at them, she practically shouted, “Thank you!”

“We’re still hesitant, Cozy, because you haven’t been honest with us yet, but Star trusts you and we trust him,” Oak stated factually. “We want to trust you, but you haven’t done anything to prove that we can trust you, only that you’re already close friends with Star.”

“I promise you that you can trust me by the end of the week,” Cozy boldly declared, refusing to let there be anything to come between her and staying at the hotel.

“That’s well and good Cozy, but I still need to check in on you,” Starlight informed her, earning a glare from the filly. “Look, I want to leave you alone because you clearly want nothing to do with me, but we can’t just have you anywhere in Equestria without checking in on you now and then. Firstly, we have to make sure you’re really changing, and secondly, we have to gauge the possibility of reintroducing you to Equestria. Either you’d have to deal with me or Twilight, and considering she’s awfully busy now, it wouldn’t be plausible.”

“We can arrange for days for you to visit without anypony noticing,” Aspen offered, distinctly stepping between a cautious Starlight and absolutely steaming Cozy.

Of course! Of course the moment she thought she might actually get away from this fiend of a mare once and for all, she had to impose yet again and darken her freedom with her presence! It was as if the mare had made some twisted promise to never let Cozy be free of her, even when she was doing exactly what the hypocritical unicorn wanted! Growling under her breath at the bitter idea of having to see her again and again, interrupting the peace she had been looking for, she turned away before she could say something she would come to regret.

“Fine,” she spat angrily. “Schedule your checkups.”

“You have a say in it too, Cozy,” Starlight offered, attempting to extend a branch of peace.

“Oh, in that case, let’s not do it at all,” she declared venomously, snapping it. Taking a breath, closing her eyes so she didn’t have to stare at the mare any longer, she managed to calm herself down enough to mumble, “Just don’t make them too frequent…”

“Thank you,” Starlight demurely replied, her voice a whisper. Cozy was struck by how stung she sounded, as if she weren’t one of the main problems in the filly’s life, both before and after her stone imprisonment. Aspen looked between the two, clearly dismayed and slightly uncomfortable while Oak stared at a spot on the floor.

Feeling slightly embarrassed for lashing out, Cozy sighed and took a step toward Starlight, moving away from the door for the first time. She wouldn’t be needing it anyways. Setting aside her anger for Aspen and Oak’s sake, she blandly asked, “How long do you think you’ll need with me?”

While she wasn’t looking directly at her, Starlight’s legs straightened and her voice sounded cheerier as she replied, “I don’t think I’ll need more than thirty minutes, but we do need to discuss how often I think I should visit, and how often you think I should.”

“Alright then, let’s work this out,” Aspen said excitedly. Sighing again, Cozy reluctantly sat down and prepared herself for the arduous task of scheduling with Starlight.

Sunburst was not a very patient stallion when he was nervous. Then again, he guessed that nopony really was. It was ridiculous to try to be patient while also being anxious. Sometimes his thoughts weren’t as smart as other pony’s thought they were. He was just some nerd who’d read enough to be smart. He actually didn’t know what he was doing ninety-five percent of the time… as today demonstrated. Nervously, he glanced at the colt in the room, wondering if he was thinking of Sunburst’s screw up right then.

He was just sitting there patiently, staring intently at the door and clearly straining to hear whatever conversation was going on behind it. He wasn’t the largest colt, but the way he had acted just now, trying to protect Cozy Glow from him and Starlight, had made him seem much larger. Now that he was seemingly calm, Sunburst was able to see the intelligence in his eyes, something he had come to find himself looking for more and more in his students at the School of Friendship. Everypony had one of course, but most ponies had dim, soft, or sharp looks to their intelligence. This colt’s eyes were something he had never seen before, and he decided that was a good enough conversation starter.

“That was impressive, getting rid of my spell like that,” Sunburst nervously told him.

The colt slowly glanced at the unicorn from out of the corner of his eye, before finally mumbling a soft, “Thanks. I just did what I thought worked.”

“Well, you’re lucky you did it right, because if you had messed it up, you might have twisted her wings,” Sunburst joked.

“I could’ve what,” the colt yelped, standing up with a panicked look.

“Only if you had really messed up,” the stallion fruitlessly attempted to amend. “If you had tried to release the spell from within the muscles of Cozy’s wings you could have accidentally relaxed them into a space they didn’t have, causing them to bunch and twist.”

“That’s kinda what I figured,” the colt replied, slowly sitting down again as he explained, “I felt the spell wasn’t a paralysis spell since there wasn’t any tightness in the skin or muscles. In fact, I was a little confused at first because there weren’t any telltale signs of you freezing her physically, so I didn’t understand how she couldn’t move her wings. Then, I realized you have placed a barrier that perfectly laced her feathers to prevent movement but not restrict blood flow on accident. From there I just tore it away and dispersed it.”

“Very smart,” Sunburst commented thoughtfully. “I didn’t dare try to use a paralysis spell since I haven’t had the chance to practice on anything living and didn’t want to damage Cozy’s wings. I didn’t know it could be so easily removed, though you discovered it quickly enough that I didn’t realize you had removed it until I saw Cozy’s wings twitch when she walked through the door.”

“Well, it wasn’t quite easy,” the colt humbly informed with a shrug. “I spent a good deal of time poking and prodding while we were still talking, and once I realized it was a barrier and not a paralysis spell, I needed to be close enough to draw the spell away. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve done with magic in a long time. I’m not much of a mage.”

“Really, I thought you had to be at least a skilled year five in order to discover and dissolve a barrier such as that,” Sunburst said, surprised.

“No, I graduated last year on a year four level of education,” he stated, smiling slightly.

“Huh, so that exam was the most difficult magic you’ve had to do,” Sunburst asked, curious about the colt’s true skill level.

“No, I uh… I had to heal a broken leg eight months ago,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof, glancing away.

“That’s incredible,” Sunburst exclaimed, standing up in excitement. “Most level two mages can’t do that! How’s the pony’s leg now?”

“Fine,” the colt said, before suddenly extending his hoof. It took a moment for Sunburst to realize that he was showing him the healed leg.

“You healed your own hoof,” Sunburst giddily inquired, stepping in for a closer inspection of the healed wound. “I’ve only known two other mages who were able to do that! It takes an incredibly strong mind to be able to focus through the pain and meticulously restructure a bone.”

“Especially when it’s sticking out your skin,” the colt added with a nervous laugh. Sunburst’s eyes widened, prompting him to quickly explain, “I’m a kinda reckless colt when it comes to the outdoors, always on the to the next hill or up the next branch. Unfortunately, ponies weren’t really made for climbing trees, and eventually you push your luck too far and- *snap*- suddenly you’ve fallen back to the bottom of a decently sized pine.”

“No discernible scar beneath the coat,” the stallion noted, impressed. “I’m no clinician, but there’s no signs that this was ever even damaged in the first place. You seem to have perfectly returned the wounded area. Honestly, that’s some of the greatest magic I’ve seen from somepony that isn’t an alicorn. You have a real talent for arcanery!”

“Oh, why thank you,” the colt replied, pushing his hoof forward for a shake. “My name’s Star Scout, by the way. Nice to meet you Professor Sunburst.”

“Excellent to meet you as well, Scout,” Sunburst said with a broad grin. Feeling curious, he asked, “With such clear academic and arcanic talent, why haven’t you joined any prestigious schools in Canterlot, Manehattan, or Baltimare? They would accept you without a moment’s hesitation with your impressive history.”

“I like the forest more than I would working with Princess Celestia,” Scout answered with a casual shrug, before anxiously adding, “Not that I don’t think it would be amazing to work with the Princess. I just don’t really like the idea of streets and streets of buildings on the top of a mountain with four hundred thousand other ponies in such a compact area. Here, the forest is close and tight like a well packed blanket that offers you infinite freedom so long as you respect it. The hotel is a nice home big enough to feel like a fortress defended by the forest, a nice little spot hidden from ponies that don’t want to find it.”

“Honestly, that’s very respectable of you,” Sunburst told him with a nod of approval. “You’re very mature for your age.”

“Not really,” the colt laughed, shaking his head. “I’m just making excuses not to grow up and keep playing in the woods.” Falling silent for a moment, the colt thoughtfully mumbled, “Maybe it’s why I’m hoping Cozy gets to stay with us, so I have a new friend to keep being a kid with.”

“Wait, you want Cozy to stay here,” Sunburst asked incredulously. “I knew you two are friends, but I would’ve thought that having her stay around for too long would be kinda… nerve-wracking, you know. Even if you trusted her, what if the rest of Equestria somehow found out?”

“We’d be there for her,” Scout replied firmly. “If they didn’t like it, so be it, we’ll just stay in our hidden spot in the forest and protect her from whatever everypony else wants to say about her. She’s changed and I realize Equestria can be blind to such things.”

“You really think she has,” the stallion asked hopefully.

“With all my heart,” the colt firmly nodded, affirming Sunburst’s suspicions. No matter what Starlight came out of that room saying, he was solidly in the colt’s corner. He was a true, smart, and kindly pony who only wanted what was best for everypony, and if that went against Starlight what thought, maybe that wasn’t so bad. They could disagree on this one point, right?

As if to answer his question, the door began opening, a disgruntled but placated Cozy walking out of the room. Without a moment’s hesitation, Scout rushed over to her to give her a quick hug as he whispered something indiscernible to her. Whatever it was made her smile as she wrapped a hoof around him as well, before they pulled apart. Her eyes flitted to him, and Sunburst froze as he saw the intensity in them. For the life of him, though, he couldn’t tell if it was in malice or not. She quickly looked away though, stepping out of the way of the door even further to let the couple and Starlight through. Her eyes met his briefly, instantly telegraphing to him that a conclusion had in fact been made… one that left Starlight uncomfortable.

“Well,” Scout slowly asked, his eyes wide and inquisitive, glancing between his parents and Starlight.

“Cozy will be staying with your family for the time being,” Starlight stated, “and occasionally will be visited by me every few weeks to ensure that everything is going well and so that we can ensure nopony’s gotten news of Cozy before we anticipated. There are some rules and boundaries she has to follow, but I’ll let Aspen and Oak explain that to you so we can get out of your mane. Thanks for your hospitality, and good job Cozy.”

“Thanks,” the filly replied coldly, remaining close to Scout. The colt looked uncomfortable at her harshness, glancing at Sunburst. The stallion didn’t have the time to say anything to the colt before Starlight walked past him, drawing him to the door without even touching him. Instead, he simply gave the colt a nod, and turned to follow her.

Once they had exited the front door, Starlight released a massive sigh, halting only a few paces onto the dirt road. Pausing beside her, he quietly asked her, “Well, how did it go?”

“Oh, it went wonderfully,” she answered tiredly. “These ponies trust Cozy and were willing and even offering to take her in to help her on her path. She genuinely cares about them as well, and it’s clear she’s had a massive change of attitude in just the past couple days…”

“But...” Sunburst softly pushed, resting a hoof on the mare’s back.

“But she still hates me,” Starlight finally sobbed, a few tears dripping down her face in the cold autumn night.

Chapter 14: There

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Dinner that night was awkward, to say the least. Cozy wanted to celebrate, unable to stop smiling at herself for being able to stay with Star, and to a lesser extent, his parents. It wasn’t until they too had stood up for her that she was finally able to accept that they were almost as kindly and forgiving as their son. She didn’t quite trust them, and the feeling was clearly mutual, but she was willing to give them a chance. Unlike everypony else, they seemed to also uphold themselves as archetypes of Equestrian peace and friendship without any semblance of the scorn and deceit Cozy had come to expect from such ponies.

The simple meal of noodles with a tangy, watery sauce with sauteed tomatoes had been whipped up specifically for how late dinner had been pushed by the unexpected visitors of the day. While the visit still left something of a bitter taste, the end result was more than satisfactory compared to what she expected to happen. For reasons beyond her, she couldn’t keep that image of Star jumping to her defense in front of everypony else from flashing through her mind over and over again. He was such a perfect colt and a better friend than she could have ever hoped for.

Cozy was the first to finish her meal, not particularly hungry to start with, and for a few long moments sat staring awkwardly at her plate. She didn’t want to break the uncomfortable silence, but she also didn’t want to rudely get up and leave her plate after everything Star and his parents had done for her today. Finally, she shyly smiled and asked, “Um, Aspen, where do I put the dishes?”

“Oh, there’s a sink in the kitchen,” she answered with a polite smile, though it faded as she muttered, “I guess you didn’t see that earlier…”

“Nope, I did not,” Cozy agreed, somehow even more uncomfortable with the half-hearted small talk than with utter silence. She struggled to keep herself from running right into the kitchen to flee from her embarrassment, but in due time, she made it to the kitchen without a hitch, all while feeling the entire family’s eyes on her. Stepping inside, she rinsed the plate clean and set it in the sink before promptly stepping out.

Star was the only one who was still watching by the time she was finished, giving her a quick smile before also finishing his plate and standing up to put it away. As he walked past her, he whispered softly, “You should say something.”

She wasn’t able to reply before he had moved on, and having paused to listen to the colt, the adults’ attention was once again back on her. They seemed to stare expectantly, though to her relief she saw the same hesitation in their eyes that she felt. Emboldened, the filly bowed her head briefly as she said, “Thank you so much for allowing me to stay. You have no idea how grateful I am that somepony is giving me a chance.”

“Well, you’ve demonstrated that you certainly aren’t a lost cause,” Oak replied, chuckling awkwardly before falling into silence, realizing how uncomfortable of a statement he had made. “Uh, not that you… were before or anything like that…”

“We’re happy that your friendship with our son is tangible and genuine,” Aspen jumped in for her husband. “But it is all still rather shocking. I mean, your name is one of the most well-known in all of Equestria! It’s just… strange for us, having heard so much compared to what we’ve seen ourselves.”

“I’m… well I’m not sorry I lied to you, because I’m afraid you might have kicked me out if you had known who I actually was,” Cozy admitted with a sheepish smile. “I am sorry I was so hostile to you the first night I was here though. I was scared that you’d find out and didn’t know what was up with Star being so kind to me. I’ve never met somepony so unconditionally kind, and it really threw me off.”

“Speaking of which,” Oak said, his eyes on the room behind her. “Star, did you know about Cozy Glow’s real identity?”

“Yeah…” the colt admitted sheepishly from within the kitchen. Cozy turned just in time to catch him slowly emerge from the kitchen, looking slightly ashamed about keeping the truth from his parents. For a fleeting moment, she felt a tinge of fear that he might be punished for his actions, and apparently so did he.

“I was worried that, if you knew who Cozy was, you wouldn’t give her a chance,” he meekly explained. Cozy looked back over to the parents, surprised to find them both listening intently, as he continued, “I found her out there and was worried about what might happen if I just left her in the woods. She was different from the manipulative filly that the stories all described her as from the start, too. She was rude, but that’s because she was scared. She was mistrusting, but I did kinda just appear out of nowhere. Most importantly, she listened to me, but didn’t seem like she wanted to. The Cozy all the stories described would’ve hopped onto the opportunity I had given her instead of stubbornly pressing on. I knew something wasn’t right about the narrative we were being told. Maybe something changed, or maybe it was wrong from the start, but I wanted to find out who this filly was.”

“You did the right thing,” Oak endeared with a proud nod. “I’m ashamed to say that you’re probably right. If we had known this filly was the same one who had threatened Equestria four months ago, I don’t think we would have allowed her to stay.”

“But I do have to ask, Cozy, did something change,” Aspen questioned, her eyes big and concerned, but not for herself. They were worried about her. Aspen, Oak, and especially Star. They were on her side, and she owed it to them to trust them, at least enough to tell them what they should know.

“Well, yes, something did change…” Cozy began, trailing off as shameful hesitation overtook her. Her eyes flitted away from the mare for a moment, a deep, humiliating shame at what she was about to admit burning in her chest. Taking in a long breath, she said, “I was a blind filly. I wanted revenge, and I didn’t think much about it. The first time they caught me, it only inflamed my anger and ambition. I wanted to prove that… that I wasn’t a filly who could be wronged twice without punishment! But then, the Princesses put me in stone and… I…”

Once again, she trailed off, a tightness in her chest constricting her as panic beset her, the thought of that terrible stone imprisonment overwhelming her senses. She began panting, trying to draw enough air into her lungs, but they were squeezed too tight. She couldn’t breathe! The grayness, the dark, freedom completely taken from her and the terrible pain of liberty almost worse than imprisonment. It was too much, and before she could even think about controlling herself, tears were already spilling from her eyes. Just as they began to roll down her cheeks, she felt a hoof on her right shoulder, pulling her in.

She looked up, expecting to see Star there, instead finding Aspen there, a look on her face Cozy was able to immediately recognize in spite of how long it had been since she’d seen one like it. The mare’s gentle, understanding smile and soothing eyes dispersed the awful memories and fear, and her soft, warm hug freed her from her own panic. Her breathing slowed and deepened, and while tears still fell, Cozy didn’t feel the fear and panic from before. The look Aspen was giving her, her soothing embrace… they were something Cozy hadn’t felt in years. The loving care of a mare taking care of her foal.

Sobbing, Cozy wrapped her hooves around the tan mare, practically throwing herself at Aspen in both relief and disbelief. How could this mare, who she had deceived and hidden herself from, be so accepting of Cozy? Why was she able to look at her and see her struggles first and her mistakes last? She couldn’t understand what went on in a pony’s mind that made them act in such a way, what made them trusting and accepting, but she was thankful that Aspen, Star, and Oak were truthfully giving her a chance and more. They weren’t just tolerating her, but caring about her beyond what she could have expected.

She didn’t deserve this.

Another pony joined, resting his against hers from the side as he wrapped a hoof around her as well. She knew it was Star this time, feeling the familiar warmth and tightness of his embrace. It made her aching heart flutter, being sandwiched between the two loving ponies. Letting out a shuddering sigh, she finally stopped crying, a smile emerging from her rapid, indecipherable emotions. She would think about those later; right now, she just wanted to enjoy the love they were showing her. How did she ever think friendship could be controlled? Stupid filly. All it took to learn was imprisonment and three kind, accepting, forgiving ponies, and suddenly she was having epiphany after epiphany.

After a long while, she felt Star pull away and took it as her cue to let go of Aspen, sniffling slightly and wiping her eyes. Glancing around at the three ponies, she blushed, her eyes going to the ground in embarrassment. She’d never reacted to anything in such a manner before. It was uncharacteristic, and the old her would’ve been appalled. Her fur was now a mess, her mane was losing its curl, and the most egregious of all, she had let them see her vulnerable. She had acted exactly like the tiny, weak filly she was supposed to be and had lost control. If that was bad, though, why had it felt so… alleviating?

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she demurely apologized, giving Aspen a timid look. Sweet Celestia, she’d cried all over her nape.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart, it’s good to have a cry,” Aspen replied, smiling brightly. “If you need a minute, it’s all right.”

“No, no, I’m good,” Cozy assured her, wiping her eyes once again before taking a step back and forcing herself to smile. Taking a breath to stifle her heaving, she muttered, “Just not… used to this.”

“Used to what,” Star questioned, his hoof resting reassuringly on her shoulder.

Looking around at the three ponies in the room, all concerned but ready to help her, she answered, “To having somepony there for me.”

Chapter 15: Friends Secondly

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Starlight wasn’t quite in tears as she sat on the couch in the living room of the mansion. It was dark, only a few candles glowing dimly in the chandelier she had bothered to light. It was chilly inside, considering she hadn’t lit a hearth and the crisp autumn air was beginning to turn to winter. Her coat had begun to thicken, but it was an early onset this year, and a cold front carrying the sprinkling rain the past few days meant she had to huddle into the soft sofa to retain some warmth. Sunburst quietly walked into the room from the bathroom, giving Starlight a concerned glance, frowning.

The mare looked away, trying and failing to hide her watery eyes from him, but it was already far too late. With a sigh, the orange unicorn plopped on the couch right next to her, resting a hoof on her shoulder gently. Her face instantly flushed bright red, in embarrassment and- for some reason she still didn’t want to come to terms with- flustered.

“You did well today, Starlight, no matter what you think,” he reassured her. She could hear the hopeful smile in his voice, so, reluctantly, she faced him, though she couldn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Did I, though,” she couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, it feels like Cozy just ran circles around me to get whatever she wanted while making me the bad guy. And, to be fair, we kinda were the bad guys tonight. Your spell didn’t hurt Cozy at all, but it was certainly scary not knowing that. That colt also… well, he certainly put me in my place.”

“Well, you did get that meeting every two weeks with her, right,” he questioned.

“Yeah,” she replied after a moment of hesitation.

“And Cozy’s going to be happier with that colt and his family, right?”

“That’s what she implied.”

“Then I say it’s a win-win situation, even if it doesn’t feel like it,” Sunburst encouraged her. Noting the disappointed expression on her face, he told her, “Cozy will come to appreciate what you're trying to do for her when she’s older. Right now, everything’s probably scary in her eyes. She’s gotta be worried that she’s one wrong move away from being turned to stone again, which can’t be a healthy foundation for a friendship. She needs ponies who aren’t so closely connected with the ones who put her in stone before she forgives those who punished her. It’s a lot like when I have to put Flurry in timeout for breaking something. For a few hours, she’s upset that I punished her for doing something bad and wants to hang out with her playmates, but soon enough she’ll come back around.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Starlight permissed, her heart growing a little lighter. Meeting Sunburst’s eyes, she commented, “You’re a good babysitter, aren’t you?”

“Well babysitter isn’t the official term, but yeah,” Sunburst replied with a nervous chuckle, his eyes flitting away momentarily. “I’d say you’re pretty good at negotiating as well, all things considered. After I flubbed everything up, I thought we were done for. You managed to get everything we needed out of it, though.”

“Thanks,” Starlight shyly accepted, looking away thoughtfully. “You didn’t mess up that bad, and it turned out to work right for us. I mean, we got to see what kind of ponies Cozy had been staying with. Without knowing what she was to them, there was no way I’d be comfortable with leaving Cozy Glow to them. Then again, I guess I’m still not comfortable with her remaining with them, just in a different way.”

Just as she finished talking, there was a bright flash of purple as suddenly Twilight appeared in the middle of the room, looking slightly bewildered. Both unicorns leapt off the couch at the sudden appearance of the alicorn, though it took her a hot second to finally see them. With a huff, Twilight asked, “Starlight, why is Vice Principal Sunburst here? I thought we had him as a replacement specifically so the School of Friendship wouldn’t go a single day without leadership.”

“What happened,” Sunburst questioned, prompting another short sigh from Twilight.

“Two changeling pranksters went around the school disguised as the Blue Knight, scaring a number of the students,” she explained briefly. “They came forward, but only after the entire school was put onto lockdown for safety concerns. Unfortunately, since there was no principal or real creature of authority present, nopony investigated the matter and instead Spike sent me a message concerning the sightings to get some help. It was a whole debacle made even worse by the absence of not just the dean, but the vice principal as well. You should be thankful Trixie took matters into her own hoof, managing to keep the students relatively calm. Now, why in the hay are both of you here?”

“It was important, I swear,” Starlight promised quickly. Then, realizing what she had to tell Twilight, she fell silent for a fearful moment. Finally, she summoned the courage to admit, “Well, um, I may have made a bit of a mistake with Cozy…”

“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight sighed, putting a hoof to her head.

“Everything turned out well, Starlight just needed my help for it,” Sunburst interjected defensively. Then, after a second of deliberation, he softly added, “Though I suppose she didn’t really need me…”

“Well, Cozy and I got into an argument because she was feeling trapped and would never truthfully changed if she was kept as a prisoner, so I told her she could go,” Starlight admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head as she actively avoided Twilight’s gaze.

“What,” the alicorn exclaimed, standing in surprise.

“I thought she would go a ways into the woods then return once she had cooled off, sometime a little after dark,” the mare replied fervently. “I figured she would see I’m not trying to keep her hostage and that I really am just trying to help her. However, it kept getting later and later, and the excuses I made for it were less and less sensible, until at last I couldn’t deny she had run off. So, I kinda sorta panicked a lot and went to Sunburst as somepony to help and who would keep the secret of Cozy Glow being back.”

“Wait, he didn’t know before,” Twilight paused, looking slightly confused.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to tell anypony,” Starlight stated, her confidence waning even more.

“Well, don’t tell too many, but I told Spike and the Princesses right away,” the Princess of Friendship explained. “And Discord could sense the magical binding over her break so he knew as soon as she was released as well. They all can keep a secret, as I am certain Sunburst and even Trixie can. Something like this isn’t really something you should hide from your friends.”

“Oh,” the mare answered simply, grateful telling Sunburst about Cozy wasn’t going to put either of them in more trouble. However… “Cozy Glow ended up running into a colt in the middle of the woods, and as I understand it, he basically foalnapped her back to his family’s hotel and forced her to stay the night. He was the only one who recognized her and the hotel was empty, so no news got out during her time there before we found her. She was there all day the next day and apparently spent most of it talking with the colt-”

“Star Scout,” Sunburst jumped in.

“-Star Scout,” the unicorn mare repeated. “We found her, and then talked to the parents. They were actually very interested in her safety, and were quite agreeable in helping us make sure Cozy didn’t slip away. Long story short, she and Star returned for dinner and we clumsily confronted them. However, before we could really press Cozy too much, Star was getting very defensive of Cozy Glow and actually called us out for our mistakes. He’s a very fierce advocate of her being much different from before she was put in stone. I went and talked with Cozy and the parents about what to do next, and the three of them came to an agreement that Cozy would actually… stay at the hotel.”

“Wait, she’s not back here,” Twilight questioned hushly, a look of disbelief on her face.

“No, she’s at the hotel and presumably getting kept in place,” Starlight confirmed. Well, now wasn’t a time to back down. “I trust the parents to have the situation under their control, and Star is a very intelligent and convincing colt. He seems to be trying to befriend Cozy naturally, and as far as we’ve seen, he’s the real reason she wanted to remain. It seems she’s found herself a friend when she took her change into her own hooves. Like I did…”

Twilight had opened her mouth to protest, but then, at the mention of Starlight’s reformation, it slowly closed. She stood there thoughtfully for a long moment, her eyes slowly tracing shapes in the carpet as she contemplated. Finally, she looked back up and met her pupil’s eyes, declaring, “If you think this will help Cozy, then I trust you.”

“Thank you, Twilight,” Starlight breathed, feeling a massive weight removed from her at the Princess’ approval.

“You’ll keep her in sight still,” the alicorn questioned.

“Yes, every two weeks I’ll visit her, see how she’s doing, and get opinions or thoughts from the family,” the unicorn confirmed hastily.

With a final nod, Twilight smiled and stated, “It sounds like you could return to your duty as Dean of the School of Friendship! The students will be glad to see you return.”

“Oh, I guess I could,” Starlight agreed pleasantly. It’d be amazing to get back to helping students at the School of Friendship after such a stressful couple of weeks. A welcome distraction, to say the least.

“Then I’ll be looking forward to your return after the weekend,” Twilight told her, lighting her horn to teleport.

“Wait, it’s the weekend,” Starlight questioned, realizing how quickly she had lost track of time.

“Time flies when you’re running your tail off, doesn’t it,” the alicorn joked with a knowing smirk. Glancing at Sunburst, she nodded slightly and said, “Sunburst.”

“Princess,” he goodbyed with a bow. Then, like that, her magic flashed brightly in the dark room and she was gone, leaving the two unicorns to stand awkwardly. After a long, silent moment, the orange stallion turned and hesitantly began, “I guess it’s getting kinda late, so maybe I should, y’know, leave you alone and get to bed…”

“No,” Starlight stated a bit too quickly, before taking a breath and nervously saying, “Um, please don’t. I’m still… Well, I’m nervous about Cozy still and really don’t want to be alone. You could stay in one of the rooms! I’ll have it set up in no time and you can get to bed quickly.”

“Oh, sure,” Sunburst agreed with a small smile. “It’s been a few years since I’ve had a sleepover that hasn’t been with a filly.” The stallion paused and visibly winced at the statement, muttering, “That came out so wrong…”

Starlight giggled at the terrible slip up, coyly telling the stallion, “Well you can tell all the cool colts that you had a sleepover with a mare instead. I’m sure they won’t believe you, but you know it’ll be true. Come on, the guest rooms are over here.”

She led him through the dark, wide hall of her grandmother’s mansion, though that strange silence quickly overtook them again. Horsefeathers, why did it always happen nowadays? When they were young this sort of thing never happened, but ever since they had begun seeing each other more often, it happened whenever there was downtime between them. It was almost as if being adults had made them far more aware that she was a mare and he was a colt. Other foals at school had always teased them about being a couple, but that had never gotten under their skin. Now she couldn’t help but hear those old taunts in the back of her head now, wondering how true they rung today.

“What do you think about Star,” she forced herself to ask, not wanting to leave herself alone with her thoughts and silence. “I didn’t get a good read of him except for when he was defending Cozy.”

“Well, he’s probably more intelligent than any of our pupils at the School of Friendship,” Sunburst replied after a moment of thought. “That’s not a slight at anycreature there at all either. I mean, Amber, Gallus, Ocellus, Tiara, and Copper are all very bright pupils that have a great academic career ahead of them, but they wouldn’t stand a chance against him. He’s also a very humble pony, mature for his age, and most definitely one of the kindest souls I’ve met. He yelled at us and was angry, but it was because he thought we were being unjust, and as soon as I apologized, he just… let it go. No grudge.”

“Sounds almost perfect,” Starlight commented, opening a closet as they passed it to pull out fresh blankets and pillows. “How many blankets do you want?”

“It’s pretty chilly,” Sunburst noted, momentarily pulled from his thoughts. “Eh, three oughta do it. Anyways, Star seems to genuinely care about things coming out right for Cozy. After you, I think he’s the biggest proponent for Cozy’s rehabilitation, and he’s certainly taking a stand to help her on her way.”

“Well, I think he’s got me beat there,” the mare sulked slightly, pulling open a door. This room would do. It was close to Starlight’s, but would give the both of them room for… whatever purpose they needed space for.

“Why do you always do that, Starlight,” Sunburst questioned, a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

“What,” she asked naively, earning a frown from the stallion as she set his pillows and blankets on the bed.

“You’re always dragging yourself down and diminishing your achievements,” Sunburst explained. “Whenever I or anypony else points out what you do well, you dismiss it like it isn’t something important but then act like a failure at the slightest problem when it isn’t even your fault! Like, I’m sure you would have handle situation today much better without me, considering your disaster management after I screwed up like that.”

“Hypocrite,” Starlight pointed out, making both of them crack a small smile. However, what Sunburst had said was true. With sigh, she sat down on the bed, before saying, “I guess I just don’t know, Sunburst. I’m scared that I’m going to do something wrong and then it’ll get Cozy stuck back in that stone again. I’m worried that even though I’ve learned so much and am trying to be better, some part of me will fall back to those bad habits.”

“Well I think that’s poppycock,” Sunburst replied confidently, eliciting a small gasp from Starlight. “You’ve done so good for so many years now. I mean, look at you now compared to five years ago: you’re a whole new mare! You kept everything good about you from our childhood and learned how to deal with those not-so-good parts of you. You’re Dean of the School of Friendship, friends with the Princess, and overall one of the greatest mares I know.”

“Can I kiss you,” Starlight asked, the words slipping out of her mouth before her brain gave them permission. Sunburst’s eyes widened at the question as a slowly growing blush shot straight to beet red, and the mare felt her own cheeks blazing at a thousand degrees.

“Sure,” came the response, Sunburst’s voice tight and nervous. It took a second, but suddenly she was moving her muzzle to his, and his towards her. They met gently, soft flesh on soft flesh as their blushes blazed to an alltime bright. After the briefest moment, they both swiftly pulled away, their eyes not meeting.

“That was my first kiss,” Starlight admitted, gaining some sensibility over her mind.

“Same,” Sunburst replied. After a few seconds of silence, he added, “That was pretty great though.”

“It was,” she found herself agreeing, unable to help a growing grin on her face.

“Starlight, I think I like you way more than as just friends,” the stallion stated, growing bold through his blushing. “Like… I’m pretty sure I might be in love with you.”

“Oh, well, I um… I think I reciprocate,” Starlight forced herself to say, refusing to let her nerves get in the way this time. This time, Sunburst wasn’t so slow, as suddenly his lips were pressing on hers yet again, emboldened. He was just as gentle as before, and feeling that primordial prompting from within, she was the first to part her lips and play her tongue across his soft lips. He hummed in surprise, though it didn’t take him long to catch on. Soon enough, they were making out on the bed, Sunburst slowly beginning to willingly overpower her.

It wasn’t until she found herself on her back, hooves wrapping around his neck to bring him that much closer in that she realized how intense everything was getting. Her tail was swishing rapidly, whacking his hind legs as she felt a growing warmth all over her. She knew she was having the same effect he was having on her as Sunburst began pressing himself that much closer to her. It was only once they both came up for air, however, that the problem was addressed.

“I want to keep going,” she told him, surprised by how throaty her voice had become. She was panting as if they had just run a marathon and felt her tension building even more. Sunburst, however, gave her a completely baffled expression, prompting her to practically shout, “I want to have sex with you, dummy!”

“Oh,” the stallion sheepishly realized, before his eyes once again widened, a much softer, understanding “Oh” escaping him. Before either of them could say anything, Starlight pressed a reassuring kiss onto him, making him buckle onto her, now pressing his body completely down on hers.

“I don’t have anything though,” Sunburst quickly warned her, before noting the determination in Starlight’s eyes. She wanted him and he wanted her, and that was more than enough motivation.

“I know a spell,” was Starlight’s only reply before she pulled the stallion once again for a deep, lasting kiss.

Chronicles of the Reformed

by The_Darker_Fonts

Prologue: The Greatest Mistake

Chapter 1: No Longer Dead

Chapter 2: Guardian Devil

Chapter 3: A New Prison

Chapter 4: Going Mad

Chapter 5: Into the Woods

Chapter 6: Meet and Greet

Chapter 7: Who You Are

Chapter 8: Help!

Chapter 9: Defeat

Chapter 10: Q&A

Chapter 11: On The Hunt

Chapter 12: Confrontation

Chapter 13: Negotiations

Chapter 14: There

Chapter 15: Friends Secondly