Dear Diary:
You are stupid. Writing in you is stupid. You are made of stupid paper, with stupid binding, which all came from a very special kind of tree: Plantae Stupidicus. When I become supreme leader over all of Equestria, my first royal act will be to ban stupid diaries.
Twilight Velvet says writing in you will help organize my thoughts. Do you know why that is stupid? Of course you don’t, you are a stupid journal from a discount Back To School sale at a stupid general store from a stupid podunk nowhere that Twilight Velvet comes from, so I will have to explain it to you. I would not have to ‘organize my thoughts’ if I had not been foalnapped. YES!!!! FOALNAPPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cozy Glow underlined the word until she tore a hole in the page.
There I was, facing off against her bratling Princess Dumblight Dorkle the Princess of Dumbness, when Twilight Velvet suddenly grabbed me. I was fine, everything was well in hoof, and then nabbed by this dumbheaded unicorn! And foalnapped off to some distant mountain range!
Cozy Glow frowned at the page for a moment until the clutching feeling in her lungs subsided. Thinking about the part where her torso began to turn to stone, trapping the air in her lungs, still made her heart beat fast. Silently, she tore out the last two pages, the ones covered in her thick, enraged script, and balled them into a wad. She kicked it under her bed, then resumed.
Dear Diary:
Writing in you is stupid. I would not have to organize my thoughts if I hadn’t been foalnapped. Everything would have been fine if I was back home. I would have figured out a solution. I always do.
“Cozy? Breakfast is done. Are you almost ready?”
Cozy Glow frowned down at the diary and its pitiful three line entry. It would do. If Twilight Velvet wanted better from her, then she shouldn’t have foalnapped her and taken her away to an isolated cabin in the woods. “Yep.”
It hadn’t even been a week since she arrived at the cabin. She knew that, because Twilight Velvet kept one of those obnoxious cuddly-kitten calendars in the kitchen, and each day made a big show of talking about the day. It was apparently an everyday thing, and Cozy only had to count the minutes after her first bite of breakfast (oatmeal with honey and bean sprouts) before she’d start the routine. In three, two …
“Let’s see, what is today? Today is Wednesday!” Twilight Velvet drew an X through the matching day. Cozy Glow noted that she used her mouth to hold the marker, instead of her magic. It pleased her that it was a little wobbly. “Wednesdays are when we gather wood for the fire.”
Cozy Glow frowned at her. “That’s d-” Her stomach did a flip flop, and when Twilight Velvet turned a questioning look at her, she turned her frown towards her oatmeal. “Why do we need logs? You can make fire with magic.”
Calling something ‘dumb’ reminded her of their conversation a few nights ago, and that was not a memory that Cozy wanted to revisit. Cozy Glow had called Twilight Velvet a dumb-dumb; through some kind of mind-control Cozy Glow ended up crying, Twilight Velvet told her she was a good filly, and then they colored together. At the time it had made sense, but looking back on it filled her with a deep sense of confusion and no small amount of embarrassment. She was Cozy Glow! Scourge of Equestria, outlaw on the run! She wasn’t some dumb baby who needed hugs and kissy-wissies from her mommy-wommy! And besides, Twilight Velvet wasn’t even her mother, she was a foalnapper! She had to keep it together if she was going to make it out of here alive. Twilight Velvet was a unicorn, and the only possible solution had to be that she was casting some kind of mind-warping magic on Cozy Glow.
Since Cozy didn’t want to risk another mind-warping spell, so she avoided the d-word for the time being. No other reason.
“Well, I think it’s good to do things by hoof sometimes, don’t you?” Twilight Velvet explained as she carried her bowl of oatmeal over to the table. “What if there was an emergency, and I was too tired to use my magic? It’s always good to have a backup plan, especially when you’re in the woods.”
“We don’t have to be out in the woods,” Cozy Glow muttered into her oatmeal, and shot Twilight Velvet a sharp glance.
Twilight Velvet lifted her eyebrows at her, and Cozy Glow figured that she was buying time for her answer as she chewed. “My daughter is almost definitely searching for you. Very few places on the continent would be safe.”
“You took me to space?!”
Twilight Velvet shook her head with a little chuckle, which rankled Cozy Glow’s sore feelings. “No, no, we’re just very far from Equestria. This used to be an outpost, actually; one of the furthest places we had ever been. Ponies, I mean. We’re deep in the Griffon lands. But even up here, we’re miles and miles away from anypony else. It’s the first safe place I could think of, and teleportation magic is safest when you go somewhere you are familiar with.”
“You spend a lot of time planning foalnappings?”
Twilight Velvet’s reply was sarcastic. “Ha, ha, no. My father used to bring us camping out here. He thought it was important that we know how to work with our hooves and not just our horns. I had a lot of fun here as a filly.”
Probably because you weren’t foalnapped, Cozy Glow thought dourly.
“Gathering wood is still a chore, but getting out into the forest is always an adventure. When I was a little filly like you, I used to pretend I was a magical fairy princess, and I was gathering twigs to make magic potions.” Twilight Velvet smiled as she downed the last of her oatmeal and quickly carried her bowl to the sink. “C’mon! Let’s get going!”
“Yay,” Cozy Glow muttered to herself as Twilight Velvet bustled around the cabin, “can’t wait.”
Cozy Glow dragged out her oatmeal as long as she could, but eventually she found herself in the forest, plodding along behind Twilight Velvet.
Cozy could admit that the forest was objectively beautiful. Dense, old growth trees surrounded the little cabin, with their thick trunks, the mossy bark, the little saplings springing up underhoof. The dappled sunlight cut through the canopy in glowing shafts, and they were surrounded by birds calling and the smell of fresh sod and green things growing.
It annoyed her that her prison was so beautiful.
It was only a few minutes of walking before their view of the cabin vanished, and she was forced to stay close to Twilight Velvet for safety. It didn’t even matter if she flew away; she’d have to go miles and miles until she saw somepony else, as Twilight Velvet had told her the first day. And who would be looking for her, anyway? Certainly nopony with good intentions.
No, it looked like Cozy Glow was stuck in a stupid forest, with stupid Twilight Velvet, for as long as Twilight Velvet wanted. Just like every other dumb-dumb adult in her life, Twilight Velvet had her own unknowable purposes for Cozy’s life, and Cozy just had to dance along like a stupid little puppet until Twilight Senior got tired of her.
Even though she was just thinking about calling Twilight Velvet dumb and stupid, it still made Cozy Glow’s stomach tie in knots. That must have been the power of her mind magic; it made her remember how Twilight Velvet had looked so sad when she talked about how it hurt her feelings to be called a dumb-dumb. That was the only thing that made sense, it being magic. Maybe it was also the magic that made her heart do that jumpy thing in her chest when she remembered the part about turning to stone, which it was kind of doing just then, remembering it again, but she hadn’t even meant to think about -
“Cozy?”
Cozy Glow flinched before she could stop it. “Huh?”
“I said, if you see any nice twigs as we walk, you can stop and grab them.” Twilight Velvet paused to look back at her. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course everything’s okay, I’m just falling asleep with how boring this forest is,” Cozy Glow snapped, and the lying felt familiar at least.
Twilight Velvet frowned at her for a moment, then turned away to continue walking down the path. “Well, I hope you’ll give it a chance. Walking in nature helps a lot of ponies feel good. It can help you relax, or give you time to think.”
“Okay,” Cozy Glow muttered obediently, even as her stomach gave a lurch. It was probably the mind magic again, she reasoned, making her stomach hurt when she made Twilight Velvet feel bad. Twilight Velvet was her foalnapper! Even if she made her waffles, and asked her how she was feeling, and kissed her forehead, and told her she would keep her safe. The foalnapping outweighed those things, she reminded herself firmly.
“That’s a good twig, I think we should put that into your bag. What do you think?” Twilight Velvet spoke after a few minutes of walking, crouching down to look at a twig beside the little trail they were following.
“I don’t know. If you want to.”
“To be good for a fire, you have to pick tinder - that’s wood - that’s dry and brown. So that means you take the branch, and you give it a little bend,” and Twilight Velvet demonstrated, “and make sure it’s not green inside. Green wood makes smoke, and we don’t want smoke.”
“Okay.”
The gaze Twilight Velvet fixed on Cozy Glow was a little longer that time, but she didn’t press the issue. “This area has a lot of branches, so I think we can find a lot of tinder for the fire. Just pull off any leaves and make sure it’s not green, okay?”
Cozy Glow sighed. “Okay.” Oh goody, chores.
Cozy Glow didn’t like chores at the best of times. But she also didn’t like being alone with her own thoughts as of late, so she tried to focus on the chore. Magical fairy princess nonsense didn’t make any sense to her, but occasionally she found a weird bug to examine, and she enjoyed the way that the leaves crunched under her hooves. She took pleasure in stripping a branch of leaves and crunching them underhoof with a little jump. Gathering branches took time, though, and eventually she had to ask the question that seemed foolishly simple.
“Why don’t you just cut down a tree? Wouldn’t that be way faster? You could do it with your magic in like, thirty seconds.”
Twilight Velvet’s bag was already half-full; Cozy’s wasn’t even close to that. “That’s true. When my dad brought us here, he had us chop wood. But if we keep chopping down trees, eventually we’ll run out of forest, right? So we have to think about the future.”
Cozy could only stare at her. “... you do know where you’re standing, right? There’s like, five gazillion trees around us.”
Twilight Velvet chuckled and tossed another branch into her bag. “That’s true. But if every pony who came here cut down a tree every time they needed a fire -”
“Please tell me you didn’t foalnap me to teach me an ecology lesson.”
Twilight Velvet laughed outright at that. “I didn’t foalnap you, I rescued you. And no, it’s not about ecology. I’m hoping we won’t have to stay here long enough to need a whole tree’s worth of firewood.”
Cozy Glow paused, mid-bend. “Wait, you’re taking us back? Soon?”
“Yes, of course. We can’t just live in the forest forever, can we?” Twilight Velvet lifted her brows. “I mean, do you want that? If you want that -”
“No!” Cozy Glow yelled so sharply that it made Twilight Velvet chuckle, despite herself. “I want to go back and show that Twilight Sparkle what a mistake she made, trying to -”
“We can’t go back for you to attack Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight Velvet frowned, interrupting her.
“Why not? Because she’s your dumb kid?” Cozy Glow snarled, pulverizing a branch in her hooves.
“No, because violence isn’t the answer.”
“Violence is always an answer, if you’re brave enough to use it,” Cozy Glow snapped, scowling at Twilight Velvet.
“Is it? You’re talking about this as if you’re a grizzled axe-yak from the northern lands; you’re only a little filly, Cozy Glow. What do you need to know about solving problems with violence?”
“I may be a filly, but I have plans, Twilight Velvet. Plans about taking over Equestria and fixing all of the problems that magic has caused!”
“What kind of problems has magic caused for you?”
“All kinds of problems! Problems where ponies think that if you don’t have magic, you don’t get to have opinions, for starters! Namby-pamby princesses who think that problems can be solved with friendship, but when that inevitably fails, they blast anything that moves with their horns!”
“I don’t think that’s -”
“You had to save me from your brat turning me to stone, didn’t you?!”
Twilight Velvet went very still.
“Don’t have a smart comeback to that one, do you Velvet?” Cozy Glow spat, enraged. Her wings hummed as she took off, then hovered in place a few feet above the ground. She couldn’t fly away; she didn’t know where to go. And if she lost sight of Twilight Velvet, she’d never find her way back to the cabin. But she was angry! She couldn’t just stand there!
Cozy Glow whinnied out an enraged, wordless howl.
“I see you’re angry, Cozy Glow.”
“Don’t you cast your mind-magic on me, you - you - meddling unicorn!” Cozy Glow snarled.
“No magic, I promise. See?” Twilight Velvet pointed to her horn which wasn’t glowing, Cozy Glow noted with great annoyance. But she was using the same voice she used before, which made Cozy Glow instantly angrier. It was so darn calming, and so gentle, like a know it all! “I won’t cast magic on you, Cozy Glow.”
“I don’t trust you!”
“I know you don’t. And that’s okay,” Twilight Velvet spoke softly, and slid her bag of branches off of her shoulders. “It’s okay to be angry. I get angry too sometimes. Do you think you might feel better if you used the angry energy to buck a tree?”
Cozy Glow considered her warily. A trap?
“I think this tree is a good one to buck. I don’t see any birds in it, or any animals.” Twilight Velvet had circled one of the trees near them, looking it up and down. “I think it might make you feel good to get some of those angry feelings out.”
Cozy Glow fluttered over to the tree and made her own examination. No beehives, which was her immediate fear, and also no fire ants, angry owls, or smelly skunks hiding in the trunk. It didn’t look like a trap, but maybe it was just intended to make her look stupid. Still, to satisfy her own curiosity, she turned her back to it, and gave it a solid kick with her back hooves.
The first resounding thunk was almost magical. She planted her front hooves more firmly, and gave it a second kick, expecting some kind of trap to spring forth. But when nothing came, she gave it a third kick, then a fourth. Just testing it to be sure. But by the one hundred and twelfth kick when she finally dropped to her knees with exhaustion, she realized she didn’t feel the same way as when she began. She was still angry, but it felt … different. She felt less like Chrysalis, all screaming and thrashing rage, and more like Grogar’s cool anger.
Grogar had betrayed them. The rage spiked, briefly, but she was too exhausted to do much more than make note of it.
“How do you feel now?”
Cozy Glow was reminded with some annoyance that Twilight Velvet was still there.
“Tired,” Cozy responded instead of the snappish, annoyed answer she wanted to give. And it was true; she wanted to say something crueler, but she was just too worn out.
“You did a lot of kicking. If you had an apple tree, I bet you would have bucked all the apples down,” Twilight Velvet said in that annoying soothing voice again. “I finished gathering the kindling. How about we go home for today?”
“Okay,” Cozy Glow agreed, but when she tried to get up, her legs buckled. She managed to get upright, pointedly ignoring Twilight Velvet’s concerned glance, and picked up her bag of twigs before taking off down the path. “This way, right?”
“That’s right,” Twilight Velvet agreed, and fell into step beside her.
But Cozy Glow’s hubris couldn’t keep her going for long. The screaming pain in her legs became too much to bear, and her pace quickly slowed, then stopped, shaking even with the effort of standing.
“Cozy Glow?”
“I’m fine,” Cozy Glow snapped, her ears flat to her curly mane, her eyes locked on the ground.
“That’s good,” Twilight Velvet said agreeably, and stood beside her for a moment. “Should I keep walking, then?”
“Probably. I’ll catch up when I feel like it,” Cozy huffed.
“Okay, sounds good,” and off went Twilight Velvet, walking away.
Cozy Glow watched her leave, a little dumbfounded. She was just - gone! Like that! Abandoning her in the forest, all alone! Still, once she was gone, Cozy Glow felt safe in collapsing to the ground, revealing her weakness. Dumb Twilight Velvet! This was probably her plan all along, tricking her into bucking that tree until her legs gave out, then leaving her out in the middle of the forest! Well, that was fine with Cozy Glow! She liked being alone, anyway. She didn’t want any stupid adults hovering over her, telling her she was too dumb to handle things on her own, talking down to her like she was some sort of -
What was that?
Cozy Glow twisted sharply where she sat in the middle of the path, waiting for it to come again. There! That rustling! That was something big, in the bushes, coming closer!
“Twilight Velvet?” Cozy Glow called, her voice shaking, and she was too frightened to scold herself for revealing her true feelings.
The bear that emerged from the brush was only a few yards away, and when Cozy Glow gasped, it turned to look at her in interest. It considered her for a beat, then took a few slow steps forward.
Cozy Glow scrambled backwards as her weak legs gave out from under her. She wanted to yell at it, to scream ‘go away!’ in her biggest, meanest voice, but all that came out was a panicked sort of whimper. Her heart was beating into her throat, and all she could think about was how much bigger a bear looked when it stood on the path instead of in her picturebook. Bears in books always looked soft and cuddly, but this one had dark eyes, a pit without a bottom, and it felt like it was looking right through her as it advanced.
“Hey, bear,” came a shout, and Cozy Glow twisted to look upright as a pair of silver legs abruptly appeared in front of her. It was hard to see Twilight Velvet as she stepped over her, shielding her with her body, but she would recognize that annoying voice anywhere. Right then, it sounded like the voice of an angel. “Let’s go, bear. Time to go home.”
The bear paused in its advance, and considered Twilight Velvet.
“Hey, bear. Heyyy bear,” Twilight Velvet repeated, and waved her forelegs at it. Not quickly, not threatening; almost like a lazy windmill. If she was threatening it, she wasn’t doing it right! But Cozy Glow couldn’t quite seem to gather the breath necessary to point that out. “Move along, buddy.”
The bear considered Twilight Velvet for a beat longer, then took a step forwards as its eyes shifted back to Cozy Glow.
“Twilight!” Cozy Glow gasped, her heart pounding.
“HEY, BEAR,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was steel now, loud and commanding, and she lowered her hooves and her head, pointing her horn at the advancing ursine. With a noisy crackle, fireworks exploded from her horn, fizzing and snarling with bright, angry flashes of light. “TIME TO GO, BEAR.”
The bear staggered backwards a step, surprised, and grunted out a noise of displeasure. It turned to look at something over Twilight Velvet’s shoulder, and took another step forward.
“Twilight Velvet, run!” Cozy Glow had taken off at a gallop, her legs suddenly filled with a renewed energy.
“Cozy Glow, no!”
Cozy Glow felt something move the air behind her. She turned to look and immediately wished she hadn’t. The arc of the bear’s paw was recoiling as she caught sight of it, but it didn’t matter, because the bear was almost upon her. It ran so much faster than she ever could have imagined! She didn’t even have time to cry for help as the next paw swiped for her, and she knew that within moments she would be grabbed up. Unable even to scream, she watched as the bear’s mouth opened in anticipation of catching a tasty bite -
But Cozy Glow was gone, suddenly enveloped in the glow of Twilight Velvet’s magic as she launched into the air, thrown haphazardly into a nearby tree. She landed on a heavy branch and scrabbled over to the trunk, shaking as she tried to catch sight of the bear again.
The bear’s roar was loud, so much louder than she would have ever imagined from reading about it in books, and it was angry. Her eyes found the bear first, massive where it stood on the path, and then Twilight Velvet when a bolt of magic hit it solidly in the shoulder.
“ALRIGHT, BEAR. GO HOME, BEAR,” she was still calling out to it, loud and firm, and when it rose onto two feet, she hit it with multiple blasts of her magic. It was strong enough to knock it over onto its side, and the next roar was partially a groan, Cozy Glow thought.
The bear looked up at her, up in the tree, and considered its next move. It rolled onto all fours, and began trotting towards the tree. Cozy Glow’s blood froze in her veins.
“Twilight Velvet!” Cozy Glow tried to call out like she had, loud and firm; what came out instead was a panicked scream.
“BEAR!” Twilight Velvet’s call this time wasn’t calm at all; it was angry. When the magic lanced towards the bear this time, an arc of blood splattered the trunk of the tree, and the bear whipped around to look at the unicorn. “I told you to go home.”
Cozy Glow had been very afraid of the bear; she wondered now if she should have been more afraid of Twilight Velvet instead.
The bear roared out its displeasure at Twilight Velvet and ran towards her; Cozy Glow didn’t even have time to scream out a warning. But Twilight Velvet had braced herself with all four hooves, and shot out three more blasts from her horn. Three more arcs of blood landed on the path, and with a groan of rage and pain, the bear came to a halt, rearing onto its hind legs again. But Twilight Velvet was prepared, and a massive blast from her horn sent the bear sprawling again, this time landing flat on its back. With a groan, the bear rolled onto its side and loped off into the woods, disappearing from sight almost immediately.
The forest was quiet for a few moments, and then Cozy Glow heard a bird call. She hadn’t realized until then how silent the forest had become when the bear arrived.
“Twilight Velvet?” Cozy Glow called cautiously when the unicorn didn’t immediately come towards her.
Twilight Velvet kept her eyes locked on the place the bear had vanished into the undergrowth for a few more minutes, then walked over to the tree. “You okay up there, Cozy Glow?”
“Is the bear gone?”
“Yes, I think so,” Twilight Velvet smiled, but it was wan and her face was pale. “But I think we should go home. You can come down now.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Cozy Glow admitted, her forelegs shaking where she held onto the trunk. “I’m up really high.”
“What about your wings?”
Her wings! Cozy Glow had almost forgotten about those, she should have flown away from the bear! Why didn’t she think of that? She found herself looking at them, as if they might have vanished in fear. They fluttered at her request, just like usual, and with only a slight bobble she was able to flutter down to land beside Twilight Velvet. Not her most graceful landing, but her heart was still racing from the bear. Plus, now that some of the panic was wearing off, her legs felt even more rubbery than they had before.
“I don’t know if I can fly all the way home,” Cozy Glow admitted, gazing up uncertainly at Twilight Velvet. “Are we going to have to stay the night here? With - with the bear?”
“Absolutely not, don’t you worry about that,” Twilight Velvet soothed her, and before Cozy Glow could protest that she was far too mature for it, she bundled up Cozy Glow into her forelegs and placed her on her back. “Here’s your bag, hold onto that, and off we go.”
Cozy Glow had never ridden on another pony’s back before like this, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She was very stiff for the first few moments, bouncing and jostling on Twilight Velvet’s back. She soon figured out that if she leaned forward a bit, she could lay her cheek on her mane and hold onto her neck for stability. It was hard to think about how it felt with the recent memory of the bear keeping her eyes locked on the forest as it went by, but it wasn’t unpleasant at least.
Cozy Glow had nearly melted into Twilight Velvet’s coat by the time they made it back to the cabin. The trip wasn’t very long at all, considering the fact that Twilight Velvet kept up a canter the whole way home. Cozy Glow expected a lecture, or another lesson. Instead, Cozy Glow was placed unceremoniously onto the floor so that Twilight Velvet could trot around the cabin at a rapid pace checking the locks on every door and window. Finally, Twilight Velvet returned to where she’d left Cozy Glow at the front door. Now, at last, came the lecture.
Instead, Twilight Velvet pressed her back against the cabin door, slid to the floor, and pulled Cozy Glow into a tight, tight hug. “Thank the stars.”
Cozy Glow expected to be released after a moment, but Twilight Velvet held onto her for a long time. She brushed her hoof over Cozy Glow’s curls, and let out a long, shaky breath.
“What’s wrong?” Cozy Glow asked finally, waiting for a lecture that never came. She pushed away from Twilight Velvet’s grip so that she could direct her confused frown at the unicorn’s face. She was startled to realize that the familiar know-it-all expression had dropped from Twilight Velvet’s expression, and instead she looked shaky.
“I was so scared, Cozy Glow. Super scared. You were scared too, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was scared! But you’re the grown up, so why were you scared?” Cozy Glow’s frown deepened.
“Grown ups can get scared too, Cozy. We get scared all the time,” Twilight Velvet released some of her nerves in a little laugh, and rubbed one eye with the edge of her hoof. “I think any adult would be scared of a bear, especially up close like that.”
Cozy Glow shivered and pressed back against Twilight Velvet’s chest, despite her ego. Twilight Velvet obliged her by wrapping her up in her forelegs again. “I should have remembered to fly away. I don’t know why I didn’t.”
“It’s hard to remember what to do when you’re scared,” Twilight Velvet comforted her, and stroked her mane again.
“But you remembered what to do! Even though you left me all alone on the path in the first place,” Cozy Glow accused, but softly. She wasn’t in a hurry to annoy her rescuer just yet.
“I wasn’t far. I was watching you through the trees,” Twilight Velvet admitted with a little smile, but Cozy Glow could hear how shaky it was in her words. “I figured you wanted a moment alone before you asked for my help getting home.”
Cozy Glow huffed, but it was a quiet huff. She didn’t need any help getting home! … probably.
“I’ve never seen bears out here before. That’s my fault, I should have taught you about bear safety. The biggest rule is that you never, ever run away from a bear,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was soft as she stroked her mane. “Bears can run much faster than any pony, and running will only make them chase you. You make noise when you walk in the forest, and warn them away with your voice. You make yourself look big and scary if you run across one, and make noise. Most bears will stay away because they’re scared of ponies. I think we surprised him.”
“He was no match for your magic,” Cozy Glow pointed out, and considered that for a moment. Magic was bad, obviously, and usually it seemed like magic was only ever used against her… but this time, she was grateful to have it on her side.
“I said I’d keep you safe, and I meant it. No matter what.” Twilight Velvet agreed softly, and tucked Cozy Glow under her chin, rubbing her back gently. It seemed like Twilight Velvet was calming herself down as much as she was calming Cozy Glow at that moment. “I would have kicked him in the head if I had to, but I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“I thought violence was never the answer,” Cozy Glow reminded her cheekily.
Twilight Velvet sighed, and Cozy Glow felt it ruffle her mane. “It shouldn’t be. But if it is, it won’t be a decision you’ll have to make until you’re a grownup. It’s the grownup’s job to make the hard decisions. Okay, Cozy Glow?”
Cozy Glow frowned, but she gave an obliging little nod. “I don’t think most grownups are like you, Twilight Velvet.”
Twilight Velvet smiled into Cozy Glow’s mane. “Maybe you just need to give the other grownups a chance.”
Cozy Glow scowled, and buried her face in Twilight Velvet’s neck. “I’m done giving them chances.”
Twilight Velvet didn’t have an answer ready for that, and so she simply held her close, and stroked her back until they both felt safe again.
The clatter of keys on the tiled counter announced Bright Breeze’s return.
She was going through her mail when Cozy Glow galloped through the doorway into the kitchen, and quickly came to a halt when Bright Breeze’s sharp glance landed on her.
“Welcome home, Bright Breeze!” Cozy Glow announced loudly, and flinched when Bright Breeze’s eyes narrowed.
“You don’t have to scream, you’re not a baby,” Bright Breeze growled, and tossed an unopened letter into the trash. “What have you been up to today?”
“Well,” Cozy Glow began, much softer the second time, “today there is not much to report! The neighbor watered from ten to ten fifteen, and I stayed away from any windows to avoid detection, just like you said.”
“Mm-hmm,” Bright Breeze agreed absently, reading one of her letters.
“Then the mailman came by at eleven, and I stayed inside so he wouldn’t see me,” Cozy Glow continued, her eyes following Bright Breeze around the kitchen. As she read the letter, a glow surrounded Bright Breeze’s horn, and her magic pulled out jars of peanut butter and jelly from the fridge. When Cozy Glow went quiet, Bright Breeze lifted her eyes to look at her.
“And?”
“Peanut butter and jelly again? But we just had that yesterd-”
“Quit the whining. Unless you don’t want lunch?”
Cozy Glow snapped her mouth shut. “I want lunch,” she said quickly.
“I thought so. Did you study?”
Cozy Glow sighed, and watched the floating jelly as Bright Breeze magicked it open. “Yes, Mo - ma’am.”
Bright Breeze’s eyes practically glowed where they landed on Cozy Glow. She stared at her for a beat longer, then returned to her letter reading and sandwich-making, concurrently. “How many chapters?”
“I read one chapter in Friendly Ponies Go Far but -”
“Only one? I swear, I might as well send you to some empty-brained preschool if I wanted you to waste your day doing nothing. What did you do instead, play with blocks? Draw a pichur?” Bright Breeze was working herself up to a snarl, but Cozy Glow quickly interrupted her.
“No, no, I did some other research!” Cozy Glow darted into the other room and returned dragging a book almost as big as she was. “The History Of Might And Magic, I ordered it from the library! I called and asked the librarian -”
“Didn’t I tell you that the whole point is that nopony is supposed to know you’re here?” Bright Breeze growled properly this time, and she dropped the jam jar with a clatter, making Cozy Glow jump.
“Y-yes, I know, I told her my Mommy,” and here Cozy Glow flinched at the way Bright Breeze rounded on her, “my Mommy was just in the other room! I told her to deliver the book - the librarian said this was a book on the history of alicorns! I said Mommy because - because other little ponies would say that!”
Bright Breeze paused and considered Cozy Glow where she loomed over her. “That was clever of you, Cozy Glow,” Bright Breeze said after a beat, and reached down to scruff her mane, just rough enough to make Cozy Glow lose her balance. “But you should have told me first.”
“I w-wanted to surprise you,” Cozy Glow murmured, gazing up at her mother from under her ruffled curls.
“I’m not surprised yet,” Bright Breeze retorted, and her horn glowed again, lifting the bread and the knife once more. “What did you find in the book?”
“Well - that alicorns can be created from magic, and sometimes when a unicorn and a pegasus have a baby -”
Bright Breeze’s huff was sharp, and Cozy Glow flinched. “Yeah, we tried that already.” Her eyes jumped to a framed photo of herself on the wall, cropped awkwardly.
“O-oh. Well, it says - it says there’s more ways, but I didn’t get through the rest of the book yet,” Cozy Glow admitted softly, and hesitated, gazing up at Bright Breeze expectantly.
Bright Breeze finished looking through her mail. Then she finished two sandwiches, and plated them. Finally, she addressed Cozy Glow again. “Alright. Word sheet?”
Cozy Glow produced the sheet she had been holding behind her back eagerly, rising on her tippy-hooves to place it on the tiled bar. While Bright Breeze looked over the sheet of carefully written words, Cozy Glow clambered up onto a too-tall bar stool.
“This one is ‘regurgitate.’ That means to vomit. ‘Recalibrate’. ‘Foreign.’ ‘Minotaur.’” With a flash of magic, Bright Breeze added the meanings of the words on the paper. “Good list, I don’t see any repeats.”
“I double checked, just like you said,” Cozy Glow agreed, and waited for Bright Breeze to sit down. But the unicorn remained standing, and took a bite of her sandwich as she grabbed her keys in the grip of her magic.
“Good. I have to eat this at the office, today’s been crazy. Applethorpe is late getting his reports out, typical. I’ll be late coming home tonight, so don’t wait up for me, put yourself to bed at seven like usual. Keep the lights off, you know what to do.”
“But what about dinner?”
“You’re little, you won’t even be hungry until after you’re asleep,” Bright Breeze was halfway out the door already. “Remember: no lights after sundown.”
“Yes, Bright Breeze,” Cozy Glow agreed, and carefully hid her disappointment. Bright Breeze didn’t appreciate her whining. Bright Breeze closed the door with a snap, but quickly opened it again. Cozy Glow’s heart leapt into her throat.
“Forgot my coat.” And just like that, Bright Breeze was gone.
Cozy Glow sat stock-still at the bar, slowly counting to four; then, in a mad rush, she raced to the front door and pressed her nose to the window. If she went too soon, Bright Breeze would see her and lecture her about the neighbors seeing her. But if she counted to four, she could see Bright Breeze as she walked down the second half of their sidewalk, and watch her until she disappeared around the corner.
“Come back, Mommy, please come back,” Cozy Glow whispered as quietly as she could. She watched her until Bright Breeze turned the corner and vanished from sight, then waited a few beats longer. She always hoped. Eventually, she pulled away from the window and rubbed away her nose print with her elbow. Bright Breeze didn’t like it when she left smudges.
Cozy Glow woke up far earlier than she was supposed to. She knew this because when she woke up, the world was dark.
She stretched her forelegs above her head and rolled over. Something kept niggling in the back of her mind, and she eventually clambered out of her bed.
Twilight Velvet’s bed was empty.
Cozy Glow raced into the main room and ran through the kitchen. It was a tiny space, but she still somehow hoped that Twilight Velvet was hiding somewhere in it. She ran to the window, but all she could see was the dark forest surrounding the cabin.
When Twilight Velvet finally appeared, pushing the front door open with her hip, it felt like Cozy Glow had been waiting hours, not minutes.
“Cozy! What are you doing up?”
“Where did you go?” Cozy Glow demanded, but instead of sounding angry, her voice cracked.
“Oh, Cozy - Cozy, it’s alright, come here,” Twilight Velvet soothed her, and set her bags aside so that she could gather Cozy Glow into a hug. Despite every instinct screaming to stop, Cozy Glow wound herself tightly into Twilight Velvet’s forelegs, shaking. “I didn’t go away, I was right out front. Bubbles brought us more supplies.”
“Who’s Bubbles?” Cozy Glow sniffled, her face in Twilight Velvet’s shoulder.
“She’s a mailmare from Ponyville. She and I became very familiar when I was writing letters to Twilight in Ponyville.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Cozy Glow noted that Twilight Velvet didn’t come from Ponyville.
“I have to get the last bag so Bubbles can go home. Can you wait here for a moment? I’ll just be right out there, you can watch me from the door. Then we can put the food away together.” Twilight Velvet leaned back, and when Cozy Glow pulled away to look up at her, Twilight Velvet brushed away her sleep-mussed curls from her face. “And then we can go back to sleep.”
“Okay,” Cozy Glow whispered, and when Twilight Velvet pulled away to open the door, she gave her nose a surreptitious wipe with her hoof.
When Twilight Velvet opened the door, it wasn’t the mailmare who greeted her. “Hello, Mom.”
The world seemed to slow down as Cozy Glow recognized Twilight Sparkle standing in front of her mother.
“Once I figured out that you’d have to be getting supplies from somewhere, it didn’t take very long to track down your magical signature, Mom.” Twilight Sparkle’s voice was thick with accusation. She took a step forward as if to push into the cabin, but Twilight Velvet’s foreleg darted out to block her.
“That’s as far as you go, sweetheart,” Twilight Velvet’s voice was calm, but firm, and Cozy Glow thought it sounded kind of like when she talked to the bear.
“You have to be joking,” Twilight Sparkle hissed, and her ears flattened in unmasked anger. “You’ve been locked up with her for a week, Mom! You have to know by now how dangerous she is! I’m here to save you!”
“And I appreciate your concern, Twi, but I don’t need to be rescued. She’s only a filly, Twilight, she’s -”
“She’s not a regular filly, Mom! She’s far more dangerous! She almost destroyed the School of Friendship, she tried to take over Ponyville -”
“She succeeded at neither of those things, and you still tried to turn her to stone.”
Twilight Sparkle’s gaze narrowed as she looked at Twilight Velvet more closely. “Has she corrupted your mind, Mom?”
“Corrupted - listen to yourself! She’s a filly. She’s no older than those, what, the Cutie Mark Crusaders you told me about?”
“Cozy Glow is not a charming country bumpkin figuring out what her Cutie Mark will be, she is a dangerous maniac who -”
“ - who isn’t even old enough to go grocery shopping, are you listening to yourself? If she is dangerous, it is only due to the adults around her who have shirked their duties to teach her otherwise!”
“Are you implying that my School of Friendship has created Cozy Glow?”
“I’m saying that you did nothing to prevent those things from happening, then blamed it on the pony who had the least power in the situation!”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyelid twitched, and she took in a very deep, slow breath, purposefully trying to calm herself as she glared at her mother. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“I’d be happy to repeat myself.”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyelid twitched a little harder. “Mom, she is a dangerous criminal, and at the very least she needs to be held accountable for what she did. Running away with her was - it was bad, Mom, but I told everyone that you just got caught up in the moment because you’re such a loving parent. You simply didn’t realize how bad everything she did was, because she tricked you. So we can go back to Canterlot, put her in the dungeon, figure everything out. Maybe she doesn’t have to be turned to stone, but there has to be some kind of, of, I don’t know. Punishment, Mom.”
“Is the point of the punishment to rehabilitate her, Twi? Or is it to make you feel better that the ‘bad guy’ has been made to suffer? Because I don’t think I agree with the latter, and I think if you thought about it, you wouldn’t either.” Twilight Velvet’s voice softened near the end, and she reached out to touch Twilight Sparkle’s shoulder. “You’re under so much pressure, Twi. You don’t have to be the horn of justice all the time. Sometimes, ponies just need a second chance.”
Twilight Sparkle’s expression softened, although her eyelid still twitched. “I don’t think so, Mom. She’s -”
But Twilight Velvet would never know what Cozy was, because it was at that moment that Cozy Glow beaned Twilight Sparkle from behind with a two-by-four.
“COZY!” Twilight Velvet gasped.
“I know you said that violence is never the answer, but I think we can agree that this was an exception to that rule, right?” Cozy Glow tossed the board aside.
“It most certainly was not!” Twilight Velvet barked, then knelt down to tend to Twilight Sparkle. Sparkle groaned, and her eyelids fluttered. “Twi, sweetie, are you alright?”
“I’m going to turn her to stone, then use her as gravel to pave my garden,” Twilight Sparkle growled, her voice thin and reedy. “Just point me at her.”
Twilight Velvet frowned down at Twilight Sparkle, then frowned up at Cozy Glow, who shrugged. “Cozy Glow, you are grounded.”
“What!”
“Twi, I’m sorry darling. But I can’t let you take us anywhere.” With a swish of her horn and a grunt of effort, a portal opened up in the center of the room; on the other side stood a confused Nurse Redheart and her clinic. “Nurse, we have a patient for you, sorry for the trouble.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Twilight Sparkle growled even as Twilight Velvet lifted her with her magic and gently deposited her into a waiting hospital bed on the other side of the portal.
“I’m sorry, Twi. I hope you’ll forgive me,” and as Twilight Sparkle began yelling, Twilight Velvet abruptly closed the portal.
The room was quiet for a moment. Cozy Glow felt pressed to break the silence.
“Well, uh, at least being grounded in a log cabin won’t be a big cha-”
“You have five minutes to gather anything you want to bring with you.” Twilight Velvet was already moving through the kitchen, throwing items into a bag.
“What? But we just took care of Twilight Sparkle!”
Twilight Velvet fixed her with a long look.
Cozy Glow sighed. “I don’t suppose you have any other heavily isolated family cabins to retreat to, huh?”
“No, but I have a few ideas. Go pack. I’ll pick one by the time you’re done.”
For the next five minutes, the cabin was a glowing dot of light in the forest as the two ponies within hurriedly packed up whatever they could carry. It glowed a little brighter, lit from within by powerful unicorn magic, and then suddenly blinked out entirely.
Twilight Velvet and Cozy Glow were on the run again.
