“Cozy Glow gets some unexpected back-up when dealing with a bully.”
Suggested by Ember Shroud
Cozy Glow gulped as she took another step back. “Look, it’s really nothing special. Just a couple daisy sandwiches. I’m sure whatever you have is better.”
The dark yellow earth pony advanced another step. “It’s not about what the lunch is, pipsqueak. I want it, and that means you give it over.”
The pale green unicorn to Cozy’s left removed her glasses and cleaned them on her coat. “I’d do what she says, new girl. Mustard Seed’s been known to leave little fillies like you smeared in the dirt.”
Cozy Glow grimaced. She’d felt this confrontation coming all day, ever since Mustard Seed had laid eyes on her. She knew her type. She’d dealt with this kind of thing before. Just because some fillies happened to be a little taller than others, they thought they could throw their weight around. Because of her small size and innocent appearance, Cozy always looked like an easy mark.
In the past, this assumption of weakness had been easily rectified. What Cozy lacked in stature, she made up for deviousness. How many would-be bullies had found themselves suspended from school on trumped up charges? How many had suddenly found themselves facing the wrath of their parents after a sudden and unexpected raucous house party?
But that was the old Cozy Glow. New Cozy Glow couldn’t do things like that. She, like her parents, had been reformed, and that meant finding non-evil solutions to every day issues.
Still, a little evil would have been quite useful against the glaring filly that now loomed over her.
Cozy Glow sighed and handed over the bag. This wasn’t worth the fight. Besides, Chrysalis’ cooking was still so subpar, there was a very good chance that the daisies in her sandwiches would still contain dirt from the garden from which they’d been plucked. “Is that it? Can I go now?”
“What? Don’t you wanna watch me eat your lunch?”
“…Not really?”
“Tough.” Mustard Seed chuckled as she went to open the bag. She paused, the laughed again. “Y’know, on second thought, I already ate today.” And, to Cozy Glow’s surprise, she went to hand the bag back.
Before she realized the trap she’d fallen into, the bag was already on the ground. “Wait…”
Mustard Seed brought her hoof down on the bag in one smooth motion, grinding her hoof into the paper and obliterating the contents.
The green unicorn clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Don’t feel bad. We’ve all fallen for that one.”
Cozy sighed and turned to leave. Maybe if she ran, she could get home for something small before lunch was…
“Where do ya think you’re going, pipsqueak?” Mustard Seed growled as she moved to block her path.
Cozy Glow rolled her eyes and pointed at the remains of the bag. “You crushed my lunch. I’m going to grab something else.”
“Why?” Mustard Seed raised her hoof and shook the debris free in front of its original owner. “You’ve still got your lunch right here.”
“I…”
“Eat it.”
Cozy Glow blinked. “…what?”
“I said…” Mustard Seed raised herself to her full height and looked down on the filly. “Eat it.”
Cozy Glow bit the inside of her lip. “…Or what?”
The green unicorn took a step back. “Be smart, new girl.”
“Eat it, or you’ll be eating dirt.”
Cozy Glow had gone toe to toe with the most powerful magic users in Equestria. She’d been transformed into an alicorn. She’d literally wielded the power of a god. And now this simple little pony was threatening her? Cozy Glow’s red eye twitched. Reformation be damned, this filly was asking for it. “You’re gonna make me eat dirt?”
“That’s right.” Mustard Seed raised a hoof to strike. “And after that, you’ll be eatin’ through a straw.”
A familiar smirk twitched at the edges of Cozy Glow’s lips. She wanted this filly to swing. She wanted an excuse, any excuse, to show her just who she was dealing with. She forced away the smirk and put on her best fake pout. “Golly, please don’t beat me up! I’m so small and helpless!”
Mustard Seed grinned triumphantly. “Are ya gonna eat it then?”
The pout vanished like smoke. A look of smugness took its place. “Nope.”
The green unicorn’s jaw dropped. “New girl, you’ve got salt.”
Mustard Seed snorted. She drew back her hoof…
“Cozy Glow! Is that filly messin’ with you?” Three heads turned at the sound of a rough Manehatten accent. They watched as a teen mare with a jet black coat floating down from above, her pink and silver accented mane done up in a very expensive haircut. She popped her gum as she landed, sizing up the situation. “Everything okay here, cuz?”
“Cuz?” Cozy Glow cocked her head in confusion. “Who are…?”
The young mare looked back at Cozy Glow and winked… revealing a familiar flash of emerald green.
“Uh… yeah. Everything’s fine, cousin…” Cozy spared a glance at the teen’s flank to check her cutie mark. “Ampersand?”
“Hey, don’t be usin’ my full name like that. You call me Amp, like all my other fans.”
“Fans?” The green unicorn peered at the new arrival over her glasses. “Are you famous?”
“Not yet, but I’m gonna be. When my band takes off, everypony’s gonna know the name Amp… and her cousin Cozy Glow of course.” She rounded on Mustard Seed and loomed over her. “Do you have any idea who you were pickin’ on just now?”
Mustard Seed lowered her hoof and looked away pointedly. “I wasn’t pickin’ on nobody.”
“Good. Because it’d be really bad if you were pickin’ on this one here.” Amp wrapped Cozy Glow in a hug and noogied her mane. “Cozy Glow was the coolest girl in her class back in Manehatten. Toughest, too. One time, a manticore attacked the school and it was my cuz here who sent it packin.’”
“Wow.” The green unicorn whispered.
“A manticore, huh?” Mustard Seed sniffed and shuffled her hooves. “That’s pretty cool, I guess.”
Amp let Cozy Glow down and looked at the smashed bag of food. “What happened here?”
“I offered to share my lunch with Mustard Seed and it fell.” Cozy Glow answered rapidly. “Then it got stepped on. No big deal.” She looked at Mustard Seed and lifted her brows. “Right?”
“Yeah. No big deal.” Mustard Seed nodded.
“Alright. Well if you three are good then I’ve gotta bounce. It was nice helpin’ you and your folks settle in, but I’ve gotta get back to the city.” She spread her wings and looked around. “Nice meeting you, Mustard Seed. And you…” She stared at the green unicorn. “Uh…”
“Lily Vine.” She answered quickly.
“Lily Vine. Nice meetin’ you.” She flapped her wings and lifted off.
“Hey, Amp; can I talk with you real quick?” Cozy Glow flapped her own wings and followed. When they were safely a few dozen feet up, Cozy Glow gave her ‘cousin’ a quick hug. “Thanks for that, mama.”
“You’re just lucky I realized that I forgot to wash those daisies before I made your lunch.” Chrysalis said in her usual voice, the vibrating tones clashing with her disguised appearance. “Speaking of…” Her currently invisible horn flashed and a small sack of bits appeared in Cozy’s outstretched hoof. “I was going to tell you to not spend all that, but…” She spared a quick glance down. “Maybe you should buy something to share with your new friends.”
“Friends?” Cozy looked down to see that Mustard Seed and Lily Vine were chatting animatedly and looking up at the floating pair.
“You just got a coolness endorsement from a band-leading Manehatten teenager. That’s all a pony like Mustard Seed needs to know that you’re alright.” She smiled. “And from what I saw, that Lily Vine was already impressed with how well you stood your ground.”
Cozy Glow looked away. “I… I almost…”
“I know.” Chrysalis reached out and turned Cozy Glow’s face back to hers. “But you didn’t. And that’s what matters.”
The two ponies hugged, and ‘Amp’ flew away with a wave. Cozy Glow watched her leave, then floated back down to the other two fillies.
“Wow, new girl.” Lily Vine looked in the direction the other mare had flown. “Your cousin is pretty cool.”
“Yeah.” Cozy Glow smiled. “She is. And my name is Cozy.” She turned to Mustard Seed and reached out a hoof. “Cozy Glow.”
Mustard Seed hesitated… then extended her own hoof and bumped it with the pink one. “Lily’s right. You’ve got some salt.”
“It runs in the family.” She jangled the bag of bits. “You girls want to get a milkshake after school?”
A chorus of affirmation followed, and the three new friends headed back into the schoolhouse for the second half of the day.
I kid you not, I was JUST re-reading a few chapters a few minutes ago, I come back and there a new chapter!!
I love this series so much. Chrysalis utilizing her Changeling abilities, always fun 👌🏼
She made bullies her friends. That’s somewhat fitting. The bit of how Cozy handled power of literal gods only to end up threaten by a child, I don’t know why that got me
I read the upcoming planned chapters for this series and I can’t wait to read them all!
And then, after everyone forgot about the lunch incident, Chrysalis broke into Mustard’s home and framed her for the murder of Any Body, the business mogul, by planting a revolver and some dirt from the victims conservatory.
Now that you have the biggest filly in school as your friend, Cozy, you can take it over! Turn it into your plaything!
Wait, no, that’d be bad. So what the heck are you supposed to do with this advantage?
Being good is hard...
I have loved this story for a long time you deserve that feature !
She called her Mama! :D
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The simple fact is that life gives us reasons to be bad.
The fact that Cozy found herself tempted to do evil again makes her so much more interesting.
Considering Chrysalis' cooking skills, she's likely going to end up doing so regardless.
More than you'll ever know.
Leave it to mama-Chrissy to save the day.
Apparently news of current events in Equestria takes some time to filter all the way down to schoolyard levels in foreign territories. Cozy Glow has whole truckloads of salt!
It's always fun reading this story, and seeing how our favorite former villains are getting along.
If you're in the market for interesting prompts/suggestions, I have one. Cozy Glow meets a filly who's more than a match for her when she was a villain, leading to a cat fight between their respective mothers.
Nice
New chapter!
You know what? I'm not even surprised that Cozy Glow would become best friends with the local bullies. She still has that hint of bad left in her, just like her parents. I mean she invited her birth parents to her graduation specifically so her adopted parents could thrash them. I'd bet five bits that Chrysalis has them cocooned in the basement or in a closet at home.
Nice of Chrysalis to use her shapeshifting to help Cozy out like that. Pfft, either way dirt was going to be eaten regardless the sandwich was squished or not.
So this is how Cozy Glow became friends with Mustard Seed and Lily Vine, quite interesting.
Clever way for Chrysalis to save Cozy from bullies and an even more cleaver way to get new friends. Love it!
Could we see a parent teacher conference? Or maybe some type of sport with Tirek having a daughter measuring contest with another dad.
Yes, yeeeesss, amass future minions~
It’s not evil if it is to smite evil, then it’s justice, a little deviousness will help so much. Do it Cozy, be a hero.
Nice
Hey, so that's how she met those two. Figures she would befriend other fillies that held power amongst the student body.
Based on the wording, I didn't see Lily Vine being another bully, though. She just sounded like an innocent bystander trying to give Cozy the 'Don't be a hero' guidance. I figured her and Mustard Seed got to talking animatedly because they agreed Cozy had salt and kinda bonded over that, making them a trio. Did I misunderstand?
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No misunderstanding. Nail on the head.
Yah! You really don't want daddy coming to school for a talk
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"In order to destroy the man who deserved destruction, I required human tools. I chose those who were governed by greed and fear and when I had used them, I destroyed them.
That too, was justice"
~ The Black Master, The Shadow
Is that "my milk shake brings all the boys to the yard" reference? Noice.