private Manipulation and Reformation (1x1 with PawelS)

[Cozy Glow]

Cozy Glow looked at the ponies gathered by the table. There were the princesses, and her teachers from the School of Friendship. They looked almost the same as she remembered them, except a little older. She decided that remaining silent could be seen as suspicious, so after introducing herself (as Red Rook, of course), she turned to Pinkie Pie, which seemed the 'safest' one to talk to, because, knowing her, she would probably do most of the talking herself.

"H-hey Pinkie Pie, I'm your big fan! So... what fun things have you done lately?" Cozy asked, still trying to sound a bit shy and uncertain.

Edited September 24, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

Everypony else stopped their conversations to listen to Red Rook introduce herself. They all nodded and introduced themselves to Red Rook simultaneously before turning back to their own conversations. However, some of them occasionally glanced over at Red Rook when they thought she wasn't looking. 

"Oh, it's so nice to meet you! Wait, a minute, I've meet you before! Because normally I get this twitchy feeling when I meet a new pony, but I don't have a twitchy feeling, so we must have meet before. However, I don't remember anypony named Red Rook and believe me, I remember everypony I meet, which is strange..." Pinkie Pie rambled. 

Twilight, who had been observing Red Rook very carefully the whole time suddenly gasped and Flurry Heart laughed nervously while glancing around to see if anypony else was suspecting that Red Rook isn't the pony she was pretending to be. If they were, they didn't seem to show it though. Fortunately, just at that moment, several waiters and a chef came in with a mountain of pancakes, a large bowl of berries, a pitcher of maple syrup, and two pitchers of milk. "Breakfast is served!" the chef announced.

Flurry Heart noticed that despite everypony being served pancakes, each pony had different toppings that matched their tastes. For example, Princess Celestia's was covered in cake frosting, making the pancakes more like a very flat cake, while Rarity had vanilla bean on hers, Rainbow Dash had rainbow whipped cream, Applejack had apples, and Pinkie Pie had everything sweet from cotton candy to chocolate and syrup.

"Anyways, what have I been up to? Well I made all these pancakes just the way everypony likes them, I participated in some baking competitions in Ponyville, Oh, and business at Sugarcube Corner is booming after a food critic officially said that she recommended that place. And the thing is, food critics don't usually recommend bakeries in towns. They usually only recommend things from large cities, so that was interesting. What else? I have been dating Cheese Sandwich and for one date, we pranked Rainbow Dash for a whole day. That was fun... Don't tell Rainbow Dash that though!" Pinkie Pie rambled while eating her pancakes.

"What!?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking up from her pancakes in confusion.

"Nothing!" Pinkie Pie replied, to which Rainbow Dash shrugged it off and went back to her pancakes. "Anyways, It's mostly just a lot of baking and throwing parties and teaching students about friendship and spreading friendship and harmony wherever I go. You know, the usual."

[Cozy Glow]

Cozy Glow noticed the unusual glances of some of the attendees, and was unsure what they meant. Did they recognize her? Hiding her cutie mark somehow would be a safer solution, but Flurry Heart didn't want to do it, so Cozy had no other option in this regard. But at least they didn't call the guards or turn her back to stone immediately, so perhaps it was something different that caught their attention. Anyway, she decided to continue her conversation with Pinkie Pie.

"I met you once at a big party you organized, I didn't tell you my name though." Cozy wasn't sure if it was a good enough explanation, so she quickly changed the subject. "So you have a boyfriend? What's he like?" She asked casually, with less shyness this time, as she pretended to get more accustomed to being among the most important ponies in Equestria.

[Flurry Heart]

"Um, you do realize that you are supposed to serve yourself some pancakes, right?" Flurry Heart asked as she levitated over a plate of pancakes over to Cozy Glow. Flurry didn't put any toppings on it though, giving Cozy Glow the option to choose what she wanted. 

"Hold the pancakes!" Pinkie Pie burst out, holding up a hoof to prevent Flurry Heart from setting the plate of pancakes in front of Red Rook. "Which party? When and where was it?" Pinkie Pie demanded. She extended her neck to glare directly into Red Rook's eyes.

"Pinkie, I get that this is just supposed to be a casual breakfast with the princesses, but you are acting extremely uncouth!" Rarity said.

"I'm telling you, Red Rook is the imposter and we need to vote her out. Just look at how sus she's acting. And I ask all the ponies that attend their names at my parties. She's sus!" Pinkie Pie shouted. She pointed a hoof at her eyes, then at Red Rook's. This got a laugh out of the other four princesses, but they quickly tried to stifle it. Flurry Heart noticed though.

Oh dear. Pinkie Pie knows... Twilight probably has figured it out too, and once Pinkie Pie spills it to everypony else, it will all be over... Flurry Heart thought. She wanted to bury herself in her pancakes.

"Stop! Just stop!" Rarity said. "Look, you're embarrassing Flurry Heart! She's probably regretting showing you her friend because of the way you're acting. Flurry Heart probably just became friends with somepony that only introduced themselves to you just once," Rarity said, intervening between Pinkie Pie and Red Rook.

"Oh," Pinkie Pie replied. She backed down and returned to a more friendly smile. "Anyways, Cheese Sandwich is also a party planner and he also loves pranking! He's loads of fun to be around and he does the silliest things! Like one time, he went around..."

Flurry Heart didn't know if she should be relived that Pinkie Pie changed her demeanor so quickly.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Cozy Glow]

Cozy Glow didn't expect Pinkie Pie to be so inquisitive. Continuing to answer her questions would probably lead to exposing Cozy as a liar, so she was glad the subject got dropped due to Rarity's intervention. Still, it seemed like at least some of the participants knew who she was, or had some suspicions. This wasn't good, but at least Cozy was still free from her stone prison.

"Sounds like you and Cheese are made for each other, I'm happy for you!" Cozy ended the conversation with Pinkie Pie and, acting as a humble filly, she started eating the pancakes without any toppings on them. Preoccupied with eating, she didn't start any new conversation, and waited for somepony else to bring up a subject.

Edited September 25, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

There wasn't exactly a single conversation happening between all the members of the table, rather a bunch of different conversations between a few of the members. members would jump around conversations depending on what was mentioned. During this whole time, Pinkie Pie was glaring at Cozy Glow while eating her pancakes.

"...Really? You never noticed that I used accelero and other speed spells for my princess duties? I learned those spells a decade and a half ago when you two said you were going to retire. I use these spells to finish everything I need to do by 3pm to go golfing with friends..." Princess Twilight explained to Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. 

"...So yeah, being a friendship ambassador is pretty hard. Like when the diamond dogs wanted to learn about friendship and join the friendship school. However, despite the fact that they had some flawed beliefs in friendship, we were able to teach them how friendship is supposed to work..." Spike explained to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor.

"...Anyways, this is my research project on the relationship between magic and sugar. You see, one of the sources of a pony's magic is the sugar they eat. However, it isn't very well known how exactly that sugar gets turned into magical energy. At least, until now..." Flurry Heart explained to the other Princesses.

"...Funny thing, Spitfire wants to incorporate the sonic rainboom into their Wonderbolts routine, which is like, cool and all, but..."

"...The other day, I helped the student six throw an end of year party for the school of friendship and it was wild! Did I tell you what happened there? No? Well the first crazy thing that happened was..."

"...Yeah I don't know how I manage three boutiques. And for some reason, these style of dresses are all the rage right now in Canterlot..."

"Hey Red Rook, tell me, how did you meet Flurry Heat?" Twilight suddenly asked Cozy Glow.

[Cozy Glow]

Do I have to constantly explain who I am and why I'm here? If they catch me lying, it will not end well...

When Twilight asked her a question, Cozy Glow stopped eating pancakes and answered: "Flurry Heart contacted me about participating in a friendship program, and me and my parents agreed. I arrived in Canterlot by train last night, and we had a sleepover in Flurry's bedroom." She looked expectantly at Flurry Heart, hoping she would help her explain what that program was about, and why she choose Red Rook to participate in it.

Edited September 25, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

"Yeah to add onto that, here's the agreement for the friendship program," Flurry Heart added on, levitating over the friendship program contract that they all signed. Twilight grabbed it with her magic before duplicating it and annotating her own copy while levitating the original copy back to Flurry Heart. Flurry Heart took her paper back while watching Twilight carefully.

"You see, you, the other princesses and Shining Armor decided that it would be best for me to study friendship and magic here in Canterlot because Canterlot has more extensive research on magic and because there are more cultures here compared to the Crystal Empire. And you talk a lot about how important it is to have a diverse group of friends like you and the rest of the mane six, except the problem is that all my current friends are also the Canterlot elite, so I thought this would be a great way to have friends that aren't the same as me," Flurry Heart said. She could feel the sweat on her forehead as she hoped that Twilight would buy what she said.

"Ahy yes, thanks for confirming," Twilight said. She rolled up the paper she was annotating before Flurry Heart got a good look at it and winked at Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Flurry Heart asked, whispering to Cozy Glow.

[Cozy Glow]

"We'll talk later", Cozy Glow whispered back. This was not a topic to be discussed at breakfast, better do it when they are alone.

Cozy continued the small talk at the table. This time, she turned to Spike, and wanted to know more about teaching friendship to the Diamond Dogs.

[Flurry Heart]

"Well you see, the Diamond Dogs had a way of manipulating others for what they wanted. For them, they wanted gems and they forced others to get what they wanted. Oh, I know! I don't think you were alive back then, but surely you have heard of infamous psychopathic villain Cozy Glow? She lied and mislead others and basically used them in whichever way she wanted in order to get power without any consideration for how she made others feel. The Diamond Dogs were pretty similar in this regards in that they didn't really care about how they treated others, but after attending the school of friendship, they learned about the importance of being considerate to others and thinking about how they would feel in certain situations. I just wished Cozy Glow understood this as well, but everypony told me that she was psychopathic so she was a lost cause. But there's no point in feeling too bad for her. At least the diamond dogs are doing well..." Spike said, oblivious to the fact that he was talking about the pony he was talking to.

Flurry Heart avoided making eye contact with anypony in order to try and hid the blush that was appearing on her face. It seemed like Twilight was avoiding eye contact too for some reason.

[Cozy Glow]

Cozy Glow tried not to show any reaction to mentioning her by Spike, and asked him more questions.

"So, what other kinds of creatures are in the school of friendship? Do you have Kirins, Zebras, Bat Ponies, or Crystal Ponies? I love Crystal Ponies, they are so sparkly!"

She finished eating her pancakes, and wondered how long the breakfast would last.

Edited September 27, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

“Erm, yeah. Those four species attend the school of friendship too,” Spike explained. 

By then, everypony else had finished their breakfast too and most ponies were already getting up to go. Flurry Heart walked out with Cozy Glow. When she was sure nopony else was nearby, she whispered to Cozy Glow.  “So what do you want to do now? And why was Twilight winking at us earlier?” Flurry Heart asked. 

[Cozy Glow]

"I think Twilight knows who I am," Cozy Glow explained, "and Pinkie Pie also seems to know, although due to her usual antics she's harder to read. It's possible they will tell the others, so my presence in Canterlot will be known, at least to the ones who were at the breakfast. I suppose Twilight decided that she will not intervene, and just let you try to reform me. But knowing her, she will also watch me very closely, which gives me less freedom than I hoped for. Anyway, I don't think we have any other choice than to play along and go with our original plan. Unless you want to talk to Twilight about this openly, which I don't recommend."

After explaining her view of the situation to Flurry Heart, Cozy Glow went to more mundane matters. "So, what's next in your schedule for the day? Some lessons, I suppose?"

[Flurry Heart]

“Yeah now that I think about it, that would explain the winking. Twilight definitely knows who you are. However, that proves that Twilight isn’t as mean or evil or whatever else is your reason for hating her if she’s willing to give you another chance. Why do you hate her anyways?” Flurry Heart asked.

”I suspect that Pinkie Pie knows you aren’t who you claim you are, but I’m not sure if she knows you’re Cozy Glow. That could just be all she knows and she’s trying to get you to reveal yourself, or she knows you’re Cozy Glow but she needs more proof for the others to believe her. That’s the nice thing about being a cute princess: everypony else believes me even though I never claimed I’m the element of honesty,” Flurry Heart joked.

”Anyways, I did say that my friendship lessons are a bit... unconventional. So there isn’t exactly any structured lessons today. I usually wander around Canterlot with my friends, but if here’s something else you want to do we can do that too,” Flurry Heart suggested.

[Cozy Glow]

"Twilight? I wouldn't say I hate her, she was just interfering with my plans, so I took steps to get rid of her," Cozy Glow explained.

She thought about the lesson. "And then you send letters about what you learned to Princess Twilight?" She asked half-jokingly, knowing the story about Twilight and her friends sending letters to Princess Celestia. "Or, since she is here, you can tell her in person... Anyway, wandering around Canterlot sounds good, and I want to meet your friends, so let's do it. Lead the way, princess!"

Edited September 28, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

Flurry Heart shuddered at the thought of Cozy Glow trying to get rid of Twilight Sparkle.

She give Cozy Glow an annoyed look when she joked about the friendship letters. "Anyways, let's go see what my friends are up to," she said as she lead the way out of the castle. "Let's see, I think I can see Zoom Jetstream in her hot air balloon out there. She likes to hot air balloon around Canterlot even though she's from Cloudsdale. If you want adventure, she's the pony for it," Flurry Heart explained, pointing to a hot air balloon in the distance. "Oh, and Twinkle Theory can usually be seen practicing some new magic in the library or trying something new in a lab. What else? Oh yeah, and Paint Splatter is usually doing something paint related. Usually she's painting or she's at the art gallery or museum, although recently, she got into paintball out of all ponies... Hmm, those are the friends that I can think of right now that might be available right now. Who do you want to meet?" Flurry Heart asked as she walked through the busy streets of Canterlot with Red Rook.

[Cozy Glow]

Cozy Glow wondered about the possibilities mentioned by Flurry Heart.

"Hmm, why use a hot air balloon when we can both fly? Well, I guess it's more relaxing this way... I like painting too, like that banner I made when we were learning to work together with Chrysalis and Tirek... But I think discovering new magic is the best option, I always wanted to learn some magic, even though I'm a pegasus, but then I heard that the most powerful magic of all is the magic of friendship, and I focused on it. But learning other kinds of magic interests me too, so let's go to Twinkle Sprinkle... I mean, whatever your friend's name is."

Edited October 1, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

"It's Twinkle Theory, and she should be in the Celestia's school for gifted unicorn's lab right now. Let's go!" Flurry Heart said. She gave Cozy Glow an annoyed glance when she messed up Twinkle's name, but she became cheerful again as she lead the way towards Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Despite not going there, Flurry Heart was able pass the royal guards to enter the school and easily navigate the the hallways to what looked like a university lab. There' a cream colored unicorn mare with a bright curly mane could be seen staring at her flank while jotting down notes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that she was doing research o cutie marks..." Flurry Heart said before opening the door and letting Cozy Glow inside. "Hey Twinkle Theory, I'd like to introduce you to Red Rook," Flurry Heart said to Twinkle Theory.

Twinkle Theory looked up from her flank. "Oh hey there Red Rook, nice to meet you. I'm doing research on cutie marks. What brings you to my lab? pegasi don't usually visit unless they are a royal guard, because, well, unicorn magic..." Twinkle Theory said. 

[Cozy Glow]

"Nice to meet you too, Twinkle Theory!" This time Cozy Glow made sure to get Flurry's friend's name right. She didn't want to bring too much attention to her cutie mark, so she decided to bring up another subject. "Well, I'm a pegasus, but I'm really interested in magic! Do you have anything here that can be used by non-unicorns? Like, you know, potions and stuff?" Cozy asked, looking around the lab curiously.

Edited October 17, 2022 by PawelS

[Flurry Heart]

Twinkle Theory stared back at Cozy Glow blankly. "No, I don't think so? I mean, sure, there's potions and such here, but they aren't really useful unless you know how to use them," Twinkle Theory said, giving a slow glance around the lab she was in. Twinkle Theory broke eye contact as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof nervously, not really sure what else to say. 

"What kind of magic do you want to do?" Flurry Heart asked Cozy Glow. 

[Cozy Glow]

"Can you teach me?" Cozy Glow asked Twinkle Theory. "I really want to be able to use some form of magic, it can be potions, or maybe a magical artifact? That would be really cool!"

She tried to sound casual and excited to try something new, and to hide her real motivation, which was hunger for power.

Edited December 6, 2022 by PawelS