“A magical talking horse,” Cozy Glow said skeptically, tapping her fingers on the side of her milkshake. “From another dimension.”
Sunset nodded mutely. The two of them were sitting on the patio of Joe’s Malt Shop just outside the park grounds. Cozy wiped her hand on a napkin and reached across the table.
“Can I see that photo again?”
Sunset produced the picture of Cozy Glow (the other Cozy Glow, she reminded herself) from the folds of her journal and handed it over. Cozy studied the image thoughtfully.
“And where you’re from, I’m a magical talking horse too?”
“Not magical,” Sunset explained. “Just flying. And she’s definitely not you. I know she has your face, and name, and… probably all your issues, but she’s not you. You’re you.”
“Uh huh.” Cozy set the photo on the table and slid it back towards Sunset. For a few seconds, neither spoke. Cozy’s eyes, residually puffy from her meltdown, were still narrowed at Sunset. Cozy could affect a lot of airs, but her features were just a little too soft to make her attempt at a hard-boiled detective stare convincing.
“Are you suuuuure you’re not one of my hallucinations?”
Sunset groaned, exasperated.
“I know it sounds nuts, but I promise it’s the truth. I can’t prove it, right now at least, because all I have on me is the photo and this journal, and I already showed you both-“
“Hey,” Cozy interrupted. “Calm down, horse lady. That was a joke. I know you’re real.”
Sunset blinked, unsure what to say. Cozy Glow fished a cherry out of her shake, popped it in her mouth, and continued.
“The stuff you say is next-level ridiculous, and I gotta be wary cuz I am off my meds right now,” She had swallowed the cherry, but was still rolling something around on her tongue. “But that’s why I had you pay for my ice cream. I knew you were a solid, flesh and blood person after the cashier talked to you.” Cozy stuck her tongue out, presenting the cherry’s stem, successfully tied in a knot. “Plus I got a free milkshake out of it. But what I still don’t get is... even if that picture is real and everything you told me is true… why would you help me? What’s in it for you?”
Sunset folded her arms apprehensively. “The truth is... the pegasus who looks like you, she... she tried to hurt a lot of ponies. I only know about her secondhand, but when Twi... when my pen pal back in Equestria explained how dangerous she was, I...” Sunset was burning with shame. “I was worried that you were dangerous too.”
Cozy Glow stirred the remains of her shake, looking nervous. “And are you still worried about that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I think you’re hurting-“ Cozy snorted at the understatement, but let Sunset continue. “-and I think maybe you really are as messed up as the other one. But to tell the truth I don’t know a thing about either of you.”
Cozy downed the rest of her shake and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. “Oh, I can promise you I’m plenty messed up, Sunset. But just cuz I’m a kid with a few screws loose doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I’m still a human being, and maybe things are different for you horse people, but us human beings don’t like being lied to.”
Sunset blinked uncomprehendingly. “Lied to?”
“I felt something when you touched me earlier. After you got me to pitch that shit-fit at the park.”
Sunset winced at the harshness of Cozy’s choice of words.
“But whatever. There I was, lying on my side, thinking I’d finally gone fully crackers, and you put your hand on my shoulder and... did something. I didn’t know what it was at the time. Hell, I wasn’t really focused on anything at the time, but I think I know now. You used your horsey magic to peek inside my head. And don’t try to deny it, because when I tied that cherry stem in a knot with my tongue earlier, you didn’t bat an eye. That’s a party trick that starts a conversation every time, except when someone’s already seen me do it. So don’t gimmie that ‘I don’t know a thing about you’ junk when you’ve obviously already leafed through my brain as if it was your journal over there.”
Cozy Glow leaned back, looking rather satisfied with her sleuthing abilities.
Sunset meanwhile, was sweating again. “Dangerous or not, you’ve got a special talent for playing people,” she observed. Cozy laughed darkly.
“Don’t try to distract me with compliments, Miss Shimmer. If you really wanna win me over, come clean and explain what you saw in my head.” Cozy Glow snapped her fingers a few times to accentuate her demand while Sunset glanced around the malt shop’s patio.
“There’s nobody else here, horse lady,” Cozy Glow continued impatiently. “I wouldn’t be openly yapping about my problems if there was.”
Yet again, Sunset found herself wishing Princess Twilight was present to tell her what to do. This version of Cozy Glow seemed open to advice, (which was impressive, given how badly Sunset botched their initial confrontation), but it was entirely possible this cocky but vulnerable persona was an act. There was an old Equestrian fable that recounted a pony who saved a cockatrice from freezing in the snow, only for the ungrateful creature to immediately turn him to stone for his act of charity. It was possible the human version of Cozy Glow was a metaphorical cockatrice in the snow.
Then again, Sunset herself had once been shown mercy by a stranger, being spared by Twilight and given the chance to take a better life path. Sunset felt it was her responsibility to pay that kindness forward. A cockatrice could theoretically learn thankfulness, right?
“Yes, okay, I admit it. If I put my hand on someone, I get a psychic reading from them. But it’s not usually a clear picture. Just a bunch of vibes and sometimes a key memory.”
“Key memory, huh?” Cozy Glow’s indignation had been replaced with amused interest. “Tell me miss psychic horse, what key memory do I have that involves my cherry stem trick?”
Sunset raised her head again and met Cozy Glow’s composed glare with her own fiery one.
“How about practicing the trick in the mirror for weeks before school started because you were desperate to make friends in the lunch room?”
A tendon in Cozy Glow’s neck tensed noticeably.
“Yeah,” she confirmed cooly. “Yeah okay, that’d be one. A key memory, I mean.”
“But your vibes were what made me drive you here for ice cream,” Sunset quickly added. “I mean, I gathered by your cherry trick you liked milkshakes, but I would have taken you with me even if I hadn’t guessed that.”
“Mm. Of course. My ‘vibes.’ And what did you get from those?”
“I got that you’re lonely. And sick. I don’t know which of those came first, but I think both of them have been feeding into each other for a very long time, and luring in Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo with that fake-crying gambit was you finally looking to get away from both.”
“Ah, there it is. Ya know, it took…”, Cozy glanced at the clock on her cell phone, “twenty minutes, but you’ve finally started to sound like my therapist.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Cozy said icily, “that Doctor Cadence has been chipping away at me for about five years now, trying to help me figure out why I’m the way I am, and neither of us have made any progress since like, year two. So I don’t know what you expect to accomplish talking to me for just one afternoon.”
Sunset tried to say something, but Cozy Glow interrupted by dropping her voice an octave, apparently doing a spiteful impression of the aforementioned ‘Doctor Cadence.’
“Good evening, Cozy. Have you been taking your anti-batshit pills? Good, good. Oh, what’s that? You say that despite your meds, you’re still feeling all the same violent urges you always do?” Cozy Glow’s speech wavered slightly on the word ‘urges’, but she recovered. “Well, as long as you aren’t acting on them, your parents will continue to pay me for your overpriced counseling sessions, so I guess everybody wins. See you next week, you adorable, rosy-cheeked time bomb.”
Cozy Glow returned to her regular tone of voice, though it had far less energy than before.
“She’s a nice lady, but really naive. She and my parents think love and care are the only things needed to fix me. Oh hey, and while I’m shamelessly pouring myself out here, I might as well tell you something else.” Cozy Glow leaned forward. “Last night I had this dream where a flash of light came down from the sky and started turning me into a statue. I woke up right before the petrification was complete but I started crying anyway because I knew I deserved to be turned to stone. I deserve to be locked away before I hurt somebody. Because as hard as I try to be good, someday all the terrible things I fantasize about doing to other people are gonna spill over-“
Sunset stood up, crossed the table, and wrapped her arms around the trembling tween. Cozy Glow was caught completely off guard by the affection, and could only bite her lip as she buried her face in the leather of Sunset’s biker jacket, gratefully returning the hug. The two held each other silently for a few seconds.
“How legible is your handwriting?” Sunset asked without breaking the embrace.
“It's fine as long as I’m not doing anything in cursive.” Cozy replied quietly. “Why?”
Sunset glanced back at her Friendship Journal, sitting expectantly on the table.
“A certain somepony needs to hear what you have to say.”