Over the past couple weeks, Cozy & Sweetie Belle had grown much closer as friends. They now hung out together regularly, much to the other crusaders' chagrin. Luckily, they didn't let it come between Sweetie and themselves. Cozy was extremely grateful for that. After all she'd been through, she had no doubts that accidentally hurting Sweetie would've been the straw that broke the camel's back.
She'd also been spending more time with Gallus, although she continued to insist on meeting anywhere other than the Treehouse. She wanted nothing to do with any place that housed a cockatrice. Therapy sessions with the Great & Powerful Trixie were also going well. Cozy was able to answer questions vaguely enough that Trixie still had no idea what she was planning, and she'd carefully dodged any prodding from Trixie, and anypony else for that matter, about her time trapped in stone.
She didn't want anypony to know how much it still weighed on her. In reality, the memory of that time loomed over her mind like a menacing shadow. She no longer feared her nightmares, or the monsters within them, but this? These memories? They were a different story.
This morning, Sweetie had come to Knox's house unexpectedly and taken Cozy out to the ice cream parlor. It was a pleasant surprise, for Sweetie had previously planned to help Rarity fill a big order today at the boutique. As they'd been eating their cones, though, Sweetie had seemed... off. She had been asking Cozy seemingly mundane questions about her past and what she wanted to do in the future now, despite Sweetie knowing she didn't like to discuss such matters. They both finished off the last of their cones, and that's when it hit her. She knew exactly what was going on, and she was about to take a huge risk.
"Hey," she said in a perfectly even tone, "if I promise to answer some of your questions, will you drop the facade, Ocellus?"
"What?" Sweetie exclaimed as energy warped around her, leaving Ocellus where she once stood. "How did you know?"
Cozy just chuckled lightheartedly before saying, "I know my friends better than that. So, what do you want to know?"
Ocellus didn't even think before she asked her question.
"Are you planning something?" she asked.
"Yes," Cozy said. "I am."
Ocellus was taken aback by the bluntness of her response.
"Why are you admitting this to me?"
"Because I can't have you following me around and learning my secrets. Instead I'm telling you. Yes, I'm planning something, but it's not evil or anything."
"And why would I believe that?" asked the changeling, still in awe at how openly Cozy was answering.
"Because," she looked Ocellus straight in the eyes as she spoke, "if you're ever willing to believe anything I say for the rest of my days, Ocellus, I am begging you to let this be it. It's not evil. It may be somewhat mischievous and manipulative, and it's way more than a little bit self-centered, but I promise you I'm not doing anything evil."
Ocellus paused for a moment, still matching Cozy's stare. Then, she turned around and began to walk away. She stopped after a few steps and spoke without looking back at her.
"Just this once, Cozy, I'll trust you. But if you're lying, trust me when I say I will find out, and the princess will turn you back to stone."
Turn you back to stone. As Ocellus left, her words echoed through Cozy's mind, bringing memories of her stone prison to the surface. She immediately began to tear up and ran out of the ice cream parlor.
She needed a friend to talk to right now. That always seemed to calm her down. Since Sweetie Belle was busy as the boutique, Cozy set off in search of Gallus.