[Gallus' Perspective]
"Gallus?"
The griffon perked his head up from the arm of one of the many chairs inside the Treehouse and looked to Ocellus at the mention of his name.
"What's up?" he questioned upon noticing the crestfallen expression on his friend's face.
"I was wrong," she paused for a moment to give him an apologetic glance. "About Cozy, I mean."
Gallus felt his jaw go slightly slack. Had Ocellus just admitted that he was right?
"And," Ocellus continued, still nervously shuffling her feet, "I think I have a plan on how to make it up to her."
Gallus looked closely at her expression, checking for her tells that showed whenever she was lying. Finding none, he smiled and gestured to the seat beside him.
With this, Ocellus' nerves seemed to dissipate. She sighed in relief as she sat down.
"So," Gallus said once his friend was comfortable, "what's the plan?"
Ocellus reached towards one of the nearby end tables and pulled a large book into her lap. "Well, this is a good place to start."
Gallus eyed the book curiously. What would Cozy want with a book called the "Tome of Tartarus"?
As if reading Gallus' thoughts, Ocellus elaborated.
"Cozy said she wanted this book so she could get back something she lost. I think that means the item she's looking for was left in Tartarus when Discord pulled her out!"
Gallus suddenly looked at his friend as if she'd transformed herself into a chimera with an extra head. Was she thinking what he thought she was thinking?
"Cozy wants whatever it is back," Ocellus continued, unimpeded by Gallus' expression. "For very good reason, at that."
Gallus finally shook himself from his stupor and found himself able to speak again.
"You want to break into Tartarus?" he yelled. "That's crazy!"
"Yes, that's exactly what I want to do," she replied bluntly.
Gallus just sat there, mouth once again agape.
"And this," she continued, picking up the book in her lap, "is going to help us."
It was no use.
The two friends had been pouring through the pages of the Tome of Tartarus, again and again, searching for a way to safely get in and out for hours now. It was getting late, so they'd soon be forced to either call it quits for the night or sleep here at the Treehouse. Nonetheless, they still scoured the book again.
Every possible way they'd found involved powerful unicorn magic, something neither of them had, or a magical artifact. They'd done some research into the magical artifact idea, but, with the Key of Unfettered Entrance having been destroyed during Cozy's attempt to take over the school, it had been fruitless.
"I don't think this is going to work," Gallus said. "Maybe we should just give the book to Cozy. She's been in Tartarus. She'll probably see something here that we don't."
Ocellus sighed dejectedly.
"I just really wanted to do something for her, you know? I wanted to make a grand gesture to apologize for all of the spying and mistrust."
She slowly closed the cover of the Tome of Tartarus, but still stared at it longingly.
"It's a shame we couldn't pull it off," Gallus said, placing a talon on Ocellus' shoulder while keeping his eyes on the closed book as well. "This really would've made her happy."
"Well why didn't you just say so," said the Tome of Tartarus.
Ocellus and Gallus both screamed in shock. Ocellus jumped at least three feet, while Gallus scuttled back away from the book.
They both looked towards each other, exchanging looks of confusion, before the book opened on its own to a page full of text and a certain familiar being slithered out from in between the lines.
"Discord?" Gallus half-asked, half-yelled.
"Well, you certainly don't sound happy to see me," said the chaos deity.
"Why are you here?" Ocellus cried out, still not fully recovered from the previous fright.
"Why, I'm here to help you help her of course," he pointed to a wall, where a mural of Cozy's face with a wicked grin and fire in her eyes, cradling marionettes of Princess Twilight and their professors in her hooves, had certainly not been three seconds prior.
"Umm..." Gallus said, raising a questioning talon. "Why?"
"Well, Knox is a friend of mine now," started the draconequus, "and whether I like it or not, that little brat being happy seems to make him happy. That's why I'm giving you this."
He pulled a purple cloth with orange polka dots out of a nearby toaster that had suddenly materialized and placed it over Gallus' still-raised talon.
"Ummm..." started the griffin, now even more confused. "Thanks?"
"Oh, sorry," Discord said. "I forgot a step."
He retrieved the cloth from Gallus and flicked it with his lion's paw, leaving a cone-shaped crystal object with metal filigree in its place.
Gallus was still just as confused as Discord gave the object back to him, but a spark of realization seemed to dance through Ocellus' mind. She let out a sharp gasp.
"The Key of Unfettered Entrance!" she nearly squealed. "How did you find this? I thought it'd been broken?"
"Well, I could say I fixed it, but that would be a lie," Discord said. "Truth is, that thing was only extremely rare, not one-of-a-kind. Not that I couldn't have fixed the original or anything, but, really, where's the fun in fixing something?"
At these last two words, a dog appeared in front of Discord, and he did something unspeakable to it. Gallus reached toward his groin out of sympathy.
Once the poor dog disappeared once again, Discord bid the two friends farewell and spontaneously combusted, leaving Gallus and Ocellus alone with the Key of Unfettered Entrance.
"Dang it," Gallus said.
"What?" Ocellus asked, obviously wondering what could possibly be dampening his mood right now.
"He left it there," he said, gesturing to the same wall Discord had gestured to earlier. Upon it, there was still a mural of Cozy with a diabolical grin, fiery eyes, and marionettes of Princess Twilight and the other element bearers cradled close to her chest.
Ocellus looked at it, then locked eyes with Gallus. Then, they both broke out laughing and agreed to take care of it later.
Gallus looked down at the magical artifact he held.
"Well," he said as they each went to their respective wings of the Treehouse for the night, "I guess I know what we're doing tomorrow!"