[Cozy's Perspective]
'She wants me to do what?' Cozy's thoughts struggled to cross the mental hurdle former-headmare Twilight had just chucked at her.
She felt her hooves begin to tremor slightly, and Knox looked over towards her with a sympathetic expression. She slowly and carefully raised a hoof to her head and touched her Crown of Calming, allowing the soothing energy to flow through her body.
She winced as her breathing evened out, and her hoof tremors slowly stopped.
"I'm OK," she said.
Knox let out a breath that it didn't seem he knew he'd been holding in. Twilight also had a worried expression, but she also noticeably calmed at Cozy's words. Looking back at Knox, Cozy noticed he was looking at the top of her head curiously.
"I never noticed," he started. "What's up with the crown?"
"I..." Cozy trailed off. "I made it."
"Why are you wearing it?" Twilight asked, her attention now drawn to the crown as well. Unlike Knox, though, Twilight was staring at it with clenched teeth and daggers in her eyes. Cozy shrunk under the unwanted hostility. She understood it, though. The last time she'd worn this crown, she'd tried to rid Equestria of magic.
"It's..." she started, tearing up slightly. "It's a reminder of my past."
At that, Twilight's expression softened quite a bit.
"Cozy..." she started.
"I may be trying to become a better pony," Cozy interrupted, "but that doesn't mean I can let myself forget."
Knox and Twilight remained silent as Cozy spoke, not daring to interrupt her as tears came streaming down her cheeks.
"This," she continued, gesturing a hoof up towards her crown, "is a reminder of the old me. The one with no real friends. The one that was all alone, even when she was surrounded by ponies. I won't let myself end up alone again!"
Knox came over to her and pulled her into a tight embrace, while she maintained teary-eyed eye contact with Twilight.
"I won't let that happen either," Knox said soothingly, just as Cozy knew he would.
After the three ponies had calmed down, the princess decided to elaborate what she had meant earlier.
"As you know, a new semester is starting shortly," she began.
"Yeah, it's in two weeks now, right?" Knox said.
"Yes, it is. Well, when that new semester starts, I want Cozy to become a student of the School of Friendship again."
"Is that allowed?" Cozy asked. "Can a student who tried to take over the place by force really just... come back?"
"Well, it doesn't happen all that often," Twilight chuckled, "so I think it'll be alright. Besides, you'd be surrounded by other students most of the time anyways. There are far more students this year than there have been in prior years."
"Are you sure the new headmare will be alright with this?" Knox asked.
"I've already spoken with Starlight," Twilight replied. "She's given me permission to enroll you in the school. If you're willing to learn, that is."
"Starlight! That's her name!" Knox shouted, obviously a little louder than intended.
This was met with light chuckles from Cozy and Twilight.
"Twilight," Cozy said, catching the alicorn's attention again. "I'll do it. I'll go to the School of Friendship."
While she was keeping a straight face, the little Cozy Glow in her head was running around in a frenzied panic at the declaration she'd just made.
'Well,' she thought, 'This could be worse... I guess.'
This was going to be a long semester.