//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10- Maze of Feelings 
// Story: The Once and the Future Princess 
// by Silvermyr 
//------------------------------//

On her way back home from the castle Flurry was left thinking. It had been hard to pinpoint, but now that she was alone with her thoughts she realized that her time with Cozy had left something behind, like an aftertaste. Even if Cozy had been pretty kind, it did not feel entirely right either. Like all her kindness wasn't genuine. The talk with Cozy had made her feel empty. Normally, everypony she met would make her feel... something, at least. Just a tiny little mote of feelings inside her chest. But not Cozy. It was like there was some dimension to the concept of kindness that Cozy had lacked. Flurry didn't want to think that, both because it was mean and also because it meant her progress with Cozy was gone.

But at the same time, mommy had said she should trust her feelings. That was how young ponies often found their cutie marks, and Flurry wanted to get hers soon. Everypony had one, and then nopony would treat her like a foal anymore. 

Her feelings told her there was something more to Cozy than she was seeing, and it probably had to do with Rumble. Nearly everything they had talked about was related to him, so he, or something about him, had to be related to what Flurry sensed, or rather did not sense, with Cozy. 

She nodded to herself. While she didn't remember exactly what he said, she remembered that Rumble and her had talked plenty about Cozy too when they were together in Ponyville. The two of them were clearly very close friends.

So maybe it was time for her to make use of Rumble's trust. If her hunch was correct and Cozy really was hiding something from Flurry, and it was related to Rumble, perhaps she could just ask him if he knew what it might be.

And besides, she was not hungry yet. If she came home now she would get a stomachache from all the food her grandmother would make her eat. As such, she decided to turn back and see if she could not find Rumble somewhere, preferably alone.

She started with his room, but the door was locked and nopony answered, so she decided to try for the kitchen instead. She started off in the direction of the castle before she slowed her steps gradually until she stood still, thinking. 

Where was the kitchen? Whenever she ate in the castle, somepony delivered the food up to Twilight's wing. 

She looked around, but could not see anypony around to ask. She shrugged and continued to the castle. She'd find a guard pony somewhere. In fact, she saw one just next to a door. 

"Excuse me, sir guardpony, but do you know where I can find the kitchen?" she asked. 

The pony did not even look at her. He continued to stare straight ahead as he nodded and lifted one of his legs to point down a hallway. 

Flurry cocked her head to the side and wondered if it was rude to ask if there was something wrong with him. The guard ponies back in the Crystal Empire sure did not behave like that. His blank, stoic stare was so still it was almost unnerving. 

She slowly started down the indicated hallway, glancing back every so often just to see if he had reacted. When she rounded the nearest corner, she still had not even seen him breathe.

She continued down the path and hoped she'd recognize the kitchen when she found it. Instead she came to a larger hallway with plenty of doors. But she recognized the gray colt trotting quickly towards her.

"Rumble! Rumble, can we talk?!" Flurry shouted and galloped up to him.

"Uh… are you sure it can't wait?" Rumble asked. He looked over her shoulder towards one of the doors as if he was afraid some wild animal was going to come out and attack him. "I'm already sort of late, and Ramson doesn't like it when I'm late… as in, last time I was late he had me taste-test the shipment of Sunfire Chili."

"Oh…" Flurry didn't know what Sunfire Chili was, but it didn't sound pleasant, if Rumble's voice and fearful glances were any indication. "Okay, but I really need to talk later. I think I might have upset Cozy somehow… but I'm also not sure. I was wondering if you know what I might have done. All I did was try to be nice! And we even talked a bit, but there was something off about her and-"

"TOMTIT?!"

Rumble mumbled a word mommy had told Flurry to never say. "Okaygreatgottogo!" He said and then galloped away. 

Flurry looked after him. So far so good, probably, but she didn't want to wait either. And there was another pony who might have some insight in how Cozy thought and acted: their teacher, Twilight Sparkle. But if she asked Twilight, then she would have to tell her she had tried to be friends with Cozy on her own accord. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but Flurry would have preferred to surprise Twilight when they were already friends. Then she'd definitely have been a good student, right? If she succeeded even where her teacher had failed.

Flurry stood in the corridor and thought, shifting her weight subtly from one hoof to the other. 

"Well… I suppose the responsible thing to do would be to ask for help. That I get a friend is probably more important than if I can do it on my own, right?" she asked out loud to herself. 

Nopony answered, of course. She shrugged and made her way back up to Twilight. 

For once, she was not in the library. Flurry saw her in the room furthest from the door into the private wing, behind a desk. Flurry had never been inside that room before. Twilight spotted her when she approached. 

"Hello, Flurry. Can I help you with something?"

"Yeah, I think so," Flurry said. "Uh… I need some advice. On Cozy Glow."

"Oh?" Twilight looked curious and pushed away the paper, quill and ink pot she had in front of her. "Has she been mean to you again?"

"No! Not at all!" Flurry hurried to say. She shook her head for emphasis. "No, I… wanted to try and make friends with her, so I asked Rumble for help when we were in Ponyville together, and he said I should give her sweets, so I did, and then she wasn't… not kind and we played some chess together and talked, but… I don't know if she really liked me?" Flurry finished explaining. She looked expectantly at Twilight. Surely the elder alicorn would know what to do.

"But you did manage to talk to her?" Twilight said after a small pause. "She did not snap at you?"

"No," Flurry said. "No, she didn't do anything mean. It's just… it's probably silly, but when I thought back about it, I didn't really remember feeling like she was my friend."

Twilight's ears picked up and swiveled forward. "And how does it feel when you talk to a friend? Describe it to me."

"Uh…" Flurry had to think about that. It was hard to describe. "Like… soft. And warm. In my chest, right here," she tapped a hoof just between her forelegs. "It's weird, because often I can feel that after just a few minutes of being with somepony. Or I can feel something else, if they are sad and lonely and stuff. But with Cozy I can't feel anything. It's like she is trying to hide from me."

"Hmm…" Twilight said. Flurry could almost hear her mind hum with activity. "Have you told your mother about this way you can feel ponies?"

Flurry nodded. "She said it's probably because I have part of her magic. Since she is the Princess of Love, she is good with feelings."

"That doesn't make sense…" Twilight said, almost to herself. She looked intently at Flurry. "Cadance's magic is nearly unique. The number of ponies that can create feelings- real feelings- like she can, could be counted on my four hooves. While not impossible, given that you too are unique, I find it highly unlikely that you have inherited that ability."

"Oh… but then why can I feel stuff in ponies, like she can? And what about Cozy?" The last question was really what she wanted to talk about. Flurry didn't want everypony telling her how special she was. She just wanted to make a friend and learn magic. All this talk about how she was destined for greatness or whatever was tiring. 

"I don't know what it is you feel, or why Cozy is special," Twilight said. "But if I were to hazard a guess, and I must stress that this is just a guess, then I would say it is related to whatever will be your cutie mark. What you describe is something I have never heard anypony else talk about. It's unique, just like cutie marks."

Flurry smiled brightly. "I want a cutie mark! Are you saying that if I just learn to understand what these feelings are, then I can get my cutie mark?"

Twilight shrugged with a smile. "Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Nopony have ever been able to predict when a cutie mark appears or what it will be."

Flurry decided to focus on the "perhaps" part. She just needed to figure out what the stuff she sensed in ponies meant. And that meant it was suddenly even more important to understand Cozy! She was the only pony who Flurry could not get a grasp on. The only pony who could teach her more about her own ability. 

"Oh!" Flurry exclaimed. She suddenly remembered something. "When Cozy was mean to me that one time! Then I could feel her! But it didn't feel good at all. It was like… hot, instead. Not warm like snug. But warm like burning!"

Twilight creased her brow. "It sounds then like you can, to a limited degree, read people's emotions then. And you can differentiate different feelings?"

"Differiwhat?" Flurry asked. She didn't know all the difficult words adult ponies liked to throw around. 

"You can tell the difference between a pony being sad, happy and angry, for example?"

Flurry nodded. "Yeah. That's not hard."

"But not with Cozy just now?"

"No," Flurry said. "It's the first time I can't remember feeling anything at all, even if she tried to be nice."

Flurry felt at a loss. She wanted to talk more with Cozy both to be her friend and also to try and figure out this new thing about herself. But would Cozy want that? The fact that she was hiding her feelings like this could not be a good sign, right?

Twilight must have read her mind, for she continued. "You know… for her friendship lessons, Cozy and I usually take an hour or so to discuss various friendship problems. Do you want to join the two of us for our next discussion?"

"Yes!" Flurry said. It was perfect. That way she could certainly get a feel for who Cozy was, even if she hid her feelings.

Twilight nodded. "Then I will ask her if she is okay with it. But I cannot guarantee she will agree to it."

Flurry again decided to focus on the positive part. "Okay. Then you'll tell me when we all can sit down and talk, right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes a little, which Flurry thought was a little bit rude. "Of course," Twilight said. 





It was a testament to Cozy's single-minded determination that she woke up as early as she needed the next morning. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes and yawning, she reluctantly cast off the blanket and peeked out through the curtains. The sky was still dark, with a smudge of violet just over the horizon. It was probably an hour at the very least until sunrise. Good. That should be enough time for Cozy to do what she needed to do.

She went to one of the books on her shelf and withdrew a small paper note. It was a recipe she had found last afternoon after she had managed to undo the mess of her mane and tail. She had some time before Rumble was done in the kitchen, and Cozy had not wasted it. 

She still needed to impress him even more. And what better way than to try a hoof at his own game? Yep, this morning she was going to make him breakfast, instead of the other way around. It was not going to be as good as what he made, but she hoped he would appreciate it anyway. She put the recipe in her mane and quietly made her way out of Twilight's wing and down the stairs to the kitchen. She closed the door behind her, just in case some guard pony would try to interrupt her. She doubted they would, but there was no point in taking unnecessary risks. 

"Golly, this is going to be good," Cozy smirked to herself upon seeing the many stoves, tables, cupboards and shelves in the room. There were racks of cleavers and knives along the walls. From the roof hung dried herbs in clusters and braids of garlic. The whole room smelled slightly of spices that Cozy could not name. 

She pulled out her recipe and looked down on it. It was not the most ambitious breakfast, just pancakes. But everypony liked pancakes, so at least she didn't have to worry about him not liking it.

"Let's see… eggs, milk, flour, salt and butter…" She made her way back towards the pantry to gather what she needed. To her pleasant surprise, every box and sack was labeled and arranged by letter. Everything was easy to find. It was hard to resist taking some raw sugar for herself when she was in there, but she decided against it. 

She gathered her stuff back by one of the stoves and read the next part of the recipe. 

It looked simple enough. Just mix the salt, flour and half of the milk and whisk it until the batter is smooth. It took some hunting through the cupboards before she found a whisk and bowl, but then she could do the rest easily. She held the whisk in her mouth and stood next to the bowl while glancing at the recipe sheet.

Now for the eggs and the rest of the milk. She sat the whisk down. This was going to be the hard part. She was not good at cracking eggs. It was hard to just get a grip around one!

Finally, after several frustrating minutes, she managed to carefully pick one up between both her fore hooves. Still, she didn't know how to actually crack it like this without spilling half of it outside her bowl. 

But maybe she didn't have to do this in the most efficient manner? Instead she retrieved another, smaller bowl, placed the egg inside it and crushed it with her hoof. After wiping her hoof clean, she just had to pick out the pieces of eggshell. Then she could just pour the whole thing into her bowl of batter. 

It took a while, but she did get all the ingredients mixed in her bowl. She didn't know how it was supposed to look, but it was smooth like the recipe said.

Now to actually bake the pancakes. She lit a small fire underneath the stove. Through clever use of magic, the stove barely needed more than a candle to be warm enough. 

Cozy was just about to pour the batter into the pan when the door opened. 

The pony in the doorway was a brownish yellow unicorn with a messy blonde mane and green eyes. He wore a chef's clothing. Cozy swallowed down her shock and instead adopted a cute, innocent smile. "Oh, good morning mister chef. I am Cozy Glow. Who are you?"

The other pony stepped inside and fixed her with a stern look. "I am the head chef of the castle, Ramson. What are you doing in my kitchen at this hour?"

"Pancakes!" Cozy chirped. 

Ramson's stare narrowed to a glare. Cozy swallowed. "Uh… Actually, I wanted to surprise somepony with breakfast," Cozy admitted. "So I thought I'd get here before him and surprise him… really, it was pretty mean of you to come and ruin everything."

Ramson didn't answer. Instead he stalked past Cozy and looked critically at her bowl. He dipped the tip of his hoof in it and licked it. "Too little salt," he said. "Add seven twelfths of a teaspoon and whisk it for at least three minutes. Also…" He ignited his horn with a dark-red aura and opened the pantry door. A black stalk floated out and landed next to Cozy. She recognized it- a vanilla bean. 

Cozy cocked her head to the side quizzically. Ramson gave her a terse type of smile. "Tomtit likes vanilla."

"Oh-! I remember that! He told me that!" Cozy exclaimed. "Thank you! This will be great!"

Ramson's smile softened, just a little. "I was never here."

Then he left. Cozy stared after him while she tried to catch up to what had just happened. According to Rumble the head chef was supposed to be terrifying, but this pony had been kind. What was up with that?

Then again, it didn't really matter. She measured up half a teaspoon extra of salt and gutted the vanilla bean to add the small seeds. Then she started baking.





Rumble knocked on the door to Princess Twilight's wing. Today was his turn to make her breakfast. "Princess?"

Twilight opened. She looked bright-eyed and lively as ever. Rumble secretly wondered if being able to get up early and still be as perky as she was another benefit of being an alicorn, or if she just was just eerily disciplined... "Good morning, Rumble. I think I'll go with… hmm…"

"Pancakes?" Rumble guessed. 

"No, no. I can't today…" Twilight said. "Just some sandwiches will be fine. I'm sure Cozy would like some pancakes though…" She leaned closer. "Actually, just between the two of us, I need to ask her something today, and it'd probably help if she was in a good mood…"

"The castle intrigue that the mystery novels don't include…" Rumble thought. "Sure. Pancakes it is."

"Great." Twilight said. "Make them first, would you? She hasn't come out of her room yet, so if you are quick she can have them on the bed."

"Right," Rumble nodded and started down to the kitchen. 

Twilight was starting to conspire against Cozy too now… add to that that he still had to balance both Cozy's machinations and Flurry Heart's friendship and he'd soon have a heart attack from the stress. He thought he'd be cooking when he signed up for this job! Not trying to keep some of the most powerful ponies in the country from doing… well, whatever Cozy planned to do. He actually didn't know if she even had some endgame in sight. Then again, maybe that was for the best…

He went into the kitchen.

"Good morning!"

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected voice. Up on the counter stood Cozy Glow, her coat matted with flour and, judging by the stack of pancakes on a platter next to her, pancake batter.

"Good… morning?" he said. "What are you doing here? Did you want to poison Twilight, or…?"

Cozy giggled. "Golly, that's the silliest thing I've heard! I wouldn't waste my time baking stuff for Twilight! I made them for you!"

As if he already wasn't confused enough, her last statement just rendered him speechless. Cozy Glow, usurper of Canterlot, ex-ruthless villain and probably mildly psychotic, had made him pancakes. 

"What?"

"I… I made you pancakes," she said again. Her smile was wavering just a little. "You do like pancakes, right?"

"I mean… sure, but why did you do that for me? I'm supposed to cook for you, right?"

"Well, today I wanted to cook for you instead," Cozy said. "Try one! I mean, they are probably not as good as yours, but… I think you will like them!"

Rumble wanted to say he had to prepare Twilight's breakfast, but something in Cozy's expression that made him hesitate. For once, she looked… earnest. Besides, Twilight had asked him to make Cozy happy, right? Well, this could only help. "Sure! Thank you."

He flew up onto a stool and sat down, reached for a pancake and took some blueberry jam. Cozy all but stared at him. In fact, he felt like a deer caught in the brights of a train. Was she going to look at him eat…? 

Cozy's eyes told him yes. 

Did Cozy actually know how to cook? She had never indicated knowing anything about it. 

What if her cooking turned out to be a bust? If he didn't like it, would she then murder him? 

He tried his best to ignore her and took a bite, secretly bracing himself.

"Sweet Celestia!" He said before he could stop himself. "Cozy, I didn't know you could cook like this!"

Cozy's smile seemed to relax just a little. "Well, of course I can," she said. "I'm just a natural."

"I'll say. And with vanilla! You remembered I liked that."

"Sure did," Cozy said.

Rumble took another pancake. "Don't you want some too?"

"I… made them for you though," Cozy said. She looked a bit bashful. 

"Then I'll make you some," Rumble said. "I've just got to make Twilight some sandwiches too. She wanted to ask you something, by the way."

"Okay," Cozy chirped. "I'll go ask her myself!" 

Rumble nearly choked on his third pancake. He had wanted to make her happy, but to think Cozy wanted to seek out Twilight. He must have made her ecstatic. 

He watched her curly tail disappear out the door. Weirder and weirder… He took another pancake and mulled things over. As of late, Cozy's behavior had definitely changed. She had always liked ponies noticing her or complimenting her, but lately she had begun to return that kindness. Making him a breakfast like this, making a self-writing quill, racing him… All of those things told him she wanted his attention. But why did she care about that more now, all of a sudden? Since when did his approval matter to her?

Oh…

Since when. That was the whole thing, wasn't it? 

It was not just a rhetorical question. Her changed behavior coincided suspiciously well with Flurry's appearance in Cozy's life. And if a pony like Flurry appears, one who has everything Cozy dreams of… then maybe Cozy feels threatened? Jealous? 

Yeah, jealous. That felt like it fit into Cozy's persona. She had even confessed to worrying about Flurry stealing his friendship. Maybe that silly fear was more real to Cozy than he had understood? It had sounded so silly to him he had not even considered Cozy might need more than just a quick assurance from him.

If this was true, then he had to speak with Flurry as soon as she could. If they only went together to Cozy, and Rumble said, loud and clear, that he did not intend to abandon her to Flurry, and then Flurry said that she just wanted to be Rumble's friend so Cozy could learn to accept her, then this could all work out. Maybe this assurance from him and Flurry together might be just the thing Cozy needed to give Flurry an honest chance.

He stood up. He should see if he couldn't find Flurry Heart as soon as he could. The sooner this could be resolved the better, especially with Cozy's complete lack of emotional control. But where would she be now? Was she even here this early? Besides, he still had his job to do, and he did not want Ramson to get cross with him today after just barely avoiding his wrath yesterday. 

Nodding, he put away the dishes and started on Twilight's sandwiches. He'd find Flurry as soon as he was done with his morning duties.