Cozy went up to Twilight's wing, feeling like she was on the very top of the world! Indeed, even when she had been an alicorn, when her entire body felt energized with unlimited power, she still had not felt half as good as this! It was like her heart was swelling like a balloon in her chest, letting her float upwards!
Just a little more. If she only gave him the quill, and made it just as cool as she wanted to make it… then maybe, just maybe she would be ready to ask him. The very thought of it made her grin. She peeked into the library. Twilight usually started her day off there. Today was no exception. She was there, but she was not alone.
"Good morning, Cozy," Twilight said. "Perfect timing. Please, come in."
"Good morning, Cozy," Flurry Heart echoed. She sat on a stool and watched Cozy carefully.
"My niece has told me the two of you tried to resolve your difficulties, and made some progress yesterday," Twilight said. "Is that right, Cozy?"
Cozy nodded. Her good mood had been replaced by wariness.
"Splendid! Then would you be okay with Flurry joining us for our friendship discussion today?" Twilight asked. "I am sure you could learn a lot from each other, and it might help you to understand one another even better."
Cozy made sure to keep her face neutral even if she felt like wincing. She had just barely managed to keep herself together last time, and she could not afford to lose her temper with Flurry in front of Twilight. But then again, this was a good chance to show both Twilight and Flurry why she was the better friendship student. And backing down would make Twilight doubt both her friendship abilities and that she and Flurry had made any progress.
"Maybe we can try a little bit, and you can see how you feel?" Twilight offered. "Then you can leave and we will continue later, just the two of us. But I really hope you will try. You usually have so much to contribute when just the two of us talk."
That was strange. Twilight was letting her choose like that, even if it was at the expense of what Flurry must want. Just the very idea to have Twilight look out of her felt alien, almost as scary as it felt good. Twilight had trapped her in stone! Jailed her in Tartarus! It didn't make sense that she would look out for Cozy like this! But she still did.
"Alright, I guess," Cozy said, though she was not sure it felt "alright," at all.
Twilight smiled. "Thank you, Cozy. Please, take a seat."
She sat down on the closest stool, which incidentally was the one farthest away from Flurry.
"Right," Twilight said optimistically. "Consider this: your friend… who we can call Spectrum Rush, is one of the best buckball players in town. Every team wants her to join them, and she practices almost every day for several hours. You love hanging out with her, but as time goes by, you find it starts to get annoying. No matter what you are doing or where you are, she always talks about buckball, or wants you to join in on a game, even if you don't want to. What do you think you should do, if anything? Do you care to start, Cozy?"
Cozy nodded and glanced at Flurry. "I should tell her… uh, in a friendly manner, that even if she likes buckball a lot I don't want to talk about it all the time. I have my own interests, and then it's not more than right if she gives them as much time as I give her buckball."
"I see," Twilight said. "And Flurry? Do you agree? Disagree?"
Flurry looked both at Twilight and then at Cozy. "Hmm… I guess that if it really bothers you so much, then you could let Spectrum know…" she said carefully.
"Buuut…?" Twilight prodded. She, like Cozy, must sense that Flurry had at least one more thought about it.
Flurry fidgeted a little. Cozy guessed she must be nervous about sharing, even if she was not sure why she would be. Or did she see through Cozy's act when they played chess last time? Did she know how angry Cozy really was with her?
"I… I think you should wait before you ask your friend to stop talking buckball with you!" Flurry said really fast. "Doing that makes your friend happy, right? Shouldn't you be able to endure a little grief for your friendship? Else you are not really a good friend, right?"
"An interesting thought," Twilight said. "And a good lesson in its own right- sometimes a friend can do things that look strange or annoying to us, but one should always try to find out why they do that. Perhaps their reason is more significant than you think. But I digress. Cozy, do you have anything you want to add, in light of Flurry's idea?"
Cozy felt her insides squirm a little. Flurry's answer had been a more friendly approach, and Twilight almost certainly liked that idea better. It was probably what Twilight would have done herself. She had to be better than this! She could not let Flurry overshadow her at friendship! If she did, then why would Twilight even keep her as a student for? And Cozy had to be her student; it was her only chance at someday becoming an alicorn. She had to step up her game. She could not fail here!
"I… suppose Flurry has a point," she conceded. She could not let Twilight sense animosity or stress, or she might stop the lesson, and then Flurry would have won! She felt like a weight was slowly crushing down on her back. Coming up with logical reasoning for friendship problems was a lot more difficult when she had to wage an internal war with her temper and also keep anypony from finding out about it. "But it's still not fair that she annoys me with her buckball talk and I just stand there and take it! Maybe Spectrum Rush does not even realize I am annoyed by it! And once I tell, she will stop of her own accord."
"Very good," Twilight nodded. "Sometimes it's hard to remember we are all different ponies. What is just a joke to me might make another pony sad. It is important that we always open up to our friends to avoid silly mistakes like that."
Both Flurry and Cozy nodded.
Maybe she recovered a little bit? Twilight liked humility, right? But Cozy was not going to win like that. She had to come up with her own solution to these friendship problems, not just say that Flurry was right and then elaborate.
"Do you have anything more to add, Flurry? Else we can proceed to the next question."
"No, I think I'm good," Flurry said.
"Then my next question is this: what do you think makes you find a friend in somepony you meet? We walk by dozens of ponies every day, but you don't make friends with them. Other times, somepony just comes up and talks to you, and they become a friend for life. Why do you think that is? You could start this time, Flurry."
Cozy looked away, thinking of her answer. This was not a good question. She had only ever made two real friends, and she couldn't say either of those friendships were her doing. It was more… both Sweetie Belle and Rumble had refused to give up on her, for some reason, and eventually that made Cozy consider them her friends. But then what could she answer?
"I just feel it!" Flurry chirped. "When a pony is lonely I ask if they want to talk. If they are happy, I ask if I can join them playing. It's not hard for me to make friends… usually. I am just kind to other ponies, and then they are kind to me."
Cozy grumbled and felt her tail swish in irritation. It wasn't enough that she threatened to take everything Cozy wanted and had been born with her greatest dream, she had to flaunt her mystical powers too? She forced herself to sit still. Don't let them see… don't let them suspect anything.
"Kindness goes a long way, for sure," Twilight said. "It's hard to be friends with somepony who isn't kind. Hard, but not impossible."
"Right!" Cozy said, grasping the lifeline Twilight cast her. "I know I wasn't very kind. But my friends could see past that, and eventually that made me see past myself too. I decided that I wanted them around. Because if they can look past me at my worst, then I really know they will always stick by me, right?"
It wasn't really an answer to the question, but Twilight would probably like the reply.
Twilight nodded. "I know how you feel, Cozy. While I can hardly believe it myself when I think back, that was really how I made all friends. I didn't care two shakes of a tail about friendship when I came to Ponyville. But my friends thought differently… they had to drag the friendly me out, kicking and screaming under the threat of eternal night. Celestia knows I didn't make an effort to make them like me, but they did, all the same."
"That's so sweet," Flurry said. "Like something out of the hearthswarming stories."
Twilight blushed.
Still, for having started with such a poor question, Cozy could not complain about how she answered… Twilight was probably a little impressed at least. She usually liked it when Cozy drew on personal experience like that.
"Alright, moving on," Twilight said and cleared her throat. "For the next question, picture this: You are having a test in school that you have studied hard for, so you feel confident. You answer the questions, but when there is just five minutes left, the teacher is called to help with a schoolyard emergency. Your best friend then asks you if she could copy down some answers, since she has been away with her parents and couldn't study. What do you answer, and why? Also, I want to stress that I in no way condone cheating in school- this question isn't about that. It's about the friendship dilemma. Cozy, I think it's your turn to start.”
"Golly…" Cozy said. This was not a good question either, because she definitely would let her friend cheat. It didn't matter to Cozy if she did, and that way her friend would like her more. But Twilight wouldn't like that answer. And lying was risky too. Twilight would like it even less if she found out. "Uh… I'm not sure," she said.
"Take your time," Twilight said.
"I… think I'd let her copy down my answers," Cozy admitted. At least that way she could argue for something she believed in, rather than have to lie to both Twilight and herself. "If she didn't have the time to study, then the test isn't fair to her."
"I see," Twilight said. She didn't seem too angry. "Flurry, do you agree?"
Flurry shook her head. "No, cheating is wrong. It's not fair for everypony who studied hard that my friend can just cheat her way to the right answers."
Cozy huffed irritably. How dared Flurry even say that! Then how was it fair that she was an alicorn and not Cozy? Cozy who had worked so hard for it!
"I think my friend is more important than everypony else," Cozy said. "Of course I look out for my friend! Besides, if nopony knows she cheated, then nopony is going to care what grade she got anyway."
"But just because you care about your friend it doesn't mean you can't… not care for everypony else! Then you are not kind to them instead." Flurry argued.
"Girls, let's calm down a little," Twilight interjected before Cozy had the opportunity to reply. She snapped her mouth shut, but didn't quite manage to hide her glare at Flurry.
The door opened. Rumble entered with a pair of plates on his wings. His eyes seemed to dwell on Cozy for a moment. She took a breath and smoothened out her look. "Perfect timing," Twilight said. Cozy saw her send a sidelong glance her way. She shrunk back a little. Twilight had of course seen her glare at Flurry. "Let's have our breakfast first, and then maybe we can proceed after?"
"Okay," Flurry said quickly and started out the door. Her hasty departure sounded weird, even to Cozy, but she didn't complain. She needed some time alone to simmer down and regain her balance. This was not going well. She was all too aware of that.
"Cozy, would you stay and eat with me?" Twilight said. She magicked both the plates from Rumble and put one in front of her. The other went to Cozy. "I'd like a word with you, if that's alright."
She absolutely did not want that. Not one bit. Not only was she going to get an earful now, but she also wanted to be alone in her room and just calm down for the next round of discussion. Or spend the time with Rumble. But running away from Twilight now would only cement the idea that Cozy was a poor student. So she nodded.
"I'll see you later," Rumble said with a wave before he left. Cozy decided to hold him to that promise. She needed something to look forward to right about now. Twilight closed the doors behind him with her magic.
Cozy involuntarily came to think of that time when she saw the great adamantine gates of Tartarus close and lock her in.
Rumble left the room as soon as he could. This was his chance to talk to Flurry when he knew Cozy could not see them. He wouldn't have had to worry. Flurry was waiting to pounce the moment the door closed. "We need to talk," she said. Her normally chirpy voice sounded serious. Rumble involuntarily straightened his back and neck a little. When an alicorn spoke like that, it was not the time to slouch.
"Yeah, I've got something to say too. But you start," Rumble said.
"Right…" Flurry said. "So, I told Twilight the other day that I've got… a feeling. For ponies. So I can sort of sense when they are happy, sad, lonely and things like that. But for some weird reason, Cozy is really hard to read. It's like she is hiding from me somehow."
Rumble just nodded. Honestly, that ability was a little bit creepy, but she was an alicorn… they probably had loads of mystical powers that background ponies like him didn't know about. Mind reading was probably a really lame ability to them. "Okay…? But what can I do about that?"
"Tell me what you think she really thinks of me," Flurry said. "She was actually pretty friendly to me once, but I can't feel any friendship! So I'm not sure she really was."
"Ah…" Rumble said lamely. Why did it have to be him who had to reveal to Flurry just how much trouble he had gone through just to get Cozy to give her a chance? Rumble was nearly certain Cozy had just been playing Flurry for some reason he probably didn't want to know. "Nice weather we are having," he tried. He felt his artificial smile waver the moment he tried to put it on.
"Hey, I'm serious!" Flurry said. For being such a small pony she suddenly had a lot of authority.
"Uh… I don't think she likes you very much…" Rumble had to admit, even if the words took considerable effort. "I've tried to get her to give you a chance though, I really have! But lately she's been acting so weird around me too! I don't even get her at all anymore."
"Oh…" Flurry dropped her ears.
"But I thought of something too, just now!" Rumble said. "Maybe she is jealous of you and thinks you want to steal my friendship."
Flurry looked quizzically at him. "You can steal friendships?"
"I actually don't think so, but Cozy said something like that once," Rumble explained. "Look, it doesn't matter if you can or not. If she thinks you can, then she will be suspicious of you."
"Hmm…" Flurry looked thoughtful. "I suppose that makes sense, sort of. But what do we do then?"
"We've got to convince her you aren't going to steal my friendship away. That might at least make her less angry with you."
Flurry nodded. "And I need to figure out how to make friends with her too."
Rumble sighed. "You really do, huh?"
Flurry tilted her head quizzically. "Sure?"
"I mean… It took me some weird things before I made friends with her, but she never treated me as poorly as she does you. I… guess I don't really get it, why do you still even want to make friends with Cozy after this. I don't think I would want to."
Flurry looked surprised for a moment, then suddenly troubled. "I… don't know? Maybe because Twilight wants it so much, or because you made her sound so exciting when we talked in Ponyville. I'm not sure. But I know I want to be her friend! I… think I have to."
"Have to? Why?"
Flurry just shrugged. "It's just a feeling…"
Probably another of her divine powers then, Rumble decided for himself. He didn't understand how or why Flurry might have come to this conclusion, but decided it was not worth adding that mystery to everything else now too. "You know, it should probably be Cozy who says this, but I'm really sorry about this mess." Rumble said instead. Divine powers or not, somepony owed Flurry an apology, and it wouldn't come from Cozy. "Cozy is… just weird with this whole thing. She is usually so smart. I don't get why she is suddenly so stupid whenever you are concerned. Look, what I'm saying is that she really isn't like this to her friends. She is really fun to be with."
"Hm…" Flurry got something shrewd in her eyes all of a sudden. She looked almost like Cozy did before she set him up as a scapegoat to some prank or another. "Speaking of how she usually is…If my methods of making friends with her doesn't work… How about we try her methods? How would Cozy Glow make friends with somepony who didn't like her?"
"Uh…" this is not a good idea. This was definitely not a good idea. "She'd probably figure out something that pony wants and then get them that…? Maybe you should ask Twilight? She has dealt with Cozy's antics more than me."
Flurry glanced at the closed door. When they were both silent, Twilight's and Cozy's muffled voices could be heard.
"They might be a while…" Flurry said. "Let's look through her room!" Flurry suggested excitedly.
"No! Nononono, absolutely not, bad idea!" Rumble said, his voice several octaves higher than normal. "If she finds you in there she is going to go through the roof!"
"But nothing else I've tried has worked!" Flurry argued. She smiled. "Besides, isn't it exciting to do things you are not supposed to? That's what she does, right?"
"Well, yeah…" Rumble was forced to admit. "But her pranks just gets me on chili-testing duty for a few hours. They don't get me killed if they fail!"
Flurry giggled. "Don't be silly. She can't be that bad."
"You have no idea how bad she can be," Rumble said.
"Then stay here and keep watch! I'm going!"
Then she went with determined hoofsteps towards Cozy's door.
"You don't know what Ursa Major you are poking right now!" Rumble pleaded. "If she finds you in there she will never want to be your friend! Cozy doesn't forget things like this. OH PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!"
"I can't heeear you," Flurry chirped. She seemed to enjoy his torment. Great.
She pushed Cozy's door open, then slipped inside. Rumble hesitated for just a moment, suppressed the urge to cry, and ran inside as well. Standing guard was not going to work. Cozy would easily see straight through his attempt to misdirect her anyway. His best bet at avoiding hideous disembowelment was to just get Flurry out of there before Cozy came back, and make sure they didn't leave any tracks.
"Be quick about this," Rumble begged her.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." She rolled her eyes and continued to look through the books on a bookshelf, tracing a wingtip over the backs of the books as she went. "Maybe I can get her a book on artifice?"
"I think most of them are hers already," Rumble pointed out. "As Twilight's student, she can read nearly any book she wants."
"Oh… right," Flurry said. Flurry proceeded to Cozy's bedside table. Rumble nearly passed out from stress when she picked up Cozy's rook, but then she put it down again after a few moments. Then she went on to Cozy's little workshop. "What's this?"
She picked up a goose feather in her magic.
"She's making that for me," Rumble said, feeling a little proud. "It's a self-writing quill. But she said she wanted another feather."
"Another feather?" Flurry looked at the quill, then at Rumble. She flicked her wing open and looked at it. "Did she say what sort?"
"No," Rumble said. "But… you're not thinking what I think you are, right?"
"I thought she might want one of mine," Flurry said.
"But that will hurt, won't it?" That was a stupid question, really. Every pegasus learns the pain of getting a feather plucked when they try how to preen themselves for the first time in flight school. Suffice to say, it is a mistake one endeavors to only make once. It didn't help that your wing also looked disheveled and untidy for weeks after when the feather grew back.
"Not to me," Flurry said. "Mommy has said it's an alicorn thing. When I get hurt playing it just hurts for a little while, and then it's fine again. I once scraped my knee when we played back in the Empire, but I didn't notice until somepony pointed out I had blood on my coat. But by then the wound was already gone."
"Huh…" more divine powers. He was learning a lot about alicorns today, it seemed. "Well, it's not right if you hurt yourself. There must be something else you can do, right? That's not in this room."
Flurry looked back at the goose quill. She extended one of her wings and plucked a colorful feather from the tip, wincing a little as she pulled it out. A shiver went through Rumble's spine just seeing it.
"Are… you alright?" he asked.
Flurry put the feather down. "It'll just be a few minutes," she said and folded the wing away. Rumble saw she held it a little strangely, reflexively trying to cover the part she had hurt. "I just hope this works." She put the feather down on Cozy's workbench. Then she nodded decisively. Well… so much for not leaving any tracks, but maybe, just maybe, if they phrased it like they just went in to leave her a surprise gift, Cozy might forgive them.
The door opened behind them.
"What are you two doing in here?"
Rumble felt the blood drain from his face.
If there had been any question about Cozy's mood before, they certainly disappeared when Flurry left. Twilight helped herself to a sandwich and subtly studied her student while they ate. Cozy's posture was stiff. Her tail was not quite still, but wagged slowly, this way and that. Shoulders were slumped and she kept her eyes downcast. Her ears were not hanging, but Twilight suspected she deliberately kept them up to appear calm. They still flicked and swiveled sometimes.
"I'm happy you agreed to join the discussion, Cozy," Twilight said mildly. Cozy didn't like being pressured, but if Twilight could just soothe her a little, she might open up on her own. It was a long shot, but if her feelings for friendship didn't lie, then Cozy had thawed a little towards her since their bout about Flurry. Time to see if that could be something for them to build on. "I know you still have disagreements with my niece."
"Sure, I'm your student," Cozy said. She took a bite of her own sandwich, still keeping her eyed down.
"And you continue to impress," Twilight said. "You think about your answers, and you stand for them… really, many times, I see you answer the same way I did when I faced similar decisions."
That got Cozy to lift her eyes. She looked at once hopeful and wary. "I do? But Flurry's answers were… friendlier, weren't they? And if she can sense what ponies think, then she must be a better student than me."
Twilight smiled quickly. "She isn't a better student than you because she has an easier time making friends. You are both here to learn, and you have gone from being one of my greatest enemies to being a student with two loyal friends that you made all of your own. You have come very far in a very short time, and that proves your potential, even if you still have plenty to learn. You still don't like Flurry very much, do you?"
Cozy hesitated, but then she shook her head. Good. At least she trusted Twilight enough to tell her directly. "She wants to steal Rumble's friendship from me. And I… can't let that happen. I'm not going to."
"Cozy… I can promise you Flurry doesn't want to steal his friendship," Twilight said with certainty. "She actually told me she asked him for advice on how to get closer to you. I'd wager that's what made her want to befriend him in the first place. She wants to be your friend, Cozy. She really does."
"Then she could have just asked him for advice! She didn't have to go to Ponyville and walk close to her, or hold her hoof when they were bowling!" Cozy growled. Her belligerence was back.
"How do you know they did all that?" Twilight asked. She barely had to finish the sentence before she knew. "You spied on them, didn't you?"
Cozy hesitated, then nodded. She looked more sad than ashamed though. "And I don't think it was the wrong thing to do. Friendship is power, remember? I look out for my friendships, no matter what."
"Looking out for your friendships isn't wrong," Twilight said. "But going behind your friend's back and telling them who they can and can't make friends with is. I don't think you would like it if I said you couldn't make friends with somepony who was kind to you and wanted to spend time with you."
Cozy was silent. "Even if she didn't want to steal his friendship… she still is. Rumble is spending a lot of time with her and… and that's time he can't spend with me."
"You can't demand he spend all his time with you," Twilight said. "You are smart, Cozy. You know that isn't reasonable. Besides, you aren't complaining that he is spending most of his time in the kitchen rather than with you."
"Golly…" Cozy squirmed on her stool. Twilight wished she knew what she was thinking. There was clearly some other aspect as to why Cozy remained so angry with Flurry, but she refused to reveal what it was. But still, talking to her like this was leagues ahead of what she had been able to before. Maybe Cozy really was beginning to slowly change her ways? The thought made Twilight's mind feel a little lighter. She had the potential to become a great pony one day, and the sooner she could tap into that potential, the better for herself, and Equestria too.
Their conversation faded away after that, but the silence wasn't awkward. It wasn't friendly either, but Twilight decided to consider this a win, for now.
"If you are done, I'm going to get Flurry and we can continue our lesson," She put a hoof on Cozy's shoulder when she went past. "Don't doubt yourself, Cozy. You are doing great."
Cozy nodded. "Thanks."
"I'll be back in just a few moments." Twilight left the room and spied up and down the corridor. No sign of Flurry. Strange… she knew it wouldn't be a very long break, so why would she run off?
A voice caught her ears.
"Are… you alright?" That was Rumble's voice. But where was he?
"It'll just be a few minutes. I just hope this works."
And Flurry too. Twilight looked at the door to Cozy's room. That's where the voices came from. Strange… Why would Flurry go there? Cozy surely had not given them permission to go through her room. It was a strange streak of rudeness on Flurry's part to do that. She must know she wasn't supposed to do that.
And, if so, Twilight had to be stern. While Flurry probably had good intentions, it was still wrong, and Cozy was Twilight's student. She had to make sure Cozy's boundaries were respected.
She arranged her face in a frown and quietly opened the door. They were standing next to Cozy's desk, looking at something Twilight couldn't see.
"What are you two doing in here?"