The blue unicorn in magician’s garb trots towards the three fillies as they approach the cottage. She shouts, “Cozy! Did you have fun at the lake with your friends? What did you do? Are you okay?”
“Oh, golly gee mom! You worry too much!” Cozy says while trotting towards the cottage and smiling, to the right of Starshine and behind Little Snack, as her wavy bluish white mane flows around her horn and behind her winged body and her long tail flows behind her.
Trixie trots to meet the fillies in her yard while saying, “Of course! Uh, I didn’t think it was possible, but my house seems cleaner now than it did when I left this morning! Cozy! Did you start cleaning again after I left?”
Cozy looks down as her cheeks redden and says, “Um, yeah mom… I wanted to be a 'good filly' and so I cleaned some more…” Cozy looks up at Trixie as her brown eyes widen, “You know, I don’t think there’s anything else I can clean at this point?”
Starshine looks over at Cozy and says, “Well golly Cozy! You did go over everything three times! I think that’s pretty thorough?”
Cozy grimaces at Starshine while saying, “Okay! I was crazy! I get it!”
Starshine smiles and says, “Well, at least you got us now?”
Little Snack turns to face Cozy, while Cozy says to Starshine, “Yup! Nice inflection on the golly by the way! I love your pickup towards the end!” who soon grimaces at her.
Trixie continues as the three fillies look up at her, “Anyway, tell me Cozy! Did you learn anything new about your powers?”
Cozy nods, “Oh golly yes, mom! I can control myself a lot better when I’m flying now, when I use my telekinesis on myself!” She stops nodding and squints her right eye, “You know, I must not weigh that much because manipulating my body seems a lot easier than many objects I’ve lifted!”
Trixie smiles and giggles before saying, “Yes Cozy! You’re not that big! Go inside now sweetie! I’ll make lunch for everypony!”
“I’ll help!” chimes in Little before she begins trotting forward.
“Me too!” says Starshine as she does the same from Cozy’s side.
“Yeah, I wanna help!” says Cozy before she begins to move towards the cottage.
As the ponies trot into the living area, Trixie turns to Cozy behind her, trotting in with her friends and says, “Cozy! You’ve done plenty today! Allow us to treat you!”
“Yeah Cozy! Ultra-Pony or no, we don’t want you to do EVERYTHING!” says Little Snack from the side.
Cozy looks back at her friends with wide eyes and says, “Golly! So even though I could easily make lunch for you, you wanna do it for me now, huh?”
Trixie says, “Well Cozy, that’s another friendship lesson! It’s not fair for one pony to be doing everything for everypony else! And whether they can do so or not shouldn’t matter! Every little bit still helps though, just like before!”
Little Snack chuckles and says, “Around you ponies, I don’t need to go to the School of Friendship! I’ll learn ALL about it right here!”
Starshine looks over to the earth pony and says, “You know, as much as I enjoy learning, we should probably eat now! After all that swimming, I’m starving!”
“Well golly! Uh, what should I do while you’re making lunch?” Cozy says while looking at the blue unicorn nervously.
Trixie scrunches her mouth, “Uh, just sit at the table and wait for us baby! In fact, take a coloring book if you like! You’ve been so good today!”
Cozy starts at this comment and says, “Well golly gee! I just uh, did what I was supposed to do! I was a good filly and cleaned the house! Yes!” before leveling her face and beaming.
Trixie’s eyes widen as a disturbing thought suddenly occurs to her, “Uh, Cozy! Avoid doing uh, things unless I tell you it’s okay from here on out, alright?” she straightens herself, “You wouldn’t want to do something you’re not supposed to, yes?”
Cozy looks down for a moment before saying in a lower voice, “You don’t want me to get out of control, huh?”
“Well, uh er, it’s just that having all this power is new to you Cozy and I don’t want you to do anything bad with it alright?” Trixie says before she smiles and trots forward two paces, “We need to take this nice and slow… Like when I was learning a new trick!”
Cozy looks back up, “Well, that makes sense!” Her left eye squints, “You know, I might be loco, but I can still figure out what you’re thinking!”
“Well right! Crazy, or no, you’re still brilliant my child! Now go sit down!” Trixie says before looking to the other two fillies, “Come on little ones! We’ve got garlic bran patties to fry!”
Trixie and the other two fillies trot into the kitchen while Cozy trots over to sit down in the dining area. She soon sees the other three ponies working.
In the kitchen next door, she sees Trixie on the left saying say, “Alright! Little Snack! You’re kitchen gopher! (Little Snack nods her head) And Starshine! You work the skillet! (Starshine nods affirmatively and trots to the stove on the right.) And the Great and Powerful Trixie, shall work her magic with the spice rack!” before she looks over to her left and floats a three-tiered rack of spices over to herself in her blue magic.
Cozy then sees Trixie say, “Alright Little Snack! Go get the bran patties! They should be on the third shelf up in the cupboard!”
Little nods and says, “Right! Third shelf up! Got it!” before turning to trot out of Cozy’s view to the left.
Cozy then hears Little struggling and grunting. Cozy starts and then gets off her seat and begins to trot towards the kitchen.
As Cozy walks in and stares at Little Snack on her left, she hears the box of bran patties landing on the floor before seeing the earth filly landing just to the left of it, after dropping her body from her forehooves on the third shelf up.
Trixie, standing next to Starshine near the stove on the other side, looks at Cozy and says, “What’s wrong honey?” before looking down to the pink filly and frowning.
Cozy looks at the blue unicorn and says, “Um, is it okay if I stand here? I just uh…” she looks down at the wooden floor.
Little Snack looks at Cozy before heading towards the box on the floor at her right and heaving it on her snout. Then she trots over to Starshine as Trixie says to Cozy, “Well sure Cozy! Wherever you like to be is fine!”
Cozy looks up and widens her eyes and says, “Oh uh, okay! I just uh, don’t wanna be alone right now…” before looking down.
Trixie smiles and says, “Of course, darling! Whatever you feel you need is fine! We’re all here for you!”
Cozy smiles up at her mother as her face brightens, “Well, that’s just swell mom!”
Trixie then levels her eyes and looks to her right before using her blue magic to levitate the spice rack to her left side and trotting over to the stove with it in tow. She stares at it and selects two different spice jars from the top and one from the bottom by levitating them towards her and then opening them with the caps floated over to the counter on the stove’s left. She looks at the patties frying with Starshine and says, “Stand back fillies!”
She takes two paces towards the stove while Starshine takes a step back on her right. She levitates two of the spice jars over the bran patties, frying in a black skillet on the front right burner, and sprinkles them over the top while muttering to herself about sodium and balance. She then levitates all four patties over the pan, turns them over, and sprinkles both spices over the patties once more before levitating the two jars back to the left of the stove with their caps, floating the other spice jar to her before saying, “And now, to make them Great and Powerful Garlic Bran Patties!” And then opening and lightly sprinkling the final spice over the frying patties with her magic as she smiles at her handiwork.
Trixie levitates the four patties over to a plate to the right of the stove as she looks at it before turning to the stove and magically turning off the burner and floating the skillet to the burner behind the one where it had been sitting.
Cozy notices a small draconequus in her periphery on her left shoulder whisper, “You could easily make lunch for everypony, and yet you have them do it for you! Don’t let power go to your head Cozy!”
Cozy sneers down at him and says, “Oh please! You think you can get in my head that easy?”
Discord giggles and disappears with a small pop.
Trixie looks to the pseudo-alicorn and says, “Who are you talking to Cozy?”
Cozy looks back at her and shakes her head as she says, “Nopony! Nopony at all! Gee, I sure am hungry!”
Trixie smiles and says, “Well, go sit down at the table baby! I’ll bring it to you." She raises her head, "Go sit down everypony!”
“Yay!” Little Snack shouts as she hurriedly trots to the right side of the table. She yanks a chair out with her teeth and then scoots into it from the side.
Starshine sees this, shakes her head with a wry smile on her face, and quietly trots over to the other side and magically pulls a chair out for herself with a deep blue glow and solemnly sits down herself.
Cozy is watching this the whole time when Trixie looks over at her, “Well, aren’t you gonna go sit with your friends, sweetie?”
“Golly right!” Cozy starts and shakes her head before trotting over to the far end of the table. She begins to reach out with her neck before stopping, looking at her horn with her eyes, and then making it glow as her eyes strain and the chair soon magically scoots back for her with her own distinctive pinkish white glow. She smiles and sits at the table.
Trixie soon trots in with a platter in her magical grasp, sets it down at the center of the table before looking at the china cabinet on the other side of the dining room, magically floating out four plates and setting one down in front of each pony, plus one at the head of the table. Then she floats each bran patty off the large plate onto the smaller one in front of each pony, plus one for her at the head. She smiles and trots over to her seat, before pulling it out with her horn and sitting on it. She then closes her eyes as her hat and cape begin to levitate off her body with a blue glow and fly over to the cabinet on the other end of the room, to the left of the china cabinet. Then, she looks at the pink filly in front of her and says, “How are you holding up sweetie?”
Cozy looks at Trixie, “Golly mom! Having power is all kinda new to me and while I was nervous at first, learning to control it with you was a lot of fun and I liked swimming with my friends this morning!” before smiling and nodding her head before her long flowing mane falls to her shoulders.
Trixie looks down and sighs, “Yes, but how do you feel Cozy?”
Cozy starts at this, “Golly, um…” she looks down, “I guess I’m doing okay?”
Little Snack looks to Cozy at her right and Trixie to her left, shrugs, and grabs her bran patty in her forehooves and starts to munch ravenously on it.
Starshine giggles at Little Snack from across the table before raising her bran patty in a greenish-blue glow to float it over to her mouth and begin taking timid bites of the morsel.
“Well, I do love you little Cozy Glow… You truly are something special you know that?” Trixie says before floating her patty to her mouth and eating it slowly.
“Aww, shucks!” Cozy says as her face reddens again, and she solemnly takes her own bran patty in her forehooves and commences to take a little bite.
Little sees Cozy and says, “She is pretty cute when she blushes!”
Cozy starts at the earth filly, “What? I don’t blush!”
Starshine looks at Cozy, “Right?”
Cozy stares towards the center of the table and yells, “I don’t blush!” as her cheeks redden.
Trixie smiles at the pink filly, “You’re blushing right now!”
Cozy squints at Trixie, “No I don’t! Stop trying to get in my head!”
Starshine smiles, “Denial isn’t just a river in Equinypt you know?”
Cozy squints at Starshine as she growls, “GRR!”
Trixie looks at Cozy and says, “Yes, you’re cute and you blush! And you also growl sometimes! Everypony knows this! But is anything troubling you now little Cozy?”
Cozy starts as she shakes her head and says, “Um, nothing off the top of my head no?” while squinting her left eye and curving her mouth. “I guess I should let you know if something comes up huh?”
“Absolutely!” Trixie says.
Little says, “Yeah! I mean, we wouldn’t be able to help you if you don’t tell us something is wrong right?”
Cozy moves her head towards the earth filly, “Well, golly right! With uh, The Magic of Friendship, I can overcome anything? Uh, right?”
Suddenly, the picture of an elderly light blue unicorn magician with neatly cropped goatee behind Trixie begins to float from the pale green wall and float in front of it. Cozy sees this and says, “Knock it off Discord! I already know you’re here!” The picture quickly slaps back against the wall, causing Trixie to flinch and close her eyes quickly.
Trixie looks at Cozy with wide purple eyes, “Discord is here?” She looks behind her on her left, “Show yourself and release my child!”
At that point, a malevolent echoing voice from somewhere in the room says, “Oh please Trixie! We all know you’re just a failed second-rate magician who decided to play 'mommy' by adopting this little monster!” as Trixie looks around her chair.
Cozy gets to her hooves on her chair and sneers, “Monster is a very relative term Discord… You know, I could call you a monster for feeling the need to test me, despite the fact that I have literally done everything in my power to be a better filly!”
“Everything in your power?” chimes the voice sardonically, “You’re obviously playing the long game Cozy! You may believe you have them fooled, but I know you!”
Cozy yells, “You don’t know anything about me Discord!”
“We shall see…” the voice says.
Trixie yells out to the front of her chair with an angry look in her eyes as her pupils dilate, “Take away Cozy’s horn this instant Discord!”
Cozy stands on her chair and looks around while the other three ponies sit wordlessly in their chairs. Finally, Cozy says to Trixie, “Um, I think he’s gone?”
Trixie looks at the pink filly, “Yeah, but he’ll be back later!”
“Golly! So, what do we do now mom?”
Trixie sighs and looks down, “Honestly, there’s not much we can do at this point? Just eat out bran patties and move on!”
“Oh golly! Um, alright mom!” Cozy says before sitting back down and picking her bran patty up in her forehooves before somberly munching on it some more. Suddenly, the bran patty in Cozy’s forehooves turns brown and a snarl toothed face stares back at her from it and says in Discord’s voice, “Don’t you think it’s uh, AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” the patty begins to scream as Cozy bites into it, before returning to its original color without the face.
Trixie looks to the pink filly across the table and says, “Good heavens! What in Equestria was that?”
Cozy swallows and looks at her mother, “Oh that was probably Discord! I just took a bite out of him!” before looking down to her bran patty and moving it back to her mouth for another bite.
Trixie's mouth and pupils grow small as she widens her eyes to this deranged pink filly, now happily munching a bran patty...
<*****>
Cozy tries her best to rest between the two fillies. This time, Little Snack is holding her after she and Starshine agreed to take turns… Cozy stirs as her eyes are shut and her mouth scrunches with her mind racing with thoughts… She finally opens her mouth, before quietly skootching up out of Little’s embrace to slowly get to her hooves on the far end of the bed.
She whispers to herself, “Golly! I’m just not tired!” before slowly trotting over to her bookshelf on the other side of the room and fetching book 4 of the Dragon-Corn series with her mouth and setting it in the floor. She grasps the book in her forehooves, reading by the sunlight from the window to her right, occasionally turning a page.
After some time passes, she hears something stirring on the bed. She looks up and sees Starshine awake and on her haunches on the bed. She squints as she notices that Starshine’s eyes are now glowing an eerie pale green color. She also sees Little Snack getting out of bed to the floor on the other end and sees the same pale green color glowing in her eyes.
Cozy scrunches her mouth and quietly mutters, “Oh golly!” to herself before looking to her friends, widening her eyes, and saying excitedly, “Hey girls! Sure, hope you slept well!”
There’s no response from the two fillies as they both get off the bed in unison and trot towards the door in a mechanical fashion. There’s no emotion or expression on their blank faces as Starshine trots to the door, opens it with her forehoof and walks out with Little Snack shortly behind her.
Cozy steps out shortly after them and looks out into the foyer to see where they’re heading.
Starshine and Little both slowly walk to the door of the cottage. Starshine opens that with her forehoof and trots out, once again, with Little following robotically behind her.
“Okay, this is weird!” Cozy says as she trots some distance behind them as they both trot West towards the Market Square, beyond Trixie’s grove.
Cozy sees many ponies in the area, but they’re all robotically walking the same direction as her friends and she can't help but notice that same peculiar pale green color from their eyes. She scrunches her brow and thinks to herself, “Okay, more than likely, there’s some sort of evil spell on them… And they’re probably all heading to the same place! Wherever that is…” as her mouth scrunches and eyes look intently at her surroundings, she looks around the market.
Cozy tails them further west, while still on the ground and sees that they are now heading to the Castle of Friendship to the north, as there’s nothing else of note in the area, aside from other shops in the Market District. She decides that the answer is probably there! But to verify, she carefully trots some distance away from the two fillies while watching them as they both slowly trot that way. She looks to her right side and flexes her little wing while scrunching her mouth. “They’re not moving very fast. I probably have time for a quick flyover, huh?” She squats down and hops while flapping her wings to take off!
She flies west and circles to go south and then east and finally heads back north to where she was so she can circle the area and get a better look around the Ponyville Market Square. She sees ponies with that same creepy green color in their eyes, all marching north towards the castle. She looks to her two friends, coming up on her left and still slowly walking that way before banking downward and circling back to her left and landing about 20 feet behind them, skidding to a stop on her little hooves. She slides forward a couple of feet before looking back behind her to the castle itself, which is now some distance beyond a block of stores and shops and sees many ponies are now entering it from the front door as she says to herself, “Bingo! Now the question is, how do I enter? Well, whoever this is obviously wants the infected ponies to go in that way and so that’s probably right out? Um, I didn’t see anything going on in the skies?” before scanning the area over the castle for threats.
Cozy squats and launches herself to the skies once more! This time, she soars over towards the Castle of Friendship. She sees towers and parapets on top of the stone structure and as she is flying that direction. She picks one on the right as she looks over to it and soars that direction. She soon lands at the top of the tower as she once again skids to a stop on her little hooves.
She looks around on top of the parapet to see that she’s now surrounded by a stone barrier with slits in the sides and notices a wooden trap door to her right. She trots over to the trap door and grabs the metal ring in her teeth and brings it up to open before looking down to a stone staircase, leading into a darkened area below.
Cozy gulps and walks slowly walks down the staircase. It curves along the tower and she starts to feel sick as the staircase all looks the same as she winds her way down the tower.
She stops for a second, closes her eyes, and breaths. “Golly, this tower sure is tall!” She mutters to herself before looking back up to where she had been before looking down and trotting that way once more. Finally, she sees a stone landing down below with a whicker carpet there, maybe a foot and a half from the front of the staircase.
She gets down there and sees that she’s now in a long stone hallway with many heavy wooden doors in either direction. She scrunches her mouth and mumbles to herself, “Okay, if I were a baddie bent on taking over Ponyville, where would I be?” She looks up with an unsure glare. She straightens her head and widens her eyes, “Probably the throne room!” Then she looks to her right and takes off to fly further down the hallway where she remembers the throne room being.
She looks and sees zombified ponies, but none of them really bother her. She banks left to pass a tan earth stallion with a long light brown wavy mane and tail on her way down the hall as she says, “Scuse me!” The stallion just silently trots at a slow melodic pace the same direction Cozy is flying.
She turns to her right down the stone hallway, laden with wooden doors as she knows the throne room is that way and she sees a magenta unicorn with hot pink mane and tail coming up on her right and banks to pass her while saying, “Pardon me ma’am!”
She finally makes her way to the antechamber of the throne room and lands to another skidding stop on her hooves. She looks to the door on her right, gulps and says, “Golly! Last time I was here, I was talking to Twilight and Starlight about all I did… And now what?” before turning and trotting two paces to the door and opening it with her right forehoof.
<*****>
Cozy sees a dark gray unicorn stallion standing to the right of the throne, roughly thirty feet in front her as she trots in towards him. He has a long black wavy mane and tail that he occasionally swishes as he stares out the window. He wears a dark cloak, and his glowing horn is an orangish red color that curves cruelly back. He stares back to the entrance on his right with jet black eyes and says, “Cozy Glow? What are you doing here?”
Cozy trots forward and widens her eyes, “Well golly gee Sombra! I could ask you the same question! Back to zombifying ponies I see!”
Sombra smiles as he turns completely and begins to trot towards Cozy a few paces, “Well, it’s an oldie, but a goodie!” His face straightens, “But you didn’t answer my question! What are you doing here? And why do you have a horn now?”
“I ran into some weird magic and gained unicorn powers! Well uh, they’re stronger than most unicorn powers, I think.” Cozy says as she squints her right eye before straightening her face, “Anyway, I too am now free Sombra!”
“Oh?” Sombra says with an inquisitive look in his eyes and says, “Well, since you’re here, we could work together and conquer even more of this wretched land! What say you child?” before staring down at her with a fiendish grin on his face.
Cozy smiles at Sombra, “Well golly gee Sombra! That sounds just swell!” She looks back down, “It sounds swell, but you see, all of my friends are here, as is my new mother, so I can’t let you do that!” before looking back up at him and smiling.
“Umm…”
Cozy doesn’t let Sombra finish the thought as she stares directly at him, “You know, I was gonna trick you!” Cozy starts and widens her brown eyes, “Golly yeah, I was gonna pretend to be your friend and then overthrow you when you didn’t expect it! Then I was gonna return Ponyville back to normal after I took you out!” and then smiling at the confused dark unicorn.
Sombra frowns and asks, “Why are you telling me this?”
Cozy smiles brighter, “Because I don’t really need to be subtle when I can easily just buck you up!” Before her horn glows and she tilts her head, sending a powerful magic blast at the unicorn. Sombra hastily attempts to erect a pale blue magical forcefield, but it only gets shattered as the massive blast of white energy goes right through it and forces his body to slam against the wall behind him with a resounding thud as several cracks form in the stone behind him.
Sombra slowly gets up as his body quivers from the intense shock and blood now pours from a new cut on the side of his head as well as his mouth and nose. He looks to the pink filly and asks, “Why?”
Cozy fluffs her wings and says, “Golly! That was really therapeutic after the last couple of days!” She stares at Sombra, “Oh, why? Because my friends are here! And so’s my mom! This is my home now, Sombra! And I will defend it!” Before sending another blast of magic to Sombra with her horn.
Sombra stumbles to the right just in time to dodge as the blast hits the wall, causing a small explosion and creating a hole where the cracks used to be, and parts of the village can now be seen from behind.
Sombra begins to chant an incantation as his horn glows with an ethereal black energy that he soon sends towards Cozy. Dark tendrils streak towards her from Sombra, but quickly bounce off a previously invisible light blue forcefield around Cozy only to dissipate in the air.
Cozy sneers and says, “Oh please! You didn’t think I was ready for that Sombra? You really are stupid you know that?” and then her horn glows and Sombra is suddenly encased in a light blue magical sphere that lifts him off the ground about 10 feet.
Cozy looks to Sombra intently and says, “Good! And now that you’re contained, I have questions! First off, where’s Princess Twilight?”
Sombra says, “She’s away in Canterlot! I knew I could subdue Starlight Glimmer by myself and…”
“Quiet!” Cozy doesn’t let him finish. She sighs and says, “I really don’t wanna do this…”She closes her eyes before looking at the black pony and saying, “But now I have to kill you…”
“Wait, what?” Sombra says as his eyes now grow wide and tremble in fear.
“Well golly yeah Sombra!” Cozy begins to trot around the sphere holding Sombra, “You know, I’ll admit that I was wrong about friendship… It isn’t power! It’s something much better! It’s spirit Sombra! It’s the very fabric that holds us all together!”
“Well, right! Go on Cozy!”
“Shut up!” Cozy says as she angrily glares up at the forcefield, “I know you’re just stalling!” Cozy sighs as she looks forward and continues, “That fabric gave meaning to my life Sombra… It made me see that I’m not alone and that I actually have somepony I can rely on now…” She looks back to Sombra as she trots, “And despite being banished to the frozen north three times already, you keep coming back!” She turns her body and steps towards Sombra, “So you gotta understand, killing you is the way to go here… Any last words?”
Frantically, Sombra says, “Stop Cozy! Killing is wrong!”
“So’s taking over Ponyville, but that didn’t stop you now did it?” Cozy says with a vicious smirk on her face.
“Cozy, stop!” Says a feminine voice from behind Cozy.
Cozy turns to see a magenta unicorn with a purple mane with lavender streaks behind her. She says to Starlight with wide eyes, “W-what?”
“Cozy Glow, killing him won’t solve anything!” Starlight says as she trots forward a few paces.
Cozy scrunches her mouth and says, “You sure about that? He has been a lot of trouble, and this would instantly solve all of those problems!”
Starlight looks down and says, “Trust me Cozy. Don’t become a killer… Let the authorities deal with him.” before looking up at Sombra sternly.
“Well, okay Starlight…” Cozy nods and turns around to Sombra, “Okay, by order of the Guidance Counselor at the School of Friendship, I can’t kill you now! Guess it’s your lucky day, huh?”
“Uh Cozy?” Starlight says before Cozy turns her head to the left. “I’m the principle now!”
“Ugh!” Cozy sighs as she rolls her eyes and turns back to face Sombra, “By order of the Principle at the School of Friendship, I can’t kill you now!”
Suddenly, the room darkens and everypony in the room hears a familiar voice say, “That doesn’t count Cozy! You were all set and ready to do the wrong thing before Starlight here interrupted you!”
Cozy starts as she faces forward, “Not entirely true Discord! Yeah, I was gonna kill Sombra! But my heart was in the right place! I specifically said it was so that he would never threaten me, my friends, or my town ever again! That’s the only reason I was going to kill him!”
Starlight scrunches her mouth, “You gotta admit, she makes a point Discord! While her methods may have been questionable, she did actually want to make Equestria a better place!” She looks to the filly and smiles, “Something I myself can relate to!”
“Oh fine! I’m getting bored with her anyway! Cozy, I’m taking your magic away! See you later!”
Then, Cozy’s horn starts to glow as she looks at it with her brown eyes and it grows clear before disappearing off her forehood entirely. She fluffs her wings again and says, “I’d better not!” Then Cozy begins to stagger and sway as she says, “WHOA!” before the world fades to black for her and her body hits the floor on it’s left side and she passes out.
<*****>
Cozy wakes up feeling something soft and cottony against her head. She can tell that it’s a pillow and she also feels blankets covering her small body as she opens her eyes.
She sees Nurse Redheart standing about 15 feet in front of the bed next to the door and scribbling something on a clipboard mounted onto the wall with the pen in her mouth. She spits it onto the table on her left and turns left to look at Cozy. “Cozy Glow! You’ve been asleep for 10 hours now! How are you feeling?”
Cozy’s eyes go to her forehead and she sighs in relief when she doesn’t see a horn there, “Kinda groggy and really thirsty Nurse Redheart!”
The nurse smiles, “Of course! I’ll get you some juice and let Trixie and your friends know that you’re awake.” Before trotting towards the door to Cozy's right, opening it with her forehoof, and trotting out into the hallway before shutting it again and hoofsteps can be heard disappearing down the hall.
Cozy looks around the room and sees that it’s a very unassuming hospital room. She sees a small table and a chair in the other corner to her right, near the door and she also notices that she’s not alone in the bed. Mr. Bearington and Snorkel are both there with her, sitting over the covers on the other side! She looks at them and smiles warmly at her stuffed friends.
Soon, a blue unicorn in magician’s attire trots into the hospital room, with a dark purple unicorn filly and an orange earth filly following closely behind her. They all stand in the room, opposite to the bed with Trixie front and center and Little Snack to her back right and Starshine to her back left.
“Golly! You’re all here for me?” Cozy says from behind the wavy blue curls of her mane before moving them out of the way with her left forehoof to show her bright wide auburn eyes and grateful smile.
Trixie smiles and says, “Yes Cozy! We brought you here and have been checking on you!”
“Wow!” Cozy says before smiling brighter.
Trixie continues, “How do you feel Cozy?”
“Well, my head is a little woozy and I feel really thirsty!”
At that point, Nurse Redheart trots into the room with a glass of red liquid on her snout to Cozy’s bed. Cozy grabs the liquid with her forehooves and greedily drinks most of it down.
The nurse smiles and straightens herself out.
Cozy finishes the glass with one final mighty gulp, burps and says, “Excuse me!” She looks to the nurse, “Thanks Nurse Redheart!”
“No problem!” The nurse says before lowering her snout.
Cozy puts the glass on her muzzle and she quickly and quietly leaves the room.
“So!” Trixie says as she straightens her mouth, “You were going to kill King Sombra? Well, that’s what Starlight was telling me, but I wanted to know what happened from you?”
The two fillies both look to Cozy wide eyed and aghast as Cozy says, “Well, he’s been banished to the frozen north three times already and keeps coming back…” She looks down, “I wanted to keep everypony safe… He’s a bad pony after all…”
Trixie says, “Yes Cozy, I understand that you wanted to keep everypony safe… But you must understand that killing Sombra is not the answer!”
Cozy’s eyes widen, “Golly! I guess good intentions alone aren’t enough huh?”
Trixie smiles, “No Cozy. It’s also important to do the right thing and examine yourself. Tell me, do you really think killing him would be fair to Sombra?”
“Golly! Why should it matter what’s fair to him mom? He’s not a very nice pony!”
Trixie smiles and says, “Yes Cozy, but you’re better than that! And you can do better!”
“Well uh, okay mom! I’ll listen to you, Starlight, and the others from now on okay?” Cozy says before nodding at Trixie.
Trixie smiles at Cozy from underneath her wide brimmed magician’s hat, decorated with moons and stars, “Golly, that’d be just swell Cozy!”
(To be continued…)