She was slowly waking up.
Cozy rested with Yona downstairs.
The clubhouse that day was fairly empty save for her, Yona, and Sandbar.
It was such a lazy afternoon that she and Yona had fallen asleep, but then, the front door opened.
Cozy blinked away the haze within her vision and saw somepony walking up to where she slept.
The young changeling turned back around nervously, and Cozy then heard Ocellus say, "I probably shouldn't disturb her about something like this right now... She looks so peaceful."
Cozy then sighed towards her upcoming troubles and invited her friend, Ocellus to sit with her. "I'm awake..."
"I'm... sorry," Ocellus said. Her eyes glistened more and more the closer she got, and she soon laid down beside Yona's fur with Cozy Glow. Their shoulders touched.
"For what?" Cozy asked curiously.
Ocellus gulped, but then said to the filly, "Chrysalis isn't... My mother isn't, uh... How exactly should I put this?"
Cozy kept on smiling. There was something about Ocellus lately that Cozy found to be highly enjoyable. She also already knew what the changeling's problem was.
"She's... not doing so well." There was silence, and Ocellus continued to say, "She's behaving kind of... awkwardly around my fellow family members, and I think... I think we need your help. Again."
Cozy yawned, and offered, "Why hasn't Thorax mentioned this to me? I saw him in town just yesterday. I asked him to keep me informed, and the last letter that I received from him stated that everything over there was... just fine..."
Cozy watched closely as Ocellus breathed heavily, and then she told Cozy, "Everything over there is not fine. It's not fine over there at all..." The air had become heavy, and looking into her eyes, Cozy listened closely. "You're Equestria's hero now, Cozy... Not only that, but in a strange quirk of fate... you have somehow overtime become my best friend... I'm sure the others would say the same."
Cozy at last stopped smiling, and she asked, "Ocellus? If you want, we can go to her. Right now." Ocellus sniffled, and heard her friend tell her, "I had a feeling something might've happened. Queen Chrysalis is a little bit more complicated than... let's say, Tirek. I've learned by now that he's just slightly homesick... Oh, and he's got daddy issues." As Cozy got up and strapped on her roller skates, she stated with an annoyed tone, "Lots... and lots of daddy issues."
Ocellus walked out the door with Cozy Glow, and kindly asked, "Please... if it's alright, please don't tell me about it."
"When the time comes, Ocellus, I'll write you letters while I'm away in Tanticoria... Until then, of course I'll help you out with the Queen. She's got a soft spot in my heart..." Cozy scoffed while hoofing jokingly. "Besides, we all have parental problems, right? Probably even me. Unfortunately, Tirek requires a much more careful approach. Anyways, Ocellus, let's go."
"Mmhmm," the changeling said.
"But first..."
Cozy Glow spun back around, and Ocellus asked, "First?"
"I think we should recruit just one more... There's somepony in town who as I understand it... already has a certain history with your mom. Right?"
Ocellus blinked and blushed, and then she shrugged without a clue.
Cozy sighed, and said, "Starlight Glimmer..."
Ocellus gasped, "Oh..." She then nodded happily. "Yes, of course! Starlight Glimmer actually could help in this matter greatly!"
Cozy slowly took off skating while saying, "We'd better get a move on! The noon train will be departing pretty soon..." Ocellus quickly took flight and followed closely behind her friend. While leading the way, Cozy called out, "I see you've been practicing!"
Ocellus immediately replied, and shouted below her, "Thanks! Those private lessons you've been giving me has really paid off."
The train ride there was somewhat uneventful save for one occurrence that the young pegasus would question for a long while. She sat directly next to Ocellus, and while the two of them leaned upon each other, and drifted in and out of consciousness, Cozy Glow saw something odd just outside of her window. Despite her drowsiness brought upon by the soft rumblings made by the train, she was for certain that she had not yet fallen asleep. This was not a dream. Whatever she saw, or whoever she saw was really there, and she could've sworn that he was glaring directly back at her as the train passed him by.
Ocellus's right hoof rested on Cozy Glow's, and the pegasus just tilted her head against the smooth, glass window. She blinked, and smiled as she was held very closely by her friend. Just as she started to nod off, she slowly began to close her eyes, but then, she widely reopened them. She even gasped, and the car became disturbingly quiet.
A pink maned, fully grown male pegasus stood outside close by to the rails and watched with a slightly brimmed brown hat. His coat was mostly white and slightly grey in certain areas. To Cozy Glow's great surprise, she managed to also get a good look at his cutie mark. It was a chess piece, but not just any chess piece. It was a king.
"I-is that... a k-king...!"
He also possessed an ordinary looking suitcase sitting next to him. He seemed to be smiling, and all Cozy Glow could do was stare and blink at the window long after he was gone.
"No way... Was I dreaming? Was that...?" She asked, "Could that have been... my...?"
She huffed, and for the rest of the ride, this was what was on Cozy Glow's mind.
Deep within the Catacomb Woods nestled the recently prosperous village that the changelings occupied and tended for. It steeply reached across a sloping and half burrowing hillside. At its edges were a series of caverns, and within the largest cave was Queen Chrysalis. She remained there all alone while refusing to see any visitors for days and days.
Cozy Glow walked alongside Ocellus, and commented, "déjà vu..."
"Hmm?" Ocellus asked.
Cozy replied, "It's nothing... We were just here not too long ago, actually, but like I said, I'm not really all that surprised."
They rounded a corner, and then Ocellus said, "This is it..."
There was a long line of annoyed looking changelings all sitting outside of the entrance leading to Chrysalis's cave, and seeing this, Cozy asked, "What the?"
Ocellus just sighed after a moment, and she then continued to walk on by the crowd. "So, when I went to talk to her last... just before coming to see you, she told me that she refuses to accept any nourishment... That is, any love from her children."
Cozy remained silent, but in her mind, she was contemplating the reality that she was facing. There was only two ways that this could go.
"Cozy Glow... She said that... it's because she feels guilty."
Cozy Glow's eyes dilated, and she looked up towards the mouth of the cave. "So, she feels guilty... Right, of course she does."
"Yes, so... Please..."
Cozy merely nodded, and looking back at Ocellus, she said, "Stay here... We'll take care of her."
As she started walking, Starlight Glimmer came up beside Ocellus to patiently wait as well.
The long and dark walk did no favors for Cozy Glow to put her mind at ease. It seemed like she was walking forever, but soon, there was a small light. The shimmer upon the rocks quickly helped her to identify a sudden left turn, and as she kept trotting along, the noises of pitter-pattering water beneath her hooves echoed off the bumpy, yellow and pitch-black walls. She smelled what seemed like a fresh spring nearby, and soon, she would see why.
She gasped, but then, she smiled with relief. "There you are," she said calmly.
Chrysalis sat a fair distance away from the cliffside, but close enough that she could still see all of the beautiful valley below. Mountains stretched high up towards the cloudscape way off in the distance, and down below was what must've been one of Equestria's widest ponds. The sun's reflection could be seen dancing directly within the center of the large body of crystal-clear liquid waters.
The Queen seemed ever distant, but she sighed nevertheless, and asked, "Where else would I be?"
Cozy Glow approached hastily, and told her, "I brought some lunch with me." She proceeded to remove her backpack, and as she set it down on the ground, her roller skates clanked together audibly.
The Queen's stomach also made a few sounds just from the thought of food. "Mmh," she voiced as she was given something to eat. "Is this... a tactic in order to lower my defenses?"
"No," Cozy Glow responded. "This is just a meal, but..." She looked at the royal white bug, and said, "Just a fair warning. By the end of this meal, you'll be even hungrier than you are right now."
Queen Chrysalis lowered her food in hesitation, but soon enough, she resumed eating. After a bite or two, she said, "I don't doubt you on that... I haven't been eating anything lately... not even the love freely given by my own children. Still, I cannot."
"Why not?"
Chrysalis scoffed at Cozy Glow's brash questionings. "You're cutting straight to the point today, aren't you?"
Cozy Glow merely nodded with a determined expression.
"Tch, fine," Chrysalis said. "If you must know, I'm besieged by despair... Love... I... never admitted to any of them; not once, and not to a single one of my children... that I love them." She shrugged and blinked with tears. "That's just pitiful... All that time, festering, and hunting, and stealing... for nothing... because I failed miserably just to evolve." She huffed, "Just in time, Cozy Glow... You helped me to see the light, and to figure our species out just in time..."
"So, then... what's keeping you from eating?"
Chrysalis's pupils became cloudy. "Guilt... It's overwhelming, Cozy... It shackles my heart, holds me down, and prevents me from being able to confront them properly... I've told them all how sorry I am. It's because of that very same sorrow that I can't bring myself to accept their love." She at last admitted, "Honest... Ocellus is the only one who I've accepted love from. Since then," she shook her head, "I can't, Cozy Glow... I just... can't."
At that time, another pony entered the cave, and emerged from the darkness. Starlight Glimmer was also accompanied by Ocellus who walked slowly beside but mostly behind her unicorn companion. "I tried to explain it back then," Starlight began. "You wouldn't have anything to do with it. In your lair... when Thorax transformed, it was natural, and you should've evolved with them."
Chrysalis glanced her way and listened closely. "Go on, Starlight."
"On the mountains, when we fought... I got so caught up in the fighting that I forgot to ask you one last time... if you'd reconsider joining our side... but..."
"By then, it was far too late. You need not be sympathetic towards me at all. We were rivals, nothing more."
"And now... we can be friends... but only if..." She inhaled deeply, and continued, "If you accept this little changeling's love, and all the rest of your kin as well." She and Ocellus walked up next to Cozy Glow, and stood there in the brilliant, bright sunshine. "You probably should feel guilty, but this isn't how you correct the situation."
"I know that I'm just making this worse, but it's not of my own choosing. I tried... I can't... I-"
Ocellus threw herself at the hooves of her mother, and pleaded, "Try harder, then!"
"Ocellus..."
For a long moment, Queen Chrysalis and her daughter stayed like that in picturesque perfection. "Please, mom... Try..."
She sniffled, "Yes... My wonderful, loyal child, I shall..."
They shined with a blinding intensity as their love for one another was transferred. Soon enough, and only after a long wait did the Queen of the Changelings finally reemerge to confront her kinship. To love them, and of course in return to be loved by each and every one of her darling and delicate youths. In time, she reached Thorax, who kneeled before her.
"Please, Thorax," she whispered. "I'm not your Queen. That's just a formality at this point. I'm going to be the one thing that I always should've been... to all of you." She looked all around at each and every single individual changeling of hers, and promised, "From now on, I'll simply be your mother. Nothing else."
The evening crept up on Cozy Glow and Ocellus, and before they knew it, dusk had descended upon the vast expanse. They could no longer see the silver railing along the railroad track. Shadows in the woods made frightful shapes, but luckily, they could faintly hear the roaring of a toned whistle.
Starlight Glimmer had decided to stay behind for the night, so it was just Cozy Glow and Ocellus. Starlight had offered before their departure to just teleport them home, but they both declined. "For one thing," Cozy Glow said, "the tickets will expire, so the ride back is free anyways. And also... since we've decided that she'll be spending the night with me, I'd just rather have a nice train ride back home with my Friend, Ocellus."
The young changeling agreed, "I'd love that as well, Cozy Glow."
The train soon showed, and as they got on, Cozy allowed Ocellus to choose where they'd like to sit. Once again, Cozy Glow found herself with the window to the right of her, and they waited for the train to take off. "Cozy Glow?"
The pegasus glanced, and asked, "Yeah? What's up?"
Ocellus held onto her friend's hooves, and said, "Thank you so much... Perhaps, in time, she would've come around, but then again... I'm not sure what could've happened, so... just, thank you for taking care of her so quickly."
"Mmhmm..." She nodded while loosely looking into Ocellus's eyes. "I'd do anything for a friend."
The train ride back felt longer than the last, and since the two of them had already slept earlier, they both stayed up looking out the window at the starlit night sky. It was well past midnight by the time they had returned, so they first rummaged the fridge for milk and cookies. Then, shortly after leaving an apology note to Sweetie Belle for eating the last of the cookies, they went to Cozy's room, and fell fast asleep.