"Sweetie Belle?"
The white unicorn blushed. "I'm sorry for screaming, it's just that you surprised me! What are you doing here at Rumble's house?" Then she noticed Cozy Glow. "Wait, who is that?"
"That's Cozy Glow..."
"WHAT?! Are you kidding me?...Yeah, it's definitely a joke. Sorry, Flurry, but that was a horribly planned prank." She laughed. "And her wings aren't even there!"
"It's not a joke. I freed Cozy last night," Flurry said truthfully.
"Ha! Doubt it," Sweetie laughed dryly.
Flurry looked Sweetie in the eye. "Look, do you really think I would prank you like this? I would never do something like that. I'm your friend. And friends don't try to scare each other. Also, even if I was going to prank you, do you really I think I would do it with something so stupid as this?"
Sweetie thought about it for a moment. "I guess you're right," she finally said. "You're probably not that stupid."
"Probably?!" Flurry moaned.
Sweetie Belle smirked. Then she said, "But that still doesn't explain why you're here, why Cozy's here without her wings, what the hay you were thinking when you freed her....oh, and how you got here-"
"Teleportation," Flurry said. "And I magically took her wings away."
"Well, that answers two questions. But I have many more! So you can please tell me the whole story and start from the beginning of the whole thing and talk slowly so I can write a song or something about it?" Sweetie took a deep breath after the long sentence.
"Okay, but...what are you doing here?"
"I asked first, so you have to answer me first," Sweetie said firmly.
Flurry almost laughed. That's what she loved about Sweetie Belle: she didn't treat her like an immortal goddess. She just treated her like a regular pony.
"Alright, since you're so stubborn." She really did chuckle this time. But then her expression turned serious. "Sit down and I'll tell you. It's a looong story. Oh, and you should get Rumble too."
"What in tarnation could Cozy Glow have been doin' at the castle?" Applejack yelled.
"I don't know for sure, but I think she was planning on..." Twilight gulped. "Attacking the princesses."
"Good thing you escaped! Otherwise...oh, I don't even want to think about what could've happened if-!" Fluttershy squealed.
"It's okay, Flutters. Nopony got hurt," Rainbow Dash said, wrapping a wing around a furiously blushing Fluttershy. Rarity cooed at the cute scene.
"Well, we can't just sit around. We have to do something!" Applejack insisted.
Former princess Celestia nodded. "I believe Cozy Glow will be a threat to ponykind. I can tell she is already manipulating young Princess Flurry Heart."
"We can't risk anything like that. Flurry Heart is a good pony, but Cozy can be very persuasive. We can't let her sway Flurry into her ways," Luna added.
"We should turn her back into stone!" Rainbow Dash yelled, quite suddenly.
Celestia looked surprised at first, like she hadn't thought of the idea. But then she nodded.
"I believe Rainbow Dash is right. It was wrong of Flurry Heart to free a dangerous villain like that. What do you think, Twilight?"
Twilight took a deep breath. For some reason, she could tell that she was about to make a speech. "I know some ponies think Cozy Glow is crazy and evil and will never be reformed. But earlier today, when Cozy was trying to attack me, I saw something. In her eyes. Cozy was emotionally broken. I think something happened to her in the past - something bad. Something relating to...her parents."
Everypony was still and silent for a few moments. Rainbow Dash was the first one to recover. "Are you saying that Cozy Glow isn't really evil?"
"Yes. She just has a mental problem of some sort. That's what I think, anyway."
"Oh, my. I feel so bad for her," Fluttershy said quietly.
"But - ah mean, ya can't be sure of that. Maybe Cozy is in her right mind and she's just really, truly, honestly evil!" Applejack protested.
"Yeah. AJ has a point there," Rainbow Dash agreed.
Rarity snorted in disapproval. Nopony noticed.
"But Twilight could be right. And she has proof. She saw how Cozy was hurt. Turning her to stone again won't help matters," Fluttershy said firmly.
"Yeah! And I want to throw a welcome party for Cozy Glow! You better not turn her into stone, or you'll be sorry! 'Cause you know I love parties!" Pinkie Pie said happily (well, for the most part...).
Celestia, Luna, and Twilight had a silent conversation. After making many different facial expressions that meant many different things, they reached an agreement.
"Rainbow Dash and Applejack both have valid reasons for turning Cozy Glow back to stone. But I think we should wait a little before actually doing it. Besides, we can step in and take control if things get out of hoof with Cozy and Flurry," Twilight explained her opinion.
Everypony seemed to agree with that, so the matter was resolved for now. Twilight decided to teleport them all to Rumble's house to see how things were going with Flurry, Cozy, and Rumble. Unfortunately, she didn't consider how the ponies in the house would react to eight ponies suddenly appearing out of thin air, two of them being former rulers of Equestria and one being the current.
As it was, the eight ponies happened to teleport into the same room Sweetie Belle, Flurry Heart, Rumble, and the still unconscious Cozy Glow were in. Everypony was immediately squished.
"Um, can somepony tell me what's going on?" Rumble managed to say. His voice sounded weird because his cheeks were being squished.
"Sorry!" Twilight exclaimed. "We should go to a bigger room..."
Everypony was less squished in the living room, seated around two different tables, but it was still a tight fit. Especially for poor Twilight, Celestia, and Luna, because they were bigger and taller.
"Okay, somepony really needs to explain what's going on. First of all, how did eight ponies just...?" Rumble didn't finish his sentence.
"Teleportation," Twilight answered tersely.
"Oh. Okay. Secondly, why are you all here?"
"Didn't Flurry explain?" Rainbow said.
Rumble shook his head, and everypony in the room stared at Flurry. Except for Cozy, of course.
Flurry blushed. "Hey, I was going to explain! I didn't finish my story yet. The end of the story is, 'They're probably going to want to check on us when they're done discussing the whole thing, so they might teleport here any second now!' Which already happened..."
"Ah guess that makes sense," Applejack said.
"I still have questions," Sweetie said.
"Well, I have a more important question. I just remembered, isn't Sweetie and the CMC supposed to be helping a filly called Mint Chip earn her cutie mark?" Flurry said, rather loudly.
"What? No, Sweetie Belle said she was free today. So she came over to hang out with me," Rumble said.
Flurry glared at Sweetie Belle. "What is going on, Sweetie?"