The filly cleared her throat and began to speak, when suddenly, there’s a knock on the door across the foyer, 20 feet behind me! “Oh, golly!” I see her say under her breath.
I look at her and say, “You can explain this to me later Cozy! I need to go answer the door now! Finish up your toast and juice now!”
She stares up at me and nods, “Yes, ma’am!”
I get off the chair to my right and trot across the living room as the red couch and polished wooden coffee table pass by to my right and the bookcase to my left, I can’t help but wonder who might be showing up in the middle of the morning?
I open the door and behold a yellow earth filly with a big pink bow on the back of her red mane, as she stares up to me with wide orange eyes and says, “Hey! We heard Cozy Glow was back! Can we see her please?” before I look around her and notice a small white unicorn filly with a split wisteria purple, and lavender mane on the right and a small burnt orange pegasus with a purple Mohawk mane-cut and little wings standing on the left.
I sigh, “Uh, now really isn’t a good time, fillies!”
Apple Bloom widens her eyes and frowns, “Well, is something wrong?”
Scootaloo nods and chimes in, “Yeah! If something is wrong with Cozy, we can probably help with that!”
I frown and eye these fillies for another moment… “Will you wait here please?” before shutting the door with my right forehoof and trotting back to the dining room…
Cozy stares up at me from the other end of the dark brown round wooden table, “Uh, who was that?”
I stare at her carefully before answering, “It’s the Cutie Mark Crusaders! They want to see how you’re doing!”
“What?”
I nod and reiterate, “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are here Cozy! And they want to see you!”
She rolls her eyes, “Oh, golly!” before getting on top of her chair and squatting to take off in flight towards the door on the other side of the expanse.
She lands and opens the door with her right forehoof, “What do you want?”
I hear Apple Bloom cheerfully say, “Well Cozy! Despite well, everything, you’re still an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader and when we heard from Twilight that you were awake now, we wanted to come check on you!”
Sweetie pipes up, “Yeah! How are you Cozy?”
Scootaloo adds, “Sure has been awhile!”
Cozy snorts from her snout, "Oh, golly gee! I locked you three in a closet, trapped Starlight Glimmer in a forcefield, and tried to take over Equestria! If I'm still a Crusader, I gotta be the worst Crusader ever in the history of anything!"
Scootaloo says in her raspy voice, "Aw, it's okay Cozy! We all make mistakes! Don'tcha wanna be our friend again?"
"Those are pretty big mistakes!"
Apple Bloom frantically adds, "Come on Cozy! We're bein’ nice!"
Sweetie says, "Yeah! We can start over!"
I stare across the empty room to see my new filly gazing out the door carefully before saying, "You know, either you three are idiots or I am! Uh, come back in a week!" before shutting the door!
I say to the filly across the house, “Cozy! Talk to them!”
She turns her neck left to yell at me, “NO!”
“Do it!”
“I don’t wanna!”
“NOW!”
She turns her head, rolls her eyes and says, “Oh, golly!” under her breath before opening the door again. “Okay, look! Sorry about locking you three in a closet earlier and I promise not to try to take over Equestria again!”
Apple Bloom stares at her from the other side of the door with enormous orange eyes, “But Cozy! We haven’t seen you in a long time and we wanted to see how you were doin?”
Scootaloo says, “Yeah! How’s our good friend Cozy Glow doing?”
Cozy blinks, “I’m not your good friend, okay? I’m a bad filly! I’m evil and you three need to leave me alone!” before shutting the door again!
“COZY!” I yell at her!
“Ugh! Fine!” She grumpily sighs and opens the door again!
Scootaloo says, “You open and shut the door a lot!”
Sweetie adds, “Yeah! We should get on the other side, so she can’t close us off anymore!”
Apple Bloom suddenly yells, “Get her!” and poor little Cozy is abruptly knocked over by an onslaught of three other fillies, with Apple Bloom leading the charge and Sweetie on the right while Scootaloo takes the left!
I snicker at the adorable filly dog pile now in the center of the room, while Cozy shrieks, “Ah! Hoodlums! Thugs have tackled me! Help! I’m pinned down!”
Apple Bloom says, “We’re your friends, Cozy!”
Sweetie adds, “Yeah! We’re starting over!”
Cozy yells, “I don’t wanna start over! I’m not your friend! You three need to go! Leave me alone! I’m bad and you need to get out of here!”
Scootaloo shouts, “NO!” while continuing to hold the other pegasus down with her friends.
I’ve finally had enough by this point and so I trot into the foyer and look down at the pile of foals 8 feet in front of me, “Why are you restraining Cozy?”
Sweetie balks, “She doesn’t wanna be our friend anymore!”
Apple Bloom adds, “Yeah, and we were bein nice!”
Cozy manages to squeak out, “You know, I’m not obligated to be your friend, right?”
I can’t help but snicker some more before saying, “Cozy, I really think you should talk to them!”
“Do I get a choice?” The helpless pink filly barely manages to ask from underneath the others.
I grin and giggle slightly, “Well, what do you think Cozy?”
Scootaloo says, “Come on, Cozy! It’s not so bad!”
Sweetie says, “Yeah! We’re not gonna hurt you!”
Cozy chokes out, “You sure about that?”
I narrow my eyes, “Seriously! Let the poor filly up now!”
Scootaloo gets off of her first to my left before Sweetie removes herself at the right and the exhausted pink filly gets up as I see her now dilapidated curly mane fall down around her ears and she stares at me with her wide brown eyes, “I really don’t want to do this!”
I frown, “What’s wrong, Cozy?”
“You wouldn’t understand!” She angrily yells at me as the Crusaders all bounce back a few inches with a start.
I sigh, “Try me!” as I eye this filly carefully down my aquamarine snout…
She stops with a sudden frown on her snout as her eyes widen quickly, “I uh, I did bad things, okay! I did bad things and now, I need to just be alone!”
Sweetie leans in from her position at my right, “Well, that’s what we’re talking about Cozy! We forgive you!”
Scootaloo at the left adds, “Yeah! I mean, that was kinda the whole point of us coming down here!”
Apple Bloom at the center, just to my left leans in and says with enormous orange eyes, “YEAH! Doncha’ wanna start over with us, Cozy?”
I smile at the pink filly as she stares up at me with panic and apprehension in her auburn gaze, “Well, how about it Cozy? Would you like to start over?”
She says to me, “You know, I take what I said earlier back!”
I widen my eyes, “Oh?”
She nods, “Yup! I think we’re all idiots!”
At that point, the other three fillies all say, “AWW!” in unison as they tackle hug the pink filly who starts and says, “Oh, golly!”
<*****>
“Ack!” The stuffed pink pegasus blubbers from the red couch as she lays on her back with her hooves in the air. “I can’t move! Why did you make me eat so much cake?”
I roll my eyes from the blue chair, “Psh! Cozy, YOU chose the chocolate cake, knowing full well how you get around chocolate!”
Her eyes shoot to the ceiling, “You asked me what sort of cake I wanted!”
I nod, “And I delivered!”
The filly is silent for a moment, “You really love me, huh?”
I sigh from my nose, “Have I not made that clear?”
Cozy closes her eyes, “I-I’m sorry, okay?”
“Sorry for what?”
Cozy is silent for a moment before saying at an almost inaudible whisper, “I don’t deserve this!”
“Why wouldn’t you Cozy?”
She opens her eyes to the ceiling again, “I’m a bad filly, okay? I tried to kill Fluttershy! I tried to take over Equestria so I could burn it to the ground! I was filled with such hate and rage that I would actually team up with a pair of demons and try to overthrow the government! These are not the actions of a nice pony!”
I nod, “And now, you’re forgiven! And so what will you do?”
Cozy can only stare at the ceiling blankly before blurting out, “I don’t know!”
I finally say the thought that had been on my mind since earlier, “Don’t you think you need to forgive yourself Cozy?”
She’s silent before finally saying, “Maybe?”
“Cozy, do you think of yourself as a bad filly?”
Cozy thinks on this before saying, “I don’t know anymore?”
I gaze at her blankly, “Cozy, you’re not a bad filly…”
She turns her head right towards me and says with straight eyes, “Yes I am!”
I lower my gaze, “Well, you do know what we do to bad fillies around here, right?”
Her eyes widen at me, “Uh, what?”
I grin mischievously, “We tickle them until they’re good!”
I cackle as the filly starts and squeaks out, “Oh, golly! No! I’ll be good! Don’t tickle me anymore!” and begins to squirm on the red cushions of the couch.
As soon as I contain myself, I stare back at the filly, “So, you were going to talk to me about Tirek?”
She sighs, “Well, I knew it was coming up!”
I nod, “Yes! And now that the Crusaders are gone, you can tell me what he has to do with your nightmares?”
She stares blankly up at the ceiling with her head propped up on the arm of the couch, “Well, I-I’m not sure exactly what he has to do with it? But I can remember thinking about how he was supposed to help me…”
“But he didn’t, did he?”
She sighs, “Well, golly gee no, not when I really think about it?” her muzzle soon frowns. “You know, the more I think about it, the more I think he was really just using me and my talents back there to get back at you ponies!”
I’m silent before saying, “It’s not an easy realization, is it?” When suddenly, I hear my smartphone go off with strong vibrations on the coffee table and I roll my eyes and say, “This isn’t over Cozy! We shall continue soon!” before getting off the chair and trotting over to pick up the phone with my right forehoof and gazing at the screen before bringing it to my floppy blue right ear, “Yes, Apple Bloom?”
The feminine voice on the other side squeaks with a country drawl, “Hey, we wanna help with Cozy too! Can we come over tomorrow?”
I smile, “That would be fine, dear Apple Bloom!”
She responds, “AWW, terrific! We’ll be over after we're done teachin’ at the school!”
(To be continued…)