Empress Cozy Glow part 2: The Reckoning

by Betty_Starlight

Chapter 2: Turning a Bad Situation Good

I widen my eyes at the sight, “Wait! I thought I was meeting your friends?”

The russet red pegasus filly on the left with her purple Mohawk style mane near the entryway raises her neck to me, “We are Twilight’s friends!”

Twilight… Okay, my new mother turns her head left to stare at me from the other side of the room, “Well, you’re pretty young, and so I’m thinking Crusader lessons to get you started!”

The yellow earth filly in the middle raises her red mane to speak in her country drawl towards us, “Yeah, Cozy! I mean, we need to start over, after all!”

I raise my own view to them, “Uh, no we don’t! I don’t ever need to see any of you ever again! Yes!” I turn my head back towards… my mom… “Send them away! We don’t need them! We can do better! Yes!” and nod…

Then, the white unicorn on the right with a two-tone mane turns towards her two friends, “Weren’t we all voted Best Friendship Tutors for the last four years in a row, now?”

Scootaloo turns her neck towards Sweetie, “Yeah, but we lost last year to Frisky Hooves!”

Apple Bloom then lowers her gaze towards me, “Well, then I think it’s time to get better!”

I widen my eyes at the apple filly, “EEP!”

Twilight… My mom then explains to me, “Now Cozy, you did bad things to these fillies and the first step to reforming you is to get you to make amends!”

I turn back and frown at her, “Does it have to be today, though?”

She stares into my eyes with her violet gaze, “If not now, then when, Cozy?”

The yellow filly says, “AWW! Cozy Glow, we’re being all friendly like! Ya’ think you could maybe meet us in the middle here?”

The red filly on the end adds, “Yeah, we’re not angry or aggressive or anything! We just wanna talk!”

The white filly on the other says, “We’re here for you and we’re just trying to help!”

I turn my gaze back to them, “Oh, golly! Um, okay, what did you have in mind?”

<*****>

“Alright, so this is a simple trust exercise!” The country filly says in her drawl.

I look at her from the end of the dock, “Trust exercise?”

Apple Bloom smiles at me, “Yeah! Like, how much do you trust us?”

Not that much! I immediately think before smiling and saying, “Oh, good golly! I trust you fillies a whole lot!”

She smiles, “Good! Now, we just need to tie yer wings up!”

My eyes widen, “What?”

Then, two fillies appear on either side of me, the white unicorn on my right ties up one wing while the red pegasus gets the other…

I frown as I try to move my wings, now bound to my body with narrow rope, “So, I can’t use my wings, no matter what?”

The apple filly smiles and nods, “Yup! You gotta jump off this dock and just trust us to catch you! Simple, right?”

“This is a bad idea!”

“Oh, no worries, Cozy! We’ll catch you in our net! Just trust us!”

<*****>

“You know, I never really saw that one going wrong?” Scootaloo says…

“Yeah, I mean, it’s always worked great before? The perfect ice breaking move, right Apple Bloom?” Sweetie replies.

“I uh, I just feel awful about this whole thing!” Apple Bloom says.

And as I sat there, with my forehooves now held in traction and wrapped in bandages above me in suspension over the hospital bead, I looked at the three cohorts, furrowed my brow, and said, “Well, golly gee! What did you think was gonna happen if you didn’t catch me?”

The yellow filly on the left widens her orange eyes, “Well, you fell into the net!”

The white filly in the middle lowers her gaze with her green eyes, “Yeah, but she went right through!” before darting them to the left. “Probably should’ve used a newer net?”

The pegasus on the right looks at her two friends with her purple eyes, “Well, it’s what I grabbed from the shed!”

At this point, the stupidity has me enraged, “Well, maybe you should check to see that your equipment is still good before you use it, huh?”

Apple Bloom widens her eyes to me along with her friends, “Well, look! It’s only a week and we’ll come by every day and give you lessons!”

Scootaloo blinks and nods, “Yeah, think of this as an impromptu study break!” and smiles like an idiot.

“Thanks to your negligence!” I add..

The white unicorn scrunches her mouth and says, “Yeah, look! We’re sorry Cozy and we promise you, as Crusaders, we're gonna make this up to you!”

I blink and widen my eyes, “Oh, golly! Is that so?”

Suddenly, the door behind them opens and a larger older alicorn trots in quickly behind the Crusaders and stares up at me, “Cozy Glow! What were you thinking!”

I look back at her, “You know, this really wasn’t my fault!”

Scootaloo turns to face Twilight with the other three Crusaders, “She’s right, Twilight! It was our idea!”

Apple Bloom faces her body to her and adds, “Yeah, it’s a simple trust exercise we use in school all the time!”

Sweetie says from the other side of the earth filly, “It’s literally never gone wrong before!”

I look down at them, “You know, I’m starting to think that she should’ve just gotten rid of you like I suggested?”

Twilight stares up at me and says, “Now Cozy Glow! Let’s not be too hasty! This does present us with an opportunity!”

I look back up at my mom, “Oh, golly gee, another chance for me to be annoyed?”

Twilight smiles at my dry wit, “No, silly! I mean, this gives you a chance to forgive the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“For injuring me accidentally?”

She lowers her smile somewhat and blinks, “Well, exactly! Yes!”

All three Crusaders then turn to face me…

Twilight then reminds me, “They forgave you for what you did earlier, and now it’s your turn to forgive them… “

My eyes go down to the Crusaders, “Oh, gee! I locked you three in a closet! You fillies broke my legs! But who’s keeping score, right?”

Twilight sighs, “Cozy, enough! Now, what do you need to say to your friends?”

And at the mention of that word, friends, I suddenly frowned and thought that maybe if I can just meet the fillies in the middle, I could have real friends here? I stare down at the three expectant fillies, now all staring up at me with wide apologetic eyes, and smile, “You know, even if things went horribly wrong, I think your hearts were in the right place… And I guess since we all kinda, make mistakes on each other sometimes, and we’re not perfect, I guess we do need to forgive sometimes? I mean, if we're to have friends, right?”

Apple Bloom widens her orange view, “Uh, right Cozy Glow! Apologizin’ is just a part of friendship! Since, y’know, nopony’s gonna be perfect all the time round each other.” her neck raises. “Right Crusaders?”

Scootaloo blinks and squeals, “Right!”

Sweetie smiles and nods, “Of course!”

I sigh, “Okay, fine! I forgive you!” before looking down slightly.

They all begin to move forward before I look up quickly and shout, “STOP! My legs are broken, remember?”

They all stop and look towards the ground as the yellow earth filly says, “Oh, right! Sorry bout that Cozy!”

Scootaloo stares at me and adds, “Yeah, I guess we can’t hug you for awhile?”

My eyes widen and I nod, “Right! Yes! Anyway, since you’re here, you’re gonna read to me and keep me company!” I look up at the purple alicorn, “And mom!” and smile. “Can I please have another pudding cup?”

Her eyes narrow and she smiles coyly, “Well, okay Cozy Glow! Since your legs are broken!”

My smile lowers, “Gee, pretty extreme requirements for pudding cups around here, huh?” before looking back down at the smiling Crusaders. “Go see what books they have! Since you know, I can’t use my forehooves to read!”

<*****>

Now, I’m not really sure what happened the next few hours? It seemed so surreal… I picked out a fun fantasy novel about a brave pegasus knight and his epic journey into the Dragon-Lands where he actually fought in their civil war!

I listened as Scootaloo talked about Sir Widemane’s exploits and his heroism in rescuing pony hostages…

I did take note of a few things as the night wore on, though…

First, Scootaloo got excited about reading! She would excitedly hop in her chair as the knight clashed his weapon against a fearsome enemy’s talons! At one point, Sweetie actually had to tell her to settle down because she was getting so excited!

Sweetie Belle just loved making sure everypony was comfortable! She made sure I had plenty of juice to drink and propped up my pillows for me! She was also nice to her Crusader friends too! And she always used her magick to make sure there were plenty of cookies and snacks!

And Apple Bloom was by my side, the whole time! I didn’t have my bear yet from the castle, but that didn’t matter, because there was a kind yellow earth filly there with me, talking to me as pages were flipped… Having a friend near me sure was swell…

<*****>

My eyes are closed and I hear a feminine voice say, “Empress Cozy Glow? Are you awake?”

I open them and stare up to see my front legs, still in traction and bandages over the bed… I then look down to see Nurse Redheart there, staring at me with concern in her blue eyes as she said, “Did you pass out last night while playing with your friends?”

I frown at the white earth pony and suddenly take note of the sleeping filly pile in the corner to the left of the door, with it’s many blankets and pillows before adjusting my eyes back to her and saying, “Uh, kinda?”

She smiles demurely at me, “I’ll get you all some breakfast! Now, there’s four of you, right?”

“Yeah, but uh,” I look down at my three sleeping friends and smile. “come back with it in about an hour, okay? Let them rest…”

Her smile widens before she nods, “Yes Empress!”

(To be continued… )

Comments

[Saiyan Cartoon Champion]

Good to see Cozy getting some proper friendship lessons and bonding with The CMC. Even if it did lead to her breaking her legs. Also, it's nice to see Twilight being a bit more firm with Cozy here and not completely subservient to her like she was in the first story

One little nitpick, you called Scootaloo red early in the story. I've always seen her as more orange than red. So it kind of through me off at first and I didn't initially know who this filly was supposed to be.

But aside from that, I really liked this chapter.

[PrincePegacornV]

11687853
I also had a similar flash about Scoots' appearance here. What I saw in my mind was Tempest Shadow, which totally confused me. Perhaps the author should have shown Scoots and named her, thus avoiding any confusion.

Honestly, I truly am no fan of Cozy. However, this story has held my interest, just to discover how long it will be before Cozy becomes fully reformed.