“You wanna smoke dope, huh?” Cozy says back to me, with large brown eyes.

The sides of my mouth go towards my eyes as I utter out the side, “Golly, right I do! You, Rowan, and everypony else, stress me out!”

The lighter strikes in front of me, as the pink filly beyond it says, “L-look! I didn’t want to be any trouble, okay?”

I inhale to soon taste the warm smoke going down my throat…

She frowns, “I guess I should just do my best to stay asleep, while you’re around, huh?”

I exhale smoke between us and say, “What are you saying, Cozy? Uh, is Cozy Glow your original name? I’ve been meaning to ask you that.”

I clamp on the smoke, while Cozy says to me, “Well, not really, no! My original name is Twinkle Sprinkle! Yeah, funny true story!” and scratches the back of her neck with a forehoof, “I always hated that name!”

Her hoof lowers, while I blow smoke, and say, “Well, that’s fine! You can be Cozy Glow, if you don’t wanna be Twinkle Sprinkle! Nopony is stopping you!”

I catch my breath… In and out…

Cozy says, “Okay, so I’m Cozy Glow.”

And I nod, “Right! And apparently, Zecora named me Ophelia…”

“This is also true!”

“Right… “ And I suddenly realize just how awkward this is, and decide to take another drag of my roach!

“So, I guess I’ll go back to sleep now, huh?”

I exhale smoke, before staring directly at this filly, and saying, “The buck you will, Cozy! Sit down!”

Her eyes widen, “What are you saying?”

I blink, “I’m saying that I like you, Cozy Glow! I’m saying, you don’t have to sleep all the time… “

A smile begins to form on her muzzle, “Y-you mean it Ophelia?”

“Yes! Now get in here, demon child! I still got a few drags left… ” I say, before grumpily taking another drag off my little roach…

Her eyes widen, “Oh, golly! You need to clip that soon!”

I look at her, “What?”

She smiles, and trots over to my polished wooden square dresser on the side of the room, reaches on the top, and takes off the shiny metal bobby pin, and then trots to me, puts the pin in her mouth, and then reaches her snout towards the roach, being held in my cleft, and I feel a snap feeling there, and she moves her snout back away from me, before staring my direction, and smiling, “There! Now, you can grab that bobby pin and smoke off the roach that way, and you won’t get burned! It’s called clipping the roach!” *

I reach towards the pin with my snout, and release my cleft from the roach to grab the pin, and wonder, just where this filly learned about drugs?

She grins and giggles, “Yeah, you wouldn’t believe how uptight Chrysalis is, without her morning smoke!” and then begins to smile warmly, all the way…

I widen my eyes as I stare at this other filly, and decide to ignore it, before bringing to roach to my mouth, for another draw…

She breaths out her snout, before looking at me, “But I never did that… So that makes me wonder why you do?” and her mouth grows small…

I close my eyes, before raising my snout towards the ceiling, and exhaling a big cloud of smoke… I then look back down at Cozy, and smile, as I say, “Well, it makes me feel good, and it makes the monsters in my head go away… “

Her eyes widen, “Monsters?”

My own gaze enlarges too, “Yeah! Ever since I woke up, I sometimes have these bad feelings, and well, when I’m high, it all goes away… “

“Golly!”

I nod, and take my last inhale, as a bit of ash drips off the front of the roach, and then bring the roach to the glass ashtray on the table, and rub it back and forth, so it goes out, while I exhale a final puff of smoke… I decide to leave it there, but make a mental note, for the future.**

She frowns, “So what then? You’re just gonna continue getting high?”

I narrow my eyes and breathe out deeply out of my snout, “Golly yeah… “

She sighs, “Well, um, I won’t bother you then!” before she turns around…

I know I have to stop her now! “Wait, Cozy!”

She turns around, and widens her eyes, “Yes, Ophelia?”

I gulp, as I think for a second on how to word this? “Why did you try to kill yourself?”

Her eyes enlarge all the way, as she frowns again, “What? I never tried to kill myself!”

“Rowan said you did!”

She furrows her brow, “Just who the hay is Rowan?”

“The voice in your head that told you to do bad things… I uh, gave it a name… “

She frowns and stops, as her eyes widen, “Golly! You gave them a name!”

I nod, “Yeah, and you jumped off a cliff, remember?”

She blinks and I see her shoulders lower slowly, “I uh… I just didn’t see the point, Ophelia… I already told you, remember?”

I nod, “Yeah, but you never told me that you actually tried? Is that where you got the idea on how to kill me?”

“Y-yeah Ophelia, I’m REALLY sorry about that!”

You know, it’s so strange to me, because I don’t really remember any of this… I wonder where I was? “What exactly did you do, Cozy?”

She takes a deep breath with her snout, and says, “Well, I kinda tied you up and threw you into a waterfall ravine, just like I said… “

“Was this waterfall inside the Everfree Forest?”

She blinks, “Um, how did you know?”

“Uh, lucky guess!” I lie…

She’s silent, before finally asking me, “You’ve been there, huh?”

I sigh, “Well, kinda… It’s really beautiful!”

“What were you thinking about?”

I stare at this filly carefully… “Do you really wanna know?”

Her eyes widen, and she nods, “Well, yeah! I kinda do?”

The second wave of what I just smoked suddenly begins to take hold, and as my body grows numb, I say to her, “I was wondering what the whole point was? I was wondering why I am? Why I have all these different voices and ponies in my head, and why you somehow exist separately from me? Like, we’re two different fillies, really, but we’re somehow both here, in this body!” I close my eyes, as I feel a floating feeling begin to form in my mind… “I just wanted to know why?”

“Golly, you know, I’m not sure either? But you know, I am real, and I do exist inside you… “

I look at her and breathe out my nose, “Yeah, I know Cozy… That’s why I’m trying to tell you that you belong!”

She blinks, “Yeah, uh, what?”

I smile, “I accept you, Cozy Glow! And you’re welcome in my life!”

“Are you still gonna go by Ophelia?”

“Considering what’s attached to your name, I think it’s for the best?”

She nods, and trots towards me…

I widen my eyes, “What are you doing, Cozy?”

Suddenly, she embraces me in a hug! “I love you, Ophelia!”

Okay, I did not see that coming! I think to myself, as I carefully return the hug with my own forehooves…

<*****>

I open my eyes, to feel my forehooves wrapped around my body, as I stare at the thatched ceiling.

“I’m hugging myself… “ I matter-of-factly whisper…

I release myself, and raise to my haunches on the bed, “Was any of that real?”

I turn to look at the ashtray to see there’s a bobby pin sitting in one of the holders, hanging onto a very small bit of resin, wrapped in a burnt paper…

“Just what the hay is going on?” I whisper to myself in confusion…

I bring my forehoof to my forehead, and feel that it’s kinda warm…

“Did I really get high? Who was I talking to? Cozy Glow?” I grimace…

“I don’t know who I am anymore?” ***

Suddenly, there’s a knock on my wooden door, there in the hut!

I look at the door, now with tribal decorations, of a mask and spear, on either side, “Yes?”

I don’t hear the voice I expect! “Can I come in?” I hear Cozy, say from the other side…

I widen my eyes and frown, “No! I’m awake now! Uh, r-right?”

“Ophelia? Are you okay?”

I hear Zecora say from the other side, “Ophelia! What are you doing here? And I see you curled your mane and tail! A nice touch, my dear!”

I say to myself, “Wait a minute! Oh, golly! Cozy Glow is here, too! She’s talking to Zecora now!”

I hear her say, “Oh, golly! A zebra! Didn’t you work at the School of Friendship?”

“Yes, this is true! But you know me, don’t you see?”

“Oh, golly! Cozy Glow is talking to Zecora!” My body is frozen in place…

I begin breathing, I need to go out there! I think to myself!

“Uh, yeah, I’ve seen you, but I don’t remember your name!”

I take off to fly towards the door!

In breath!

I grasp the knob with my forehooves, while my hind hooves, press against the other side, and I flap my wings furiously, to open it quickly and I float out into the foyer!

Out breath!

<*****>

I float in the room and turn my neck towards the curly-maned pink pegasus filly on my right, and say, “You’re not Ophelia! I am! You’re Cozy Glow!”

The zebra turns to me, floating in the air, and smiles, “I see, my enchantment worked, smooth! Now, I can talk to Cozy Glow too!”

The other filly turns her head up towards me, in the air, where I flap my wings to stay afloat, before turning back to Zecora, and then, back between us, to say, “Oh, golly!”****

Zecora smiles, “We all have much to discuss! There is no need to fuss, so come sit down Ophelia… “

I repeat the other filly, “Oh, golly!”

(To be continued… )

Author's Note

*This is an actual process I use in my habit. However, since I tip most of my joints, I rarely clip them anymore…

**Also something I commonly do in my practice. She could burn it off the clip with a lighter, and inhale it from there, or alternatively, she might break it apart over a bowl of pot in a pipe, to give it resin chunks for firepower… Or at least, those are the two things I usually do!

***To be honest, I didn’t plan out any of this, but by this point, I’m pretty sure Ophelia is literally insane?

****Oh, golly! Now there’s two of them!