Conflicted Counsel

“Twilight!!”

I barge through the heavy doors securing the throne room. I didn’t care what I was walking in on, or about the guards trying to stop me. I just needed one more shot.

The Princess of Friendship had turned her head towards me, eyes wide. She didn’t look upset, just surprised. She was floating a quill in midair, an assistant holding up a clipboard. Likely stopped in the middle of signing something. “Um, yes Starlight? You know, it’s a lot more courteous to-”

“Appointment, sure, I know, and I’m sorry, but I just really need to see Cozy one last time.”

I only now notice how hard I’m panting. I sure ran a long way to the castle. I feel frantic. The guards catch up to me, but Twilight ceases and dismisses them with a motion of her hoof. She looks down at me with concern. “Starlight, are you sure? I appreciate how dedicated you are to helping, but I understand the last couple times you saw her were rough.”

I take a few seconds to sit down and try to catch my breath. “I know, but it doesn’t matter. I have one last thing I have to try, or else I won’t be satisfied.”

She didn’t appear any less worried. She stood up from the throne and descended towards me. I know she was meeting me here as a friend, not a monarch, but I couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by her presence. Maybe it was the room’s atmosphere. With a hoof on my shoulder, she asks again, “Are you absolutely sure? Even if she’s just a filly, spending too much time alone with her can cause a lot of mental stress. We both know how she is. One of the therapists we brought to her is taking a month-long vacation to recuperate after the things Cozy said to them. I just want to make sure nothing like that happens to you.”

I nod with determination. Nothing was gonna stop me. “Don’t worry. I can handle her. Please.”

Twilight takes several moments looking into my eyes before she nods in turn, then smiles.

“Okay Starlight.”

I beam. I knew I could count on her.

I stare inside Cozy’s room from the outside, taking a deep breath and reviewing my plan one last time.

You can do this. She’s just a filly.

Being nice to her was hard. But hating her?

That will be easy.

I stride inside with confidence.

The door closes behind me.

There she is.

On her bed, as expected. It looked like she was sleeping, actually. She probably wasn’t expecting to be meeting anypony right now. Of course, it’s possible she just didn’t care either way.

She cracks an eye open at me, then groans. “You again!? What are you doing here?? I thought I told you to go home.” She flips over in bed, facing towards the wall. I get the impression she really was bored with me.

I smirk.

“Dunno if you’ve noticed, Cozy, but there aren’t a whole lot of ponies these days who are gonna do what you tell them to do.” I take my spot at the table. She can join me if she wants, it’s not like she has anywhere else to go.

“Whatever. Even you’re smart enough to know that I have nothing else to say to you.” Cozy waves me off with a wing.

Wait... a wing?

“Hah, that was fast. I honestly didn’t think they’d untie you that quickly. Feeling a little more ‘Cozy’ over there?” I felt a little too proud for that one.

All she does is blow raspberries, still faced away from me.

I stare at her on her bed. Just like her, I had a goal, and she was in the way of it. Time to go to work. “It’s okay Cozy, you don’t have to say a thing. But I’m gonna have my say, so if you just wanna let me talk atcha, that’s on you.”

Silence. If she rolled her eyes, I couldn’t see it.

Breathe. “Even before I came out here to talk to you, I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about all this. I was one of the reasons you were freed from stone, after all. But you know what I realized?”

Silence.

“I realized there’s absolutely no reason to worry. Why would there be? We both know how this is going to end.”

I see one of her ears perk. I can’t help but grin.

“You’re going to lose.”

Slowly but surely, her head turns toward me. The anger flaring in her eyes is as real as I’ve ever seen it.

“What?” she growls.

Before, this intimidation may have worked on me. But I’ve faced down the Pony of Shadows, the Princess of Friendship herself, and the former queen of the changelings more than once. This little filly is nothing.

Looking back at her with the cockiest expression I could muster, I repeat, “You’re going to lose. You’ve already lost to us twice, after all. You act all high and mighty now, but the result is going to be the same.” I lean against the table. “Besides, it’s not as if ‘winning’ for you in this scenario is all that appealing anyway.”

Cozy has moved to a sitting position on the bed, looking at me with a hard scowl. I have definitely got her attention. “What do you mean?”

“Well, let’s see... You win here if either you escape, or we give up on you.” I point at her hindleg. “Even if you’re able to get out of this room, you’re not getting very far with that on your leg. There’s nopony in Equestria who’d be willing to help you either, so escape is out of the question.” I make a show of tapping my chin. “That means, you need to prove to us once and for all that rehabilitating you is hopeless.”

Cozy smirks this time. “Golly, that’s right! Glad to see you’re finally getting-”

“Which means we’ll have to turn you back to stone.”

Her sudden confidence falters. “...What?”

I shrug. “Well, if we find that there really is no helping you, then our decision to free you from stone will have been pointless. And we can’t just have a pony as dangerous as you walking around freely, so... I guess we’d have no choice but to turn you to stone again.”

Cozy starts to sputter, before slamming her hoof against the bed. “Oh, whatever! I’d much rather be trapped in rock for the rest of my life than listen to you losers!”

I flaunt another shrug. “Oh well, that’s fine by us. We’re the ones that freed you in the first place. If the only thing it takes to beat you is to not turn you back?” I start to laugh. “Yeah, what was I worried about? We’ll make you concede in no time. After all...”

I lean in, tapping into a sinister grin, looking her right in the eyes. “...You’re just a filly.”

I swear I could see steam rising from her ears. She nearly shouts her reply, “A filly who was able to outsmart you lamers! Don’t forget, I almost had all of Equestria grovelling at my hooves! Not just once, but twice!!”

“The keyword there being ‘almost.’ Both times you still suffered a rather... humiliating loss. Besides, didn’t you have help in both cases?”

She thrusts an objecting hoof in my direction. “I didn’t need anypony’s help!!”

I chuckle. “I’m pretty sure that isn’t true. Twilight told us you wrote to Tirek in Tartarus to figure out how to drain magic. Not to mention you needed the entire student body to enforce your rule and put Neighsay away.”

“I would have figured something out on my own!”

I opt to ignore her. “You certainly couldn’t have escaped from Tartarus without Discord’s meddling. From there, I’m sure Tirek and Chrysalis had a big role in leading your attack on Equestria. I doubt a little filly like you could have gotten Grogar’s bell all on her own.”

“They couldn’t either! I’m the one who taught those idiots how to work together in the first place, they never would have made it without me!”

It’s really hard not to keep smiling, but I fake a yawn. “Face it Cozy, you’re useless on your own. You’re not a real threat to anypony.”

Cozy growls and jumps off the bed, stomping her way towards the table. “You have no idea what you’re talking about; I’ve never needed anypony’s help! Not then, not now... not ever! I can accomplish anything I want all by myself!”

In her haste to yell at me, she forewent her stool. It’s knocked over on its side next to her. She looks so... small. I raise an eyebrow. “Really, now?”

“Of course I can! It’s how I’ve done things my entire life!”

I nearly gasp.

Once she slips up, attack.

I’m unable to withhold my smile this time, but it didn’t matter. “Yeah, dunno how much I really believe that. In fact, I think I’ve just figured out why you won’t tell us about your parents.”

She looks caught off guard by that statement, almost confused. Hearing no reply, I elaborate, “You grew up as a spoiled little brat. Your parents did everything for you, and you’re ashamed to admit it.”

Now, she looks appalled, as if I just slapped her. “No!!”

Nowhere to go but forward. “Yep, you had everything handed to you on a silver platter your whole life. You just didn’t want to admit how helpless you are without them.”

“I said, no!!”

“That’s why you expect everypony to always do what you say: your parents waited on your every whim, and it made you vain.”

“Shut up!! I’m telling you, you’re wrong, dummy!”

“You relied on them for everything, and now you can’t do anything without somepony else’s help. Your parents made you the filly you are, and-”

A resounding slam bounces off the walls. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cozy’s hooves nearly snapped the table in two. She jumps onto the surface, and stares me down with pointed fury.

“SHUT. UP. You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about! My parents never did a single thing for me; I did everything all on my own! They were just a pair of lazy failures who never accomplished anything meaningful in their whole life. They couldn’t spare one moment of their precious time paying attention to their only daughter, so I had to do everything! I cooked, I cleaned, and I schooled myself, all without their help! I taught myself chess, I made my own bits, and I ran away to Ponyville, all by myself! I doubt they even noticed I left. I hope they’re both living in the streets without me!!”

Cozy was an inch away from my face, huffing like an angry bull. Her whole face has turned a frightening red.

I needed to regain my composure after that. Once I find my wits, I make a final statement, “That’s why you didn’t want to tell us. You were afraid we’d send you back to them.”

“No, you fool! Even if you did, I’d just run away again and they wouldn’t care. I didn’t want them to get credit for raising me when they don’t deserve it! As far as I’m concerned, I have no parents! Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve done without ever needing anypony’s help, got that!?”

We stare at eachother a moment, then I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Then I grin. “Gotcha.”

Cozy Glow processes things with a bewildered expression, then she pales.

“So that’s basically the gist of it.”

“Wow. Well, that certainly explains a lot,” Twilight comments with a sip of her tea.

I nod. “Yeah. I do feel a little bad for her, but if I never have to look at those angry little eyes again, it’ll be too soon,” I sigh, lounging in my chair.

Twilight giggles. “I really can’t thank you enough for your help, Starlight. It’s still not going to be easy from here, but this will help tremendously.”

“I sure hope so.” I look toward the ceiling in thought. I had no idea what sort of resistance Cozy was going to put up now, but it was on Twilight to figure out how to use this information. I’d done my part. Of course, I still would have been lost without Trixie. I’ll have to thank her somehow, especially after ditching lunch. Maybe we could have a girls night out in Canterlot before we leave tomorrow.

With a smile, I finish off my own cup of tea, and hop off my seat. “Well, I’d better get going. Trixie’s probably just sitting around my room, and I promised we’d meet up. I imagine you’ve got a lot to do, anyways.”

With a groan, Twilight affirms, “You don’t even know. No amount of mentoring can prepare you for the amount of paperwork that comes with this job.”

We share a laugh, then see eachother off.

Two days.

I sigh peacefully.

Two whole days since I talked with Cozy Glow.

Things fell back into routine quick once Trixie and I got back home. Sunburst happily welcomed us back, and was excited to learn everything that happened. Once the first school bell rang however, we said “see ya later” and returned to our respective offices.

Things have been pretty calm since. In a weird way, the experience was good for me too. I haven’t spent a second worrying about Cozy since I last left her room. I couldn’t really explain why, but somehow, it’s like I just know everything will turn out alright.

I’m busy dealing with my own paperwork, when a scroll manifests from a green flame above me, and knocks me on the head.

“We really need to find out if there’s something to be done about that,” I grumble to myself, rubbing my scalp as I lean down to pick up the scroll.

I undo the seal, open it, and read.

Hello, Starlight!

Could use your help again.

Cozy wants to see you.

She says she “owes you a game of chess.”

Please?

With love and friendship,

Twilight Sparkle

I’m not sure how I can be expected to react to this with anything but displeasure.

I lean back in my office chair, and think.

After a couple minutes, I pick up a quill and some parchment.

I’ll see what I can do.