Komm, Süßer Schein

Twilight stared at the thing which called itself a pony, now sat on a makeshift throne that had been fetched from the dining room no more than ten minutes before. The quick colour-changing spell and the poorly attached cardboard pieces did little to hide the fact that it was merely a normal chair, but Cozy Glow didn't seem to mind.

Princess Cozy Glow, actually.

Actually, Not-Yet-Princess Cozy Glow, Twilight corrected herself again. Not until she placed the crown on her head. And she had every intention to keep it far away from those hideous curls for as long as she could, even if it was just a minute longer.

The crown was made of paper, like one a foal would make. They hadn't had time to forge a new one, and Twilight had no intention of symbolically using her own, Harmony forbid there was some law that made that count as abdicating in Cozy's favour. Cozy hadn't objected to that.

The ceremony was purely a formality, really. A paper crown and a cardboard throne, and no one to see it other than Sunburst. But again, the little spawn of Tartarus hadn't said anything and was apparently fine with it. Twilight hated that. Cozy seemed exactly like the kind of creature that would have delighted in being at the centre of some pompous ceremony, seen by all of Canterlot. But instead she made no objection at being crowned like that.

But there were more prominent reasons for her disliking of the small manipulative flier. Namely the memory of the horn she'd once had, glowing bright red, pointing right at her face. Cozy hadn't changed since then. She was the same who'd tried to destroy Equestria's magic, the same who'd blown up Canterlot, the same who'd stolen Luna's and Celestia's magic.

Yet there she sat, short hooves dangling from her would-be throne, an ear-to-ear smile on her face. And Twilight was supposed to crown her. Twilight was supposed to declare her a Princess. Twilight was supposed to put her on the same level as Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Flurry and herself.

Cozy looked up at the alicorn. "Well? What are we waiting for?"

A cracking sound was heard through the room, coming roughly from where Twilight's head was.

Sunburst looked up to the purple pony, rather alarmed. "Twilight?" he asked, stepping closer to her. "Is everything alright?"

"No," answered Twilight. "Nothing is alright." She lowered her horn, and placed the yellow piece of rolled together paper on Cozy Glow's head, acting before her brain had time to realise what she was actually doing and put up its walls again. "I hereby declare you Princess Cozy Glow," the alicorn spat out, giving the distinct impression of having accidentally put cement in her mouth.

"Golly," Cozy said, looking up at the excuse for a crown she'd been given and adjusting it a little on her head.

Twilight hadn't yet let go of the thing, and she repositioned it to sit the way she'd originally placed it.

Cozy stared right in her eyes, her hooves still on the crown, and for a moment there was only silence in the room.

Turning power-mad and taking control of all Equestria was beginning to appear a rather tempting possibility to Twilight. They'd find a way to stop her, and the country would recover eventually. Her only regret in that moment was not having studied petrification spells.

Sunburst cleared his throat.

Both mares suddenly let go of the crown, as if snapping out of a trance.

"Well then," the stallion tentatively began. "I believe we should move on to the assignation of land and castle, and relative business."

That. Twilight knew she would hate it even more.

"Doesn't the title come first?" asked Cozy.

Sunburst pursed his lips, then fetched his notes. "Huh. You're right, it does." Placing the clipboard back down, he asked, "Have you decided what to do about that, Twilight?"

The alicorn bit her lip. Alicorns were usually assigned a domain based on what their talent was, or on what had brought them to their ascension, though usually the two were deeply entwined. Cozy... Her talent, as far as anyone could tell, was manipulation. Not exactly something appropriate for a Princess. Or for a pony, for that matter, and Twilight had always found the fact rather unsettling.

And her ascension wasn't much better. She'd stolen an ancient evil artefact, then stolen a book on how to use it. All the while working together with two of Equestria's worst enemies. What did that make her? Princess of stealing?

Twilight looked over the filly. Then, an idea struck her.

"I, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, as ruler of Equestria, hereby declare your title to be that of Cozy Glow," Twilight said with a smirk, "Princess of Games."

Cozy's relatively serene expression didn't crack. Something behind it did though, judging by the sound at least.

She couldn't say anything about it though. It worked perfectly. It fit with her cutie mark, it fit with her being a filly. Both knew about the other meaning of it, referring to Cozy's ability to play with ponies. The third was just as evident, and it was what made the little equine furious behind her mask of calmness. Crowned with piece of paper on a throne of cardboard, Princess of Games because that was all her coronation was, and Twilight had no intention of making it last long.

The sound of Sunburst's quill taking note of the event was the only notable thing to be heard in the room for a while, as the two Princesses stared at each other in silence. Arguably, only because hate and rage didn't make any sounds.

"Now then," the stallion spoke. "About the land and castle."

Twilight looked at Sunburst and swallowed. She'd taken that one small victory over Cozy, and she would hold dearly onto it during what would come next. She just needed to tough things out, even if it pained her. "Yes," she replied, turning back to Cozy.

The little demon perked up in her chair, adjusting her crown once more as it threatened to leave her head and make the floor a Princess too.

Twilight rubbed her temple with a hoof, wishing for nothing more than for the thing in front of her to evaporate. Maybe she could still let go. Maybe she could just make someone else ruler of Equestria and let them deal with it while she was off skydiving somewhere. What was the worst that could happen? After all Cozy had only almost destroyed magic and then been responsible for about a third of what had happened to Canterlot. It wasn't that bad. It was...

The alicorn looked at the filly. She was doing the right thing. She had to remind herself that she was doing the right thing. Going against the Codex would have legally put Cozy in charge, and more importantly it would have led her down a slope she didn't want to revisit soon. What she was doing was the best alternative.

That didn't make it hurt any less.

"As a matter of fact," she began, "given how slowly things would move if we were to build a new castle and establish a new region for you to rule over, never mind the hustle of having to unmake all of that in a week once you're imprisoned again, we've decided to utilise a pre-existing lot of land. You'll be ruling over..." Twilight's breath grew heavier, and the words died in her throat.

"Yes?" asked Cozy, tilting her head to the side.

"Ponyville," Sunburst cut in, and the look he received from Twilight was in equal parts filled with gratitude and with betrayed trust.

The Princess herself cleared her throat, then turned to speak to Cozy with such a display of struggle that one would have guessed she was condemning a friend to be executed. Which she was, in a way. "As Sunburst said. You'll be staying in my old castle, and you'll rule over the city." It hurt just as much as she thought it would, and the smile spreading on the newly-crowned's face didn't help with that.

Quickly, she added, "But the School of Friendship remains outside of your jurisdictions, and under my control." Twilight had no intention of letting the curly imp manipulate any students again, and at worst the school would work as a place for the citizens to hide in.

"Golly," said Cozy Glow, playfully dangling her little hooves from the chair. "I haven't been to Ponyville in a while." She looked around. "Well then. Are we going?"

Few times in her life had Twilight felt that same wish for the ground to swallow her, and for number of times she'd caused it Cozy was tied with Chrysalis, and only surpassed by Celestia. "Sunburst will fill you in on the technicalities. Excuse me for a moment," she said with all the politeness she could muster, then unceremoniously teleported out of the room.

What once would have been an informal meeting and make-out session between her forehead and the wall was interrupted by her long spiral horn stopping her motion as it clashed against the polished marble of the corridor's side, and Twilight remained there, outside the room, hanging her head low as she sighed.

A familiar set of talons reached to pat her back, while the griffon they belonged to remained silent.

After a few moments, Twilight lifted her neck. "Thank you, Gallus. For everything. I know you'd rather see her turned to stone just as much as I do."

"More than you do," Gallus replied. "You've always been the more forgiving one of us two." He stared at Twilight for a moment, chewing, then finally decided to spit out the thought which had been bothering him. "If it was up to me she'd remain a piece of stone in the gardens forever. But I'm not the Princess, and you're not me. So as much as it's not something I would want to happen, I need to ask this."

There was a pause, and a glance between the two.

Finally, Gallus spoke again. "Why haven't you tried to reform them yet? Because it's the kind of thing the Twilight I know would do."

The mare's eyes darted out of the way, looking somewhere behind Gallus and betraying her nervousness. "Equestria hasn't had time to forget yet. Look at what you just said. I don't blame you for any of it, but I'd never be able to get them to change if this was what everyone thought of them. And right now it is. It was hard with Luna, and she'd genuinely changed, it would be impossible with them."

"Discord didn't get to wait."

Twilight bit her lip, and her eyes still strayed away from the griffon's. "Discord was different. He didn't need to be a part of our community. And his short-lived return left wounds far less severe than the scars of his previous reign." And he'd been needed.

He was the world's worst safety net, but it was better than nothing. Sure, it had horribly backfired twice and almost never been otherwise useful, but it wasn't like she had a charm to make enemies fall to their knees before her. Okay, she did, a copy of the one had Sombra used. But she didn't want to use that. She didn't want to use any sort of magic from that section of the archives, really. It hadn't gone well the previous time. Equestria needed something. That had likely been Celestia's line of thought at least, from what she'd gathered discussing with her.

Gallus clicked his beak. "Is that really all there is to it?"

Twilight's eyes moved even further away.

"Is it just Equestria that hasn't had time to forget yet?" the griffon pressed on.

Twilight finally let go of her tension and sighed. "You're right. I... I feel like I can't forgive them yet. Not because I shouldn't, but because I don't want to."

Gallus patted her back again. "I get that. And it's the same for me. But you rule this country, not me, and that's because you're better than that. We both know you are. You should try to fix things now that you have the chance. It'll just make everything harder if you don't." He turned to the side and held his talons over his mouth, puffing his cheeks. "Don't ever force me to do something like that again, okay? I'm not supposed to be the one playing the good guard," he said in a disgusted tone.

Twilight smiled at that. He was right, after all. She should at least try to give Cozy a chance. It would be hard, but-

The doors swung open, and out came Sunburst, with Cozy splayed over his back, pulling his mane and giving him directions by tugging at his horn.

It would be hard. Very.