Komm, Süßer Schein

"What do you think suits me better? Silver or gold?" Cozy admired her form in a mirror, held up in the red glow of her magic. "Or maybe red gold? Or whatever that black thing was that Luna... Are you even listening?"

Sunburst looked up towards the tall alicorn sat on the throne. "I am, yes," he replied, moving a hoof to hide the suspiciously head-shaped fragment of rock he was keeping to his side.

Cozy huffed, then threw away the mirror, which landed on the pile of Twilight's petrified remains. "I think I'll go for diamond-encrusted platinum. What about you, what do you think?" she asked again, looking up this time.

From his position tied to the ceiling, Discord stared back at the overgrown filly. "I think paper suited you perfectly fine. You should consider going back to that. Also, you looked better without a horn."

A grunt came from Sunburst.

"What?" The draconequus looked down towards him. "I'm trying, okay? Not much I can do right now."

"Oh, now you're trying." Sunburst sat back down, and returned to focusing on the upper half of Twilight's head. "You let all this happen, but now you try."

Discord rolled his eyes. "Now how was I supposed to know any of this would happen?"

Sunburst stopped, and silently looked up at him.

There was a pause, the only sound that of Cozy's annoyance at being ignored, and the twitching of eyelids it carried.

"Okay, fine," Discord admitted. "I'm sorry. I should have told Twilight I'd influenced the creation of the Codex, and I should have disposed of it, and I definitely shouldn't have let myself get beaten like that. I just thought Purplesmart over there would have found a solution. Or, you know, any of them." He threw a glance to the side of the room, where five statues of five mares overlooked the scene with various degrees of fear and disappointment.

"Speaking of that." Cozy pointed her horn towards the draconequus, and a bolt of red later his body was turned to stone. His expression was what one could expect given it was his third time. Not uncaring like the first time around, when he didn't know what was happening, not scared like the second, when he didn't want to go back. An expression that asked, when he would eventually be freed, to still be invited to the next dinner together, and to not be too harsh on him, he'd done his best.

"Well, we have to hope Starlight makes it now," Sunburst whispered into Twilight's ear.

The door slammed open, and Starlight was thrown into the room, tied up and with a ring around her horn.

Feeling compelled to, Sunburst's shifted Twilight's head as to make it appear like she was staring at him with annoyed eyes.

"Oh." Cozy stared at Starlight for a long moment, eyes wide in fascination. "Golly." She grabbed Starlight's body in her telekinesis, and levitated her to the centre of the room. Poking her head to the side, she spoke to the guards outside, "What was she doing?"

A unicorn stepped in, followed by Gallus and Sugarcoat. "She was found in Ponyville, trying to infiltrate your castle. We spotted her just as she was trying to climb a window."

"Gallus spotted her. Sharpspear is only here because he happened to be nearby," Sugarcoat said in a flat monotone.

Cozy looked back at Starlight, and lifted her up with her magic. "What were you doing there, huh?"

Gallus stepped forward, holding a piece of parchment in his talons. "She had this with her. She tried to eat it after we put the ring on her."

Cozy took hold of the scroll, and her eyes began to run over its contents. A single sound of interest left her mouth, and it was quickly followed by a laugh, while Starlight stared at the ground in desperation. "Time travel, huh?" Cozy asked. She smiled, standing to her full height, and a moment later both her and Starlight were gone.

Sunburst looked down at what was left of Twilight. "Well. Can't go much worse than this now."

And then the sky ripped in half.