There were two things running on Cozy Glow's head right now.
One, is that she was seriously hoping cancelling her plan to destroy all magic in Equestria would be a good idea. Magic had taken too much from her already to not face karma.
Two, and this was the more important one, why was the only other pony present in the waiting room the Princess of Love?!
"So, uh, this is a little awkward, isn't it?" the princess asked as if Cozy hadn't noticed already. "I tried to avoid going to the Crystal Empire's dentist so as to not make things awkward, only for things to be awkward at Cloudsdale's dentist anyway!"
Which was actually something Cozy needed to point out: The Crystal Empire had its own dentist, because of course it did, so why not go there instead of Cloudsdale? Sure, the princess would probably be swarmed with attention by the hundreds of Crystal Ponies who knew and adored her-
And Cozy had just answered her own question.
"Okay, so, we should try make this less awkward," the princess lightly raised her hoof. "I'm Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but most ponies just call me Princess Cadence."
Cozy had no idea if the princess had any idea how much more awkward she had made this interaction. Just saying her common name was enough, she didn't have to go with the mouthful she just spat out.
Apparently, it was up to Cozy to show her how It's done.
"I'm Cozy Glow."
"Huh, It's odd to meet a Pegasus without a sky-themed name."
True, certainly true. Didn't mean Cozy hadn't heard the same dang thing a hundred times before.
"Yeah, well, that's a long, interesting story... one I can't tell right now 'cause It's so long, but It's definitely a story."
Great, in trying to prove the princess how not to make things awkward, Cozy had just done it for her. For Celestia's sake...
"My name has quite the story attached to it, too," Cadence answered. "In fact, I like to think every name in Equestria has a story behind it."
"Oh really?" Cozy asked. She was partially at fault for bringing up this topic, so she might as well go along with it until the dentist stopped wasting her time. "Okay, let me give you a name to see what story you can make out of it, give me a second."
"Got it, I'll think of a name myself in the meantime."
For the next few seconds, the princess and the pegasus were silent, giving these hypothetical names far more time and effort than the average Equestrian name.
Eventually, they each got an idea, and pointed at each other as they said them out loud:
"Orchestra Skyland!"
"Chocolate Arrow!"
The ponies went quiet again, as they lowered their hooves.
"Whoa, okay, I didn't see that coming," Cozy Glow raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you come up with love-themed name?"
"I wanted to be a little less predictable," Cadence answered. "Anyway, who starts their story?"
"I'll do it! Orchestra Skyland..." Cozy Glow jumped off her chair as soon as she got a story. "Orchestra Skyland is a Pony whose father is a famous musician, while her mother is a Pegasus who's in control of the weather! With this lineage, Orchestra had an idea: to create a musical group who could okay both in the sky, and the ground, so both her parents could enjoy their music no matter where they were!"
"That's a pretty good story, now's my turn!" Cadence said, gently leaving her chair. "Chocolate Arrow is a filly who has a love for sweets, chocolate in particular. One day, while practicing archery, she was given motivation by her family saying that if she hit the bullseye, they would get her a castle made of candy. And so, with renewed motivation, Chocolate shot an arrow in such a way that it bounced off the target, and hit a buffalo's rear."
"A buffalo?" Cozy Glow asked. "So she's in Appleoosa?"
"She was in Appleoosa at the time, yes," Cadence said, waving her hoof. "Anyway, upon hitting his rear, the buffalo turned around and fell smitten at the sight of a female buffalo! And so, the buffalos got married, and Chocolate Arrow got her chocolate castle."
"I know she doesn't exist, but I'm so jealous of Chocolate Arrow right now," Cozy pouted. "I wanna have a chocolate castle!"
Cadance raised an eyebrow. "To eat or to live in?"
"To eat, duh, I mean, can you imagine trying to live inside a chocolate castle? It would be a mess!" Cozy touched her muzzle in contemplation. "Besides, think of all the ponies who would try to eat it!"
"Yeah, like me," Cadence pointed out with a smile. "I know it might seem cliche, but I love chocolate."
Cozy lowered her eyelids. "Neither surprised, nor impressed."
"Would you mind telling me what are you doing in my house?"
The ponies turned around and saw a stallion with a dark blue coat, light blue and white mane, and the most epic moustache Cozy had ever seen
"Finally, somepony appears!" Cozy cried in joy.
"Excuse me, you good sir, this little filly and I have been waiting a while to be checked by the dentist," Cadence told the stallion. "Would you mind telling us when will he or she be ready?"
"This isn't a dentist office," the stallion stated. "In fact, there are no dentists in Cloudsdale at all."
"Are you kidding me?" Cozy asked, suddenly growing angry. "There's a sign that reads "Dentist Office" outside!"
The ponies left the building and looked up to see the sign itself... which shortly after fell apart to reveal it was nothing more than a bunch of clouds.
"Yeah, some troublemakers like to make people think I'm a dentist due to my similar looks to a dentist in Canterlot, but this is most definitely not a dentist's office," the stallion explained. "Thanks for dropping by, though, your little chit chat was a welcomed deviation from my usual, silent loneliness."
With that said, the stallion walked back inside his house and closed the door, leaving Cadence and Cozy Glow astonished.
"So, everything we just did was a waste of time?" Cozy asked.
"Maybe, but you have to admit," Candence smiled. "It was a fun waste of time."
"I'm not saying it wasn't fun, it was quite the opposite," Cozy sighed. "I'm just upset that in the end, we weren't even at the dentist!"
"Now that I think about it, though, it makes sense," Cadence rubbed her cheek. "What would a dentist be doing in a city in the sky?"
"Yeah, and why didn't you notice that sooner?" Cozy asked. "I'm just a filly, and one too terrified to think clearly to boot, what's your excuse?"
Cadence hummed and got up. "Well, I can muse that later. We should go back home."
"You mean you should go back home," Cozy pointed out. "I don't have anywhere to go."
Cadence's eyes widened. "What about a house?"
"Destroyed in a magic duel."
"Your parents?"
"Had their memories of me erased by magic."
"Friends and extended family?!"
"I don't have the former and the latter are all magic users, so no thanks."
Cadence frowned. She never thought such a filly would suffer such misfortune, let alone deal with it practically alone...
She needed to fix this.
"How about you come with me to the Crystal Empire? You could stay with me at my castle until I can find you a new home."
Cozy raised an eyebrow. "Won't it be weird for you to suddenly have a filly living with you?"
"You can live with any of the dozen Crystal Ponies, then, but I cannot let you stay homeless and without anybody by your side," Cadence leaned towards Cozy. "Nopony deserves something like that at your age."
"Oh please, could you be any more cheesy?" Cozy rolled her eyes. "Besides, why offer to house me? I'm just a regular pegasus."
Cadence gave Cozy a motherly smile. "You're anything but a regular pegasus, though."
Cozy turned to Cadence, and a simple look at her eyes convinced Cozy to, at the very least, give this offer a shot.
"Okay, let's do this."
Cozy got on Cadence's back.
"And Princess?"
Cadence raised an eyebrow.
"...Thank you."
Cadence just smiled and nodded, before blasting off towards the Crystal Empire.
Author's Note
Ah, the dentist. Such a magical place, isn't it?
Okay, here's a fun fact about this story: remember all those alternate universe stories that change or explore a different type of elements? The Shimmerverse, Cadenceverse, Sunsetverse, The Luna Six, all that stuff? I wanted to do something similar, but for Cozy Glow, and this was gonna be the first story of that universe.
I couldn't figure out how to make it work, though, so I decided to make it a quirky one-shot instead.
Your welcome. XD
Comment at your leisure, and stay safe out there.