Of Princesses and Convicts
“Ugh, why don’t you just send me back to Tartarus, at least Tirek and Chrysalis didn’t bore me to death with long-winded lectures about the magic of friendship!”
The small pegasus let out a muffled groan into one of the ridiculously ostentatious pillows decorating the equally fancy bed. She sighed and rolled over on to her back, still holding the pillow to her face.
Cozy hated how soft the bed was, it almost made her want to stay, sleeping on the floor of an iron cage would give anypony back problems- and she had been doing it for the past decade-and-a-half or so. She looked up over the pillow to the chalk board that Princess Slurry Fart was irritatedly tapping with the piece of chalk she held in her telekinetic grip.
She had drawn some sort of diagram involving the elements of harmony and was currently writing down something about how great friendship was.
This supposed ‘reformation’ program (which she had been forcefully enrolled in, by the way) had turned out to just be an elongated stay with the Princess of Love’s daughter. She had to be fair, at least they hadn’t placed her with Twilight Stinkface- although that didn’t make this any less awful. The pink alicorn had the horrible habit of seeming to believe there was good in everything and had refused to give up on her.
She had considered just flying away, but she knew the enchantment placed on her would return her to the (ridiculously sparkly) castle every night.
“If I recall correctly,” The Princess said, dropping the piece of chalk she had been writing with back onto the chalkboard, “It was your cellmates who complained about you, so I don’t think they’ll be too happy to see you back.”
Cozy rolled her eyes, those imbeciles couldn’t be trusted with anything.
“Fine. Explain to me how I can possibly be redeemed.” The Pegasus humoured her, tossing the pillow aside. She had been here a couple of weeks and had begun to get bored- there was only so much to do in a castle with guards watching your every hoofstep.
Flurry Heart stumbled a bit, seemingly surprised that Cozy Glow had offered her the opportunity to explain- as if that would do anything. She quickly regained her composure and instantly brightened up, Cozy had to admit she did look better when she was smiling.
“Well! For one you were like, what- six when you tried to wipe out all magic and become the dictator of equestria?”
Cozy raised an eyebrow.
“I mean I know it sounds bad when I put it like that- but you were just a child!”
Wow, this pony really was stupid- even after all the years she had spent in Tartarus after being released from stone she still held zero resentment for what she did.
“Secondly, I mean if you can reform Discord, everyone really is a step down from that- how hard can it be?”
“Wow, you really are an idiot.”
It was Flurry’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“Discord fell in love with some stupid dopey pegasus- what do you expect, I’ll fall for you and be magically reformed? Ha!”
Flurry Heart was pretty red at this point- be it from anger or her irresistible charm- she couldn’t tell.
“Ugh! You’re insufferable!”
Probably anger.
“I open up my doors to you and let you stay in my place and you repay me like this! I can’t stand you!”
Cozy Glow was slightly taken aback by the sudden outburst, but simply smirked, “Seriously Princess, do you ever take your head out of the clouds and actually put your hooves on the ground?”
Okay, she was petty cute when angry too. Like a pissed-off bunny rabbit.
“Why not remove this uncomfortable curse and let me have a trot around the castle gardens?”
The Princess let out a puff of air. “Nice try Cozy, I’m not letting you leave this castle until I’m one-hundred percent sure you’re reformed.”
“Oh come on Princess, why don’t you come with me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Sure, I can show you the real world. It’s a place you’ve never heard of, I’m sure.”
“Shut up, there’s absolutely no way you’re going anywhere outside this castle so drop it.”
The Pegasus shrugged and re-arranged herself to a more comfortable position on the bed, looking out the window at the moonlight streaming in. “Hey, you never know- maybe a little break from this crystal hellscape will give me a breath of fresh air and make me realise the error of my ways.”
The alicorn seemed to decide to give up on the lecture and kicked the wheeled chalkboard away, instead choosing to sit beside Cozy Glow on the bed.
Before she had the chance to say anything, Cozy spoke.
“Really Flurry Heart, do you think your parents shoved me onto you because they actually think you can handle the responsibility, or because they just don’t want to have to deal with you all the time? I mean come on- when was the last time they actually payed attention to you?”
Now this took the princess aback. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before settling on a confused whimper. Aha, she had guessed right, apparently even the most beautiful and wise princess wasn’t as confident as everyone thought.
“Come on, just a few days outside of the empire and if you’re not feeling it we can come right back. You might even reform me! That’ll show your parents right.”
Flurry Heart took a deep breath. “Fine.”
Cozy’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest, she hadn’t expected that to work so quickly, what in the name of the all-powerful sun goddess was she supposed to do now?
“However I’m going to rewire the spell to me- so no trying to run.”
This was even better than she had expected! All she had to do was to keep convincing Flurry Heart to stay away a little longer until the annoying little pony let her go!
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going.”
