Letters to the Princess

Flurry Heart looked around her at the beautiful trappings of her prison. A shelf heaving with all her favourite books. A little potted garden with all the prettiest of the few plants that would grow up here. Heaps of fur and yak-woven blankets, enough to keep out the cold even on the harshest nights. And — Cozy trembled with delight at this, her favourite part — a chess board on a table set for two.

Apart from the bars on the window, it could have been a room in the crystal palace itself.

With the magic limiter detached from the net and welded safely into place on her horn, Flurry was as harmless as a kitten. A captive princess of her very own, just like in a fairytale. Her little songbird with wings clipped and safely caged up. Back where she belonged.

At long last, both of them were home.

“Do you like it?” she asked, wanting to hear Flurry’s voice again. “I’ve had it ready for years. For if I ever caught you.”

There were deep, bruise-like shadows beneath Flurry’s eyes. “All this?”

“The trap, the tower. Everything. Just in case you ever came.”

“How did you catch me?”

"A piece of Chrysalis' old throne,” Cozy said easily. Content in the aftermath to reveal her own cleverness, to revel in it. Flurry loved her for her brain, sharp as a razor. “And before you get any big ideas about smashing that off against the wall, think about all my other hostages.”

Flurry went white.

“You don’t think I kept all the peasants’ foals together, did you, Flurry?” Cozy let herself enjoy a little giggle at her lover’s expense. “Gosh, I’m not an amateur. That was only a third of my little collection.”

Flurry stared at her, and Cozy thought there was something like hate in those eyes. It hurt to see that, and the hurt felt wonderful. Like a knife gliding across your skin, cold and clean and deadly.

“How did you persuade Chrysalis to help you?” Flurry asked wearily. “She had to know giving you something like that was an act of war against the Empire. Aunt Twilight will put her back into prison for this.”

“Prison,” hissed Cozy, rage flaring up as it always did when that name dared to crawl its weaselling way into her ears. “This is prison, Flurry. And a very nice one too, thanks to me. What your precious aunt uses is torture. And Chryssie didn’t need any persuading. She loves me. She was my mother just as much as...the other one was. Wasn't hard to persuade her to lend little old me a hoof.”

“Your mother's name was Rarity.”

“Don't say her name.”

“It was Rarity.”

“I said don't say her name!”

Cozy slammed the door behind her and leaned against it, breathing hard. Then, with a little giggle, she turned and locked it. Three feet of solid ice with real steel mesh inside. More steel on the windows. Walls eight foot deep on every side. Alicorn or not, no magic-sapped pony was going to be getting through that.

She’d done her work well. The goal she’d been aiming towards for so long was achieved, and now she had all the time in the world to enjoy it.