Letters to the Princess

When the news came of the breakout at the prison camp, Cozy Glow took it remarkably well. She did not kill anypony — not even the messenger. In fact, it had been over a month since she had killed anypony at all, and rumours were starting to circle.

The Empress was weak.

Even Flurry Heart heard those rumours, high in her tower jail. From the guards who drifted away, one by one, from the barracks at the edge of the winter garden. From the tribute shipments, which came less and less. And from the impassioned groans and gasps of the still-loyal Best Friend, as he had his one-sided arguments with Cozy, his words limited to the scrape of chalk on the blackboard he wore around his neck.

And most of all, from Cozy Glow herself. She turned her back on the Empire she had built from blood and pain, and she lost herself within the limited world of their tower. In chess and reading — in Flurry herself.

And Flurry was happy to let her. The further the Empress strayed, the closer her own Cozy came.

It was in these happy thoughts that Flurry was lost as she drifted off to sleep. Cozy had left her little more than an hour before, and for one halcyon moment Flurry had actually thought she would spend the night, as she had done in their younger years. They had curled up in front of the fire, using the dwindling reserves of firewood, and had talked of times long before. Their first time around. The date at the Crystal Faire. The meddling they had endured from Auntie Tia.

All it needed was for them to spend the night wrapped in one another’s wings, and then…then her Cozy would resurface. Flurry was certain of it.

So when the door creaked open, Flurry thought at first that Cozy had changed her mind. That she had come back. Her marefriend returned from the dead, casting off the shell of the Empress.

That was what she wanted.

But it was not Cozy — or the Empress. The shape that stood over her bed was horned instead of winged, and his mane was matted and filthy.

A soft groan emanated from his lips, and Flurry finally recognised him.

“Best Friend? Is that you?”

He was…he was barely a stallion. What she had taken for emaciation was the skinniness of a colt in his late teens. Not much older than Skydance. And when he opened his mouth, to growl at her, she finally saw the reason for the chalkboard.

He had no tongue.

Only a clumsy stub, hacked off at the base, where the raw muscle still flexed and stretched. Forever trying to speak, and forever silenced.

Stunned, Flurry could only stutter out a few half-questions. “A-are you — did she—?”

And he produced a piece of chalk seemingly from nowhere, and he began to write.

The squeaks and scrape of the chalk on the slate seemed to go on forever, and Flurry sat up in bed, shifting impatiently. What was he doing here? Cozy didn’t allow her underlings into the tower. Or at least, not into Flurry’s room.

He was not even writing like a unicorn normally would. Instead of levitating the objects, he held the board in his hooves and scratched awkwardly away with his mouth.

“What is it?” Flurry asked, impatience finally conquering her shock at his presence and the state of his tongue.

And finally, he turned the board around. The white writing was small, dense, and Flurry had to squint to see it.

Since you came, bad things are happening. I grew up with her. I know her. The word ‘know’ was underlined several times, each line wobblier than the one before. She’s the Empress! Here the scrawl grew frantic; furious. You’re making her weak. It’s your fault.

She finished reading and looked back to his eyes, and once he saw that she was done, he dropped the chalkboard. It hit the end of its string and bounced against his chest.

For a moment, there was silence. Flurry opened her mouth. What could she say, to deescalate the situation? She didn’t want to hurt him, but he was clearly unbalanced. Anyone who grew up in this place — with Cozy in this state — would be.

“Best Friend, I’m…I’m trying to heal her. To fix her. We can fix you too. Make you better.”

But the doubt must have showed on her face because he began to advance on her.

It was only once he was within hoof’s reach that Flurry tried to light her horn. However magically powerful he was, she knew she would be more so. Even with her connection to the Heart choked off, she was an alicorn. She could do anything.

But her horn did nothing. It was a dead lump of bone attached to her skull.

He clambered onto the edge of her bed, and she saw it gleaming there behind the chalkboard. The little fragment of throne, back to haunt her once more.

Flurry spread her wings, tried to flap away from him, only to collapse awkwardly to the floor. Flight was magic too, and it failed her.

Best Friend dove after her, and as Flurry struggled to her hooves, her legs weak and shaky, she finally understood.

He came up here to kill me.

That was her only conscious thought before he landed on top of her, sending her sprawling. His hooves were scrabbling for her throat, and with her magic gone Flurry couldn’t push him away as easily as she might have done. He was bearing down on her, a horrible smile twisting his features, a parody of a smile, modelled on the very worst of Cozy Glow. His tongueless mouth lolled open, teeth bared, and drool dripped onto her face.

“Get off me!” As she spoke, she kicked at his stomach with her hind legs.

Her magic was gone, all of it, even her earth pony strength, so she didn’t hold back.

Celestia help her, she didn’t hold back.

And he was only a colt. Scrawny and small, barely fed a full meal more than once a month in his whole life.

Flurry Heart didn’t hold back, and so when both her hind hooves connected with his stomach, there was a dry snapping sound, and then he went flying across the room. His head connected with the stone wall with a sickening thud. And he fell, limp as a ragdoll, to the ground.

Her heart in her mouth, Flurry struggled to her hooves. Stared at him. Aghast. “No.”

She went to him. Felt for a pulse. Tried to feel the stirring of his breath on her cheek from his horrible tongueless mouth.

“No,” she said again. “No.”

He lay still, his blackboard broken in pieces under his body. That fragment of the changeling throne still held close.

“Wake up, Best Friend,” said Flurry, numbly. “Wake up.”

And he wouldn’t. He didn’t.

“Flurry!” She burst through the door, a hurricane of feathers and fear. “There’s blood on the stairs, are you—” She saw the body, and she stopped short. Her flight stuttered, and she fell more than landed.

Flurry Heart looked down at the boy who lay at the base of the wall, and another tear slid down.

Cozy’s voice was hushed. “You…Best Friend…” She reached out a hoof for him, but stopped short.

“I k-killed him.” Flurry’s voice hitched, but she said it. She said the words that had been beating like a drum in her mind for the last hour. “I didn’t mean to, but…”

But I did. A life ended. She raised her hoof, and breath stopped. Just like with the windigos. With all the monsters she had hunted as a teenager. With the Sombrites. Here in her prison, there was no crystal to patch the holes and undo the damage. There was no way for magic to fix what she had done.

“He was…”

Cozy’s voice tailed off, and Flurry wondered what she would say. He was just a kid. He was my friend. He was like a son to me. Each possibility was worse than the last.

“…He was already dead, Flurry.” Cozy slumped to the floor, her ears pinned back to her skull. Her face was grey with exhaustion. “He was a normal colt, and he died the minute I took him from his parents. The minute I did what I did, and made him into…that.”

She gestured weakly to the creature on the floor, face twisted in a mask of hatred, blackboard shattered beneath its hoof. “His name was…it was…I don’t remember.” She shut her eyes. “It’s awful, that I don’t remember. I used to know all of my victims. I saw their faces, heard their voices. But now they all blend into one.”

“I still didn’t want to kill him.” Flurry swallowed. Remembered the fury she had felt. “Or I didn’t want to want to kill him.”

With a sigh, Cozy sat down. Despite the blood on her coat, Flurry felt the warmth of another body against her own.

“Do you remember that you told me, once, that no matter how deep the hole was…you’d pull me out?”

Her eyes suddenly tight with unshed tears, Flurry Heart nodded. “I remember.”

Pressing her face tight against Flurry’s chest, Cozy Glow sniffled. “Thank you.” It was so quiet it wasn’t even a whisper, but Flurry heard.

She heard.

“Just…just don’t make me do it again,” she managed. Her voice was weak, but she attempted a laugh.

Cozy Glow shuddered, and Flurry felt moisture on her fur. She tightened her hold.

“I’m a monster.”

Once, she would have denied it. No, you aren’t. But too much had been done. Too many had died.

“Yes.” It was a simple statement of fact. “You are.”

Another shudder. “Then…why…?”

Flurry thought of Best Friend’s neck, snapping beneath her hooves. She thought of the mares and stallions she had led from the Crystal Empire, each of them trusting in her to keep them safe before they died and rose and died again. She thought of the windigos, banished from Equestrian shores. Of the Sombrites, sealed up beneath the earth for a thousand years.

“Maybe you’re a monster,” she said at last. “Maybe I’m a monster too.”