After such a long time of being unused, my senses are ruthlessly assaulted all at once. Air burns me from the inside as it fills my lungs, the golden sun incinerates my eyes leaving me blinded just as I have caught a glimpse of the azure sky. My ears are overcome with a cacophony of cries of exotic birds and animals.

I can feel myself dropping through the air, eventually ending up on a bed of soft grass. Slowly, my vision returns as I shake off stone flakes off my coat and have to muster all my strength to stand up. As I raise my head up to look around, I see her. A lavender alicorn adorned in regalia stands in front of me, slightly taller than your average pony.

"Twilight Sparkle," I try to utter with venom but sound tired instead, as if I have just woken up.

"Good morning, Cozy Glow," she says with an undertone of mirth in her voice.

"You seem small, you'd think after a thousand years you would get taller," I tease the alicorn.

"Oh, it hasn't been that long at all. To be precise, just a month, eighteen days, fifteen hours, twenty two minutes and thirty fou- thirty five seconds."

"What."

The princess frowns and begins repeating, "A month, eighteen days-"

"No, I get that. I thought you came to imprison me back after the enchantment faded."

Her infuriating smile returns. "Oh, Discord wanted to leave you three here for eternity but tactical use of Fluttershy convinced him otherwise. Not that it would be possible, even the power of the Royal Sisters and the Lord of Chaos combined cannot compare to the Elements of Harmony used by their true wielders. You could probably be contained indefinitely but the other two... Not so much. Chrysalis was already breaking out so we had to process her first." She gestures behind me at where the statue of the three of us was.

I turn around and indeed only see the ancient centaur left. Obviously I cannot see myself there, nor can I see the former changeling queen.

The princess continues, "The enchantment was only meant to last until the chaos of the coronation was over, there just wasn't enough time to deal with your trio. I think you can agree that waiting for a little bit was the least you could do after causing so much destruction."

"That is... fair," I concede.

"You seem rather docile. I was expecting you to either try to cozy up to me by acting all innocent or express way more fury at me."

I look at her with a tired gaze. "Let's just say I did quite a bit of self-reflection while petrified. And I am also way too tired for anything, my joints especially." With a groan, I stretch a bit, rolling around my hooves and spreading my wings.

"So, what do you want from me, Sparkle? Do you expect me to just suddenly be all nice, kind and friendly? To be honest and loyal? Generous and laughing?"

Despite my rudeness, Twilight Sparkle doesn't seem at all irritated. Instead, she continues smiling. "No. But I was hoping you would consider stepping onto the path there. I cannot promise it will be easy and it will certainly take a lot of time. Nothing happens instantly. It will take a lot of effort from you but I can promise you will be better off in the end."

"What makes you think I want that? That I don't enjoy seeing you all suffer, crushed under my hoof? What makes you so sure I can even be better?"

She smiles even more widely. "Well, what you say seems to indicate that. You don't seem like a villain refusing to back down. I only see a lonely filly, guilty for what she has done." The alicorn moves her hoof and gathers the tears that appeared on my cheeks without me even realising.

"M-maybe I'm just manipulating you? And you cannot be certain I won't do it in the future."

The princess pulls me into a hug, my head being pressed against her chest. "I don't think those tears are fake. But yes, you might relapse into old habits. I am afraid I cannot trust you completely, so I created this little device."

She clasps a medallion around my neck. The center gem changes from clear to a glowing sky blue.

"It will show other creatures your intention. You would be released sooner but I needed some time to figure out how to make more than a simple lie detector. We both know you don't need to outright lie to lead creatures around their muzzle." Her gentle smile turns into a smirk that somehow seems just as gentle.

I return the favour by smirking back. "Devious, Sparkle, devious. You know what? Okay. I want to be better, I want to see the so called magic of friendship. Or at least after a nap, apparently being a statue is rather exhausting." I let out a prolonged yawn.

"I promise you won't regret it, Cozy Glow."

"I'll hold you to it, Sparkle. And... thank you. I really don't deserve this."

"Don't speak such nonsense. Everyone deserves friendship."

Everything goes black as I get lulled into peaceful sleep.

Author's Note

Aaaaaaand that's a wrap.

This was originally planned as an entry into the Cozy Glow Short Story Contest but I couldn't quite get the required length by the deadline, though I decided to publish it anyways.

This is actually the first time I publicly post any of my writings, so please give me your critique and advice, I want to write better stories in the future!

And sorry if this felt a bit rushed.