It was dark. Most of the time it was quiet. Sometimes it was even silent. But it never lasted. Whether it was the call of a passing bird or just the wind, they would hear it. It was all they could do, listen to the world around them...
I think a pigeon pooped on you again.
Never gets old.
Shut up.
You shut up!
Both of you shut up!
...that and being forced to listen to each other.
Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, trapped together as a stone statue. Not alive in the strictest sense of the word, but definitely not dead, no matter how much they may have wished it for each other... and themselves. Trapped together they only existed. All of their other senses deadened, they could only hear. Ever conscious, sleep would never give them quarter, least of all from each other's thoughts. The only respite was their shared disdain for the world outside. They could hear the sound of soft, pelting smacks, followed by the giggles of foals.
I think they're throwing snowballs at us again.
Another winter. How long has it been now?
Too long.
I can't even hear myself think!
Well, we can!
Ugh! It feels like an eternity.
Not yet. But it will.
I can hear Hearth's Warming carolers!
I can't tell if it's better or worse than listening to you two.
Definitely worse.
You're worse!
You're both worse!
Shut up!
YOU shut up!
BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!
Most of the time it was quiet. Sometimes it was even silent. But it was always dark. Like being blind.
Which is why it was extra strange one day for Cozy Glow to feel blinded by a bright flash of light. Before the sensation could even register, she felt briefly weightless before the pain of impact with the ground took priority. Pain or not, she could feel. Cozy Glow winced and held her hoof up to shield her eyes from the bright light of the... moon? Even just looking up at the crescent sliver of the moon above the remaining two statues was too bright to the pony that hadn't used her eyes in years. But her sense of hearing was as sharp as ever.
"Ooh, that looks like it sucked!" she heard another pony say. A mare, by the sound of her.
Cozy blinked the pain out of her eyes until they adjusted to being able to see again. Now only the rest of her body hurt from the fall as she looked up at the pony standing in front of her. Her vision went from the dark blur of a silhouette, to a pony-shaped light blur in the moonlight. It was hard to tell what sort of pony with the bulky winter outfit she was wearing.
"You good?" the other pony asked. Cozy groaned in pain against the cold cobblestone. "Here, let me..." The other mare's forehead glowed underneath her winter hat.
A unicorn. Well, that was one mystery solved. The spell washed over Cozy's body, healing away the bumps and would-be bruises of her fall from the statue pedestal. Even the ache of the cold was eased, if briefly, but it returned just as fast, making the pegasus shiver as she rose to uneasy legs, struggling to remember how to walk again.
"Oh, right!" The other pony shrugged off her bag and opened it, digging out some extra winter clothes for her. With her captor distracted Cozy took her opportunity to escape and took off into the air. She barely got ten feet off the ground before magic enveloped her and slapped her back onto the ground like a spiked buckball. The other pony fitted the pegasus with a heavy metal collar. "No more of that, okay?"
Cozy stood up and lunged at her. She put all of the strength she could muster into the punch to the side of the other pony's head. It almost made the other mare stagger before she chuckled. "Okay, wow. That was pretty good." The other pony returned a punch, sending Cozy spinning completely around on her hoof until she dropped like a sack of potatoes. The other pony stood over her and looked down at her with a stern glare, making it clear who was in charge. "Such ingratitude, after everything I did to free you." Cozy put her hoof to the lock on the heavy shackle around her neck and snorted. "Here, take these."
Cozy Glow begrudgingly accepted the winter clothes and started getting dressed. They felt warm like they were fresh from the clothes dryer.
"You're welcome, by the way."
Cozy Glow sneered at her. "What do you want with me!?"
"I believe the words that you are searching for are; Thank You."
"Yeah, thanks for the concussion! Eat a dick!"
The other mare rolled her eyes and cast yet another healing spell, relieving Cozy of her splitting headache as she finished getting dressed.
"I think we got off on the wrong hoof. Hi Cozy Glow, I'm Flurry Heart!"
Cozy Glow froze in place. She looked more closely at the other mare up and down. Only then did she finally notice the alicorn's wings folded against the outside of her coat under her cape, and the cobalt horseshoes of office that she was wearing. Cozy rubbed her temple, feeling where one of those shoes had just rung her bell. But this pony standing head and shoulders above her couldn't be the little foal princess Flurry Heart.
"The hell you are!" Cozy spat.
Flurry Heart's magic lifted her winter hat just enough to reveal her horn as she flexed her wings just enough to prove that they were under her cape. "I am."
Cozy stared at her in disbelief. "But I remember the day of your Crystaling!"
Flurry giggled. "I'm sure a lot of ponies do. It was national news."
"But, but that was just..." Cozy stammered.
"Almost eighteen years ago," Flurry said.
Cozy Glow looked down at her own hooves in horror and did the math. "I'M THIRTY SIX!?"
Flurry raised an eyebrow at her. "What!? I thought you were just a filly when you were imprisoned!"
Cozy rolled her eyes. "I have an aging condition. Or rather, and anti-aging condition. I'm an adult, but I just look like a filly." Flurry smirked. "What? Do you think that's funny?"
"No. It's not that," Flurry said. "I was just thinking that as an alicorn I also have an anti-aging condition too."
"Hardy fricken har," Cozy deadpanned.
"Is that why you went bad?" Flurry asked. "Ponies teasing you about you looking like a little filly?"
Cozy scoffed at her. "Why? So you can pretend to give a shit about my tragic origin story?"
"Wow, you're cantankerous!"
"You still haven't answered my question, you know."
"What do you mean?" Flurry asked.
"What do you want with me?"
"Ah. Well, I have been tasked with reforming you," Flurry explained. "Just think of me as your parole officer for now."
"Oh? And what do you win if you succeed? Gonna finally get your crown?" Cozy asked.
Flurry smiled. "I left my tiara at home. In case you haven't noticed I'm trying to keep my profile, our profile, low."
Cozy tilted her head slightly. "Has anypony ever told you that you're very good at avoiding questions?"
"My mom," Flurry huffed. "Only everyday."
Cozy smirked. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"What do you get out of this?" Flurry just smiled but remained silent. "Alright then. Keep your secrets. So how are we doing this? Are you gonna blast me with rainbow magic or something?"
"Nah." Flurry waved for her to follow. "Come on."
"Good pitch. I could do that, or..." Cozy started trotting in the opposite direction. She didn't get far before she felt her collar get yanked backwards. Her momentum sent her hooves out from under her on the slippery ice, landing her on her back. Her hooves reached out and felt around for the invisible leash but found nothing.
"A magic tether," Flurry explained as Cozy got back to her hooves. "I think your situation should be quite clear by now." Her hoof tapped the ground next to her. "Are we ready to play nice?"
Cozy glared at her and sighed in resignation. "...Fine."
"Good!" Flurry waved for her to follow again.
"Wait! There's something I need to do before we go," Flurry said. She gathered up a bit of snow in her hooves and threw a snowball at the faces of the two remaining statues. "Ha! Suck it!" Flurry Heart rolled her eyes. "Okay, we can go now." Cozy obediently walked beside Flurry through the streets of Canterlot.
"Do you know why I freed you tonight, of all nights?" Flurry asked.
Cozy Glow looked around at all the Hearth's Warming decorations. "Gee... let me guess. It's Hearth's Warming?"
Flurry smiled. "Close enough. It's Hearth's Warming Eve."
"So, what? Are you going to reform me with the spirit of the holiday?"
Flurry shrugged. "It beats a rainbow laser to the face, doesn't it?"
"I guess..." Cozy Glow looked at her reflection in a store window as they walked by. "I still can't believe I'm thirty six!"
"Do you feel thirty six?" Flurry asked.
"No. I feel... I don't know." Cozy rubbed her head where Flurry's punch had landed. It was healed, but the memory of it was still vivid. "Where'd you learn to punch like that?"
"My dad taught me," Flurry said.
"Right. I should have guessed. Former Captain of the Royal Guard."
"Yeah."
"Do you know what my dad taught me?" Cozy asked.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Flurry's smiled faltered. "A self-educated mare."
"Thanks, Princess Silver Linings."
"Is that why you... you know..." Flurry Heart trailed off, "... went bad?"
"Haha- fuck you."
Flurry sighed. "I don't know what I expected..."
"So are we doing the whole Snowfall Frost bit? Are you playing the part of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming's Past? Should we be expecting Pinkie Pie to do a choreographed musical number in the second act?"
Flurry paused for a moment. "Wow. That's actually a way better idea than what I had."
"Fine. What's your idea then?" Cozy asked.
"To do a crime," Flurry said.
Cozy grinned. "Filly, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. What are we doing?
"A heist."
"A heist? Are we going to assemble a team? Do we need like, nine other team members?"
"That seems both really arbitrary and oddly specific. And besides, Auntie Twilie did it with just seven."
"We're not stealing her stupid tinfoil crown are we?" Cozy asked.
"It's actually Spike's crown now."
"Do you think that makes it worth more!?"
Flurry laughed hard enough to snort. "No. And we're not stealing that. And we don't need seven ponies. In fact the fewer ponies that know about this, the better."
"Seven ponies can keep a secret if six of them are dead."
"What?" Flurry asked.
"Nothing," Cozy quickly said. "So who else are we getting?"
"It's just us."
"Okay. So what's the job?"
"We're going to break into Canterlot Castle!" Flurry said.
"Okay, you had me, and then you lost me."
"How so?"
"Why do you need me to help you break into Canterlot Castle?" Cozy asked. "Can't you just like, walk in through the front door?"
"I can. You can't."
"Obviously."
"So we can use the secret entrance on the north side to go in through the basement tunnels," Flurry explained as they walked towards the castle. "And from there we can sneak up to the ground floor."
"Fine. What do we do once we get inside?" Cozy asked.
"I'll explain once we get there."
"Oh, this plan is getting better by the minute," Cozy sarcassed. "Can we stop at a tavern on the way there and grab a cider? It's insane what you miss in prison."
"Prison?"
"Well, yeah," Cozy said indignantly. "To say nothing of the fact that I've been trapped in stone for the better part of the last two decades. Before that, I was in a cage in Tartarus."
"Oh. Right."
"Yeah. Once they realized that I was a mare masquerading as a filly, they had no problem sentencing me as one."
"Oh." Flurry paused for a moment. "Normally I'd say yes, but again, with the whole low profile thing, what with me being a famous princess and you being... uh, an infamous pegasus."
"The former Empress of Friendship," Cozy said.
Flurry snorted. "Yeah, sure."
Away from the lights of the city, where the castle walls abutted the side of the mountain, there was a narrow crevasse leading to the secret entrance of the castle.
"It's actually meant to serve as an emergency exit," Flurry explained as her magic felt around the inside of the false wall, finding the fulcrum release, and revealing the secret door. "Bingo!" They snuck inside and closed the door behind them.
"Great, we're in," Cozy said. "Now what?"
"We head up to the top floors," Flurry said, using her horn to light the way through the tunnels.
"I know the bar is set low enough to be a tripping hazard in Tartarus, but I have to assume the guards are at least a little more competent than the last time I was here," Cozy said, following Flurry up a set of stone stairs.
"They are," Flurry said, lowering her voice to a whisper as they got to the top. "But I've had a lot of time to memorize their routes." She silently pushed the door open a sliver, watching a pair of guards march by before turning the corner at the end of the hall. "Okay, let's go! We have twenty seven seconds before the next patrol."
"Why do you- hHGG!" Cozy's question was cut off as Flurry started running and the magic tether connected to Cozy's collar pulled her along after her. Barely two dozen seconds later, Flurry's magic shoved Cozy into a janitor's closet and she followed in after her and closed the door. What with the brooms, mops and buckets, there wasn't much room to spare. Cozy's body was pressed between the closet wall and Flurry's body. They both tried to keep their panting quiet as the next patrol passed by. The closet smelled like a janitor's closet; The smell of old mop water and floor cleaners.
"Why are we-?"
"Shh!" Flurry hushed her.
Cozy whispered, "Why are we hiding? I mean, I know why I have to, but why are you-?"
"Shh!"
Flurry turned her head to listen if the hallway was clear, giving Cozy a face-full of her mane. Her mane smelled like that breakfast cereal that Cozy used to love as a filly, Boop O' Roops, and for a brief moment, the weight of the anger in her heart lifted away.
"Okay, let's go!" They popped out of the closet and darted down the hallway to the next flight of stairs. The top of the staircase led to a vaulted hall with stained glass windows, banners, and rafter beams. "Up!" Flurry said simply before her wings unfurled. Cozy had only a second to react and follow the motion. Her muscle memory returned and with a second flap of her wings she was airborne along with Flurry, landing on one of the wooden ceiling joists.
Cozy didn't quite stick the landing. She lost her balance and started to fall, caught at the last moment from slipping by Flurry's magic. Flurry's wing across Cozy's mouth stifled her yelp, pulling her close into what could only foolishly be mistaken for a hug. Cozy's eyes crossed as she looked down her nose at the smooth sheen of the wing across her face. There wasn't a single feather out of place. It made Cozy very self-conscious about how long it had been since her own wings had last been preened. The feather conditioner that Flurry used tasted faintly of strawberries on Cozy's lips.
They waited silently in the shadows of the vaulted ceiling as the guards passed below them. Once the way was clear again, Flurry tapped on Cozy's shoulder. This time they moved together, gliding silently back down to the carpeted hallway. "Almost there," Flurry whispered.
They stopped at the hallway corner. Flurry pulled a small hoof-mirror from her bag to check around the corner. A lone guard was posted outside of the royal chambers.
"Ha. There's just one!" Flurry whispered. "The rest must be downstairs at the Hearth's Warming party."
"So are we going to..?" Cozy moved her hoof across her neck.
"No, no. We just need to..." Flurry's magic knocked a sconce off the wall onto the carpet, starting a small fire.
"Oh, shit!" The guard ran towards the fire to extinguish it.
Without a word, Flurry grabbed Cozy's hoof and ran forward, earnestly pulling her along to run into the first set of doors of the hallway.
Once inside, Cozy whispered to Flurry, "Okay, so what are we-? Woah!"
The royal guest suite was enormous. The bed itself was the size of most entire bedrooms. The furniture was of the finest hardwoods, trimmed with gold leaf. The high ceilings made the room feel like a small cathedral. The carpeted floors were lush. The walls were adorned with beautiful tapestries. Even the ceiling itself was a canvas to an enormous painted mural depicting the defeat of Queen Chrysalis at the Battle of Canterlot Wedding; Front and center featured the two ponies whose room this was.
"My parents' room," Flurry grumbled. "Mine is the next one over with the door being guarded. The one at the end of the hall is Auntie Twilie's." Cozy snickered at her nickname. "We can get across to my room from the balcony. But first, the heist!"
Cozy's face lit up, remembering the reason for them being there. "Right! What are we stealing?" she asked excitedly. "Treasure?" Her eyes quickly scanned the room, landing on the closet door. She pulled it open. Tucked away in the back, below and behind the hanging clothes was a large chest. "Aha!"
"No, wait!" Flurry tried to stop her.
But it was too late. Cozy opened the lid to the box. Hearth's Warming Eve though it was, these were not the toys she expected to find. She closed the lid and backed away, looking at Flurry with eyes the size of dinner plates.
"Sorry. I tried to warn you."
"..."
"Anyways, we're actually here for that," Flurry pointed at the icebox near the lounge chair in the parlor.
"We're... raiding the fridge?" Cozy asked. "This was worth arson?"
"Arson?" Flurry asked in confusion. "Oh, you mean the sconce. That was barely arson. It was just a little Crime Brulée."
Cozy grinned. "Okay. Sure. So we're stealing what exactly?"
"You're going to steal my dad's bottle of Applejack Daniels."
"And then?" Cozy asked.
"And then we're going to escape across the balcony to my room."
"... And then!?" Cozy asked more impatiently.
"And then we're going to drink it!"
Cozy looked back and forth between her and the ice box. "Okay, um, not to sound ungrateful for being freed from stone, but I'm failing to see how I was needed for this heist."
"Oh, well, you see, I can't steal it," Flurry explained. "I'm a good pony. But you can do it because you're a villain. And then I can reform you!"
"Whatever." Cozy Glow opened the ice box and grabbed the bottle of Applejack Daniels.
"I bet it's not quite the holiday spirits you were expecting," Flurry said.
Cozy grinned. "A surprise to be sure. But a welcome one."
"And now for our great escape!" Flurry said, opening the door to the balcony. She paused for a moment, looking back at Cozy. Cozy's eyes drifted upwards to look at the archway of the balcony door. Flurry Heart followed her eyes and blushed when she realized that she was standing underneath the mistletoe. She pretended that she didn't see it and quickly stepped out onto the balcony. Cozy followed after her outside, back into the cold winter night. "Just a hop, skip and a jump." Flurry lofted into the air and glided over to the next balcony.
"This seems like a massive security failure," Cozy said as she flew over. She crashed face-first into the invisible ward. Flurry's magic caught her and the bottle before she could fall.
"Sorry! Sorry sorry!" Flurry apologized. "I forgot that was there!" Flurry cast a spell to allow Cozy through, setting her down on the balcony. "Are you okay?"
Cozy Glow rubbed her forehead, trying to remember that thing she learned about in health class about repeated concussions. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay. Good." Flurry opened the door to her suite and they went inside.
Cozy looked at Flurry's room. Anything that could be black was black. Everything else had skulls on it, pictures of skulls on it, metal chains, or jagged crystals. "Wow. And I thought I was supposed to be the villain. Even Sombra wasn't this... extra. Going through your goth phase?"
"It's not a PHASE!" Flurry shouted. "This is who I am!"
"Uh huh. Sure." Cozy opened the bottle. "So do you have a glass or... you know what, never mind." She took a swig straight from the bottle. "Oh... still tastes delicious." She passed the bottle to Flurry. She hesitated for a moment. Cozy rolled her eyes. "Ooh, it'll be like we're kissing!" she said overly-dramatically to diffuse the tension. Flurry sighed and realized how silly she was acting. She took a swig from the bottle and winced hard, making Cozy giggle. "Lightweight."
Flurry glared at her. "Speak for yourself, filly!"
Cozy glared at her and grabbed the bottle back. "That'll just make this extra-embarrassing when I out-drink you." She took another drink without so much as flinching. Beyond the burn of the booze, Cozy could taste Flurry's cherry chapstick on the bottle.
Flurry took the bottle back and took a second drink. The first one was rough. But now that her mouth and throat were numbed, the second one went down without a fight. Cozy smirked. "Hmph. Okay then. What should we drink to?"
"Hearth's Warming?"
"That's stupid."
"You're stupid."
"Nuh uh!"
"Yeah huh!"
Cozy Glow, thirty six, going on eighteen.
And Flurry Heart, eighteen, going on eternity. Give or take.
~
The two mares sat on the rug and drank.
"So Cozy... mare-to-mare... what's your deal?"
"What deal!?"
"You tried to destroy all the magic in Equestria. That's kind of a big deal."
Cozy Glow couldn't keep the smile from her face. "Yeah... But look who's talking, little Miss Almost-Buried-The-Crystal-Empire-In-Snow."
"Not on purpose! Ugh! I am never going to live that one down!"
"Get used to it," Cozy said, taking another sip. "Speaking of, what are you doing in Canterlot instead of the Empire anyway?"
"Mom's still in the Empire. Dad and I are visiting Auntie Twilie, Spike, Gramma Velvet and Grampa Nightlight. Usually he visits by himself, but I decided to tag along this year. We'll head back tomorrow afternoon."
"Huh."
"But why though?" Flurry asked again. "Why did you try to destroy all the magic?"
Cozy sighed and leaned against the frame of Flurry's bed. "Is it not enough for it to have been a case of the Haves verses the Have-Nots?"
Flurry shrugged. "I mean, not really. You don't see the other pegasi staging a coupe. Or the earth ponies for that matter. So why you? Why you, specifically?"
"You're really not going to drop this, are you?"
"No."
"You're pretty damn tenacious, you know that?" Cozy asked.
"I'll take that for the compliment that it is."
"Do your parents love you?"
"Of course!"
"That's nice. Mine didn't."
"Oh, you can't mean that."
"I do."
"And why do you think that?" Flurry asked.
Cozy looked over at her reflection in the window of the balcony doors. She looked at her reflection's forehead. "I know why they didn't. It's because they were unicorns. And I wasn't!"
"Oh, come on, that can't-"
"I might as well have been born with stripes!"
"Okay, settle down."
"I mean it though. My dad refused to believe that I was his daughter. Even though my uncle was a pegasus."
"He thought your mom had an affair with his brother?" Flurry asked.
"No, my mom's brother was a pegasus. My dad just refused to understand how genetics worked. Even after the paternity test proved it and everything. It didn't matter. Because I wasn't the unicorn foal that he wanted. I couldn't do magic or go to Celestia's school. That's why I left Canterlot as soon as I could."
"But what about your mom?"
Cozy took another swig. "She never said it, but I know she resented me for causing their marriage to fail."
"So that's why you wanted to destroy all the magic in Equestria and turn the pegasi against the unicorns?"
Cozy Glow shrugged. "Yeah. I guess. Mostly... I just wanted to watch the world burn."
"A foal shunned by its village will burn it down to feel its warmth," Flurry Heart recited. Cozy gave her a sideways look. "The benefits of a classical education."
"Is that supposed to impress me?"
Flurry shrugged. "Look, I'm sorry you had a shitty dad. And just because I don't agree with your methodology, doesn't mean that I don't understand your reasoning."
"Yeah. Whatever."
"Hey, at least you're not an earth pony."
Cozy smirked. "There is that, I suppose."
"Here's to having wings," Flurry offered a toast. She took a swig and passed the bottle.
Cozy smiled. "Okay. Yeah. I can drink to that." She joined her in the toast and took a swig of her own.
There was a loud knock at the door. "Flurry!?" Shining Armor's voice came from the other side.
Flurry Heart body-checked Cozy Glow into her closet and closed the door. "Yes, Daddy?"
"Is everything okay?" Princess Twilight Sparkle asked from the hallway. "We heard there was a fire!"
"I didn't-! Uh... I don't know anything about that! I've been in here all night."
Shining Armor opened the door. His eyes scanned the room before looking at Flurry. She felt her throat tighten as he stepped closer. She felt a bubble rise that she couldn't hold back. She burped and Shining stopped in his tracks. It practically singed his eyebrows. "Okay, where is it?"
"Where's what, Daddy?" Flurry bluffed.
"Don't play coy with me!" Shining said. "You think I don't recognize my bottle of whiskey on your breath!? You're off the charts little lady! Now where is it!?" He held out his hoof to her.
"Oh, uh, it's uh... just in here..." Flurry shuffled nervously towards her closet, cracking it open just enough to reach in. Cozy Glow picked up on the cue and put the bottle into Flurry's hoof. Flurry quickly pulled her hoof out and closed the closet door. "Here. Right here."
Shining Armor eyed the level inside the bottle. "You drank this much yourself!?" he said with a mix of anger and just a hint of pride.
Flurry was about to confess to the lesser crime when Cozy Glow hiccupped.
Shining leveled his gaze at the closet door, and then at her. "Flurry! You know you're not allowed to have friends over tonight! You're grounded!" he said as Princess Twilight Sparkle walked in to join them.
"I don't have any friends over!" Flurry said, blocking the closet.
Twilight pushed Flurry aside with her magic while Shining's hoof grabbed the closet door. "Oh yeah? Well, then who's in here?"
Cozy Glow looked at them with inebriated eyes and smirked. "An enemy."
"Cozy Glow!" Twilight shouted. Her horn flared to light.
"No, wait!" Flurry Heart dove onto Cozy as the spell landed.
~
The spell blinded Flurry Heart. It deadened her senses. Her senses of smell, taste and touch. She was only aware that she existed. And she was aware of the voices around her. Panicked yelling and screaming and arguing. But beneath all of it was a voice much closer to her mind's ear.
Her fruity feather conditioner. The taste of her cherry chapstick. Her mane smells like Boop O'Roops. I just want to smell her mane one more time. Fall asleep with my face in it.
Cozy!?
Flurry!? You can hear me!? Uh, Uh- shit! La la la la! Don't think about her mane! Infant fish do do do do do! Don't think about her mane! Infant fish do do do do do!
The spell blinded Flurry in a different way. She blinked in the light of the bright light of the dark, black bedroom, as though it was her first time using her eyes. As soon as she could see, she could see her aunt and father standing over her with, at first, a look of worry, and then anger.
"What were you thinking, setting her free!?" Twilight asked.
"Were you even thinking!?" Shining asked.
Flurry turned around and saw Cozy Glow, still a stone statue. "Let her go!"
"Absolutely not!" Twilight said. "Do you have any idea what she did!?"
"Yes!" Flurry said. "It was required reading in history class! But she doesn't deserve this! You have no idea what it's like to be turned to stone!"
"Yes I do!" Twilight said. "Luckily Fluttershy was able to convince the cockatrice to turn me back to normal."
"Then you know that it's a fate worse than death!" Flurry said. Twilight set her jaw. "You forgave Headmare Glimmer, and Counselor Lulamoon. You taught me that everypony deserves a second chance."
"That's different. And that's not the point. She's going to get her chance to be reformed. But not by you! She's supposed to be Luster Dawn's test."
"But I can fix her!" Flurry said.
Shining Armor snorted. "By stealing my liquor? And sneaking her into your room when you know that you're grounded?"
"You just think she's going to be a bad influence on me," Flurry said.
"No!" Shining shouted. "You're going to be a bad influence on her!"
"Nuh uh!" Flurry Heart masterfully countered. "And besides, I'm a princess! So I can pardon her!"
Flurry Heart's magic hit the statue and Cozy Glow fell from her stone form for the second time that night. She blinked her eyes awake at the bright light of the dark room. And then at the light room. Flurry Heart didn't flinch as she stayed between them and Cozy Glow. Shining Armor just shook his head. He knew his daughter well enough to know that he wasn't going to win this battle. He looked over at Twilight.
Princess Twilight Sparkle looked at Flurry and spoke with finality, "Fine. She's your responsibility. If she screws up... When she screws up, it's on YOU! Do you understand!?"
Flurry Heart nodded. None of the other ponies looked happy with the situation as they started to leave. Flurry Heart turned around and looked at Cozy.
"So... Flurry, what did you get grounded for, anyway?" Cozy Glow asked.
Flurry Heart told her.
Cozy Glow grinned. "Oh... I can tell that we are gonna be best friends."
Author's Note
