Cyclesby AFanaticRabbitChaptersVitaMorsRenatusVitaCozy glow needed a pair of scissors. She rooted around inside a drawer, her good wing's primaries and a hoof shoving around the various craft instruments and materials haphazardly dropped inside. Quietly, she cursed Flurry's tendency to be so darn disorganised. Perhaps, when she had the time, Cozy ought to go through all of Flurry's things and properly label them. Cool light from the low lying Northern sun warmed Cozy's back as she shifted from one drawer to the next. It bounced off the faded pink walls and icy-looking floor, removing any shadows from the space. Years, Cozy had been there, and she still hadn't adjusted to the lack of shadows. It was downright uncanny, like she was in another space to the left of reality. While chilly, she'd still worked up a sweat, small beads of it moving through the short hairs over her face, cutting routes down her snout like climbers up a mountain. She needed those scissors. The third drawer didn't give her any scissors, but there was a surprisingly springy roll of fabric. A narrow band of soft pink mesh she could hardly see through. She took it, slipping it under her good wing. A faint echo of Flurry's perfume filled the room, cardamom and sandalwood. It was a constant smell in Cozy's life, so persistent that it faded into the background as if the air should always carry the scent. A few places absorbed it most, though. The places Flurry spent most of her time in, and her little hobby room was second only to their bed. Just as Cozy reached for the last drawer, having picked out a pair of tweezers from the last one, she breathed in deep. The scent washed over her tongue, though it was ever so slightly different. A touch spicier, a touch stronger. She looked back over her shoulder and under her wing, catching Flurry Heart's gaze. The young mare stared back, one eyebrow raised and her head tilted just a hair to the side. Her long, fuchsia mane dangled and curled back up, framing her face with curled fingers. She got cuter every day, and just a little more terrifying. Cozy straightened herself up, folding her wing down to trap her other prizes beneath it. With a deep breath she forced herself to calm down. She knew how she looked when she got obsessive; wide-eyed, jaw clenched, her hair carelessly falling over her eyes and back. She adjusted her tight curls with one hoof, a gentle brush of the tips so they consistently fell in one direction. "I need some scissors," she answered, a surprising calm in her voice. A thin smile crossed Flurry's lips as approached. Wariness, but amusement to. "What are you up to?" she asked with a hint of a laugh. Crap. Cozy didn't want to have to lie to Flurry. Lies came too easily to her lips, little falsehoods that built up into epic, sweeping tales if she wasn't careful. She really didn't want to embroil Flurry in a stupid conspiracy. Not that she really liked the alternative. Cozy smiled. "I'm just working on a little project!" She layered on the sweetness, as false as saccharine but hopefully good enough Flurry didn't think too hard about it. "I wanted to keep it secret, but you know how hard that is here. I wanted it to be a surprise for you." Most of that was true. All except the surprise. Now she had to come up with a surprise with the things she took, but that was for her to worry about later. Flurry stared into Cozy's eyes for a moment. They'd built a lot of trust together, over the years, but every now and then her parents' and aunt's uncertainty bled through. Cozy hated it, but she always appreciated what came next. With a wing only a little less stubby that Cozy's, Flurry reached for the pot atop the desk and pulled out a pair of scissors with a bubblegum pink handle. "Be careful, hon," she said with a smile, and offered them to Cozy. As Cozy took the scissors with her wing, Flurry took the opportunity to pull the two of them together and plant a kiss on Cozy's cheek. The forced smile across Cozy's face relaxed into something more genuine, a giggle bubbling up in her throat. It bugged Cozy that her partner—her fiancé, something she was still reeling over half a year later—let doubts enter her mind. It stung less, though, whenever Flurry pushed them aside and trusted Cozy anyway. Cozy turned and shuffled away, shooting a quick smile over her shoulder. She took advantage, sometimes, but she tried her best not to push her luck. The Crystal Empire's palace wasn't as big as the castle in Canterlot, or the ruins she had only a brief chance to explore back in the Everfree, but it had space enough the two of them had the equivalent of an entire house to themselves. That meant Cozy could do as she pleased without being watched by guards, though occasionally housekeeping made their way through. Additionally Cozy had been scarred by the few times flight patrols had invaded her privacy, sticking their snouts in through the windows, though they hadn't done that in a few years. It simply meant Cozy didn't truly have a space just to herself. She liked the solitude, which Cozy understood the irony of. It had just become a close friend over her many years locked away. The other thing about the palace was the oversized closets. Cozy entered the one in their bedroom, closing the door behind her and blindly feeling her way through the rows of dresses and garments on hangers. Eventually she came to a solid wall of silky-soft fabrics that she barged through, only to stumble into an empty space behind them. She dropped her supplies on the floor when she threw out a wing, feeling around. She found the little armature and unscrewed the cap on it to let in the sterile, white-blue light of a small crystal. It illuminated the space. The soft wall of multi-coloured clothing on one side and the cramped ceiling above. So small, so tight, it had been made tighter by the addition of books and a single crystal dining chair, plus the shelf Cozy had hastily bolted onto one wall for her things. A sanctum. An office. Cozy's private little space no one, not even Flurry knew about. Cozy collected her supplies and placed them onto the low shelf, beside a book and a little bundle of faint, lilac wool. That had been Flurry's favourite scarf, repurposed by need. She breathed in deep before unfurling the scarf. A lump of red feathers rolled out before she reached the core of it, and she quickly jerked the scarf back to keep the little thing from falling too quickly to one side. It was tiny. Young, maybe, or just small. Its ruby red feathers jut out at strange angles from one wing, which had one more bend in it than it should. Its small chest beat, making the whole thing look like a dried, hairy heart. Cozy checked through her supplies with her wing while opening the book with her hoof. She'd earmarked a page on the anatomy of flying creatures, with a stylised x-ray of a robin spread across the two pages. Ever so gently, she pinched the primaries of the broken wing in her teeth and plied it away from the creature's body. It writhed, flapping the other wing and squawking away. "Shut up, shut up!" Cozy shout-whispered. She placed her left hoof on the bird's fiery chest, and while it continued to flutter uselessly on the table, it shifted its beak from screaming you biting and pecking at the edge of the hoof. The scissors slipped behind several of the feathers. After one more sideways glance at the book, she snipped. MorsEverything felt so numb. They'd given Cozy medicine for the pain. Bottles of foul tasting syrups and dusty pills. At first she refused any of them, and she'd remained curled up in bed, as if it were her whole body still made of stone and just just her left wing and hoof. Half her lungs, and almost her heart. Eventually she'd relented. The pain got to her after the third day. In its absence, she sometimes missed the pain before remembering its intense fire. Raw and angry, seething the way a wound ought to but without any means to dress it, to stitch it up. She preferred feeling numb. She lay on her side on a bed too small for such a tiny filly. She was pretty sure it wasn't a bedroom, though it was at least big enough to be one. Someone had fit bars over the window. It was a temporary placement she could probably kick out if she had the strength. The guard outside would probably barge in if she tried. The rest of the room had little furniture save for her bed, though she had plenty of other smaller things. Books stacked beside the bed, mostly. Novels, philosophy textbooks, a journal without a pencil or quill that had but a single entry. There was also the book with that darned six pointed star on the cover discarded in the corner, its spine pressed flat until it had broken. It had rest there for days, unmoved from its hateful little corner. Cozy pushed herself upright, and slouched over the edge of her bed. With a deep inhale she straightened herself up then pushed herself off the bed, three hooves and a rock falling onto polished stone. "Mister guard, can I come out?" she asked, her voice dripping like sour honey. She knocked on her cell's solid, heavy wood door. High up, about an adult pony's eye-level, was a small, barred window. They'd cut it out and put a cover on the far side, so they could watch and communicate with her when they deemed it convenient. "I'm so bored in here." "You know I can't do that," the guard on the far side responded, his voice muffled by the wood. She recognised the voice as one of the few non-ponies on staff A feather-brained moron that messed with her plans years ago. "Come on, Gallus, it'll be just like old times!" Her giggle came out like a hiccough. "I can break stuff and you can fix it." The latch on the window clicked and a beady blue eye stared down at her. "I'm not playing this game with you, Cozy. If you're bored, read a book. You got plenty." Cozy blew a raspberry. "I've read them all. I need enrichment. I need space. This treatment is inequine!" The eye rolled. "If you need another book, I'll get you one during shift change. Until then—" Gallus' eye disappeared for a moment. "Oh, Princess Flurry Heart. What are you doing here?" Tilting her head, Cozy's smile fell away. She glowered up at the door window, craning her neck and even rising up on her rear hooves to try and see what was happening. All rather fruitless, in the end. "I wanted to say hi," a voice on the other side said. Tiny and high-pitched, it had to belong to someone as young as her. They hadn't said how long Cozy had been petrified, but that gave her an idea. Flurry Heart was only a baby when she was locked away from the world. "Well, you've said it!" Gallus said. His voice sounded unusually cheerful for a griffin, at least at first. "Now I suggest you scram, young lady. You're not supposed to be here." There was an indignant huff on the far side. "I can't say hi through a door, silly! And I brought something to do." Cozy grinned again, and thudded a hoof on the door. "Let her in!" Cozy said. "It'll give me something to do, and someone to mess with that isn't you." Gallus growled. "You know I can't do that—Princess, what are you—" The door knob glowed for a moment, magic's tell-tale twinkle surrounding it. A few clicks rattled it, followed by a thunk as the door opened. Cozy scurried back and she stared at the intruder to her little space. A filly, her age, with fuchsia curls that wrapped under her chin. Her horn extinguished, and she had a box under one wing. Flurry smiled back at Gallus. Gallus muttered something obscene under his breath. "Guess I can't stop you," he then said. "She can't leave though. I really can't let that happen." "I understand!" Flurry nodded, then turned back to Cozy Glow as she pushed the door closed with a thought. "Hi! I'm Princess Flurry Heart." The novelty-driven glee in Cozy's heart ebbed away. She hadn't expected someone to just barge into her space, even if she didn't officially own it. Years of practice let the smile remain, but she so wanted Flurry out. "I know," Cozy said. "You know who I am." "Cozy Glow, yes." Flurry gently placed her box down beside her, then pushed it forward between them. She must have been a smart filly if she knew how to pick locks and she knew Cozy's name. She must have been stupid to walk right into danger with a smile, even if Cozy couldn't do much. Cozy had to admire the oxymoronic existence. Flurry pushed the box forward with a hoof. The front bore an image of some mountain or other and had a small sticker at the top left boasting that it had over one-thousand pieces. "I brought a puzzle to do! You like puzzles, right?" "Not those kinds," Cozy said. "They seem boring." Flurry tilted her head. "Oh. Well, you don't mind if I put it together while we hang out, right?" "Well I—" Flurry opened the box and spilled the puzzle pieces on the floor. Cozy gawped at the imposition, then looked up at the door to see Gallus' gaze laughing at her. Huffing, Cozy made her way back to her bed and sat on it again, then watched Flurry sort through he pieces and flip them over to their printed sides. Maybe stupid wasn't the right word, but Cozy was out of synonyms. Maybe she should ask for a thesaurus. "How are you?" Flurry asked. She didn't look up from the pieces, picking out one, then comparing it to another. She shuffled them around under hoof, making a hissing sound as the cardboard g over the stone. Cozy shook her head. "What?" "Mom says it's polite to ask how ponies are." Flurry smiled up at Cozy a moment. "How are you?" Cozy's jaw hung open for a moment. She had no real idea how to answer that at first, but after running through a few ideas in a half second, she eventually settled on a half-muttered, "I'm fine." Flurry nodded, then smiled as she got the first two pieces to match. A corner and the start of an edge. "You're supposed to ask me next." "I'm not interested in playing this—" "Ask me." The hooves stopped still, and Flurry looked up with a smile. Frosty blue eyes as unfathomably deep as a frozen lake bore into Cozy's. Something about them scared Cozy, but she found herself drawn in by something else. Cozy swallowed. "How are you?" "I'm good!" Flurry said with a giggle, and went back to matching her pieces. "I love coming down to Equestria. Canterlot is a bit boring, but I love my Auntie Twilight." She then cringed. "Um. Sorry. I know you don't like her." Cozy rolled her eyes. "I did ask," she said with an ironic chuckle. "Why are you here?" Flurry shrugged. "I wanted to hang out!" she said. "I don't really know a lot of fillies my age, at least not ones that think I'm super-duper special and that. Everyone is so nice, but it all feels so fake." She matched another few pieces together in quick order, eventually finishing up a single side, matching one edge of the landscape on the box lid. That wasn't what Cozy expected Flurry to do. She'd anticipated the filly to just pick pieces at random, make the most interesting thing first. She'd have guessed the mountain top, or the moon in the corner. "Uh-huh." Cozy cleared her throat. "Why here, though. I know I'm the very peak of cuteness but—" "What's my name?" Flurry asked. A croak floated out of Cozy's throat. "Flurry Heart?" "Gallus." Flurry looked back at the door. "What's my name?" The guard's eye squinted. "Her Royal Highness Princess Flurry Heart." "See?" Flurry threw a hoof up at Gallus. "He says the whole thing, and you don't!" That made Cozy snort. "That's your reasoning? I don't care for your stupid family's titles?" "They're not stupid," Flurry snapped. "And… Well, kind of. I didn't actually know what you'd call me." She giggled and covered her mouth with a hoof. "Turns out I was right, though!" "What kind of asinine logic is that!?" Cozy scoffed. "It makes sense!" Flurry stuck her tongue out, then stuck her head back down, focusing on the puzzle again. "Do you even know what 'asinine' means?" "Do you?" "'Something extremely stupid or foolish,'" Flurry answered. When Cozy fell silent, she looked back up. "Did I mention Twilight is my aunt?" Another scoff, and Cozy mentally started to check out. Flurry was just getting on her nerves, first intruding into the only space she had left in the world, and then clearly trying to get a rise out of her. She wasn't interested in indulging this spoiled brat anymore. "Do you get much news in here?" Flurry asked. "I noticed all your books are kind of old." Cozy shook her head, then answered. "No. They say it's not smart or healthy or whatever excuse they cooked up that day." "Want me to tell you something new?" Oh sweet heavens, did Cozy want that. "Yes." "Tell you what, then." Flurry extended a wing and brushed a few puzzle pieces Cozy's way, leaving space for her to sit down and sort through them. "Help me with the puzzle, and I'll tell you some news! Anything you want." Cozy blinked, then shuffled down off the bed. "Fine," she said. She glanced up at Gallus watching them. She wondered how much he really cared that Flurry might be messing with her aunt's plans. She looked for a piece with a flat edge. She figured out at least a little of what Flurry was doing. They were the easiest, and it gave a frame to work with, from the outside in. She may as well start there. Of course, the sky corner piece was mostly a generic dark blue. Half the remaining edge pieces were the same, block colour. Oh it was going to be a tedious. "How is Equestria doing?" Cozy asked. "I see it's not collapsed." Flurry snickered. "That's a little mean. It's doing well. I think it's mostly the same, but there's a lot of other creatures than you probably remember." Flurry got two corners down. "My babysitter is a changeling. Mom tries really hard not to be weird about it." "Well she was ponynapped and imprisoned by Chrysalis," Cozy said with a giggle. "Changelings are pretty weird, though." "That's also mean." Flurry hummed, rifling through more pieces. She'd put together the bottom edge of a lake at the edge of the image, but one piece seemed to elude her. Cozy actually checked briefly through her pieces, a thought that surprised her. "How are those bugs, anyway?" Cozy asked. "Have they fallen apart without their precious Queen?" "Nope!" Flurry moved onto the thicker part of her pile, all the fill-pieces that made up the rest of the image. "They actually have a few new hives. They got another in the Crystal Empire they're really proud of. It looks real cool, but I don't like thinking it's made out of spit." Cozy grimaced at the thought. "Gross." "Right?" Flurry paused, then looked at Cozy again. "Okay, you're right. They're pretty weird." "I'm always right." Finally, Cozy found a piece that matched her corner. The first in a line leading across the top edge. To her surprise, it felt kind of good to get that first pair, and she dove in to find the next piece. "What about the School of Friendship? Surely that shut down." "That's still around, too!" Flurry's brows knit together in increasing exasperation. "Some of Antie Twilight's friends' sisters are attending now. I liked spending time with them when I'm down here, but that keeps them busier nowadays." Cozy mirrored Flurry's expression. Was she talking about the fillies she thought she was? "You mean those Cutie Mark cretins?" Flurry jerked a hoof in Cozy's direction. "Mean! And yes." Flurry came close to Cozy, checking the ground around the other filly. "Why, do you know them?" "Not really," Cozy answered. "So… nothing really changed while I was gone?" The princess shrugged. "I don't think so. Not for the worst anyway." Cozy went still. She knew, deep down, the world wouldn't really care that she had been locked up. Oh, sure, there may be a handful of ponies she managed to scar with her plans, and she'd read about the ponies that protested the imprisonment of a filly, but no one had been waiting for her when she'd awoken, cold and hurt and incomplete. She reached over to her left leg with her good hoof. "Did no one miss me?" Flurry paused her search then, her face close to Cozy's. "I'm sure someone did," she said. "Everyone is missed by someone." Cozy felt numb again. Not numb in the sense she didn't feel pain, but was acutely aware of how little she felt. "No, no one did." She shuffled back until her petrified wing met the bedframe. She wanted to curl back up again. The other filly stared at her a few moments, her cavernous gaze giving away no indication of the thoughts behind her eyes. "Okay…" She muttered, then looked over just behind Cozy. She lurched forward, and Cozy flinched their bodies touched. Warmth and softness pressed to Cozy's chest, and the strong scent of wood and spice filled her nostrils. She had to voice to protest. No will, either. She just let Flurry do what she wanted. She scooted back, something hissing on the floor, only to get plucked up by a wing. Another edge piece, the one Flurry was missing, presented to Cozy. "Maybe you're just the missing piece in someone else's life." RenatusThe bird trilled and hopped around Cozy where she lay, curled up and still. She watched it, her eyes tracking the creature whenever it bounced into view. It turned out it was indeed quite young. A tiny phoenix that only recently learned to fly when she took it in. New dressing wrapped its left wing, this time with actual gauze instead of stolen cotton, plus an added layer of patterned material that sorely clashed with its plumage. She, Cozy corrected mentally. "You're so energetic," Cozy said. The bird tweeted politely in response, hopping a tighter circle where she stood, then jumping onto Cozy's right hoof. Adhesive bandages covered the flesh just above the hoof.. The little scratches underneath were of the bird's making, though they'd mostly healed. Cozy didn't blame her for them. She had been the cause of a lot of grief for the little thing after all. The bird quickly hopped off as Cozy sat up. Unfurling her right wing she pulled out a small, opaque bag, sealed at the top with one of those newfangled press-seals. A sign of technology changing, plastic becoming a new standard over paper and metal. Griffin food, courtesy of an old feather-brained guard, and a little prize for the bird who squawked in anticipation. Cozy smiled, then tore the bag open and dumped out out a few small, misshapen cubes of unidentified, cooked meat. Cozy didn't question what it was, just that it probably tasted a lot better than the spare fruits or errant bugs she'd provided over the past weeks. "Here," she said. "Don't eat it all at once. You'll get fat." The bird tucked in, heedless of Cozy's words. The books Cozy had access to didn't say a lot on phoenixes, just that they were exceptionally rare. Rare enough, in fact, some of the older texts strongly implied they weren't real. But there was no mistaking it. The ruby red plumage, the orange trim and breast. The rounded beak threw her off, too. She figured something that ate meat—actual flesh—would have something less rounded off. Yet there this bird was, enjoying the mystery meat. The chunks were too big to swallow in one bite, so the critter pinned it in place with a talon and ripped off strips along the meat's grain. She was too cute for Cozy to find it gruesome. The closet space was proving to be increasingly cramped. Aside from the special treats, she'd grabbed two bowls from the kitchen, one filled with water and the other with the remains of vegetables. She'd also given the bird bedding, and newspaper padding covered the floor, which she cleaned out as often as she could. The closet still stank of shit. Thankfully they hadn't had any real functions to attend to, and the few they did Cozy had picked out Flurry's clothes for her. After holding her breath a moment, Cozy let out a long, deep sigh. She'd have to let the thing out soon, despite her concerns. The textbook outline a little on phoenix keeping, and that it was an incredibly involved, life-long commitment; an impossible task for Cozy. The phoenix squawked as she finished one cube, then hopped over to the next. There she tilted her head this way and that, beady black eyes blinking up at Cozy and eyeing the bag. Giggling, Cozy sealed it. "No. I'll give you more tomorrow." She turned then, pushing the wall of clothes in her way aside, and then noticed the light streaming in through the closet door. The scent of cardamom and sandalwood was just a little stronger than usual. Cozy froze. Flurry stood in the door, blocking it in the right way that she was reduced to a silhouette. Her eyes disappeared into the darkness, but Cozy knew where they were, what they looked like. Frozen and cold, indeterminate. The bird let out a short, sharp whistle. "What have you got there?" Flurry asked. Cozy turned her attention from Flurry, only to stop herself before she looked back at the phoenix. Instead she shook the little plastic bag, some of the chunks within dully thumping against the sides. "A bag of GrifBits." What followed was perhaps the loudest silence Cozy had ever heard, if it weren't for the phoenix ripping into her next chunk. Flurry stepped further into the closet. Her face remained in shadow, but as she got closer the lamp's cool blue light touched her face. It was like a ghost had walked in, her cool complexion betraying next to nothing. She just watched the bird eat for a moment, before turning to Cozy. "I can explain!" Cozy said quickly. Another silence fell between them where she expected Flurry to say something. "Okay," she said eventually. Another lie floated to Cozy's mind. She'd dug herself into a small pit with the past few, making excuses for her absence, talking up the project she was working on to explain things disappearing. That would only make the pit deeper and make it harder to eventually get out. Cozy couldn't do that. She wouldn't. Setting the bag down, Cozy then straightened herself up, puffing her chest forward. Not in pride, but steeling her confidence without her trite sweetness. "I hurt her." "What?" Flurry stepped forward, pushing her way past Cozy and shoving her back toward the door. "How long have you been keeping this secret?" "Not intentionally!" Cozy corrected. "I was just reading one day and she was making a lot of noise. I tried to ignore her but…" She cringed. "You know we only have seven tumblers in the parlour's display, right?" Flurry's frown stung. She knew that look. Disappointment, frustration. She'd been subjected to it plenty, in the past and even the present when she met her inlaws. As the estranged, psycho run, she was merely tolerated. She really didn't want Flurry to see her that way, too. "So you threw a glass at it." "I didn't think I'd hit her. I got unlucky with my bad aim." Cozy tried to get closer to Flurry, but Flurry pushed a wing to her chest. "So what is this, then?" Flurry asked. "Is this guilt or pity?" She turned to the phoenix, which didn't comprehend the gravity of the conversation. She just paused eating to meet Flurry's gaze. "Neither," Cozy said. "Not anymore. I mean, I did feel guilty but that's not why she's still here." Flurry's glare softened, and something changed about her posture. Unseen at first, just a little less pressure to Cozy's chest, but eventually she seemed to shrink, her regal stature as an alicorn coming down just a little more to Cozy's level. "You keep saying 'she' and 'her'." Flurry's head tilted to one side, and a little hook invisibly tugged at the corner of her lips. "You're sentimental over this thing, aren't you?" If there was one thing Cozy hated more than being judged as psychopathic, it was being soft. At least, being soft when her cuter-than-thou persona was put away. "Maybe," Cozy squeaked. Flurry snickered, the wing folding back to her side. "You found another missing piece," she muttered. Cozy furrowed her brow. That was cryptic. "What was that?" she asked. Flurry shook her head. "Nothing, honey." The wing snapped out, wrapping around Cozy's flank and tugging her in. Cozy just slid across the floor, going stiff in surprise though it wasn't the first time her fiancée had pulled that trick. "What's her name?" "I can't name her," Cozy said. She didn't want to give the bird a name. She knew she wouldn't be able to let her go then. "I read that you're not meant to keep them indoors for too long." Flurry slowly nodded. "Right." Flurry leaned in a little more, pressing her cheek to Cozy's. "I think that time has come and gone, and you darn well know it. What's her name?" Falling into Flurry's embrace, Cozy sighed. It wasn't fair to keep the critter trapped, but there was too good a chance that the phoenix had adjusted to pony interaction. She wondered if Flurry knew that, or just knew how Cozy thought. She extended her good wing to the floor, right before the phoenix. The bird considered it for a moment, then clambered up onto Cozy's wing and clasped on tight. Cozy brought her close to her and Flurry. "Renée," Cozy said, her voice quiet. "Her name is Renée."
VitaCozy glow needed a pair of scissors. She rooted around inside a drawer, her good wing's primaries and a hoof shoving around the various craft instruments and materials haphazardly dropped inside. Quietly, she cursed Flurry's tendency to be so darn disorganised. Perhaps, when she had the time, Cozy ought to go through all of Flurry's things and properly label them. Cool light from the low lying Northern sun warmed Cozy's back as she shifted from one drawer to the next. It bounced off the faded pink walls and icy-looking floor, removing any shadows from the space. Years, Cozy had been there, and she still hadn't adjusted to the lack of shadows. It was downright uncanny, like she was in another space to the left of reality. While chilly, she'd still worked up a sweat, small beads of it moving through the short hairs over her face, cutting routes down her snout like climbers up a mountain. She needed those scissors. The third drawer didn't give her any scissors, but there was a surprisingly springy roll of fabric. A narrow band of soft pink mesh she could hardly see through. She took it, slipping it under her good wing. A faint echo of Flurry's perfume filled the room, cardamom and sandalwood. It was a constant smell in Cozy's life, so persistent that it faded into the background as if the air should always carry the scent. A few places absorbed it most, though. The places Flurry spent most of her time in, and her little hobby room was second only to their bed. Just as Cozy reached for the last drawer, having picked out a pair of tweezers from the last one, she breathed in deep. The scent washed over her tongue, though it was ever so slightly different. A touch spicier, a touch stronger. She looked back over her shoulder and under her wing, catching Flurry Heart's gaze. The young mare stared back, one eyebrow raised and her head tilted just a hair to the side. Her long, fuchsia mane dangled and curled back up, framing her face with curled fingers. She got cuter every day, and just a little more terrifying. Cozy straightened herself up, folding her wing down to trap her other prizes beneath it. With a deep breath she forced herself to calm down. She knew how she looked when she got obsessive; wide-eyed, jaw clenched, her hair carelessly falling over her eyes and back. She adjusted her tight curls with one hoof, a gentle brush of the tips so they consistently fell in one direction. "I need some scissors," she answered, a surprising calm in her voice. A thin smile crossed Flurry's lips as approached. Wariness, but amusement to. "What are you up to?" she asked with a hint of a laugh. Crap. Cozy didn't want to have to lie to Flurry. Lies came too easily to her lips, little falsehoods that built up into epic, sweeping tales if she wasn't careful. She really didn't want to embroil Flurry in a stupid conspiracy. Not that she really liked the alternative. Cozy smiled. "I'm just working on a little project!" She layered on the sweetness, as false as saccharine but hopefully good enough Flurry didn't think too hard about it. "I wanted to keep it secret, but you know how hard that is here. I wanted it to be a surprise for you." Most of that was true. All except the surprise. Now she had to come up with a surprise with the things she took, but that was for her to worry about later. Flurry stared into Cozy's eyes for a moment. They'd built a lot of trust together, over the years, but every now and then her parents' and aunt's uncertainty bled through. Cozy hated it, but she always appreciated what came next. With a wing only a little less stubby that Cozy's, Flurry reached for the pot atop the desk and pulled out a pair of scissors with a bubblegum pink handle. "Be careful, hon," she said with a smile, and offered them to Cozy. As Cozy took the scissors with her wing, Flurry took the opportunity to pull the two of them together and plant a kiss on Cozy's cheek. The forced smile across Cozy's face relaxed into something more genuine, a giggle bubbling up in her throat. It bugged Cozy that her partner—her fiancé, something she was still reeling over half a year later—let doubts enter her mind. It stung less, though, whenever Flurry pushed them aside and trusted Cozy anyway. Cozy turned and shuffled away, shooting a quick smile over her shoulder. She took advantage, sometimes, but she tried her best not to push her luck. The Crystal Empire's palace wasn't as big as the castle in Canterlot, or the ruins she had only a brief chance to explore back in the Everfree, but it had space enough the two of them had the equivalent of an entire house to themselves. That meant Cozy could do as she pleased without being watched by guards, though occasionally housekeeping made their way through. Additionally Cozy had been scarred by the few times flight patrols had invaded her privacy, sticking their snouts in through the windows, though they hadn't done that in a few years. It simply meant Cozy didn't truly have a space just to herself. She liked the solitude, which Cozy understood the irony of. It had just become a close friend over her many years locked away. The other thing about the palace was the oversized closets. Cozy entered the one in their bedroom, closing the door behind her and blindly feeling her way through the rows of dresses and garments on hangers. Eventually she came to a solid wall of silky-soft fabrics that she barged through, only to stumble into an empty space behind them. She dropped her supplies on the floor when she threw out a wing, feeling around. She found the little armature and unscrewed the cap on it to let in the sterile, white-blue light of a small crystal. It illuminated the space. The soft wall of multi-coloured clothing on one side and the cramped ceiling above. So small, so tight, it had been made tighter by the addition of books and a single crystal dining chair, plus the shelf Cozy had hastily bolted onto one wall for her things. A sanctum. An office. Cozy's private little space no one, not even Flurry knew about. Cozy collected her supplies and placed them onto the low shelf, beside a book and a little bundle of faint, lilac wool. That had been Flurry's favourite scarf, repurposed by need. She breathed in deep before unfurling the scarf. A lump of red feathers rolled out before she reached the core of it, and she quickly jerked the scarf back to keep the little thing from falling too quickly to one side. It was tiny. Young, maybe, or just small. Its ruby red feathers jut out at strange angles from one wing, which had one more bend in it than it should. Its small chest beat, making the whole thing look like a dried, hairy heart. Cozy checked through her supplies with her wing while opening the book with her hoof. She'd earmarked a page on the anatomy of flying creatures, with a stylised x-ray of a robin spread across the two pages. Ever so gently, she pinched the primaries of the broken wing in her teeth and plied it away from the creature's body. It writhed, flapping the other wing and squawking away. "Shut up, shut up!" Cozy shout-whispered. She placed her left hoof on the bird's fiery chest, and while it continued to flutter uselessly on the table, it shifted its beak from screaming you biting and pecking at the edge of the hoof. The scissors slipped behind several of the feathers. After one more sideways glance at the book, she snipped.
MorsEverything felt so numb. They'd given Cozy medicine for the pain. Bottles of foul tasting syrups and dusty pills. At first she refused any of them, and she'd remained curled up in bed, as if it were her whole body still made of stone and just just her left wing and hoof. Half her lungs, and almost her heart. Eventually she'd relented. The pain got to her after the third day. In its absence, she sometimes missed the pain before remembering its intense fire. Raw and angry, seething the way a wound ought to but without any means to dress it, to stitch it up. She preferred feeling numb. She lay on her side on a bed too small for such a tiny filly. She was pretty sure it wasn't a bedroom, though it was at least big enough to be one. Someone had fit bars over the window. It was a temporary placement she could probably kick out if she had the strength. The guard outside would probably barge in if she tried. The rest of the room had little furniture save for her bed, though she had plenty of other smaller things. Books stacked beside the bed, mostly. Novels, philosophy textbooks, a journal without a pencil or quill that had but a single entry. There was also the book with that darned six pointed star on the cover discarded in the corner, its spine pressed flat until it had broken. It had rest there for days, unmoved from its hateful little corner. Cozy pushed herself upright, and slouched over the edge of her bed. With a deep inhale she straightened herself up then pushed herself off the bed, three hooves and a rock falling onto polished stone. "Mister guard, can I come out?" she asked, her voice dripping like sour honey. She knocked on her cell's solid, heavy wood door. High up, about an adult pony's eye-level, was a small, barred window. They'd cut it out and put a cover on the far side, so they could watch and communicate with her when they deemed it convenient. "I'm so bored in here." "You know I can't do that," the guard on the far side responded, his voice muffled by the wood. She recognised the voice as one of the few non-ponies on staff A feather-brained moron that messed with her plans years ago. "Come on, Gallus, it'll be just like old times!" Her giggle came out like a hiccough. "I can break stuff and you can fix it." The latch on the window clicked and a beady blue eye stared down at her. "I'm not playing this game with you, Cozy. If you're bored, read a book. You got plenty." Cozy blew a raspberry. "I've read them all. I need enrichment. I need space. This treatment is inequine!" The eye rolled. "If you need another book, I'll get you one during shift change. Until then—" Gallus' eye disappeared for a moment. "Oh, Princess Flurry Heart. What are you doing here?" Tilting her head, Cozy's smile fell away. She glowered up at the door window, craning her neck and even rising up on her rear hooves to try and see what was happening. All rather fruitless, in the end. "I wanted to say hi," a voice on the other side said. Tiny and high-pitched, it had to belong to someone as young as her. They hadn't said how long Cozy had been petrified, but that gave her an idea. Flurry Heart was only a baby when she was locked away from the world. "Well, you've said it!" Gallus said. His voice sounded unusually cheerful for a griffin, at least at first. "Now I suggest you scram, young lady. You're not supposed to be here." There was an indignant huff on the far side. "I can't say hi through a door, silly! And I brought something to do." Cozy grinned again, and thudded a hoof on the door. "Let her in!" Cozy said. "It'll give me something to do, and someone to mess with that isn't you." Gallus growled. "You know I can't do that—Princess, what are you—" The door knob glowed for a moment, magic's tell-tale twinkle surrounding it. A few clicks rattled it, followed by a thunk as the door opened. Cozy scurried back and she stared at the intruder to her little space. A filly, her age, with fuchsia curls that wrapped under her chin. Her horn extinguished, and she had a box under one wing. Flurry smiled back at Gallus. Gallus muttered something obscene under his breath. "Guess I can't stop you," he then said. "She can't leave though. I really can't let that happen." "I understand!" Flurry nodded, then turned back to Cozy Glow as she pushed the door closed with a thought. "Hi! I'm Princess Flurry Heart." The novelty-driven glee in Cozy's heart ebbed away. She hadn't expected someone to just barge into her space, even if she didn't officially own it. Years of practice let the smile remain, but she so wanted Flurry out. "I know," Cozy said. "You know who I am." "Cozy Glow, yes." Flurry gently placed her box down beside her, then pushed it forward between them. She must have been a smart filly if she knew how to pick locks and she knew Cozy's name. She must have been stupid to walk right into danger with a smile, even if Cozy couldn't do much. Cozy had to admire the oxymoronic existence. Flurry pushed the box forward with a hoof. The front bore an image of some mountain or other and had a small sticker at the top left boasting that it had over one-thousand pieces. "I brought a puzzle to do! You like puzzles, right?" "Not those kinds," Cozy said. "They seem boring." Flurry tilted her head. "Oh. Well, you don't mind if I put it together while we hang out, right?" "Well I—" Flurry opened the box and spilled the puzzle pieces on the floor. Cozy gawped at the imposition, then looked up at the door to see Gallus' gaze laughing at her. Huffing, Cozy made her way back to her bed and sat on it again, then watched Flurry sort through he pieces and flip them over to their printed sides. Maybe stupid wasn't the right word, but Cozy was out of synonyms. Maybe she should ask for a thesaurus. "How are you?" Flurry asked. She didn't look up from the pieces, picking out one, then comparing it to another. She shuffled them around under hoof, making a hissing sound as the cardboard g over the stone. Cozy shook her head. "What?" "Mom says it's polite to ask how ponies are." Flurry smiled up at Cozy a moment. "How are you?" Cozy's jaw hung open for a moment. She had no real idea how to answer that at first, but after running through a few ideas in a half second, she eventually settled on a half-muttered, "I'm fine." Flurry nodded, then smiled as she got the first two pieces to match. A corner and the start of an edge. "You're supposed to ask me next." "I'm not interested in playing this—" "Ask me." The hooves stopped still, and Flurry looked up with a smile. Frosty blue eyes as unfathomably deep as a frozen lake bore into Cozy's. Something about them scared Cozy, but she found herself drawn in by something else. Cozy swallowed. "How are you?" "I'm good!" Flurry said with a giggle, and went back to matching her pieces. "I love coming down to Equestria. Canterlot is a bit boring, but I love my Auntie Twilight." She then cringed. "Um. Sorry. I know you don't like her." Cozy rolled her eyes. "I did ask," she said with an ironic chuckle. "Why are you here?" Flurry shrugged. "I wanted to hang out!" she said. "I don't really know a lot of fillies my age, at least not ones that think I'm super-duper special and that. Everyone is so nice, but it all feels so fake." She matched another few pieces together in quick order, eventually finishing up a single side, matching one edge of the landscape on the box lid. That wasn't what Cozy expected Flurry to do. She'd anticipated the filly to just pick pieces at random, make the most interesting thing first. She'd have guessed the mountain top, or the moon in the corner. "Uh-huh." Cozy cleared her throat. "Why here, though. I know I'm the very peak of cuteness but—" "What's my name?" Flurry asked. A croak floated out of Cozy's throat. "Flurry Heart?" "Gallus." Flurry looked back at the door. "What's my name?" The guard's eye squinted. "Her Royal Highness Princess Flurry Heart." "See?" Flurry threw a hoof up at Gallus. "He says the whole thing, and you don't!" That made Cozy snort. "That's your reasoning? I don't care for your stupid family's titles?" "They're not stupid," Flurry snapped. "And… Well, kind of. I didn't actually know what you'd call me." She giggled and covered her mouth with a hoof. "Turns out I was right, though!" "What kind of asinine logic is that!?" Cozy scoffed. "It makes sense!" Flurry stuck her tongue out, then stuck her head back down, focusing on the puzzle again. "Do you even know what 'asinine' means?" "Do you?" "'Something extremely stupid or foolish,'" Flurry answered. When Cozy fell silent, she looked back up. "Did I mention Twilight is my aunt?" Another scoff, and Cozy mentally started to check out. Flurry was just getting on her nerves, first intruding into the only space she had left in the world, and then clearly trying to get a rise out of her. She wasn't interested in indulging this spoiled brat anymore. "Do you get much news in here?" Flurry asked. "I noticed all your books are kind of old." Cozy shook her head, then answered. "No. They say it's not smart or healthy or whatever excuse they cooked up that day." "Want me to tell you something new?" Oh sweet heavens, did Cozy want that. "Yes." "Tell you what, then." Flurry extended a wing and brushed a few puzzle pieces Cozy's way, leaving space for her to sit down and sort through them. "Help me with the puzzle, and I'll tell you some news! Anything you want." Cozy blinked, then shuffled down off the bed. "Fine," she said. She glanced up at Gallus watching them. She wondered how much he really cared that Flurry might be messing with her aunt's plans. She looked for a piece with a flat edge. She figured out at least a little of what Flurry was doing. They were the easiest, and it gave a frame to work with, from the outside in. She may as well start there. Of course, the sky corner piece was mostly a generic dark blue. Half the remaining edge pieces were the same, block colour. Oh it was going to be a tedious. "How is Equestria doing?" Cozy asked. "I see it's not collapsed." Flurry snickered. "That's a little mean. It's doing well. I think it's mostly the same, but there's a lot of other creatures than you probably remember." Flurry got two corners down. "My babysitter is a changeling. Mom tries really hard not to be weird about it." "Well she was ponynapped and imprisoned by Chrysalis," Cozy said with a giggle. "Changelings are pretty weird, though." "That's also mean." Flurry hummed, rifling through more pieces. She'd put together the bottom edge of a lake at the edge of the image, but one piece seemed to elude her. Cozy actually checked briefly through her pieces, a thought that surprised her. "How are those bugs, anyway?" Cozy asked. "Have they fallen apart without their precious Queen?" "Nope!" Flurry moved onto the thicker part of her pile, all the fill-pieces that made up the rest of the image. "They actually have a few new hives. They got another in the Crystal Empire they're really proud of. It looks real cool, but I don't like thinking it's made out of spit." Cozy grimaced at the thought. "Gross." "Right?" Flurry paused, then looked at Cozy again. "Okay, you're right. They're pretty weird." "I'm always right." Finally, Cozy found a piece that matched her corner. The first in a line leading across the top edge. To her surprise, it felt kind of good to get that first pair, and she dove in to find the next piece. "What about the School of Friendship? Surely that shut down." "That's still around, too!" Flurry's brows knit together in increasing exasperation. "Some of Antie Twilight's friends' sisters are attending now. I liked spending time with them when I'm down here, but that keeps them busier nowadays." Cozy mirrored Flurry's expression. Was she talking about the fillies she thought she was? "You mean those Cutie Mark cretins?" Flurry jerked a hoof in Cozy's direction. "Mean! And yes." Flurry came close to Cozy, checking the ground around the other filly. "Why, do you know them?" "Not really," Cozy answered. "So… nothing really changed while I was gone?" The princess shrugged. "I don't think so. Not for the worst anyway." Cozy went still. She knew, deep down, the world wouldn't really care that she had been locked up. Oh, sure, there may be a handful of ponies she managed to scar with her plans, and she'd read about the ponies that protested the imprisonment of a filly, but no one had been waiting for her when she'd awoken, cold and hurt and incomplete. She reached over to her left leg with her good hoof. "Did no one miss me?" Flurry paused her search then, her face close to Cozy's. "I'm sure someone did," she said. "Everyone is missed by someone." Cozy felt numb again. Not numb in the sense she didn't feel pain, but was acutely aware of how little she felt. "No, no one did." She shuffled back until her petrified wing met the bedframe. She wanted to curl back up again. The other filly stared at her a few moments, her cavernous gaze giving away no indication of the thoughts behind her eyes. "Okay…" She muttered, then looked over just behind Cozy. She lurched forward, and Cozy flinched their bodies touched. Warmth and softness pressed to Cozy's chest, and the strong scent of wood and spice filled her nostrils. She had to voice to protest. No will, either. She just let Flurry do what she wanted. She scooted back, something hissing on the floor, only to get plucked up by a wing. Another edge piece, the one Flurry was missing, presented to Cozy. "Maybe you're just the missing piece in someone else's life."
RenatusThe bird trilled and hopped around Cozy where she lay, curled up and still. She watched it, her eyes tracking the creature whenever it bounced into view. It turned out it was indeed quite young. A tiny phoenix that only recently learned to fly when she took it in. New dressing wrapped its left wing, this time with actual gauze instead of stolen cotton, plus an added layer of patterned material that sorely clashed with its plumage. She, Cozy corrected mentally. "You're so energetic," Cozy said. The bird tweeted politely in response, hopping a tighter circle where she stood, then jumping onto Cozy's right hoof. Adhesive bandages covered the flesh just above the hoof.. The little scratches underneath were of the bird's making, though they'd mostly healed. Cozy didn't blame her for them. She had been the cause of a lot of grief for the little thing after all. The bird quickly hopped off as Cozy sat up. Unfurling her right wing she pulled out a small, opaque bag, sealed at the top with one of those newfangled press-seals. A sign of technology changing, plastic becoming a new standard over paper and metal. Griffin food, courtesy of an old feather-brained guard, and a little prize for the bird who squawked in anticipation. Cozy smiled, then tore the bag open and dumped out out a few small, misshapen cubes of unidentified, cooked meat. Cozy didn't question what it was, just that it probably tasted a lot better than the spare fruits or errant bugs she'd provided over the past weeks. "Here," she said. "Don't eat it all at once. You'll get fat." The bird tucked in, heedless of Cozy's words. The books Cozy had access to didn't say a lot on phoenixes, just that they were exceptionally rare. Rare enough, in fact, some of the older texts strongly implied they weren't real. But there was no mistaking it. The ruby red plumage, the orange trim and breast. The rounded beak threw her off, too. She figured something that ate meat—actual flesh—would have something less rounded off. Yet there this bird was, enjoying the mystery meat. The chunks were too big to swallow in one bite, so the critter pinned it in place with a talon and ripped off strips along the meat's grain. She was too cute for Cozy to find it gruesome. The closet space was proving to be increasingly cramped. Aside from the special treats, she'd grabbed two bowls from the kitchen, one filled with water and the other with the remains of vegetables. She'd also given the bird bedding, and newspaper padding covered the floor, which she cleaned out as often as she could. The closet still stank of shit. Thankfully they hadn't had any real functions to attend to, and the few they did Cozy had picked out Flurry's clothes for her. After holding her breath a moment, Cozy let out a long, deep sigh. She'd have to let the thing out soon, despite her concerns. The textbook outline a little on phoenix keeping, and that it was an incredibly involved, life-long commitment; an impossible task for Cozy. The phoenix squawked as she finished one cube, then hopped over to the next. There she tilted her head this way and that, beady black eyes blinking up at Cozy and eyeing the bag. Giggling, Cozy sealed it. "No. I'll give you more tomorrow." She turned then, pushing the wall of clothes in her way aside, and then noticed the light streaming in through the closet door. The scent of cardamom and sandalwood was just a little stronger than usual. Cozy froze. Flurry stood in the door, blocking it in the right way that she was reduced to a silhouette. Her eyes disappeared into the darkness, but Cozy knew where they were, what they looked like. Frozen and cold, indeterminate. The bird let out a short, sharp whistle. "What have you got there?" Flurry asked. Cozy turned her attention from Flurry, only to stop herself before she looked back at the phoenix. Instead she shook the little plastic bag, some of the chunks within dully thumping against the sides. "A bag of GrifBits." What followed was perhaps the loudest silence Cozy had ever heard, if it weren't for the phoenix ripping into her next chunk. Flurry stepped further into the closet. Her face remained in shadow, but as she got closer the lamp's cool blue light touched her face. It was like a ghost had walked in, her cool complexion betraying next to nothing. She just watched the bird eat for a moment, before turning to Cozy. "I can explain!" Cozy said quickly. Another silence fell between them where she expected Flurry to say something. "Okay," she said eventually. Another lie floated to Cozy's mind. She'd dug herself into a small pit with the past few, making excuses for her absence, talking up the project she was working on to explain things disappearing. That would only make the pit deeper and make it harder to eventually get out. Cozy couldn't do that. She wouldn't. Setting the bag down, Cozy then straightened herself up, puffing her chest forward. Not in pride, but steeling her confidence without her trite sweetness. "I hurt her." "What?" Flurry stepped forward, pushing her way past Cozy and shoving her back toward the door. "How long have you been keeping this secret?" "Not intentionally!" Cozy corrected. "I was just reading one day and she was making a lot of noise. I tried to ignore her but…" She cringed. "You know we only have seven tumblers in the parlour's display, right?" Flurry's frown stung. She knew that look. Disappointment, frustration. She'd been subjected to it plenty, in the past and even the present when she met her inlaws. As the estranged, psycho run, she was merely tolerated. She really didn't want Flurry to see her that way, too. "So you threw a glass at it." "I didn't think I'd hit her. I got unlucky with my bad aim." Cozy tried to get closer to Flurry, but Flurry pushed a wing to her chest. "So what is this, then?" Flurry asked. "Is this guilt or pity?" She turned to the phoenix, which didn't comprehend the gravity of the conversation. She just paused eating to meet Flurry's gaze. "Neither," Cozy said. "Not anymore. I mean, I did feel guilty but that's not why she's still here." Flurry's glare softened, and something changed about her posture. Unseen at first, just a little less pressure to Cozy's chest, but eventually she seemed to shrink, her regal stature as an alicorn coming down just a little more to Cozy's level. "You keep saying 'she' and 'her'." Flurry's head tilted to one side, and a little hook invisibly tugged at the corner of her lips. "You're sentimental over this thing, aren't you?" If there was one thing Cozy hated more than being judged as psychopathic, it was being soft. At least, being soft when her cuter-than-thou persona was put away. "Maybe," Cozy squeaked. Flurry snickered, the wing folding back to her side. "You found another missing piece," she muttered. Cozy furrowed her brow. That was cryptic. "What was that?" she asked. Flurry shook her head. "Nothing, honey." The wing snapped out, wrapping around Cozy's flank and tugging her in. Cozy just slid across the floor, going stiff in surprise though it wasn't the first time her fiancée had pulled that trick. "What's her name?" "I can't name her," Cozy said. She didn't want to give the bird a name. She knew she wouldn't be able to let her go then. "I read that you're not meant to keep them indoors for too long." Flurry slowly nodded. "Right." Flurry leaned in a little more, pressing her cheek to Cozy's. "I think that time has come and gone, and you darn well know it. What's her name?" Falling into Flurry's embrace, Cozy sighed. It wasn't fair to keep the critter trapped, but there was too good a chance that the phoenix had adjusted to pony interaction. She wondered if Flurry knew that, or just knew how Cozy thought. She extended her good wing to the floor, right before the phoenix. The bird considered it for a moment, then clambered up onto Cozy's wing and clasped on tight. Cozy brought her close to her and Flurry. "Renée," Cozy said, her voice quiet. "Her name is Renée."
