//------------------------------//
// 13 - The Pony of Chaos, Part 6 - The Return of Anarchy 
// Story: Anarchy: Pony of Chaos 
// by Ninjadeadbeard 
//------------------------------//

“Well, that was fun.” Screwball stands up from your couch and tosses the bag of popcorn she brought with her over her shoulder. It explodes into tiny, screaming piñatas as she slurps the extra bits of greasy butter from her hooves.

She goes to shake your hand. You’d rather not. She seems to understand.

“Hey, no offense taken, dude,” she laughs. She instead wipes her hooves off on your cat. The cat has no idea what’s happening, but it’s offended on principle.

Screwball takes a quick look around the place, seemingly making sure she isn’t forgetting anything. She probably has, but you’ll find that out tomorrow when you find an entire manatee sleeping in your bathtub.

“Thanks again for letting me crash here,” Screwball says, “But I gotta get back and help Spitfire pull Cloudsdale into a non-decaying orbit. Don’t want to seem unneighborly. So, have a nice day!”

As she climbs back into your computer, she turns to give you a bit of a stink-eye.

“Oh, and erase your browser history, for goodness sake. An innocent pony could be reading this!”





“—choo!”

Starlight Glimmer appeared exactly where she had been standing only a few hours before, looking over a magical time crystal in her office. Her horn and forehead hurt where she’d accidentally struck the crystal as she sneezed, but other than being a mild annoyance, she wasn’t too put out by it.

The light level had dimmed somewhat in the office, which caught Starlight’s attention only after a few more minutes of study, as she started having to squint to see her written notes.

“Huh,” she glanced out the window, inspecting the weather, “That storm must’ve been a rush order. It came completely out of nowhere. And it’s… pink?”

Starlight continued to stare for another minute, before she heard the door to her office open, and the sound of her daughter laughing.

“Oh Mom!” the pink unicorn trotted merrily in, a seashell necklace around her neck and a CHS sports cap on her head, “I had the best time with Sunset! I can’t believe… uh, Mom?”

Luster watched as her mother walked slowly up to a rather large crystal sitting on her desk, and with a simple flick of her magic sent it tumbling into the nearby trash bin.

“Uh… what happened?”

“Never use time magic…”

“What? I just…”

“NEVER!”





The throne room had been utterly silent, save for the occasional rant and rave, following Ann’s coronation. Stone statues didn’t have much to say, after all, and couldn’t do much more than exist wherever they had been placed. But now that the pink light of Chaos had fully faded into spots, swimming in front of everycreature’s eyes, the room began to stir with life.

Guardponies started, shock and confusion adding a light timbre to the air. Servants and staff added a little more urgency and energy to the sound, more fear and anxiety to them than the trained soldiers who were now alerted to some sort of danger which had befallen them.

Pinkie Pie, letting out a held breath, pulled a small cannon out of her mane, completing the action she’d set herself to perform right at the start of all this, and broke the baffled murmuring with a loud thundercrack of confetti and streamers.

And a banner. A banner which dropped from the ceiling, along with another round of confetti and party balloons the staff were certain hadn’t been there before. A banner which read:


CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT BEING THE BAD GUY, ANN!!!


Cozy Glow, not even surprised at this point, took a few ginger steps back towards the statue of her two prior partners in crime, still standing to one side of the throne itself, strangely ignored by the crowd at the moment, and hoped nopony would notice her quite yet. It was probably for the best if she laid low and observed whatever was going to happen next…

A groan followed the eruption of frivolity and colorful paper bits. It was a notable groan, as it had come from the Princess of Friendship herself, seated almost front and center of the formerly stone crowd. 

Twilight Sparkle shook her head, trying to get her mind restarting after the odd nap she’d… just…

“What happened?” she asked nocreature in particular. She took note of the dozens of guards and servants sitting behind her, and gave the whole room a cursory glance as she tried to take in as much information as she could about whatever was going on. The last few minutes for her were a bit of a blur.

“Weren’t we in the Vault…?”

“Oh, Spikey-Wikey!”

Everypony turned to the end of the front row, where the Royal Advisor himself had a particularly famous fashionista draped about him, and who at that very moment was smothering the swole purple dragon with appreciative kiss after kiss.

“You leapt in front of her to save me!” Rarity swooned as she pecked the area around her favorite dragon’s muzzle repeatedly, “How gallant! How brave!”

“How… about we do this somewhere nopony else can see us?” Gallant and brave, though he might be, Spike had at least some inkling that he and his very favorite pony had the attention of a very large number of other ponies the pair of them had sworn never to let in on this very specific thing which was happening.

“Oh?” Rarity’s star-filled eyes took in her savior… and then, with a blush so deep and red that even Big Macintosh would have been surprised, took in the audience she’d suddenly accrued, “Oh… ohhhhhh…”

Princess Twilight shook some of the ache out of her head, and asked nocreature in particular, “What, exactly, is going on?”

“Teach!” Celeste leapt up out of her seat and ignited her horn’s magic… then paused to admire that fact for several long seconds before continuing, “Uh, I mean Princess! It was Cozy Glow! She…!”

A clatter of chairs drowned the unicorn out, as Rainbow Dash jumped into the air so hard it blew over her own seat. She hovered near Twilight, her nostrils flared with righteous indignation and fury.

“She was an Alicorn again! She’d turned all of you to stone when me an’ Applejack…”

Her eyes flashed with realization… and then scowled with even more fury.

“She could have hurt my baby…”

This pronouncement, as heated as it had been, was promptly followed by a party horn unfurling through one ear and out the other. Rainbow squirmed at the sensation and cried out in a panic, only to be stopped in her tracks by her attacker’s tightening hug.

“Ooooh!” Pinkie squee’d, “I know that I already knew that, but now I can say it out loud! Congratulations!!!”

“Now, Pinkie…” Applejack was about to try and calm down her cousin-however-many-times-removed… but then thought better of it and let her continue to squeeze Dash tight as a snake in a boot. Best way to keep both from causing more trouble.

But now, once the initial shock had worn off, the guards were up out of their chairs, and the cacophony began. Gallus shouted orders for his guards to spread out and to hunt for the pink Alicorn who had eluded them. Servants and staff cried out in terror at the very thought of such a monster lurking around. Pinkie Pie teased Rarity mercilessly, Applejack tried talking sense to her wife to land and listen to her for once, and Celeste was shouting at Abacus and her mages to help in the search.

All of which only contributed to the horrendous pounding behind Twilight’s horn. She could remember something striking the back of her head, but little else. The pain was a constant, throbbing reminder of getting blindsided, and it wouldn’t let her forget.

The Princess took a deep breath, and braced herself for what she had to do.


“ENOUGH!”


The Royal Canterlot Voice hit the air like a heavy drum, reverberating through the very stone and marble that made up the room, rattling the chairs and windows in equal measure. Every ear flattened; every tail tucked under.

The Princess regretted it instantly. Her head was swimming at that point, and it looked like there was no end at all in sight.

But then, she heard a polite cough behind her. As the Princess turned, she was instantly confronted with a pair of eyes at her own level. This was startling, and for two reasons. First, Twilight had started getting used to the idea that she was just about the tallest pony around. And second, she was startled by whose eyes they were.

“Ann?”

The fully-grown Ponequus stood at the front of the whole crowd, bashfully hiding behind a strand of her mane and kicking lightly at the stone floor. She grinned, sheepishly, and gave the Princess a pained look.

Discord remained in his own chair, quietly stroking the mane of an incredibly relaxed-looking Fluttershy sitting beside him. He had his own relaxed smile on, and a large, foam hand over his claw, which declared Ann to be the ‘Numbah One’ Ponequus.

He gave a ‘whoop’, which distracted Ann and the Princess for a moment.

Ann coughed, and started again, after shooting her father a slightly annoyed look. “Y-yeah… it’s me.” She gasped, realizing she’d forgotten something important, and then bowed her head in respect, “Your Majesty…”

But Twilight pushed through Ann’s attempted pleasantries with a shake of her head, and said, “No need for that… Ann. Just what is going on here? How are you…?”

“ANN!!!” a chorus of colt and filly voices rang out. A small herd, made up of Pearl, Shady, Goldie, Flawless, Beau, Dib, and Moon rushed out of the confused mob before coming to a skidding halt before the much, much taller Ann.

“My goodness!” Pearl pressed a hoof to her cheek in shock, “How long were we out!?”

Ann allowed herself a light chuckle, “Oh, don’t worry! This isn’t normal. You’ve only been gone an hour.”

Moon cut in, eyes flashing and darting about, “What about Cozy? What happened?”

“I can explain…” Ann began. But, as she said it, her words failed her. Her eyes slowly grew and her pupils shrank. Despite her friends, and the confused interest of the Princess herself, Ann’s focus was suddenly on somepony entirely different.

The crowd parted… and all eyes were on a little yellow colt with a mountain of frizzy, pink mane atop his head. The pink mane was, however, cut by a single silvery-white curl that swept up from root to tip. He wore a gentle smile on his lips, and met Ann gaze-for-gaze.

“So,” he said, eyes looking up to the strange addition to his look, “As you can see, the stripe doesn’t move, no matter what direction I do. All in all, a nice improvement, thanks!”

He demonstrated this quirk, tilting his head left and right, up and down. The silver-stripe followed without rotating to properly keep itself aligned.

Cheese’s mother, Pinkie Pie, rushed over to inspect it.

“Ooh!” she tittered and poked at the stripe, “That’s pretty weird! It’s a great souvenir!”

“I know, right!?” Cheese laughed, “Plus! Nana Pie told me her Fudge-and-Raspberry recipe! So, now I can make it like she tried to teach you!”

“Gah!” Pinkie whooped, “Double Souvenir!!!”

“Souvenir?” Flawless frowned, “What?”

Both Pies said, as one, “From being Dead, silly!”

As mother and son giggled, a new shadow fell over them. Cheese looked up, and continued to give his brightest, warmest smile as Ann leaned down to scoop him up in her forelegs.

Ann pulled Cheese into a tight hug.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered, tears leaking down her face.

Cheese didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. He just hugged his friend back, intending to hold on as long as she needed him.

The hug lasted a few more moments. Nocreature wanted to interrupt, despite the confusion and the seriousness of the mysterious situation playing out all around the impromptu audience. They could all sense something had happened, even if they didn’t know precisely what.

But then, there was the Princess Twilight, who’s irritation at not knowing something had reached its boiling point.

“Will somecreature PLEASE explain what’s going on!?”

“Indeed!” a regal voice cried out from the throne room doors, “We should like that as well!”

Every head swiveled in place, and every jaw dropped, as the two former Princesses of Equestria strode into the throne room, wings outstretched, and faces set into unreadable masks. They were clearly ready to fight, and at a moment’s notice. Celestia stood at the fore, with Luna taking a place at her sister’s side, while a trio of far less familiar creatures followed in their wake.

And then, Rainy Blaze cheered.

“Shady!”

“Dad!”

“Mama?”

“Pearl!”

The exchange was so rapid, that it took several of the guards another moment to realize they’d just let an unknown kirin male and a pink-maned unicorn mare fly right past the Princesses and then their impromptu barrier. Not having been specifically ordered to stop said kirin and unicorn, and seeing the warm, fuzzy looks on the Princesses’ faces, the guards collectively decided this was above their pay grade to care about.

The two parents nuzzled their foals and held them close, overwhelmed with joy at having their little ones safe and sound again.

At least, until Twinkleshine was sure her little Pearl was safe.

“Pearl!” she snapped rather suddenly, “How could you go running off like that? And with some… supervillain of all things!?”

Rainy, letting Shady lay atop his back, squinted quizzically. “Um, didn’t we do that too?”

“T-that’s not the same at all!” Twinkleshine sputtered in reply.

“It kind of is…” Luna muttered beneath her breath, to which her sister gave only a stern ‘shushing’. She then turned her eyes back to the third creature who’d followed them into the throne room.

Grogar stood as still as a statue, his head downcast. This did little to hide the large lump left on the crown of his head, but he also quite clearly had lost the ability to care. The old ram radiated a sort of pained heartache that even the earth pony guards eyeing him warily could sense.

The Princesses watched him sulk with some concern. He may have never been a fully reformed creature… nor repentant towards any of his many, many crimes, but he had at least been good company for the two sisters during their first decades in retirement, and they both felt for what he was probably going through now… and felt for all those who might suffer if his mood took him to a darker place.

But, after a few moments, Grogar shifted. Countless eons had passed for the ancient ram. Mountains had risen and fallen. Seas had filled in and dried out. Even in the despondent state he found himself in, the abyss of ages granted a sense of inertia that kept him moving, in spite of himself.

As Grogar approached the others, who all eyed him with some amount of suspicion, or outright hostility, in Discord’s case, he never raised his own eyes above knee-height.

“Grampa?”

The voice wasn’t the same, but he already knew who had spoken. Slowly, Grogar looked up. And up. And up, until he finally found the face he’d feared to never find again. Or at least, to never find again with a smile meant for him.

But there it was. And there she was. A smile that could have burned away a storm cloud. And it was all for him, in that moment. Ann simply smiled.

He had no right, he knew. No right to that smile. And so, he looked away.

“Ann,” he said, his voice more gravely, and more growling than it had been in a dragon’s age, “I…”

Grogar, the Father of Monster, the Nec-ram-ancer, the Dark Lord and the Dreaded Ram, did not apologize. Such a thing as contrition went against nature itself. It went against everything he’d ever stood for, or believed in.

“I’m… I’m so—”

He never finished the word. His throat had suddenly seized up, constricted. He didn’t find that he minded, however.

Ann’s hugs were very tight… but welcome.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, “There’s time to work on that later. Right now… I’m just glad you’re here.”

But time waited for no ram, and after indulging in his grandfoal’s affections for several seconds, he could not help but wish to finish what had begun with his inaction.

“And where,” he snarled, eyes taking in the statue of the Elements of Disharmony, “is Cozy Glow…?”

Guards, servants, foals, parents, and the Elements Bearers themselves all tensed at the question, ears open and eyes attentive to learn what had befallen their greatest foe… and then all of the aforementioned creatures stared anxiously as the Ponequus of Chaos began to laugh.

Ann’s laughter wasn’t an overpowering belly laugh, nor a dainty titter. She chuckled and chortled in a way anycreature familiar with Rainbow Dash would take to mean the chair they were about to sit in had a tack on its seat, or that the innocent sandwich before them had a brick in place of sun-dried tomatoes. It instantly set everycreature’s hackles to a standing position.

“Well, funny you should mention that…” Ann made a comically loud pop sound with her mouth, and a flash of pink light summoned up the little pegasus filly herself. She was held in a pink aura, right in front of the statue she was once part of, and in a position to perfectly display that very fact to the assembled crowd.

An assembled crowd who now alternated between fear, confusion, shock, and raw, unfiltered anger.

“Uh…” Cozy gulped audibly, and tried to wave to her audience without giving away her own terror, “Hiya folks… long time, no see, Princess…”





Shortly thereafter, things went into motion. Gallus took his guards from the throne room and began a major sweep of the Palace to ensure nopony had been left frozen, and to reassure any fidgety ponies around that the Equestrian government hadn’t been taken out or foalnapped… again, that is. The griffon also secretly worried that some other ancient and not-so-ancient evils had escaped alongside Cozy.

It would just about be his luck, after all.

The staff swiftly went to work tidying up the hall before Pinkie Pie gave them all new, secret orders. Orders that involved a lot of cake, confetti, and Mexicolt tacos. When one chef, incensed at the food choice, protested, he found himself suddenly unemployed, and the rest of the kitchen staff were thoroughly cowed.

Finally, while Abacus Cinch tried to reorganize the mages to re-secure the Starlight Vault, Celeste and a thoroughly confused and sleepy Flurry Heart were sent on ahead to help with whatever crisis had befallen Cloudsdale, who had finally managed to send out a distress via dragonfire. Notably, their first teleport landed them in Cloudsdale’s music-district, the Rainbow Rocks. Flurry Heart was blamed, naturally.

Which left just Ann’s friends, her family, the other Element Bearers, and three Princesses of Equestria to hear her entire tale, unabridged. Cozy Glow sat beside the haunted Ponequus, one hindleg chained to the Elements of Disharmony itself.

“So…?” the little filly sighed, and glared up at her captor, “Guess there’s no chance of getting a snack before the interrogation? I haven’t eaten in… oh, twenty years…”

Ann shrugged, a gloomy look on her features betraying how she felt about having to tell everypony about what had happened, “I wouldn’t worry about it. This is prime montage-material right here. We won’t even notice the time fly by.”

Cozy rolled her eyes, “Right, ask a crazy question…”

Then, a thoughtful look came over her.

“Um… before we start though,” she glanced meaningfully towards Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who were seated together between Applejack and Discord. A few chairs had been kept to seat what was quickly becoming a sort of ad hoc court case, with the three Alicorn Princesses as judges, and the other Bearers as the jury itself.

The two pegasi were chatting amicably while everycreature else got comfortable. They were also giving each other a quick preening, checking each other’s wings for damage or loose plumage. Their partners were definitely aware of how important such a thing was, having lived with them for so long, but there were still some things only a pegasus could help another pegasus with.

Ann followed Cozy’s eyes… and then seemed to wince as she realized what that meant.

“Oh, sorry!” she drew up one wing, and gave a quick snap of her ‘fingers’. There was a flash of pink light that whipped around Cozy like a snow flurry, leaving behind a familiar twitching sensation in her withers.

Cozy spun around in place, and grabbed at her restored wings with both hooves. As best she could, the pegasus filly pulled her wings towards her and gave each one a bevy of smooching kisses, the joy of having them back outweighing any sense of shame she might have had.

And so, it began…





Under the stern, even emotionless, gaze of three Alicorns, Ann told of her desire for a Cutie Mark of her own, and what it had meant to her to think that Chaos had finally come through for her by hinting at Cozy’s imprisonment. Ann faithfully and honestly told of her friends’ warnings, and of how they forgave her despite her flagrant disregard for their safety and the safety of the world.

Yet, this was not what caused Twilight to balk first…

“You were conscious!?” Princess Twilight gaped, slack-jawed, at Cozy Glow, currently staring hungrily at a daffodil sandwich Pinkie Pie had pulled from her infinity-mane. “Like, really conscious? Fully aware? As a statue?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” she casually waved up to the statue, “Since day one. You kinda just… get used to it after a few months. Like, I’ve had a nose itch since the last time you had us boxed up…”

“But… but that’s horrible!”

Cozy shrugged, “It was. Tirek did okay, since his eyes were closed. Turns out staring at nothing is slightly better than staring at everything where eternity is concerned. We play chess every few months, whenever he stops screaming…”

Everycreature fell silent. Twilight stole a glance at the Princesses at her side, and did not look pleased by what she saw.

“Chrysalis was better about it,” Cozy hadn’t noticed Twilight’s ire, nor Celestia and Luna’s embarrassed hoof-tapping, “Dunno why, but she’s still sassy when she remembers her name…”





“Who?”

Tirek maintained his poker face admirably…



 

Celestia and Luna shared a shame-faced look. Then, Celestia coughed, blushing. Luna followed suit, finding a rather fascinating bit of ceiling to focus on.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed, much in the same way they used to whenever she’d caught Gallus chewing bubblegum in class.

“Princesses…?” her voice took on a warning tone.

“Honestly,” Luna said, avoiding eye contact, “We did not think you would mind…”

Celestia nodded, “I mean, Discord was aware while he was trapped in stone. You should have asked us to clarify which stone spell…”

“I DIDN’T THINK I HAD TO!!!”

Luna snapped back, “I was in the Moon for one thousand years! We tossed Tirek into Tartarus for millennia! This was a common punishment from when I was from, and nopony seemed to mind then!”

“Well it’s not now!” Twilight grit her teeth as she shouted, “How could you two not tell me!? I was going to give them parole in a few centuries! I assumed they’d sleep through it all, and could learn friendship in a world where they wouldn’t have the stigma of being former villains following them around since nocreature would remember… GAH!”

She swung her hooves dramatically about, “Now I gotta let them out soon or their brains will have turned to mush!”

She turned a stern expression back on her former mentor. “I honestly expected better from you two…”

“What about me?” Discord crossed his arms in a slight pout at being forgotten, “If you’ll recall, I helped turn them to stone. Aren’t you disappointed in me?”

Ignoring Cozy Glow’s dog-like growl, the Princess merely sighed and said, “Discord, I actually do expect that sort of thing from you.”

“See?” he laughed and nudged a tittering Fluttershy, “What’d I tell you? Set the bar low enough, and they’ll let you get away with anything around here…!”





“She were an Apple?” Applejack frowned at the mention of Grogar’s resurrected minion. That revelation drew more than a few concerned looks from the others in attendance. Especially…

“She’s a zombie!?” Rainbow Dash lifted herself almost ten feet up with a single flap of her wings, only to be brought back down with her tail caught in Applejack’s teeth. Fluttershy shivered beside her friend, tail wrapping its worried way around Discord’s paw as the thought of a real zombie went through her mind.

“It was not a zombie,” Grogar rolled his eyes.

Fluttershy peeked out from between her feathers, which now covered her head, “S-she’s n-not?”

The Dread Ram nodded, “Twas a Revenant. A far more laborious use of my dark powers. A dead creature returned to a state of unlife. I am, frankly, insulted that my work is compared to a mere ‘zombie’…”

“Pretty sure that’s not what they’re complaining about…” Cozy grumbled, a smirk on her lips.

Rainy Blaze, sitting with his son, tilted his head slightly and said, “She seemed nice, actually.”

Applejack frowned, “The… zombie?”

“Frosted,” Twinkleshine said, sitting with Pearl and fussing with her mane, “Her name was Frosted Apple, and yes. She did seem nice. A bit blunt…”

“She hit me with a shovel.”

“… but nice.” Twinkleshine frowned as well, “Poor thing. She just wants to get back to her family. Mentioned a cousin, Green Smith. Anypony you know, Applejack?”

Applejack exchanged a look with Dash, and absent-mindedly touched the shawl around her shoulders. “I might…”

“Well, that’s a problem for later,” Pinkie Pie surprised her fellow Council members with a serious tone. Then, she grinned, “Right now, we gotta figure out if coming back as a Revawhatchamacallit means today’s Frosted’s second birthday!”

She was met with a chorus of silent scowls.

“What?”





But then, Ann began the most difficult part of her tale. As she recounted finding the throne room filled with statues, and her friends’ escapades in attempting to bring down the mad filly who’d stolen both Princess Twilight’s magic and the spell to trap others in stone, the Elements’ and the Princesses’ ire only grew.

Not helping matters was Cozy’s clear nonchalance towards the proceedings. She even corrected Ann once or twice where she thought her villainous one-liners and put-downs weren’t being properly represented.

“You know?” Ann took a moment to glance meaningfully down at Cozy, “You’re probably not helping your case here.”

The pink pegasus shrugged, “Eh. They’re just gonna turn me to stone again. Or lock me in Tartarus. What’s the worst thing they could do?”

She was about to toss the ‘court’ another arrogant smirk… when she caught a glint in Ann’s eye. And for the briefest of moments, Cozy thought she saw a certain Princess of Chaos staring at her.

“Well,” Ann grinned with a fanged maw, “They could always let me have you, wherever I get sent…”

Cozy let out a squeaked ‘eep’, and settled back down. But Ann’s little triumph was short-lived, as this reaction only caused every creature in the room to gape with a mixture of horror and fascination.

Seeing their silent expressions, Ann’s ears drooped. She’d stepped over that line, again. And now with an audience.

Twilight was the first to put her feelings into words. With raised eyebrows, but an otherwise unreadable expression. “Ann… what did you do?”

The Ponequus sighed. Her eyes briefly met those of her mother, crimson on blue. But before she could see the shame her mother surely felt in that moment, Ann looked away.

Let me believe it will be alright, she whispered in her heart, just for a few more minutes. Let me believe she’ll still love me after this…





When the tale was done, and Ann had exhausted every word of her story, the impromptu court adjourned to make its decision. Pinkie’s eyes, narrowed and pointed, hadn’t ever once left Cozy’s following what had happened with Cheese, only breaking contact as the foals, Rainy, Twinkleshine, Discord, and Grogar were forced into the entry hall to await the Princesses’ and the Elements’ decision.

Cozy was unhooked from the statue, and made to leave with the others.

Ann felt numb as she left the throne room. As soon as she’d finished telling of her… treatment… of Cozy Glow, she knew what would happen next. She could see the disgust in Celestia and Luna’s eyes, and the shame in her mother’s. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash had all looked… sick, as they heard what had happened and what she tried to do.

Except for Pinkie, and Princess Twilight. Pinkie had just maintained her death-glare at an increasingly unnerved Cozy. But with Twilight, Ann couldn’t fathom what the Princess of Friendship thought. Ann never did spend much time with Equestria’s monarch, and only had her mom’s stories to go on.

It was fun while it lasted.

A large, white wing brushed along Ann’s muzzle, clearing away a tear she hadn’t noticed was there. The Ponequus looked down to see Goldie, one claw patting her hoof sympathetically.

“It’ll be alright, Ann,” she said, and smiled softly, “You’ll see.”

“I wish I was as confident as you are,” Ann tried to return the smile, but felt it falter on her face even as she gave it her all.

Goldie snorted, actually snorted with laughter, before a blush so red it managed to get past her thick feathers burned bright across her beak.

“Oh…” she scratched the back of her head, “About the… right…”

Ann frowned, and swept her gaze across her friends, taking in each one as she went.

“What do you all think?” she asked, nerves evident as she tapped her front hooves to an unheard tune, “Do… did any of you still want to be friends after…?”

Ann didn’t get to finish. A green hoof planted itself square in the middle of her chest, and for once it was Ann who found herself arrested by the piercing eyes of another. In this case, crystal blue eyes glared back into her own.

Flawless set her jaw, and said, “Shut up.”

Well, that’s not the first response I expected.

“What?” Ann balked.

“I said, ‘Shut up’,” Flawless pulled her hoof off of Ann, but her gaze never wavered, “You think you’re the first pony to get mad and say or do something she felt bad about later?”

“Well, no… but…”

Each of her friends stepped up at that moment, their own stories quickly flying from their lips.

Goldie, already next to Ann, got hers out first. “I once called my cousin Gilbert stupid because he couldn’t do the same kind of math I could, and I still feel bad about it.”

“I once ruined a perfectly good, if lop sided, cupcake,” Cheese lamented, a hint of a tear in one eye, “And all because I couldn’t stand not getting the recipe just right like Mom did.”

“This scarf took me six tries to get the weave nice and smooth,” Beau added, earnestly, “SIX!!!”

Pearl, glancing sheepishly up to her mother, said, “And, ah… I may have once pulled rank when a servant wouldn’t let me have a cookie before dinner…”

Despite Twinkleshine’s soft growl, nothing was said now on the subject of privilege…

“I yelled at my mom and dad,” Moon adjusted his sunglasses with one wing as a hand, “It was about something stupid… and I never got to take it back.”

Flawless laid a soft foreleg pat on Moon’s withers, then turned to look Ann in the eyes again. “I let my temper almost ruin what ended up being a really great friendship. Even if we’ve only been that for a little while, I’m… I’m glad my mistake didn’t take that away from me.”

Ann stood, silently, listening to each of them speak. Her stunned expression was all any of them needed to continue.

“I said some nasty things to one of the nest-nurses because I couldn’t transform when I was a nymph,” said Dib, swapping between the form of an orange dragon, pony, yak, and diamond dog in rapid succession. “I apologized, ya know? But I still feel bad for what happened.”

“What we’re trying to say, Ann,” Shady gave her his brightest smile, “is that we’ve all been there. And we’ve all been forgiven for whatever we’ve done, so we don’t see much difference with your situation.”

Ann, sniffling through the happy tears that threatened, managed to ask, “And… what did you do, Shady?”

Rainy Blaze laughed, and said, “Oh, he had a little fight with his old stallion over some silly popularity poll or something.”

A lick of flame went up from the top of Shady’s mane, and the kirin’s whole body stiffened.

“Dad,” he said, slowly, “The Amazing Maximo didn’t belong on the same list of great magicians as Trixie Lulamoon. Much less two spaces apart!”

“Eh, Trixie is alright, I suppose,” Rainy cheerily went on, “but Maximo does that thing with his hooves and the Mystery Box! Can’t beat a good mystery box, son…”

Shady took a deep breath, and held it for several long, long seconds before the flame in his mane died down. He let out the breath with an exasperated sigh.

“Point is,” he said, “We’ve been there. We get it.”

A moment passed, during which Ann stole a look at each of her friends, her true, true friends, and felt a small, but welcome, pressure, build in her heart.

But as she opened her forelegs and tried to fit each and every one of them in her best hug, another voice, shrill and angry, cut the air.

“She tried to kill me!” Cozy shouted, a blood vessel threatening to pop out of her neck, “How does that even compare!?”

Flawless scowled, “Well, you sort of had it coming.”

“WHAT!?” Cozy fell back onto her haunches.

“Yeah, you turned most of us into statues!” Moon bared his fangs as he spoke, “And then you apparently killed one of us…”

He turned his head around to face the pony in particular. “Seriously, Cheese? How are you not freaking out right now?”

Little Cheese stood up on his hind legs and affected a noble bearing. “We Pies are world-renowned for our ability to repress… the Bad Thoughts.” One eye twitched to complete the image. “Plus,” he pulled on his mane, bringing what he could of his new, silver streak to attention, “I got this! And it’s super cool!”

Cozy Glow growled and shook her head, “What is with ponies these days!?”

“I blame modern music,” Discord chuckled to himself. The only creature who seemed to hear his little joke was, sadly, Grogar.

Who did not smile. At all. In fact, Discord often thought that every time Grogar frowned, somewhere in the world, a whoopie cushion died.

“See,” the Draconequus sniffed disdainfully, “This is why family dinners with you were so awkward.”

To the background noise of foals arguing over relativistic morality and the ethics of stone-imprisonment, Grogar quietly mulled this over. After a few moments, he even had something to add.

“I suppose you are correct.”

Discord nodded. “Yes, I suppose… what…?” his eyes spun in their sockets for a second or two, before locking back on the elderly ram standing before the former Lord of Chaos, “What?”

Grogar met Discord’s unbelieving gaze with his own baleful one.

“You are correct,” he repeated himself, begrudgingly, “I was at fault for… whatever this relationship is.”

Discord took a step back, then flung his head back and forth with wild abandon. He looked left, and then right. He tried, very hard, to check off-screen, but found that without his usual magic, the fourth wall stubbornly held.

Finally, the Draconequus sneered.

“That’s a low-blow, Thorax.”

Grogar merely stared. “I beg your pardon?”

“I wondered why there were so few changelings in this story!” Discord growled and stamped his foot, as if throwing a tantrum… or, perhaps he really was throwing one.

He continued, pointing an accusatory finger at Grogar, “Just because I turned into your parent once and terrorized you for a long weekend doesn’t give you the right to do it to me!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about…”

“I learned my lesson!” Discord glared and gnashed his teeth, “I even apologized. Me! The Great and Lovable Discord!”

Grogar frowned, “I see. You are doing the… fifth wall? Was that what you called it? I admit, I hardly listened when you talked about it, growing up,” the ancient monster winced, “I suppose I was too focused on making you a weapon at the time…”

“It’s a very good disguise too,” Discord continued, “You even got the smell right. But the real Grogar would never admit to a mistake. Especially one involving how he raised me…”

“That was how I was, indeed,” Grogar said, more to himself than for the benefit of his… he wondered if calling Discord his son was too familiar for what they had, “And today, that old way of thinking nearly cost me what is most precious in all the world. I would not entertain such a thought again.”

Discord’s face grew inscrutable. Rage was in the mix, as sure as the sun rose, as was resentment and suspicion. But something else colored the emotions he bore openly, something Grogar could not quite put his hoof on. It was something calculating. Something despicably… pony.

Was that hope?

“Why should I believe you?” he finally hissed, “Why would the mighty and terrible Grogar give a hoot about some pony, or draconequus’, feelings? What do you get out of this?”

And it was Grogar’s turn to become inscrutable. His usual mask, a dead-eyed glare of eternal hatred and darkness, cracked. On the ram’s face was a clear patina of warring thoughts and emotions.

It was clear to Discord that there was a little something… pony in there too.

“Ann,” Grogar said, finally, with all the force of a whisper of an echo, “I get Ann. If… if she wills it.”

But before Discord could say another word, the throne room doors opened up, and a large, purple head stuck itself out into the hall.

Spike’s eyes were bright, and full of concern.

“They’re ready for you.”

The dragon held the door open wide, like the perfect gentledrake. His stately demeanor had only improved in his time as the Royal Advisor, and he maintained a calm, appropriately professional air at all times.

Except for his eyes. Ann could read eyes that gentle, and full of worry, like they were an open book. Which was very impressive for somepony who could barely struggle through a Daring Do adventure. She knew whatever lay beyond that door, it would be momentous. But not necessarily good…

“I know what you’re all trying to do,” she said, as calm as the Ponequus had ever felt, “and I appreciate it… but we all know what I did was a lot worse than losing my temper. I have to pay for it. And that’s how it has to be.

“Still,” she turned, and cast her eyes once more on the greatest friends she could have asked for, “Thank you.”

And like that, the calm, cool, collected façade of youth began to crack. As perilous as the adventure had been thus far, and as brave and worthy of their Crusader legacy as the foals had proven themselves, they were still foals. Lips trembled, and eyes watered.

They clung together, with a Ponequus at their center, and let the tears flow free. The full weight of the day, and all the days they feared would result, came down atop their shoulders at once.

The Crusaders held each other in their little huddle, and simply existed, for what little time there was left to them. All except for a pink pegasus filly, who stood off to one side.

Ann, a grateful, gentle smile on her face, nodded to Cozy, and said, “Come on. You know you want in on this.”

“Absolutely not,” Cozy rolled her eyes with unbridled contempt.

Ann just shrugged. “Eh. You’ll get there.”



 

“We are prepared to render Our verdict.”

The pronouncement from Princess Twilight fell like a gavel, and filled the room with that same, sharp pressure of sound, Royal Voice or not. The Princesses stood, front and center before the throne, with Twilight standing between the two sisters. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity stood to one side, while Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Discord stood on the other, creating a long line of ‘judges’ for this very important trial.

Spike stood just behind Ann, Cozy, and surprisingly, Grogar. These three knew what would happen next was about them, first and foremost. The rest waited a few meters behind the Royal Advisor, breath baited.

Twilight’s eyes met Cozy’s first. Then, they went to Ann’s. Ann had only just gotten used to the extensive new senses and feelings she could comprehend since becoming the Princess of Chaos. She could see the fourth wall, and she could sense the twisted paths of narrative and character that intertwined the whole of her reality. She could even feel, and see, where everycreature around her fit into the grand scheme of the meta-multi-verse.

And right now, she could feel the weight of ages upon her, all from that one look. Twilight lacked the sheer Time of the other Alicorns, but her innate and complete connectivity to Friendship and Magic made her, in Ann’s eyes, something far more mighty and profound.

The universe revolves around her, Ann realized. I’m standing before the true Main Character…

Twilight’s eyes drifted away.

“Grogar,” she stated without inflection, “Step forward.”

He did so, without hesitation. The ram took his place, and only briefly did his eyes meet those of Discord… who looked away.

Such is life…

“Normally,” Luna spoke first, “Equestrian law does not seek to punish those who allow harm to befall other through inaction. It would cause far more problems than it would solve, in the long term.”

Celestia picked up right where her sister stopped, “But in this case, an exception is to be made.”

“Grogar,” Twilight intoned, “You allowed a great evil to befall Equestria…”

“Geez, laying it on thick there…” Cozy muttered.

“… through deliberate inaction,” Twilight hardly spared a moment’s notice to the filly, “which bordered on Reckless Endangerment and Gross Negligence While Supervising Minors.”

She paused. Perhaps she wanted to think more on what to say. Or, perhaps she merely wanted to see how Grogar reacted to the charges. When he gave her nothing, the Princess continued, with a trace of contempt in her voice.

“The fact that you seem to not regret a single thing about your actions today is the most galling. You risked the lives of children, and for little more than a grab at the feeling of being powerful again. Many creatures, some I still consider close, personal friends, have done similar…”

There was a cough at the end of the line of judges. Twilight’s ear twitched towards it, but heard nothing else.

“As I was saying,” she grit her teeth, “Many of my friends were once villains. But it was regret, and a sincere desire to make amends that allowed me to help reform the likes of Starlight Glimmer…”





“Tirek…”

“… yes?”

“What was my name, again?”

“Oh…”

“Yes…?”

“The… Great and… Powerful Trixie…?”

“…”

“…”

“Thank you. I was worried there for a moment,” said Trixie, the Great and Powerful Queen of the Changelings.





“In light of your contempt for the safety and well-being of others, and for the aforementioned lack of any regret or…”

Again, that cough. And this time, Twilight knew it had come from only one Draconequus.

“Discord?” she leaned forward enough to look down the row, “Is there something else you’d like to add?”

Discord turned at the mention of his name. His eyes widened, slightly. He pointed a claw at himself, as if he were asking a question. When Twilight simply nodded at this, the Draconequus looked up to the ceiling.

“I… um… well, that is to say…” he sputtered along. Normally, any one of the Princesses would have snapped by this point in his hemming and hawing routine, put out by his uniquely Discordian way of wasting everycreature’s time. But this was a court proceeding. There was a certain level of decorum expected of them. Everycreature would get their say.

Which was why they waited until Rainbow Dash had enough.

“Ah, just spit it out!”

This finally seemed to settle Discord’s uncharacteristic bout of nerves. He looked back towards Grogar… and sighed.

“Alright,” he said, quietly, “I know that my… father… is an evil, evil, villainous, horrible, nasty, good-for-nothing, dreaded fiend of the plutonian shore whom even Tartarus would spit out for being so vile and despicable and just… awful in every way both imaginable and unimaginable…”

Cozy chuckled, “That’s some character-witness you got there…”

“It’s actually the nicest thing he’s ever said about me,” Grogar replied, absolutely deadpan.

“… BUT!” the Draconequus straightened, one talon pointed up to make his point, “He isn’t, at least completely, totally, temporally, infinitely… beyond regret.”

The line of judges each had begun leaning forward as Discord spoke, eyes and muzzles more and more scrunched up as they heard his words. 

Again, Dash came to the rescue, “What the heck are you talking about!?”

Discord frowned at the pegasus, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do I really need to spell it out?”

He waved his hands above his head with dramatic flourish. And… nothing happened. Utterly nothing. In the utter silence of the nothing which had just happened, Fluttershy’s tiny cough could be heard like it was a shattering plate.

“Huh,” he stared at his paw like he’d only just now noticed its existence, “Right… mortality…”

“Discord,” Celestia frowned, “Please. Make this easy for us.”

The former Lord of Chaos shrugged and pointed at the condemned.

“He actually feels bad about what happened. Just ask him.”

Grogar himself scowled at this remark. Ten whoopie cushions, Discord noted.

Luna scoffed, “Grogar? The Dread Ram? The Ruler of Tambelon and the Bell Lord of Tartarus? Feeling bad!?” she proceeded to laugh at the very notion.

“Sister…” Celestia warned.

“Please, Tia,” Luna rolled her eyes, “I like Grogar, and I don’t think he has a single regretful bone in his entire being!”

Twilight, through this exchange, had remained placid. Regal, even. She turned her eyes towards the Nec-Ram-Ancer, and quietly asked, “Is this true?”

Grogar… sighed. There was no avoiding it now. An answer was demanded. And it would never be said that Grogar could be intimidated by a mere court into silence.

“Yes.” His answer came after a long, silent minute. He tilted his horned head surreptitiously towards Ann, and continued. “I did not consider that I could lose the affections of this one with one act. It was inconceivable. Until… it wasn’t.

“Do not misread me,” he growled, low and threatening, “I will never accept your pony ways. I will never seek true peace and… and friendship amongst your kind. They, and you, disgust me in ways that make my soul shrivel to contemplate.”

The Dread Lord lowered his head again, and looked away. “But if it meant that my Ann would call me her Grampa once more… I would tear down the stars themselves…”

Luna scowled.

“… or… try to accept this… Magic of Friendship…”

Ann’s eyes sparkled, and she whispered to Cozy, “He said it!”

To most creature’s, Twilight’s mask of quiet contemplation was absolute. Celestia had had centuries to perfect her ‘resting Princess face’, as Luna often called it behind her back. Luna’s, by comparison, was less a placid, calm pool, and more of a simmering pot of water about to boil over, and Cadance never even bothered with politics when she could get away with overwhelming her foes with sheer, unadulterated motherly affection.

Twilight’s mask was a masterpiece, especially considering how little time had been needed to perfect it. But to those who knew her best, and in this room, there were many who fit that description, the tiniest, most infinitesimal smirk could just be detected marring her perfect, unemotional, Princess-mode.

Indeed, she seemed to say with her eyes alone, Indeed he did…

“We are glad to hear this,” she said, ever the consummate politician, in an even, tempered tone, “In fact… knowing that you have made such a stride…”

“A millennium late and a Bit short,” Discord shrugged. He shifted uncomfortable a moment later, as Fluttershy prodded him in the side with a hoof.

She didn’t appear angry, of course. Fluttershy was almost smiling…

Twilight rolled her eyes, and continued. “The fact that you can admit even that much tells me that, though you deny it, the Magic of Friendship… and in this case, family… works through even you.

“In light of this,” she squared her shoulders in a royal fashion, and the other Princesses attempted to match her in her sudden regal-ness, “We feel compelled to elect to commute your original sentence.”

The throne room fell into a hushed silence. Ann held her breath, and even Cozy found herself drawn into the moment. No doubt, this would be a prelude to her own punishment…

Twilight spoke with finality. “Grogar? Your punishment shall be… one month of Community Service.”

“Oh, come on!” Cozy threw her hooves in the air and fell onto her back. “This one,” she waved a hoof at a perplexed Ann, “gets me thinking you ponies finally learned how to deal with your enemies… and you go and forgive Grogar!”

“Yeah,” Ann frowned, unimpressed, “And I was a monster…”

“I must agree with the spawn,” Grogar snorted. “Such a punishment is… it is unconscionably lenient, all things considered…”

“I didn’t finish,” Twilight’s smile, as wicked as any her friends had seen on any number of their worse enemies, only grew across her face. “For one month, you shall be remanded to the custody of one Pinkamena Diane Pie, and serve your Community Service as her Party Planner Assistant. Additionally,” a slightly crazed look flashed in her eyes, “You will help out the Sugarcube Corner, and the Cakes, with anything they might require… as an employee of both businesses.”

Grogar’s baleful eyes… widened.

“Mercy,” he croaked.

“Aw, come on!” a ludicrously pink pony appeared at the ram’s side and wrapped her cooked-spaghetti-like forelegs around his barrel in a hug that best resembled a constrictor snake catching its next meal, “It’s gonna be super-duper-looper cool with you helping out! We got a HUGE order for Nightmare Night coming up, and raising the dead’s gonna be a real humdinger of a party trick! Oh! And Ann and Cheese can hangout while we plan out the Running of the Leaves After Party! Oh! OH! And only Black Magic can make the Ultra-Mega-Pico-Dark Chocolate Smoothie I was thinking up for Mayor Mare’s retirement party, which is coming up any day now once I convince her to let me run for the job…”

“Please,” Grogar’s single tear threatened to break his perfected mask of dread and indifference, “Kill me.”

But Pinkie brought her brilliant-blue eye up to meet his baleful red… and grinned.

“Oh, don’t you worry, Groggy…!”

Her voice fell into a blood-chilling whisper.

“… you won’t feel a thing…”

While most of the Council, and the Princesses, seemed perfectly fine with this… arrangement, Ann couldn’t help but notice the presence of a certain pink pegasus filly suddenly appearing beneath her, where a foal might hide using their mother as cover.

“We’re dead…” she whispered.





“Cozy Glow… and Anarchy… please step forward.”

Both named ponies looked to each other quizzically, and then up to the Princess.

“Together?” Cozy squeaked.

Celestia nodded sagely, her ethereal mane briefly merging with Twilight’s own, drifting beside her into a perplexing pattern of midnight blues and pastel. “Indeed. It would seem that, from the moment Ann freed you, Cozy, your fates have been entwined.”

Ann and Cozy looked to each other again, and then stepped forth. The Ponequus chanced a glance up the line of judges, and beside noticing her dad waving a tiny flag with her face on it, she could see Fluttershy staring right back at her.

Her heart fluttered, when she saw those loving eyes still doting upon her.

Maybe… Ann thought, a warm sensation pulsing just behind her eyes, maybe she’ll visit wherever they lock me up…

The condemned sat before the Princesses, and awaited their fate in silence. The Royal Sisters watched their successor with faint interest, it being many a year since they felt any sort of concern for her judgement in rule. Twilight’s friends and fellow Councilors were less composed, and if Ann could read emotions as well as she thought she could, Rarity, Dash, and Applejack were more than a little uncertain about their decision.

Now, whether or not that was a good thing would all come down to what the Princess said.

“Cozy,” she began, turning her gaze upon the pink pegasus, “You stand accused of Reckless Use of Magic, Unauthorized Use of Dangerous or Forbidden Magic (again), Magical Theft (also again), Breaking and Entering, Assault (Multiple Counts), High Treason (again), and Murder.”

The filly in question hummed, “I still don’t think that should count…”

“How do you plead?” The Princess’s voice was stern, adding a weight to her words that even had Cozy flinching beneath them.

Cozy Glow raised a single eyebrow at her judge. She glanced around, just in case she was the only one not in on the joke. Nocreature else seemed to be laughing.

“Uh… guilty? I guess,” she said, uneasily, waiting for the other three shoes to drop.

Princess Twilight Sparkle blinked.

“Pardon?”

“Guilty. I’m guilty.” Cozy shrugged, and cast a glance over the other judges. Every single Councilor and Princess, except Pinkie Pie, looked positively aghast, shocked into a state of stupefaction. And that omission was only because Pinkie was busy with a menu, teaching a miserable Grogar how to take customers’ orders.

Rarity, recovering herself a hair faster than the rest, cleared her throat, and asked, “Cozy Glow… you do know what ‘Guilty’ means, yes?”

The pink filly frowned. “Yeah? It means I did something bad, and I’m gonna get punished for it. What’s with you guys?”

“So,” Fluttershy cut in, eyes wide, “you know what you did was wrong? And… not necessarily just evil?”

“Seriously, what’s going on with you ponies?” Cozy buzzed her wings and brought herself up to Ann’s eye level, “Yes, I was Evil! And yeah, it was wrong. Why’s that such a big deal?”

As Cozy looked between each of her judges, she finally noticed something. Each of them was slowly turning towards Twilight. Each one stared, wide-eyed, as a bright and terrible smile began to spread across her muzzle, and her eyes began to truly sparkle.

There was an argument, she realized. An argument… that I just settled…

“Good eye,” Applejack whispered, then said with a touch more contrition, “I’m sorry we doubted you…”

“Oh…” Cozy Glow drifted back a bit, only to run into Ann’s aura holding her from making a break for it, “I don’t like this at all…”

“You may not look it, Cozy,” Twilight refocused on the filly, “But you’ve grown quite a bit.”

Cozy scowled. “That’s not funny.”

“And it is in light of that growth of character,” the Princess lit her horn, and a purple bubble took shape at its tip, “that we officially grant you… Parole.”

Now it was Cozy’s turn to look agape. Had Ann not been holding her up in a light pink aura, either she or her hanging jaw would have hit the floor by that point.

“P-parole!?”

Twilight’s magic billowed… and then faded. The Princess took a deep breath, as though she’d just exerted herself, and smiled. “Cozy, it was never…”

She turned an unimpressed glance back at her mentor.

“Had I been aware of the particular stone effect for your prison, you would not… and should not… have had to endure twenty years of uninterrupted consciousness.”

“Oh, you’re just going to hold that over us forever, aren’t you?” It was quite odd to hear Celestia, former Diarch and Alicorn of the Sun, whine like a petulant little filly, but these were certainly interesting times.

The Princess Twilight continued, “Therefore, both to make up for Our previous mistakes, as well as allow you a chance to grow into a pony to be proud of, in an environment where you can truly flourish as you never have before, we shall have you serve your parole by being remanded to the custody of one of Our fellow Princesses.”

Here, Twilight’s smile went from merely that of an intrigued intellectual, happy to see a bet pay dividends, and became something more. Ann could taste the overwhelming goodness and cheer coming off the Princess, but it was tinged with regret and hope in equal measure.

Suddenly, Ann realized where that smile was pointing.

“The Princess of Chaos shall be your warden,” Princess Twilight said, eyes locked with Ann’s own, “And… perhaps in time, your friend.”

Ann’s jaw actually hit the floor, cracked through the stonework, and impacted somewhere in the basement, mere feet from a hoof-full of unicorn mages on patrol near the Starlight Vault. She quickly rolled her mouth back up and set it right, before taking a deep, soulful breath. She had plenty of things to say about that plan…

But Cozy got there first.

“HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST YOUR BUCKING MINDS!?!?”

Twilight leaned back, away from the suddenly, explosively furious filly.

Oh no… not furious. It didn’t take a changeling to feel what emotion Cozy Glow was giving off in that throne room. From her bulging eyes and neck-veins to her instant flop sweat and shaking knees, everycreature knew what was going on in Cozy’s mind right at that instant.

Pure.

Condensed.

Grade A…

Fear.

“Cozy,” Twilight raised a hoof to forestall whatever tirade…

“NO!” the pink filly ripped her way out of Ann’s aura through sheer speed, and drifted along in front of the judges… her executioners. “Toss me in Tartarus and throw away the key! Stick me on the moon! Turn me back to stone and leave me on the ocean floor!!!

“Anything!” she pointed a hoof back at the Princess of Chaos, “Anything but that!!!”

“Cozy!”

Twilight stamped the floor with one mighty hoof. The shock of it seemed to bring Cozy’s mind back to something resembling focus. The filly gazed up into Twilight’s eyes, pleadingly.

“That flash,” Twilight shook her head, “was the Transposition Locking Spell taking effect. You cannot move more than fifty yards from Ann without being brought back to her. Other than that, you are to learn from her and her friends what I failed to teach you about friendship.”

“But…”

“I know!” Twilight reached out a wing, and settled it softly onto her once-enemy’s shoulder, “But despite how it’s begun… I truly think your relationship with Ann will be a source of strength, and healing for you. If you let it.” 

Twilight leaned in close, met the filly’s gaze with her own, and whispered, “What do you say?”

There was silence again.

For the whole of about five seconds, before Cozy Glow slapped aside the Princess’s wing, let out a blood-curdling scream, and launched herself towards the main doors to the throne room.

Ann found it oddly nostalgic.

Just as Cozy’s rapidly fleeing form reached the doors, however, there was a crack of purple magic, and the panicking pegasus appeared precisely three feet to Ann’s side, still screaming, still flying. It was clear she hadn’t even noticed, and simply continued sailing towards the throne room doors, heedless of all else.

“Aw, yeah,” Rainbow Dash grinned, “Now this is awesome…”

And this would continue for a minute straight, until a red-faced and exhausted Cozy Glow finally had to land and continue her flight on foot.

This version continued for about thirty seconds more, before some of Ann’s friends managed to hold Cozy down and let her cry it out.

“Well, that was dramatic,” Ann said, rolling her eyes in her own dramatic fashion. Then, perhaps remembering where she was and what was going on, she turned back towards the Princesses.

Twilight took a few steps forward, just so that she and Ann were standing directly beside one another. They were the same height, Ann noticed, just a little taller than Celestia herself.

“I, uh,” Ann smiled, a little unsure of what was about to happen, “My character growth was a little more… literal, it seems…”

Princess Twilight snickered, but said nothing.

So, Ann licked her lips, and tried to fill the space before her.

“I’m not sure I know what’s going on, Your Majesty. I mean, my last act as Princess was to abdicate, for Discord’s sake!”

Off to the side, Discord cheered, “Yes! I’ve done it! I’m a meme…!”

A quiet bump from Fluttershy seemed to end that, whatever that was, very quickly.

“Oh, I know,” Twilight smiled, “But… under Equestrian Law, Princesses can’t abdicate.”

Ann blinked. “Is… is that a thing?”

“Afraid so,” Twilight sighed contentedly, “Retirement? That’s fine. But actual abdication? Apparently, when they wrote the rules, they really made sure the Princesses couldn’t weasel their way out of it.”

“I have never weaseled in my entire life!” Luna shouted indignantly, “At the very most, I once stoat’d! Perhaps I even engaged in mirthful, holiday ferreting… but Weasel!?”

Twilight raised a gentle hoof and placed it gingerly under Ann’s chin. With a little redirection, their eyes met again, and Ann could fully take in the Princess’… the other Princess’ warm expression.

“But,” Ann frowned, “I let Cozy go free. And… what happened after…”

“Was serious,” Twilight admitted, “But… while most ponies can be won over with little more than earnest friendship and acceptance, some need to be shown how much they can lose by not accepting friendship into their heart.

“Cozy Glow’s heart had been hardened,” Twilight explained, “By her time in an orphanage, or by how she was raised, or… by any number of factors, really. My way of teaching her, in hindsight, was never going to help her.”

Twilight wrapped a wing around Ann, and drew her close in a side-hug. The Princess turned so that she could address everycreature at once.

“But you got through to her. Maybe it was just a crack you made in an icy shell she has around her heart, but I can tell you and her share some sort of connection now. The shared trauma of… what happened between you two has helped Cozy Glow at least move a few more inches towards the right direction.”

Ann shook herself free, gently, and faced Twilight directly. “But… but what I did was still wrong, even if it worked!”

“I know,” the Princess nodded, her own smile never fading or faltering, “Which is why Cozy’s parole… as much as she sees it as a punishment for her… is also your trial.”

When Ann stared blankly at Twilight’s answer, the Princess chuckled lightly.

“Well, I am giving you an incredible responsibility. Cozy Glow is moving in the right direction… slowly. And I cannot think of any pony who has had as positive of an impact on her as you.”

“That’s… an exceptionally low bar, Princess,” Ann grimaced.

Twilight sighed, “Be that as it may. I am tasking you with guiding her. You and your friends have shown so many of the best qualities that Friendship can bring out in others. It is my hope that you can foster such in Cozy, and help a lost soul.”

Ann turned her head, to get a good look over at Cozy. The filly was still cowering on the floor, but at least she had stopped sweating and crying. Not a great metric for success through friendship.

“I…” the Ponequus set her jaw and turned back to the Princess, “I’ll try.”

Twilight nodded, and then took up a far more formal, serious air as she said, “I trust in your ability… but to be sure, I must ask that all of your attention be focused on this task.”

“All of my…?”

“Attention, yes.” Twilight glanced over to Discord, currently watching the scene with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity. “And that means I must formally ask that you step down from your… duties as Princess of Chaos.”

Ann cocked her head to one side, “What? But… you said I couldn’t abdicate!”

“Now hold on!” Ann heard her father stomping towards the Princess of Friendship, and could see in his eyes as she turned to look at him that he was holding back a fire.

The Draconequus scowled and got himself up in Twilight’s face as physically close as it was possible to do so, and snarled, “You have no such jurisdiction! This is completely against the Rules!”

“I’m not ordering Ann to step down,” Twilight said with just the smallest hint of a snark, “I am merely one Sovereign giving another some good advice for her own benefit. It’s a request.”

“A request!” Discord fumed and threw up his hands, “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for Ann to be all that she could be!?”

“Two… three months?”

“Exactly! An eternity in Draconequus time! And you just expect me to let you do this to her!? I’ve finally got somecreature I can pass off this Chaos business to, and you pull this on me!”

“Pass off…? You…” Twilight’s face scrunched up in obvious confusion, “You want to stay retired?”

Discord sighed, exasperated, “Yes! Of course! With Ann handling Chaos, I’d be able… I’d…” He grew suddenly quiet, a hint of timidity brightening his cheeks with a red blush.

“Discord?”

“Well,” he grumbled, “If you weren’t going to look into a way to make all of your friends Alicorns like yourself… I couldn’t really imagine a world where I had to endure while Fluttershy… while she…”

The pegasus in question slowly walked up behind the Draconequus, and gave his side a little nuzzle as she reached him. Fluttershy looked up to her dear friend, and said, “It’s something we talked about before, Twilight. We’ve… well, Discord has seen other worlds where he didn’t have another option, and… he doesn’t like saying goodbye, you know…”

Twilight seemed as if she were about to say something… but bit down on it quickly.

Not the time, nor the place.

Ann had heard the thought, but only idly. Most of her mind had been quite distracted through this whole aside. She had a simple proposition before her, but one that was deceptive in its simplicity.

I can use this, she thought mischievously. 

“Status quo,” she said, quietly, in a tone that nopony or creature could have heard, even if they had been listening for it.

Pinkie and Cheese each winked at her as she said it, but that was just… Pies being Pies…

Ann lifted her chin up high, with dignity, and proclaimed, “I’ll do it.”

“You what!?” Discord nearly snapped his neck spinning about.

The Ponequus met Twilight’s eyes again… this time, as equals. Two Princesses who were in on the same scheme.

“But… I’ll need a Regent.”

Discord’s mouth worked a mile a minute without producing anything other than a whine that only dogs could hear.

“What!?” he finally managed to say.

“Naturally, Dad,” Ann held out a hoof diplomatically, “Chaos still needs tending and fostering while I’m busy with Cozy. I’ll need somecreature to invest my power in. To act in my interests. In fact…

“Why don’t you do it?”

“Me?” the Draconequus was taken aback. “What are you getting at?”

“I mean…” Ann gave it her best salespony smile, “You already know how the job works! And, you’d only need to handle things for me for… say, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?” Twilight smirked.

She asked, innocently, “How long do you think Cozy’s parole will last?”

“Oh, it could take a while,” Twilight nodded sagely, her friends and fellow Princesses nodding along as they began to cotton onto the idea, “I mean… you’ll probably need at least a few decades, for sure. Long enough to where you’d have to spend your whole foalhood with Cozy and your friends. Teaching her about Friendship. Growing up together. Having parties…”

Pinkie squee’d at that, but otherwise remained quiet.

“Yeah,” Ann nodded as well, and gave her father a toothy smile, “So, it’s not like I’m asking you to stop retiring, or keep the job forever… just until…”

“Until you’ve grown up… until you’ve… matured!” Discord spat with a small amount of disgust. He eyed both Princesses, standing side by side, and began to pace back and forth.

He stopped twice. Once, to give Fluttershy a loving pat on the head as he passed. And once more to give his daughter a bit of a stink-eye.

“Regent of Chaos,” he said slowly, rolling the words in his mouth, “It doesn’t really have the same ring to it as ‘Lord of Chaos’, does it? It’s ridiculous. It’s ludicrous. It’s never happened before!”

At this declaration, Discord leaned in close… and his eyes flashed bright as stars.

“I love it! Innovating as always! That’s why you’re gonna be a great Spirit of Chaos one day, my girl!”

“So, you’ll do it?” Ann asked, hopefully.

“I will! Or my name isn’t John!”

Twilight balked and shook her head, “But, Discord… your name’s not…”

Ann was instantly at the Princess’s side, leaning into her ear and whispering, “Just roll with the bit. It’s a reference!”

The purple Alicorn stared for a moment, before replying sadly, “Oh… you’re doing that too now, aren’t you?”

Ann just smiled, and turned back towards her father.

“Alright,” she said, giving herself a little shake to get ready, “How do we do this?”

“Do this?” Discord frowned. “Do this? Do this? This isn’t some… carnival trick! What we are about to do is a solemn ceremony! One that Draconequus have taken with the utmost seriousness since the very beginning!”

She nodded along as her dad became more and more bombastic in his description. Then, she chuckled, and said, “But since there’s only ever been one Draconequus…”

He grinned, and pointed to his own head, “’We’ve’ been waiting a while…”

“Very well!” Ann whipped her magic about, pink light instantly restoring her crown and her cape. In her hooves, she hefted up a 4-hoof long halibut, and struck a regal pose.

“Kneel.”

Discord, now wearing more princely fashion, including a Miss Manehattan Runner-Up sash and a pair of tooth-brushes in place of epaulets, knelt before the Sovereign of Insanity, and bowed his head. Fluttershy, standing nearby, smiled broadly at the multicolored dress of living butterflies she now found herself wearing.

“We, Anarchy,” Ann intoned, “First of Our Name, Mayor of Madness, Baroness of Bonkers, Countess of Skullduggery, Duchess of Derp, Princess of Chaos, and Ponequus Extraordinaire…!”

“Um, anypony wanna explain what’s goin’ on?” Applejack’s slightly confounded voice could be heard, just over the tinny reprise playing from speakers that weren’t there a moment ago.

Ann didn’t even notice.

“… do hereby declare you Discord! Regent of Chaos, and Arbiter of the Arbitrary!”

She slapped him across his right cheek with the halibut. Then, she struck him across his left. That bit of ceremony concluded, she tossed the fish over her shoulder, whereupon it grew a set of crab legs… and flapped them to gain altitude and fly away.

Rainbow Dash, mirroring everycreature else’s scrunched noses and befuddled expressions, simply said, “Well… that’s bucked up…”

Ann, maintaining her regal disposition admirably, held out one hoof… which was currently replaced with what appeared to be a human hand, and pointed a single digit toward her father.

“Discord?” she stated.

“Your Majesty?” tears of pride welled up in the Draconequus’ eyes.

“Pull my finger!”

The collective Elements, Princesses, and Crusaders groaned in agonizing pain as soon as they heard that statement. All except for Cozy Glow, who was looking on with utter contempt anyway, so nocreature could tell the difference.

Discord tugged gently on his daughter’s human finger. As the arm detached itself with a pop, the whole room was suddenly consumed in a brilliant white light. Everycreature averted their gaze, and held their breath as the light washed over them and shined out the windows into the sky above.





The first one to reopen their eyes after the light had passed was, naturally, Ann herself. And instantly, she was glad for the change in perspective.

“Oh, that’s so much better!” she exclaimed, stretching her forelegs and wings in a single go, admiring her tiny, once more foal-sized body, “I can’t believe you Alicorns have to look down on everycreature all day long! My neck would be so sore after that…!”

Now, Ann had long, long ago… assuming that for a three-month old, two odd weeks was a significant length of time… overcome her slight phobia of eyes and attention. But, as she stood in the center of the throne room, with every eye riveted to her, and every jaw hanging loose… it did start to get to her a little.

“What?” she asked, looking around, “Is it my voice? I kinda missed the little squeak.”

“Nay,” Luna more sighed than said, “tis not that…”

“Oh,” Ann stuck out her tongue in thought for a moment, and then said, “I suppose it’s the lisp, then. I turned off the safety features and tossed it. The joke was old, anyway...”

Discord, the only creature not staring, giggled. “No, no, it isn’t that, my little butterfly. Though, you were right; the joke had gotten stale long ago.”

As Ann turned around, something flashed across her vision. It was, naturally, her mane. Back to being a brilliant shade of pink with a black stripe throughout. Though… now it had the added bonus of a second stripe, brilliant and silver, running alongside the black!

“Oh! Cheese! We’re like twins now! Sort of…”

Moon growled, and with a bit more touchiness than he probably meant, cried out, “Oh for the love of… just look at your flank!”

Ann stared at the batpony, a confused and startled look on her face. “My… flank?” she went to look, “But, what could be on my…”

She did not gasp. Or, if she did, Ann did so at a level where even dogs would have trouble hearing. Her eyes dilated to pinpricks, and her own mouth joined all the others in falling down nearly to the floor.

For there, right on her flank, was…

“I… I have a…”

Ann leapt straight up, her wings carrying her all the way to the throne room ceiling in a single, mighty flap.

“I GOT A CUTIE MARK!!!”

Emblazoned on her flank, for all to see, and to forever prove her own ponyhood, Ann proudly displayed an eight-petaled pink flower, inset with a ring of eight black arrows.

Tiny, pink fireworks lit up the throne room as Ann spiraled up near its vaulted ceiling in an aerial dance of her own style, but no amount of conventional explosives could compare to the jubilous sound of laughing, cheering foals and stomping ponies down below.

Especially not when Pinkie Pie got involved. Under the light of bursting Chaos-fireworks, the pink party planning pony of preposterous pinkness, punditry, and precociousness merrily pulled a small, metal remote from the depths of her frizzy mane, and smiled greedily at its large, shiny red button.

As she raised a hoof to smash that button, a gruff cough interrupted her thought, and her attention was brought straight up to the towering Regent of Chaos.

“You’re not thinking of hogging all the fun now, are you?” Discord’s nose was, appropriately, piggish at just that moment. He pulled an ear of corn from nowhere and hungrily took a bite.

“I, uh, thought you’d be distracted,” the pink mare scratched the back of her head and tried to avoid Discord’s stare.

Discord leaned down to Pinkie’s level, and leveled her a condescending look only the Draconequus could pull off. “I’m not mad, you know. Just a little disappointed. I thought we were past this?”

Pinkie sighed, defeated, “Yeah, you’re right…” her eyes lit up, “… you wanna trade?”

The Regent of Chaos smiled a toothy smile, and quickly began unscrewing his paw. He tossed it to the party pony with ease, and caught the remote with his tail equally so.

“One…” he smirked, talon hovering over the button as he began the countdown.

“Pickles,” Pinkie counted, holding Discord’s pre-snap paw with a strand of pink mane.

And they both cried out together the final countdown.

“Albequerquee!”

One snap/button-press later, and Ann’s fireworks were suddenly joined by a volley of party-cannon fire from somewhere in the throne room. Tassels and paper and squee’ing horns blared, and the doors to the room threw themselves open, allowing the wait-staff to return with Pinkie’s previous order: dozens of tacos, chips and dip, an entire brass mariachi band, and what appeared to be a small hill made entirely out of cake. Celestia, especially, seemed intrigued by that treat’s appearance.

Finally, Pinkie’s old banner, congratulating Ann on avoiding becoming a true villain, flickered with Chaotic energy, and unfurled itself a second time. It now read:


ANN’S CUTE-CEAÑERA!

¡Sostén tus flancos porque todavía hay dos epílogos!


As Ann drifted back down to the ground, she was instantly mobbed by her friends, who rushed around Spike like a flood torrent and washed over the Ponequus as she landed. The rolling pile of foalish laughter and cheers brought out the first, true, genuine smiles of the day from the assembled adults.

“Let me see! Let me see!”

“What is it?”

“Looks like a…?”

Ann couldn’t be entirely sure who was saying what, due to being on the bottom of what was becoming a very heavy pile of foals. Still, this wasn’t a problem for long. With a touch of Chaos, she found herself at the bottom of that pony pile…

… and several feet away, leaning on a perplexed, but not terribly surprised, Cozy Glow.

“Chaos magic is really cheating, isn’t it?” the put-out pink pegasus pony pouted. She sat on her haunches, a bit of confetti settling atop her mussed mane.

“The best kind of cheating!” Ann laughed, drawing her other friends’ attention. When they examined the pony beneath them, they were still surprised to find Ann lying on the ground!

Pile-Ann grinned, blew a raspberry at her fellow Crusaders, and then popped into a cloud of yarn, cotton-balls, and plastic forks. The whole thing left Ann herself rolling on the floor, laughing away at her little prank, and for the first time in a long, long while, feeling like a foal again.

“Terribly sorry, dear,” Pearl gave an apologetic smile, “We’re just excited for you!”

Goldie nodded. “Yup! The Cutie Mark Crusaders are all Cutie’d up!” Then, she glanced curiously towards the ceiling and scratched at her beak in thought, “Uh, the ones of us who can get them, anyway…”

“And we’ve only been at this for a couple of weeks,” Cheese squinted as he said this, a worrying note shaking his voice, “Who… who wants to be the one to tell Apple Bloom…?”

Beau shrank away like a deflated balloon. He even whimpered a little.

“So, a flower, huh?” Flawless trotted up and took a moment to examine the mark in question. “Kinda weird, if you ask me.”

“Why?” Ann frowned, “What’s wrong with flowers?”

Flawless just shrugged, and gave the Ponequus a toothy smirk, “Eh, dunno. Doesn’t seem like you. I’d have expected a battle-axe, or a sledgehammer, or a bomb or something.”

“Oh, wow!” Ann’s irises grew large and starry, “That’d be so cool…! I wonder…?”

Moon and Dib zoomed in close as Ann half-seriously pondered that thought, hooves waving ecstatically.

“Don’t even think about it!” Dib snarled.

Moon pointed vigorously at Ann’s mark, “You get what you got… and you like it!”

Ann giggled at their annoyance, and tried to alleviate their worry, “Oh, don’t worry about it! I’m kidding!”

There was a mischievous glint in her eye just then, however.

“But an explosion Cutie Mark just screams Anarchy, don’t it?”

“Ann,” Shady shook his head, a smile on his face, “I’m pretty sure they’re about to scream ‘Anarchy’ in a minute if you don’t let up…”

Even the batpony and changeling had to join in the laughter this time. And with that moment of catharsis, the party got swinging in earnest.

But, while everycreature seemed content to try the food or cut a little rug to the band’s catchy tunes, Ann immediately ran into a bright, yellow-colored wall. A yellow wall that just so happened to take the opportunity to wrap Ann up in a feathery hug.

“I’m so proud of you,” Fluttershy whispered in her foal’s ear, and gave her cheek a quick kiss.

“Mom!” Ann gleefully whined, and returned the hug as tightly as she could.

Fluttershy held her foal like that for a number of seconds, before she finally released her, and gave another one of her perfect, motherly smiles towards Ann’s Cutie Mark.

“You know,” her eyes crinkled with happiness, “Flowers are a very nice Cutie Mark to get. They usually represent all the best, most pony of emotions.”

“They do?” Ann asked. A party hat snapped onto her head just as she said this, courtesy of a passing pink party pony.

Her dad chose that moment to drift past. “Pretty to look at, not good for much else, and they smell funny. Checks out…”

“Discord…” Fluttershy groaned.

“Oh, you know I’m just having fun,” he slid back down to the ground and offered both Ann and Fluttershy tacos topped with some of the cake frosting. As Ann took a big bite, and Fluttershy glanced around for a conveniently placed potted plant, the Regent of Chaos gave his little one a proud pat on the withers.

“Truth be told,” he whispered conspiratorially, “Flowers are a lot like ponies. They’re bright and colorful, and terribly weedy. Once they take root, it’s hard to pull them out.”

“Is… is that a metaphor?” Ann stared up at her father.

He shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is… your Cutie Mark isn’t just a flower.”

Fluttershy tilted her head, “You… you mean the arrows? Do you know what they mean?”

As Discord went to speak, he found a little yellow hoof blocking his way. Ann smiled up at him, and then nodded sagely towards her mother.

“It’s an eight-pointed star,” Ann said, casually, with the air of a storied professor speaking on their chosen subject, “Eight arrows, all pointing in different directions. What could be more Chaos than that?”

Fluttershy seemed surprised, both at Ann’s tone, and at what she had said. And then, she smiled again, and shook her head.

“You’re the best of both of us, then. That’s nice.”

“It’s better than nice!” Discord hefted both his favoritest ponies up into the air with a swell of his magic, catching Fluttershy under his arm, and Ann atop his back.

He grinned at the two, enjoying their shared giggle fit. “It’s splendiferous! It’s marvelous! It’s Quagmajastic! It’s Zootsuitinous! It’s…”

“Dad,” Ann said, simply.

Discord glanced up into the little eyes of his darling princess.

“You’re weird.”

She’d said it just like somepony might also have said, ‘I love you’.

And then, she whipped a cutlass out from nowhere, and pointed it towards the food table.

“But if ye don’t get us to the food table, that scallywag Cheese will make off with all the good stuff!”

“Oh, relax,” Discord chuckled, but still began to make his way towards his captain’s desire, “You’ll have plenty of time to eat before the epilogue.”





And so, with the Family of Chaos hurtling towards a small mountain of tacos, cake, and what looked to be a karaoke machine being assembled by a certain pink pony, the party was underway. It was a strange event, seeing foals of Ponyville’s most famous club rubbing shoulders with the Friendship Council members they’d grown up idolizing and listening to tales of, and even a couple of the immortal Alicorn Princesses themselves. Conga lines were formed, punch was drunk, and a food fight was fought after Dash got her hooves on Discord and made her displeasure on his previous screw-ups known.

But as the evening went on, a certain pink filly, holding a cup of punch with one hoof, made her way to the most out-of-place decorations the event hosted.

Cozy Glow glanced up into the faces of her once-allies. There was a look about her, as she contemplated how she’d only exchanged one prison for another, and how all her misdeeds and villainous goals had gotten her stuck here.

“Still,” she shrugged, and tossed her punch in Chrysalis’ face, “Sucks to be you two right now, doesn’t it?”





“…”

“I don’t think she heard the part about us getting parole.”

“I’m going to get out of here,” the Great and Powerful Changeling Queen Trixie said, low, and hungrily, “I’m going to be a model parolee. I’m going to ace the tests. I’m going to be the best. Friendship. Student. Ever…

“And then I’m going to find Cozy Glow, and skin her alive…”





“You know…”

Cozy’s blood froze. She slowly turned around, and looked up at the Ponequus lazily drifting by, without a care for gravity in sight.

“… those puppets really miss you,” Ann concluded with a smirk, and a bite out of her… cake taco.

The pegasus backed right up to the statue base, gripping it with all four hooves.

“I’ll be good, I swear!” she shivered.

Ann watched all this with a bit of amusement… and sadness.

“Hey, it’s okay Cozy,” she sighed, and settled down on the ground, “I’m not gonna do anything to you.”

“R-really?” Cozy stared at her tormentor with obvious, crystal-clear fear in her eyes, “How can I believe you?”

Ann’s eyes dropped to the floor, and the filly seemed to chew on something as she thought about that. Then, she looked back up with a pained look in her eyes.

“Because… this is both our paroles. And…”

Ann leapt up, and plopped herself down on the statue’s base. She held out one hoof to Cozy, and held that pose. The pink parolee looked at it. And looked at it. And looked at it…

Until she took it, and found herself up with the Ponequus of Chaos.

“… and because I really want this to work,” Ann nodded towards the party, “You know I’m not like most of the rest of them. I didn’t just… I don’t just accept apologies. There’s no ignoring the bad you do, ya know? Good doesn’t get rid of bad, so you gotta try to change, try to do good. Or… it’s all just good feelings and no good being done.”

She took a long swig of her punch.

“Ya dig?”

Cozy was very, very uncertain about what she’d just heard… but she also supposed she didn’t have much of a choice one way or another.

“You got any more punch there?” she asked.

Ann popped another cup into existence, and passed it to Cozy. Then, she raised her own, in a toast.

“To reforming villains,” she said, a hopeful light in her eyes.

“Yeah, whatever,” Cozy clicked her cup to Ann’s, then said, “I’ll most likely stab you in the back tomorrow.”

“That’s fair,” Ann laughed, “But that’s tomorrow Ann’s problem! Right now, I got a new friend, and she’s not enjoying the party. So… come on! There’s still one good conga line in this bunch, so let’s get in on it!”

The two hopped off the statue, and Cozy couldn’t help but feel… something. Right from when the Ponequus had said she thought Cozy was a friend, and through all the talk of conga lines… it felt… nice… like, friendship?

“Hey!”

Cozy came up short, watching the Ponequus shoot a funny look up at the Elements of Disharmony.

Ann smirked, “Your name’s actually Chrysalis. Tirek’s been messing with you this whole time.”





“Um…”

“Alright, First, I’m going to skin Cozy Glow…”





Cozy frowned. “Can… can you hear them in there?”

“Well, yeah. Now,” Ann shrugged, “I was serious about doing good to get rid of the bad. I’m nice enough to let you try and be good, Cozy…”

The Pony of Chaos chuckled.

“But you gotta try, right?”

Cozy could only nod, slowly, and fear for the ordeals ahead of her.

“You’re super weird,” she said, finally, as the two reached the forming conga line.

Ann smiled, and she only thought of the good times just ahead of her and her friends.

“Thank you,” she said.




The End