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// I Hope We Both Die 
// Story: And I Hope You Die 
// by Aquaman 
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Flurry Heart was almost asleep again when she heard Cozy’s voice rise from underneath her chin.

“You know something?”

Flurry shifted up a bit until her shoulders rested on her pillow, and her head was at an angle that let see Cozy’s head nestled against her chest. In the corner of her bedroom, just barely illuminated by the moonlight streaming in the window, she could see both of their coronation dresses crumpled in a heap and probably ruined beyond repair, the last remnants of a disastrous reception that—to be perfectly honest—she couldn’t care less about now.

“What?” she asked Cozy, whose shoulder tensed against Flurry’s forehoof as she shifted a bit under the covers.

“You’re the only pony I’d ever let kill me,” Cozy tenderly replied.

Between late-night exhaustion and afterglow, Flurry didn’t have the energy to unpack the absolutely batshit thing Cozy had just said. Instead, she just narrowed her eyes and mumbled, “Well, that’s… morbid.”

“I think it’s romantic,” Cozy said, with such a sincere depth in her gaze that Flurry couldn’t imagine arguing the point. “Think about it: I’m me. Y’know, hot-headed, stubborn, empirically unbalanced. Maybe there’s a few creatures somewhere big and mean enough to stop me, but I wouldn’t let them kill me. Not unless it was you.”

“You have an awfully high opinion of yourself,” Flurry observed.

Cozy smirked. “I am dating a princess,” she shot back, leaning up at the same time to plant a kiss on Flurry’s lips that the Princess happily accepted. “Sorry, I know I’m making it weird. What I mean is that I trust you. More than I trust myself. And if you decide that I’m worth keeping alive, then I believe you. And if I’m not, then… whatever happens, I’ll go out protecting you. I’ll leave you a better mare than I found you.”

Flurry kissed Cozy again, and kept kissing her until she had to pull away to draw breath. “I think you already covered that,” she whispered, her lips brushing Cozy’s just enough to tickle. 

“Hmm…” Cozy hummed. “I think you can get better, though. I’ll figure something out.” She yawned and settled back into Flurry’s shoulder. “Maybe start a war or something. Those always make rulers look great.”

Flurry couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re a psychopath,” she told her marefriend.

Just before she nodded off, Cozy’s lips bent into a smile. “Every great leader is,” she murmured as sleep overtook her. “Some of us just make it look good.”