//------------------------------// // Two Fillies, One Evening // Story: Golly Interrupted // by Golly4Ever //------------------------------// "It's your move, Cozy!" groaned Flurry Heart. "I know that! Don't you think I know that? Of course, it's my move!" shot Cozy. "Then move already!" Flurry Heart lay on her belly in front of the chessboard by the crystal castle fireplace. The warm flames cast dancing shadows of the game pieces across the floor. Cozy sat on her bottom, leaning forward as she studied the board, hovering her hoof over her pieces one at a time carefully deciding which piece to move where. "Pass," said Cozy, flatly. "What? You can't pass!" shouted Flurry. "Can too, just did!" proclaimed Cozy. "Not-uh!" "Uh-huh!" "Well, I pass too." "You can't do that!" exclaimed Cozy. "Can too!" "No!" "Mom!" shouted Flurry. "Play nice, girls," echoed the voice of Princess Cadance from a nearby room. "Fine!" huffed Cozy. "I put my alicorn next to your CozyMark." Flurry sighed, "It's not named after you, you know." "Well I don't see your cutie mark anywhere on the board," retorted Cozy. "I'm the alicorns! This whole set was hoof-crafted just for me!" "Whatever! It's your turn now." "I know it's my turn! Can I think about it?" asked Flurry. "A real chess player doesn't have to think," said Cozy, smugly. "Oh, is that why you take so long to move that I have to remind you?" winked Flurry. "Oh, ha-ha. You know, alicorns can fly, but I don't need magic to make all these other pieces fly too." "Yeah, Yeah," said Flurry. She picked up her rook and moved it away from Cozy's alicorn. Cozy rolled her eyes "Wrong way, dummy. I was wide open for a check and one move away from mate." "I know what you're doing here." "And just what might that be?" asked Cozy as she leaned forward again, studying the board. "You're trying to lose." "I could say the same thing about you too!" Said Cozy, placing her alicorn one move away from check, again. Flurry playfully gasped, "How dare you!" She studied the board for a moment before placing her own alicorn one move away from check. "Well, two can play at this game!" "Duh! It's a two-player game!" said Cozy. She moved her dragon bringing Flurry a number of moves further from check. The pieces were well mixed at this point, yet all of them were still present and accounted for. The game had been going on for well over an hour, and no pieces were claimed by the opposing side. "You're not giving away your dragon that easy!" said Cozy as she moved her own dragon into the perfect kill box. Flurry would surely have to take it this time. "Oh. No?" asked Flurry, moving her dragon into a spot that protected Cozy's alicorn from any angle of attack. "Pass." "Pass." "Pass." "Pass." "Stop it!" yelled out Cozy. "Then move!" "Fine!" Cozy hopped her alicorn away from Flurry's dragon into the only spot available for it. "Your, move." Flurry furrowed her brow. "That's not legal, is it?" She looked the board over, replaying the move in her head. "Sure is. You only have one move available, and then we both lose." "But... how did this happen?" Flurry started going over all of her pieces on the board. none of them could move, except for one, and there was only one spot for it. She slowly picked up her Griffin. "Yes..." said Cozy, slowly. Flurry slowly moved her piece into position. "...That's it." "How did you..." Flurry set her piece down. "Locked." Flurry blinked and stared at the board, astonished. "And since you had the last move, I guess I lose even more." "This has never happened, like ever," said Flurry. "How... Why?" Cozy crossed her forelegs proudly, "'cause beating you would have been too easy! I'm just that good." "Not-uh! Beating you would have been too easy. That's why I tried to lose on purpose." "I knew you were trying to lose too, so I tried even harder to lose. Don't be a sore loser!" "You don't be a sore loser!" said Flurry as she lept up, tackling Cozy to the ground, using her magic to pin her wings back, exposing their undersides for an aggressive tickle. "Hey!" laughed Cozy. She tried to push Flurry off but Flurry had a decent size and weight advantage on her. The two fillies tumbled around the room, spilling the chess pieces everywhere as they fluttered their wings, each trying to carry the other into the air. Flurry won with little effort. It was more like a predator carrying its prey off to the nest. Cozy struggled to no avail. She turned her head and put her mouth on Flurry's leg, resting her teeth just above the hoof, threatening to bite down. "Ack!" yelped Flurry, releasing her hold on Cozy. Cozy kept a firm grip in her teeth, hanging on to Flurry's leg. "Oh no, she's got me!" Called out Flurry. She took flight out of the room and down the hall with the filly dangling from her leg, hanging on firmly with her teeth. Guards on patrol halted and saluted the odd display as Flurry flew by, Cozy in tow. The young alicorn flew around another corner, and up a flight of very wide stairs to another large room on the next level. "No horsing around inside, girls!" said Cadance as they flew past. "Yes, mom," replied Flurry as she used her magic to open another door before flying through. Cozy flailed her hooves and wings wildly causing all sorts of turbulence for Flurry's flight plan. On the other side of the door was a balcony. Flurry and Cozy were now outside. "Ok, is that the way you wanna play?" asked Flurry with a twinkling in her eye. "Let's play!" Cozy's eyes grew large as Flurry took to the sky straight up, at speed. The castle below suddenly grew smaller and smaller. She knew what Flurry was up to; this had happened before. "Ok! Ok, you got me!" She said, finally letting go. She had hoped they weren't already too high up for her, but Flurry was deceptively fast at climbing through the air with her larger alicorn wings. Cozy flapped and fluttered as hard as she could, but the air was already too thin for her tiny wings to hold, and began her descent struggling to stabilize herself. This was going to be tricky. There were no clouds to land on in the Crystal Empire, not within the protective dome anyway. Any clouds that were to be seen were custom-ordered and imported from Cloudsdale. When placed, they were rarely positioned near the castle as a security measure anyway. Cozy could try and angle her approach and right herself, but there was a rather large castle in the way that was rapidly approaching. She tried her best to catch the air, but along with no clouds from the protective dome, it also meant no updrafts or wind currents. Flying within the empire proved much more difficult than one might have thought; high flying, at least. She was genuinely starting to get worried, but she fought to not let it show on her face, not in front of Flurry. As the castle spires rapidly approached, threatening to impale the young pegasus, a magical field enveloped Cozy, guiding and carrying her to the balcony. It was Cadance "Ok, time to come on in. It's getting late," called out the princess as she brought Cozy down gently onto the balcony. Flurry swooped in for a landing. "Aw, mom!" "You girls need to clean up your mess, wash up and get ready for bed. Don't you have a big day planned for tomorrow?" "...Yes, mother," said Flurry as she lowered her head to sulk past Cadance. "Move along, now!" said Cadance, smacking Flurry in the flank with her wing. Flurry and Cozy sped up and trotted off giggling and laughing. Cadance shook her head. "Those girls. Still, it's nice to have My Little Pony® Friendship is Magic home for once, and happy." * * * "Tada!" announced Cozy as she hopped out from behind the dressing partition screen. Her bedclothes were loosely fit, sleeves (or were they legs?) just a bit too long and bunched up. The cuffs were buttoned nicely at the fetlock, while a row of buttons went from the neck all the way down the belly. A flap in the back allowed for her tail to come out freely while hemmed slits along the back let her wings breath free. The one-piece outfit was crystal blue in color and covered in little yellow stars with rounded points all over. some of them were smiling while the odd one here and there wore a somewhat neutral expression. Flurry laughed, "I told you they would be too big for you! Here try these ones on, they don't fit me anymore." She threw another one-piece outfit to Cozy. The pegasus caught it and once again ducked behind the screen. A silhouette of Cozy could be seen kicking off Flurry's old clothes and moving on to the next piece. "These are really soft!" she said. Cozy hopped on out, modeling for Flurry Heart. "How do I look? Like a princess?" This one had a similar print, except that this time, all of the stars were smiling. A similar row of buttons (albeit oversized) ran down Cozy's underside while all of her hooves were covered with soft padded "boots" at the end of each leg. Along with hemmed slits for her wings and tail, there was also a hood with a hole for a horn which a stray curl of her mane was starting to work its way out through. "Hmm," Flurry rubbed her chin. "No." "No?" "Princesses look a lot smarter, but your clothes look like they belong on a princess." Cozy stuck her tongue out at Flurry. She stomped a hoof, which to her surprise, let out a cute tiny squeak. "What?" "Hey, I'm just saying! Plus, you need a horn to go with those wings to be a princess." "I had a horn once. I don't see what makes yours so special." Cozy looked down at her hooves, giving each one a light stomp. Each stomp from each leg gave a little squeak of their own. "Well, I was born with mine. We could see who's is better, but oh, that's right, you, -had- one," smiled Flurry. "I could get one again. Just you wait!" smirked Cozy, looking back up at Flurry. She fought the image out of her mind of a younger Flurryheart squeaking her way around the castle every night before bedtime, in efforts to keep a straight face and not smile at the persistant picture that now occupy her mind. "Why wait?" asked Flurry, growing a mischievous grin. Cozy narrowed her eyes at Flurry. Flurry narrowed her eyes back at Cozy. The two stared each other off for a moment before bursting into laughter, rolling around on the floor of the young princess' bedroom. Cozy got back to her hooves, letting out four squeaks in quick succession. "Seriously?" "Aww, you're so cute!" said Flurry. Cozy stepped lightly, trying to make her way to the guest bed. 'squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak...' Flurry just watched and giggled. Cozy rolled her eyes and opted to use her wings the rest of the way. * * * "Hey Flurry?" "Yes, Cozy?" "Why did your mom tuck me in too?" "I don't know. Maybe that's just what moms do." Cozy laid in her bed quietly staring up at the glowing stars on Flurry's ceiling. She struggled to remember the last time Astral had tucked her in. A brief moment of nostalgia mixed with a tinge of sadness washed over her as she recalled the last time where she had made a comment that she was getting a little too old to be tucked in. She remembered the awkward moment with Astral blushing and apologizing. She remembered wanting to say that it was ok, but then stopping herself, thinking that she was right, and she needed to be a big filly. "...It was, nice," she finally said. "...Yeah, I guess so." It didn't seem to be anything special to Flurry. She was tucked in every night; every night she was home, anyway. "Hey Flurry?" "Yes, Cozy?" "I had fun today." Their conversation was quiet. "Me too." "I would have beat you at chess if I really wanted to." Cozy and Flurry lay quietly, staring up at the glowing stars on the ceiling. "...No, you wouldn't have," replied Flurry. A small bit of light shone in from the hallway through the crack under the door. Sounds of the two fillies breathing could be heard. Other than that, combined with the stars on the ceiling, the room was dark and quiet. "Hey Flurry?" "Yes, Cozy?" "Phbbbt!" Flurry spoke out loudly, "Oh Celestia... was that real or was that just..." Cozy giggled, "I guess you'll find out soon!" "well you know what I say to that?" "What?" "Phbbbt!" Flurry cleared her throat and then began to giggle. "Impossible! Princesses don't..." "Oh, you'd be surprised what all princesses actually do, sometimes." "Really?" "Yup." "So... Princess Twilight... Phbbbt?" giggled Cozy. "More like Phbbbbbbbbbt!" laughed Flurry. Cozy broke into laughter as well. The door to the room burst open, Cadance stood in the light of the hallway, "Girls! Settle down and-" she coughed, "Oh, my... Do I even want to know which one of you..." She cleared her throat again, cracking open a window with her magic, "Ok, whatever. But don't complain to me tomorrow when you're too tired to get up early! Good night!!" she said, closing the door behind her, taking a deep breath out in the hallway. The girls laughed. "That was you!" "No, it was you!" Once the giggles subsided, quiet once again reined. A shadow would cross the room from the light seeping in from under the door; a guard perhaps, or maybe Cadance doing whatever Flurry would imagine her mom did at nights while father was out. "Hey Flurry?" asked Cozy, softly. SIlence's rule was a strong one. "Hey Flurry?" Cozy waited but Flurry did not respond. Her soft breathing was all that ensured that Cozy was not alone. Cozy quietly inspected the pads under her hooves. She could feel where the squeakers had been sewn. The image of a young Flurryheart was quickly replaced by an even younger Tenderhoof. "Maybe that's why he always flew..." She thought to herself, with a smile. Cozy rolled to her side, to face away from the door with a sigh, "...Good night, Flurry."