Gallus recovered first. “You’re dead,” he stated numbly. His claw reflexively drifted towards the holster under his right wing before he placed it back on the floor.
“Good to see you too, bluebird,” Cozy chuckled. “You look good in your little fascist uniform, very much like a VOPS agent.” The salmon pegasus sat down in front of the window and folded her forelegs against her dress.
The blue griffon clacked his beak. Sandbar and Yona scowled next to him with narrowed eyes. Rarity and Rainbow, both surprised, leaned back and scrunched their muzzles in unison. Tempest’s horn crackled beside Sunset Shimmer’s; both unicorns tracked the slim pegasus.
Cozy brushed a hoof against the thick black frames of her glasses. “Geez,” she snorted. “Tough crowd, huh?” She glanced at Thorax and the seated alicorn over the top of the lenses. “You know, not a single one of those nobles figured it out.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Flurry stated. She pointed two feathers to the center of the room. “Stand there.”
“Oh,” Cozy pursed her lips and her scarlet eyes lit up, “do I get a trial this time? That’d be lovely.” The pegasus sauntered over to the center of the rug. The room was deathly quiet now, only the exhales of the crowd and the faint, padded hoofsteps sounded with the ticking of the clock on the bookcase.
Flurry put a burst of magic into the lamps around the room; the bulbs hummed as they overcharged, and it cast the pegasus in sudden relief. She was thin under the dress, and some pads were visible, stuffed underneath the frills to make her appear older and slightly heavier than she truly was. Coupled with her wings and cutie mark hidden, Cozy Glow looked nothing like the precocious foal she once was.
Rarity swallowed. “I see you straightened your curls, Cozy,” she managed. “Makes you look a bit older, and such a nice dress surely helps.”
“Thank you, Professor Rarity,” Cozy replied in a sweet voice. “I learned some lessons from you.” Her wings flittered and caused the dress to flutter. “Ponies have short memories, as I said. Who would even remember me?”
“You’re not fooling anyone with those egghead glasses,” Rainbow snorted. “I can buy a bunch of self-centered idiots ignoring you, not like any of ‘em ever paid attention to the Elements or the School, but those glasses are ridiculous.”
Cozy bared her teeth at that. “I actually need them, Professor Dash.” She took the glasses in her hooves and squinted at the thick frames before replying. “Your ‘Awesome Class’ didn’t cover this, but shoving a filly into a dark hole for several years tends to ruin their developing eyesight. But I’m sure you knew that.”
Rainbow puffed her lips. “You had it coming,” she scowled back at the standing pegasus. “Twilight adored her school; it never recovered after you.”
“You blame me for that?” Cozy whickered. “That idiot Neighsay helped every step of the way.” She cast a squinting eye to Gallus and Yona. “Heard he kept his job, even after he called everyone degenerates.”
“That’s not what he said,” Rarity answered.
“As if teaching ‘Friendship’ would destroy Equestria,” Cozy scoffed. “Turns out bullets and bombs did the job far better.” She grinned. “If I had all the magic, I could’ve taken out Chrysalis, easy.”
“Your plan was terrible,” Flurry retorted. “You took over a single school. What were you going to do? Just start blasting?”
Sunset coughed into a hoof.
“I’d have figured it out,” Cozy said blithely. “That’s the problem with magic types, always thinking with their horns first.”
“The Tree of Harmony defeated you,” Sandbar stated. He leaned against Yona while the yak glared. “And we proved you and Neighsay wrong. We could be friends.”
Cozy rolled her eyes. “Fine. The plan had some…logistical difficulties, but I was eight. What happened to Neighsay, anyway? Heard he died.”
“For the ELF,” Sunset stated.
Cozy laughed at the mare’s proud muzzle. “You let him in?” She looked to Tempest. “Of course you did,” she said flatly. “Nopony had a problem with the Storm King’s Right Hoof, did they?”
Tempest’s horn crackled with a bolt of blue electricity. Cozy replaced her glasses and stared the tall unicorn down. “You gonna try her first?” the pegasus suggested. “She never had one, did she?”
“She was pardoned,” Sunset answered.
“And I wasn’t,” Cozy replied shortly.
“You nearly destroyed Equestria as a foal,” Sandbar said behind her.
“I humiliated them,” Cozy countered as she turned around. “All of them,” she continued as she cast an eye at Rarity and Rainbow Dash, “so they shoved me in Tartarus to die.”
“S.M.I.L.E. released all the dangerous monsters as the Equestrian Liberation Front retreated back from Tartarus,” Flurry summarized. “Tartarus was shelled to oblivion by the Changelings.”
“Yes,” Cozy acknowledged. “The Heer spent a lot of money on those railway cannons. One even needed two tracks. It was gossip around Canterlot that it was a massive waste of money until they needed to lob shells down on Tartarus.”
“You were left there,” Flurry assumed.
“Golly,” Cozy said with fake gaiety, “what made you assume that, Princess? The fact that they left me there for an entire war?”
Thorax hissed and looked to Flurry, but she brushed a wing against the side of the chair. “Continue,” the alicorn stated blandly.
“Welp,” the pegasus sniffed, “I had a crate of preserved hay and some barrels of water, also enchanted to last. Figured something was going on once the guards stopped checking in every other month. Me and Tirek worked out a plan, but then the Changelings just sealed up the entrance.”
“Where’s Tirek?” Sunset interrupted.
Cozy clicked her tongue, but continued. “Wasn’t sure what happened until Sweetie Drops and her goon squad showed up with explosives. Turns out millennia old enchantments fail with enough dynamite, who knew?”
“It was a hard decision,” Tempest stated with pinned-back ears. “Releasing some of those monsters would surely mean ponies would die to them, but we hoped to slow down the Changeling’s counterattack and buy more time to make it to the Nova Griffonian border.”
Cozy’s ears perked up at the tall mulberry mare. “Huh, was it your idea?” She licked her lips. “Sounds like something the Storm King’s Right Hoof would think of, to be honest.”
“Watch your tongue,” Tempest snarled.
“The Princess asked for honesty,” Cozy said gracelessly. She locked eyes with the alicorn for a moment, then returned to Tempest. Her tone turned to ice. “Did you tell them to leave me there?”
Tempest blinked and looked away. "It was up to Sweetie Drops. She knew what was in Tartarus better than us."
“I’d have left you there,” Rainbow cut in, “right next to your friend. Where’s Tirek?” She clipped her harness back on and flexed the metal feathers with a scrape of steel.
“Dead,” Cozy answered simply.
“Detail,” Thorax said with a low hiss.
Cozy tilted her head and chewed on the inside of her cheek. She tapped a rear hoof on the rug in time with the clock. “Detail, huh? I remember that bitch waving to us as they set the charges and tampered with the other cells. Heard she died, too. Even heard they used her wife,” Cozy smiled.
“Sweetie Drops was a patriot,” Sunset said angrily. Her horn burst into flames at the tip.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Cozy huffed. “I was still in Tartarus. The Changelings knocked the entire cave down, blasted apart all the enchantments and broke the seals on our cages. We made a run for it during the bombardment. Didn’t make it and got buried.”
Cozy scuffed a hoof on the floor and inspected the bottom of her frog. “Took a long time to dig out. Tirek still had some magic left; he kept us from dying, but the strain took a toll. I was pretty thin and managed to wriggle out of the hole he made before everything collapsed.”
Rainbow snorted. “You make it sound like he died for you. He was a monster.”
“He honored the trade with Twilight,” Cozy pointed out. “He could’ve just snapped her neck; he could’ve killed all the alicorns. I guess he could’ve taken my magic and tried, maybe he thought about it and decided it still wouldn’t have been enough.” Her dress flittered with the motions of her wings underneath it. She chewed on her cheek again as her eyes clouded.
Cozy suddenly brushed her mane away from her muzzle. “That’s all you get,” she declared to Thorax. “Is that enough detail, Mr. Changeling? Or should I talk about the several weeks wandering through war zones eating grass?”
“How’d you get to Canterlot?” Flurry asked preemptively.
“Walked,” Cozy answered with a furrowed muzzle. “Wings were too weak; they still are. Doing wing-ups in a cage only preserves so much strength. I can fly around my mansion, but any wind is risky.”
“You just walked across Equestria as the Hegemony cracked down?” Sunset demanded. She shook her head. “They would’ve noticed you.”
“I hid from some patrols,” Cozy admitted, “but a skin-and-bone pegasus isn’t a hardened resistance fighter. I just walked through a checkpoint up the mountain with a sob story.” She giggled to herself. “Even used my real name. The guards kept trying to talk to me in Herzlander, and I had no idea what they were saying.”
Cozy sat down on the rug and ran a hoof down the frills of her dress. “The guards in Tartarus never said anything about the war, but I’m not surprised you lost. After all, you nearly lost to a foal. I guess the Tree of Harmony only picks fights with those it can beat down.”
“Are you trying to get my sympathy?” Flurry said dryly. “You’re not doing a good job.”
“You wanted honesty,” Cozy answered defensively. “First time I saw a panzer brigade roaring across a field, I laughed at it.”
Flurry leaned back against the plush chair. “You were the last threat Equestria faced before the war,” she stated in a resigned voice. She turned to the others in the room. “What was her intended sentence?”
“What do you mean?” Sunset asked. “She was sentenced to Tartarus.”
“For eternity?” Flurry snorted. “Or until she grows old and feeble? Would she have been dragged out with gray hairs in her mane, blind as a bat?”
“Princess,” Rarity offered, “Cozy Glow nearly destroyed all of Equestria with her scheming.”
“The fact that you don’t see anything wrong with that statement is striking,” Flurry echoed with a slight smirk. “A foal nearly destroyed Equestria. Chrysalis must have cackled from her tower.”
“The loss of magic across Equestria had devastating effects,” Sunset continued. "It would've spread around the world."
“Were you even here for that?” Flurry questioned back.
The amber unicorn’s ears flattened. “No,” she admitted, “but pegasi depend on flight magic, as do healing spells. Cozy Glow could’ve killed hundreds of thousands.”
Flurry turned back to Cozy. The pegasus bit her lip and shrugged a hoof. “Like I said, maybe I didn’t think it all the way through.”
“That’s all you have to say!?” Yona barked behind her. “Pathetic pegasus broke Twilight’s school! Made it a joke!”
“It was already a joke,” Cozy replied over her withers. “Come on, Yona. Didn’t see any deer in school, either. Guess they were too busy about to be bug snacks to attend. Twilight let me around all her magical stuff because I asked nicely.”
“The Dotted Line report was commissioned by the Sisters afterwards,” Thorax provided. He had leaned against the side of the chair, looking completely nonchalant at the pegasus.
“As I said,” Cozy giggled, “totally humiliated a single foal outwitted their heroes. You’d think they’d have learned a few lessons from Stalliongrad. Or hay, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra…” she trailed off and winked at Flurry. “The wedding.”
“That’s not what happened,” Rainbow growled. “You don’t regret a thing.”
“I regret thinking friendship was power,” Cozy answered dryly. “Turns out friendship can’t stop bullets, huh?”
Rainbow stood up and sliced her metal wing through the air. Cozy affected an unimpressed look, but she still took a step back from the angry blue pegasus. Both of them looked to Flurry Heart.
The Princess leaned her head on a hoof and waved a few clipped feathers at Rainbow for her to step back. “How’d you end up at the estates, Chess Piece?”
“Eh,” Cozy nickered, “same story I told earlier. Lived on the streets for a bit, made the right gutter trash friends, learned some secrets, a little blackmail, a little extortion.”
“Your…” Flurry paused, “servants think highly of you. They didn’t know who you are.”
“Of course,” Cozy sniffed. “Treating a pony with some kindness goes a long way. Makes sure they aren’t inclined to tattle on you, for one. And families and friends are grateful for the protection.”
“How generous of you,” Rarity remarked with hooded eyes.
“Nopony else was gonna hire a crippled pegasus veteran,” Cozy answered. “Let alone pay them, and their families needed the money. You know how many of the ‘nobles’ switched to indentured servants the moment they had the chance?”
“According to your files,” Thorax stated, “all of them.”
Cozy’s dress ruffled. “Just the ones left after the ELF,” she corrected. “What’re you doing with them, anyway? Hosting some party?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Flurry warned.
“I saw the gallows,” Cozy deadpanned. “I’m sure they did, too. How surprised were they, Princess of Rope?” She raised a hoof and tapped her skull. “Magic types always think with their horn.”
“Why didn’t you work with the Changelings?” Thorax asked in a neutral voice. “You could’ve been quite the informant.”
“Chrysalis doesn’t play nice with others,” Cozy raised a brow behind her glasses. “I met Vaspier at one of Pagala’s garden parties once. He made too many comments about Twilight’s school in too short a time. I don’t think he actually cared who I was or what I was doing, just as long as it wasn’t interfering with their precious Hegemony.”
“You could’ve helped hunt down the remaining ELF members,” Thorax suggested. “I’m sure many of the servants had sympathies.”
“For what?” Cozy snorted. “A cookie from Chrysalis? Going after the nobility was more profitable, and they couldn’t expose me without destroying themselves.”
“You don’t regret a single thing you did,” Sandbar accused. His one eye blinked slowly. “You deserved Tartarus, Cozy Glow.”
Cozy’s eyes flickered behind her glasses. Her soft smile faded and she took a deep breath. “Golly,” she said in a low voice over her flank. “Means a lot, friend. You want to blame me for the war? I had nothing to do with it.”
“Did you know about my aunt?” Flurry refocused. She still had her head propped up on a hoof as she laid awkwardly across the chair.
“One of my servants’ sister’s cousins had an arrangement with a Queen’s Guard,” Cozy supplied. Her muzzle scrunched. “Don’t ask what it was. She was already a vegetable by the time I made it up the mount-”
A golden bolt of magic struck Cozy Glow in the chest and blasted her off her hooves and to the right. She spun through the air and slammed against one of the bookcases with a terrific crash above Rarity and Rainbow. Both of the older ponies dove out of the way as the slim pegasus fell down in a heap of fake books. Her dress smoked.
The clock ticked on the opposite shelf; Flurry’s horn dimmed. After a moment, the pegasus in the blue dress inhaled with a choking cough, spasming on the floor.
“Magic types do tend to think with their horn,” Flurry said in a high-pitched laugh, “but you wouldn’t have survived a punch, so some gratitude is in order.”
Cozy coughed and spat a tooth out onto Rarity’s vacated cushion. She used the white frills of her dress to wipe her bloody muzzle, then fumbled a hoof around for her missing glasses. Flurry levitated them over; they had been knocked clear across the room, but the heavy frame saved the lenses.
“Thought you…” Cozy gasped, “thought you wanted honesty, huh?”
“You should choose your words more carefully,” Flurry retorted. She glanced around the room. Despite their hostility to Cozy, everyone seemed shocked to see her blasted across the study.
Cozy Glow put her glasses back on and her tongue probed the gap in her teeth. Her dress had hiked up around her flanks from the fall, exposing her chess piece cutie mark of a rook. She pulled it back down and smoothed the pads out; the pegasus was thinner than the dress suggested, and her straightened tail had begun to curl again.
Cozy brushed a hoof against her ruffled mane; it had also started to curl. “I woulda saved her,” she rasped.
Thorax hissed.
Cozy bared her bloody teeth at the changeling. “I would have, if she was conscious, just to hold it over her horn forever. How funny would that be? Starlight and her little clique of friends failed, only for poor, evil Cozy Glow to succeed?”
“I warned you to watch your words,” Flurry repeated. Her horn sparked.
“Twilight didn’t do a thing,” Cozy spat blood onto the floor. “Am I supposed to like her? She knew I was down there, too.”
“You deserved it,” Rainbow snarled.
“I deserved to spend the rest of my life in a cage?” Cozy huffed. “While Discord walked around? And Nightmare Moon? Golly, just saw off my wings and stick me in a normal prison. Would’ve preferred that.”
“It was not going to be forever,” Rarity said to the filly. “The war interrupted-”
“Please!” Cozy scoffed. “I humiliated them, and they had to look strong. Same reason why Chrysalis attacked with guns and tanks. Getting defeated by the power of love is humiliating, take it from somepony defeated by a tree.”
“You could’ve killed many ponies,” Flurry said, “and you destroyed my aunt’s dream. The School of Friendship never recovered from you.”
“I heard her speech,” Cozy coughed. Flurry’s horn sparked, and the pegasus swallowed and visibly thought about her next words. “She didn’t say anything about me.”
“Twilight blamed herself,” Sunset stated, “because she was a good pony.”
“Look at where she ended up.” Cozy shrugged a hoof. She met Flurry’s blue eyes. “When I found out about Twilight Sparkle, I laughed like when I first saw those Changeling panzers. You can’t blame me for the war, and I never killed anypony.”
"You laughed?" Flurry confirmed in a low growl.
"I'm not the one that put her there," Cozy answered. "Golly, not even I would have been that stupid back in the day. The Changelings really are their own worst enemy."
"Something you have in common with them," Flurry retorted.
Cozy licked her bloody lips. "Fair." She looked to Thorax. "I haven't killed anyone."
“Not directly,” Thorax countered. “The nobles you turned into VOPS certainly died.”
“They brought that on themselves,” Cozy answered. “So did the ones being dragged out to the gallows.”
“Some would say you brought Tartarus on yourself,” Flurry pointed out. Her horn dimmed. “Why’d you approach us in the first place?”
“Because you made a giant crater?” Cozy answered with a nicker. “We heard all the stories in Canterlot from the Changelings; the Alicorn of Death that killed everypony in her way. Figured it was all lies, reconsidered after the explosion.” Cozy looked appraisingly at the alicorn. “How old are you, Princess?”
“Seventeen.”
Cozy whistled through the new gap in her teeth. “With those wings? Color me jealous.” The pegasus stomped a forehoof. “Hay for years stunts your growth. I’m stuck at Professor Dash’s height.”
Rainbow stood up again, and only proved Cozy’s point when it was obvious the prismatic pegasus was slightly taller due to her mohawk. Cozy stood her ground this time. “You gonna kill me, Professor? I showed more loyalty to Equestria than all the fancy ponies in this city.”
“You’re only loyal to yourself,” Rainbow answered. “Friends are friends because we hold each other up, not because they make us more powerful.”
“I don’t remember that from ‘Professor Dash’s Awesome Class,’” Cozy nickered.
“What do you think is going to happen to you?” Flurry asked again.
“You don’t seem like the kind of pony to waste time with talk,” Cozy assessed. “I gave you information, and I didn’t kill anypony. I protected sixty-four ponies at my estate, kept them from the Love Tax, and even paid them enough to support their families.”
She glanced at Thorax. “Most of them were cast out, even a few with foals of their own, or crippled war veterans. They were going to die on the streets.”
“You protected them because their families could bring you information,” Thorax replied. The changeling buzzed a wing against his uniform. “That was the agreement.”
“And they were happy to do it,” Cozy said empathetically. “Even happy to risk VOPS. You gonna give Chrysalis a trial like this? I’m nowhere near as bad as her.”
“Why didn’t you try to disappear into Lower Canterlot?” Thorax questioned. “You could’ve run.”
“Running makes you look guilty,” Cozy snorted. "I'm not getting gutted in an alley by some desperate noble trying to keep the fact she sold out her brother a secret."
“You are guilty,” Sandbar huffed behind the pegasus.
“Any family?” Flurry asked suddenly.
Cozy blinked. “What?”
“Do you have any family?” Flurry repeated. “Nopony seems to know if you do. Chess was a griffon game first; how’d you get your mark?”
“It is?” Rainbow interrupted.
“That’s why the pieces are kings and queens, not princesses and princes,” Rarity sighed.
“Huh,” Rainbow shrugged her good wing. “More you know.”
“My family had trade ties to Griffonia,” Cozy admitted, “even some with the old colonies in Zebrica.”
“They’re dead?” Flurry asked in confirmation.
“Yes.”
“Before the war, or afterwards?”
Cozy’s eyes went to Tempest for a brief moment. “Before.”
The Storm King’s Right Hoof broke eye contact and looked to the curtained window.
Somepony please tell me how an undocumented foal made it into Twilight’s school, Flurry groaned and rubbed a hoof against the bridge of her muzzle. “Nopony can tell me how long she was meant to be in Tartarus, so she technically escaped her sentence,” the alicorn summarized. “Nopony can tell me if there was a plan to release her, either.”
Thorax preempted Rarity and Sunset. “Correct.”
“Okay,” Flurry sighed. “Cozy Glow, you have two choices.”
The salmon-pink pony closed her mouth. Her lips were still a little bloody. She used a rear leg to nudge her missing tooth between her forelegs. Yona, Sandbar, and Gallus stood together at the door.
“Your estate and assets have been seized with the others,” Flurry revealed. Cozy’s muzzle twitched, but she didn’t react otherwise. “Due to the severity of your crimes before the war, you will be exiled to the Griffonian Reich, if that’s acceptable to the Kaiser.” Flurry looked over Cozy to Gallus.
The blue griffon blinked. “I thought this was an Equestrian matter,” he said with a resigned squawk.
“You’re free to kick her to the River Federation,” Flurry offered. “They have a habit of gathering strays.”
Gallus rolled his eyes. “It’s not like we have many magical artifacts laying around,” he waved a wing. “We’ll take her,” he continued in Herzlander. “I can’t wait to see her try to retrieve the Idol of Boreas and get dashed against the rocks.”
“Harsh, bluebird,” Cozy said in Herzlander. “I liked you the most for the sarcasm.”
“I’m not being sarcastic,” Gallus deadpanned back.
Cozy turned back to the alicorn and said, “I thought I had an option.”
“You remain in Equestria under probation,” Flurry stated. The alicorn jerked her horn at Thorax. “My uncle will keep an eye on you, or one of his changelings.”
“Doing what?” Cozy sniffed.
“Whatever I tell you to do,” Thorax answered. “Without argument.”
“Slavery or exile,” Cozy Glow snorted. “Golly, such generosity. I’d just love to start over with nothing. Again. Can I think about it?”
Flurry’s ears flicked at the clock ticking on the shelf. “You don’t have a mansion to go home and think in, so it’ll have to be here.” The alicorn wriggled on the chair. "Think fast."
Cozy Glow sat down on the rug and batted her broken tooth between her front hooves. She worked her jaw as she looked around the room, first to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, then to Sunset and Tempest, and finally behind her. Sandbar, Gallus, and Yona stared impassively back at the pegasus. She did not look at the Princess.
“Well, what the hay?” Cozy said after a minute. “I like Equestria; that’s why I wanted to take it over. I’ll stick around with Uncle Thorax as long as I don’t have to sleep in a cocoon.”
Thorax pushed himself away from the chair and stalked forward. “A changeling named Ocellus will shadow your movements,” he said in Herzlander down to the pegasus. “You will obey her every order, and check-in with her at all times. If I believe you are even thinking of treachery, I will kill you.”
“As long as I get a bed,” Cozy said blithely back in Herzlander. “Can I keep the tooth?” Thorax’s horn glowed green and the tooth was chucked into a corner of the room.
Cozy pouted, then stood up and followed Thorax. The three other students from the School of Friendship looked incredulously at Flurry, but stepped aside from the door. Cozy’s lips pursed into a smirk as she sidled behind the changeling.
Flurry Heart ignored the looks from everyone in the room. “We’re done!” she called out. Amoxtli opened the door. Gallus’ knights waited against the far wall, still in a staring contest with Frosty Jadis and the Thestral.
Cozy stopped in the doorframe, bit her lip, and turned around. Her eyes swept the room while her tongue probed the gap in her teeth again. The pegasus studied Flurry Heart, eyes stopping above her crystal band to her horn.
Flurry pulled on her sweatpants with a few feathers. “You’ve been given a second chance,” she said aloud. “Don’t waste it.”
“You said there would be nothing but honesty in this room,” Cozy accused, “but that didn’t apply to yourself, did it?”
Flurry waited with glacial eyes. Her muzzle was expressionless.
“If I chose exile, your guards would have marched me down to the gallows with the rest of them.” Cozy’s scarlet eyes looked far bigger behind her glasses.
“What makes you think you would’ve even left the room?” Flurry said dryly.
Cozy blinked and looked at the broken bookcase.
“It’s a long walk for a short rope,” the alicorn continued. “You might have talked your way out of it.” The Princess met Cozy’s eyes. “You have a second chance, Cozy Glow.”
Cozy stared back.
“There will not be a third.”
The clock ticked on the shelf.
After a moment, Cozy smiled. It wasn’t the fake, soft smile she had when she entered, but a genuine, long grin. It exposed the gap in her teeth; she had lost one of her top right teeth, prominent in any smile. The pegasus dipped into a proper bow with extended forelegs.
“I won’t let you down,” Cozy said in a low voice. “Princess.” She drawled the title out.
Flurry could hear the smirk in Cozy’s declaration. She waved one of her wings. “Rise,” she intoned, not bothering to keep the amusement from her voice.
Cozy stood with a flourish of her dress and pressed her lips together. She followed Thorax without a further comment, and Amoxtli shut the door again. Flurry Heart left the chair and stretched her legs with soft pops.
Her eyes scanned a room full of incredulous faces. “If you have a problem with her,” Flurry sighed, “go kill her. I won’t be too mad about it.”
“You cannot be serious,” Gallus said flatly. “You’re letting her go?”
“Any suspicious behavior will get her killed,” Flurry answered. “I cleared it with Thorax.”
“Pony nearly destroyed Equestria,” Yona snorted.
“I nearly destroyed the Crystal City when I was born,” Flurry countered.
“She knew what she was doing, Princess,” Sunset said from the side. The amber unicorn turned to the door and shook her horn. “She doesn’t regret a thing.”
“Cozy did not collaborate,” Flurry shrugged a wing. “She treated her ponies well and protected them.”
“For all the wrong reasons!” Rainbow spat.
“What’s the right reason?” Flurry tossed her head. “For me? For Equestria? For revenge?” She cast a narrowed eye at Sunset and Tempest. “The Equestrian Liberation Front apparently fought for a parliament and noble titles.”
“It’s a mistake,” Rainbow insisted.
“The alternative is killing her,” Flurry deadpanned, “you understand that? If you want to kill her, go ahead. She was going to die down in Tartarus anyway.”
“That isn’t what any of us wanted,” Rarity nickered. “The filly was dangerous.”
“She’s a pegasus,” Flurry rolled her eyes. “She could’ve been thrown into a normal cell.”
“You can’t possibly believe that crap about being humiliated,” Rainbow huffed. She paced across the room. “Come on, Princess! She’s manipulative!”
“How humiliated were you when she tricked you into Tartarus?” Flurry asked neutrally.
Rainbow’s metal wing spasmed and she grit her teeth. “You seriously feel bad for her, huh?”
“No,” Flurry said to the pegasus’ visible surprise. “But Thorax will be King of the Changelings one day, and he can’t be my spymaster. Sweetie Drops and the rest are gone.”
Sunset’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she laughed. “No, absolutely not.”
“She built an intelligence network from nothing,” Flurry remarked. “I can’t have a changeling as spymaster post-war anyway; it’ll look bad. Thorax gets enough stares now.”
“Cozy is a monster! You think she’s an improvement?” Sunset said ruefully.
“Look to your right,” Flurry retorted with sudden venom.
Sunset did so, and met Tempest Shadow’s eyes. The taller unicorn looked away again and scuffed a hoof on the floor. Colonel Shimmer bit her lip.
“Fizzlepop is sorry,” Sunset tried.
"So was Starlight." Flurry gave Sunset a hard, icy stare. “What did you do?” she questioned in a harsh whisper.
Sunset swallowed. “What do you mean?”
“Twilight saved your life, right? She said you ‘reformed’ and changed your ways,” Flurry summarized. “What did you do, Sunset Shimmer?” The clock ticked on the shelf behind the unicorn.
“My past is not today,” Sunset countered in a smaller voice.
“Did you try to kill my aunt?” Flurry asked. Her wings raised above her head. “What happened?”
Sunset did not answer. She broke eye contact and looked to the ticking clock on the shelf behind her. The unicorn finally said, “It was a long time ago,” and twisted a hoof around her red and yellow mane.
That’s enough of an answer. Flurry drew back. “I don’t care what you did before, Sunset. Duskcrest was a bandit that raided caravans in the Nova Griffonian frontier. Everyone is this room is a killer.”
“I haven’t killed anyone,” Gallus offered.
“I’m not a killer,” Rarity insisted.
“You think some bug didn’t die because of your shitty uniforms, Rares?” Rainbow snorted beside her. “How’s that different?”
“It is different,” Rarity snapped, but her voice lacked confidence.
Sandbar twisted his head to look at the blue griffon. “You haven’t killed anyone? What about when the Reich invaded Griffonstone?”
“Wingbardy invaded first,” Gallus replied, “and I kept missing. The rifle was old. Ask Gilda about it once you get her drunk enough.” The griffon rolled his eyes. “She thinks it was hilarious.”
“Yak rifles old and still shoot straight,” Yona scoffed. “How is yak a better shot with hooves?”
Gallus flicked a yellow claw at her. “Fine. My aim is terrible anyways.”
“Yona will teach you to shoot, sad bluebird.”
“I’ll be there for moral support,” Sandbar added. His toothy smile stretched the burn marks along his muzzle.
“Thank you for coming,” Flurry said to them. “You helped stop her.”
“Barely,” Gallus wiggled his talons.
“It’s this or dead,” Flurry stated. “Do you want her dead?”
The trio shared an uneasy look. “Before the war,” Sandbar said slowly, “I never would’ve thought about, uh, killing her. And Chrysalis puts things in perspective.”
“Funny from one-eyed pony,” Yona huffed. The yak bumped into the earth pony good-naturedly. “I do not want her dead,” she sighed and carefully enunciated her words. “Not unless she does something to deserve it.”
Gallus clacked his beak. He visibly hesitated and looked to his old professors before sighing and running a claw across his head feathers. “The Kaiser didn’t even believe me when I told that story,” he admitted. “I liked the School of Friendship, but…”
“Say it,” Rainbow groaned.
“Neighsay was an idiot and Twilight left a filly in charge of all the magical artifacts,” Gallus admitted with a wince. “All of the other ponies followed Cozy pretty easily, and it didn’t look good. That's not all on Cozy.” He sighed. “Grandpa Gruff told me to bring a gun.”
“He told you to bring a gun to the School of Friendship?” Flurry said in a blank voice.
“Well, it would’ve certainly helped with Cozy,” Gallus shrugged a wing. “Gun’s not magic. I got sucked into a magical vortex and was saved by a tree. Would’ve liked to have a gun.”
“You clearly would’ve missed,” Yona snorted.
Gallus considered it. “Could’ve given it to Smolder or Silverstream. Smolder can shoot.” He looked around the room. “Cozy’s plan was dumb, the school was dumb, Neighsay was dumb, and shoving her into Tartarus was dumb. It’s an Equestrian matter, and the Reich wants no part of it.”
“Magic was going to fail across the world,” Sunset answered. “It just happened to Equestria and the Crystal Empire first.”
“Guns,” Gallus retorted. “You think she’s gonna try to steal all of the magic again? It’s quite the downgrade to go from world-ending threat to blackmailer.”
“Would you kill her?” Flurry repeated.
“No,” Gallus answered. “But I don’t think she learned any lesson from being shoved in a hole, unless she was given a bunch of self-help books down in Tartarus.”
“The war got in the way of a lot of things,” Rarity sighed.
“Rares,” Rainbow interrupted, “stop lying to yourself. None of us spared her a thought after she ended up down there.”
Flurry stared at the pegasus. “If you want to kill her, Rainbow…”
“I didn’t want to kill her then,” Rainbow growled, “not fair to kill her for it now just because she’s older. Thorax can take care of her when she messes up.”
“That’s unusually considered for you,” Rarity huffed.
“What do you want to do with her?” Flurry asked Rarity.
“Oh, do I have a say?” Rarity started. “You lied to her, just like you lied to those nobles. You would have killed her where she stood if she chose exile.”
“Yes,” Flurry admitted shamelessly.
“Instead, you want her to spy for you, and she’s twisted enough to be impressed by it,” Rarity finished. “What was even the point of all of this?”
“I can use her,” Flurry said. She rubbed a hoof on the rug. “Thank you for coming,” she stated to Gallus, Sandbar, and Yona. “We’re done.”
“She could’ve destroyed the world,” Rarity kept going.
“You tell Starlight Glimmer that?" Flurry asked in exasperation. "You want to lock her up, Rarity? You want to shove her back into a broken Tartarus? Let her die? What do you want to do with her?”
The trio of former students shared another look, then backed out of the room after Gallus thumped on the door with a paw. Amoxtli poked her head in, saw Flurry’s twitching eye, and shut the door.
“You spared the changelings that left Twilight, spared the foal that ruined her school, and murdered over a hundred ponies,” Rarity said from her cushion. “Just because you could use her and not them? Your justice is a joke.”
“So was Celestia’s,” Flurry retorted as her wings jittered. “She thought she could use Discord, and he sided with Tirek. How useful was he? Did he feel bad about anything he did?”
“Not really,” Rainbow added.
“Celestia was not perfect,” Rarity admitted.
“Finally,” Flurry rolled her eyes and walked to the door. “I agree, Miss Rarity.”
“That doesn’t mean I wish to see Equestria ruled by Chrysalis.”
“I’m working on it,” Flurry quipped over her shoulder. Her hoof froze as she raised it to knock on the door. The alicorn’s wings flared out with a rush of wind.
Flurry Heart turned around as the clock ticked on the wall. Sunset and Tempest stood to one side of the study, eyes wide, and Rainbow stood on the other. Rarity had moved to the center of the carpet, just before the chair and the window. The Princess set her hoof down with a muted clack.
“Rares,” Rainbow pleaded with a nervous expression, “too far.”
“It needs to be said,” Rarity retorted in a dangerously calm voice. She toyed with her mane bun with a quick flare of magic. “None of you will say it.”
“Say what?” Flurry asked in an equally dangerous voice.
“You have far more in common with Chrysalis than you do with your parents,” Rarity answered. “I watched you at dinner. You enjoyed toying with them; you enjoyed all of it.”
Flurry ground her teeth and glared across the room.
“That’s enough,” Sunset said from the side.
“I knew them too,” Rarity said in a soft voice. “I knew your parents.”
“Did you talk to Suri like this?” Flurry snarled.
“No, and I suppose the years have made me bold,” Rarity answered. “Your parents-”
“Rares!” Rainbow interrupted. “Don’t you dare say it.”
Rarity’s azure eyes met Flurry’s ice. “Your parents raised you with love and kindness,” she said softly. “They were good ponies, and-”
“And they are dead,” Flurry finished for her.
Rarity snapped her mouth shut.
“My parents were good ponies,” Flurry began. Her voice was high-pitched, but cold. “They were kind and just, and ruled fairly. My father was noble and honorable, and my mother had nothing but love in her heart.” The alicorn glanced at the ceiling before returning to the Element of Generosity.
“And they died. They lost the war, they lost their crowns, they lost their ponies, and they lost each other. My mother died beneath the Crystal Heart and my father died on a street in Flowena.” Flurry looked around the room at the others as the crystal band below her horn shimmered.
“Chrysalis is still standing. I am still standing. I did not make it this far because I believed my mother was alive and she came for me in Aquileia, or that I could trust Kemerskai. My parents were valiant and noble and brave. And they died, Miss Rarity.”
The clock ticked on the wall.
Flurry studied Rarity’s posture. “You can die with your horn held high if you wish, but I’d prefer to die stabbing mine into Chrysalis’ heart." She sighed. "I do enjoy it; you’re right. I probably shouldn’t, but I do. I’ve always enjoyed tricking people.”
Rarity swallowed.
“And I enjoy honesty as well,” Flurry said. “Do you really think I’m going to kill you for speaking your mind?”
“I don’t know what you’re capable of,” Rarity managed.
“Not half as much as Celestia could have done,” Flurry returned. “I’m sorry you can’t pretend otherwise anymore.” She turned to leave, and hesitated. The Princess looked over a wing back to Rarity. “You’ve seen Twilight.”
Rarity’s ears pinned back. “Yes. And Spike.”
“The Elements didn’t stop Chrysalis. The Tree didn’t stop her, either. The Crystal Heart nearly shattered.”
“It made a shield over the entire north,” Rarity offered.
Flurry raised a wing and touched her replacement crown. “Did the Elements ever speak to you?”
“W-what?” Rarity stumbled.
“Amore told me I would die,” Flurry continued. “Sombra said the same.”
Tempest, Sunset, and Rainbow turned and stared at Flurry Heart uncomprehendingly. The alicorn gazed at the destroyed bookcase over Rainbow’s head. Her eyes drifted over the broken shelves and crushed, fake books.
“I…” Rarity paused.
“So did my mother,” Flurry whispered.
The room was quiet, except for the clock ticking on the wall.
Flurry blinked suddenly and raised her voice to Tempest and Sunset. “See to the rest of the hangings over the next few days and keep patrolling the city. I need an assessment of our forces. We need to run support for the Reich’s advance until the rain hits.”
Tempest nodded. “As you say, Princess.” Sunset dipped her horn a moment later.
Rarity stared silently at Flurry. “You have my uniform?” the alicorn prompted her. The unicorn’s horn slowly bobbed. “Good,” Flurry sighed. “I can’t wear sweatpants forever.”
Rainbow stood up with narrowed eyes. “I need to check with the scouts.”
Flurry rapped on the door and exited with Jadis and Amoxtli. The hallway was clear, and it was very late. The Princess yawned and covered it with a wing. Rainbow followed her past the boarded-up windows.
“Going the wrong way,” Flurry huffed. “I’m going to my cot.”
“What happened with the Crystal Heart?” Rainbow asked in a whisper. Jadis stopped for a moment. The crystal pony looked up to Flurry, then back to Rainbow.
“It nearly killed me,” Flurry replied in a short voice.
“I’m not that dumb,” Rainbow snorted. “Something else happened.”
Flurry Heart stopped in the hallway and twisted her neck back to Rainbow. She concentrated as her horn glowed, seeing the wisps of magic peel off the pegasus’ prosthetic wing. The wing whispered to her in Rainbow’s voice, part of the mare even when she took it off.
Flurry met Rainbow’s worried, magenta eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she whickered. Her horn dimmed. “I made a choice.”
“You can talk to us,” Jadis added. The crystal pony rubbed her maimed foreleg.
No, I can’t. Flurry took a deep breath. “Don’t ask again,” the Princess ordered.
Rainbow’s eyes fell. “As you say, Princess.” She turned away with a saddened muzzle; it twisted the scar over her eye. “I’ll always be your friend,” she called out. “Element of Loyalty, remember?”
“Thank you, Rainbow,” Flurry said sincerely. She walked the other way with her guards.