Run Away With Me

by semillon

Three,

A landscape pervaded Flurry’s dreaming mind, filled with snow and crystal trees. A canopy of pink and blue fire blazed above, warming the snow, threatening to melt it, but the snow was too cold, and the trees were too strong to be burned. No pony bounded through the valley, but there were birds, and the birds were screaming.

Flurry opened her eyes.

She was in her bedroom. Her father wanted to trade rooms with her now that she was the ruler and he was only taking up the space of one pony, but she refused. She loved her room, her walls covered in maps of the various regions of the continent and her plush bed that could fit three.

She had a lot of things to do tomorrow. She had to have breakfast with the Abyssinians, making sure that their dining accommodations were adequate the whole time, and then she was due to get her mane trimmed. All of that would happen before lunch, which she would also spend with the Abyssinians, and that was where the discussion on tariffs and trade would begin. She wouldn’t be able to be too blunt about it—they would be eating, after all, and they would surely love to know about how she was adjusting to her new station, and she would have to tell them that she was loving it and imply that she was good at her job, lest they get the slightest idea of missing her mother’s rule.

Sleeping would be a very good idea, but Flurry could not sleep. This was the third time she had awoken from a dream that wasn’t bad enough to become a nightmare, but not good enough to keep her in its clutches. She had to do something else. Anything else.

Flurry got up from her bed and eyed her window. It was a beautiful night, and she loved the way that her Auntie Luna made the stars twinkle.

She walked up to the window and undid its latch, shivering in delight at the burst of cold air that came through when she did. Flurry was never really one for night flying. She was aware of the concept, and thought that it sounded nice, but never truly got around to ever trying it for herself, but maybe now was the time to do so.

So she backed up a few steps, unfurling her wings halfway, and jumped out of her window.

She fell gracefully, descending down the palace until she was close enough to the ground, and then pulled up, shooting towards her Auntie’s sky.

But before she could really take off and fly towards—towards wherever she was going, she noticed a slight displacement in the air.

Somepony was following her.

Flurry turned around to see a pink pegasus flying wearily in her wake.

“Cozy?” she called.

“H-Hey,” Cozy called back, catching up to the hovering alicorn. “Golly, I’ve forgotten just how fast you can be when you want to be.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Flurry.

“I can’t visit my best friend in the whole wide world?”

“One of three,” Flurry corrected.

“Chryssy and Tirek are great, and I love them so much,” Cozy said, flying closer. “But you’re different. You know that.”

Flurry’s breath hitched for a moment. “Were you planning on hanging out back in my bedroom? Because I would...rather not be there right now.”

Cozy smiled, turning to show off her saddlebags. “I brought some hot cocoa! Which we can have anywhere.”

Flurry nodded gratefully. “Follow me.”

They trailed back to the very centre of town, flying just a little beyond that until they reached a clearing in the buildings and homes, where a pristine statue of a baby dragon stood, proudly holding up a copy of the Crystal Heart.

Flurry landed at Spike’s side and sat against his left leg, waiting for Cozy to land beside her so she could cast a bubble spell that surrounded the statue, blocking out the cold and naturally heating the air around them.

Cozy snuggled up next to her, pulling a mug and two red ceramic cups out of her saddlebags before she deftly poured the both of them some cocoa.

Flurry took her drink and swallowed nearly half of it in a single swig, panting in relief when she pulled away.

“Thirsty?’ Cozy teased.

“My brain needs the sugar,” said Flurry.

A moment of quiet came over both of them as they enjoyed their drinks, leaning against each other and Spike’s calf, savoring the warmth and the sweet, nectarous liquid in their cups. Spike’s statue had been a favorite haunt of theirs ever since they were kids. It wasn’t too far from the castle, which meant that they could sneak out to it late at night and not have to worry too much about the process of returning home.

“Are you okay?” asked Cozy. “You’re frowning.”

“I’m fine,” Flurry said quietly. “Just thinking.”

“About?”

“My mom.”

“I wasn’t gonna ask,” Cozy said.

“I know. You’ve probably talked to the guards at Fort Oculus about it anyway.”

Cozy shrugged. “Could you blame me?”

Flurry shook her head and took another sip.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” Cozy whispered.

“At least you had an excuse to be,” Flurry replied. “I’m sorry for teleporting away from you earlier today. It was an accident. Kind of. I really wanted to get away from there, and I lost control of my magic. Remember when we were kids and we were hanging out here?”

“You sneezed and accidentally turned Spike’s crystal heart into a giant, beating one gushing blood.”

“Then I fainted.”

“Then you fainted,” Cozy giggled. “Your parents were so mad.”

“Less mad over the vandalism of priceless public art and more mad at the fact that we snuck out,” said Flurry. “I thought I was going to be grounded forever. And then you took the fall for it.”

“You know, that’s when your parents started liking me.” Cozy looked down at her cocoa. “They were touched at the fact that I would use my past to try and convince them that I convinced you to destroy Spike’s statue for fun. They could have sent me back to Canterlot, but they didn’t. Which means that my gamble worked, and that I predicted their behaviour perfectly. I’m amazing, aren’t I?”

Cozy erupted into a faux-villainous laugh that made Flurry smile.

“I wish you could stay,” Flurry said. “I wish that—I don’t even know...”

She breathed out hard, and fell silent. What more could cocoa do to soothe her fears? How much could she be comforted by warmth before she had to venture into the cold again?

“How do I make you stay?” Flurry asked.

Suddenly, Cozy put a wing around Flurry, making the alicorn gasp softly in surprise. She wasn’t usually the one receiving the wing hugs from anyone, on account of her massive wingspan.

“We’re gonna spend as much time as we can together,” Cozy cooed into her ear. “It’s gonna be just like old times. Don’t think about me leaving until the day actually comes.”

“I wish I could go with you,” Flurry whimpered.

“I know,” whispered Cozy. “But you can’t. I understand. And I’m the best friend in the world. Even better than your big purple aunt. So I’m okay with that.”

“...I should go to bed now,” said Flurry.

“Lunch tomorrow?” Cozy suggested.

“I have to—” Flurry stopped. “I’ll sort something out.”

“You’d better,” Cozy purred.

And then she kissed Flurry on the cheek.

---

The three immaculately white abyssinians dressed in fine silk leaned into each other and away from Flurry for the third time in the last hour. She tried her best not to frown or to sweat, but every so often there would be a wisp of a whisper in the air, and her ears would twitch and she would wonder if she was doing the right thing.

She took another bite of the strawberry cheesecake in front of her, wishing for a healthy drizzle of hot chocolate syrup over the surface, but she didn’t want to trouble the waiters. They had had a hard enough time arranging for a griffon to cook tuna for the diplomats, and all of them looked tired and overworked.

Flurry had moved her second meal of the day (which was to be spent with the abyssinians) an hour earlier, which meant that the entirety of the palace staff had to play a twisted game of catchup.

Fortunately, the earlier hour worked for the abyssinians, who loved to eat lunch closer to the time that they ate breakfast anyway.

Everything had worked out, so Flurry didn’t understand why they had to whisper so conspiratorially to each other so often, even occasionally side eyeing her before the muffled discussions became more and more heated.

She waited and watched the trio of abyssinians until they broke their semi circle.

The middle one, Willow, and Flurry knew it was Willow because she had golden eyes, smiled and nodded. “Princess, we were...worried, initially. You are young and you are new, but a life of watching royalty has certainly helped you learn how to charm and compliment as well as your mother. We three are pleased to know that such a kind, competent ruler has taken over the Crystal Empire.”

“T-Thank you,” said Flurry. “Did you enjoy your meal?”

The three abyssinians looked down at their empty plates before Willow gave her a smirk. “You tell us.”

Flurry smiled. “I look forward to our meeting later.”

“As are we,” said Willow, standing up in tandem with her companions. “We’ll be seeing you.”

Flurry watched them leave, one after the other, until the room was empty.

She let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t get cocky yet,” said her father’s voice.

Flurry turned to find Shining sitting on the chair directly beside her. “You were here the whole time?”

“I got worried,” said Shining with a bashful grin. “It was your first meeting with foreign creatures as the official ruler. Could you blame me?”

Flurry laughed, shaking her head. “How do you think I did?”

“Perfectly,” praised Shining, reaching out to take his daughter’s hoof. “But there’s something off about you today. Don’t make that face. The abyssinians didn’t notice. I’m your father, though, and nothing can get past me.”

Flurry squeezed Shining’s hoof. “Did you know that Cozy came back?”

She laughed ruefully inside of her mind. Did you know that she wants me to leave?

“Last Stand informed me this morning,” said Shining. “Why hasn’t she visited yet?”

“Well, we’re due to have lunch in a bit. She’ll probably want to see you before that.”

Shining blinked, and removed his hoof from hers, a frown growing on his face. “That’s why you moved the lunch an hour earlier? I thought it was because you’ve been doing extra research on the abyssinians. I was so proud of you.”

“You mean you’re not proud of me for handling that meeting so well?” Flurry asked.

“Now that I know you’ve been irresponsible with your power?” Shining growled. “Absolutely not. How could you do that, Flurry? You’re a princess! You can’t just move your responsibilities around whenever you want!”

“It worked out fine, Dad!”

“What if it didn’t?” Shining snapped. “What if they thought that you didn’t think they were worth your time? Your mother—”

“Don’t you dare bring mom up right now,” Flurry breathed, wings flaring. “Don’t even think about her. This is the first time you talk about her unprompted in days? To yell at me for something that doesn’t matter? How dare you? Do you even care about her? Do you love her anymore?”

Shining Armor fell silent.

Flurry waited, waiting for his retort, but it never came. He didn’t say anything.

The sheer weight of the lack of words began to press down on her back. She slowly hunched over, feeling like something was trying to shove her to the ground. There was a thickness to the air that made it hard to breathe.

Something. Anything. A single sound! Say anything!

Shining Armor stayed silent. Flurry had stopped looking at him since her outburst.

She turned and she leapt out of her chair, flying out of the room.

---

The rose turned blue as Flurry’s magic consumed it, turning each particle inside of the flower into water, and then freezing it. Once the rose was completely made of ice, she picked it apart, ripping every petal out of the stem and fanning them out around it, like a tiny galaxy. She made the petals drift slowly around the stem, circling it until she lost track of which petal was which.

When the sun warmed the frozen limbs of the rose enough, and a single drop of water fell from the stem, Flurry closed her eyes and turned it all to water, throwing it at the grass.

She had taken refuge in the castle’s garden. It was a new edition. A birthday gift from Auntie Applejack and Apple Bloom. A patch of blissful green covered in beautiful flowers, placed in a newly constructed part of the castle that had an open roof and positioned so everything could get the perfect amount of sun.

“Boo!” squealed a voice in her ear.

Flurry stumbled away from it, nearly tripping over herself as Cozy was launched into hysterical laughter.

“The look on your face!” cackled Cozy.

“Not funny,” mumbled Flurry, walking to another rosebush that she hadn’t plucked yet.

“Yes it is,” Cozy chirped.

“No it’s not!” Flurry snapped, rounding on the pegasus. “How did you find me here anyway?”

Cozy didn’t back away, like Flurry was expecting her to. Instead, she raised an eyebrow. “I asked the guards. What’s up with you today?”

“Nothing,” Flurry lied. “I just...do you wanna go to a cloud or something?”

“As long as we can get food afterwards,” teased Cozy. “I’m starving!”

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then stepped forward to nuzzle Flurry.

Flurry nuzzled her back, clandestinely sniffing at Cozy’s raspberry vanilla shampoo and sugary sweet breath. Her head felt like she was underwater.

She stepped away, nodded to Cozy, and took off into the air.

They lazily drifted upwards until their altitude was high enough, and then they flew to a nice fluffy cloud. The day was just getting started for the crystal ponies below, and the sounds of laughter and good will floated up into the sky as the local businesses went about their routines.

Flurry watched her ponies for a few moments as Cozy crept closer to her, draping a wing over her back.

“Are you scared of going into The Portal?” Flurry asked. “I know you’ve said that you aren’t, but tell me the truth.”

“Are you okay?” Cozy asked, putting her head on top of Flurry’s.

Flurry closed her eyes, settling into the extra weight and the way that it made her feel secure. Safe. “Promise me you’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be fine as long as I have somepony to come back to,” Cozy purred. “Somepony I can think about whenever I do feel scared.”

Flurry’s tail swished back and forth. “Do you remember when one of the first nights that you stayed here, when we snuck down to the kitchens for a snack and you found the pizza vault for the first time?”

“I...don’t. I mean, I remember the pizza vault—I still can’t believe your mom had that thing.” Cozy laughed.

Flurry didn’t join her. Beneath her closed eyes, she could feel the heat of tears forming. “You were gorging yourself on pineapple pizza and we were playing truth or dare, but it kind of just turned into you asking me if I could do certain things, and then asking me to prove that I could. And I could do most of it by that age. I turned the entire floor into ice for a second. I turned half the margherita pizzas into pineapple pizzas.

“But then you asked me about some of the more forbidden forms of magic. I told you that nopony had ever brought another creature back from the dead in one piece. I couldn’t time travel.

“And then you asked me if I could make gold. I was confused at first. I could transmutate metal into gold, but that was the same sort of magic that turned one type of pizza into another pizza—just harder. I could teleport bits in from my the royal vault, but you already knew I could do that. And then I realized that you had asked me to make gold. Out of thin air.

“I had no idea if I could. So I tried, but I couldn’t. But that didn’t matter to me, because it wasn’t about actually doing it. It was the fact that I had never thought of it in the first place. That seemed weird to me. How had I never even tried before?

“That’s what I love about you, Cozy. You challenge me. You make me think and want things that I never could have conceived of in the first place.”

Flurry was crying softly. A stream of tears steadily flowed over her cheeks and fell off of her chin, dropping into the cloud below.

Then Cozy was kissing her. On her cheeks. Below her eyelid. Behind her ear.

“The hardest things are the most worth doing, princess,” Cozy said into her ear.

Flurry wiped her eyes, sniffing hard.

“Here,” Cozy said again. Flurry heard a soft grunt of pain, and something that sounded like a needle being plucked from a pincushion.

Flurry opened her eyes as Cozy placed a feather behind her ear, smiling, and it was like the sun had shone down on the both of them for the first time.

Cozy inched towards her, so that their noses bumped together.

They gazed into each other’s eyes, half-lidded, keeping quiet as they exchanged breath. Flurry breathing out as Cozy breathed in, and vice-versa.

“I have something to tell you,” said Cozy.

The tone of her words made Flurry stiffen up. No. Please. No.

“When I got back to Fort Oculus last night, the mages and scientists were in the living room. The told me that they found something. Evidence that The Portal is—I don’t remember. It’s breaking down.”

This can’t be happening, thought Flurry.

“We have to leave tomorrow morning. Somepony beyond the portal needs us enough to trigger the friendship map.”

No. Flurry shook her head slowly, getting to her hooves. No. No.

This can’t possibly be real.

“When the sun first rises is when Equestria is at its magical peak. That’s our best chance to go through while The Portal’s still stable,” explained Cozy, rising to take Flurry’s hoof.

Flurry opened her mouth. Words refused to leave her throat, but a sob did.

“I know,” Cozy said.

“Y-You could only be gone for a week,” Flurry warbled. “Another portal could open up, right?”

“Or maybe I’ll be gone a few years,” Cozy replied. “Or a little longer than that. Or a lot longer than that. Or we might not come back. But you have all the time in the world, princess. You’re going to be fine. I’m going to miss you so much, but we’ll be fine in the end. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stay for longer.”

Flurry’s heart was breaking. It was falling down, shattering bit by bit, and she was standing there and doing nothing. Because she could do nothing. She was a god, blessed with some of the most powerful magic that existed, and she was powerless against destiny.

Cozy’s lips pressed against hers, and Flurry leaned into the kiss, and it barely lasted for ten seconds when Cozy pulled away, her own eyes wet.

“I love you,” said Cozy. “I’m sorry I had to tell you like this. I have to go. Tell your dad I’m sorry I couldn’t visit. Tell your mom, too, if you know where she is. I’m sorry, princess.”

Flurry said nothing as Cozy step back, tried to smile, and failed.

Cozy took to the air. Flurry turned her head slightly, watching the pink pegasus turn into a speck in her vision, and then disappear from it altogether.

Comments

[Ballisticzebra]

OOOOOF! That hit right in the feels there.

[Acadians6545]

Owwwww my heart just got dick kicked.