Letters to the Princess

by Shaslan

Chapter 9: Fractured

“Are you sure about this?”

Flurry gave Cozy a rather tight smile. “As sure as I’ll ever be.”

A lie, of course. An obvious one, that Cozy would no doubt see through. But it hardly mattered. Flurry would never be sure about introducing her marefriend to her parents. She would never be ready. But they had broken up once already because she had been afraid to commit — because Cozy had been afraid to be open — and she was not going to let them make that same mistake twice.

So she squared her shoulders and adjusted the neckline of Cozy’s dress — with her hoof, never with her magic. Cozy’s wings came up to embrace her, and just for a second, she let herself bask in that feathery embrace. And then, side by side, they marched towards the double doors that the guards swung open for them.

Marched in to meet their fate.

“Ah.” Her father’s voice, measured and steady as always. “Here they are, Cady.”

The Princess of the Crystal Empire turned her head, her carefully coiled mane spilling across her shoulders. Her mouth turned up at one corner — she was making an effort, just as she had promised — and she stood to greet them.

“Hello, sweetheart.” Her gaze moved from one mare to the other and the warmth in her gaze cooled. “Welcome to our home, Cozy Glow.”

“Hello,” said Cozy Glow, in her lawyer voice. Perfectly neutral. Entirely unobjectionable. “Thank you for inviting me.”

Shining Armour gestured to the table, impeccably laid out and set for four, and they all trooped towards it. Flurry Heart took her seat, trying to control the pounding of her heart, and to quiet the little voice that kept whispering over and over — how the hell am I going to get through tonight?

There had been a letter from Auntie Tia, of course. There were always letters from Auntie Tia. She seemed to think that just because she had introduced two ponies, it gave them a right to interfere for the rest of their lives. And beyond. Flurry had heard that some of her clients were sixth-generation — including both sets of her own grandparents. Twilight and Cadence, two unicorns powerful enough to live through the ascension spell, both born within a decade of Luna’s predicted return: there was no way that wasn’t deliberate. Flurry herself was probably the product of Celestia only knew how many centuries of plotting.

The thought of it made her shiver.

But on this occasion, she had at least read the letter to its end. Facing this, she felt she needed all the advice she could get.

To my favourite grand-niece,

I hear from your mother that certain plans are afoot. A dinner is planned.

The initial merging of the families is a terribly important occasion in any relationship, and an excellent indicator of future gatherings. Usually I would advise that it take place much sooner in a relationship’s timeline, possibly even at my offices, but I know that you and Cozy Glow wanted to take things at your own pace. And a meeting with Cadence and myself at the same time might prove too much for Cozy Glow’s particular antipathy towards royalty.

That said, I think (and have advised Cadence as such) that it’s better that Rarity not attend this particular dinner. She and Cozy Glow are naturally very close, but it can tend to make them a little overprotective of one another. I think it’s best to get Cozy Glow herself a little more comfortable with your parents before we bring Rarity into the mix. I was very glad to hear that your own formal introduction to Rarity at her home in Canterlot went well.

For this meeting I would advise you to stay calm and ensure the others do too. Cadence, naturally, will read your feelings and follow your lead, and Shining Armour will do the same. Keep conversation light and inconsequential. Avoid topics you know will be controversial. This should simply be the groundwork for a deeper connection going forward.

Best of luck, Flurry dear. I know you have the skills to make today go smoothly.

All my love,
Auntie Tia (Princess Celestia, Ruler of the Day, etc)

Flurry had read the letter so many times that the folds had deepened into crevices and the ink had begun to fade, but the contents were no more revelatory than they had been the first time. Keep things calm was one of those things that was terribly easy to say and almost impossible to do.

Chairs screeched as the underbutlers helped tuck them in. Flurry moved naturally, accustomed to the ceremony, but she saw Cozy flinch at the near-silent appearance of a stallion behind her and cursed her own failure to forewarn her marefriend.

“Red or white wine?” the butler asked, her voice obsequiously lowered.

Flurry saw the look in Cozy Glow’s eyes as she looked at the clear crystal jug of dark red liquid and hastily interposed. “We’ll both have white, thank you, Elderflower.”

Shining Armour coughed politely. “So…tell us about your work, Cozy Glow.”

Cozy swallowed, her throat bobbing, and took a large gulp of white wine. “Well. I’m a lawyer.”

A small laugh. “Yes, Flurry mentioned it.”

“I saw one of your cases in the Canterlot paper last week,” Shining said. “The Vanderhoof divorce?”

“Oh, that.” Cozy straightened in her chair, suddenly confident again, and waved a hoof. “Foal’s play. They’re both idiots with more money than sense.”

Shining’s smile wilted. “Horseshoe Vanderhoof is a close friend, actually.”

Cozy Glow all but put her muzzle into her glass. Then finally offered a strained smile. “Right. Like I said.”

His expression morphing into a frown, Shining exchanged a glance with Cadence.

Flurry leapt in with some preprepared pleasantries about the weather, and the conversation limped onwards. Cozy kept lifting the glass of white wine to her lips, sipping whenever there was a pause.

“And what about your work, Mom?” Flurry said at last, a little desperately. “Solved any big relationship problems lately?”

Cadence shot her a look, almost as though to say, none as big as this, but Flurry resolutely ignored whatever hidden message that glance contained. Cozy was the mare she had chosen, for better or for worse, and Cadence would just have to get used to it.

“Well, yes, actually,” conceded Cadence at last. “There was a really funny one last week.”

“Tell us,” Flurry enthused, and Shining murmured agreement.

“I was flying over the north end last week when I felt this absolute tumult of emotion. I landed, and I find a wedding party in the park, in absolute chaos because both grooms are missing.”

“Both grooms?” laughed Flurry Heart. “Did they both get cold hooves?”

“That’s what I wondered,” Cadence smiled. “So I went looking for them. It took half an hour, a scroll to Twilight and finally a casting of Clover the Clever’s finding spell, but eventually I found one of them wandering around by the fountains, and the other halfway down mane street.”

“Were they running away?” Cozy asked, her voice dry.

Her eyes flicking from her daughter to the mare at her side, Cadence seemed to make an effort not to flinch. Like she’d forgotten it wasn’t just her and Flurry. “N-no. They were actually both looking for the other, under the impression the other had run away.” Her delivery was muted, flat, the humour gone.

“How funny,” said Cozy Glow, unsmiling.

Flurry Heart felt her stomach begin to roil. Either the cabbage soup was disagreeing with her, or things were going really wrong.

Cadence was making her discomfort too obvious, and Cozy was reacting to it with her usual defence — spiky edges and pointed barbs.

“It is!” she said brightly, her voice too high. “It’s really funny, Mom.”

She glared at Cadence, and tried to channel her thoughts into emotions that her empath mother would be able to read. I really want you two to get on. Be nice to her. But translating that to an emotion was harder than she had expected, and the best she could manage was a sort of anxious yearning. She was so used to trying to tamp down her emotions so they wouldn’t be read that doing the opposite felt unnatural.

“Actually,” Cozy Glow said, her voice filling the sudden silence as a casual smirk spread across her muzzle, “We’ve been thinking of doing that.”

Cadence paused, the flow of her story forgotten. “Doing what?”

“Getting married.”

Cadence turned pale, and Cozy Glow’s smile took on a tinge of satisfaction. Shining Armour looked at Flurry, eyes wide, and though she and Cozy had never discussed this before, had never broached the topic, Flurry felt her traitorous heart skip a beat or two.

Married.

She imagined Cozy Glow in white, a real smile on her face, that rarest and most precious of moments, and something inside her thrummed.

Wouldn’t that be something?

“Well,” said Cadence stiffly. “Maybe that’s something to discuss another time.”

With a smile that showed her dimples, Cozy took a huge gulp of wine.

“T-tell us more about work, Mom?” Flurry managed to squeak, wishing Cozy’s chair was close enough for her to physically touch her marefriend.

“Oh yes,” said Cozy Glow at once. “It’s a fascinating world you inhabit, Princess.”

Oh no. That title was always a weapon on her tongue.

“Luckily for me, I don’t do it alone. Being a crystal princess is a difficult job.” Cadence spoke sharply, but then softened her expression to smile at Flurry. “But we’re all very proud of Flurry.”

Another sip of her wine and a toss of her mane, and Cozy affected a careless laugh. “When I’m a crystal princess—”

It was too much. Too far. Cadence’s hoof came down on the table with an impact like a cannonshot. “—You will never marry my daughter.”

For one long second, Cozy Glow stared at her. Then her eyelids lowered, hooding her gaze, and she smiled. A dangerous smile. “Ah. There it is.”

“Mom,” hissed Flurry.

“It’s okay, Flurry,” chuckled Cozy, in that horrible empty voice. “It’s good to get all our feelings out in the open, right?”

“Feelings,” spat Cadence. “As though you know the meaning of the word, you — you husk—”

“—Mom!” cried Flurry. It was all going wrong. “You promised!”

“But I can feel her, Flurry Heart,” Cadence said, and there were tears in her eyes. “And she’s so empty. Everything good, everything normal is so muted I can hardly hear it, and all that’s left is…is…possessiveness, and pride, and fear—”

“—Shut up!” snarled Cozy Glow, all traces of laughter gone. “Shut up, Princess, if you know what’s good for you—”

“—And hate!” cried Cadence. “She hates me, can’t you feel it? She hates Twilight! She hates all of us!”

“Cady, wait,” tried Shining Armour, but it was far too late.

Cozy Glow was on her feet, wings spread wide, head lowered like a wild animal at bay. “I do hate you. I do. What is there to love, about you jumped-up magic junkies? Sticking a crown on your head doesn’t make you good or moral or right but you’re all convinced—”

“—She’s a monster, Flurry! You can’t marry her—!”

“—Cozy, stop it! Mom! Stop it!”

“—Look, we all need to just take a breather here—”

“—That the sun shines out of your stupid royal asses! But you’re all twisted freaks who can get away with anything because ponies are morons who think magical power equals goodness and you’re too powerful to say no to!”

Cozy Glow’s torrent of vitriol ran on longer than all the other voices, her face transformed into a mask of hatred. When she finally stopped, her flanks were heaving, and Flurry Heart’s cheeks were wet with tears. All of her worst nightmares had come true. Everything had gone wrong.

Finally, Cozy Glow looked into Flurry’s eyes, and whatever she saw there was enough to send her running from the room at a full gallop.

Author's Note:

Look who's back!

Progress on this longfic has been halting, but there is a full plan for it. I hope some still remain faithful and are waiting for it to come out.

Comments

[Displayer]

Great chapter, can't believe it's been a year since the last one. It's hard to believe this story has so few likes despite the excellent quality of writing

[Shaslan]

11683390
I know, i definitely intended to do regular updates when I planned out the next 15 chapters last summer, but I get distracted by all the one-shots I write instead
Thank you for sticking with it!

[Saiyan Cartoon Champion]

That... Could have gone better.

[Undome Tinwe]

Oh, I can't wait to see where this goes. Incredible tension, and incredible back and forth between Cozy and Cadance. Love how much emotion both of them are showing, and how well that's playing off of each other. Looking forward to more!

[JuniperBerry]

I found this fic last year, and I believed in you. This is wonderful to see, thank you so much!

[DrCygnus]

it definitely could've gone better but this solid enough to be good

[Diamondized]

“—That the sun shines out of your stupid royal asses! But you’re all twisted freaks who can get away with anything because ponies are morons who think magical power equals goodness and you’re too powerful to say no to!”

Honestly...I think she's right. It's been some time since I last read this story, but I remember Cozy feeling like she genuinely does feel some kind of affection for Flurry. It's just that... well, to put it bluntly, she's damaged and has yet to heal.

Celestia, in both the prequel and here, gives me some really bad vibes. She's extremely heavy handed in her approach and doesn't tolerate rule breakers, which absolutely definitely positively sounds like prime leadership material. She makes me really, really uncomfortable- she and her weird marriage business. I find her to be incredibly creepy. It's like she never found love in her life, so she finds love in everyone else's lives to satisfy a void in her heart she could never fill.

And Cadence... is fundementally incompatible with Cozy. She's broken and Cadence can't understand that. Everything about Cozy screams 'evilevilevilabortabortabort' to her senses. Senses that's she's learned to rely on. Senses that make her as observant as a blind and deaf bum dying of blood loss in a back alley when it comes to everything going on with Cozy. She means well, sure, but so does Celestia. Just because you mean well and you think you're right doesn't mean that either is true.

[asdtroi8895]

Well, that was intense and did not go very well. Methinks Cadence is quite scared of Cozy.

She imagined Cozy Glow in white, a real smile on her face, that rarest and most precious of moments, and something inside her thrummed.

Aww, she loves the idea!

“And she’s so empty. Everything good, everything normal is so muted I can hardly hear it, and all that’s left is…is…possessiveness, and pride, and fear—”

I find it odd that Cadence never met any particularly reserved individuals. Also she should really focus on that fear and think about it nice and hard.

[AMENDOkat]

Oh my god this story has to be my favorite on the entire site. It's so good, I love how you write Cozy, she's such a complex character. You can tell that she loves Flurry and wants to be better for her, but she's so fucked up she can barely manage, she wants to be better but at some points it's like she almost embraces the monster that tried to take over Equestria twice. It's great, PLEASE CONTINUE WIRITING!!!!! CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTERS!!!!!

[Ralyx]

Twilight and Cadence, two unicorns powerful enough to live through the ascension spell, both born within a decade of Luna’s predicted return: there was no way that wasn’t deliberate.

Firstly, unless this is a deliberate change, Cadance was originally a pegasus and did not undergo an ascension spell.

Secondly, Twilight and especially Cadance were quite obviously older than ten when Nightmare Moon returned.

[WubsAndCellos]

ONE OF THE BEST FICS EVEr

[AMENDOkat]

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST STORIES I EVER READ !!!

[Princess Calamari]