Cozy Hearts

by Princess Starflight

Chapter 1 - Freedom

A young alicorn with a pink coat, crystal-blue eyes, and pink, purple, and blue curls raced through the night with grace and speed. The bright, golden light on her horn sliced through the darkness and illuminated the bushes and flowers below her. The castle garden was beautiful, yes, but she did not stop to look. She was on a mission, and she was going to complete it.

Half a minute later, a statue came into view. It was the statue, the one that nopony paid attention to anymore. A lot had happened in ten years, and almost everypony had forgotten about these three creatures, despite the fact that they had almost destroyed Equestria.

But this alicorn remembered. Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire remembered. How could she have forgotten the stories her parents had told her? She had been hearing about this trio of villains since she was a filly. The Legion of Doom, as they called themselves, was the reason she was sneaking away from the castle at three in the morning. Well, mostly the reason. The other part was more...personal.

The slightly unimportant reason she was doing this was because her parents were way too protective of her. Bodyguards accompanied her everywhere: to her meals, to her lessons, even to the restroom! They watched over her when she was sleeping, but this made her extremely uneasy instead of feeling safe. No one likes to be watched in their sleep.

So she had run away from her pampered castle life, at least for a while. Flurry had never been too much of a rebel, but she was so tired of being fussed at the whole time.

But there was another issue, too. She was sick of being ignored just because she was the youngest of the alicorns. Nopony paid her ideas any attention. She wanted to do something. She wanted to make her powerful aunts notice her. She wanted to show her parents what she could do. She wanted to make her mark on Equestria.

She would prove that she was worthy.

Which lead to the main reason for Flurry's mission. Her. Cozy Glow.

Flurry didn't know too much about the filly, but she did know that Cozy had done unbelievably evil deeds for somepony her age. First, she took over Auntie Twilight's School of Friendship by manipulating fellow students and almost drained all the magic from Equestria. After her escape from Tartarus, Cozy Glow teamed up with two of Equestria's worst enemies: Tirek the centaur and Chrysalis the changeling. The three had almost taken over Equestria, but Auntie Twilight and her friends saved the day like they always did, along with every single creature in Equestria and some badass rainbow lasers. The evil trio was stoned, Auntie Twilight was crowned the ruler of Equestria, and everypony lived happily ever after...

Well, not everypony. Flurry Heart had never thought of Cozy as an evil pony, but rather a misguided one who possibly had scars from her past. Maybe Cozy had experienced a traumatic event in her childhood, or something. Maybe that was why she was, well, the way she was.

So when Flurry was old enough and Discord and her aunts Celestia and Luna confessed to stoning Cozy, she was extremely disturbed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d had thoughts about freeing Cozy Glow. She hadn't realized it at the time. But she did become aware of those thoughts, later.

She had been planning this stunt for a long time, really, but it was only now that it seemed real as she faced the statue. She saw Tirek, hunched over in apprehension; Chrysalis, attempting to lunge at Twilight; and Cozy, with a panicked expression and two hooves put up to her face, as if she were about to scream or cry. She didn't give a second thought about the changeling and the centaur. They were way too evil. But Cozy, even after all she'd done, was still a filly. Twilight hadn't given her a second chance - she had sent the filly to Tartarus after her first takeover attempt. No wonder Cozy was still evil after that. Tartarus was hardly a place to feel...whatever it feels like to be reformed.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Flurry Heart’s mind. What about Cozy's parents? What had they thought about their daughter being thrown into Tartarus and turned into stone? She thought her Auntie Twilight was stupid - yes, stupid - not to look at each side of the situation. What kind of princess did that make her? Wasn't a princess supposed to be fair?

That reminded Flurry of her mom. She wasn't very fair to her, either. Whenever the princesses had a meeting, Flurry Heart was not invited. They even put up a sound barrier in case she wanted to eavesdrop!

That reminded her that she was running away and on a mission. She cleared her thoughts and got ready for what she was about to do.

Golden magic lit up her horn. With some effort, Flurry made the magic stronger and aimed it at the part of the statue that was Cozy Glow. Here goes nothing... she thought.

A blast of magic struck the statue. For one scary moment, it enveloped Chrysalis and Tirek as well as Cozy. Flurry had spread out the magic too much. She didn't want to free the others! Quickly, she pulled back the magic and concentrated only on Cozy Glow.

Slowly, very slowly, the stone started to disappear from Cozy. It didn't crack into pieces and break; the stone seemed to be melting away from her. First, her ribbons were uncovered, and then her mane, and then her face. The worried expression on her face quickly turned into a surprised and confused one. Then, when her wings were uncovered, she looked down at them with childish joy.

Flurry Heart groaned as beads of perspiration rolled down her forehead onto her face, but the spell was working. Slowly, Cozy Glow was released from her stony prison. When the stone disappeared from her hind legs, she fell to the ground. "OW!"

Flurry's eyes turned white as the magic started to disappear from her horn. It was such a big spell, especially for a younger pony like her, that the magic took a few extra seconds to be expelled. When it did leave her and her eyes were blue again, she gave a stern look to Cozy, who hadn't gotten up yet, and spread her wings out.

She was about to yell something at the filly when she heard the clopping of hooves behind her. She turned around...and saw her father, looking winded. He gasped and panted as he came to a stop beside her. She wondered why he hadn't just teleported here...

"FLURRY HEART! What were you thinking?!"

Uh-oh.

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

Nice start, Flurry seems to have more common sense then the experienced adults, it seems.

She didn't even think about the changeling and the centaur. They were way too evil.

Funny thing is, I kind of consider Tirek to be the least evil among the trio and Chrysalis about on-par with Cozy.

[Ciphers]

She was annoyed of the opposite, too; her parents were way too protective of her.

to be fair, Flurry Heart meet two villains (Chrysalis and Sombra) when she was young, so they too protective of her

[Maxtaku]

11113540
interesting stance, I personally thing Chrysalis is the least evil, after all during the beginning she only wanted to help her hive, and keep them all feed. it was only when she refused change did she become true villain, whereas Tieke came to Equestria with impure intentions wishing to take their magic for himself for no reason other than selfishness, Cozy on the other hand is just a psyco, or at least how I'll see it till she gets a backstory.

[StarlightisVERYcute]

She had been planning this stunt for a long time, really, but it was only now that it seemed real as she faced the statue. She saw Tirek, hunched over in apprehension; Chrysalis, attempting to lunge at Twilight; and Cozy, with a panicked expression and two hooves put up to her face. She didn't even think about the changeling and the centaur. They were way too evil. But Cozy, after all she'd done, was still a filly. Twilight hadn't given her a second chance - she had sent the filly to Tartarus after her first takeover attempt. No wonder Cozy was still evil after that. Tartarus was hardly a place to feel...whatever it feels like to be reformed.

No one ever had given Tirek a second chance either.

[hmaf43]

11193304
her relationship with equestria is like guddafi and America.
11215287
racism is a bitch, ain't it?