Double Solitary

by Casketbase77

Breaking And Exiting

Luster and Cozy Glow’s prison cell was perfectly square. Twelve paces from one corner to the opposite. Cozy had been trotting its length for several hours, her hooves moving fast, but her thoughts moving faster.

"Flurry Heart still has magic," she marveled aloud. "But nopony else does. At least, no prisoners or guards do. Might just be an Alicorn thing. Luster! Is this just an Alicorn thing?"

Luster Dawn hadn't heard the question. She'd been powernapping to recover from being shot.

"Huh?"

"You said," Cozy paused her pacing to speak clearly as she could,"that you took magic away from Equestria. But that's definitely not the whole story. You didn't get all of it, did you? The Alicorns still have theirs. Somehow. I bet that's how they caught you. I bet that's why you're here."

Luster Dawn looked away. "Yes. Alicorns still have magic. That's why I'm here."

Cozy kicked up her fetlocks in satisfaction and resumed pacing. "Those cheats. Y'see, ponies like you and me, we know that the world is better off without magic. That's why we're breaking out tonight. I've been staying put because I thought things were fine on the outside. That there wasn't any more work to be done. But now I know there is, and without any more Wednesdays to look forward to... golly, Luster. I'm sure you did your best, but its time old Cozy took her turn. Need to get out there and show my number one fan how real magic suppression is done.”

Luster Dawn staggered to a swaying standing position. "You need to?" Her hopefulness was raw and raspy. "So... so how is real magic suppression done?"

Cozy shrugged coyly. "I'd hafta see what sort of dampening artifacts we're working with. What you do depends on what you have. In my day, I got a decent rig going with orbiting antiques and advice from a real good friend of mine named Tirek. Fun story, but you've probably already heard it."

"Three crystals," Luster Dawn reported hastily. "One for Unicorns, one for Pegasi, one for Earth Ponies."

Cozy Glow's pacing sped up. She felt giddy, like the eager ambitious young foal she'd been so long ago. Before this cell, before the sculpture gardens, before Tartatrus.

"Mm, okay. These crystals... I bet they're orbiting each other in a force field."

Luster Dawn nodded.

"Good girl, Luster. You came real close to getting everything right."

Cozy kept moving, antsy for nightfall and apparently uninterested in elaborating any further. Luster wracked her exhausted mind for something else to say. Something to draw out the secret Cozy clearly loved withholding. Then something else rippled through Luster Dawn, dispelling every previous concern: a full body muscle spasm.

"Whoa, what was that?" Cozy had stopped pacing, startled by her cellmate's sudden shivering.

Luster's head hurt. Her horn especially. The horn that hadn’t been fast enough to expel Flurry Heart's tainted magic. Colored saliva was already pooling in her mouth.

"Nnn.. no..." Luster Dawn straightened up and swallowed. She couldn't break down now. She could Destabilize sure, but not break. Not when she was so close.

"Sorry... 'bout that," Luster managed. "It just... hit me all at once. I can't believe I'm going to help the one and only Cozy Glow break out of prison. I don't... I don't even know how we're going to do it."

Cozy tilted her head and Luster held her breath. Then Cozy Glow laughed. Loud and pure.

"You really are too good to be true, Luster. Alright. I was going to wait til nightfall, but buck it. We'll get going right this minute. I'm just as eager as you are, if I'm being honest. And you know that friends are always honest with each other."

Luster Dawn was readying more flattery, but it died in her mouth as Cozy Glow stooped down and pried the cell's central cushion away. There, beneath Cozy's special spot, was an escape tunnel ten years in the making.

Luster Dawn limped over, jaw agape.

"You... dug that yourself? But the floor is solid rock!"

"So are my legs," came Cozy's reminder. "Makes 'em good for chiseling. For real, just the fact my body's like this should've clued me in that magic wasn't all the way gone." She giggled darkly. "Think these chunks'll turn back into real hooves after we fix your trio of crystals?"

Luster Dawn didn't know how to respond.

"Heh heh. I'll hug you with them if they do. Now let's move."

---

The escape tunnel wasn't long. After barely a meter, it emptied into a forgotten crawlspace from back when Manehatten Penitentiary was still Plain Mane Public Storage. Dropping into the dark, the two escapees shimmied like loathsome rodents. Cozy was guided by memory. Luster was guided by Cozy.

"Where do you want to go after we're done with the job, Luster? I bet the Everfree Forest'll be nice and safe with all the magic removed. Maybe we'll build a little log cabin and live happily ever after. That's a peachy ending to shoot for, I think. Whaddya say? Yay or neigh for a peachy ending?"

Luster Dawn wiped her mouth, burdened more by shame than sickness. "Cozy, I... really don't want to make plans like that right now."

"Aw, still haven't gotten over your nerves? Don't worry, Cozy's here for ya. I'm in a real crackerjack mood that this tunnel finally has a use. All thanks to you, ya know. They way you plopped out of nowhere to give me and my works some purpose again. You're too good to be true, Luster. I said that already, didn't I? Pff, it's worth repeating either way. You're just too... good... to be true."

Luster Dawn had no response. Was her fogged perception giving a hard, venomous edge to Cozy's voice? The crawlspace was so dark. She no longer knew where they'd come in. Panic simmered in Luster's stomach, making phantom images of a maddened Flurry Heart pursue her in the gloom.

Luster wanted to go home. She wanted know the secret of magic already. She wanted to call the guards, to end the lie, to save the lives of every Alicorn and Unicorn, herself included. But instead she was here, lost in the abyss with no one to rely upon but the perpetually dangerous Cozy Glow.

Up above, muffled through concrete and metal, alarms began to blare.

"Oh fiddlesticks, I guess somepony noticed us missing." Cozy was awash with satisfied glee. "Too late though. Let 'em run around looking for us. We've made it. One hurdle left. Let's go, friend."

Luster's hoof was grasped by Cozy's, and the heave of a hatch dumped them both into a rainwater drainage ditch. The setting sun hurt Luster's eyes, and the slimy water chilled her bones. Destabilization had fully overcome her. Cozy meanwhile, was more alive than she'd ever been.

"We're here! The last wall!" She was shouting over the deafening alarms ringing all around, but no spotlights from the watchtowers swept near the ditch barrier, and none of the frantic rooftop guards were even looking this way.

"This is it, Luster! This thing is too big for a lone pony to get over. I figured that out ages ago. But now there's two of us." Cozy reared onto her hinds, forehooves ready for the task before them. "C'mon! Gimme a boost! To freedom!”

The final wall loomed impossibly high above Luster Dawn. Her lips were coated in drool. Light purple was dissolving in the grayish brown runoff of the fetid flooded ditch.

"I... can't."

Cozy's face distorted. "C'mon, superfan. Help your hero. You know you want to."

"No..." Luster slipped further under the muck. "I can't do this anymore."

Cozy Glow made a noise Luster couldn't comprehend. Then two partially living hooves hauled her to dry land. They moved to Luster's face, mashing her cheeks with movements more clumsy than malicious. Face to face, Luster saw Cozy Glow more closely and clearly than ever before. She saw a pegasus young beyond her years, with a once curly mane marred by crawlspace dust and a decade without any grooming mirrors. Cozy's eyes were wild, like a preyed upon predator to proud to beg. And her voice was soft. Honeyed. A smothering strain of sweetness that could only come from the very most fake of affectations.

"Stand tall, Luster Dawn. My greatest fan. My bestest friend. We have three orbiting crystals to slot together. Once we do that one little trick, all Alicorn magic will be stopped."

Luster shut her eyes. Mission complete. And not a moment too soon, given the massive unmistakable wingspan hurtling down from the sky.

"Luster Dawn, you crazy, reckless maverick!" Flurry Heart wiped her mouth with one hoof and brandished an envelope in her other. "What is this? Gods above and below, what is this fancy illuminating letter from Aunt Twilight about you that just arrived on my desk?! I swear, I'm always the last to know everything. Mail moves so blasted slow without magic nowadays."

"Oh hiya, Warden." Cozy Glow opted for a playful toss of her mane, but her casual affect was brought down by having to still yell over the alarms. "As you can see, my rascally little cellmate made a break for it. Good thing I chased her down, though, huh? You and me make such a good team."

"Cozetta, put a bridle on it! Your escape ends here!" Flurry Heart didn't have a height-boosting table this time, but she did have her horn at the ready. Worse, Luster Dawn was in no shape intercept another bullet. Flurry waved the envelope like a victory flag.

"I'm in the know, and you aren't. But maybe I can change that. Maybe you want to hear some soul-crushing news? Huh? You want to hear what Aunt Twilight's letter has to say about your number one fan?"

"Flurry..." Luster Dawn croaked out. "Please don't..." She was either ignored or drowned out by the surrounding sirens. Cozy Glow's bemused eyes stayed fixed on her longtime captor.

"I don't really want to hear anything from any Alicorn. Not you, not Twilight." Cozy batted her eyelashes as if the dirt on her face was the finest prima donna makeup. "You see Flurry, I'm getting out of here. So a little pony like you doesn't scare me."

Several veins in Flurry's youthful neck bulged with grotesque rage. They were just as purple as her drool. "Don't you talk down to me," she threatened. Distant rooftop guards were gesturing in the direction of Flurry and the prisoners. "Don't you dare talk down to me. I'm foiling your escape! I'm the Warden! I'm the Warden!"

"Only cuz you're not a Princess. Luster here made sure of that." A searchlight had swung towards the wall near the drainage ditch. Cozy squinted playfully. "Aww, my own spotlight? You guards do know how to make a mare feel special."

"This is not a game!" Flurry was outright roaring now. "You have nothing left, Cozetta! Your only friend is a liar! A narc! She's Twilight's Faithful Student sent in to trick you! This letter is proof, you smug spawn of a broodmare!"

For a flash of a fraction of an instant, a look of pure, wordless devastation rippled across Cozy Glow's features. Then it was gone, and her self-same diva expression was back. She paid no heed to the searchlight scalding her skin or the distant but approaching thunder of a guardpony battalion. She simply looked at Luster Dawn. The cellmate she'd relied on. Shared shared secrets with. Saved from drowning in a filthy ditch. Her knees shook as she saw Luster for who she really was.

Then her attention was back on Flurry Heart.

"Luster? A liar? That's a whopper of a claim, Warden." Cozy’s back was to the wall. In every sense. "A whopper of a claim, indeed." Cozy rubbed her tearful eyes and let a nihilistic grimace distort her face. "I say that if... heh heh... I say that if Luster Dawn isn't my best and truest friend in all the world, then..." Cozy clasped her hooves and leaned dramatically against the barrier. "Then may Faust strike me down where I stand."

"Cozy!" Luster was screeching with strength she didn't know she had. "What the hay are you doing??"

Cozy winked. It was the most defeated, despairing wink Luster had ever seen.

"I'm escaping. The only way I can now. Bye bye, Luster Dawn. Like I said, I knew your friendship was too good to be true."

Luster gasped while Flurry snarled and fired. Raw magic ravaged the hornless body of Cozetta "Cozy" Glasgow, searing her spots where there was fur and pitting her parts where there was rock. She slammed against the wall, stone clanging against metal from the concussive impact of Flurry's spell. Finally, Cozy sagged to the dirt in a broken smoking heap. She lay motionless where she she fell. The surrounding alarms fell silent.

Somepony was crying. Luster realized it was her.

The guards arrived, late as usual and unsure how to deal with the scene they found. Luster was on her knees, bawling. Flurry stood swaying on her hooves, so purged of magic she was lucid enough to realize she'd done something bad. And of course, there lay a once colorful mess of fur and feathers pooled up against the drainage wall, mere meters from having made it to freedom. With still no orders from their traumatized Warden, the guards took up an idle perimeter, pretending that any of the three ponies had any intention to flee on foot.

The air was suddenly pierced by Cozy Glow's laugh. Its sound was raucous, triumphant, and full of strength. Still heaving, Cozy rolled over to let her wings beat the air. They were old limbs. Atrophied, unplucked, and even inorganic in a few places. But they also surged with freshly metabolized magic. With each subsequent wingbeat, Cozy rapturously ascended higher into the air.

"I knew it would work!" she gloated to her stunned audience on the ground. "I knew it! Cozy always wins, you hear? Cozy Glow always wins in the end!"

"Impossible..." Flurry managed. Cozy cackled and swooped in effortless out-of-reach circles.

"Toldja I was escaping in the only way left. Gee, Luster, it sure woulda been hunky dory to actually go on that antimagic adventure with you. But hey, you helped get Flurry mad enough to juice me up. That makes you a true friend in my book. Ooh, maybe someday you'll meet a less clever pony you can backstab for real. I'm rooting for you! I promise that backstabbing is actually really fun once you get the hang of it!"

"Thanks," Luster mumbled. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Young lady," a guard spoke up, "Come down and submit yourself for arrest immediately." He waved his spear menacingly but impotently, and Cozy made a show of pretending to mull over his demand.

"Hmm, I dunno... how about one of you guys fly up here after me? Any takers? Flurry?"

The Warden of Manehatten Penitentiary was red with humiliation. Every beat of Cozy's ramshackle wings was a gift delivered by the biggest sucker in Equestria. Flurry couldn't even fire her horn again, since she was thoroughly out of juice. However addled her mind was, however thick and obscuring her haze of rage, she still understood she'd played right into Cozy's fossilized hooves. All she could do was silently curse herself for it.

"Ah well, 'fraid I'll have to be on my way." Cozy Glow twirled as she rose, savoring the moment she surpassed the outer wall. "Buh bye for good! Was terrible knowing you all! Oh, and Flurry? Luster? You guys might wanna brush your teeth more often. Not sure if you know, but mouths aren't s'posed to drip purple."

With a flick of her tail and a final resounding laugh, Cozy Glow fled from sight in the darkening night sky.

Predictably, it was Flurry who broke the ensuing silence.

"Drip purple..." she slurred. Flurry looked at Luster Dawn, possibly for the first time since arriving. She looked right at Luster Dawn's mouth, which Luster covered in embarrassment.

"We need to get back to Canterlot," Luster managed. "Cozy told me how to... finalize the Unity Crystals. We need to get cured. No tracking Cozy until... after we have our wits back."

"Cured..." Flurry Heart kicked at a stray rock, not wanting to look at Luster, and especially not wanting to look at her surrounding guards. "So something is wrong with me. I thought there might... no, I wasn't thinking. So hard to think lately. Angry. I feel so angry I can't think..."

The guards were still milling around, so it was Luster Dawn put a sopping, smelly hoof around Flurry's shoulder. Flurry held on like that hoof was a life raft in a storm.

"We're taking train ride to Canterlot?" Flurry ventured. Luster confirmed and motioned a nearby guard to help them inside. As a herd, the unit of stallions guided the sick mares. Flurry was still drawling.

"Can... can we ride in luxury class? Maybe I'd be more... relaxed there."

Luster tousled Flurry's mane. "Sure thing, kiddo. I bet my ticket from last week is still good. When we see your Aunt Twilight, I'll tell just how great of a Warden you are."

"Aw c'mon Luster, I blew your cover. You don't have to lie anymore."

"Oh? In that case, you honestly run the worst prison I have ever been in."

Flurry Heart bristled, but composed herself. She'd be sane again soon. Jokes could fill time until then. Jokes between friends.

"Thanks, Luster. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Comments

[Ruse Spark]

caught a typo, luster dawn mentions earth ponies twice when talking about the crystals