Crystal Heart: After the Swarm

by Betty_Starlight

Denouement

Starlight stares at me from her side of the table as her coffee cooled in it’s big white Best Counselor Ever mug, “She’s only been married for two days now!”

I nod and correct her, “Well, not quite two days! In two more hours, it will be…”

She widens her eyes, “Well, right! How many letters have you gotten from her?”

“Three!”

She stares at me and frowns, “How have you gotten three letters from her in only two days?”

“Mail travels pretty fast when it goes by dragon!”

“And you just magically send these notes back to her?”

I stare at her before I slowly say, “Maybe?”

“Doesn’t that kinda go against your no magick rule?”

“Probably?”

“Crystal!”

“Well, look! I figured it’d be a good idea, since I really should try to be buddy-buddy with the current ruler of Equestria!”

She raises her right eyebrow, “And this had nothing to do with you wanting to hear from her faster?”

My eyes widen, “Well, if I heard from her faster, that sorta speeds things along, doesn’t it?” and then I smile… I hope I don’t look weird?

“Oh wipe that goofy grin off your face! You just wanted somepony to talk to while I’m away at work!”

Goofy? I’ll take it! The smile lowers, “Well, it is kinda interesting to talk to somepony who isn’t you, you know?”

She sighs and looks off to the side, “Well, on the plus side, she doesn’t seem to want to turn you back into stone at this stage?”

I nod, “Right!”

Suddenly, the front door 20 feet behind me in the foyer bursts open to reveal a giggling pink pegasus filly! She stares at me with enormous brown eyes while hanging out the open side of the door, “Oh, golly gee mom! Me and the other Crusaders were just having fun playing hide n seek in the forest!”

I stare at her, “So you enjoy being a Crusader now?”

She suddenly frowns, and her eyes freeze as she suddenly realizes how she’s been acting, “What? NO! I don’t like being a Crusader!”

I smile at her and narrow my eyes coyly, “Is that so? But did you not just have a swell time with the three Crusaders in the forest?” and mimic her speech.

“N-no!” She stammers out…

Suddenly, a yellow earth filly pops into view from the right side of the door, above Cozy, “She had a great time!”

A white unicorn comes from the left, “A wonderful time!”

An orange pegasus foal appears above the unicorn, to the left of the earth filly, “It was awesome!”

Cozy then smiles at me timidly…

I giggle slightly under my breath, “Cozy, it’s okay for you to be a Cutie Mark Crusader now!”

Her eyes narrow as she says under her breath, “_{Okay, fine! It was maybe, kinda, sorta swell…}”

My eyes widen, “I’m sorry! What was that, Cozy?”

She closes her eyes and blindly yells, “I said I had a good time!”

Scootaloo looks over at her from the left, “See? Was that so hard?”

Sweetie Belle adds from the other side, “Yeah! It’s okay to have friends, Cozy!”

Cozy stares back at them, “Friends I once used to try to take over Equestria?”

Apple Bloom smiles As she stands next to Scootaloo, “Yeah! It’s a redo, remember? I mean, yer not gonna try to take over Equestria this time, right?”

Cozy widens her eyes like a deer looks at a train before shaking her head no, “Oh, golly uh, no ma’am! Uh uh! I don’t wanna try to take over anything!”

Apple Bloom nods, “Well, right! So don’t you think this might be time and be our friend agin? Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

I lower my gaze as it occurred to me that the apple filly just used Cozy’s own wording on her as well, as the pink pegasus filly timidly replies, “Well uh, I g-guess we could start over?”

Scootaloo finally cracks a smile, “Great! Now, how about we take over a fridge somewhere, huh? I’m starved!”

<*****>

“You know, I somehow always pictured Tirek being my father!” The pink pegasus filly says before she takes another bite of her spinach sandwich, with mayonnaise… We couldn’t find mustard…

I smile solemnly down at my foal, “You are not disappointed, I hope?”

She chews the morsel in her mouth and swallows as she looks up at me, “No no! It’s fine! I mean, Tirek was a jerk, anyway!”

Starlight finally chimes in from my left, “And so, you got me, the mare you imprisoned for three days!”

She turns her head to the other mare and smiles, “Yeah, sorry about that again, mom!”

“Dog food! You fed me dog food!”

Her eyes widen, “Um, at least I fed you?”

Starlight’s eyes narrow to the foal and I smile as I can’t help but find this amusing… “Well, that’s technically true! I didn’t starve!”

Cozy grins wider, “See? I did care about you! Uh, sorta?”

Starlight’s eyes close and she says, “Dog food!” to herself lowly…

I then turn my gaze left towards the other three crusaders… I see a white unicorn filly on the left with her face scrunched up, a russet pegasus foal with her eyes wide, and a yellow earth filly on the end with a big frown on her face…

I can tell I should break the tension! “So, what are you four going to do this afternoon?”

Apple Bloom turns her head to the far right and asks, “I don’t know, Sweetie? What do you wanna do?”

Scootaloo turns her head right as well, “Yeah, Sweetie! What’s the plan?”

Sweetie Belle turns her head left, “What? Why do I always have to decide what we do?”

Apple Bloom says, “Because you’re really good at it!”

Scootaloo adds, “Yeah!”

Cozy finally says, “Yeah! Uh, you’re good at it! Yes!” and smiles nervously, as she begins to try to fit in with the group.

Sweetie frowns, “Well, we could always go swimming?”

Apple Bloom says, “Yeah, but we just ate!”

Sweetie nods, “Oh, right! So I guess that’s right out?”

Cozy looks at her and asks, “How about we go for a walk at the park?”

Apple Bloom looks at Cozy, “Yeah, that could work?”

Sweetie adds, “There’s a park in Ponyville”

Scootaloo looks at Sweetie again, “Yeah, it’s right by the skating rink!”

Sweetie looks over at Scootaloo, “There’s a skating rink, too?”

At that point, I could only smile and cuddle up to my wonderful marefriend, now at my side… I came to realize that despite where I came from, I could indeed forge a life for myself here and be whomever I wanted to be… I turned and looked at her staring at our foal and her three friends with interest in her blue eyes as she smiled, because she knew our foal also had friends and a life now… I had finally made a home for myself, after all the wrong I did earlier and my time spent in stone…

(The end…)

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading my story! It's obviously a transgender metaphor, but I think this section of the story is pretty much played out. I was thinking about maybe writing a sequel from Cozy's point of view later, as she takes Crusader lessons though? Let me know what you think!

Comments

[Dr_Shyro]

Just woke up to find it finished, I really hope it’s as good as I think