//------------------------------// // Part 5 (epilogue) // Story: The Runaway // by Elmaster48 //------------------------------// Has been a year since Cozy Glow was adopted by Luster Dawn. Equestria changed so much thou the years and the filly needed help to adapt. It wouldn't be without help, Luster Dawn and her friends would help her every step of the way. Still life wasn’t perfect for Cozy Glow. It was full of ups and downs, for starters she developed a fear of statues caused by the decades of being one herself, she managed to overcome it eventually. Still her complicated life would make her impossible to connect with ponies and creatures of her age, not even Li'l Cheese who was exited of a new friend was able to do it. She wouldn't be admitted at the school of friendship because of her past actions. Still her studies both in proper education and friendship lessons would be held by some tutors like Pinkie Pie, the cutie mark crusaders and eventually Starlight Glimmer. who would discover that Cozy Glow possessed the IQ of a genius, not surprising but what is surprising is that is one even bigger that many of the most talented unicorn sorcerers in recorded history. This revelation would give an idea to the pegasus to finally give something in return to Equestria. with the help of Starlight she would organize a small gathering of various students from the School of friendship and give a small speech. ¨Equestria and beyond has defeated many villains, some of them more dangerous that anycreature can imagine, but each had in common that no matter the power and size, with afford they can be defeated. Still there is a villain that its power is overlooked, its servant underestimated: forgetfulness and misinformation. Much of our history is lost every day, and if we aren’t careful even our very history and achievements could be lost too, it’s our duty to save both the knowledge and lessons from the past and the present for a brighter tomorrow.¨ This speech was made to help rally help for her little project of search and preservation of both magical artifacts and historical documents. She might don’t know it yet but in decades to come this little movement would eventually grow into a great organization that would rediscover ancient methods of magic, technology and agriculture that were lost and now would help advance society by centuries. But for now at the present Cozy Glow was sitting alongside Luster Dawn in a train with direction to Manehattan. She needed this, she dreamed of one day help Tirek and Chrysalis also find redemption but she first needed to help herself. ¨I never imagine a train would get to Manehattan in only hours instead of days¨ Cozy Glow was still amazed with the technological advancement. Luster Dawn in another hand was a little worried about the filly. ¨You know, nobody is forcing you to do this, if you think you can’t do this we can go home anytime¨ Luster Dawn was aware of how much suffering this city gave to Cozy Glow, even thou the city is not like before still could open some wounds on the filly. ¨I know, thank you but I need to do this.¨ The pair would finally arrive at the train station. From there they would take a taxi what would go directly to a too familiar place. During all the way both Cozy Glow and Luster Dawn were silent. The unicorn was watching the little filly checking if she was alright, the filly would be watching the streets, seen if she can recognize some of the streets and corners where she used to fight and survive. Seen the streets clean and with foals playing gave her a little peace of mind, this city was healed from wherever affliction used to have. After some hours they would finally arrive at their destination, an amusement park. She remember this place, used to be abandoned from decades ago and this was the place where the gang she once leaded had their hideout. The pair would walk in the park, seen the attractions and feeling the happiness in the air, there Cozy Glow could see all kinds of creatures: ponies, zebras, griffons, dragons and even saw something odd… an stallion, earth pony to be specific he was walking alongside a female changeling, And in front of them a small… hybrid of the two? She never thought a pony and a changeling would be able to have interbred, even less that this would not turn heads and be seen as something normal, this for some reason comforts her. The pair would finally got at their destination, the place that used to be the shack where Cozy Glow sleep alongside the gang and made plans of conquest. it was removed a long time ago and in its place it was now a monument… maybe the shack was no longer there but still this gave her unpleasant memories, but Cozy Glow was strong enough to do this, she stood in front of the monument and stare at it. The monument was a statue of Princess Twilight Sparkle, her hooves were being hugged by many foals like she was their mother. And her wings were holding various foals, but the wings were being supported from falling over by other foals. Cozy Glow wasn’t expecting this… ¨I know that my mom helped these foals too, but she never liked having statues made in her honor and-¨ Cozy Glow interrupted Luster Dawn who was misreading the situation. ¨Is not that, I recognize those ones who are helping Princess Twilight to support her wings.¨ Cozy Glow wasn’t lying, the foals both hugging Twilight and being supported by her were generics ones without any distinguishing feature, but the ones that are helping Twilight? ¨I recognize them, all of them. They were… the ones I should had considered my friends in those dark days, I should have stayed with them.¨ Cozy Glow wasn’t crying, she was good at controlling her emotions at this point but this truly sadden her, what could had been of her life if things turn… differently? She would had continued her plan to become the leader of a powerful gang? She would had abandoned her plan and help the runaways of the city? She would had turn good? or remained ev- Luster Dawn hugged the little filly, she was totally aware of Cozy Glow past. In fact the pegasus told her every detail about it, even the names of the ponies that followed her. ¨We can’t change the past nor should we. But we can learn from it, and i’m with you every step of the way¨ This was totally something Luster Dawn was totally aware, she knew about… the little incident caused by her mother. And Cozy Glow remember that her path started here, but one thing remained unclear… why the statues with distinguishing features were from her old gang? That’s then the small pegasus noticed a plate in the monument, the inscription reads: ¨This is the place where Princess Twilight Sparkle met the small group known as The Glow Defenders. Runaways that once dedicated to crime but eventually decided to defend the innocent from danger. They would help Princess Twilight in her mission to make sure no foal would live without home or safety in Equestria.¨ Since Cozy Glow abandoned Manehattan never bother to knew of what became of her gang, she once justified this as simply using them and no caring about them… in truth she hated that city and wanted to never knew again anything related to the city that gave her so much sorrow, this made her avoid any news about the city, even of what became of her... friends. ¨I’m sorry I never told you this, the first thing my mom and Princess Twilight did was find the gang you once led… what surprised them is that they never saw you as the monster that the rest of Equestria saw you as.¨ Cozy Glow would normally be angry for never being told about this, but the revelation that the group of ponies that considered her their friend and even admire her would help Princess Twilight to bring safety to every runaway was something that made her happy, the group once she wanted to use to get power… became heroes. Cozy Glow turn her head towards Luster Dawn, the pink unicorn was ready to receive a well-deserved reprimand by the filly for hiding the fate of her friends. But instead a jokingly mannered Cozy said something unexpected. ¨I’m okay with this, why ruin a surprise?¨ A laugh between the 2 soon followed. After that Cozy Glow made one last request. ¨Lets go home… Mom.¨