“This official meeting of the Friendship Council is called to order,” stated Twilight (while also checking off to her side to make sure that Spike checked the call-to-order announcement item off the checklist). “In addition to our regular roll-call, we are also honored to have with us today Princesses Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as Chancellor Neighsay of the Equestria Education Agency.”
And, of course, she also checked to make sure that Spike had checked off the announcement of the special guests in attendance. Which he had. Such a good dragon!
“We know Twilight!” called out Rainbow Dash. “They’re standing right there. Plus we, like, all decided to hold this meeting together just fifteen minutes ago…and we could’ve started it fifteen minutes ago if you hadn’t insisted on taking the time to make a checklist for the meeting!”
“Proper decorum must be followed!” rebutted Twilight. “There are standards and procedures for this!”
“Hmph,” mumbled Neighsay, “at least she knows how to adhere to standards and procedures when it comes to meetings.”
“Actually, she’s the one who wrote the standard practices for official non-emergency meetings of the Friendship Council,” said Spike, as he produced a bound book titled as such. “Volume One, fourth addition. Now updated to include Starlight, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Sunburst, and the Pillars of Equestria as honorary members and with accompanying encyclopedic cross-reference guides.”
Everypony present (excluding Twilight) proceeded to roll their eyes.
“Ahem!” coughed Twilight. “The first, and currently only, item on the agenda,” and she subtly double-checked the list over Spike’s shoulder again just to make absolutely sure that was, indeed, the only item on the agenda, “is what we should do about Cozy Glow.”
“She is currently in the protective custody of the guards,” said Luna. “However, they are equipped to handle threats of a more…mature nature. They are not full-time babysitters.”
Applejack raised a hoof. “What about her parents?”
“Spike checked into that,” said Twilight. “Unfortunately, it led to more questions than answers. At a cursory glance, everything in her paperwork and admissions forms seemed legitimate, but after digging a little deeper, there were some discrepancies. We think she may have faked the forms somehow.”
“The paperwork says she’s from a town called Coltsville near the Eastern Plains,” explained Spike. “But we sent some pegasus guards to check it out and it’s almost entirely an earth pony town. The only pegasi there are the ones on the local weather team, and according to what they told the guards, they’d never heard of Cozy Glow or her parents.”
“I should have checked her background more thoroughly when she was admitted,” sighed Twilight. “But everything was so busy and there were students from all over Equestria and beyond, and we didn’t have the time or resources to do a face-to-face interview with all the parents; we had to rely heavily on paperwork and word-of-muzzle.”
“I tried a truth-seeker spell on her,” said Starlight, “but she just answered my questions with vague comebacks. I’d ask who her parents are, and she’d say ‘ponies’. I asked where she was born, and she said that because she was a foal at the time, she had no memory of it. I asked where her parents said she was born, and she said ‘a hospital’. Which hospital? ‘The one in town.’ What town? ‘The one my parents said I was born in.’ What’s the town’s name? ‘It’s what the town is called, duh!’ Arrghhh! We just went around in circles for hours! It was infuriating! I knew she was a bit devious, but it was like she had been coached on how to avoid telling the truth!”
“By Tirek, no doubt,” remarked Luna.
“That’s another thing,” stated Applejack. “Tirek said he and Cozy Glow were pen-pals, but it ain’t like Tartarus has got a mail system. Just how in the blazes did Tirek contact her in the first place? Or did she contact him somehow? She ain’t a unicorn, so it couldn’t’ve been magic …could it?”
Twilight shook her head, “We just don’t know. Like I said, there are more questions than answers right now, I’m afraid.”
“Well, in the meantime, why not simply try to reform her, darling?” asked Rarity. “You’ve had great success with similarly calculating individuals in the past.”
Everypony (and Spike) glanced briefly over at Starlight, who tried to keep her blush to a minimum.
“Or, you know, use the Elements and shoot her with a magical friendship laser?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t think she wants to be reformed,” remarked Twilight. “At least, not yet. And she isn’t under the control of any evil spell or dark force that we can detect. She’s just an ordinary pony filly…a nefarious, manipulative, scheming little filly, mind you, but a filly nonetheless. Using the elements on her to change her against her will would be reckless and irresponsible.”
“Well,” Spike interceded, “we can’t just keep her locked up in the castle basement forever. What’re we gonna do?”
“Equestria doesn’t have any facilities, or indeed, expertise, to deal with a foal of this nature,” said Celestia. “And as humane as our adult penitentiaries and reformation facilities are, they’re still no place for a filly. We simply have no experience dealing with these sort of actions when they come from a mere child.”
“It’s doubtful that transferring her into a traditional foster family would work either,” commented Luna.
“If I may make a suggestion?” proposed Chancellor Neighsay, gathering everyone’s attention. “Perhaps sending her to Tartarus would be a fitting punishment.”
The map room was silent for a moment, all of them staring at Neighsay, before Rainbow Dash decided to throw in her two bits.
“Yeeaahh, well, good thing we didn’t ask your opinion.”
“Rainbow Dash!” admonished Twilight, before addressing Chancellor Neighsay in a calm, almost schooling, tone. “I know that Cozy Glow manipulated you just as much as she did us, and that her actions put you, and all of Equestria, in grave danger, but we’re her teachers and her guardians while she is here. And until we have any indication about who her real parents might be, it falls on us to come up with an appropriate punishment given her age and circumstances.”
“One that doesn’t include lassoin’ up a little filly to the depths of Tartarus for all or eternity,” said Applejack pointedly, before adding, “even if she is a thorny little rascal,” with a mumble.
“But she just tried to lock all of you up in there!”
Fluttershy interjected sternly (which for her, was really saying something), “But that doesn’t mean we should do the same to her!” she huffed. “Tartarus is no place for a little filly. It’s not even a nice place for monsters, especially those poor creatures that aren’t really even monsters to begin with!”
Celestia nodded her agreement, “We’ll be putting you, Fluttershy, in charge of making arrangements for the creatures’ release into suitable environments away from populated areas. Frankly, we should have tried it sooner, but at the time, the beasts were terrorizing our lands and we had little way of understanding their motivations or how to placate them. But with your help we can hopefully soon begin emptying Tartarus of all but the vilest of fiends who truly deserve to be there.”
“Of course! I’m sure Treehugger and Mr. McColt would love to help with the animals too!” exclaimed Fluttershy.
“Which, again, doesn’t include little fillies, no matter how varmint-like they may act,” said Applejack.
“And plussss,” added in Pinkie Pie, “leaving a villain to stew in their own anger-juices alone for a thousand-year-exile in a magical prison doesn’t really seem to be a good way to make them feel better about themselves or understand the true meaning of friendship.”
“I can attest to that,” stated Luna.
“So can Discord,” said Fluttershy.
“And Stygian,” added Starlight.
“Hardly seemed to have made a positive impression on former-Lord Sombra either,” piped in Rarity.
“But then again, she wouldn’t be totally alone!” Pinkie squeaked in an odd mix of excitement and sarcasm …excitcasm? Sarcasment? “She’d have Tirek to keep her company! You know, her best-est villainous bestie that helped her plot to take over Equestria and gave her crucial technical knowledge to achieve her evil scheme that she otherwise would never have ever been able to figure out? The two of them together, right next to each other, for all eternity with just their thoughts and the hungry hankering for revenge!”
Dash scoffed, “And then there’s that.”
“…and also probably the hungry hankering for sweet, sweet cupcakes because the food in Tartarus probably totally stinks!”
“What she needs,” said Twilight, “is somepony who can teach her how to be a real friend, but also that she shouldn’t use the power of friendship just as a means for her own benefit.”
“But if not even the revered Princess of Friendship can successfully teach her, and at a school dedicated solely to the magic of friendship no-less, and instead ends up only being manipulated by her, then what hope is there?” asked Neighsay.
Twilight tapped her chin with her hoof, her eyes momentarily gazing upward in thought. “What we need is a mentor who hasn’t just dealt with ponies…or other creatures…like Cozy Glow before, but has also been in the same position that she is in now. Someone who can help Cozy understand what it’s like, while also not falling for her manipulations because they, themselves, have had experience both being manipulated and manipulating others.”
“So all we need to do is find a pony…or creature,” Neighsay said the word with hesitation, even given how recent events had altered his view of non-ponies, “who used to be a spoiled, manipulative, and power-hungry brat with dreams of world conquest, but now is capable of teaching likewise villainous malcontents the magic of friendship, all while somehow being immune to having their own magic drained should Miss Cozy Glow have any further tricks up her hoof. Good luck with that!”
Twilight and Celestia looked at each other, and smirked.
----
“WHAAAAHHHH!”
With a loud umph, Cozy Glow tumbled head-over-hooves against the hard ground.
…except, after a moment, she realized that head-over-hooves was the wrong terminology.
“AACCCKKKK!” she screamed again. “What are these things?!”
She wiggled the weird little appendages…digits?...where her hooves used to be. They looked almost like the claws of a dragon or griffon or hippogriff, except more round and less…claw-like? It was at this point that panic was starting to set in, and not just because her hooves had been seemingly replaced by these…things…but also because she couldn’t feel her wings fluttering against her sides anymore.
“They’re called hands.”
She looked up into the face of…she wasn’t sure what it was. It stood on two legs, wore lots of clothing, and had orange fur…no, make that skin…and also had an orange mane. The face was all scrunched up with a tiny nose, like somepony had smashed the muzzle with a pancake skillet.
The creature was leaning over her, smiling in welcome and extending a…hand?...down towards her in…greeting? There were several other creatures standing alongside the orange one, each one the same body type, but with different clothes and each one a different skin color.
“Welcome. My name is Sunset Shimmer, and you’re going to be living here with me for a while.”