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// Chapter One: Starlit 
// Story: Bizarre Happenings 
// by Art Inspired 
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Evening birds chirped all too peacefully over what most had started calling the Statue of Disharmony. The bright, twinkling stars above illuminated the clearing. 

Tirek looked just as elderly as the first time Twilight and her friends had beaten him, and although Queen Chrysalis was lunging outwards with a spiteful gesture, her former hatchlings had made her a tiny shrine that nestled underneath her torso. One of the teddybears that sat in the grass held onto a note.

It read, "Really wishing you had just taken Starlight's hoof all those years ago. You'd be surrounded by love, had you only known..."

Her hatchlings had never stopped loving her, even when she had forgotten how to love them. It's a morbid sight for anypony to see the three of them just laying outside the Canterlot walls, and petrified in harsh stone. Some ivy had even began reaching all the way up Tirek's backside, and was starting to touch the shoulder of Cozy Glow who still looked as if she were trying to get out of being grounded.

Every once in a while, a pony or some other type of creature would come and visit them, and reflect on life before leaving them once again to the tranquil solitude of nature. This was to be the fate of ponies who just couldn't find peace within their hearts. They had no such shot at any type of redemption, either. Unlike Discord, Celestia and Luna had already made it quite clear that they were to never be released under any circumstances.

"Under any circumstances," Starlight said to herself while she stared sharply into those lifeless, gray eyes that belonged to Cozy Glow. "What if... I wanted to tell her..."

Her lips quivered as she tried to find the correct words. "To tell her..."

She looked away for a few seconds, but then, she looked back at Cozy, and said, "What if I needed to tell you how disappointed I am in you?"

She scoffed, and began groaning as she realized that nopony was even around to hear her explode. 

"You... You..." A salty tear escaped, and that's when Starlight yelled, "I THOUGHT YOU'D END UP LIKE ME!" She writhed, "I thought you were going to reform, and be our friend, but I was wrong! I was so wrong!"

She cried to the statue for what seemed like forever, but when the tears stopped, Starlight still kept expressing herself. That's all she felt like doing at the time. "You were my student... You were... Twilight's student, too, and you... And then you..."

Again, Starlight scoffed, but no more tears came. "You never would open up to me about your past, either... You just... shut everypony out, or kept changing the subject, and only kept us at hoof length just to be able to tie us up with rope in the end. How? Just... how could a little filly be so evil?"

She placed her hoof on Cozy's chest, and longingly asked her question again, almost as if she expected an answer. "How?"

Of course, Cozy didn't respond. That would've been her response had she not been a statue anyways. Anytime anypony ever asked about her past, Cozy Glow would never open up about it. Nopony knew who her parents were, where they were, or how they went horribly wrong with their daughter. All Twilight, Celestia and Luna ever found out about Cozy Glow was just how cruel she could be. Any positive scraps of information about her existence were never found, making this filly virtually irredeemable. 

Perhaps that was Starlight's biggest problem, though. Not knowing for sure how she might've been able to go about helping Cozy Glow in the first place. It's not as if nopony had tried. It's that everypony had tried, and nothing good was ever discovered about her. As time went on, ponies and creatures alike stopped feeling bad for the filly, and eventually, everypony came to accept just how vile she must've truly been.

Everypony except for Starlight.

She continued to stare at Cozy Glow. An odd sensation shot through her frame, and she thought to herself, "What if I freed ONLY Cozy Glow?"

She breathed, and glanced around to double checked to make sure that nopony might see this. "It is the middle of the night," she said aloud. "Besides, she's a nine year old pegasus. She won't get away from me, and I'll just turn her back to stone once I'm done."

She beamed at that bratty look on Cozy's face, and flared her horn. She had even brushed up on how to perfect her spell by making sure Discord wouldn't be alerted. All Starlight had to do was cast the spell. Magic was released from her horn, and as it broke away the stone pieces surrounding the filly's body, Starlight was surprised to see Cozy Glow lose consciousness immediately.

Cozy fell to the floor with a rather hard thud, but Starlight tried not to care all that much. "Well, that was... dramatic."

She waited from a response, but didn't get one. Something just didn't seem right. Cozy's eyes were closed tightly as if she were asleep, but the look on her face seemed even odder to Starlight. "Cozy?" she asked.

"Uhh," the filly managed to say.

"Good, you're awake." Starlight merely watched with an unamused expression as Cozy tried to stand up. "I brought you back in order to tell you... that..."

Cozy opened her eyes, and murmured, "Where... am I?"

Starlight rolled her eyes, and said, "Back in Equestria. You were turned to stone, remember?" Cozy didn't speak. Instead, she just kept staring at Starlight with a dazed and utterly confused look in her eyes. "As I was saying," Starlight voiced with an attitude, "I brought you back... to tell you just how disappointed I am in you."

Starlight gritted her teeth, but the words just weren't coming out as harshly as she had originally intended. The next words, however, to be spoken by Cozy Glow would be enough to send Starlight over the edge. "Wh- what're you t-t-talking about???" She took another couple of glances all around herself, and then said, "Why are you disappointed in me? D-did I do something wrong?!"

Starlight howled, "Did you do something... WRONG!?" 

She then glared at Cozy with such rage that it made Cozy try to hide behind the statue while whining with fear, "Ah!" However, Starlight made sure not to give Cozy Glow a single chance at escaping. She grabbed Cozy with her magic, and yanked her back to where she had been sitting rather forcefully.

"Where do you think you're going?" Starlight asked rhetorically. "I'm not finished with you yet! You..." She kept looking at the scared, trembling filly, and then said, "Oh, you're good."

With her hooves covering her head, Cozy Glow stated, "I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't do anything! I can't..." She blinked a few times, and finished, "I can't remember anything!"

Starlight laughed while once more rolling her eyes. "Please, don't even try it, Cozy. I've had enough of your acting!"

"I'm not trying anything!"

"You remember your name, don't you?" Starlight kept her attention aimed at Cozy Glow. "Don't you???"

It took her a moment to answer, but when she did, the filly's answer sounded all too convincing. "Well... yes, I remember my name... but... I don't know! The rest is all a blur!" She stood up with dirt smeared all over her hooves and muzzle. "I don't... even think I know who you are!"

Starlight backed away while a dark chill overtook her frame. She was starting to believe Cozy Glow, but still, it had to be a trap. At the time, there was no other explanation. There was nothing to support this odd story that Cozy Glow was presenting to Starlight, so with no other choice, she hastily planned to turn Cozy back to stone.

"I'm... not listening to you," Starlight said. "You're lying! That's all you do... is lie!" Tears began escaping. "I'm not going to let you manipulate me, and you should be ashamed of yourself!"

She ignited her horn with her sheer anger, and lightning surged around Cozy Glow. Starlight had at least expected her to end her shenanigans at the very last minute, but instead, Cozy Glow screamed with fright, and she had begun to cry as well. It was one of the most surreal feelings to see her tears start to turn gray, and while she sat there on the ground, Starlight's mouth opened ajar. She started to shake, feeling strange about what she had just done.

"No," she said to herself while tightly shutting her eyes and turning her head away from the statue. "It's a trick..." She opened her eyes, and felt even more tears run down her already moist cheeks. "I should... just go."

She turned away, and began her trot back towards the gates, but something stopped her. That something was the distinct pitter patter sound of water dripping onto the firm soil below. Starlight slowly turned back around to see what the sound could've been, but nothing could've prepared her for what she'd see.

Cozy Glow's tears were seeping right through the solid stone that encased her, and for a good minute or so, Starlight simply stood there, petrified by what was happening.

Then, nervously whispering, Starlight told herself, "Well, now I have no choice. I have to tell Twilight what I've done."