//------------------------------// // Taking Stock // Story: Glow to the Future // by PerpetualMotion //------------------------------// Scales's apartment wasn't a fancy place. It was small and sparsely furnished, the single room containing a simple bed, a small kitchenette, and a just enough seating to host a few guests, if need be. She could have made her home in any district in Canterlot, Twilight had even offered a suite on the castle grounds, but she preferred things here. Canterlot might not have anything resembling the slums of Griffonstone, but poorer neighborhoods certainly existed. The way Scales saw it, if she wanted to be an effective part of the Council, keeping a claw on the pulse of those most in need was essential. That meant immersing herself in the day-to-day life of the common creature, living situation included. She vastly preferred being out and about in the neighborhood to spending time at home, anyway. Unfortunately, going out hadn't been an option for the last few days. Ever since the Swift and Clear "incident" three days ago, she had been strongly urged to stay home and rest by both doctors and Twilight herself. But given the relatively minor nature of her injuries, Scales had more of a feeling that this was just house arrest in all but name. Still, she played along and stayed home, even if it bored her out of her mind. "I could read On Bits and Harmony," she said out loud just for the sake of breaking the awful silence. "Again. For the fourth time." The dragon rolled over in her bed with a groan, going from staring at the ceiling to staring at the window on the far end of the room. She'd had the curtains drawn shut so that she could pass the time by sleeping, but it'd take either magic or medicine to fall asleep at this point, neither of which were something she was about to resort to. What time of day is it even right now? she wondered, deciding that at the very least opening the window and letting in whatever breeze the fliers had decided to make today would be good for her health. The claws on her feet clacked against the tile floor as she swung her legs off of the bed and stretched her arm and wings, the act making her painfully aware that there was in fact only one arm attached to her body as she had to lean just a bit to the right to balance herself. Her prosthesis had been fried by all the magic flying around a few days ago, and Twilight had been insistent on repairing it herself. That meant she'd been left with naught but a scarred nub attached to her right shoulder in the meantime, as well as all the phantom pains and sensations that came with it. "You'd think I'd stop feeling it after a year," Scales mumbled, swiping at the empty air to her right with her intact claw, as if she could scratch the itch that didn't actually exist. She'd barely made it to her feet to cross the room, though, before the air in front of her began to crackle with violet energy. The dragon sighed and sat back down on the bed, waiting for the long-range teleport to finish. "Hello!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed cheerfully upon arrival, though she had appeared facing away from Scales and quickly spun around with a sheepish grin on her face. "You couldn't have knocked?" Scales deadpanned, a few twitches of her tail betraying her annoyance at the intrusion. "Sorry, didn't really have another option," Twilight explained. "The Princess of Friendship showing up on a random doorstep would have been just a tad... attention grabbing. I know you prefer to keep your address off the public record." "...Thanks?" The dragon tilted her head for a moment before it all clicked. "You went through all this trouble to show up here in person. This is when I finally get the big lecture, right?" "Oh, no!" Twilight waved a hoof in a casual dismissive gesture. "I just finished fixing your arm and wanted to deliver it in person!" With a flash of her horn, she summoned the limb into the air in front of her. Scales, however, simply narrowed her eyes. "...And talk to you about what happened. Not a lecture, just a talk. With a concerned friend." "I'm not going to apologize," Scales said, snatching her arm out of the air. "I did the right thing, and you know it. Otherwise I'd be in a jail cell right now instead of a bunch of scientists and executives." "I know, but that doesn't change the fact that the way you did it was very, very stupid." "Everything worked out fine, didn't it?" "Only because you were absurdly lucky!" Twilight said, briefly raising her voice before taking a deep breath and calming herself. She sat down in front of Scales, lowering herself to the dragon's eye level. "The only reason you came out of that in one piece is because Cozy Glow was there, somepony who you hadn't even planned on being there in the first place." "I... That's..." Scales struggled to respond, because she knew that Twilight was right. Her body sagged, and she broke the princess's gaze, staring at the floor instead. "And that's to say nothing of the collateral damage. If the building hadn't been empty, then any creatures left might not have made it out either. As it stands, Sable almost-" "What was I supposed to do?" Scales interjected, her frustration boiling over. "You're supposed to talk to your friends," Twilight said with an odd cadence, emphasizing the final words not out of her own frustration, but from experience, as if she had related this lesson countless times over the centuries. "I know you're chaffing against the idea of working with us, but we all want the same thing: to safeguard the harmony of our home. If you can't put your trust in us to do the right thing, then no amount of good intentions or righteous causes will be successful in accomplishing any of that." "It's... It's just that..." "Go on." "I'm supposed to embody Generosity!" Scales finally returned Twilight's gaze and stood up, her grip on her detached arm audibly tightening. "Protect the weak, fight corrupted power! Do everything in my own power to ensure that the creatures I represent are never exploited and always provided for! But that's not the Council's job. We're the guides, the teachers, the leaders. We can't jump to the aid of every creature that needs us, because we'd have to be in a million places at once." As she spoke, Scales slid the end the arm over her shoulder, the symbiotic enchantment activating upon contact and empowering the machine's servos with a barely audible hum. She held her now functional second hand up to examine, flexing it repeatedly to test it out. "I get it, I really do. But I can't be that kind of leader, councilor or not. I'm not going to stand by when anyone is suffering, no matter how much I have to give to help. I'm sorry. I'll... I'll resign, if you need me to." A deathly silence fell over the room, and Scales's determination began to crumble under Twilight's intense scrutiny. But then the princess began to laugh, a broad smile crossing her muzzle. "I'm sorry, that was a wonderful speech, really," Twilight took a moment to compose herself. "But all that coming from someone who took the name of the usurper-lord of draconic legend as her own? Ironic, isn't it?" The question startled Scales, nearly causing her to stumble back onto her bed as she reflexively took a defensive stance. "Y-you- you know-" "That 'Scales' is not your birth name? Of course. Dragonlord Ember and I are good friends, remember? We correspond regularly about the goings on in our respective kingdoms. You caused quite a stir in the Dragonlands before your departure, though I must admit, I didn't think much of that incident until Maximilian appointed you as his successor and I put two and two together. That old mule had quite the knack for stumbling into the oddest coincidences." Twilight stood and placed a reassuring hoof on Scales's shoulder. "Your secrets are safe with me. All of them. You have my word." "T-thank you..." All of the tension in the dragon's body evaporated as she tried to process this revelation, as well as the last of her enthusiasm. If she knows everything, then... Scales took a step back and plopped back down onto her bed, unsure whether to feel fear, shame, or relief. "Oh, and by the way," Twilight continued, "I'm afraid I can't accept your resignation just yet. In light of recent events, we'll be holding an emergency session of the Council tomorrow at noon, and if you still feel the same way then, we'll discuss it as a group. I have a feeling you'll want to reconsider, though." The princess winked at the overwhelmed dragon, though any further discussion was put on hold by the gemstone embedded in her regalia beginning to blink. "Oh, that's a notification from the hospital! Cozy Glow must be close to waking up. I need to go see how she's doing, so I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" "Okay..." Scales gave a weak smile and a thumbs up as Twilight vanished once more, only to flop over onto her side as soon as she was alone. "Maybe a nap is't out of the question after all." Cozy Glow woke up screaming. She didn't know why, but she didn't have the capacity to wonder at the moment. All that mattered was staying alive and avoiding what her panic told her was a swift and rapidly approaching demise. Flailing her legs, she tried to leap out of bed, but quickly found herself bound to the plush surface by heavy straps tied across her barrel, with two more pinning her forelegs down. None of this did anything to alleviate the feeling that her heart was beating fast enough to explode in her chest, so the struggling continued as several shrill, beeping alarms began to sound. Her stomach was twisted in knots and every muscle in her body trembled violently even when she wasn't thrashing about. "Cozy Glow!" shouted a voice the filly was in no condition to recognize. "It's okay! Everything is going to be okay. You're safe now..." The voice shifted to a far more soothing tone as it went on, but Cozy didn't trust it in the slightest. However, she was already exhausting what little energy she had to begin with, and her struggling began to slow. "Should I administer a sedative, Princess?" a second voice asked. "She may injure herself if this continues." "That would be unwise, Nurse Haven" the first voice (Princess Twilight?) replied. "She's experiencing a magical backlash, mixing in any further influences on her nervous system, magical or mundane, would be even more dangerous. We're going to have to wait this out just a little longer." Cozy felt a hoof placed gently on her side. "The danger has long passed, and everything will be back to normal soon. I know you're strong enough to take this, so just hold on a few minutes, okay?" "With all due respect, Princess Twilight," the nurse interjected, "she's just a child. If she's truly been subjected to the magics you claim she has, mental recovery could take weeks, if it's possible at all." "I don't expect her to be fine right away, but she's far more resilient than you'd think. She'll pull through the worst of this in no time." "T-Twilight...?" Cozy Glow stammered, her wits slowly returning. As the panic faded, some of the loud beeping slowed in kind, leading Cozy to realize that it was a heart monitor. "I'm... in a hospital?" "Indeed. The emergency defensive protocols I built into the Auto Spell protected both you and Scales from the worst of the explosion at Swift and Clear, but the Auto Spell's functions draw upon the wearer's own magical energy when performed. It took everything you could give to keep you from physical harm, and in the end you were drained to the point where your body nearly stopped functioning. If I hadn't arrived when I did, then..." Twilight trailed off, letting the implication hang heavy in the air. "I... I would've..." Cozy tried to finish the princess's sentence, but as the last of her panic disappeared, it was replaced by a new and equally confusing rush of emotion. "What's... happening to me?" the filly sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes. "There was a second part to the Auto Spell's defensive functions," Twilight explained, suddenly becoming far more serious and sullen. "A crisis requires a clear head, so I've come to learn. Love is a powerful positive motivator, but overwhelming fear, anger, impulsive desire... Nothing good ever comes from acting upon those. I had hoped it would never come to it for you, at least not so soon, but I wove a spell into the defensive program that would suppress your emotions whilst the protocol was active. Let you view the crisis at hoof unclouded by your usual... motivations." "B-but now..." Cozy could barely process what was being said. Try as she might to keep perspective, none of it seemed to matter in the face of the bottomless pit of despair she found herself in. Thoughts of failure and futility flooded her mind. She was worthless. Insignificant. Every opportunity she had desperately grasped for in her short life had been wasted. "Princess, if I may," Nurse Haven spoke up, "that level of... precaution... seems incredibly excessive, not to mention cruel... What about this foal could possibly necessitate this?" "It was supposed to be harmless..." Twilight said quietly. "I never-" "You." Cozy Glow interrupted the alicorn, her voice now taking on yet another, much darker tone. "You did this to me!" Tears still obscured her vision, but she could see the purple blob before her well enough to give Twilight a glare that threatened to turn her to stone herself, or worse. This was all Twilight's fault. Everything that stood in her way was the princess's fault, and Cozy would make her pay. "You ruined everything!" "That is just the backlash talking, Cozy Glow." Twilight sighed. "I tested the suppression spell extensively, even on myself. The Auto Spell is programmed to ease off of it slowly when disengaged to avoid just this situation, but in this case it was disabled suddenly because it lost power completely. If suppressed emotions are restored all at once, a backlash occurs and they all force themselves upon the subject in rapid succession, their intensity determined by how long they'd had to build. You've been unconscious for three days as you recovered your strength, so..." The princess hung her head in shame. "I should have put in more safeguards and tested more. I'm so sorry to put you through all this, Cozy." "This... isn't right, Princess," Haven said. "I'm sure there's more to this situation than I'm allowed to know, but..." The nurse trailed off as Cozy blinked the tears from her eyes and finally got a good look at who was speaking. She was a hippogriff, with a bright green coat and deep blue eyes that were locked on the filly and filled with the deepest sympathy. But now, all Cozy could do was laugh. It was hilarious! Everycreature wanted to "help" her! To "save" her! As if being her "friend" was anything other than a means of control. Twilight knew this, even if she wouldn't say it to her face. Her "friendship" came with caveats and laws. Shackles in the form of magic pendants and compulsory employment. It took four centuries, but the eternal Princess of Friendship herself had come right back to the conclusion Cozy Glow had reached by the end of her first semester of schooling! And the kicker? She'd been so soft in the meantime that her subjects were uncomfortable with the truth! The council, the street gangs, this nurse. They all squirmed when confronted with the idea that their bonds were actually conditional, transactions based on assumptions and self-interest. And so Cozy laughed. She laughed and laughed until her throat hurt and Haven's expression shifted from sympathy to discomfort to horror. "I'm sorry, Cozy," Twilight said at a near whisper before turning to the hippogriff. "Nurse Haven, you're right that there are things I haven't told you. If you're to properly care for her as she recovers, though, I think I'm going to need to explain at least some of it. Please follow me." Cozy Glow continued to laugh long after the princess and the nurse had left the room. "Sable, you need to talk to me!" Melodia Whitewhiskers pleaded with the raven as she jogged down the castle halls, trying to keep up with her friend as she flew. "You literally just recovered from some serious physical trauma! Don't tell me that you're perfectly fine!" "No time to talk!" Sable shouted back as she tightly turned a corner. "I need to figure this out ASAP!" "Is this about the whole phoenix thing? It's weird, yeah, but the doc said you're perfectly- whoa!" Melodia skidded to a stop after rounding the corner, nearly tripping over Sable, who had landed in front of a nearby door. "What? No!" Sable said, hopping to the side to avoid the stumbling cat. "I already know I'm not going to find out about that in any book, Twilight told me as much. This is about Cozy Glow." She began pushing against the door with a shoulder, a sight that caused Melodia to stifle a laugh before she stepped in to help. She couldn't help but stare at her friend as she did so, though. The new look is going to take a bit of getting used to, she remarked silently, admiring the raven's newly grown in golden plumage, which mixed with her original black to create a haphazard speckled pattern. The princess's technical explanation had flown over her head, something about a phoenix's flames of rebirth seeming to have strange restorative or transformative properties. No one had ever heard of a phoenix renewing itself in such a spectacular fashion, though, so no other creature had ever been exposed to any significant amount before. Whatever had been done to that captive firebird had created some very... unusual circumstances. That was the theory, at least. None of the Swift and Clear executives or scientists Snowfall's officers had arrested were remotely forthcoming with information. Now if only Sable'd just talk about it... Attempts at an impromptu therapy session would have to wait, though, so Melodia opted to just discuss the subject at paw. "Cozy Glow? The new assistant? What about her?" "There is something seriously wrong with that girl," Sable answered, flying through the now open door. "I mean, she's odd for sure, but 'wrong'?" Melodia wandered in after Sable, taking a look at exactly where she had been led. The room was huge, but mostly empty, lined from floor to ceiling with numerous wooden square panels. A single steel pedestal stood in the center of the room with a green crystal embedded in the top. "You weren't there on the rescue mission, Mel," Sable said, landing on top of the pedestal. "She doesn't know things she should, and knows things she shouldn't. She's cold and calculating, disarmingly cutesy, and a cocky braggart, and I can't figure out which personalities are fronts. And to top it all off, she's extremely competent under life-threatening pressure. She can't be older than, what, twelve? What kind of kid her age has been in those kinds of fights and knows how to handle it? It was bothering me the entire time I was in the hospital. I need to figure this out." "That's... hmm." The Abyssinian didn't have a response to that. Her very first instinct upon meeting Cozy had been that she definitely had some buried issues, but she'd just brushed it off and made a few jokes. But after her outburst that led to the rescue and Sable's experience... "So... what're we doing in here?" Melodia asked, brushing aside the creeping doubts for the moment. After all, Princess Twilight was a good judge of character, right? "These are the archives where my agency files immigration records. There are profiles and reports on everycreature in Equestria with any sort of government position, criminal record, or other notable background here going back centuries. I just need to look up Cozy Glow and learn what's going on." "Why, though?" Melodia asked. "Even if she's had a rough past, that's her business, right? Everycreature has secrets." "I just... I have a bad feeling. I've had a lot of feelings since waking up a few days ago. Vague, weird perceptions of people and places I can't quite make sense of. I think that fire did more to me than just color my feathers..." Sable visibly sagged on her perch. Whatever was happening to her was not something she was comfortable with. "Sable..." Melodia placed a reassuring paw on the bird's back. "You don't have to deal with all this alone. Talking things through with people is literally what I do for a living, you know." "I know, but this takes precedence for now. Thanks, Mel." The raven looked up at her friend and gave her a look that Melodia recognized as her equivalent of a smile. "Anyway!" She shook herself and fluffed up her feathers, restoring her confident posture. "I visited Cozy Glow soon after I recovered, but she was still out cold. Just being near her, though, was... distressing. I can't identify what it was or why I felt it, but mixed with my observations about her from before..." "You had to find out," Melodia finished. "Right." Sable tapped at the crystal in front of her with her beak, and it lit up, projecting a basic search interface into the air above it. "Okay, just have to peck out her name on the holo-keys and it should pull up her info..." After several awkward interactions with the interface that clearly wasn't designed for her to use, Sable had the name entered and initiated the search. A swirling progress icon appeared in the center of the image, and hung in the air for an oddly long time. Twilight's enchantment systems were usually incredibly snappy and efficient, which made the process all the more worrying. The reason for the delay became clear when the results finally materialized. "'File sealed by royal order?' I... what?" Melodia blinked a few times, half expecting the text to change the next time she looked. "I don't think even our records are sealed, at least not completely." "Certainly justifies my concern, at least," Sable said, before returning to pecking at the screen. "Luckily, as Friendship Councilors, our credentials should... There!" She sighed in relief as the text "Authorization Accepted" flashed on screen, only to cock her head in confusion at the next message. "Only a paper copy is available? I know for a fact that this archive has only used paper for backups for at least fifty years now. Normally, the only files without digital copies are those older than that..." Melodia's ears twitched as she heard a subtle click from the far side of the room, and one of the wall panels glowed brightly for a moment before sliding out. It turned out to be a large drawer of paper records. The glow reappeared in the drawer itself, highlighting one folder in particular. "Mind picking that up for me, Mel?" Sable asked. "I... can't exactly physically handle paperwork myself. That's what my office assistants are normally for." "Of course." As she approached, the scent of aged parchment reached the cat's sensitive nose. "Smells like a museum. Either Twilight tucked this file away someplace obscure, or..." Or... I don't even know. Swift paws flicked through the folders until she grabbed the edge of the illuminated one. "Alright, here we go." She plucked the file from the drawer, and the glow faded. "Is it hers?" Sable asked. "Let's see..." Melodia turned the file on its side to read the label. "Seems like it! Cozy Glow, da-" She stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes widened, rereading the plain text to make sure she wasn't seeing things. "...Mel?" "C-Cozy Glow, date of b-birth: Twelfth of the Seventh Moon... 995 CE." Melodia and Sable stood in silence for what seemed like ages as they processed what they just learned, as well as the fact that this was just the label on the file. Incredible dread filled Melodia as she contemplated what might actually be inside. Finally, Sable broke the silence, though only with a low whisper. "Twilight Sparkle... What did you do?"