//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Dealing With Parents Can Be Tricky // Story: The Return Of Cozy Glow's Parents // by deadpansnarker //------------------------------// For a few hallowed seconds after Cozy Nights’s surprise appearance, there was stunned silence. You could’ve heard a pin drop. And a few actually did, as a shocked Derpy in the background was distracted from putting up posters advertising the ‘Big Coronation Party’ the following day. That was all it lasted, before absolute chaos took over. (Speaking of chaos, poor Discord missed out on the fun as it’d been leaked to the press he was responsible for the recent bad guy team-up and subsequent windigo incident. Currently holed up alone in Limbo, he ‘wasn’t taking any calls’. Whatever that meant.) First, Twilight’s security ponies, embarrassed at being caught on the hop so visibly, made a combined rush for the trespassing pegasus...  Then the crowd, desperate to view the emerging hubbub on stage, began pushing and shoving each other until mini-riots began breaking out everywhere... Finally, the future alicorn ruler herself seemed oddly static behind the stage curtain. It was almost as if things had been going too well: an interruption of this magnitude was bound to happen if you studied past history. Which she did. To often obsessive degrees. Still, Twilight couldn’t let her overworked guards handle a situation she could take care of all by herself. Or allow members of the public to be hurt in the process. And she certainly couldn’t permit her favourite dragon to be treated so shabbily by a total stranger. His own friends had neglected him enough in the past, now was supposed to be the time to make everyone aware of his true value with a big fancy promotion ‘n all. Like most best laid plans though, his big occasion hadn’t exactly gone the way she wanted. Which ticked her off far more than having her own crowning gatecrashed. “Everycreature! Stop what you’re doing this instant!” Twilight finally took initiative and used her magic to hold both Cozy Nights and the soldiers about to jump the intruding pegasus, whilst her ubiquitous Canterlot Voice had the desired effect of reducing the formerly rambunctious crowd to motionless slack-jawed listeners.  “Thank you…” the unperturbed alicorn shook her head at the unruliness, before turning her attention to the new arrival. “Now, let’s see if we can’t unpick this mess. Who are you, and why did you see fit to flatten my assistant with such unnecessary force? What’s he ever done to you? Is it something to do with your daughter…?” “Twi, I swear! I’ve never seen this mare in my entire life, least of all have anything to do with her family!” Ever the peace-loving dragon, Spike vehemently protested his innocence as he got off the ground. “Does she think I hurt her daughter, or something?” In direct defiance of both Twilight and Spike’s queries, Cozy Nights purposefully turned her face in the opposite direction to audibly humph. “I’m not answering any of your stupid questions, until you take me to my Precious. You can torture me, throw me in jail or even sing off-key, and I won’t crack an inch. Come on, you monsters… do your worst! One time, I accidentally cut my hoof on some underwater coral. I was attacked by a shark, but escaped by drinking my own blood! That stupid fish couldn’t smell a thing! So go on, try to break me. I”m w-w-a-aiting...”   Spike and Twilight glanced at each other in astonishment. Torture? Jail? Drinking blood?! They’d never met anypony quite like Cozy Nights, and didn’t quite know how to respond to her deranged rant. Twilight was the first to respond to Cozy Night’s miniature meltdown, but before she could fully process the speech she wanted to give about the lack of awareness of mental illness… ...Guess who appeared on the scene frantically waving his hooves around, like a hyperactive windmill? “Stop!! I’m so sorry about my wife, but Cozy Glow always was a difficult subject for her, even whilst we were away. If things had worked out differently, our child might’ve joined us on our international mission across the sea to preserve all endangered marine life. B-But alas, things didn’t turn out that way…” “Hang on.” Twilight couldn’t help but cut in, after hearing the big revelation. “D-Did you just tell me…” “...That you’re Cozy Glow’s parents?” Spike felt he was owed the chance to ask first, considering he was obviously the most injured individual here. “That’s right!” Ocean Glow grinned happily at the mere mention of his filly, demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge regarding recent events. “Where is the little munchkin, anyway? We couldn’t believe it when we spotted that statue of her just after sailing in! We thought she’d gone forever! What’s with the dramatic inscription, though? Did she break a window, or something? Even though me and my wife are flat broke right now, I’m sure we can get jobs to pay you back, just as soon as we’ve readjusted to civilization again.”  Well, this was an unexpected turn. If J.K Yearling had thought of this plot twist, her publisher would’ve edited it out for general release for being too far-fetched. Once more Spike and Twilight turned to share a look, though this one was noticeably longer than their last silent interaction. Somecreature was gonna have to tell him the awful truth. ...And by extension his wife, currently suspended in the air whispering obscenities under her breath to the equally frozen guards. Wouldn’t that be fun. Unlike earlier however, this was one task Spike was more than happy to delegate to his equine ‘superior’, and his pointing claw gesture said as much. Deciding that there was no time like the present, it was with a deep sigh that Twilight at last released her bodyguards and Cozy Nights from their lavender prison. She waited until the pegasus mare had rejoined her husband, before preparing to deliver the solemn news. “I’m very sorry to have to tell you both this, but a lot has happened since you’ve been away. It all started one day. I was just sitting at my desk doing paperwork, when a shrill voice from the ground introduced itself. It was a young filly, holding up what I now know to be forged permission slips from her parents allowing her to attend my School Of Friendship. Her name was…” ………………………………………. “You mean to tell me… that ‘statue’ in Ponyville with my daughter posed alongside those two heathens looking terrified, isn’t a sculpture? It’s actually her??!!” Twilight had wisely decided to suspend coronation proceedings until this unfortunate matter had been cleared up. As the crowd had temporarily dwindled to get a drink or snack, Celestia and Luna had joined her, Spike and Cozy Glow’s parents backstage. The presence of the legendary Princesses hadn’t seemed to overawe a furious Cozy Nights though, who continued to vent even as her husband remained taciturn and aloof. “I don’t care what she allegedly did! To treat a child in that way is cruel, barbaric… and just plain wrong! It’s all wrong! Is this what the mainland has become in our absence? Because, if this is your idea of ‘society’, maybe permanent solitude on a desert island isn’t such a bad idea after all!” While Twilight and her royal companions struggled to respond to that impassioned rant with any kind of diplomacy, Spike had no such scruples. Unlike his other friends, he wasn’t out to sugarcoat anything to try making the new arrivals feel better, and he demonstrated this clearly as soon as he was given the chance. “Are you kidding me, lady? Cozy Glow nearly ended us all! Twice! She’s never displayed the slightest regret for any of her actions, and is the most manipulative and twisted pony it’s ever been my displeasure to meet. As throwing her in Tartarus didn’t work, maybe petrifying her forever will keep her out of trouble and teach others a lesson…!” Whether it was Cozy Nights’s unprovoked physical assault of him before that made Spike so unusually candid, or hearing such wild claims made by the mare without any of the normal pushback from Twilight, Spike was unrepentant in his scorn for the filly. But whilst Twilight seemed shocked by the intervention of her commonly mild-mannered assistant, and Cozy Nights seemed ready to launch herself at him again (it was okay though: he’d be ready to counter with fire-breath this time) another well-known figure stepped forward.  “What Spike has just said may be harsh, but it is nevertheless true. It was the right decision to encase Cozy Glow in stone to keep Equestria safe.” Celestia laid it on the line, seeing as the dragon had done the dirty work in explaining how most of them felt. “We’re very sorry it had to be this way, but frankly her, Chrysalis and Tirek’s unconscionable actions left us with little option but to pursue such a drastic measure.” “Yes. I sensed not a hint of remorse in the head of that child. She’d repeat her evil actions again and again until successful, if we hadn’t taken the course we did.” Now it was Luna’s turn to have her say, and her thoughts mostly echoed that of her sister. “I am of the view that even spending a thousand years on the moon wouldn’t convince her to change her ways. And as you probably are aware, I am uniquely qualified to comment on such matters.” “I-I have to concur with my fellow Princesses.” Twilight seemed the most hesitant of the trio, but went along with the groundswell of opinion regardless. “You weren’t here when she fooled us all into believing her lies. Or nearly stole the magic from everycreature, rendering them helpless. Or turned everypony against each other, so we almost never spoke again. Or tried killing us with alicorn powers she had no right to possess. Where were you while all this was going on, anyway? I know you mentioned something about conservation work on a desert island, but why was your daughter not with you? As her mother and father, you have serious questions to answer yourself as to why she wasn’t supervised and how she turned out the way she did.” Once Twilight was on a roll, the questions had just slipped out. But they seemed to have a profound effect on both Cozy Nights and Ocean Glow.  Cozy Nights suddenly stopped her aggressive posturing to stare down at the floor with shame, whilst her quiet husband seemed to take this as a cue to at last open his mouth. “While Cozy Glow always had… problems since birth, we never imagined it would look out like this.” Ocean Glow shook his head with sorrow, and even the light emitting from his Cutie Mark of the sun rising over a calm sea seemed to fade in unison with his mood. “I suppose we both owe you an explanation as to what happened. It began one clear blue day in Manehattan around a decade ago, when I’d just sailed into port for the first time in months and laid eyes on the most beautiful mare I’d ever seen…”