Council for the Defence (Part 1)
Whoever the visitor was, they did not seem in any kind of hurry, nor did the mare return or any other guard pass by; and while a quick glance around revealed the barred-door cells to be the norm, none seemed to be occupied by any being interested in conversation. So Cozy was left just as alone in her new cell as her old, to slowly dry out and ponder who might want to see her.
Well if she thought of it in terms of wanting, then the answer was obvious: her parents. Unless what happened to Cozy had been kept secret, then the news would have reached Stratusburg days ago, and she had no doubt they would have dropped everything and rushed to their dear daughter’s side. But the fact that they had not appeared yet after a week meant that somepony (likely the Princesses) didn’t want them to see her, and Cozy didn’t see what leverage a pair of ordinary unconnected ponies could exert to change that even if they had the will to (her parents being sadly lacking in that department). So she set them aside and considered other possibilities.
Thinking of ponies who might both have the right connections and care about her, there were her erstwhile friends in the Cutie Mark Crusaders; they were the Professors’ sisters, so a week of mithering might have won them access. But the problem with that possibility was that she could imagine several different reasons why they might want to see her, and each would require a custom-tailored response.
If they had come to show sympathy for a pony they still thought of as a friend, she could put on her most pitiful face and play up her current circumstances - lots of broad gestures drawing attention to her chains and maybe even a look of utter mortification as she asked them to turn away while she used the bucket.
If they wanted to know her reasons then she would hit them with a revised version of her “Empress of Friendship” speech; they had missed the first one, after all, and she was pretty sure she’d figured out which parts she had gotten wrong that time.
And if they were just here to gloat (which wouldn’t be very friendly) she would ask them if they had come to pick out their own cells; after all she couldn’t have done it without them, and it wasn’t like they’d done anything to help stop her in the end.
That train of thought brought her to the ragtag bunch that had somehow stopped her; there were definitely gloaters (and perhaps a sympathizer or two) among their number. But it was at that point that she remembered that the guard had not said “visitors” but rather “a visitor”, which ruled out not only them but also all of her previous options. Unless one of the group members was coming alone…
No, a single pony most likely meant one thing: one of the Princesses, or their lackeys like Starlight Glimmer. They might be coming to find out about her plans, the ones she hadn’t shared with Tirek; that would be good if they asked questions (Cozy could work with questions), but bad if they just used their terrible magic to rip her thoughts out of her head. (Counsellor Starlight was supposed to be good at such spells, wasn’t she?)
Or they might already know all they thought they needed to and were just coming to finally cast her into Tartarus. Some part of Cozy was still surprised that they hadn’t taken her there straight from the Friendship School, but then she had already subverted the place’s security once -perhaps they feared she would lead a mass breakout? Of course, beings too dangerous for Tartarus to hold rarely met better fates: Cozy was old enough to have seen the Mare in the Moon for most of her life, and she definitely remembered her lesson on Discord a few months ago - hadn’t Headmare Twilight been ready (and more relevantly, able) to visit the same fate on “Professor” Rockhoof?
But Cozy was ultimately a positive pony, and so she pushed the fearful thought of eternal imprisonment in stone aside and reminded herself that all of the above had come out on top in the end. And as for Tartarus, it could hardly be much worse than her current accommodations – perhaps even better, as at least Tirek had described a decent view. Oh, perhaps they would put her with him! – well not in with him, he was a stallion and still kind of creepy even if he couldn’t touch her magic as he was now, but maybe her own nice little cage next door, where they could have pleasant chats and come up with revenge plans together but still allow each other some privacy when needed. (The letters had been useful, but Cozy felt friendship was so much better shared in person.)
It was while she was thinking of the perfect words to greet her former pen pal turned neighbour that Cozy heard hooves approaching and turned to look as far up the corridor as her new view allowed. It took longer than she thought – she guessed she could hear them from further away through the bars – and when the hooves stopped she thought perhaps it wasn’t her long-awaited visitor after all. But the pause was just to open some kind of gate – Cozy heard it creaking – and not long after the hoofsteps resumed and a pony – no, two ponies – came into sight. Both of them were unicorn stallions, but besides that they were quite different in appearance and posture. The brown one bringing up the rear was clearly a guard, so between that and her poorer view of him Cozy set him aside to consider the one in front.
The most noticeable feature she could make out was an oversized moustache, though she could also see enough of his mane to determine that either it’s snow white colour was natural or he dyed both; together with his pine-tree coloured coat and crimson lounge jacket, he almost looked like he was trying to bring some out-of-season Hearth’s Warming cheer to the dreary dungeon. An unlikely-seeming interrogator, but perhaps he thought to get her guard down. Or knew mind magic…
Once again there was a flaw here in Cozy’s plan. She was so prepared for all the various things an interrogator might say that she was completely surprised by the newcomer’s actual opening line.
“Miss Cozy Glow? My name is Evergreen, professionally known as Paper Shield, and I have been nominated as your advocate and legal adviser conditional on your approval…” He trailed off and looked back at the guard, who was just standing there. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
This guard’s voice was so to the point he could probably use it in place of a spear. “The prisoner isn’t supposed to have any more contact with ponies than necessary. You can talk through the bars.”
“With you standing there listening? That’s hardly standard…” Speaking of standing there listening, it was the tactic the surprised Cozy had fallen back on. With an unknown, it was always better to get a sense or their personality before choosing her own.
“Hardly a standard prisoner, is she? Unless you’ve forgotten already.” The guard’s horn suddenly lit up and Cozy saw Evergreen or Paper Shield or whoever he was flinch, but the glow slowly died down again without anything happening. “It’s for your own safety.”
The other pony was momentarily shaken, but channelled his discomfort into an aggressive response. “You really don’t think if she could take one of ours she could take both?” His composure returning, he continued, “Not that she’s been proven guilty of taking any, of course. And while I appreciate that you may feel I need a guard and bars to protect me from a fettered foal, I disagree, and I have a right to meet with my client directly and privately…” Cozy was a little impressed – this pony had backbone, or at least too much ego to be easily intimidated.
The guard seemed to either exhausted his patience or taken the implied warning to heart, because he didn’t bother with any more resistance, just pulling out his ring of keys. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. And if you really want private time with her so much … well, keep it professional and knock when you’re finished.” And one hurried shuffle later, both Cozy and the moustachioed stallion found themselves locked in her original cell (which now met the highest standards for both dampness and dankness but lost points for, just like Cozy, smelling strongly of soap).
While Evergreen adjusted to his cramped surroundings, Cozy took her time to closer scrutinize him. She immediately confirmed that his professional name matched his cutie mark as well as his actual name matched his coat, and she casually noticed the logo of Hoity Toity’s Best of the Best Boutique on his jacket pocket – who’d have thought Professor Rarity’s classes could have real life application? So between his obvious means and how much offense he had taken at being contradicted by a mere guard, Cozy felt she had his measure as a pony – one of the surplus of unicorns with more money than sense that this city grew like mould on cheese, albeit one with perhaps with slightly more steel in him than most.
But she was also thinking about the profession he had claimed – an advocate. Now it wasn’t that Cozy was unfamiliar with the idea of lawyers and trials – she had played courtroom board games before, and occasionally been called as a witness in less formal classroom proceedings. But she had never thought of them as relevant to herself, because they were part of the adult world – and she had until recently been quite certain that by the time she entered that world, it would be as the one passing judgement on others.
This was one of Cozy Glow’s biggest blind spots. She had occasionally (before her talent fully bloomed) been punished as a naughty foal, and more commonly (especially later on) brought such punishments on others; they were a known risk of the games she played. And she had more or less resigned herself, over the last few days, to being remembered as a great villain in the company of Discord and Tirek and Nightmare Moon, none of whom had been dealt with by any process of law.
But though the world of such legends may seem closer to a foal’s life than the everyday reality their parents live in, even in such a magical land as Equestria it is usually farther away than it looks. Cozy had come closer than most to making the leap from playground games to higher matters, but she had been so focused on reaching the very peak in one move that she had completely overlooked the middle ground that she had now fallen to – had never even entertained the thought that she might be treated as a criminal.
On the one wing, it was embarrassing – criminals, especially those stupid enough to get caught, were a group that she like most ponies had looked down on with condescension. But on the other, at least this was no petty crime – given that great villains didn’t usually go to court, it was if not the worst crime in Equestrian history at least surely in the top ten. And on the tail, that meant that her existing experience with handling authority figures probably wouldn’t be much use here – a tearful apology wasn’t going to cut it and she couldn’t put together any good blackmail from inside a cell. At least, not without a friend on the outside… one with money and power all the better. And that brought her back to-
“Miss Glow? Sorry about that – allow me to introduce myself again…”
-the effete stallion who had finally managed to assume a reclining position against the opposite wall and was now repeating the pitch he had started with. This time, however, Cozy cut in at “advocate and legal advisor” with “So like, my lawyer?”
“Yes – a Princess’s Counsel in fact – that’s the highest grade of lawyer.” He gave a wry, self-effacing chuckle. “Well, to be honest there isn’t much which sets us apart from ordinary barristers, save in exceptional cases like this.”
“Exceptional? You mean it’s special? Or does that just mean I’m in really bad trouble?”
“Well, both.” The stallion assumed the “lecturing-in-one’s-field” posture and tone that any School of Friendship student knew well. “Ordinarily a filly like you would go before a Junior Court, which can only issue limited punishments – your parents would be the ones officially mounting your defence and any lawyer would be one they hired – likely a solicitor who specializes in foals.
“But since this case involves a treason charge - technically still a capital offence - that means it can only be tried in the Highest Court, before a Princess.” Cozy could just hear the capital letters. “And the rules for those kinds of trials haven’t been changed since the days when adulthood came with one’s Mark.” Evergreen gestured at the tower on her flank, clear and visible once more after her bath.
“And another one of those old rules is that only a Princess’s Counsel,” he waved at himself “can speak for another pony in the Highest Court. You can always choose to speak on your own behalf, of course, but I wouldn’t recommend it – if you demonstrate any legal aptitude you come off as having been expecting to get in, as you said, “really bad trouble” and if you don’t you look like you aren’t taking the whole thing seriously. No, it’s better for you to appear cooperative but naïve, and that means letting me – or, I suppose, some other Princess’s Counsel – do most of the talking.” He sounded quite assured of her agreement.
Cozy decided to challenge that assurance. “How many Princess Councils are there, and why should I use you?”
“There are about two dozen Counsels in all, but not all of them would be willing to represent you – I’d say about a quarter, if we don’t count the ones who would take the case just to lose it.
“As for why me in particular, besides being willing to give it my best shot I’m also not lacking in talent and experience if I do say so myself – I admit I’ve never handled a case of quite this scale before, but my record -“
“Is for arguing in front of normal judges, right? Not the Princesses?”
“Well, yes, but for one thing it isn’t only the Princesses we have to convince – and anyway, I graduated from the School For Gifted Unicorns, so while I may not know Her Majesty as well as, say, Princess Twilight does I-“
“I thought ponies from there went on to be mages? How come you’re a lawyer?”
“Shall a pony not follow his destiny? I earned my mark defending classmates against accusations of cheating, so it’s only natural I put that talent to use protecting ponies. Especially the innocent and falsely accused of course, but sometimes the guilty need a shield as well.”
“So which do you think I am?”
“It could be the biggest frame job in Equestrian history as well as the biggest crime, but not only is that a hard sell based on the evidence I’ve seen, I’m also an uncle.” The last bit seemed like a non sequitur, but he quickly clarified, “I pride myself being able to tell which of my nieces actually broke the rules when even their parents can’t; and that means being very good at telling when a filly really doesn’t know what you’re on about, when she didn’t do it but knows who did, and most relevantly, when she absolutely did it but would rather prefer to get away with it.
“Now if you want my professional advice – some ponies will tell you that the best lawyer is one who always believes in your innocence, but that’s generally only true when they’re right. A lawyer who tries to defend a client without knowing all the facts is like a pony trying to walk across a cluttered floor with his nose in the air – he’s going to trip up on something, maybe several somethings, and end up hurting. If he knows all the facts, however, it’s as if the ceiling was turned into a mirror – he can step around all the inconvenient truths without ever actually looking at them directly – that is, bringing them up in court.”
“But if I was guilty of everything they’re saying about me, why would you want to defend me?” Cozy couldn’t imagine herself being very popular among unicorns.
“I don’t think any pony could be guilty of everything they’re saying – I’m pretty sure you didn’t let Tirek out the first time, for instance – and as I said, I have nieces about your age. It doesn’t hurt that Highest Court cases don’t come along every day – just having argued in front of the Princess has a certain cachet in lawyer circles.”
A vaguely convincing answer, with just the right mix of sentiment and self-interest, but Cozy wasn’t sure that she bought it. Still, challenging it directly wouldn’t accomplish anything – she’d just have to keep asking questions and watch for signs of other possible motives.
“Are there any ponies speaking up for me?” She didn’t really expect any, but it would be a nice surprise.
“Some – mostly the sort who can’t believe that when a cute filly faces down griffins and dragons and changelings she’s on the wrong side. Some who wouldn’t believe the palace if they said pegasi could walk on clouds, either – they think you’re some kind of scapegoat for a plot of the Princesses that went wrong. And of course, your parents are telling everypony who’ll listen that you’re a good filly and this must be some kind of mistake or trick, not that anypony believes them.” Evergreen sighed wistfully. “I’m almost envious – I'm half expecting mine to disown me for getting this involved in a "scandalous affair" .”
That was more than Cozy had expected from her parents, to be honest. But if that was the case… “How come they haven’t come to see me?”
“Ah, well, I’m afraid that as you heard before the Crown has ordered that you be kept in strict isolation outside of necessary visitors such as myself. Something to do with your, um, “unknown and potentially dangerous magical capabilities”.” Unlike when he had mocked the guard before, he said the last part with a forced casualness, as if he was very determined not to sound interested in it.
So that’s your angle. Cozy almost laughed out loud – she hadn’t expected to strike gems so quickly. But was it a personal bid for power, or an unconventional interrogation tactic? Best to lead him down that path carefully.
“Um, I don’t exactly have Meadowbrook’s Eight Enchanted Items here to work with. Do they think I can just cast spells? I’m not a unicorn.”
“Neither was Meadowbrook. There are ponies in every generation whose magic transcends the usual potential of their Kind, just as there are ponies who embody that potential.” Well Cozy couldn’t argue with that, not when most of the teachers at the School had been one or the other. But if he thought her a natural oddity like Professor Fluttershy or Professor Pinkie, what was he looking to gain?
(Actually, the thought that the Princesses knew as little about her capabilities as anypony did about Professor Pinkie’s made the previously extreme-seeming security suddenly look like an underreaction – Cozy herself had never been quite sure that the magic drain would weaken the party pony or Tartarus hold her, although in typical Cozy style she had dealt with this doubt by ignoring it and going ahead anyway.)
Evergreen wasn’t finished, however. He leaned in, close enough to almost whisper, “Confidentially - that means I’m not allowed to tell anyone – can you do any magic as you are?”
From a rational perspective – that of the calculating game player – it would make sense to lead him on and manipulate him with hollow promises of the forbidden magic he sought. But Cozy’s rationality had been rattled of late, and the implication that any magic a mere pegasus could cast a Gifted Unicorn could quickly copy pushed several of her buttons. (Also, neither the past week in the cell nor the fact that she hadn’t relieved herself in nearly a day made for calm rational thinking.) So Cozy went with a much shorter-term, petty manipulation instead; if it drove him off he would never have been useful anyway.
“The unknown and definitely dangerous magic I know quite well” - He couldn’t hide the signs of optimism on his face - “is based in redirecting flows of power. You don’t strictly need legendary artefacts or a harmonic nexus” - By now he looked like a griffin who’d spotted a lame, fat sheep - “but some kind of power source and amplifier is a must - bare stone and one barely-fed pony isn’t going to cut it.” His eagerness receded a little, but not much - after all, for his purposes it could be better if she couldn’t achieve results in here but he could outside. Time for the shock tactics.
“So no, the only magic I’ve been doing in this cell is transfiguration” - His face grew hopeful again - “turning week-old lettuce into fresh horseapples!”
He winced back from the sudden leap in volume, while Cozy doubled down, “So if you’re only here to pry out my magical secrets, I’d really rather you just left – I’m just about ready to start casting today’s smell – I mean spell.” She punctuated the word with a half-step towards the bucket, for once grateful for how the heavy chains added weight to even such a small movement. It was a win-win bluff - if he actually fled she could at least see to her quite genuine bodily needs, but more likely…
As she’d hoped, his face narrowed defensively. “Now I don’t think there’s any need for such rudeness. As I said, a lawyer needs to know the facts-”
“The facts are these; you saw a filly pegasus upstage you – upstage everypony – in magic. And that’s all you hornbrains care about, isn’t it? So you had to prove to yourself that you could do anything I could do. Am I not right?”
“About as wrong as can be, and rather tribalist to boot,” came the sardonic reply. “Though to be fair, its probably my fault for concealing one of my motives; I was rather foolish to think that such a cunning little filly wouldn’t notice the signs – or that a filly who could learn so little from the School of Friendship wouldn’t totally misinterpret them!”
In a slightly calmer voice, he continued “I want to know about your magic because it’s what’s got ponies so afraid of you – even Tirek could be fled or hidden from, but taking everypony’s magic no matter where they are? Between that, communicating with Tartarus, and hiding right under a Princess’s nose for months a lot of ponies have convinced themselves that you’re some kind of demon in foal form. Fighting that perception is key to any defence.”
“So it’s all for my sake?” Cozy didn’t even try to disguise her sarcasm.
“Okay, maybe I am interested in an unknown form of magic that allows such impressive effects – who but a fool wouldn’t be? If such spells could be worked regardless of the casters power, the benefits to Equestrian civilization-“ He reined himself in, for once noticing or perhaps guessing at Cozy’s lack of interest. “In any case, a little incentive is hardly a bad thing. Do you know how many of my learned colleagues would have taken this job meaning to lose? With how many ponies you’ve made your enemies without ever meeting, you can hardly afford to be picky about why your allies are on your side.”
A good point … but if she looked desperate then her “allies” would just use her anyway, like she’d used Tirek. And she doubted he’d quit now, not when he was already planning her defence. So a bit more pressure …
“Oh, I understand incentives. That’s why I want to see you actually helping me before I give you anything. So unless you’ve got some trick in your pockets- “She was already turning away.
“Your wings! I’m pretty sure that I can get your wings released!” That got Cozy looking at him again, at which point he sheepishly qualified “Well, seventy percent sure.”
“I’m pretty sure the only way they’ll take off these straps is if they decide it’s safer to just cut …” She trailed off – there were some fates no pegasus would speak of lightly. “Or are they saving that for after the trial?”
“Permanent deflighting is employed only when strictly necessary, even on convicts, and I believe they only take the pinions anyway,” said Evergreen, in as dry a voice as if he was talking about the weather. “Now if you had a horn it might be a different story – given what you’re accused of, some might find cutting it off fair exchange – but your spell never quite reached the point of raining ponies from the sky, and it’s not as if you used pegasus magic to commit any crimes, did you?”
“Well I was flying for some of it…” mused Cozy, before realizing she was still missing some pretty relevant information. “What are the charges anyway? You haven’t told me yet?”
Evergreen slipped straight back into lecture mode, his near dismissal quickly forgotten. “Well, the main charge is what we call a trunk offense – that is, most of the other charges are hung on it like branches, and you’ll usually be convicted on either all or none of them. The trunk here is “Inducement of Disaster”, to wit, mass magical depletion, and then they’ve piled on everything from High Treason – since the Princesses were drained too – on down.”
He floated a thick scroll out his jacket pocket. “The full list would take all day to read-” he unfurled the scroll all the way to the cell’s ceiling to demonstrate, then rolled all but the top part back up “-so I’ll just go through the most important ones.” He skimmed over several line before beginning to read, “Disrupting the Celestial Cycle – that’s an old one, Making False Act of War, several counts of Ponyslaughter-“
“Ponyslaughter?”
Evergreen seemed to interpret Cozy’s surprised response as a challenge. “I’m sure I can argue them down to Negligent Equicide in pre-trial. Which still isn’t a good thing, but- “
“I mean – ponies died? And they’re saying it’s because of me?”
Evergreen’s face took on one of those annoying looks of pity Cozy hated, the ones that grown-ups got when they thought you were too young to understand why they were angry. “Draining all magic from a nation which relies utterly on it for day-to-day living on both the national and personal scales – yes, Cozy, ponies died.” He sighed. “Well, at least any compunctions I had about adopting a defence strategy based on your foalish naivete are gone. Speaking of which, we should probably get around to talking about defences – I can’t stay all day.”
“First, are there any more important charges?”
“Not on the trunk I don’t think – just an endless parade of middling to minor ones I suspect are largely meant to tire us out challenging them – but there are a few standalones, largely related to your actions after casting the spell.
“Now you’ll be pleased to know that there’s nothing regarding your little rebellion against Chancellor Neighsay – he wasn’t acting on any legitimate authority in the first place and I don’t think they want to charge all your schoolmates as co-conspirators.”
“Figures.”
“Unfortunately, that still leaves Unauthorized Communication with Tartarus, Conspiracy With an Enemy of the Realm, Incitement to Riot and several counts of Attempted Murder for Princess Twilight and her friends, as well as Starlight Glimmer.” He paused and looked up. “Not going to make a fuss about that one?”
For a moment Cozy thought to contest this charge too, but on reflection… “I was just trying to get them out of the way … but I suppose I didn’t actually expect all of them to survive. I probably shouldn’t say that in court though, right?”
“Ah, defence strategies. Now we’re talking.” Evergreen seemed much more enthusiastic about this part. “Now the first possibility to consider is an insanity plea - it’s a surprisingly old form of defence-“
“I’m not crazy. I’m Cozy.” And then, after a moment’s thought, “But if I made them think I was mad, what would happen?”
“Well, it really depends on the timing. If we can convince them that you were never sane, or at least not recently, then the charges would all be dropped and you would be sent to a special hospital for treatment. If, however, we only manage to convince them that your mind broke upon your arrest, then you would get the same treatment without any reduction in charges – they’d just throw you back in here the moment the doctors cleared you.”
“What kind of treatment?” A hospital sounded a lot more comfortable than the other likely options, and she was sure she could string a few doctors and nurses along.
“Well it depends on quite what you’re diagnosed with, but usually some mix of medicines and reformation spells – unlike normal criminals, the criminally insane can’t refuse them. Oh, I should probably check your feelings on them too- “
“Nope. And no to insanity too, if it means I can’t say no to them.” Cozy wasn’t quite sure what a reformation spell did, but while this “treatment” might be good for madponies it would likely have the opposite effect on a sane one like herself.
“Are you sure? If it’s your … issues with unicorn magic that’s the problem, then given the scale of the case I could probably appeal for a use of the Elements of Harm-“
“Definitely no to those.” Cozy never wanted to go near that cursed tree or it’s fruits again, and she suspected the feeling was mutual. “Look, it’s my defence, right? Nothing that ends in drugs or spells. I’d rather be turned to stone.”
“Well, without the Elements involved that’s not a particularly likely result, but it’s still not good.” Evergreen looked a lot less confident now. “You must understand, while every sane pony has a legal right to refuse reformation, few actually do – it makes you look unrepentant, which can in turn lead to a harsher sentence.”
“Harsher than what? What kind of punishment does all that- “She gestured at the scroll with her muzzle “-add up to anyway?
“Well as I mentioned, some of the treason laws still refer to the death penalty- “
“You did?” Now Cozy was a little worried.
“Yes, I said it was technically a capital offence.”
“I just thought that meant it had to be tried in the capital, because that’s where the Princess is.” Now Cozy was a lot worried, and also uncomfortable; her wings were trying to stand up under the straps.
“It means both – for the last two hundred years or so before she ended the practice, only Princess Celestia could sentence a pony to death. Many believe that that was why she did away with it, in fact – because she had to make enough life-and-death decisions in the rest of her job.”
“So ponies can’t be put to death anymore? Even for treason and stuff?” Cozy’s body relaxed – a bit.
“Well technically it’s at the Princess’s discretion – most laws for lesser crimes have been rewritten since, but not the treason ones. And so these sorts of trials do tend to bring the ponies who want to turn back the clock of justice out of the woodwork.” Cozy wasn’t reassured.
“But you must remember that Princess Celestia is the one who banned executions in the first place, and even in all the centuries of her reign before that I don’t believe she ever condemned a foal. “ The lawyer finished confidently.
I thought that for this trial I was a mare, was what Cozy didn’t say; Evergreen seemed quite sure about this and she would only get more uncomfortable dwelling on it. Instead she went with an option she had already prepared herself for. “So if she won’t kill me what will she do? Send me to Tartarus?”
“While there is certainly quite the vociferous faction agitating for that, their cause is based in a misunderstanding, or perhaps just blind fear of your “unknown powers”. Tartarus is not part of the legal system, but rather a place for the containment of monsters too dangerous to imprison conventionally.”
“Really? Like bugbears and chimeras?”
“Well I hear there may have been some recent issues with overly broad categorisations of “monster”, but certainly no pony can be declared one without the Princesses revoking their Equestrian citizenship, and if they were going to do that then there wouldn’t be a trial in the first place; monsters can’t commit crimes, per se.”
“You're sure?” Cozy was actually curious about this – was that why no previous great villains had been tried?
“There’s established precedent – the Princess did it quite a bit in the first century after she stopped signing death warrants. Never since, though.”
“So not death, not Tartarus … Any other good news?”
“I’m afraid that’s the last of it.” The stallion seemed to have lost a lot of his earlier optimism. “Given the severity and number of your crimes as well as your refusal of reformation, any conviction without a remarkable amount of mitigation would mean a sentence of life in prison without parole. Most probably to be served in Tartarus’s mortal cousin - Grayvale Permanent Isolation Center.”
“So I’d just sit in a box like this until … I die?” Cozy was great at thinking in the medium term, but she had never really considered beyond that, certainly not to the extent that the words “life in prison” suggested.
“Well a bit of a step up from this in some ways – the cells in Grayvale definitely have beds, and if I recall correctly they’re bringing in flush toilets next year – but worse in others – most of the prisoners are kept permanently dosed up on bindweed, and they still see more wing clippings and horn cuttings than anywhere else in Equestria. Are you sure you wouldn’t be willing to reconsider reformation spells?”
Cozy weighed up the apparent options – a spell twisting her thoughts to some warped ideal of Harmony, or spending every day in a box, flightless and without magic, until she simply lost the will to go on – and rejected both. She was Cozy Glow, her story was not going to end like that. She just needed – it would be helpful to convince Evergreen of that, too. Perhaps if she played on his pride…
“I’m sure any old lawyer could get their client off with a reformation plea. But you’re a Princess’s Counsel, right? Defending ponies is your special talent. So surely you don’t need a crutch like that?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Hmm… Well, if playing ponies subtly is your talent then you’ve lost your touch – but I do have some ideas, and to be blunt I don’t get a worse sentence for trying and failing. So as long as you feel like taking the risk, I’ll give it a shot.”
I play ponies whatever way works – sometimes obvious is best. “For me it’s being reformed that’s the risk, given that death and Tartarus are off the table. But this Grayvale seems pretty bad too, so what kind of ideas?”
“Well obviously our foremost advantage is your youth, especially since you look even younger than you are. You can play that up too right – come off as less mature than you have here?”
In her sleep. “Yes mister lawyer sir – I’m good at playing pretend. Now am I in grounding trouble, or-” she gulped “-spanking trouble?
He nodded approvingly. “Yes, just like that. If ponies see you as a naughty filly who got in over her head, then it’ll be harder for them to imagine sending you to prison at all, let alone Grayvale.”
That answer seemed a little odd – what did it matter what ponies thought, besides the Princesses. But Evergreen was already continuing, “And there’s more to youth than just innocence – by its very nature it means you have most of your life ahead of you, and that should be an advantage when it comes to sentencing.”
“How? Is there a limit on how long a pony can spend in prison or something?”
“Not exactly … but how long you’re staying affects where you stay. Ponies get thrown in Grayvale so that everyone can forget about them; forget the terrible things they did, forget that for the most part they refused reformation, or worse, committed more crimes despite it, and ignore the things done to them that would make most ponies sick. They can do that because even the very few that aren’t lifers will only ever be moving out into a retirement home.”
“But if we can knock out some of the charges, blow the Princess away with mitigation, or preferably both – well to show any leniency at all they’d have to drop below life. And even something like a thirty or forty-year sentence would see you free before you’re an old mare, so they’d have to send you to one of the normal prisons that help prepare ponies to eventually rejoin society. There are one or two which specialise in reformation refusers, and have a decent success rate with them too.”
“Your most optimistic guess is thirty years?” For the fourteen-year-old filly, it was hardly easier to imagine than “life”.
“Well prisoners with good behaviour – which I know you can at least fake – can usually apply for parole after serving half of their sentence. So the actual best I can imagine, presuming conviction, is fifteen years or so – I know, still longer than you’ve been alive, but you’d be out by my age, and I assure you that I hardly see my best days as behind me.”
So things might not be as bad as Cozy thought – but she wasn’t ready to give up so easily, even if her bladder would prefer she brought the meeting to a close sooner rather than later.
“You said “presuming conviction” – is there any hope of me getting off?”
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Okay, this story is pretty interesting so far, and also a breath of fresh air over those 'she's just an innocent child, take pity on her' stories that seem to be all over the place. This one took all of her crimes with the severity they deserved, and also made Cozy Glow feel in character so far, and didn't sugarcoat her psychopathic nature. So good on you.
Also, the way you described her prison, it's interesting how you made Tartarus of all places feel like a preferable alternative.
Looking forward for the actual trial to start.
9427242
Thank you for commentating! (You're pretty much my first!) The show kind of downplayed the consequences (pegasus magic, for instance, didn't seem affected) but even the first incident we saw was a near enough miss that it's hard to believe three more days of it wouldn't be fatal to somepony. And when you think of it that way, even canon's take makes a bit more sense...
(Now on my Fics I'm Probably Not Equipped to Write list - a story where a genuinely Starlight-level repentant Cozy has to face these same facts. Could go some pretty dark places...)
As for the relative comfort of the dungeon*, Tartarus and Grayvale - well, it depends on how you look at it. I do have some vague plans for a fic that follows the canon ending, so I've developed some ideas regarding Tartarus - as for Grayvale, Cozy is crossing her hooves we don't see it in this fic or any sequels (among other reasons). All of them are are worse than a regular Equestrian prison though, which is why at least Evergreen is looking at Cozy ending up in one as an acceptable win condition.
*Note that Cozy is in a maximum-security cell; the others are maybe a little better? It doesn't help that the guards necessarily number among the victims of her crime, though I'm sure they all promised they could deal with her objectively...
I admit that Cozy glow shouldn't be in prison, yeah I know she did one of the worst crimes ever to commit, but she is still a filly. I wouldn't be surprised if she escaped and none of Equestria could ever find her
9449128
I think its a little too late for an escape at this point, especially since she doesn't have any sleeves to be hiding things up. And as for not sending her to jail, when she tore magic from all of Equestria and isn't even sorry about it... well, she hopes that she can get off, but it won't be easy.
I'm liking this story so far. It's a nice, realistic take on how Cozy Glow would be handled in a legal setting, and I look forward to seeing where this goes, especially given my issues with how it was shown in-series.
I'm all for her seeing harsh punishment for her actions - filly did commit treason - but I do believe that she deserved a day in court.
9460274
Yeah - I actually saw a pic of her behind bars on Youtube, so I was ready or even excited for that - we've had villains dealt with a lot of ways in this show, but none had been jailed yet. But that it was a powerless filly in Tartarus, and especially the casual way everypony treated it... well, it was one of a few problems I had with the finale.
I will try to give Cozy a fair trial, even if it takes a while.
9460302
Well I look forward to seeing more of the story, even if I disagree with the inevitable result.
9460308
Is the result so obvious? And if you dislike it, what would you prefer?
9460323
Oh, sorry, let me explain. I'm assuming that you intend to follow the canon route and have Cozy Glow sentenced to Tartarus, rather than a different outcome. I'm okay with that if there's a fair trial involved, but my own personal preference is that her crimes merited execution, regardless of her age. The filly's a sociopath, after all, and clearly doesn't care if anyone is hurt or dies as a result of her schemes.
9460552
Well, if you notice her reaction to some of the charges you might be a bit less sure about that. As for her fate ... I really doubt I would have started writing this just to recreate canon, and none of the Princesses would be comfortable reviving a long-buried death penalty even if it wasn't a filly involved.
Ultimately, they want to believe that she can be turned around, like so many before her - Celestia because she loves all her little ponies, Luna because she made just as big a mistake at a far greater level of maturity, and Twilght because Cozy was her student and she couldn't see that anything was wrong with her. Even if she's beyond saving right now, I don't know if they'd give up so quickly...
9460570
And there's nothing wrong with believing that someone can turn their life around. Trouble with me is that I'm a cynic, and I've yet to see any reason to believe that Cozy could...at least, within canon. Maybe within your story, but not within canon.
9460574
Well, we've only seen her in the immediate aftermath of her failure. As Evergreen points out, she's got a long life ahead of her if it isn't shortened by the guillotine (or some vengeful victim). Maybe in ten, twenty, thirty years she can turn herself around, or maybe she can't or won't. But do you really see the Princesses not giving a powerless filly a chance, when they took such a long shot on Discord?
(And bear in mind that even if she had repented immediately, she probably wouldn't have gotten off without prison time - as it is, she's looking at a life sentence if her lawyer doesn't pull off a miracle. I hope the treatment I've given her so far persuades you I don't intend to just let her off lightly.)
9460574
It is interesting to see the variety of opinions - contrast your objection to the comment above yours, as well as my own and canon's positions ... it seems that Cozy Glow inspires a broad range of possible responses.
9460591
Oh, I don't think you're letting her off light so far, don't worry. And yes, I do see the Princesses giving Cozy Glow a chance to repent, but again, whether or not she takes it is up in the air.
9461176
Well, nothing wrong with that, is there?
9461179
Well, she's already refused her first chance (what she'd have got for taking that is described here) and I'm not sure how well she's going to do in court ... she doesn't seem very sorry. But repentant or not, I think both killing her and letting her off scott free would be pretty extreme reactions given the circumstances.
9461181
Indeed - perhaps I shouldn't have set boundaries on the possible results, but precisely because there are so many opinions I wanted to eliminate the one's I found implausible. Not that there aren't reasons why execution or Tartarus make sense - I've come up with a few myself - but I think there are more reasons why they would never fly.
9469705
I 100% enjoyed how you wrote her throught processes, the way she talked about the ponies who wronged her, how her cutie mark is no good without other ponies, fascinating stuff! I think for some reason I really liked her plan, and how her ultimate goal was just to see another pony. Really cool, I'd read the next chapter but im supposed to be working on a paper haha
9469707
Ah, studies eh? Well I suppose you're doing better than me - I've had one paper or another due since before I started writing this!
So you're more into the mental aspects than the physical?
9469727
I'm definitely more into the mental aspects of it yeah. I really like stories where the victim/slave ends up becoming super loyal, or their mental health is degraded to the point where they dont fight back anymore. Its a really odd interest of mine but its fun so :Shrug:
9469883
Yes - it's interesting because it can be seen as a bad ending or a kind of happy one. Altough I admit that my preference is for them to remain themselves even in the face of suffering - so, technically, the exact opposite?
Cozy's self was never that sane to begin with though, and solitary confinement hasn't helped. Although I don't see her as stopping fighting any time soon - and certainly not swearing loyalty to anyone. Sorry, it's just not in her nature.
That said, what do you think it would take for her to reach that point of "rehabilitation"? I'm sure you have some ideas - PM me them if they're too intense for a Teen rating.
9469904
Oh yeah for sure, I didnt mean that it would apply to cozy, just meant my interests in general :P
But, I do think that a little filly is quite impressionable, and her unstable mental state, as seen when shes arrested as well as the last few seconds of the episode, could be exploited. I think somewhere in her mind theres a natural urge for her to lead, and to have minions. Logically that would mean it would be harder to get her to pledge loyalty.
Despite that I'm sure somepony could push her to the breaking point, push her far enough for her to jsut totally give up on her plans, and her cutie mark at large. Rewrite her, if you will.
Thats just me rambling so I am not sure if that makes any sense :P
Yeah perhaps - youth are impressionable. How would you go about it? The same methods of confinement, deprivation and punishment as seen in your fics? Or would she require a different approach?
(Sorry if I sound creepy.)
9469917
You can't creep me out lol, no worries!
FIrstly, I dont wanna make you write something you dont wanna, so if you already had a plan for this story you should 100% stick with it cause this is looking amazing so far.
If it was me, though, I'd probably target her natural desire for friendship. Admittedly ive not watched the entirety of that episode. but as far as I can tell she wants friends, and she doesnt care if she has to do bad things to get them. It would take a really smart pony to tap into that, and sort of morph her desire to make friends into a desire to please. But yeah youd probably have to stick with some of the core principals of mind break, and stick with reward/punishment. Kinda like a dog, lots of positive reinforcement. Not sure how that would work since she herself is a pretty good manipulator, but who knows. In my fic, fear is a big part of it, but cozy doesnt seem like shed be vulnerable to that. I think her social butterfly aspects are better for putting pressure on her. Something like locking her away for periods of time, all alone, when she messes up.
I think you might unfortunately have missed the imortant part - Cozy only wants "friends" because she sees that as a road to power - absolute power, if she had her way. Certainly she wouldn't be interested in friends who were meant to act as leashes.
The key aspect (at least for my Cozy) would be pride. It's why you couldn't turn her into a groveling pet without breaking her mind comletely - but if you just wanted a useful servant, then working on her ego while at the same time regularly demonstrating your superior power would be best. You don't even have to arbitrary - she'll give you plenty of excuses for harsh punishments. You just have to remember that this process will make her hate you - and even if you're stronger right now, she once nearly brought down Equestria. Watch your back - she's basically a Sith apprentice.
At least that's how this might go if I was aiming for something like one of your fics. As it is, I admit that these opening chapters are the peak of Cozy's suffering for now - as we move into the actual trial I need her competent to mount a defense. As for after the trial - well, that depends on the sentence. If she gets the maximum - life in Equestria's worst prison, probably in permanent solitary without magic - well, even the first word of that could break one as young as her if she properly thought about it, let alone after the first year or so when she realises that this box with little more than a bed and a toilet is it - forever.
On the other wing, she could always get off
and be lynched. Hope springs eternal and all that! Even if the ending we're hoping for isn't the same one Cozy is.(to top off this massive reply, what do you think the effects of her canon fate - left in a small, bare cage in Tartarus next to Tirek - would be?)
9470099
Yeah you’re definitely right, guess I should watch the episode huh?
I don’t know if Equestria would punish a filly like cozy, they’d want to rehabilitate her as their #1 goal. But your fic is gonna be great, I’m sure of it
Edit: also idk, I feel like thanks to the show ending soon, this is the last we’re gonna see if her. It’s game over for her, she’ll be stuck there I think
9470133
Probably.
What we saw in canon certainly didn't seem like rehabilitation!
i.ytimg.com/vi/dCPehAASrus/maxresdefault.jpg
Seriously though, she'd only get that kind of sentence if she was determined to be irredeemable. Normal Equestrian prisons are much more comfortable and rehabilitation-oriented.
And I didn't mean from a show perspective - I meant from a Hoovier perspective. A filly in a bare cage in Hell with the devil locked up next door seemed like something which might be up your alley.
9470168
Hmmm not sure, I feel like she'd just go completely bonkers. Plus you cant really do anything with her unless you had another character there to mess with her, who wasn't also locked up. Someone to hose her down, or pose as a friend before they hose her down for fun. But, going completely crazy doesnt leave much room for a genuine reaction, or emotion, so idk about that/
9470287
True - she isn't exactly sane to begin with. On the other hand someone who plucked her out of Tartarus somehow might have some interesting raw materials to work with...
9470829
Very true, cant wait to see what you have in store!
9470842
Well as I said, in this fic things will get better for her in the immediate future. But then things were looking up for Abby in the middle of her story, weren't they?
And regardless of what happens here, I do have some other ideas of things that could have happened to her...
9470863
They definitely were looking good, she just had to go and ruin it huh?
I admit I don,t really get what "Twilght"was thinking there - a version of the story from her perspective might be interestng. And one wonders how she would reeact if her next pet makes the same claim - it would be factually true after all, and Twilght does like her facts....
9470868
Well I specifically like having twilight be a complete monster, so in that case she was thinking about how Abby had grown too fond of twilight, and thought herself worthy of calling a princess like Twilight mom. So, its twilights duty to shut that down fast, like a good parent haha
9471429
Is there a reason you dislike her so much? Or is it a twisted kind of liking? I've imagined evil and slave-owning Twilights before, but your's honestly stretches a bit beyond my suspension of disbelief.
Well, I suppose the whole thing could make sense if she's basing all her decisions on different and contradictory pet ownership books. "This one says you should share your hobbies with your pet. This one says that over-familiarity must be harshly and immediately punished. Oh, and this new volume says.... absolutely do not teach them magic? Why weren't you released last year? I knew I should have waited a bit longer!"
The next pet she's breeding will be Twilight's daughter - would she react the same way to it saying so?
9471470
Nah I dont dislike twilight, shes super cool! I just see her as someone who freaks out easily, someone who has been shown to do some pretty crazy stuff. In my fic, Twilight plays this role, her fear of losing her friends is what turned her so psychoticaly against trixie, and in her own twisted way she wants to subject trixie to the pain and misery she felt at the thought of losing her friends to Trixies deadly magic. For the Abby story its sort of different cause mr lewdchapter wrote that for me, and I didnt have an exact plan set out for what she would do, but I can tell you I enjoyed it a ton lol.
Yeah its a bit of a stretch, definitely. But since its a fic, and purely for my enjoyment, I dont see anythig wrong with stretching her character a bit
I guess. If you care, my "evil Twilight" would certainly do the things in your fic, but she wouldn't find any meaning in it if Trixie wasn't aware of the context - the whole point would be to rub in her face who's the strongest mage in Equestria and who's a Weak and Powerless toy. And I just can't see her acting that way towards Abby, because Abby is completely incapable of challenging her or even wanting to - she knows her place as a plaything, and a toy with magic is so much more fun than one without.
(To put it clearly, my evil Twilight is a sadist who enjoys hurting others and kills without remorse, but she reserves breaking torture for those who get in her way and it doesn't suit her to kill, at least immediately.)
9471525
SOunds like a super cool version of her
9472191
She's very much evil!Celestia's Sith apprentice. One of my many stories that will never be written is that of her and her definitely-not-friends-but-not-quite-as-much-lackeys-as-she-would-like, the ponies who would be the Bearers of the Elements of Tyranny if Empress Celestia was foolish enough to allow such a power to exist outside her control. I have various thoughts, just don't know if you could make an actual story from it without it collapsing under it's own darkness.
Still, if you want to know more about this Twilight or others from her world just ask (though the answer may be by PM).
15 years in prison, but then she did commit serious crimes.
9482686
Do you think it's a fair sentence?
I have not seen the episode. What did she do?
9482849
Tried to drain all magic from Equestria so she could rule it, trapped the Mane 6 in Tartarus...
Well, that was very serious and would have greatly harmed the unicorns in particular as well as destroying any magi-tech that the ponies have, so she does deserve prison. I would have given her (since I'm assuming she didn't kill anypony as it's the show) a sentence of between one year and life in prison, with the chance to go to a parole board once a year that is not biased against her.
That’s a clever take I never thought of.
9509040
Well they didn't take Tirek to court, did they? (Although I suppose it's not strictly necessary when he's an escapee.)
I never saw Tartarus as a part of the Equstrian penal system, but rather something more, well, mythological. And if it's actually a prison, you'd think they'd hire more staff than just an easily-distracted watchdog...
9509048
Yeah you make a good point. I’d been thinking of it like Terre Haute but that metaphor clearly fails.
9509054
Terre Haute? Googles...
Well it seems the main diffetence is that one of them is an institution (one which pinoneered rehabilitation in US prisons, at that) while the other is a dumping ground. And we already pretty much knew that, because if there was actual staff beyind a dumb mutt Tirek's escape would have been detected a lot sooner.
Stories on Fimfiction are uniquely identified by id, so there's no restriction on titles. I have a relevant blog post on the subject
For some reason despite that note, I was still going in expecting a silly comedy about a kid being put on trial, so to see it being played seriously was quite a turnaround.
And I gotta say, I really didn't expect to get Cozy Glow as well as I did in this fic. This feels like a perfect extension of the scheming, unrepentant manipulator that she is in the show and it's really satisfying to read. I particularly like how you manage to write her as both chessmaster and child at the same time, and how her natural talent doesn't always compensate for her inexperience. She's a really solid character. 
Also, this word.
Ooh la la~
But no seriously it's an interesting question. If reformation spells were on the table... but we readers don't know exactly what they entail. A magical lobotomy isn't what I would call "getting off" though. So how could Cozy Glow get aquitted of her charges, without a 15 year sentence? The only way to do that would be to go after the "trunk offense" somehow: Inducement of Disaster. Cozy Glow could make a good argument I think that she's being framed as the fall guy for a more sinister government operation, because she wasn't the one who brought those magical artifacts to the school. Those exact specific artifacts were donated all at once by Princess Celestia, to celebrate the creature diversity or something. Cozy could rightfully claim that she was not informed of the potentially lethal effects of that particular spell, and while she might be a terrible person who was short sighted and greedy for power, she wasn't the instigator of the disaster, but through her greed was manipulated into doing so by the true culprits: Tirek and Princess Celestia. Plus there's already a faction trying to claim it's a conspiracy of the Crown.
Sort of like how Celestia manipulated Twilight into becoming a princess, by sabatoging her with Starswirl's dangerously unfinished spell.
That would work in almost any context except for that damnable law which pretty much necessitates that Princess Celestia herself is going to be the judge, jury and executioner. If Cozy could spin the situation to look like Celestia is trying to cover up her own dirty laundry though, Princess Celestia might have a strong motivation to bargain with the filly, rather than cast the sentence and damage her own reputation in a way that could lead to insurrection, rebellion and war. It would have to be approached very carefully though, because outright accusing the judge of being the perpetrator won't work. The subtle suggestion of what the consequences would be if the judge were the perpetrator though, that might let Cozy get off with a slap on the wrists.