The Child, Part 3
Princess Twilight descended the stone steps into the lower levels of Canterlot Castle, well below the ground level of most of the city, saddlebags securely fastened just beneath her wings. Just outside the Canterlot E.U.P. barracks, a unicorn in a white overcoat stood and waited for her.
"Doctor Graymare," the princess greeted.
"Princess Twilight, your majesty. If I may be so bold, part of me is starting to wonder if it was the best idea to accept this assignment." Graymare stated, as they descended yet another flight of stairs deeper into the mountain limestone.
"Doctor, I believe my invitation was quite clear."
"Your invitation said I was to keep her unharmed. But if you are expecting me to deny her sedatives for some of the pain she's feeling... I believe more than one interpretation would have that as violating my Hayppocratic Oath, your majesty."
"Doctor, if we lessen this pain she is in, it will do more harm than good. Now, did you get to her in time? What did she do?" Twilight asked as they began walking down the corridor.
"She bashed her head against the back wall. After that, all sides of her cell are now shielded and dampened; the enchantment will last a week before the spell needs recharging. She got a cut on the side of her head, I cleaned it up as best I could. Other than that... Loss of appetite, chest and stomach pains, nearly constant crying... None of it places her in immediate danger. But I still must state my objections for the record." Graymare told her before the corridor took a ninety degree turn, where they stopped.
"Your objections are hereby noted, and will be recorded in the official report. Unless you are offering your resignation from this assignment, I'll take it from here for now. Resume your hourly wellness checks when I leave." Princess Twilight replied.
Doctor Graymare gave her the most reserved disapproving look he could, but nodded, and turned around and walked back the way they had come, while Twilight continued around the corner. This was the dungeon's solitary wing, and it was almost always empty.
Save, now, for one.
A soft whimper increased in volume as Twilight moved down the dimly lit hall. She passed the half dozen empty cells, and slowly walked up to the last one, and gazed into the cell, where a pink pegasus filly was curled up on the stone floor, shuddering. She heard the approaching hoofsteps, and turned to look; dried blood staining a spot on her head just below her left ear. The bows in her mane and tail had been taken out, and her usually neat curls were messy and tangled.
"What have you done to me?!?" Cozy Glow screamed as she glared at the princess, getting to her hooves.
"I've given you the one thing you've lacked your entire life. Empathy. A conscience."
"Why?!" The pegasus demanded, eyes red and swollen from hours upon hours of crying.
"Because it's the one choice I could live with. I couldn't bring myself to end the life of a child, nor did I want you to spend an indefinite amount of time in stone, believing you did no wrong."
"And, how, exactly, is this pain, this hurting, any better?"
"So you can get an idea of the pain you caused others. Of the lives you ended or ruined, like your mother, your brother, and your father. You caused that fire, didn't you?"
Cozy Glow winced in pain, which was all the affirmation that the princess needed.
"So leaving me in stone wasn't enough? You have to see me like this? Then you're no better than the monster that I am..." Cozy cried.
"You think I figured out a way to heal your psychopathy, and enlisted the help of my most powerful friends because I wanted to torture you with a conscience? Is that what you think the Princess of Friendship would do?"
Cozy didn't answer, doubling over at another guilt-induced stomach cramp.
"No. I did what I did because of how young you are. Because I believe that with enough time, you can take this conscience, and learn how to cope with what you did, learn to accept it, and find a way to move on from there, and still have a life to live. In the meantime, this pain and guilt you are suffering through will be the punishment for everything you have done. It's up to you to find a way through it. Because I'm not going to let you starve or smash your brains against the wall for an easy way out."
Twilight paused, and looked down at the weeping filly in the cell in front of her.
"Because of what we've done for you, you can find a way to not be a monster anymore."
"And how do you know this is going to get any better?" Cozy asked through gritted teeth, tears falling down her already matted cheeks.
"I don't. I can only hope. Hope that you can take what we've given you, and fix yourself; heal yourself, and become a better pony."
Twilight's words brought another pang of guilt into Cozy's chest, which she clutched in pain.
"I hope that helps you sleep at night seven stories up..." Cozy wheezed.
"Your father has relinquished all responsibility for you. I've taken legal custody of you, Cozy Glow. I am literally all you have right now. So you know what? When it comes to you and your very uncertain future, that hope absolutely does help me sleep at night." Twilight firmly told her.
Cozy said nothing intelligible, and instead let out a painful wail as she turned away from the princess and curled up on the cold stone floor.
"Best of luck." Twilight said, barely hearing herself over the filly's cries, before she turned and walked uneasily back down the hall that she had come down, with Cozy Glow's wailing echoing off the stones and walls of the otherwise empty hallway.
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Well damn. Guess that's one way to go about it.
Personally I would've liked to hear a little more about Tirek, but we really only know so much about the Centaurs, so I guess you didn't have really much to work with, huh? There is his Fiendship is Magic comic, but that really can only offer so much.
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Agree with you on the comic, Fiendship is magic showed some background on villains but the show barely. I mean we don't know if Scorpan is alive or Tirek’s kingdom still exists. Who's to say that Scorpan’s betrayal created a war between the 2 species? I mean not every good thing creates a great result, sometimes a dark turn for the worst. The show mostly sugarcoats everything for only good results.
This was a good story. If that sequel ever gets made, I vow to myself to check it out when I get the chance/
Funny how Chrysalis, the one who rejected friendship the most got the best outcome considering we don't know how Tirek is doing.
As for Cozy, damn thats rough. Hopefully she'll get through this and eventually live a normal life (if not one filled with more guilt then what Luna probably has). Maybe Twilight or some therepist could help her out in a more direct way.
This was a great story and I would loev to see some kind of a sequel to it.
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Already actively working on it.
Damn what my mind thinks up on a crazy work day.
Oh dang, that’s it? It’s over?
Oh dang.. chrysalis got her Hive back, Tirek was sent back to his homeland in handcuffs under his brother, and Cozy.. with existencial crises.
One of these is not like the others..
But daaaamn, that ending.
I was half hoping Cozy would say “My friends” when Twilight said she had nothing else. Oh I do hope they get reunited one way or another.
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Reuniting is not in the cards so far, but a sequel is ALREADY in the works.
First chapter tomorrow morning.
Well, Cozy Glow can't really be a truly good person, now. At least from the Christian Perspective. Now, every good deed she might ever do will be for her own benefit, to try to forgive herself and be worthy of forgiveness, rather than out of love for others.
Her externally enforced pain will be of benefit to others, certainly. But she really might as well be permanently age-regressed to a newborn and have her memories wiped, be given to new parents, and live through a better upbringing and just be an entirely new person.
Because any non-consensual mind control of this caliber means that you are no longer yourself anyway.
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Thanks for reading. I hope you stick around for the sequel which begins tomorrow morning.
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Well ether way she's amazing!😊
Ah, this is a punishment worthy of Cozy Glow! Shame it couldn't have been implemented prior to that nasty incident, but then, it wouldn't be a punishment. Imprisonment in stone truly is best used as a temporary measure, until something can be done about the root issue.
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Thanks for the spot!
Personally I think was doing something really evil for good intentions. I don’t think Twilight has any right to thought police Cozy like that. I could write entire essays why what she did was horrible.
9996704
I get what you are saying, but the choice was either that, leave her as stone or kill her. And she didn't alter her thoughts, just introduced a concept utterly alien to her mind. Not saying it is unethical, heck even Twilight agreed it was, but the other options are worse, and the next story covers the fallout quite well.
10007868
Or they could’ve imprisoned her normally. That was an option. They only turned her to stone because Discord wanted to for pay back. A normal cell would be more than enough for Cozy. Based on the logic that they had to turn her to stone or kill her because she might escape one day the same could be said for any criminal. If a justice system has to give out insanely cruel punishments because it’s incapable of of normally imprisoning people it’s a bad system.
Uegh
Are you the one who made the cover art?
10062430
No, artist is credited and linked in the description.
That's.. that's something..
i can't even describe how fucked up that is. messing with someone else's thoughts, brain and overall conscience is like.. holy shit.
personally i'd have taken death or being locked into a hole and throw the hole away.
Not cool, Twi, if you're going to mess with her mind, you may as well brainwash her!
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Literally the only thing she did was make Cozy able to empathise, like a normal person.
If that is what you consider horrific, then I shudder to think of what you might find acceptable.
10417451
She literally rewrote/added to a persons brain without their consent even if it was better for them. That’s kinda evil. If she would’ve convinced Cozy to allow her to do that it would’ve been alright but she didn’t. It should’ve been adult Cozy’s choice if they do that to her brain. If you think that it’s okay to edit a persons psyche just because it’s for the best why can’t she just make people literally incapable of sadness or anger while she’s at it. If I was born without something in my brain I should be able to tell someone no if they want to add it to mine.
10417451
Acceptable is death. Actual non-sugar-coated death. Twilight finds Cozy Glow to be too dangerous to exist in this world as she currently is, and Cozy Glow finds it unacceptable to have her very being be twisted against her will. The best solution, therefor, is to simply remove her from this world and throw her to the mercy of a higher power (let's just call it Harmony) who is far more qualified to pass these judgments and reformations than a fallible demi-mortal.
In the MLP universe, destiny is a tangible force, and an afterlife definitely exists, even if it is just reincarnation back into the world in a different way. There exists a more powerful, more knowledgeable, and more fair force than anything that all the alicorns combined could ever dream of being.
If Twilight could punish Cozy Glow for her wrongdoings with stoning, how much more could Harmony?
If Twilight can induce guilt in Cozy Glow to show her the error of her ways, how much more could Harmony?
If Twilight could forgive Cozy Glow, how much more more could Harmony?
If Twilight could reform Cozy Glow and find a place for her in the world, how much better and fairer could Harmony?
And furthermore, what good is it for Twilight to absolve Cozy of her sins if they are still under judgment from a higher court, and her life of Penance only gives Cozy Glow a false sense of Hope? Especially if her penance doesn't count because she never agreed to it and it was forced on her against her will? If you put a sock puppet on your hand and have it pick up a rock, the sockpuppet is not picking up the rock, YOU are picking up the rock.
If Cozy Glow agreed to the mind alteration, then everything would have been peachy keen. But it was forced on her, so it wouldn't even count toward her.
I have a serious problem with reliving moments in my head and the obsessive negative thoughts that that brings, and I would be THRILLED to have some one fix those mental artifacts in my head if I asked them, yet if anyone fundamentally changed who I was without my express consent, even if it was something like that, I would really rather have died.
I would rather be robbed of my life, than to be robbed of my self.
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The other people who responded did it properly, but messing with someone's mind, for any reason, is big nono for me.
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Alright, first of all:
No such thing has ever been stated in canon or this story. Your head-canon has no power here.
I don't know. And neither do you. Besides, see above.
This paragraph is particularly alien to me.
You have a severe problem, and you would be happy if someone fixed it for you... unless they didn't ask you first, in which case you would rather risk nihility than keep living, free from the problem that plagued you before? Or are you so delusional as to believe that you know what happens after death?
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When Twilight's body was vaporized by the Elements of Harmony, leaving behind nothing but an ash-stain, yet she was conscious in a new world, with an image of Celestia as a Psychopomp, and then returned as an Alicorn...
Where was she, if not some kind of afterlife or spirit realm?
And when a mark appears on a pony, completely outside of their control, that shows them their place in the world, guides them, and reminds them of who they are, and even empowers them to work inside of what that mark represents...
What is that, if not the hand of destiny?
Strong evidence of an afterlife and some form of guiding force is already there in the show, not hiding anywhere. The only personal beliefs of mine that I'm bringing into this are my beliefs that the mind is sacred and should never be tampered with against ones' will, and that being held in place fully conscious and unable to move or talk to people for multiple years, is absolute torture, completely unnecessary, and genuinely worse than death.
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1: Those two thing are not the same, or even similar.
2: Just because Celestia was there, does not mean that she is a "Psychopomp".
3: She was probably in their world's version of an astral plane.
4: None of this implies a conscious, sapient higher power.
Wow, you really like begging the question, huh?
You seem to think that Destiny has to be a conscious, decision-making entity. I disagree.
Well, I agree with the latter half of that sentence. But you haven't yet clarified your stance on death in this Universe.
Fair enough. I just think that death has a significant risk of being even worse.
That was never stated, nor deliberately implied.
I honestly think that this whole "the villain three are totally conscious!" statement is ridiculous. They were turned to stone with a spell. The only petrification spell that has been stated to exist in the show (besides the cockatrice's stare and the Elements of Harmony) is the "Stone Sleep" spell. Using Occam's Razor, we can thus deduct that that must have been the spell that was used.
I don't know how to make it any clearer than that.
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It was never my intention to change your views on anything. Merely to express my views, state my case, and show the evidence for my beliefs. All of this disagreement really hinges on information that just isn't provided in the show or in this story. You have heard my case and drawn different conclusions from that evidence, and that is good enough for me.
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Fair enough.
0oooh, cruel psychological torture with a condescending attitude and still sitting on a high horse. Villainous.
Yes, her flinching at the memory of an event that took her mother and sister away is all the concrete proof we need to be certain she did it.
I always figured Chryssie would actually turn around with enough effort and being forced to confront what she fears. It felt for me at the end of the series that she was so traumatised by what she saw as friendship taking everything away from her and later her deteriorating sanity that she filled her mind with fury to hold it all at bay and give herself a focus, aby focus to keep her thoughts away from her being completely and utterly alone now.
10887486
Thanks for reading. You might like the sequel that focuses solely on Cozy.
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Agreed but also they've already done this multiple times. Rewriting a person that is. Luna and Sunset are two examples. Also stating that Twilight is all she has is... not exactly the right way to go about this. Furthermore ponies suck at actual reforming. It's more converting than reforming
Out of all the usually ham-fisted reformation post-finale fics I've read, yours is one of the best in actually making sense of the subsequent mess. Salut! 👌
A convincing redemption for Chrysalis, an intriguingly open-ended fate for Tirek and a pretty-hopeless-but-not-impossible one for The Demon Filly. Nice one, Tails.
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Cozy's is explored more deeply in the next story! Hope you enjoy if you read.