Battered and Bruised Part 2
“Do you know what I hate the most about being a parent?” Mom’s words sliced through the air as Aunt Mercy and I crept back in the house. Quiet, tired, listless, they still managed to cut me as Mom lounged in her chair, swirling a goblet of ice water. “I hate always having to play bad cop when shit hits the fan. I love that lunkhead to death, but he’s just way too soft with you and the twins.”
I didn’t— What?
“Mom… are you alright?” I squirmed as I took a step forward, wishing I could stuff my head in the floor.
“Depends on what you mean by ‘alright.’” Mom chuckled and took another sip.
“You’re, ummm, lookin’ a bit scary right now.” Rustling my wings, I looked away.
“I am talking to you as an adult right now, not your mom.” Mom snorted and kicked back in her chair. “You know the old cliche of heading to a bar and griping about the job? Parenting is a job like any other, and I may swear off salt and booze to give you a good example, but I got to thinking after Tempered left to find you and got to wondering how much better it would be to start this conversation not as mother and daughter, but as one adult to another.”
“Ummm, well, it’s kind of awkward, so…”
Mom snorted again before pouring both me and Aunt Mercy a glass from the pitcher on the coffee table. “Sit down—both of you.” She squinted at Aunt Mercy and pointed down. I needed no such gesture to comply. “Maybe it is awkward, Night, but honestly, I feel it’s important. You are an adult. I don’t care what the school or everypony else’s parents think. Tartarus, you were easily an adult way before you turned eighteen this summer. Law has nothing to do with the fact that you are—for the most part—more of a mature and responsible pony than many adults, and so I, for better or worse, hold you to a very high standard.”
My mouth ran dry as I opened it, but Mom narrowed her eyes at me and I took a sip of water instead.
“It’s not the same standards you hold yourself to by any means, but when you explained to me and your father what you were doing, I decided to trust you.” What was it with my parents and twisting the knife by sighing today? “Did I try to convince you not to go through with it? Yes, but when you didn’t listen, I trusted you to be the mature adult you are and not let your personal feelings get in the way of justice.”
“Tsk. It’s not her fault, Morning.” Aunt Mercy scowled from beside me in her ruined dress, her hind hooves up and on the coffee table as she sipped her water.
“I know that, Mercy.” Mom narrowed her eyes and scowled in kind. “I still have a right to be disappointed in my daughter, though. She’s far more of an adult than Tempered or I were at her age. I expected her to swallow her pride and do the right thing.”
My heart both soared and sank at Mom’s praise; I didn’t know what to say.
“And what is the right thing, huh, Morning? It was twenty to one odds! What was she supposed to do?!”
Aunt Mercy, however…
I suppose it was a good thing goblets couldn’t smash from slamming them down into cloud. My aunt had her wings flared as she leaned in to bare her fangs before Mom, but Mom didn’t even blink. She just stewed in silence and stared into her swirling cup. For a few seconds, the only sound was the tinkling of hailstones in rainwater.
And then Mom took a deep breath.
“What do you think happened after you pranced into school to declare schattenkrieg, Night?” She gave me a level look, though the bags under her eyes kind of ruined it.
“Ummm… well, I went whole ham, so I guess a lot of students probably talked when they got home.” Biting my lip, I looked away. Getting them to talk had been part of the plan, but now that Mom asked?
“Oh, they talked about it, alright.” Mom gave a morbid chuckle. “I didn’t get any work done yesterday because I was swamped with reassuring the ponies who didn’t know you well enough to trust you. Concerned parents, teachers, and even a few sneaky students, I had them all. Quite a few were rightly concerned after hearing the words ‘duel to the death’ and ‘bloody murder.’”
“Oh…” My ears splayed back. “But it’s not like I actually wanted to—” I paused, bit my lip, and then decided it was best not to continue.
“No, no you didn’t want any of this.” Mom nodded as if I hadn’t cut off. “They couldn’t tell that, though. I had parents all day, while the teachers came in groups during their lunches. There were much fewer students, but those there risked sneaking out of class precisely because you had helped them with bullies before and they were worried.
“I told all of them what I’m telling you—that you are a mature adult who knows better than to let her emotions get the better of her. I told them that if it came down to a fight, I trusted you to hold back, and if there was no fight? Well…”
I shifted in my seat, unsure if I should ask what suddenly needed to be asked. “W-what do you mean if it didn’t come down to a fight? I couldn’t just— They were—”
As I started hyperventilating, Mom hugged me and waited until I was merely squirming. “It probably comes as no surprise that Abacus Finch was one of those who showed up, does it? The spiteful hag was quite insistent on seeing the books detailing schattenkrieg, and she didn’t have time to go through them all. I had to spend at least an hour giving her a crash course to show her exactly why she couldn’t punish you or those you fought so long as the schattenkrieg stood.”
“Yeah, well, she certainly punished me for commandeering the intercom.” I couldn’t help but frown, even if it was short-lived.
“Perhaps, but that isn’t why I am bringing her visit up.” Squeezing me with a wing, Mom rested her forehead against mine and gestured with her other wing for Aunt Mercy to join in. “You are an adult, and I expected you to behave as such. When it became clear she could do nothing, Abacus was going to have nothing to do with your fight, but I convinced her it was in her best interest to make sure she and all the other teachers she could get showed up.”
Whuh? But… Why?
I pulled back, blinking at Mom bemusedly, but she dragged me right back in the hug with a tsk. “Don’t give me that look. You know the answer. I already said I expected you to swallow your pride and do the right thing.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.” With a sniff, I dared to give Mom a frown.
“It doesn’t?” Mom gave a sad smile. “Schattenkrieg protects the bullies you were fighting as much as it protects you. It may be resolved by Trial by Combat, but what you did is still a civil suit at its heart, isn’t it? Bully or not, in choosing to accept and fight you, Crusty and the others waived the protection of certain day dweller laws and gained the benefits of thestral law.
“They had a right to defend themselves from you and win or lose the act of dueling itself meant that the matter was effectively resolved unless there was an appeal. Finch couldn’t punish you or anypony involved—both for the duel or whatever it was about.” Shaking her head, Mom drained the last of her glass and filled a new one.
“That all only applies if the duel happens in the first place, though.”
My eyes widened as I finally saw what Mom had been hoping for.
“Get the bullies all together, right in front of a crowd with students and teachers as proof? In showing up, they essentially admitted to everything. Only schattenkrieg protected them, Night. If you had just backed down and let the proper authorities handle things…
“…all of this could have been avoided.”
“But… but…” My brain scrambled for a response—anything I could use as an excuse. “They’d still have been protected even if I had backed down! That’s how it works! Showing up isn’t admitting guilt!”
Mom gave a big and heavy sigh. “Maybe for thestrals, but once there is no schattenkrieg they’re back to just being day dwellers. I can’t blame you for not knowing that, though. At the very least, that is my fault here. For once, I was the one expecting too much of you. I’m still disappointed that the fight escalated so far—angry even that you broke my trust—but I can’t and won’t blame you for not knowing something so small.”
“Yeah? Well, you can certainly blame that Finch bitch for not telling her.” Aunt Mercy growled and squeezed me a little too tight for comfort. “I get you having faith in Night, but she sounds like a manipulative ass.”
Rolling her eyes, Mom groaned and stood up. “She is. That’s why I didn’t give her specifics; I wanted her to be there but not to meddle, so I just told her I figured Night had an ace up her sleeve. I bet on it even just to bait her into going and proving I was wrong.”
“Oh?” Mercy giggled and waggled her brow. “What did you bet? A night with the boy toy like you used to do with me?”
Woah. Way too much info, Aunt Mercy.
Leaning back, Mom arched her brow. “First off, you are the only one I ever made that bet with, and it was only when you were being an idiot.”
“Hey!”
“And second, you may not have met the mare, but ewww. I would not risk Tempered touching that for all the bits in the royal treasury.”
“But there is a price for me, then~” Fangs flashed in a hungry grin.
“If that’s what you want to think, I won’t stop you.” Mom’s smile was small as she shook her head.
“Ummm…” I bit my lip before nudging Mom. “You did bet something, though? W-what was it?”
“Oh, nothing much. It’s pretty boring as far as bets go.” Mom waved a hoof and rolled her eyes. “Finch doesn’t have a creative bone in her body. All she wanted was my support on a few things I was mostly gonna vote for anyways.”
“Mostly?” I couldn’t help pouting.
“Yeah. Better security I’m all for, but uniforms and enforced mane cuts?” With a tsk, Mom shook her head.
With a small gasp, I leaned in. “But Mom, why would you not want that? There is nothing like a mare in uniform.”
“How did I know you’d say that?” With a chuckle, Mom ruffled my mane. “And that certainly is true—so long as the uniform is decent to begin with. Do you trust Finch to give the school a decent uniform?”
“No….” My ears splayed back as I looked away. “Knowing her, we’ll end up looking like sacks of lumpy cement. But uniforms are about more than the looks. You know that!”
“Mhmm.” Mom just smiled and nodded. “I went to boot camp, same as your father. We know the drill even better than you, but how many of your friends do, hrmm? The Junior Guard is not so cruel as to crop your manes and dye your coats. How many friends are going to hate it if that gets passed?”
Oh…
Mouth hanging open slightly, I tried to come up with a response, but Mom had pretty much hit the nail spot on the head. “Well, what did she bet back then?”
“Not that it matters now, but I tried to get her to rescind your suspension.” Mom sighed. “Though, now that we’re on the topic of punishment, I would like to discuss exactly what the school board, your father, and I agreed on.”
“O-oh?” Squirming once more, I shrunk away from Mom and into Aunt Mercy’s wing.
“Mhmm.” There was no malice, just a small, tired smile. “Something has to happen, Night. You know that.” She held out an open letter. “And I gotta hand it to the school; for twelve hours, no sleep, and an extra-bitchy Finch, your father and I mostly agree with what they decided.”
“But they can’t—”
Mom shook her head and I closed my mouth. “They are not punishing you or the hoofball team for the fight itself, but you scared the horseapples out of them with this stunt, Night. They called an emergency meeting at around midnight last night, and they politely dragged your father and I in to review their options. Much like we did with Finch, your father and I made it clear to them they couldn’t get involved with your dispute, but they do have certain options we advised they take.”
W-wha— Huh?
Betrayal!
I reared back as if struck. It made so much sense, and yet… Why did that hurt so much?
There was a gasp from beside me, then a growl—a flash of movement heralded a smack as Aunt Mercy rose to slap Mom with one wing. “You backstabbing bitch! She went out of her way to do things right and—“
“—and she did not carry through when it mattered most.” Sparing only a moment to glower at Aunt Mercy, Mom sighed and reached out with a wing to wipe my cheeks as the sniffles started anew. “Tempered and I talked about it on the way there and decided working with them would be best. If we were the only ones to punish Night, it would send a very negative message about thestral culture and tradition. There still aren’t that many thestrals in Ponyville, but it would be a disservice to them to not make sure the town understands what happened yesterday is not what schattenkrieg is about.”
“A real schattenkrieg wouldn’t have some dishonorable guano-guzzler goading his opponent into a sunblasted rage!” There was thunder as Aunt Mercy brought her hoof down on the coffee table. My ears splayed back as I looked between her and Mom, my tail tucked between my legs as I sat there.
“I distinctly remember you calling me a hühnerblut when we first fought, Mercy.”
“Yeah, and I was a hot, steaming pile of guano back then, too, if you remember!” My aunt snorted and tossed back her ice water to chomp on the ice. “A little name-calling and mind games is one thing—this idiot wanted Night to lose her cool.”
“Be that as it may, the fact is many parents and teachers are going to want to see action taken.” Morning shook her head. “Tempered and I both agreed on this, Mercy, so back down.”
“Just tell me my fate.” It was my turn to give a great, world-shaking sigh and sink into the floor.
Humming softly, Mom took a sip of her water and sat back again. “Well, first things first, we got the board to agree Finch’s punishment for commandeering the intercom was too extreme and that it was important to lump that in with the stuff they could punish you for—which is disrupting the school and student body. You didn’t need to make the fight public, and there are already a few students who approached the school counselor after the fight.
“Rather than blaming either side in particular for this, it’s been decided that it’s best to hold both you and the hoofball team accountable for this. While they found your suspension sentence extreme for taking control of the PA, they found it perfectly fitting as a starting point for you and the hoofball team, so everypony involved with making the fight as public a spectacle as it was is now getting the one month suspension and three months detention.”
Aunt Mercy’s eyes narrowed as Mom took another breath, and her tail lashed as if looking to pounce.
“As the so-called instigator of the fight, they want you to make a speech apologizing to the school as a whole. Your father and I could have fought that; we didn’t, knowing you would likely want the chance to do that anyways.”
The eyes narrowed further as Aunt Mercy let out a small hiss. It was nice to see her so worked up, but now really wasn’t the time. Scooching over to her, I nosed under her wing and cut off any attempts to go for Mom again.
“And finally…” Mom set the letter down on the coffee table. “…everypony involved needs to write a letter of apology to each other—non-negotiable if they want their suspension to end.”
I went from holding Aunt Mercy back to holding her back by the tail—not because she rushed Mom but because I was suddenly shrinking away as I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. They wanted me to… To him?! To the son of a sun witch who hurt Diamond?! Like he would ever apologize to me!
Mom rolled back to watch the ceiling, unable to look at me much like I could barely bring myself to peek at her. “Your father and I have mixed feelings there, but at the very least we want you to apologize to the rest of the hoofball team. Night, if you really want to stand your ground against Crusty when the time comes, well… I’ll be getting plenty of practice homeschooling you as it is.”
Say what? I couldn’t help raising my gaze and keeping it raised.
“You didn’t think I was going to leave you home alone to brood, did you?” Mom’s smile was warm as she looked back down. “Oh, no, missy. That might as well be a reward for edgy, dark-lurking ponies of the night~” For just a moment, that was enough to elicit a giggle from all three of us, and it cut so much of the tension that it felt like a weight was being taken off my shoulder. “I have more than enough leave saved up to take a month off.”
“Thanks.” As much as I would have loved a month to brood, Mom’s gesture made me smile. “I’m assuming there will be all kinds of extra work?”
“It’s a good opportunity to teach you some stuff your father and I seemed to have missed.” Mom coughed. “Both physical and mental.”
That sounded kinda suspicious. “You mean—”
Mom held out a hoof. “Not a word to the school, but yes, I will be teaching you more guard techniques because of this. That and some lessons on how to handle the more crafty scum you may have the misfortune of facing. Ponies like Crusty are probably the most dangerous opponents you will ever have; learning not to let their words get to you is important.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You aren’t perfect, Night. No pony is.” Mom leaned in for a hug and a nuzzle. “You are lucky your father and I don’t believe in an ‘all work and no play’ philosophy, though. No friends on weekdays, but you are allowed Saturdays to see the girls, and we will let you keep your date nights on Sundays with Diamond.”
“R-really?” I looked at Mom wide-eyed, then sniffed and hugged tighter. “I expected a lot worse.”
“Oh, it’s going to get worse.” Mom’s chuckle was hollow. “Just not because of you or me. I bet you ten bits that somepony is gonna try to petition and mess with the school’s ruling. There are gonna be a lot of unhappy parents.”
“Yeah, well, try bullying their snot-nosed kids and see them change their tunes.” Aunt Mercy snorted.
“Aunt Mercy…” I sighed.
“I mean, if they just knew what it was like and why it’s important to fight back, you wouldn’t have as many little, manipulative guano-guzzlers.” Throwing her mane back, my Aunt sniffed. “Fights show you aren’t gonna just sit there and take things. They’re important in establishing any pecking order. When I got in fights in the undercity schools, they picked us up, dusted us off and asked what we learned and why.”
“I kept the school bully free for years without actually having to fight.” Kicking the cloud floor, I frowned.
Aunt Mercy gave a tittering cackle. “Screeheehee! You serious?! From what you told me in your letter, there was all kinds of fighting in your first year, just not the physical kind.”
“I guess when you say it like that….” I squirmed and looked down.
“Of course, I’m gonna say it like that! Auntie knows best!~” Puffing her chest out, Aunt Mercy thumped it with a hoof. “Now then, Morning! We’re done with the small potatoes, you owe me a date!” Said hoof was just as suddenly thrown out at Mom as my Aunt’s fangs gleamed with a predatory light.
Mom and I both blinked, looking at each other then back to my Aunt.
With a huff, my Aunt beamed at us with overly bright fangs. “Oh, don’t give me that look, you two! I’ve earned it! I modeled a bunch for Rarity to get us each a dress. I’ve been doing odd jobs all over town to have the bits to give us a night on the town! I got us a reservation at some fancy unicorn restaurant that I can’t pronounce, and I was a responsible parent who took care of Night last night while you and Tempered bitched each other out!”
“Mercy, I look like shit; I haven’t slept.” Mom took a deep breath before she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “And the same goes for you from the looks of it. Do you know what Rarity is gonna do to you when you bring that dress in for repairs?”
“She’ll ask for all the saucy details which I’ll give her as she makes a new one!” With a tittering laugh, Aunt Mercy gave us a guano-guzzling grin. “Half the reason the dress is so slinky is because she made it to be torn.” Damn that witchy, bitchy unicorn. “Come on! We could both use some fun after last night! You know I’m right!”
“Mercy, I…”
“Go take a nap, Mom. I’ll make sure she keeps it small and quiet.” This time it was me giving Mom the hug before I took her goblet and nudged her towards the hall. “She’s right. You both deserve a little something.”
Mom danced away only to pause when she opened her mouth. “You promise it’ll be small?”
“Homemade soup, salad, and sandwiches, tops.” I gave my most rigid salute.
Mom gave a small flickering smile before yawning. “That does sound nice. We can break out a bottle of wine and give Mercy a taste of the ‘royal reserve.’ What about the twins, though?”
“I’ll pick them up from school and watch them myself if no pony is available. It’s not like I can hang with the girls.” My stoic facade cracked just a little, but I held it for Mom.
“Mmmmm…” Mom swayed a little as she hummed. “I suppose you can. Send Mercy to pick them up, though. I don’t want you leaving the house for the next few days.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Even as I nodded, I wilted inside a little. “Do you have any preferences for dinner?”
“Surprise me.” Mom chuckled softly as she shuffled down the hall. “Better yet, let your Aunt decide. She’s trying to do things the right way this time, might as well give her a little test.” There was an audible flump almost as soon as the door to Mom’s room closed, and a long satisfied moan gave way to soft snoring almost immediately.
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"I am sorry that you are a sun-dwelling pile of guano" is technically an apology.
Ah, yes. One of the dangers of being "mature for your age," is the fact people sometimes forget it's "mature for your age." The person is still not fully mature and developed. Although, in some cases, it seems like they never will.
I'd apologize to the student body and nobody else. Night's already in her last year with her career laid out and largely isolated from day politics. Screw the entire rest of the school, she's learned everything it could have taught.
Pointing out that the team showing up was an effective admission of guilt if not a legal one is meaningless. The authority wasn't doing anything and the students couldn't. Are we honestly expecting that Finch, who sat on her hooves spinning happily while her school was riddled with booby traps that escalated to potentially lethal, would have done anything if Night told her to take their appearance as admission of guilt and then backed down? She'd have hemmed and hawed like she always did (she probably suspected the team to begin with), and the only result would've been to empower the jocks more because the target backed off. This also makes Night's parents assholes for pulling the same "read my mind or you're the bad guy because I'm not telling you the crucial thing" as Finch.
Like you keep trying to paint this as if some egregious wrong happened just by instigating the fight, when the surrounding circumstances are so extreme in their sheer calamitous hazard and incompetence that just about the only error there was even room to do was to punch too hard - which she did to one guy in a 1v20, who made her lose her cool specifically by whipping out military shit that carries a whole lot of lethal implications because those arts are fundamentally characterized by their vastly increased capacity to maim and kill.
10991879
If you are going to start taking issue with every character just for daring to take issue with Night in some way shape or form, I'm gonna have to politely ask you to just stop. Two wrongs don't make a right. It is as simple as that, and Morning is one hundred percent in her rights to feel disappointed or angry here. Hay, she even goes out of her way to say parts of this are her fault for assuming Night knew more than she did, but that makes her neither an asshole nor evil here. Morning expected her rule obsessed daughter to know the rules, and said that it was her (aka Mornings) fault for expecting too much.
Morning never once said she thought Night was the bad guy here, and she went so far as to say that if Night didn't want to apologize to Crusty she would stand by Night on that decision regardless of what the school did in response. Characters are allowed to be disappointed or angry at Night for what happened here, even if they support her for what she did and why she did it. It is definitely not as black and white a situation as you like to paint it, so if you could stop being so combative about this, please.
I have no idea how an apology letter would go to either the perp or the rest of the football team. They're the ones who were harassing the school and attacking her friends, and they clearly had no remorse if they were willing to gang up and beat her within an inch of her life.
Also, school uniforms for a race that walks around nude on a daily basis just seems like something that's going to go wrong in some way.
I doubt that that idiot colt will write his and try and weasel his way out of it. I hope that reality come calling for him sooner or later.
Even if Night doesn't think it, I believe this punishment is mostly in her favor. Although I personally REALLY hate making speeches...
I bet there's gonna be another major fight though. But over some real harm to Diamond or someone close to her. But she'll either back down and let authorities take over or have full reign and complete support to do whatever she wants. Or both.
I am quite interested to see where this goes, (I'm rooting on both, give him a good pounding then hand him off to her parents or something)
The same "proper authorities" who flat out ignored two cases of assault? (I would call it attempted murder, but apparently tarring and feathering is not as dangerous to ponies as it is to humans.)
You mean the trial by combat that they knowingly went to gawk at of their own free will? And it being to much for them to handle is somehow Night's fault?
Instigator of the challenge, yes indeed. But the damn hoofball team was trying to force a fight from the beginning! And yet their multiple criminal acts are still being ignored.
I’ve said my peace before and this chapter hasn’t really changed it. Saying two wrongs don’t make a right when the proper authority cannot or will not act to protect their citizens is bupkis. The law only has meaning as ling as it is used to protect the people. You do X, we do Y. Its the fear of that Y that keeps people from breaking the law. That is the social contract we all have with the law. As soon as the law starts to not uphold their end of the social contract, why the hell should we upkeep ours.
The authorizes would not act, she was not given all the information, 20 to 1 odds, and one of the offenders was using military tactics and intentionally goading her into becoming more aggressive and shes being made to apologize to them. I honestly do not think this story will have a truly fair ending to it, to say nothing of a satisfying one.
To clarify, the story has been good, just not enjoyable. It is well written, paints a vivid picture, and your way with words is as always stellar. But the content of this particular chapter has touched to many nerves and seems to fall on the wrong side of from what I’m seeing if the comments are any indication is a majority of the readers. Many of us have come from situations where a schools 0 tolerance police does more to protect bullies than it does to protect the victims of those bullies. Where you can be backed into a corner by a gang who are about to beat the shit out of you and attempting to physically defend yourself makes you just as culpable as them. Saying ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ is definitely a great comfort to the kid that didn’t fight back and as a result is now picking his teeth up off the floor. Especially when the gang can just claim he fought back or started it anyway and it becomes their word vs yours.
I’m sorry to say but this whole ordeal has really soured an otherwise very good series.
10991994
Nobody -- literally nobody -- is saying Night is unworthy of criticism. Losing your cool even for a moment with wingblades strapped on is a huge deal she damn well should be angsting over - hell, that carries the kind of weight that these other conversations probably wouldn't even convince her to get out of bed by comparison. But it feels totally lost in the noise because what she's actually getting yelled at for is almost every step of the fight but that last lunge at Crusty while he was down.
She made a second blunder too that hasn't even been mentioned (though it may not be relevant given bat morality, and certainly isn't in a legal sense given bat law). She was prematurely acting as an authority that was actually needed here and hadn't been exhausted yet: full-on law enforcement, as this had very much escalated to warrant them. Increasingly deadly assaults and a willingness to 20v1 someone in front of an audience isn't a bully situation, it's a goddamn gang declaring war on the school (and military training on top of that pretty much makes Crusty a budding domestic terrorist, but tbf they didn't know that yet). Her mistake was thinking she's already a cop instead of calling actual ones.
10992690
I wouldn't go quite that far, but yeah that's the root of it. The problem was never that Night did something objectionable under conventional morality (she absolutely did, and blowing it off by saying we think she's perfect and above criticism is frankly laughable -- I just now gave her a more alarming criticism than the actual story did!) but that this whole circumstance was so consummately hosed that it was no longer in that domain at all. The kind of reductive "two wrongs" schoolyard thought being applied here altogether stopped being relevant the moment someone almost goddamn died and the authority just shrugged.
10991994
I love how you, THE AUTHOR, are vibe checking the audience when it comes to making your protagonist a mary sue.
Love that shit
Edit: some of them do have a point tho, i'm just saying this situation is funny
11004475
I mean, I've had that discussion with my prereaders and a few normal readers who stopped reading in the middle of the first story. By certain standards, she very much is a mary sue, and that was only encouraged by the first story being an anthology where almost basically every conflict but the final conflict between Night and Diamond had to be settled in a single chapter.
She is a likable sue, though. And I keep getting surprised by the lengths readers will go to defend her.
11004790
This is I think the first time nights actually been held accountable for anything or made a wrong decision actually, thinking about it
11004849
There are other times I've done things, but they've all been much more small scale and subtle. The whole thing with Rumble early on back in the first story, for example, back when he had a crush on Night? He was an antagonist. He just wasn't a bad guy. Funnily enough, I always pictured everything up to when they became friends with Night being the bad guy. Because she brushed off plenty of attempts where he was mostly trying to be friendly. Like, I don't think she thought a single nice thing about Rumble until she was forced to confront why he was acting like he was.
And you know what? I got a lot more comments giving me smack about 'forcing' Night into the pity date, and how Rumble was a jerk than I did about anything Night did wrong then too. It was the same when she recklessly dove down to save Sweetie in the beach episode with minimal training instead of waiting for a lifeguard, too. I got smack for having the lifeguards and her friends scold her.
I really should have expected the fight with Crusty to lead to that but with even louder protests, but live and learn, I guess. It is rather frustrating that it's happening so much, though. Like, I don't really know how to describe it, but the more it seems like most of my readers can find no fault in Night--the more they'd rather vilify other characters like Morning for being in character or even me just for clarifying miss-assumptions--the less enjoyment I get from making such a likeable character. Yes, it's Night's story, but there are plenty of other characters, and their thoughts and feelings matter just as much.
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People tend to get super caught up with characters and expect flawless judgements or special treatment
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(Okay, this comment got a bit lengthy so I'm gonna start by saying that I feel that you are portraying both the situation and the characters reaction to it well and rest of the comment below is just me trying to explain some of my thoughts on why people are reacting they way they do.)
I think it's largely because Night is the protagonist and many people will often side with the "Hero of the story" no matter what they do.
Take Ainz and the Floor Guardians from Overlord for example, their actions are monstrous, no ifs and/or buts about that.
But many people still cheer for them to win because they are the "Heroes of the story", the protagonists.
And it's probably also at least partially because what Night did was "beat up the bullies", something a lot of people will get some catharsis (is that the right word?) from.
Which is either because it's "bad guys" getting beat up or because they themselves, unfortunately, have experience with bullying and has probably on more than one occasion wished that someone would turn the tables on the bullies.
So I will try to say this well (and probably fail, but here goes
).
I think that you are writing this situation and the various characters reaction to said situation well.
Am I happy over the situation? Of course not, I don't think anyone would be.
Bullies did bully things for bully reasons and those that were supposed to stop that didn't.
And when the bullies were finally stopped, they were stopped with a degree of violence and brutality that I don't think anyone really ever wants to see.
So, am I happy about the situation? No absolutely not.
But I do believe you are writing it well and I am enjoying this part of the story because of how well written both the situation and the characters reaction to it is