Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 267: A Sacrifice

We both stared in a stunned silence. What followed next was equally horrifying. Discord’s body continued to crack, and break apart into pieces until finally, his body shattered completely. The pieces of Discord silently clattered onto the ground before being absorbed into the soil beneath.

In those few final moments he had, I could feel his Chaos Aura drift away from us before being absorbed into the New Tree Of Harmony.

So that was Grogar’s aim...

Cozy was the first to react. She instinctively tried to reach out to where he last stood, and nearly took off on her wings towards the area in a panic. “Di...Discor--mmph! MMM!”

I swiftly put a hoof over her mouth, and pulled her away from the castle. “...Shh. Kid, stop. There’s nothing we can do at this point. He’s gone. As far as we know, at least…”

“HM? UGH!” she wrestled free from my grip, “Pale, how can you say that? There...there’s no way. This is impossible. He’s too strong and--”

I tried to calm her down with some logic of the current situation. “Shh--stay quiet. He doesn’t know that you’re here yet, and if we keep it that way, we’ll still have the advantage. We just need to--”

“Pale...it’s entirely possible that Fluttershy was swept away also. If that’s the case, who’s to say he won’t do the same to you or I?”

I had to consider that as well. There were a whole host of things that were wrong with the current scenario. “I...yeah…”

She continued. “Not only that, the knowledge that Discord of all people had been vanquished would certainly lower morale amongst those that had agreed to help us. How could they be motivated when one of the most powerful beings in existence has already been taken out?” She looked down at the ground and sighed, “...I guess we really are in a deeper mess than we thought…”

Even if that was the case, I refused to give up so easily. We didn’t come this far just to give up where we were.

I pulled Cozy in for another close embrace. “...Cozy. We’ll get through this. I promise. I will never allow anything or anyone to bring you harm.”

“...I appreciate that, but…” she trailed off, and refused to make eye contact with me.

I let her go, and gave her some space. “What’s wrong? You don’t think you’ve made the right choice?”

“...I need to make sure nopony else suffers what I did,” she turned around to look at the castle. “And the only way I can do that is by forcing him out of existence.”

I bit back my urge to whinny. My tail flicked out of a sense of sheer panic from what she said. “W-wait...kid, what do you mean by that? Don’t tell me you’re actually going to try and…”

Cozy glared at me with a painful look in her eyes. “You saw what happened to Discord, pops...if that happened to all the other friends I’ve made--or the innocent spread of ponies, griffons, zebras--and other folk who want to protect the world that they too live in…” Her eyes drifted down to the ground, “If I allowed that to happen, I would never forgive myself.”

My heart was adrift in a sea of confusion and fear. If what I had assumed in my mind was going to play out like I thought it would, then a proverbial knife to the gut was headed my way.

“...Cozy...I...look. I just want you to know that I will always support you. That’s what I’m here for. Even if I don’t entirely agree with your decisions. I just…” I held back my tears, and sniffled a bit. “...I’m sorry. The idea of losing you truly does haunt me. I can’t bear to think about it.”

I felt her hoof on my shoulder. She pulled me in for a hug, and tried to comfort me. “Pale. I want you to promise me something.”

“Y-yes?” I shakily asked.

She pulled away from me, and looked me dead in the eyes. “Never stop fighting. No matter what happens. Even if the odds are stacked against you in every conceivable way, you need to keep going.” She tried to cheer me up with a smile, and even wiped away my forthcoming tears with her hoof, “That’s what you taught me, right?”

I slowly realized that Cozy always had a plan for something. Never would she allow herself to be in a situation where she couldn’t retaliate or find a method of success somehow. That’s how she always had been, right? Why should I start to lose my faith in her now?

After all, Miranda had to let go of me too at some point...

Comments

[Neo4K]

...Damn. I can't believe Cozy would give up her happiness so that others, especially her mother and father figure, could live. 😢 That truly is a sacrifice. Right now, I am eternally wishing beyond hope that there is a happy ending for those involved, including Cozy.

[Neo4K]

10826463
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, necromancy just recently became a problem by bringing back demons of other creatures including ponies that were killed individually by Pale and Grogar. That practice of dark magic was outlawed for a reason.