Subject 38: Trial Conclusion
Once the evening was upon us, we all returned to the courtroom--er, throne room that was modified into a courtroom. Twilight was there on her throne. A steely gaze imprinted upon her eyes. It looked like she was ready to give her new stance on the subject matter at hoof.
“Thank you once again for returning, everypony. After careful deliberation among myself, my friends, and the members of the jury, I am prepared to give my verdict on the matter.”
Everyone looked on with bated breath.
“But first, so that you may hear their thoughts straight from the horse’s mouth,” Twilight pointed down at the front row to my right, “my fellow Elements of Harmony will give their opinion on the situation. Please stand up and give your take, ladies.”
The five would stand before the crowd. Pinkie in particular was excited to go first. “Okay, okay. I know everypony is a teensy bit afraid of what Cozy Glow could do if she was evil again. But come on! Look at Starlight!” the pink mare pointed to the unicorn over in the jury, “she’s learned her lesson and hasn’t tried anything ever since she stole all those cutie marks and created alternate dimensions where we lose to our most dangerous villains!”
The explanation made Starlight blush, and caused the white unicorn who had on a very fashionable coat to interrupt her by pushing her aside with her magical aura. “Ahem. Hehe…” she flashed a sheepish smile to the crowd. “What Pinkie Pie is referring to of course, is the fact that Starlight Glimmer was given lots of care and support. Because of that, she learned the error of her ways. And look at her now! We’re the best of friends.”
Applejack nodded and added her own piece. “That’s right, Rarity. Not to mention the dragons, the changelings, Tempest Shadow, and Discord--sorta. They all earned their rights to friendship once they realized where they made a mistake. Ain’t none of us perfect, that’s for sure. Ain’t that right, Dash?” she nudged the multi-colored pegasus beside her.
“Now yeah, maaaaybe Cozy Glow did try and destroy the world,” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous smile, “but but! If there’s a chance she’s learned something through her time being put in stone, I say we take it. Look at Gilda! She used to be a bully!”
The griffon nodded. “It’s true.”
Rainbow continued, “But now she’s one of my closest friends and the leader of the Griffons. And Lightning Dust...to this day, she’s still trying to work off the damage of what she did to Scootaloo. And while we aren’t the best of friends, I can at least respect the effort she’s putting in. She has an honest job now, and has earned the trust of others in Appleloosa. But if we never gave her that chance, then she wouldn’t have tried. Isn’t that right, Fluttershy?” she turned to her fellow pegasus. “Since Discord lives with you, you of all ponies should know what a good reformation process is like. Right?”
Fluttershy spoke up in quite the confident tone. “That’s right. Discord tried to do whatever he wanted, but he had to learn that good friends don’t mess up the world for everypony else. Though, the most important thing to note is that it took time. Back then, he was still quite the...erm, pain in the flank--”
“Hey! I object to that!” the draconequus cried out from his seat, only to earn the piercing glare of everyone in the room. He fell silent which allowed Fluttershy to continue.
“Ahem. Over the years I’ve learned that kindness is a fickle mistress to maintain. You can’t be kind all of the time and expect somepony to understand what they’ve done wrong. Sometimes you have to put your hoof down and tell it like it is. True kindness is the willingness to be there for someone no matter how hard it gets. With that being said, I believe that Cozy Glow was never shown true kindness, thus she could never learn kindness and spread kindness to others around her.”
Neighsay spoke up. “And yet she claimed she was acting for the good of everypony when she tried to overthrow the school! She clearly had some understanding of emotional value due to how she manipulated them all!”
Much to the surprise of her friends, and my own, Fluttershy stood firm on her stance. “That was falsified kindness. The sort of facade somepony puts on when they truly don’t care for another in order to manipulate them. But the reason why she wasn’t able to truly make friends or hold any emotional attachment to them, is because she was never given any.”
From my seat, I noticed two of her friends whisper.
“Oh my. Fluttershy has come a long way from being...shy, hasn’t she?” Rarity whispered to Rainbow.
“Shhh! This is getting good!” Pinkie loudly ‘whispered’ in return while munching on some popcorn that she had plucked from her mane.
Somehow, she didn’t hear her friend’s comments and kept going.
“So I believe that if this pony,” Fluttershy pointed at me, “Can have the gumption to present such a controversial opinion to the public, we can give him that chance. For the sake of providing a good example for the fillies and colts of tomorrow, I say we give Cozy Glow that opportunity. And even if it doesn’t work, we’ll keep trying. No matter what!” she cleared her throat, and lowered her voice, “If everypony agrees to it, that is.”
Even Twilight Sparkle was stunned to see her ‘shy’ friend speak so candidly. I saw her mouth hang agape for a moment before she closed it and took a deep breath. “Thank you, my friends. You may take your seats.”
The other five Elementals sat back down. I noticed Fluttershy pet the disgruntled Discord on the head as he slumped over in defeat. How nice of her.
“Now, with that all being said. I have come to a decision. We will be giving Cozy Glow a trial period to redeem herself. And if she passes, she will be accepted among us. If she falls back into her old habits, she will be banished for good.”
Everyone in the crowd muttered their opinions on the subject. But Neighsay in particular had an...odd sort of expression. Was he nervous? I saw him sweat a bit followed by him biting his lip. Just what could scare him so much over this?
Twilight slammed the hammer. “Order! Now...in accordance to the laws I have set in place,” Twilight pointed at me, “You, Mr. Vestige will watch over her and make sure she gets the assistance she needs. You’ve made many convincing arguments, and have rightfully earned our trust with your work. Don’t disappoint us.”
I nodded. “I won’t.”
“Good. While you may have gotten what you wanted, don’t get the idea that you’ve won just yet,” she explained in a lecturing tone, “It’s going to be difficult. We have plenty of resources available for her. But ultimately, as the one who started this case, it’s your responsibility. Are you ready for that?”
“Absolutely. I wouldn’t have gone this far to chicken out halfway through. I’m going to do all I can to prove that she deserved better treatment.”
“Alright then. First thing tomorrow morning, I will de-petrify her. You’ll accompany me of course. From there, we will ask her a few questions and proceed to take the next best course of action. Does that sound good to you?”
Another nod. That was the perfect way to begin settling down on how to fix this case. “Absolutely.”
“Good. Court dismissed!”
When that final hammer struck the wood, everyone in the room casually got up and left. It was then followed by loads of excitement and hollering once they were all outside. Man, did I just get time warped back to grade school?
Neighsay was the final one to leave. His anxiety now hidden, but I could tell it was there. All he had to say were a few fleeting words. “You may have won the battle, but the war is all but just begun, rat.” He snorted, and walked on out.
I shrugged. His words meant nothing to me. After all, I had more important things to worry about such as how Cozy Glow would react to being freed, how to best approach somepony like her, and the exact questions that I intended to ask.
With all of that being established, I needed to stay vigilant.
Instead of heading home, I decided to stay in Canterlot. No point in travelling all the way back and forth, right? Luna actually offered me the opportunity to stay in Canterlot Castle for the night given how well she knew Twilight. But I denied the offer. Generous, but I couldn’t accept. Any rumors of favoritism towards me would jeopardize my case.
So I chose to stay in the hotel in Canterlot. The same one that I met Fleur-de-Lis in a while back. Luna was insistent on doing me a favor, so she managed to score me a free night. Bleh. I hated these constant freebies, but I didn’t dare refuse.
“Ugh, must you do this?”
The blue alicorn giggled, “Think of it as a favor. From one normal friend to another.”
“Normal?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh come now, Pale. Please allow me to consider you my friend, won’t you? I love the idea of getting to know fun mortals like you,” she said with her eyes alight with stars.
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t fun. I had a dangerous life with a dangerous job that took a lot of time to handle. Even so, I accepted her offer with a slight smile. “Fair enough. You’re more fun than your sister anyways.”
“I heard that!” Celestia shouted from the nearby pastry table in the hotel lobby, “Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy Daybreaker!” she angrily munched on a cupcake.
Those words confused the few ponies that were nearby since they lacked context. Luna simply giggled. “Oh you are hilarious, sister. In any case, Pale. I sincerely hope you know what you are doing with Cozy. There are still many ponies who do not trust you, I’d imagine.”
I thought back to Neighsay. I didn’t mention him because I didn’t have any evidence to prove his suspicious actions. Regardless, I kept a positive attitude. “Don’t worry about me. If anypony’s out there who want a piece of my flank, they’ll have to die for it.”
That was meant to be serious, but the moon pony simply snickered at my retort. “Heh! Y-yes...too true. Now go! Rest. It’s been quite the long day, and I can hear Twilight raising the moon already.”
Oh yeah, that’s right. We were nearing nightfall now. Luna was right. Between all of that debating and liberation, I had exhausted my mental stamina. It was time for this workhorse to hit the hay. “Goodnight, Luna. Tia.”
“Goodnight to you, Mr. Vestige! Sweet dreams, yes?”
Celestia leaned over Luna’s shoulder. “They better not be of my sister, haha!”
“Tia I swear--!”
They both waved as I left for the elevator. For immortal alicorns who made loads of mistakes under their rule, they were nice individuals. Even if they did bicker.
DING!
I got off the elevator, and went to the room Luna had picked out for me. It had a nice, scenic view of the moon as well as the surrounding forest below Canterlot. Not bad at all. After a while, I went to sleep. Or at least, I tried to. Yet again, I had a hard time sleeping. Why? I was making progress. Everything was going right. What was wrong with me?
Hours passed. I felt my head spin. I walked to the window and lifted it open to get some fresh, crisp night air. “Ah…” I sighed, and looked out the window in a lonesome manner. Part of me still felt afraid. Could I truly change the world? Their perceptions? Could Cozy Glow really change?
“Gah…Pull yourself together, man.” This was ridiculous. I needed to get some rest, but something kept nagging at me in my head. As if I was being...called.
“Help!”
“Somepony help!”
“They’re hurting me!”
Either lack of sleep or lack of food dulled my perceptions. But I could have sworn I heard someone or something yell and cry for help. Something about it was throwing me off. And yet, I couldn’t just ignore it.
“This may be the death of me…but I have to find out.”
Under the cover of night, I ran out of the hotel and into the direction of that cry for help. Down and out of the Canterlot Castle, and into the forest floor below. I ran, and ran. So far and wide across the horizon that I must have done so for hours.
As a resilient earth pony, I didn’t really get tired. But once I worked up a sweat, I stopped to catch my breath.
“Huff...huff...what am I doing?! Every Luna-damn time I run out after something, I always get attacked or trapped or worse! Ugh...I just need sleep…”
My eyes almost shut, but then I realized where I was. I looked up and saw a massive open field in the middle of the valley. A very familiar one. Could it be?
“Oh man…”
The statue of the three horsemen of the apocalypse. How did I get way out here? But more importantly, what was that--
“I’m over here! Help me!”
So I wasn’t crazy. There was someone who was in trouble for real. I couldn’t hold back any longer. It was time for some action. I ran out into the field next to the statue of the stoned villains to find out just what was going on. Nothing. What the hell?
“Bravo, dear Vestige. Bravo.”
Neighsay stepped out of the darkness of the forest nearby along with three familiar hooded figures. The light magic wielding unicorn, the pegasus who had lost her job, and the dragon that tied me to Limestone’s rock. So they were all a part of his little group/gang. Were they mercenaries? Had to be. Twilight never mentioned private contractors for the EEA to make use of.
I stood firm, hooves planted into the earth. “So...you finally show your true colors? You’re one crusty old bastard, you know that?”
“Tch. You’re one to talk. Trying to set free a dangerous criminal! Thankfully my little group of hired hooves have shown you just what awaits.”
“She used to be! But I believe that anyone can change! Why don’t you understand that?! And you three...what the buck did you all do to my friend Quick Draw? What are you planning?!” I huffed, and snorted angrily with my hooves that dug hard into the earth. I was sick and tired of dealing with this geezer already, and wanted him to eat his words. “Twilight is going to nuke you from orbit when she finds out about this!”
The smug bucker cackled. “Ha! Do you really believe she would listen to you about such a thing? I am one of her most loyal advisors. I am working in servitude of her utmost safety. And keeping those three chained up for all of eternity is my goal. I won’t be bossed around by trash like you!” his horn lit up. He was going to fire a spell, but I was more than ready to deal with whatever he had.
But that’s not how things went at all.
The magical blast fired off right in the direction of Cozy Glow’s statue! I had no choice. “What?!” I leapt in front of it to block it with all I could. “NEVER!” I hit the ground with a thud. Instead of being shocked or blown up, I seemed to have absorbed the spell. “Wha...what’s happening…?”
Neighsay trotted up to me. “That, my boy is just what I was counting on. You see, there are far too many ponies out there who disrupt the natural order of how things are. Yes, maybe I was too harsh on other creatures. That aside, I aim to uphold the old ways of our ancestors. That alicorn filly was right. Equestria has become soft. Due to ponies like you!”
I started to feel a sharp pain course through my body. It was like the magic destroyed me from the inside out. “Ponies like me, huh? And just...ngh...what do you mean by that?”
“Those who wish to disrupt the status quo and natural order. Only with the strongest magic and warriors can this land stay safe! Not with thoughts and feelings towards genocidal freaks.” With another flash of his horn, a portal opened up behind me.
That’s when I knew what the purpose of the spell was. It was always intended for me, but he knew I would block it. At that moment, I wish I could’ve kicked myself for it. The portal sucked me toward it. “Wha...what the hell?! Hey!”
“This is for your own good as well as the good of Equestria. Take time to think about your actions.”
As I got sucked in, I grimaced and grit my teeth. I wanted nothing more than to cause unrelenting suffering to that old excuse for a stallion. “You...I will destroy everything you have and make you watch! I will make sure you never set hoof in that EEA office ever again! You hear me you piece of shit?!?”
“Ahaha! Without you, there is no future for this brat! Good riddance, Blood Viper! Ahahaha!”
I screamed as loud as I could against his cackling. That was the last thing I heard before I got sucked into the portal. I lost all sense of myself. I couldn’t feel, see, or hear anything. It was like...I was killed.
Or was I? I still felt my soul intact. So what was going on?
After what felt like forever, I finally felt myself hit solid ground. But my body...it felt different. My hooves...were weirdly misshapen. My forelegs were shorter, and my hind legs were longer. I no longer had a tail. And...OH MY GOD.
“AHHHHHHH!” My hoof! My hoof was divided into five digits! Could this be...yup. I passed out due to shock.
When my eyes opened, I was face to face with a purple...being with glasses. “Are you alright? There’s better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know.”
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10441994
You're very right. Luckily, he's trained for this, so don't worry!
😠 Son of a BITCH!! Too far, Neighsay!! Too goddamn far!!
😌 Good thing Sci-Twi found him. Hope she and Sunset help Pale get back to help Cozy before they smash her statue.
I'll tell you one thing, though, if the princesses or Pale's friends find out what happened, trust me,
THEY'LL BE HELL TO PAY!!
And once again, Pale screws up by going it alone when he should've arranged for backup.
10442032
Yeah, that's a bad habit he has. But can you blame him? He doesn't want his best friend Corkscrew in harm's way after Quick Draw threatened to hurt him. Hopefully other agents are aware...
10442028
He really doesn't want Pale to succeed. XD
And don't worry. Sci-Twi knows what to do. And Sunset will actually be very helpful since she's from Equestria.
I really liked the speeches the Main 6 made, although I wish they would have realized what they did during that talk years earlier. I am happy that Pale won the trial.
Neighsay really screwed himself over with this move of sheer desperation. He really would be a prime-suspect of Pale's dissapearence given his power and attitude towards him. There are a million things working against him here.
I am dissapointed that Cozy's release will be postponed, although I do suppose this will be a good opportunity to get Neighsay out of the way first so he can't screw her over when her trial begins. Oh, I can't wait to see his reaction when he gets arrested!
Twilight should consider giving Cozy lenience or some sort of magical protection during this period because its quite obvious that she will be attacked and framed even with Pale protecting her based on past examples with Pale.
Makes sense that he'd be nervous this close to his goal.
You learned nothing from that it seems.
Pale won't have to do much considering how much Neighsay just screwed himself over.
Oh joy, Sci-Twi and her friends will not only help him contact Twilight but also get home reletively quickly!
a reverse meaning to 'The strong must protect the weak'. HA! Great idea man, and I knew that meaning has a flaw to it! I could never find the right words to it.
10442050
Well it serves a narrative purpose since Sunset is going to help out also. Don't worry, Cozy will be saved soon!
And yes. She will get some protections, don't worry. Neighsay is going to try and cover his tracks, though.
Pray that Sci-Twi can help!
10442055
Nail on the head, friend. It's another theme of my story!
Say, here's a thought: Maybe when Cozy's free, she should lose her rook cutie mark, curtesy of Starlight, and start new. I mean, for all we know, that particular mark may be the source of her skill of manipulation. Just a thought.
10442084
That is a very interesting thought I haven't considered. But I'm not sure. We'll see. XD
10442067
Will Pale learn or met the Sirens?
10442118
Stay tuned!
Oh geeze Neighsay is screwed! He could only find one Dimenshional banishment spell and it was the one Starswirl used on the Sirens! Of all the places Pale could be banished to it just so happens to be the one one the Princess has contacts in and easy access to. I mean really the boomerang effect from this is going to be brutal!
Just come Court the next day Pale, like nothing happened. The look on Neighsay's face is too worth into miss! Watching Neighsay's brain melt as he tries to figure out how the hell Pale escaped his "banishment" then getting busted?
That last line was a Fire Emblem Awakening reference, isn’t it?
10442140
Yes, he didn't think this through did he? XD
10442153
You got it! So glad someone noticed!
i absolutely love this series, ive only read up to this point, but i think its an ideal place to leave off of. i appreciate how many things you incorporated into this, and just how much your character goes through to free cozy glow, very admirable. you could possibly sell this as a tv show, as long as you remove the mlp related stuff and set it somewhere different, like i see this set in america in 1939. from manehattan griffon gangs to sombra loving bat-ponies to celestia's alter ego to edible trips to appleloosa attacks with limestone to fending off a bug bear with the cake twins and flurry heart. this stallion has seen it all!