Twilight was never comfortable with the decision made on that day. After a decade of cleaning up the messes her predecessors had left behind, she couldn't in good conscience leave another behind for whoever followed in her hoofsteps.
Written for the Thousand Words Contest II in the Horror category because sometimes you just gotta.
Featured 6/27/23-6/29/23
Well, okay then
And apparently A dramatic reading by StraightToThePointStudios
Think that's actually a first for me.
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So Cozy went insane going by the ending. All I got really.
This is why them being conscious in stone is the worst scenario, especially if truly intended to be "Forever" as Discord said. I could not consider such a fate willingly delivered unto anyone as anything but an act of sadism and evil. Discord may have suffered a similar fate for a thousand years, but that was acceptable only due to the fact that he was a nearly all-powerful threat at the time, and there seemed no other way to stop him. Something which did not apply to the trio. Even just executing them outright would have been far less horrific than this. Their own acts of evil do not justify this level of pointless cruelty.
The fact that this method seems to have potentially succeeded in reforming Tirek and Chrysalis does not justify it either, especially since that's clearly not what Discord and the Princesses intended in this fic. I suppose you could consider Cozy "Reformed" as well, but I wouldn't. The poor filly has been broken.
Very grim fic, definitely could have used more time but decently handled for the short length it had.
11621739
Although there's an undercurrent of recrimination toward Discord and the Diarchs, that's pretty much the gist of it, yeah.
11621751
I mean, if you're going to lock them in stone forever WITHOUT them being conscious of it, how is that not killing them? You've ended their existence regardless. I feel safe assuming, since this was in the spirit of punishment and not the removal of a threat, that they were conscious of the years passing. Maybe ancient, powerful beings like Tirek/Chrysalis/Discord could handle that kind of existence. A precocious filly? Probably not.
11621776
If they're unconscious, then It functionally would be the same as killing them, except without technically killing them. Also, it leaves the possibility, even if small, that someone else might come along and find a way to release them later. Like Twilight did here, but also like some other villain could theoretically have done. The only logic behind it would be trying to kill them but without "Really" killing them to keep some sort of moral high ground. But if the Princesses and Discord genuinely felt they were so bad and threatening they needed to essentially die, then it's just irresponsible by their own logic to leave them technically alive like that, especially considering Equestria's track record for ancient evils being released.
It's trying to have their cake and eat it too, or as I like to call it "The Cowards execution".
I'm pretty sure some writer on twitter confirmed they were meant to be unconscious. But canonicity of Twitter comments is dubious as hell, and if they really wanted that to be the case it probably should have been confirmed in-show somewhere.
11621782
If you look carefully in Ending of the End Part 2, one of Cozy's eyes can briefly be seen moving after she's been turned to stone. This would imply Cozy (and the others) are still conscious. Unable to move, unable to scream, unable to die...
If I understand correctly, Twilight is forcing the petrified villains to turn good through intense chaos+magic and friendship weaponized together
Very intense to read. Could hardly breathe myself in realization.
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It's speculation at best, never confirmed either way in any official capacity. We can't even extrapolate from Discord's rock time, since they were petrified by Luna, Celestia and Discord's combined magic, not the Elements.
11621811
It's not specific what exactly Twilight cast, but in my mind it was nothing more complicated than a counterspell. The hoops to jump through were that it was three different petrification spells from the three most powerful beings on the planet combined.
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If it was for the purpose of punishment, as was clearly indicated in that scene, then them being unconscious makes no sense. Actually, it makes no sense for any other purpose regardless, because the only other reason you'd do such a thing was to (temporary) neutralize a dangerous threat, of which the trio was already neutralized.
The writers' choice of stoning the trio was so bad that whatever they say to cover it up just doesn't help.
The stoning of the trio never did sit right with me.
Good work! I do think it needed more room to breathe, as you said in the author’s note; you might have been able to cut a little bit of the buildup to leave more space for the payoff. Still, the ending is quite horrifying, and Cozy’s fate sent shivers down my spine. I like Chrysalis’s line a lot, too. Best of luck in the contest, fellow competitor!
11621852
There was another story done on that exact topic, funnily enough.
- MLP: FiM
- Slice of Life
Some time after Twilight's coronation, she and Starlight have a conversation.I always think it like that when you release the trio. Every single villain that gets stoned are always ancient, with millions of years living, but Cozy? she's just a foal, with a mortal mind and mortal understanding. she's gone insane just in the first year in stone.
similar punishment in our own world:
11621905
11621982
There were a few questionable writing choices as gen4 wound down. This one always stuck out as particularly jarring to me. I've wanted to do a little something on the subject for a while now, so I couldn't pass up the chance now that I'm actually writing again.
11621988
I'm pretty sure there are quite a few stories done along these lines. It's a controversial topic in the fandom for good reason.
11622003
Indeed.
This was powerful.
Cozy did deserve better. The story 'Only a Filly' really painted Cozy in a better light towards redemption. Chrissy might have taken more time, but I believe that she is redeemable. However, I always felt that Tirek was beyond redemption... until he was forced to comfort a broken child. This story showed a possible side of him that I never felt was possible.
REALLY emotional one-shot. Not much I can say that other reviewers haven't already said better, but I could see why Twilight would be motivated to finally undo the spell her predecessors and Discord cast on the trio, and, yeah, the reactions of the revived villains definitely make sense. Though, of course, Twilight WOULD still be leaving one of her messes for a future generation to clean up somwhere between twenty to thirty years after this (ahem - Opaline), but that's another story entirely.
Jesus Christ.
Whoever greenlit Cozy's fate (I mean in rl) is likely a deviant psychopath.
And so, Cozy's suffering continued.
This here is one of the reasons why turning the trio to stone was a ridiculous and horribly cruel unnecessary thing to do if you think about it for more then a minute. At least with Discord, you can reasonably assume that there was no other way to contain him at the time so it was out of necessity. I find it sad that people actually defend it.
Either way, nice story. Certainly earns the horror tag.
damn man...
11622046
Could be. Could have been an executive decision. Could have been them knowing the series was wrapping up and they didn't have time to do three more redemption arcs. I doubt this was anyone on the writing staff's first choice. I mean, I hope not
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11622069
I try
I hardly think of this as a 'best case scenario' story, but in some ways it kind of actually is.
11622204
Whether it was their first choice or not, or even if it wasn't their choice at all, there's still a number of ways they could have at least mitigated how terrible it was. Why not have the Trio stoned by the rainbow laser while they were still active, powerful threats, rather than it being done after they were already beaten? Why not have someone, probably Twilight, give them at least one last token chance to reform before bringing the punishment down? Why not have a line like "Maybe we'll let them out later and see how they feel about friendship then", which leaves it a frighteningly harsh punishment for sure but at least implies they don't intend it to last forever? Or at the very least not have the "Together Forever" line to imply permanency?
Possibly most baffling of all, why did anyone think that including Discord helping out with their punishment was a good idea, when he'd already spent the whole season manipulating and abusing them and encouraging their evil, after having basically kidnapped them, just to use them as pawns for his own plan? Seriously, that part boggles my mind. The writing feels like it doesn't even attempt to be anything but blatant cruel vengeance.
11621988
Ah, geez, that story. Not gonna lie, I remember reading it when it first came out, and since then, it's maintained an unmovable status as my least favorite fanfic on the entire site. Admittedly, I'm as far as an unbiased source of critical appraisal as you can get — I've never quite sorted out how I feel about TEoTE and its resolution, for better or for worse — but its flagrant Author Tract status, the disappointment I'd felt from seeing its author ragequit (Codex had been one of my favorite writers beforehand), and the violent discourse in its comments section thoroughly rattled me at the time, and I've never quite been able to get past all of that… admittedly mostly irrelevant baggage. "The wrong fanfic at the wrong time," for lack of a better term. That being said, all the power in the world to everybody who got some much-needed catharsis from it. Don't let my dumb ass stop you!
Just my two cents; feel free to jam them back into my eyes. Probably deserve it TBH.
Ngl, I don't feel any sympathy for Cozy Glow. Good idea and execution, though
11622316
Hadn't read it before. Just did. Then I looked in the comments section.
Let's not do that.
11622285
Suffice to say I generally agree. What if what we eventually saw WAS the mitigated version though? Imagine if the original draft was darker, but they had a tone matching discussion and softened it to what we got?
11622316
To be honest I regret writing the comments I left on it. I think enough time has passed for me to look back on the episode in a more mature what than I used to.
11622350
Codex publishing it within two days of the finale's airing probably didn't help matters either. If you haven't read through this site's official finale discussion thread yet, consider yourself lucky; the fact we never resumed doing those threads for Pony Life or G5 feels somewhat telling IMO.
11622340
It's not an indefensible position. Hell, I remember someone proposing that she had dwarfism and was actually a full grown adult mare masquerading as a filly. Obviously I feel like she's worthy of empathy, but we're hardly required to agree.
11622365
I tend to dip out when the drama levels reach critical mass, so I've missed a lot of the huge blowups over the years. Perfectly content in that.
11621852
We wouldn't even be properly able to speculate even if both had been from the elements, because staying conscious while petrified might just be unique to Discord because he's Discord. When Twilight was petrified by a cockatrice, she wasn't conscious during the time, so I'm inclined to believe that Discord is the unique one out, and everyone else who gets petrified regardless of source isn't conscious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLCNsVnH70g
How Cozy Glow should have been handled.
11622413
Well, since the discussion was opened, I'd say that Cozy Glow can teach a valuable moral: if someone looks innocent, it doesn't mean that they are. She is a character who weaponizes her perceived innocence for ill ends, it is a very predatory behavior. MLP is only better because of the existence of such a character, and it doesn't warrant extra explanations or headcanons. Kids often don't have moral inhibitors to boot; they could be even more true to their developing character and morals they value, and if Cozy Glow were an adult in the story, her actions could be burdened with implications that have no place in a kids show.
Or maybe she would be a more competent version of Chrysalis. Go figure.
In short, the character is surely unrealistic (as far as magical ponies go, anyway), but I don't know how else they could've finish her plotline and at the same time sent across message about percieved innocence
Of course, that doesn't take away anything from the story. If you want to feel empathy to the character, or more like the type of person the showrunners try to portray, it's a-ok. It is not a real kid, anyway
Yeah, the actual best case is to have the seal on them break more or less immediately after we stopped looking. Discord can't do stasis, it's antithetical to his very being.
11622285
There's also the time Discord said that he doesn't turn ponies to stone. Says interesting things about Cozy Glow if you pretend the writers of this episode knew about that one (blue words lead to an explanation of my word choice).
Don't even know bruv...just..damn.✌️
11622501
Oh wow, I forgot he literally said that.
11622501
That link was a rather interesting read. But yeah, I highly doubt that the writers remembered that he said that, especially considering there are other parts of the finale where they clearly didn't remember things from previous seasons either. Like how Tirek apparently can't control Discord's magic anymore, or like how Stygian's biggest desire before was to stand by the Pillars as an equal but he doesn't even get to have his ass kicked by Tirek with the rest of them in the finale.
But even still, if we want to pretend...that line could indicate something interesting about Cozy, sure. It could also just indicate that Discord is a big fat hypocrite. Which seems pretty in-character for him at this point.
11622526
It's extra funny when you realize that Discord saying that was literally his second line of dialogue ever in the show.
11622530
And his first is the one I quoted somewhere in that link, semi-seriously crediting it as Hasbro's own general thought process:
"Longer than you think Twilight! Longer than you think!"
I have mixed feelings about this (and similar stories). It feels like a complete 180 from how I would imagine Equestria works. Not that I am whinging about it mind you; your story is still well written and enjoyable(?) in a fashion.
I have always had a headcanon imagining Cozy as less "innocent pony Shirley Temple" and more "insidious pony Damien Thorn" and the whole petrification process as less "White Room Torture" / "Jaunt Limbo" and something more akin to "preserving stasis until culture and ponies/beings arise that are equipped to redeem them upon release" (think 'medically induced coma'). Just my silly 2p.
11622584
This is simply my personal 'what if' scenario. It's not meant to infringe on your headcanon. I doubt this story's particulars are anything like what the show intended. Just a vehicle to evoke emotions in those it resonates with.
Stupendous reference by the way
Extremely good read.
There is a masterful talent behind stories where a large chunk of the emotional weight and spirit of the work is in between the lines. The words written are good, Andy they evoke strong feelings - that alone is a writing win - but even more so, they invoke thought. They make me shift my head just a little to the left, and see a whole nother universe back there.
Beautiful. Makes me want to explore the emotions felt by Tirek and Chrysalis, thrust into this position - chrysalis, already a mother but never having felt that loss of a child, that need to protect, particularly.
Is this story open to derivative work? It’s very inspiring.
11622617
Oh no worries there. I certainly have a rather different view of Cozy and her antics in light of the Omen. To each their own.
On that count, I would say it certainly was successful with me
11622695
Glad you liked it. As for derivative works, I don't really mind. I may revisit the piece in August but I might not. I'd just be fleshing it back out, not doing a continuation though.
11622584
I mean if we recall Discord's scathing commentary to Celestia early in the series, his tone and wording suggests it's quite a horrific punishment, which it honestly could be. Celestia may just be like those people who think life without parole is more humane than a swift execution, never minding what a human mind will do when locked away for decades in full knowledge it only ends in death.
Now imagine that same mind locked away, as far as they know forever, unable to ever die.
Now imagine that same mind, but it's a child, not a hardened war criminal or a tyrant queen. Yes, a child who has done horrible things, but enough to honestly deserve near-total isolation with no end date to the sentence?
Nowhere is perfect, not even cartoon utopias.
In this situation I could imagine Chrysalis vanishing into the wilderness to start a new hive, this time keeping well away from Equestria, perhaps with her fellow inmates allowed to live among the hive, but no other outsiders. Twilight's offer to help Cozy Glow is rebuffed. It's been a hundred years, so her immediate family are all dead, and their descendants would not want to be saddled with the care of an insane foal. Any "help" would be reduced largely to locking her away in a mental hospital to be prodded and tested by the doctors, who would also barely care.
Better she be taken care of by the ones who were there when she snapped. They might understand enough to keep her comfortable.
The two immortals, equal to the sun that they were, were forced to watch a child fall to ashes around hand and hoof...
What a lesson in empathy indeed.
This was just sad. A good read to be sure. But sad.
Like many of the people that have already commented, I hate how the finale delt with the the villains. It would have seemed unnecesaryily cruel in any show, but in this show, where offering friendship to even your enemies is practically a major theme... This show has done things I didn't like before and I've been able to look past it or at least accept it and move on. But turning three villains that were already beaten and at the heroes mercy to stone, seemingly forever. I don't think I'll ever be able to accept that ending. Unless maybe, on the off chance they address it later on somehow. Like if in G5 they reveal the trio managed to break and ultimately got a better ending.
But I am glad we've at least got fanfics that try to address this. Like this one. The ending was kind of rushed, but otherwise it was good.
Poor Cozy Glow though. Though I like to think, not that Twilight's at least got her free and seems to want to help, that there's at least the possibility of her recovering from this. I don't know you intended this, but I could see Twilight taking Cozy in and at least trying to do what she can for her after this.
11622285
Last comment, but on Discord, it's like having Saddam Hussein play a role in the forming of a new Iraqi government-if he fucked up so bad last time, why give him a role in policy making? Especially when it was supposed to be Twilight's first day in office. No, she had to be to the side while the last three rulers decide what to do.
11622927
That's the beauty of fanfiction in my opinion. We can envision the road not taken. Imagine what paths these characters will walk down next, what choices they might make.
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I'd argue that it's an important lesson too - there are those who simply won't accept friendship. And worse yet, theree are those who will only pretend to do it when it benefits them. For some creatures, violence really is the only language they understand.
I would agree, though, that this lesson was done rather heavy-handedly.
"There are fates worse than death." -Raiden
11623243
The series has this problem sometimes. Like when Twilight and the others decide to openly ridicule and humiliate Rainbow Dash in public to help her learn humility? Really, girls? You call yourselves her friends and you do that?
This is just that write large.
11623243
The problem is that we don't really know for sure if Cozy is the kind of person who would truly never accept friendship or not, because after she was revealed as a villain the heroes never even tried to reach out to her. Yes, they were teaching her friendship before she was outed as a villain, but those were in just general classes for everyone to take. Education is not one size fits all, perhaps Cozy is capable of learning but needs more specialized lessons, but we don't know because nobody ever tried.
Compare that to Discord. Introduced as the living embodiment of Chaos and Disharmony, and yet he was released from his stone prison in order to be "Reformed", despite him not feeling any remorse for his actions and even laughing at the idea. It took nearly a whole episode of Fluttershy reaching out to him before he even started showing any capacity for goodness, and that goodness would never have manifested without her help. Discord goes on to make many mistakes and do numerous bad things after this, including betraying them all to Tirek and even causing ALL of Season 9's problems, and yet he is continuously forgiven and given more chances anyway.
Why does Cozy Glow not deserve even a 22 minute episode of the heroes trying to personally reach out to and reform her? For that matter, why doesn't Tirek? I mean, the last time anyone tried to talk him down was over a thousand years ago. He has a surprising amount of small moments of goodness in Season 9, such as speaking to his Grandma in his sleep, or catching a little bird and looking concerned for it when it was knocked over by Canterlot's dumb fans. All of the trio on Mt. Everhoof had their almost revelation, which shows they have the capacity for goodness and friendship. Sure, they all turned against it there...but on the other hand it's also the closest any villains in the show have ever gotten to self-reformation. Every single reformed villain in this series, if they weren't made good by the rainbow lasers, required some form of real help to change. Help the trio either didn't get, or in Chrysalis's case, only got a bit of.
It all feels very hypocritical and unfair in the end, especially due to Discord's involvement in their fate. Why does he deserve all the forgiveness and help in the world, and yet they deserve apparently nothing? Less than nothing, even, they all apparently deserve the harshest fates the ponies can give, all while Discord get's to laugh his way home after yet another atrocity of his.