The Council of Friendship
Starlight Glimmer knew what she had to do. She knew it the second Cozy Glow was turned to stone, though that conclusion haunted her for months before she was willing to admit it. Cozy Glow deserved a second chance. No, maybe not deserved it, but it was necessary nonetheless. For Celestia’s sake, she was only a filly! A maniacal, manipulative filly bent on taking over Equestria, but still, a filly. Ponies aren’t born evil. Starlight knew from personal experience. It was never pleasant to think of her past, how the loss of her closest and only friend had driven her to manipulate ponies into joining her colt of “equality” and “friendship.” In her desperation, she lost sight of true friendship. She grew angry and bitter. She thought forcing ponies into her little town would solve the whole in her heart. It hasn’t. If she had learned this, why couldn’t a filly? After all, isn’t that all she wanted? Power so ponies could never leave. Mariennte friends to play with for the rest of time. She would be so powerful, no one could abandon her again.
Starlight shivered. The situation was creepy, the kid was powerful, but what made her less deserving of a second chance than Starlight? Than Discord?
Starlight Glimmer knew what she had to do. Her punishment had lasted long enough.
————
Starlight Glimmer, headmistress of the school of friendship, student of the Ruler of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle, stood in front of her and all her friends at the Council of Friendship. It had been five moons since Cozy Glow’s imprisonment, and Equestria had fallen into an unusual period of peace and diplomacy under Twilight’s rule. Despite her original doubts, Starlight was sure Twilight believed herself fit to rule. She sighed. How in Equestria was she supposed to pull this off?
“We’re waiting, sugarcube.”
“Yeah! What’d you want to speak to us about anyway? Did something happen at the School of Friendship?” Pinkie froze and gasped. “Did I forget somepony’s birthday??”
“Pinkie, with your organization system you couldn’t possibly forget. I’m sure this isn’t a birthday matter, Starlight?” Twilight nodded kindly at her. Only when Starlight nodded back but still didn’t speak did Twilight begin to grow concerned.
“I think we should free Cozy Glow,” blurted Starlight. Smooth. Great going, great setup, she thought sarcastically. She took a deep breath over the hush that threatened to silence her again. “I think we should free Cozy Glow; I think she deserves a second chance.”
“Star—“
“And I have proof!”
Starlight levitated a book from her bag. Coated with a familiar enchantment, it shined of memories. “How many so-called villains have you vanquished and redeemed? Discord, Nightmare Moon, me. We were all ready to destroy Equestria or put it under our rule. Don’t you see that? Cozy Glow may have gotten farther, but she’s just a filly! A filly,” she looked at Applejack first, then Rarity. “She’s younger than your little sisters,” she spoke softly, “and your sisters have you. Cozy Glow had no one. Does anyone even know where she came from? Her parents, her past, anything?” Starlight searches the faces of the Council. They glance at each other uneasily. Spike shakes his head and is the only one to respond. Nobody saw this question coming, Starlight was sure. No one questioned Twilight’s rule: just like no one had questioned Celestia. But then Fluttershy meets her eyes.
She has Angel positioned in her lap, and while the feisty bunny seems bored, Fluttershy seems anything but. She smiles. Softly, at Starlight. A smile that reaches her eyes and seems to melt her heart. Starlight knows now: she isn’t alone.
“This filly deserves kindness.” She nods at Fluttershy. “To really understand generosity. The chance to face her past honestly and make amends. What kind of ponies do we want to be? Ones who condemn a child for an admittedly powerful mistake, or ones who turn our enemies into our friends.” She looks at Twilight finally. Her lilac eyes meet her teacher’s darker ones. Dark and furrowed, Twilight’s expression is one of silence and something else Starlight can’t understand and can only hope isn’t condemnation. I would’ve watched the world burn, but you showed me a better way. Please, remember.
The room is silent for too long.
So long, that Starlight flinches when Twilight speaks. “We gave her that chance, Starlight Glimmer. She studied at my School of Friendship under all our pedagogy. She had many opportunities to make friends, and she turned her back on all of Equestria instead!” Raw, her voice is raw Starlight realizes.
She retaliates pleadingly: “Come on Twilight, you must know that’s not true. We sent a filly to Tartarus for Celestia’s sake! Tartarus! We sent her to the very people who she is frozen in stone with. What did we expect her to learn there? There has to be a better way. There was for me.”
“If we let her loose, she could destroy us all.”
“If she tries we’ll stop her. We’ll keep her under surveillance! Discord can help.”
Fluttershy pipes up, “It would be fair… after the mess he caused in the first place. I’m sure he would be willing to lend a paw.”
Twilight’s eyes narrow. “She is just a filly… but who would be responsible for her? Her parents haven’t exactly come forward.”
“I’ll do it.”
The room gasped.
Starlight Glimmer stood in front of a council of her friends and her teacher, the very one who had taught her the meaning of all this. A part of her knew this would happen. She thought back to the moment she had Cozy Glow in her office that first time. The filly had admitted to purposely failing a test to get her friends into the school. Starlight knew better now than to think that situation had been all it seemed, but at the same time…
She steps forward, as if taking the first step into the future she proposed. “Who else but me? I’ve been in her shoes. I’ve had the best teacher.” Twilight’s frown twitched. “And I know we have to try. I’ll take responsibility for her, but I can’t do this alone.” The rest of the room fades away except for her and Twilight. “You believed I could change. Believe me and help me help her.”
Silence, once again.
Applejack cleared her throat. “I reckon it’s mighty admirable what you’re doing, but…”
“Applejack is right. This matter must be discussed more thoroughly. After all that is what this Council is for,” Twilight breathes in sharply, and Starlight winces knowing the migraine the Princess will have later over this. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Starlight. We’ll discuss this and get back to you shortly.”
Starlight nodded. “Thank you, everyone.”
When the letter arrived a few days later, Starlight Glimmer smiled. She knew what she had to do the minute that filly was turned to stone. And now, it wasn’t too late. Now, she had Equestria by her side.
Now the real preparation could begin.
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Not bad at all. It could use a quick editorial pass, especially in the preface (marionette), but it flows well. Everyone's in character and the dialogue's on point. Nice little snack, just needs a tiny bit of cleaning up
Sorry; but Cozy Glow’s not a victim. She knew exactly what she was doing and knew the basics of friendship enough to be Twilight’s right hoof pony. There’s no excuse for what she did. At least Starlight has plausible deniability in her case and the fact that she was going loopy.
Honestly, I’m glad someone brought this up, because them sending cozy glow to tartarus and the turning her to stone didn’t sit right with me. What makes cozy glow different from sunset shimmer or even starlight glimmer?
Hm... Hmm... Hmmm...
Not half-bad. Two things though. First, please make sure the words you are using are the actual words you intend. I'm talking about that opening paragraph.
These could have been seen on an editing pass, so maybe make sure to go over it one last time before publishing.
Second, make sure the tense you use is consistent. Most authors use past tense. For a decent portion you use present tense, but not for the entire story. While it isn't improper to use present tense, it certainly has more caveats to it than past tense does. Consistency is very important in keeping the quality of your writing, so make sure to commit one way or another.
Other than that, I enjoyed the story! A little rushed at the end, but a great first step!
This could go places. A few spelling errors notwithstanding. It's an interesting set-up for a fic.
Now for the payoff... waiting for more already.
11645239
Do you think they could be a... Miraculous Ladybug fan?
Was there ever anything in canon that at least tried to exonerate cozy glow or was she just a sociopath?
StarLight had been hurt and she sought to stop the thing that she shought had hurt her from hurtin others.
That is at least somewhat of an understandable reason for doing what she did to an extent.
Cozy Glow?
Just . . "Me having power is not enough, everybody else should have no power!"
Cozy being a filly just makes her actions worse. What kind of kid has such twisted thoughts, let alone the desire and the will to act upon them?
11645634
I’m pretty sure everyone has twisted thoughts, but you’re right about the latter.
Now if they executed Discord, Novo, Dr Caballeron, and Ahuizotl THAT would be justice. Or even lecture Celestia about how badly she's failed at everything to a point where she turned Luna into Nightmare Moon.
11645947
Excuse me? Novo had every right to cast out the Mane Six after Twilight was caught trying to steal the Pearl of Transformation.
And Ahuitzotl was a guardian. While his methods were extreme, he was still acting to protect the artifacts he was charged with guarding.
Even Caballeron didn't do anything bad enough to deserve "execution". And you seem to be forgetting that Discord was reformed.
11645947
How is Queen Novo a villain?
Very exited for the Starlight's interactions with Cozy. Equestria's most powerful unicorn and Tatarus' youngest prisoner—wonder how they'll get along!
11645318
Try telling that to 99.999% of the fandom though. They don't care.
Interesting start. Smart and brave of Starlight to realize how ridiculous, unfair and unnecessarily cruel it was, what they did to that poor filly. I do hope you plan on continuing this. I would be happy to read it.
Starlight had many opportunities to make friends. She had a loving father and a devoted group of ponies, but she instead chose to lie to them. Her being in a school is hardly a reason to deny her a second chance. There's also Discord's betrayal with Tirek.
Like Discord?
11645535
If you mean something like a backstory then no.
It's a good start! I'm excited to see how Starlight could help Cozy Glow
11645239
Thank you! In the future I’m definitely going to be more careful. I got so anxious about posting it I didn’t edit as much as I normally do. Glad you liked it
11645318
That’s perfectly fair that you see her that way, but in my mind she’s a filly and I think we didn’t get an explanation for what she did because it was so close to the show’s end. She’s still responsible for her actions! But maybe she can be taught better, like Starlight and Discord and the changelings
11645325
I agree! I think it’s cause the show ended so soon after. Glad you enjoyed it
11645410
Thanks for taking the time to give constructive criticism!! I’m glad you still enjoyed the story despite the errors. In the future I’m gonna be more careful, I just got anxious. Thanks for reading!!
11645535
I don’t believe there was anything in the canon (though sending a filly to Tartarus and giving her more bad influences probably did not help), and the show did end shortly after and we never got her backstory like we did for Starlight Glimmer. I think especially since she was a filly it’s interesting to consider why she would have acted that way even if the show didn’t cover it. The show did have the episode where cozy glow purposely failed a test because she wanted the cutie mark crusaders to go to the school. I don’t know why she did that, and not knowing why is a big part of cozy glow’s appeal for me. Good question to ask!
11645634
Thats exactly it though! She’s a filly, what could have made her like that? It’s totally fair that you see her actions as worse because of that, for me though it makes me wonder how she became like that and if she could be helped. I think cozy glow’s such an interesting character, whether you take her as evil or as redeemable
11646693
Cozy Glow is still responsible for her actions, but I think it’s interesting in a show about befriending the villains that it’s never explored why cozy glow does what she does. Maybe she’s just evil! Maybe there’s more to it though. However you interpret it I think it’s fun, I just personally prefer the idea that she can be redeemed and find a family
11650645
In fairness, they din't befriend every villain. Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Flim and Flam, the Sirens...
11651064
Wait, did they ever give sombra and tirek a chance?
11648353
I really hope the others get called out.
A bit short, but I like it so far. I hope you continue this in some way.
11651064
Honestly flim and and flam really got shafted On one hoof I see what they were going for, the conglomerate coming in and putting a local family business out of business but on the other hoof the apples only won bc they had so many other ponies helping them, and it’s not like flim and flam were syster’s either they firmly delivered on the product they promised up until the point where would lose bc of the apples aforementioned excess of pony help (which I wouldn’t technically call cheating but.....) there was no reason why there couldn’t be two cider making places in ponyville, but what do y’all think bc I think they got a pretty raw deal
Far too many people here who don't seem to understand that no matter what the crime is, you do not give a punishment worse than the death penalty to a child. Sure, imprison her for life for all I care. She deserves that much. But the moment you turn a normal pony to stone, You've gone from punishment to torture. That is a punishment that should only be reserved for immortal or near immortal beings.