This story is a sequel to Innocent Until Proven Cozy
Sunset Shimmer knows the risks of blabbing about Equestria. Especially to people whose counterparts are... unsavory. The human counterpart of Cozy Glow was a gamble, but so far she's paid off. A troubled girl struggling to stay good. All Sunset has to do is keep her trust.
Something very hard to do after a nosy native Equestrian shows up.
First Place Winner
of the 4th Annual Cozy Glow Story Contest, using the prompt "Cozy's got a secret!"
Chapters (7)
It's baaaack party people!
You've explained mental illness to them right?
Hey hey! It could've been worse right? I mean at least it's not Rainbow Dash.
I'm sorry, I thought you knew Pinkie Pie. Best friends as it were. You have to know that your best chance is to take her head on, because you sure aren't going to evade her forever.
Ahh she feels regret! That's good. We can work with that.
I always hated that Pinkie Pie was never a force for reconciliation in the show.
11702119
Yes! After fifty fics of side projects, EqG Cozy is back, and more miserable than ever! This one was a long time coming, and I'm humbly grateful you tolerated such a delay.
...
Uh...
You're either gonna love or hate chapter 4.
I have a feeling Pinkie feel bad for not be able to "reform" her universe Cozy Glow, That's why she so eager to "reforming" this Cozy
11702151
.
Cozy is gonna have a miserable day today isn't she
-sees that cover art of EG Cozy- I knew someone was gonna use it again. ^^
Oh geez. I'd say she needs help, but she's already GETTING it and she knows it's not enough.
Pinkie. Pinkie NO
Why do I have a feeling Pinkie is only going to make things worse?
11702480
Because this is chapter 2 of 7?
11702393
The kind of "help" she's getting doesn't seem very... helpful?
The therapist sounds like they're treating her like a diseased monster.
Turning her to stone immediately probably is not the best course of action...
But I'm not convinced Pinkie is suited for this task.
11702396
Pinkie might surprise you...
Oh man, I was not expecting a sequel. Really hype for this, though - the original is one of my favorites of yours. Gonna be a heck of a ride.
Oh damn it Pinkie.
To repeat from when this (or part of it?) was posted as a blog:
I hope she realizes she can probably go to the school nurse and say "I really need my pills, and misplaced them this morning."... Hoping her parents have a notice with the school that she is on meds...
As always, Pinkie means well. But... that only can go so far....
Hehe is that guilt I sense from Pinkie Pie, along with a bit of fear of Sunset finding out how much they dropped the ball when it came to the "magic of friendship" with Cozy Glow.
I mean Starlight creates alternate timelines/realities where villains won and one where all life was even wiped out and gets offered second chance. Cozy Glow...not even a attempt at helping her see error of ways just threw a child into tarturus.
Sorry if coming across salty it's just a major thing that always irritated me to say the least.
11702641
Because she is diseased. As much as it pisses some people off to state the plain truth, mental illness is just that. ILLNESS. Only instead of the symptoms manifesting as say a fever, pain, or a sore in this case they do so as severe deviations in behavior.
To be fair, the therapist doens't have a choice in the matter. This Cozy is most definetly a potential danger to anyone around her. If he did not tell her parents to keep small animals and children away - those who have the least means to defend themselves - from her and she did something to them, he would be culpable. Aside from likely having his license revoked for gross neligence and getting slapped with massive lawsuits (that I doubt any lawyer would take his side on aside from saying "settle as quick as you can"), there is the personal misery. He would have known she was a real danger and because he "took a chance" another living thing paid the price. And no semi-sane being wants to live with that guilt for the rest of their lives.
And Pinkie "Miss does not have a shred of honest empathy in her body" Pie? The same pony who thought bringing an entire TOWN to a party for an incredibely introverted bookworm who was already under excessive stress from multiple sources was a good idea? That Pinkie Pie?
Sunset, time for emergency plan F. Step one, throw said pony against with the wall with one hand around her throat and squeeze until she can't breathe. Step two, when said pony stops talking long enough to actually listen explain to her in no uncertain terms exactly what the situation is and that you do not need her making the situation worse. Step three, contact Twilight and tell her to come and get her friend before you ship her off to the glue factory. Step four, get Fluttershy and Fluttershy alone - NO Rainbow Dash under pain of her being plucked like a goose and turned into a feather bed - to come help. As much as any creature from a society whose entire reaction to even the hint of violence is either blind panic or their equivalent of "nuke from orbit" can help.
What this Cozy really needs is someone who has been in her place, come back, and isn't in denial about it. Luna would be the absolute best choice. Heck she could probably get Cozy to feel like she isn't a monster just by telling her about what what she almost succeeded at as Nightmare Moon. That alone would probably be a huge boost in her ability to carry on from day to day.
11703026
Why do you say Pinkie does not have empathy?
This is not gonna end well.
11703026
That right there says you know nothing about mental illness. Disease implies you can get it just by meeting someone with one.
11703101
One incorrectly used term does not equal "knows nothing"... they might or might not, but your evidence is far from conclusive.
11703116
As someone who actually has a mental disability, I see far too many people using terms like this either on purpose, or not. I'm no expert, but it always comes across as something they have no business talking about.
11703101
11703116
I dislike interjecting into the debates of other people, and I dislike pulling the "I'm The Author" card even less. Still, I want to advocate levelheadedness. Ironic, given the story's plot hook.
More chapters will bring more nuance. Pinkie has her strengths and weaknesses, which we'll soon see play out. So does Sunset. And yes, so does Cozy, afflicted though she is.
This story is very much in the spirit of its prequel. It's not Everyone Vs Cozy, it's Cozy And Everyone Vs the problem. They're all on the same team, much like I hope we all can be.
I'd feel a lot better about this if EG Pinkie was in play. Somehow, Equestrian Pinkie and her inexperience with the human world has me nervous.
11703053
Its not that she completely lacks empathy. That would make her a full-blown sociopath or psychopath on par with Pinkamenia in the horror fanfictions. In that case the very LAST act any semi-responsible individual would do is let her near a kid like this Cozy. It's that she doesn't have a whole lot of it - definetly not enough to be dealing with a full-blown headcase mental patient - and is too immature to actually use it. She's fundamentally a well-meaning but very self-centered character who can't put herself in anothers place. The whole mess with Gilda (even with said griffin being a royal twit) highlights that. A friend someone hasn't seen for years maybe a decade reconnects and shows up in town? Of course they're going to want to spend time together with just them. Its just plain good manners for the other friends to back off and give the two some space. Pinkie though doesn't even remotely pick up on that. She goes right to "throw party with whole town" mode which is again probably the last thing Gilda wanted - to have even less time time with Rainbow. Or how she handled the bit with Cranky Doodle.
Imagine having to go on chemo and the drug cocktail given makes you so sick that some foods (especially sweets) just make you puke for hours. Now your friends all know to some degree what you're going through. Common sense says that your friends will ask what you can and can't have before doing anything. Something we don't even think about. Now how would you feel if someone who was in that circle brought you a "get well" cake that was heaped with sweets? If you're honest with yourself, probably a bit angry. That is how I see Pinky acting. She might mean well but she just can't wrap her head around the idea that her view of "happy" might not be the same as someone else. On a good day it can be downright annoying but when someone is already down or stressed out? That is a good way to push them over the edge into a full psychotic breakdown. Especially if the person doesn't understand when to back the heck off.
Huh. That's the opposite of how the usual Pinkie uses it. Which makes sense, honestly.
In any case, it's not hard to see why the chapter titles are a countdown to doom given who's opposing it. It's not a question of whether this goes horribly wrong, but how. Looking forward to finding out.
11703190
That’s honestly why I prefer the way some authors write pinkie because in some fanfics I read she had some maturity rather than in the show where she has the mentality of what she thinks is fun is fun for everyone else
Her level of paranoia of those around her is higher than I think has happen to have been demonstrated before? I was seriously doubting my own memory for a bit, but then I remembered I usually retain stuff like that pretty well, so it is probably just more detail being revealed. It does come back to fear of herself, but... interesting. How typical is that of her condition(s)?
Also, I find it mildly odd that there were no comments on this or the last chapter when I read them. Curious.Nevermind, it has been less than an hour since both chapters were added (at the same time).well fuck
Oh. That cannot be good.
This is definitely concerning for Cozy. I hope she can get the support she needs! The fact that she’s trying to address her problems is a good sign, but missing a dosage can screw with anyone.
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Sad but true.
We currently live in a society where mental illness is glorified and treated like it's something glamorous that should be emulated.
I love the way you show how mental illnesses enable themselves, and the horrible struggle at the barest inconvenience
Pinkie... no. Just don't.
Cozy is trying so hard to fight back and beat the darkness.
But it's not something you can do through sheer willpower.
What a cliffhanger!
11703867
Mental illness used to be vilified but now its gone the other extreme.
That turned unexpectedly sweet. I liked the twist, though! Nice how Pinkie didn’t turn out to be the unintended saboteur she was shaping up to become. Maybe Silver Spoon can reform Diamond Tiara now that she’s aware of her toxicity, too. Above all else, I’m glad that Cozy turned out okay. She had been through a lot…
need more
Disaster averted?
11703101
You seem to be rather confused. The word you're looking for is "contagion", not "disease". "Disease" is an incredibly broad term that is not limited to contagious problems. Plenty of diseases are not contagious, including vitamin deficiencies, cancers, and yes, mental disorders.
11703867
Citation very much needed. The only "glorification" of "mental illness" I ever hear about just turns out to be empty anti-LGBTQ fearmongering. I've yet to hear anyone describe any mental illness as preferable.
Then again I never visit the popular nonsense platforms like X or Tiktok, so maybe I'm just out of touch.
11704756
Well we could start with the body positivity movement that's morphed into promoting obesity as a legitimate lifestyle choice, with claims that attempting to lose weight and live healthier are fatphobic.
Or we could talk about the people suffering from body integration dysphoria, who believe they need to have healthy limbs amputated because a fully functioning body conflicts with their mental image of how they should actually be.
Or we could even discuss the open and blatant hatred currently being directed at men in the name of "smashing the patriarchy!" that's destroyed Hollywood films and given us such box office bombs as Terminator Dark Fate. Hating someone based on their gender has to be mental illness.
Or we could talk about the latest trend that's swept Hollywood, and has actors and directors openly trashing their own viewing audience, calling them all manner of "ists" and "phobes" long before the production ever even hits theaters, guaranteeing that it's going to tank at the box office and lose the studios millions of dollars.
Or we could talk about the public school teachers who're pushing the notion that math is racist and somehow promotes white supremacy.
Or we could even talk about the people on Twitter. You know, the ones who think that doxxing and death threats are appropriate responses to reading something that they don't like, like seeing a character shipping they loathe. Hardly a day goes by where they're not telling some poor artist or individual to kill themselves, or how they hope they get raped, or cheering when a studio falls victim to arson.
Plenty of mental illness out on display wherever you look, and all of it being glorified and treated like it's something legitimate.
good to see that everyone agrees that Silver Spoon being awesome is simply correct
11704841
Please don't pollute the comment section with your politically motivated drivel. People just want to read pony words, not watch you fantasize about all your political opponents being mental illness sufferers
This was wonderful, imo. Very neatly told, with a character I haven't seen depicted very often.
I've tended to really like the longer yarns you've spun, especially comparing it to Her Bitter Half. That trend continues here! Either way, this was a good read, glad we got to go through it!
I actually didn't know you wrote "Her Bitter Half", but after reading this, that, and the previous instalment, you've become one of my favourite writers.
You're great, chief!
Hot damn. That's a real cliffhanger ending to the chapter!
Oh wow! Didn't see that coming!
It worked really well, though. Good job!