In the shadow of political turmoil, riots, and inter-tribal conflict, Equestria cannot afford another crisis. When a legal snarl over a funeral explodes into a scandal, there may be a chance to set things right.
Now, armed with total faith in the power of friendship and harmony, Twilight Sparkle arrives in Cloudsdale to talk down a fringe movement of radical young Pegasi.
It would be a lot easier if their leader hadn't been petrified for fifty years.
Takes place between The Last Problem and MLP: A New Generation.
Winner of Imposing Sovereigns IV, with the prompt Twilight Sparkle/Persistence
Chapters (1)
Patches strikes again!
I had a blast editing this, and especially the big reveal.
11751742
Same here. Fantastic work as always, Patchwork!
This is certainly an interesting take on late generation 4 politics. I like how you tell a story through a conversation undertaken with complicated motives that need some teasing out by both main participants.
I understand what you were going for here, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief behind the premise. If ponies turned their backs on the princesses so easily, Equestria would have certainly collapsed back into tribal states after Nightmare Moon was imprisoned. Especially since Luna surely had a good track record of leadership prior, unlike Cozy. The whole time as I was reading, I couldn't get over how you must have hit Twilight with the idiot ball for things to have gotten this bad in the first place.
11751813
Are we sure it didn't? The time of Luna's banishment is not one well known to the modern pony or to us viewers, prior to her return her very existence was regarded the same way we regard the Easter Bunny or Santa; fun but fictional. For all we know the nation did collapse into tribalism in Luna's absence, and the harmony we see in the show was only recovered relatively recently.
I like this so much, great work author
That got to hurt, a lot
11751869
Maybe, but given what little we DO know about the aftermath of Luna's banishment, there's not really much evidence to suggest that. There's a reason most fans assume Celestia was still able to keep things together afterwards.
And I do kind of get Thought Prism's point here--the country's unity collapsing (at least in part) over Cozy Glow's imprisonment does seem like a rather petty and poor reason for it to have happened, after the country had already endured so much worse and came out of those instances arguably more united than it'd been going in. To say nothing of the fact that Cozy really is a poor leader to be rallying around anyway. But then again there ARE real life figures today (which I will not list by name) that I can't begin to fathom why people would want to rally around yet are anyway, so...
But that's why I still gotta give the fic mad props for just one thing--it treats Cozy as what she really is. Not some misbehaving little kid that didn't know better, but a master manipulator with deliberate villainous intentions done with real intent and full understanding of just what it was she was doing...and she did it anyway. Actions that put the whole country and every creature within it at jeopardy...all just because she wanted the power and the glory. At the end of the day, her age didn't really matter anymore (which in many ways makes it all the more tragic) and it's why I generally can't begin to take seriously anyone who says Cozy's just a kid where making her sit in the corner for a little bit was somehow, laughably, all that should've been needed to reform her. And this fic proves why thinking that about Cozy would be a terrible, terrible, mistake on their part, and only open themselves up for her to walk all over them.
It's not that I'm saying Cozy can't be reformed, nor that the punishment she got was the right one, or at least the only one, or that there isn't a valid point leveling what criticisms there are on both sides of the matter (as this fic has done)...but it's that I see Cozy for the threat she really is. She is NOT someone you want to underestimate, let alone turn your back on.
11751900
Something to consider is that this version of Cozy... has kind of stumbled into the first step of reformation. In the sense that she has actually managed to start caring for others.
11752020
Ehhhhh, sort of. You're not wrong, of course, but she's still doing it for the wrong reasons. That was always her biggest problem. She actually understands friendship and caring and all of that just fine, or at least far more than she gets credit for, she just keeps choosing to apply it for the wrong reasons, and usually selfish ones at that. And until she can get past it...well...
Yes, the seed's been planted. But that seed was really already there even before she went into the statue. Here, though, she acknowledged the seed's there, more genuinely than normal, so maybe that is the start of the change she needs. I just worry it's still coming too late for them all.
11751813
Take notice of the "MLP Comics" tag, also the story seems to be implying a Gen 5 tag.
11751869
Uh... no.
According to Twilight in the episode Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
In short; the ponies rallied around Princess Celestia and created an alliance, the 'Royal Guard', and the Summer Sun Celebration and the Wonderbolts.
11751869
There's zero evidence to support that theory.
Who knows, maybe there used to be a race of large, green carnivorous bunnies terrorizing the land until only years before the beginning of the show.
Is it reasonable to assume there were? Just because the show doesn't directly disprove every random theory one could throw together ...
Also, in a fictional story absence of proof is effectively proof of absence.
As far as FIM lore/canon, tribalism ended with the founding of EQ and the sisters taking the throne.
Hmmm, it's unfortunate. I really wanted to like this story. I did until Cozy appeared.
In the end this entire scenario relies on everybody who isn't Cozy Glow holding the idiot ball, and you made sure Twilight would hold on to it with both hooves.
The circumstances of their meeting, the entire dialogue during their walk ... that purple pony talking with Cozy isn't Twilight Sparkle. Twilight is an intelligent mare with over half a century worth of experience in politics and public relations.
I can't even tell what's been achieved or who's been changed through the events in this story.
And what was that weird bit about a sickly Celestia? Tummy ache from too much cake?
I like your writing style, the flow of the dialogue, prose, yadayda ... but the actual plot failed to match those positive aspects.
This story is amazing. It simultaneously felt tense, wholesome and sad. Very great work! A super interesting take on Cozy too. I do wonder how some of the events described happened, but I guess those are meant to be vague. Always nice to see more great Cozy fics either way.
Funny how he conveniently forgets about the lack of punishments other characters received for similarly bad deeds, and charges hardly matter when there wasn't a trial to speak of.
I wonder who he ended up marrying.
Community service for a being who can handle any mess with a snap of his finger is hardly a punishment.
Very good points. No use in condemning Cozy without condemning the ones who weren't even punished for their actions.
A father like that could explain much.
Damn. That poor filly. I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been.
This is true. Gallus earlier was willing to blame Equestria's current problems on Cozy, but she wasn't even around when they started. She may be a part of it, but none of it is her fault specifically.
Seems to me like Cozy felt a sense of belonging with them, which is something she lacked beforehand.
11752047
Indeed, this focuses on the time between the end of the series and G5, taking place roughly around the flashback we see in the comics. (I considered the G5 tag but because it all takes place hundreds of years before Sunny Starscout's time, that felt disingenuous)
It mainly focuses on backstory where "the earth pony that got hurt by a unicorn" which then caused internal strife among the tribes. Here, interpreted as a riot which Equestria is still reeling from. Cozy Glow is a factor in this situation, but she is far from the only one and absolutely not the biggest one. There are still two other separatist groups besides the Primaries, after all. They're just not relevant in this story because they're not led by a pony with personal beef with Twilight. (Or who are blocking a funeral)
Unity has not collapsed yet. But a number of ponies are scared, upset, and angry--Cozy Glow included--and when ponies get scared they tend to go to extremes and lash out.
Multiple times in canon, we see ponies go from zero to angry mob at the word go. This is just a case where things didn't cool down. This is also a case of a slow burn coming to a boil.
The three tribal factions (and I must emphasize three) are a vocal minority, but they are loud. And ponies, especially ponies who weren't alive the last time the tribes turned against each other, are listening. Shouting them down won't work, powering through them won't work. The only way they come back from this is to heal, but to heal, the ponies have to be willing to listen. It'll be easier to listen if she can convince the leaders of these factions to settle things amongst themselves first. So she comes to Zephyr Mountain.
11752315
And in the end, it's all for naught as Equestria collapses into G5 no matter what Twilight does. Only thing missing now is Opaline, but with the mention of Skyros, she's around here somewhere.
What an excellent read! Serious, tense, worrisome, with all those hinted tie-ins to G5 deftly set up.
I'm pleased, if not surprised after Silver Standard and the various stories about the Riches, by how well you wrote Cozy here, giving her depth and weight beyond what the show had. She's extremely sharp, manipulative and bitter, but like any pony, she still has that capacity and urge for friendship, surprising not just Twilight and the reader, but herself, too. I quite enjoyed this older Twilight, too. She's recognizably herself, but changed by experience and responsibility into something a little more like Celestia.
And, to continue gushing, I loved the how much the environment of Zephyr Heights and then of Cozy's villa played part of the story. I got a feeling of this being a "real" place, which is not a small achievement; especially with places that don't even have the show visuals to draw fully upon.
11752197
Twilight notes that unlike Celestia, she doesn't do visions or foresight. I'm imagining Celestia is seeing a dark future, and has been affected by it.
11752355
Sounds like she might be meddling with the dragonstone. Anyway - it's not all for naught, if Twilight can buy some time, ease the tensions, push back the breakup between tribes for a few years or a generation or however long. Life is not teleological.
11752355
Oh that's not true. Equestrian social collapse is independent of any one person, but it's state collapse was instigated by Twilight.
This was great. The whole thing (characteristic of all your writing) felt very emotionally real, and what stood out to me was the feeling of powerlessness. Twilight wants to fix things, but the political climate is such that anything she does could be interpreted as ‘unilateral/aggressive/incendiary.’ Obviously, we know that things will keep going downhill in the long run because this seems to a bridge toward G5, but I am really glad that it had a happy(-ish) ending. Twilight’s virtues pulled through, even when all she could really do was have an honest conversation and hope for the best. I’m not sure why this comment is so focused on Twilight since obviously Cozy was interesting and well-executed, but so it goes.
I’m a bit discouraged to see so many comments stuck up about the premise. Considering you’re taking a reasonable path from G4 canon to G5 canon it seems to be totally defensible from some canon purist perspective. But then also, I’ve never recovered from the trauma that Daring Do is a real person. To enjoy MLP, I think you have to interpret as a vehicle for interesting stories more than some hyperfactual, consistent body of work. And this is exactly the kind of interesting story that makes my MLP fandom so gratifying.
11751813
I do find it pretty funny that Equestria collapsed in less than a century under Twilight's rule after existing for over a thousand prior.
If I had to guess a reason why though, it would be that she tried to change too much too fast. Equestria was fairly stagnant for the thousand years prior. It was just the three tribes, and they were comfortable like that. It was those three, and Celestia at the helm for lifetimes.
Then suddenly there's a new princess, Celestia is retired, and there are dozens of new species moving in next door, all in only a couple years. Twilight apparently didn't know that, while change can be good, it's always scary. Change introduces instability, which, if let to settle, can be dealt with. Too much change causes too much instability, however, which leads to collapse.
She disrupted the status quo, which is doubly risky when it's beneficial to a majority of citizens. Ponies were happy, Equestria was a near-utopian society for them, so suddenly changing stuff that's been working great for so long is going to garner some resistance. Maybe Twilight could have made Creaturequestria work eventually, if she took baby steps and let the populous adjust to each small change at their own pace.
Instead, she forced her vision of how Equestria should be down everyone's throat, and choked her own kingdom as a result.
What 11752432 said. This was a great story, and I say that as someone who's been very annoyed with the idea that Twilight must have been a complete failure as a princess to make g5 happen. I would never have chosen to write a Cozy Glow story like this, and that's fine, and this story is the best one I've read for the contest so far. Because regardless of my headcanons I firmly believe in letting people tell their stories.
Kudos to you, and best of luck in the contest.
11752592
And this makes sense to me, too! I probably would have enjoyed this story a lot more if Cozy's Primaries were rallying to keep a bunch of dragons from moving in to Cloudsdale, or stoking renewed paranoia about changelings, citing her own relationship with Chrysalis. But instead, she's targeting unicorns and earth ponies, who have been getting along for ages by this point.
While I'm commenting again, I'd like to make it clear that I think the author executed their concept with the gripping prose and great character work I've come to expect from them. It's just that the plot itself could have used a few tweaks. I was sharing criticism because I know they're capable!
You know, I could see a scenario in this timeline where, once the sadly inevitable collapse of Equestria comes about and the tribes splinter, Cozy uses her influence with the pegasus secessionist movement to maneuver herself into a position of authority in their new society (with Fluttershy's son at her side?). And eventually this evolves into the royal family of Zephyr Heights that we see in G5. So the irony here would be that Cozy's descendants would be among the ones to bring the tribes back together and undo her (and her followers') work of breaking them apart in the first place.
I wonder if in the end Cozy would be bitter that despite her efforts the tribes will eventually reunite anyway (she wanted to shape the course of history and be remembered forever, but even her influence has limits), or relieved if she felt things had gotten out of hand and went beyond what she was intending (watching as her birth nation fell apart and pony-kind regressed to a handful of isolated city states in part because of her actions would be a lot to handle)?
I really loved how this was written. Felt so interesting seeing two smart main characters in this chess match of information and persuasion, gaining and losing and trading pieces to get closer to their respective goals. I really really like the characterizations as well, especially Cozy Glow. Such a strange and complex lil kid in such a tragic and complicated situation. And Twilight really hits that "kinda new at being an old mentor" vibe strongly, for some reason I was reminded of a middle-aged Spider-man who's past their prime physically but with years of experience that makes up for it. Her vs Cozy Glow felt a bit like a strategic mind vs a tactical mind. If only they had worked together, the Next Gen setting might have been completely different.
11752432
That's it. That's the fic in a nutshell.
There are practically no good moves here, save the one Twilight knows best: approach at a personal level. At the end of the day, this is still a friendship problem. The other big reason Twilight's treating the Primaries specifically with kid gloves is personal guilt about Cozy specifically. That's part of how the situation got so bad in the first place, but the other reason is dismissing the Primaries' arguments as an attempt to not play the game Cozy wants her to play. She still sees a gang of rebellious teens barking at the wind (not entirely inaccurate) but that also doesn't mean they don't truly believe in what they're saying. I'm not sure if Twilight fully realizes that--the fact that some Pegasi feel truly hurt, disregarded, and disrespected--until she has that honest talk. Managing to get these gunshy volatile teens to get there in the first place is the trick.
11752368
I'm going to just take a moment and just bask in this because I was fighting to make that villa work through the whole rough draft. I realized in the middle of writing it I had no idea what the place looked like, which threw off the whole story because I need that grounding, so I ended up building much of it backwards. That's also partly because originally Cozy and Twilight talked in an office/bedroom until I realized there is no way in Tartarus Twilight is being let anywhere near Cozy's safest place. Both for emotional reasons and because Cozy runs paranoid these days.
And also probably has PTSD that she's not acknowledging.Opaline is also what the scholars of wickedness would call crazy-crazy.
This is precisely why one pony shouldn't wield so much power, and if you're assuming I'm talking about Twilight, think again; it's opaline in the spotlight. Now, back to the main point—I adore the story. It crafts a mature and cozy atmosphere, where cozy Glow, despite not fully grasping friendship, embraces its essence without losing her original self. The narrative avoids the cliché of remorse in a redemption story, acknowledging the original reasoning that set the character on this path. Your portrayal of Twilight is refreshing; she's not a strategic mastermind but wears her heart on her sleeve. She may not be a chess player, but she's learned when to keep her cards close. What stands out even more is the depth given to the side characters—they're not mere background decorations; they have distinct stories, preferences, and dislikes. Switching to their perspective could have seamlessly driven the story forward. Additionally, your vision for the next season makes far more sense than a single pony stirring up trouble and disrupting centuries of peace, with characters seemingly losing their wits. Your approach maintains coherence and presents a logical progression.
11752047
Which could have been as a direct response to tribalism.
Merge the protective forces from each tribe into one to "foster growth and understanding."
It sounds like the thing Celestia would come up with.
11752405
Celestia's actions probably would've done a lot to undermine trust in the state, to be fair.
11751900
You realize that the show insisted on treating practically every villain it had like a misguided child right?
Starlight Glimmer used her magic to strip ponies of their talents and then ruled through fear over a town in misery, long after they had already accepted her as leader.
She was let off with no consequences, made Twilight's favored student and given permission to not just supervise her village, but a entire school of teenagers.
Tempest lead a invasion on her home country because she was jealous of all the abled bodied ponies walking around and she was willing to subject them to slavery and misery for a chance at having her horn back.
She was given free reign to go wherever and whenever she wanted, with no repercussions.
Discord abused and terrorized ponies long after his "reformation" and he was likewise given free reign to do whatever he wanted with special treatment on top of it.
They literally gave him a feel good nanny in Fluttershy.
So it's really no surprise why people reacted the way they did when the show that insisted on treating every reformed villain as if they were 12 years old, tried to punish a literal 12 year old as if she was 20.
Just about all late stage MLP villains are pathologically shitty people, and that very much included the reformed ones.
11755148
And you realize that argument doesn't hold all that much weight when you consider how many people complained about ALL of those villains getting off so easy though, right?
This is not something you can have both ways, people. Either treat the darn filly like a proper villain or stop complaining when other villains reform easily. It's not like all villains are universally the same anyway, much less all respond to the same attempts to reform/stop them just as universally. FiM was honestly lucky they were able to reform as many villains as they did.
I guess basically all I want the fandom to do here is to acknowledge that they're being hypocritical about this. And to not pretend Cozy was any less of a villain than the others just because she also happens to be one of the youngest--that right there is probably my biggest gripe about the Cozy Glow problem, fans babying her when she proved herself more than capable of doing the same villainous acts as most of all of the other big bads in MLP.
11755163
Why not?
They literally let Discord off in Season 9, despite him orchstrating the Trio's escape and encouraging them to engage in acts of terror in the first place.
That season was literally everything they were complaining about. How is that in any way hypocritical?
Even assuming the exact same portions of the fandom were complaining about both problems at same time... A massive leap in logic I have yet to see any justification for...
It is in fact the show who put forth the completely contrary argument that "everyone needs kindness..." "Except specifically these people we don't like..." despite having reformed arguably far worse in the past.
It's a contradiction in terms. You can't say everyone deserves kindness, and then withhold it at random without a concrete basis.
The show needs to reconcile it's morals.
If it pivoted solely to please the fans, and for no other reason, that's just you admitting it never had any principles to begin with.
Again, how are they being hypocritical?
By holding a grown being to the agreed upon standard for adults, and a child to the agreed upon standard for children?
All the show does is reverse it, contrary to all the established information we know about how people develop biologically and neurologically.
And my biggest gripe is fans pretending Discord was anything other than a sadistic prick who regularly endangered lives for his own sick amusement.
Like I said, late stage MLP villains are shitty people.
Cozy Glow is not the exception, but neither is any ever major villain the show "reformed".
11755197
Well...you kinda just complained about it, so...
In the end, though, I think we're still in agreement on what the problem is exactly here, in that there is a definite hypocrisy here. We just disagree on who it is that truly deserves the blame for it.
And looking at it from that perspective...it might actually be more likely that mistakes were made all around by all parties involved, rather than on any one sole person (fictional or otherwise). In other words, no one is truly blameless here. Discord instigated it, the Mane 6 and princesses fanned the flames for it, and Cozy Glow (and crew) exploited it (at least in terms of season 9). If we must blame someone, then we might as well blame them all, because they all played a role in it, or so all of the collected arguments suggest.
Still, if there really IS blame to be shared all around, that's probably why it irks the both of us so much--too many are trying to assign the blame to a sole figure when it was really multiple all colliding together. Rather than try and defend the ones we think less guilty, we all probably should be owning up to the fact that everyone had something to blame them for.
...which, now that I think about it, sort of works for this fic, because it's in many ways trying to make that exact same point, isn't it? Heh, go figure.
11755197
The show's stance is consistent enough -- if you are useful to the state or other authority, the state will spend resources on your rehabilitation, and if you're not, it won't. Luna was rehabilitated because she fit neatly into the Equestrian constitutional arrangement, Starlight and Discord were powerful magic-users whose talents Twilight and Celestia respectively wanted to employ, etc.
Whether this stance is at all useful when approaching interpersonal relationships as a human person and not the question of what to do with offenders as an impersonal state machine is another matter entirely.
Meanwy, everyone is ignoring the other problem with their poor record keeping. O tempora, o mores, Opaline.
Holy fuck that was incredible. Kinda hard to put into words, actually. That's the first time I've felt adrenaline heartbeats reading something as slow and character-driven as this.
11755220
But it doesn't boil down to Cozy Glow good and Discord bad in my case, and I've seen enough people argue this point to know others feel the same way.
My problem and the problem of at least a few others, is the moral inconsistency, not the treatment itself.
Even people who like Cozy Glow have acknowledged that she's a little terror that you probably need to keep a eye on.
More than a few stories that attempted to reform her saw her given her own guard contingent or locked away for large chunks of the time.
That's more security than was employed for any of the reformed villains in the show (with the possible exception of Luna).
To argue people don't recognize Cozy Glow as a threat is just straw manning in most cases.
They might not see her as the same threat that Discord is, but that's really just common sense.
Even the show itself took more than a few shots at her effectiveness as a villain.
The annoying thing is that it is yet another case of a big bad rising up because of laxness on the part of ponies.
They never properly dealt with or discouraged Discord's propensity for causing trouble. They pretended like it didn't exist.
They stuck Cozy Glow in a hole and forgot about her, and didn't even bother with any real guards or status updates in case something went wrong.
Pretty much every problem Equestria has can be traced back to "and they kicked the can down the road yet again".
Both Discord and Cozy Glow had clear issues and neither of them were dealt with before it became a problem.
That's what Season 9 is... All of the ponies unresolved and untreated issues coming together to make one big disaster.
You can certainly make the case for it. As bad as Discord is, no one has really been trying to teach him how to better interact with Equestria at large.
A problem both with the Main Six and with Celestia, who dumped him on them when they clearly weren't prepared for it, and has offered little to no help in the area of reforming him.
Aside from trying to capture Tirek she doesn't even seem to have a reason for reforming him at all, aside from trolling the nobility.
She's demonstrated terrible judgement letting Discord run free without purpose, and it's telling that most villains in the franchise she's either known personal or had in her power once or twice, and they still wound up causing trouble down the road.
Agreed. Just about everyone acts shitty throughout Season 8-9 and it basically comes out of no where.
It's why everyone is so die hard on defending their favorites.
It's a instinctive reaction to watching the characterization of a show you love being butchered.
Well yeah. Season 9 is a shit show in no way deserving of ending the story of the first season of this show.
But as human beings who invested a lot of time and energy into this train wreck, people feel the need to salvage something. And so here we are.
Certainly I appreciate it's balanced approach. Frankly I think it gives Cozy Glow a lot of credit.
I think she would turn over Muffins eventually, but I'm surprised it allows her to feel anything genuine beyond grudging appreciation for the primaries on her own.
11755470
Or even as a impersonal state machine. Discord's redemption is in fact counterintuitive.
Every major action he takes throughout the course of the show is designed to weaken and undermine Equestria as a nation, both in its super structure and the lives of it's inhabitants.
Rather then prevent him from doing so, or actively steer him towards more constructive pursuits, they actively ignore his efforts.
No one really benefited extraordinarily from Discord's "reformation" except for that one incredibly specific time where he was no more useful than a warm body to distract the changelings, which any warm blooded creature could have done, including Zecora.
That's the annoying thing about Discord's reformation.
It served no one in a meaningful way apart from himself and the show runners.
It serves no practical purpose, and they put no effort into making it do so beyond a few token attempts, which were never followed up on by the cast, nor elaborated on by the production crew.
It's basically the exact opposite of what any hero's arc is supposed to be... Except it manages to be Meaningless and irritating at both the Beginning and the End of the journey.
11756862
Oh no, they're definitely out there. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've consistently encountered people who've argued, word for word, that Cozy should've just had her butt paddled and then sent on her way, because since she's a kid that's apparently all you should need to do or so they claim. And it seems like whenever I get into these debates about Cozy (which is admittedly more than I probably should, because I apparently can't resist or something), there's always, ALWAYS, at least one who tries to make that argument. So they're definitely out there in greater numbers than you're giving credit.
But on the other side of the coin, it's still nice to hear there also seems to be a bit of an observer's bias on my part here, and that there are more who take more grounded and realistic stances to Cozy than I give credit for too. That's actually somewhat relieving, lemme tell you.
Okay, in at least the terms of season 9, we need to give Discord at least some credit here, because yes, he instigated the whole mess when he shouldn't have, or at least consulted with somebody about the plan first before enacting it, but he DID have good intentions behind it, misled though it was. The end goal, after all, was to try and present Twilight a scenario to help build her confidence as a ruler, because apparently Discord felt she needed one, further implying he agreed she was the right gal for the job to at least some degree. Further, he brought the Terrible Trio together with a scheme to try and get them to work together as a team sneaking into their minds the ideals of unity and harmony and laying the groundwork for possible reformation later, something the show itself did explore a little ("Frenemies," anyone?) and this fic indirectly acknowledged was working (even though Discord wasn't assigned credit for it).
That's not to say Discord was right to do what he did, nor that he didn't make a huge mess that didn't need to be and put the whole country at stake, because that's all definitely still the case. Discord shouldn't have done what he did. Nor will I say the show did everything it should've in response to all that. But at the very least, he didn't really mean malicious intent behind it, at least not for the Mane 6 and crew. He just has, as he always has, a funny way of showing it.
And looking at his arc on a whole, Discord did still change for the better after his reformation, doing things he NEVER would've beforehand, so he was still troublesome, but there was still clear progress being made with him. It's more debatable if Cozy, or anyone else in the Terrible Trio had or were ever going to, make similar progress, and then it came down to, like it or not, simple threat assessment on how to handle them from there.
And even then, there was still good moments to be had in both seasons. I begrudgingly agree that season 8 was about when the show jumped the shark overall, but I still loved the concept of season 8 and many of its individual episodes (in fact, I didn't really have any real problems with its finale other than Cozy just overall feeling like an odd choice for a villain), and despite its faults, I still walked away satisfied with season 9 and its series finale, and at the end of the day, that's all I wanted from FiM. I didn't need it to be perfect--that's too tall an order for any TV show--I just needed to be satisfied enough with the end product. And I was. And I admit sometimes I get tired of people focusing on the bad all the time, even if it is justified, that I feel obligated to jump in and remind there was still good to be had in all that too.
But then I've always been a bit of an optimist on these sort of things.
Indulge me a moment of further exploration of the background of this story, dear readers.
As previously stated, this story explores Equestria in the transitional period between gens four and gens five. Gen five is already working with the presumption that the tribes came into conflict, and that conflict caused division. This small window is by no means the ONLY reasoning or explanation of Equestria's current political climate, but it is part of it.
Culture is not stagnant. The circumstances of Equestria, the culture of Equestria, and the political climate of Equestria a thousand years ago and the modern Equestria are different beasts. Ponies in those first few millennia of Celestria and Luna's reign were surrounded by threats of monsters, dragons, and other creatures. It's much easier to unite when you have a common enemy. It is also easier to unite when the consequences of inter-tribal conflict, a conflict so bad it froze the old country, is still relatively fresh in everypony's minds. Twilight integrating the other creatures was a good thing, by all means. It ushered in a golden age of peace and friendship unseen in even Celestia's era. This means the next generations have never known what it's like to be attacked by monsters, raided by dragons, or fearful of griffons. They don't know outside threats, and they have lost any semblance of a common enemy, especially not external ones. Peace is all they know, and it's taken for granted. It's hard to truly appreciate being full when you've never been hungry.
Ponies now had the time to consider themselves, and remember all the little disagreements and resentments and unhappiness they they had previously ignored, all the things they let pass, all the things that bothered them. Just because the tribes were getting along doesn't mean they never mistreated each other, or disregarded each other, or that the culture may have unintentionally left some ponies hanging out to dry. Eventually, those things came to a boil. The Cozy debate was the pot it boiled in.
The short version goes something like this:
And it just got worse from there.
This didn't happen on a national stage, and it didn't happen in some grandiose explosion. This is hundreds of little slowburns that coalesced into one big fire. Princess Twilight, despite her best efforts, cannot be everywhere at once and is not a mind reader. She can't solve what she can't see, and busy with the minutia of daily politics in Canterlot, she doesn't see until it's almost too late to walk it back. A warped sense of time thanks to slower aging doesn't help. (From experience, I guarantee you ten years goes by terrifyingly fast the older you get.) Twilight honestly feels like she rested her eyes for two seconds, and when she opened them again, the world was on fire. Literally.
It's debatable how much of the backlash to Cozy Glow actually was really ABOUT Cozy Glow. It may have been more about the fact that so many ponies who posed a threat to Equestria and walked happened to be Unicorns. More importantly, the fact that the crown kept those facts secret. (Or at least didn't advertise them.) Nightmare Moon's prison was thousands of miles away in the sky, seen as a silhouette, and a pony of strength and power. Cozy Glow's prison is at eye level, with every single facet of her young terror on full display. For years. It's hard to ignore the age, and harder to ignore her tribe. It became a point of discussion. The discussion became a debate. The debate became a demand. This process is seen in the collection of articles, as well as the memorial beside the statue. This, along with The Student In Stone (a book that had HUGE impact and also had paragraphs of exposition about it I had to cut when this stopped being an epistolary story) is what prompted the push to shorten the sentence. Twilight was willing to hear out the public on that.
She was less willing to entertain the complaints of Unicorn favoritism or the idea that Unicorn magic keeps pushing into spaces where it isn't welcome. Especially not when said complaints are things better handled between individuals, or within institutions and communities. Twilight, as she says, favors unity. She wants to favor all of them, but in the process, some tribes equate that to "if all of us are special, none of us are special".
Additionally, because this happened in the midst of a wave of other creatures residing in Equestria, it no longer felt like a land of Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi, three individual tribes with unique qualities to be favored and loved. It felt like a land of ponies and other creatures. You're not a Pegasus, you're just a pony. It feels like your tribe isn't special. In fact, when other tribes can also do the exact same things you do, when Unicorns walk on clouds, when Pegasi can write spell circles, all the things you thought made you special aren't special anymore. It feels like your entire culture is dying. And the Princess doesn't even care. She says you're being silly. She says you're shutting the others out. Well, maybe you'd like to care about your own kind for once. Are they not important? Can't it not be about everypony for once, for ONCE, and can we care about MY tribe? If the Princess isn't in your corner, and if your family who are so stuck in the old ways aren't in your corner, maybe it's time to find somepony who is.
And then somepony finally got hurt by Unicorn magic. Badly. Nopony knows who cast it, but they sure know an Earth Pony or Pegasus didn't do it.
That triggers the Market Riots (so-called because the accident first happened in the market).
The riot triggers Cozy's spellbreak.
Cozy Glow, frightened, angry, in pain, and powerless, is desperate to feel okay again. To feel some semblance of control. And she discovers that many Pegasi her own age feel the same way. Thus, she gladly dumps a gallon of gasoline on the fire. The burn isn't slow anymore.
Also, an ancient alicorn nopony's ever heard of is quietly running around with immense firepower and zero moral code. That doesn't really help either.
As one would assume, that's all far too much to shove into a meager 15000 words (though I do have plans for a longer story in this Equestria in my back pocket). So at most we get the tip of the iceberg. After all, this is the setting and background, not the heart of the story.
This is not a story of how Equesrtria is breaking apart, this is a story about using the ethics and values of Equestria to build understanding and keep it together. At least for today. Nobody can predict the future, but we always have today.
11756894
I've seen a few start her punishment off with a spanking. The follow up tends to vary though. And all cards on the table, a spanking it still a way worse punishment than Starlight, Tempest or Sunset got.
Which is where that attitude comes from, I expect. Because Reformations in MLP were always that naive, insisting that all these villains needed was a little love, in spite of all the evidence indicating that these ponies were remorseless from the get-go.
So, it's really hard for me to blame fanfic writers when they pick up on those themes and work them into their stories, however naive they might be in doing so.
So, he says. We literately just came from an episode in Season 8 where he claimed to be testing Starlight for her benefit (something all his acquaintances insist on behaving as if it were true) when was clearly just jealous of her and trying ruin her day. The dude is a proven pathological liar.
And unlike with Cozy Glow, everyone insists on taking him seriously even though after seasons worth of this behavior, they should really know better than to trust anything from his grinning maw, especially if they still can't read his expressions after all this time.
The guy introduced himself as all powerful tyrant and coerced them into a plot to murder Twilight and her Friends. He uses the phrase "destroy" several times in his address to them.
If he did have a plan to reform them, he never admits it or even suggests that it could have been possible, even though a more sympatric motivation would have been easier to explain and gone over easier (at least with Fluttershy).
Flooding the apple family farm, setting a bug bear on the students of Twilight's school, partnering with villains multiple times over?
He's gotten better at dogging consequences and is slightly better at socializing (which is cold comfort to all the ponies who've been collateral damage in his schemes over the years.)
Even Fluttershy isn't immune to this as A Matter Of Principals and Season 9 demonstrates.
I can't speak for Cozy Glow, but Tirek proved to be amenable to socializing multiple times throughout the series. And unlike Chrysalis or Cozy Glow, his power and capabilities actually increase the less regard he has for people.
So, you'd think he'd be the most self-centered of them all, but he's actually probably the most manganous of them all. He's always shot straight with the Main Six, he upholds his deal with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, and he was even getting along pretty well with Discord, until the latter reveled he was concealing information from him.
Certainly he's the one who matures the most throughout Season 9. He goes from holding ponies in honorable contempt to actually becoming fairly close to Cozy Glow, despite her difficult personality (even ignoring her attempted betrayal). He even goes from hording magic to sharing it, which is a complete 180 from his supposed motivations up until that point.
I mean, anyone can have good ideas. I've been told I have good ideas. That doesn't make me a good writer. And in this case, even some of the ideas were lacking, much less their execution.
It was less Cozy Glow herself and more the entire magic drain plot.
It made little sense from a mechanical or cannon perspective how Cozy Glow was able to make contact with someone she had never met before, or why six random artifacts were able to channel so much magical power as to leave her entire plane of existence devoid of magic.
If she had sold them out to Chrysalis instead, that would have at least solved some of the technical issues.
Optimism and I get on like Oil and Water in real life. Maybe that's why I don't mind a bit of naivety about villains in fiction. Who knows?
11759460
Well, I dunno if I'd go as far as calling him a pathological liar, on the grounds that he does demonstrate speaking the truth more often than he lies, but yes, it's a fair point he does had a tendency to stretch the truth when it benefits him...or at least try to, as he's not always very convincing about it.
Which is why in the case of season 9, I'm more inclined to believe him at his word, at least once things started hitting the fan, because he knew things had gotten well out of even his control and he knew he was going to need help to resolve it, and to do that...everyone sort of needed to know what was actually going on.
At the very least, I don't have reason enough to assume he might've been lying about all of that. I don't really see what it would've gained him, particularly as the Terrible Trio would've happily sold him out on any lies contradicting what they knew had actually happened.
I suspect that your stance on Discord is akin to that of mine on Cozy, especially seeing I've noticed by now that you're quick to single out specifically Discord for criticism.
But if I can go on about how nobody's treating Cozy as a proper threat, I suppose it's only fair for you to do similar for Discord.
At any rate, Discord's a tricky player in the affairs, because unless you strip them of his powers, he is by far more powerful than literally all of the other villains. Combined. Honestly, Equestria's darn lucky he typically chooses to use those powers for petty pranks than to cause actual harm on anyone, because he could do so with frightening ease if he ever thought to. So I can kinda see why Celestia wanted to try reforming him, because it was clear just sealing him away in a statue and leaving him there wasn't going to work because the season 2 premiere had proved he could eventually escape it again in the right circumstances and there was no longer any guarantees it wouldn't happen again. So, better to see if they could instead get him to come around to their side so he didn't have to be a enemy to fight anymore, a plan that worked somewhat to Discord's benefit too, because then he could, at least within reason, have the chance to be himself too.
Does he test his boundaries every chance he gets, trying everyone's patience in the process and raising questions over whether keeping him around was worth it? Oh absolutely. In fact, I don't really consider him to have truly reformed until after the first Tirek encounter at the end of season 4, (after which Discord did have a bit of a shift in his worldview of things and started trying a little harder to meet the demands of reformation). He also makes himself a continuous annoyance for many, partly for his own trollish amusement, but underneath it all there is usually a valid point he's trying to make, in a very Q-esque sort of fashion, often times his way of saying "if I'm really reformed and your ally now, how come you aren't giving me all the benefits of it and treat me as if I'm not?" It was his way of leveling valid criticisms on the ponies and that, if they really want to commit to this "reform your villains" schtick, then there was more to it than just declaring a villain reformed and calling it a day. Yes, sometimes it was fueled by his own greed or want to be included, but the fact he still had a valid point to make at all still shows he wasn't just blowing hot air with it too.
I've actually seen Discord as one of the better written reformed villains in MLP for this very reason--his reformation wasn't instantaneous, nor did he become a totally changed character because that wasn't who he was. Imperfect though it was at times, his reformation arc feels one of the more natural and realistic in comparison to others, and I'm actually quite glad for it (I was venomously opposed to the idea of him reforming initially on the grounds that I feared it'd change his character, take away everything that had made him so interesting, and part of that was him constantly toeing the line, so the fact the show chose to uphold that regardless of his reformed status was always a good move in my mind).
Well, obviously, if he came to them and told them he was going to try and get them to reform for good, they weren't ever going to do it, so he chose to set it up in a scenario in which they could be eased into it through something they'd actually WANT to do, without realizing what it was they were actually picking up along the way. The plan was actually kind of clever...if Discord hadn't failed to consider the villains possibly scheming behind his back so to take it all for themselves.
And no, it's never clearly stated that Discord planned to set them up for a reformation, and is a bit speculation on my part, I admit...but surely he knew getting them to work together in a team would still set up for that, and even if he hadn't, the plan had always been to pass off the group to the Mane 6 to handling once the time was right (had the plan worked as intended), so there was still a set-up to give the Mane 6 a chance to try and reform them when they were defeated if they so chose, so the possibility was definitely always there, whether acknowledged or not. That fans seemed to have expected it enough to be annoyed it didn't happen could be argued in support of that assumption.
First one doesn't count, since that was before he'd really tried to reform at all (and was all swiftly undone once Discord did decide to give reforming a shot), and the last one is exaggerated somewhat, seeing he really only partnered with villains twice, once with Tirek, which he clearly lived to regret, and again with the Terrible Trio, but that time was so he could deliberately lead them into a confrontation with Twilight, a confrontation he fully expected Twilight and company to win, so he was really more trying to trick them into getting defeated if nothing else--he wasn't really on their side on that occasion.
But that he even bothered to try such a scheme in season 9 at all just shows his outlook on things had changed. Otherwise, it would've just been "Twilight's Kingdom" all over again.
Of the three, I can see Tirek being the most likely to reform too, but he didn't exactly show any want or intention to do so upon defeat, and, like the other three, seemed determined to stay the path (even though he was the one who foresaw the impending punishment). This is unlike the other reformed villains, who either in their defeat had a clear change of heart, or, in the case of Discord, saw that resisting meant facing a punishment they really wanted to avoid or the loss of some other key benefit (for Discord, Fluttershy's friendship), enough to at least play along enough to give reforming a chance.
Of course, I never said all three of them can't ever be reformed, just that the season 9 finale didn't seem like the right time and place for it for them to decide to, and that it would be a tough road for all three of them, if possible at all (I have my doubts about Chryssi).
Though that said, I do like the idea of MLP acknowledging that even it can't quite reform all of its villains, and that there would always be a few that would just be forever villains until defeated, like it or not.
That doesn't mean the whole project was doomed because there were some bad apples mixed in. It's a fatalist way of looking at it anyway.
(Forgive any overlooked typos in this comment--my keyboard is being troublesome and its made editing frustrating to the point that I've lost patience with it at this point so I'm posting this comment as-is anyway. Sorry!)
11759983
Funny you should say that -- I'm more than half convinced that Discord's "betrayal" in Twilight's Kingdom was exactly the same gambit he would try again in Season 9. Consider his actions in the very beginning of the episode. He had bookmarked all the key episodes in the friendship journal, and obviously wanted Twilight &co. to open the box.
11760165
Well...yes and no, I suppose, because sure he wanted them to open the box and seemed to have a good idea on what needed to be done to do it before the rest did, but that was before he really got involved with Tirek. And it seemed clear from how he behaved around Tirek that he didn't really anticipate him becoming a factor, or Tirek offering them to team up, OR Tirek later betraying him.
I guess it's a possibility, but I see it as a bit of a stretch.
Not everything Discord does has to have a double-meaning anyway. Sometimes he really does mean what he says/does at first glance.
So... wow. You've pulled off something (several things, actually) that I thought would be impossible. Taking into account all the canon sources, you've made a solid and believable link between G4 and G5, while staying true to Twilight and Cozy's personalities, and how multi-ethnic tensions usually play out under the
handshooves of disingenuous/egotistical leaders and agents provocateur.All of which makes me hate this story. Don't get me wrong; I completely recognize and acknowledge the incredible amount of writing skill, research, and analytical thought that went into it, and if I preferred G5 to G4, this would probably go onto my Top Favorites shelf. But I pretty much loathe G5, and being shown a believable and defensible way that all the characters I loved from G4 will ultimately fail and die amid the ruins of their civilization... Well, I guess that's a "me" problem.
Still... Damn fine piece of writing.
11752368
My take is that the scene is a necessary confirmation of the mortality of the G4 alicorns. For G5 to exist, Celestia and all the others need to die.
11759983
I mean he introduced himself to Pinkie Pie with flattery, proclaiming her as his favorite early on only to psychologically abuse and crush her later on.
He only initially befriended Fluttershy to escape punishment and mess with her.
He ran a running con on her even after they became friends, stirring up trouble and endangering and messing with her friends.
Even after Season 4 threatens violence a couple of times after that, even sending Fluttershy into harms way so he could attack the school.
He perpetrated a long con on the Ponyvile five pretending to be friends with them just to hurt Twilight emotionally.
And he always always has some story to cover for his insecurities or spin his actions as helping, but we see him irritated enough times after a scheme failed to piss his mark of to indicate the guy is a sadist.
Certainly it's the case throughout the early seasons that sadism is his motivating factor and he still reacts violently when he's agitated in later seasons.
The guy's earned his title as a deceiver.
They needed to know that the Trio was out and what they were up to.
There was no reason for Discord to own up to his actual motivations to others secure their cooperation.
In fact if this was some sort of last romp before Twilight assumed the throne and presumably tightened restrictions on him, he'd have every reason not to tell her what was going on.
Except he arranged for them to be silenced immediately after they were defeated.
There was no time for them to say anything in their defense, assuming anyone would have listened anyways.
Both are similar.
The only real difference that we see in show is that Cozy Glow doesn't have the power to execute her influence on a whim, and is much more dependent on praise than Discord.
Which just means they should be taking him far more seriously than they do.
Letting him waltz around free without any supervision or means of control is not taking him seriously.
The dude is explosively temperamental and his "pranks" are hazardous at best.
Really the only reason to assume he hasn't killed someone yet is that it never happened on screen.
Cozy Glow rightfully points out her superior ability at making friends to Twilight.
And while they never show the connection between Starlight's Philosophy and Cutie Marks role in creating prejudice, the simple fact is that not everyone in Equestria benefited from their existence.
Neither of those characters ceased to be villains because they had a point.
Discord does what he does to be a sadist. We see him express disappointment multiple times when a scheme failed to demoralize someone.
Him having a point is just how he justifies it.
It showcases his violent and manipulative character when starting out. Something that persists throughout his tenure.
Certainly the fans of the show considered it a possibility. That doesn't mean that it ever crossed Discord's mind.
Yeah he knew better than to trust them this time.
It could be argued that the only reason he was surprised that they turned on them was that he didn't think they could operate the bell without him.
Who would have expected that there would have been a book on how to work it in the Canterlot Archives? Or that those three would be the ones to find it?
Him hiding his identity was just a sensible precaution at that point. It's the same reason he never stayed under the same roof as him or why he rationed Tirek's magic.
Anymore leeway would have left him vulnerable.
Tirek gave up a perfectly good chance to steal the others magic to work with them.
Cozy Glow loves her attention enough to subsume her desire for ruling in order to play at being a good filly.
So the idea of using punishment or as a deterrent isn't really exclusive to Discord. But he's basically the only villain in the show to receive that treatment post punishment.
Everybody else was a spur of the moment thing.
Way more than some. There are massive inconsistencies with characterization and lore. They even swapped Yona and Smolder's personalities after two seasons.
It's not the first time they've done this, but Seasons 8 and 9 combine all the show's most nonsensical problems together in the span of two short years. That's impressive, even for this show.
Naw! No problem. The lure of perfectionism is something I understand all too well.
It looks fine to me.
11763248
Feeling the subject of Discord is getting beaten enough at this point, I'll just say for now that you do seem to prefer assuming the absolute worse about Discord in nearly every instance. Sometimes, as discussed, it's not unjustified, but I do feel it might be a bit unfair for Discord as a character to do that so automatically, because not only am I not sure it's actually true in every instance listed (hence our discussion on it), it's also showing a clear bias to a character that, I should gently point out, has potential of skewing one's view of the character unfairly. If Discord were to be put on trial for anything, for instance, I am not sure you would be an ideal person to serve on the jury because of that trend.
Now, I myself may be more critical of, say, Cozy Glow than most, but I still try to give her the benefit of the doubt, to assume she does have the potential to be better than she appears. I've never said at any point that she couldn't be reformed, for example, just that I saw it as probably requiring more effort than I see a lot of fans suggest, and as a result, I can kinda of see the cast's logic for reacting to her the way they did in the show (whether right or wrong). By contrast, you don't seem to give Discord the same sort of luxury. Yes, he could have more malicious intent than obviously stated in all of the examples you list, but at the same time, I question whether there's sufficient evidence to be certain that's really the only outcome to assume in all of them.
I apologize if this seems overly critical of you, and I am trying to phrase it as delicately as I can so to minimize that--it's not my wish to cause offense here--but it is a trend I've observed consistently throughout our chain of comments enough to feel it merits mentioning at this point.
In the end, though, Discord is probably going to just have to be a subject we agree to disagree on.
Eh, she talks the talk on that, but I have questioned whether or not she also actually walks the walk. She certainly does in the terms of this fanfic, but looking at it solely from show canon I'm less certain. I don't think she's actually better at making friends than Twilight in either case though, on the grounds that, even when the friendship is genuine, Cozy still tends to approach it thinking "how can I use this to my benefit" a little more than she should, which is a problem because friendship should be a give-take relationship on both sides, not just solely the one.
But then that was always Cozy's big stumbling block towards reforming. She gets friendship very well, but she, for some reason, keeps getting the wrong morals out of it and keeps using it as if a tool or stepping stool to boost herself up to loftier heights, and that's not how its supposed to work, and probably why she keeps finding herself with rifts between herself and others such as Twilight. Get her to go past that stumbling block finally though, and she should have a pretty straight shot towards a true reformation with time, but she doesn't seem to show a lot of interest in doing so, even in this fanfic, though to be sure, the first steps towards her finally doing so were still taken. Whether or not that finally takes her the path down it to changing for the better though...that's mostly left to reader interpretation.
Being a long time Young 6 enthusiast, I admit I don't see this at all. Yona and Smolder seem as uniquely separate in personality now as they did when first introduced. Yona proud and boldly admitting as such but always an eager cinnamon bun despite that, and Smolder sassy and sarcastic while carefully guarding a softer side that she's not as open about, as most dragons seem to be (I can't think of any in G4 that we were introduced to that didn't have a hidden soft side, even Torch).
11756951
Just got back and had the opportunity to read this.
You do a really good job at surmising this whole mess as well as highlighting motivations behind movements like this succinctly.
If you ever come out with a sequel I would read it.
11763300 11763248
I've been enjoying your discussion about Discord vs. Cozy, and villain reformation in general, but hadn't anything to add until now.
It occurs to me that the critical thing that makes a villain redeemable is whether or not they acquire or awaken a sense of empathy toward their victims. Without that, their basic personality (demonstrated up to the point of their defeat) would eventually lead them to slip back into evil-doing from habit, if nothing else. And that empathy has to be applicable to everyone else, not just a single exceptional person.*
I think it's telling that not only a lot of fans, but some of the official writers as well, naturally came up with the question, "What will Discord do when Fluttershy dies?"** making the automatic assumption that Fluttershy is the only pony he really cares about. Not a good candidate for reformation, it seems.
--------------------
* I have mixed feelings about Starlight Glimmer, but seeing Twilight trying multiple times to hammer this idea into her head was usually entertaining.
** Just for the record, I did not think the comic that answered the question was satisfying or believable.
Heartbreakingly, stomach-twistingly believable. Given how well this portrays and supports Equestria’s foundation crumbling out from under it, I have to wonder how Celestia managed to hold the place together for a millennium. A shame she never passed that particular secret on to Twilight. (Though I suppose the prophetic dreams helped.)
The foregone conclusion may be the worst part of it. Twilight will fail. Friendship won’t pull through. And Cozy Glow? By all evidence, she’ll be completely forgotten.
A fantastic read, painful though it may be. (And the death of Best Pony didn’t help.) Thank you for it and best of luck in the judging.
Really rich and vibrant, full of the little details and threads that really make a story.
All I want to do is know more of the greater world, which is a fantastic way to end a story!
I'll admit, I avoided reading this for a bit, just because when it was first published I saw a few comments saying that Twilight would have to be uncharacteristically stupid to have Equestria fall into this state. Then it won Imposing Sovereigns, and, well, I trust their judgement, so I read this, and once I started, I couldn't put it down. Wow. I'm not sure what I could add to the praises that everyone else already hasn't- maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of Estee's works, but I was willing to buy this darker swing. It didn't literally come out of nowhere, and the points about Discord and the two unicorns... we as the omniscient audience know things were a bit more complicated, but yeah, I can definitely see bad faith interpretations springing up in-universe.
I feel so bad for Twilight through this. She knows that Cozy's a lying, mean little bitch, but she can't just say that without causing the Primaries to rally even harder behind Cozy. And yeah, Cozy's sympathetic, and I do honestly feel bad for her- I still kinda wanna punt her like a football. I think it would've been really cathartic for Twilight. What really got to me is that, as sympathetic as Cozy is, she's still so mean. I might not be so annoyed if she was genuinely a tribalist, but causing the effective end of the world just out of being petty is so... AAAH!
Good work, fantastic worldbuilding, fantastic prose. It's all awful, but in a great way. And it's even worse when you think about gen5. But again in a good way. Like everyone else said, I can't believe you actually gave me a way to believe that gen5 could be gen4 in the distant distant future.
I read this with a group of friends and whoo boy this story does a great job. It ends on an uncertain note about the future (and obviously this implies G5 is gonna happen) so the tension never eases off, and you do a fantastic job of constantly fingering and plucking that tension. This absolutely deserved the win it got.
11752294
Discord was actively turned to stone for at least multiple melenia why does everyone forget this he had it rough.If he didn't reform now it didn't really matter the punishment he should've just been killed for the danger he is.