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Diplomacy through schooling

by Evilhumour

Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

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Chapter Ten

Fluttershy hummed contentedly as she worked in her yard, tending her garden and a few other things.

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy looked up. “Oh, hello, Twilight!” she said happily. “How are you?”

“Doing well,” Twilight said. “Except there’s one thing I need to talk with you and the rest of the girls about today, and if you aren’t too busy…”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I was just finishing with the flowers,” she said. “Can you give me a minute?”

Twilight smiled. “Sure,” she said.

A little while later, eight ponies and a dragon sat in Rarity’s living room (as she had gladly offered them the larger space), and Twilight had just finished explaining everything she had learned about Cozy Glow.

“So, what do you think?” she asked.

Applejack shook her head. “Girl, that’s messed up,” she said. Then she smiled. “But her aside, Ah’m glad that yer school’s doin’ so well.”

“Indeed,” Rarity chimed in. “Especially with some of the other students. Did you know, Sweetie Belle and her friends actually had Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon over here a few days ago? They spent quite a bit of time working on something together, and when they all left, they were chatting and laughing happily.”

“That’s great,” Twilight said happily before frowning. “I still need to do further investigation on her; her teachers mentioned her behaviour and interests are not normal for a filly her age. And I need to try and get in touch with her parents - I don’t think I’ve been able to speak to them face-to-face even when I was accepting her application.”

“Wait, did her parents even put her application in?” Spike asked with a frown.

At his words, Twilight blinked before she teleported in a filing cabinet with everyone jumping backwards. Twilight began to leaf through the contents before she pulled out a file and began to study it.

“The application has two signatures on it,” she muttered. “But…” Her horn lit up and a wave swept over the document before she looked up. “The only magic I’m finding is… hers.” She frowned. “She forged those signatures.” Twilight leaned closer before pulling back with her eyes wide. “No, that can’t be right.” she muttered angrily to herself before her magic went over the page again before she dropped the document on the table, looking furious. “That mare!” she snapped, with her wings flaring behind her. “She’s no filly!”

“Er what‽” all of her friends asked incredulously.

“Her magic signature is that of a grown adult!” Twilight snapped, her coat beginning to crackle and pop, flames starting to appear. “Either she has some sort of condition that makes her appear as a filly or she somehow turned herself into one but she isn’t one!” she growled, bringing her hoof down onto the table, causing it to nearly buckle under the blow.

“Twilight, are you sure about this?” Rainbow Dash asked as Applejack placed a hoof over Rarity’s mouth to stop her complaining from the damage done to her table.

“Positive,” Twilight said, trying to get her anger under control. “Magical signatures are like… well, I’d say fingerprints if we had them. They might not be physical signs, but we can extrapolate a few things about the person when we read them. All our students have theirs on file, even the ones who can’t normally use magic - they were recorded when we accepted them as students, mainly for identification purposes. Hers is distinctly that of an adult’s - I don’t know why we didn’t notice it before.”

“So what are you doing to do with her, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, her soothing voice managing to pierce through Twilight’s rage.

“I, I don’t know,” Twilight said as she did her breathing techniques. “I’m not sure yet; I’ve never experienced this sort of problem or even planned for something like this.” She then looked at Spike. “But I think I know someone I can talk to for some advice in how to handle her.” She spat out the word, her jaw clenching tightly. “Spike, can you please take a letter?”

“Sure thing.” Spike had a quill and scroll out quickly. “What’s the message?”

Doing her best to unclench her jaw, Twilight spoke. “Dear Princess Celestia,

I am writing to you to ask for guidance in a very serious matter. I have recently learned one of my students is not who they claim to be and falsified information to gain attendance to my school.

Having done a thorough examination of her magical signature, I have determined that while this student, Cozy Glow, appears to be a normal pegasus filly, her magic is actually an adult’s; the signs of aging in it are clear. I am not certain at this point how she is appearing as she is, but the fact is that she lied. She has also been displaying some very unsettling behavior since she enrolled, which includes asking for information on other race’s darkest periods and worst villains.

Despite this, I’m not sure what to do about her. I need your help, Princess.

Yours,
Twilight Sparkle,
Princess of Friendship,
Headmare of the School of International Culture and Friendship.”

As Spike finished writing, he showed it to Twilight, who ran her eyes over it and nodded. “Send it, Spike. Please.”

Spike nodded, rolled up the letter and breathed his fire on it, sending it off with the girls looking angry.

“Excuse me Twi, but Ah need ta go tell Apple Bloom ta stay away from that darn fil-er, mare-whatever she is,” Applejack said, fixing her hat on.

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Rainbow Dash said. “Scoots said she and the girls were going over to her place with her aunts this afternoon, after they were done with school for the day, and this Cozy Glow can’t leave your school’s grounds, right?”

Twilight nodded. “I will make sure that classes will run longer than usual today,” she said. “For all my students.”

Whatever she was about to say next was cut off when a form teleported in.

“Princess?” several ponies said.

Stretching her neck out, Celestia looked at them all. “Hello, everyone,” she said. “Twilight, I received your letter.”

“I kind of figured.” Twilight sighed. “Princess -”

“And I must say, this is very disturbing news.” Celestia said curtly, her pink eyes narrowed in an emotion that caused Twilight to flinch momentarily.

“Agreed,” Twilight said, nodding her head. “They should be in physical education at the moment, so all we need to do is pop over and call her to my office.”


Being called to the headmare’s office was a surprise but one that Cozy was more than ready to deal with. For all the supposed intelligence that Twilight had, it was surprisingly easy to fool her. Though most people were easy to fool if they saw what they wanted to see and being as she was, that was easily enough done.

Pulling herself together as to appear what exactly Twilight would want to see her as, she trotted down the halls, her innocent happy-go-lucky persona causing most to dismiss her as harmless.

Except for one.

After she’d gone around a corner, a pair of eyes blinked invisibly, and a chuckle went unheard. “So she finally figured it out,” Discord whispered silently to himself as he watched where Cozy had been. “Good for you, Twi-Twi.”

He’d been prepared to step in if it was needed, and had Cozy actually taken any steps to make herself a physical threat, he would have. But it seemed Twilight had things in hoof now.

Still, he’d keep watch some more. Just in case.

Meanwhile, unaware of his presence, Cozy trotted into Twilight’s office. “You wanted to see me, Headmare?” she asked in that saccharine sweet voice that made most ponies underestimate her before turning her head to see the other princess was in the room. “Oh my, Princess Celestia,” she said bowing, taking the chance to hide her momentary panic. “If I am interrupting something, Headmare Twi-”

“Please Glow, stop the act,” Celestia said, her magic going to shut the door behind her with the windows locked.

“What do you mean, Princess Celestia?” Glow asked, weighing the pros and cons in her head with the princesses glaring hard at her. “Are we playing a gam…” she trailed off, knowing it was pointless and insulting to continue the charade at this point. Frowning, Glow stood upright and using her actual voice, asked. “How did you find me out?”

“Your magical signature,” Twilight said, glaring hard at her. “You can change your looks - and how is something I’m very interested in, if that’s what you did. But your personal magic can’t be disguised, especially when someone’s looking for its age. Even Chrysalis couldn’t do that.”

“As normally, you believe you’re half as smart as you actually are, Twilight,” Cozy said, rolling her eyes at the so-called know-it-all, enjoying the look of surprise on her arrogant face. “This isn’t some sort of magical spell or anything, just how I was born like. If I were able to change myself, don’t you think I’d go for something more useful like being a unicorn so I could use magic and the excuse of poor magical control that comes with being so young?”

Glow could see the gears turning in their heads and the fact that she was right was sitting poorly with them which brought a smile to her face.

“So, you have medically arrested development,” Celestia stated. “That was the other possibility we had considered.” She frowned, tilting her head for a moment. “And if you were seeking help in curing this condition, you could have come directly to any of a number of hospitals or other places. But you didn’t, which means you had something else in mind. So why this charade? Why go to these lengths to infiltrate Twilight’s school?”

“First off, who says I haven’t done so, your highness?” Cozy shot back. “She only figured out my true age when she bothered to examine my magic fully; do you think most hospitals bother to search for such a thing when it is easier to believe that a filly is just playing pretend and wasting valuable time and money and send her off on her way or try and take her to an orphanage?” She huffed, rolling her eyes. “Secondly to why I did this all… well why not?” She chuckled, knowing there was no further point to hide anymore. “This is the biggest opening anyone could hope for; learn all I want about the other races’ biggest issues and see what I could use for myself when I finally left this nauseatingly cheerful place.” She grinned at the two princesses. “I mean, Tirek’s magic stealing abilities, Grogar’s Bewitching Bell - if it’s even real, and it probably is, the countless divides in the wolves’ packs, even the dragons and how they thought nothing of taking advantage of one another - there are countless ways I could put myself up on top now, and who would believe that a cute little filly like me was a truly nasty wasty pony?” she said, slipping into her cutesy voice to mock the two. “All thanks to you, Headmare Twilight, and your wondrous school for learning about-”

Enough.” Twilight glared, slamming her hooves into her desk. “Cozy Glow, I opened this school to bring people together. But you have taken its methods in entirely the wrong direction.” Her horn lit up, and faster than Cozy could blink, etched chains shot out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around her. “Guards? She’s all yours.”

A number of rune wolves faded into visibility, each clutching one of the chains, before leading her out of the room. Cozy, however, seemed to have more to say.

“You’re a fool to think I’m the only one here looking to benefit themselves, Twilight,” she shouted as she was dragged away. “I’m the first one you caught but mark my words, there are others here that are doing the same thing as me!”

Twilight said nothing, staring intently at the mare.

As she was finally dragged into the hall, Cozy looked back at Twilight, an expression of pure hatred on her face, before the door shut behind her, leaving Twilight to sigh.

“That was unpleasant,” she said, looking defeated.

Celestia nodded, and was about to speak when she saw something flickering across the floor, almost a two-dimensional form slipping out from under the crack between the door and ground.

“Yes, it was,” Discord said as he popped back into his usual shape. “But you found her in time, Twilight.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You knew about her?” she accused him.

“I did, and had she actually done anything to cause physical or magical harm, I would have stepped in immediately,” he said, appearing in a guard’s uniform. “You asked me to watch over this place, and I have been.” He then appeared in a black suit with sunglasses over his eyes.

Twilight stared at him before shaking her head and looking at Celestia. “Do you think she’s right? That there’s other students who are here just to collect information so they can take it back home and use it against us?”

Before Celestia could speak, Discord snorted. “Please, your screening procedures are better than that,” he said. “Cozy may have slipped through the cracks, but the rest are all truthful about why they’re here.” He frowned. “Perhaps I should have done more about that one sooner. You see, while you were away, I kept a watchful eye on Equestria, and I found her then - if not for the fact that she was a complete and utter little sociopath, I might have thought she’d make a good Lady of Lies. She certainly fooled you until you looked beneath the surface, and then tried to make you doubt yourself as a final parting shot. But I can tell, dear Princess Twiggles.” He raised a claw. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye… Cozy Glow was the only one here who would have done that sort of thing.”

Then he shimmered for a moment, stumbling into the desk with a groan and claw raised to his head. “That,” he said, looking sick. “Was really an Orderly move.” he grumbled dizzily before he gave a weak bow. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go cause some chaos to pick myself back up.” Reaching down he pulled up a thin cutout of himself before he snapped his claws and vanished.

Twilight stared at where he’d been before looking back to Celestia. Rising from her desk, she marched over to the other mare, and leaned against her, prompting Celestia to smile, lean down and nuzzle her.

“You were very strong today,” she said.

Twilight smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “For being here for me. And… Discord? Wherever you are, thank you too, for helping us, and for watching over things here,” she said.

A nose popped into existence on her wall, before a thumb grew from it, wiggling in an upward direction, and Twilight giggled. Celestia smiled too.

“My schedule is cleared for the day, if you wish more of my company,” she said.

“I’d love that,” Twilight said. “Let me deal with this one bit of paperwork, and then I’ll let my vice-headmare know we’re going back out.” She drew the papers out of her desk, and then began filling them out. “I’d hoped never to have to use these, but they’re required for all schools, just in case.”

“Oh?” Celestia asked.

“Formal expulsion papers,” Twilight said as she signed the last one and pressed her official Seal into it. “Being arrested as a threat to Equestria is probably a new one when it comes to the Cause for expulsion section, but I doubt anyone would attempt to contest it.”

“True,” Celestia said as Twilight put one set of papers away and began wrapping up another.

As she finished, Twilight blinked and turned to face Celestia. “Out of curiosity, how did you mark Sunset’s papers if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh I never formally expelled her,” Celestia said. “I was about to, but then she went through the mirror, and after that… I couldn’t bring myself to finish doing so.” She smiled. “Officially, she is just several years late for her next lesson, though I have started the process of transferring her subjects on the other side into their proper credits here so that is being taken care of.”

Twilight smiled. “That’s good,” she said as she came around the desk. “We’ve been writing back and forth, and I’m always happy to hear from her.”

“As am I,” Celestia said before the pair left the office.


The girls (and Spike) had been waiting in Rarity’s living room for nearly an hour when Twilight and Celestia popped back.

“How’d it go?” Moondancer asked, rising to see them.

Twilight sank into a seat. “It turns out that Cozy has a medical condition,” she said. “One that kept her from physically aging. And she used that to blend in and try to learn all she could for the sake of getting power.”

Applejack looked even angrier. “If’n Ah ever get mah hooves on that varmint…” she growled.

“She’s been taken to prison, and restrained as heavily as Chrysalis was. She is also to undergo therapy to see how much of a danger she truly is as well as other matters that I cannot really get into as of yet,” Celestia said as she found a seat of her own. “I promise you, Applejack, she will never pose a threat again.”

Good.”

“There’s more,” Twilight said as she looked around. “Moondancer, Trixie, you remember when I planned to invite Discord to be head of security for the school, but he declined?”

Both nodded.

“Turns out he’s been watching over things there anyway, and he would have made sure that she didn’t hurt anyone - something I am extremely grateful for.”

Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash all looked relieved to hear that, and Fluttershy was beaming proudly. “Good for him,” she said, puffing her chest out.

“Trixie is relieved to know he is helping with things like this,” Trixie commented with Moondancer nodding her head, staring at the magician.

“So am I,” Twilight told her, before sighing. “And at least that… that mare was the only one to get past our screening; I still don’t know how a sociopath like her slipped through.”

Pinkie sat upright. “Did you say, sociopath?”

“Yes,” Twilight said. “That’s what Discord called her. Why?”

“And did he say anything about her making a good Lady of Lies?” Pinkie was in her face.

“Well…”

“Yes, he did,” Celestia said. “How did you know?”

Applejack smacked her hooves together. “So that’s who he was talkin’ about,” she said. “Last year, soon after we started gearin’ up for the war, we got to talkin’ about what our Opposites might be like. Discord popped in to say a few things about it, an’ he mentioned he’d found this one person who’d make a good Lady of Lies if they hadn’t been a sociopath that he didn’t want associated with him. He must have meant this mare.”

“For all the complaints that I used to have for Discord, he has proven to be a true ally of ours,” Rarity said. “Where is he? I would like to thank him personally for all he has done.”

“He went off to go cause some harmless chaos, to recover from his recent actions,” Celestia said. “Apparently, making a Pinkie Promise that he was telling the truth about Cozy being the only potential threat in Twilight’s school was a bit too Orderly for him, and he needed to counteract the effects.”

Pinkie shrank into herself. “He did?” she asked in a small voice, while Fluttershy also looked worried.

Twilight gave both of them a comforting smile. “I’m sure he’ll be just fine,” she said. “He gave me a thumbs-up after he left.”

Both mares looked relieved.

“It is good to hear that he will be all right,” Rarity said. “And that there aren’t any more lurking dangers among your students.”

Twilight nodded. “I agree,” she said.

“So what do we do now?” Spike asked. “We’ve all got a lot of free time today… I think.”

Everyone gave nods or noises of affirmation, including Celestia. “It has been far too long since I was able to just relax with friends,” she said. “And I’d be happy to spend some time doing whatever any of you wants to.”

“We could just talk,” Trixie suggested. “So, have you read anything good lately?”

Celestia smiled. “As a matter of fact, I did, a few weeks ago,” she said. “Discord shared a copy of that book he and Fluttershy wrote together, and I quite enjoyed it.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Me too!” she said. “And I have so many questions… that chapter on your experience with the Breezies was especially fascinating,” she said to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy blushed. “I did what I had to, to help that last group of them get home so they could be back with their families,” she said. “And Well-Hidden was a big help too.”

Twilight smiled, and then let Princess Celestia ask a question of her own. The talk that would follow lasted well into the evening, flipping from subject to subject as the day went by, and the time spent with her friends was something she’d remember for years to come.


Crash

Neighsay winced as his work bore fruit and yet another stalactite fell to the ground and broke open, with some of his fellows scurrying to gather the iron ore that had been concentrated within it by… some technique that had been worked out by his captors, he still wasn’t sure how. Ever since his failed escape attempt, he’d been assigned to this portion of the mines, the centaur having wanted him more visible so the other slaves would see him paying the price for his attempts to undermine their masters.

From where he hung, he could see others digging out portions of the walls, while still more continued working on the floor. But regardless of where he and his fellows were set to task, it was hard, back-breaking and mind-numbing work, and he hated it. He didn’t dare speak out though; he had no idea who among the others were secretly spying for the master, or if there were not just slaves who could see his anger as a means to endear themselves to the centaur by reporting it.

News from the outside still came in from time to time with new prisoners; he’d heard from one that Princess Twilight’s school had opened and seemed to be doing rather well. In spite of himself, he couldn’t help but be curious about it, but had kept his questioning on the subject to a minimum. One of the things he had picked up was that their master had been heard grumbling about how at least one of the students was another centaur (which their master seemed to view as “treachery”), and there were gargoyles there too, both learning and teaching, something that really made him angry. Neighsay still wasn’t sure why; he knew that the gargoyles and centaurs shared a kingdom, but from what he’d heard and observed, their master seemed to be taking the gargoyles’ presence in Equestria as a personal offense, even worse than the one other centaur’s presence.

Perhaps it could be used against him in the future if he ever managed to escape this prison. And he would, he knew, because once again their master had underestimated he and his pendant (which still remained with him; it was physically indestructible, and the centaur, having assumed the loss of his horn and the associated nerves meant Neighsay was now powerless, hadn’t bothered to try and take it or drain its magic since that day, something he was relieved by).

With that thought in mind, he went back to work.


It was well into the evening when Celestia finally teleported home, and was met by her sister.

“Did you enjoy your day off?” she asked, giving Celestia a fond smile.

“I did,” Celestia said. “How are things here?”

“Well enough, though there’s been some rumblings since I got up,” Luna replied. “Something about a small squad of rune wolves at the train station who were seen escorting a pegasus filly in chains earlier?” She raised an eyebrow.

“That was no filly,” Celestia said with a sigh. “That was an adult mare with a severe case of arrested development and a hunger for power.”

Luna straightened up. “Tell us more,” she said as Pharynx joined them.

Celestia did, and by the time she was done, the royal couple were both looking furious. “How did her condition not get noticed sooner?” Luna demanded.

“And how long would it take to convince your nobles to let us start working at the hospitals so we can check magical signatures whenever someone comes in?” Pharynx asked.

“There is medical professionalism that prevents them from sharing medical information with others unless it is absolutely necessary,” Celestia said. “Otherwise, I’d have already begun work on that same thing.”

Pharynx waved a hoof. “We have that knowledge; we can read magical signatures and identify at least some issues easily just from that,” he said. “That’s not the problem. What we need is permission to actually go to work and put these skills to use where they’ll do the most good.”

Celestia blinked. “That would be… very useful,” she said. “But again, those laws exist for a reason and I am not willing to force them to share sensitive information. That said, we can begin to build a national registry so we can keep a better track of those with Cozy’s condition as well as others.” She then turned to face Pharynx. “You do bring up a good notion that another form of identification could be useful in identifying our citizens to make sure they are who they say they are.”

Pharynx shrugged. “Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to point things out and find a new way of doing them,” he said. “My people learned that ourselves when we evolved into our current forms.”

“True.” Luna said as they moved towards the kitchen. “Though we will need to bring it up to both councils to see if we can get your notion passed, dear husband.”

“I figured,” Pharynx said. “So, aside from miss crazy Cozy, how’s things doing down there?”

“They’re all doing well,” Celestia said. “Twilight is quite happy with how her students are getting along and learning.”

“So her evil plan of unity and harmony is going off without a hitch?” Pharynx snarked with Luna chuckling.

“It seems so,” Luna said before letting out a false evil laugh alongside her husband with Celestia shaking her head at the two, doing her best to hide a smile as not to encourage them further.

“Ocellus in particular is doing very well, in terms of her grades and her friendships,” she said after they had finished their silliness. “She and her friends were actually among the first to notice something was wrong with Cozy Glow’s behavior, though it was another student who’d spoken with them after also noticing the issue, and brought the matter to Twilight’s attention. This student is also working well to mend the wrongs they committed against others in the past, which Twilight is very pleased by.”

Luna nodded approvingly. “That is very good to hear,” she said. “Does Twilight intend to make a general announcement about Miss Glow?”

“Given the fact that the Guards were required to get involved, she might have to say something about it, though I expect most of the details will be kept quiet,” Celestia said. “She did say she intended to inform the filly who told her at the very least, and likely her other friends as well.”

“Well, if she does need help, I will be sure to aid her,” Luna said. “For I believe it is time for you to start to wind down and get ready for bed.”

Celestia chuckled. “Trying to get some practice in Luna?”

Luna looked indignant, which only made Celestia chuckle louder, before sobering. “But yes, it is that time,” she said. “Enjoy yourselves, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Then she trotted off to her room with the two left to tend the night court. She still found it amusing how some of their visitors reacted to Pharynx’s bluntness when matters were brought before them; the changeling prince was not one to suffer fools, and his contributions tended to speed things up so he and Luna could get down to the real business of guarding their citizens’ dreams.

Finally, as Celestia settled in for the night, she thought back to the day she’d spent in Ponyville, just relaxing and chatting with friends.

Would that I could do this more often, she thought sleepily as she closed her eyes for the night. I wonder if King Thorax would mind filling in for me at Day Court every now and then.

And with that thought in mind, she fell fast asleep, a smile on her face.

Next Chapter: Chapter Eleven Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 18 Minutes
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