/pony/ - Show Discussion

So this place is finally going the way of G4, eh? Well, I'm not gonna let it die without at least one last proper canon analysis thread for the so-called "show discussion" board. One last sendoff to the good old days where the show mattered, if anyone remembers that.

So how many of you actually watched up to Season 8? You may remember Cozy Glow, the little filly who almost ended the world, or at least all the magic in it. As consequence, she was sent by the princesses to an indeterminate sentence in Tartarus, Equestria's very own oubliette (n. A place prisoners are sent to be forgotten). Gives new perspective to Twilight's concerns to Fluttershy in season 1 that Celestia might "banish you and then throw you in a dungeon in the place that she banishes you to".

Some viewers thought it was a bit of overkill, concerning that not only is this a literal child being imprisoned, but the characters know full well she was significantly misguided at the time. Seems like the problem could be resolved more neatly with just some remedial community service, keeping her on a short leash and under supervision. She isn't even a unicorn after all, and this is of course assuming that contacting her parents isn't an option (probably relaxing on some distant beach with Sunset's parents, and Starlight's parents, and Tempest's parents, and Moondancer's parents...)

So why the imprisonment? And why that specific improsonment? Remember these ponies are all about giving second chances to those who seem not to deserve them. And as season 9 would make clear, this wasn't a public punishment; Cozy didn't become well known for her attempt to overthrow all of the princesses and become empress of friendship. Just how many ponies DID know about her, and why not more? Well that's what I'm here to answer, and to do that we need to look at things from a different perspective.

The Panmagical Outage was felt across all of Equestria and possibly beyond. It was quite sudden and very devastating, almost no one would have the slightest clue what's happening, and it would feel like the world is coming to an end. One can only imagine ponies and buildings in Las Pegasus seeming to suddenly vanish as they fall through clouds never to be seen again. Even after being resolved, everyone in the entire country would want to know what the hell just happened those past couple days. And from what we see, they really don't seem to be given an answer. Who benefits from keeping this all a secret?

Well, imagine what anyone would think if word got out to the public that at this new, experimental school with no accreditation and no external oversight, run exclusively by Princess Twilight against the direct order of the EEA, a single magicless child used school property, school grounds, and school teachings to cause perhaps the greatest magical cataclysm Equestria has faced? That would be very, very, VERY bad for Twilight. Somehow she would have to get everyone who knows about this, the students and teachers, the princesses and even the head of the EEA, to agree to keep all of this a secret, or her school getting shut down would be the least of her worries.

But that still leaves one loose end. What if they'd been more lenient for Cozy, and give her limited freedom during her rehabilitation? Remember, if they care even a little bit about helping her turn over a new leaf, imprisoning her alone and unsupervised with one of Equestria's most evil villains is perhaps the absolute worst thing they could do. But it's either that, or risk someone talking to her, and finding out what really happened. Twilight couldn't risk that, no matter how cruel she had to be to Cozy. It couldn't have been another princess' idea, Twilight is the only one, the only pony in Equestria, who would have the motive to set up a conspiracy to have a little filly locked away forever. To her, the school and her own reputation were more important than the life of a misguided child, one of her own students led astray.

This is the truth that's been hidden: Twilight personally buried Cozy Glow and doomed her to be forgotten in a hole at the edge of the world. In a world governed by the view that a single big mistake doesn't define who you are, Cozy's mistake was never given a single chance to be rectified. And the world forgot, Twilight too, just as she planned.