Cozy Glow

Cozy Glow is a character featured in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Student
Nothing is known of Cozy Glow’s origins, but she enrolled as a student at the School of Friendship some time after it was established. Some time afterwards, she met the at their clubhouse. She convinced the trio that she was struggling with the curriculum, and was concerned that she might fail her classes. Having been denied when they attempted to enroll, the Crusaders eagerly agreed to help her with coursework in the hopes that would accept them as students afterwards.

With the Crusaders’ help, Cozy aced her assignment to act as a friend to, , and. They then helped her to study for an upcoming test. However, supposedly acting out of a desire to help them get into the school, Cozy purposefully failed the exam. Her poor performance, meant to convince Twilight that the Crusaders did need to study at the school, was instead interpreted as resulting from them sabotaging Cozy to get back at Twilight for not admitting them to the school. After seeing the resulting trouble, Cozy came clean to Starlight Glimmer, and the Crusaders were awarded honorary degrees while Cozy continued her studies.

Cozy was among the students present when Twilight presented her "Spell-venger hunt" involving six magical artifacts, but was also caught in the crossfire of 's antagonism with Starlight Glimmer. This saw her forced to give a hooficure and then terrorized by an Ursa Major before being able to take part in the hunt. During one Hearth's Warming season, Cozy was present when Twilight announced that the students were free to leave for their holiday break. On another occasion she would deliver a flyer for Friendship University to Twilight's office. She later appeared just as Twilight and were discussing how  and  acquired the School of Friendship's lesson plans, with later events suggesting that Cozy herself may have been the source of the leak.

Other experiences of Cozy's included another visit to Starlight Glimmer's office and being among the students present when Rockhoof appeared in front of a class of students. She later was present at a lecture on the Tree of Harmony, before volunteering to help organize books in the school library. Overhearing the Young Six at a study session, she approached them, behaving out of apparent friendliness. However, her comments caused the non-pony members of the group to question whether they were actually capable of friendship, and she "kindly" volunteered to let them borrow her notes to help with their schoolwork.

After the Young Six returned from the depths beneath the school, where they had been tested by the Tree of Harmony itself, Cozy expressed apparent worry and then surprise when they told the story of their experiences. When they suggested telling the staff, Cozy Glow discouraged them, claiming that her earlier comments were made out of jealousy towards the group of friends. Acting as though she felt guilty for "forcing" the Tree of Harmony to test them, she pleaded with the others not to inform their teachers. To sweeten the deal, she suggested making up a story about needing their help organizing the books, thus giving them more time to prepare for the test they had been studying for. Glad for the reprieve, the exhausted group took her up on her offer and went to sleep, unaware of the interest with which Cozy turned her attention to the newly discovered cavern...

Would-be Empress
Cozy Glow eventually worked her way into serving as Twilight's assistant, with tasks including receiving mail from and helping students like Rainbow Harmony find their way around. When began disappearing from Equestria, leaving everyone mystified, Cozy Glow suggested that perhaps  might be involved. As such, the Mane Six and left for Tartarus, leaving Starlight Glimmer in charge to Cozy's apparent surprise. However, the following day Cozy informed her fellow students that Starlight had supposedly left to follow Twilight and the others, leaving her to handle things at the school.

Quick to ingratiate herself with the student body, Cozy soon began to arouse the suspicions of some of the Young Six, particularly after they noticed her leaving the Tree of Harmony cavern. Meanwhile, the Mane Six and Spike arrived at Tartarus and discovered that Cozy had packed the Key of Unfettered Entrance for them, enabling them to enter Tartarus with their own magic lost. However, the artifact shattered once the group entered the prison, leaving Twilight and the others trapped inside. Back at the school, Cozy was surprised when Chancellor Neighsay arrived and, finding Twilight gone and Cozy in charge, announced his intentions to take control of the school.

Neighsay suspected the non-pony members of the Young Six for being behind the Magic loss, and his paranoia was seemingly justified when Cozy helped him discover the students eavesdropping on them. Sandbar, determined to help his friends, acted as though he agreed with Neighsay's views before asking the Cutie Mark Crusaders to enlist Cozy Glow to help occupy the chancellor. In Tartarus, the Mane Six confronted Tirek regarding the Magic loss, and he revealed that it was the work of an individual with whom he had been corresponding for some time. Back at the school, Sandbar and the Crusaders entered the catacombs to find Starlight trapped in a magical orb created by the six Spell-venger artifacts. They then watched in horror as Cozy confronted Starlight, revealing herself as having orchestrated the plan to rid Equestria of its magic so that she could seize power as Empress of Friendship.

Having learned the truth about Cozy Glow themselves, the Mane Six and Spike desperately acted to find a means of escaping Tartarus, where she had planned for them to be trapped and out of her way. Meanwhile, Cozy attempted to convince Neighsay to leave the school in her hooves, though she was quite willing to get rid of him in the event he refused to back off. When her efforts to reason with him failed, she persuaded the other pony students that he was out to destroy the school, and thus turned them against him. As she revealed in private to the stunned stallion, Cozy intended for all of the students to be her "friends", which would-in her warped perception-make her the most powerful pony in Equestria. Shortly thereafter she encountered the Crusaders and, seeing through their plans to distract her, locked them all in a closet.

The Young Six, Sandbar having freed his friends from confinement, freed Neighsay from his bonds; he promptly departed to get help from Canterlot, while the Young Six attempted to rescue Starlight. Unfortunately, Cozy Glow arrived at the head of the other students, whom she soon turned against the Young Six by accusing them of being behind the loss of magic. However, as her adversaries became trapped with Starlight in the orb of magic about to be banished from Equestria, Cozy's minions began to sense something wrong with her arguments. The Tree of Harmony itself then intervened, contrary to Cozy's own expectations, and assisted the Young Six in recovering the artifacts and undoing Cozy Glow's scheme.

Exposed as a villain, Cozy angrily accosted the Young Six, only for the Mane Six and Spike-who had already escaped Tartarus before the magic was restored-to appear to confront her. Cozy briefly attempted to bluff her way out of the awkward moment, but soon learned that Tirek had told Twilight and the others about her. After a rant regarding her megalomaniacal views regarding friendship, she attempted to flee but was halted by the other students, and, and the Royal Guards of Equestria, whom Neighsay had brought to help contend with her. Taken into custody, she was soon delivered to Tartarus and placed into a cage neighboring Tirek's; turning to her former mentor, she sinisterly inquired whether he was interested "be[ing] friends".

Legion of Doom
Cozy attempted to ingratiate herself with Tirek, much to his annoyance, by keeping up her cutesy facade and making gestures such as a sculpture depicting the two of them. However, they unexpectedly found themselves transported out of Tartarus to a mysterious location where they were joined by and King Sombra. The four soon discovered that they had all been brought there by a benefactor who introduced himself as Grogar, a feared figure of Equestria's past. Cozy, however, was unfamiliar with-and thus initially unimpressed by-the ram, despite the obvious magical ability he displayed. Grogar explained that he had gathered the four villains so that, together, they could work together to take control of Equestria.

Sombra, however, refused to share power with anyone, and thus allowed to travel to the Crystal Empire in a bid to reclaim it by himself. He then ordered the others to begin working on their alliance, something Cozy eagerly embraced despite the obvious distaste of her two new "teammates." Grogar would later make the trio aware of Sombra's failure and demise, and reiterate his demand that they learn to work together under his leadership so that the four of them could conquer Equestria together. Believing her to still be safely confined in Tartarus, Yona would bravely cite her role in defeating Cozy Glow as giving her the confidence to brave the Everfree Forest. Oddly enough, after Yona later made a disastrous attempt to act like a pony herself, she would have to be reminded of Cozy Glow when she pessimistically questioned whether there had ever been a worse "pony" than her.

Though Cozy was eager to win over her prospective new teammates, the would-be tyrants quickly got on each other's nerves, with Grogar growing particularly annoyed with his underlings. Still playing the part of the adorable, accommodating child, Cozy fashioned a banner depicting her unlikely team and tried to convince Tirek and Chrysalis that they should work together. Their discussion turned musical, but even that ended in bickering that Grogar furiously broke up. After magically disciplining his dissatisfactory recruits, Grogar decided that they needed a real task to help them become a team. As it happened, he had just such a mission in mind: sending them to retrieve his Bewitching Bell from Mount Everhoof.

Despite Grogar's orders, Chrysalis took off on her own after the trio arrived at the mountain, and Tirek refused to collaborate with Cozy. Setting off by herself, Cozy ran across the mountain's guardian, Rusty Bucket. She attempted to persuade him to help her, only to learn that he was not only duty bound not to allow anyone to reach the top of the mountain, but owned a copy of the Journal of Friendship that rebutted her attempts to persuade him that helping her do so would be an act of friendship. Leaving in a huff, she found Tirek again lounging by a campfire, and discovered that he intended to let her and Chrysalis try and reach the bell with the expectation that they would fail but that he would be able to succeed by learning from their failures. Fed up with Tirek's superior attitude, which she had been putting up with since ending up in Tartarus, Cozy exploded at her former prison-mate.

Tirek, in turn, noted that he was fully aware of her efforts to manipulate him, and expressing pleasure at seeing her drop the "cute and lovable" act. Insisting that the act was how she really was, she soon got into a shouting match with the Centaur, responding to his mockery of her snoring with comments about how he talked to his Gram-Gram in his sleep. The two were interrupted by the arrival of an Ophiotaurus but were spared any harm when Chrysalis appeared as a female Ophiotaurus. She quickly drained the enamored bull and encased it in a cocoon, before reluctantly admitting that she had returned because her efforts to scale the mountain alone had failed. Settling around the campfire, the trio unexpectedly found themselves bonding as they discussed their respective defeats by Twilight and her friends and their mutual contempt of the ponies.

Finally realizing that they had at least one thing in common, the group decided to work together, and used their respective skills in tandem to scale the mountain. Cozy Glow then persuaded Chrysalis to allow Tirek to drain her magic, which she convinced him to return, so that they could breach the magical barrier preventing them from getting at the bell. This effort succeeded, but Chrysalis quickly spoke out to head off the signs of budding friendship between the triumphant allies, convincing both Cozy and Tirek that friendship was little better than a disease. All three also agreed that they had no interest in serving Grogar or allowing him to become more powerful, and so decided to conceal the fact that they had recovered the bell from him. Grogar was annoyed by this supposed failure but grudgingly satisfied that the three had learned cooperation, unaware that they had identified him as a common enemy to plot against.

Orchestrating an apocalypse
Unable to access the magic stored in the Bewitching Bell, Cozy and her allies decided to break into the Canterlot Archives in hopes of finding a book that would give them the answers they needed. Finding preparations for a Summer Sun Celebration in progress, the trio decided to disrupt the event so as to create chaos that would distract from their activities. Preying on the insecure Feather Flatterfly, Cozy managed to get the Pegasi weather team into disarray while her teammates handled other tasks. The three then broke into the archives, found the book they desired, and made their way back to Grogar's lair.

Though their efforts to ruin the event had failed, the experience gave the trio ideas about how they might be able to sow further chaos among the ponies. With Grogar departing in search of a magical talisman to replace the supposedly lost Bewitching Bell, Cozy and the others were left free to peruse their newly acquired tome. While Tirek studied, Cozy and Chrysalis planted seeds of mistrust in the minds of various ponies, leading to the rifts between the various pony tribes. Returning to the lair, they joined Tirek in enacting a spell that allowed them to absorb the magic stored within the Bewitching Bell. All three transformed from the newly gained power, with Cozy taking on the appearance of an Alicorn with a horn and enlarged wings.

Now massively powerful, the trio confronted Grogar upon his return, destroying his new talisman and turning the Bewitching Bell against him. To their surprise, it turned out that the Grogar they had known was not the, but a disguised Discord. The Draconequus quickly fled, stopping only briefly to eavesdrop on the villains as they turned their attention towards the conquest of Equestria. While Discord rushed to inform Twilight and the others of these developments, Cozy and her allies discussed the Chaos Magic stolen from Discord. Tirek expressed doubts that anyone could control it, but Cozy volunteered to try, and was transformed into a massive adult Alicorn with Bat Pony-like wings.

Wielding such immense power, Cozy attempted to subjugate her two allies, only to find that Discord's magic was too erratic for her to master; it was soon returned to the Bewitchign Bell, reverting Cozy to her previous Alicorn form. The trio then split up to begin their assault on Equestria, with Cozy heading directly to Canterlot with the Bewitching Bell. She made short work of the Royal Guards before confronting the Two Sisters, the Mane Six, and Spike. Though she managed to drain Celestia and Luna's magic, she then found herself outmatched and surrounded by the others, until Tirek and Chrysalis arrived to support her. More than a match for their enemies, the trio then revealed how they had sowed dissension among the ponies, leaving Equestria divided and Twilight with no other apparent allies to call upon.

Cozy and her comrades partially demolished Canterlot Castle and added Twilight's friends to their growing collection of captives, though Twilight herself escaped due to her friends' bravery. Cozy eagerly contemplated destroying their defeated enemies, but soon fell to bickering with her teammates over the magic they had captured from Celestia and Luna. Discord, despite being powerless, managed to arrange for the Mane Five and Spike to escape while he, Starlight, the sisters, and the powerless Pillars of Old Equestria kept Cozy and her cohorts occupied. They soon overpowered and reimprisoned these adversaries, only to emerge from the castle to find that the Windigos had returned to Equestria. A brief discussion as to how the trio should address the threat was interrupted as Twilight and her friends appeared in the distance.

The three villains traveled to confront the heroes, leading to an intense battle in which the villains, despite some frustrations, ultimately proved victorious yet again. However, as they prepared to destroy Twilight and the others, they were thwarted by a magical barrier and the arrival of an army of assorted ponies and creatures from across Equestria and beyond. After learning how this force had been united by the students with whom she had shared the magic of friendship, Twilight was herself inspired, and confronted the villains again just as they gained the upper hand over her rescuers. With her confidence renewed, Twilight tapped into the Magic of Friendship, and with her closest friends and allies unleashed a blast that stripped Cozy and the others of their power. Discord and the princesses, their powers restored, then cast a Stone Sleep spell upon the defeated villains, turning them into a conjoined statue in repayment of their wicked deeds.

Cozy's fate, and that of her compatriots, were later publicized in an Equestrian newspaper. Sometime afterwards, the attack of the Knights of Harmony upon Canterlot resulted in the statue's shell beginning to crack. However, based on the peaceful state of Equestria in the time of Luster Dawn, it would seem that Cozy and her allies remained in confinement. Alternatively, they may have been thwarted in another attempt at villainy, or withdrawn to parts unknown.