Cozy Glow

"Now that Twilight and her gang are out of the way, Equestria will bow before me. The uprising Queen of friendship."

- Cozy Glow revealing her true tyrannical nature.

Cozy Glow is the main antagonist in the eighth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. She first appears as a supporting character and protagonist in Marks for Effort and the first half of season 8 and appears as the main antagonist of its two-part finale, "School Raze". She is Twilight's former assistant and top student and the CMC and Young Six's friend, and Tirek's companion, cellmate, and only friend. Despite her seemingly cute, happy, cheerful and friendly personality and being a good friend to everypony in the School of Friendship and Ponyville, she had a much mysterious agenda before the season finale.

She is voiced by Sunni Westbrook.

Biography
Cozy Glow first appeared in "Marks for Effort" where she was crying outside the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse. The Crusaders approached her and asked what's wrong. Cozy answers that she is having difficulty with her lessons at the School of Friendship and fears flunking out. The Crusaders, wanting to attend the School of Friendship too, decide to help Cozy with doing her homework and assignments.

The Crusaders teach Cozy how to be friendly while doing nice deeds for Sweetie Drops, Mrs. Cake, and Big Macintosh. After Cozy gets an "A" on her assignment, the Crusaders assist her further by helping her study for an upcoming friendship exam, during which she learns about the values of friendship represented by the Elements of Harmony. However, Cozy fails the test and runs away, which causes Twilight to accuse them for intentionally bad tutoring out of spite for not being allowed into the School of Friendship themselves.

After Cozy saw what she did to the Crusaders, she decides to go to the school's guidance counselor and confesses that she failed the exam on purpose so that the Crusaders would be allowed to enroll at the School of Friendship. When the truth was revealed, Cozy finally apologized to the Crusaders for what she did to them. Finally, the Crusaders were accepted at the School of Friendship as tutors. Cozy is last seen leaving with her new friends as they set out to tutor more students.

Cozy Glow makes a few background appearances in "A Matter of Principals" and one in "The Hearth's Warming Club" just as Twilight dismisses the students for the holiday break. She appears again in "Friendship University", giving Twilight the flyers that inform her about Friendship U, and later appears after Rarity questions how Flim and Flam could have gotten a hold of the School of Friendship's lesson plans. Cozy also appears waiting in line for Starlight's counselling in Road to Friendship.

In "What Lies Beneath", Cozy stays behind to help Twilight organize the library, when she notices the Young Six having a difficult time studying for a friendship test. She manipulates them into doubting their confidence in their friendships. She offers them her study notes for help. At the end of the episode, the Young Six meet Cozy upon their journey underneath the school, where she learns about the Tree of Harmony's test on their friendship skills. As the Young Six drift off to sleep in exhaustion, Cozy ominously looks at the vent where the Tree of Harmony is hidden.

Later, Cozy appeared in the two-part season finale, "School Raze", as the main antagonist. While she gets imprisoned in Tartarus in a cage next to Tirek at the end of the episode, it's implied that it was all part of her plan, as she smiles evilly and asks Tirek to be her friend.

Appearance
Cozy is a Pegasus filly with a pink coat, auburn eyes, a cyan mane and tail that are both decorated with a white bow, white freckles on either cheek, and a brown rook for a cutie mark.

Personality
Cozy appears to act rather sweet, cute, innocent, and naïve. But it is implied that this is actually a front for a mysterious agenda, which is confirmed in the finale of the eighth season. She constantly displays a supposed fear of failing the class. In truth, however, Cozy was actually using this cute, kindhearted, and innocent act as a facade to use to hide her true nature: a selfish, manipulative, tyrannical and sociopathic filly. She manipulated the staff of the School of Friendship and the CMC to get them to unwittingly play into her hooves, and wanted to take over the School of Friendship, and eventually, Equestria itself with the help of Tirek. She is also a skilled liar and faker, having successfully convinced the CMC that she needed help with her exam, when in fact she had failed it on purpose, and faking remorse when she confesses to having done so.

Trivia

 * Cozy Glow is the fourth filly in the series to be antagonist after Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Babs Seed. Out of those fillies, however, she is more evil and badly influenced.
 * Though not explained or shown, Cozy Glow gave the Flim Flam Brothers a copy of Twilight's book.
 * Despite being the season's main antagonist, she didn't show much villainy till the season finale.
 * Cozy Glow is one of the few villains in the series to be a pony.
 * Cozy Glow is the third antagonist to be a Pegasus, the first being Lightning Dust and the second being Wind Rider. However, Cozy is much more dangerous than them
 * Cozy Glow is the first major antagonist to appear in more than on episode.
 * In the rest of the season, she serves as the supporting character and a behind-the scenes antagonist before the finale.
 * There were hints of Cozy Glow's true nature before it was fully revealed.
 * When the Cutie Mark Crusaders offer to help her with her exam in Marks for Effort, she asks them why they would do so if there is nothing in it for them, an early hint that she does not truly understand the concept of altruism.
 * In the same episode, when the CMC tell her what the Elements of Harmony are, she shows an evil smile for a brief moment. Also, she guesses that one of the Elements of Harmony is "control", which foreshadows her tyrannical nature.
 * Her "cute and sweet" personality is played up to an unrealistic extent, which may clue viewers in that it's a front.
 * Starlight Glimmer, who herself used to be a manipulative villain, admits that she finds Cozy's talent for manipulation and planning impressive.
 * At the end of What Lies Beneath, she looks ominously at the vent that leads to the Tree of Harmony.
 * Despite her imprisonment, it's possible that Cozy Glow is set to return in Season 9 and escape from prison with the help of Tirek.
 * She is inspired by late child actress Shirley Temple and fictitious TV starlet-turned-criminal Baby Doll from Batman: The Animated Series.